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November 30, 2005
Firefox 1.5 Pajamas media's two cents
Pajamas media today gives several blogger evaluations of the new Firefox 1.5. including a bug and a fix.
I haven't played with it yet, I've always been slow to upgrade that type of stuff.
They also link to this story concerning price fixing on chips by Samsung:
In accordance with an October plea deal with federal prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton ordered the Korea-based company and its U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., to pay a $300 million fine _the second-largest criminal antitrust fine ever.The hearing in San Francisco federal court was the culmination of a massive, three-year investigation that has so far netted guilty pleas from three of the largest makers of dynamic random access memory chips used to store information in computers and other devices.
If you think you paid too much for any of those devices this could be the reason
Posted by Peter at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)
You know it's Christmas time when....
...the spam trackbacks are to sites that sell Fruit Baskets rather than other things.
Posted by Peter at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)
FireFox 1.5 released
FireFox 1.5 has been released as mentioned below yesterday. The new FireFox has a lot of enhancements that will make the end user experience quite a bit better.
It promises faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance, drag and drop reordering for browser tabs, better popup blocking and a quick Clear Private Data button.Answers.com has now made it to the added to the search engine list and there is a roll back of security patches.
In addition there is a report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in FireFox and support for SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6 web standards.
There are also more security enhancements than you can poke a stick at. FireFox 1.0 appeared a year ago and the release of 1.5 is expected to come with a big marketing push from the Mozilla Foundation.
You can download FireFox 1.5 for free HERE
Posted by Hector at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2005
Tis the season to choose wisely
An awful lot of money is going to be spent on new computers in the next 25 days or so.
My basic advice is simple:
Figure out what you want your system to do.Figure out what hardware is necessary to do it.
Splurge on the ram since it is the thing that will extend the useful life of the computer the most.
That's basically it. For example all my next Desktop needs to be able to do is to:
Run the office suite (every one out there does)Play DVD's (any DVD drive will do)
Play CIV IV with more than the min specs
Thats basically all I'm looking for so other than a good video card I'll be easy to please.
If you want more detailed advice PC WORLD and CNET both have useful buying guides.
Posted by Peter at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
Firefox overhaul due today
The newest version of FireFox is due to be ready for download today. If their own figures are to be believed IE continues to lose market share:
Figures released in early November suggest it is now on 10% of web users' computers. But Microsoft's Internet Explorer still leads the field with a global share of around 85%.Firefox's popularity has been helped by the fact that users can contribute to how it develops. Many have written extensions that add specific functions to the browser, such as a RSS feed reader.
They are also changing their target:
Mr Beard said the user base tended to be concentrated among the biggest users of the net but now Mozilla was planning a push to get the software adopted by more consumers.He said it was looking to work with net service firms and computer makers to get the browser in front of users who had not seen it before.
All of this is bad news for Microsoft, the question is what will they do about it?
Posted by Peter at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2005
All I want for Christmas is....
Via Glenn and Wired news here is a geek's Christmas buying gift guide.
One of Glenn's readers suggests Think Geek instead.
The best things on either is the Despair Inc stuff
Posted by Peter at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
Nice work if you can get it
California is hiring a hacker to break into their voting system to test security:
A Finnish computer hacker plans to break into one of California's electronic voting machines -- but he has the state's permission.As part of a security test, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson asked Harri Hursti to attempt to infiltrate one of the voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems.
No wonder they are having financial troubles in California, most hackers I know of will break into systems for free.
Posted by Peter at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
Another Broadband Competitor?
With cable company controlling broadband over cable lines and phone companies conrolling DSL could we be getting close to getting yet another choice or 2?
The Chicago Tribune reports HERE that Broadband over Power Lines will soon be a reality starting in December the service will start serving Illinois residence which has a population of 7,500 people.
It is among a handful of communities nationwide to plunge into a new technology called broadband over power lines, or BPL, that competes with Internet connections provided by telephone and cable TV operators. Combined with wireless technologies, broadband service delivered over power lines--and perhaps one day even through natural gas pipelines--raises the likelihood that going online anywhere at any time for very low cost will soon be a reality.Customers seem to like the service, especially the in-house portability BPL offers. A computer can move from one room to another and go online simply by plugging its modem into any electrical outlet in the house.
"I'm much more active on the Interent now because the speed is much better than with dial-up," said Leslie Lund, who began using BPL in March. "I don't get interference, even when my husband uses his power tools."
Basically you will have a modem that will both gets its power and connect online through the power line. This could make for some interesting things like wireless modems that look like a adaptor with no wire you simply plug into the wall and enjoy being online.
With more competition trying to lewer customers into them the lower prices will become and the better service will get!
Posted by Hector at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2005
XBox 360 bloggers not thinking happy thoughts
Well after pontificating about the X-BOX 360 over the last two days and knowing I wasn't buying one I thought I'd check out what some blogs are saying. It isn't pretty:
Not only are we wondering whether we will get a 360, but if you do it may not work.
The reports of Xbox 360 glitches, bugs and crashes have earned a 1/3 share of the “Sci/Tech” section of Google News.
Wireless zone is not impressed:
It hangs while playing games, scraches the CDs, failes to load game and it is full of bugs.
Whatabigmouth has this to say:
If I shelled out $400+ for a new system, got home, started playing, and had this crap happen to me, I'd dedicate the rest of my life to the destruction of Microsoft.
Tone Deaf Company calls it the Crash box 360:
My prediction: xbox virus by the end of next year. Imagine if you had to plug your NES into the wall to get a firmware upgrade? I've seen the future of gaming, and it looks annoying.
Braindroppingse posts this riddle:
Why it is called 360?Xbox 360: From the factory.. to you.. and full-circle back home to the factory after it overheats and crashes.
One reasonable gamer lays it out like this: “Between my friends and I, we bought 6 machines at the Zero Hour event. Of the 6, my machine has a dead hard drive, another machine is working but is rather flaky (seen some strange behavior - the drive may also be scratching discs, as my friend’s copy of Condemned is now unplayably scratched, but we don’t know if the drive caused it - the machine has also had problems booting games and being turned off…), one seems to be good, and I haven’t heard yet about the status of the other three.”
but check out his editor's notes at the end.
Colm Smyth's Blog writes my favorite review:
So really, should I buy an XBox 360?* the eyes say yes
* my wallet says maybe
* my wife says no (but I could probably bribe her with a trip to a shoe store on my credit card and the sworn statement that it's just a test machine for a console-based version of my current software project)
* my head says wait
* my heart says what are you waiting for
* my fingers say "you are currently typing on a perfectly adequate Dell Inspiron; you don't want one of those fancy XBox controllers, carpal tunnel syndrome is a myth and 'joystick thumb' is a reality"
I can really empathise with that one.
UPDATE: Hope they are reading Hector.
Posted by Peter at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
Xbox 360 fix found!
There seems to be some promise of a simple fix for the XBox 360 crashes. TheInquirer has reported the a member at this forum thread has come up with a idea which worked for him and seems to work for a lot of other users there too!
Looks like the fix is simply raising the Xbox off the floor so that the power supply inside the xbox has access to more air to cool it.
A GAMER fed up with his new Xbox 360 crashing every 20 minutes has fixed the problem by raising the power supply off the ground with some string.Dan, from Duluth, or 'goldeneyemaster' as he is known, told the game spot forum here that he thinks the main reason that the xBox 360 freezes is because the power supply overheats. The solution is to lift the power supply off the floor and allow the air to circulate better around it.
If you are a XBox 360 owner who is experiancing crashes please do share your findings on this simple fix.
Posted by Hector at 11:20 AM | Comments (4)
Thinking X-Box 360
As I was driving this morning I was listening to the news on 96.9 FM a local FM talk station. Part of the days news was the X-BOX 360 craze and the bugs that have surfaced in the system.
The report quoted a spokesman from Microsoft stating that this type of thing is normal with the release of a big new system.
If the system was a PC that would sound normal and I’d agree, but this is marketed as a game system and not as a PC.
That got me thinking. Arcade systems in general are basically single use computers running a single program over and over. This allows for higher speed and less chances for errors since there no conflicts with other programs and features play into it.
When home systems came out you were still running a basic operating system and only one program at a time. The individual program would be on the removable cartridge but that was it.
Then came memory cards and the systems now had to write to external devices. Gamers now had to deal with bad memory cards and the occasional bad write.
From internet gaming to wireless controllers to the playing and storing of music, game consoles have continued to progress to the point where even when playing a single game a lot is going on in the system at once.
Instead of the old single use system we basically have a truncated PC operating system running a lot of PC like functions in addition to the playing of games.
Therefore the spokesman is quite correct, the issues are to be expected because you are no longer using a game console but in effect a PC with all the advantages and disadvantages thereof.
Everything in life costs something and in this case the cost of what I'm told is an incredible gaming experience is going to be more PC like issues and bugs, as long as you are willing to pay that price it's fine, but be aware that you will pay it.
Posted by Peter at 11:12 AM | Comments (11)
November 24, 2005
I don't get it?
Chris Muir's Thanksgiving cartoon today brings up Valor-IT a topic we have mentioned before:
I must confess I don't get it. Can anyone help me out here?
Posted by Peter at 07:03 PM | Comments (1)
Stuffed on Thanksgiving
Well the Turkey was awesome, the first snow of the year covers the ground and I am feeling full as my shift starts today.
We are working out of our houses this Thanksgiving day so the room that a few hours ago hosted a turkey that was supposed to feed a larger crew (our expected guests were unable to come), fixings, and a wonderful assortment of items to fill the belly now serves as my cube for the next few hours.
On Thanksgiving Day one reflects on the things to be thankful for. Some might consider that a stretch when you have to work a shift on a holiday, but that is a little thing. When I consider my parents growing up in the depression, my father leaving school at 13 in 1934 to work to help put bread on the table, or my grandparents coming to a new country 100 years ago not speaking the language trying to make a go of it, the idea that I can work out of my dining room in confort is really something to be thankful for.
Not to mention the turkey and the crew shown here.
Posted by Peter at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)
What's the hurry?
The new XBOX 360 seems to be the Cabbage Patch Kids and the Tickle Me Elmo of 2005 at least the mania is the same, to wit:
Nineteen-year-old college student Peter Gonzalez was the first person in line at a Manhattan Best Buy. Even after standing in line for 29 hours, he still planned to stay up and play his new Xbox system all night."I'll probably pass out with the remote in my hand," says Gonzalez.
I can't speak for anyone else but in this kind of situation I always ask my sons: 1. Their age, 2. The number of game systems they already have, 3. And the avg life expectency of a person their age alive at this time. So they wait.
It sounds like a cool system, but it will be just as cool 30 or 60 days from now, and all the news isn't good:
The reports suggest that the Xbox 360s are falling victim to a variety of errors rather than the crashes being caused by the same glitch. The scattered reports make it hard to gauge how widespread the problems are.Microsoft spokeswoman Molly O'Donnell would not detail how many reports the company had received but did say the calls involved a "very, very small fraction" of all the consoles sold. The volume of calls was in line with Microsoft predictions, she said.
Well you always find the bugs in a new system just after it is released. But when you've paid double the list price, those bugs bite.
By yesterday, 10,700 Xbox 360s had traded on eBay at an average price of $781, a spokesman for eBay said. The basic unit retails for $300. A premium package that includes accessories and a hard-drive that allows gamers to play existing Xbox titles costs $400.
Hey, it's their money.
Posted by Peter at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving
Blogging will be a little light the next few days due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.
We at HiWired would like to wish you and yours very Happy Thanksgiving
If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving then we wish you a very happy Noverber 24th 2005 and once again paraphrase this lovely lady:
November 24th comes only once a year, so we always celebrate.
As usual Hiwired will be open from 8 a.m.- 11 p.m. tomorrow to support all your tech needs.
Posted by Peter at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
Dell Hell The Sequel
What is it about Dell that makes them want to upset people who have popular web blogs?
Now I wouldn't have been happy with having to pay an extra $209 even if they'd made it easy for me. But why did it have to take me nearly two hours of telephone time to get to the point where I could actually pay Dell some money?
Like any good sequel the cast is different but the service is the same.
Via Glenn
Posted by Peter at 08:10 PM | Comments (2)
November 21, 2005
Not just Lawyers now the AG of Texas
If class action suits concerning Sony's moves (that we've mentioned here, here and here) wasn't bad enough, now the state of Texas is getting into the picture:
Texas is seeking civil penalties of $100,000 per violation of the state's Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act, which was enacted earlier this year."Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers," Attorney General Greg Abbott said today in a statement. "Consumers who purchased a Sony CD thought they were buying music. Instead, they received spyware that can damage a computer, subject it to viruses and expose the consumer to possible identity crime."
Posted by Peter at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005
Sid Meier Appears Successful again
Well, as Peter mentioned some time back, Civilization IV is indeed out in stores and most reviews give it sterling marks, including a stunning 9.4 from GameSpot, one of the premeire sites of game reviews, part of the CNET Network.
After a bit I'll give you my take on it, and how I think Sid did in his newest remake.
Posted by at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Bye bye to power supply.
I've just recently lost the power supply in one of my computers. For those of you who are wondering what that is, it's essentially an AC to DC current converter inside the computer. If you've ever looked inside a computer case, it's a metal box inside your computer where the power plugs in. It has a lot of wires coming from it that provide DC power to your motherboard, hard drives, case fans, etc. It's the one part of your computer that you should never, ever open unless you know exactly what you are doing. That applies even if the computer has been unplugged for a month, since the capacitors inside the power supply can carry a fatal charge for a very long time.
This computer was a bit flakey at turning on for a few days, and finally the power supply gave up the ghost. I had the cover off the computer and saw a bright blue flash from inside the power supply when hitting the power switch. Now it will not turn on at all.
So, I'm currently waiting for my new power supply to arrive. I've ordered it from an online store rather than through a store because most computer stores have a very limited selection of parts like this. Also, the selection they do have is generally either low quality but overpriced, or very high quality, but very expensive. Either way, I found many of the same models at online stores at substantially lower prices, even taking shipping into account. I also got to shop around for exactly what I wanted instead of having to pick the closest fit out of a few choices.
Once the power supply arrives, I'll be able to discover if any of the components in my system were damaged by a power surge when the power supply died. I'm crossing my fingers.
Posted by at 03:12 PM | Comments (1)
Watch out for those screenshots!
As one of our bloggers recently noticed while previewing a post, it is important to always review screenshots before posting them on blogs or e-mailing them out or putting them on your website. If you're not careful, you might accidentally post images showing credit card or financial information, usernames and passwords, or maybe just personally identifiable information when you'd rather be anonymous. Even organizations like the CIA have discovered how easy it is to publish files that contain more information than they intend. The most obvious example is pdf files with blacked out information, except it turns out that the files are layered, and the lower layers contain the full information. Then there's document tracking and change information in word processor documents. And this sort of thing keeps happening again and again. So, whatever you're posting, make sure you don't mind everyone you know and everyone you don't know seeing it, because they might.
Posted by at 02:13 PM | Comments (1)
Tunisia Wrap up
Glenn links to an AP story on the Open Source Media site on the end of the summit, excerpt:
The World Summit on the Information Society originally was conceived to raise consciousness about the divide between the haves and have-nots, and to raise money for projects to link up the global village, particularly Africa and Asia and South America.But instead, it was overshadowed by a lingering resentment about who should oversee the domain names and technical issues that allow people from Pakistan to Peru surf Web sites for information, news and consumer goods.
Meanwhile Fergie's tech blog follows up on the problem we noted before:
The U.S. government on Friday protested a crackdown by Tunisian secret police on the streets and a new spate of Web censorship during a United Nations Internet summit here.
Glad to hear somebody is making a fuss.
More follow up and full details on Rebecca MacKinnon's site plus other followups here and here.
Posted by Peter at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)
My Bad
If you use Internet Explorer to view this blog you might have noticed a problem over the last three days.
It seems that Chris Muir's Day by Day strip is a little long for the formatting of this blog, so I had to shrink the image in this post a little.
If you have Firefox or Mozilla you should have been fine.
The image is corrected now, however you might need to clear your cache in Internet Explorer before you reload the page. Here's how:
First go to Tools and Internet Options
Next click on DELETE FILES
Unless you saved our site offline you won't have to check the DELETE OFFLINE CONTENT box, just hit OK.
That should finish the job, now just reload and you should be fine.
Posted by Peter at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2005
Well this doesn't inspire confidence
Remember that The World Summit on the information society we mentioned before?
Well the news from it is getting interesting, From Reuters:
Several European journalists covering the World Summit on the Information Society -- a U.N. conference on the Internet -- have been intimidated, questioned or prevented from attending public meetings, other reporters have said.
Well it's not like their attacking journalists. Oh wait:
Christophe Boltanski, a correspondent for the French newspaper Liberation, was beaten, kicked and stabbed in the back in Tunis on Friday.RSF has said it suspects he was the victim of deliberate intimidation by the authorities.
If that isn't enough it looks like Rebecca MacKinnon who we have quoted here before is having a little trouble with her workshop there called Expression Under Repression. She is getting first hand experience on the subject:
Yesterday our sponsors were told that the Tunisian authorities deemed our seminar's title to be incompatible with the conference's theme of ICT for Development, and that it might be cancelled. Then after some high-level negotiations the seminar was back on. Then this morning there was a sign outside our seminar room saying the event was cancelled. After more protests by our sponsors, the sign was removed.
More info (and the text of her presentation) from her site here, but it gets better:
before the break, a phalanx of secret police (ie scary guys in dark suits) showed up. they filled the hall outside the room, forcing cancellation of the break for fear that we'd not be allowed to re-start. as rsf started to hand out books at the non-break, the authorities stated that documents could only be distributed outside the event, not in the room. this is in direct contrast to the WSIS rules, which state that materials can be passed out inside an approved event (unless they receive special approval for wider distribution). the hivos folks are quite frustrated, but nart is presenting now and the room is still full.
A bunch of details here here here and here (last one in dutch).
Posted by Peter at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
Here it is
Remember that $100 laptop we were talking about? Here it is:
Via Glenn by way of Charging Rhino who has the details.
Posted by Peter at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2005
A sign we are in the internet age
How do I know we are in a new era?
My son asked a girl out to the big freshman Christmas dance. He asked her BY E-MAIL.
I guess that's better than not having the oomph to ask at all.
They are at a play rehearsal right now, I'll know in a few minutes, wish him luck.
BTW who ever heard of a freshman dance that costs $50 a ticket?
Posted by Peter at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2005
Feel free to nominate us
The 2005 Web Blog Awards are now accepting nominations.
If you think it sounds like I'm fishing for a nomination. Well Yeah!
There are several catagories that our blog would qualify under. Nominations are allowed till November 26, 2005. You have to be registered with Typekey to make a nomination. If you like the blog, we would be honored if you considered us.
I'm still not aware of any other company which has a blog where almost every employee from techs, to management, to supervisors, to marketing to ownership all blog in the same spot. To my knowledge it is not done anywhere else.
Now if only I could get the people who still haven't posted (and there are a bunch of them) posting. You know who you are!
Posted by Peter at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
It's just not my week
Not 10 hours after my issue with my warrenty machine I had another issue with one of my other machines. My PII 350 running ME was no longer picking up the net.
This turned into an fix fest on this machine. To give you an idea of how much trouble a little thing might be I'm going to run through what what went on and what was done:
My system had been running low on HD space as my son keeps downloading Star Wars pictures and drawings to copy. I started to uninstall programs. During the uninstalled apparently a shared file was lost. I could connect to the wireless router but couldn't get to the internet.
1...The first thing I did was check another PC to see if there was an issue with the router itself, the other PC connected wirelessly fine and was able to hit the net.
2...I then double checked the settings of security on the system, they were correct.
3...Next I cleared all temp files and rebooted; no change.
4...Then I attempted to run winipcfg (which is used in ME). I wasn't able to renew the connection and the ip address showed a 169.xx.xx.xx to start. (When you see a 169 it is a place holder, it isn't getting an ip).
5...The system couldn't ping out either.
6...Tried a system restore to the previous day using scanregw /restore on the command line since the system restore went back a month.
7...There was no change from the system restore
8...At this point I decided to blow out the adaptors I did so and when I rebooted a .sys file from the windows ME cd was requested. It was here when I discovered my CD drive was shot.
9...I hit the cellar and brought up an old Packard Bell system and pillaged the cd drive from it. (It was a real pain getting the drive out for some reason all the screws were hidden REAL well.)
10..Once I put the cd drive in I was able to re-install the netgear card but not my linksys usb wireless.
11..I uninstalled it and attempted to reinstall but the reinstall failed saying it was already there.
12..I then disconnected the machine from were it was and took it to the router and confirmed it could connect wired.
13..I then instead of using the autorun in the linksys disk did a manual install of the usb drive from the cd. The manual install didn't produce the error but didn't work either.
14..I then booted into safe mode and went back into device manager and discovered ghosting. Ghosting is when a device is shown installed multiple times in safe mode while not at all or only once in regular mode. I removed each copy of all the network adaptors and extra usb devices (even those not connected with this issue)
15..As it was getting past midnight I decided to run a scandisk and a defrag while I had the system in safe mode. The scandisk finished just before 1 a.m. and I let the defrag run overnight.
16..The next morning in between getting my oldest to school I rebooted the modem and router and re-installed both the netgear adaptor (which again needed the ME cd) and the Linksys (which again needed manual install to work) and PRESTO I had a wireless network connection.
************
The whole process took over 5 hours of my time, during the first scandisk I fell asleep in my den and woke up to get the defrag started before I hit the sack proper. There are times when a computer issue is going to take this kind of effort. If anyone has any questions on what I did on the system and why feel free to leave them in comments.
Posted by Peter at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2005
This might make AOL worth the dough
If you love old TV shows then does AOL have a deal for you:
In the latest alternative to traditional TV viewing, a new broadband network called In2TV will be launched in early 2006 by AOL and Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution, the companies said Monday.
This is a first rate idea particularly since AOL has some appeal for the older crowd.
"Welcome Back Kotter," "Sisters" and "Growing Pains" are among the 30 series to be offered initially. They will be grouped on channels by genre, including comedy, drama, animation, sci-fi and horror, action-adventure and "vintage TV."In2TV plans to offer more than 100 TV series and at least 300 episodes per month in the first year, the companies said.
Now if they get F-Troop, McHale's Navy and Hogan's Heroes on there I might even be interested.
Via Jonah Goldberg at the Corner.
Posted by Peter at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)
Well that's one down X to go.
The blogger arrested in Egypt has been released.
Details here, here and here, and if you can read Arabic here.
Via Glenn
Posted by Peter at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)
What a difference a year makes
When mentioning my Inspirion 1150 in the past I've said it never gave me any trouble. My warranty ran out three weeks ago.
On Saturday I installed a friends copy of CIV IV to see if the graphics card of my laptop could handle it and sad to say the wife will NOT be getting me it for Christmas (and as we've established I'm too cheap to buy a new pc just for a game).
This morning I was coming into work early to cover for a friend, booted up my laptop and rushed to do something that was going to take 10 minutes. I figured no problem, by the time I was back it would be booted and ready to log in. Instead I found a highly interesting blue screen of death.
If the problem persists I might reinstall the system files from the cd or run a sfc scannow
I restarted the system and it came up but the timing reminded me of this Day-by-Day cartoon below.
Eric always buys extended warranties with laptops, I didn't. We will soon see if he is right and I am toast.
Posted by Peter at 09:18 AM | Comments (2)
November 13, 2005
Whose internet is it anyway?
The World Summit on the information society is meeting tomorrow in Tunis. The site for it is here.
The Wall Street Journal puts it pretty well:
An Internet "governed" by the U.N. could be expected to travel a familiar road. The countries with the greatest interest in regulating, limiting or controlling the Net would pull out the stops to put themselves on the governing board, and then use the U.N.'s imprimatur to justify the shackling of a once (more or less) free medium in the interests of cultural diversity, or "Asian values" or some other bromide.That the Saudi Arabias, Chinas and Frances of the world would love to impose their own particular vision of what should and should not be available on the Internet should surprise no one. All the countries above have restricted or attempted to restrict Internet access.
I tend to agree but would welcome other people's opinion on this. From a tech support perspective both the prospect of either: 1. A UN controlled internet changing standards or 2. Lots of other internets run by individual countries. means more work for me and more standards to learn.
Posted by Peter at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
Let me put it this way.
We've mentioned Project Valor It a couple of times. This cartoon explains it better than we can:
Posted by Peter at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
Talk about running against the wind.
With the rise of free hot spots everywhere this move by Westchester county seems different:
The way the law reads, all commercial businesses that use wireless networks and maintain personal information would be required to have “secure networks that protect the public from potential identity theft and other potential threats such as computer viruses and data corruption.” For example, a retail establishment that uses a wireless network to process credit card transactions would be required to install a firewall, one of the easiest and least expensive ways to guard a network from attack. They would have to file a note of compliance with the county.Businesses that offer public Internet access would be required to post a sign stating that the network has been secured with firewall protection and stressing the need to use discretion.
The proposed law has generated some strong opinions, but not monolithic ones.
At Hiwired we are of course big into security. (Worry Free PC anyone?) and have commented on the subject many times.
For myself rather than a requirement to install I'd suggest a sign saying if there is security or not at a site. I don't thing a law is proper in this case, either way my old quote stands:
Remember, when you are using a hotspot you do not have the protection that you would have at home particularly if you were using a hardware firewall.
I think a more intersting question would be of liability. Would a lawyer be able to sue a person who suffered identity theft at a hotspot? What if the hotspot had a firewall and still was hit? What if the hotspot had a sign saying no security use at your own risk and the person still used it? This would be a good question for the law blogs out there.
Hat tip RedState
Posted by Peter at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
You think I would know better
I was perparing a blog post for the last 30 minutes in Firefox. I was using the tabbed browsing feature which is very handy for having the links open and cutting and pasting them in an entry.
Well Mr. Idiot here forgot to click back on the old link that he was closing and instead clicked on the blog entry that he was working on closing that and losing a half hours work.
There are two important morals to this story:
1. SAVE YOUR WORK AS YOU ARE WORKING.2. REMEMBER EVEN COMPUTER EXPERTS WILL MAKE THIS MISTAKE SO DON'T GET DOWN ON YOURSELF WHEN YOU DO TOO.
There i've vented; I feel much better. I'll have that post I was working on redone ASAP.
Posted by Peter at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft , Yahoo, et.al Cisco you are being watched
Mike sent me this link from Information week on a topic we've covered before:
"As shareholders, we need to feel confident that our companies are not complicit in human rights abuses, directly or indirectly, and that they're not collaborating to effectively quell Internet traffic, to harm their own good reputations and to reduce their long-term growth opportunities," said Dawn Wolfe, social research and advocacy analyst for Boston Common Asset Management, one of the participating investment funds.
This is the type of thing that will make more of a difference than me.
Posted by Peter at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2005
Next up for Sony: The Lawyers!
Well the outrage didn't get Sony all that fired up so maybe the Lawsuits will:
One class-action lawsuit has already been filed in California and another is expected in New York.Digital rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is also gathering information from users to see if a case can be brought.
We all know how much fun it is when the lawyers get involved.
There was some debate if the Sony stuff should be considered spyware, apparently Symantec, and Kaspersky Labs have answered the question for themselves while Computer Associates is being more proactive:
Anti-virus companies are starting to release software that can spot the XCP files. Symantec said it had made tools that can find the files but will not remove them.Computer Associates said that it would be releasing a tool to completely uninstall the XCP program.
At the same time anti-virus firm Kaspersky Labs branded the XCP program spyware because it hides itself, could compromise security and can slow machines down.
The combination of Kaspersky branding it spyware and CA making a tool to remove it is key as it brands the software as undesired and/or harmful this will look real bad in court.
Posted by Peter at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2005
Open office update: Google to the Rescue?
George Ou has an update to his Open Office Series that we linked to before concerning Google's interest in helping out. The story is worth reading but in it he says one of the smartest things I've heard said about computer and coding:
While it's always tempting to just say "throw more hardware at it," faster hardware should never be justification for sloppy code because people buy new hardware to run their software faster, not so that they can run bloated software at the same speed.
This quote should be tattooed on the back of the neck of every programmer who doesn't take it to heart. That also goes for companies that load their systems with useless software that needs to be disabled in MSCONFIG.
Posted by Peter at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
Stories still coming
I guess the PR bleeding for Sony isn't over yet from the Houston Chronicle:
"Twenty years ago, it would just go away," Wagner said. "But today, that is just not going to happen. The consumer has a more powerful voice through blogs, the Internet and the sharing of information in a way that spreads that information like wildfire."
Boy that quote sounds familar.
The whole article makes Sony look rather poor, but it is the ending line that might be the most important:
With the CD format on the decline in favor of digitally distributed music, in the end it may be moot.
From what I'm seeing lately that might be VERY true.
Posted by Peter at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
A messy discovery.
A couple of days ago while I was working on my B machine (Windows ME 350 PII)I noticed the area in front of my keyboard seemed a little slimey as if somebody took the glue of a package and rolled it into the wood of the desk.
My son was using the machine and I've been trying to figure out what he was doing to it. I cleaned the area and forgot about it. Today I noticed the same thing again, and I finally found the source. There is a pinprick hole in the wrist rest and the gel is leaking out a little at a time when you use it.
So if the area around your keyboard or mouse starts getting sticky check your rests for holes.
Posted by Peter at 07:11 PM | Comments (0)
A great perspective
Lashawn Barber has an excellent perspective on the internet and blogging excerpt:
You, an ordinary person, can create a blog for free in five minutes. You can play reporter and investigate people, places, and things, and self-publish your news stories. You can post pictures, sound files and video, too. If you build up enough traffic and linkage, people and companies will give you money to advertise on it.Some people don’t like comparisons between blogging and the Protestant Reformation and printing press, but I do.
As a catholic I'm not a huge fan of the reformation but her point is well made and reminds me of a similar post of mine. A quote:
When I was 30 all or most of these things were reserved for either the very rich or just not possible, but now a call will come in from college kid working at Macs asking why their system won't sync with their IPOD.The development of the home computer and the internet is in my opinion the biggest industrial and or cultural event since the invention of the steam engine. We have a life that our ancestors could only dream of, and those who follow us will have it even better.
Her quote from Kevin Kelly at Wired seems apt:
Why aren't we more amazed by this fullness? Kings of old would have gone to war to win such abilities. Only small children would have dreamed such a magic window could be real. I have reviewed the expectations of waking adults and wise experts, and I can affirm that this comprehensive wealth of material, available on demand and free of charge, was not in anyone's scenario.
His article is here, her post is here. Read them both.
Posted by Peter at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
1 down X to go
A while back I asked it it was worth jail to download free music.
Now we find out what it is worth, apparently $50 million dollars and the closing of a company.
Personally the loss of Grokster means nothing to me since I never use it, but when you run a business were the primary purpose of your product is to bypass legality you are going to be burned. All the winks and nudges are fine in a debate but won't buy you a think in federal court. MAC Daily news puts it best:
"'It's very clear that the main effect of the court's Grokster ruling has been to force these businesses to accept that they don't have a viable business model,' said Justin Hughes, an associate professor at the Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, New York, who specializes in intellectual property. 'You can't go to the venture-capital markets and say 'Please fund my totally illegal business plan.'
More news stores here, and here, some blog reaction here and here.
Update: I would have thought that this blog would have something to say on the case.
Posted by Peter at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2005
And she lived happily ever after
Do you remember my elderly friend who had that little issue with AOL and Verizon?
Well Comcast has come in, her internet is back up, she is still using AOL (as it is very elderly friendly) but Verizon is toast.
The lesson of this story should be very strong. This lady has 6 children over a dozen grandchildren etc... Two of her sons are doctors and the whole family knows a lot of people. Think of all of the folks that they will be talking to about their poor mother/grandmother and trying to get her system up.
Multiply this by the number of people this happens to and you have a customer service disaster that even the melodious voice of James Earl Jones can't solve.
Posted by Peter at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2005
Nov 2nd Cable DVR on your phone?
Well found some very interesting info for all of us tri-users, most homes have both Cable TV and High speed Internet package already. Some even then add in now phone service like Comcast Digital Voice is a Voice over IP service that provides unlimited calling and cool new features over our advanced broadband network - all without sacrificing any of your current phone features or the reliability and call clarity you expect.
With this press release about a joint venture which teams up Sprint with Nextel, With the cable companies like Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and Bright House.
They feel very good about as quote here shows
"We believe that the joint venture we're creating will unlock the full potential of wireless and cable by providing new and innovative services that can combine the best of our companies' capabilities. It's what customers expect and have been demanding," Gary Forsee, chief executive of Sprint, said on a conference call.
Found on EWeeks coverage.
This sounds very good to me as we should see discounts on costs and more techs for our buck. It would be nice to see us in US release phone services ahead of Japan and other countries. It seems we been behind them in many of these hand held devices. I haven't had chance to look too much in past months at what is on markets over seas but from past their phones had been ahead of ours.
Cheers
Eric
Posted by Eric at 01:43 PM | Comments (1)
November 03, 2005
Will this stop the PR bleeding for Sony?
This report says Sony has offered a patch to address the outrage over their hidden software scandal:
Sony BMG Music Entertainment and its partner, UK-based First 4 Internet, said they decided to offer the patch as a precaution, not because of any security vulnerability, which some critics had alleged.
The software acted a bit like spyware:
"The (license) makes no mention that it's going to install something that's going to be hidden from view, that will constantly consume CPU resources even if I'm not listening to music and it will have no uninstall capability," he said.Because the technology looks for a specific prefix in the filename, it also could be used by malware authors to mask their programs, Russinovich said. There's also the question of how a PC user is supposed to maintain a system that runs hidden programs...
The patch is here. This was a stupid move, you can't get away with stuff like this in the computer age.
This action by Sony has to be the Dumber, and Dumber move of the year. If I where in charge, the team that decided to do this would be fired and escorted to the door, as they need to realize the public is about fed up with these types of actions. A class action lawsuit would be good serve Sony and there partners right.
I don't know if I'd go that far class action suits are great money makers for lawyers but don't do much for the public.
UPDATE: Somehow I missed indenting the above to clearly show it was a quote, in case it wasn't clear by the next line the class action lawsuit bit was Geek Worlds words.
Posted by Peter at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)
Not just in China
A blogger is arrested for his writing.
I guess this blog is another thing I sometimes take for granted.
via Glenn
Posted by Peter at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
WDOA still there
I've been teasing Mike a bit lately but I haven't plugged his radio station WDOA in a while.
Consider it plugged.
Mike's show is here.
Heidi's show is here.
Posted by Peter at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
To all the blogs I've known before....
I've linked to quite a few blogs and tech news services that you might not have heard of in the past. I thought it would be neat to do a little round up of the tech info they have posted lately:
Beta News is talking about the discovery of hidden DRM software distributed in SONY CD's
Bayosphere talks about comment spam (we get it here too). Hope he doesn't consider our link the same.
Infoworld talks about the new CFO of AMD
Don Singleton talks about a school that bans blogs.
LaShawn Barber talks about what happens to blogs when you die.
Faceless blog (which hasn't posted in some time) mentions a fix to a firefox memory leak.
Inside collecting talks about the net spuring used book sales.
Lishiux hits the subject of PC cooling devices.
Lifehacker says that disk maintanence boots productivity
Channel Register talks about a PC Recycling boom.
Michael Snider isn't feeling well. but he links to a story on computer security before he leaves.
The F-Stop Blues has some suggestions for the Vista version of Media center
Threadwatch suffers from writers block and uses google to cure it.
Brian Behrend (got it right this time!) celebrates TiVo's Overlap protection.
Thus ends the carnival of a ton of the blogs I've linked to before. When the mood strikes me I'll do this again and get the other ones I've missed (there are a lot of em) I'm basically doing two or three months worth at a time, so I stopped in May (except for Brian who I owed one to.)
Posted by Peter at 09:27 PM | Comments (1)
Open Office Ou not impressed.
A while back Kieran wrote a nice little piece about Open Office as a free alternative to Microsoft office. Our old friend George Ou did a bit of a comparison between the latest version of Open office and Office on his blog and found some interesting things:
As you can see, OpenOffice.org and XML in general is extremely slow compared to the native Microsoft XLS binary file format. Not only is it slow, it also chews up the CPU.
He took some heat for this and ran a new set of tests coming to the same conclusions, he finishes thus:
Now to be fair, OpenOffice.org is free and is cross platform, but does this really matter to the 90% of the users in the world who only use Windows? Does this change the fact that OpenOffice.org is a CPU and Memory hog? Microsoft Office Professional on the other hand costs about $240 when bundled with hardware or if you look for OEM pricing. I'll leave it up to you the reader to determine if your money is worth more than your time.
My own cheapness is a legend around here but with those kind of numbers George has a point, particularly is you can get the Teachers version of office.
Posted by Peter at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)
Only missing a Ferris Wheel (Ferris internal fan?)
The third installment of the Carnival of Computers is available for your reading pleasure here. Hosted again by the blog AnyLetter.
Posted by Peter at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
Hey we finally got there first!
As Mike has mentioned I link back to Instapundit an awful lot.
Today he links to Valor IT which purchases voice activated laptops for wounded soldiers, a very worthy cause, but for the first time I can remember he discovers something three months after we did.
Either way it's worth a fiver.
Posted by Peter at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)