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April 30, 2006
Spelling errors making Google money? I must make them a fortune!
Via Drudge I found this Seattle Times story of how Google makes a buck off of bad spellers like myself:
In many instances, these ad-filled pages appear when users mistype an Internet address, such as "BistBuy.com."This new form of advertising is turning into a booming business that some say is cluttering the Internet and could be violating trademark rules. It also triggered a speculative frenzy of investment in domain names, pushing the value of some beyond $1 million.
There are people making a ton of money off this, I'm not one of them:
Jackson said he has bought 6,600 domains and uses several ad services to earn revenue on them. "I know quite a few guys making over a million dollars a year from advertising on their domains," he said. "It's like a 24-hour money-printing machine.
Real money with "counterfeit" web sites. As long as they aren't loaded with spyware its not a big deal, but all it takes is a bookmark to defeat them.
Posted by Peter at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)
The internet and the War on Terror
The spread of technology and the internet has been significant in all kinds of things these days and the war on terror has been no exception.
This story shows how the Madrid bombers used a trick in outlook to avoid getting their e-mail detected:
Instead of sending the messages, the man, Hassan el Haski, saved them as drafts on accounts he shared with other militants, said papers issued by the judge, Juan del Olmo. They all knew the password, so they could access the accounts to read his unsent notes and post replies the same way, the judge said. This way, the notes left less of a digital trail that the government could track.
It's a clever little way of sending e-mails without sending them. In theory this might be a useful tool for the avg guy as well.
On the other hand Strategy Page via Glenn we see that the internet hasn't been friendly to Al-Qaeda:
the Internet was already becoming a major player. In 1998, Matt Drudge was showing that one person with a web site could break a major story. In 2004, a few bloggers were able to start the chain of events that led to Dan Rather's retirement from CBS. In 2006, bloggers are now an acknowledged player on the media battlefield. These efforts were dismissed by al Qaeda, and as a result, while al Qaeda hit its target, the effect was grossly minimized due to the fact that the "silent majority" now had tools by which they could be heard. The media created a false picture after the 1968 Tet Offensive, but was unable to do the same in Iraq.
Generally any group that uses new tools to its fullest advantage will have a heads up on its foes. This applies to business, government and war. History will record how who did the better job.
Posted by Peter at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2006
If you're going to steal, steal big
Slashdot reports today that some guys decided to take piracy to a whole new level:
"What happens when pirating a movie, an application, or a game is not enough for you? Well, you take the next step and pirate a whole company. It happened to Japanese electronics giant NEC."
The linked story shows these guys thought big:
In the name of NEC, the pirates copied NEC products, and went as far as developing their own range of consumer electronic products - everything from home entertainment centers to MP3 players. They also coordinated manufacturing and distribution, collecting all the proceeds.
Now THAT is piracy on the Spanish Main scale!
Posted by Peter at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2006
Every parent I know can relate to this headline
The headline of this story says it all:
Dad allegedly shoots at son's computer
The story is too short to quote but the father's statment to the police will have your head nodding.
Posted by Peter at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
Welcome back
It's a couple of days late but we at HiWired want to welcome back Melissa (nka Mom) from her maternity leave.
Posted by Peter at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2006
Interesting point but my comment is here
Net Dimensions Insights comments on a new Wikipedia like site called Wikicompany. They also say that they find themselves using Wikipedia more and more.
I would be interested to know if they agree with Glenn Reynolds old assessment of Wikipedia:
My sense is that the wiki format works pretty well when issues are uncontroversial, but that it doesn't handle politics very well.
and if they think that time and the open sourse nature which allows for debate will solve the problem when looking up items of a contraversal nature.
Posted by Peter at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2006
Podcast II Speed & Security
Our second podcast Speed & Security is now available. We talk to Kieran O (who you have read on the blog before) talks about what slows down on a system and how you can speed it up. You can subscribe to it via the ITUNES store or manually. If you don't have iTunes you can listen via the link above.
Posted by Peter at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)
Likely the first of many things of this type.
I'm mentinoed Wikipedia many times in the past. Today when I came home my son was on the PC and it looked like he was there, but he was in fact at Wookieepedia a Star Wars only version.
No word on if it is more accurate
Posted by Peter at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)
Video info on China and censorship
Michelle Malkin whos blog we have linked to several times (in fact it was the first link we ever made) has a new Site called Hotair, a video blog that launches today.
We are a tech site and you will find Hotair rather political. We normally wouldn't be linking to it, but her topic is today is Kowtowing to China on internet censorship and that is a topic near and dear that we have covered for a while.
More interesting is the progression of Ms. Malkin from newspapers, to TV, to Blogs and now to Video blogging. She has been on the cutting edge of the journey of the media from print to the net. (She still does all the old gigs as well.) That in itself is quite a story. (Maybe we can interview her about it on one of our Podcasts someday.)
Speaking of Podcasting you will notes a link on the hotair page to something by Allahpundit on do it yourself podcasting. This one is really worth your time particularly if you don't have an in-house sound guy like we do.
Posted by Peter at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2006
Your one stop shop for detecting Moon Maidens
If you read us regularly you know that when you see the words: "Moon Maidens" here you know we are talking about verifying info on the net. Today the Seattle Post Intelligencer (I love that name for a newspaper) has this article on snoops.com a great site to debunk that kind of stuff.
Posted by Peter at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)
The bad year continues
You might remember the The World Summit on the information society last year that we mentioned here and here.
Well it looks like the idea of free speech hasn't taken. A political leader wrote this article on free speech this Friday at NRO. Within a day the site was blocked in Tunisia.
Of course there has been a lot of free speech news this week but if I concentrated on that topic, this blog wouldn't be about anything else.
Posted by Peter at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
The insanity rule exception
You have likely heard the old saying that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. In fact if you do a search on google or yahoo there are a ton of results.
This rule doesn't apply to a PC for the following reason, you will find that your PC is running many processes in the background that you are not aware of (START, RUN, TASKMGR, PROCESS TAB if you want to see them). In addition if you are connecting to an internet page there are a dozen reason why a page might not load the first time but WILL load a second.
If an operation fails, try it again, if it fails a second time, reboot and try again. If it still fails, well you know where we are and we'll be happy to help.
Posted by Peter at 09:06 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
Day Off Blogging
Today is my day off and my days on have been in flux. Yesterday I worked a half day and finally had a chance to go to Linguine's in Marlborough Mass.
The only thing my old job had over this place was being only 1/2 a mile from this place which has a first rate lunch and a supper that will not only feed 4 for under $40 (excluding booze) but will leave you taking stuff home.
Of course there are alternatives, at my current job I used have time to go to the Border Grille for their first rate Lunch Buffett but my new hours don't allow that either. So this is where I'll be today. I strongly suggest that if you are ever in Massachusetts you should try both.
Posted by Peter at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Got to love DRM
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Its something companies put together to protect there investment but as time goes on they seem to be using it to control us.
Already we are seeing DVDs that do not allow you to skip the commercials. You got to be kidding me right? I paid for this and I can skip them commercials?
Also Apple uses it to control how many copies you make of any song and it seems Apple purchased music pretty much play on iPods very well and a very limited selection of other music.
DRM also has made it onto the TiVo units to automatically delete shows if they want to that have been recorded after a set time or if they wanted to make sure you don't fast forward through them commercials.
The list goes on and on and the newest threat?
Another DRM may be in the works so you can not change channels on commercial breaks. Imagine that?
Posted by Hector at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
2nd Opinion on Windows Vista
Well you've heard my opinion and our first batch of vista opinions, lets hear a few others....
Mypod links to an Information Week article on graphic card limitations and Vista:
"It's very difficult to tell what kind of machine you need to experience the full Aero Glass interface," said Rob Helm, director of research at Kirkland, Wash.-based Directions on Microsoft. "You have to know the video card's memory bandwidth, how much memory is on the card based on the screen size resolution you want to run, and what kind of shader capability your [card's] chip has.""This is stuff I just don't want to know," added Michael Cherry, another analyst at Directions. "It's very confusing, and seems to be getting more technical than less technical.
Kenneth van Surksum posting at ActiveWin provides a useful reminder about the Microsoft's Application Compatibility Toolkit:
Before you upgrade to a new operating system, ACT tells you which installed software will and will not work with the new OS in place, and Microsoft is preparing a whole new 5.0 version for Windows Vista.
The blog Freedom will always be too high a price goes for the sarcasm :
I even have my 40+ year old godfather salivating over Vista. I think he's planning on getting a new computer to run it on, when (if?) it comes out. I think he's even prepared to buy a legit copy.It'd be worth all the hard work when I see them scratching their heads, trying to figure out why their audio CDs and downloaded digital music won't play, or why their games suddenly refuse to read those CDs they bought, or why Vista doesn't look like anything I've told them.
Donna's Security Flash points to a ZDNET Australia article on the limits of the new MS Firewall for Vista:
When Microsoft updated Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) in August 2004, for the first time Windows included a firewall that could protect users from both incoming and outgoing threats. However, Microsoft has admitted that Vista's firewall will not block outgoing traffic by default but not explained why.According to Microsoft, the default settings mean that the Vista firewall will be turned on to protect against incoming attacks and it is capable of blocking unauthorized applications from connecting to the Internet. However, that feature will require users to "selectively configure the firewall".
That news didn't impress Munir Kotadia as he blogs:
I found out last week that although Windows Vista will have a snazzy new firewall, by default it will be set to block only incoming traffic -- unless you decide to pay Microsoft an extra US$50 a year.If you buy Vista but decide not to subscribe to Microsoft's anti-virus and anti-spyware service, which is called OneCare Live, then you can still get the same outbound firewall protection for free, but you will have to go to the security control panel and manually turn it on.
This is rather odd, is it not?
You said it, being paid for services rendered? Next thing you know your plumber, carpenter and tax man will expect to be paid for their work too!
The Social Bunny at MSN spaces has a more positive take:
Windows vista is not new technology but its packaged well. Integrate your Xbox 360, your MSN, Mobile devices (Phones - PDA), Camera etc. All these work without much trouble. Try that on linux and see how far you get. It's not as easy as putting the cd in the cdrom. So at a rumored price of $99US (doubt that's the price) then I even consider purchasing vista as everything ....just works....
Amyo is a geek has this take:
Don't they realizse that an operating system is meant to be an enabler for applications, not a hindrance? It's like having an amazing singer like Ella Fitzgerald up on stage and while she is trying to sing the microphone keeps interrupting saying "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a microphone and I'm hear to make sure you get the best listening experience". You end up having an experience of extreme annoyance.Rant over, now I can say what I actually like.
You'll have to click the link to read that part.
Black Hat Marketing links to Web Pro News that provides a useful list of vista version differences. For more complete coverage see this entry in Ed Bott's blog:
In all, there are five mainstream editions: three for home users, two aimed at businesses. (This count tosses out Windows Vista Starter edition, which will be sold only with low-end PCs in emerging markets, and the two N versions mandated for sale in the European Union, which remove some media-related features.)
For my money Bryan C Fleming has the best analysis of the batch:
What you absolutely need to know about the Windows Vista operating system:Microsoft’s in a bit of a bind. As they make their software better, there is less of a reason for people to upgrade. It gets harder and harder for them to plead their case. They also have to support old software. So what?
Well, it turns out that you can’t really do anything very ‘cool’ because you have to support software from 10 years ago. If you do start breaking some old rules, people get mad. Their old software no longer works. At one time, Microsoft did have some really neat stuff for Vista, like Win-FX, but it got axed because of this problem. So they put a new face on the same core and try to bake-in new ‘features’.
Do you want a computer or do you want the Internet?
Ahh. Isn’t this really the nail in the coffin? Most people don’t care about their computer, they just want to send some emails, chat, and go to porn sites (I’m kidding of course). Seriously, watch this trend: More and More PC Applications are appear as online websites. In fact, Google just bought a pretty kick-ass word processor that works just like MS Word. It’s free, and it’s online. No software to install. This means you need a lot less of a computer or operating system for that matter.
This guy is making a lot of sense.
Posted by Peter at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
Vista? I'm unimpressed so far
I've been having a miserable time trying to get the test VISTA system to connect to my wireless network at home.
The dell wirelss usb looks like it just might be hardware failure but the Linksys wireless usb finds my router but can't get to the net period no matter how I tweak it. I'm not sure yet if it is due to the experimental nature of the Os or what.
It looks like I'm going to end up bringing the system into the den and hardwiring it to the net. This will annoy the wife but not as much as having it on the dining room table has.
So far I have been unimpressed with the OS but in fairness I'm running it on a system that has no business running Vista so that might have something to do with it. (AMD 1.2 GH 376 MG RAM)
I should have a few more weeks of playing with it so time will tell.
Posted by Peter at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2006
Curse of The Newbie
My name is José and i'm one of the sales reps here at Hiwired. I've been online since 24k connections, and remember when 56k was the next best thing, but somehow this whole blog thing has eluded me. Perhaps it's because most of my time online is spent searching for car parts, or new toys. Now, I don't consider myself technologically inept. I have my iPod, and Blackberry; I can even tune your car's ECU with a laptop! So when it came to posting my first post on the company blog I became excited and thought "How hard can it possibly be?"
While blogging isn’t exactly rocket science I was amazed that it took me as long as it did to get this darn thing to work. Good thing I work for Hiwired huh? A few questions and a screen share later, I was up and posting like a pro. Just goes to show whether newbie or pro our team members here can definitely help you out.
Now if I can only get the flashing 12:00 off my VCR...
Posted by Jose at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2006
A quiet day
Well it's Easter Sunday and it's been pretty quiet around here as you might expect, but busier than last year as you might also expect.
If you have a PC issue and you don't want to wait till tomorrow give us a ring. We will be here till 11 p.m EST tonight Easter or no.
Also tomorrow is Patriots Day here in Massachusetts a state holiday. The running of the Boston Marathon will be held tomorrow and the Red Sox will be playing their traditional Patriots day game at 11 a.m.
We at HiWired will be open our normal hours from 9 a.m.- 11 p.m. as we are today.
Posted by Peter at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2006
Like I said a bad year for free speech
Well Bill Hobbs a blogger who was featured in this Business Tennessee article has apparently been let go for blogging he did on his personal time in response to the cartoon wars nonsense.
Lets cut to the chase, it would be one thing if I was let go for something I blogged. I'm doing it on the company blog and (mostly) on their nickel, it's another thing if they let me go for something I posted on my own site on my own time.
The fact that this was done by a Belmont University makes it worse, you know a place where free speech is supposed to be held on high?
Hat tip to Glenn although I first read about it here at Michelle Malkin's site.
No wonder Google isn't bothered by China when this stuff is going on here.
Posted by Peter at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)
I hate this topic
....but I can't seem to get away from it. Of course it's hard to get away from it when stories like this keep showing up:
China has introduced regulations that make it illegal to run an email server without a licence. The new rules, which came into force two weeks ago, mean that most companies running their own email servers in China are now breaking the law.
Hey no big deal so servers are regulated, and it's part of an anti-spam law and we all hate spam don't we? Of course there are some minor side effects as well:
China's new rules also prohibit use of email to discuss certain vaguely defined subjects related to 'network security' and ' information security', and also reiterate that emails which contain content contrary to existing laws must not be copied or forwarded. Wide-ranging laws of this nature have been used against political and religous dissenters in the past.(emphasis mine. Spelling error theirs. Really! I swear)
This doesn't appear to be an accident:
“Looking at the Chinese text, it is clear they have worded it carefully”, he (James Seng) told vnnet, “They know exactly what they are doing and what they want. So this isn't a case of clueless civil servants screwing up or just bad translation.”
You know I really shouldn't get worked up over this stuff the way I do, it's not like they censored a South Park episode over Muhammad cartoons or something, but I just can't help myself.
Posted by Peter at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2006
A blessed Passover & Holy week (or have a nice day)
April 12 was the start of the Jewish feast of Passover which will run through the 20th.
In the Christian faith this is Holy Week the end of Lent. Yesterday was Holy Thursday, today is Good Friday and Sunday begins the Easter season, for Christians this is the holiest period of the year.
To all our customers of either faith we wish them a happy and holy season.
To all our customers of neither faith. We say, have a nice day.
Posted by Peter at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
China still not wild about Harry
We mentioned blogger Harry Hao Wu last month. Glenn informs us he has now been held by China for 52 days without charge.
But hey Google thinks these guys are ok so who are we to say?
As you might guess the Free speech diva Rebecca MacKinnon disagrees.
UPDATE: I'm mixing my Wu's but I suspect China isn't wild about Harry Wu either.
Posted by Peter at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
HiWired Podcast #1 now available at the iTunes store!
Our initial podcast DeeJays & Technology is now available at the iTunes Music Store You can subscribe to it there under the catagory AUDIOBLOGS or simply do a search for HiWired in the music store.
You can listen to it without iTunes by clicking the title above, if you want to manually setup the podcast follow this link for screen shots.
It is very likely that the format or the feed info may change in the future we will give you a heads up if it does. Also we would welcome any feedback or suggestions for future podcasts.
Posted by Peter at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
PC Cillin screen shots.
So far after three days the transition from Norton to PcCillin has been pretty smooth. Here are some screen shots to give you an idea of what the software looks like:
Here is the start of the opening splash:
When you open the program you are offered a tutorial. If desired you can turn this off. I like to keep the option up. It only adds one click and if something odd happens when I'm not around the wife and kids might be able to use this to figure it out.
Once you get past that tutorial choice you see this:
This is the meat and potatoes page. I like it very much because the update and the virus scan are very prominent as they are the single most important things. On the left you see the various features that you can check on. Below that you can see the status of items that have been set. If you don't choose to use part of a feature you will see the at risk notification.
If you start a virus scan you will see this:
I very much like the close window if nothing is found and the shutdown if nothing is found as opposed to say Windows Defender where you have to tell it to show results. This way I can start a scan at the end of the day or when I leave and if it is up when I get back or get up I know I have work to do.
Here is the spyware scan page:
I like that the schedule is clearly shown on the scan page. You will note I have full scan chosen. If I've ever worked on your system you know that I HATE quick scans. If you are going to check a system; check it.
Here are the spyware scan results:
One interesting thing is the even for a cookie there is a write-up, I choose one of the cookies and clicked on more info.
This was the result:
I think it is cool to see where the cookie is from.
Here is the protection summery page:
There are a lot of choices here so you can tweak your protection to fit your needs.
I'll close with the web site filter:
With teenage sons in the house this is a very important page. The filter, like all filters is not perfect; my son is into SNL clips. Some sites containing them are blocked, some not (likely for other content also on them), but it's all good. I have noticed that some settings can be changed in limited accounts and some can't when I've played with it more I'll let you know.
It's still much too soon to say, but If I had to make a judgment today; I'd call it a keeper.
Posted by Peter at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
No Shame
You know it's bad enough when a company decides to forgo it's stated principles to help suppress internet speech, it's even worse when they decide to proactively designate a terrorist organization as a news source. What really gets me is when Google not only defends suppressing speech but praises the government that they do it for:
"We look at the rise of China, the investment and the smart people and we are in awe of what has occurred here," Schmidt said."And we salute the government, key leaders in the industry and all of you who have made the rise of the Internet in China such a tremendous accomplishment."
When asked if they would supply personal info on users they had this answer:
"I'd rather not answer a hypothetical question," he said.
Well between this story and ones like these about what goes on there I believe Google should change it's slogan to "do no evil to our bottom line".
Just a reminder these three items are in their ten things google has found to be true list on their Corporate Philosophy page (already linked above).
4. Democracy on the web works.6. You can make money without doing evil.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
For some perspective read this.
Posted by Peter at 09:06 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
PC Cillin trial day one
This morning in keeping with stated intentions I downloaded and installed PC Cillin on the new desktop system as my Norton 90 days was expiring today.
Also in keeping with my rep, instead of buying the program outright I downloaded the 30 day trial version to delay the spending of money for another month.
This will be a long post so the details are below the fold:
THE DOWNLOAD:
Since there are not any local places selling the software I had to download it. I signed up on the site and gave my information. I received a confirmation e-mail on my other system (I don't get e-mail on this one, I don't want my e-mail on the family machine). That e-mail contained the link to the software download and the temp code. I downloaded the software to my INSTALLS folder on my desktop (what you don't have an installs folder for downloads? you should!) The download was pretty quick on my comcast cable system. I will burn a cd of it sometime today so I will have an emergency reinstall if necessary or if I ever have to re-image the system.
THE INSTALL:
As soon as I began the install the software objected to Norton. It asked me to uninstall and began the process of opening the Norton Uninstaller from within the PC Cillin. The uninstall went pretty smooth. Upon reboot I resumed the install which seemed to take less time than the Norton Uninstall. (I know exact figures would be nice but I was getting my son ready for school at the same time) I completed the registration process and got the confirmation e-mail 28 min later. I installed the full features. Once complete I uninstalled Norton Internet Security and Live update. An icon appeared in my systray but not on my desktop.
I got the first e-mail for download at 7:39 a.m. EST and the registration one at 8:07 a.m. EST.
SETUP
Since time was of the essence I rebooted the system and launched the program. I activated the firewall and the site filter to block anything to do with sex, nudity, gambling (I do have 12 & 14 year old sons you know) I didn't set a scheduled scan but ran the update at once. Once the virus update was complete I launched a manual scan of the system. It has a very nice feature allowing the program and the PC to be shut down if nothing is found. I used both. Since my time was up I left the system to take my son to school leaving the house around 8:40. Due to a parent teachers meeting I am working out of the house today so after a quick bite to eat at the neighborhood coffee shop I arrived home for 9:20 to start work at 9:30. I found the system off and the scan complete.
Tomorrow or the next day I'll get some screen shots up. So far so good, the real test will be when the wife and kids are using the machine tonight.
Posted by Peter at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
Turbo Tax next year?
For the last 25 years ever since I have had to pay taxes I've done them myself and on paper, no software no nothing.
This year I had to deal with a matter I've never dealt with before. I read all the relevant publications (all available online). I understood most of the basics but there was a single figure that I was unsure of.
Not wanting to guess I at last broke down and called the IRS, they passed me from a level one person to a level two person who finally decided that they didn't know the answer. The promised me an answer within 15 days either by e-mail or US mail. So I did my taxes, filling in the figures I was unsure of in pencil ready to roll as soon as I heard back.
Today I got a package from the IRS....It contained a copy of the publication that I already read online.
If this is not an incentive to purchase tax software next year I don't know what is.
Posted by Peter at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
White flag or crazy like a fox?
From George Ou, the man who brought you "The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless Lan" we have an opinion that might startle some of you; don't repair that system wipe it:
...re-imaging a computer with a clean image is a guaranteed way fix a computer like new with 100% assurance that the system is clean. As an added bonus, the computer runs fast without the gunk that may have built up. PC repair isn't about ego that "I can beat this thing by repairing the damage", it's about what takes the least time with the least pain that gets the best results and it's needs to be a simple calculation of ROI.
George is of course correct that this is the 100% solution, the stumbling block is the loss of data not backed up. Or even not knowing if backed up data is infected so when you put it back on you mess the system up again. His solution? Partitions!
The bottom line is that user data and profile information should never be mixed with the Operating System storage volume. I manually do this now by painstakingly relocating the My Documents folder and manually configuring Outlook to store all its data in My Documents
This would certainly do the job, with the OS and the data in different spots a reinstall becomes a much better option timewise if something really nasty gets in. The problem is the amount of work to set it up and re-establish it after the restore. If as he suggests this is implemented on the OS level at release the objection vanishes.
If you can run say a two hour recovery program to fix an OS then the need to spend a ton of money on repair software becomes less urgent. This would move the focus to preventing data mining rather than ads and popups.
I remember 12 years ago I had my system set up to run a defrag on every boot. It is not so far fetched to think of a day when you would have key OS data in a protected partition and have it re-written on a regular basis to keep it clean.
It sure is something to think about.
Posted by Peter at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
Direct releases to DVD?
According to THIS news on LA TIMES today's movie theaters just might go like the drive-ins did.
Last year, consumers spent $22.8 billion buying and renting DVDs, up about 8% from the prior year, according to Digital Entertainment Group, a trade association. Of that, purchased DVDs accounted for 71% of the money spent — or $16.3 billion. By comparison, domestic ticket sales in movie theaters in 2005 totaled $8.99 billion. I think this would also bring downloaded pirated movies down to nothing since there would be close to no demand with such a low cost to rent one rather then spending what can be hours or days to download it."You can really launch a new product on DVD without having the benefit of a theatrical release," said Jeff Baker, a Warner Home Video vice president.
This certainly makes me think that such a move although bad for Theaters will result in increased sales of high priced home theater system. If for example your a family of 3 kids and 2 parents and try to make it to the theater even once a month that's probably a $60-$80 trip. Renting a video by comparison and some snacks would probably knock that bill down to $15.
I think this would also make downloaded pirated movies almost non-existent since the benefit of spending a few dollars to rent it would surely out weigh what could be hours or days of download time to pirate a movie.
I would actually predict a rise in profits made by movie theaters.
Posted by Hector at 09:29 AM | Comments (1)
April 07, 2006
In case your interested
We reported on the Dateline vs NASCAR story because it was an example of how technology has changed the way things happen in the world. It's not something I was planning to track here, but it you want more info you can find it here, here here here and here.
Posted by Peter at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)
More testing of XP apple
Rahul Sood and his fellows at Voodoo have been taking a look at the XP on Apple stuff and have benchmarked it, bottem line:
It seems to struggle a bit in games with the level of detail increased, but it’s certainly not terrible, it’s about as good as a mid range notebook system.
Still haven't decided if my next machine is an Apple, but I see myself years away from a next machine.
Posted by Peter at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2006
No wonder the stock is going up
Remember this argument of mine:
If you are a business large or small you are not anxious to invent in an operating system that forces you to buy all new software. This is why in my opinion Microsoft for all it's troubles is unlikely to lose much of market share to Apple.
Well it held up for a whole 10 days:
Apple® today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Available as a download beginning today, Boot Camp allows users with a Microsoft Windows XP installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac®, and once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS® X or Windows XP. Boot Camp will be a feature in “Leopard,” Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August.
Well this make the Intel move look rather cunning. A ton of coverage in the tech world including this from somebody who has actually installed it.
And yes the stock did rise today.
Posted by Peter at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2006
Blogging editing the FIRST draft of history
One of the strengths of technology in general and blogging in particular is the ability to spread information quickly and fact check it. An excellent example of this is here:
I have been talking with a producer of the NBC Dateline show and he is in the process of filming a piece on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination in the USA. They are looking for some Muslim male candidates for their show who would be willing to go to non-Muslim gatherings and see if they attract any discriminatory comments or actions while being filmed.They recently taped two turbaned Sikh men attending a football game in Arizona to see how people would treat them. They set them up with hidden microphones and cameras, etc.
...
They also want someone who is fairly well accomplished and has contributed to American society at large in some meaningful way.That said, I'm urgently looking for someone who can be filmed this April 1st weekend at a Nascar event (and other smaller events) in Virginia. NBC is willing to fly in someone and cover their weekend expenses. The filming would take place all day on Saturday and Sunday.
Within one week of the sending of the initial e-mail, (apparently the sender didn't read this post of ours) it was posted on Michelle Malkin's blog, within 9 hours it is verified that it is a true story by NBC and a letter writing campaign is well on the way and the story has spread throughout the blogisphere generating many pixels.
The fact that somebody is trying to game the news is nothing new (see William Randolph Hearst: you furnish the pictures I'll furnish the war) what's new is how much harder it is to get away with it today.
Consider this: A little over a decade ago NBC's Dateline ran a story with a doctored crash of a GM truck. It took years for it to be exposed and was quite a scandal to the network.
Following a tip, GM hired detectives, searched 22 junkyards for 18 hours, and found evidence to debunk almost every aspect of the crash sequence. Last week, in a devastating press conference, GM showed that the conflagration was rigged, its causes misattributed, its severity overstated and other facts distorted. Two crucial errors: NBC said the truck's gas tank had ruptured, yet an X ray showed it hadn't; NBC consultants set off explosive miniature rockets beneath the truck split seconds before the crash -- yet no one told the viewers.
For those not old enough to remember the Wikipedia entry is here (yes I know it's Wikipedia but I'm old enough to remember when it happened, the entry is legit.) Apparently NBC is trying something much like that again.
Looks like NASCAR won't have to bother with detectives since due to the power of blogging they have been caught even before the segment is complete, Glenn's Army of Davids at Work.
Technology isn't just writing the first draft of history, it is editing the draft before it is finished!
Posted by Peter at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
Here come the films
Slashdot links to this story in Business Week concerning the coming movie download craze. They don't say craze I do.
On Apr. 3, Movielink and CinemaNow, Hollywood's two movie-download services, will announce new services that threaten to turn the traditional model for releasing movies on its head. Both companies will offer movie downloads at the same time DVDs can be purchased at Wal-Mart (WMT) and Blockbuster (BBI), putting Hollywood studios in direct competition with DVD retailers.
We can expect some heavy copy protection and even heftier file sizes. This means that you will want faster downloads, huge hard drives and fast processors.
If this doesn't get people off the 9x systems nothing will.
It looks like a whole lot more work for us over here.
Posted by Peter at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2006
test entry (update We Pass!)
This is our very first Podcast. You can subscribe to it by this feed or by adding the following link to your ITUNES podcast.
http://blog.hiwired.com/podcasts/blogrss.txt
This is uncharted territory for us so expect this entry to change a bit as we get our podlegs under us.
Of course you can play the audio file without iTunes by simply clicking on the first link.
UPDATE: This is what I get for posting just before bedtime I never explained how to subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes since it isn't available at the music store YET....
STEP 1:
First open iTunes, choose ADVANCED and select SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
STEP 2:
Next enter the URL of the podcast. Two things to note: The name and path of the feed will of course vary for whatever podcast you are subscribing to, Second usually the file will NOT be a .txt file as this one is.
STEP 3:
The podcast will now start downloading, it will look a lot like when a cd is being imported.
STEP 4:
Here we see the loaded podcast now just click on the down arrow.
STEP 5:
Choose the entry hit play and presto you are listening!
Posted by Peter at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
That's the way the cookie crumbles
It has reached a point where almost every site that you do things at from Amazon to government sites leave cookies on your system.
A lot of people wonder if it is worth the effort to bother to clean those cookies, after all almost all are harmless and who want to remember all the login info for so many sites. Sometimes I think the same way then I remembered something:
A cookie helps remember you on a system but can't tell if it IS you when a person returns to a page. If you are on a work system or on a friends system and sign into a page you might end up leaving a cookie that allows ANYONE who uses that system to access info, maybe not login info but info nonetheless.
If you are like me you don't like that idea, so even if you are less than careful about cookies on your own system be aware of the crumbs you might leave behind.
Posted by Peter at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)