« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
July 31, 2006
A list you don't want to make
Tech Republic lists their 10 worst technologies in Q2 of 2006 here. An example of the scathing reviews:
For only about $350, you can get a player that looks kind of like the iPod and kind of like the Razr and works nothing like either of them. It plays video, but not very well. It sounds pretty good, but doesn't come with headphones. It has a navigational menu, but it doesn't navigate very well--and that's when you can get the firmware to even respond.
Can you name that product? If you can't then read the article and beware!
Posted by Peter at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)
The warning signs of old age
It isn't the balding or the graying of the beard that hits you as getting old. It's not even seeing machines you've worked on at the Museum of Science old computer exhibit that does it.
It's realizing that your co-worker is young enough to be your daughter. That's when it dawns on you that you're getting old.
I'd elaborate but I need a nap.
Posted by Peter at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2006
Another Fraud e-mail example
Like everybody else I get a fair share of fraud e-mails. Since we talked a bit about fraud during the last day of our HiWired Summer School I figured I'd post this pseudo Amazon e-mail and give you another example of what to watch out for:
Click on the thumb to the left to see an image of the e-mail. The actual e-mail is here Please don't click on the links, they are live. I only included them for the status bar example below.
I'm posting the text of the message below if you don't care to view the image. We covered some of these tricks in the eBay fraud example but they are worth repeating. I will include my comments in bold italic within the text of the e-mail an example of a "fisking" per our vocab class:
From: Amazon.com[update-account@amazon.com] The structure of this address suggests there is an "update account" department at Amazon. Much more likely there would be a records department. Subject Action Required: Your Amazon Update Account. "Action Required" is a dead giveaway. Retailers usually make requests, not demands of their customers.At the last reviewing at your amazon account we discovered that your information is inaccurate. How would they know the information is inaccurate? Don't people move? Don't they get married and change their names one way or another? . We apologize for this but because most frauds are possible because we don't have enough information about our clients, we require this verification. Please login and reenter your personal information.
That is one of the worst written sentences I've ever seen. Nobody at a Multi-Million Dollar company wrote that. Note again the "require" rather than request. Please follow this link to update your personal information:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/sign-in.html
The link is actually one of the two smartest parts of the e-mail. If you examine the actual live e-mail putting your cursor over it, in your status bar at the bottom (View Status bar if it is not on) you will see the real path of the displayed link is http://fmsoultions.com/images/images/ etc... not what it shows. In this sense it is smarter than the eBay e-mail we covered before(To complete the verification process you must fill in all the required fields)
Please note: If you don't update your information within next 48 hours , we will be forced to suspend your account untill I wouldn't expect spelling errors on form letters, would you? you have the time to contact us by phone. Again we see the do this or something bad will happen threat. Always an easy way to spot fraud. When these guys get subtle I'll start to worry.
We apreciate Another spelling error? They're worse than me! your support and understanding, as we work together to keep amazon market a safe place to trade. Thank you for your attention on this serious matter and we apologize. Amazon market? Who calls it Amazon market? The fraudster clearly has never used Amazon, might be confusing it with e-bay.
Regards,
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Hey these e-mail are always signed by the CEO instead of the actual department. Pretty lame.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was generated automatically, please do not reply to it. Amazon treats your personal information with the utmost care, and our Privacy Policy is designed to protect you and your information.
This is really a 2nd rate fraud, poorly written and put together. It does use one trick that makes it dangerous. If you look at the actual e-mail you will note some Amazon links at the top. Checking them in the status bar you will find they are live links to actual Amazon pages. The big danger here is that a person might follow those links, do some real shopping and then return to the e-mail to "correct" their account.
With a little effort you can train yourself to spot the warning signs and once you see one the rest will fall into place. Remember the reason they keeps sending these emails is people keep falling for them. Don't be an easy mark. If in doubt, contact the company in question or call us at HiWired. The cost of that help session may save you a world of hassle and a few dollars.
Posted by Peter at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2006
HiWired Summer School Economics 101
In our HiWired Summer School Economics course we look at business on the internet:
You will see many types of business on the internet and many ways to make money on the net a few examples follow:
Products:
Business like Amazon are pure internet retailers who sell based on volume, deliver free or dead cheap for the most part and offer large discounts based on the fact that there is no physical location.
Regular retailers such as Office Max or K-Mart that are retail stores will use their online side to help direct people to their retail locations and to sell product direct.
An online retailer will almost always be selling either something for a discount over a retail store or service a niche market for a product not readily available. There was a time when people believed that people would buy things off the internet just because it was the internet. This was during the dot-com boom/bubble. An example of what happens when you think like that follows:
... I was working late one night, when the president came in ... I asked him how things were going. Not well, he said. Our TV show had driven vast numbers to the web site, many times more than they had hoped for. With the number of hits we had given them, they had expected, based on their projections, some 45,000 sales.How many sales had there actually been?
“Eight.”
“You mean eight thousand?”
No, he meant eight. Eight sales! One of those had been a hat that my co-worker’s dad had bought as a souvenir.
He didn’t understand it. Did I have any ideas?
I did. I asked him why someone would spend $260 on a boom box at our website, sight unseen, and wait 2 weeks for it to show up when they could go to Fry’s or Best Buy and get the same item for forty dollars less and walk out with it right away.
Oh, and ditto for shirts.
And this internet genius, this multi-millionaire, this architect of the new economy, looked at me with this blank stare. And I realized, to my horror, that this man, who had committed millions of dollars, months of work, and the lives of over a hundred of the best people in both entertainment and computing had never thought of this.
(read the listed pseudo business plan that follows in the piece. It's priceless)
Services:
Providers offer services either for a fee such as HiWired or Comcast, for a registration; such as the Washington Post and many other newspapers, or for free; such as Yahoo, Google. Some sites like Kazza offer you a choice between pay or free services.
The fee providers need to provide a product that is of value to the user (hopefully you agree that we provide such value). If the value doesn't come the sale isn't made. The New York Times pay service Times Select may prove to be a great example of this.
Blogger Andrew Sullivan was a pioneer at this. A writer for several publications, he started blogging on the side. As his blog became popular he would have "pledge drives" and eventually was making enough from readers to support himself solely on the blog (although keeping his other ventures.) Eventually Time purchased the rights to his blog and it is posted under their auspices but the content is still all his. The most exciting examples of this phenom are internet reporters Michael Yon and Michael Totten who report first hand from the Middle East and Afghanistan supported solely by reader contributions.
The free and registered providers make all their money off of ads and add clicks. Matt Drudge makes pennies a click but when you have a billion visitors a year that can add up to tens of millions of clicks.
Some advertisers pay simply for the sight of the image on the page, other pay for clicks, they company gets a fee for the page loading. Others such as Kazza get their money from spyware companies that force the ads to you.
The big debate is the balance between ads as revenue and payment as revenue. Ad driven revenue is usually volume dependent. NetZero for example started as a pure free site but eventually started charging since the revenue from ads were not enough to support the product. Right now AOL is making a decision that might go in the opposite direction as CNET reports:
AOL is widely expected to announce that it will give its e-mail and Web services away for free, hoping to win back customers who have switched to other free services from rivals like Google and Yahoo.The new strategy, which will be discussed at a Time Warner board meeting in New York on Thursday, aims to boost online advertising sales. But analysts say it is a risky move as its subscription business currently accounts for 80 percent of AOL's revenue.
AOL is still expected to continue to charge for dial-up Internet access, but it will no longer advertise the service.
Time will tell if AOL's plan works. I suspect the result will be something they don't anticipate. I think the dial-up customer will upgrade to DSL using the money they pay AOL now to afford it. Since they will be able to keep their e-mail address there is a great incentive for them to do so and the cost increase will likely be nominal.
A brief word about blogs; most blogs out there are hobby blogs which might carry some blogads or a tipjar for readers to drop a buck or two in electronically, but that is usually supplemental income (Sullivan being the exception there are a few others). Other sites like The National Review's group blog, The Corner are used to promote subscription sales to their magazine but provides loads of talent or content (depending on your opinion) for fee. Our blog provides content as a value added (or loss leader) to promote our services but any money we make out of it comes from your calls or chats for PC support.
Auctions:
eBay and other auction sites allow people to sell their wares on the internet and take a percentage on the sale. They are both products and services. Ebay offers the platform (a service) While the regular guy or the e-bay store that provides the item for sale (the product). eBay much like a broker will make their percentage no matter how good a price the seller manages to get but it is the volume of sales and percentages that provide the profit and the overhead costs. The seller pays a nominal fee to eBay and hopes to reap the profit on the item.
Fraud and Adware:
A huge money maker on the internet is fraud, produced by either e-mail scams and phishing. Adware and bots pushing ads, trackbacks and the lot are not fraud per-se but use fraudulant methods to either showcase product, or push ads to create links. The economics of scale provides the profit here. If 100,000,000 million computers are pushed ads an only 1/10000 of them click on the ad that is 10,000 people, multiply that out on a daily or weekly basis and you have a real boodle. This is why it is almost impossible to stop adware since it depends on getting by the programs blocking it to make it's money. This is also the reason why some adware programs actually clean off other adware from the system to keep you from being so overwhelmed with ads that either your system will stop or you will annoyed to have it cleaned off.
Internet Porn:
You can't talk about money making on the internet without talking about this subject. All one needs is a video camera or still pictures and a website. As long as humans are humans the customer base will always exist. You can divide such sites into two categories ad/spyware driven sites and (pardon the oxymoron) reputable sites. The ad/spyware driven sites are the source of the embarrassed calls we get on occasion from parents of teenage boys. They will look for free items on the net and will get adware pushing various subscription sites. The non adware sites are usually production companies or individuals. They avoid the use of adware to be found. They will make their money on subscriptions and fees and they make plenty. Since this is not a religion or ethics class, we will not comment on the morality of it, suffice to say I think it's not a career choice I would recommend.
Whatever method you choose success in money will usually depend on the amount of work and effort you put into it. People offering to make you rich via a book or a website are usually making their money from the sales of the book or the website.
This ends our HiWired Summer School Week. Class Dismissed!
Posted by Peter at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
HiWired Summer School Current Events and History
Our HiWired Summer School continues with yet another interesting aspect of the current war in the middle east and how the internet and technology are and will change things.
If you have been trying to follow events there are three sites that are worth a daily visit. They are:
Pajamas Media whose Middle east updates are as of the time of this posting now on part 46. It consists of two sections with a collection of news links and of blog and opinion links.The Truth Laid Bear which keeps a daily update of what bloggers in Israel, Lebanon, the PA, and Egypt are saying about all of this plus a first rate map. You might find this page a tad slow loading I suspect due to traffic. (you will note I linked to the actual page that contains the info rather than the main page. The main page has a lot to offer about blogs in general.)
The third site is Israellycool a blog by a fellow in Israel who has been liveblogging the war since day 1. As you might guess from the title he is on a particular side in this war.
The daily bits of information provided by these sites are worthwhile but that is not why it is important.
First a little seemingly unrelated history:
40 years ago the Catholic Church lifted the restriction on eating meat on Friday. George Carlin did a great routine concerning it: "some guy doing eternity in hell on a meat rap" What is not generally known is the lifting of the restiction is conditional on the individual doing some other act of sacrifice or prayer for the day to make up for it. Even most catholics don't know this. You can find story after story leaving that fact out. Thus history was re-written. Thanks to the sites above this can't happen here concerning the war.
With these postings there is a permanent sequential record of what happened, what was said and done, when it was said and done, and who said and did it. Via posted comments it also documents those who disagree with what it said. In addition it is a permanent record that is accessable by every person alive with an internet connection or who will be alive in the future.
It is very hard to re-write or deny history when it is recorded in a way that people can understand and access easy. This is the power of the internet and the freedom it provides. It's also why I spend so much time concerning internet speech issues around here.
P.S. George Carlin's site is worth a visit just for the loading message alone!
Posted by Peter at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2006
HiWired Summer School: Statistics Class
It is no secret here that I am a regular reader of Instapundit. Although Mike may still object it is still my home page and the first spot I visit each day.
You might have heard of the term "instalance" (I didn't include in our vocab class). This refers to the traffic increase that comes when Glenn links to a post elsewhere. The increase is enough to bring some slow servers to a halt. If you want to see what that means look here. 
Glenn linked to this post on the 17th. I showed this picture to Omer who does statistical work for us without telling him what it was. He said the first thought a statistician seeing that 4000% spike would be: "What happened?"
If you ever wonder why blogs like to get a link from Glenn, there is your answer.
Posted by Peter at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
HiWired Summer School Home Economics Class:
Continuing our HiWired Summer School theme in our Home Economics class we will discuss cleaning your computer, not the files and the folders (which you should be doing too) but the physical cleaning of your PC.
Internal cleaning:
With the system off and the case opened get a can of compressed air (available at your local Office Max and other fine retail stores) and blow out the dust that will build up. You might want to have a vacuum available to pick up the stuff that ends up on the floor or maybe put down a newspaper or two before you do it.On a laptop you will basically be doing the same thing without the luxury of opening up the system. Power it down and close the screen. Lay out some newspaper, put the laptop on top of it and then use the tube from the compressed air in one of the vents. Be prepared for dust to come out from everywhere.
External cleaning:
When cleaning a standard monitor or case make sure the cloth you are using is only slightly damp or even dry. You don't want liquid to be getting into components and shorting something out. Never apply the cleaning solution directly to the pc or monitor.This goes double for flat screen monitors. Some people recommend eyeglass cleaner, others a solution of isopropyl alcohol cut 50-50 with water, or even just warm water. There are also commercial cleaners out there available at stores or available online. The bottom line is avoid detergents that can discolor the screen and to use a gentle cloth.
Keyboards:
It's been more than a year since Rhonda suggested washing an old ps2 keyboard. Since the majority of the stuff out these days are usb or wireless I'd go with the spray to get it done, but I have my own way of doing it if you don't have the spray handy:Take a piece of clear scotch tape and make a little loop so the sticky part is on the outside. Then holding it from the top run it between the keys of the board. The tape will pick up all kinds of loose dust and dirt.
Cleaning day is a good time to check out your cables, if you see any pinched or worn you should replace them. (if they aren't too bad keep them for emergency tests.) It goes without saying if you see exposed wires on a cable you should disconnect it at once and toss it. Also remember that cats love those wires so check those PC nooks where the cat likes to crawl.
Posted by Peter at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
IE 7 coming, Whether you like it or not
Are you somebody like me that didn't like Internet Explorer 7 beta? Not sure if you should to update when it is first released? Well according to CNET, Microsoft has decided to make the decision easier for you:
IE 7 will be delivered in the fourth quarter as a "high priority" update via Automatic Updates in Windows XP, Gary Schare, Microsoft's director of IE product management, said in an interview Tuesday.
Not to worry says Microsoft people will be able to opt out:
...people will be able to choose whether they want to install it or not, Schare said. Automatic Updates will first notify people when IE 7 is ready to install and then show a welcome screen that presents key features and the choices to install, not install or postpone installation.Additionally, Microsoft on Wednesday plans to make available a special tool to block automatic delivery of the new browser version, Schare said. The tool is meant for business users who might not be ready for an IE update.
One question; if people can opt out when it comes up why would a tool be necessary to block automatic delivery?
My experience suggests users will take this update without thinking, and we will get a lot of calls from people asking why their IE is acting strangely.
Update: Forgot to credit Slashdot, as they say in Hook Bad form Peter Bad form.
Posted by Peter at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2006
HiWired Summer School MUSIC CLASS
Today one of the biggest markets in computer usage is the use of the PC to listen to or process music to one player or another. The platforms and devices might vary but the idea is the same. Get music so you can access it quickly without having to bother to take out a cd. The management of music can take a big chunk of time and effort. Here are some suggestions to make it easier.
Keep the music in a high level folder:
Music stored in a high level folder (a My Music folder off the C drive) vs a local MY DOCUMENTS/MY MUSIC folder. you can sub divide it via the different users but if all music is stored in the upper directory then all users of the computer will have access to it. This also eliminates the danger of losing music due to account corruption discussed here.
Use assorted playing software:
One person might like ITUNES another Windows media player and a third WinAmp but it is worthwhile to have them all on a system. If you have an issue with an audio file or a sync you can try a different program to test it out.
Back up your music:
This of course applies to any type of data but if you've paid for songs (or video) you should have them protected. If you have the actual CD's that you loaded on the PC that isn't necessary but the rest of the music should be backed up.
Avoid spyware based music sharing systems:
Any kind of p2p or free music sharing program (read Limewire & Kazza) comes with baggage, either the spyware of a Kazza that slows your system and opens holes, or the sharing of the Limewire that makes your system an open air bazaar. You might save .99 for the song but you will pay for it with interest.
Different formats, different quality, different files:
For various reasons you might want to change the format of a audio file. Just remember most converters from iTunes on down don't actually convert the file, they create a new file in a different format using the old file as the input. Just remember that if you decide to convert a directory of say 100 songs you will have 100 new music files on the system taking up space. You might want to sort those files by type to make life easier.
The music is the king not the player:
Most people get mp3 players to listen to music, there are a few who get players to say "Look at the cool player I have." Here at the HiWired summer school we encourage you to look beyond peer pressure. Decide what you actually want and need and choose accordingly. The reason you have the player is the music, not the other way around. If the songs sync and the player suits your needs then it is a winner. Choose based on that and you will be fine.
Fresh Faces Fresh Music:
With the software revolution a lot of small bands have web sites with sample tracks. Local bands who haven't made it big, music from around the world and the like can all be found on the individual bands web sites. It is a good alternative to illegal downloads and will give you a taste of a sound you might never have heard otherwise.
Posted by Peter at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
HiWired Summer School History Class Field Trip
Class is back in session in the HiWired Summer School and today we take a History field trip to the online Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has an online resource that like a physical museum contains exhibits, collections and events.
The physical building also houses all the physical artifacts of the Boston Computer Museum which closed its doors in 1999 and intergrated its remaining exibits with the Boston Museum of Science.
For our history class today I point you to this exhibit on internet history. Most people think of the internet as something that hasn't been around all that long, but the roots of it predate my birth. a quick glimpse:
At the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Glen Culler and Burton Fried investigate methods for display of mathematical functions using storage displays to deal with the problem of screen refresh over the net. Their investigation of computer graphics supplies essential capabilities for the representation of scientific information.After installation in September, handwritten logs from UCLA show the first host-to-host connection, from UCLA to SRI, is made on October 29, 1969. The first ‘Log-In’ crashes the IMPs, but the next one works!
The "crashes the system" part is a condensed history of programming. It is the ultimate excersize of trial and error. Any old programmer seeing that line will say. "Been there done that."
Posted by Peter at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2006
Day off Blogging Civ IV Warlords arrives!
This is my day off and I have just finished installing Civ IV Warlords the first expansion to CIV IV.
I will be writing a review after I've had a week to play with it but I want to give a plug to IGameSpot in Fitchburg.
Our tabletop baseball league (now in its 19th or 20th year depending on if you count the half season) plays at that location. So I ordered the game from there.
I swung by there today, but the UPS truck was running late and the item wasn't it. I left my number for them to give me a call when it showed up. The packages showed up right at closing. Unfortunately for me it wasn't possible for me to leave to pick it up so what does the guy do? Knowing I've been dying for the game he delivered it!
Any guy who does that for me has a customer for life and deserves a plug.
Posted by Peter at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2006
With a name like...it has to be good?
Considering that the first time I tried to adjust the volume of an IPOD I nearly blew out my ear this seems like a pretty good idea. I can't vouch for the product myself, but I'm partial to the company name.
I'm not partial to this paragraph on the page:
iHearSafe, kids safety headphones, iPod accessories, kid iPod headphones, kid iPod earbuds, child safe iPod headphones, kid safe iPod earbuds, earbuds, ear buds, safety earbuds, safety ear buds, mp3 headphones, mp3 earpods, mp3 earphones, childrens safety headphones, kids safety earpods, childrens safety earpods, kid safety hedphones, kid safe headphones, kid safe earpods, children safe headphones, children safe earpods, safety hadphones, headphones, earpods, kids headphones, childrens headphones, lower decibel headphones, lower decibel earpods, reduces hearing loss, Sony, Bose, Podcast earbuds, Vcast earbuds, gameboy earbuds, video game earbuds, stereo earbuds
Looks like a cheesy attempt to get it to show up on search engines. A smart programmer would have the text show up in the background color or design the graphic to overwrite it so somebody like me doesn't see it.
Posted by Peter at 05:00 PM | Comments (2)
HiWired summer school Recess and Lunch
You can't have school without recess and lunch so:
1. HiWired summer school Recess:
Here is how a computer works. Hat tip Lorie who is much too busy these days to post. (I mean it)
2. HiWired Summer School Lunch: 
If you are in the Needham Mass area and you are very hungry the place to go is Mighty Subs The Large sub is the length of your arm. I usually pick up a large Chicken cutlet, eat half there before I come in for breakfast and have the other half for lunch. Plus I'm a sucker for any family run business just ask Mike Romano or Glenn.
Highly recommended.
Update: Yeah, I know I renamed the post, the theme didn't hit me until after I put it up.
Posted by Peter at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)
HiWired Summer School Vocab CLASS Blog speak
Welcome back to the HiWired Summer School. Your second class today is Vocabulary. Today we are going to learn some blogspeak. (Credit to Wikipedia and The Jargon file for some details.)
With the rise of blogs there are a lot of terms out there that we should touch on so you will know what is being said when you read it. Here is a quick lexicon:
Blog(n): A journal or diary kept on the world wide web.
Blogosphere (n): All the blogs on the web. It can also mean refer to blogs in general (ie: what is the opinion of the blogosphere on said matter). It was suggested via this post by William Quick of Daily Pundit.
Fisk/Fisking (v): To critique a written piece by reproducing an article or blog post and inserting your comments around it section by section . It is named after journalist Robert Fisk whose work prompted this act. It is unclear who coined the term; but it appears Andrew Sullivan's critique of a Fisk piece was the first.
Sockpuppet (n) A false person or account used by an author to comment on or defend his or her own work anonymously. It is considered bad form for a person to do this.
Hat Tip (v) The act of acknowledging a person or blog that either first suggested or posted on a subject that one has written on. ie: if I see a link on SLASHDOT to an article that I eventually link to and comment on, SLASHDOT should get a hat tip. If I link directly to slashdot instead of to the other link then no hat tip is needed since there is a direct link to Slashdot. If a reader suggested a story or provided a link then that person would get a hat tip. Considered good form
Flaming (v): To post an e-mail or comment solely to provoke. A constant exchange of such stuff would be a called a Flamewar. This is also bad form.
Troll (n) Trolling (v): A person who frequents and posts on blogs or groups with the express intent of provoking a rabid or angry response. Trolling is the act of a troll. Also bad form
I guess that will do for now Vocabulary class dismissed.
Posted by Peter at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
HiWired Summer School is open! MATH CLASS
Since this is the season for summer school we are going to have a series of posts this week called HiWired Summer School. We will include posts on varied subjects that might be of use. Here is today's MATH class is on bits, bytes and HEX.
A bit is the smallest unit of data (basically a 0 or a 1) It is the basic unit that all computer code is comprised of. 8 bits makes up a byte. This is expressed in binary math. Base 2 VS base 10. To remind you of what that means, the number 2 is base 2 would be 10. The number 5 would be 101. 8 would be 1000.
As programming power increased over the years you needed ways to represent data without all those 1's and 0's getting out of hand. This is where HEX comes in. Hex is base 16 so instead of the number system continues after 9 to the letter "f" representing "15" The number 16 would be 10 in hex.
With a HEX value you can show the data in a byte with one character. Thus a byte of data 15=F=1111.
As system power increased you saw Kilobytes (1000 bytes) Megabyte (1,000,000 bytes) Gigabytes (1,000,000,000 bytes) and I've seen one customer so far with a system containing a one Terabyte hard drive (1,000,000,000,000 bytes) but when it comes down to it all, it is just a collections of bits. 0's and 1's. That is what all your data is made of.
Posted by Peter at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2006
George Harleigh; Moon Maiden
Pajamas media links to Classical Values discovery; of the non-existence of oft quoted expert, George Harleigh.
It started innocent enough:
"George Harleigh" is quoted in innumerable web sites, and he's a retired Political Science professor who worked in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations. I feel like a total idiot, because I'm unable to find out anything about him. His name doesn't appear in the indexes of any of my books on Nixon or Reagan, I can't find a Wikipedia entry on him, and I can't even ascertain the university where he taught.
After the initial post he followed up a second post reporting on his inability to find the man or anyone who actually met him. Next comes the emails; or lack thereof:
At this point, I'm wondering: how we even know there were emails? If the "web sites and other news publications" where they claim to have "found him quoted often" do not exist (no one has discovered any web sites linking any "George Harleigh references other than the CHB-related links, and a diligent search has failed to find him in any publications), are we supposed to take them at their word that the emails exist?
Recently, we received an inquiry from Southern Illinois University saying they were trying to locate the "George Harleigh" who claimed to have taught at their institution but said they did not have any record of a "George Harleigh" or even a "Harleigh" ever teaching at the university's campuses in Carbondale or Edwardsville, Illinois. That inquiry led us to investigate further and we found that "Professor George Harleigh" may be a fictitous name. We talked with other web sites that have used quotes from the same source and all, like us, received the quotes in an email newsletter format. The newsletter email currently traced back to a qmail account. We also posted inquiries on bulletin boards and other blogs. When we received today's newsletter we immediately mailed back and asked for additional information. We did not receive an answer and followup emails bounced back as undeliverable."all, like us, received the quotes in an email newsletter format." If "Harleigh" has been emailing other web sites, why is it that they aren't quoting him directly? Instead, they link back to one or more of the CHB articles.
Online articles containing him have been re-written and edited to remove quotes or references as well, however cached version show the entries as they existed:
Parenthetically, I should point out that "George Harleigh" is disappearing everywhere. So fast it makes my head spin. Last week there were thousands of Google hits; now they number in the hundreds. I realize that CHB pulled all the Harleigh references, but that alone does not account for the disappearing links. (From over 1400 to about 500 in less than a week.)
I find that fundamentally dishonest to make a non-spelling correction without a reference. I've been late on corrections myself at times but if you are going to correct a post's facts the correction should be part of the post or at least linked by it.
All of this demonstrates the power of the internet. A single person wanting to know something finds that people have been quoting moon maidens instead. The same internet technology that helped this apparent hoax to prosper was able to nail it when one person decided to a job professional reporters didn't bother to.
Remember, I only wanted to know who George Harleigh was.
What's even worse is the lastest post on the subject seems to suggest that we don't have one Moon Maiden but a whole harem.
The whole thing reminds me of Mr Stephens the phantom man that Tim Robbins created in the Shawshank Redemption. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this page of George Harleigh quotes to disappear.
Posted by Peter at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
Reliable Sources catches up too
CNN catches up to the Jerusalem Post who caught up to us.
Reliable sources covered the role of blog exchanges during this war today on Reliable sources.
The transcript will be up later.
Two days behind the post and nobody is shooting at them.
Posted by Peter at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2006
Preaching to the Choir
The Captain produces a nod from me with this post about trackback spam. It is one of the most annoying parts of running a blog. True I can knock off a days worth of such spam in only a couple of clicks but I usually end up doing this in between customers so it will stay there a little bit.
This line nearly mimics my own opinion on the matter:
All of this trackback spam comes from commercial sites that want to advertise without paying the website owner. In my book, that makes them unethical parasites -- and, oddly enough, most of it comes from on-line gambling sites. These are people who want customers to trust them to pay out winnings honestly, and attract them by cheating on their advertising. Why would anyone trust a gambling site that cheats in any aspect of its business? If they're scummy bastards in cheating website owners like myself out of advertising revenue, why would anyone expect them to be honest with payouts for winnings?
I see more ads for drugs rather than the gambling myself, but I have to agree about the online gambling. I can't wrap my head around electronic gambling. I think it's a tech thing since I can't even bring myself to play electronic slots on the rare trip to Foxwoods (Craps on the don't pass line is my game).
As a tech I like to see what the spam looks like so I can be aware of the types and tactics used in case I have a customer asking what it is. On occasion the spam comments get creative, (I'll post one of these sometime as an example sometime)
As for trackbacks we tend not to get a lot of them, One reason is I've made trackbacks disabled as the default but I also suspect we get less because this is the blog of a business and most sites aren't here to give free advertising to a company they haven't tried. That's ok. As long as people know we are here, when a computer issue comes up their will know where to find us.
The reality is as long as trackback spam makes money it will be a fact of life. I just can't see being annoying as a good way to build customer trust.
Btw, I'm looking forward to the Captain second attempt at an online chat. As I recall the first one didn't work out well. I did all the talking and he did all the listening.
Posted by Peter at 08:30 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2006
Well they have an excuse
The Jerusalem Post and Drudge catch up to us after a few days:
Diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon may appear distant, but virtual talks between Lebanese and Israeli nationals are gathering steam daily on the Internet. Hundreds are signing on daily to blog, chat and post about the ongoing violence, with many finding new ways to relate to one another.
In fairness the JP has a few more important stories to cover these days, plus nobody is shooting rockets at me.
Posted by Peter at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
You took your sweet time about it! (correction)
I've been doing some blog housekeeping today and thought one correction important enough to get its own post.
To the left is Hao Wu, documentary maker and blogger whose detention by the Chinese government led to several posts here. To the right is Professor Harry Wu a human rights activist who spent almost two decades in Chinese labor camps till 1979. He was also detained by China in 1995 and released after an international campaign on his behalf.
In several posts I mistakenly referred to Hao Wu as Hao (Harry) Wu. The free speech diva corrected me in comments section of the post concerning Hao's release; which I updated accordingly at the time, but I didn't get around to fixing the older posts until today.
My bad.
Posted by Peter at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft, a source of spyware?
Paul Thurrott says so:
The second mistake was that WGA Notifications was also "phoning home" information to Microsoft on a regular basis. That's right: Not only was the software secretly installed on your PC, but it then regularly contacted Microsoft servers and provided them with data about the instances of pirated and nonpirated software out there. Customers and security experts reacted with alarm, as well they should: Microsoft had literally shipped spyware to its customers. (emphasis mine) Microsoft, meanwhile, reacted as they often do when something like this happens: They made as if nothing serious had happened and acted shocked that anyone could think otherwise. So much for the Glasnost of the consent decree.
The software is the Windows Genuine Advantage. The instructions to uninstall the beta that is doing are here. If you want to see the screen shots you will get if you are caught with your license key down check the end of Paul's article.
I believe piracy is a legitimate business concern but you have Microsoft working under the "if you aren't guilty what do you have to hide?" theme. That's not good customer service but then again they don't have much of a rep in that department.
It will be interesting to see if some enterprising lawyer in a divorce case or a Government lawyer in a federal case subpoena’s Microsoft for information on a particular person's computer. Once that happens I suspect the outcry will be loud and the class action suit will be huge.
Even with the ability to disable this you are forcing non-technical people to attempt a registry edit to keep Microsoft from spying on their PC. This seems a tad drastic particularly since Microsoft intends to make future releases unchangeable. This seems to be a great disincentive to update a system or to purchase windows Vista. If I'm Apple I'm grabbing this and running with it. It fits well with their current campaign.
Hat tip slashdot
Posted by Peter at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2006
Speaking of Magic Realm....
I mentioned playing a game called Magic Realm in passing today. It deserves a bit more attention since the story of that game is a great example of Glenn's Army of Davids in action...
27 years ago the Avalon Hill game company developed a unique fantasy board game called Magic Realm. The game was pretty good but very complicated (even by AH standards)
and took over an hour just to set up. The 2nd edition rules were a bit easier but the long setup time kept it out of my own game rotation. Nevertheless the game developed a following that outlasted the print run and the company. It's been out of print for almost a decade, yet through the magic of technology and the dedication of loyal fans it escapes oblivion.
First came the web pages of loyal fans. Then in January of last year the Magic Realm Wiki was created giving the remaining 
players a place to come together for information, modifications and a place online to meet; but the best was yet to come.
The Wiki wasn't enough for a person named Robin Warren who decided to write a java program called RealmSpeak. It is a complete Java version of Magic Realm. Everything from the nearly infinitely variable map, to the characters, the monster, the playing sheets and even the little cardboard chits digitally recreated. All done to allow a person who loves the game to play it with a brother-in-law 1000 miles away.
Think about that for a moment: 
Robin created a free downloadable and playable version of an "obsolete" boardgame that can be played over the web for 16 players anywhere in the world. People who have never heard of this game (such as you gentle reader) can be exposed to it for the first time and pick up the mechanics (I'd have the Wiki open if I were you since the program assumes some knowledge of the game) If like me you played and enjoyed the original game but with rare exception just 
can't find the time to set it up you will be able to get a game going and even sharpen your skills playing solo.
The game and the resource pack are both free downloads. Our gaming group tried it in a lan for the first time last night and liked it after some false starts. We will almost certainly be playing it again. After I've played it a bit more I'll write a proper review of the game for the blog.
The irony is we only discovered the online game when we were looking for an extra copy of the rules online. Now the game will be exposed to a whole new group of people who never played or even heard of it before. All through the efforts of a group of players who kept their beloved game alive and person looking for a way to play a game with a relative miles away and the technology that gives him the power to do it.
If that's not a victory for the Army of Davids I'd like to know what is.
Update: Robin has more info on the game at his blog here. It's a good resource.
Posted by Peter at 07:15 PM | Comments (4)
India reversing direction?
It looks like the blog ban in India is going to be narrowed in a hurry:
"An advisory is being sent from ISPAI to member ISPs saying they should configure their Domain Name Servers (DNS) in such a way that they block only the sub-domains DoT wants blocked," said Singhal, adding, "It would help if, in future, DoT could also mention the mechanism by which sites should be blocked."
It seems that instead of blocking the 17 individual sites that the Government wanted blocked the companies blocked whole blog domains. Either way it still is delivering a ton of bad press:
As news of the blockade spread to the national and international media, Indian bloggers -- organised (sic) under the Bloggers Against Censorship banner -- continued to devise a strategy to counter it. Some have filed Right to Information applications, while others are considering a Public Interest Litigation. They say they are against any kind of censorship, even that of non-blog Web sites such as HinduUnity.org
17 sites 17000 sites; free speech is free speech and India is making a large mistake here. We will see how long it takes for internal and external pressures to reverse this decision particularly since you can get around it with a $26 piece of software.
Hat Tip Michelle Malkin
Posted by Peter at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
Something missing from the list
I was reviewing an old article from Tech Republic called 10 dumb things users do that can mess up their computers. It has some pretty good point on things people do to mess up their systems (no surge protector, no firewall, no backups etc...) but there are two additions I would make to the list:
Share Accounts with their kids: We mentioned this just over a year ago and it is worth repeating. If you have multiple users on a computer you should have multiple accounts. In addition any children's accounts should be limited accounts. Teenagers are the fastest way to acquire a wide assortment of virus,' spyware and adware on your system turning it from a rabbit to a snail. Even if you don't get something nasty you can run into issues. Users will tweak systems to their personal tastes. I've seen people mistake those tweaks for system issues and create real issues trying to reverse them.Let visitors use your systems: All the virus protection, all the secure passwords, all the different accounts and all the firewalls in the world won't mean a thing if you let somebody use your system for "just a few minutes". People will check their online e-mail open attachments and surf to sites that you might not normally go. When your security says "do you want to allow this?" they will invariability say yes and the game is over. I can't tell you how many times people have called here saying their problems started after their sister, cousin, friend, grandchild etc... used the machine. I know a host above all must be nice to his guest but don't give in to that temptation. If they have to get to a site, drive the computer yourself.
There is nothing so annoying than having to call tech support to fix something preventable. Take this advice and don't be annoyed
Posted by Peter at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)
Xp Install/data Insurance
Yesterday at my Pal Dave's house while setting up the PC's for a 7 person lan of Magic Realm I was reminded of a step that provides some basic data insurance in XP that Bernie once mentioned to me.
I've often told customers it is a good idea to have a folder for all downloaded installs. Said folder can then be burned to a cd and if there is a disaster the downloaded programs can easily be re-installed without searching the web (this is important since you might not have a web connection after a disaster.)
I usually put the folder on the desktop and load it up from there, while configuring the system Paul tsk tsked me on that and he was right.
In windows XP profiles are created for each user account and data is placed within them. On occasion a profile can be corrupted and the data lost. If data is kept at the root directory level (C drive level) and shortcuts used to access it a corrupted user account will not result in a loss of data.
Now granted Paul and Dave both are Network Administrators for large companies with thousands of users so they run into the problem more often than the avg user, but the amount of time it takes to make this change is trivial (1 min for an install folder, maybe 5 min for your MY DOCUMENTS structure) it seems foolish not to do it.
I've moved my INSTAL DOWNLOADS folder to the root directory. You might want to do the same.
(Now that I think of it Bernie used to do admin work too. Those admin guys are sharp!)
Posted by Peter at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2006
Another tech perspective to the current war
Rahul Sood of Voodoo PC comes up with another tech perspective that I never thought of:
Leading global companies like Intel, Motorola, and Microsoft all have R&D facilities in Israel – Haifa being the place of choice for the most part. Yes, Intel and Motorola also manufacture advanced products in Israel, and many other large companies have purchased local companies, buying their patents and acquiring their human talent.
Read the whole thing, particularly the Intel angle.
Posted by Peter at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2006
Ego feeding
You know it's one thing to think you have the world's greatest family.
It's quite another when google and yahoo both agree.
I promise that I didn't gimick the results.
Posted by Peter at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2006
Follow up post to the blogroll
This post follows up our blogroll post with new items listed since 6/24. All items are in the extended entry and all updates will take place there.
Patterico's Pontifications July 9 2006
The Truth Laid Bear July 16 2006
Realmspeak July 21 2006 (link added on the update)
Posted by Peter at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
Now India gets into the act
We've ridden China pretty hard (and rightly so) over internet censorship, but it's pretty bad when a Democratic Society gets into the act. Some details from India Uncut:
To my horror, it seems that this may not be a false scare. Airtel reps told Amit that they have received government orders to block Geocities sites, just as Spectranet chappies had told Mridula that they'd got orders to block Blogspot, and a lot of ISPs seem to have blocked Blogspot, Typepad and Geocities sites. I hope it's just a kneejerk reaction by some clueless babu that is soon corrected. I hope we don't go the China way.
The difference between India and China in this case is an elected government. If the people of India end up with restricted speech and a censored internet, they will have nobody to blame but themselves.
Posted by Peter at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2006
Amazing
You would think that the War currently going on between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah would not be a topic that would apply to a tech blog.
You would be wrong.
There are two unique angles to this war involving technology, the first is this:
The internet coverage is more interesting, more informative and more up-to-date than any mainstream source. This is for two reasons:
1. The internet can draw the reports of many mainstream sources together in a single place2. You have first hand reporting from Israel, Gaza, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon.
This are first hand reports of people actually seeing what is going on they are providing a human perspective to what is happening, but this is NOT the most unique thing that technology has done vis a vis a war.
The second and the most amazing part is the role of blogs and bloggers.
You basically have bloggers on both sides of the conflict telling their stories and making their case to the world.
The Pajamas Media and The Truth Laid Bear blog sites are providing and collecting coverage from blogs in the area. At a single click you can see what people in Lebanon, Gaza and Israel are saying. Not only that because of the nature of blogging both sides have access to the others blogs and can comment back and forth as we can.
Think about it. Rather than going through diplomatic channels the actual people under attack can converse comment and argue their respective sides to each other with only the ability to post (electrical power) as the limitation. This is unheard of in the history of the world. In addition they can debate and discuss the situation with the entire world either to justify, appeal, condemn or cajole the reader to act.
This is history being made by the people making it. Of course if you are dodging rockets or bombs the idea of making history online doesn't seem all that important, yet it is important all the same, both for people involved and not involved to understand what is going on.
Personally I'd just as soon everybody have a quiet life and not have to make history in this fashion, but as this is not the reality on the ground we can only be amazed as ordinary people do extrodinary reporting thanks to modern technology.
May they all live to appreciate what they are doing and may all of us fortunate enough to be far away from the dangers and horrors of war be be grateful for their efforts.
Update: Welcome Instapundit readers. Feel free to poke around a bit. If you ever need us we are here every day 9 a.m.- 2 a.m. EST.
Posted by Peter at 09:50 PM | Comments (4)
July 14, 2006
We interrupt this blog for some fatherly Pride
We interrupt our normal tech blogging so I can say two things:
First Happy Birthday to my oldest son who just turned 15 today.
And secondly to congratulate him on the receipt of his first paycheck as a working person.
As you might imagine the job isn't anything exciting a few hours a week for the minimum but I'm proud as can be. My own father quit school at the age of 13 during the Great Depression and worked hard all his life. That work and that example is the reason why any of us have done as well as we have. Working and earning your own money builds character. The responsibility of a job a vital step on the path to being a responsible man and if he so chooses a good husband.
If that's not worth a blog post I’d like to know what is.
And since I'm congratulating family let me also wish my Nephew and his brand new wife many long and happy years together.
Posted by Peter at 08:58 PM | Comments (1)
July 13, 2006
Busy busy But speaking of Restore Disks...
Sorry for the lighter than normal posting, business has been a bit brisk and the customers do have to come first.
Meanwhile the debate continues between some of us here about the making of restore disks, so I throw out this question:
On system where restore disks are user made and not provided by the manufacturer do you think that recovery disk should be made:
1. As soon as the box of the PC is opened the making sure the disk's data is identical to the factory condition of the system.
or
2. After some key programs are installed and configured so that after a full system restore they don't have to be reconfigured?
Personally I favor #2 but this is an open question. What do you think?
Update: Actually I favor buying a PC that provides the disks so you don't have to make them period even more.
Posted by Peter at 08:48 PM | Comments (3)
July 12, 2006
Hey some good news for the good guys!
Yesterday Hao Wu (who we've written about here and here ) was finally released from a Chinese prison. It's still unclear what he was actually in for:
The lawyer, Wu Yigang, said in June that the Beijing police told him the detention is related to "state secrets," which limits the possibility of a defense.
And what are those terrible secrets that this employee of Earthlink was dealing with?
Mr. Wu's friends and family have said they believe he was detained over his work on a documentary film about Christian churches that aren't recognized by the Chinese government. Lawyers representing detained underground-church leaders say crackdowns have been increasing in recent months, amid a more general tightening of restrictions by Chinese authorities on some Internet and media activities.
That's about 140 days being held, good thing he wasn't illegally downloading songs or he would have had real problems.
Update: The free speech diva says it's all your fault:
However there is no doubt that all the expressions of support around the world - from media, politicians, bloggers, and other citizens writing letters and signing petitions - have had an impact.
Also forgot to Hat tip Glenn tsk tsk Peter you know better.
Update II. I don't know where I got the Harry from, but I stand corrected.
Posted by Peter at 11:46 AM | Comments (1)
July 10, 2006
Dell Hell by Proxy
Had a customer today who was trying to set up a Dell PDA with a Windows OS on her system. After configuring her e-mail it failed to connect, After double checking the settings we went to check the Wi-Fi connection. This particular model didn't come with a Wi-Fi card (much to my surprise) however she called Dell and they were kind enough to send her a card for her pocket pc device. The card wasn't recognized, no big deal I figured, she had a disk we would install the software.
Imagine my surprise when the card sent for her X51 was a Palm card. My surprise was even greater when the software specifically stated on boot that only specific palm devices were compatible.
Here at HiWired we support just about any brand or model and if we don't know about it we as techs it we will find out or figure it out but I don't claim to know everything off the top of my head. (There is just too much to know). Dell however sells only Dell, that means that they should have a solid idea of what is and what is not compatible with their own devices.
It seems to be rather pathetic that I have to send a lady back to Dell because they don't know what is compatible with their own devices! What is slightly amusing is that she (as befitting a lady) kept her composure, I however am angry enough for two.
I've said in the past that I've had great success with Dell, but come on guys! You can do better than that! This is my first experience with Dell Hell and frankly it stinks!
Posted by Peter at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Holding the horses with old equipment
Yesterday just before I went off duty I had a customer with an issue concerning an external hard drive. The drive was not being seen by the system, yet the system was trying to boot to it when plugged in. When the system was booted the drive wasn't seen period. All of this started happening when the device came back from a repair. Another company tried working on it to no avail.
It seemed a real puzzler until I discovered from my customer that this was a 50 pin removable serial drive (old SCSI style). It is hot swappable but not auto detected like a modern usb. Once the system was told to detect it worked like a charm.
It was a lot like the famous old artillery story:
At the outset of World War Two Britain was still scrounging for any weapon adequate to the task of war. They decided to de-mothball a piece of light field artillery which dated back to the Boer War. The five man crew, which they also rounded up, had a curious system for firing the armament. Precisely three seconds prior to discharging the gun, two of the men would snap to attention until all was silent again. None of the experts or young officers who were consulted could deduce the point of the exercise. Finally they brought in a wizened retired artillery Colonel. He watched the exercise for a moment. Then, jarred by an old memory, recognition flickered in his eyes: "I have it. They are holding the horses."
This is why you should keep old manuals for equipment you still use. As the years go by you might not remember what those horse holders are doing to make it work.
Posted by Peter at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2006
The reason why those popups come
This article on MSNBC (hat tip Glen via Boing Boing)gives the bottom line on why your system is a target for spyware:
Spyware rakes in an estimated $2 billion a year in revenue, or about 11percent of all Internet ad business, says the research firm IT-Harvest. Direct Revenue's direct customers have included such giants as Delta Air Lines and Cingular Wireless. It has sold millions of dollars of advertising passed along by Yahoo.
That kind of money to be made is the reason you are hit. And you've heard me say avoid Kazza? Well this is why:
The company now bundles ad programs with Kazaa, an online service offering music and other digital content. Kazaa gives users a choice between a $30 version of its program and a free version labeled "ad supported." But few ordinary consumers would understand that ad-supported means they get separate software from Direct Revenue that will monitor them online and serve a steady stream of pop-ups, Edelman says. Kazaa declined to comment.
You have been warned.
Posted by Peter at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)
Why Outlook vs. Outlook Express? Calendar for one.
Over the years quite a few people have told me they are happy with Outlook Express as their e-mail program. It is a passable program provided free (Bundled with IE) and does the job. Most of these same people have the Office Suite on their system but refuse to use Outlook proper. Outlook has tools that have primarily a business use but many can be quite useful for the home user.
The biggest one is the Calendar. With the Outlook Calendar you can set up reminders for appointments, bills, etc, you can even send out e-mails of such items to alternate computers to make sure you get those reminders if you are on a different computer.
And it goes without saying that if your work uses hosted exchange, you can configure your e-mail for both personal items and work use.
The moral is Outlook is a useful program with plenty of features that the average user can benefit from. If you already have it due to an office license then don't be afraid to use it.
Of course if you actually have to pay for it, that's another story.
Here is Microsoft's comparison page of the pair.
Posted by Peter at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)
Enough is Enough
You know it's one thing to disagree with somebody on the net but stuff like this is not only going too far is getting to be ridiculous.
It also goes to show that what you say on the net follows you even if you think you are not known.
Posted by Peter at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2006
Priorities Priorities
I've written about Yahoo, Google , Microsoft et-al and their cozy relationships with China in suppressing speech.
Well the music industry isn't taking it anymore they insist that if you are going to repress speech, repress the right speech:
The music industry is to sue Yahoo China for allegedly providing links to pirated tracks."We've started the process and as far as we're concerned we're on a track to litigation," John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, told Bloomberg.com.
Yahoo China is the second largest search engine in the country, and is 40% owned by Yahoo Inc.
Yup this is much more serious than holding Hao Wu without charge.
Mr Kennedy warned that the country had to counter a "culture of music piracy" if it were to realise(sic) its commercial potential.Illegal sales of music in China are valued by the IFPI at about $400m (£216m), with about 90% of all recordings being illegal.
My position on illegal downloads is well known but this strikes me as ironic. Jay Nordlinger, (who gets a hat tip on this story) had the best line concerning it in his Impromptus column today:
Oh, great. Yahoo, Google, and the rest can join with the ChiComs to screw dissidents, religious people, and everyone else, but heaven forbid they mess with entertainment profits!
I wish I wrote that, it's echoes something a fellow named Matthew wrote a couple of millennia ago :
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (6:21)
Here endith the lesson.
Update: Hao and Harry are two different Wu's
Posted by Peter at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2006
De Fault will be all yours
We've mentioned this before but I had a customer today with a router needing setup.
Going into the setting I noticed that he never changed the default settings for the logon.
Since the default values of routers are available online it takes no effort to get the password. If the router is wireless without security it would take mere moments to go in and manipulate the settings.
Even if it is wired router or has wireless security it would only take a visitor in a house seconds to get in and wreak havoc.
Your security is only as good as the weakest link. Take those two min and change that default username and password for your router. The data you save will likely be your own.
Posted by Peter at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
Some inside baseball
The register has a vote for the funniest tech support story ever. My vote went here:
This guy called up and said his monitor was too dim. Talked him through changing brightness and contrast but didn't help so went to see him. Took the sunglasses off his head and the monitor was fine.
My favorite of the type wouldn't apply anymore. A fellow I know named Chuck got a call from a customer who couldn't get her printer to print. After quite a while of doing printer diagnostics he asked:
"Ok lets look at the Computer:""What computer?"
Of course today we have printers that work off of memory cards but in those days that wasn't the case.
Update #1: Forgot to give credit to Slashdot.
Update #2: My pick is only drawing 5% support. Sigh!
Posted by Peter at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2006
I do declare
This is day off for most people (I have Tuesday's off so for the first time in years it a day off for me too.) and many of us are enjoying the day. Two hundred and thirty years ago in Philly some rather impressive fellows were doing this instead:
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Posted by Peter at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2006
The Sun and stars are against you today.
If you have satellite service you will notice some disruptions today. Bernie (Peter B to our podcast listeners) tells me that a ton of EMI is being thrown at us.
For details check out http://spaceweather3.com/
Posted by Peter at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
A reminder HiWired open all day tomorrow
A quick reminder that HiWired will be open our regular hours 9 a.m. EST- 2 a.m. EST on July 4th. So if you need us we will be there.
Posted by Peter at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2006
DRM Freedom
As we approach the 4th of July holiday which is the day that America claimed its independence from Britain and Democracy was born I would like to take a moment and inform our readers of choices they have to break away from DRM (Digital Rights Management more commonly known as Digital Restriction Management) like the biggest one (Apple iTunes Store)which imposes restrictions on how many copies you can make and how many devices you can listen to your music on and even what music device you can listen to them on using there FairPlay.
Here is a few links to alternatives that offer MP3 downloads without the restrictions.
eMusic
Bleep
Magnatune
Broadjam
eClassical
Purchased music on the above will be in the popular MP3 format and no DRM attached. You will be able to play these in any MP3 player including the popular iPod.
Posted by Hector at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)
Sweet revenge of Scam e-mailers
Many people have been taken by scam e-mails, well somebody in Australia has decided to fight back big time:
When he found a willing victim, his anti-scam unfolded in much the same way as a typical 419 scam, promising payment only after a substantial investment had been laid down - in this case the receipt of a series of commissioned wooden carvings from a local artist.With some creative photo editing, Shiver Metimbers was able to string along his quarry with claims that the two carvings sent had mysteriously been damaged enroute, the first through a mysterious shrinking process, and the second by a rogue African hamster.
At the end of the campaign, his booty included a wooden carving of UK characters from the Creature Comforts TV series, and a carving of a Commodore 64 computer keyboard.
After sending over these intricate but unusual wooden carvings, the sting in the tail came when the 419 scammer received seemingly "official" police notification that his recent dealings with a person calling himself Derek Trotter were in fact with a notorious art forger and fraudster who had now been arrested.
He figures the best defense is a good offense:
Shiver Metimbers writes on his website that the point of scambaiting is to "enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources"."Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims and screwing around with the minds of deserving thieves," he writes.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys
Hat tip Israellycool
Posted by Peter at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2006
New 802.11N products not a good neighbor?
According to THIS the new 802.11N products being sold on store shelves seems to jam the currently popular 802.11G wireless routers which means owning one of the new wireless N products may leave your neighbor without a wireless connection.
One should also mention that the Wireless N standard has not officially been released and these products using Wireless N are rushed out and gambling that when Wireless N standard is finalized they will be able to put up a simple firmware update to make there product comply to that standard.
Update: Bump to top.
It turned out it was a different post he wanted off so this is being reposted and bumpted to the top today
Posted by Hector at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)