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March 30, 2007
A cathartic liveblogging
Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters and a guest on our Podcast a while back is live blogging his wife's transplant.
Ed is a very nice guy (and his podcast was a lot of fun). We at HiWired wish both him and his wife the best in his trying time
Posted by Peter at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)
Spam brought to you by HP et all?
Via Slashdot we find this Register story that suggests the spam you are getting might be from sources that you wouldn't expect:
Support Intelligence isn't the only firm to implicate the business world in the malware scourge. Webroot released a study today reporting that of 600 global businesses surveyed, 43 per cent suffered disruptions because of malware infections. Sixty percent had no information security plan.
This doesn't inspire confidence particularly since Fortune 1000 companies have IT departments that are supposed to handle this stuff. Support Intelligence's CEO puts it best:
"If all these Fortune 1000 companies can have bots running on their systems," he says, "what do you think is happening to government [systems] in Kansas and Mississippi?"
What indeed!
Posted by Peter at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2007
Why your computer is like Mighty Subs
Today being Thursday I went to Mighty Subs to grab a grinder, half for lunch, the other half being for supper.
While I was sitting there watching the long line of customer file through and Artie (the owner) taking the orders and his wife Karen making subs and the employees working like a well Oiled machine it hit me that Mighty Subs is a lot like a PC.
As the customers file through the line their order is taken and within a few minutes the sub or salad (mostly the subs)are made and passed out to the people waiting.
To the customer it is open and shut, sub ordered, sub made, sub delivered. But there is a lot of back work going on. The customer doesn't see the items ordered and delivered, the veggies cut and stored for use. The Sauce and soups cooked in the back. The Tuna and Chicken Salad mixed and prepared for the Noon Rush onslaught. (Not to mention all the prep work for Breakfast when served. All of this takes place invisibly to the customer all of the prep work and effort that is done on a daily basis to get that perfect Grinder into their hands when it is ordered.
This is a perfect description of the modern Computer. A user like yourself sees your screen bootup, you click on a program and it opens, you hit a button and e-mail flows. You go to YouTube and play all kinds of video streaming to their computer blissfully unaware of the handshaking, the data stream, the requests and approvals as the data stream goes from system to system all through the internet until it reaches your computer. Once it reaches your computer the work doesn't stop. We have the loading of temp files, the translation of the code to data that a video card and audio card can recognize.
To the user it is a single file being played. For a computer there are literally dozens to hundreds of files and tens of thousands of lines of code executed. A veritable calliope of files opened, approved and initiated in order to play that one video file and this doesn't count the thousands of lines of code executed as each machine receives and passes on the request.
The reason why the home computer exists is that a lot of very smart people, through a lot of effort created code and interfaces to make all of these complex operations automatically launch from a single click. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) turned computers into something Geeks like me use, to a kitchen appliance. That effort and coding is driving the greatest change in personal expression, freedom and comfort since the wiring of electric power to the common man's home.
Posted by Peter at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
Apple Releases Boot Camp 1.2 with Vista Support
While surfing at one of my favorite sites Macrumors I found this posting on Apple's Boot Camp software (which is software that allows Windows to install on a Mac computer).
Apple has posted a new version of Boot Camp today. Boot Camp 1.2 brings several updates, including Windows Vista support.
Boot Camp allows owners of Intel-based Macs to dual-boot their Macs into Windows and Mac OS X. The new version offers these features:
- Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
- Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
- Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
- A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
- Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
- Improved Windows driver installation experience
- Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
- Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)
Posted by Chrisk at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
Thanks for the memory
In our last post we commented on how you can't wash posted items down a memory hole once posted on the internet. Web Cache's kept by search engines and the PRINT SCREEN button on readers keyboards prevent that.
In a similar vein when you delete a file from a system, it is not deleted in the sense that most people think of (basically gone forever), this is the reason why file recovery software works.
To put it in the most basic fashion your computer when creating any file writes the files in blocks of memory that are free on the system. Whenever possible such data is kept together. Invariably due to the number of read/write operation that a system does (and it does thousands that you are not aware of) the data tends to scatter over open memory. Your system will use a file table to keep track of where the scattered parts of a file are and to mark the memory containing it as full. All of this is invisible to the user.
When you actually delete a file (recycle bin doesn't count)the system rather than zeroing out the areas of data will simply erase its record of where the files are and mark the area the data was located as available without erasing the actual data there. As time goes on and the memory is used by other data the existing data is overwritten but unless a FORMAT operation or some 3rd party software is used to zero out the old data, the information is still there.
(At the very highest level even this my not totally wipe data which explains the rise of data destruction business.
BTW sorry about the lack of blogging yesterday, we were flat out (and we thank you very much for that as that keeps us in business).
Posted by Peter at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2007
Now they're editing posts
We commented on the Huffington Post choosing to edit and remove comments that were embarrassing to them. We noted that it is within their stated policy but could be found in Caches.
It really isn't fair to judge a blog by the comments left on it, although it might indicate the direction of a readership it's not the same as judging the writer itself. (Gov Patrick here in Massachusetts has a similar issue and I give him a pass for the above stated reason.)
The next step was turning off comments all together on certain posts when it appeared readers couldn't be trusted not to embarrass the management.
But today they have actually censored a regular post.
This is a bad idea, if its a question of decorum you can simply have a counter post and an apology but in the internet bit and byte age to censor and rewrite bits of a column already doesn't serve the purpose to hide it, it only tends to get it written about more.
Posted by Peter at 11:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2007
Print Photos from your pocket!
Imagine being able to take a photo with your new digital camera and being able to print that photo from your pocket! Yes the possibilities are now endless. A Massachusetts based company is developing the technology to make this possible using an inkless printer the size of your IPod. That is correct! A totally inkless printer which can print whether it is upside down or sideways your picture will still come out crystal clear! Check out Zink for more ideas and see the possibilities.
Posted by Scott at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)
$1,000,000 laptop, I bet he expects free tech support
And I thought that Cd holder was a joke:
Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" widescreen LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop and also acts as security identification.
I don't shop here either.
Posted by Peter at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2007
The people who buy this don't shop where I do.
Yes I'm sure the world is made up of plenty of people who make more money than me, but $489 for a device that stores 100 CD/DVD's COME ON!
Available in a brushed metal finish and standing tall at 22", the Divita Storage Tower is definitely a must have for those who live in cramped apartments. Too bad it you'll have to index each disc individually via the numeric keypad, making it a slow and tedious process. The BlueDot Divita Storage Tower retails for $489.
A MUST HAVE? Cripes I didn't pay that much for my last Desktop!
Posted by Peter at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)
Looks like Chris & Roland are ahead of the curve
The New York Times seems to agree with Chris K. and Roland. The day of the Apple has arrived:
According to Mr. Kahney, this shift has taken place in the last few weeks, as both the iPhone and, more recently, Apple TV, have quickly become “must have” products. “A lot of people thought Apple got lucky with the iPod,” Mr. Kahney wrote. “It was a one-hit wonder, a fluke not likely to be repeated.” But the iPhone is already thought of as an “industry-changing smash hit,” and Apple TV, which at first drew shrugs, now may even eclipse the iPhone, according to the predictions of some (though by no means many) people (ipodnn.com).
I was always under the impression that it was the nature of the registry that makes a Microsoft OS vulnerable to a virus. If you are running that system registry on an Apple why would Microsoft Virus not be a an issue? My guess is it will.
Posted by Peter at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2007
Now this is a nice use of technology
One of the great things about America is the way regular people act to solve problems:
Laura Brown, a mother with a son who fought in the Iraq war, is trying to improve conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — one laptop computer at a time....Brown formed a group, Laptops for the Wounded, to raise money for the cause.
Since its fundraising effort began in November 2005, Brown's organization has donated 27 computers to military hospitals around the country — 24 of them to Walter Reed.
If you are interested in helping out the site is here.
Posted by Peter at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)
Podcasts really come of age
How do you know that the podcasts are the wave of the future? When the British Prime Minister is on one
Posted by Peter at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2007
Here's a clever use for a USB thumb drive
What do you do when you have a kid who runs off all the time in parks and public places? Why you string a thumb drive around his neck:
It] panned out like this: My little redheaded boy was SCREAMING for his mom. The 'finder' came to help him, the boy showed the 'finder' the labeled USB drive, the 'finder' then brought him to security, security plugged the USB drive in to his computer, saw the message and called me on my cellphone. When we went to retrieve our boy the security guard asked for our USB drive with the secret phrase on it. The USB drives performed just as set up to. It had my cellphone number, my boys' first name (first name only!) to calm him down and his favorite treat.
Now that's clever. Via Daily Cup of Tech by way of Lifehacker.
Posted by Peter at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2007
Some good some bad for the net and Politics
The advent of the internet and blogging make some things better:
On Monday night, the Justice Department delivered to Congress more than 3,000 pages of e-mails, memos, and other records about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The handover came so late that many news organizations had to scramble to try to skim a few headlines from the files before latenight deadlines.Despite the late hour, readers of a liberal Web site, tpmmuckraker.com, tackled the task with gusto. They quickly began grabbing 50-page chunks of the scanned documents from a House of Representatives Internet server, analyzing them and excerpting them. The first post about the Department of Justice records hit the left-leaning news and commentary site at 1:04 a.m. Within half an hour, there were 50 summaries posted by readers gleaning the documents. By 4:30 a.m., more than 220 postings were up detailing various aspects of the files.
Politics is the art of controlling the time and message. Late night document dumps are often used to bury stuff but thanks to bloggers now dozens of interested eyes can go through documents so the ability to bury info is decreased. This can't help but make the public more informed.
However some aspects are not as good this was a post today at politico.com today:
John Edwards is suspending his campaign for President, and may drop out completely, because his wife has suffered a recurrence of the cancer that sickened her in 2004, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, an Edwards friend told The Politico."At a minimum he's going to suspend" the campaign, the source said. "Nobody knows precisely how serious her recurrence is. It’ll be another couple of days before there’s complete clarity."
The Edwards campaign said otherwise and was in fact correct as Sen Edwards did not suspend his campaign. This prompted the following correction:
A single, confident source close to John Edwards told me this morning that Edwards was "suspending his campaign," and I posted it to the blog at 11:06 this morning.My source, and I, were wrong.
Since the net is what it is several sites reported this story before the correction came out. The speed of the internet and the desire to be first can trump the proper caution when reporting.
Still you have to take the bad with the good.
Of course we extend our sympathy to Mrs. Edwards in her time of trial and send our best wishes to her and her family as she battles her resurgent cancer.
Posted by Peter at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2007
Podcast Tech Roundtable pt 1
Our latest Technobabble podcast features part one of our tech Roundtable featuring Chris K, Chris D and Roland S of HiWired. In part one we talk Windows Vista, Mac vs PC and if Bill Gates is getting what's coming to him.
As always you can catch the podcast at the iTunes music store (keyword HiWired) or you can listen directly right here.
Sorry this one is so late, we had some false starts on the recording.
Posted by Peter at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2007
The $38 million dollar bad backup
If you ever wonder why multiple backups are worthwhile this is the reason:
...imagine wiping out a disk drive containing information for an account worth $38 billion.That's what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account - one of Alaska residents' biggest perks - and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.
There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable.
When backups are done the first thing a person should do is confirm they are readable. In the end the data was recreated from the paper records at a cost of over $200,000.
It's not likely that your data is that expensive but there is nothing like the loss of data to appreciate how important it is.
Posted by Peter at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)
Windows Vista: Point Counterpoint
Seeking Alpha gives 10 reasons why Windows Vista isn't all it's cracked up to be:
7. What are the killer features? Windows 95 was miles ahead of Windows 3x. Built-in networking, preemptive multitasking, a new user interface, loads of new applications, and plug-and-play software drivers (heck, sometimes PnP actually worked). There were dozens of reasons to jump from Windows 3.x to Windows 95. Today, Microsoft is evangelizing Vista's improved security, desktop search and 3-D user interface in the consumer market. Ho hum.
The whole gist of the article seems to be that Vista compared to the way things were, Vista doesn't advance the landscape much. While I agree with the basic premise that the quality of XP makes a Vista Upgrade or purchase less of a priority I'm not sure the argument is a fair one. With an industry in its infancy naturally the leaps are greater than with a mature industry.
On the other hand we have this from the student paper at the University of Texas Dallas:
So, now I have both XP and Vista on my machine, and I can always revert to XP if something doesn't work right in Vista.But, you know what? I have really enjoyed using Vista. Now that it's been out and patched or updated for more than a month and a half, I haven't run into many of the initial problems reported.
I am also quite impressed with the Windows Aero glass-effect interface, which makes the edges of windows translucent. However, the effect takes up a fairly large amount of memory and processing power, and may not be reasonably used on computers with older hardware.
The Vista interface is quite simple and easy to use, although advanced users might find searching for administrative options in new places somewhat frustrating. The new integrated search mechanism is really handy and often saves time when looking for specific programs or files.
I haven't personally run into any incompatibilities between Vista and software I need for work and school, as well as for fun. Microsoft Office applications work just fine, and watching videos in Windows Media Player is easy and fun.
One might say "Hey this is a student, what does he know?" It's my experience that the college student will end up playing with Vista a lot more than the avg person will
He goes on about the fancy video stuff put to me that doesn't really ring my chimes. I guess it is the old fellow in me.
Posted by Peter at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
Drivers drivers where are the drivers?
The Times of India isolates a complaint concerning Windows Vista since its release:
Although Vista has been on the market for a few weeks, negative reports have been relatively mild. A few hiccups are, however, clearly audible."The biggest problem is missing drivers," says Axel Vahldiek from Hanover-based c't computer magazine. Without those programmes, generally provided by hardware makers, peripheral devices either cannot function properly or will not work at all.
The problem isn't just limited to older or exotic hardware: the GeForce 8800 graphic chip supports the DirectX 10 graphics interface used by Vista and is found on fast, high-end graphics cards. Yet Nvidia still hadn't managed to make a driver available by the end of February.
As I recall we had the same issue with Windows ME so it isn't really a huge shock. The rest of the article belies the title More Woes for Windows Vista. For myself it hasn't been that much of a headache but the idea of waiting till SP1 is out is a pretty good idea.
Posted by Peter at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2007
Loose Clicks Sink Careers
We have said in the past that the cellphone camera has made teenage foolishness something a person can pay for decades later. It appears that warning isn't restricted to pictures:
The AutoAdmitters were happily going about their gossip, yakking away like yentas pinning laundry on the clothesline, until sometime last week. That's when the Washington Post ran a front-page story about some young women here at Yale Law School whose careers--if not their lives--had been ruined by some salacious postings. The descriptions of them...were showing up on Google searches of their names, and had prevented at least one of them from securing employment.
Mind you this is on a Yale Law school chat full of the lawyers of America who are supposed to be trusted with a secret. As the article makes plain this speech can't be restricted under the first amendment but people ignorance or indifference to what such gossip can do to a person suggests a lack of upbringing. (And a google cache makes it tough to unsay something already said.)
It's always been my opinion that people are the same as they have always been throughout history, the only difference is the complexity of the tools we have to do our thing. Stories like this (unfortunately) back me up.
Posted by Peter at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)
Very busy, a tip to tide you over.
Posted by Peter at 06:44 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2007
Don't like Wikipedia? Make your own.
We talk quite a bit about Wikipedia here, but the truest words we ever said on the subject was a quote from the Blogfather:
My sense is that the wiki format works pretty well when issues are uncontroversial, but that it doesn't handle politics very well.
Well it looks like some conservatives took this to heart and decided to make their own:
Welcome to the Web site Conservapedia.com, founded by Andrew Schlafly, son of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. The site describes itself as "a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American."
There are some interesting examples of how the two sites different in talking about the same thing for example:
On global warming • Wikipedia: Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. • Conservapedia: Global warming is a phrase that commonly refers to a scientific theory and to political proposals that follow if the theory is accepted. The scientific theory is widely but not universally accepted within the scientific community.
The site has its own rules for publishing:
1. Everything you post must be true and verifiable.2. Always cite and give credit to your sources, even if in the public domain.
3. Edits/new pages must be family-friendly, clean, concise, and without gossip or foul language.
4. When referencing dates based on the approximate birth of Jesus, give appropriate credit for the basis of the date (B.C. or A.D.). "BCE" and "CE" are unacceptable substitutes because they deny the historical basis. See CE.
5. As much as is possible, American spelling of words must be used.
6. Do not post personal opinion on an encyclopedia entry. Opinions can be posted on Talk:pages or on debate or discussion pages.
7. The operation of unauthorized wiki-bots is prohibited.
It remains to be seen if conservapedia will only cover topics that they disapprove of in Wikipedia or if they will attempt become a full blown encyclopedia. There is of course nothing wrong with any group deciding to make their own web site and filling it as they see fit. There were dozens of different Encyclopedia companies before the advent of the internet. The proof in the pudding will be basic facts. No matter how you spin it a fact is a fact. As long as facts are not compromised and opinion clearly marked the publishers will have done their job. It will be up to the reader to keep a close eye on what is listed.
Posted by Peter at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2007
That new fake blog it ain't what you think it is.
Looks like that new cool blog via google isn't what it seems to be:
According to Fortinet, Genuine-looking blogs on topics as wide-ranging as "Star Wars, school, furniture, Christmas, cars and girlfriends" are now being created to host a variety of script-initiated malware. It would be impossible for visitors to spot the danger of these sites, which now number in the hundreds, the company said. Although they look genuine, it appears that all the sites have been specially crafted to fool visitors.
Apparently this is a trend, wherever people go thieves follow:
In recent times, MySpace and YouTube have all been used to host or redirect to malware. Last October, MySpace was used as the lure for phishing, while earlier in the year its users were infected with adware from the site.
The internet is like any neighborhood, you have to watch where you are going.
Hat tip Glenn who is back from a few days off.
Posted by Peter at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2007
It's BAAACK
There was a time many years ago when the most common home computer in an American house was the Commodore. Well now the Commodore is back:
Four models are planned -- from top to bottom performance-wise, the XX, GX, GS and G.The high-end XX packs enough grunt to make an Alienware machine run to its deformed alien mum. It uses an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM and two Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards running in tandem. The bottom G wimps out with an E6320 1.83GHz dual-core chip, 2GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS -- but even this is fast enough to run most games.
Like the original Commodores the focus is mainly for games, however unlike the first Commodores this will be a high end gaming system.
The main site is here. Watch and drool.
Posted by Peter at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2007
Welcome Kodak ! ! !
On my way home from work today I decided to stop over at a BestBuy store just to look around. I happen to overhear a conversation in which a representative was explaining how expensive a ink cartridges are on other printers while it was very cheap on this one. I had to go investigate what they were talking about.
To my surprise there was a Kodak representative standing there explaining the benefits of owning one of their printers. That's right! Kodak is now selling printers and they are "all in one" printers! The quality of the photo prints I seen today was very good. The thing that really caught my attention about the printers was the cost of their ink. Kodak is entering the market thinking a little different. They are selling the ink extremely cheap compared to other manufacturers. How cheap you ask? Just under $25.00 will buy you color and black cartridges. The printer itself cost $199.99 (Kodak 5300) and the number of prints per cartridge is on par with other competitors. They claim to get up to 300 pages per refill.
One thing I found lacking for a printer in this price range is direct network connectivity although it did have bluetooth connectivity. I am not sure how well the bluetooth would work however. I would estimate considering the price of ink on some of the printer models that I have owned that this printer would pay for itself in about 4 refills ($25 black $40 Color compared to Kodaks $10 black and $15 Color = $50 savings per refill)
Something else these printers do from what the representative explained is in order to avoid the common clogged head and in order to make the ink jet droplets even smaller they actually heat up the ink. The heat will melt dried up ink clogging the head and thin the ink making it possible to achieve smaller droplets.
I wish Kodak the best of luck in turn the printer market which I'm sure they will have no problems been successful in this market. They have addressed one of the biggest complaints in the printer market.
To see more information on these printers visit the Kodak page.
Posted by Hector at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
Your interactive guide to Web Censorship
The Financial Times has this article and interactive map showing Web Censorship and many of the countries that practice it.
Ronald Deibert, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said 10 countries had become “pervasive blockers”, regularly preventing their citizens seeing a range of online material. These included China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Burma and Uzbekistan.New censorship techniques include the periodic barring of complete applications, such as China’s block on Wikipedia or Pakistan’s ban on Google’s blogging service, and the use of more advanced technologies such as “keyword filtering”, which is used to track down material by identifying sensitive words.
Methods such as these are being copied as countries new to censorship learn from those with more experience. “There’s a growing awareness of best practice – or rather, worst practice,” Mr Deibert said.
They follow up with an article on the Great Firewall of China
Within China, the systems involve public and state security departments that monitor online activity and occasionally detain or arrest journalists or online authors overtly critical of the political system or who reveal inner details of its workings.
As a General rule the less free the country the greater the censorship.
Posted by Peter at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
Another take on the Viacom YouTube suit
Paul Kedrosky at the Wall Street Journal has an interesting take on the Billion dollar court case:
Seeing that digital media can be sold to them in the equivalent of six-packs, sips and pint bottles, consumers no longer want to buy it by the truckload. And they resent being told by companies like Viacom that they can't have it, or that if they want it they have to go a different site for every clip owner....That is why, to be blunt, YouTube doesn't matter. Because if Viacom wins this suit and busts YouTube--and there is a very good chance it will win; it is, after all, uncontested that this is Viacom's media property we are talking about--that won't change what consumers want one whit. They are demanding unbundled media, sold everywhere and in myriad assortments. Period. And if Viacom won't provide it then some new media entrepreneurs will.
That gets to the meat and potatoes of the matter.
Posted by Peter at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2007
Maybe owning your own all-in-one is worth it.
Who would have thought a public could cost your more than the quarter you put in:
...most digital copiers manufactured in the past five years have disk drives — the same kind of data-storage mechanism found in computers — to reproduce documents. As a result, the seemingly innocuous machines that are commonly used to spit out copies of tax returns for millions of Americans can retain the data being scanned.If the data on the copier's disk aren't protected with encryption or an overwrite mechanism, and if someone with malicious motives gets access to the machine, industry experts say sensitive information from original documents could get into the wrong hands.
Just the type of nasty surprise you don't need at tax time.
Posted by Peter at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
Ink we don't need no stinking Ink!
The biggest cost of any printer is the ink. Well a company called Zink has some other plans:
Unlike the existing technologies that use thermal printheads to transfer color to paper, the new media has the color embedded in it, in the form of dye crystals that are clear at room temperature. The paper is fairly affordable, at 20 to 25 cents for a 2 x 3 inch sheet. The eco-efficient aspect of this technology is that it eliminates wasteful ink packaging and discarded ink cartridges.
The big question is the difference in cost for a bad print. Since the paper is the main expense a bad print will be costly.
Posted by Peter at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)
Podware
The iPod has become almost the Xerox of music players. Yet there are always ways to tweak things to your liking.
This article on CNET lists some side software that can make your POD even more useful and includes link to download them at once.
Posted by Peter at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2007
Memory in a flash for your PC
Flash memory is coming to your PC:
Flash memory isn't just for cell phones anymore. Flash drives are moving up into PCs and servers, and Intel wants to get in on the action with a new drive.
The price seems to be right too...
The drives can also be used in PCs or servers to help the operating system boot faster, he said. Intel is not disclosing pricing for the drives, which range in capacity from 1GB to 8GB. But he said that the drives would cost less than half the price of a $40 to $50 low-end PC hard drive.
Combo drives are already on the way.
Samsung is shipping three MH80 hybrid hard drives--a combination of a traditional hard drive and flash memory--to PC makers, it announced Wednesday. The drives, in 80GB, 100GB, and 120GB sizes, will help PCs boot in half the time it usually takes, according to Samsung.
The future is once again here.
Posted by Peter at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)
Viacom sour grapes or Willie Sutton
From November to last month we have reported on Viacom and YouTube, and their march to move their content off of it.
Now Viacom has gone Willie Sutton on Google:
Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. said on Tuesday that it was suing Google Inc. and its Internet video-sharing site YouTube for more than $1 billion over unauthorized use of its programming online.The lawsuit, the biggest challenge to date to Google's ambitions to make YouTube into a major vehicle for advertising and entertainment, accuses the Web search leader and its unit of "massive intentional copyright infringement."
Sutton would be proud. With profits like this why not take the easy money in a suit you can't lose?
This might have been the idea all along, go through the motions to show good faith, score big with the lawsuit (they have the lawyers on retainer anyway), THEN make a deal afterwards and still have the power of YouTube behind them.
Posted by Peter at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2007
Drudge Virus?
Visiting the Drudge Report today my AVAST anti-virus went on alert spotting the VBS/Mutate virus, first on the site and then in my cache.
Most likely it is embedded in on the the photos and/or ads on the site, most likely a photo since an ad would have shown up before (unless it is a new one).
Remember that if a virus is attached to code on a web page or a picture on a web site it will load into your cache and temporary internet files. In such a case the file should always be deleted.
This is another important reason to clear your internet cache on a regular basis.
Posted by Peter at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2007
Target Internet!
Looks like physical targets are not the only items on terrorist's lists:
In a series of raids, detectives have recovered computer files revealing that terrorist suspects had targeted a high-security internet “hub” in London.The facility, in Docklands, houses the channel through which almost every bit of information on the internet passes in or out of Britain.
When an economy is as dependant on the web as our current one is that creates choke points that are targets of opportunity.
Posted by Peter at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2007
Some Kingly advice
Posted by Peter at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2007
Watch out for those Swedish e-mails!
E-mailing to Sweden, write it good because it might be for a large audience:
The Swedish proposal, which needs parliamentary approval, would give the National Defense Radio Establishment a green-light to use so-called data mining software to search for sensitive keywords in all phone and e-mail communication passing through cables or wires across the country's borders.Today, such traffic can only be monitored with court approval
But if this passes no court order is needed.
Odds are that you will have little to worry about but like we've said before an e-mail is only as private as the computer they are on, the network they are sent with and every computer that receives it.
Posted by Peter at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)
The economic argument for Telecommuting
We've talked a little bit about how technology has led to an increase in telecommuting. One argument against this is the idea that an employer might offer a smaller rate to a person who works from home. One can use some bottom line mathematics that really illustrate the real differences in working from home: (There will not be a quiz)
A worker's pay (before taxes) can be expressed simply by the following formula.
Gross Pay = Hourly Rate * Hours Worked
This seems simple enough but doesn't tell the whole story. The reality ignores the inherent costs in time and money of traveling to work.
For our example; Lets say that you travel one hour to work and one hour back each day. That means that you are effectively adding two hours to your day committed to work.
Hours committed to work = Hours worked + Travel Time
In addition there is the cost to travel. Since you have to spend some of the money you make to pay for the cost of work that should be considered when taking a job. Since for our purposes we are dealing with telecommuting we need to figure the cost of travel. Determining this varies depending on the method of travel used:
If you are taking mass transit you are paying the fees for each days trip (say $5 a day).
If you are driving instead, say 50 miles each way that makes 100 miles daily. At 20 miles per gal thats 5 gallons of gas costing $2 a gal that works out to $10 a day or $50 a week. All of this can be expressed by the following formula:
Effective Pay = Gross Pay - Cost of travel
All of this also adjusts your true pay rate. Consider this adjustment to our first formula:
Gross Pay = Pay Rate * Hours Worked
That means to determine pay rate we would adjust as follows:
Pay Rate= Gross Pay/Hours Worked
but if you put in the new figures that we've established your effective pay rate is different:
Effective Pay Rate = Effective Pay / Hours Committed to Work
This effective rate will always be lower than the pay rate that you have. By dividing we can establish the actual cost of your employment the percentage of your pay that it costs you to work:
Pay Cost Ratio = Effective Pay Rate/ Pay Rate
That pay ratio should be figured and applied to a rate offered. If you do so then you can determine what rate of pay working from home equals a rate of pay no doing so. Lets work this out with some actual numbers.
Joe and Phil Both do some consulting work. Both work 40 hours a week . Joe however drives in 5 days a week while Phil drives in only one.
Both drive 50 miles round trip to work each day in a car that gets 20 mpg. Both spend one hour overall traveling to get to their job.
Using our formula if Joe is paid $15 an hour it works out as follows for him:
$600 = $15 * 40
(Gross Pay) = (hourly rate) * (Hours worked)
Lets look at his actual hours.
45 = 40 + 5
(Hours committed to work) = (Hours worked) (Travel Time)
Now lets figure effective pay based on a $2 per gal Gas price:
$575= $600 - $25
(Effective Pay) = Gross Pay - Cost of travel
This creates an new effective pay rate for Joe:
$12.78 = 575 / 45
Effective Pay Rate = Effective Pay / Hours Committed to Work
So his pay ratio is as follows:
85.1% = $15/12.78
Pay cost Ratio = Effective Pay Rate/ Pay Rate
In other words the cost of his work drops his pay rate by just under 15%. Now lets compare this with Phil. Lets say he get only $14 as compared to Joe. Here is how the numbers add up:
$560 = $14 * 40
(Gross Pay) = (hourly rate) * (Hours worked)
Actual hours.
41 = 40 + 1
(Hours committed to work) = (Hours worked) (Travel Time)
Effective pay based on a $2 per gal Gas price:
$555= $560 - $5
(Effective Pay) = Gross Pay - Cost of travel
Already the difference between the two is reduced from $40 in actual cash weekly to $20 simply on the cost of travel. Lets continue on.
New effective pay rate for Phil:
$13.53 = 555 / 41
Effective Pay Rate = Effective Pay / Hours Committed to Work
So his pay ratio is as follows:
96.7% = $14/13.53
Pay cost Ratio = Effective Pay Rate/ Pay Rate
It is only costing Phil in this example 3.3% of his pay rate to work. In addition although Phil makes $20 in real cash less than Joe he also has 4 hours extra a week to play with. And if Phil was making $14.50 an hour he would have the exact same money weekly as Joe with an even higher effective rate ($14.02) and a better ratio (96.7%)
So if you are thinking of working from home and wonder if the rate you are offered is a good deal, check out these number, it might be a better deal than you think
Posted by Peter at 09:25 AM | Comments (1)
March 08, 2007
Penguins to the rescue!
... an open source solution to falling profits?
Dell Inc. (DELL) is considering offering the Linux operating system as an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows on its personal computers.
And Open Office may soon become mainstream.
The second most popular request was that Dell offer another popular free software title, OpenOffice, which competes with Microsoft Office programs including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
This is a development worth keeping a close eye on.
Posted by Rob at 03:50 PM | Comments (1)
Democracy in action. Live
cSpan is a public treasure, now that treasure is going to be more widely available:
The Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network, commonly known as C-SPAN, announced in a release today that it is liberalizing its copyright policy for "current, future and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency -- about half of all programming." The network said the move will "allow non-commercial copying, sharing and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution." The policy will apply to congressional hearings, agency briefings and White House events
This is the type of thing that I find simply awesome. I don't think we will ever really understand how luck we are in this regard.
Posted by Peter at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)
Anybody you know up there?
PC World published its list of the 50 most important people on the web:
Am I the only person who finds such lists kind of pointless?
Posted by Peter at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2007
No Rodney King Videos in France
Another blow against Internet Free Speech:
The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizesthe filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.
The anniversary and the result of such a law is not lost on the author of the piece:
The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991. The officers’ acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, said Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi. And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.
This is the type of law enacted by a country in denial that wants to stay that way. It is rather disgraceful that such a law would be adopted by a western democracy.
Rather surprised to see nothing on this here.
Posted by Peter at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
The Good the Bad and the Wiki-maiden?
With Apologies to Clint Eastwood Eli Wallach & Lee Van Cleef
With Wikipedia we've mentioned the good:
Wikipedia has its faults, but apparently lack of guts or honor is not among them.
And the Bad:
...we linked to an interesting debate betweeen Wikipedia and Britannica Online over which is better. I figured that both have their uses but at least with Britannica you don't have to worry about uploaded virus:
Now this BBC story (via Michelle) gives us the Ugly. A Wikipedia editor who was in fact a wiki-maiden:
But he was in fact Ryan Jordan, 24, a college student from Kentucky who used texts such as Catholicism for Dummies. He has now retired from the site....
Under the name Essjay, Mr Jordan edited articles and also had the authority to arbitrate disputes between authors and remove site vandalism.
To their credit you can also find an article on the story...at Wikipedia:
Essjay had described himself on his user profile as "a tenured professor of theology at a private university in the eastern United States."[3] According to the note, he now said he was Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old community college dropout from Kentucky and that he had relied on sources such as Catholicism for Dummies when editing articles
The review of edits being made is only proper, but this highlights the greatest weakness of Wikipedia, Digg and other sites that rely of the honor of their users for stories and ranking; The honor system requires honorable people.
Posted by Peter at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)
If DOT can wait than you can
It looks like the Department of Transportation is in no hurry to go to Vista or Office 2007:
The U.S. Department of Transportation has quietly put the kibosh on Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), banning upgrades to those Microsoft Corp. products -- at least for now.
The reasons given match things we've said before:
"Based on our initial analysis, there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade," the memo read. Among the don't-bother reasons spelled out: the cost of upgrading, backward compatibility with earlier editions of Office and the planned move to new quarters. (emphasis mine)
There is one other reason that is more important that their Maritime Administration has to address:
MARAD has already begun testing Vista and IE 7, according to Seymour. That testing, however, may take time because MARAD relies extensively on old, custom applications that will require long evaluation on Vista
This is the downside to custom programs. They can fill a specific need but when upgrade time comes everything stops.
Posted by Peter at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)
The advantage of old stuff
When your kid tells you they need the newest IPOD or Cellphone and can't live without it, remind them that the new stuff is what people are looking to steal. If they want an example a great one is this story about Rent-a-Wreck.
Although the car may not always start on the first attempt, the poor suspension makes for a touch of lumbago and the petrol gauge only starts to show consumption when you've clocked up 200 kilometres (apparently a design flaw in the older models), motorists can take comfort in the knowledge that no Rent-A-Wreck customer has ever been carjacked.When it comes to theft, the cars are also viewed as undesirable - only about 10 have been stolen in as many years, says Apex sales manager Naughty Ajodha, a tiny number considering the 85,964 incidents of car theft each year in South Africa. (Emphasas mine)
That works out to slightly more than 1/10,000th of 1% of car thefts in that country. And consider it is a lot harder to steal a car than an IPOD or a phone.
Remember the purpose of the device is what's its used for. If they want status, let them raise their grades so they can get a job that provides it.
Posted by Peter at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
A computer is only as good as the program it runs
Computers are amazing things that can allow you to do all kinds of stuff, but remember they may be fast but they are no smarter than the programmer who wrote the code:
Reynoso entered his personal information, debts, income, assets and other data into a series of dialog boxes, and the program generated a complete set of bankruptcy forms, including an affidavit for Reynoso to sign claiming he'd done all the legal research on his own. (Yes, like meat-lawyers, the Ziinet Bankruptcy Engine knows how to gild the lily a little.)When a bankruptcy trustee noticed errors in the forms, Reynoso blamed his computerized counsel, and Ihejirika joined the party in federal court. A bankruptcy judge ruled that Ihejirika had committed fraudulent, unfair, or deceptive conduct through his computer program, and had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.
A computer program is not a lawyer. (Via Glenn who is)
Posted by Peter at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)
Good advice is an ace in the hole
Posted by Peter at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2007
Outlook Express 6.0 not spell checking?
Looks like if you upgrade to the latest and greatest Outlook 2007 your Outlook Express 6.0 which is installed by default with Windows XP installations may be left with a broken spell checker as reported HERE. What happens is the Outlook 2007 replaces the files needed for spell checking with its own upgraded version which is incompatible. If you recently upgraded now you know why it doesnt appear to be working. Although the french speaking people are unaffected.
The claim is confirmed HERE.
Posted by Hector at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2007
5 Things I hate about Digg
5 - People writing stupid how to's on their blog about senseless, un-news worthy actions such as video games and soda
4 - Articles that get dugg just because they list the words "Web 2.0", "AJAX" or "UNBUNTU"
3 - Post of the "Best photo ever" style - there is no photo section yet!
2 - That there is no photo section
1 - People writing top 5 list just to get on Digg.
Posted by Jonathan at 01:46 PM | Comments (1)
The BBC at YouTube
CNET reports that the BBC now has a deal to share content with YouTube:
The BBC, BBC Worldwide and YouTube today announced the beginning of a partnership to offer Internet users across the world new and innovative ways to experience and enjoy BBC content through YouTube.
This non-exclusive partnership will create branded BBC "Channels" on YouTube operating under separate BBC and BBC Worldwide agreements.
I guess that means if Nick Gusburne wants to get back to YouTube he needs a BBC job.
YouTube users have their own protests up.
Posted by Peter at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2007
Book browsing in the 21st Century
Via Slashdot we see this CNN Report that booksellers have decided to enter the digital age in a dramatic way:
Random House, whose writers include Danielle Steel and Norman Mailer, said on Tuesday it will let consumers search and browse through more than 5,000 of its titles on the Internet through a new service called Insight.Random House is also introducing a tool allowing users to add material from titles to personal pages on social networks such as MySpace or to a retailer's Web site.
And they aren't alone:
HarperCollins Publishers, whose authors include Michael Crichton, on Monday said it was introducing a browse function that lets consumers embed pages of books onto networking sites such as MySpace. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp owns HarperCollins and MySpace.
This is all good but there is something about holding an actual book in your hand, turning the pages, (taking it into the reading room) and from whatever light you have enjoying it, however this is the way to reach the 21st century audience and above all it is the content, the thoughts or lack thereof that really count.
Posted by Peter at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
CompUSA downsizing
CompUSA is closing down over half of its retail stores. Very sad day indeed for me anyway. I have been shopping around in the local store about 10 minutes away from my house. Lately last few months they have been undercutting the competitors around them. I bought my laptop from CompUSA for a pretty good deal about 4 months ago. I also bought a ton of other things there. Hate to see them go.
Posted by Hector at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2007
Are you an RTS gamer?
While I can't say that RTS games are my favorite, I have tried quite a few. My latest favorite is Supreme Commander. As soon as I heard about the game concept, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Some would argue that Total Annihilation, an earlier game of his, although far from being a best seller, is the greatest RTS of all time. I would have agreed, that is until I got to play Supreme Commander.
I actually stumbled across Total Annihilation back in 1997 while looking for a Christmas gift for my father, who is a huge military game fan. We had just gotten our first family PC and I figured it would be perfect. Little did I know that I would become hooked on the game as well.
Taylor tries to stress that Supreme Commander is NOT a "Total Annihilation 2," but it is easy to make the correlation. Check out some game footage and opening cinematics here. Better yet, check out the official Supreme Commander site and download the demo. Just don't blame me if you get hooked!
Posted by justin at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)
I guess it depends on what you mean by "reputable""
You know how I've advised that you should be careful when online and deal with reputable companies. I guess that word is flexible:
Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is "cooperating fully" with the state attorney general's investigation.
For those who don't know an "intranet" refers to (as opposed to the internet) an internal internet page or space to share info within a company or organization.
Glenn put it best:
Hard to believe they'd be so stupid, but I've been surprised by stupidity before.
It would be interesting to see if this is a common industry procedure since web prices likely don't include commissions that sales people live by.
Posted by Peter at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
The Tech belongs to the (very) young
This PC Magazine article states some basic truths about the hi tech consumer:
On the other hand, Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, basically grew up with technology and are relatively comfortable with it. But this age group is well into their families and/or careers now. So while technology is important to them, they more openly embrace technology if it can enhance their lifestyles and help them keep in touch with their children, manage their hectic work and home schedules, and entertain the kids.
But it is the Millennials like my nephew who have always had the Web, Internet, cell phones, game consoles, SMS, and the like that are driving the future adoption and uses of technology.
I recently did a focus group of 13-year-old boys and girls and asked them if they knew what a typewriter was. Only one of them did, and he said he saw it in the Smithsonian. To these kids, the world has always been digital, and the younger they are, the less they know about an analog world that has been in place for centuries.In another focus group recently, I asked parents who they take with them to the store to buy technology products for the home. One mother told me she made sure to take her 13-year-old son with her for two reasons. The first was that the kid knew more about what they needed then she did, and the second reason was probably even more important. She said that she brought her son with her because she knew that if she bought the wrong thing, she would "hear about it the rest of [her] life." Over and over in my discussions with parents in these focus groups, they point out that it is their kids who influence what they buy in the way of technology for the home, and a couple even mentioned that the kids' grandparents often ask their help in buying new PCs, TVs, digital cameras, and video recorders for their use.
When it comes to tech the young rule, but because they don't remember the slower times they don't sometimes appreciate all that went into making the stuff that they take for granted work. This last quote says it:
About six years ago while at my sister's house for Christmas dinner, my nephew, who was 10 at the time, came up to me and asked "Uncle Tim, when you were my age, what was your favorite Web site?" After I stopped laughing, I jokingly told him that when I was his age we barely had color television.
Ain't it the truth?
Posted by Peter at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
Another Crack in the Unhackable Vista
Yup that Vista security. Gotta love it. Now product key protection bites the dust:
The method is simple but effective; using the power of modern PC’s the crack hacks away trying to guess valid keys in a brute-force manor. Once a genuine key is correctly guessed it can be activated. This is going to cause huge problems for Microsoft as some of these keys will already be in circulation. Consumers may go and buy a copy of Windows Vista in their local store only to get home and be told that their key is already in use. You can imagine the Microsoft call centres overloading with irate customers being told that they are pirates!
This is a disaster just waiting to happen. Hopefully Microsoft will address it quickly. Not only will unsure product keys drive people away but it will cause confusion for people like us who might not be able to update a "pirate" system.
Posted by Peter at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2007
A Tax comparison
Today is my day off and I'm in between digging out of the snow and slush going to finally start my taxes.
Like the Reynolds family I don't use any tax software, but if you are deciding what to use there is a comparison here.
Totally unrelated, but speaking of low tech solution as I was coming home from the bank (no I don't do online banking either) I was surprised to see that a red pickup parked in front of a neighbors house was, a Milkman making a delivery! ($1.25 per quart if you are interested).
Posted by Peter at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2007
Non Sony Battery Recall!
Engadget reports that at last a company other than Sony has battery egg on its face:
This time around the culprit happens to be Sanyo, and the batteries in question are extended life cells sold with certain R, Z, and T Series Lenovo / IBM Thinkpads between November of 2005 and February of this year.
No word on if St. Louis' luck is changing too
Posted by Peter at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)
....Not to Mention Vista on a Mac
At this time we don't support the Mac, but if you are interested in installing Vista on a Mac Power book this YouTube Video shows it being done:
Posted by Peter at 02:05 PM | Comments (1)
Speaking of that Apple Vista Commercial
In that Apple Vista commercial that I found so funny they referred to the feature in Vista that causes you to have to approve a ton of various items.
This feature is called the User Account Control or UAC. It can be toggled on or off in the User accounts section of Control Panel.
For most people it is a pain in the neck, however it does add a level of security. Users will have to make the decision if that layer of security is worth the extra clicks.
When it comes down to it though, how easy must our lives be when making an extra click is our big problem.
Posted by Peter at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)
Podcast delayed
Due to a recording glitch (that was totally my fault) the next podcast will instead of being posted this weekend or the beginning of next week will have to wait till the following week.
The egg belongs totally on my face.
Posted by Peter at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)