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September 30, 2007

4 way tie possible

On this Sunday normally a day of rest or Football the spat of meaningful baseball games that was mentioned yesterday are mere hours away. Baseball Blogger extrodinare David Pinto gets down to brass tacks....


The Rockies trounce the Diamondbacks 11-1, gaining a game on the Phillies and the Padres. The four-way tie scenario is still in place as the three games that needed specific outcomes went the right way. Here's what needs to happen tomorrow:

* Mets win.
* Phillies win.
* San Diego loses.
* Colorado wins.

The first two happening means a playoff for the NL East title on Monday. The third happening as well means the loser on Monday needs to play at least one more game Tuesday. All four and the NLDS gets delayed. It should be an exciting Sunday!

There are blogs for almost everything that you might be interested in. PC's are my job but my minor in college was American History and my blog reading reflects that. One of my other passions is baseball. If that is one of yours then David Pinto's Baseball Musings blog should be required reading, particularly during the playoffs.

If that is not be aware that there is likely a blog for just about any topic that you might follow from Car blogs to Catholic blogs to Cricket blogs (the sport not the bug).

There is a whole world of blogs out there find one and enjoy it.

Posted by Peter at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2007

The pattern continues

The news for Sony is not bad as their new camcorder HDR CX7 gets positive reviews:

The camera itself is a joy to hold and fit my hand like a glove. The 2.7-inch flip-out LCD panel on the left side showed me what I was aiming at, as usual, but also doubled as a touch-sensitive navigation tool for togging around the menus and settings. That was fun to use and much easier than pressing the tiny recessed buttons found on most camcorders.

However as history teaches us good news for Sony means bad news for the St. Louis Cardinals:

The St. Louis Cardinals followed up their World Series title with a losing record, their first since 1999 and only the eighth full losing season for La Russa. Injuries ravaged the lineup, with Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, David Eckstein and Scott Rolen all missing time, and ace Chris Carpenter barely making it out of spring training.

Worst were the off-the-field woes, most notably the drunken driving death of reliever Josh Hancock. La Russa himself had a DUI in spring training, and Scott Spiezio left the team for a month to be treated for substance abuse.

However if you are a general baseball fan you can rejoice that the final game of the season is meaningful as the Mets, Phillies, Padres and Rockies fight for the last 2 playoff births. A series extra tiebreaker playoffs are very possible.

No word on if any other PC company has their fate linked to these teams.

Posted by Peter at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2007

Trying to keep the customer satisfied

If you are going to keep sales up you have to give the people what they want and apparently the people want XP:


Responding to some customers' lukewarm embrace of Windows Vista, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said it will extend by several months availability of the operating system's predecessor, Windows XP.

The company said it will make the full version of Windows XP available to PC manufacturers and retailers through June 30, 2008. It will continue to offer a basic edition in emerging markets through June 2010.

Now I wonder why they would do that? Lets read on....

While that may be, a number of signs have emerged in recent months that Windows Vista's problems go beyond timing. A survey conducted earlier this year by InformationWeek showed that an astonishing 30% of businesses have no plans to purchase Windows Vista. It's an indication that many corporate software buyers may take a long look at Linux, the Mac OS, or some other alternative to Vista once Windows XP is no longer available.

Among other things, software buyers have railed against Windows Vista's price, lack of compatibility with existing software, and system requirements that exceed the capabilities of PCs more than a couple of years old.

I guess that we have reached the point where we the customer base just can't be ignored.

Posted by Peter at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)

People don't hide what nobody cares about, and can't hide it from the net.

Well Mr. Matthews may think that nobody cares what happens in Burma but the ruling party apparently thinks otherwise as they have cut off the internet:

The London-based blogger Ko Htike said: "I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the internet connection throughout the country. I therefore would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta."

If you are trying to produce repression that is the first step, cut off outside access.

Of course these days that isn't as easy as it sounds as this story via Glenn shows:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science said the high-resolution photographs taken by commercial satellites document a growing military presence at 25 sites across eastern Myanmar, matching eyewitness reports.

"We found evidence of 18 villages that essentially disappeared," AAAS researcher Lars Bromley said in an interview.

Apparently somebody does care what is going on over there. It can be ignored but technology won't allow it to be hidden.

Posted by Peter at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2007

Can't come soon enough

Talked to a fellow playing with the sp1 beta for vista. Says it has really helped his system.

Since I use my vista for work I'm not touching that update until it is official.

But I'll tell you this, that can't be soon enough for me.

Posted by Peter at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2007

Good thing he got that car up front

Well for quite a while I've been trying to explain to people that Apple is in fact a business, no different than Microsoft, and operates on the principle of profit.

Well this story via slashdot should aid my argument:

Apple said today that a firmware update to the iPhone due to be released later this week "will likely result" in SIM-unlocked iPhones turning into very expensive bricks. "Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed," said Apple in a statement issued this afternoon.

If you are going to play with the firmware you can't expect to be supported and Apple seems well within its rights to do so but the shock SHOCK that some people have over this is, well amusing.

I guess I was wrong the car and the phones deal is looking better and better.

Posted by Peter at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2007

Catching up with Day by Day

Our latest Technobabble podcast features part one of our new interview with Chris Muir of Day by Day.

We deal with changes in the strip, the progression of the characters, if he is yet making money on the strip and his Imbed with troops in Iraq. Including soldiers on the net in Iraq.

He gives a first hand information on what is going on there and about a program where soldiers live with Iraqi families.

This is really cool stuff and we are proud to carry it.

As always you can click the link here to listen or you can find us at the iTunes music store keyword HiWired.

BTW I do apologize for the tardiness of this podcast, we have more good stuff in the can and look forward to bringing it to you.

Posted by Peter at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

Halo 3 is here

Wow!! That was crazy!! I just got back from EB Warwick (ok I lied I’ve been here for the last hour playing halo 3) and what a night it was. The National Guard was out showing off some machine guns and talking about how much they like Xbox, the line stretched 300 deep and the game fuel was flowing like water!! The line was filled with eager gamers, moms, dad’s girlfriends and people just wondering what was going on. Channel 10 news was also there covering the event. At one point someone was asked to do karaoke and received a halo 3 faceplate for his 360. Everyone there was extremely excited and the ages ranged from about 9 through about 59 ( 59.. now that dedication!) I did end up buying a halo 3 wireless controller since I could only stand in line doing nothing for so long but hey... I think it’s worth a day’s pay for a controller with some picture on it :). Sorry Jesse, I couldn’t get a legendary edition which means you can’t see my rock the helmet but I promise I will get to work in Photoshop right away. Interesting to note everyone... and I mean everyone wanted to know what the number on my shirt meant, my response “this represents the time Hiwired’s hard working techs spent, and please visit hiwired.com" I included some pictures for your enjoyment... Ok bye for now Halo 3 here I come!!

Posted by Dustin at 01:06 AM | Comments (1)

September 24, 2007

Ho Hum another internet crackdown in China

If this surprises you:


But this campaign seems more indiscriminate. In recent weeks, police nationally have been shutting down Internet data centers (IDCs), the physical computers that private firms rent – from state-owned or private companies – to host websites offering interactive features, say industry insiders. "With the approach of the Party Congress, the government wants the Internet sphere silent, to keep people from discussing social problems," says Isaac Mao, one of China's first bloggers, who is now organizing a censorship monitoring project. "Shutting down IDCs is a quick and effective way of shutting down interactive sites."

Then you just haven't been paying attention.

Posted by Peter at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

Like watching grass grow!!

Dustin, why are you writing a blog post at 2:14 PM on your day off the wife asks? Well because Halo 3 is just less than 10 hours away and I've already been to GameStop twice today to see what was going on. By mistake I popped a balloon since they were all over the ground. With all the people coming in to GameStop tonight I have a feeling that every balloon will be popped and it will sound like gun fire... but that’s what we all want to hear anyway, being halo fans and all. For the last few days now everywhere I go at least 5 people are talking about how they’re going to stay up all night, call out of work ( don’t worry Chris I'm coming in ) and how game fuel tastes great ( it actually tastes horrible ). For anyone reading this and interested in the latest screenshots here you are... more info to come including some pictures of the GameStop 12 AM launch :)

http://www.g4tv.com/games/photo_gallery/676/Halo_3__PreLaunch/index.html



Posted by Dustin at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

Can you keep a secret?.. Microsoft silently unveils Vista-to-XP downgrade

Not surprisingly Microsoft is offering a downgrade to XP option. In my opinion Vista will rock after service pack 1 even more than it already does. As long as you're willing to let go of those old applications and upgrade EVERYTHING Vista is great. Here are some details from Tom’s hardware:

Redmond (WA) - Microsoft has reportedly begun offering a downgrade option to PC makers who want to allow their customers to have the option of using XP over the pre-installed Vista software.


Computer manufacturers including Fujitsu, Lenovo, and HP now mainly offer PCs exclusively with Vista pre-installed. Customers who would prefer to have XP can request a downgrade disc for computers that come with Vista Business and Vista Ultimate. These two versions allow downgrading as part of the software licensing, but the process is difficult without a specifically coded disc.

Several big PC makers never stopped offering XP as an option for custom-built computers. However, the standalone operating system software has nearly vanished from all retail outlets.

source: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34015/118/

Posted by Dustin at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2007

Didn't I tell ya didn't I tell ya

Via Dustin (this would have made a great blog post for you Dustin HINT HINT)confirmation of what I've been telling you since DAY 1 over here:

Citgroup has confirmed that it's investigating a data breach involving the names, Social Security numbers and credit information of 5,208 customers leaked by an employee of its ABN Amro Mortgage Group unit onto the LimeWire peer-to-peer file-sharing network.


Tiversa, a company that monitors P2P networks on behalf of clients, told eWEEK that it found Excel spreadsheets from the desktop of a financial analyst ABN Amro Mortgage Group running LimeWire. Although Tiversa found over 10,000 files, deduplication revealed only 5,208 unique Social Security numbers, along with names and what type of mortgage each customer had: conventional, 30-year or conforming, for example.

I'm sure that there are safe and legal ways to use Limewire and other P2P software, and frankly I do know some techs who will install it, download what they want and uninstall it at once, but I've gotta tell you saving .99 cents on a song just isn't worth it, cripes it the price of a Double Cheeseburger for crying out loud.

Posted by Peter at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2007

That brings me back

It's my day off today and I'm blogging from the wilderness of New Ipswich New Hampshire visiting with my old Pal Moose and his brother Roger who is visiting from Portland Oregon. (You might remember Roger from his classic light beer comment linked here)

Anyways in addition to the green pastures, sheep, ducks and chickens and the reunion of a bunch of old friends there is one other old friend that I'm re-acquainting myself with. A dial up connection.

I'm always been a big believer that when it comes to upgrading a system or service its all a question of what you actually need. Moose has decided that at this time he doesn't need anything more than dial-up therefore he definitely doesn't need YouTube. As a brief example I decided I wanted to show him a YouTube clip that I found funny (and linked to during cleanup day). In the 30 or so min that I've taken signing in and going to that site, signing in here and typing what you see so far that clip has managed to load 30 seconds of its 6 min length.

While his kids are still 6 and under that's not an issue, pretty soon as they are in school they will be crying for the faster connection and it will be interesting to see if he and his wife decide to go for it at that time. Meanwhile it is interesting to see what you can do without and what you can wait for if you don't have a choice.

So remember when you are comparing DSL and Cable and wondering about the speed of your connection, not even a decade ago this AOL connection that I was on WAS the internet as far as the world is concerned. And when our next group picture is taken say 10 years in the future, the question is will people be talking about cable and DSL the way I am talking about dial-up today?

UPDATE Just to put things in perspective in the time since this was posted I had time to go outside visit with the friends some more, have some food and something to drink, socialize and get something for my wife and kid, and the 6 min YouTube download is still only at 2 min.

Maybe that is a good thing, instead of staying in front of a computer the time spent waiting for the download forces one to have a life.

Posted by Peter at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2007

Is it all hype or just the best game EVER?

Hello online world this is my first post. Since I'm all about games I figured I'd write a little bit about Halo 3. I'm sure you have all seen the overly marketed halo 3 signs everywhere. In fact right now I'm drinking a bottle of halo 3 "game fuel" made by Pepsi, It’s like a bottle of caffeine and sugar really. Anyways, on to my post. Halo 3 will be released to the masses on September 25th ( 3 days 11 hours 50 minutes and 5.. no 4 seconds). This will mark the biggest media sale in history beating out any game, music or movie ever sold and will have 3 versions from $60 to $160. For those massive Halo fans (me) the $129 version will include a replica Spartan helmet. If you're an Xbox 360 owner this is the game that will make you happy that you blew a whole paycheck to buy your 360. I will be posting pictures of gamestops 12 am opener since there’s supposed to be 400+ people lined up along with the national guard red bull and a rock wall.. fun fun :)

Posted by Dustin at 12:03 PM | Comments (1)

September 20, 2007

Just a reminder why housecleaning is important

Did all kinds of stuff around the house before heading to work today so didn't have blogging time, but when I finally got to checking the blog, what a difference!

I still haven't finished all the cleaning up but there amount of blog spam (comments and trackbacks) are dramatically down.

BTW I have yet to have a SINGLE person suggest the zune over the pod despite the extra 20 gigs of space and the larger screen. I am countin gin person along with comments. If you guys over at the Zune User Group want to try to weigh in now is the time to do so.

Posted by Peter at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2007

Fall clean up

In addition to staining the back deck , patching the walk way and the foundation I'm doing some Blog Cleaning up today.

Pithy wit, technical news, links relevent and not will return later.

Posted by Peter at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2007

Bad ideas can be expensive

Well Times select is officaly dead and the best round up I've read on the subject belongs to Jeff Jarvis:

TimesSelect represented the last gasp of the circulation mentality of news media, the belief that surely consumers would continue to pay for content even as the internet commodified news and — more important — even as the internet revealed that the real value in media is not owning and controlling content or distribution but enabling conversation.

In an internet and file sharing this is as true as it gets. Read the whole thing.

Posted by Peter at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

An icon's birthday

Everything has a beginning:

It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

And thus pieces of culture are born.

Posted by Peter at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2007

do you remember.....

Via Glenn we link to this Newsweek story on how computers have changed the baby boom generation:

So I (born 1951) told these twentysomethings that there was a time when people wrote on machines called typewriters, beginning at the beginning and plowing through until the end, at which point they would mark up the manuscript with pen or pencil for the next run through the typewriter. If there was a need to recast a couple of sentences or even an entire paragraph, you would type on a new sheet of paper, cut the new text from the page with scissors and use Elmer's glue to paste it over the original not-so-hot lines. "Oh!" said one of the Googlers, of 1980s vintage. "So that's where 'cut-and-paste' came from!"

I have a vision on a nursing home in the future full of old guys on laptops talking about how D&D first edition was REAL gaming and any version of Civ beyond 3 is for losers.

Posted by Peter at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2007

Now this is more realistic

You might remember a while back I compared the Zune vs Ipod to an established ace closer and a new rookie closer for the same price.

(Jonathan Papelbon vs Mariano Rivera)

Well I was checking out prices on Amazon.com and noticed the following:

Zune 30 gig White is $159 at Amazon ($192 in black)

Meanwhile on the Ipod End

The 80 gig is $249 for any color Meanwhile the 16 gig touch is $399.

Nanos are running all over the place

4 gig with video $149

4 gig no video varies by color (as low as $179 pink to $250 blue)

8 gig with video $199

2 gig no video $146

8 gig no video $242, (why more than with video?)

The bottom line is depending on color you can get a 30 gigs zune for the price of a 2-8 gig ipod. Meanwhile for an extra $200 you can almost triple your memory space on the ipod end vs the Zune.

At this prices the Zune is certainly competitive to the pod. I actually have over $300 in amazon coupons for use during Christmas, it is now a real question between the zune and the nano. Better quality software vs good video and 4 times the memory.

I would welcome any advice, which way should I go for teenage sons who don't own a mp3 player yet?

Posted by Peter at 10:11 PM | Comments (2)

September 14, 2007

You'll take that update and like it

Can someone explain to me what the point is of giving a choice to users on updates if you are going to just push them anyways without their consent?

I’m not at the point of suggesting that people should disable Windows Update or block it using their firewall because I have no evidence of any wrong doing and nothing to suggest that these stealth updates caused harm. But … what bothers me is Microsoft’s take on the issue. A “hands-up, fair cop, we were wrong, we won’t do it again here’s what we’ll do instead” would go down a lot better with me (and be far less of a story) than this “we’re right, we know best, you’re wrong for making a fuss” attitude that I’ve feeling. Right now Microsoft seem to be trying to defend a way of thinking that’s indefensible.

The words that you are actually looking for a bait & switch.

Sooner or later acting like Basil Faulty towards the guest is going to get people going somewhere else.

Posted by Peter at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)

An unhappy use for an Ipod

We send our condolences to the family of Adam Finley a blogger from the site TV Squad.

His accidental death (bicycle struck by a bus) is of particular interest to us because he was identified by his Ipod.

Tim Blair hits it on the head:

...think of what someone reading that sentence ten years ago would have made of it.

It is a new age.

Posted by Peter at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2007

More sp1 info...

We've been hoping that the Vista Sp1 update would make a large difference on Vista, well Microsoft has released more details and ZDnet has some on the info:

Developers will be exposed to these changes for the first time when Microsoft rolls out its Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 beta — which is expected any day now. At the end of August, Microsoft provided Department of Justice (DOJ) officials with a build of SP1 that included these changes so technical committee members overseeing Microsoft’s compliance with provisions from its federal antitrust case could evaluate whether Microsoft was delivering the changes to which it committed earlier this year.

The fact that they are talking about search engine changes is really distressing since it is the one part of Vista that I really like.

Posted by Peter at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2007

Well this might help

Well this certainly can't hurt:

TweakVista is an application that brings together many different OS and application settings. Is it the Right Tool for the Job? TechRepublic contributor Scott Wolf takes a stab at tweaking his Vista laptop. Here’s a summary of his findings.

Maybe it will do the job but tech republic doesn't think so.

Posted by Peter at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2007

May the Wii be with you

Expect Star Wars fans to be spending big time:

Mark Montuya commented today that the game’s motion-sensitive lightsaber action is “just a taster” for a future release involving motion-sensitive lightsaber combat.

Joy!

The statement implies that LucasArts is already hard at work on what Star Wars fanatics have been crying out for since seeing the Wii’s motion-sensitive controls for the first time: a game involving lightsabers. Heck, the Wii-mote even looks a little like a lightsaber, albeit a clunky Yoda-sized one.

Maybe x-box 360 and ps3 should just pack it in now.

Posted by Peter at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

The most valuable Sept 11 link there is

Well another Sept 11 has arrived. We talked a bit about Tom McDonough last year. As to what to say this year...

It's just my personal opinion mind you, but I think it only emboldens our foes to dwell on defeat, so I'm not planning any more anniversary posts after this one.

That being said there is one site on the web that should be read by people on this date; This one from Popular Mechanics. Money Quote:

To investigate 16 of the most prevalent claims made by conspiracy theorists, POPULAR MECHANICS assembled a team of nine researchers and reporters who, together with PM editors, consulted more than 70 professionals in fields that form the core content of this magazine, including aviation, engineering and the military.

In the end, we were able to debunk each of these assertions with hard evidence and a healthy dose of common sense. We learned that a few theories are based on something as innocent as a reporting error on that chaotic day. Others are the byproducts of cynical imaginations that aim to inject suspicion and animosity into public debate. Only by confronting such poisonous claims with irrefutable facts can we understand what really happened on a day that is forever seared into world history.

You can't fix a computer unless you look at what actually happened. Ditto here.

Posted by Peter at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2007

Irrational I know but another twist of the knife

Due to a schedule change I found myself with a couple of hours free that I didn't expect, so I decided to try to address an FTP upload problem that has been causing me grief for several months.

I was getting an error that suggested that my space on the particular site was full, but since I was overwriting an existing file it shouldn't have been an issue unless a temp file cache was being created at the site during the upload. {For you non-tech people that means that a copy of the uploaded file is kept in a temporary location as it is loading and when the load is complete and confirmed only then is it copied over the existing file and the temp memory cleared, in the days of floppy disks that was sometimes an issue when copying files}

Well yesterday I happened to be in front of my XP system rather than my Vista so I prepared my files and attempted the upload, guess what happened? Yup they all uploaded without a care in the world.

Now rationally there might be a difference in settings that needed changing on the Vista machine or a difference between IE6 and 7. (Kept IE6 on the other machine to stay fresh, still see plenty of systems with it.) You know what, forget rationality, all I wanted to do was upload some files and I shouldn't have to debug a new operating system in order to do it.

If I wasn't in the tech support business I'd downgrade this machine back to XP on the spot.

Posted by Peter at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2007

I guess I won't use that hotspot

It may not be "censorship" but it sure is stifling.

Indian journalist Amit Varma reports that Mumbai's police are requiring the city's 500 Internet cafes to install keystroke loggers, which will capture every keystroke by users and turn that information over to the government

Lets hope the outsourced chat support doesn't allow telecommuting.

Posted by Peter at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2007

A spammer and his money are not easily parted

Whats the surest sign that efforts against Spam are working? When the spammers fight back:

Spamnation reports that CastleCops and other anti-spam forums are being DDoSed as well. Sounds like a massive, concerted effort against the folks who are fighting the good fight.

Spammers make good money and they won't give it up without a fight.

Posted by Peter at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

September 07, 2007

Here come internet tv for media center

Microsoft always seems to have another card in the deck:

Reportedly, Microsoft plans on unleashing Internet TV on or around September 27th, which will enable Media Center users to watch a variety of on-demand, ad-supported content free of charge.

There always seems to be another rabbit in the hat.

Posted by Peter at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2007

iPhone price down $200 impatient hardest hit

The natural progression in tech prices is as follows:

New product is released

People who can't wait purchase new product at high price

Product price drops after a time and everyone else buys it

Well apparently the process took place too fast for some iPhone users:


""I feel like I just got punched in the face," said one commenter on the MacRumors blog. "Fanboy tax indeed."

The 8-gigabyte iPhone, once $599, was cut to $399. The 4-gigabyte model, formerly $499, was discontinued, and will sell for $299 until stocks are gone."

I'm enjoying this much too much.

Posted by Peter at 10:04 AM | Comments (1)

The oldest profession the newest technology

Technology has changed the way we work, the worlds oldest profession is no exception:

Nassau County has made more than 70 arrests since it began focusing on Craigslist last year, one of numerous crackdowns by vice squads from Hawaii to New Hampshire that have lately been monitoring the Web site closely, sometimes placing decoy ads to catch would-be customers.

“Craigslist has become the high-tech 42nd Street, where much of the solicitation takes place now,” said Richard McGuire, Nassau’s assistant chief of detectives. “Technology has worked its way into every profession, including the oldest.”

And like other industries the internet in general and craig's list in particular have particular advantages for business:

The police say that Craigslist has changed prostitution’s patterns, with people roaming the country, setting up shop for a week or two in hotels — often near airports — where they use laptop computers and cellphones to arrange encounters for hundreds of dollars, then moving on to their next location.

Not only are you earning frequent flier miles but there are quality of life issues as well:

It also affords a degree of anonymity — if they are caught, being away from home makes an arrest less embarrassing.

The internet by its nature leaves a trail, and wise police will be able to follow it.

Posted by Peter at 07:51 AM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2007

With apologies to Forest

Life may or may not be like a box of chocolates, but Glenn Reynolds explains why the internet is like Tar and Feathers (which seems to have made a comeback).

Posted by Peter at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2007

If you are on this map then you can't see this

A little internet speech today, first some small scale censorship via Glenn and the State of Washington:

The rapid growth of political blogs and Web sites has attracted the attention of state elections officials, who are considering what, if any, new regulations should be imposed on the Internet.

Small potatoes to be sure but if you want the full meal check out this map via Jay Nordlinger and Reporters without borders. The map speaks for itself but this quote is priceless:

I happened to be in one of those countries earlier this year. While attempting to go online in a hotel, I was told that the “internet was closed for the day.” I should try again the next day, when there was supervision. Which I did as early as possible: had I waited too long, the internet undoubtedly would have been on its lunch break.

Another delivery from the perspective police.

Posted by Peter at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

And George Ou; Serial Debunker, for the defense

We bust Windows Vista quite a bit here, but as George Ou demonstrates if you are going to bust Vista, make sure your facts are right:

Computer scientist Peter Gutmann made a name for himself when he published his paper “A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection” and got worldwide attention for outlining some serious concerns about Windows Vista DRM mechanisms. But Peter Gutmann admittedly doesn’t use Windows Vista and he’s publicly asked for others to confirm his theories and based many of his key assertions on web forum postings as his source.

George goes on to do is own testing and the results are a pretty big mismatch. His bottom line is typical Ou:

So based on dubious web forum “research”, Gutmann concluded that Vista Content Protection is like a virus that consumes unnecessarily high CPU and memory resources. Believing that Vista supposedly consumes an extra 10 to 50 percent CPU utilization, Gutmann flew halfway around the world to Usenix Boston 2007 and told the audience that Vista content protection draws so much power that it causes global warming.

I suggest the whole thing and the previous article as well.

This doesn't change my own negative opinion of Vista but my opinion is based on daily usage and my experience with the same PC before I upgraded.

Posted by Peter at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

Barbarians vs Danes update: Danes 2 Barbarians 0

You might recall that we covered the Barbaric threats to Danes in general and an online blogger in particular last year.

You might have noticed we didn't cover the Opus cartoon censorship, (plenty of other blogs did) since the online angle is minor.

Well this is what those papers were afraid of:

Danish intelligence agents early Tuesday arrested eight alleged Islamic militants with links to leading al-Qaida figures, and said the suspects were plotting an attack involving explosives.

"With the arrests, we have prevented a terror attack," said Jakob Scharf, head of the PET intelligence service. He did not identify the target.

The Why answers itself but Captain Ed bottom lines it:

Why Denmark? The Danes belong to the Coalition fighting in Iraq, but that's probably a secondary issue. The Prophet cartoons -- which depicted Mohammed in a critical fashion -- were first published by Danish newspapers, and the Muslim world went nuts over the images. Hundreds of thousands protested, several people were murdered, and the radicals swore revenge. Some of them took it seriously.

Congratulations to Denmark for stopping these terrorists before they could attack.

Lets hope the Danes keep the shutout going.

Posted by Peter at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2007

Sony and the Cardnials again in opposite directions

Well its September so that means that the two stories of last year are being repeated:

First the St. Louis Cardinals have moved back into contention we saw a hit of it a few weeks ago as the bookies noticed producing this headline:

Oddsmakers take notice of St Louis Cardinals surge in NL Central standings.

And the current standings and news support it.

And if St. Louis is doing better we know what to expect from Sony.....

Now, a new story has come out involving Sony's biometric Micro Vault USM-F thumb drive, which apparently contains a rootkit that could potentially allow hackers to compromise users' PCs. The presence of the rootkit was first discovered by F-Secure, and was confirmed by Aditya Kapoor and Seth Purdy, researchers at McAfee, and posted on their blog.

This is the bottom line:

consumers have increasingly had a sense that rootkits and Sony go hand in hand.

If this turns into a full blown scandal among consumers then St. Louis is sure to make it to the Series again, but no Sony scandal will get them by my RedSox.

Posted by Peter at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

Of COURSE I have my receipt from when I picked up DOS

This Slashdot story about the settlement in Iowa's anti-trust suit vs Microsoft complains that the money is a drop in the bucket. The story itself gives cash details:

The settlement calls for Microsoft to reimburse consumers who purchased certain Microsoft products between May 18, 1994 and June 30, 2006.

The reimbursement rates are as follows:

•$16 for each copy of Microsoft Windows or MS-DOS operating systems.

•$29 for each copy of Microsoft Office.

•$25 for each copy of Microsoft Excel.

•$10 for each copy of Microsoft Word, Works and Home Essential software.

Now I'm sure that people are going to make claims on some of the newer stuff but DOS? I still have my DOS disks but how many guys have proof of purchase for DOS?

More interesting is that IOWA gets 1/2 the unclaimed money (for computer purchases in schools) and further cash for unrelated programs.

I'm wondering if that infusion of cash for state coffers will be blood in the water for other states with budget issues or is it too small to worry about?

Posted by Peter at 08:35 AM | Comments (0)

Generic Holiday Post

Today is (Insert Day Here) Labor Day, a national Holiday.

HiWired will as normal be open 24/7.

Of course I'm on Mini Vacation #1 this year so I won't worry about that till Thursday.

Update: post trimmed.

Posted by Peter at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2007

Some things on the net are just silly

A Shaolin Priest may be able to walk through walls but apparently they don't get the internet. This is the lesion they need to learn:

Apparently, for all their fancy martial arts moves, the Shaolin monks aren't particularly familiar with how internet forums work. Here's a hint: people make stuff up all the time. And no one believes it. And no one pays any attention to it.

Read the link to see what all the fuss is about.

Posted by Peter at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)

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