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January 31, 2008
One sure winner from online gambling
Gambling is a risk and online gambling is an impersonal risk, but there is one group that is guaranteed to be a winner, that is if Rep Jim McDermott has his way:
A new tax revenue analysis announced by Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) estimates that regulating Internet gambling would generate between $8.7 billion to $42.8 billion in federal revenues over its first ten years. The findings of the analysis, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, were provided to all Members of Congress by McDermott earlier this week.
Talk about betting on a sure thing.
Representative McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2607), which would tax regulated Internet gambling.
As a person who doesn't even do his taxes on a PC I can't fathom risking money online in this way, but if those figures are right I am clearly in the minority on this one.
Posted by Peter at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2008
Hp's Green ink
Looks like all of HP's ink is going to be the same color; Green:
The technique has already been trialed, and now is being put into production. HP said that it has already produced more than 200 million cartridges during the so-called trial, and the company expects to use 10 million pounds of recycled plastic during 2008, partly as a result of the new manufacturing technique.
I wouldn't have thought it would have been that hard to use.
Posted by Peter at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2008
Required Reading
You head all kinds of things about Phishing but do you really understand what it is all about?
Well Nitesh Dhanjani and Billy Rios do. They infiltrated the phishing community and discovered fascinating and disturbing data. Some lowlights:
Many think that phishing sites are all custom jobs that a particular phisher has developed and deployed. The reality is pre-made, ready-to-deploy, turnkey sites are already created for practically every major organization that you can think of. All a phisher has to do is purchase the latest kit and deploy, no technical expertise or coding skills are really required. All the phisher typically has to do is place their email address into one line of code and they have a ready to deploy phishing site.
So our phishers are not the brainy nerds that we see on tv:
We decided to Google for that particular string. The results completely stunned us. Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth, ATM PINs, addresses, credentials to online banking accounts, all out in the open, a lot of which was collected from victims only a few hours ago. A simple Google search led us to a whole new world where phishers were trading this information in different languages around the world. This sort of exposure can ruin people's lives - yet it was right there, out in the open. It was quite unnerving..
So all this info is out there bought, sold, traded by Phishermen who also steal info from each other but the bottom line in this battle is this:
Commercial financial institutions such as credit card companies and banks realize that the cost of implementing a new system that does not merely rely on static identifiers is higher than the fraud committed, so they decide to accept the cost. This is the reason why the system has not changed.
That is not an inspiring bit of info. Read the whole thing if this doesn't persuade you to be more careful, nothing will. (via slashdot).
Posted by Peter at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
Free legal music (or not)
A brand new service for free legal music downloads Qtrax launches as the latest entry in the P2P contest for music downloads.
Forgetting for the moment the dangers of p2p, it will be a relief to know that your music downloads will not come with a risk of expensive lawsuits. Or not:
But Warner Music said it had not authorised the use of its tracks by Qtrax - and later Universal Music Group and EMI followed suit, saying they did not have licensing deals with Qtrax and discussions were continuing.Justin Kazmark, a spokesman for New York-based Qtrax, has declined to comment.
We will soon find out if this is a bump in the road or a crash into a tree.
Posted by Peter at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
A techs idea of a good time
If you've ever wondered what a techs idea of a good time is check out this post from George Ou. Particularly the photos of one of the slickest home made pc's you will ever see.
The last time I built a wooden all-in-one 19″ LCD PC, my family wanted it in the kitchen and my mother wanted it in hers. To keep everyone happy, I built my mother another one (pictured above and below) out of 3/16th inch jet-black polycarbonate which makes the chassis look like the material from a grand piano. The result was something that was so glossy that I can probably shave in it, but I’m almost afraid to touch it and get finger prints all over it. Needless to say, she is very pleased with her new space saving computer.
My mother would rather have a gift card to the 99 restaurant.
Posted by Peter at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2008
Party like its 2008
It's the annual company party today so I don't have much to talk about, just chilling with the wife and the kids and all those grand people that have helped us grow to where we are today.
However there is one group that made us what we are today who are not here. That's you our customers.
From all of us to all of you thanks for making us the company we are today and the company we will be tomorrow.
Meanwhile if you like me are recalling pleasant old memories the latest "retro" games available on the Wii console. Sega anyone?
Posted by Peter at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2008
A slash dot roundup...
Today there are three slashdot articles that are worth a mention so rather than three different posts lets take them in order:
Lies, Damn Lies; and Statistics:
It looks like iPhone sales might not be all they are cracked up to be;Let's walk through the theory. Apple said on Tuesday that it sold 3.7 million iPhones in 2007. But AT&T said Thursday that it ended 2007 with around 2 million iPhone customers.One huge difference between the third quarter and the fourth--other than the temperature--was that the iPhone became available for sale in the U.K., Germany, and France through other carriers. But even the most optimistic estimates for iPhone sales in Europe didn't come within shouting distance of 1.7 million units. O2, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.K., has said it expects to have sold 200,000 iPhones by around this time, and France's Orange and Germany's T-Mobile were expected to sell about 100,000 units each in 2007.
So that leaves 1.3 million iPhones to find.
Well we can account for one but I doubt they were all blended.
It's called MYSPACE not My Personal Space
Looks like Myspace might be taken tips from Baghdad Bob on plausible deniability:A 17-gigabyte file purporting to contain more than half a million images lifted from private MySpace profiles has shown up on BitTorrent, potentially making it the biggest privacy breach yet on the top social networking site.The creator of the file says he compiled the photos earlier this month using the MySpace security hole that Wired News reported on last week. That hole, still unacknowledged by the News Corporation-owned site, allowed voyeurs to peek inside the photo galleries of some MySpace users who had set their profiles to "private," despite MySpace's assurances that such images could only be seen by people on a user's friends' list.
A person expect a lesser amount of privacy online but this is nonsense.
Those Bluetooth booties are beauties.
This is the most amazing use of bluetooth that I've ever seen:Bleill, 30, is one of two Iraq war veterans, both double leg amputees, to use the Bluetooth prosthetics. Computer chips in each leg send signals to motors in the artificial joints so the knees and ankles move in a coordinated fashion.Bleill's set of prosthetics have Bluetooth receivers strapped to the ankle area. The Bluetooth device on each leg tells the other leg what it's doing, how it's moving, whether walking, standing or climbing steps,
Of course this is another example of that Western Civilization striking again.
Posted by Peter at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2008
In the great tradition of Western Inquiry
As I mentioned around Christmastime I got quite a few books for Christmas the one I'm spending the most time on is Victor David Hanson's Carnage and Culture Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power.
One of the common theme that runs through the book. The traditions of western inquiry and willingness to to employ (and to allow) critical thinking over and over allows western civilization to either win even when vastly outnumbered or recover from what would normally be a crushing defeat. Bottom line is the greater the freedom the greater potential.
This is one of the reasons why internet free speech is huge. The internet is used for a lot of silly things, but it is also a crucible for the free flow of ideas and debate,from political and scientific and artistic.
And if access to information was not enough the nature of blogs allow any person who can afford an internet connection (and some who can't) the ability to put their own thought out there and have a back and forth with any connected person in the world.
This has incredible potential for both good and bad in it, but this potential is untapped when you restrict these freedoms.
This is why we should be grateful for where we are and what we have. Being a part of it we just don't understand how good it is for us. It's also why net censorship is a two edged sword for those countries who want to keep a grip on their people, they want the potential benefits without the freedoms that come with it. In the end they will find it is not possible.
Posted by Peter at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2008
VM now allowed
If you are running Mac and have been wanting to run Vista on it you are in luck:
Microsoft Corp. on Monday dropped its prohibition on running the least-expensive versions of Windows Vista in virtual machines, doubling the choices for Macintosh owners who run the rival operating system in VMware Inc.'s Fusion or Parallels Inc.'s Parallels.Beginning immediately, Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium can be run in a virtualized environment, Microsoft said Monday. The pair are the cheapest editions of the operating system available at retail, selling in full versions for $199 and $239, respectively. Previously, Microsoft only allowed Vista Business ($299) and Vista Ultimate ($399) to be installed in a virtual machine (VM).
What isn't explained in this article is why someone running a mac would want to run Vista?
Posted by Peter at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2008
Blue Monday
Today January 21, 2008 has been given the title of "Blue Monday" - the gloomist day of the year. Do you believe this? If so let me hear from you.
Posted by Scott at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
Save the OS
In info world an impassioned speech to save an endangered OS:
We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell Microsoft that you want to keep XP available indefinitely. Not for another six months or a year, but indefinitely. Sign InfoWorld's petition today. And consider submitting a "Save XP" video to our site to help spread the word.And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to SaveXP.com.
Don't think Microsoft will listen? Consider this: Although Microsoft denies that anything is wrong with Vista or that most people don't want it, the company has already postponed XP's demise by six months. That's a start, but it's not good enough.
Microsoft doesn't have to admit failure; it can just say it will keep XP available indefinitely due to customer demand. It can take that opportunity to try again with a better Vista, or just move on to the next version that maybe this time we'll all actually want.
There is a precedent for that, too: In many respects, Vista is like the Windows Millennium Edition that was meant to replace Windows 98 in 2000 but caused more trouble than it was worth. At that time, Windows 2000 was promising but didn't support a lot of hardware, so users were stuck between two bad choices. Without admitting Millennium's failure, Microsoft quietly put Windows 98 back on the market until the fixed version of Windows 2000 (SP1) was available. Microsoft needs to do something like that again today.
There is nothing like customer demand to change a rock solid corporate position.
Posted by Peter at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2008
Finally getting 'round to it
Well yesterday I finally got around to opening up the 500 gig Maxtor one touch drive that the wife picked up at Christmas for me.
I backed up my old laptop yesterday, as I type I am also backing up this upgraded Vista laptop to the drive.
Tuesday I will be backing up the 3rd system and if I find myself in the mood I may hardwire the old ME & 98 systems to the network so I can pull the lot off of them (as shared drives) and onto the Maxtor.
Since this is January 20th That means I waited nearly a month to put this drive into use. Lucky for me there were no dramatic system issues that came up.
The problem with putting it off is that something could have happened at any time. We had two power outages at the house since then and either one could have knocked any of these systems for a loop.
As I am fond of saying the data is the reason for the pc. I was lucky my long wait didn't hurt me but you may not be so lucky. So I urge you, no matter how you do it, cd/dvd burn, external hard drive or our Backup software get that data backed up, and remember REDUNDANCY IS YOUR FRIEND. You won't kick yourself for having an extra backup but you will kick yourself if you decide against it and something goes wrong.
Posted by Peter at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2008
Expect a lot more of this
Unfortunately this is a sign of the future:
Paller said that Donahue presented him with a written statement that read, "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."
As the technology gets better this problem will get worse and worse. Via Glenn.
Posted by Peter at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
See what video game tech can do!
Who says games don't help society? Or at least game technology:
the Mayo Clinic is teaming up with IBM to develop ways to create a 3-D image from an MRI or CT scan in minutes, thanks to microprocessor architecture developed for the Sony PlayStation 3, which amps those scans up like Sonic the Hedgehog.
I've found that when you develop things for profit they usually have other applications that can have a lot of altruistic uses.
Via Andrew Sullivan.
Posted by Peter at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2008
Technology will not increase your IQ
This story confirms that no matter how technology changes people remain what they are:
Well, the police went and got it, and turned out that Villanueva is a repeat offender who isn’t legally allowed to even own a gun. His YouTube video wasn’t just a taunt and a threat then, but actual evidence of a crime. And the two uploaded it of their own free will.
There are whole web sites dedicated to telling the story of stupid criminals. Almost as bad as the story above is the tech support story:
The printer, along with a PC, were stolen on the evening of Oct. 5 from the St. Charles contract office of the Missouri Department of Revenue, said Trish Vincent, director of the department. These offices are run by individuals who are subcontracted by the department to issue driver's licenses, Vincent said. The pilfered printer could be used to produce a license, Vincent said.The PC, however, was locked with a key and because the key was stored in a secure location, the PC was unusable to the thief, said Vincent.
So what do you do when you have a stolen driver's license printer, but can't use the PC that goes with it? Enter Digimarc's tech support line.
According to a sworn statement by Secret Service Special Agent John Bush, someone who identified himself as "Scott" called Digimarc two days later and asked if he could buy printer drivers for the model of printer that had been swiped from the St. Charles office.
Technology enables many great things, but apparently it also enables stupid criminals' stupidity.
Posted by Peter at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)
Vista power saving vs wi-fi
One of the things I noticed right away with Vista was the tendency of the system to drop its internet connection when not plugged in to a power supply. It was a regular annoyance, but as i generally used the PC around the house I just tended to keep it plugged in.
It turns out with Vista there are three power modes controlled from the systray. Balanced, Power Saver and this is High Performance. When in power saving mode the system shuts off or powers down what it can. Wireless is apparently high on that list.
Once I switched to max performance the wi-fi worked fine...for about 75 min when the battery gave warning that it was down to 5 percent.
One hour isn't much for a battery but it beats dropping wi-fi.
Like everything else in life it is a trade-off a "feature" rather than a bug. At least that seems to be Microsoft's position. Personally I'd exclude the wi-fi from the cut-off or I'd give a settings to exclude it from the power saver list since portable wi-fi is why you get a laptop these days.
Posted by Peter at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2008
And the avalanche begins
Amazing. Within one week we see Ransomware for the Mac and an Iphone exploit.
Mac is becoming a bigger and bigger target. I blame this guy.
Posted by Peter at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2008
Yeah its thin. So?
The MacBook air is a rather cool looking thing. People are commenting on how thin and cool looking it is.
Thin is nice, but looking at it I have two quick questions:
How is it temp wise?How is it shock resistant wise?
Small and compact is nice but I'd be asking those two questions real quick before dropping my dough.
Posted by Peter at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2008
What Google worry?
According to Arts Technica Google doesn't seem very worried about the lawsuit from Jarg:
Should the case go to trial, Google apparently feels confident. The company's request for a jury trial implies that Google's legal team isn't particularly worried about a negative judgement in Eastern Texas, which is saying quite a lot. The venue is the most popular in the US for this type of suit because juries typically side with those who claim to have been pinched (e.g., parties such as Jarg). Any resolution in the case is still months away—possibly years, if the case goes to trial—but Google obviously feels it's playing from a very strong position.
They confidence might be well founded but you never know what a jury will think.
Posted by Peter at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2008
A subject we can't speak enough about
There are not enough warnings we can give concerning online scans and fraud. This article gives some good information, to wit:
Perhaps the most prevalent scam currently is the one Greg Shaddrick almost fell for. Shaddrick, from Blaine, put a vehicle up for sale on the free classified website craigslist.org in November. A potential buyer stepped forward and, after some negotiating, agreed on the price.A few days later, the Shaddricks received a cashier's check for $7,500 -- much higher than the price agreed upon -- with a request to send the "extra" money to someone to whom the buyer supposedly owed money.
But they became suspicious and called the bank, which told them that the account number on the check was bogus. Banks are obligated to process cashier's checks before they actually clear. If they don't clear, the person cashing them is responsible to pay the money.
Remember when in doubt ask an expert, don't take this stuff on faith it is your money that you worked for that is on the line.
If you are buying a new computer for an elderly member of the family make sure you acquaint them with net fraud or your give might cost them plenty.
Posted by Peter at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2008
The real Iphone question
Many questions have been asked about the iphone. This wired story tells much of its history but it doesn't answer the big question. Will it blend?
Posted by Peter at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2008
Best and Worst of 2007
The best and worst computers of 2007 is out today. Check them out here.
Posted by Scott at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
Vista and Leopard
I finally have installed OS X 10.5 aka Leopard on my Mac and after a week of using it and having used Vista since early August it beats Vista hands down. I have tried in vain to give Vista a fair shake in the past few months but Microsoft really took a giant step backwards on it. There are just too many steps involved with Vista to do daily tasks or even to get file sharing between 2 computers. There has been some issues with Leopard but for the most part they have been resolved after only a few months and a minor update. There was complaints by users that after UPGRADING to Leopard the machines would not boot properly. That has been an issue with every operating system since upgrades came out. Which is why most techs will never recommend and upgrade over a fresh install. Boot times are much faster in Leopard and programs respond and launch much quicker. The Time Machine option is great for recovering lost items, programs, and even emails but it does require a rather large external hard drive to run. Vista does have a backup option but it is nothing like time machine. I will say it again, OS X is the best operating system out there.
Posted by Chrisk at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2008
Why dancing mortgage ads doom your old pc
Being a bit of a political junkie I've been all over the web during my two days off following the remarkable results in New Hampshire.
As I went from site to site I couldn't help but notice the amount of video and animated ads everywhere from dancing girls selling mortgages to automatically running video clips to all kinds of things. You almost couldn't go to a web site without finding multiple ads of this nature. It is a big change from just a few years ago.
Now my system is fairly new so that's not a problem for me but it strikes me that I've seen quite a few systems lately with very little ram, under 400 mb in many cases. Many of those systems have been in use for a good many years.
As you know I'm not fired up above Vista, but most vista systems I've seen are running dual cores with 2 gigs of ram. Even the worst vista system usually comes with 1 gig. (If you have less than a gig and an old processor don't even think of upgrading to Vista)
As the newer systems continue to be more powerful the creators of ads will continue to make their ads more eye catching; and more RAM intensive. The older systems with slower processors and little RAM can't keep up. All the tuning up in the world won't be enough to allow those systems to keep up the requirements of the sites. Oh the first one will load and the 2nd and maybe the third, but surfing will become slower and slower until it becomes a major annoyance.
There comes a point where it is not cost effective to improve an existing system. These ads are destined to rapidly bring that date to many.
Posted by Peter at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2008
RIAA meets the NRA?
I'd hate to be the lawyer for the RIAA who tries to take pirated music away from the owner of this:
Today at CES, Taser International introduced the Taser MPH -- the first combination hand-held music player and Taser.The player, which has a 1-GB capacity that can hold about 150 songs, is embedded in a holster that slips on your belt. Feel the need to zap someone and you can unholster the Taser, use the built-in laser pointer to aim, and blam -- a couple of darts carrying 50,000 volts hits your victim.
A new theme for music pirates? They can take my songs away when they pry my Mp3 player from my cold dead hands.
I think the guys designing this stuff have been watching too many Bond Movies. Might as well add a phone and browser to it and you can defend yourself in style with a single device.
Posted by Peter at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2008
Technology makes EVERYTHING easier
An interesting case in Egypt concerning Sharia Law and text messaging via Media Blog.
Under Sharia Law A universal declaration by a man three times is a legal divorce. The question is this can that declaration be made by texting?
Malaysia and Dubai have permitted text message divorce for years Singapore has not.
Just goes to show technology might change but people remain the same.
Posted by Peter at 09:47 AM | Comments (1)
January 06, 2008
Two incredible silent voices
One of the things the internet does best is give voice where there was once silence, the front lines of the battlefield is a great example of this. The first now silent voice is from the far past:
In the past year, the writings of Private Harry Lamin from the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment have come to compete with the diaries of call girls, policemen and politicos. The travails of this soldier, set down on the front line in France and Italy in letters to his family, are being posted online 90 years to the day after they were written.Like the family who anxiously awaited his letters in 1918, thousands of readers keenly await his next post. In the comments section, readers worry over whether he will make it home alive, as he passes through the battles of Messines Ridge and Passchendaele.
His fate has been kept a secret by Bill Lamin, his 59-year-old grandson, who runs the blog and adds photographs and maps he has found while researching the path that his grandfather took through the war.
The "blog" of this tommy of World War I is here. It's an amazing read as we wait to discover if he will make it to the end of the war to end wars on November 11th 1918.
The second silent voice from the battlefield was only silenced a few days ago. Major Andrew Olmsted blogged the war he was fighting on both his own site and at the Rocky Mountain News site. Two days ago he was killed as his unit was ambushed. However the silencing of his voice was delayed as he left a final entry to be posted in the event of his death:
I wish I could say I'd at least started to get it right. Although, in my defense, I think I batted a solid .250 or so. Not a superstar, but at least able to play in the big leagues. I'm afraid I can't really offer any deep secrets or wisdom. I lived my life better than some, worse than others, and I like to think that the world was a little better off for my having been here. Not very much, but then, few of us are destined to make more than a tiny dent in history's Green Monster. I would be lying if I didn't admit I would have liked to have done more, but it's a bit too late for that now, eh? The bottom line, for me, is that I think I can look back at my life and at least see a few areas where I may have made a tiny difference, and massive ego aside, that's probably not too bad.
Major Olmstead served his country in two ways. First as a soldier and second by giving a first hand glimpse of what is going on in Iraq. For both of these services we are in his debt. We offer our condolences to his family at this trying time.
Posted by Peter at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2008
Mr. Belanger's advice on PC parts
There is a two man hardware store in my home town Belanger Hardware. It has been there 61 years and the owner has worked there 51 of them.
He tends to go on about cheap hardware made to a low price point with the quality to match the price. He keeps a "superstore" front door that he replaced at the entrance of his store when you walk in.
He came instantly to mind when I saw this story about counterfeit parts coming out of China. Its not quite identical as the name brand manufacturer is not sanctioning the parts but the economics and the results are the same:
Counterfeit computer parts can be made to very low standards. They will work for a while, but not for the long periods of time that justify the high price of the authentic parts. The Chinese manufacturer sells the counterfeit parts at, say, 20 percent of what a real part would cost, to a foreign distributor. This guy then peddles the counterfeit parts to dealers who may, or may not, know they are getting cheap, but fake, parts at a deep discount. The dealer can then sell the counterfeits at a discount. Discerning buyers can check serial numbers on these high price components (some have a list price of thousands of dollars), but others are more trusting, and get burned.
And of course those discount parts eventually get to you. Mr. Belanger doesn't have a computer, still has a rotary phone and his as low tech as you get, but the best advice on this subject is pretty much what Mr. Belanger tells me every time. You get what you pay for.
Posted by Peter at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2008
So much for high hopes
After blogging from the sickbed hoping I won't use this category much this year what do I find on the web when I do a quick scan when I wake up? This (Registration for full article required):
The regulations stipulate that online videos can be broadcast or streamed only by state-owned or state-controlled companies. That means video sites could face the same treatment as television broadcasters and newspapers, which also are controlled by the state.
A more vanilla overview of the rule is here its very dry but quite revealing.
Via ValleyWag by way of Glenn. It's interesting to note that Vallywags commentators don't seem to be very phased by this. They would do well to remember the playwright Sophocles wrote thousands of years ago: "Free men have free tongues". I suppose today that would be free people stream freely.
Posted by Peter at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
A bad start for net speech in 2008
On the heels of the Saudi's arrest of a prominent blogger we get this rather incredible report concerning of all places England! Gates of Vienna blog has the story and the blogger in question says this:
I am currently out of the Country and on my return home to England I am going to be arrested by British detectives on suspicion of Stirring up Racial Hatred by displaying written material" contrary to sections 18(1) and 27(3) of the Public Order Act 1986.This charge if found guilty carries a lengthy prison sentence
As a student of history I have been a bit of an anglophile all my life. I've always believed that one of the great gifts to the world is English Common law. Even when it has failed to live up to its ideas those principles spread all over the world are the basis for the freedoms that pressed for all over the world. That free speech is extended via the internet to people who have never seen it before. Lionheart continues:
What has become of my homeland, the land my forefathers fought and died for on the battlefields of the world when one of their children is forced into the position of facing years in prison for standing up for what is right and just within British society.
As a tech blog his opinions are not of much interest to us however his ability to express them freely on the net is very much in our interest. Speaking a an individual one may agree or disagree with his positions but it is rather disgraceful for him to be threatened with arrest for them.
I suspect even more than their Christmas shipping record (still not here yet) this will take the shine off new British coins for me from the Royal Mint.
Since two of the first four posts of the year unfortunately have been bad news on the free speech front I've decided to finally add an internet speech category of the blog. I will be very happy if this category gets little need for future use. I'd much rather be griping about Vista or Limewire or talking about the benefits of our PC Guardian service.
Posted by Peter at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
New year I'm under the weather but XP isn't
Well all the snow and all the rush of the New Year and Christmas has finally caught up to me on this 11th day of Christmas. However it still hasn't caught up to windows XP.
Supposedly XP was to be no longer available after the first of the year. But at Dell they are still selling XP desktops and laptops this morning. In fact ordered one with my brother on Saturday last.
We are still waiting for sp1 on Vista. As long as we keep waiting Microsoft will have to count on attrition to force people into Vista.
Posted by Peter at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2008
New Year same thugs
A new year has dawned but the old problem of internet free speech is still among us:
Saudi Arabia's most popular blogger, Fouad al-Farhan, has been detained for questioning, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed Monday. It was the first known arrest of an online critic in the kingdom.Farhan, 32, who used his blog to criticize corruption and call for political reform, was detained "for violating rules not related to state security,"
Unlike many bloggers critical of the Government in Saudi Arabia Farhan used his true name when blogging. It really sticks in the craw to see someone arrested for doing something we take for granted, but in the end the genie of internet speech is just not going back in the bottle and woe betide the the verdict of history to him who tries to stop it.
Posted by Peter at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2008
The great dumping ground
As I've mentioned most of my Christmas Shopping was done online. One location I didn't use was eBay. This is because I thought of it more as a repository of used items. This might be quite unfair to many of the fine eBay stores that exist but for me that's the way it is. (Of course I might have done better there then the Royal Mint where I'm still waiting for my months old Christmas order.)
Apparently I never thought of eBay as an alternative dumping ground for unwanted gifts:
Around a million unwanted Christmas presents are being sold on eBay including some still wrapped......Richard Kanareck, of eBay, said: "Re-homing a present means it will find a new owner who will really appreciate it."
Now that I think of it my wife ordered season 4 of the Adventures of Robin Hood for me from AMAZON.uk forgetting that she got it for me last year. Its not worth returning since shipping back to England is so costly. Maybe I should put it there.
Posted by Peter at 07:57 AM | Comments (0)
Happy New Year and a get well wishes
Today is New Years Day (the 8th day of Christmas). HiWired will as always be open all day to help you with all your tech needs.
To all our customers and to everyone else we wish you a happy and healthy new year.
And on that healthy note all of us at HiWired wish our co-worker Paul a speedy recovery from heart problems that forced him to start the new year in the hospital. We wish him and his family the best at this trying time and look forward to his return to solve the most difficult of tech problems that befuddle our customers.
Posted by Peter at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)