Blog Housekeeping

I have backed up the blog through the previous post. I had to change the template to add the present to the right, and if anybody has any suggestions, please let me know.

As a result of wanting to add a little "sunshine" to your day. (Yes, I do think that the readers of this blog will enjoy this.) Amazon Unbox has the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Video available for free, until February 25th. I've not used Amazon unbox myself, but I am excited about their MP3s as an option to iTunes.

The online options for content are amazing. Since the price for this was right, when I posted, I thought I'd pass it on. Sorry to the bandwidth challenged... (and you know who you are ;) ).

This is a catch all post, so... here's one more thing.
Preliminary Chumby review from CNET (full review coming later this month).
In other open source hardware reviews, Bug Labs is producing open source "modules" that clip together, and function together.

That is all, for now. Have a great weekend, see you tomorrow.
--MissM

Use of Rogue DNS Servers on Rise

Yet another security threat that attacks via the browser. I just thought you'd need to know about this one.

Jack

Microsoft delivers 11 patches, 6 critical; Excel flaw left unpatched | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Microsoft delivered 11 patches on Tuesday addressing 17 vulnerabilities. Six updates fix critical flaws and five address important vulnerabilities, but an already exploited Excel zero day was left unpatched.
Do your Microsoft updates!
AlaskaJoe

More iPhone Hacking

The latest firmware updates for the iPhone have been undone to the extent that the device will once again run on unapproved networks.

The details are a bit above my understanding, but the struggle is fun to watch.

Jack

CNET News.com

Starbucks ditches T-Mobile for AT&T | The Social - CNET News.com
"Ubiquitous caffeine conglomerate Starbucks has ended its Wi-Fi partnership with T-Mobile in favor of one with AT&T.

Under the earlier plan with T-Mobile, Starbucks customers needed a paid subscription to access the in-store Wi-Fi service, and T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers will continue to have access to Starbucks Wi-Fi thanks to an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile. But the new AT&T plan allows all customers 2 free hours per day, with a $3.99 fee for additional 2-hour chunks of time. Monthly subscriptions will cost $19.99 and will enable access to other AT&T hot-spot locations in addition to Starbucks."
This was one reason I selfishly regretted not participating in the OLPC program, a free year of T-Mobile. I know, I know... sorry.
Starbucks ditches T-Mobile for AT&T | The Social - CNET News.com

And its official. Yahoo rejected Microsoft, saying the bid was undervalued.

h/t to Twitter

--MissM (I'm on twitter too, fyi)
P.S. Note to fellow bloggers, I'm going to back up the blog (this week), and update it to try some things :)

Game makers hit out at Apple

I wonder if this little article doesn't give the real reason why the Mac has never been taken up as a serious gaming platform.

Lately stories of the iPhone and other Apple hardware being so tightly controlled have popped up over and over and all of them lend credence to this article.

I guess Apple needs to wake up.

Jack

Microsoft Research's InkSeine coming this Friday

The most likely reason Tablet PCs (as envisioned by Microsoft) didn't take off was/is the lack of a "killer application". Well, that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. There just was not a compelling reason to go out and buy one.

But Microsoft is a big company and at times very secretive about their researches, so we don't get to see what their developers and planners are thinking about and working on much of the time. Now up pops InkSeine, what looks like the basis of the killer app for the Tablet. It is not hard to see Microsoft's release/non-release of this as testing the waters to see if this generates any buzz at all among developers. If it does, I'll bet the little "research project" blossoms into a product development project faster than you can say "Steve Ballmer talks too loudly".

Be sure to follow the link to the features list. I found reading that really whet my appetite for a tablet. That has happened before, but this time things look more or less lined up to give us a really forceful argument for buying one. I hope they continue to develop it and bring it out as an add-on for Vista or as a stand-alone Tablet PC version.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 02-10-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 02-10-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) For starters, this week I thought I would begin with an article possibility related to global warming. When one thinks of venomous critters, the first thing that comes to mind is usually spiders, and snakes. However if you want nasty it is hard to beat the box jellyfish when it comes to a threat to people. Seems it takes about 180 extremely painful seconds to kill a human being. The climate change is creating some serious problems with them, among several other species. The jellyfish has an especially effective survival mechanism it seems if you kill them off, their defense is to, immediately start a breeding frenzy in the billions. Here is the link to an interesting story, documentary movie coming out on the 12^th in England, I hope to find it on the net soon after, if I do I will post a link. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Another example is the yellow jacket wasp, seems they usually die off in the winter, or at least they used to, the average size of a large nest has been about the size of a basketball. Not they are living through the winter and some nests have been as large as a Volkswagen Beetle. Story link here http://www.tuscaloosanews.com

2) This link is one of those about free energy that caught my eye. Woods Hole Oceanographic has a thermal glider that has been operating since December 2007, and still should have another six months left. Has been traveling through the ocean continually for thousands of miles, using zero fuel of any kind other than a couple of alkaloid batteries to operate the computers, and guidance system. Shows the answer to our problems is exercising our creativity. A very cool tool, and a good read http://www.whoi.edu

3) It is about time for a little U.F.O. as I have been rather quiet about the subject for a while. Although, I have been wanting to ask Jack if he has seen anything odd in the Texas skies lately. There have been several stories about sightings in Texas in the news lately with titles like “U.F.O’s and the Bible belt collide”. Anyway, the link I put up is not about that. this is from a Canadian paper about President Eisenhower’s meeting a U.F.O. back in February, 1955. It is about one of those items that came out during the disclosure project recently. http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com

4) On a lighter note, here is a little video on someone who setup an obstacle course for squirrels, smarter than they look. If you have a vending machine at work, you might consider one as a pet, and save a couple of bucks. http://www.youtube.com

5) This is one of those over my pay grade geeky things, but I got it in an email the person who sent it was excited about it in a geeky kind of way. I rather grasp some of it, but not enough to make any sense to me. Anyhow, I am posting it for your consideration. It is about googling your forgotten passwords. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/

XP needs to live until 2009

I'm not sure what is going on here, but I have little doubt this is one step in some sort of carefully scripted dance designed to reinforce whatever decision Microsoft has made regarding whether or not they will actually keep XP alive in deference to the apparent wishes of a large number of people or kill it off in favor of their bottom line. I'm pretty sure I can guess where that one will end up, but I can't see why they might bother to go through the song and dance just to leave corporate policy unchanged.

The dilemma for Microsoft is to either please the segment of their customers who don't want Vista over XP and lose money or forge ahead with forcing Vista on everyone, whether they want it or not. The company risks becoming significantly less respected than they are. All the good work they have done with Vista is being lost sight of. And make no mistake; there is good work there.

I expect this will "resolve" to whatever MS has decided in a month or two. The company will announce that "after careful reflection" they have decided to (fill in the blank). Until then, this is at least entertaining.

Jack

Performance Results Mixed with Vista Service Pack 1

PC World tests the final code for Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). The results are generally favorable, though the performance improvements are not as great as many might wish. The article is an interesting read, though I would wait on more tests by other organizations and researchers before drawing any firm conclusions. It's one of those "your mileage may vary" deals, to be sure and even PC World calls their results "informal" and "preliminary".

Still, it's well worth reading. I enjoyed it, too.

Jack

Apple updates QuickTime security

This happened yesterday and I missed it. Sorry about that.

It's an important update, as one can tell by reading the Apple advisory that accompanies it. The security flaws fixed here are both critical and actively being exploited, though there is disagreement on how widely. They affect both Mac and Windows users.

So, if you have Quicktime installed, patch it. It does not matter whether or not you use it. The application needs patching or you can be compromised. Period!

Jack

Truecrypt 5.0 is out and it's free

For Windows, Linux and now for the Mac OS X!

I've been recommending Truecrypt since Gail convinced me to give it a try, a couple years ago. It did not take long to convince me of Truecrypt's utility. This is the good stuff, folks. Not only does it work, but it saddles the user with the absolute minimum of extra steps through which she/he has to go. Check it out.

Jack

Spotted in the Wild: Rogue Microsoft Update Site

I guess it had to happen, but here is yet another trap for the regular (read clueless) user.

Jack

Why Search in Vista is a Farce

I'm going to start a thread in our newsgroup about this, too. I'd like to hear what you all have to say about it.

Personally, I am against Vista's search for the amount of resources it takes. However; I have not had any problems with the results obtained. I was surprised to see this post and find some others like it.

So, jump over to our newsgroup at news.oncomputers.info and discuss it.

Jack

Holes in numerous ActiveX controls

ActiveX is a grand idea, but Microsoft's execution of it has been plagued since it started with security issues. While that is not terribly surprising, what IS surpising is that Microsoft has not been able to tighten things up, at least enough to stop this seemingly endless parade of alerts. I guess it is as flawed a technology as it's critics suggest.

US Cert is telling users to disable ActiveX, at least for now. You can do that, but it will keep you from getting automatic updates to Microsoft operating systems or other products, such as Office. You also have to enable ActiveX to use Windows Update or Microsoft Update, but once you are done updating, disabling ActiveX is recommended. See this article at Computer World's site.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 02-03-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 02-03-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Geek Meet 2008 in Las Vegas April 11-13

If you are coming to keep watching GeekMeet.OnComputers.info for more information.

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) Well it looks like we have survived TU24 last Tuesday. That means we can start planning what we are going to do in the future. I ran across something on the net that has me daydreaming about a future vacation. It seems there is a company in France planning to build something called a manned cloud. Essentially, it is a 700+ foot long blimp shaped like a whale, with a luxury hotel for a gondola. Complete with restaurants, library, fitness room, and spa. There will even be a sun deck on the top of the helium-filled envelope. Wow! Can you imagine having cocktails at sunset, on top in the open air at about a thousand feet in the air, or how about stargazing with a nightcap before retiring for the night? Check this out it is very cool. http://www.dezeen.com

2) This next site reminds me of something I saw when researching Craigslist. There are groups that do public stunts, like a hundred people accumulating at a mall, everyone entering as individuals mingling with the crowd, then on cue they all start barking like dogs, or something. They just do it for fun; I remember reading an old Sci-Fi book about the concept of flash crowds. The premises was based on teleporting booths, like a phone booth, you could just dial your self any where you wanted to go, every time something was happening on the news, large crowds of people would teleport to the scene. This site is about a group that stages events using groups of people, the one featured here was a couple of hundred people freezing on cue,for five minutes at Grand Central Station in New York. There is video of people’s response, interesting how the uninformed public reacted. http://www.improveverywhere.com/

3) This site covers some of the subjects discussed on the show, I am not sure if it is news to the group, but I decided if some of you are unfamiliar with it I should post it as a source of information. Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University’s Internet Institute are leading this initiative with the support of several prominent tech companies, including Google, Levono, and Sun Microsystems. Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid special adviser. They are a “Neighborhood Watch” campaign aimed at stopping “badware” on the net.http://www.stopbadware.org/

4) This is another “Geek” site I ran across I remember Jack talking about the MacBook Air, so when I saw this I thought it would be a good fit here. The title sort of says it all “Man buys MacBook Air, pulls it apart, takes pics. There is a link to ifixit’s step-by-step disassembly, complete with pictures and instructions, I guess handy if you need to replace the battery. http://www.reghardware.co.uk

5) Have you wondered where the Dot-com pioneers are now? I ran across this article thought it was something that you might be interested it, who is still around, who has disappeared, and who bought who. http://www.webware.com

6) The last one is about the plans to bring broadband to the entire United States; the article is quite current from Jan. 31, 2008. Talks about just how far behind the curve the U.S. is in relation to the world, when it comes to broadband. Discusses what we need to do, and why we are in the situation of loosing ground, what it will mean for our future. The article seem to me to be a must read on the subject, so take the time to check it out. http://arstechnica.com/

Technometria: Ajax Security

"Billy Hoffman gets excited and scary while discussing how as Web sites and traditional desktop software are rapidly moving to the Web via Ajax, the transition is being made with reckless disregard for security. [runtime: 01:09:08, 31.6 mb, recorded 2008-01-23] "I found this very enlightening, and scary at the same time. As more and more websites become user configurable, aka "ajaxy," this is something that those of us on the bleeding edge of surfing web 2.0 need to be aware of. --MissM

read more | digg story

Smart 'Lego' conjures up virtual 3D twin

No IT angle here, folks. But there are times when stuff turns up that is just too neat not to share. This is obviously one of them.

I could think of a number of real-world uses for this sort of device. As the article points out, though, the first thing that seems to leap to the minds of readers is games. One way or another, I hope this triggers your imagination. It sure did mine.

Jack