'Evil twin' Wi-Fi access points proliferate

This is a widespread problem and growing, as the article makes clear. I have actually run into it, once, without recognizing it for what it was. I'm kind of ashamed of that, but no one can catch everything.

Jack

A Directory of RSS Aggregators

Because I know how committed to RSS y'all are (rofl, I amuse myself)... I thought a list of the features of many, many RSS aggregators or readers. :)

A Directory of RSS Aggregators

MissM

Compression Comparison Guide Rev. 2.0 Parts 1 & 2

This article at Tech ARP on compression schemes and utilities is a little bit long, but very interesting and somewhat surprising. My favorite Windows compression utility, FilZip is not tested, unfortunately. The results of this test have me thinking of switching to another, though I give up the ability to deal with a couple of the less common compression schemes.

Enjoy,
Jack

The Alky Project

The link above will take you to the blog of one Cody Brocious, who heads up this project. It's goals are to create a wrapper for Windows executables that will allow (among other things) DirectX 10 graphics to run on Intel Macs, Linux and, most importantly, Windows XP. If they do indeed succeed, Microsoft's strategy to entice upgrades to Vista by not allowing the newest games to run on XP is in at least some danger.

If Cody has indeed reverse-engineered DirectX 10's Geometry Shader (probably the key component) it is a great accomplishment. They have formed a company, I guess to monetize the work. You can view their site here.

It's an interesting project. We will have to see how they do.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 04-22-07

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 04-22-07. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Remember Geek Meet 2007 is in two weeks in Boston MA. May 4-6 http://GeekMeet.OnComputers.info

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) For my first offering this week I’m going to put up some thing I stumbled on earlier this month by accident. I was at a site I put up earlier looking at pictures, when I spotted something I thought I would make my desk top picture for a while (I change them often, easily bored I guess), anyway I was at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/ the Astronomy Picture of the Day site. Looking thru the archives saw one titled The View from Everest; it’s a very cool panoramic picture from the top of Mt. Everest. You can scroll the view by using the right, left arrows. I found the view I wanted right clicked, and then save as desktop background. When I saw what was on the desk top I was pleasantly surprised, the entire panorama was squeezed on to the desk top with very good resolution. The well rounded mountains in the distance were extremely sharp peaks with clouds surrounding them like mist, a very surreal picture, I like it a lot. It is an instant conversation starter when I ask people if they can guess where it was taken. Then go to the site and show them the original.

2) The second one for the week for any one interested in science, and pictures. Ever wondered what a volcanic neck and dyke might look like, a hint Devils Tower from the Close Encounters movie is a volcanic neck. Or how about the difference between Lenticular clouds and Cirrus and Alto-Cumulus clouds, there are lots of pictures of different natural formations from the Lithosphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, and Bio-sphere, all with a brief explanation about how it was formed, and links to more pictures of similar formations. http://www.regolith.com/

3) For the Art Bell types how about some pictures of the front, and rear gates at area 51, this site does not seem to be done by a professional, pretty basic picture presentation, but interesting to me because of the amateur feel of the site. There is some information there; I was taken by links to government acts about security. While they explained about trespassing, and photographs, they did not cover the use of deadly force which I had always heard about; I would be interested to read how they can justify killing people who stumble into the area, especially in the days when they said it did not exist. I heard about a guy searching for hidden government sites using Google Maps, and investigating the blocked out areas. Be interested to hear from anyone who might know more about this. Anyway here are the sites. http://www.lazygranch.com (front gate). http://www.lazygranch.com/(back gate)..

4) Last but certainly not lest, this has to be the best Space News site I have found they put up stories daily, usually only hours or minutes old. Lots of links to interesting space related sites. Well worth checking out this one if you are space oriented http://spacefellowship.com/