Despite AOL’s claim, AIM worm hole still wide open

It's like Joe says; "Friends don't let friends use AOL". However; a lot of people do. Disabling the AOL Messenger client until this is fixed (in mid-October) is the recommended course. I have no idea how or even if this affects GAIM/Pidgin and other multi-protocol clients users. I suspect it does not. Still, one can't be too careful and if this is affected by the AIM server, it might be wise to disable that protocol until all is definitely fixed.

Jack

Giveaway of the Day - free licensed software daily. Today: Skype Recorder - Skype Recorder is a surprisingly easy-to-use tool for recording Skype audi

Giveaway of the Day - free licensed software daily. Today: Skype Recorder - Skype Recorder is a surprisingly easy-to-use tool for recording Skype audio conversations. Skype Recorder can record Sky

This is a free download for a Skype recorder. it's only good for 2 hours once you click the site.

Thanks Riley.

IBM CoScripter

Basically, it is a really, really easy to script automation of certain web-based tasks. I just started playing with it on my Linux machine and I think it's a hit. Be warned that this is an experiment and might have some real bugs in it, though I have not found anything to warrant concern in my brief trial of it.

MissM is going to love this. I think the rest of you will, too.

Jack

Stealth Windows update prevents XP repair

Thanks to Scott Dunn at Windows Secrets for this one.

A fix is provided and can be implemented by anyone. I'd recommend this article being saved and printed out, just so everyone has it.

Jack

Next Firefox will tell Google all about you

Yup. It's true. However; the feature is disabled by default. I can see where it might be useful at times, but I doubt I'll be enabling it. It's the Luddite in me. :)

Jack

OpenOffice.org documents within Firefox

I guess this is handy. I passed it by this morning, thinking it was not all that hot, but since then have gotten two emails telling me I need to blog it. So, I guess I will.

Enabling the plug-in that is already part of OOo is a one or two click affair. This gives you editing and save capabilities in OOo and ease of saving as well.

Jack

The Old Calculator Web Museum

The handheld electronic calculator turns 40 this week! Who'd a thunk it?

I can remember lusting after a HP scientific in tech school. Anything to replace those laborious calculations on paper. (I was taking toolmaking and machine design, so no slide rules allowed. We had to be exact for several places past the decimal point.) And when I finally got one, I was the envy of the shop. Everyone came by to use it, until they got their own. And then programmables really made us hot stuff!

Anyway; they're all here, from the desktop model the CPA for your grandparents used to the zoomiest scientific model.

Jack

DRM troubles drive ex-Microsoft employee to Linux | CNET News.com

A security expert who once worked for Microsoft has said he may dump the company's Windows Media Center in favor of Ubuntu-affiliated LinuxMCE after struggling with the software giant's digital-rights management software.

An Ex-Microsoft person thinks DRM is bad: Johansson said that DRM software is not only ineffective, but a waste of money that is damaging businesses attempting to use it to control the way consumers use copyright material.

This was from Curtis, Thanks

AlaskaJoe

Video Professor upset by criticism, sues 100 anonymous critics

I guess friendly looking ol' John Scherer isn't as sweet as he looks.

It's a legal blunderbuss attempt to thwart criticisms which, from what I have been able to tell, are at least somewhat justified.

Jack

Institute urges the EU to unbundle Windows

I don't know if this is going to happen. It seems awfully far out to me. However; if it does, it will be the biggest single blow to the Microsoft hedgemony yet. Imagine buying a computer and then having to choose the operating system at another source. What would you choose? How much would you be willing to pay, knowing some alternatives at least are free?

Jack

KWord 2.0 alpha running on KDE 4 under MS Windows

Don't think MS Office is under attack, as I said on the show? People even have native Linux word processors running in Linux environments on Windows!

While that probably was not all that hard, it was not done as an idle excercise in coding. People perceive MS, and their Office franchise in particular, as vulnerable. Competitors are no longer seen as tilting at windmills, so to speak, but as harbingers of some new period in computing. They could be right.

Jack

Feeling tinfoilish? $5 billion suit against Google over privacy, terrorism

Well, I wonder if the Founding Fathers of the USA intended that a tinfoil hat be no bar to accessing the legal system? Apparently not, because that's how things have turned out.

At any rate, this is one for the books, though at the same time one has to wonder what issues might be raised in a similar suit by a lawyer with a more coherent client?

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 09-23-07

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 09-23-07. 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) Just in case you forgot or did not know, the do not call list against telemarketers expires five years after you signed up. This means if you signed up early when it came out, you will soon be up for grabs again. What this means to you is if you wish to be left alone to eat dinner in peace, or do not want to pay for text messages, or calls to your cell phone, you need to renew your preferences. Odd that it should expire, but it does so time to update, this is the place to do it. https://www.donotcall.gov

2) I saw a kind of scary (at least to me) story, saying that the Arabs are trying to buy 20% of NASDAQ here is a link to that story here, http://www.americanintelligence.us. This brought to mind a subject I brought up a week or two back about the tapeworm economy, if you missed that, or found it confusing I found a better explanation. So, if you want to peek at those monsters hiding in the closet check this out or you could always just stick your head in the sand and hope for the best. http://www.karavans.com

3) Here is one of those illusionary sites, just has a little different twist, it mixes your visual, and auditory. Its pretty strange if you watch the guy talk you hear one thing, close your eyes and just listen you hear something different. Your eyes are giving you information that your brain is interpreting incorrectly, causing you to hear what you see, as opposed to the reality of what the sound really is. http://www.media.uio.no

4) To close for the week one more of the ways we can save the planet, bring back hemp, not pot, industrial hemp. This is an example of how screwed up our society can get trying to control how we live our lives. Just a couple of things one should know, hemp seeds are the most complete food ever tested, will not get you high just good food, you cannot eat enough to even test positive, like a poppy seed bagel. Hemp per acre is hundreds of times more efficient for paper, could save the rain forests, much better for clothes than cotton, as it requires much less chemicals to grow. It is many times more efficient than corn to fuel cars. The list goes on. This is a good site to start learning about the realties of the subject. Not to mention a suggestion how to make some money in the stock market, or start a new business. http://www.reason.com

5) I just wanted to add one more quickie as there are only two days left. The guy who bought the Barry Bonds baseball, the record breaker is taking votes as what to do with it, I voted to blast it into orbit, heck why not if the guy can pay seven hundred thousand dollars for a ball, he can afford to put it on the space shuttle. Just thought you might want to do something totally pointless. http://www.vote756.com