Floater Ads, the Cousins to Pop-Ups, Evade the Blockers

WARNING: NYTimes is a subscription site.

This is a great article about "floaters". I agree that the higher click throughs are just attempts to close the danged thing.

Of course you can turn off all Flash, or you can selectively block using something like "Adblock" in Firefox. I haven't seen one of these annoying things for a long time, but I agree that when I have seen them they were very, very annoying. They certainly do not give me a warm fuzzy about the sponsor.

Intel and AMD Up the Server Processor Ante

Intel's Irwindale versions of Xeon are up to 18% faster at the same clock as their Nocona predecessors -- and at the same price. These server microprocessors have the same power management, anti-virus (i.e., NX bit), and 2 MB L2 cache as the Prescott desktop chips announced last week. Some sources say the 90 nm cores between the new server and desktop chips are the same, which would be an interesting convergence.

AMD's Opterons move to a 90 nm process at 2.6 GHz, with the front-side bus clocking up to 1 GHz. Cache stays at 1 MB as AMD focuses on memory bandwidth while Intel needs cache bandwidth to keep the pipeline full.

Peter S. Kastner

Tip: Faster Windows Startup

Good article on how to systematically speed up your Windows XP re-boots.

Peter S. Kastner

Adware maker joins federal privacy board | CNET News.com

Thanks to JohnG for forwarding this to me. As he asked, "Is this just the poster child for the fox guarding the hen house?"

Text copy of that FBI masquerading virus

Fortunately, I have a way to view these things plain text, so I thought I'd share this with you all. I have not included the attachment, so there's no danger in looking at this. I've also lightly munged my e-mail address in the header, but you all can probably guess what it is :-).

*****

Received: from [193.115.188.2] by videotexservices.us
(ArGoSoft Mail Server Pro for WinNT/2000/XP, Version 1.8 (1.8.7.5)); Fri, 25 Feb 2005 09:20:19 -0500
From: police@fbi.gov
To: xxxx@oncomputers.info
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:47:33 GMT
Subject: You visit illegal websites
Importance: Normal
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=====5aebe98.6d34e7c6f"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
Return-Path:
X-E


nvelope-From: police@fbi.gov
X-Envelope-To: xxxx@oncomputers.info

--=====5aebe98.6d34e7c6f

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 40 illegal Websites.

Important: Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.


Yours faithfully,
M. John Stellford



++-++ Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
++-++ 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2130
++-++ Washington, DC 20535
++-++ (202) 324-3000
--=====5aebe98.6d34e7c6f
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name=indictment_cit771.zip
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="indictment_cit771.zip"

Tips: iPod Without the iTunes

Like 91% of all hard-disk music player owners, I have an iPod. It took a while -- months really -- to begin to appreciate all the things you can do with it...and play music too. However, iTunes is not the most friendly tool for managing a growing music, especially a large one. For instance, it has limited metadata support, which means you cannot mass tag a sub-directory by genre. And it is slow, even on a recent Pentium 4. This frustration led me to look at alternatives to iTunes for Windows while keeping and expanding the use of my iPod.

This blog is not about all the alternative non-iPod mp3 players, or the many fine software products that do not support iPod. That's for another day.

Player
Nullsoft's Winamp 5.08 is a marvelous, free music player. It has a vibrant user community and a product with lots of plug-in extensions. I like the sound quality on my stereo driven by an AC97-grade PC sound system. However, I chose MediaMonkey, which is built around Winamp but uses the Microsoft Jet database found in MS Access applications. If you have north of 10,000 music tracks, you ought to be thinking about a database and all the database backup activities that go with critical data. You don't want to rate and tag all those songs again in this lifetime, do you?

Winamp and MediaMonkey will play mp3s and Windows WMA songs. They will also play some Apple iTunes mp4 files. However, you should go here and get the in_m4a.zip file, which should be installed in the Plugins sub-directory of Winamp or MusicMonkey. This plug in allows the Winamp and MediaMonkey players to manage and play Apple m4A lossless recordings (see below).

CD Ripping -- Use iTunes and Apple Lossless MP4 (.m4a)
Everybody has a CD ripper: iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, MediaMonkey, Nero, the list goes on. After evolving my thinking -- whole disk drived prices have plummetted -- I concluded the only way to go is to rip CDs with a lossless codec. The reason is that you only want to rip your CDs once, even if technology changes down the road. With mp3s, you are losing sound quality with the mp3 "lossy" compression. A lossless codec takes up more space than an mp3 but does not lose any sound quality in the process. You can Google the subject and be into the bits immediately, or read this article which sums things up. My conclusion is that while Apple has a proprietary lossless codec, it's not a bad one and it sure as heck works with iPod. And I ought to be able to convert form Apple's lossless .m4a format to something else down the road without losing sound quality.

In short, the plan going forward is to rip CDs with iTunes using , then import the tags into the MediaMonkey database, which is about a two-click process. In iTunes, choose Edit/Preferences/Importing and set Import Using to Apple Lossless Encoder. That's it.

Playlists
Use your preferred player, Winamp or MediaMonkey to manage your playlists as .m3u files. Then File/Import the playlists into iTunes. Alternatively, see Ephpod below. Or you can drop tunes directly into your iPod from the player if you have configured Windows to recognize your iPod as a disk. (In which case, you can even defrag your iPod :-)

Metadata Tags: Your Data, Your Way
Sooner or later, depending on how anal you are and how big your collection of tunes gets, you'll want to do some serious tagging. Adding album, date, and genre information, for instance, to keep track of the dozens of versions of "Hey, Joe" on your hard drive. Players have crude tools for doing this, even iTunes. But if your music is spread across lots of directories, you have lots of it, you rip Internet radio streams, or time is precious, you'll want to get a software application that specializes in "mp3 tagging".

I downloaded and tried several. The one I close is mp3 tag studio.

Ephpod, the non-iTunes
Ephpod (pronounced Eef-pod) is a Windows applet that substitutes for the iPod synchronization functions of iTunes. It's free, and for some, allows one to cut the ties to iTunes completely.

Filling Your iPod
Got an iPod and a collection of six CDs? No, don't go to some peer-peer network, get infected with spyware, and end up with a subpoena. Do it legally. Rip Internet radio stations into mp3 files, and you can fill that iPod with the genres of your choice in just a few weeks. First, get familiar with Internet radio at Shoutcast. There are thousands of Internet radio stations playing 24/7. Listen in as free background music. To capture Shoutcast radio, you need an Internet radio recorder application. I like StationRipper. You can capture multiple, simultaneous streams with a broadband connection. Songs get dropped into a separate directory for each radio station, which is helpful because while you can use the mp3s in your player and iPod immediately, I recommend you use the mp3 tagger to extract the artist, title, album, and your choice of genre, and write the mp3 file name and the internal metadata tags consistently.

I find that an Internet radio station has a useful ripping life of 1-2 weeks before the playlist just repeats itself. Some stations are different, but I have never found one that played a new tune every three minutes without repeats! But do the math: at four minutes a song, you'll rip 360 songs a day per stream. By carefully selecting the stations to your music tastes, you can fill that iPod in a month.

I recommend choosing stations that broadcast at 128 kb for MP3s. The quality is noticably better, particularly if you are a finicky listener or plan to crank the tunes up on a stereo. Note that 128 kb WMA streams will have better quality than mp3 at the same rate, but you'll have to import the .wma files into iTunes before they can be downloaded to your iPod (unless you use Winamp, MediaMonkey, or Ephpod to manage your iPod). That said, I have had good experiences with 96 kb MP3s at ClassicalJunk, a light classics station.

Automatic Tagging
MoreTunes is a program that goes out to the web and grabs metadata for tracks playing on Winamp, MediaMonkey and some other players. If you have a bunch of mp3s with just artist-title info, this program can easily allow you to update and expand your metadata while you're listening to music on your PC and reading the Sunday paper. I find MoreTunes is fast, caches its data well, and makes a choice. Other taggers such as MusicBrainz require more work to ferret out the album info.

MP3-Tag Studio provides another useful function: track trimming. Some streaming stations add a few seconds of promo or DJ lead-in to a song. That gets included in the recorded .mp3 file. MP3-Tag Studio can trim off those added seconds with a couple of clicks.

Peter S. Kastner

Microsoft Kills Two Birds With One Activation

Starting next week, the world's top 20 PC OEM's will activate Windows XP at the factory. That cuts the activation hassle for consumers, and reduces call center traffic for Microsoft from irate customers who have activation problems. The other, more hidden benefit to Microsoft is a built-in revenue protection program. This scheme makes it virtually impossible for an OEM to ship a system without paying license fees to Microsoft.

Peter S. Kastner

IBM - Lenovo Deal Security Concerns Answered?

Bloomberg and Reuters report that by keeping foreigners from two of twelve buildings at IBM's Raleigh, NC PC division headquarters, IBM may be able to soon meet concerns by Congress and a government technology transfer watchdog agency. The two buildings are deemed "sensitive" by some government types.

Peter S. Kastner

U.S. appeals court debates anti-piracy TV technology

This small victory may be hollow if the libraries and consumer groups who are challenging the FCC are found to have no standing to bring suit. Arrrgh! Still it seem to me to be a courtly warning shot across the FCC bow.

Eden Redux: IBM Offers Cell to Apple

Interesting speculation on what Apple might be in for with a Cell-based machine running Mac OS X. Short answer: Lots of tuning and maybe not that much bang compared to the G5.

Peter S. Kastner

Spyware Snags Blogger Users

Here's one that hits close to home. Of course your On Computers team will not be installing spyware on this blog... EVER!

Lawsuit Says HP Printer Cartridges Die Before Use

In my opinion, this lawsuit has been a long time coming. Then again, it can be argued that consumers know that they are buying printers that used "chipped" cartridges. Yep, this one has consumers seeing red... ink (groan).

I always have believed that the chip was for one reason and one reason only -- to separate consumers from their money. So why do folks buy these "chipped" printers anyway? One reason is that these printers are often highly reviewed. Second, these printers may also be offered a very good price and may have some wonderful features. And last but not least, the printer may have been part of a computer bundle.

I have long voted against chipped printers with my wallet. Some of the best photo and general purpose printers are made by a company that does not "chip" and does not void the warranty if third-party cartridges are used. The name of this "obscure" company: Canon. Somehow, my printer accurately notifies me of empty cartridges without chips and since the cartridges are clear, a visual inspection easily confirms that the cartridges are truly empty. In fact, I have separate cartridges for each color so I never waste ink. I just change each cartridge as needed. If I use bad ink and have a bad result or need to replace a printhead because of my own folly -- hey my problem. That's fair. ($60 in my case for a printhead due to normal wear and tear, they need to be replaced about every 2 years in any case -- user replaceable)

I think that this issue really does need to be adjudicated. Right now, the makers of "chipped" ink cartridges hold all the cards and are making a rather obscene profit in the process. Seems that Canon is doing alright without resorting to this nefarious "chipping" practice. Sure, I understand the razor and blades idea, but that still doesn't mean that a printer company has a license to steal. Rendering a cartridge useless on an date hidden to the consumer at the time of purchase is just plain wrong, as is designating a cartridge as empty when it is not really empty.

Apple Enables iPod Addictions

More iPod models and iPod pricing news.

Yahoo Instant Messenger Security Flaw

Used by the On Computing broadcast team, Yahoo IM could execute a nasty program. Install the updated version!

Peter S. Kastner

FBI Issues Warning About Computer Virus

This one operates on the theory that you will open anything that looks like it came from the FBI. Read to find out how they get you to open the attachment with the virus.

Google plans web page links. Good or bad?

Google's plans to overlay its own links onto search-result web pages is in beta. Like Microsoft's aborted SmartLinks, web users may consider this "feature" more intrusive than helpful.

Peter S. Kastner

Wireless voice mail isn't safe

Wired News: Paris Hilton: Hacked or Not? [I'm posting this despite my distaste for the gossip ;)]

But, until all the details are released, its difficult to tell exactly where T Mobile was hacked... was it a server intrusion, individual account, etc, etc ???? Wired.com has more info.

One must be active in securing your info and I discovered that some cell providers' voice mail systems validate the source via caller id. So, if the caller id can be hacked , so can your voice mail.[ Ironically, just yesterday I found the setting to do that on my cell phone, then when I checked voice mail, I still had to put in my password, and I thought to myself, another bit of technology that doesn't work, as advertised. Little did I know, this is one thing that will actually keep me more secure. Whew! :D ] Therefore, even on cell phones, one should practice "safe passwording" (did I just make that up?), is the lesson that I get from the articles.

Be secure!

MissM

IBM uses x3 chipset to differentiate in commodity x86 server wars

Sending mainframe architects into the Intel server labs for the past three years, IBM today introduced the X3 architecture for x86 servers -- eServer xSeries in IBM parlance.

The "Hurricane" chipset builds on IBM's Summit architecture, combining off-processor cache, I/O, and RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) functionality. Already the 8-way x86 market share leader, IBM intends to use the x3 to lower prices in the 4-way Xeon sweet spot -- just as that market is juiced up this spring with 64 bit operating systems and dual-core microprocessors. In short, IBM intends to take market share by adding value to what has become a crucial piece of the server market.

Note that the xSeries 366, the first x3 product which is due next quarter, sets a new commercial performance record for 4-way Intel Xeon servers with 141,504 TPM-C and 7,731 queries-per-hour on a TPC-H 300 GB database. The ability to address up to 64 GB of memory and intelligent memory caching are critical technologies to achieving these high-throughput benchmark results.

With a 4-way server priced in the $12,500 range, IBM is likely to drive demand that will continue its strong showing in the mid- to high-end of the x86 server market. This is a product the competition will examine very carefully.

Over time, however, a mainframe-quality chipset, large memory addressing, and strong I/O will only drive more mainframe workloads onto x3-enabled xSeries due to the ever-widening gap between mainframe and xSeries price-performance.

Peter S. Kastner

Intel delivers new 64-bit desktop processors

Intel announced a new Extreme Edition and four 6x0 series desktop uniprocessors yesterday. These will hold down the low-to-midrange "volume" range of corporate desktops for the rest of the year. The high-end performance chips will be dual processors, and are expected in May.

The 6x0 sequence is a continuation of the single-core, 90-nanometer "Prescott" architecture that launched in Q1'04 and has been marketed under the Pentium 4 processor 500 numbering scheme. Like the 500 sequence, the 6x0 sequence features Hyper-Threading (HT) technology, an 800 MHz front-side bus and the Execute Disable (XD) Bit, which works in conjunction with Windows XP SP2 to deter certain types of virus attacks by preventing buffer overruns and corrupted memory.

In addition, the 6x0 sequence goes beyond the 500 sequence with several new features:

-Enhanced Intel SpeedStep™ technology (EIST), which dynamically lowers the processor's frequency and voltage based on its workload. This can help keep the system cooler and reduce fan noise. For example, if you are just doing e-mail, your 3.6 GHz 600 sequence processor could scale down to 2.8 GHz, keeping your system very quiet but not impacting your experience. When you switch to video editing, for example, you automatically kick back up to full speed for maximum performance.
-Extended Memory 64 technology (EM64T), which brings 64-bit extensions to Intel's mainstream desktop product line. EM64T provides headroom for future 64-bit operating systems and applications when Microsoft ships 64-bit Windows XP later this spring.
-Double the L2 cache compared to the 500 sequence, for a total of 2MB. The additional cache can boost performance on most memory-intensive applications or multi-tasking environments by keeping more data close to the processor. Unlike the above features, the 2 MB cache is a feature that AMD is unlikely to counter anytime soon.

The 6x0 sequence processors are compatible with the current family of 915 and 925X chipsets, and will also be supported on the upcoming 2005 chipsets, the Intel 945 "Smithfield" and 955X.

The performance increase of a 6x0 sequence processor to a 500 sequence processor at the same frequency depends largely on the sensitivity of the benchmark to the larger cache of the 600. Benchmarks that aren't cache constrained, like SYSmark, show small, single-digit performance gains. On the other hand, highly taxing operations such as computational physics can see ~30% gain. As a rule of thumb, the additional cache gives a boost about equal to a typical frequency bump (mileage will vary depending on the benchmark).

Initially, there are four SKUs of the 6x0 sequence. All feature 2MB of L2 cache, Enhanced SpeedStep, EM64T, HT, XD bit and an 800 MHz FSB:
Pentium 4 processor 660 3.6 GHz $605 (qty 1000)
Pentium 4 processor 650 3.4 GHz $401 "
Pentium 4 processor 640 3.2 GHz $273 "
Pentium 4 processor 630 3.0 GHz $224 "

The lowest priced 630 and 640 are targeted squarely at mainstream $800-$999 corporate desktop price points. Some 6x0 machines will show up in consumer, but expect the 500 series chips to take up the "value" slots in Intel's roadmap, as the 500 chips have a smaller cache, lack EIST, and may not have EMT64. This makes the higher-price-for-the-same-frequency 6x0 generation a feature play by Intel, and an attempt to raise prices.

The new addition to the Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition family features a core frequency of 3.73 GHz, a 1066 MHz front side bus and EM64T. The new part also moves its 2MB cache from L3 to L2, which decreases cache latency. As usual, the $999 Extreme Edition microprocessor is positioned for gaming and media enthusiasts, as well as workstation-class business applications.

See the Tom's Hardware review here.

Peter S. Kastner

Microsoft Exchange 5.5 sunsets December 31st

The first generation of enterprise-quality Exchange is in its last year of support. It is still in operation at thousands of sites. Exchange 2003 is the preferred upgrade path.

Exchange 5.5 migrations will contribute a modest amount to IT activity this year, but this is not a mega-change.

Peter S. Kastner

Wikipedia down

Just a notice, and a reminder that redundancy on top of redundancy
is good protection and practice.

MissM

Intel Desktop Processors Get 64-Bit Support

It's official. Read the Intel press release here.

Google toolbar move raises online ire

This is one of the stories I should have posted over the weekend. The good news about the Google Toolbar is that the "autolink" (think smart tags) feature is not turned on by default. However, I can see the concern. Google really is the big Internet player now and needs to handle its power carefully.

OCPodcast

This is the On Computers podcast for 02-20-2005. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.

Recall on Xbox power cords,

A brief explanation about the recall of Xbox power cords is
available here

The url in the title is where you can put in your serial number and
manufacturing date, any before 10/2003, and shipping info, and one will be sent to you.
I don't know which will be faster... the SP2 CD or the power cord :)

Well done to MS for recalling all of them!

MissM

The Return of the Shuttle

Can you see my big smile :-D?

Security Pipeline | Microsoft All-In-One Update Testing To Start In Mid-March

YES!

Americans Gear Up for 8th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count

I should have posted this a little sooner because the Great Backyard Bird Count started today. I'm going to talk about it on Sunday. This is a "Citizen Science" project. I counted birds, following the rules for the study, for an hour today (you can do it for as little as 15 minutes) and then submitted my count online. That's the technology aspect of this. While you can submit paper reports via snail mail, this project truly has a large Web component.

What I didn't know ahead of time was that today as the counts were submitted online you you could see on the Web site, in near real time, what birds were being spotted around the country. It was really neat.

I had wanted to do this for several months but had no idea it would be this much fun. You don't need to be an expert. Beginners are welcome but it does help if you can tell one species from another. There are lots of online resources and if you have trouble with an ID, you can even send in drawings or photos for help. I reported 11 different species all in my backyard today.

So if you like this type of thing, read the rules and get counting. It's not too late since as little as 15 minutes for one of the 4 days is a reportable count. The count started today and lasts through Monday.

Federal Aviation Administration, Alaskan Region Weather Cams - (Friday, 02/18/05)

This is a cool web site, If your thinking of coming up here for Geek Meet 2006. Our house is between the camera and the mountains. I'm in the north camera. Federal Aviation Administration, Alaskan Region Weather Cams - (Friday, 02/18/05)

Joe

RSA: Microsoft on 'rootkits': Be afraid, be very afraid

I am, I am, already!

From the "Just When We Thought We Could Secure Our Computers, Dept." If you like scary stories read this.

Gmail Continues to Broaden Beta

I got an e-mail late last evening. It was from Gmail. It has been so long that I had forgotten, but I had signed up when to be notified when I could sign up for an account. Having had the account through my Blogger activity for so long it is a non-event for me. In fact, I venture to guess that everyone who really, really wanted a Gmail account by now has found someone to send them an invitation. However, I see this as another step closer to final release.

Emeril jumps on the IPod bandwagon

Courtesy of Geek News Central [Yes, I consider the source justification for posting here ;)]


In other IPod news, Emeril (if you don't know who Emeril is... well, check out his website [this is totally non geeky!]) has 3 different programs for the IPod. Info about his restaurants, weekly menus and recipes.

Ciao!
:P

P.S. OK, only one of the three actually exists, but the other 2 are coming soon.

HP shows Q1 improvement

HP had a decent first quarter with a record $21.5 billion in revenue, up 10% Y-Y. The PC division revenues were up 11%, with profits improving a margin point to 2.1%. Imaging division wa sup a modest 3%, and servers & storage was up 9%. The services division was up an impressive 20%.

Revenues were up 6% in Americas, 12% in EMEA (helped by a weak dollar), and up 15% in Asia. Personal systems had its best quarter since before the merger, helped by strong corporate demand. HP has stiffened its pricing backbone and is seeing improved margins as a result. Imaging is seeing strong demand for color laser printers and multi-function printer/fax/copier/scanner products such as the 7140xi. The server & storage division saw the strongest x86 business in three years, with revenues up 19% on a 23% increase in units. This was offset by modest 3% growth in HP 9000 revenues and declining revenues for Tandem Nonstop servers. Itanium-based Integrity server revenues doubled in the year. A $33M workforce reduction charge will hit the server & storage division. The Services division is also reducing headcount, even though consulting revenues were up 20% and managed services were up 44% in the year.

Q2 is forecast between a decline to $21.2 billion and a slight uptick to $21.6 billion on a sequantial basis.

Peter S. Kastner

An Embarassment of Riches

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is rapidly becoming aware of a problem with conflicts between the various licenses used. Some conflict in their terms and make development on existing programs problematic. CNet's News.com has a fairly succinct depiction of the problems and possible actions which might be taken to resolve things at the link above.

If you've ever spent time (as I have) trying to explain to corporate types and their attorneys the benefits and obligations inherent in these licenses, you know of the problem. (It's odd for a bloke like me to be lecturing lawyers on what is essentially their trade, too.) A wise company, especially one which will have to do development for themselves on the open source products they use, will pay close attention to these things and they do.

The proliferation of licenses can be controlled and conflicts removed. It's going to be a long term struggle, though. The importance of this can't be overstated.

Jack

Laptop Without a Hard Drive

Because I used to walk everywhere, I always wanted a tough laptop. I figured the toughest one would have no hard drive; instead relying on a few gigabytes of flash memory to hold the OS and data. I've wanted one like that for years now and in flusher times even investigated having one run up for myself.

Now, Hitachi is doing just that. They claim it's quite the robust package. See the link above for details.

Jack

Microsoft Consumer Anti-spyware Tool Will Be Free

This is one of those stories that is all over the place, but that I would be remiss not to post here. Just in case you haven't already heard, Microsoft's consumer level anti-spyware will be free. Where did this announcement come from? This announcment came from Bill Gates himself. So count this as a sure thing.

Exploding cell phone shocks 911 dispatcher | CNET News.com

Exploding cell phone shocks 911 dispatcher | CNET News.com

Y'all be careful!

Testing this blogger button on my google toolbar, so if it messes up, apologies in advance. :)

Updates for Today

Fyi Guys and Gals,
There are updates for Adaware and Spybot today, be sure and grab them.

Sea Launch Current Launch page

Update: If you went to the Sea Lauch site at on February 16, you probably found what I did -- the dates have been changed. It is now February 17, 7:53 pm PST.

Not many of you probably follow this, but I've been watching this for several months now. Later today, if all goes well, XM Satellite Radio will launch its third satellite XM-3. Why should you care? Unless you are a satellite radio fan you probably don't. However, the launch will be Webcast. Besides there are all kinds of other nifty info and pictures at the Sea Launch site. So if you are interested in satellite technology this just may be a fun site to visit and a fun thing to watch later today.

Macrovision Targets DVD Piracy With RipGuard

And from the "how long do you think it will be before it's cracked?" department, here's this tidbit. What upsets me is that the honest people who just want to back-up their DVD's are denied the right to do so. It is as if they are turned into criminals along with the folks who are making copies to sell or to mass share.

No copy protection scheme that I know of has ever fully or permanently protected the content. I doubt that this one will either. All it will do is frustrate legitimate, traditional fair use acitivites and make a lot of consumers angry in the process. Of course content owners have a right to protect their content any way they want, too; but at best this be an inconvenience to their honest customers, and will do nothing to stop their dishonest customers.

Microsoft to Release New Internet Browser

And today's top story is that, according to Bill Gates, a new version of Internet Explorer, v. 7.0 for Windows XP will be released for testing this summer. This update has been needed for a long, long time. Of course there are a lot more questions than answers at this time.

My personal wonderings about this are along the lines of would this have been a natural spin off of Longhorn development, or is this being fueled by the success of Firefox.

How VeriSign Could Stop Drive-By Downloads

I found this story by way of Slashdot this morning. I try not to post just every old thing on Slashdot, but this one is too interesting not to highlight on our blog.

Evidently there are several parts of VeriSign's own contracts that Verisign is ignoring in issuing or not revoking certificates that allow drive-by downloads. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of a drive-by download (and isn't that just about everyone?), this should be of interest to you.

Read the article and see what you think. "After reading it, I think VeriSign could help with this problem by enforcing it's existing contracts if it had the will. I would really enjoy reading Versign's response, if any to this article.

I like to be fair and their are two sides to every story. Does Verisign have a credible reason for not doing something about this? Or have they tried and failed? If so why? So many questions...

A Good Overview of Quantum Cryptography

Canada.com has a nice, lightweight, overview of the burgeoning field of quantum cryptography. It's a good read, easily grasped by the less technically oriented among us.

Jack

Dual core Intel desktops this spring!

The Extreme Edition chip will support dual cores, each with Hyperthreading -- it will look like a 4-way to the operating system. Will come with the 955 Genwood chipset.

The "regular" P4 variation on Prescott will not be HT. Comes with the 945 Smithfield.

My guess is throughput on the EE chip at 3.8 GHz will be ~40-50% better than today's uniprocessor EE @ 3.8 GHz on some multiprocessing applications...but your milage will vary.

Expect mass-market consumer machines based on this new technology on a limited basis in June, and in volume for the back-to-school season starting in July.

Peter S. Kastner

OCPodcast

This is the On Computers podcast for 02-13-2005. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.

Dell Reports (Ho Hum) Another Stellar Quarter

-Revenue of $49.2 billion, up 19%
-Operating income of $4.3 billion, up 20%
-Pro forma EPS of $1.291, up 28%; Reported EPS of $1.18
-Cash Flow from Operations of $5.3 billion, up 45%
-Repurchased nearly 120 million shares for $4.2 billion
-Sold 5.2 million printers; $1.3 billion in printing and imaging
revenue

Dell is Not Just a PC Company

+Enterprise revenue run-rate of $8.5 billion
– Grew servers 40% faster than the market FY05
– Total storage revenues up 180% since FY02
+Enhanced services revenue run-rate of $4 billion
– Enhanced services growth of roughly 40% for past three years
+S&P revenue run-rate of nearly $8 billion
– In FY05, sold over 5.2 million printers; $1.3 billion in imaging revenue
+Mobility revenue run-rate of nearly $12 billion
+Non-US revenues have increased almost 60% over the past two years
+Non-PC businesses are over 60% of revenues

These guys just run like the Energizer Bunny. No end in sight. Turmoil at HP and inability of IBM to close the Lenovo PC deal work to Dell's advantage.

Peter. S. Kastner

I Missed the Show Because of Telephone Problems

Everybody loves to complain about the phone company except us. Well, until recently, that is. SBC has been a wonderful provider for us for years. Lately, though, they've made us frustrated and mad at times, with unexplained charges and (if not outright deceptive) less than forthright sales pitches.

And today my phone died in the hour preceeding the show. What a drag! We'll get it fixed and I'll be back next week.

Jack

Microsoft Posts Major Security Fixes

It's that time of the month again. Windows users should definitely go to the web for the latest security patches -- including 7 critical-level patches.

Peter S. Kastner

Dell's new desktops sport BTX chassis

Very quietly and with amazingly little notice, a new motherboard design/case form factor architecture is ramping up. Today's desktops are all of the ATX generation -- CPU is right-of-center on the motherboard. But today's hot-as-the-sun processors, graphics cards, and all the other stuff we cram into a case have overshot the ability of component engineers to deal with case thermal and noise issues. BTX is an industry standard which will, over the next several years, replace the old ATX kit. Not surprisingly, this will not happen over night for the obvious reason that literally entire factories will have to be re-tooled, as in, for example, cases.

Big changes:

• CPU goes to the front of the chassis, closest to the fresh, cool intake air. A dedicated plastic shroud will be commonplace for the CPU air.
• Better front-to-back air flow paths will minimize areas with poor air flow
• Larger but slower fan(s) with demand-driven variable fan speeds
• Potential for smaller cases, even with top-of-the-line (e.g., hottest) processors

Dell joins Gateway in delivering BTX. Dell's huge volume for corporate desktops will accelerate the shift to more, and cheaper, BTX parts. However, it will be next year before build-your-own hobbyists see BTX case and motherboard choices and prices which surpass the mature -- OK, commodity -- ATX parts market.

Peter S. Kastner

Oops, my bad.

I just plain old didn't realize it until Joanne pointed it out last evening. (thanks Joanne!) . I have posted stories here that were published on subscription only sites. I know that many of you are put off by subscription sites and you will not read an article rather than give them your personal info.

There is a solution to the problem. Of course you could always subscribe. Before I knew there was a another way I did subscribe with almost real information though I always enjoy posing as a 90 year old man (figuring that 90 year olds are not an attractive demographic group to advertisers) just to throw the whole subscription thing off a bit. I have free, online subscriptions to the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and Chicago Tribune. However I don't even bother with them if I don't have to. Instead I use a handy little tool called Bugmenot.

So go the Bugmenot web site, and read all about it. Decide whether you'd rather give a newspaper your personal information so that they can target ads or whatever else they want, or if you would rather use Bugmenot. Some people have a moral problem with evading subscription. I don't have a problem with it for the reasons outlined here.

BTW, I have no problem with what sites like Salon do -- ask you to watch an "ultramercial" (several screens of info with a multi-part ad for a sponsor) and get a day pass to their premium content. That is a fair trade to me, and extremely above board. In fact I actually make an effort to read the ad because I believe it is fair to both publisher and reader. There is no user identifiable registration or subscription involved, and no usernames or passwords to remember.

In the meantime, I'll try not to link to subscription sites, if I can find a non-subscription alternative for the same article. Or if it is truly subscription only, I'll try to post a warning on my article.

What a week I have had! :(

Boy did I have a week! I told you about last week (or was that the week before?) I borrowed some parts out of the computer I used for my encoder (Broadcast computer). I borrowed the RAM and CPU for a customer's computer. He was a programmer and needed his computer. When the new parts came in I went out to his house and swapped the new parts for my parts.

When I installed them back into the computer they came out of, it wouldn't POST! I was Tweaked! I remember when this computer was new last it did the same thing and I had Fry's test the RAM, the MoBo and the CPU, all were OK. All of a sudden the computer started to boot. And ran fine with reboot after reboot.

I was tired of messing with this Cheap ECS Mobo, so I ordered a new Mobo from NewEgg. I ordered an AlbaTron KX600S. It's a very nice Mobo, I have the last version in this computer.

My Problem was it comes with Sata and onboard RAID, and I was not planning on using them now, I'm being cheap and using the two 80GB ATA100 harddrives in the box already.

First I tried to do a repair installation of WindowsXP Pro and it didn't work. OK, This was the encoder computer it didn't have a lot I couldn't live without. So I did a full format and reinstall! Or so I though, Because of the onboard Sata/RAID you have to press F6 to install the drivers before you can install WindowsXP. The problem was it only wanted a floppy. I moved the file I though it wanted to a floppy, but it was an .exe and it couldn't work with that, I guess it need another file format.

I stopped at this point and went to add another GB of RAM to the computer that started all of this.

Problem number 2! :(

I inserted the RAM and when I turned the computer on I got a long beep Yahoo! Then another long Beep, and then a few seconds later another. :(

Monday I am calling NewEgg and will talk to their tech support and see if I can RMA the Mobo and get a new one. (I sure hope I don't have to buy this guy a new Mobo. That would sux since I didn't charge him any labor for this RUSH upgrade. He is a friend and when he placed an ad in the yellow pages last year the Telco screwed up and put him under computer repair, so any calls he received he turned over to me.

The GOOD NEWS is: I got the laptop Encoder back from Best Buy, they only had it for 5 days less than a month this time. (Last time they missed having it for a full month by 1 day.) They replaced the Mobo, I bet the Harddrive they replaced in November was good.

This sure turned out to be a mouth full. Talk to ya live on Sunday.

While writing this BLOG I have been on hold with my wireless ISP, (my download speed is max 133KB/ps tonight) So far I have been on hold listening to the same song on hold for 1 hour and 50 minutes. How long should I stay on hold?

Tune in to find out.

Joe Polinsky AKA AlaskaJoe

Security | News.blog | CNET News.com

This is a potpourri of security related information from Cnet. Some of it you may have heard before, some not. But if hearing any of it saves anyone some grief down the line, it is worth reading.

SCO's Hometown of Lindon, Utah, Declares Emergency

Okay; This is humor, folks, so don't email me about the facts. I just saw this and thought everyone else deserves a look at it, too. As with all decent satire, there is more than a grain of truth in it. Enjoy

Jack

Broken Links Lined With Gold for Paxfire

Here's a story that I missed almost 2 weeks ago, but it is good enough to go back to today. Remember when Verisign/Network Solutions tried to redirect any non-existent domain to its niftly little search and pay-per-click ad page? Well here is a company who is trying to sell the same thing to ISPs at the ISP level.

If my ISP discounted my service for having to put up with this nonsense I might consider it. But if I'm paying them for the privilege and get nothing but annoyance, it certainly would be time for me to find another ISP that doesn't subject me to that kind of garbage.

I really get tired of my eyeballs being a commodity for someone else to make money from.

Patch now against virus-writing clowns

Another antiivirus company with a big flaw problem. This time it is the F-secure folks with the problem. Does this stuff just feel like a never ending battle?

I haven't even posted all of them I've seen this week. There is even a trojan out there that is targeting the MS Antispyware Beta. I guess I didn't mention it because it is a beta and frankly, we've had a lot of news on the MS front this week, so I really was trying to lay of off of them just a bit because this was a deliberate attack against a beta version. Other than that, many of the reports about MS Antispy have been like this one: Microsoft's Free AntiSpyware Beta. In other words: good.

Sender Authentication Widely Used To Fool Spam Defenses

Did you think that SPF and Sender ID would stem the flow of spewage into your e-mailbox? Seems it is about as effective as a DMA friendly CAN-SPAM law. Personally I have always bought into the idea that the spammers would use the very authentication tools designed to stop them to authenticate the spam, thereby letting it breeze by any defenses the hapless end user has put in place.

Personally I have found a combination of checking e-mail against both personal and community blacklists (I find SpamCop pretty effective) and Bayesian filters to be about 98% effective. I have to hand sort the rest of it. I have very, very few false positives -- so few that it is really not an issue. Also I use an anti-spam client which will allows me to restore an e-mail deleted by mistake.

There is only one way to stop spam and that is if nobody buys anything from spam, or nobody falls for phishing. That's not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.

HP's Software Strangles Worms

This is a very cool idea. Basically if "Virus Throttle" suspects malicious code, it stops the computer from making connections and notifies the admin.

Sadly this is only available for certain HP products, but then again, the good news is that this is available for certain HP products. It will be intersting to see if this kind of thing is implemented for other systems. I suppose that depends on whether it is patented, what the license terms are, and all that other good legal IP stuff.

Microsoft to Make MSN Messenger Fixes Mandatory

This is just a heads up for users of MSN Messenger.

Hands off our Wi-Fi network!

It is to nice to see this problem illuminated.

Yahoo Releases Toolbar Beta For Firefox

As Firefox picks up steam I believe that we will be seeing more and more familiar tools being offered in Firefox versions. In my opinion, it is this sort of support from third parties which will make moving away from Internet Explorer ever easier.

Does this mean that I think that folks who love Internet Explorer don't have a right to their choice? Not at all, though the security issues surrounding ActiveX still concern me. However, the most important thing for me is that we all have more than 1 viable choice of browser on the Windows Platform. To that end, I'm cheering -- Go Firefox!

Symantec flaw leaves opening for viruses

Speaking of security, if you are running any Symantec (Norton) security products you need to make sure that they are patched. Not much for me to say. Patch first, then read the article.

Windows Desktop Security Guide

Okay; It is true I've been up all night and when I get this tired, lots of things that normally would not look good, do. Still, I read this guide to securing a Windows 2000 Professional or XP Home or Professional desktop twice and it seems to have it all. This is the common sense stuff we try to convey as often and as interestingly as possible condensed into 3 pages. Give it a look and pass it along, please.

Jack

Judge slams SCO's lack of evidence against IBM

Yes, indeedy do.

No partial summary judgement, but the legal eagles agree that this does not bode well for the SCOsters.

Sirius Says Approached Apple on Adding Service

Satellite radio fans would probably love an iPod that could also receive and record satellite radio. Obviously Apple was totally underwhelmed by the idea. Right now, XM offers the Delphi MyFi which will record up to 5 hours of radio broadcasts. What the MyFi lacks of course is a way to download and store that recorded programming to your hard drive, or the ability to upload and play recorded music or other programming, includng podcasts, to the device.

As I read this article, there was other news in the Sat radio world like this article about AirTran and XM. I wonder if AirTran will offer a full menu of XM or only offer limited service like the pared down DirecTV offerings I've experienced on Frontier. Will AirTran only offer a subset of XM channels?

And by the way, one thing that the FCC mandated, but that no one has mentioned at all lately, is satellite radio receivers with the ability to receive both XM and Sirius. As far as I know there hasn't even been a whisper of this from either company for a long, long time. Also, the rumored XM and Sirius merger that was hot news a few weeks ago has quietly sunk back below the radar.

On the XM front (which as a subscriber, I'm a little more intimate with than the Sirius front) I am wondering exactly how and on what channels XM will place Major League Baseball. I am wondering why no announcement of the final details have been made yet, though I have no doubt that the deal is secure and that the games will air. What will the sound quality be and will other channels be moved or removed in order to air the baseball? XM has been extremely tight lipped on this.

Update: Here's some info from the AirTran Web site about the XM and Elton John deal. Looks like a pretty full selection from the XM menu to me.

Microsoft releases 'critical' patches

This article from CNet announces the Windows patches that we have been anticipating this past week. They were released today.

I've already updated and had no problems. I spoke to Joe earlier in the day and he has updated, too. If you don't have Windows Update set to at least notify you when patches are available, don't forget to go to Windows Update and get your patches.

Microsoft Acquires Sybari Software

Announcement details

· Microsoft announced that is has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sybari, a privately-held company based in East Northport, NY. Sybari security products help more than 10,000 businesses worldwide protect their messaging and collaboration servers from malicious software. Terms were not announced.
· The acquisition is part of Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to helping its customers become more secure. Enterprise customers face a complex set of attacks through their Internet-facing servers, notably their e-mail and collaboration infrastructure. In a recent ICSA Labs survey, email attachment was cited as the means of infection in 88 percent of virus incidents – even though 94 percent of those companies said they had AV protection on their email surveys. As such, there is a need for better email server-level protection.
· This acquisition reflects Microsoft’s deep commitment to security. Following deal close, support will continue to be provided for the entire current Sybari product line across all technology platforms.
· The acquisition also shows Microsoft’s continued support for the partner ecosystem. Because the Sybari antivirus solution enables the use of multiple scan engines, Microsoft will work closely with a myriad of partners to help business customers guard against viruses, worms and spam.

The press release can be found here

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is Microsoft acquiring?
Microsoft plans to acquire Sybari’s intellectual property, its employees, its facilities, its customer base, and the existing agreements that Sybari has with leading technology vendors. We will work to ensure that the agreements Sybari has with its technology partners remain intact. This will give customers more choice, but more importantly it gives them protection from the latest threats.

How big is Sybari, and how many people does it employ?
Sybari security products help more than 10,000 businesses worldwide. The company has between 275 and 300 employees. Specific details on the company’s financial and operations can be found as part of Sybari’s S1 filing.

What are your business integration plans?
Following deal close, support will continue to be provided for the entire current Sybari product line across all technology platforms. Microsoft plans to continue to license most of Sybari’s product line as well.

Why did you select Sybari for acquisition?
Sybari Antigen antivirus products help deliver reliable server-level protection and improved virus detection rates through a unique multiple scan engine approach. This gives customers choice and the most up-to-date protection possible. In addition, because Sybari products already tightly integrate with Microsoft® communication and collaboration solutions, they were an ideal candidate for this type of acquisition.

How is this acquisition related to your earlier acquisition of GeCAD?
The GeCAD acquisition enabled Microsoft to deliver cleaner tools to help customers recover after the Blaster, MyDoom, Sasser, and Download.Ject infections as well as providing the Microsoft malicious software removal tool to more than 133 million PCs and helped Microsoft deeply understand the virus problem. It also gave the company an antivirus engine which can be developed and licensed as part of Microsoft’s strategy to address the security needs of its business customers. Sybari complements that capability by adding the technology to integrate AV into collaboration and communications infrastructure. This acquisition will enable Microsoft to provide the GeCAD engine as one of the engines that customers can choose to license with the Sybari server products.

Company Profiles

Sybari:

Cell computer details announced. Don't hold your breath!

IBM, Sony Corp., Sony Computer Entertainment, and Toshiba Corp. said today that the companies had "powered on" the first workstation using silicon designed around the collaboratively-designed "Cell" processor, which will begin pilot production next year.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a 2002 patent described the idea of software "cells" using chunks of data that are bundled with programming code needed to process the data. The Cell computer announced today uses a dispatch computer and eight execution engines, each of which can simultaneously work on its own data. To me, the software cell concept fits the fifteen-year old definition of an "object", also defined as a package of data and processing instructions. So, let's think about the Cell computer as an architecture designed to execute object-oriented (OO) code extremely efficiently. Today's computer architectures do not run pure OO code very effectively -- the overhead costs of managing the tens of thousands of objects found in a decent sized enterprise application result in 30-second response times on even the fastest server processors available today, my sources say. So enterprise C++ and Java oriented application designs are often truncated to be sorta object-oriented in a very linear, transaction-oriented fashion that maps better to today's leading computer architectures.

Enter the Cell processor. IBM says the one-rack Cell processor-based workstation demonstrated today will perform at the 16 teraflop level -- something that required a multi-million dollar Cray supercomputer a decade ago. The IBM Power architecture-based chips are scalable. Sony invested $325 million into IBM fabrication technology to use the Cell processor in its next-generation Playstation 3 console, expected in a year.


My first reaction is that the workstation using the 8-way Cell processor is not what will appear in the placated 3 -- not by a long shot. It will be very hard to drive 8 cores at 4 GHz in a production manufacturing product in 2005. If Intel and IBM cannot do 4 GHz on mass market (or even specialized) microprocessors like Prescott, what am I missing about clock/heat issues?
The cell computer die size of 221 mm on 90 nm fabrication unveiled by IBM is absolutely HUGE and therefore hard to make -- costly too. Note that Intel's Prescott is 122 mm at 90 nm, almost 100 mm smaller per side. The cell processor chips will cost a fortune to make! Too many defects in chips that big lead to lousy yields per wafer, the basic economic measure of semiconductor production. Expensive fabrication is OK on, say, an Itanium or Power processor retailing for $3,000 for an enterprise big-iron server, but horrific on a CPU for a $150 retail Sony game console. I really doubt that Sony is going to use anything like 8-way, 221 mm dies and a 4 GHz clock in their Playstation 3 design -- the technology risk of getting the placated 3 out by early 2006 with these specs is huge. Expect a (very) slimmed down version of what IBM showed today in your next Playstation.

What Sony can do with the Cell processor is combine the functions of two complicated, expensive game console parts -- the central processor and the graphics processor unit (GPU). It should be clear now why nVidia walked away from Sony last year. The Cell processor will do the work of nVidia GPU silicon, saving chip and integration costs. In addition, the on-chip I/O capabilities of the Cell processor should reduce the chip count compared with traditional (i.e., Microsoft Xbox) designs.

What am I missing to make this pipe dream a reality? Software development tools! The mature ecosystem around any of today's (surviving) microprocessor architectures allows thousands of programmers to churn out the applications that run the world. Cell processors will have to build that ecosystem. While the learning curve is steep, the business costs and risks are highest. Say you want to develop a game for the Playstation 3? Expect to invest millions in training, development tool R&D, and the costs of porting your existing intellectual property to the new Cell processor architecture. That suggests Microsoft is betting its next generation Xbox, built with traditional software tools, will be more attractive to game developers than than the sexier Cell processor and a dearth of tools -- at least circa 2006.

All is not from scratch, however. There are numerous OO language compilers available through open source and IBM which can generate the pure OO code that will make cells hum. IBM was correct to demonstrate the first Cell processor prototype on a workstation application, as opposed to a transaction-based server application. Lots of scientific code has already been "parallelized" to run on multiple machines at once. So, the second analogy for the Cell processor is an 8-way computer "grid" on a chip. This will be attractive in visualization and desktop- and departmental number crunching -- everything from computer-aided design to life sciences to financial derivatives and Monte Carlo simulations.

This grey-haired writer remembers the 1960s announcement of the System/360, an architecture first that later became the mainframe business bonanza that generated IBM billions. If IBM and its partners do a tenth as well as the System/360, they will have hit a home run. I think they can. But the payoff of the Cell processor architecture will be measured in decades, not in 2006 market share.

Peter S. Kastner

Intel's 90 nm Prescott silicon specs.

Experts predict Firefox spyware will show up this year

This Newsforge item was forwarded to me by JohnG. As he lamented "It's also sad, but we should have known this was coming."

Googling the Bottom Line

I read this article last night and came back to it again this morning. That must mean I gotta post it. Anyway, this is about the fascinating world of Google results and what good placement in Google results can mean in business dollars to a company. This is part of the reason that we have to deal with the link spam and other stuff I expounded on in a previous post here.

Funny thing is that in my own business I've played the game straight and have made no attempt to "cook" the results. I've spent no time or money trying to come out on top. Yet if I google for "airplane antennas" (without the quotes), my very own business is the first result; and to date, has been that way for a long, long time. This proves that being the top link to a simple, pertinent search phrase doesn't always send mega-bucks your way. Or in other words, don't call me asking for money just because I have a top google listing. Then again, I'm not in any hurry to try to get a lower placed listing, either.

Gmail gearing up for full launch?

I've just checked my Gmail account, and it's true. I have 50 invitations sitting there.

I've been very pleased with Gmail and the price is right. The fact that it is now both POP and Web based makes it a real valuable tool. Needless to say, my Gmail account hasn't been my usual free, anti-spam, throwaway account. The 1000 MB of storage has made it very handy when friends want to transfer a large file to me (and they can't figure out how to use FTP -- which is most of my friends).

Blade Servers Begin to Catch On

With 2004 sales north of $1 billion and a 5% market share, blade servers are accelerating up the adoption-curve hockey stick. Author of this link, Timothy Prickett Morgan, asks why the adoption rate isn't even faster? The answer is IT inertia. Even the next best thing -- virtualization, dual cores, name your own favorite -- just takes lots of time to work its way into decade-long IT buying cycles. Today's rack-mounted servers replaced stand-alone Unix or tower x86 servers (e.g., the Windows NT generation). Yet the adoption cross-over from tower to rack-mount only took place three years ago, almost a decade after Compaq introduced the first Proliant rack-mount server.

At the end of this decade, the hot ticket will be four-way blades with 16 processor cores on 4 microprocessors. With then-maturing hardware and software virtualization capabilities coupled to better remote, hands-off systems management and operations, I predict each blade will be able to replace an entire rack -- and sometimes two racks -- of today's installed servers of circa 2002. That means a single, full blade cage will be able to free up literally hundreds of square feet of datacenter real estate. It will be the Storage Area Network that becomes the big real estate consumer as server floor space declines. But a parallel trend towards high-density SATA drives for enterprise applications will allow for much denser (but slower retrieval and lower duty cycle) storage in the same five-year timeframe. With this increasing density, the server capacity for a pretty good size enterprise, say 5,000 employees, would fit in a standard 42" rack. Just be careful not to kick out the power cord.

Peter S. Kastner

Who is Peter S. Kastner?

Peter Kastner has over thirty-five years experience in information-technology business and market development, management, and entrepreneurial success. He is a regular radio show host and blog contributor at the OnComputers web site.

He began his career in product development and marketing for applications software products at Wang Laboratories. For about a decade, he was a consultant and program manager with Arthur D. Little, Inc., where he was actively involved in the management and delivery of complex technology development and systems integration projects that spanned the manufacturing, banking and financial services, health care, and government markets in the U.S. and Latin America. He led Prime Computer’s market development into commercial markets, and managed marketing and sales programs at Stratus Computer from initial product launch to beyond the company’s IPO. He later was a marketing executive with Digital Equipment Corp., where he led the company’s entry into new commercial computing markets with standardized computer performance benchmarks.

In 1988, Kastner co-founded Aberdeen Group, a technology market research and consulting firm. His consulting experience includes more than 100 projects. He built the company’s practices in PCs and digital lifestyle, databases, application development, knowledge management, e-commerce, and enterprise business applications. In 1998, he became chief operating officer. The company tripled revenues in three years. He is a member of the board.

Peter S. Kastner is a director at Vericours, Inc. He can be reached at peter@oncomputers.info.

IBM iSeries Customers in Religious Battle: Java or .Net?

Here's a mature platform with an admirable pedigree: the IBM AS/400 nee iSeries. With several hundred thousand installed in an 18 year architectural life, the iSeries is still alive -- if not kicking -- after 18 years while former competitors like the DEC VAX are on the way to the computer dustbin.

What's interesting is how many iSeries sites are "RPG locked in amber", unable or unwilling to move up the modernity curve with an object-oriented development environment (OODE) such as Java or .Net. By not moving, iSeries shops become a (still modest) risk to IBM that they will be poached by a competitor, likely a more open platform with, say, industry-standard servers and Linux or Windows Server. But moving to a new OODE is beyond the training budget and sometimes the skill set of many iSeries shops. In essence, these shirt-sleeves shops have no time or dollars to go learn a new OODE, let alone migrate the shop to a new software application set. In this scenario, IBM loses the opportunity to sell its Java-core Websphere suite. Microsoft too has a tough sell as the essence of the business proposition is "surround with Windows and then migrate".

Why care? The iSeries is a multi-billion dollar global market. It won't run green-screen applications with RPG forever. Tried to hire an RPG programmer out of college recently? They do not exist. Therefore, iSeries shops must change eventually. IBM and Microsoft are jousting over these customers by playing OODE religion cards to get at the software heart and souls of the iSeries market.

Peter S. Kastner

OCPodcast

This is the On Computers podcast for 02-06-2005. If you prefer, you can download the the same file here via ftp.

Nod 32 Info

Just an fyi guys, Nod will scan rar files. As well as several other compression formats. Hope this helps y'all out.

Which microprocessor for your next toaster?

All the major microprocessor manufacturers are drooling over the next generation of digital lifestyle electronics, driven by digital CPUs, stored programs, operating systems and all the development tools available for servers and desktops. Units will be measured in billion over a decade, so market planners are paying more than the usual attention. While digital toasters are not on the 2005 Christmas list, I think this trend is worth watching.

Peter S. Kastner

Napster takes rental media to portables

Gearing up for a US$30 million anti-Apple iPod marketing campaign, Napster wants customers to download music to MP3 players as well as listening on their PCs -- all legally. The dig against Apple is that the entire Napster library is available, while iPod content costs $.99 a song (at least to do it legally :-)

While rental content has no yet caught on, I continue to take the pulse. Napster and its competitors like Rhapsody (Real Networks) offer online playlist creation, entire artist catalogs, and genre Internet radio casting. But stop paying the montly fee and all the bits are useless.

This is a topic worth watching.

Peter S. Kastner

IBM PC buyer Lenovo has piddling profits

With profits of $42 million in its latest, China's Lenovo will take three or four decades to pay off the $1.25 billion the company will pay for IBM's PC business, a pending deal. Revenues declined to 6.31 billion Hong Kong dollars ($809 million) from 6.55 billion Hong Kong dollars a year ago. Given the rapid growth of China's PC market -- the fastest growing in the world -- this is not a good report for a company which needs to make a global name for quality and stability, property's most cited by IBM customers.

Peter S. Kastner

HP invents transistor replacement?

By criss-crossing very thin platinum, HP thinks it may have a 2-3 nanometer potential replacement for the transistor. Since the transistor may not scale well below 33 nanometers -- in two generation from today's 90 nm -- HP's lab work may prove to be seminal.

Peter S. Kastner

Slashdot | Microsoft Seeks Latitude/Longitude Patent

Slashdot | Microsoft Seeks Latitude/Longitude Patent

More news of the strange, this time via Slashdot. I could say, perhaps Microsoft has lost its bearings? Or maybe, in a coodinated effort, Microsoft attempts to patent global grid? Or perhaps we just ought to throw in the proverbial towel and note that Microsoft seeks to patent the world. Oh, but we already knew that ;-)

Pay radio gets personal | CNET News.com

Pay radio gets personal | CNET News.com

This isn't really new, news. It's just that the NYT has gotten around to commenting on satellite radio in general, and XM's MyFi, in particular. Of course we posted a link to a copy of the article that doesn't require a registration in order to read it.

Cattle... er, Casting Call for Bloggers

Do you like tech? Do you like to weigh in with your 2 cents about IT news? Are you a regular participant in some aspect of the On Computers show, like OC or ICUG IRC chat or the OC newsgroup? Then do we have a job for you. Yep, you too could become a contributor to this blog.

What's the commitment? How about one link to an interesting IT or other geek culture story that has not yet appeared here with your personal commentary about that story per week. Take a look at the stories so far and you'll get an idea. And of course original, personal tech stories are always welcome. All we ask is that you keep it clean and that you link to the pertinent stories and comment on them in your own words. In other words, don't post the work of others as your own.

Interested? Just click on my profile in the contributors list, get my e-mail address, and drop me a line. Tell me who you are, how long you've been participating in our chat or newsgroups, and your nick in the chat or newsgroups. Last but not least, tell me why you'd like to blog with us and the way in which you think you would most like to contribute.

Joining the On Computers blogging team will require that you sign up for a free Blogger account, so keep that in mind before you apply.

The RIAA Strikes (Out) Again

Yahoo! News - Music Industry Sues 83-Year-Old Dead Woman

Our own Javabeanz (Gari) sent this strange story to me yesterday. Even the dead aren't safe! Even when she was alive, she probably would have said "MP3, what?" Even worse if she were still alive, imagine an innocent 83 year old woman being threatened with a law suit that she didn't understand. If she weren't in the grave already, it could have put her there.

People Get Ready, There's Some Updates Coming

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification

February 8. Be there or be square.

What a Day!

Before I launch into the vagaries of today, I want to take a moment to welcome and thank all those who have signed on to contribute to this blog. This includes the newest contributor to the blog, but a familiar name with the show: Welcome and thanks Peter!

Speaking of newcomers, Nate, a.k.a. Giant One jumped "write in" with his story of his friend's rent-to-own saga, If you haven't read it yet, scroll down and take a look. Well done, Nate!

Now on to my day. It had an inauspicious start as I pulled myself out of bed shortly before 6 am, literally threw stuff in my bags and spent the day on a long drive down to Los Angeles. The further south we got the warmer we got. Then we got into the what is now a 24 hour rush hour on the freeway near downtown LA. Between the heat, that I'm not currently acclimated to, the fumes, and the lack of sleep, I arrived at the hotel with a raging headache. Everything combined to make my head pound, but mostly, it was the exhaust fumes.

But... but... but the hotel had broadband so all was well and relaxation and recreation online were close at hand, right?

Oh no. Life is never that simple. There was no wireless, but not to worry, I had an Ethernet card along and several hunks of cat5. As I booted the computer I realized that all was not well. Windows was asking for a driver for my Ethernet adapter. I furiously searched through my CD case. No, I hadn't thrown the CD with the driver in. Then I anxiously searched the hard drive, knowing that I had very few files archived there. Oh, of course I had the driver for the wireless adapter, but of course, I didn't have the Ethernet driver. The driver was only a download away, but with no way to connect the Ethernet, no Internet. Oy!

So I returned to look through my CD case hoping something would turn up. And there I saw it -- an old Knoppix CD. It was old but it was one I knew worked on this computer and one that worked perfectly with the Ethernet adapter. So I booted and the real fun began.

The only trouble I had getting on the Internet using Knoppix was that I had to call the hotel front desk for a password in order to use the broadband service in the hotel. But I was soon connected and at the Netgear Web site downloading the driver. If you've never used it, Knoppix runs from CD in virtual memory. I figured writing the file to my NTFS partition would be a problem, but I had plugged in my flash drive and had no trouble reading it. Since that is formatted in FAT, no prob writing the driver file to that, right? Linux does FAT just fine, right? Wrong! Knoppix would not write the file to the USB flash drive.

So I tried the hard drive and no surprise there -- no go. Then I found a floppy rattling around my computer bag. Rattling for a little too long -- wouldn't read, wouldn't format. I flung the worthless floppy on the floor. By now my freeway fume induced headache was pounding. I was so very near and yet so completely far from having the driver.

This time I rebooted with my USB CD burner plugged in and turned on (this machine is on the older side and the built in CD is not a burner). On more trip through the CD case yielded my only fresh CD-R. I had one chance to get this right. I had burned a CD on this burner from this copy of Knoppix before and was guardedly hopeful. So I downloaded the file again (the first download had been on a virtual disk in RAM and lost when the computer was rebooted). Then I burned the whole 350k file to a 700 MB CD. What a waste, but I had to do what I had to do. Knoppix reported the burn was successful and I rebooted hopefully.

When I rebooted to Windows, it dutifully asked me for the missing driver. Or course it was zipped on the CD. I forgot that, pointed the add hardware dialog to the CD and everything hung. I finally had to shut down my machine, and no, it wasn't graceful. So now had I managed to trash everything? Happily no. I rebooted, unzipped the driver, and installed the new hardware.

So the moral? There are several. Don't accidently delete your Ethernet driver. Don't pack in a hurry when you are asleep. If you carry a floppy, carry several that aren't 10 year old former AOL disks. Carry a CD with all your essential drivers, especially the ones you need to get on the Internet to download more drivers. It never hurts to ask Tux for help. And last of all, when driving on a freeway in LA, don't breathe the air.

Buyer Beware Part 2

So, once again we are stuck at the rent-to-own store. My friend decides that she wants a laptop for portability. The first “offering” from the store was an IBM think pad, which normally are very nice machines. However, XP needs more than 128 MB of ram to run. The machine was choking just running the OS, so back it went. Then yet another machine that had similar oddities. Finally, they sent her out of town to another store to an hp pavilion with a p4 running 256 MB Ram. She brings it to me for initial setup only to find a disk error. This time the rental store actually seemed to care about her satisfaction, after evaluation they sent the machine back to hp. Roughly a week later, she finally got the machine back. I ran the normal setup that I do: windows updates, spy ware removers, anti-virus, etc. The machine is stable and humming right along, she’s happy, and get this… They have decided after all her trouble, she gets yet another “price break” on this machine too.
In conclusion, I still don’t agree with the whole “rent-to-own” scheme. They do not seem to have any technicians for simple repairs, but are finally willing to stand behind the customer to make things right. So if you feel the “rent-to-own” option is something you are considering, be careful. Do your homework on what specs you feel are right for you, talk to other computer users and ask around. Owning a computer should be enjoyable not another frustration. (Thinking “if only it were that easy.”) P.T. Barnum has been quoted by history as saying “one born every minute.” Do your homework and you can say “wasn’t me.”

Overclock Your Mac Mini

Overclockers have gotten to the Mac Mini. That sure didn't take long, did it? The link above will take you to a page where the resetting of mainboard jumpers is detailed. It's easy and the lower priced 1.25 GHz machine runs just fine at the 1.42 GHz of the higher priced edition, meaning the only difference between your overclocked box and the premium one would be the size of the hard drive.

Kinda makes it hard to cough up the extra $100 for the upmarket one, doesn't it?

Jack

Why Don't We Have Open Comments?

Interview with a link spammer | The Register

If you've never heard of it, it's alternately called link spam, comment spam or blog spam. It is the insertion of links into blog comments. Often these links are PPC -- pills, porn, and casinos. In other words, things that most blog owners do not want in their blogs.

So one way we are battling the possiblity of these sorts of things turning up in this blog is to limit commenting to those folks who are members listed as contributors (the list is over on the right hand side of this page). It is a shame that we have to limit your free speech and interaction with us in this way. However, there is a workaround. If you want to make a comment about a blog entry you can e-mail it to the contributor and ask that they post it as a comment, or if their e-mail is not listed in their profile here, you can always send it to me and I can forward it to them. There is still no guarantee that your comment will appear in the blog, but it does give you the opportunity to interact with the author.

I always feel sad when a large group's rights are undermined by an unsavory few. A couple of years ago I had to close down the guestbook on my personal Web site because of a similar phenomena called "guestbook spam". Since I always have copies of entries e-mailed to me (comments here get e-mailed to me, too), I was quickly able to know about and delete the offensive entries. But after three days in a row, I decided that the best course of action was to remove the guestbook. Sad but true.

No one is immune from blog spam. Doc Searles (warning: contains some spam for presumably offensive links), a leader of the Linux community, has been hit on his popular blog . This is the highest profile example I have found to date.

Perhaps someday we will be able to have more open interaction here. In the meantime, in order to keep our blog a reader friendly experience, commenting is the privilege of the contributing few.

Buyer Beware Part 1

This will be the first part of an informative "story" that happened to a friend of mine. If any of you should find yourself in the market for a new pc soon, take this story with you in the back of your head. A very close friend of mine decided to hit one of those "rent-to-own" stores for her desktop pc. She made her selection, got home to find that xp was never properly installed. When she called and ask the store about it, she was informed they could "look" at it. Also, informed her they would have to probably send it back to the factory to be "fixed." Instead she called me, I went over and got xp working only to find a small barrage of porn dialers, viri, and the like. Naturally she was horrified, thank god she didn't buy this computer for her kids. Eventually we found out that store "policy" is to re-image the drive between users. However, as you can clearly see this did not happen. Upon completion of getting it running, she informed the store of my "miracle". To which they responded with, "see if he wants a job as a tech making $7/hr." After all this hassle, they finally gave her a major price break. She has been happy with it's performance ever since.
But, two things stick in my mind: one, the fact that this machine was brought into a family home with severe porn infections, unknowingly. The other, is the pricing policy of these stores. I realize that they need to make money, but it would appear they make it at the expense of the customers. That is another issue entirely. And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, stay tuned. I will tell you of the "three ring circus" from when my friend went back to the same store recently for a laptop... Till then update your anti-virus, adaware, spy-bot, windows/os updates, remembering a little work now saves major frustration later...
Till next time

Liinksys and MIMO

Linksys WRT54GX Access Point Review

MIMO is poised to be the "next big thing" in wireless networking and Extremetech has a review of a Linksys WAP that incorporates this up and coming technology. If you've never heard of MIMO here's your chance to learn all about it.

PC in a macmini size case

Courtesy of Geek News Central somebody put a PC together in a 6.5"x6.5" case here .

Its not as fast, perhaps, but I thought the specs would interest our fellow geeks :)

nntp//rss

nntp//rss

This is a really high geek factor program that I found while playing with RSS again this week. What makes it geeky? Well, it is a Java based nntp (news as in newsgroups) server that you can run locally on your computer. But wait, there's more. It is a news aggregator that you can use to gather your favorite RSS feeds. (does RSS and Atom -- two different standards)

The only concern I have is that when you run it, make sure you are firewalled to the internet on port 119 (or whatever port you use). For security's sake you probably want to limit this server to your LAN.

If you understand how to configure a newsreader and use RSS at all, this program is very easy to use. The news server/aggregator is easily configured via a Web page interface. I would not recommend this program for those who don't know how to use a newsreader unless you want a good learning experience, but if you do know how, you can now read both your groups and your RSS feeds in one place.

RSS Geek speak notes

contributed by MissM
12/12/04 [updated 2/1/05]


RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary"
Some Web sites use RSS to allow you to monitor their sites, and when the content changes,the new content is on your computer. There are several different types of RSS feeds, a few I have run into are ATOM, XML and RSS , various versions from .9 through 2.0. And the ultimate appearance of the updates, seems to be affected by the type, as far as I can tell, anyway…. Some feeds will just show the first couple lines, others show the entire article and pictures, etc.

Detailed info about versions and types of feeds is available.

I feel like this would be even more beneficial to dialup users because it would allow you to check your favorite sites, all at once, w/o the potentially bandwidth hogging of ads and other popups….
To read RSS feeds, you can use a reader or some browsers have plugins or extensions to get RSS feeds.

RSSReader is one I used, that had a time limit before you have to pay, and it becomes unusable if you don't pay then. Good thing I had used that secondarily, and had most of my feeds in the browser plug in.

NewsDesk is another RSS headline and Weblog reader for Microsoft Windows. It gets headlines and Weblog entries every 30 minutes.

Firefox has a few different extensions to read RSS feeds, I use Sage. If you are on a website that has an RSS feed available you can have Sage discover feeds, and then you select which you want. It puts an icon in the bottom right of the browser window, if a feed is available.
In its preview version of it new browser, to be released next year, AOL also enhanced support for RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, which also exists in Firefox. The Netscape browser can display rotating headlines from RSS feeds in a special task bar. RSS feeds are an increasingly popular way to syndicate headlines and sometimes entire articles from Web sites.

I discovered that Microsoft has an RSS feed for upcoming security updates, so you can get a couple days notice, BEFORE the updates are issued for download.[update: I find it erratic at best, seems like I read it in news before the feed gets updated]
Some other places that have feeds…..

10,000 RSS Feeds
4,899,374 weblogs watched.
a google like search engine for RSS feeds
and weblogs on all sides of the political spectrum are here.

There are two sites that I have found, one while doing the research for this, and the other I found out how to pronounce during the research, that will generate an RSS feed, based on your favorites, at least as I understand it, I’ve only played with each of them a couple hours
And they are: Furl my page that has a feed generated just for this geek speak is here , and you can publish your own RSS feed here pronounced [Delicious] . At least that's what it looked like via my brief research, but, my feed isn't working yet ;)

Enjoy!

OCPodcast

This is the On Computers podcast for 01-30-2005. I have tested it and it works for me in iPodder. If you prefer, you can download the the same file here via ftp.

Apple's iPod Shuffle Stifles Podcasting

Apple's iPod Shuffle Stifles Podcasting

No sooner have I learned what podcasting is, I find this article. Of course the easy way around this is to not automatically sync your podcasts to a smaller player but to manually sync them. This is counterproductive for an iPod owner, but for others who want to gather audio information, they can use their desktops and laptops to enter the world of podcasting. They also can still select, manually sync, and take the smaller files with them on a flash player, including the Shuffle.

Getting Ready to Podcast

I've posted a link to a good, cross-platform podcast receiver, iPodder ("lemon iPodder" button on right side of page under links). If you want to, go ahead and download it, play with it a bit and get an idea what it does. That way you will be ready when we get our first podcast ready.

Right now all we need in order to podcast is one of our mp3 archives posted on the On Computers Web server. I could do that by downloading this weeks mp3 show archive and reposting it to an On Computer's Web site (the On Computers tips site in my case), and then posting the link to that mp3 file here, but I'm going to leave that job to one of our volunteers who has a broadband connection.

Once we do have an archived mp3 posted on the On Computers Web server, I will post a link in the appropriate format to that file here to be picked up by feedburner. You will need to use the feedburner feed for this to work so get the url from the "XML" button in the right hand column of this page. Put that link in iPodder's "add feed manually" dialog on the status tab. That should do it. Then you will be ready for our podcast.

Of course if you have another favorite podcast receiver, go ahead and use it.

Once we have a podcast posted, iPodder (or the podcast receiver of your choice) will download the mp3 file to your computer. What you do from there depends. You certainly can play it right on your computer in any mp3 player software. You can also use your favorite software capable of syncing to send the mp3 to your player, including an iPod -- which of course is the genesis of word "podcast". You don't have to have an iPod to do this and most mp3 players will work. I tested it with the iPodder feed and synced it using Windows Media Player to my flash memory based mp3 player. That worked like a charm.

By now, if you didn't know before, a podcast is a media file download using an RSS newsfeed and podcast receiver as the delivery mechanism to your computer. This has the advantage of being easy to update automatically once the link to the latest mp3 archive is posted.

Of course as I write this we still haven't tested a thing of ours, but I'm confident that once posted in the proper format, our weekly mp3 archive file will podcast sucessfully.

By the way, did I mention that all of this is being done at no additional cost to our little cadre of volunteers except for our time? We are using free and freely available tools. They include Blogger, Feedburner, and of course the aforementioned iPodder receiver. You might enjoy checking them out for yourself.

This is just a test

Well it seems to work! and what a nice job. I look forward to posting the news links , and exploring the news. I may post my rss feed geek speak, later today.... Just to help everybody become more familiar with it, hopefully! :)

Our New BLOG!

First I would like to thank GailLA for all of her work setting up this BLOG. She started it last year, but then it was put on the back burner.

Now we have a link to it on our main web site for everyone to read.


MissM has volunteered to post a new feature for the OnComputers Radio show. Called "What we talked about on the show" It will have a short description and the URL of the the things we talk about on the show if you were not in the chat but would like to look at what was posted. Thank you MissM. :)

RSS Feed and Other New Neat Stuff

The first step to podcasting is accomplished. Here is the URL for our new RSS feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/OnComputersTips

It is hosted by feedburner. If you click on the link you will get a nicely formatted page with instructions for using the RSS feed. This is the same link you get when you click on the XML button. I've also noticed that now that we have the blog set up for it you can set up a live bookmark in Firefox (you should see a little orange square in the lower right hand corner of the Firefox browser window). I've already set up Firefox and own My Yahoo account with our feed so I'm having a lot of fun with it. Even though Jane has already done a fine RSS tutorial, I'm sure we will be talking about the particulars of what we did on the blog and why we did it.

While this link will open in a Web browser, it is intended to be used in a news aggregator or syndicated on a Web site. We are currently updating the On Computers Tips site to include sydication of the five most recent items posted here. We are also adding new members to our blogging team. As soon as they are added you will start seeing both their posts and their commentary to existing posts.

Further, I have updated the blog template (the design of this page). In so doing, we gained a lot of features but lost the handy links back to On Computers. I will be working on customizing the template to reinstitute the links we lost, but it is something that can't be rushed because it can majorly screw up the blog if it is not done right.

Podcasting?

If we can do it for free, we will. for now we are exploring it and trying to set up an RSS feed of this blog site.