Flaws found in Safari browser

This is just what I told you to be wary of when I posted about the Safari release.

The flaws found have been rated "highly critical" by Secunia and could allow takeover of a PC. More information will be available soon, I am sure. For right now, I'd uninstall Safari and wait for those who like doing such things to test it and then for Apple to fix any flaws.

And shame on Apple for pushing this on unsuspecting users.

Jack

Windows XP: Going, going ... gone?

With XP being the most used operating system in the world, every, and Vista under a cloud of suspicion by potential adopters, the lifespan of XP is a topic worth exploring. This article in Computer World does just that. It explains MS policy clearly, as well as telling you how to keep accessing XP if you wish to.

Jack

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Support

Microsoft is providing a host of free support options for Vista SP 1 through March 2009. Keep this link handy.

Jack

Safari 3.1 on Windows: a true competitor arrives (seriously)

My own testing of Safari 3.1 on Windows has stalled while I work out and fix an issue with one CPU on the dual processor machine. Right now, that box couldn't work it's way through a session of Minesweeper, much less run Windows in a VM.

Here is a very positive review of the new Safari at Ars Technica. It is definitely worth your time.

We can only benefit from another competitor in this space. IE is not exactly what I think of as a great browser. Firefox has memory issues. Opera is, ah, quirky. In this new version, Safari carries adherence to standards to a new height. It even complies with standards just coming into force now! Why, even Opera doesn't support the full list of what Safari does.

I'm not recommending people install Safari on Windows, yet. Not that my thoughts are going to stop those of you who are computer savvy and know how to manage risk with new software. But I take that stance to John and Jane Doe precisely because Safari's security has not been evaluated in the real world. Should it go a few months without any glaring issues, I'm all for installing it. Just not now. Not yet.

Jack

Evidence mounting: Windows 7 going modular, subscription

Cynics claim that Microsoft is trumpeting Windows 7 to divert attention from the Vista trainwreck. Some of that may indeed be true, though it does seem to me it is a bit of a stretch to divine someone's motive from afar and based on so little evidence.

This post on Ars Technica is more likely to contain the reason for all Microsoft's talk about the future. It seems they are trying to get us used to the idea of renting software as we need it or need to update it (which they can control by killing off any component that isn't generating the required revenue any more).

It's going to be fun to watch this play out against FOSS alternatives or more traditionally marketed products, such as those from Apple.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 03-23-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 03-23-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Links from the Gregg zone

1) First link up for the week, I am going to start with a visit back to the subject of savants, those extraordinary people with talents that boggle the mind. What caught my eye about this story was the title “The Human Camera”, this is about a man who after taking one helicopter over a city can draw (without any drafts, or aids) a complete photographic panoramic style drawing of the city. Accurate to the number of windows in the buildings, degrees of curve in the streets, you have to see this it is just fantastic. Complete with video http://www.paulsfunkystuff.com

2) This link is one that I alluded to last week, but did not post, so I am correcting that here. This is supposedly the most extensive parts store in the world, at least according my original reference. They say you can find a part for almost anything here. I am looking for a shelf that I managed to break a couple of years ago in my refrigerator. I have not had the time to look for it, and I need to sell something on Ebay to pay for it. I will let you know what happens, when I get to it. In the mean time if you need a thing here is the link http://www.partstore.com

3) Now here is one that Joe sent me, as someone who surfs a lot one of the most frustrating things to see is the page you are looking is unavailable. I have always been at a loss when this happens. Joe has sent me a link to help solve the problem, and find those missing pages. I just got it yesterday and have not had a chance to try it yet, but it looks very promising. http://howto.wired.com

4) This will be a couple of links about the “Battle of L.A.”, one of my favorite possible U.F.O. stories, five years before Roswell. This happened at the beginning of the war just a few months after Pearl Harbor in Los Angeles. There was an object off the coast fired on extensively by anti-aircraft guns. Thought to be a blimp or balloon, have to wonder why they could not bring it down. The first link is to a Youtube video with the original news broadcast. http://www.youtube.com The second link is to a article with new updated analysis of the photographic evidence, http://www.rense.com

5) Last up this time around, I kind of like these Easter egg type stories, recently found a Bugs Bunny cartoon, one of the early ones with a little porn snuck in by one of the artists, but that is not for this blog. Anyway, have you heard about the museum on the moon? Seems someone smuggled some Easter egg type artwork on the Intrepid at the time of its manufacture. Here is the link http://www.boingboing.net

Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 7.1

TechArp has a review of mobile graphics processing units you might want to keep a link to.

Yeah, I know; one would be hard pressed to find a more boring subject. At least until it comes time to think about buying a laptop or notebook, when it becomes a lot more interesting, or at least more important. Gail's recent notebook purchase was made with close attention to graphics parts and she is very, very pleased with the result. Well, here is at least most of the information she used in her decision in one place.

Jack

Inside the Twisted Mind of the Security Professional

In this Wired.com article, Bruce Schneier tries to explain what a "security mindset" is and how to cultivate one. I found it both truthful and hilarious.

The truth is that security types are crooks at heart, but either just don't have the guts to carry through on the crime or too lazy to do it. So, they just point out opportunities for crimes. I even see just a little of that in myself.

Enjoy,
Jack

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone (KB936330)

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an update to Windows Vista that addresses key feedback from our customers. SP1 addresses specific reliability and performance issues, supports new types of hardware, and adds support for several emerging standards.

If you need this 433MB file to install on other computers on your network here it is. You might want to hold off until Microsoft gets some more bugs out.

AlaskaJoe

Best Buy institutes aid program for victims of DVD format war

War is hell on the innocents — even format wars like the one that recently left HD DVD buyers glumly regretting their allegiance while the Blu-ray nation marched in victory. But electronics retailer Best Buy, having served both sides like an arms dealer, has some compassion for the defeated and, more importantly, would hate to see them lose their taste for new gadgets. That’s why it’s setting aside $10 million to give away in $50 gift card increments to any of its customers who bought an HD DVD player or HD DVD Xbox drive before February 23.

Get in line!

AlaskaJoe

Wireless Internet freeloading might become a crime

IF A LAW proposed last week in Maryland gets passed, intentionally using a neighbour's wireless Internet connection without permission will be a crime.
I have seen so many unsecured WiFi connections available to some homes and offices someone needs to do something .
One time I had a service call because the customer said they couldn't get online anymore. I went and looked and someone hacked their router and put on MAC restriction pointing to their MAC address and locking out the home owner. I reset the router and set up encryption and changed the default password to the router. That is all it takes.
NEVER leave the default password to the router and if you don't need the wireless turn it off. If you do need it then set up encryption, WEP is the easiest to set up (I know Jack knows how to hack WEP) this keeps the honest people out. You can use WEP and for a key use your 10 digit telephone number. (That is only 64bit encryption but it is better than none at all).

AlaskaJoe

Think before you install

The outrage is spewing forth over Apple's move to include Safari 3.1 as part of its Software Update program. The new twist is that Windows users who never had installed Safari are now seeing it pop up in Software Update, where they are accustomed to seeing updates for iTunes and Quicktime, and that's not sitting well with many who inadvertently installed the browser.

It is interesting how many computers I work on and ask the customer why do they have 4 toolbars and their answer is I have no idea where they all came from.
I have had other programs installed on my computers when I didn't want them, along with the program I did want installed.

You need to look at what your installing.

AlaskaJoe

Introduction to Ubuntu 8.04 Beta

The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the open source community has to offer. This is the Ubuntu 8.04 beta release, which brings a host of excellent new features.

Note: This is still a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in April 2008.

I can't believe I beat Jack to this post!

AlaskaJoe

Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You?

Is BIG BROTHER watching you in your living room?
If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat. At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told Chris Albrecht the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room. (Or what you are doing in your bed room)?

Kunkel also spoke on camera with me about fixing bad Comcast user experiences, the ongoing BitTorrent battle and VOD. But he mostly towed the corporate line on these issues (the monitoring your living room came up after Chris's camera was put away).

Cover that cable box before you do something in front of the camera you don't want to share.
AlaskaJoe

Vista SP1 kills third party applications

According to CRN, on SP1's kill list are products from Trend Micro, Zonelabs, BitDefender, and Novell.
Some of the companies have come up with work around for Vista's SP1. Some just no longer work.
This site has a list of other problems with Vista's SP1 according to the computer support staff at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Ivy League school's technical support staffers advised "continuing to use previous versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista until after the initial bugs in SP1 are identified and fixed."
Maybe we need to wait on installing Vista's SP1 for a little while.

AlaskaJoe

Images: Intel to build first six-core chip | CNET News.com

"Intel shows off its first six-core processor, called Dunnington, which will be available in the second half of 2008"
OK so our new computers will NEED a six-core processor and 8GB of RAM.
What will be next?
AlaskaJoe

Intel's security software keep tabs on the user

Now here is an interesting idea; security software that learns about how you use your computer and goes ballistic when you do something out of character.

Beyond the obvious question about whether it will shut down my computer when I pledge my everlasting love to MissM, this is worth thinking about as it could deny a thief use of my computer after they have stolen it.

There is more than a little potential for "Big Brother" type shenanigans with security being built in at low levels. As soon as it starts happening, watch the RIAA ask to have file sharing banned at the hardware level. And then Homeland Security might be asking for certain tracking stuff to be included. Even so, some protection at this level might be desireable.

Jack

About Security Update 2008-002

Apple has just released another huge update. This one affects many different components of OS X, from their implementations of the open-source ClamAV and Apache to some of the core services within the OS.

So, if you are running OS X, check your updater or click one of the links on this page to go get the update. I've no doubt it is important. Even Apple, with their traditional understantement, calls this a security update, after all.

Jack

Why Windows Me deserves more respect

I know that headline is a shocker, but here is an article that lays it out. As one of the few who a) actually upgraded from Win98 (not Win98se -- never owned that) and b) successfully ran Me until I upgraded to WinXP just before XPSP1 arrived, I can identify with this article. For those who wondered why I ran Me, this article explains it.

Vista Service Pack 1: Things Microsoft forgot to fix

This analysis and list of suggestions for what Vista SP1 should have been comes from across the pond.

Having had SP1 for less than 24 hours now, I don't have much to add except for the good news that it hasn't broken anything (that I'm aware of).

Author Arthur C. Clarke dies - CNN.com

Not exactly a technical concern, but a sad story just the same.

Ongoing IFrame attack proving difficult to kill

One take away lesson is not to download or try unproven and unknown security software. Most of us already use proven products and are often willing to pay for a good antivirus, but of course there are always the uninformed. No harm in trying this download I see advertised, right? No, wrong. Sad that we all have to be so danged careful and suspicious all the time. Rest assured that for every hole closed and attack thwarted, the bad guys are busy figuring new ways to swindle us out of our money.

Vista SP1: It's Here, But Can You Get It?

I can't yet though Windows Update. I will keep trying.

If you are waiting like I am, you can read this article in the meantime.

Update: I never did get to Windows Update. I couldn't wait and I downloaded it. I really have no comments about it at this time good or bad. It is an install during which you're best to do something else while you wait. I didn't time it but it purported to take an hour and I'm inclined to believe it. After the last reboot, Vista returned seemingly no worse for the wear.

Analyst: Returns, technical problems high with flash-based notebooks

I wouldn't go with a flash based drive at this time for a number of reasons including price and longevity, but I truly think the technology will catch up the the concept. Just not quite yet, evidently.

Why we care about file systems

Most of us don't think about file systems very much, and then only when we run up on some sort of limitation with one we are working on. Perhaps it has been damaged from some sort of crash and is not capable of recovering itself, or at least not until we do something that verges on the mystic in concert with the operating system. (Windows chkdisk comes to mind, here.)

Ars Technica has a wonderful piece written by Jeremy Reimer that explains what file systems are, how many of them differ from one another and why we should care. It's a bit long, at 7 or 8 pages, but packed with information you really need to at least look at. In other words; it's worth the time it takes to read it.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 03-16-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 03-16-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Links from the Gregg zone

1) Let’s start this week off with a new take on one of my favorite subjects, the flying car. Seems there is a Dutch company with a new offering in the field. This looks to be a possible player in the next few years. They are hoping to bring it to market in “the next few years” it is a car/gyrocopter hybrid, with a projected range of 375 miles on the road, and 340 in the air, at speeds of 120 mph on the road or in the air. I would like to see one of these in my driveway some day. It’s a very nice looking unit, I suspect they will be in some countries fairly soon, probably decades before we see them in the states though. http://www.pal-v.com/

2) Have you ever wondered how cool it would be to work for someone making way to much money? Well here is a link to a video about what it is like to work at Google, I think I might be able to cope, might even put in some overtime, hell might just move in. http://www.liveleak.com/

3) This is my tech link for the week, I am not into cell phones but if I were, this would be a very interesting product. It is a head set, that turns your phone into a “bone phone”. What makes it so innovative? It picks up sound from the bones in your head. When there is no transfer of sound from your mouth to the microphone, there is no background sound. It eliminates restaurant chatter, no traffic noise, and any other background interference. http://www.nextlink.to/

4) Now for a great reading site for anyone interested in world mysteries. I wound up here looking for an answer to a question that has been bugging me for a long time. I have been wondering, why the lack of any soot in the pyramids? I was looking for information on the “Dendra Lamps”, as a possible explanation. When I hit this site, I was stuck for an hour or two, and I plan to revisit again soon. http://www.world-mysteries.com/

5) Last a short video from Corning, the glass company. This is a lesson about surface tension, I thought it was interesting, I had no idea this could happen. I suggest you just watch it, I doubt many out there knew about this. http://www.youtube.com

Vista SP1 to hit Windows Update Tuesday, reports say

Good news. The wait is almost over.

Jack

Just-patched Excel makes calculation mistakes

Somehow, I'm not surprised.

Jack

Encrypt volumes through a cross-platform GUI with TrueCrypt 5.0

I usually don't post stuff about Linux procedures and how-to here, but as this also mentions and details some Windows features of TrueCrypt, I thought I would go ahead.

It's a one page basic how-to about TrueCrypt 5.0 and I think it is a very easy introduction to using it, which I recommend most mobile users do.

Enjoy,

Jack

TrojanGet infects users around the world

You have got to read this post!

FlashGet, the popular downloader extension to Firefox is now proven dangerous and suspicion cast upon the folks who built and distribute it, at least for the way they maintain their web site.

If you are or have been a FlashGet user, you need to check this out and probably to scan your system.

Jack

Building your own Solid State Drive (guide)

Now here's something to do while you're waiting for the Domino's delivery.

Check it out. This is a sure antidote to the high prices of Solid State Drives.

Jack

Firefox 3 Memory Usage

Firefox has always had problems with memory. If you closed it fairly frequently and had enough system RAM, you might not have noticed them, but if you were pressed for memory space or [particularly] if you left FF open for long periods of time, you were vulnerable. Those issues plagued me badly here because I might leave the browser open for a week or more.

Apparently FF 3 is making splendid progress addressing this shortcoming. It's about time, to be perfectly frank. Here's an account of what has been changed.

Jack

Video of Optimus Keyboard

This was too cool not to share. This is the future of electronics, imo. Thanks to Ryan Block from
engadget for sharing. :)

--MissM

No quick fix for Windows Home Server bug

This is strictly an opinion, but I wonder what the hang up is? It seems that MS, with its vast resources, could get this fixed faster. Oh yes, I've considered that it is low level and that other personnel would have to be brought up to speed on it. It is also probably sensitive, proprietary code that they are working on. But come on, this company is extremely rich. Seems to me that at the prices of MS products, the customers deserve a quicker fix than this. Same goes for the long, slow development of Vista SP 1 and XP SP 3 -- if they ever get here.

Why I really like Amazon!

I thought this might interest some of you, and its all part of my so far failed amazon experiment. :)

I have become a real fan of Amazon as gas prices increase, I can have UPS do the driving for me. This is a real bargain for me, because I belong to Amazon Prime account, and for $75 per year, you can get free 2 day shipping (I don't know what happens out of the lower 48 states). I also am trying what amazon calls "subscribe and save," that saves you 15% on everything that you have setup for a regular order. I also like to take advantage of the half price deals on things I normally buy. I will admit that I've been burned buying things on sale, or by accident, but I chalk that up to education (Who knew the kids would hate the teriyaki rice crisps??? :P ).

Amazon is having a 50% off Sci-Fi television series DVD sale. If you want to find the deals, go to Amazon, and on the left side "Shop all departments," go to "Movies, Music & Games," "Movies & TV." Then you look on the right side and the 3rd box from top shows the link to the half off sci-fi tv shows and then The first thing I looked for was Star Trek, The Original Series, because I heard that one was very expensive. Unfortunately they didn't have it, but they did have a few seasons of Doctor Who, Stargate and Dark Angel.


--MissM

ok, first attempt failed: Here's another :)
Final attempt sucks! I hate the length of url's with Amazon, and I have tried to figure out how to do it simply, but its still eluding me. My apologies, but thank you for your patience with my experiment.

Suddenly, the iPhone is a Mobile Computer - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

"The iPhone and iPod Touch became a true mobile computing platform today as Apple held an event announcing a software developer's kit and software store, plus support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail, contacts and calendaring, as well as parental controls for the iPhone coming in a software update in late June."

Maybe Apple has come up with something for everyone.

AlaskaJoe

Thieving Third-Party Gmail App Highlights Google Security Worries

The people behind G-Archiver have pulled the product pending a revision to correct this. However, they don't seem like people I would trust, not least because one can find another application to perform this function easily.

Jack

How to avoid WHS corruption issues

They're making progress against file corruption issues in Windows Home Server. That's the good news. The bad news is that the issues underlying the problems are so fundamental that nothing like a comprehensive fix is happening in a hurry.

Even so; the number of installations affected seems to be almost as small as Microsoft says it is and there are a LOT of things you can do to avoid the problems at all, fix or no fix. This article gives them in a nice, compact list.

Jack

Analysis: Intel to fight recession with solid state drives

Here it is. This is the "tipping point" for one of the two Solid State Drive formats to win over the other. This decision by Intel will move SSDs from niche products to mainstream ones and introduce price competition in a relatively short period of time.

It's not just prices dropping that we have to look forward to, but a steady increase in capacities, too. SSDs will grow larger, faster and in all probability more reliable in a hurry. What's not to like?

Jack

Nearing 3000 posts

It was brought to my attention this morning that we are nearing 3000 posts on this blog. In fact with this post, we have only 12 to go to hit the big round number. So this is a good opportunity to thank everyone who has ever contributed to this blog.

Special thanks go to the guy who has carried it when the rest of us were MIA. So thanks most of all to you, Jack. I don't think anyone would dispute that you are the most loyal and prolific of the blog members.

In closing, many thanks to all involved and a special shout out to you, Jack.

Acid 3 is out! IE 5.5 beats IE 7?

First off; DON'T FREAK!!

Here's the deal; A lot of fuss was made (and rightly so) when an early beta of IE 8 correctly rendered the Acid2 test.

Almost immediately, though, the goalposts were moved by the release of the Acid3 test. These are the first published results of various browser/platforms' performance in the Acid3 test. These results are so far from definitive that it's silly. So take them for what they are worth, which is nearly nothing beyond the curiosity value.

Even so; they're interesting.

Jack

Eee PC to Get Intel’s Diamondville, Hard Drives, and Fashion Forward Style

I was all ready to talk about Asus' EeePC and their competitors yesterday but we ran out of time.

Asus will be expanding the line in some interesting ways soon. Everex is moving into the market segment. At least on model is coming from HPQ and the rumors from Dell are very interesting. While everyone knew this segment would heat up, I don't think all that many of you with whom I discussed this saw things taking off like they appear to be. I know I didn't.

We will keep you posted, though, as our blog moves toward our 3000th post this week.

Jack

They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know

I usually try to avoid posting NY Times articles because of the subscription, but this one is worth firing up your throw-away email for.

It seems that many within Microsoft knew that lowering the bar and labeling low end PCs as "Vista Capable", pre Vista release, would cause heartache and confusion on down the line.

About the only solace one can take is that some Microsoft bigwigs have suffered the same pain and uncertainty at the release of Vista as their customers did. This article presents a picture of a company that was penny wise and pound foolish, and that now faces paying the piper because here comes da' judge.

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 03-09-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 03-09-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) First up for the week is a news item I ran across that fits my interest in robotics, DYI, new inventions, technology changing society, humor, and the just plain cool. A guy in Atlanta Georgia made a Robocop from a barbeque smoker, and is using it to patrol his neighborhood. This has the smell of a trend to me; evidently, he is being quite effective with controlling the turf he patrols with it. It seems to me there are several advantages to having a robot-vigilante type tool; it keeps the operator away from possible violence. Also offers the possibility of collecting photographic, and audio evidence in these on street type environments, make them small like the radio controlled AVT toys, you have a paparazzo’s dream. I am totally confused about how I feel when it comes to the ethics, and legality of all this, but then every time I walk into a casino I am being secretly filmed from hundreds of cameras, ATM’s, convenience stores, banks, parking lots, even my front gate at the condo’s where I live. Anyway, here is the link http://www.cnn.com

2) Next up a tax I can vote for, I ran across something about Ireland taxing plastic bags, I do not remember the source, but it spurred my interest so I started looking into it. It seems that in Ireland they have started a 15 cents tax each on plastic bag, in an attempt to help control pollution. I thought this was a great idea it is in effect a voluntary tax, but serves two purposes, raises monies to pay for environmental projects, while reducing pollution. The trees here in Las Vegas are bearing a strange fruit these days, plastic bags waving in the breeze everywhere. The “Ireland Solution”, is being watched in many other countries around the world, while several countries have banned them altogether. I could also get behind that idea. Link to the BBC story http://news.bbc.co.uk

3) This link is related to the last one just in case you thought the subject trivial, I have one here that might bring things into focus. I had no idea six months ago that this was going on, and I am sure most of you have not been aware of it either. It seems there are islands of trash in the Pacific Ocean the size of continents. These are putting toxins into the human food chain, destroying, fish, bird, and sea mammal populations. Just for starters, increase your awareness and check out this article. http://www.dailygalaxy.com

4) Now for something a little lighter, I really liked this link about a candle cannon it is a short video. If you like Myth Busters stuff you will really enjoy is one, I know I did. Not going to get into it to much other than to say just how far away do you think you can blow out the candles on a birthday cake. http://www.youtube.com

5) Now to wind up here is a link to the smallest production car ever made, from way back in 1963 the P-50. Was said to be cheaper than walking, the car cost less than 200 pounds, and gets over 100 mpg. If you are wondering how small, think about small enough to pick up and bring into the building set it next to your desk. Very cool video, about a very cool car, be sure to check it out http://www.youtube.com

Microsoft slates four patches for next week

Looks like the patches are mainly concerned with Office, this month.

Enjoy,
Jack

JAVA Updates

It's time to update your Java again, whether the runtime environment or the development kit. Here's a list of some of the security problems fixed and many of them are serious enough that we all need to do the update in a hurry.

Jack

Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a High-Speed Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier

So can you hear me now?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. This comes on the heals of the revelation that the FBI has gathered more information than it was authorized to. See: More FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed

Feature List for Internet Explorer 8

Straight from Microsoft. I don't see anything in there that will shake the world. It's just a good solid list of evolutionary growth in the feature department.

The crash recovery feature is probably the most important. If you're going to start using web apps via your browser, you don't want to lose work if something goes wrong. This feature is directed toward that need and though details of how it is accomplished are not yet available, we are told it is fairly zoomy. There are several ways of going about this sort of thing and it will be interesting to see how MS chooses to do it because there is room for a better way.

Jack

Open Letter to Steve Jobs: In Support of an iPod reader

Mac TidBITS has an idea. They want Apple to make an ebook reader. They think Apple can do a better job than Sony or Amazon has. They may be right.

I wonder how many people would buy this reader over the others? Surely the market is much bigger than that defined by Kindle sales. Perhaps Apple would price theirs realistically and try to make the real bundle on downloads, instead of gouging at both ends. And perhaps Apple's reader would be fully usable.

It could happen.

Jack

Know Your Enemy

Message Labs has taken code from some of today's Internet threats and given it to an artist, Alex Dragulescu, who used the code to generate images. They're kinda cool and definitely offbeat enough to make good desktop backgrounds.

Jack

Singularity: Microsoft's research OS available for download

Time for a little geeking out.

"Singularity" is strictly a research project, and not the next version of Windows, as has been stated by folks who don't read the entire document. However; it may point the way to the future in many ways. I found this article interesting and will likely attempt to make my way through some of the research papers. I hope you find at least this article of interest, as well.

Jack

IE 8 Will Default to Standards Mode

The cynics among us will simply say that Microsoft has seen the way the wind blows in the European Union and realizes they will lose this newest complaint from Opera over standards. The Microsoft boosters will say they are doing something good for us, as is their way.

You know what? I don't care who is right. I'm just happy it is happening. If MS sticks to this course of action, every single one of us will win. That's all there is to it.

The link is to the IE 8 blog at MSDN. It is worth a careful read.

Jack

Apple: Macbook Air Selling Like Extremely Expensive Hotcakes?

Whether you are bummed because you can't afford one, or don't want one for perceived inadequacies, the Macbook Air is selling out. For all the criticism, I believe that Apple has taken the pulse of the marketplace and has produced something that people want.

This article questions whether the shortages are a supply problem, or a demand situation and Apple isn't telling. I think it is a little of each.

Exploitation is Still Possible as Third-Parties Neglect to Implement Vista Security Features | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Exploitation is Still Possible as Third-Parties Neglect to Implement Vista Security Features | Zero Day | ZDNet.com: "Consider this, Microsoft spends huge amounts of dollars and manpower creating protections for the Vista operating system, yet we still have old school vulnerabilities. Why? The answer is simple really, third-party created code is not stepping up and taking advantage of these powerful protection mechanisms."

People say this is Microsoft's fault!
What is wrong with this picture?

AlaskaJoe

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 03-02-08

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

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) To start off the week I received an email yesterday accepting me to a beta test for the Hulu site I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, when revisiting my online T.V. investigation. I was very impressed with my first visit. While I did not have very much time, because I had to prep for today’s show and I was only there long enough to watch an episode of Hero’s. The site was easy to navigate, there seems to be quite a lot there, right now mostly United States, but they say they are going to be adding much more. There were a couple of commercial breaks in the show, but only about 30 seconds each. I think there were only two, so that would be one minute, for a one-hour show, well less than an hour because of the lack of other commercials. The quality was top notch, no buffering, looked to be high definition, I’ll bring you up to date in a week or two when I have had some more time with it. If you sign up for the beta, let me know what you think. http://www.hulu.com

2) Link number two for the week falls into that to good to be true file, but someday just maybe, one will pan out. I have had an extremely busy week for some reason, so I have not had time to dig into the why not’s of this whole thing, but I am looking forward to it. Convert your car to run on water, and the guide is only $49.97, however it seems there are several companies offering the same, so you might want to shop around. Sounds like fun to me, any way if you get into it let me know, after all I just bought a truck. http://www.articleanswer.com

3) Well it is official today, March 1^st 2008, Netscape has passed away, BBC’s eulogy link here, complete with firefox’s logo in the story. Anyway as I am sure we will be discussing this on the show, I am not going to go into much detail, just an interesting article information wise. http://news.bbc.co.uk

4) This is one site that I am very interested in Riley’s opinion of; I have run across many sites dealing with visual illusions. This is the first time I have found one that deals with auditory illusion. You need to read the text to understand what you are listening for. It was illuminating for me to realize just how visually oriented I am. A very interesting site, spend a few minuets here it is worth the time. http://www.newscientist.com

5) AS most of you know by now I love to read about conspiracy theories, the big ones, little ones and all those in the middle. I believe the best way to improve your mind, and understanding is to open it to all possibilities. Ask your self just why is a good novel so interesting, is not all fiction born from the same spirit as conspiracy. The main difference is in the perception of fact and fiction, this last link for the week is aimed in that direction. The thing I like about this one is the lack of tedious detail. The site covers the concepts without the need to explain all the facts, in the usual defensive manner I find distracting. It is an excellent source to start surfing from, I like these places that get me off looking into how diverse we really are. http://uforeview.tripod.com

Mobo maker builds 'powerless' processor cooling fan

I have always been a fan of Stirling engines and have made several over the years, including one that stirred a beer pot utilizing the waste heat from the brewing process. This is an overwhelmingly cool application of a venerable technology.

Jack

How open source has influenced Windows Server 2008

Sam Ramji writes on an MS "Open Source" site.

Yes, it's company propaganda. Yes, it is spun to the moon and back. It's hard to find fault with that because as far as I or anyone I know can tell, it's all true!

Not that MS has not listened to users before. They really have. And not that this is the first time MS has delivered a product straight down the alley of user desire. It is not. But surely they have never done so much in a way so responsive to user requests. I have a hunch getting to know Windows Server 2008 is going to be a LOT more enjoyable than first I thought.

Jack

Desperate Microsoft cuts Vista pricing

For those of you who have not been paying strict attention (tisk, tisk) the price cuts are for RETAIL copies, like the one of Ultimate I got stiffed on just after release. It seems too many of the "build it yourself" crowd are installing Linux.

Jack

Microsoft Lists Programs Borked by Vista SP1

The problem is that the list is obviously woefully incomplete. While I suppose some of that is Microsoft's responsibility, it seems more than a little farfetched to lay it all on them. Or much of any of it, for that matter.

It's a cinch SP 1 will break some stuff. I am unaware of that sort of major upgrade to anything not breaking some stuff. And that includes the upgrade I just did to my Linux box. (Where IS that penguin, anyway? I'm getting tired of holding this gun.) I would like a much more comprehensive listing, but it is what it is.

Jack

Geek Meet 2008

Just a reminder that Geek Meet 2008 is April 11-13 in Las Vegas, NV. If you are going to be joining us and haven't already done so, please fill out the registration form at http://geekmeet.oncomputers.info. Registration is due March 1st, if you wish to receive a T-shirt. Hotel rooms at the Microtel Inn must be booked by March 10th if you wish to receive the group rate.

The *missing* update finally released Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 arives Feb 26, 2008

Mozilla lately has been put down regarding patches that stated a fix that included 2.0.0.12 of Thunderbird, well, that missing revision has now been released. The link above takes you to the release notes for the new version.

Report: broadband policy leaves billions of dollars on table

It's like we have been saying; broadband in America kinda, well, sucks. I guess that's the only word for it. And the national policy behind broadband adoption sucks worse. Change is going to come hard, though. You can bet on that.

Jack

Critical VMware Bug Breaks 'Barrier'

This is a big one. However; because it is located in the Virtual Machine itself, we can mitigate any possible damages until it is fixed by simply running a good AV on the Windows host machine and not using the Shared Folders feature unless we run it on a removable drive that we can scan after the files are put there or accessed. At least that's what I'm told so far.

The part of VM Ware's site dealing with this has been temporarily slashdotted by folks wanting to know. I'm sure we'll be able to get clear information by the morning, but for now it's out of reach. And VM Ware has said a patch is coming within two weeks, so a temporary workaround is tolerable. That's as good a time frame as companies like Microsoft can give us when they are caught in a Zero Day situation, though everyone would like to see it sooner rather than later.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 02-24-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 02-24-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) First up for the week is another of those advancements in technology where I think we get the biggest bang for our buck, helping people who have problems to solve. Kind of like the exoskeleton, a few weeks back, but a little more conventional, although not much. This has to be the coolest wheel chair ever to hit the market place. It will be a wonderful future if this becomes the main stream, I do believe technology is our evolution as a species. If you are unfamiliar with this item, you should check it out. http://www.ibotnow.com

2) This item might appeal to the geek in some of you. It strikes me as an example of someone with way to much time on their hands, but I will leave it up to you. It is a musical composition using only the sounds found in windows XP, and 98, I thought it was interesting but to long. Amazing what you can accomplish during a three month bout with cabin fever, http://www.youtube.com

3) Now to answer the question, are there people out there in their garages inventing our future? Or, at least trying, using the internet in an attempt to breakthrough to the masses, well yes there are. Here is an example of a man and his son with a dream, while I do not think they are going to make it, I have to give them credit for trying. If they can get the numbers they talk about it would be most impressive, but they really need a design man, at least when it comes to curb appeal. http://www.dreamcar123.com/

4) In the do it yourself department I found this one, would be a great project for kids. It is an easy and not to complicated way to build your own world clock, for a few pennies. Looks like it works pretty well to me, although I have little need for one, as a teaching aid it might have some value. http://www.metacafe.com/

5) In the green planet department for the week how about a lamp that runs on gravity, and will last 200 years, now that is hard to beat. Very cool, check it out here. http://dvice.com

Vista SP1 Hoses Some Applications

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #935796 tells us that some applications will either experience degraded performance or not run at all after Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed. You can find it at the link above.

This kind of thing seems to happen to one degree or another with every Windows Service Pack. To be honest, I am not sure whether to be concerned that this time so many security applications are affected or not. Right now, I think the best position to take is to simply stay informed and make plans according to how things look as we get closer to the actual release of the Service Pack.

More than anything, we need clarification of existing information and the results of more testing. I'm sure that will be done, both by Microsoft and their testers.

Jack

Disk encryption may not be secure enough, new research finds

It's a huge flaw in the way encryption is executed and there are ways to work around it. Good practice can mitigate some of the risk. The rest may have to be tolerated until the devices we use change in the normal course of things or are changed to eliminate this risk.

The problems is that the encryption keys can be recovered from the computers RAM, even after the computer is shut off! Contrary, though there is some reduction in retention, RAM does not lose all the data stored in it immediately upon shutting down the device. And in hibernation/sleep or suspend states may not lose it at all. The encryption keys can be recovered by astute researchers in many cases.

It's an interesting subject and the methods used to slow degradation of bits stored in RAM were so simple and inexpensive that their elegance will astound.

Jack

Intel pushes Raytracing again

I've been interested in ray tracing for over a year now. Apparently the developers concerned with our next generation of video hardware (or the one after that) have settled upon this as the way to do things. This short article will tell you what things.

Ray tracing is orders of magnitude more efficient at yielding "full reality" high definition content. In some ways it takes an awful lot more doing than rasterized images we are drawing now. The processor horsepower needs for ray tracing are staggering, even today. But, as everyone knows; Moore's Law just keeps chugging along and we will easily have that horsepower available to us before all that much more time has passed. And as this article tells us, the economy is to the programmer. She or he gets to write a lot less code to get a lot more effect out of it all. That is the difference. (Ray tracing will also lend itself to more automated ways of tweaking programmed images than we have now. Fill out a form about surface textures, degrees of reflectivity, etc; and the development environment does the rest. The programmers will have a field day.)

It's coming.

Jack

Microsoft launches new open standards, interoperability push

This is huge!

Apparently Microsoft has seen which way the wind blows and had a genuine "come to Jesus" moment. In addition to the European Union's efforts to push MS into true interoperability, something fundamental has changed within the company.

I suppose this could be more smoke and mirrors than reality, but I don't think so. They seem really, really serious about it all. The company's press release/announcement is here. and there doesn't seem to be any funny business going on at all. I believe them.

Their covenant not to sue seems all on the up and up and offers rather generous terms to open source companies. Individuals and small organizations fly free.

Lastly; There is a certain smugness at Red Hat, Canonical/Ubuntu and some other Linux organizations. Their refusal to sign patent pledges with Microsoft is now completely vindicated. A short commentary on that can be found here.

Jack

Trend Micro 2008 forecast for cybercrime.

Needless to say, the forecast is grim.

Even so, I wanted to post this because it seems to agree with what the members of our OnComputers community are reporting and expecting. In a way, this is a sort of kudo to all of you who have contacted us on security matters because it confirms that the things you are seeing are indeed part of the big picture and that you see them correctly.

Jack

Lamp lit by gravity wins Greener Gadget award

Sometimes I just fall in love with something I find on the web. This is definitely one of those things. It's a lamp powered by gravity. You lift some weight up and as it comes down, it powers the lamp for a half-hour or something like that.

Obviously efficient, it is also just a cool looking device and an obviously cool hack.

Jack

The internet as a platform? Not as ISP bloodbath looms

It all boils down to who is going to pay for the bandwidth?

We think we are paying for bandwidth, but the truth is that our "broadband" has been severely oversold by the ISP. They simply cannot deliver the volume of data nor the speeds they have promised to all their customers. The infrastructure is not there. This applies to the US, Canada and a host of other nations besides Britain, which is the actual subject of this article.

As more and more content is available in bandwidth-intensive formats, this is going to be more and more of a problem and we all know that sooner or later, we (the users) are going to end up paying for it in one form or another.

Jack

Don't Give Me That Vista Thing!

(Written for another site in January, I thought you might wish to see it here, as they did not use it.)

Bad reputations can be incredibly difficult to overcome and Microsoft's Vista operating system has enough of a bad rep that no one is going to let it date their sister, if you know what I mean.

That's too bad. Not that I'm a Vista booster. I'm not. But Vista is not all bad, by any means, my objections notwithstanding. It will serve a lot of users very well. Probably the vast majority of users, when you get right down to it.

A few days ago, I got a call from a friend. His aunt needed to buy a new computer. The old one died. We chatted for a while about just how to recover her address book and data (something my friend is quite capable of doing but he wanted confirmation of his plan's utility and efficacy). Then we talked about just what she needs from a computer.

She is a heavy email user, participates almost continuously in several IRC chat rooms centered on her various interests, surfs a lot, prints a lot of color photos along with black and white documents in volume. For this she has two printers. A color ink jet and a monochrome laser, along with a standalone scanner. She uses Vonage for most of her phone calls and she plays Sudoku on the machine.

A quick check showed Vista drivers for both printers and the scanner were available. Her display was also supported. As she was already using a simple memory card reader for transferring her photos from her camera to the computer, that was no problem at all. A quick proposal was put together centering on an HP computer equipped with Vista.

Her reaction was swift and definitive; "Don't give me that Vista thing!".

A bit of discussion revealed that she has both read and been told about just how bad Vista is. She had a lot of objections at hand, ready to go. She had been told that Vista was going to prevent her copying images, regardless of their origin. And that Vista would not support her games, scanner or printers. Plus, she had been informed that she would have to learn everything about using her computer all over again.

With such ingrained opposition, the easy course would be to simply purchase a computer equipped with Windows XP, or transfer her to a Mac. (There is no way she would go with Linux.) Instead, her nephew, my friend, simply lent her a laptop with Vista installed. We set her up a user account, installed her games and the appropriate drivers. Only the scanner required a download. The rest were already part of Vista. And we put all her data on it, as well.

A few days use turned her into a Vista enthusiast. The clincher was probably something others won't experience in comparison to their XP machines; greater stability. Her XP computer was never all that stable and would crash on occasion. (My friend and I worked on this and in the end attributed the problems to hardware, rather than the operating system or software. The machine would crash occasionally running a Linux live CD, too.) The Vista laptop, and indeed her new computer, both with Home Premium installed, are more stable than her XP machine was.

So she was converted. The new machine was duly installed and she is very, very happy with it. And features we never thought to point out to her because we take them for granted, like the USB and audio ports on the front of the machine, delight her, as well. It really is a nice computer with it's Core Duo processor and plenty of system memory (2 GB).

But Vista labors under it's bad reputation, partly undeserved though it is, and will for all it's life. For some users, Vista really is not a good thing. For others, meaning almost all users, it is completely adequate and, indeed, just what is needed. I think this applies to it's heightened security functions, more than anything else. One can argue just how secure Vista is, but there is no doubt at all it is more secure than it's predecessor.

Writers and other commentators still pile it on, though. Not just in the tech press, either. The criticism makes it into mainstream news, too. Vista is bad in this way. Vista is bad in some other way. It seems to never end. Frankly, I don't think Vista can recover. Given that, I wonder if the best thing Microsoft can do is to simply move on and bring out a demonstrably new operating system as soon as humanly possible. One with a new and clean reputation.

Jack

Faxing in OpenOffice.org

After having questions in chat about Faxing from OpenOffice, I found this article, thought I should pass it along.

Intel's Silverthorne Unveiled: Detailing Baby Centrino

We have mentioned Intel's "Silverthorne" platform (chipset and processor together) in connection with a couple products in the last two shows. Here, in all it's radiant glory is AnandTech's take on how it works and what it means. A somewhat geeky article, but it's important to wade through this one. That's because Silverthorne is as likely to be the next Centrino as not and, frankly, it raises the bar for low-power consumption platforms intended for devices larger than phones and smaller than notebook computers.

Frankly, I think this one is very cool and would fit right into my life as the heart of a UMPC or similar device.

Jack

Our Seti@home team

We are down to four active members. We can do better that that I hope.

AMD opens sources performance library

I had 9 emails waiting in my inbox about this one when I got to the computer this morning.

One and all pointed out to me that this is the sort of thing that has to happen for software developers to take adequate advantage of concurrency in modern processors. (For those of you who aren't keeping up with the jargon, 'concurrencey', or 'concurrence' is the new term for multi-threading in such a way as to utilize all the different processor cores available in today's multi-core, multi-chip machines.)

It's true. And a LOT more will have to happen before the state of the art advances. The cool thing about it is that the necessary pieces are being put into place.

Jack

Mozilla Messenging

It's an additional function for Thunderbird.

I'm not sure the world is in dire need of another messenging protocol, but here it is. I'll hold off until they add it to Pidgin, thank you. I'm not using Thunderbird. There ARE a LOT of T-Bird users, though, and for all I know they are clamoring to have this. It's from the Mozilla folks, so perhaps there is less worry about security and privacy than there might be with other vendors. And the price is right.

Check it out.

Jack

Microsoft To Announce WorldWide Telescope On February 27

TechCrunch has what looks like a scoop on a new Microsoft feature that will allow one to view many portions of the Universe, as seen by the Hubble and ground-based telescopes. This is slated to be better and more comprehensive than Google Sky, though of course meaningful comparison will have to wait for the release.

Anyway; this is the kind of application for which it seems the Internet was made, despite what the porn dealers say .

Jack

DVD Jon Strikes Again!

"DVD Jon" Lech Johansen's company, doubleTwist, has released their new application, the "doubleTwist desktop", which allows users to convert their legally purchased (and even copy-protected) media files from one device's format to another, seamlessly and easily. It's Windows only and free. Click the link above for more information and the download.

Supports a very long list of devices, but iPhone support is still in the future.

Jack

Enclosed, but not encrypted

Here's the deal; Just because the box says the device encrypts the data doesn't really mean anything. Flaws in hardware capabilities, execution and algorithms render the encryption almost meaningless. Anyone who wants to study a bit can beat it. Anyone!

The article linked to at Heise shows how badly the makers and sellers of the device mislead the public. They say it is for "general purpose" users but the truth is that the encryption is no more than a speed bump on the way to reading the data. Better to use GnuPG, PGP or TrueCrypt on a regular drive in a regular enclosure. There are a lot of ways to accomplish what this device fails so spectacularly at; both free and proprietary.

Personally, I recommend TrueCrypt, though I use GnuPG, as well.

Jack

Hardware companies can’t write software

It's a rant about the crappy software hardware companies saddle us with when we buy their hardware. Good reading and I fully agree. I'm taking this as a warning about which brands to stay away from. Of course, I already knew about Sony.

Jack

Sorry

I would like to apologize to anyone offended by my experiment with Amazon, it won't happen again.

--MissM

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 02-17-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 02-17-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

For a special 10% discount on Skylook 2.0 or Skylook 2.0 Elite just use BEESKNEES as your coupon code. Thank you Jeremy Hague from SkyLook
For help on how to use this coupon, see www.skylook.biz/coupon

Links from the Gregg Zone!

1) Let us begin the week with the good stuff, first up how to create plasma with a beer bottle and a microwave oven. How is that for shaking up the house hold, you will need a microwave oven preferably one that is not regularly used to cook your dinner, I cannot believe this is a good thing to do to one of your regular appliances. In addition to the oven you will need a blowtorch, is this getting good or what. Oh and a beer bottle, an empty one, wow a home run, you start it off by emptying the beer bottle. For me that would not bring the kitchen sink to mind, but I will leave it up to you. Here is a link to a video demonstration. http://www.gizmodo.com.

2) Now if that just gets your juices flowing, let’s kick it up a notch. Here is a whole lot more of cool things to do with that microwave you picked up at the garage sale to do the beer bottle. Among the unwise things to do with your microwave include titles like; “Lightning Storm”, “Ball Lightning”, “Plasma Pool”, “Tesla Coil”, “Vaporized Aluminum”, just to name a few. You may need another oven, thankfully garage sales, and thrift stores are everywhere. Anyway, if the mad scientist in you is screaming to get out here is the link P.S. There are lots more interesting things to do in the garage at this site. Especially if you enjoy freaking out your neighbors, my former disclaimers apply here. http://amasci.com

3) One more microwave site to consider this one sent to me by Joe who found it while looking for info on his home unit. It is a little tamer if those other sites seemed a little over the top you may want to start here. The only problem I had with this one is the choice of color, one of those hard to read due to lack of contrast. http://margo.student.utwente.nl

4) Enough with the microwaves, I was looking into T.V. on the net again. I cannot seem to get this off my brain, I started out with a site called hula supposed to give a schedule of internet T.V. shows available on the net. I signed up for the beta last week still no answer. http://www.hulu.com/ However linking on to other sites landed me at this one, but it sounds too good to be true as usual. What they are offering for a one time download, in addition to the 4000 world wide television stations is, free unlimited MP3 music over 90 million songs, free movie downloads over 80 million movies, free unlimited downloads TV shows full episodes, free CD/DVD copy soft ware, and much more, whatever that means. Granted some is most likely already available, but it has me asking why am I paying cable, and Netflix if it is real. Any feed back would be welcome, anyway here is the link http://www.television-on-internet.com/ I was referring to package B, A is cheaper but not as featured. By the way the site has a thing I have never seen before when you leave.

5) Last a little anti vista quickie video http://blip.tv/file/340692

Blog Housekeeping

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

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

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

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

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

Use of Rogue DNS Servers on Rise

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

Jack

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

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

More iPhone Hacking

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

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

Jack

CNET News.com

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

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

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

h/t to Twitter

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

Game makers hit out at Apple

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

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

I guess Apple needs to wake up.

Jack

Microsoft Research's InkSeine coming this Friday

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

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

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

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 02-10-08

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

Links from the Gregg Zone!

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

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

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

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

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

XP needs to live until 2009

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

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

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

Jack

Performance Results Mixed with Vista Service Pack 1

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

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

Jack