Sorry for the delay, but the pictures from Geek Meet 2008 are now posted at http://geekmeet.oncomputers.info.
Thanks to all that came out.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
OnComputers Radio show Podcast 04-20-08
This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 04-20-08. 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.
There is a minute or so gap when I lost my internet connection about 2 ½ hours into the show.
AlaskaJoe
There is a minute or so gap when I lost my internet connection about 2 ½ hours into the show.
AlaskaJoe
RSA Conference 2008 - Keynote Webcast Schedule
I thought that some might enjoy access to the conference video or "interactive webcast," from this past week's RSA conference available. Sadly, no audio only...
RSA Conference 2008 - Keynote Webcast Schedule
--MissM
RSA Conference 2008 - Keynote Webcast Schedule
--MissM
Links from the Gregg zone
1) My first couple of links today are going to be a little on the dark side. I have always been, intrigued by the question. What makes humans, my-self included do the things we do? It is amazing to me to watch people acting in ways that I find completely incomprehensible. From world leaders, to the people living next door, I often find my-self running away from that old saying, “if everyone else seems crazy, maybe it’s you”. Anyway, I thought I would post a couple of links about psychological tests I ran across during my net surfing; they were controversial when first conducted; and could not be done today due to ethics. However, they are enlightening when you look at some of the actions of the people around us. http://www.youtube.com
2) The second link is similar to the first one another experiment done a few years later at
3) These next links also delve into the workings of our brain, body, and consciousness. The first link is to an article, I ran across in the Daily Mail about a hypnotist who put himself under for an 83 min. operation on his arm to have a bone growth chiseled off, using a hammer and chisel after cutting him open, no anesthetic. http://www.dailymail.co.uk I have used self-hypnosis in the past. Not to this degree, but the article got me to look around to see what is available on the net, because I did enjoy the experience. Here is some of what I found. My first thought was an old friend, Mind Tools. http://www.mindtools.com Then I found this one a free online five-day audio course, I am thinking about it if I can make time I think I will try it. http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com
4) It’s time to lighten things up a bit, this link was sent to me by Jack, thanks. What we have here is a list of the “Ten Genius Inventions We’re Still Waiting For” put together by Popular Mechanics Magazine. Some future inventions here, but I can probably wait for most of them. http://www.popularmechanics.com
5) Last up a geek link, I have heard some negativity about Safari on the show off and on, so when I saw this I thought I would link it up. It seems PayPal is blocking it as an unsafe browser, and does not live up to their standard. Older versions of some other browsers will also be blocked, so if you are having problems an upgrade might help. http://www.thestandard.com
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Blind users still struggle with 'maddening' computing obstacles
We, and especially Riley, have commented on this for years. Here is a succinct summary of the problems encountered by blind users, along with some information on remediation and tools available.
I was recently asked to re-write a web site to increase usability for the visually challenged. I had to turn it down. Why? Well, most of us who do HTML and derivatives never thought about the blind and so we did our sites in such a way that simply inserting "ALT" tags would do nothing to improve accessibility. Sites need to be designed for accessibility from the start. Once that is done, improving accessibility is really not that much work and surely not inconvenient beyond the needed labor. The site I was being asked to work on really needed to be completely redone, not just tarted up for the blind. Too big a job for the likes of me.
Jack
I was recently asked to re-write a web site to increase usability for the visually challenged. I had to turn it down. Why? Well, most of us who do HTML and derivatives never thought about the blind and so we did our sites in such a way that simply inserting "ALT" tags would do nothing to improve accessibility. Sites need to be designed for accessibility from the start. Once that is done, improving accessibility is really not that much work and surely not inconvenient beyond the needed labor. The site I was being asked to work on really needed to be completely redone, not just tarted up for the blind. Too big a job for the likes of me.
Jack
Firefox 2.0.0.14 released April 16th
Just a bug fix, no new features.
Quote from the release notes :
Fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.14
MFSA 2008-20 Crash in JavaScript garbage collector
Interesting though, when you go into the full details, they say the bug is fixed in Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 as well, but no update showing up there, yet. Still 2.0.0.12 showing for latest download.
Quote from the release notes :
Fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.14
MFSA 2008-20 Crash in JavaScript garbage collector
Interesting though, when you go into the full details, they say the bug is fixed in Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 as well, but no update showing up there, yet. Still 2.0.0.12 showing for latest download.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
"Web tripwires" reveal 1.3% of web pages altered in transit
As far as I'm concerned, this is just one more thing to be suspicious of with regards to the Internet.
That the practice is supposedly "benign" justifies nothing to me.
Jack
That the practice is supposedly "benign" justifies nothing to me.
Jack
Mac Clone Maker Psystar Vows To Challenge Apple EULA
PsyStar, a Florida company specializing in storage rigs, announced their "Open Mac" product Monday and their site was immediately taken down......Slashdotted into oblivion. It's back up now, at least most of the time, so I felt it was time to post this.
Open Mac is a "Hackintosh"; Intel hardware that will run Apple's OS X without any modification to the code. Open Macs come with OS X installed, if you buy your copy from PsyStar. This is a violation of Apples license agreement and I waited over 24 hours for Job's Mob to squash PsyStar like a bug under a flood of legal writs. That didn't happen. Or at least it hasn't happened yet.
PsyStar has come out swinging on this; saying Apple gouges on hardware for the priviledge of running "what is arguably the best OS out there". They intend to change that. To accomplish their goal, they are going to have to challenge the Apple EULA (End User License Agreement). They have 3 possible avenues of attack, that I can see. One is to argue that the terms of the license are unenforceable. The second is to argue that the terms are unconscionable. I assume the third is to argue that Apple is basically objecting to free money for the product which they do not have to subsequently support, which is a very weak argument and probably won't actually come up. (If it does, it likely will be seen as without merit. After all; it IS Apple's property and they cannot be forced to sell it.)
This one is going to be a whole lot of fun to watch. Personally, I hope that PsyStar wins, though I doubt they can. Still, I am not a lawyer able to judge the case from afar and as everyone knows, stranger things have happened in courts.
Jack
Open Mac is a "Hackintosh"; Intel hardware that will run Apple's OS X without any modification to the code. Open Macs come with OS X installed, if you buy your copy from PsyStar. This is a violation of Apples license agreement and I waited over 24 hours for Job's Mob to squash PsyStar like a bug under a flood of legal writs. That didn't happen. Or at least it hasn't happened yet.
PsyStar has come out swinging on this; saying Apple gouges on hardware for the priviledge of running "what is arguably the best OS out there". They intend to change that. To accomplish their goal, they are going to have to challenge the Apple EULA (End User License Agreement). They have 3 possible avenues of attack, that I can see. One is to argue that the terms of the license are unenforceable. The second is to argue that the terms are unconscionable. I assume the third is to argue that Apple is basically objecting to free money for the product which they do not have to subsequently support, which is a very weak argument and probably won't actually come up. (If it does, it likely will be seen as without merit. After all; it IS Apple's property and they cannot be forced to sell it.)
This one is going to be a whole lot of fun to watch. Personally, I hope that PsyStar wins, though I doubt they can. Still, I am not a lawyer able to judge the case from afar and as everyone knows, stranger things have happened in courts.
Jack
Monday, April 14, 2008
First Look: Gimp 2.5.0 - UPDATED!
So far, the general consensus is that The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program, for those who might not know yet) is not quite a competitor for Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Still, it's quite close. Close enough that I certainly am not qualified to judge. I simply don't work at that level in graphics.
In my opinion, and apparently the opinion of others, too, The GIMP's interface is even more confusing than that of it's competitors. As a result, the GIMP team has made a lot of changes. I think they are worth checking out. I'm a GIMP user on Windows or Linux and looking forward to them making more changes to make it easier for folks like me to use it profitably. I think this new release will be well worth your time to check out.
Jack
UPDATE: Here is Scott Gilbertson's Wired blog post on the subject, which seems an even better overview of things.
Jack
In my opinion, and apparently the opinion of others, too, The GIMP's interface is even more confusing than that of it's competitors. As a result, the GIMP team has made a lot of changes. I think they are worth checking out. I'm a GIMP user on Windows or Linux and looking forward to them making more changes to make it easier for folks like me to use it profitably. I think this new release will be well worth your time to check out.
Jack
UPDATE: Here is Scott Gilbertson's Wired blog post on the subject, which seems an even better overview of things.
Jack
The Coming Processor War: Opening Salvo
Here's an interesting quickie from Lloyd Case at Extreme Tech. He makes the case that eliminating the graphics processor in favor of the CPU is entirely possible now and will only become more so and wonders how NVidia will respond to that.
Jack
Jack
OnComputers Radio show Podcast 04-13-08
This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 04-13-08. 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.
Remember this was our Geek Meet 2008 show with video of the show, to see the live video you need the asf file from our archives mms://live.oncomputers.info/OCArchive/2008/04-13-08.asf
Remember this was our Geek Meet 2008 show with video of the show, to see the live video you need the asf file from our archives mms://live.oncomputers.info/OCArchive/2008/04-13-08.asf
Sunday, April 13, 2008
How much can you improve network throughput with a high-end NIC?
Hi. We are finally back online, after 75 hours without power. Sorry for the absence.
Here's a short article at Linux.com that I think everyone should read.
For ages, I have trolled for the lowest cost nics with a decent chipset. For a couple years, I was centered on Kingston parts, but they got out of the nic market. Now, I have failed spectacularly in finding cheap nics that work well. I have had to resort to nics costing 3-5 times as much to get decent performance and reliability.
Jack
Here's a short article at Linux.com that I think everyone should read.
For ages, I have trolled for the lowest cost nics with a decent chipset. For a couple years, I was centered on Kingston parts, but they got out of the nic market. Now, I have failed spectacularly in finding cheap nics that work well. I have had to resort to nics costing 3-5 times as much to get decent performance and reliability.
Jack
Links from the Gregg zone
1) To start, the geek meet weekend show links this week I am posting a link to an article about storage of data. The goal of this group is to put a full petabyte of information on a single disc. To put that in perspective 20,000 times what fits on today’s blue ray disc or 200,000 DVD’s without increasing the size of the disc. They are looking at several options, such as, color spectrum, dimensions, layering, and nano technology. http://www.sciencealert.com.
2) This is a link I found the other day I thought was interesting it is the only free open internet-rating site. They provide audience profiles for over 20,000,000 sites. They are primarily for advertisers, but it is interesting to look up sites and see what type of audience is using the site. For instance, oncomputers ranks 859,387, mostly male, mostly over 55, mostly under 30k per year, mostly Asian, mostly no children in house hold. There is a statement that these results are based on insufficient data, and there is an option to “get qualified”, if we wanted, I suppose that would improve that accuracy http://www.quantcast.com/
3) Here is a very good audio/video site while there is an incredible amount of stuff here since this is geek meet I thought I would just highlight the computer section. Five-hundred-sixty items on the archives of the Computers Chronicles T.V. show broadcast for twenty years 1983-2002. Other shows available include The Digital Tipping Point, Net Café, Internet Governance, BBS Documentaries, several Linux groups. That is just part of the section covering the computer. I also found such things as the original ads for the Commodore, among many others. I found this stuff under Moving Images, browse from the main page. http://www.archive.org
4) A link to an article in Wired Magazine about the Chinese using Trojans to spy on us has spurred the latest Microsoft’s patches. Seems the
5) Last link before I have to head for downtown and meet the group for our prim-rib buffet at Fitzgerald’s casino, the ten weirdest computers. An article posted yesterday in the New Scientist Tech Magazine. I need to hurry so I’m just going to say here is the link, by. http://technology.newscientist.com
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Adobe Launches Ad-Supported Media Player
In what has to be considered one of the most useless expenditures of corporate resources in recent memory, Adobe has launched a media player supported by advertising; a feature which just about guarantees it's not being adopted widely.
The link above will take you to The Inquirer's announcement. Here is Adobe's official page for it.
Ars Technica's Review is here.
Jack
The link above will take you to The Inquirer's announcement. Here is Adobe's official page for it.
Ars Technica's Review is here.
Jack
EMC buys Iomega | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
Unfortunately, I don't believe this is news to many people, just an expected occurrence.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
HP Admits to Selling Infected Flash-Floppy Drives
I post this not to embarass HP, but to illustrate that we are repeating history.
In the very old DOS days, the way to stay safe from events such as this was to format everything you got before you used it. Pre-formatted floppies encouraged poor practice in this regard, but those of us with a paranoid bent did it and everyone should have. Now, with flash drives, the modern floppy, we have the same problem. And the solution is the same.
If it is new, format it. If it comes with data or executables on it, scan it first, before doing anything else. Don't even open it and look at the contents before initiating the scan!
Jack
In the very old DOS days, the way to stay safe from events such as this was to format everything you got before you used it. Pre-formatted floppies encouraged poor practice in this regard, but those of us with a paranoid bent did it and everyone should have. Now, with flash drives, the modern floppy, we have the same problem. And the solution is the same.
If it is new, format it. If it comes with data or executables on it, scan it first, before doing anything else. Don't even open it and look at the contents before initiating the scan!
Jack
ISPs Hog Rights in Fine Print
It's just like software licenses. You sign away your rights and pledge your soul along with giving them your credit card details.
Periodically these things come under public scrutiny and occasionally they actually get made better for the consumer. Don't count on that happening this round in the cycle. Still, it's nice to see some public mention and the resulting chance the public awareness has been raised.
Jack
Periodically these things come under public scrutiny and occasionally they actually get made better for the consumer. Don't count on that happening this round in the cycle. Still, it's nice to see some public mention and the resulting chance the public awareness has been raised.
Jack
Apple Adds Anti-Hacker Features to QuickTime
You've all heard me rant about how media players are going to continue being one of the preferred attack vectors for the bad guys who want to compromise systems. Apparently Apple is tired of that truth and decided to do everything they can to stop it happening via QuickTime.
That's only to the good. How well Apple will succeed is open to question, as it appears [to me] that applications like media players are simply going to be vulnerable. Giving their best to these changes can only help users stay secure and, if they are really good, they might achieve a long period of "peace" where no new vulnerabilities are discovered for a while.
Jack
That's only to the good. How well Apple will succeed is open to question, as it appears [to me] that applications like media players are simply going to be vulnerable. Giving their best to these changes can only help users stay secure and, if they are really good, they might achieve a long period of "peace" where no new vulnerabilities are discovered for a while.
Jack
Sunday, April 06, 2008
OnComputers Radio show Podcast 04-06-08
This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 04-06-08. 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.
Spirit Of Knoxville: Autonomous Trans-Atlantic Balloon Project
University of Tennessee students have built 5 balloons that they release into the jet stream, and track via radio and gps. The goal? To get to Europe. They have released 4 balloons so far, and the launch is tonight! April 06, 2007 (00:00 GMT/20:00EDT) is the scheduled lift-off. They need help tracking it, and have links and software to send your results back (almost like an earth bound seti). Hmmm, They have on the website, they say 8:00pm EST, aren't we on EDT? Oh well... check the Launch page to findout. The last flight lasted 40 hours and ended up in Ireland. They also have live updates, once it has launched.
Spirit Of Knoxville: Autonomous Trans-Atlantic Balloon Project
update: The Latest News:
* Recovery plans underway. Volunteers heading to area. 42 minutes ago
* Balloon has landed in southwestern Virginia. The balloon plastic seems to have failed during the initial climb. more details may be posted about 3 hours ago
* Landing will occur within the next few hours in the US. The balloon envelope has failed, no reason has been hypothesis about 14 hours ago
[h/t GeekDad blog @ wired]
--MissM
P.S. Because I have ADD, I'm unable to limit this to one topic. :P If you just read this through RSS, you might want to click through to the site, to check out the links I share in my google reader, have our posts read to you and search amazon, plus any other things I'm experimenting with (mwahahaha). Please let me know if you have suggestions or comments here or by email missm.oncomputers at gmail.com . As always, thanks for reading and contributing SO much to our weblog!
Jane
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