Eric Hartwell: NewsStream

An Antidote to Spyware?

Sun, 22 May 2005 14:29:00 GMT

[eWeek 5/9/2005] In Defining Spyware: A Solution, Simson Garfinkel proposes an interesting approach to deal with spyware and other malware. Instead of trying to define what behaviours are legal and what aren't, "a cleaner solution would be to require software vendors to document the behaviors in their software that most computer users find surprising. This legislation could be modeled on the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Back then, U.S. consumers faced a horrible problem of narcotics and other addictive drugs being routinely added to foods of all kinds, from soft drinks to baby food. The act didn't outlaw the practice; it simply required that specific ingredients had to be disclosed on a product's label." Companies that didn't comply could be prosecuted for unfair or deceptive trade practices. Let the consumer decide!

Samsung's Massive 40-inch Ultra-slim, Ultra-sharp, OLED TV

Sat, 21 May 2005 15:39:01 GMT

[AkihabaraNews 20-05-2005 via Gizmodo 5/20/2005] This huge [prototype] OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) TV cements Samsung's status as a consumer technology leader. The OLED panel, which the model is so helpfully showing us is viewable from just about any angle, is also thinner, pixelier, and contrastier than current flat panel TVs. Manufactured on Samsung's fourth generation production line, the prototype combines the features of emissive OLED technology, including wide viewing angle, thin package size, no color filter and no backlight, with the enormous production advantages of standard a-Si techniques. According to the press release, "Shattering traditional AM OLED size limitations, the new prototype offers a maximum screen brightness of 600 nits; a black-and-white contrast ratio of 5,000:1; and, a color gamut of 80 percent. Motion pictures with ultra-high quality images can be impeccably reproduced by skillfully employing OLED's rapid video response capabilities for image processing of HD-class resolution. The ultra-thin shape of the panels will allow future TV set designers to create televisions with a total thickness of only 3cm or less."

A parking ticket can teach a lot about productivity

Fri, 20 May 2005 02:00:59 GMT

[Globe and Mail 5/19/2005] Mobile ticketing technology boosts productivity in new ways for the cities involved. The technology allows municipalities to issue more tickets and reduce errors, and it eliminates the cumbersome and time-consuming data entry involved with handwritten tickets. It's possible -- through a wireless connection to a back-end information repository -- for officers using the portable devices to check the history of tagged vehicles and immediately summon a towing company to cart away any found to have numerous outstanding citations. That equals more revenue for the city generated by each parking enforcement employee. The cost to equip a parking control officer -- including handheld device, printer and the software -- is about $6,000. The payback in terms of increased efficiency and revenue for municipalities is realized in as little as six months...

Create your own BSOD in Windows XP (on request, that is)

Thu, 19 May 2005 23:06:59 GMT

[TechRepublic.com 5/18/2005] As puzzling as it may sound, it can be quite useful to create your own Blue Screen Of Death in Windows XP. From troubleshooting your Startup And Recovery settings to demonstrating to end users what to do if they encounter a BSOD, this tip will come in handy. Here's how to create a BSOD: 1. Launch the Registry Editor Regedit.exe. 2. Go to HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesi8042prtParameters. 3. Edit, select New | DWORD Value and name the new value CrashOnCtrlScroll. 4. Double-click the CrashOnCtrlScroll DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value Data textbox, and click OK. 5. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP. When you want to cause a BSOD, press and hold down the [Ctrl] key on the right side of your keyboard, and then tap the [ScrollLock] key twice. Now you should see the BSOD.

Sony In-Car GPS shows where you should have been in real-time 3D

Sun, 15 May 2005 13:43:24 GMT

[AkihabaraNews 5/13/2005 9:30 via Gizmodo 5/13/2005 10:53:04] As Americans continue to question the necessity of GPS units in cars, Sony has released a new model in its Linux-based XYZ series, the sleek, touchscreen units that can display most of the streets of Tokyo is real-time 3D. The NVXYZ777 can also be mated to an optional 'EX' box that fits in the in-dash DIN slot, storing a 30GB hard drive that can hold map data, as well as music. Lust all you like, but don't feel too bad — Japanese drivers will be paying in the neighborhood of $2,500 for the system.

Opportunity Rover Begins Escape From Sand Trap

Sun, 15 May 2005 01:29:34 GMT

[JPL Mars Rovers sol 464, 5/14/2005] Careful Rollout: The Mars Rover Opportunity rotated its wheels on sol 463 for the first time since it dug itself into a sand dune. The wheels made about two and a half rotations. In the loose footing, the rover advanced 1.1 inch forward, 0.19 inch sideways and 0.18 inch downward. The results were a good match for what was expected from tests under simulated Mars conditions on Earth, and the rover team will decide whether to repeat the same careful movement again in two days. Two weeks ago, Opportunity had completed nearly 131 feet of a planned 295-foot drive, when it started slip on a one foot tall by 8 feet wide sand dune. Its wheels kept rotating, but the rover barely inched forward. The rover team spent more than two weeks designing and conducting tests before choosing the best way for Opportunity to drive out of the dune. [Thumbnail links to 1,436K animated GIF]

Microsoft announces Windows protection, maintenance and tuning package

Fri, 13 May 2005 21:01:01 GMT

[via Slashdot, New York Times 5/13/2005] Microsoft will finally enter the consumer antivirus business as part of an all-in-one subscription service for automated protection, maintenance and performance tuning as package. Windows OneCare addresses core safety concerns such as worms, viruses and spyware, but also spans broader PC health issues: helping protect electronic assets such as digital photos, music, financial data and software; and guarding against performance degradation and system clutter that can result from heavy use. The new antivirus and improved firewall will join the AntiSpyware already in beta. The maintenance service runs a monthly PC tune-up, and backup saves files by category to CD or DVD, with the ability to restore saved versions or transfer them to a new PC. Windows OneCare gives PC users one simple point of reference for checking the overall health of their system, and will automatically notify them of available updates or other recommended actions as needed. Otherwise, the service will stay quiet and in the background.

Xbox 360 Unveiled

Fri, 13 May 2005 13:15:34 GMT

[Slashdot: 5/13/2005; 8:53:27 AM] You may or may not have caught the Xbox 360 unveiling on MTV Thursday night, but the internet will provide. A plethora of sites have photos, videos, commentary, specifications, and interviews about the new system. Your fellow readers have pulled together to provide links to: 1up.com, Joystiq, Gamespot, The BBC, CNN, NYT, Gamespy, Team Xbox, Voodoo Extreme, Anandtech, and eToyChest. The official Xbox 360 site opened last night as well for word straight from the source. For more official images Ourcolony.net has been 'solved', and now features an OurColony specific video preview. Finally, for commentary on the event, the Video Game Ombudsman provides an alternative to the press releases.

Sun Blesses Open-Source Java Effort

Thu, 12 May 2005 12:50:32 GMT

[TechWeb 5/11/2005 6:21 PM ET] Sun Microsystems has endorsed and may even participate in the Apache Foundation's Project Harmony, which will create an open-source version of Sun' desktop Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE). The project includes a complete set of class libraries, a Java Virtual Machine (VM) implementation, and a test suite for interoperability testing, all under the terms of Apache's open-source licensing model. The proposal and accompanying FAQ acknowledge several key challenges, including concern over possible intellectual property conflicts. "Personally, I am not entirely sure if the world really needs a second J2SE implementation," stated Graham Hamilton, Sun's chief technologist for Java Software, in a blog entry posted the day after Harmony's public debut. Although Hamilton also cautioned that "creating a full scale implementation is a mammoth task," on the whole, his comments indicated that both he and Sun welcomed the effort. Other highly-placed Sun employees confirmed that Sun has decided to endorse and possibly to support the effort.

OSS Projects Offer Bounties For Features

Wed, 11 May 2005 12:30:09 GMT

[Slashdot: 5/10/2005; 4:52:06 PM] The market for open source developers seems to be heating up. Asterisk, Gnome, Horde, and Mozilla all have bounties for desired features. Recently, Lime Wire updated its wish list to include bounties on open source development work! Similarly, i2p also released a bounty list. Is it time to consider quitting my day job to do open source development full time?
Also: Mark Shuttleworth: Claim Your Bounty!, Public Software Fund, AROS project, ...

Stoker's Dracula as a blog

Wed, 11 May 2005 00:23:25 GMT

[via Boing Boing 5/9/2005] This genius blogger is posting the Jonathan Harper journal entries from Stoker's Dracula as a series of dated blog posts [rss]: "8 May -- I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I was getting too diffuse. But now I am glad that I went into detail from the first, for there is something so strange about this place and all in it that I cannot but feel uneasy. I wish I were safe out of it, or that I had never come. It may be that this strange night existence is telling on me, but would that that were all! If there were any one to talk to I could bear it, but there is no one. I have only the Count to speak with, and he-- I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place. Let me be prosaic so far as facts can be. It will help me to bear up, and imagination must not run riot with me. If it does I am lost. Let me say at once how I stand, or seem to..."

Mon, 09 May 2005 21:18:16 GMT

My CPX Team Logo Competition entry "Channel 9 Guy" arrived today, in good shape, after his trip in a DHL Express cardboard mailing envelope.

Woman's personal information left on floor model computer then sold by Circuit City

Mon, 09 May 2005 00:37:19 GMT

Personal information copied to floor model computer then sold [Denver Channel 5/6/2005 via Fark 5/8/2005] Susan asked to have the files from her old computer saved, so Circuit City employees copied her files onto a floor model computer then onto a disk. But they never removed Susan's personal files from that floor model, and a few days later that computer was sold. "That evening I got a call from a stranger who told me he purchased a computer containing all of my personal information," Susan said. Circuit City told her it was her fault for leaving her files on their computer because the transfer was done at no charge and she did not specifically ask for protection. That's when she filed suit.

Fat, food and behaviour

Sat, 07 May 2005 22:53:39 GMT

[Mind Hacks 5/6/2005] The Guardian discusses the growing evidence for a link between fatty acids, brain function and behaviour in a story that focuses on the potential effects on visual problems, dyslexia and difficulties with attention. Some 40% of the children given Omega-3 essential fat supplements made dramatic improvements in reading and spelling, averaging progress of more than nine months in just three months. The control group made just the normal progress of three months. After three months, the control group switched from placebos to active supplements, and showed similar leaps in progress. In another randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Bernard Gesch gave a course of supplements containing essential fatty acids and key vitamins and minerals to prisoners in one of Britain's maximum security prisons. The inmates were responsible for some of the highest levels of prison violence in the UK. The number of serious offences, including violence, by the prisoners, fell by nearly 40% in those taking the supplements but not at all in those not taking them. To Gesch, the case is just "bleeding obvious".

Introducing Agile to a legacy project

Sat, 07 May 2005 22:40:04 GMT

[Steve Eichert 4/7/2005] Brian Marick recently posted his “talking points” for how to introduce Agile to a legacy project. I think this is something that is often overlooked in the agile community. There is oodles and oodles of documentation about how to run an agile project when you’re starting fresh, but I haven’t seen very much on how to introduce agile into an existing “legacy” project. Usually the team is deciding to give agile a try because of disappointments on previous projects, which are usually still around. This poses some difficult problems since the legacy code usually doesn’t have very many (if any) tests, is likely highly coupled, and possibly a complete mess. Brian’s post provides some good guidance on how to get started when you’re in such an environment. The most important thing to note is that it should be gradual process, you can’t make a project agile in a day or week, but you can begin to see immediate benefits from moving in an agile direction.

Top 10 Light Therapy Products

Sat, 07 May 2005 21:49:37 GMT

[About.com 5/6/2005] These products, ranging from $10 to hundreds of dollars, can help you add broad- or full-spectrum or natural lighting to your home or office. Recent studies show strong evidence that exposure to artificial broad-spectrum light is an effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in which people become more depressed in the darker days of winter. They're good for your general health, too.

Court yanks down FCC's broadcast flag

Sat, 07 May 2005 00:12:30 GMT

[CNET News.com 5/6/2005, 9:52AM PDT] In a stunning victory for hardware makers and television buffs, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards starting July 1. "The broadcast flag regulations exceed the agency's delegated authority under the statute," a three-judge panel unanimously concluded. "The FCC has no authority to regulate consumer electronic devices that can be used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission." (Click here for a PDF of the decision.) During oral arguments in February, the three judges suggesed the FCC had overstepped what the law permits. "You're out there in the whole world, regulating. Are washing machines next?" asked Judge Harry Edwards. Quipped Judge David Sentelle: "You can't regulate washing machines. You can't rule the world."

Criminal Enterprise Moves Into Net

Fri, 06 May 2005 23:51:29 GMT

[TechWeb 4/27/2005 via W2Knews 5/6/2005] Malware, spam, phishing, spyware, bots and root kits are raking in big bucks and fighting them effectively is a huge challenge. David Aucsmith, Microsoft's Security CTO, said, "We've seen an explosion of criminal enterprise moving onto the Net in the last 18 months or so... It's no longer just for kicks. It is for making money... 70 to 80 percent of all spam comes from bots. These are your moms' machines, compromised by a bot. They're fairly sophisticated now." The "herders" who operate bot networks offer to rent out their bot networks. "People are making a lot of money with spam," he said flatly. The Wall Street Journal had an article on May 5 about true Mafia tactics where e-commerce sites were sent extortion emails, and told to pay up 10 grand protection money, or else be attacked. Looks like true crime has arrived in the neighborhood.

Interview with James Gosling: "The Man Who Brewed Up Java"

Fri, 06 May 2005 23:31:44 GMT

[Business Week 5/4/2005 via Boing Boing 5/6/2005] Business Week has a good interview with James Gosling. "The really lucky thing was we ended up reading the tea leaves correctly and guessing the direction things were going to take. "
Q: How has becoming known as "the father of Java" changed your life, personally?
A: In some sense, it kind of ruined my life. I'm absolutely an engineer, a scientist kind of guy. I've kind of learned how to have a public presence. But it doesn't give me the same kind of job satisfaction that building something does.

Thu, 05 May 2005 19:12:34 GMT

Infoscraper update

RSS Bandit is a desktop news aggregator written in C# and .NET under active development at SourceForge. See Revamping the RSS Bandit Application for a 2003 MSDN article about RSS Bandit.
Creating a generic Site-To-RSS tool [9/29/2003] describes a generic HTML-to-RSS scraper tool that uses regular expressions with VB.NET.
Template Based Scraping [10/28/2002] A quick overview of screen scraping.
RSSxl is an HTML to RSS converter that will generate an RSS feed from pretty well any HTML web page - with no requirement to edit the source HTML first. It is a free online service that translates HTML to RSS.

Now to put it all together ...

Thu, 05 May 2005 13:23:24 GMT

We know what you did [CNET HotTopicsNewsletter May 3, 2005] Go to ZabaSearch.com, type in your name, and see what comes up. Are you shocked at the search results? Or are you not surprised? In Pick your battles with Internet privacy, Tom Merritt maintains that ZabaSearch is no evil Big Brother. It's a search aggregator, and a rather efficient one at that. All the information in its database can be found elsewhere on the Web. Its crime, if any, was making personal information supereasy to find.

Thu, 05 May 2005 12:34:46 GMT

Practical auto MP3 (at a realistic price) [Woot! 5/5/2005; 2:52:09 AM] The Omnifi DMP1 20GB Car Media Jukebox (reviewed here) consists of a controller, a removable hard drive, and a wireless adapter. Thanks to the auto sync feature, it can sit out in your garage and fetch the content you want while you're snug in bed. You'll roll off to work every morning armed with a fresh batch of podcasts, tunes, news, audiobooks, whatever. You could buy it at Target for $665.98, which might seem reasonable considering the technology involved, but it's way too much considering a 20G iPod costs $299.99. Today's Woot! special (May 5 only) has it for $139.99, which puts it on the right side of the cost-convenience equation.

Thu, 05 May 2005 12:21:34 GMT

Searching by Image Instead of Keywords [Slashdot: 5/4/2005; 9:53:22 PM] Content based image retrieval (CBIR), the technique to search for images not by keywords, but by comparing features of the images themselves has been the focus of much research for decades. Consider for instance adding CBIR to Google Images, where you would be able to search for images similar to a query image instead of using keywords. A research project at Penn State University has recently been applied to the biggest aviation photo database in the world with close to 800,000 images. You can search for images similar to a photo already in their database (click "View similar photos") or submit your own query image. Some queries generate better results than others but CBIR is certainly here to stay and will be standard in many image applications of the future.

Thu, 05 May 2005 11:52:57 GMT

The Unemployed Working on OSS Projects [Slashdot: 5/5/2005; 2:52:26 AM] In Australia the unemployed have to fulfill a 'mutual obligation' requirement in order to receive welfare payments. What this means is that recipients of welfare payments have to be involved in some sort of activity that improves their chances of finding employment. Until now this has included various types of community service and training and education programs. Recently an organisation called CommunityCode has been established to allow recipients to fulfill this requirement by contributing to OSS projects.

Wed, 04 May 2005 22:35:57 GMT

Microsoft Partners with SAP for Enterprise Business Applications [internetnews.com 4/24/2005] Using their service-oriented architecture models as a base, SAP AG and Microsoft are jointly developing a new composite application that hooks together SAP's enterprise services architecture and Microsoft's .NET platform to integrate the two companies' technologies. Code-named Mendocino, the software represents the next level of integration between the companies' core products, where customers use SAP's business software directly from Office applications. SAP will resell Microsoft Office and Microsoft will resell licenses to SAP's business process platform, available in 2006. The pact offers more tangible proof that distributed computing models are here to stay.

Wed, 04 May 2005 17:53:17 GMT

Utilize MySQL's features through .NET [TechRepublic 5/3/2005] MySQL continues to gain market share due to its ease of use and price. The open source community has extended its reach by developing a connector to be used with the .NET Framework. Learn more about using MySQL in .NET applications and get extended examples of how to work with MySQL data via .NET.

Wed, 04 May 2005 17:43:00 GMT

Why I Don't Use DataSets in My ASP.NET Applications. [4GuysFromRolla 5/4/2005] This article examins the fundamentals of the two data access objects provided by ADO.NET: the DataReader and the DataSet. Both objects have their time and place in .NET applications but, according to Scott Mitchell, DataSets are rarely, if ever, useful in ASP.NET Web applications. There are exceptions, granted, but for the majority of Web applications, DataReaders should be used exclusively. Performance, performance, performance. (There's also a good discussion on this topic going on over at Scott's blog.)

How to make screen capture work with Windows video

Wed, 04 May 2005 13:49:27 GMT

Most people know that when you press the Windows Print Screen (PrtSc) key, nothing (apparently) happens. Some people know that Windows actually takes a snapshot of your computer's screen and copies it into the clipboard, so you can paste it into your favorite graphics processing program, or Paint. A few people even know that pressing Alt+PrtSc copies the currently selected window instead of the full screen. Of course, there are all kinds of screen capture programs to give you more control over the process.

In theory, it should be easy to capture stills from video files, whether paused or streaming, by pressing Atl+PrtSc and pasting the result into your graphics program. However, quite often all you get is a beautiful image of the media player's border and controls, with a blank where the picture of the video is supposed to be.

I always thought this was some sort of DRM control "feature", but I was wrong. It's actually caused by your video acceleration setting.

D'Oh!

In Fixing a blank display, the screen capture experts at PixelMetrics explain how to turn off the media player's acceleration while recording. They give instructions for Media Player (7,8,9,10), QuickTime Player, RealPlayer, and WinAmp.

If that doesn't work, they also explain how to disable hardware acceleration system-wide.

Wed, 04 May 2005 12:40:31 GMT

Punching the Clock: Hacking an alarm clock to snooze when hit [via Street Tech 5/3/2005] This is a fun hardware hack: a cheapo alarm clock outfitted with an accelerometer so that it will go into snooze mode when you smack it, whack it, punch it, toss it off your nightstand, etc. This application note for the low-cost DE-ACCM[pdf] accelerometer board shows how to reverse engineer an off-the-shelf appliance and modify it so it's much more fun and useful. Dimension Engineering was formed in 2004 by two Carnegie Mellon graduates to sell easy-to-use electronic products to the hobbyist, educational and research markets.

Wed, 04 May 2005 12:36:16 GMT

When Reality Bites the Free Gospel [Free Software Magazine April 2005 via Linux Today 5/3/2005] "In a dream world, all software would be free. However, we spend enough time with our eyes open to realize that some situations call for proprietary software, either as a desktop or as a server application, on a free system... Examine this scenario: you have an Oracle database that’s been running for x years and it’s tweaked so perfectly you can’t afford the time and effort to scrub it and migrate to a free relational database. Rest easy: Oracle is available on free systems, albeit certified only on certain distributions... Another scenario: You’re one of the poor sods who pass your company's Free-OS exemption test because of some esoteric application not available on free systems... OpenOffice.org to the rescue."

Wed, 04 May 2005 12:14:14 GMT

On average, only five make it to interviews: poll [Globe and Mail 5/4/2005] On average, executives only interview five candidates for each job opening, according to a new survey of 100 Canadian executives by OfficeTeam, a unit of Robert Half International Inc.. "Once you secure an interview, you've crossed a major hurdle," said Diane Domeyer, executive director of OfficeTeam. "The key then becomes presenting your skills and talent effectively and building rapport with the hiring manager to distinguish yourself from other candidates."

Wed, 04 May 2005 12:08:50 GMT

Open Document Format Approved [Slashdot: 5/4/2005; 5:52:18 AM] Open Document Format approved! Read all about it!* The OpenDocument format is intended to provide an open alternative to proprietary document formats including the popular DOC, XLS, and PPT formats used by Microsoft Office. Organizations and individuals that store their data in an open format avoid being locked in to a single software vendor, leaving them free to switch software if their current vendor goes out of business or changes their software or licensing terms to something less favorable. The OASIS Group announces that the third Committee Draft [PDF*] of the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 Specification has been approved as an OASIS Standard.
*Acrobat reader required to read open format PDF

Wed, 04 May 2005 11:47:09 GMT

Lobbyists in uproar as Florida Legislature considers banning felons from lobbying. [St. Petersburg Times 5/3/2005 via Fark] Lobbyists were in an uproar Monday over a proposal to ban felons from lobbying the Florida Legislature. It was a last-minute amendment to a bill which would require lobbyists to report the dollars they spend wining and dining lawmakers. The Senate President said he was unaware that any lobbyists had felony records until telephone calls and notes started pouring in. Senator Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, suggested the felony amendment be named in honor of the defibrillators required on the fourth-floor, where lobbyists hang out.

Tue, 03 May 2005 23:51:33 GMT

Sluggish, but improving growth rates for Microsoft certified professionals [SearchWin2000.com 3/23/2005] Numbers from Microsoft show more interesting monthly growth rates across the board in the past 13 months than in the two previous years. Some observations: MCSE continues to show strong and steady growth; MCSA is finally starting to develop some serious momentum; MCDBA growth has jumped the most ...

Tue, 03 May 2005 23:41:52 GMT

Data integration can be a hoot with OWL [SearchWebServices.com 2/17/2005] The movement to standards-based computing that XML and Web services herald is eerily analogous to the work done in the first half of the twentieth century to establish international long distance telephone standards. The use of semantic integration technologies, like Web Ontology Language (OWL), can solve the problem of data composition. Using ontologies as an abstraction layer for enabling automated information exchange is analogous to the use of Service contracts to abstract the implementation of service providers from consumers. However, just as SOA requires an advanced investment in architecture, the creation of ontologies are quite time-consuming, and require a leap of faith by implementers before they can realize their value.

Tue, 03 May 2005 23:35:14 GMT

Beating the RSS crunch with aggregation/bloglines [SearchWebServices.com 10/20/2004] Bloglines has created a freely available, simple and straightforward set of APIs that developers can use to access their aggregated blog database and relieve congestion problems. What Bloglines does for RSS feeds is very much like what Google and Yahoo do for popular Web pages and information: they compile this content into their databases, so that accesses to frequently requested pages are satisfied from a local cache, instead of requiring the original server to handle yet another update or access request.

Mon, 02 May 2005 11:38:11 GMT

US Secrets revealed with cut'n'paste - Clipboard now illegal [Boing Boing 5/1/2005; 10:53:54 PM] Seems that the US report on the killing of Italian agent Calipari in Baghdad by US forces was redacted by a PDF novice who didn't understand how to operate the DRM. Consequently all the names, numbers and details carefully redacted by the military are available with just a simple cut-and-paste. Does this make the clipboard a DMCA violation mechanism?

Mon, 02 May 2005 11:34:23 GMT

The Business of Design [Fast Company 5/2/2005] Roger Martin argues that in this turbulent, get-real economy, the advantage goes to those who can outimagine and outcreate their competitors. Traditional companies reward those who prove that something actually operates or that something must be. Design shops reward those with the foresight and courage to act on what might be. "We're telling students that the big bucks are made by administering linear improvements -- getting better and better at doing essentially the same thing," he says. "But the real challenge lies in getting better and better at a different thing: devising clever solutions to wickedly difficult problems." See also: Fast Take: Thinking Like a Designer

An end to those annoying support phone calls ...

Sun, 01 May 2005 19:18:22 GMT

"Tired of Supporting Friends' Computers? Migrate Them to GNU/Linux". [NewsForge 4/30/2005 via Linux Today 5/1/2005] This article actually makes a certain amount of sense, at least from the viewpoint of the unpaid support person. As long as you understand it's really talking about locked-down systems, not Linux.

"The result, after six months, is an end to the annoying phone calls ... Yes, they're all still using GNU/Linux. It's what they imagined computing would be in the first place -- no hassles, no threats, no worries. It's like a dream come true, not just for them, but for me too -- no more troubleshooting nightmares and monthly service calls."

Of course, while a static system may be "a dream come true" for support, it may be a different kind of dream for a user who wants to use a new game, camera, or file format ....

"GNU/Linux does not pose the kinds of problems that Windows does. There is no registry to easily corrupt, and the operating system does not fail in generic, catch-all ways. The user has no power to alter the system software, so important files are not accidentally deleted, and potential viruses and spyware programs have no ability to wreck the system."

It's true that Linux currently has fewer installations and fewer attackers, but both of those statistics are changing. As a direct result of Linux's increasing popularity, more and more malware writers are targeting Linux systems -- after all, you're guaranteed that each target system has at least minimal compile/link/load support and scripting, not to mention rootkit support. Security through obscurity is a fool's game.

The point about protecting the system software from the user is an excellent one, though. I wonder if the author has ever heard of Windows XP?

"It takes a knowledgeable, skilled user to keep a Windows system properly maintained. In short, they need an operating system that, for all their trying, they cannot screw up. Windows isn't it."

Mind you, as long as the users are unable to change the operating system, add or remove software, or add or remove hardware, you have an appliance computer. The underlying operating system is almost irrelevant, but in practice it makes much more sense to run a locked down Windows XP installation running in User mode. Windows XP's autoupdate and autorepair mean that with a properly configured antivirus program the system will maintain itself with NO user effort.

Of course, it's not even that simple. I configured a fully locked-down XP system so my mother could use email and browse the web. This worked extremely well for her, but it drove my father nuts. He couldn't change any of the desktop settings, let alone "clean up" the system by moving all the DLLs to the same directory, installing the "right" applications, and deleting "problem" files like kernel32.dll. He finally lost patience, wiped the system, and installed his own highly "optimized" version of Windows 98. He'd probably have done the same thing to Linux. He's happy, she's thrilled any time her email works, and I stopped taking support calls -- so, I guess, that approach works, too.

Sun, 01 May 2005 19:09:23 GMT

Near Perfect "Einstein Ring" Discovered. [Universe Today 4/29/2005] Gravitational lensing happens when the gravity of a relatively close galaxy acts as a telescope lens to focus the light from a more distant galaxy. The galaxies are never perfectly lined up, though, and the "natural telescope" is a bit blurry. But now astronomer Remi Cabanac has found one of the most complete lenses ever discovered: a near perfect Einstein Ring, magnifying a distant galaxy with incredible clarity.

Sun, 01 May 2005 14:05:24 GMT

Microsoft Reaches Out to Open-Source Community. [eWeek 4/29/2005] Microsoft Corp. has extended an olive branch to the open-source community, calling for a sit-down to discuss how the software giant can better work with the open-source world. Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, called for bridge building between Microsoft, its competitors and the open-source community. "We will need some new rotations in how we work together, in how we license, in how we share technology or intellectual property rights with each other." Larry Rosen, former general counsel for OSI, said this was the first conciliatory statement to come out of Redmond. Rosen noted that the open-source community helped WWWC develop a royalty-free intellectual property policy, is working with OASIS, and would like to work with Microsoft in the same way. Eric Raymond, an open-source community leader said he too welcomes the conciliatory tone from Microsoft. "Nobody in the open-source world expects Microsoft to open-source their core products; given their business model that would be insane," Raymond said. "But, realistically, they could do some important things... Microsoft has a history of destructive meddling at organizations like the IETF and W3C, and of attempting to hijack standards like Kerberos by making them dependent on proprietary 'extensions.' Simply not doing this would be a huge improvement."

Sun, 01 May 2005 13:50:55 GMT

Space Elevator Group's First Commercial Nanotube Factory opening in June [Universe Today 4/27/2005 via Slashdot: 5/1/2005] LiftPort Group, a consortium dedicated to commercially developing and constructing a space elevator by 2018, will open a commercial-scale carbon nanotube manufacturing plant this June. LiftPort Nanotech will be located in Millville, New Jersey, a community with a history in glass and plastics production. Both the City of Millville and the Cumberland County Empowerment Zone are partnering to provide $100,000 in initial seed money for the new facility. Many expect the LiftPort Group to be a front-runner in NASA's recently-announced Centennial Challenges competitions for space elevator technologies, which begin in September of this year.

Sun, 01 May 2005 02:22:00 GMT

RIAA File-Sharing Lawsuits Top 10,000 People Sued [RIAA Watch 4/29/2005] The total number of file sharers sued has now broken the five-digit barrier, coming in at 10,037 people sued by the RIAA since September 2003. This is an astounding figure. I just checked the Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics and found that this one wave of litigation represents 2.3% of all civil cased filed in federal court. And given the news reports of $3,000 average settlements, this means the RIAA's probably collected over $30 million from individual file sharers. [via Slashdot: 4/30/2005; 7:53:06 PM]: They paid a settlement to the RIAA in order for the RIAA to not go ahead with legal action. They haven't paid through judgments, they haven't paid fines, they haven't paid legally required fees. Repeat after me: The RIAA have not yet sued anyone. They have applied extortion using the threat of a costly legal battle involving megacorporation vs one individual. .... How long will it be before the RIAA's profit from threatened lawsuits exceeds that of music licensing?

Sun, 01 May 2005 02:04:09 GMT

Gilligan's Island: In-depth legal implications, with case law citations. [Santa Clara Law Review (1998) via Fark 4/30/2005; 11:53:54 AM] Gilligan's Island ranks among the most influential television shows of all time. Despite the fact that the last original episode aired thirty years ago, and the series has been the subject of numerous studies, its legal facets are almost never mentioned. As a result, even the show's most ardent fans are rarely mindful of just how much law appeared in the series. Accordingly, this essay seeks to shed some light on the jurisprudence of Gilligan's Island...

15th Century Blogging

Sun, 01 May 2005 01:21:26 GMT

Wednesday 30 April 1662. [Pepys' Diary (full) 4/30/2005] This morning Sir G. Carteret came down to the yard, and there we mustered over all the men and determined of some regulations in the yard, and then to dinner, all the officers of the yard with us, and after dinner walk to Portsmouth, there to pay off the Success, which we did pretty early, and so I took leave of Sir W. Pen, he desiring to know whither I went, but I would not tell him. I went to the ladies, and there took them and walked to the Mayor’s to show them the present, and then to the Dock, where Mr. Tippets made much of them, and thence back again, the Doctor being come to us to their lodgings, whither came our supper by my appointment, and we very merry, playing at cards and laughing very merry till 12 o’clock at night, and so having staid so long (which we had resolved to stay till they bade us be gone), which yet they did not do but by consent, we bade them good night, and so past the guards, and went to the Doctor’s lodgings, and there lay with him, our discourse being much about the quality of the lady with Mrs. Pierce, she being somewhat old and handsome, and painted and fine, and had a very handsome maid with her, which we take to be the marks of a bawd. But Mrs. Pierce says she is a stranger to her and met by chance in the coach, and pretends to be a dresser. Her name is Eastwood. So to sleep in a bad bed about one o’clock in the morning. This afternoon after dinner comes Mr. Stephenson, one of the burgesses of the town, to tell me that the Mayor and burgesses did desire my acceptance of a burgess-ship, and were ready at the Mayor’s to make me one. So I went, and there they were all ready, and did with much civility give me my oath, and after the oath, did by custom shake me all by the hand. So I took them to a tavern and made them drink, and paying the reckoning, went away. They having first in the tavern made Mr. Waith also a burgess, he coming in while we were drinking. It cost me a piece in gold to the Town Clerk, and 10s. to the Bayliffes, and spent 6s.

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:43:03 GMT

Microsoft now running 64-bit Windows on internal servers [ZDNet.au 4/29/2005] Windows client senior product marketing manager Danny Beck said that servers running the company's Web site and MSN Search and Messenger applications had been migrated to the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003. "Our MSN search engine is actually built on several thousand systems running the x64 version of Windows. The entire Microsoft.com site has been migrated, and we serve 30 million unique visitors every day." Beck said the company had seen a 10-times performance gain from the MSN Messenger servers since they went 64-bit. The servers handle about 70 million messenger users. See the usual at Slashdot [4/29/2005; 8:52:45 AM]

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 02:00:42 GMT

Snails Edge Out ADSL [Slashdot: 4/26/2005] Following experiments last year, and after long preparations, a group of IT geeks in Israel has successfully proved that certain gastropods called African giant snails can be faster then ADSL and ... pigeons. The system used, called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol), uses biological carriers (snails), and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer. In spite of the relatively slow speed of the biological carrier, the SNAP system transfers data much faster than conventional technologies.

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:39:33 GMT

Innovative fountain pen writes on the nanoscale [ScienceDaily 2005-04-27] The first practical fountain pen was invented in 1884. Now fountain pen history is repeating itself in the tiny world of nanoscale writing. Researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated writing at the sub-100 nanometer molecular scale in fountain-pen fashion. The ink on the reservoir is driven through the microchannel via capillary action to reach the dispensing tip. At present, the smallest feature width achieved with the device is 40 nanometers. [Small Journal reference; Full article: 177K pdf]

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:12:51 GMT

How to 'Stealth' Microsoft Windows XP Professional [CertificationMag 1/2005] The only true way to ensure the security of a computer is to remove its connectivity to any network altogether -- or keep it turned off. This article shares effective tips, tweaks and suggestions that you can apply quickly and easily to improve the security of any Windows XP Professional box on your network.

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 19:56:13 GMT

Are We Having Fun Yet? The Benefits of Play [Bernie DeKoven's FunLog 4/28/2005] Mark Harris has graced us with a wonderful article to remind us how essential it is to play. "We wrestle with an undercurrent of belief that play is frivolous. Certainly children are the masters of play. It's what they do. It's also the way they learn, acquire cognitive and motor skills, and just make life interesting and fun. As adults we still play, but less spontaneously. We tend to schedule in our play time. When, that is, we can find time to schedule."

"Athletes refer to moments when they're in 'the zone,' when body, mind, and spirit acquire a kind of transcendent rhythm and performance is at a peak. In the zone of deep, transcendent play there is calm but also alert and focused readiness. Such moments of heightened awareness represent a state of 'flow'. This is the state of mind in which a person becomes so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. Awareness to the task at hand acquires a kind of meditative brilliance. Mindfulness zeroes in like a laser beam. Everything feels in harmony. In the flow, we feel satisfied. " Play is essential to health, productivity, creativity.

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 19:23:04 GMT

Thumbprinting at tanning salons, fitness clubs, Statue of Liberty and Disneyland. [Boing Boing 4/28/2005; 1:52:31 PM] Reader Brian says: "I'm shocked, SHOCKED that no one has posted information on how to fake finger prints. You have a story at the Register, another link, and my favorite, step by step picture example."

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 23:29:06 GMT

What not to do when your customers are down [ComputerWorld Canada 3/18/2005] IT consultants and contractors must be very careful when their clients are down. This real-life story involves client with a Linux box running a variety of critical system packages, including a major mainstream database. The client's attitude to system administration is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The result: after two years of not applying patches, the server is hacked. The consultant wants to rebuilt with current versions, but the client insists on having it restored, not upgraded, “It worked fine for three years. Put it back.” Of course, the consultant must then install security patches to prevent the box from being hacked again. Sadly, the database does not want to run. None of the vendors support the software — but the client insists on looking for a workaround instead of updating. What would you do?

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 23:03:22 GMT

Of Outsourcing And Ocelots: The IT World According To John Cleese [InformationWeek 4/6/2005] All outsourcing projects involve some risk: You may not get expected service levels, your vendor may lose personnel that were key to your project, or flood, famine, and pestilence could break out in the country to which you've dispatched your entire IT operation. Should these inconvenient facts keep you from outsourcing? Not in the least, according to Brit comedian-turned-business consultant John Cleese. "A man who is afraid to make mistakes is unlikely to make anything."

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 22:52:34 GMT

A simple XML data store for your Windows applications [Builder.com] Want to create a Windows application that lets your user edit and view structured data locally without connecting to a remote database? XML is the answer, and with Visual Studio it's a snap.

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:27:07 GMT

Preserving Backward Compatibility [O'Reilly ONLamp 2/17/2005] Change is inevitable, but incompatibility is not. Upgrades are good, but forcing your users to change time after time is unpleasant. A little bit of planning can go a long way toward keeping your users happy. Garrett Rooney offers strategies for preserving backward compatibility, drawing examples from the Subversion project.

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:21:03 GMT

Hackers Write Spyware For Cash, Not Fame [InformationWeek 4/4/2005] More than 70% of virus writers are writing spyware under contract, one more piece of evidence that hacking has evolved from mischievous hobby to moneymaking criminal venture. The bulk of the spyware being created by hackers linked to organized crime. According to Aladdin Knowledge Systems, "They're doing it for financial gain, pure and simple. Unlike in the past, when hackers were mostly 'script kiddies' who had nothing better to do, it's quickly becoming more of an organized crime venture."

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:15:33 GMT

Comments are More Important than Code [ACM Queue March 2005 via Slashdot: 4/26/2005; 10:53:30 PM] Jef Raskin goes through the arguments that seem obvious only in hindsight - that 'self-documenting' code is good but not enough, that we should be able to write code based on good documentation, not the other way around, and that the thing that separates human-written code from computer-generated code is that our stuff is readable to future programmers. The Slashdot discussion is worth reading too.

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:39:01 GMT

McDonald's Honors Astronaut Chiao for Mission Accomplished [NASA Watch 4/26/2005] McDonald's congratulates NASA Astronaut and former restaurant employee, Commander Leroy Chiao on a successful mission in outer space. McDonald's will present Chiao with a Big Mac sandwich and French fries in Star City, approximately 40 miles outside of Moscow. The McDonald's meal will be one of the first "meals" on Earth Chiao will "enjoy" in nearly 200 days.

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:27:29 GMT

A Living or a Life? [Fast Company 4/26/2005] "The trouble with the rat race," the great management guru Lily Tomlin once observed, "is that even if you win, you're still a rat." Most of us must make a fateful choice: should we devote our time and talent to making a living -- or to getting a life? Mark Albion, who chucked a fast-track career at Harvard Business School, proves that there's a third way. The only way to find true "balance" is to make your passion and your work one and the same. "When my doctor asked me how many hours a week I work," says Albion, "my immediate response was, 'I don't know, John. How many hours a week do you breathe?' It's one integrated whole."

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:21:53 GMT

Calculate the cost of a scope change request. [TechRepublic.com 4/26/2005] The project manager and project team are accountable for understanding the total impact of a scope change to a project. This article describes the elements that need your attention. Don't overlook this final factor: Deferred benefits. Your project will result in a benefit to the company. If a scope change request results in the project being delayed, the impact of the scope change should also include the cost of delaying the benefit.

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:17:46 GMT

Can an Open Source Project Be Acquired? [Slashdot: 4/26/2005; 11:52:38 AM] ZDNet's Between The Lines says yes, one just did. Software startup JasperSoft acquired Sourceforge-based project JasperReports, which involved acquiring the copyrights and hiring the lead developer for the project.
[Best comment: You -Really- Don't Get This?]"If I own a piece of code, I can do whatever the hell I want with it--including sell it to somebody else. It doesn't matter whether or not I've licensed it out under the GPL or other such Open Source license. Unless I surrender it to the public domain, I own that code, and I can license a GPL version, sell a closed version, offer a crippled demo, auction off a signed copy of the source code for a million dollars, and build an extra-shiny-and-nifty-for-my-eyes-only version--or whatever else I'd like to do with it."]

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 23:46:40 GMT

Attention, extremely wealthy geeks: Life-Sized X Wing on eBay. [via Dave Barry's Blog 4/25/2005] When fully assembled the X-Wing measures 28 feet long, 20 feet wide, and about 10 and a half feet tall. Constructed from fiberglass, wood, and plastic, all placed over a steel frame, weighing 2000 lbs. This particular X-wing has spent the last several years hanging from the ceiling of the FAO Schwartz toy store in Orlando, Florida. It is in very good shape, and would be the ultimate centerpiece to any Star Wars collection. Ends April 30, 18:00:00 PDT Note: Rebel pilot not included. Free US domestic shipping if you "Buy-It-Now" for US $85,000.00. For bids of US $15,000 or more, eBay requires a valid credit card.

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 22:51:38 GMT

Pegasus Mail and Linux/Open Source. [pmail.com 4/20/2005 via Linux Today 4/25/2005] David Harris, Owner/Author of Pegasus Mail and Mercury Systems, is thinking about moving towards Open Source. "Ideologically, I believe that Open Source and I are a good match, and I would like to consider going that way," he writes. "While Pegasus Mail and Mercury do not require a huge amount of money to develop and support, the fact remains that they *do* require a level of funding, and I am not entirely sure how this would work within an Open Source model."

"Hopefully this update to my position will reduce the amount of hate-mail I have received in the last three years from Open-Source zealots. While I understand the passion and admire the zeal of these people, I would suggest that a positive approach is always going to work better than trying to rip out my liver and feed it to the dogs. After all, this *is* my baby - I have been working on these programs and providing them free of charge for over fifteen years now, and I don't believe it's too much to ask if I expect a little basic human courtesy."

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:23:04 GMT

OpenOffice Team Wants IBM Contribution. [vunet 4/25/2005] OpenOffice is a suite of productivity tools for text editing, spreadsheets and drawings. Sun acquired the product in 1999 and released the code in 2000 under an open source licence. It uses the code as the foundation of StarOffice, a commercial version of the suite. Sun is still the largest contributor, with about 100 developers. There are roughly 600 active contributors, comprising individual coders and people working for commercial developers such as Novell and Red Hat. Sun's OpenOffice project leader has gone public to shame IBM, which sells OpenOffice as part of its Workplace suite, into donating developer time to the project. "IBM has refrained from contributing to the development. It has thereby declined to participate in the open source environment," he said. Neener neener.

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 23:34:27 GMT

Wireless Friendship Beads for Kids. [Gizmodo 4/4/2005] As part of her master's thesis studying communication among teenagers, Ruth kikin-Gil designed techno-jewelry 'BuddyBeads' that can be used to show friendship and indicate mood within groups. Messages are decided by the group in advance and construct a secret private code among its members, emphasizing their social structures, behaviors and needs. As the group changes, so does the bracelet’s composition. When two girls are no longer friends, they can remove their friend’s bead from the bracelet and keep it as a memory of their friendship. When they become friends again, few weeks later, the removed beads can be added to the bracelet once again.

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 22:40:31 GMT

Mitch's Must Have Programs. [Lockergnome - Mitchelaneous 4/5/2005] Within the time span of one year I have installed, reinstalled, deleted, and created more than any one person should on one computer. About a week ago I figured it was time I did a little spring cleaning. I totally reformatted my machine and put Windows XP back on just like it came out of the box. So what programs to I make a note of installing first? What do I use most often and what do I find the most effective? Here's my basic list: TweakUI, FeedDemon, Firefox, SmartFTP, Trillian, OpenOffice, NoteTab Pro, Audacity, Spybot, AVG Free ...

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 19:10:25 GMT

Microsoft releases free new VB 2005 refactoring tool [Scobleizer 4/24/2005] Microsoft has made an agreement with Developer Express to include a fully functional version of Refactor! with VB 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. Refactor! for Visual Basic 2005 Beta 2 is a free plug-in that enables Visual Basic developers to simplify and re-structure source code, making it easier to read and less costly to maintain. Refactor! supports more than 15 individual refactoring features, including operations like Reorder Parameters, Extract Method, Encapsulate Field and Create Overload.

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 14:58:36 GMT

Novell Insists NetWare is "Not Dead Yet" [eWeek 4/15/2005] With Novell's focus on Linux, many—including sites that depend on NetWare—wonder if it's the end of the road for Novell's once-dominant network operating system. Novell has indeed announced that there will be no further standalone NetWare releases, but the operating system will continue to live on as an underlying platform for Novell's Open Enterprise Server. The work Novell has done to plaster over the differences between NetWare and Linux in OES should extend the life of NetWare as a platform. This is good news for NetWare shops that aren't ready to migrate off this stalwart platform. "I think I'll go for a walk..."

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 14:41:46 GMT

Microsoft's New Mantra - It Just Works [Fortune 4/21/2005] Windows guru Jim Allchin talks to FORTUNE about Microsoft's next version of its operating system, Longhorn, revealing some of its features for the first time. Allchin, a wiry-built 54-year-old who has been in charge of Windows for almost a decade, is admirably blunt about his own frustrations using the current operating system. “You shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time struggling with things,” Allchin said, adding that the number one design goal for Longhorn has been: “It just works.”

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 02:09:18 GMT

Companies Gain by Swapping Software [Baseline 4/6/2005] Whatever you call it — community source software, shared source software or a gated software community — companies are betting that the future of "open" source code for the enterprise will consist of like-minded companies forming, ironically, closed communities. By sharing code only with partners, they hope to avoid the lack of control and tedious review processes of truly open source code, where any programmer can tweak code. Private collaborating is not new - businesses within industries have done it for years. What's new is the mix of companies, industries and vendors collaborating on software. Co-opting existing software allows companies to take the chassis of existing systems and build applications on top of them. The downside? Software and development tools borrowed from another company may be too customized.

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 01:46:29 GMT

Outsource to Free Up Staff, Not Cut It: [Baseline 4/6/2005] More than 75 percent of the average IT budget is devoted to just keeping the lights on. Think what you could accomplish by outsourcing maintenance and focusing on projects that really matter. Ameritrade is among the new breed of company that sees outsourcing as a way to free up existing staff to focus on developing and delivering services that create a competitive advantage. Jerry Bartlett, Ameritrade's vice president of application development says the online broker has asked outsiders to do software maintenance and non-core development. "What we don't outsource," Bartlett says, "are the aspects we view as our core competencies in delivering the best possible experience to our clients."

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 23:56:32 GMT

Peeling Away the FUD Wrapping on Linux/Windows "Studies" [Groklaw 4/23/2005 12:17 PM EDT] You just have to read this: The Truth About Linux and Windows. Business Week's Steve Hamm looks more carefully than most at Laura DiDio's latest piece of work and finds it wanting: "I've got a bone to pick with the never-ending stream of studies by tech research outfits comparing Linux to Windows. For starters, it seems like about half of them are paid for by one camp or another. Even when analysts aren't on the payroll, this is really complex stuff—and useful facts are hard come by. And, beyond complexity, some studies just make me scratch my head. For example: a recent one put out by the Yankee Group. I just don’t trust its conclusions." So, finally, the mainstream press is noticing that something is wrong with the methodology of some of these studies, and Hamm carefully documents exactly why he questions the results. He is not a Linux "extremist". Lots more ...

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 19:25:12 GMT

Can IT be delivered with a monthly utility bill? [Globe and Mail 4/21/2005] Two years ago, Nicholas Carr asserted that information technology doesn't matter. Now he contends that business is at a stage where technology as a corporate function will move to a service delivered by a utility provider. IT outsourcing, one of the industry's hottest trends, has grown from the very idea that IT service providers can achieve an economy of scale through the efficient delivery of ubiquitous computing and IT-enabled process functions, which reduces the cost to customers. Carr says, "When overcapacity is combined with redundant functionality, the conditions are ripe for a shift to centralized supply." ... To his credit, Mr. Carr challenges computing convention, even if the reality of what he believes is a lot more complicated than he's making it sound.

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 18:46:01 GMT

Could you start a fire with a Coke can and a chocolate bar? [via Boing Boing 4/23/2005via Make Blog 4/23/2005]

Try to figure this one out for yourself before you peek at a solution worthy of MacGuiver.

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:03:36 GMT

McMakeover on fast-food strip [Globe and Mail 4/23/2005; 3:53:59 AM] In 2002, burger giant McDonald's realized its once-loyal consumers were eating elsewhere, gravitating toward healthier offerings from rivals such as Subway. The company had to improve its food and service, and they had to make sure the public knew they had changed. It was an operational as much as a marketing challenge. And it has worked - on both fronts. This week, McDonald's first-quarter profit blew away analysts' estimates.

In Canada, the SaladsPlus menu, which includes salads, yogurt and other "healthier" items, now makes up about 6 per cent of total sales. The company rolled out toasted deli sandwiches this year to huge success and they're expected to hit most U.S. locations in the near future. The new menu items give parents something to eat while they feed their kids McNuggets. Furthermore, the healthier foods are priced higher than traditional fare, with higher margins.

Many restaurants are now being outfitted with wireless Internet equipment and video game systems. The McCafe store-within-a-store concept is also being rolled out across North America, letting customers sit on comfy leather McChairs while sipping McCappuccino or biting into a square of McBaklava.

Like flipping a light switch, McDonald's marketers changed the company's mantra. Gone was the focus solely on kids and families - now the chain would also target young adults and their pockets full of disposable income. Its marketing featured teens skateboarding, offered free music downloads, and began paying rap artists to embed references to the golden arches into their gold records.

Even Ronald McDonald will develop a new attitude and edgy sense of humour as the company tries to make him more "relevant" to young adults and kids. Ronald will change out of his clown suit and into seven different costumes, including an athletic suit and beachwear. Look for him at skateboard parks, hockey rinks, snowboard trails and walking down red carpets at Hollywood events.

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:39:57 GMT

Computers in Space Examined [via Slashdot:Science 4/22/2005] Why are we still launching spacecraft with State Of The Ark computers? Three words: need, power, and radiation. Radiation is a big headache for spacecraft system designers. While core is a good solution for memory, ‘hardening’ CPUs means keeping them simple. The lower the component count on a chip (hence the dumber it is), the less susceptible it is to radiation. The Space Shuttle has state of the art computing technology - for the late 70’s. They’re sturdy beasts of silicon burden, not exotic thoroughbreds. Even the International Space Station has less brains than you would think. It stays up there thanks to the phenomenal computing power of - wait for it - an 80-386SX CPU! Can you feel the speed?

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 02:12:09 GMT

Lack of Testing Threatening the Stability of Linux? [Slashdot: 4/22/2005; 9:53:50 AM] Andrew Morton, a Linux kernel maintainer, has said that he thinks that the lack 'credit or money or anything' given to those people who put in long hours testing Linux releases is going to cause serious problems further down the line. In his speech at Linux.Conf.Au he also waded into the ongoing BitKeeper debate, saying 'If you pick a good technology and the developers are insane, it's all going to come to tears.

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 02:04:17 GMT

Scientists figure out how caffeine keeps us awake. [via CBS News 4/21/2005] When cells in a certain part of the brain become overworked, a compound in the brain kicks in, telling them to shut down. This causes people to become drowsy and fall asleep. Alter that natural process by adding coffee or tea, and the brain compound - called adenosine - is blocked, and people stay awake. "We knew that coffee kept us awake," Dr. Greene said. "Now we know why: Coffee and tea are blocking the link between the prolonged neural activity of waking and increased levels of adenosine in cells, which is why they prevent us from getting drowsy." Press release: Overworked brains release adenosine to slow cells, trigger sleep process. Neuron article: Adenosine Mediation of Presynaptic Feedback Inhibition of Glutamate Release.

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:05:30 GMT

Best-ever Freeware Utilities [TechSupportAlert 3/1/2005 via Lockergnome 4/22/2005] There are a lot of great freeware products out there. Many are as good or even better than their commercial alternatives. This extensive list features Ian Richards' personal pick of the "best of the best," by category.

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:20:05 GMT

Berkeley Professor explains terrifying consequences for student that stole his laptop. [Boing Boing 4/21/2005; 2:52:53 PM] Mark Frauenfelder: The last few minutes of this video from a biology class at Berkeley is of professor explaining the terrifying consequences that will soon befall the student that stole his laptop. Hell, I'm 500 miles away from Berkeley and I'm scared after watching this. Here's a torrent of the pertinent part of the video (8,000 downloads so far). A transcript of Professor Rine's speech is available here. A lot of blogs have been commenting on the super-advanced anti-theft and tracking technology that Professor Rine says his stolen laptop possesses. This comic strip parody is a hilarious take on the incident.

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:30:37 GMT

GCC 4.0.0 Released [Slashdot: 4/21/2005; 10:53:07 PM] Version 4.0.0 of the GNU Compiler Collection has been released. You can read the changelog or you can download the source tarball. The new version finally features SSA for trees, allowing for a completely new optimization framework. The changelog is pretty lengthy, and there's updates for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada, as well as libraries for these languages (libstdc++, libgcj,...).

Engineering Heroes

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 20:26:40 GMT

Apollo 13 Engineers Honored [AP 4/19/2005] A group of engineers was honored Tuesday for concocting a plan using plastic bags, cardboard and duct tape to save Apollo 13's astronauts after their spacecraft was crippled by an explosion 35 years ago. Engineers on the ground had to figure out a solution, and then tell the astronauts how to make the fix. Ed Smylie, who oversaw NASA's crew systems division in 1970, was glad the engineering side of the mission was being recognized. Smylie and other engineers soon had a proposed solution to retrofit the canisters, but it took a day or two to build a mock-up and get instructions to the crew. Among the biggest concerns was whether the astronauts had duct tape, Smylie said. He later learned duct tape was commonly used on the spacecraft to clean filters and for other tasks. "I felt like we were home free," he said. "One thing a Southern boy will never say is, 'I don't think duct tape will fix it.'"

The Red, Red Hills of Mars (updated)

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 15:42:54 GMT

JPL has released a large, false-but-almost-real-color view assembled from frames taken by Spirit's panoramic camera on the rover's 454th martian day, or sol (April 13, 2005).

This view shows a region in the "Columbia Hills" slightly downhill from the rover. The view features two interesting outcrops in the middle distance and "Clark Hill" in the left background. The outcrop on the right, with rover tracks leading from it, is "Larry's Lookout." On the left is the Methuselah outcrop, with apparent layering.

More than 15 months and almost 5 km from its landing on Mars, NASA's Spirit rover is still going strong. This is a perspective view of the steepness of the "Columbia Hills," showing sites nicknamed "Tennessee Valley," "Larry's Lookout," "Inner Basin," "Home Plate," and the basin and summit beyond.

Original post: Spirit, Sol 455, Columbia Hills - NavCam, Right - 15:38:38 and 15:44:28 Local Solar. The black and white picture links to a full-sized 989K greyscale image. [Eric Hartwell's NewsStream 4/16/2005]

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 23:26:00 GMT

Open source methods and their future potential. [eGov monitor 4/20/2005 00:16 via Linux Today 4/20/2005] According to a Demos report, many of the principles of the open source model could have radical implications for governments, citizens and businesses in a wide range of fields - from law to the arts, from academia to social innovation. Open source methods have achieved remarkable success using an open, co-operative approach to produce much of the software that the world’s computers and the web now run on, as well as projects like the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. The report argues that the future potential of open source principles are wide reaching, and that they could be applied in a many areas including the media, academia, legislative policymaking, and social innovation.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 22:53:36 GMT

The Power of Analogy. [Computerworld 4/11/2005] Q&A: Analogies are efficient strategic tools in the highly ambiguous world of IT, but they can lead you astray if used carelessly. Analogies are to strategy as blueprints are to buildings. Just be sure you've got the right blueprint.

Low-end chips are to Intel Corp.'s future as concrete reinforcing bars were to U.S. Steel's. Unless you know the history of the steel industry, that analogy will leave you cold. But it compelled former Intel CEO Andy Grove to change his product strategy. Intel for many years resisted entering the low end of the market. U.S. Steel had let minimills take over the low end with cheap concrete reinforcing bars called rebars. This was the beginning of the troubles for the U.S. steel business: once the minimills got a beachhead at the low end, they moved up. At Intel, this really struck a chord. Andy Grove feared if they ceded the low end of the market, the high end might follow. He even began to refer to low-end PCs as "digital rebar," and soon thereafter Intel introduced the Celeron processor to fight it out on the low end and prevent other companies from getting a beachhead. In this case, the analogy wasn't about learning from someone's success but trying to prevent a repeat of someone's failure. It was about what they thought U.S. Steel should have done.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 22:17:56 GMT

An Update on Prompting a User to Save When Leaving an ASP.NET Page. [4GuysFromRolla.com 4/20/2005] Several months ago I wrote an article titled Using ASP.NET to Prompt a User to Save When Leaving a Page, using the onbeforeunload client-side event, which fires whenever a Web page is being exited. With some clever client-side programming you can use onbeforeunload to to save changes whenever the user is about to leave a page, be it through the user closing the browser window, clicking on a bookmark, clicking on a link in the Web page, or any other task that would cause the Web page to unload. This update deals with auto-postback Web controls (such as DropDownLists or CheckBoxes with their AutoPostBack property set to True); and how to prevent "Unspecified error" script errors that can creep up depending on how, exactly, the page was unloaded.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 20:13:58 GMT

Great apes to learn human behaviors [CNN 4/20/2005 14:32 via Boing Boing 4/20/2005] Researchers at the Iowa Great Ape Trust are putting eight intelligent bonobos in a human-like living situation to study how culture may emerge.
The bonobos will be able to cook in their own kitchen, tap vending machines for snacks, go for walks in the woods and communicate with researchers through computer touchscreens. The decor in their $10 million, 13,000-square-foot, 18-room home includes an indoor waterfall and climbing areas 30 feet high. Bonobos, a species of ape from the Congo, are the most like humans. They constantly vocalize "as though they are conversing" and often walk upright. The animals, which have a life span of up to about 50 years, will be allowed to mate and have families -- and develop cultures that will be studied for generations to come.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 19:44:07 GMT

Target Remakes the Pill Bottle - sensibly and beautifully [New York Metro 4/18/2005 via Gizmodo, Boing Boing 4/19/2005] The standard-issue amber-cast pharmacy pill bottle has remained virtually unchanged since the second World War. An overhaul is finally coming, courtesy of Deborah Adler, a 29-year-old graphic designer whose ClearRx prescription-packaging system debuts at Target pharmacies May 1.

Easy I.D. The name of the drug is printed both on the top and side.
Code red. The bottle is Target’s signature red color - and a symbol for caution.
Information hierarchy. Most important information (drug name, dosage, intake instructions) above the line, less important data below.
Flat sides for readability; Upside down to save paper.
Green is for Grandma. Different colored rubber rings for each family member.
Info card that’s hard to lose tucked behind the label.
Take “daily.” Avoids the word "once" on label, since it means eleven in Spanish.
Clear warnings. Revamped the 25 most important warning symbols.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 18:03:58 GMT

Demystify scope definition by considering these categories -- a handy checklist -- [TechRepublic.com 4/19/2005; 2:52:13 PM] Defining scope is perhaps the most important part of the upfront definition and planning process. If you don't know what you are delivering and what the boundaries of the project are, you have no chance for success.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 18:00:29 GMT

Lack of Developers Delays OpenOffice.org. [LinuxWorld Australia 19/04/2005 11:21:10 via Linux Today 4/19/2005] Open source productivity suite OpenOffice.org may be touted as a viable alternative to Microsoft Office, but there are claims its pace of development and adoption of new features is being stifled by a "monolithic" code base and a developer community still largely controlled by Sun Microsystems. Project contributors speaking at the annual OpenOffice.org miniconference in Canberra this week raised numerous issues, including a lack of independent contributors. OpenOffice.org developer Ken Foskey said the biggest problem with the project is a lack of developers and a code base that is "just too big". "It's 10 million lines of code and takes serious commitment just to compile the thing."

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 17:54:44 GMT

We Need Better Open-Source E-Mail... Now. [eWeek 4/18/2005 via Linux Today 4/19/2005] If open source is to continue gaining ground with the corporate desktop, it must develop not just an outstanding e-mail client, but an all-out replacement for Outlook on Windows, with all the popular mail-protocol support, Exchange 2000 and 2003 e-mail and calendaring support, GroupWise support, and spam protection. Even more than Firefox, a real Outlook replacement could make a big difference in persuading corporate IT departments that now is the right time for open source on the desktop.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 17:47:33 GMT

Building Web Service Wrappers for an XML-based System. [DevX: Latest Enterprise Content 4/20/2005; 12:53:37 AM] Giving external—or internal—clients direct access to existing applications isn't always practical, secure, or flexible. Instead, it's often better to provide Web service wrapper around existing applications. Such wrappers let you safely expose existing systems to both internal and external customers. The wrapper uses a configurable transportation protocol handler and can work with a variety of communication methods through a generic ProtocolHandlerInterface.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 14:24:31 GMT

Google's Impact on the Internet [Slashdot: 4/20/2005; 9:52:47 AM] The Globe & Mail and Fortune Magazine [$$] both wrote a piece on Google, one of the most important companies on the Internet. In particular, they mention the effects of Google's recent new services, like Blogger and Maps, as well as their take on how Google threatens the Microsoft Corporation. "If Sergey and Larry stick to their corporate mantra -- Don't be evil -- and are able to stem degeneration into the typically corrupt corporate ethos, who knows, they may just succeed in assuming the fair and honourable dominion over the world's information they so naively set out to achieve eight years ago in their garage."

Halo 2 updates: Game patch now, maps April 25th and June 28th

Tue, 19 Apr 2005 12:01:18 GMT

Bungie is overhauling its wildly popular first-person shooter with its second auto-update. While the update addresses the standard bugs and glitches most patches do, it will also tweak several elements of gameplay. The biggest change gamers will see is in the weapon balance. The first batch of new multiplayer maps for the game, originally vaguely scheduled for "late April," will be available April 25. [GameSpot 04/15/05 03:45 PM PST]

What's Update: Massive Attack! [Bungie 4/15/2005 2:16 PM PDT] The Autoupdate will be available on Monday April 18th, to fix cheats, bugs, glitches and gasp – tweak some important weapon balance issues. Next time you log in after it's available (it'll be spread out to mitigate server loads) you'll get a message alerting you to its presence. Don't worry if you don't see it first thing Monday morning, it'll show up in your neighborhood eventually.

Map Downloads Dated! [Bungie 4/18/2005 5:12 PM PDT] The first batch of new, downloadable Halo 2 multiplayer maps will be available on Monday April 25th for download on Xbox Live. Woot! The maps passed through Microsoft's certification process successfully today, which was all we were waiting for! We said we'd tell you as soon as we could, and we found out about an hour ago that they'd passed with flying colors.

Tue, 19 Apr 2005 11:41:37 GMT

If you slept till 5:30 this morning, you slept in [Globe and Mail 4/19/2005; 3:53:00 AM] Azim Jamal gets his best work done "when the world is silent." He usually goes to bed at 8:30 p.m., the same time as his 10-year-old son, and wakes up at about 1 a.m. -- sometimes before his night-owl wife has even hit the sheets. "I think time is the biggest asset we have," he said. "And life is time; if you waste time, you waste life."

People are sleeping less and waking earlier to tackle heavy workloads, gain a competitive edge or squeeze in exercise. However, a U.S. study, which used wrist-motion sensors to track movement, found that while 10 per cent claimed to be up by 5 a.m. only 5 per cent were moving then. People who boast about needing little sleep often nod off and zone out -- sometimes unknowingly -- during the day. "Power naps" are really a sign of bad sleep habits, and our reliance on coffee is a sure sign of sleep-deprivation. Average healthy adults require about 8½ hours of sleep a night. Most people thought seven hours was optimal and obtained only six. And despite workaholics' testimonials about the connection between success and early waking, sleep experts say inadequate slumber costs North America up to $100-billion (U.S.) annually, including health-care costs, accidents and lost productivity. Inadequate sleep also has been linked to poor immune systems, digestive problems, more drug and alcohol use and more cardiovascular disease.

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:11:44 GMT

Does Open Source = Closed Mind? [BetaNews 4/15/2005 April 15, 2005, 9:36 AM via Linux Today 4/18/2005; 5:53:43 PM] "What's LI-Nux?" The question came from my cousin, Mary an art teacher. Well," Mary said, "I went online, did a search on your name and saw all these articles calling you DiDiot and other names. Why do these people hate you so much?" she asked, puzzled. "They think I hate Linux and that I'm a 'paid Microsoft shill,'" I replied. "That's silly," Mary countered, "why would anyone hate an operating system?"

Update: Open Source Equals Freedom and Open Mind [LinuxElectrons 4/17/2005 via Linux Today 4/18/2005; 6:52:09 PM] by Anonymous: "Laura DiDio has been making the rounds as a guest columnist on Internet news sites lately. She has been complaining that her reputation is being smeared on sites like Groklaw and Slashdot. Laura has also been receiving hate emails and late night phone calls.... Laura decries the Linux Loonies as a "fringe element of extremists". Wow, she casts some Linux advocates as terrorists. I think she just misunderstands the whole Linux scene... I also think its telling that Laura has had to lower herself to the very same level of Linux extremists that emailed and phoned her, by calling them names."

Seattle DOS was a better rewrite of CP/M for 16 bits than CP/M-86

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 17:02:38 GMT

Tim Paterson did a better job of rewriting CP/M for 16 bits than Digital Research did, and it's related to the DOS vs CPM/86 porting issue Adam Barr discusses in Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters (starting at the bottom of page 187 in this online sample).

At the time I was doing development work on CP/M Z80 systems, and we were looking for a way to move to a 16 bit OS (8086, NSC8000, 68000). I still have an original Seattle DOS manual (unfortunately, somewhere in storage) from when we did our research. Whether or not the Seattle DOS code was based on CP/M (which was in practice the open source OS of its time), Tim wisely made the basic API the same as CP/M and provided an extended API for 16 bit functions. CP/M-86, on the other hand, replaced the API with a single "new, improved" 16 bit version. This meant that I could port my programs and utilities to Seattle DOS simply by changing a few macro definitions, maintaining single source for both operating systems. I would have had to change all my source code to port to CP/M-86 (don't forget, this was all assembler). When IBM introduced the PC, with the choice of DOS or CP/M-86, it was clear that "DOS" took the Seattle DOS approach. I remember disassembling DOS 1.0 up to 2.1 - if only I could find those files ... Even if CP/M-86 hadn't been priced way too high, DOS still would have been the sensible choice since it was much easier (hence cheaper) to preserve our applications.

Origins of MS-DOS [Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters March 2, 2005] Tim Paterson, who wrote the operating system QDOS on which the original PC-DOS and MS-DOS was based, is suing the author of a book which claims that QDOS was a ripoff of CP/M. Microsoft legally acquired QDOS; the issue is whether Paterson had earlier "ripped off" CP/M when writing QDOS. It's not clear what exactly "rip-off" means; there's no doubt that QDOS looked like CP/M, because most command-line-based OSes back then looked the same (and still do; Monad on the surface looks a lot like CP/M, QDOS, PC-/MS-DOS, and any Unix shell).

Convergence in Academic Jargon Generation and Parsing

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:33:43 GMT

The circle of technology is almost complete. Academic jargon generators have met academic jargon parsers, and we can finally get rid of the academics who are now redundant. Despite the "Vodka is good, but the meat is rotten"[pdf] myth, computers have been better than people at generating garbage for years. It has been shown [ref: 87,133,279] that the primary [ref: 32,942] functionalityization [ref: 88,166] of academic [ref: 482-507,666] jargonization [ref: 1] is to stretch out a single zero-to-one-line idea into a series of journal articles, concluding with the need for further funding.

"The principal occupation of the academic community is to invent dialects sufficiently hermetic so as to prevent knowledge from passing between territories. By maintaining a constant flow of written material among the specialists of each group, academics are able to assert the acceptable technique of communication intended to prevent communications." -- [Wright House]

Computer Program Makes Essay Grading Easier A professor of sociology spent six years developing the program and has been testing it on his pupils for the past two. Students load papers directly into the system via the Web and get nearly instant feedback. The program scans text for keywords, phrases and language patterns. It analyzes sentence and paragraph structure and can ascertain the flow of arguments and ideas. It gives each work a numeric score based on the weight instructors place on various elements of the assignment. Students have challenged the scores, but if they don't use the right lingo in their papers, they're out of luck. "In sociology, we want them to learn the terms," Brent said. With up to 140 students enrolled in his writing-intensive, introductory sociology course, Brent estimates he's saved more than 200 hours of work per semester. -- [CNET 4/7/2005 via Slashdot: 4/8/2005] >

GPLed code generates automated Comp Sci papers -- output accepted for conferences!. A GPL'ed automated computer science paper generator programmed by MIT students produces results so good that the output has been accepted at conferences. Between the pompous CS-speak ("few hackers worldwide would disagree with the essential unification of voice-over-IP and public/private key pair. In order to solve this riddle, we confirm that SMPs can be made stochastic, cacheable, and interposable") and the amazing diagrams, this thing is nearly the funniest thing EVAR. [Boing Boing 4/13/2005]

The Red, Red Hills of Mars

Sat, 16 Apr 2005 20:29:29 GMT

Spirit, Sol 455, Columbia Hills - NavCam, Right - 15:38:38 and 15:44:28 Local Solar

The black and white picture at right links to a 645K full-sized greyscale image; the one below to 989K colorized 1280 x 1024 desktop.

The new media realities

Sat, 16 Apr 2005 15:06:53 GMT

Is it finally time to drop the piano roll surcharge? Try as you might, you can't blame it all on illegal MP3s, but you probably can blame "The Internets". The audience for television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, and music continues its steep nose dive. At the same time, the sales of movies (DVD and theatre), videogames, and web ads continue to set new records. In Mainstream Media Meltdown Chris Anderson provides detailed statistics and sources on what's happening to the consumer media world. [The Long Tail 4/10/2005 via Boing Boing 4/12/2005] It should be fascinating to see how Star Wars III compares to Halo 2's $125 million in first-day sales. The people have voted with their wallets ... and guess where Microsoft is putting its money?