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Ted's Radio Weblog
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Tuesday, September 30, 2003 |
'Greater Boston' is a TV news show from Boston's WGBH, featuring a special 'Beat the Press'
edition every Friday, a required show for Laura and I, featuring
a discussion and debate on the media's behavior by the media. Last
Friday, I was delighted to hear Executive Producer (and lightening-fast
quipster) John Carroll mention blogs as sources of news. Last night, Emily and Dan Kennedy started a new feature, dot.Compass, reviewing web sites they use for media news and rumors. They plan to feature a different theme each week.
7:39:39 AM 
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There are a bunch of sites offering the LOTR:Return Of The King Trailer. Check the Slashdot links for the nearest and faster for you. Again, BitTorrent makes the files fly. From a posting on Slashdot.
7:06:46 AM
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Monday, September 29, 2003 |
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Sunday, September 28, 2003 |
Okay, a really bad choice of names, but Slashdot features links to a new fan film
about the Matrix universe. I hope the bigwigs will recognize this for
what it is - fan art - and not stop its distribution. Check out
the BitTorrent feed, if you can, and note that there is a new
BitTorrent client available. I downloaded the trailer and movie in no
time flat, and left my BT clients running, serving the files, until I
had supplied twice what I had taken. Consider doing the same.
1:43:48 PM
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Remembering the People Who Give Back to the Net, and All of Us.
"The Internet has become a grossly commercialized Wild West in so many
ways. But the community spirit on which it was founded is alive and
well. The Net depends on the same spirit that motivates volunteers in
the physical world: a commitment to solve problems and make life better
for those who might otherwise not have the resources or expertise."
from Dan Gillmor's eJournal
1:12:45 PM
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It looks like RSS News Ticker needs the .NET framework as well as the GDI+ runtimes to work.
"RSS News Ticker looks interesting. Windows." From Scripting News.
1:08:39 PM
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I'm not even ready for the 101 course, yet. My sister Anne asked me if
there was any way I could make a DVD of one of her videos for her. I
don't (yet) have a DVD recorder, but I offered to try to do the
equivalent with a Video CD (VCD) or Super VideoCD. My ThinkPad has a
firewire cable, and it only took a few weeks to find one with the right
connectors for that and the video camera. Windows XP cheerfully
volunteers to record off the camera, but I thought I'd try the MGI
VideoWave 4 that came bundled with the laptop. First try shows promise
- a 4.9 gigabyte AVI file. Need to clean another 10 gig off my laptop
and defrag it to ensure I have room to capture the whole thing - there
was another 10 minutes to go when I stopped it. After that, I'll try
Dr. DivX or Nero to see what I can produce. A first attempt with Nero
to create an SVCD resulted in a CD that sounded like an aircraft taking
off in the laptop and a really jittery picture, and nothing from the
DVD player but a "Check disc" message. Don't know if it was bad media
or not the right format, or perhaps there are other options I need to
select. Will have to try again later.
1:05:16 PM
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Saturday, September 27, 2003 |
Hope our network downtime didn't cause concern. Laura and I
disassembled the office and did some serious rearranging to make room
for the new furniture, due soon. Rewiring cable internet, DSL, the
house ethernet, the wireless, the web site, ftp site, the printers,...
man! Lots of stuff to reconfigure. Still got to figure out how to wire
the dual line phone and fax machine. As a reward, we went to Gould Hill Orchards for a half peck of MacIntosh apples and an afternoon snack of cheddar cheese and apples. Mmmm.....
4:54:34 PM
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Friday, September 26, 2003 |
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Thursday, September 25, 2003 |
We in the computer industry have a special responsibility to ensure
that the general public does not have a false sense of security about
things computerized. "It must be true, the computer said so" or "I read
it on the Internet" are chilling examples. Here, it seems an unreliable
computer system is replacing a more reliable, although slower and more
expensive, manual voting systems...
Can Diebold Be This Stupid?.
"UPDATED: BlackBoxBoting.org says lawyers for Diebold, maker of
electronic voting systems, have forced the site to shut down on
alleged..." from Dan Gillmor's eJournal
4:11:41 PM
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003 |
Knoppix 3.3, a self-booting Linux-on-a-CD distribution great for
demoing the product or rescuing a badly mangled install, is now
available for download. Instead of trying to get an image downloaded
from one of the mirrors, consider participating in the BitTorrent
technique for downloads. With BitTorrent installed and running, it took
most of the afternoon to get the image, but I got it on the first try,
and while I was downloading, BitTorrent could provide the parts I'd
downloaded to share with others, a real win-win situation. Slashdot
commentary and links to download sites are here.
Since I had nothing better to do with a few background CPU ticks, I've left the BitTorrent client running, sharing the wealth.
11:43:16 AM
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Monday, September 22, 2003 |
Doc Searls has an excellent posting on his blog on "The Story Story,"
talking about how journalists often simplify an issue into two sides,
and lose a lot in the process. Software and media piracy are the big
issues.
8:25:14 PM
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Sunday, September 21, 2003 |
A dazzling day of beautiful weather, pipers, drummers, costumes, food, topped off with a concert by Clann An Drumma and Old Blind Dogs.
The Gathering of the Clans and the assembly of the bands - 30 pipe
bands in all - was great ritual to witness. The sound of 300 pipes and
drums was incredible.
Clann an Drumma was the most amazing tribal sound of a bagpipe and four mad
drummers - incredible sounds! Old Blind Dogs combined Scottish folk
tunes and jazzy, bluesy elements to make a great concert. The crowd on
many hundreds was on their feet, dancing and clapping for much of the
night. A great time!
10:55:25 AM
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Saturday, September 20, 2003 |
Home in Contoocook. Looking forward to an interesting weekend, with 30
Pipe bands and probably tens of thousands of people visiting the New Hampshire Highland Games.
9:16:18 AM
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Thursday, September 18, 2003 |
From Scripting News: "Zeldman asks the question no one dared ask, did Microsoft want to lose the browser patent case? Postscript: Vincent Flanders dared to ask. "
A disturbing idea, that Microsoft would so devastate the internet space in order to gain themselves.
To me, the real problem here is the idea that a patent can apply to an
innovative software technique. I don't believe that patents rightfully
exist in software. You cannot steal the code of others, but you can and you should be able to build on the ideas of others.
6:08:14 AM
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003 |
OSC is one of my favorite authors, and it's good to see arguments
similar to what I've heard in other venues: the Internet offers a great
opportunity for the right business model to make enjoying music a more
accessible experience for all. Also, check out the second link in the Slashdot article to a San
Francisco Chronicle article (via the Atlanta Constitution-Journal) on
musicians unhappy with the RIAA's antics. Orson Scott Card on mp3 File Sharing [Slashdot]
8:28:19 PM
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Monday, September 15, 2003 |
From http://www.hentzenwerke.com:
GLGDW is several weeks early this year,
and that's evidently caught a number of people by surprise. As a
result, we're extending the $525 registration price through next
Monday, Sept. 22.
The "Who's Going to GLGDW 2003" list has been posted.
7:26:50 PM
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Chad Dickerson writes this editorial with a phrase that's becoming more popular by the day. [InfoWorld]
9:40:35 AM
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Saturday, September 13, 2003 |
Way cool. I remember the original Arthur C. Clarke story, "Fountains of
Paradise," and he's quoted in the article as saying that he expected to
be ridiculed, and then he expected it to be built. I suspect there's a
lot more technological problems to be solved, but this will be cool.
Space Elevator Going Up [Slashdot]
I have maintained for years that mankind must get off planet, if only
to avoid the "single point of failure" problem. Our little blue marble
of Earth is a tiny speck in the vast and dangerous universe...
7:53:07 PM
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Robert X. Cringely, a favorite columnist, writes at PBS
about the dangers of identity theft. The danger has always been
present, but computerization is making mass theft a larger threat.
Reaction at Slashdot to "Cringely on Identity Theft [Slashdot]" is pretty good, overall, although I always recommend a threshold of 4 or above to make reading manageable.
10:28:40 AM
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EFF Petition.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a petition for those of us
appalled by the RIAA's singleminded attempt to criminalize file sharing
rather than working to come up with workable ways to achive the
multiple aims of building a flourishing a public domain, providing
access to works no longer available thorugh publishers, and
compensating artists...." [Joho the Blog]
8:15:36 AM
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Ideas
as Property - the Big Lie of Big Content is
the title for this piece criticising the idea that ideas are property
that can be controlled like physical property. In the US, the framers
of the Constitution found the idea so important that they included it
in the document: Section 8:
The Congress shall have the
power... To promote
the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times
to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective
writings and discoveries;
Seems pretty straight-forward to me.
8:12:25 AM
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Friday, September 12, 2003 |
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Thursday, September 11, 2003 |
Two years ago today. May all who have lost friends and relatives find comfort and peace.
8:50:13 AM
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003 |
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-039.asp
lists a new security flaw, based on an extension of MS03-026 to new
ports. The MSKB is pretty confusing. Bottom line, right now, ensure you
have a firewall in place, whether you are attached to the internet
directly or through an intranet. Working through the language of the
patch will take some time. Look at this:
Note If you use the KB823980scan.exe tool to scan
a computer that has the 824146 security patch installed, the tool will
incorrectly report that the computer is missing the 823980 security
patch (MS03-026). Microsoft encourages customers to run the
KB824146scan.exe tool to determine whether the host computers on their
networks have the 823980 (MS03-026) and the 824146 (MS03-039) security
patches installed.
Pretty confusing stuff.
3:11:38 PM
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Along with the great ProFox mailing list, Ed Leafe runs TaskPaneCentral, and Michael Henstock just uploaded a new task pane to the Files area
which will read MSDN postings. WARNING: the links in the Task Pane will
launch an instance of the IE browser, so make sure you have taken the
appropriate security precautions. A patch to the Task Pane to launch in your default browser is documented here.
6:20:49 AM
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Tuesday, September 9, 2003 |
Forrester: Linux development can be more costly than using Microsoft software.
"The Microsoft-commissioned study estimated the cost of building custom
J2EE and .Net applications within large and medium-size organizations."
"The price gap was primarily the result of the
difference between the prices of the BEA and Oracle software and those
of Visual Studio .Net and SQL Server."
What nonsense. So, it is possible to spend more money on
expensive software and end up with a more expensive solution. Duh. And
what if they used Apache, JBOSS and PostGreSQL?
[Computerworld News]
7:23:08 PM
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MIT-Stanford Venture Lab:
"The explosive uptake of blogging, RSS feeds, and self-maintained
collaborative web platforms such as wikis are already having powerful
revolutionary effects on news and content delivery." [Scripting News]
11:29:08 AM
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Don't Expect a System to Behave Uniformly.
"Q. My Windows Me operating system rarely shuts down properly, and it
freezes and crashes about once a week. I have heard that this problem
is common with Me; should I upgrade to a different system?" By J. D.
Biersdorfer.
It strikes me as sad that the New York Times computer advice column can't offer hope that a solution is available.
"Upgrading your computer to Windows XP might be one way to solve some of
your computer's problems if you have the time, money, patience and
hardware to handle the task"
On the other hand, it might not.
[New York Times: Technology]
6:17:04 AM
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Sunday, September 7, 2003 |
A busy week at home is wrapping up with a 40% (forty percent!)
off sale at our favorite unfinished furniture store. Time to consider
replacing the cheap plastic-veener-over-particleboard with some solid
oak office furnture...
Off to Knoxville this afternoon. Y'all take care.
8:27:33 AM
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Saturday, September 6, 2003 |
Spent a fun day away from the computer, starting with a trip to the
dump, er, transfer station, followed by a trip to the local hazardous
waste facility to dispose of a couple old computers, monitors and a
dead UPS (NOT aided by MapPoint, that had us take a route that ended in
a corn field and a turn that wasn't there!). From there, we had a grand
circumnavigation (70 miles!) of Lake Winnepesaukee, the largest lake in
New Hampshire, and a place I fondly remember from several weekends at
my godparent's cottage in the 60s and 70s. Lunch at the town docks in
Meredith, and a hike on the rail-trail in Wolfeboro, followed by ice
cream. Picture-perfect day, blue skies, blue lake, little traffic. The
joy of post-Labor Day summer.
7:58:31 PM
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Friday, September 5, 2003 |
Wondered why I couldn't reach the site yesterday... "Feed Validator has
moved. The Feed Validator, previously located at
feeds.archive.org/validator/, now has its own domain:
feedvalidator.org. If you have any scripts, templates, or applications
that point to the Feed Validator, now would be a good time to update
them. (204 words)" [dive into mark]
9:38:43 AM
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Thursday, September 4, 2003 |
Reuters reports in the Washington Post that IBM's new ad campaign, aimed at the Sunday sports crowd, should elevate the attention given Linux.
7:20:04 PM
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Politically incorrect observations about Mac OS X and Windows.
"A few minutes ago, I had to hard-reset the TiBook I'm typing on. This
happens at least once every week or two. Some of these events have been
seemingly random, others I can almost -- but not quite -- reliably
reproduce. One happens (very rarely, just once or twice ever) when the
machine fails to wake from sleep. The other happens (much more often,
but by no means always) when, after switching Wi-Fi networks, I connect
to my Windows network. Meanwhile, my workhorse desktop machine running
Windows XP has yet to bluescreen. ..." [Jon's Radio]
8:35:21 AM
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Wednesday, September 3, 2003 |
Microsoft must be back from their Labor Day break, and they catch up today with five, that's right, count 'em, five security
bulletins. Office related, primarily using VBA, but read the CNET
article and the Microsoft links for full details. Some seem to revolve
around opening attachments - please don't do this, folks! - but, if
Word is your email editor, it could be compromised by opening and
replying or forwarding a document. If Word is your email editor, turn
it off.
And get those patches.
"Office users at risk from 'critical' flaw.
Microsoft issues another herd of vulnerability reports, including a
"critical" security hole in numerous Office applications that could let
a hacker take control of a PC." Posted at CNET News.com
4:17:51 PM
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Keep supporting the best browser as it gets better. Check it out here.
11:29:16 AM
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Whil's blogging, albeit without tools yet. Whil Hentzen, famed
publisher of the Hentzenwerke Publishing Group, author, FoxTalk journal
editor, speaker, Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional," first "FoxPro
Lifetime Acheivement Award" winner, and host of the Great Lakes Great Database Workshop, has started a blog on the rightmost column of the homepage of Hentzenwerke Publishing.
A web log in the true definition of the term, with HTML markup in his
web site tool of choice, and no ability for subscriptions, permalinks
or comments. Yet. Still, a good first step. Perhaps he'll attend my
session on "Simple Internet Subscriptions with VFP and XML" for some pointers on developing his own RSS feed.
A disclaimer for the few of you who might not know: Hentzenwerke has
published my last several books, and I've worked with them as author,
tech editor and PDF-tweaker.
11:02:13 AM
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Tuesday, September 2, 2003 |
Whil Henzen Speaks! D/FW FoxPro UG Sept 4th at 7:00PM. This month's topic will be "New tools that will provide additional business opportunities for Fox developers"
by Whil Hentzen. Here is your chance to meet Whil Hentzen and hear his
presentation on open source, Linux, new directions, and a myriad of
other ideas as Whil continues his "Fox Is Everywhere" User Group Tour. Please visit our web site for details, location, etc. [FoxCentral]
12:18:28 PM
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Monday, September 1, 2003 |
Fifty-two and rainy this morning when I walked the dogs, with a drippy
little drizzle. It won't be a good day for vendors today, but perhaps
for bargain hunters. I very much want to see the fair succeed, as a
social event as much as a financial one.
Step-daughter Belynda was up yesterday with friends old and young and
they all had fun on what turned out to be a sunny and warm day.
Hope your Labor Day is a pleasant one, too.
9:08:21 AM
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