http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2007/04.php .
.
.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
Blackboard, is an E-learning creation and management system that is used at "85 percent of PC Magazine and The Princeton Review's Top 20 Wired Colleges within the U.S." Blackboard is also reported to be partially owned by Microsoft. That makes it doubly ironic that Blackboard has serious problems running under Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7.
If you want to see beautiful birds, put out a bird feeder. But don't start thinking that they're your birds. The truth is, if you stop filling the bird feeder, you'll never see them again.
If you took my advice to set your clocks back one hour last night, then I hope that you also took my advice to check your calendar
today.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
Linux isn't just for ISPs, corporations, and desktop users any more. The U.S. Library of Congress will be using a Linux-based system to digitize and publish the contents of fragile books and documents.
If you want to be accused of lying more often than a habitual liar, always tell the truth.
If you've watched PBS or the Discovery Channel, then you probably already know that scientists have different theories about how the Egyptian pyramids were built. One theory says that they used a huge spiral ramp around the outside of each pyramid. Another says that they used a long, gently sloped ramp going straight up to each pyramid. Now, after 8 years of study, one scientist is sure that the builders used an internal spiral ramp.
Here's another reason
why so many of us are overweight.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
It's always interesting and fun to see lists of cool technologies like The 50 Best Tech Products of All Time.
Here's a cool idea that could eventually benefit all of us: The X Prize Foundation plans to offer millions of dollars to whoever builds
the first practical, mass-produceable car that gets
100 miles per gallon. But it has to be ready to be test-driven in 2009.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
Yesterday, I pointed you to an article about some of the best technologies ever invented. Now here's an article about The 21 Biggest Technology Flops.
It seems like the politicians were the only people who thought it would work. Well, it turns out that they were wrong. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, starting Daylight Savings Time 3 weeks earlier than normal
didn't save any energy at all. But DST will probably stay at that new date from now on, simply because everyone already had to go to all the trouble of programming that new start date into all of their technologies. Politicians: You can't live with 'em and you can't... um... get rid of 'em.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
Regular readers of this Journal know that I've been happily using SimplyMEPIS Linux 6.0 full-time since last summer, without any need to go back to Windows. Yesterday, Mepis 6.5 Final was released, and it Offers Many Updates For 6.0 Users. I'm going to wait a few days, to allow time for the download servers to not be so busy, and then I hope to download, install, and start using the new version full-time.
A new lawsuit claims that "Microsoft overstated the ability of PCs to run Windows Vista, and that an upgrade program added insult to injury by giving users access to Windows Vista Home Basic that lacked many of the advertised features." Insert your own lame Microsoft joke here.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
Last night, I was the very first customer to return a half-used bag of "Ol' Roy" dog biscuits to my local Wal-Mart. They were still selling them, and hadn't even heard yet that Wal-Mart recalled them yesterday, as part of that whole recent national pet food recall. It didn't give me much satisfaction to get a $3.88 refund for the potentially dangerous treats, but at least I convinced them to pull the rest of the recalled products off of their shelves.
If you visit any Linux support forums, you've probably seen it many times: a new Linux user has a problem with some aspect of Linux and, in their frustration, issues the threat, "I'm going back to Windows." Should we care?
I live in the Sunshine State. I can vouch for the fact that it earned that nickname. Nearly every day is sunny. This would be a perfect place to use
synthetic dyes that can generate electricity for about one-tenth the cost of silicon-based solar cell. Actually, what's really cool is that they'd still work just fine, even in gloomy places. What's even cooler is that they can even be incorporated into windows and other building materials. I think this is going to be really, really big.
One of the many great things about Mepis Linux is that it comes as a "live CD" that lets you boot your computer into Mepis and try it out without installing anything onto your computer's hard drive, and then, if you like it, you can use that same CD to install it permanently on your computer. I downloaded and burned a CD of the new Mepis 6.5 yesterday, and I've already booted it a couple of times, to try it out before installing it. So far, I really like it. Overall, it behaves mostly like the Mepis 6.0 that I've been using since last summer, but it comes with some additional apps, some updated apps, a more-polished look, and the option to run the impressive, still-in-development 3D desktop that eye-candy afficionados have been raving about. Mepis 6.5 looks like a keeper to me.
More and more IT industry commentators are coming to the conclusion that Microsoft's days as the big dog on the block are coming to an end.
Google recently announced a new privacy policy, regarding how long the company will keep records of all of the searches that you do. Some people interpreted the new policy as a sign that Google is going to be tougher about fighting for users' privacy; others concluded that Google's new policy is clearer, but not tougher. If you have a Google account, and you're concerned about your online privacy, you can tell it to stop saving your searches.
This just in, from the "What Are They Thinking?" Department: Despite the state's $1 billion budget crisis, some Michigan lawmakers would like taxpayers to foot the bill to
buy an iPod for every student in the state.
Happy Easter! This holiday (holy day) has no particular significance to many people around the world. To others, it's a sort of celebration of the end of winter, and the lush greenery of the new growing season. Many children think of it as a day to eat chocolate bunnies, marshmallow peeps, and jelly beans. Some people dress up in their fanciest clothes and make a pilgrimage to their local church.
To me, Easter is the most special day of the year. It is the bedrock of my faith and the cornerstone of my life. Without Easter, Christmas would be just another day. If Christ hadn't risen from the dead, my life would have no meaning or purpose, and I probably would've given up years ago. Like the popular song from the 1970s said, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives." I sincerely hope that today is a joyful, meaningful day for you, too. Happy Easter!
Imagine being able to plug memory chips into your head and instantly "remember" all of the information on them as though they were your own memories. Imagine "remembering" the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings of a trip to an exotic land, or even to another planet, even though you've never been there. I imagined all of those things in a paper that I wrote for a "Future of Education" course that I took back in the summer of 1986. Now, a team from the British Ministry of Defence has imagined that it will happen in about 30 years. If that turns out to be true, then I will have accurately predicted it about 50 years before it happens. (Cue the Twilight Zone music.)
It used to be that when a product's packaging had a Certified for Windows logo on it, you knew that it was going to work just fine on your Windows computer. Unfortunately, that's not true any more.
Since its invention, styrofoam has been one of the longest-lasting man-made materials on Earth, second only to
Hostess Twinkies. That has caused environmental nightmares for anyone who didn't want to wait over 400 years for the stuff to naturally biodegrade. Fortunately, scientists recently discovered a strain of bacteria that
eats styrofoam.
Are you concerned that if you switch from Windows to Linux, you might not be able to do all of the tasks that you're used to doing on your computer? Have no fear — Linux has free software that can do just about anything you need to do — and some of it has even more features than its commercial Windows counterparts. By the way, the list doesn't mention a Linux web site development tool. That's probably because, so far, nothing in Linux can duplicate all of the features that Dreamweaver has in Windows. Even though my computer dual-boots with Windows XP and Mepis Linux, and I still have Dreamweaver installed in Windows, I choose to eschew Windows and use free and open source Quanta Plus in Linux to maintain my web sites.
For years, I've seen countless lists of the top 10 extensions for the Firefox browser. In fact, I use several of them. Here's a list of the Top 10 Firefox Extensions To Avoid. I use several of them, too.
Some day soon, you may be surveilled, rescued, or have your roof inspected by people in a
flying saucer.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
Windows Vista looks like it may end up being a good example of Microsoft shooting itself in the foot. So many people have so many problems with Vista that some of them could be driven to use Linux instead.
People who distribute spyware are like people who distribute spam — they're in it for the money, and because it can be extremely lucrative, they would need a very compelling reason to make them want to stop their criminal activity. One U.S. federal regulator has recommended
prison sentences as an effective deterrent to such criminals.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
In the past, whenever Microsoft released a new version of Windows, it pretty much immediately stopped selling the old version, and users happily started buying PCs that came with the new version preinstalled on them. That hasn't been the case with Windows Vista. The new OS reportedly suffers from many problems and incompatibilities. As a result, Vista sales have been slow, and many users continue to prefer PCs that come with Windows XP preinstalled on them. Now, Microsoft has announced that it will stop selling XP to PC manufacturers at the end of this year. Will that move bolster sales of PCs that come with Vista preinstalled on them, or will it drive even more Windows users to consider using Linux instead of Vista?
This is really creepy: "Ever given false information when prompted for personal details by a website? Don't worry, the US copying and computing company Xerox hopes to eliminate that kind of questioning because it believes it can get the information without even asking."
A team of Brazilian and American scientists have discovered what appears to be
a cure for Type 1 diabetes (formerly known as juvenile diabetes). By giving new diabetics a transfusion of their own stem cells, they have successfully restarted the diabetics' own natural insulin production, thus eliminating the need for insulin injections.
This Journal entry is now part of a separate article, My Previous Life Is Over. You can find it in the Personal Stuff section of this site.
In related news, scientists have identified the fat gene.
Regular readers of this Journal know that I've been happily using SimplyMepis 6.0 Linux as my only operating system since last summer. Now I'm planning to replace it with SimplyMepis 6.5, as soon as I have time. Here's a glowing review of that new version of Mepis.
What operating system would you set up for your computerphobic grandmother to use? Many people would choose Windows, because it's what they're used to using themselves, but there are some good reasons Why Linux Is the Perfect System For People Who Hate Computers.
Firefox is an excellent web browser. I've been using it exclusively for a few years, and I like it much more than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Here are a few simple ways to make Firefox
even better.
Last night, I installed SimplyMepis 6.5, the latest, greatest version of the totally free Linux distro that I've been using instead of Windows since last summer. I could have upgraded my existing Mepis 6.0 installation in just a few minutes, but I spent a lot more time on it because I prefer to do clean installs instead of upgrades.
It only took 5-6 minutes to completely install Mepis 6.5 onto its own hard drive partition, with its own separate "/home" partition, and including hundreds of free software applications. Then it took only a few clicks and a couple more minutes to install Quanta Plus, my favorite free web development application, since it doesn't come preinstalled with Mepis. Less than 10 minutes after I had started, Mepis 6.5 was fully functional, with all the applications that I normally use. Since this is the first time that I've moved from one version of Mepis to another, it took me about an hour to find and then copy some specific application configuration files from my Mepis 6.0 "/home" folder to my Mepis 6.5 "/home" folder, to completely transfer all of my existing data and settings for email, browser, FTP, Quanta Plus, and a few other applications. Then I spent about 20 minutes tweaking the desktop, taskbar, and other GUI options.
All together, it only took about 90 minutes to do a clean installation of Mepis 6.5 with all of the software that I use, copy my data and settings from Mepis 6.0, and configure it all exactly the way I wanted. It's been a long time since I did it, but I think that every time I ever reinstalled Windows, it took several hours to install it and all of the applications that I used; then it took another 3-4 days to make sure it was all configured the way I wanted. I'm sure that the next time I upgrade by doing a clean install of Mepis, it will go even faster than it did this time, since I'll know exactly which config files to copy from my old installation to my new one. In the meantime, I'm very happily using Mepis 6.5.
For several different reasons, more and more industry observers are coming to the conclusion that Windows Vista is a failure. What can be done to save the new OS? Here's a guy who says that Microsoft should turn it over to the open-source community.
Microsoft Word 2007 reportedly has some bugs that can cause it to completely crash. As usual, Microsoft claims that the crashes are the result of "features," not bugs. Here's a lively discussion of Redmond's latest public relations fiasco.
If you like to do Google and Yahoo searches, but you're concerned that they save your private search data, Journal reader, Chris Merrill, recommends that you let
Scroogle act as a middleman between you and the search engines. When you submit search terms to Scroogle, it submits them to Google or Yahoo for you, and then it returns their search results to you — all wihout transferring or keeping any data about you.
For the past couple of days, I've been using only my new Mepis 6.5 Linux setup. That has allowed me to confirm that it works perfectly and doesn't need any more configuration or data files from my previous Mepis 6.0 setup. So, if I have time today, I will delete my Mepis 6.0 partition (and its corresponding "/home" partition), and then backup my Mepis 6.5 partition and my wife's Windows XP partition.
Regular readers of this Journal know that I switched from using Windows to using Mepis Linux last summer, and I haven't looked back. Here's another computer user who happily switched from Windows to Linux — in his case, Ubuntu Linux. If you're thinking of switching, you might learn something by reading why he switched, as well as by reading the pro and con comments after his article.
The Internet, like Microsoft Windows, was a great idea when it was first created. But both technologies suffer from the fact that they were created to meet the specific needs of the computing environment of the past, and today's computing environment is dramatically different. That's why some researchers think it may be necessary to
scrap the Internet and start over.
Yesterday, I used my bootable GParted LiveCD to copy my computer's XP partition, Linux partition, Linux "/home" partition, and shared data partition to my external hard drive. It's great to know that everything is working perfectly, and that if I ever mess anything up, I'll be able to restore it to exactly the way it is now. Now I just need to find a simple, fast, understandable way to make daily backups of any files that I change or create, to allow me to restore individual files as well as entire partitions.
It's not quite as important as it was when everyone browsed the Internet with slow dial-up connections, but it's still a topic that's worth repeating every once in awhile: If you have your own web site(s), you're going to want to read 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site.
You've seen different sites' lists of The Ten Best Technologies and The Ten Worst Technologies. Now it's time for The 20 Most Annoying Tech Products.
If it takes you more than a second or two to see what's wrong in
this photo, then you probably shouldn't be a proofreader.
I've been doing a lot of research, looking for the best Linux-based hard drive partition backup tool and the best Linux-based daily backup tool. According to everything I've seen so far, GParted is the best Linux-based tool to create/move/resize hard drive partitions, but Partimage is the best tool to copy/clone partitions, and another Linux tool called Rdiff-Backup is the best tool to make daily backups of changed or newly created files onto a local hard drive. As far as I can tell, the main reason to use Partimage instead of GParted for copying partitions is that Partimage is much faster because it can copy just the used sectors of a partition, while GParted copies the entire partition, including its empty sectors.
If your Linux distro doesn't come with GParted, you can download and burn the free, bootable GParted LiveCD, or you can get both GParted and Partimage together (with many other utilities) by downloading and burning the free, bootable SystemRescueCD. When I'm just using gparted, I prefer to run from its own bootable CD — I find it to be faster and easier than booting up the whole SystemRescueCD and navigating through its many choices. Note: even if your Linux distro comes with GParted preinstalled, you will want to make yourself a copy of the GParted LiveCD and/or the SystemRescueCD. That's because GParted won't let you manipulate any partitions that you're currently using. In other words, if you boot up Linux on your hard drive, you won't be able to use Linux's preinstalled copy of GParted to move/resize/copy your Linux partition itself, because that partition will be "in use." But if you boot up the GParted LiveCD, you will be able to move/resize/copy your hard drive's Linux partition, because the GParted LiveCD itself will be running your computer, and your hard drive's Linux partition won't be "in use." This applies to all hard drive partitioning tools, not just to GParted. Never, ever use any partitioning tool to manipulate a hard drive partition that's "in use," even if your partitioning tool mistakenly allows you to do it, or you will be inviting disaster.
I run Mepis Linux, which comes with Rdiff-Backup already installed. If your Linux distro doesn't include Rdiff-Backup, you can download and install it for free.
I originally chose to use the GParted LiveCD to copy all of my partitions onto my external hard drive because it has an easy to understand, point-and-click GUI interface that didn't require me to know or type any cryptic "DOS" commands. In contrast, Partimage and Rdiff-Backup are very powerful tools, but they're both command-line tools. That means that they require you to type cryptic "DOS" commands to make them work.
To be fair, Partimage also gives you the option to use a very primitive GUI interface, but it is far less friendly than GParted's GUI, and doesn't completely eliminate the need to use DOS commands. If I remember correctly, before you even start Partimage's GUI interface, you have to enter a couple of cryptic DOS commands to manually mount the partition where you want Partimage to store the copied partition — I think there is a line or two of instructions in the non-GUI startup part of the SystemRescueCD that tells how to do that. If there isn't, then I'll have to go looking for a web site that gives some examples of that command. Then, even in the Partimage GUI, you have to select from among several different options for compression type, backup size, and other things, and then enter another cryptic command into the GUI itself, to tell Partimage where to store the copied partition. And if you get any of those things wrong, it won't work, or you could end up with a backup that won't be capable of being restored at a later date.
I want to use the best tools for the job, but I don't want to make any catastropic mistakes, and I'm not yet proficient in using Linux DOS commands. That's why I spent several hours yesterday, looking for a way that I could still use Partimage and Rdiff-Backup. I finally found a couple of web sites that gave me enough how-to information that I think I'll probably be able to use both tools:
Here are some screenshots and instructions for How To Save a Partition Into an Image File, using Partimage. Don't be confused by the fact that the screenshots don't show the same partition to be backed up, or the same backup file to be created, as the instructions describe. Someone obviously forgot to update the screenshots, but the concepts of how to use Partimage are still correct.
Here's a script that contains the proper commands to tell Rdiff-Backup to backup a Linux "/home" directory to a second hard drive. I'll just have to edit a few lines to customize it to use my Linux username and the name of my particular source and destination drives. At the end of the article, it even tells how to make the script run automatically, each time the computer is shut down.
When I have time, I'll try both Partimage and Rdiff-Backup. Afterward, I'll let you know how it went. UPDATE: See my April 19, 2007 Journal entry to learn about software that's reportedly even better than Partimage.
Those of us who use Linux on our desktop computers every day may be happy to see more evidence that desktop Linux may be finally reaching a tipping point. We're getting close to seeing first-tier PC manufacturers offer preinstalled Linux as an alternative to Windows. If that happens, desktop Linux's popularity could really take off.
Microsoft spent millions of dollars to promote Windows Vista in China — a country of over a billion people. Imagine how disappointed Redmond must have been when it reportedly only sold 244 copies of Genuine Windows Vista in China in the first 2 weeks after that new operating system was launched. You know the old saying — over a billion Chinese people can't be wrong.
If you live in the U.S., and you waited until the last minute to do your yearly income taxes, and you used Turbo Tax's web site to file your taxes, you probably noticed that the Turbo Tax site melted down, reportedly leaving some customers without any service, and causing problems for as long as 24 hours.
Those of us who live in hurricane-prone areas have long been warned that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But now, new research indicates that global warming could actually result in fewer and less-powerful hurricanes. That would be fine with me.
A lot of people believe that humans evolved from apes. They might be disappointed to hear that chimps are more evolved than humans. If you've ever seen Bedtime For Bonzo, you already knew that.
I first told you about
Clocky more than 2 years ago, while it was still being developed. Now you can actually buy it —
an alarm clock that runs away and hides, to force you to wake up and turn it off. Clocky
looks like a child's push toy without its handle.
If you're thinking of switching from Windows to Linux, I very highly recommend Mepis Linux. After trying several Linux distros in the past few years, I finally switched to Mepis last summer, and it completely replaced Windows for me. One of the regular contributors to the Mepis Linux support forums wrote From Windows to MEPIS: A Windows User's Guide To MEPIS to make it easier for you to switch.
A couple of days ago, I told you that I had used a Linux hard-drive-partitioning tool called GParted to make backup copies of all of my hard-drive partitions. At the time, I said that I had read that a tool called Partimage was supposed to be better than GParted for copying partitions. Now I've learned about a tool called Clonezilla, that's reportedly even better than Partimage for copying partitions. Clonezilla is based on Partimage, so it does everything that Partimage can do, but it can also copy entire hard drives instead of just separate partitions. Here's an article that tells more about GParted and Clonezilla. It also contains links to each one, plus a link to a GParted-Clonezilla LiveCD. Just like GParted and Partimage, Clonezilla is free. I'm downloading the GParted-Clonezilla LiveCD as I type this. I hope I can figure out how to use Clonezilla, or that its commands will turn out to be the same as the ones in the Partimage instructions that I found the other day. I'll let you know how it goes.
If you've written or know where to get some simple, easy instructions for how to use Clonezilla to copy a local hard-drive partition to a local external hard drive, write and tell me. If I use them, I'll give you credit for them in a future Journal entry.
Last summer, hackers
broke into the U.S. State Department network and stole some data, thanks to "a design flaw in Microsoft software." Is anyone surprised?
I've previously told you how computer users have basically given Windows Vista a cold shoulder, while preferring to buy and use Windows XP. Then, despite the continuing customer demand for XP, Microsoft recently announced that it will stop selling XP to PC manufacturers at the end of this year. One industry insider advises that even though vendors may find ways to make exceptions to that rule, everyone should plan for the inevitable future.
More bad news for Windows Vista. After listening to its customer feedback, PC manufacturer Dell is again offering buyers the choice to purchase PCs with Windows XP preinstalled, instead of Windows Vista.
Many people agree that it is true, but they wonder: Why Is Vista Lame?
An increasing number of industry observers are concluding that Microsoft no longer has the ability to create cutting-edge, consumer-demanded operating systems and software applications. And more and more governments, corporations and computer users are starting to see free versions of Linux and its free applications as an excellent alternative to Microsoft's expensive, buggy software and its highly restrictive digital-rights and security policies. So how can Microsoft establish and grow its market share in developing countries? That's easy — act like an illegal drug dealer: Get the new customers addicted to expensive Microsoft products by offering them Windows with a bunch of software applications
for only $3. Aren't there laws against doing that?
As I mentioned yesterday, Microsoft has announced that it will sell a software suite that includes Windows and a bunch of software applications, for only $3, to students in third world countries. That announcement has made a lot of people angry and fearful. Here's a good article that summarizes the issues. Be sure to also read the readers' comments that follow the article.
Most of us have known for years that Microsoft constantly uses
FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) to try to influence what naive computer users think about its competitors. One author explains how Redmond's recent alliances with other companies are just the latest
examples of that slimy marketing strategy. I propose that we change the acronym to "FUDD" (fear, uncertainty, doubt and disinformation) and start using
Elmer FUDD (shown here) as the new symbol for it. By the way, Elmer FUDD is not to be confused with "Elmer Fudd," the Warner Brothers cartoon character whose very similar name is not an acroynm. Shhhhhhhh, be vewy, vewy quiet; I'm hunting competitoes, heheheheheheh.
At an alarming rate, the IT field is reverting back to its old days of being a men-only club. Find out why women are leaving IT.
You're paranoid about protecting your personal computer security and privacy, so you don't use any Microsoft applications. For added protection, you use a hardware firewall, a software firewall, 15-character login passwords, a pop-up blocker, antivirus software, anti-malware software, ad-blocking software, rootkit-detection software, encryption software, cookie-blocking software and a whole bunch of other expensive security applications that are supposed to protect you, but you're not exactly sure what they do. Unfortunately, the bad guys
can still see exactly what you're doing on your PC.
This past week, I told you about two news items that involved Microsoft, but I didn't connect them in any way. Another writer noticed those same two news items and interpreted them to mean that Microsoft admits that Windows Vista is a failure.
I like the way he thinks.
Scientists have determined that the million-mile-long coronal loops of superheated, electrified gas that rise above the surface of the Sun
carry sounds like a huge, celestial pipe organ.
In related news, Hotblack Desiato has entered into negotiations to purchase the Sun.
Researchers have synthesized a new material that can
scratch diamonds. They hope that it will be more popular than their scalp cream that makes men's hair fall out, or their diet pill that makes women's thighs look bigger.
Yesterday was warm, sunny and breezy — absolutely perfect weather for an annual outdoor charity event. And it just so happens that it was the day of the 2007 Poker Run, an annual charity event that my next-door neighbor
Annamarie spent the past several months organizing. The Poker Run is an all-day event that includes a 3-hour drive/motorcycle ride, prizes, a live band, vendors, greyhounds, food and fun for the whole family. Every year, it attracts hundreds of people to raise money to help care for and find homes for greyhounds that the local dog track doesn't want. Annamarie and her husband, Mike, have two of those greys themselves, and have fostered several others over the years. I do the charity's web site, take photos, help with setup and tear-down, and try to help out however else I can. Last night, I posted 103 of my photos from yesterday's event on the charity's web site. We were all very happy that this year's Poker Run raised a record amount of money, and now we can all relax for a few months, before starting work on next year's event.
Today is reportedly the 25th anniversary of the release of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum (Timex/Sinclair in the U.S.) It doesn't feel like it's been that long since I first saw a photo of the then-new computer in a magazine. It was shot from up-close, and from a very low angle that made it appear to be a normal-sized computer. I remember wondering why it was so inexpensive. Imagine my surprise when I went to my local computer store and saw that it was actually a plastic box about the size of a paperback book, with a tiny, hunt-and-peck keyboard that was useless for normal typing. Ah, those were the fun, exciting days of caveat emptor in the computer industry.
I'm linking to this one just so that I can show off the headline that I wrote for it:
Germ Arrested For Having Soap.
The other day, I shot a short video of the band that played at the annual Poker Run charity event, using my Canon digital camera's movie feature. The video is only a little more than 2 minutes long, but it's a huge 41 MB .AVI file — way too big to put on the charity's web site.
Early this morning, I spent several hours trying to convert it to a more compact file format. After reading up on several free Linux video converters, I used one called Avidemux to save the video in several different video file formats, but nearly all them ended up being the same size or even bigger than the original video file. I finally found a format that got it down to only 3 MB, and then I used FTP software to upload the video to the charity's web site. It played just fine on the web site in Mepis Linux, the operating system that I use.
Unfortunately, when I tried viewing it on the web site in Windows XP SP2, Windows Media Player 9 displayed an error message, saying that I would have to install a "dx50 codec," but it offered no instructions for where to find such a thing. I did a quick search and found the proper codec, but I can't expect the charity web site's visitors to do that.
So now I'm back to square one, looking for a way to make the video small enough to put on the web site, but in a format that Windows Media Player will be able to display without requiring people to find, download and install any additional codecs. Please let me know if you have a solution to that problem.
We all bit our lower lips as Microsoft bragged that Windows Vista is "the most secure operating system ever." And we all got a big laugh several months ago, when a high-ranking MS official claimed that his young son was perfectly safe using Vista without any additional security software. It turns out that our suspicions were correct: "Despite all the anti-malware roadblocks built into Windows Vista, a senior Microsoft official is lowering the security expectations, warning that viruses, password-stealing Trojans and rootkits will continue to thrive as malware authors adapt to the new operating system." It reminds me of the old joke about politicians: How can you tell when a Microsoft spokesperson is lying? His lips are moving.
It's incredible, but it's just a coincidence — I think. "Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes. A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia."
In related news, Lex Luthor is on his way to Serbia.
I've spent over 12 hours on it in the past couple of days, and I still haven't solved the video problem that I told you about yesterday. So far, I've installed at least 6 support files, and made over 30 attempts to compress/convert the video, using 6 different video-converter packages — all without any success at all. Each package appears more than capable of doing the task; the problem is that I'm just a beginner in digital video, and each package has many, many settings that I don't know anything about. I calculated that I have less than one chance in one thousand of choosing the right set of configuration options by trial and error, which is what I've been forced to do. Now my next-door neighbor and buddy Mike has offered to try to compress and convert it, using his Windows Movie Maker software. I'd like to learn how to do it myself, but I'm quickly getting to the point where I don't care who does it, as long as it gets done.
Windows Vista is proving to be not as secure as Microsoft's marketing claims make it out to be. There is a new computing platform that appears to be much more secure. Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint — children in developing countries will be the first ones to use it.
Do you remember hearing that Coca-Cola is bad for your teeth, and seeing video, supposedly showing how an iron nail placed in a glass of Coke completely rots away overnight? That sounds really bad, but a recent study says that
Gatorade Destroys Your Teeth Faster than Coke.
I'm a pretty idealistic person. I feel strongly about wanting to do my computing without having to use any Microsoft operating systems or software. That's why, ever since last summer, I've chosen to maintain my web sites using free Linux software, even though nothing in Linux has as many features as the Dreamweaver software that I used for years in Windows, and still own.
With that said, I'm happy to report that, after spending more than 15 hours on it, I finally solved the problem I was having with compressing and converting a video to put on a charity's web site that I maintain and host. The video is now on the charity's web site as a 3 MB .WMV video, and it plays just fine in Windows Media Player without any problems.
The problem is that, as an idealist, I'm not happy about how I solved the problem.
A few hours after my next-door neighbor offered to try using his Microsoft Windows Movie Maker software to process the video for me, I finally gave up on trying to process it in Linux. Then, for the first time that I've had to do it since last summer, I booted my dual-boot PC into Windows XP. Then I did a quick search, and found, downloaded and installed Windows Movie Maker. Despite the fact that I've never seen or used Windows Movie Maker before, it took me less than 2 minutes to figure out how to use it to make two different-sized .WMV video conversions of my video — without any problems at all.
The 6 different Linux video converters that I tried to use all appeared to be extremely powerful, with hundreds of professional features and options. But, to a digital video newbie like me, it's confusing and counterproductive to have all of those features and options. I need something that's easy to use and does the job — like Windows Movie Maker. As an idealist, I sincerely hope that the next time I need to process a video to put on a web site, I'll be able to do it in Linux.
But I'm also a pragmatist, so I'll use whatever I have to use to get the job done.
The oddly titled Two Signs of the Time (sic) actually describes three signs that desktop Linux is becoming more mainstream.
It's a strange coincidence that two writers, apparently from different parts of the world, wrote almost the exact same article about the real reason for Microsoft's $3 Windows-Office bundle. Read what both
Chin Wong and
David Wolf think about Bill Gates' latest strategic move.
I received some favorable responses to my decision to use Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Movie Maker to compress and convert a video before putting it on a web site. As you may remember, I had first spent more than 15 hours unsuccessfully trying to do the same task using six different video packages in Linux.
If anyone is wondering, I'm happy to say that I had absolutely no problem finding, downloading or installing any of the Linux video packages that I tried to use. For five of them, I simply opened Synaptic, the GUI software manager, and a few clicks later, they were downloaded and installed for me, completely automatically. It was much faster and easier than downloading and installing any Windows software has ever been. The problem with trying to do the job in Linux had nothing to do with Linux, or with the Linux video packages that I tried to use. The problem was that I'm a digital video beginner, but five out of six of the Linux packages that I tried to use were designed to let professionals do all kinds of exotic video processing. In retrospect, a digital video newbie like me, trying to use a full-blown professional video package to convert a video for the very first time, was kind of like someone who has never flown, trying to fly a $120 million fighter jet down to the corner grocery store. The sixth Linux video package that I tried (KVM) was much more my speed. It was even easier to use than Windows Movie Maker, because KVM is a system utility, not a separate software package. All I had to do was right-click on my .AVI video's desktop icon, and a drop-down menu appeared, letting me choose between several popular compression/conversion formats. Unfortunately, no matter which format I selected, KVM complained that it couldn't work with my video. Still, I left KVM installed on my computer because I'm confident that a future upgrade will give it the ability to compress and convert .AVI videos.
Online software services companies like Google hope that, in the future, everyone will use their services, instead of using software that's installed on each person's computer. If that's going to happen, the online software services providers are going to have to solve some serious technical problems that have been frustrating and angering their customers
You know that $100 laptop computer that we keep hearing about? Well, now they say that
it's going to cost $175. And it'll cost even more
if U.S. schools want to buy it. And the worst news of all: In addition to its own open source interface, it'll be able to run Windows. I guess that explains why its price has nearly doubled.
Here's a short, friendly article that makes a good point about why Windows users should give Linux a try. And here's one that says that Linux may be user-friendlyenough for you, but it may not be ready for your Momma. As always, for a more well-rounded reading experience, be sure to also read the comments at the end of each article.
Sometimes, it seems like all of the most-amazing technologies are invented for killing people.
Some scientists now think that black holes may be
wormholes leading to other universes. I'm no astrophysicist, but it's always seemed to me that scientific theories constantly contradict each other. For example, one theory says that black holes are regions in space that have such tremendous gravity that everything gets sucked into them, even light — thus their black appearance. If that's true, then how could anything that gets sucked into a black hole in our universe possibly get out of the black hole to get into other universes? And what's the deal with that whole "other universes" theory? Scientists can't even say for sure whether or not it's going to rain tomorrow morning, but we're supposed to believe them that there are other universes? To me, some scientific theories sound like scams, designed to keep research money flowing into scientific fields that don't benefit anyone except the scientists themselves — and science-fiction writers.
When you really think about it, you have to admit that there are valid reasons for some people to not switch from using Windows to using Linux. 8 Reasons Why Linux Won’t Make It To The Desktop tries to honestly separate the truth from rumors and FUDD.
If you're looking for a funny, tongue-in-cheek comparison of Linux and Windows, here's one.
I love gadgets. I don't own very many gadgets because I don't really need many of them. Still, I think it's a lot of fun just to see all of the cool and clever things that I could get if I wanted to. If you love gadgets too, you'll want to visit
Gizmodo and
Engadget and
Boingboing.
In a fascinating blog post, a current Microsoft employee asks himself, "When did I become such a tool?" He then declares that, in an effort to rehabilitate some of the creativity and passion for life that he allowed his job to take from him, he's going to move his family computer from Windows XP to some form of Linux. In a follow-up post, he clarifies a few points and responds to some of the feedback that he's received.
Google uses several different methods to take take the photos that they show on Google Earth. Don't forget to look up at the sky and smile.
The headline says
"Rocket carries ashes of Star Trek's 'Scotty' and Mercury astronaut into space." Apparently unconcerned about accuracy, the headline writer probably knew that that headline would attract more readers than an accurate one that said, "A tiny bit of the ashes of Star Trek's 'Scotty' and Mercury astronauts go for a short ride in a small rocket."
