http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2007/11.php .
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In case you need a refresher, here's a well-written explanation of several of
Linux's strengths in comparison to Windows.
Linux users will love these choices of
Free Software That Helps You Take Control of Your Mobile Phone.
Just in time for the Christmas season, Walmart is selling a Linux-based PC with an entire office software suite
for under $200 (USD). It's a little too underpowered for my needs, but it would probably
work just fine for most people's email, web-browsing, office and music/video-playing needs.
If you like this site, you'll probably also like Hackosis. (Thanks for recommending it, malspa!)
Nowadays, your children's Christmas wish-lists probably include several high-tech gadgets that each cost as much as we used to spend on two or three years of presents for the entire family. Remember when what you really, really wanted for Christmas was something low-tech and relatively inexpensive, like an Easy Bake Oven or a Hot Wheels set? At one time or another, you've probably owned some of the
23 Must-Have Toys from the 1950s and Beyond. I remember when it was almost as much fun to play with the empty cardboard boxes as it was to play with the toys that had been inside them.
Regular readers of this Journal know that for more than a year that I've been using Linux instead of Windows, I haven't had to worry about my PC's security. If you're still using Windows, you still have to worry about yours, however, so here's a very helpful article that describes several pieces of
free software that will find your security flaws. I wish you well.
Regular readers of this Journal know that Journal reader and Guest Article author malspa has recommended several sites to us in the past. This morning, he wrote to recommend another one, saying "Looks like changes are under way at Google. Recently when I've used GMail and Google Notebook, I've noticed that things are looking different. Along the way, I found this page that might be useful for others who use Google tools: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/ That blog 'is not affiliated with Google...' Good info, though — I think it might turn out to be a good site. The GMail changes are discussed in the October 29th entry, and the Google Notebook changes are in the November 1st entry." (Thanks, malspa!)
For years, computer users have been unpleasantly surprised to discover that the new hard drives that they've purchased won't hold as much data as their advertising and packaging said they would hold. That may be about to change, now that "Seagate Technology LLC has agreed to
settle a lawsuit by offering customers who purchased a hard drive from the company during the last six years a cash refund or free backup and recovery software."
Many academics shun
Wikipedia and refuse to allow their students to use it as a source in their writings. One clever professor has taken the opposite tack by assigning her students to
write Wikipedia articles. The result has been a noticeable improvement of her students' writing skills.
Regular readers of this Journal know that I've been very happily using free, powerful, stable, secure, full-featured, user-friendly
Mepis Linux full-time instead of Windows for more than a year. As I've said before, I tried several Linux distros before choosing Mepis. On the other hand, I realize that the most popular Linux distro have very similar looks and features, and I would prefer using any of them to using any version of Windows. Right now, the most popular distro appears to be
Ubuntu. For a whole lot of evidence of that, take a look at
Ubuntu: Just how popular is it?
I remember that I first read about a new invention called a digital camera back around the late 1970s, when Popular Science magazine did a short a preview article that said that Sony was going to start selling one that they called the Mavica. It turns out that the digital camera was actually invented way back in 1975.
Here's what the first one looked like. Imagine trying to carry that bad boy with you on a vacation with your family. The article also tells how digital cameras have evolved since then.
Here's some good news for anyone who drives a car: Researchers have developed a fuel-cell catalyst that's
four-to-six times more efficient than previous catalysts. Insert your own cynical comment here, about how it will never make it to the market.
If you like watching funny TV commercials, then you'll love
Very Funny Ads.
They've each contributed toward making Linux-based operating systems powerful, stable, secure, full-featured and user-friendly. One blogger calls them the
Seven Wonders of the Linux World. Interesting reading.
Users have lots and lots of freedom of choice in the world of Linux-based operating systems. That turns out to be a double-edged sword: Although it splinters support and development time between hundreds of different Linux distros, it serves as a system of checks and balances that prevents any corporate takeover of the whole Linux structure.
"Psychologists have analyzed hundreds of written threats to members of congress. Their conclusion:
people who send angry emails show far fewer signs of serious mental illness than their envelope-licking counterparts." This coming week, congress plans to pass a bill to provide free email accounts to all citizens.
You may work in a "cube farm," but you've probably got it a lot better than the people who won Wired News' Saddest-Cubicle Contest.
Here it is:
The Hard Disk You've Been Waiting For. According to its ad, it comes with "More Storage, More Speed, More Value, and More Support." Blasts from the past like that remind us of how much more technology we get for our money nowadays.
Maybe it's just me, but I get the impression that he doesn't really mean it when he says that he loves Microsoft's operating systems.
Are you tired of waiting for Windows to boot up on your laptop? Phoenix Technologies, the makers of the
BIOS that many PCs use, is working on a solution to the problem: "Phoenix says its new technology, HyperSpace, will offer mobile PC users the ability to instantly fire up their most used apps — things like e-mail, web browsers and various media players —
without using Windows, simply by pressing the F4 button." Just another example of something that's good news for PC users being bad news for Microsoft.
If you ever end up with a Windows PC that you don't know the password to, there are
several ways to crack, reset or remove that password. For even more ideas, be sure to read the comments that follow the article.
In Japan, the popularity of PCs is waning, due to the increased use of alternate technologies. Do you think that it's a short-term fad, or could it be an indication of a future worldwide trend?
Technically, it's illegal to use one in the U.S., but more and more people are using them anyway. Would you ever consider using a
cell phone jammer? Here's
a lively discussion of that technology's technical, ethical and legal pros and cons.
Now that I've been happily using
Mepis Linux full-time instead of Windows for more than a year, I'm tired of seeing articles that ask "Is Linux ready for prime time?" A better question to ask might be "Are you ready to start using Linux?" Here's an article that
basically agrees with me on that.
Yet another former Windows user recently began using
Ubuntu Linux. Read all about his first positive and negative experiences with the free Linux operating system and software in
Ubuntu Migration: The Sweet Taste Of Freedom At A Price.
If you ever post a trolling comment in a Linux support forum, chances are you'll get your head handed to you on a platter. It's enough to make some people wonder Are Linux Users Really A Feral Bunch?
How much do you know about how marketers track your web browsing activities? How much do you care about it?
A new poll reveals that "the average American consumer
is largely unaware that such tracking goes on, the extent to which it is happening or how exactly information is being used."
Two California men face fines of up to $250,000 (USD) and up to 20 years in jail for
hacking into school computer systems to change their grades. To make matters even worse, their crimes will also go into their permanent records.
If you've kept track of Windows Vista's numerous problems over the past year, then you know why so many organizations and individuals have made it a point to avoid that OS altogether. If you know anyone who's still seriously considering "upgrading" to that buggy OS, have them take a look at this
very funny Vista commercial parody. Warning: A few words may not be suitable for children.
What would you say was the best invention of 2007? Time Magazine thinks it was the iPhone. Yeah, I could hardly believe it, either.
In a very controversial move, a school district in England is experimenting with embedding RFID chips in students' uniforms. Slashdot's readers have a lot to say about that idea. What do you think of it?
I think it's probably pretty cute to watch, but something about it deeply troubles me: "Computers might not be clever enough to trick adults into thinking they are intelligent yet, but a new study shows that a giggling robot is sophisticated enough to get toddlers to
treat it as a peer."
Ever since the U.S. Civil War in the late 1800's, many Americans have differentiated northeners from southerners on the basis of speech and behavior. One of my buddies from way back in high school, Judy R., sent me a link to
a little quiz that tells you whether you qualify as a "Yankee" or a "Dixie." Although I lived up north for my whole life until 4 years ago, my score of 49% puts me squarely between the two, making me "barely a Yankee." I prefer to think of myself as a cosmopolitan.
Late yesterday afternoon, I removed the language-translation links from this site's left navigation column, for a combination of reasons:
Reason #4 was the least of my concerns, but this morning, I found a pretty funny example of how an inaccurate translation can actually trigger an international incident.
This could turn out to be a nightmare for Redmond: If technology continues to develop the direction that it's currently headed, pretty soon, you may be able to surf the web on a PC
without an operating system.
I disagree with a few of his main points, but I think that this video of Stanford professor Larry Lessig's message is interesting, entertaining, thought-provoking and well worth watching:
How creativity is being strangled by the law. I especially like his descriptions of "read-write people" and "read-only people." But toward the end, when he equates flying over someone's farmland to using someone's copyrighted materials without their permission, I see what I think is a fatal flaw in his logic: farmers didn't create the space over their farms.
By the way, do you consider yourself to be read-write or read-only?
Here's good news for parents of gamers: Microsoft has released a new feature for the Xbox 360 game console that "will let parents limit the number of hours their kids can play the Xbox on a daily or weekly basis. When the time limit is reached, the console will automatically shut off, ostensibly after saving the game." It's too bad there isn't a feature that allows children to play one minute of Xbox games for every minute that they spend reading a good book.
Back when it first started in 2003, I registered our household telephone number with the U.S.
National Do Not Call Registry, to stop telemarketing calls to our home. Since then, we've continued to receive a small number of telemarketing calls. Each time we get one, I ask them to repeat their name and the name of the company that they're calling from, and then I inform them that our telephone number is in the National Do Not Call Registry. At that point, most of them have immediately agreed to remove our name from their phone lists, but a few have continued to call back repeatedly, and during my announcement, one telemarketer actually screamed into her phone and then slammed it down very loudly. Companies like that had better mend their ways: The Federal Trade Commission is
cracking down on companies that violate the DNC list's requirements. It's about time.
I've said it many times before, and I'm sure I'll eventually say it many more times: I've been very happily using Linux full-time instead of Windows since July, 2006. Although there are several Linux distros that could replace Windows for me, I absolutely love using
Mepis Linux because it's very user-friendly, stable, secure, full of features and "it just works." I really enjoy using my PC much more now than during the decade-and-a-half that I used Windows full-time, and in Linux, I feel perfectly safe and in-control of my PC at all times. In contrast, every time I have to switch
My Hardware-Based Dual-Boot PC to run Windows XP in order to prepare to teach a Windows-based training course, I find myself feeling very claustrophobic and limited. It feels like Microsoft is the real owner of my PC and Windows requires me to ask its permission in order to use my own PC. And the whole time I'm using it, it feels like Windows is constantly threatening to withhold my right to use my PC at any time, without warning, for any reason that it thinks is fair — or without any reason at all.
If you're a Windows user, believe me, I know how scary it can be to think about trying Linux. For me, it was a huge move, and it took some learning, some patience and some help before I felt really comfortable with it, but in the end, it was well worth it to know that I'm "Windows-free." And speaking of free, don't forget that most popular Linux distros, including the Mepis Linux that I use, are totally free and come with hundreds of free software applications.
For even more reasons to try Linux, see Vista vs. Desktop Linux: One Year In.
Here's even more bad news for Windows users: "The AutoRun function in Windows can launch installers and other programs automatically when you insert a CD or flash drive, but this convenience poses a serious security risk. Unfortunately, simply turning off AutoPlay, a separate feature, isn't enough to prevent AutoRun from introducing a rogue program into your system." Here are
the details, along with a Windows Registry hack that will reduce the risk.
Do you want to be a famous writer, working for an internationally recognized technology web site? Here's
How To Get A Job At Wired Or Any Other Magazine For That Matter. Are they trying to be funny, or are they serious about all of that?
Anyone who backs up their Linux system and/or data knows that there are a lot of free Linux backup choices, including backup applications and command-line commands. For example, at various times, I've used Partimage, Keep, Clonezilla, Rsync, Rdiff-Backup, GParted, Parted Magic, the DD command, the CP command and several different solutions based on most of those. Each solution has its own strengths, weaknesses and learning curve, which is why different users prefer different solutions. I currently use an rsync and DD script that I wrote to backup my Linux home partition, data and hard drive master boot record, and Parted Magic to clone my installed Linux root partition. If you're just getting started with making backups in Linux, and you're not ready to write your own backup script, you may want to try
rsnapshot. Rsnapshot uses the Linux rsync utility, but it makes rsync easier to use and offers additional backup options. "Using rsnapshot, it is possible to take snapshots of your filesystems at different points in time. Using hard links, rsnapshot creates the illusion of multiple full backups, while only taking up the space of one full backup plus differences. When coupled with ssh, it is possible to take snapshots of remote filesystems as well." While rdiff-backup offers similar functionality, I like rsnapshot better, because you can restore rsnapshot's backups by simply copying them where you want them, without needing to run any special restore commands or utilities.
There are hundreds of free Linux distros. Do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing? Here's a Linux user who thinks it's a good thing.
Several days ago, a Linux company won a contract to supply the Nigerian government with 17,000 Linux-powered computers and tech support for Nigerian schools. Within a few days, it was announced that the Nigerian government was still going to buy those computers, but that the vendor deploying the computers planned to erase Linux from them and install Windows on them instead. In the wake of reports that Microsoft paid that vendor a $400,000 (USD) bribe to switch the PCs to Windows, the Nigerian government agency that funded 11,000 of the PCs has
overruled the vendor and insisted that it wants its computers to run Linux, as originally contracted.
Botnets are a growing threat, as a growing number of Windows PCs get taken over and used for malicious purposes without their owners' knowledge or consent. Now, a computer scientist appears to have found a way to
stop botnets in their tracks, while eliminating the problem of
false positives.
If you're computer-savvy enough to be reading this Journal, you probably already know that there are plenty of free and open-source software that you can download and install on your Windows or Linux computer to replace your expensive closed-source applications; however, you may not have known that your local school could save a lot of money too, by using
free and open-source teaching materials that cover a wide range of topics. If that sounds like a good idea to you, be sure to check out this site's Teach & Train section, as well as its Educational Freeware & Shareware Sites page.
During the more than two decades that I used Windows full-time, I had to worry about my PC's security almost all the time. Instead of just being able to use and enjoy my PC, I constantly had to download, install and update virus scanners, rootkit scanners, trojan scanners, malware scanners, anti-phishing protection, security updates, performance-enhancing tweaks and fixes and whatever other security tool-du-jour "the experts" recommended. In contrast, during the 16 months that I've been using Linux full-time, my PC has been far more secure than it ever was when I ran Windows, yet I haven't had to spend any time fussing over its security. I can hardly believe that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to get a bare-bones Windows operating system, and then spend hundreds more to buy several software applications, while my fully-functioning Mepis Linux operating system was completely free and came with hundreds of powerful, free software applications. I fully agree with the blogger who says that
Windows Is The Wrong System For the Security-Unconscious and with the editorialist who asks Can We Afford Not To Give Our Kids Linux?.
Many PC vendors face a difficult situation: Microsoft forces them to sell PCs with Windows Vista preinstalled on them, but customers are very unhappy with Windows Vista. Replacing Vista with Windows XP is an expensive and wasteful option, so what's a PC vendor to do? The solution is in
Do Your Customers Hate Vista? Rip and Replace with a Twist.
He was a computer security professional, so they trusted him to secure their computers. Instead, he infected their computers with spyware and botnet software, and then used their infected computers to perform identity theft. Now it looks like he'll probably go to prison. Good riddance.
Last month, NASA convinced the U.S. Senate to give it an extra one billion dollars, claiming that it was "starved for funds." But now it's been revealed that NASA spends around $4 million (USD) per year
throwing parties to celebrate its successful shuttle launches. I wonder if NASA gives some money back to the government every time something goes wrong with one of its shuttle launches.
Yesterday, our next-door neighbors and good friends, Mike and Annamarie, took my wife and me (and their greyhound, Cairo) to a greyhound picnic. It's an annual event to raise money for a local greyhound rescue/adoption agency. It was really fun to see a few hundred greyhounds of all sizes and colors (including grey!) all in one place. Most of them were au naturel, but a few were dressed in costumes, like an angel, a pilgrim woman, an Indian and a bat, or in T-shirts with slogans — my favorite simply read "Faster than you." In fact, Annamarie bought an orange one of those for Cairo. Every greyhound that we came in contact with had the same calm, gentle "love-sponge" personality, so we got to pet a lot of them. And they all appeared to be very friendly to each other, as though they were all loving cousins reuniting at a family reunion. At a greyhound picnic, it's very easy to imagine that greyhounds come off some sort of assembly line where they're all built with the same parts, but then each one is "painted" differently. I'm really glad we went — we had a greyt time!
Here's good news from The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project: "Low-cost computers meant to usher poor children worldwide into the digital age are being mass produced in China as US nonprofit One Laptop Per Child strives to deliver on its promise. The first of the XO laptops being built at a Quanta Computer facility in Changshu are destined for Uruguay, marking a milestone for the charity group founded by Nicholas Negroponte in Massachusetts two years ago." With all of the recent troubles related to a seemingly endless list of Chinese exports that have been found to contain lead, "the date-rape drug" and other toxic chemicals, I sure hope that the OLPC laptops turn out to be safe for children.
On a related note, if you live in North America, here's an offer for you: "For the first time, and for a limited period only, people in North America will be able to get their hands on the XO, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's rugged little laptop that's designed specifically for children." For $399, you can buy an XO, and part of your purchase price will be used to also provide a free XO to a child in a developing country.
Depending on how you use them — and how much you use them — Google's tools can either make you more efficient, or make you
a more efficient time-waster.
If you've got a lot of money burning a hole in your pocket, and you feel like spending it on gadgets for someone you love (or for me), you'll find some great ideas in
Top-10 Gift Ideas For The Linux Gadget Geek and
Top-10 Gift Ideas For The Windows Gadget Geek
It's funny because it's true. But it's also pretty sad — because it's true.
He's a normal computer user who has spent a lot of time trying out ten different Linux distros on three different laptops and two different desktop PCs. Here are
the final results of his comparisons.
The $200 Linux PC that Walmart began selling several days ago has been so popular that it is currently sold-out online. And the user reviews of it are very positive. It looks like it's a pretty good PC at a great price.
If you ask around, a lot of people will tell you that you should buy and use Microsoft Office because "everyone uses Microsoft Office."
But that's not really true — unless you need all of the MS Office features that most people ignore, you have other options, including free ones, that would do the job just fine.
I'm not sure if they're really serious about it, or if they're just doing it as a funny academic exercise, but a couple of guys have started an open-source project called
StupidFilter. "StupidFilter promises to employ techniques, such as Bayesian filtering and rules processing, to allow blogs and browsers to detect stupidity in progress." If it works, the web is suddenly going to look like a huge, mostly-empty warehouse. By the way, there's currently a similar project that's already
removing stupidity from television.
If you were to compare Windows Vista side-by-side with Ubuntu Linux, then depending on your prior knowledge of Windows and Linux, you might get
mixed results. However, as someone who has used
Mepis Linux full-time instead of Windows since July, 2006, I believe that Mepis would easily beat Vista.
Scientists have discovered a new way to extract hydrogen gas from bacteria that is
three to ten times more efficient than previous processes. It's beginning to look more like we may all end up driving clean-burning, hydrogen powered vehicles some day. Hopefully soon.
Here's one that's hard to believe: "A team from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute has built a number of
'melody roads', which use cars as tuning forks to play music as they travel." I would absolutely hate to drive on a road like that. Don't be surprised if they start "selling" roads to advertisers, and the roads start "playing" commercial jingles to commuters on their way to and from work.
South Korea hopes to build two
robot theme parks by 2013, at a cost of $1.6 billion (USD). "Combining culture and entertainment with robot technology, they are to be built in Incheon, just west of Seoul, and the port city of Masan, about 242 miles south of Seoul, the ministry said in a statement. Visitors will be able to interact with robots and test new products." Apparently, our South Korean friends have never seen the 1973 movie,
Westworld.
Here's good news for both present and future Linux users: "Linux is becoming
a credible threat to Windows on the desktop, and will grow over the next year as its distributors continue to work hard at making it an enterprise-class offering, research group Forrester predicts."
Sometimes, it seems like every time Microsoft turns around, it's having to fix another dangerous Windows security vulnerability. So I'm sure that no one is surprised to learn that there's
yet another Windows security patch: "Microsoft gave the serious security fix its most urgent "critical" rating. Hackers could exploit a vulnerability using Internet Explorer 7, and possibly other programs, and take over a user's computer for a variety of nefarious purposes, such as stealing passwords or pumping out spam." Maybe instead of continuing to insist that Windows is a secure operating system, Redmond should just start advertising it as the world's best
botnet operating system.
Using a 200-pound unit mounted on the roof of their car, the police may soon be able to
disable fleeing cars by zapping them with microwaves. Insert your own lame joke, criminal-rights protest or medical concern here.
Would you be willing to sell your right to vote to someone else? NYU students think that voting is very important, but a shocking percentage of them also say that they would be
willing to sell their votes. "Two-thirds say they'll do it for a year's tuition. And for a few, even an iPod touch will do." Remember folks — our children are our future.
Even if you don't play the guitar, you'll probably be amazed at
this kid's talent. If watching the video makes you curious to know more about scalloped fingerboards, here's what they are, how they work, and what they look like.
Regular readers of this Journal have probably noticed that it now includes a new feature: A few days ago, I began adding topic icons to some of the stories in each Journal entry. Then I went back and added icons to some of the stories in my October and November, 2007, Journal entries. I'm especially proud of my "Technology" icon, which I created by combining two different images. I hope that the new icons make your Journal-reading experience a little more visually interesting and fun. As time goes on, I hope to add even more topic icons. Point at each icon to see a tooltip that identifies its topic. A few of the icons also function as hyperlinks to other things. Take a look and see what you think.
There's another reason for Windows users to be really, really paranoid about their computers' lack of online security.
"The worst-case scenario used to be that online ads are pesky, memory-draining distractions. But a new batch of banner ads is much more sinister: They
hijack personal computers and bully users until they agree to buy antivirus software."
Have you ever piggybacked onto someone else's wireless Internet connection without their permission? In a recent study, over half of the respondents admitted that
they have. If you have your own wireless Internet connection, you may be inadvertently providing Internet access to others, unless you've properly secured your network.
You've backed up your important data, including all of your documents, all of your music files and all of your video files. You've made photocopies of your credit cards, your birth certificate, your marriage certificate, your homeowner's insurance policy and your other important documents. You even made a videotape of all of your possessions. It sounds like you've got it all under control, but you won't really be done until you've also
backup your brain.
"The phone rings. But no one is there." You've just received a ghost call — probably from a telemarketer. It can be pretty frustrating, especially if the call woke you up or interrupted you in the middle of doing something important. What can you do about ghost calls?
Here are a few ideas.
If you're curious about the Ubuntu-Linux-based gOS operating system that comes preinstalled on the $199 Wal-Mart Linux PC — or if you're going to be the main tech support person for a friend or relative who bought one of those PCs — here are
a very positive review of it and
a video that demonstrates it. You can also go to
the gOS web site, download a free copy of gOS, and try it out.
Over eight years ago, I wrote ComputerBob's Guide To Buying A PC. Though its hardware details are comically out-of-date, its general principles are still timely. If you're thinking of buying a new PC, here are some other good
things to consider before you open your wallet.
"The U.S. House of Representatives has taken a step toward approving
a Hollywood-backed spending bill requiring universities to consider offering "alternatives" and "technology-based deterrents" to illegal peer-to-peer file sharing." Opponents of the proposed legislation worry that it could lead to schools who run afoul of it losing the ability to offer financial aid to students.
This could be incredibly good news for people who have become
locked in due to disease, injury or overdose: "Scientists say they may be on the brink of translating into words
the thoughts of a man who can no longer speak, after a pioneering experiment." They've reportedly been able to correctly interpret his thoughts with about 80% accuracy. Since he can't move or speak, I wonder how they know for sure that what they think he's saying is really what he's actually thinking.
Researchers have finally achieved their goal of using tiny
cockroach robots to influence the behavior of groups of real cockroaches. Just in time for the upcoming U.S. Presidential campaign.
This Journal entry is now a separate article, Why I Don't Like Park Dansan. It appears in this site's CB Guides section.
It's been almost a year since Windows Vista was released, and it's been pretty universally panned by critics for its many problems, including bugs, incompatibilities, digital rights management, security issues, bloated hardware requirements and others. And we've read many stories about how many companies have chosen to continue purchasing and deploying Windows XP instead of Vista. Now there's evidence that many companies may choose to
skip Vista altogether and continue to use XP while they wait for Vista's eventual replacement, Windows 7.
Each generation has its own preferred musical taste and communication method. My preferred method of casual communication is face-to-face or by telephone. When I need to communicate something "official," I prefer to use email, as it provides a record of what was said. That's in stark contrast to my parents' generation, which often preferred snail mail for both official and casual communications, even after email became popular with us younger people. In much the same way, today's young people are apparently
abandoning email as an obsolete technology, and turning to instant messaging instead. A few years from now, their children will undoubtedly shun that technology in favor of something that few of us have even imagined yet.
This may interest you if you're a criminal who uses
Hushmail, which claims to be "the world's most secure free email service." Hushmail claims that its encrypted messages can only be read by their intended receivers, but if you use Hushmail for criminal purposes, then you may want to consider moving to a country that doesn't have any extradition treaties, because Hushmail's claim is reportedly
not true.
Long before they ever used a wheeled vehicle or built a stone arch, the ancient Incas managed to
build bridges that spanned huge mountain gorges.
Computerwise, there are two upcoming releases that I'm really looking forward to:
Mepis Linux 7.0 (based on the Debian core rather than Ubuntu) and
KDE 4.0. If you're also looking forward to either one or both, then you'll probably want to take a look at these
15 beautiful desktop wallpapers that will be released with KDE 4.0. If you click on the artists' names, you'll find additional wallpapers at some of their personal web sites.
Each of us is required to give a lot of our personal data to many of the government agencies, businesses and professionals with whom we deal. Unfortunately, those trustees aren't always careful with our information, and it sometimes gets lost or stolen due to their poor security practices or carelessness. In the U.K., they're thinking of
making it a crime to "knowingly and recklessly flout data protection principles."
The end of the year is quickly approaching — it's time for everyone to start making lists of the best and worst of everything that the year had to offer. Here's Popular Science's
Best of What's New 2007.
If you're gullible, you'll probably want to buy some of them. If you're smart, you'll just enjoy laughing at
10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets.
I consider myself to be a pretty smart shopper. Regular readers of this Journal know that I always research the heck out of a purchase before I finally open my wallet. For a few weeks now, I've been wanting a light jacket and a heavy bathrobe. After pricing both of them in retail stores, I decided that I didn't want to spend anywhere near that much, so I started looking for used ones in thrift shops. A few days ago, I bought a very heavy, dark grey, terrycloth bathrobe at a thrift shop. It looks very stylish and brand new, and it's very soft and comfortable, like the robes in the retail stores that cost over $100 (USD). At the thrift shop, it cost me only $3. Then yesterday, I found a zippered, lined windbreaker jacket at a different thrift shop. It also looks very stylish and absolutely brand new, and it fits me perfectly. I think it would have cost me $35-45 at a retail store. I was happy to find it at the thrift shop for only $7.75, but when I took it up to the register, they told me that its orange price tag meant that it was on sale for 80% off, so it cost me only $1.55. I wore my new jacket on the way home from the thrift shop, and I'm wearing my new robe as I write this.
Welcome, Macedonian Linux users! For the past few weeks, I've noticed that, every day, this site has gotten a few visitors from Macedonia. Now I know why: "According to the Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science,
more than 180,000 workstations running Edubuntu 7.04 (Linux) have already begun to be deployed to Macedonian students. The students will share time on the computers, half in the morning and half in the afternoon." I hope that more and more Macedonian students and their teachers will find their way to this site.
Yikes — I'm guessing that this is very, very bad news for Microsoft: "KACE, a systems management appliance company, announced on Nov. 19 that its new survey revealed that
90 percent of the Windows users are concerned about migrating to Vista, and that 44 percent would consider deploying Macs or Linux-based systems to avoid Vista migration." Of course, as often is the case, bad news for Microsoft is good news for just about everyone else.
Have you noticed — it seems like online communication is getting
ruder every day.
I've often thought that just about everything on this planet (except for mosquitos) probably has some wonderful purpose that we may or may not be smart enough to ever figure out: "A non-toxic, non-psychoactive compound in marijuana may
block the progress of metastatic breast cancer, according to a new study by researchers in California." And no, you can't get the benefit by smoking marijuana.
The special effects were often so low-budget that fans of old television science fiction programs like Dr. Who and Star Trek must be extremely willing to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy watching them. See if you agree after you take a look at
Star Trek's 10 Cheesiest Classic Creatures.
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.
Will desktop Linux become
a threat to Windows and OS/X in 2008? There's plenty of evidence that more and more computer users are recognizing that Linux is a very smart alternative; however, less than 1% of computer users use it, so I don't see Linux becoming a threat to Windows any time soon. On the other hand, Linux replaced Windows on 100% of my computers, so I guess it proved to be a threat to Windows in my home office.
Firefox 3 Beta 1 has been released, and it's looking good. Here are
some details about it. Plus, here's
a first look at it and a look at
its memory usage compared to Firefox 2.0.0.9.
Here we go again: "Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16
have gone missing. The Child Benefit data on them includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people."
If you're looking for replacements for your expensive, proprietary software applications, you should consider these
open-source software alternatives.
If you're interested at all in the science of stem cell research, you'll be very happy to hear that "researchers have
turned human skin cells into stem cells that hold the same medical promise as controversial embryonic stem cells."
Some new technologies are simply amazing, while others are simply disappointing, and still others are... terrible. Here's what CNet calls the
Top Ten Terrible Tech Products. And hey, look what's Number Ten on the list.
In a new PC vs. Mac commercial, the PC tells us
Don't Give Up On Vista!, but then tells the Mac a funny secret that doesn't surprise us at all.
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. — a day to thank God for providing life's many blessings and miracles, and for giving us the strength to endure its many hardships. Regular readers of this Journal know that I've had more than my share of both the good and bad my entire life, and especially this past year. Please join me in thanking God today — and every day.
UPDATE: Late this afternoon, Bruno from Quebec City wrote to tell me that the dates of my Journal entries have been incorrect lately. He was absolutely right — I discovered that on November 18, I had dated that day's entry November 17. As a result, I had two November 17 Journal entries, and the date of every Journal entry since then had been off by one day. Thank you very much for letting me know, Bruno!
It may be too late to use them for today's Thanksgiving dinner, but you'll probably want to at least keep them for future reference:
Turkey Day Chemistry in the Kitchen offers "scientific tricks to making your bird tender yet crispy, your mashed potatoes ultra-fluffy and a pie crust to rival granny's."
Technology evolves so quickly, on so many interlocking fronts, that I personally don't know anyone who's willing to try to predict what new technologies will be developed more than about five years into the future; however, it is possible to see several general technological trends that will probably be important long into the future.
Top 12 Areas For Technology Innovation Through 2025 identifies those trends. See if you agree with it.
According to scientists, if you had lived in the area that's now known as Germany about 390 million years ago, you might have seen a
giant sea scorpion that was over 8 feet (2.5 meters) long. And also, there wouldn't have been much to listen to on your mp3 player.
Once you read a few of them, you'll want to read them all:
One Sentence contains almost 10,0000 reader-submitted stories — and each story is only one sentence long. Here's a funny one: "I can run about as fast as my dog when I'm barefoot and his leash is attached to a fifteen-pound plastic chair."
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.
According to my site statistics, this web site's visitors use every possible screen resolution from tiny wireless devices all the way up to 1920x1400 pixel displays. Some time the near future, I hope to convert this web site from the "fluid" design that it has used for the past nine years, to a "fixed-width" design that will give me more control over how all of its various elements are displayed at those diverse resolutions.
What kind of people are involved in the Open Source software movement?
Smart. Enthusiastic. Decent.
Have you ever done an Internet search and clicked on Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button? Do you even know what it does? Well, one thing it does is cost Google an estimated
$110 million a year. I especially like Web usability guru Jacob Nielsen's explanation of why it's worth it to them.
If you're planning to shed your earthly shroud in the near future, you may want to consider
The Most Incredible Things to Do Before You Die. And I'd like to add a couple of my own: Establish a close relationship with your creator, and make a lasting difference in someone else's life.
For months, Windows Vista users have been anxiously waiting for Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), in the hope that it will finally speed up that slow operating system. Well, according to a software performance-testing company, "If you've been disappointed with the performance of Windows Vista,
you're not going to be any happier with SP1." On the other hand, long-suffering Vista users probably aren't surprised by this latest letdown.
The technological upside of wind farms is that they generate electricity "for free" from wind. The technological downside is that wind is not constant, so any particular wind farm may or may not be producing much electricity at any given time. A new study shows that a solution to that problem may be to
connect wind farms together. I can see where this is heading — before you know it, the big utility companies will add wind-generated power to their energy monopolies, and our electric bills will continue to go up.
Is there no end to the damage that mankind can do? First they tell us that we've messed up our entire planet. And now, a pair of American cosmologists is claiming that we may be
shortening the life of the universe, just by observing it.
I think that my new Journal entry topic icons make my Journal much more visually interesting and readable than it used to be. At this point, I've created over 30 different icons, but they still don't cover every topic that I write about, so I may end up creating a few more as I need them.
If you want to increase the popularity of your blog, you'll find some good ideas in No Zeros: Blogs Need Distinctive Hooks.
When Wal-Mart introduced a new $199 Linux PC, it sold-out within a few days. Now it's in stock again, but should you buy one? Not before you read
this short review of it.
No surprises here: "Almost a year on from the release of Microsoft's Windows Vista,
only 13 percent of companies say they expect to move all desktops to the operating system, according to a survey released this week."
Nowadays, you can apparently buy
just about anything on eBay. Just imagine how much they're going to have to pay for shipping and handling.
Where is Linux headed in 2008? Hear from "the man" himself in
an interview with Linux creator, Linus Torvalds.
Many Linux users are anticipating the January, 2008, release of
KDE4, but one blogger thinks that
it still has way too many bugs.
When it comes to the features that organizations need and users want, it looks like Windows Vista's biggest competitor for the foreseeable future will continue to be
Windows XP.
Depending on who you ask, portable nuclear reactors are either going to be a technological wonder or a huge financial and ecological scam.
Is there intelligent life outside of our solar system? Yes, and apparently it's intelligent enough to use the free, open-source
Firefox web browser.
If you're wondering how the upcoming Firefox 3 web browser will be better than your current Firefox 2, here's
a review that includes some comparative screenshots.
Here's some good news for those of us who have a body: "A new scanner has been unveiled which can produce
3D body images of unprecedented clarity while reducing radiation by as much as 80%." I'd like an 8x10, a 5x7 and ten wallet-sized prints of my brain, please.
A German heavy-freight ship will launch in December, and get most of its power from
a huge kite. I don't see any dangerous and potentially catastrophic problems with that idea — do you?
New research seems to indicate that nuclear radiation
isn't as bad for us as we think it is. Maybe that's why the subtitle of
Dr. Strangelove is "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."
According to eWEEK, "The latest versions of fast-moving OpenSUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora make
a strong case for Linux on the desktop, but there's lots of integration work to be done." And here's
how they compare.
To many of us who remember using telephones with rotary dials and seeing black-and-white test patterns on television, it often seems like today's technological advances happen at an astounding pace. To others, it is clear that that there are
things that are holding back technology. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's bad or good.
It doesn't surprise me at all that someone is hoping to "develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal." No, the only part that really surprises me is
who is planning to do that.
No one's ever seen them move, so if you've got a lot of time on your hands, you may want to be the first to figure out how rocks that weigh hundreds of pounds apiece
slide across the sand of a dry lake bed in California.
This is an interesting twist: "In a brief submitted to federal court, state antitrust regulators dismissed companies such as Google and Mozilla Corp. and technologies such as AJAX and software as a service as piddling players that pose no threat to Microsoft's monopoly in the operating system and browser markets." Find out why
that's bad news for Microsoft, but good news for the rest of us.
Who do you trust to safeguard your computer's security? Microsoft wants you to trust its closed-source operating systems and applications, so its FUDD strategy badmouths open-source's "many eyes" approach and claims that it is less secure. Actually,
the opposite is true. Now who do you trust?
More than 30 years of educational research reportedly suggests that if you want your children to grow up to be smart,
don't tell them that they're smart.
It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, but it appears that a man in South Korea may have been killed by
an exploding cell phone. UPDATE: Or
maybe not.
Today's Journal entries are the last ones of the mostly uneventful 2007 Hurricane Season. I can live with that.
Do you know what the phrase, "Vista Capable" means? How about "Vista Ready?" In a shining example of Clintonian semantics, Microsoft's lawyers have claimed that Microsoft's marketing director
was confused about the meaning of "Vista Capable" when he testified recently in a case against the company. Is that going to be a problem for Redmond? That depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.
A lot of people agree that the current HTML coding standards are old and feeble, but not everyone agrees on what should be done to improve them. Here are one guy's recommendations for
Fixing HTML. And here are
some reactions to his ideas.
He's suspected of being the ringleader of an operation that hacked into 1.3 million computers worldwide and stole over $20 million (USD). And he's only
18 years old. His parents must be so proud.
The next time someone complains that scientists waste billions of dollars studying things that are useless to the rest of us, tell them that's ridiculous. And then, to prove your point, tell them that scientists recently figured out
How To Make A Zombie Cockroach.
I usually don't like it when artists try to force their vision onto everyone around them, especially through publicly funded art, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of this
urban art around my neighborhood.