Get to work... Myspace & YouTube SUCK you in, and you'll never escape.
"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet."
"on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
No more good Hackers - Just Evil
Hackers Not Afraid of Being Caught In an interview with Honeynet Founder Lance Spitzner where he says "Years ago it was hackers who were doing it for the bragging rights, now it's the criminals. The motivation has changed, hacking is now profitable and there's so much money to be made with very little risk to the actual hackers." Link
First computer 150 BC
Ancient Astronomical Computer Decoded"A mechanical device from 150BC was found in a shipwreck. Upon examination with X-Rays, the device appeared to be a revolutionary computer used to calculate lunar cycles. This device "is technically more complex than any known for at least a millennium afterward." >From the article "The hand-operated mechanism, presumably used in preparing calendars for planting and harvesting and fixing religious festivals, had at least 30, possibly 37, hand-cut bronze gear-wheels, the researchers said. A pin-and-slot device connecting two gear-wheels induced variations in the representation of lunar motions according to the Hipparchos model of the Moon's elliptical orbit around Earth." See a slideshow about the mechanismSimple DVD's from your videos
Windows only: Freeware program Avi2Dvd converts AVI video files to ISO files you can burn to DVD, VCD, or SVCD.
If you've ever tried to burn AVI files you've downloaded to DVDs, you probably know that there isn't much in the way of free, simple ways to do it. While Avi2Dvd isn't a one-click solution, it seems to work fairly well; that said, it's still in beta, so you probably shouldn't expect the world. Avi2Dvd is freeware, Windows only. For a bit more help on authoring DVDs, check out our previous call for help.
You may need me to update your Ibook
Apple Patches 31 Security Holes Apple Computer today released software updates to fix at least 31 separate security flaws in computers powered by different versions of its Mac OS X operating systems. Users can download the free updates using OS X's Software Update feature, or directly from Apple Downloads. The first update listed in Apple's advisory addresses a problem with the built-in wireless cards on certain Mac systems that researcher HD Moore detailed earlier this month and which can be exploited by attackers to install malicious software. Apple said the vulnerability is present in eMac, iBook, iMac, PowerBook G3, PowerBook G4, and Power Mac G4 systems equipped with an original AirPort card; systems with the AirPort Extreme card are not affected. Other fixes released today mend easily exploitable conditions, such as bugs that attackers could use to install malicious code just by convincing the user to visit a specially crafted site or font files.
Green IT Blog's - They cleaerly never heard of me ;-)
Ever heard of Green IT Blog's?
ecoIron (http://ecoiron.blogspot.com), is a blog discussing all aspects of green computing.
They've been around for almost as long as EcoGeek and covering a lot of the same stories. ecoIron links to a cool site (http://green500.org/Home.html) that measures the performance of various super-computers not by performance, but by performance per watt. The difference per machine is astonishing. Though, what's not surprising, is how comparatively inefficient the older machines are. If you're an EcoGeek reader with an eye for some high-quality IT ecogeekery, I suggest becoming an ecoIron reader as well.
Green Computer with Biodegradable Peripherals
Imagine this: you buy a new computer monitor, take your old one and just bury it in the garden. 3 years later the monitor has biodegraded and your prized tomatoes are growing better than ever. The world's first 100% biodegradable computer components have arrived from MicroPro, a company based in Dublin, Ireland who produces eco-friendly computers, keyboards, mice and flat-panel monitors. » original news (VIA-hugg.com)Anyone can say anything on the Internet but that doesn't make it true or right
I remarked that the blog generation is going to has a completely different sense of what privacy is. But maybe not. Maybe no one will ever learn that anyone can say anything on the Internet but that doesn't make it true or right. ...(read more)
http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/members/Will+Femia.aspx
The bloat of the blogs...
Technorati founder David Sifry continues his excellent quarterly reports on the "State of the Blogosphere" -- a statistical roundup of the blogs seen through the lens of Technorati's gigantic blog-scraper. Here's the big picture:
* Technorati is now tracking more than 57 Million blogs.* Spam-, splog- and sping-fighting efforts at Technorati are paying dividends in terms of the reduction of garbage in our indexes, even if it does seem to impact overall growth rates.
* Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days.
* About 100,000 new weblogs were created each day, again down slightly quarter-over-quarter but probably due in part to spam fighting efforts.
* About 4% of new splogs get past Technorati's filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days.
* There is a strong correlation between the aging and post frequency of blogs and their authority and Technorati ranking.
* The globalization of the blogosphere continues. Our data appears to show both English and Spanish languages are a more universal blog language than the other two most dominant language, Japanese and Chinese, which seem to be more regionally localized.
* Coincident with a rise in blog posts about escalating Middle East tensions throughout the summer and fall, Farsi has moved into the top 10 languages of the blogosphere, indicating that blogging continues to play a critical role in debates about the important issues of our times. Link (VIA-boingboing.com)
UN says western nations must stop dumping illegal electronic waste in Third World
The head of the UN Environment Program said today that technological progress and increasing western consumerism is leading to an increase in the amount of dangerous electronic waste being dumped on the world's poorest nations. 75 per cent of these items including old TVs, CPUs and phones are defunct - in other words e-waste, in other words long distance dumping from developed country consumers and companies to an African rubbish tip or landfill,' he said. Some 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of electronic waste are > Read the full article (VIA - www.vnunet.com)Microsoft Windows Comes Of Age - Happy 21st Birthday!
Believe it or not Windows was 21 years old on Monday. When it was launched in 1985 the PC market was barely out of it's infancy, and whatever you may think of Microsoft it is amazing what they Bill Gates & Co have built in such a relatively short time. 10 OS X Apps You Might Not Know About But Should
Over the past couple of years of running The Apple Blog, I've tried out literally thousands of applications. A lot have been great apps that I still use today, but infinitely more have just been plain bad. I know I'm not the only one who's experienced this. Link: http://theappleblog.com/2006/11/26/10-osx-apps-you…
Growing Problems With Electronics Waste
"The BBC is reporting that many countries are dumping their e-Waste in poorer African nations. From the article, 'The world's richest nations are dumping hazardous electronic waste on poor African countries, says the head of the UN's Environment Program (Unep).' The problem with e-Waste (versus other wastes) is that the gases and chemicals that make up a lot of electronics are particularly harmful for the environment. I suppose nobody takes their computer, TV or Radio to the repair shop anymore since a new one is a fraction of that cost down at the local convenience store." Link
Ethical Hacker training course
The Certified Ethical Hacker training course will teach the techniques used by hackers and intruders to infiltrate, control and compromise computer systems. "The key to catching cyber-criminals is learning to get inside their heads and start thinking like them," said Hailey. Cyber-criminals are using increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud consumers and businesses, including online identity theft, phishing scams, malicious code attacks and the creation of botnets. Those fighting computer related crime need to know first hand how these attacks are perpetrated, and the evidence to look for. Keeping current by attending this training is one of the best weapons. "
For more information on the Washington State High Technology Crime Investigation Association, visit:
www.wahtcia.org
Triple-boot XP, Vista, and Ubuntu
 Blogger Ilya Hevnikov has posted a really nice tutorial for triple-booting Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the Linux distro du jour, Ubuntu, on one hard drive. This undertaking is not for the faint of heart, but it is a great way to try out a different OS or two without abandoning what you're comfortable with. |
FREE Wikipedia CD (All platforms)
All platforms: Download a CD containing 2,500 hand-picked educational articles from Wikipedia.
The CD was compiled by volunteers for "the world's largest orphan charity," SOS Children. The articles, all of which are from the English language portal, cover common educational topics such as geography, science, dinosaurs, plants and animals, to name a few.
Looks like a great tool for kids and schools! The CD is free and should work on any platform. — (Thanks lifehacker.com)
Should Google Go Nuclear?
Baldrson writes "One of the founders of the US Tokamak fusion program, Dr. Robert W. Bussard, gave a lecture at Google recently now appearing as a Google video titled 'Should Google Go Nuclear?'. In it, he presents his recent breakthrough electrostatic confinement fusion device which, he claims, produced several orders of magnitude higher fusion power than earlier electrostatic confinement devices. According to Bussard, it did so repeatably during several runs until it blew up due to mechanical stress degradation. He's looking for $200M funding, the first million or so of which goes to rebuilding a more robust demonstrator within the first year. He claims the scaling laws are so favorable that the initial full scale reactor would burn boron-11 — the cleanest fusion reaction otherwise unattainable. He has some fairly disturbing things to say in this video, as well as elsewhere, about the US fusion program which he co-founded." Link to full read
Unimpressed With US IT Workforce
theodp writes, "'The IT work force is not skilled enough and almost never can be skilled enough,' said Robert Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology. So what does the Poli Sci grad and ex-General Counsel for the ITAA think is the answer? Open the gates to more foreign workers, urged Cresanti, including H-1B holders."
Thanks for link slashdot.org
Thanks for link slashdot.org
Get back to work tool for IT zoomibes
Long-time readers remember the Invisibility Cloak, a Greasemonkey script which blanks out web sites you're trying to avoid in the name of getting actual work done during certain times of the day. Well, Javascripter Jeremy Freese has modified the Invisibility Cloak to blank out sites for a certain amount of time at the top of each hour, so he can avoid checking Gmail or Bloglines more than once an hour.
The result - called the Kiwi Cloak - can be edited to your preferred time. So, for instance, the first 10 minutes of the hour those time-sucking web sites are yours to browse; the rest of the time you'll get a message from the Kiwi Cloak telling you how long you have to wait. Neat riff on the cloak, which has saved me from diving down the rabbit hole more than once. You'll need Firefox with the Greasemonkey to run this one. Thanks, Jeremy & Gina Trapani
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