Who remembers this ad from the past about the mac?

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If imitation is a form of flattery, and Apple has decided to imitate Microsoft Pre Xp era, does that say at what level Apple has taken the Mac software with its latest release?

One of my coworkers said that journalist, when they report, should not show their bias.  Well.  Guess what.  I’m not a journalist.  I show my bias, right at the start.

For the past week or so, I have been following the release of Leopard into the wild(so to speak) and have taken it with great interest.  For a company that trumpets many cards claiming how stable and secure their operating system is, Apple has had a lot of bad press these past few weeks.  It makes those PC versus Mac ads seem pointless as the Mac is now the new PC, and in some cases, even worse off.

When Microsoft released Vista for the masses to consume, there were a bunch of people claiming that it was still incomplete, that it needed work done on it.  There were others that, after using it for a while, downgraded to Windows XP.  And now, the same thing is happening to Apple.  Problems have been consistently rising for their new crown jem.  The first problem reported was a Blue Screen of Death for Leopard that is eerily familiar with those that windows users sometimes face when there is a hardware problem on their system.  But with Leopard(the most sacred and secure and stable operating system ever(sick)) it is piece of software that is taking the system down.  When they(bloggers) dug into the problem more, it appeared that the windows manager crashes and is unable to launch.  Upon calling Apple support(which the writer of itsallmac.com blog noted was very incompetent—I would rather speak to someone in India than someone who is incompetent) they were unable to get the problem resolved, even from a senior level techsupport person.  The solution?  Format your hard drive and start over.  While initial reports placed the blame on Unsanity’s APE software, Cnet’s New.com reports that the problem exists even for those users who have not installed the software.  And it has come to light recently that Apple has acknowledge the problem with the method of install and have been marketing work arounds.  I have not found a source yet for this last claim, but am looking for it. 

Nice Apple, nice.How sad for those Mac users.(O.T.: one writer suggests renaming the Blue Screen of Death to Blue Screen of Knowledge.  I agree with the argument as most blue screens now a days come as a result of hardware problems.  For the article, read here: Apple’s BSOD Joke is Slightly Amusing)

The second item to plague Apple and Steve Job’s precious child is something that Microsoft has gotten right(since XP sp2) and Apple, for whatever reason, decided to do just plain wrong.  So what is happening to Leopard?  Well according to researchers, there is a lot wrong with its firewall. eWeek has an article on the firewall incident(as do many other places)  which tells a pretty chilling tale for Mac users.  Of note are the following items related to the firewall

1. The firewall shuts itself off by default, even if the user had the firewall on before upgrading to the new version of the OS
2. Allows incoming connections under "deny all" setting—which means that even under the deny all setting, connections are still able to be made to the computer.
3. Only three choices: Allow All, Deny All, Pick By Program(no ports here or network services–by by ssh, web server, file sharing(at least easily)—come on Apple—windows does it!)
4. There is an open source firewall included, but it needs to be done via the command line.  I though Macs were for those who like to do things with a nice pretty interface and have it done simply and easily for them?
5. Unlike Vista which changes the rules of the firewall based on location(public, home, work, etc…) all networks in Leopard are treated the same.  There is no difference in the rules that the firewall attempts to follow(as seen by the Deny All still letting in traffic)
6. The versions of NTPD and Samba that are included in Leopard do not run in sandboxed mode, run as root, and the firewall doesn’t block access to these services even with "Deny All" as the option

This opens the door wide open(number 2 and 6) for a virus/worm to easily and maliciously spread across the Mac world.  Someone just needs to write some code to take advantage of the flaws and we will start to see the number of crying Mac users roll in, most of whom would have no idea what to do with a virus since they have been cradled and pampered for so long(can’t wait till the average Mac user has to come to the real world and deal with real life issues like spyware and viruses—its just a matter of time Mac!)

The third item that seems to be coming around and biting Mac users is a problem with their cd-rom drive.  There have been reports of cds being ejected 10-20 seconds after they are inserted into the system.  Odd.  They report that the internal drive, for whatever reason, just ejects the disk.  But(and here is the kicker) if you reboot your computer and hold down the "t" key you can then connect to another mac via FireWire to mount the cd-rom drive on the other mac on your mac and then use the cd that way.  Or you can use an external drive.  I thought mac was the easiest operating system in the world.  Its sounding pretty archaic to me…and there is still more that troubles the new OS.

Wireless.  Wireless is something that has been around for a long time now and is pretty standard.  You would think that being a company that has very limited hardware choices and options for wireless that there would be very little wrong with it.  Well reports that surfaced from Gregg Keizer on Computer World reveals a completely different story.  It would be best to just quote the site, as there is no way to paraphrase this better than this.  So to quote Gregg Keizer: "When you connect to your wireless network, your transmit rate will be 54 (if you’re using the 54g standard)," said someone identified as nunofgs. "If you start up a download or something that occupies your bandwidth (even LAN traffic), you will notice that the transmit rate drops to 11, then to 3, then to 1 until finally your downloads will drop, your iChat connections will fail and your browser will not load pages."  It has not just been this one person that has reported this, other people have reported the problem as well. 

Graphics have taken a hit as well.  Macnn.com reports some graphics issues.  There have been problems with AMD’s ATI Radeon HD video cards which were included in the new iMacs, and these problems were not resolved with the new operating system, but Apple is promising a fix soon.  That’s cool and I can understand tweaking drivers for a new piece of hardware.  But why they didn’t test it before they shipped the new Macs, that is another question.  Maybe they just decided to rush their product out and they knew that Apple fanboys would stick with their product no matter what?  But beyond this piece of hardware snafu, there is just some general graphic problems with Leopard.  Reports include brief instances of pixel artifacts around Dock icons and an instance of what can best be described as "streaks" flying across the screen which, according to the site, previously only appeared in the boot camp installs of windows. 

Another video problem that has been seen in Leopard is a shutdown of the video system altogether.  Mann.com reports that under certain conditions the video system completely shuts down, especially when switching to a full screen program.  The video goes completely black and there is nothing on the screen, although there is still audio which shows that the system has not shut down and there is something processing in the background.

Apple keeps taking a bashing, but that’s ok because apple fanboys will continue to love their precious apple.  There are unconfirmed reports(so they can be bunk) of people having problems when upgrading.  Their accounts which were administrator on the Mac before are then downgraded to normal user level.  There are other reports of errors with such things as active directory integration, Finder, Time Machine, and file locker(which in one persons case, with file locker enabled from 10.4, he was no longer able to boot his 10.5 machine once it was upgraded.  He manually deleted it(he didn’t say how) and then his machine worked again…..)

So yes, it seems that Apple has been experiencing some problems with their newest child, and it is causing a PR problem for them.  Looking through their forums, there are many people who are experiencing problems, so its not just one or two loud voices in the desert causing the ruckus.  One neat thing has come out of this Leopard fun, a new phrase that I don’t think Windows will ever be able to duplicate.  What is this fun phrase?  Why.  Its the beach ball of death.  Yes…I have been a little harsh to the Apple company, but I know that it has been long time coming for them.  Poor apple fan boys, welcome to reality.  You need a good slap once in a while. 

On a side note, here is the average level of technical skill needed of a computer user.

1. Mac OSX
2. Commodore 64
3. Windows XP
4. Windows Vista
5. Windows 9x

I remember when Vista came out and how Mac fanboys pointed and laughed at the early adopters of Vista and the issues associated with it.  Well now its our turn to turn, point, laugh, and mock the apple fanboys.  Their god named Steve Jobs has fallen and produced an inferior product on the lines of Microsoft’s Windows 9x series.   Ah Apple.  The software/hardware company you love to hate and hate to love.  Don’t cry yourself to sleep fanboys, just take it and role with the punches.

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I’ve seen a disturbing trend in the tech world recently which is kind of disturbing.  Hate Microsoft(Vista) and love Mac.  I don’t mind the fact that people love Mac(even though after the recent bricking of the IPhones, Apple keeps loosing more and more ground for various reasons) and can even see the merit of them when used in the context which the Macs are good for.  But this recent trend in the tech industry to completely shun Vista shows not only the lack of knowledge of the population as a whole, but when they advocate others to do the same and switch back to XP or Mac, they tend to do so on misinformation and personal bias.  Now, that is not to say that this is not written out of a personal bias either, but I am far from a Microsoft fanboy.  True I enjoy Microsoft products, but I am not a die hard evangelist for Microsoft in any sense of the word.  I have my criticisms of Microsoft(Windows Genuine Advantage anyone?) but realize good products and good software when I see one.  Like all software, there are pros and cons to everything.  So for those of you not sure if Vista is the right one for you, consider the information below.  And make your own judgment, don’t let others make it for you!(a.k.a.  use your brain that God gave you)

The Pros of Vista

1. UAC(user account control):  Hate it or love it, this is one of the best features of Vista.  At first, UAC seems to be one of the most annoying features installed in the new operating system.  The constant asking of questions tends to get old at first, but after the first time UAC prevents something from installing on your system that you never asked for, you learn that no matter the number of questions, its always worth it to ensure the integrity of your system.  Due to this setting, it is extremely hard for spyware/viruses to install itself using drive by attacks from web pages as well as unintentionally clicking on a link or ad that contains the malicious code.  Between UAC and a new feature in IE7 for Vista, IE has come a long way in becoming more secure(not to the level of Firefox for sure…but a lot better for the average home user who doesn’t know about firefox).
2. IE7 protected mode:  This is one of those cursed blessings.  Like UAC, IE7 protected mode tries to protect your computer from drive by malicious installs as well as from any software which might try to directly access your hard drive(outside of downloading a file and cookies).  In essence, this feature prevents IE7 from accessing your hard drive unless you are downloading a file.  This is nice in that spyware can not(if it somehow is able to bypass UAC or you have it disabled) copy itself to anywhere other than your cookies directory or temporary internet files directory which in turn helps keep spyware from installing itself on your system(it loves to attach itself to c:\windows\system32 or c:\windows)
3. Start Search:  One of those useful features that you look at and wonder how such a simple thing could be so awesome.  Basically a replacement for the run box, Start Search makes it easy to find and/or run a program or to quickly and easily run a "dos" command  or open a command prompt.  In the same way, typing in the Start Search also searches all your documents and emails(outlook) for the phrase you typed and displays all your results inline as you type more and/or less.  Pretty handy feature when you are trying to find a paper that you wrote long ago that had an obscure phrase like "eatering of odors" in it….of course…if you had a paper with that phrase in it……..
4. Sticky Alt+Delete: Anyone whose used windows is used to the Alt+Delete shortcut and is used to changing windows that way.  Well Vista takes it a step further.  If you add a CTRL key to the combination you get the traditional Alt+Delete dialog, but it stays active until you click a mouse button or choose a window.  This trick is nice if you want to switch to a window, but are not exactly sure which one at this time.  This also works for Windows Key + Tab.  Not as useful there, but still nice.
5. Virtualization of Processes:  Vista has a handy little ability to virtualize any process which is running.  This is handy on all processes, but even more so when running IE7, the office suit, or any product which tends to crash often(due to compatibility issues) then this feature is right for you.  You sick of having a program crash unexpectedly and then have that take down the entire windows system with it.  Your entire system slows down to a snails pace, and your unable to open the task manager?  Well if the process is virtualized and it does happen to crash, guess what goes down?  Just that process.  The rest of your system is up and running fine(of course, this doesn’t always work as intended, but most of the time it does)
6. Drivers run in usermode:  Remember the good old days of windows xp and below?  Remember that lovely thing called the blue screen of death?  Well most of the blue screen of deaths were caused by drivers that for one reason or another bombed out and caused the kernel of windows to take a nose dive.  Yeah!  What fun that was for the user. The reason the entire system took a nose dive was that the drivers were hooking directrly into the kernel itself(much like antivirus software will do with Vista SP1(which is a bad idea(sorry for the nested parens))) and caused the system to be unstable at times.  (or is if your still running XP SP1 or lower—SP2 has done a lot better in this—but not as well as Vista)  Well now in Vista all drivers try to run in user mode, unhooked from the kernel and not running as admin(again, as user level).  So lets say your video driver decides to stop and crash.  Well, instead of a nice blue screen and you loosing your work, you background turns to black and you get a warning message from your system tray indicating that the video drivers failed and have been restarted.  No crash, just a nice message to tell you the driver restarted itself after it failed. How refreshing.
7. Windows Mail:  Ah windows mail.  A glorified Outlook Express.  And glorified it is.  In fact, its a lot more handy and useful than outlook express ever was.  For starters, Windows Mail can now connect to IMAP making it a whole lot more useful.  Its not as good as thunderbird or full blown outlook, but is better.
8. Shadow Copy:  Shadow copy is another one of those blessed curse things.  It makes a backup of your file every once in a while so you can restore a previous version of it in case something happens to the file.  Its nice in that you can get to the older versions, its bad in that it takes up more disk space for system restore.  Think of it as the mother that never forgets the older stuff…..no matter how hard you want it not to.
9. System Restore:  Its so nice to have a system restore that actually works.  System restore has been around since the days of Windows ME(which I did have—that was before my days of enlightenment).  It stuck around in Windows XP, but really didn’t work.  Well in Vista, it finally works.  And works well it does. System restore in Vista is able to take a system that barely functions and bring it back to life.  For example, my Vista install took a nose drive and when I clicked on anything, it said that it couldn’t find the C:\ drive.  Did a system restore and it fixed the problem.  In XP, the system would be hosed the entire time, even after the restore, or the restore wouldn’t even work. Looks like Microsoft finally got this function right!
10. Compatibility:  Windows XP introduced the concept of running a program in compatibility mode to allow a program from an older operating system to run under XP.  This worked(for the most part) but has been greatly improved in Vista.  Microsoft was even kind enough on certain editions of Vista to include the Unix Subsystem allowing for the running of Unix programs in Vista natively.  This has no value to the average home user, but to an enterprise customer or a power user, this is a valuable little add-on.  This used to be only available if you were running the previous server edition operating systems.

And with all pros, you need to know the cons…..

1. Resources:  Vista needs more resources than XP.  A lot more.  Hard drive space, ram, graphics card.  But the tradeoff of increased security and usability in Vista more than pays off for it.  Just make sure that Vista is put on a system that is more than capable of running it, and you should be fine.  Once SP1 hits the street though, expect the system that seems just a little on the sluggish side to feel snappier and more responsive.
2. Laptops: Eye candy costs money…and power.  Aero with its nice transparent graphics abilities takes a little more juice to keep it running.  This is fine if the computer is plugged in or has multiple batteries, but one battery and no ac adapters allows for a system running aero to loose about a half hour or so of usable time to the nice fancy transparency.  This usually isn’t too bad of a problem, but if your a road warrior and need to get as much life out of your computer as possible, you might want to consider turning this feature off. 
3. Sidebar:  The Vista sidebar.  One of the most wanted and then unwanted features of Vista.  The sidebar loads gadgets into the sidebar of the system.  This is nice, due to the fact that you can have tools that you frequently use on their, and have the ability to access them quickly.  The downside is that they are always running.  If one of them goes amuck, you could have your CPU being used more by a program you don’t want.  It also takes a considerable amount of ram to run this feature, and as a result of increased cpu usage and ram, the battery drains faster.  This is also a security nightmare waiting to happen as most of the gadgets are just a scripting language with html added to them. Security hole anyone?
4. Windows Genuine Advantage:  This annoying little program is now fully integrated within Vista.  You get so many days to activate your copy, and if you don’t then you get what is called reduced functionality mode.  This is a web browser and nothing really more(though you can load programs from the web browser —up to three processes!) and lasts only an hour before it goes completely black and useless unless you reboot. When the WGA servers went down earlier this year, this caused havoc for quite a few people.  If Microsoft could find a more balanced approach with WGA (like they did in XP) then I think that it wouldn’t be as bad as it could be.

There really isn’t anything other than that that is wrong with Vista.  I know that some people argue that the system seems slower and that it takes more computing power.  That is true with any operating system in its first iteration.  Each new operating system requires more powerful hardware.  You could make the argument that Vista was released a little too early, and because of that it seems to be a little slower than people would like.  I couldn’t argue with that as there are times I am a little frustrated with hitting Windows Key + R and get the run dialog a few seconds later.  But with the release of SP1 soon, this should be, hopefully, a thing of the past.  With the new SP1,however, security companies got their way and made the system less secure…….you read that right.  Security companies protested and cried because they couldn’t hook into the kernel.  They said that this prevented them from fully scanning the system.  So there are some things that you need to program around.  Big deal.  With each new operating system, there are always new things to program around.  By placing API’s that allow a program to hook into the system, it will not take long for spyware and viruses that a user accidentally downloads to hook into the kernel as well.  Symantec has just made the situation worse for everyone who wants to be secure, and it should be these companies that have to comply with the framework of Microsoft, and not Microsoft that has to comply with the framework of other companies because they do not want to spend the time and/or money to figure out how to make their system work in a different fashion from how it currently is working.  Another thing I can’t argue against is the DRM in the system.  I know that some people hate it, and I do too, just not to the extent that others do.  I don’t agree with the philosophy of DRM, but since it is law(stated in EULA) that some things are DRM’d, then I will deal with it as long as the screwing over isn’t too much.  While the DRM in Vista is supposed to be extremely awful, I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything with it yet which would causes a system slowdown or cause any other rare and/or weird conditions…but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist………

Well I know that I just disagreed with a lot of tech people, many of whom I respect and read their advice on a daily basis.  That though, is what is so great about being in the tech field.  All of us have our opinions, and we can each(for the most part) respect each others opinions—–of course since im still a nobody in the techfield no one will take my ideas with any force behind them—just grains of salt…..if even that.  Thats ok though, im not giving up on it, or my dreams. 

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For those of you that use Vista, one of the biggest pet peeves is probably the fact that the cmd prompt doesnt have access to full administrator controls. Well that is a slight problem, especialy if you work for a helpdesk. So how do you get around that slight annoyance and get all your programs, anytime you want, to run as an administrator? How bout if you had sudo installed for windows. Wait. Sudo. Thats a Linux thing right? Well yes. By default, it is built into Linux and is only for Linux, however, there is somethign else that is important to note. With windows, if you create programs, you can have them start up and take parameters. You can then, use this to your advantage. So this is how it works. You download and install the program from its website. Download the program and install it. Once you install it, click on the windows start button, and in the windows start search, type sudo and then the program you which to run in admin mode. So if I wanted to run the command prompt in admin mode, I would just type sudo cmd at the start search box. Pretty sime eh? With this same ability, I can run any other program in admin mode. Pretty sweet eh? Thought so!

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Looking at my posts, I guess its been a while since I last posted on here. To anyone who still does read this pretty much abandoned blog, im sorry. I will try to post more. With that said….

I’ve been using windows vista for a long time now(since beta 2 release) and I have noticed some things with it. The first thing is that unlike windows Xp, it does not slow down or seem to get as bogged up like XP. Why? Probably because of the lack or registry changes that can be done without approval by the user. So yes, UAC does seem to work pretty well. Not only does it prevent virus/spyware from installing or bad things to work, the thing also just keeps the system from getting gunked up. So since I have been using Vista for so long, I thought I would share some of the best kept secrets of Vista that you just can’t live without!(and your laptop will thank you).

First Off:
Power Managment in Vista. One of the nice things that make Vista so much more appealing than Windows XP for laptops is the ability to control power managment. If you go to Power Options under the control panel, you can then click on “change plan settings” under the power management sceheme you wish to work with(probably power saver). If you click on change advanced power settings, you will then be presented with some more options. In this menu, you can change two very important items. The two items that you can change is the minimum and maximum processor state. You can change it for both on battery and on ac adapter. For maximum battery, I set the minimum to 1% and the maximum to no more than 15% on battery. This reduces the speed of the processor, allowing it to run cooler and use less energy. If your doing work on the internet and on papers(using word or some other word processing program) then there is no need to have the full power of the processor turned on. You don’t need all that extra power.

Ok, so now that you have saved some power in your battery is there anything else that you can do to help? Why yes there is! First thing—the Vista sidebar! The Vista sidebar, especially if you have multiple widgets on it, can constantly use your processor, and by constantly using your processor, it uses your power. When you need to truly expand your power, turn off the sidebar! Another thing to do to help lighten the load on the graphics card is to turn off Aero when on battery. So how can both be done? Well glad you asked. Someone from work sent me a link to the following site. The site is: Microsoft Codeplex. The file runs, and is able to work perfectly on Vista. I’ll let you know how effective this program is, but, since it follows the necessary rules for saving power, it should work just fine.

Ok, now you know how to save some battery in Vista, is there anything else that can be of use? Well. Yes, yes there is! What that is, well, guess you will have to find out later huh?

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I’ve been hit by the coding bug recently. I don’t know, but summer seems to be the time when me and programming re-ignite our love affair with each other. While coding, I get a lot of time to think. To think about fun items. To think about projects, life, etc… And while coding my project today, I started to think back to a webcast that an Altiris Consulting company put on a week or two ago. They were touting a third party product for doing Hardware Independent Imaging. During the course of their presentation, they mentioned that they would soon have support for Vista. That got me to thinking. Once Vista hit the main stream, how much would HII really benefit enterprise clients? Currently, this is a huge item for enterprise customers to do, as it allows them to have one image to deploy across multiple hardware platforms. Thats good for XP which has a HAL which is specific to the hardware. But Vista is a different beast! At the core of it all, Vista is Hardware Independent when rolling out the image. Wait. What? Vista(when deployed with their method–have to try with Altiris sometime soon…hmmm…I’ll get back to you all on that one….) is by nature hardware independent. No longer do you have to worry about if you have a uniprocessor hal, a multiprocessor hal, a hal for a hyperthreading desktop, a hal for a non-hyperthreading desktop. Its all the same.
So with this little “advent” that Microsoft has brought to the imaging world, where does that leave HII? It leaves it at driver deployment. If you do HII as suggested by Altiris in their white paper, you will get a fully functional computer. You won’t get(however) all the little specifics and customizations that you would want to do for all the images. For example. When installing Nvidia drivers, the drivers install perfectly with no problem. The situation arises when the client wants to use the Nvidia control panel. Well, depending on if the drivers were signed or not, you may or may not have the panel. Also, the panel would not be added to the right click context menu for clients. I know not many people use it, but those one or two that do…… You also wouldn’t get any of the registry keys entered under startup for any helper processes the drivers rely on when the computer starts…so you’ll have to manually(read: WITH A SCRIPT) install those registry keys for the client.(otherwise the drivers won’t work properly)

Another problem with the white paper is the lack of customization as far as applications go. Sure, you can run the installer after the HII is done with an Altiris job, but it fails to mention a small bug in Altiris where either

1. Altiris looses track of what process is running on what computer, and unable to detect when that process is done and to move on to the next one.
2. Altiris sometimes forgets to wait for data to fully finish downloading before it tries to run executables, which results in “corrupt” installs of the software

Those are kinda annoying, and can bring the whole process to a grinding stop. (as an FYI, I’m doing a thing on HII at http://www.armentpau.comon how to make HII super customized and more than just a driver delivery method, and how to deliver drivers in such a way that you don’t miss any of the extras that the driver installs) So with HII being a driver delivery method(in the near future), I can forsee a lot of companies getting mad that they have started to invest a lot of money into HII images. For a company(corporation) they can afford to have one image across all computers(read: same software load) wheres where I am currently employeed, we have different software loads based on the location of the computer as well as the role(student versus administration images) that the computer will be used for. Current white paper specfications leave little to nothing for the customization of these situations. They provide for the drivers and let you do the software afterward(or have all the software already installed for EVERYONE).
Because of this, I predict that we will start to see a major shift in what HII means. The focus will move more towards application deployment with the deployment of (initially) on the network driver, with the rest of the drivers being installed along with the applications. This process might be rough at first, but I predict it moving along and eventually being done seamlessly while using one base image across all computers in such a manor that it is streamlined as well as efficient(again, Vista being HII at heart makes that part easy(again—I will check whether it holds true when Ghosted or Altirised). Ok. Enough ranting from the old man who loves HII. I should get going. I got some things in TIMS to figure out how/what to do with.

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I’m a fan of Linux. Its a nice operating system that I don’t get to spend enough time in. But one thing that has come about recently(and its mostly from people who try to say they are in the Linux community) that has tarnished it is the people that have made a big issue over the HD-DVD key. Someone found a way to crack and find that key, ok. I’m glad that their skills are good enough to find that. And you know, what, there needs to be people that are able to find that key. You know why? To help the industry that made it further their encryption and protection methods. Oh wait, did I just say that?


I’m not a fan of DRM at all, I think its one of the worst things to do in the world. But while intentionally find ways to break encryption for hopes of watching a dvd are admirable, it doesn’t take a genius to realize why people are throwing a fit about the HD-DVD key. The reason isn’t so much that they want to watch a movie, but the real reality is that the HD-DVD and Blueray keys have prevented these movies from being leaked onto file sharing programs. Sure the size of them will(for a while) limit their ability to be transfered, but as network speeds continue to increase, this probably won’t take long until it gets to that time. Of course, transfer via HDD is always something that will be available. So yeah, as people continue to make a big fuss over the key and it being removed, its not because they actually want it(most likely) for legit reasons. There are those out there who do wish to just watch the video in Linux, and for them, I say kudos and I’m glad that they can read the DVD now. But for those that keep trying to illegally trade dvd movies.

Its funny to watch the uproar on the key. People have been digging articles that have the key to the top of digg’s list because they think that it will stick it to the man if they do. They put in their article to digg it so that it will teach the RIAA(first off–wrong organization people) what the power of people can do. I think that its good that Digg and other places have removed those articles from its index regarding the HD-DVD key. I actually hope that Google and other search engines will do the correct thing and remove the key from their index. Its been funny as people have been writing news paper articles about how this is a “revolt” of the people. Let me ask though, how is this really a revolt? Its really just a bunch of morons trying to keep the same piece of information in the web. Its no revolt.

So yes. I hate DRM, I hate DRM companies, but I support them still because they somehow need to protect their intellectual property and prevent people from stealing it. Is there something better than DRM to do that and allow for better fair use, I’m sure that there is. What is it? I’m snot sure what it is honestly. But I know that until that time, we should support DRM and try to make the best of it. As we crack it and break it and distribute it and talk about cracking it, the tighter the DRM companies will continue to wrap their hands around the media. So in a way…..we have done it to ourselves……….and we need to live with the consequences…….but still…….DRM = bad.

Categories: Technology, Thoughts
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In case your head has been stuck in the sand recently, you probably have heard of the news of an exploit found inside of Quicktime for both Windows and Mac. The author of the exploit(who found and executed it during a contest) originally released details that the exploit was for the Safari browser in Mac, but in an interview acknowledged that he was aware of the true nature of the exploit and kept that information secret(for whatever reason) until another independent company publicly released the information.

That is interesting, but it gets more interesting after that. In an interview with Gregg Keitzer, Din Dai Zovi(the author of the exploit) makes a very interesting statement. Below is one of the questions and Din’s response to the question.

From your research on both platforms, is there a winner between Mac OS X 10.4 and Vista on security?
I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies.

Wait! Doesn’t this go against every traditional thought out there. Isn’t it supposed to be the fact that Macs are the most secure thing in the world and they are impervious to attacks? I guess some people just don’t think that anymore. Im actually glad that the smug Mac people have gotten a little taste of reality. It won’t be long before their fantasy world comes crashing down. Thank you Din Dai Zovi.
If you wish to read the article, click here

Categories: Humor, Technology
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Quick hobeling of code with some clean-up has led to release of 1.0 of Randomized Desktop. The file can be downloaded from here. Just unzip and run the exe file to install the program. The code for the program can be downloaded from here. This will be a continual work and customization. Currently what is on the board is to recursivly search through all folders underneath the parent directoy which is choosen.

This will work on Windows XP and Windows Vista without any modification. It does require .NET framework 2.0 and will check for those dependencies before installing, and if it needs them, will download them from Microsoft’s site before trying to install the program.

I can almost guarantee that it will be a little buggy at first. What program is 100% perfect 1.0? Would be in a perfect world, but alas its not. Here are the supported features:

1. Select a directory(multiple even) to display pics from
2. Customize the time between desktop changes
3. Remove directories of pictures that are no longer in use
4. Manually advance the picture
5. Pause the timer

So. Any other things that should be added? (note, I will be cleaning up the source as I get time to do so. Its a little ugly right now, but it does work)

Categories: Programs, Technology
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My next cell phone(that I am planning on getting) is not a cell phone for everyone. I first laid my eyes on this beautiful item in the current publication of Popular Science. The title of a smarter smart phone really caught me. Why? Because part of me loves smart phones, part of me hates smart phones. And part of me is intrigued by smart phones, but those phones are often troublesome and not worth the effort, and kinda buggy(especially Microsoft based ones). So what makes this one different that will make geeks truly love it? The biggest draw of this is the base phone stoack of the system. Its no longer proprietary…….its just a distro of Linux. Linux! Gotta love open source software. The software is being created so that is should be able to run on multiple phone models. The phone(at first) will only be available online, but soon they will expand out to other areas. Gotta love that. The best part of it all. I can slide a sim card into the system, and there it goes. The entire system is now on the phone network, activated, and open to whatever I want to do. (Currently only AT&T(cingular) and T-mobil use SIM cards—so those are the carriers that it can work on) So you got Linux. Ability to customize the software as you will, and just a generally open phone. Sure it is going to be rough for a while, an potentially have some issues as it starts out….but…..I know(or yet—believe) that this will be a sweet project once its complete. I most surely will get myself once of these a month or two after it comes out. To read a little about this, visit their website at OpenMoko.org and become enlightened to the open source phone revolution.

Categories: Technology, Thoughts
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So….
There are some videos that you come across that are like “what”? They are interesting, hold your attention, somewhat funny in that morbid sense, and are a little weird. Whoever made them took time to make them and make them well. I am a little on the concerned side that people make videos like this………..but should I be more concerned that I am putting them online for people to watch?


And here is the second one showing a bird…..


Ah Gaim. My favorite program to use for chatting. Of course, it is no longer called gaim anymore. It is now called Pidgin. (you can read about that here) and the official version 2.0 will be released soon(explained in the postings) and the program will go out of beta. Ah gotta hate AOL (and their patent or whatever of the word AIM) and their inability to play nice with others. This is another reason why I think I might move more and more away from my aim account that I have and choose something that is a little less evil for the time being. Little less being Google—they are slowly moving up the evil ladder.

Speaking of Evil. Microsoft released a patch last week to counter the flaw in its animated cursor. Well, turns out the dll files they released breaks other applications. Bad bad Microsoft. They have released a new version of the patch, so if you have been affected, search microsoft for the updated patch to help correct the problems.

Categories: Front Page Videos, General, Technology, Thoughts
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Interesting title eh?
Well today while using the wonderful toolbar add-on of stumbleupon, I discovered some great sites that just stuck out of my mind.

I know almost everyone here has been to google’s website. I came across an interesting blog post(13 Amazing Google Facts You DONT Know—note that the image on the site is on the “mature” side–just a warning before you go there). One of the amazing things that I found on the site was the number of errors that the Google homepage has. That’s right, their home page! It actually has 64 validation errors! Thats just a little crazy, don’t you think? I think so! I really do!

So what other site did I find? Well. Have you ever wanted to try Linux without having to repartition your hard drive? Well there is this intriguing project that installs Ubuntu onto your computer without partitioning your computer. They say they modify the boot.ini file to allow the file to be booted as a seperate hard drive. I don’t know. But so far reviews seem to be good on it. This would be a great way for someone to try out and be introduced to Linux without having to repartition a hard drive themselves, or mess up their boot sector by doing something wrong or having the boot loader crash and error out on them. To check out this program, go to their website.

Have you seen those annoying Mac ads that say to think different that promote the Mactels? Well. Guess who decided to make their own parady of those commercials now? The unlikely contender here is Novell. Novell? Wait? Arn’t they having issues and all that? Their alligned with Microsoft, and they are taking shots at them? Nice thinking there Novell! Well to see their introduction of what Linux looks like, visit their online video promotion site.

Well I think that that is all for now. I still have a large paper to finish off and get printed(its so far 50 pages) and turned in by next week. This paper has taken so long, I can’t wait for it to be done. WHEW!

OK. NM previous statment. Just one more thought. Verizon sucks. They sued Skype because Verizon apparently has patented some VOIP technology. I can see where this is headed. A world of Verizon VOIP. So. Verizon = SCO Group Inc? Great. Thats not a great future for us. Either that, or all VOIP will be Verizon based—which is worse? I don’t know. Now I am gonna have nightmares!

Categories: General, Humor, Technology, Thoughts
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