ARS has posted an article which to me means that their run on the internet may be over. I will not link to them because as of today, they have asked me NOT to view their site if I use adblockers, flashblockers or NoScripts. Fine works for me. It's their content and they can do what they like with it but man for a tech site, they don't get it.

1. double speak

"As ad revenues go down, many sites are lured into running advertising of a truly questionable nature. We've all seen it happen. I am very proud of the fact that we routinely talk to you guys in our feedback forum about the quality of our ads. I have proven over 12 years that we will fight on the behalf of readers whenever we can. Does that mean that there are the occasional intrusive ads, expanding this way and that? Yes, sometimes we have to accept those ads."

So the reality is NO you won't fight for your users when your paycheck is on the line. In fact you will knowingly allow potential security risks to occur just to get paid.

2. Proving yourself wrong

"Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad blockers. Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn't pay. In a way, that's what ad blocking is doing to us. Just like a restaurant, we have to pay to staff, we have to pay for resources, and we have to pay when people consume those resources. The difference, of course, is that our visitors don't pay us directly but indirectly by viewing advertising."

STOP RIGHT THERE RIAA, er I mean ARS. If you walk into a restaurant, consume actual product, and leave w/o paying that's called "Stealing."

If I read your page with an adblocker you haven't lost anything from your site. All the electrons and such are still there for the next person to read. Also, I never pay you in any format. You admit that yourself, you get paid by someone else. So the truth is, I'm never actually stealing from you directly. The fact is you need me (consumer) more then I need you (Producer).

So let me see if I have this right.

You make money by people merely visiting your site (including just trying to find something of interest) whether on purpose or by accident. You may or may not be running risky ads at any given time. This really depends upon the size paycheck you want that week. And I'm suppose to trust you?!?

NOT!

Best part, I read this at Slashdot. Even worse, there's a bazillion sites proving links, edits, pieces, parts, comments, and not one of them is telling me what I can do with my pc.

ARS unsubscribe.

Category: Technology | Permalink | 2 comments

This may sound like I'm picking on Apple but I'm not. Every company has patents for stupid things and they all sue to protect their supposed stuff. (yes yes recently Apple is leading with the lawyers but MS went thru the same phase as well. Like I said, they all do it) But I have to tell you that half of them, especially the OO based ones are just plain stupid. Granted my wife is way beyond me in the OO arena but come on........

"Patents #5,519,867 and #6,275,983: Object Oriented Multitasking System and Object-Oriented Operating System

Apple lumps these older OS patents together, so we are too. '867 is from 1996 and covers accessing OS level services in a multithreaded way; '983 is from 2001 and describes an OS in which apps can access native system services and those services can make use of data associated with an object."

Who was the genius that granted this one? Half of all code I have ever written violates this in some form and that was just in Ada never mind the garbage I wrote in C++ ( did I mention I'm not very good with OO?). Heck one of the things I cleaned up and added to was a dos program written in both C and assembly which accessed audio codecs (native to the system..duh!) with an object. BTw, Are we talking an instance of a class or an actual physical object like a mouse? If yes to the mouse, then I'm guessing half the onboard audio codec drivers for windows break this patent.

So that brings us to today's rather technical TQ.

1. What are the positives regarding SW patents?

2. Should there be a time limit on them?

3. What are the negatives regarding SW patents?

4. Take a stance - You support the current process for SW patents OR

You think the current system is broken? Third option?

Category: Technology | Permalink | 6 comments

For those of you who are standing I would suggest that you have a seat because you may be shocked to hear what I have to say. It's nothing earth shattering or personally painful just a strange turn of events.

As you know I'm an engineer. I spend most of my life dealing with, proving, or using facts. These facts tend to have laws applied to them from great people. Plank, Newton and Einstein just to name a few. Given this lean I also tend to have connections with things that are driven by rules. Running for instance needs no judge. Who ever crosses the line first wins. Because of this I would never watch Figure Skating. Hearing how one athlete didn't get the score they “deserved” because their routine “Wasn't what the judges were looking for” is beyond unacceptable for someone like me. The same goes for the arts. What's art to some is trash to others. I understand that breaking boundaries and pushing the limit is good but having this idea applied equally across all participates is severely lacking. How so? Simply put the rules of English only seem to apply to certain people at certain times. As evidence of this I give you the following events.

In high school I was required to write a biography. So I selected Larry Bird who at the time was at the peak of his abilities in the NBA. I did everything you were suppose to do but received a B- for a grade. When I asked what I did wrong, I was informed that “in wasn't in a style” that suited the teacher. Again knowing this ahead of the time would have helped me “give the judges what they are looking for.” In my Freshmen year of EE I was spent for time so out of pure desperation, I passed in the same paper (with some minor date and latest info updates). I got a B+. After seeing this result I wanted to know how far I could take this and you can probably guess the results. Yup, I got an A for the same paper once again except this time in my Sophomore year. Thus proving that I would never have any form or career as a writer given how opinion driven it was. You could read a book in which commas were incorrectly used only to have the teacher snap back at you with “when you become a great write then you can break all the rules you like.” So for years I avoided any form of creating writing, well that time is over.

To the English community I say, “I don't care what you think I'm going to write anyway.” Why? Because for the longest time I've had tons of ideas for some stories floating around in my head only to be squashed by former teacher's harsh words. So like I said, that time is over. I have already started work on one of my stories and should soon have the first draft done in a week or so. It's 75% written and only needs a going thru before I release it. I will be using the Creative Commons license so they will be free to anyone who wishes to inflict pain upon themselves. I warn you though I plan to break every rule known to English Lit so I can write my stories the way I want them. Most of the stories will have some form of Catholic/Christian slant to them. Some will have a technological angle to them but most of all I want to have fun telling my stories.

And to those out there who intend to sick the English police on me, good luck. I'm held up in a nice old factory, I've got a fully charged laptop with Open Office on it and I'm not afraid to use it. Simply put, you'll never get me out alive. ;-)

Category: Family | Permalink | 3 comments

Yes we packed up the kids and headed way down "south" to the big little state of RI and saw the RI Flower and Garden Show. Since we still have plenty to do in the way of landscaping, and I'm always looking to improve my garden, we had hope to get a few ideas to help make a decision. On one hand I'm glad I did it because unless they change the format ALOT, I won't be going again. When the vendor area (remote controlled helicopters, nail care and a few other non-gardening type things) and it's products is bigger then the actual garden and flower displays, one of which was an elaborate sand castle, you know something is very wrong.

1. Have you ever attended a Flower/Garden show? If yes which one?

2. What was the best part about it?

3. What was the worse?

4. Would you ever go again?

Enjoy

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 0 comments

In all my smart phone reviews I have clearly stated I would never buy any of them given their fragile nature. Yes you can buy a case to protect your delicate phone but what's the point. The iphone, Droid, and Curve are all very nice but they are all just one fall, jump or violent hit away from being ruined. Once I put my phone in either the camelback or underseat bag I shouldn't have to worry about it. But when you have a full screen you know my bike tool will find that screen ASAP and destroy it. Yes the case would probably stop this from happening a few times but even so, the really rugged cases more then double the thickness of the phones. Sorry but I need all the space I can use. But all of that may be changing.

Enter the Motorola Quantico.

"

RUGGED CONSTRUCTION

Mil-Spec 810F certified; Fully submersible per IP-X7 spec -- device can withstand up to three feet of water for up to 30 min.

"

Now that's a real phone!!!!!! The end of girly-man phones is upon us. Rejoice.

Remember, it doesn't matter if there is an app for that, if the phone can't take the hit. ;-)

Category: Technology | Permalink | 1 comments

Before I pose today's questions lets go back in time and re-read a post I did Dec 08 titled It's time to degauss the reality distortion field. This entry came shortly after a certain CEO trashed increasingly popular netbooks.

Well that same CEO finally released his game changing thing to what can only be described as "mixed reviews." Given how I don't own any products of theirs nor do I have any intention of ever buying anything from them I'll refrain from giving my opinion and let all of you give yours.

1. What was you initial reaction to the ipad?

2. What did you think of the name?

3. What feature did you like the best?

4. What (lack of) feature disappointed you the most?

5. Would you buy one if you had the spare change?

6. Will you buy one?

Have fun.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 10 locked comments

Where does one start when he wants to hit so many different points that cover so many different areas all to make one point. I hope that makes sense because if it didn't I'm dead in the water. My singular point is .... simple. No seriously I want to talk about how things are now TO SIMPLE. But before I start I am strongly encouraging my readership (real word??) to chime in. Even to the point of me using your words to help make, break, support my point.

So where did this all begin. To be honest I wrote a post titled "To Easy" about a year ago but it was just a jumbled mess so I never posted it. (And how is this different from all my other posts?) Being the typical engineer I wanted more evidence, more facts and more concrete reasoning to support my specific statement. Finally two events completely set the words in motion. The first bump was after seeing the latest "thing" release from the fruit company. The second came from the DailyMile website when it was announced that they now have a team. As you can see I will be pulling from all walks of life to support my single final point.

So lets start with DailyMile (DM). DM is a social site that also happens to be an online training log. I say happens because their site lacks so many features that almost all the other online training log sites have it's striking. For example, and it's a simple one but really highlights my point. If I enter a time of say, 23:15 for a run, they don't give you that info in your workout posting. Instead you just see 23min. Nor can you find that actual number anywhere in your posting and that's just one of many features they don't have. Yet, DM is growing by leaps and bounds and shows no sign of slowing down. I've also noticed that the users have a tendency to overlook the obvious and sometimes go as far to paint the site incorrectly. In this videocast I saw from some DM users they called all other sites old while DM is new and better looking. They even went so far as to say they don't have those forum things that no one uses any more. I'm big time paraphrasing but you get the idea. Problem is DM has nothing new about it. Actually they have alot of what everyone else has had for some time including forums. Now don't get me wrong, when it comes to social + athletes talking and meeting online, they got it totally dead on perfect. As for the training log part, they're a C grade at best. Because once you get past all the flashing stuff you find alot missing. That's why I use Buckeye to store all the data I care about. When I mention Buckeye to others I am constantly told that's it's old, doesn't look good and is hard because they use forums. So in the end, the training log that is the easiest to use yet supports the least amount of features, seems to be the winner. (If anyone out there can get me web stats on the different training logs I'd love to see them.)

Next up, the worse-est named product I've seen in a long time. But first think back to a time when everyone drove a manual transmission. It wasn't that long ago when every car on the market came with some kind of clutch or shifting mechanism. I say it that way because my father had an old Impala that had three speeds on the steering column. It took some getting use to but like anything else, with a little practice it was easy. Now you have to ask to get manual. Making it even funnier to me is the price. 800 to 2000 depending upon make model and features just to get rid of the clutch. But the spending doesn't stop there. Oh no you now have the unique gift of being forced to have your brakes replaced sooner then if you had a clutch. With a clutch you can down shift which saves your brakes. So you save money on the initial purchase AND you improve the wear and tear on your car. Then there is the improved control you have over the automatic drivers that is huge. Can automatic drivers down shift and such? Sure but how many actually even touch the shifter once the thing is in D? So why would people pay more money up front and over the long run of their car? Because it's easy.

That was the exact reason why one of the teachers at school said that they can't wait to buy the new fruit product, "it's easy to use." They admitted that they were disappointed that it lacked some basic features they really wanted but in the end, it's ease of use was paramount. I told them that there were other products out there that cost less and did more. They didn't want to hear it and just like DM above the looks and it's ease of use spoke volumes even if it limited what they could do.

So here we have three totally different markets with competing "products" and in all three cases, the more expensive, less feature rich product beat out the more robust, cheaper option because it's apparent ease of use. Now the fruit company hasn't sold any product and won't do so for another 2-3 months??. But the auto market has spoken, we want automatics. I need better stats but a quick look see into twitter and facebook and DM seemed to be the talk of the workout world.

As you can see this isn't a tech entry per say and I do have additional examples that I would like to share, but that's it for today. I plan to add additional evidence tomorrow and maybe even use some of your feedback in future posts. Till then ask yourself, are things getting To Easy?

Thanks for reading.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 1 locked comments

We've all seen the funny bits in tv and movies about people joining dating services and having to fill out some long form to help find your match. So to all my married and unmarried readers, you're all single. ;-)

1. What is your favorite color?

2. Are you cold or warm blooded?

3. Conservative, Middle of the road, Liberal?

4. Which do you prefer? Movies, TV, books, internet, other.

5. Meat eater, vegatarian, vegan, other?

6. Left Handed, Right handed or Ambidextrous?

7. Visual, auditory, or textual?

8. Multitasking, focused, alittle of both?

9. Shy, quiet, boistrous, loud, talkative, social, or other?

10. coach potato, weekend warrior, athlete/enthusiast, obsessed endorphin /extreme athlete.

And to be fair my wife, the other single person in the house, and I will answer first. Me - Green, Warm, conser, Internet, Meat, Left, Auditory, Multi, social, athlete, Lucy - purple, conserv, cold blooded, Movies, Meat, Right, Textual, focused, shy, weekend warrior.

have fun.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 2 locked comments

I've been quiet about Health Care because I like to understand (as much as possible) the information from all sides. In this case both sides are missing the elephant in the living room; or what ever that expression is.

The problem doesn't lie in our presidents socialist health care plan

nor does it lie with the "We don't want more govt, we want less" attitude.

So where is the problem? Well if you ever watch Nightly Business News

on a local PBS station you would have the same opinion that I do. Follow

the money and you'll find the problem. In this case, medical billing, pharmaceuticals, and insurance companies. For the last 10-15 years the price of supposedly keeping your self "Not sick" (and I'll get back to this point some other time) has risen to a level that is beyond insane. The above mentioned areas are raking in huge profits at the expense of the US people yet no one wants to call a spade a spade. Health Care should not be a normal business especially when they block all other choices. For evidence of this check out the Supreme court ruling that upheld another ruling which found the AMA actions "lawless." I hate to bring technology and computers into this but doesn't that sound like a certain SW maker? Problem is when MS was spreading it's lies about its own pathetic security issues and how Linux was garbage they weren't dealing with people's health. At least not directly. The AMA, an organization found guilty by two different courts, were messing with people's health and well being for no other reason then profit. If you need more evidence of questionable behaviour read almost any prescription drug for their possible side effects...scary huh?

Now before I go on do I think every doctor, researcher, etc etc wants to harm people? Absolutely not. But if you think they understand alternative health care be warned. I once heard a paediatrician equate Chiropractic care to "getting your nails" done.

So we have three groups of "people" who pretty much control almost everything having to do with health care and are willing to do "lawless" acts to protect their profits. It's also on record that millions of dollars are spent by these "people" on lobbying to make sure nothing changes. Folks, they are the real problem. What I'm about to say may not sound viable but unless I see something change in a big way I don't see it getting any better. In fact I expect it to get a whole lot worse.

Simply put Health Care should be a non or small profit business. Just as people shouldn't be teachers if they only get into it because of the vacation time, no one should go into the medical field to make millions. When you have board members and publicly traded companies who are constantly being pushed to earn bigger and bigger profit margins

something has to give. From what I can see, the quality of care is what's giving. The number of nurses per patient is appalling. The amount of time a doctor actually spends with you in his production line set up, abysmal. Yet at the end of each year a group of people will gather round and decide what cuts can be made to increase profits for the next fiscal year. Sorry but health care should not work that way. The health industry has been left to their own devices and have proved they cannot self manage. Do I want more govt in my life? No, no one does but unless someone pulls the reins in on the entire health care system Obama care or Palin care or Monty Python care will never work.

Category: Family | Permalink | 0 locked comments

With the new year in full swing and a bunch of stuff out of the way, I'm getting back to doing a weekly TQ. So let's have some fun.

Even at an early age everyone wants to be "cool." It's a hard to define THING that some people seem to have. Then there are the people who are cool that everyone wonders how they got that title. So let's see who you think is cool and who is not. BTW, anyone who answers with anything to do with apple is the ultimate in NOT COOL. Let's try to move beyond a company that makes computers shall we? ;-)

1. Who do you think is Cooool and why? (Ex. Joan Benoit is cool for winning the first ever women's marathon at the 84 Olympics....two weeks after surgery. Joan is cool ...Period. )

2. Who do you think is NOT cool independent of what the media, the press, or the writers say? And why?

Have fun.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 2 locked comments

Droid

For those of you who don't follow my twitter updates (good for you) I have been given the chance to demo the new Droid for 30days. Supposedly if I like it I can move to that phone and trade in my Curve. To be honest out of all the phones out there, this is the one that really has my honest attention. Yes some of the Nokia beasts are beyond awesome but getting one in the US for anything less then 500 is just crazy. Again I won't be paying for Droid but will try to make full use of it at work.

Curve

So far the Curve has served me well, very well so my concerns with it are small.

1. Syncing with GoogleApps (Which the school district is moving too) doesn't always work. When it does it's great but it's not 100%.

2. Prices of apps. There are alot of apps out there but man are they pricey.

So we'll see. When I get it I'll post again to let you know how it goes.

Apple Security

Or should I say, the lack of it? When the whole 6month wait for Java patch thing happened I thought maybe it was a licensing issue. Appears it wasn't

"Apple has finally released a Java for Mac update to fix multiple security flaws that were patched upstream more than six months ago.

The fix comes three weeks after developers released proof-of-concept code to demonstrate the severity of the flaw and to nudge /embarrass Apple into shipping the patch."

Hey everyone makes mistakes. They were probably working on their supposed tablet and forgot all about sending out updates. Then I read this:

"The vulnerability was addressed in FreeBSD and NetBSD last last summer.

And shortly thereafter Google and Mozilla, among other vendors, did the same.

But Apple apparently has not yet updated its software to incorporate the fix.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"

So lets map this out. Summer equals June, July and Aug. At best this issue is Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec and now Jan. Meaning 6months old or 8months in the worse case scenario. If MS were to ever leave an issue for this long you'd see another batch of white background video ads touting the benefits

of moving to a different platform. Yet here we are again talking about

another serious security bug found that is not being acted upon. I'm

sorry, you are buying a "premium" (Tim's correctly used word)

product they should be acting in a premium way. So far history is not

on their side but luckily for them hackers have left them alone. Errr

except at security contests. ;-)

Linux

Oh and update your Ubuntu machines there a few bugs needing updates that are at least 2weeks old. Geez what took them so long. ;-)

Category: Technology | Permalink | 5 locked comments

As I sit and watch the SuperPrestige Hamme-Zogge CycloCross race (legally) I wonder if I was born in the wrong country. But enough about “what ifs” lets talk 2010 in the US.

Gardening

Given all the rain we got in June this past year I was pretty happy with what the garden produced. This year I plan do to a lot of the same but in smaller batches. I will again cut back on tomatoes and as a result I'm dropping cherry tomatoes. I became a huge fan of having a slice of fresh tomato in my sandwich on a daily basis and Lucy didn't really want the small versions in her salad any more. In the pepper arena our testing proved out what I can and cannot grow given the zone I live in. Next year will see 1 plant of Jalepeno and 1 of Serrano. (tomatogrowers.com) Tomato Growers has some very early sweet peppers but again not to many. I planted enough Cukes but the rain took most of them away. So no change there. Beans were another properly planted crop that was ruined via the rain so again 4 plants should be fine. New for this year will be Onions, potatoes, and garlic. How that turns out will be interesting

Training

Since I'm not fighting off an injury this off season things have gone a lot better then last year. It's nice to build endurance the right way; slowly and without rushing. Hopefully this year we'll see me take another step forward. I'm working very hard to build on last year's success because the inevitable day will come when age will be the real limiter. Until that time comes I will continue to push in hopes of getting faster and stronger. Mind you at 195 race weight there is still only so much I can do. But hey that's life. You can either complain or get to work.

Work

So far work has been ok because it's mainly focused on PC repair which gets somewhat boring over time. I'm hoping that in the near future my job will expand and I'll be doing more demonstrating, teaching and learning new things.

Well that about wraps up today's post.

Category: Family | Permalink | 2 locked comments

Twas the Night before Christmas and all thru the Falconportal house,

not a piece of hardware was stirring not even my logitech mouse.

The bicycles were all hung in their racks all nice and neat

In hopes that St Nick would bring me a nice new San Marco seat.

Both children were tucked in all snug in their beds

While visions of 1000 piece lego sets danced in their heads.

With Mom in her warmest fleece and I in a tshirt

Were hoping for a full nights sleep, if the baby's teeth didn't hurt.

When without notice, our home security alarm was set ablaze

I stumbled down the stairs still half asleep and in a daze.

Who could be the one who be so bold?

He even left the door open and man was it cold.

After closing the door and locking it tight

I freaked out, flipped out, and could not believe my sight.

It was some dude with a large bag in something that appeared to hover.

I was scared and decided to run and find cover.

He called to me, yelled to me, then started to explain

That feeding eight full grown reindeer was to much of a pain.

He had upgraded his sleigh in an attempt to modernize

And had scored this baby on ebay with free shipping as it's prize.

I grabbed my jacket, and proceeded to unlock the door.

Being a typical guy I wanted to see more.

It was true that his new sleigh was the envy of every man.

It had heated seats, a flat screen and it's own wireless LAN

He explained that only children would receive toys from his bag

I was hoping for something hi-tech and thought that was kind of a drag.

Upon seeing my face he was shocked by my sullen look.

Given his wondrous powers I'm guessing he read me like a book.

He was quick to point out that I had a really great life.

Two wonderful kids and a beautiful wife.

But he saw that I enjoyed a really good hi-tech toy

And knew that every man enjoys once again be a little boy.

So he told me to step aside so he could finish and avoid being late

But right before he left he told me my gift was a Kernel Security Update.

With my network security back in it's proper space.

I stared into the sky as I watched him leave my peaceful place

I was wet, cold and chilled but not longer distressed

So I'll end this poem by saying, "Merry Christmas to all, good-night and God Bless!"

Category: Family | Permalink | 1 locked comments

Download: mp3
Show Notes via Del.icio.us

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year. Featured artists: Gilles Costard,Rastachild, Aygan, Project Artifact, Exit Stage Left. Please send all feedback to atrfeedback[@]gmail{.}com.
Enjoy

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 0 locked comments

As you might have noticed this is another week without a TQ. Trust me I have tons of ideas just not enough time to organize them into some type of coherent list set. This years holiday season is proving to be quite insane. Adding to that insanity is Joshua's current teething issues. It appears he has not one but two molars coming in so sleep, quiet, and calm are not filling our humble abode. But we'll get through it. To prove my point Lucy slept with the baby in our bed while I slept on the futon mattress on the floor in the baby's room. The reason for this is simple, Joshua would not let Lucy get out of his sight without letting the world know so I set up the mattress and slept on the floor in the baby's room. Other then getting to bed later then normal it was actually and decent sleep.

With more and more of my friends getting, having, and wanting Facebook accounts, the pull to finally break down and sign up is growing. But I gotta say their privacy failures continue to keep me at bay.

With only one weekend to go before Christmas wouldn't you know it but it looks like 7-11 in of snow is on it's way. If that happens my mountain bike riding would directly depend on whether the studded tires I buying from a riding buddy give me enough grip. Trust me if they do I'll be out there. Nothing beats a slow but awesome ride in the snow. Its beautifully quiet, if the sun comes out it's easy to see and you don't need brakes since the snow automatically slows you down unless it's a really steep hill. Plus the riding is tough so you get a great workout. Win win win. ;-)

Finally my first work bench is 90% done. I only need to add two drawers but I can use the bench in it's current state. I play to write up a blog entry to encourage others to build their own bench as well. Very satisfying experience given my lack of wood working. Not to mention I got 4X the table for the price I paid for the parts. Look for the entry with pictures showing the progress and final product.

Well that's all for now. I'm tired and it's late so please excuse all the typos. I'll try to fix them tomorrow if I get enough sleep. ;-)

Pray my son sleeps through the night for everyone's sake.

God Bless.

Category: Family | Permalink | 0 locked comments

Large media companies are out of control. I'm constantly pointing that out in this blog but I still get the odd email telling me I'm just an immoral pirate who steals music. Funny how they over look all the Creative Commons music I play during my podcasts, how I don't download any RIAA music what so ever nor do I support any digital music stores. I have said and will continue to say buy used. Half.com, friends, local music stores, etc etc. No DRM, automatic back up, etc etc. So when I read today that the music industry is outright stealing from the artists to the tune of millions of dollars you understand why I see no reason for labels at all. The internet allows direct access making them worthless in the whole process. They are a dinosaurs which needs to die off paving the way for artists and fans to connect directly. Once that happens artist could choose their own revenue streams, payment policies, give-aways, etc etc.

When you read the following, keep one thing in mind, they are stealing just like the "file sharers" are yet, they are making millions of dollars from their actions while "file sharers" (mostly) make nothing.

"The pending list among the lawsuit's defendants has topped 300,000 songs from both large and small artists alike—300,000 songs that the labels are openly admitting that they have not secured the rights for. In the complaint, the plaintiffs claim that the record companies have been unjustly enriched by the use of their unauthorized music (they have, after all, been selling the music without permission and not paying out). "

Artists Lawsuit

Get out there an support your independent artists.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 0 locked comments

I've been in the market for a GPS unit for some time now. With all the mountain biking, hiking, trail running and road biking in different areas I always thought it a good idea to have one but, as always, was too cheap. Thankfully prices are dropping and sensitivity is getting better. My current favorite is Garmin eTrex Legend H which I've seen as low as $118.

So today's questions are as follows:

1. Do you own any form of GPS unit? If yes which one(s)?

2. How long have you been using GPS units?

3. When lost driving how do you get your self "found"? (stop and ask, map, gps, wet finger in air...)

4. Tell us your worse "I'm sooooooo lost how am I am ever going to find my way home?" story.

Enjoy

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 4 locked comments

Let's start with MS and their admission that they had some code that broke the GPL. From what I've read so far they have handled it pretty well. Admitted they made a mistake, pulled the code then decided to release it via GPL. I know of some bloggers and such that want MS strung up but in this case I don't see the need. They messed up, admitted fault and are making it right. I don't see how they could do anything else. They have also said they are looking into improving their code review process so this doesn't happen again. Like I said, mistake, fix, move on. So well done to MS.

The latest numbers from the web broswer world are always fun to look at. But I gotta say after seeing them I have to ask a question of my fruit users. Notice I said users, not the fanboys. The last time I checked, it was following a full moon, high tide, black friday and all, Apple was at 8% of the PC market. Aside from the accuracy of the numbers the browser data shows Safari at 4%. (Fine fine fine, 4.3) Does that mean half the users are NOT using Safari and instead using Firefox? Why?

ARS did a review of the new Droid phone and I must say that I feel validated. Actually I feel validated twice but we'll get there.

In the summary of the review they had this to say about the Droid.

"It all depends on your preferences in phone features. If multitasking matters, the Pre and the Droid are your only choices. Droid lets you play music on Pandora, navigate, and check Twitter all at the same time, with no lag and no delays. If you're looking for a media player phone or a camera phone, on the other hand, you might check elsewhere. It just comes down to the feature set you're looking for."

Which sounds very much like what I said when I compared the Raspberry and the ifruit. The additional support for my view came in the way of a fight. A prize fight that is. Cnet does these wacky prize fights where they pit competing products against each other. The ifruit won but the final word was along the lines of:

"The droid excels as a phone while the ifruit excels as a multimedia device."

To hear it for yourself head over to cnet to see the fruit win by tie breaker. BTW, how do you market a device where it's biggest weakness is in it's name? i - phone.

Oh and don't even bother getting annoyed at the categories or scoring, the prize fight is more entertainment then actual review. For evidence of this notice how multitasking is a mere casual mention while the Included Google maps with voice (free) is compared to a soon to be released app (meaning it doesn't even exist yet) which will run $99. Like I said, entertainment at best.

We'll end with a nice entry about Linux security. Or should I say how to make sure you got the basics set up properly. *gasp linux isn't perfect? No unlike other OS', linux understands that Security is not a destination but a process nor is any bit of code ever truly perfect.

So read on and be safe out there.

May the Source Code be With you. ;-)

Category: Technology | Permalink | 2 locked comments

When the whole Mark S/Ubuntu comments went live the flame wars regarding sexism in the tech place, in linux, on mars, etc etc really came out. I hate doing this but, I feel a preemptive strike is in order just to set the tone. My wife has a Masters in CS and when it comes to coding/design she is by far my superior. The number one in my graduating EE class was a women. One of my former cube mates' wife is an engineer. At the vocational school where I subbed last year there is a women in the Engineering Shop. Can you see the pattern here?

So let's just make the statement. Unless women are presented with barriers that men do not have, I don't see the need to convince or encourage or whatever word works, women to get into tech. If a women is interested then by all means join the club. Sit down, grab an area (EE, CE, CPE, CS, etc etc) and have at it. Just whatever you do don't get in to it because some bean counter says we need more women. I don't see tons of public school programs encouraging more male students to get into Child Care so why should we do the reverse?

One of the quotes from the article sums it up nicely.

"Whether OS development needs more women "is debatable," he added. "I believe a woman should do what she loves, same as a man. If that is Linux development I say welcome to geekdom, here is your pocket protector. But unless there are obstacles being placed in the way of women developers, saying we need 'more' of a certain race or sex in a chosen field just smells too much like quotas to me." "

And we all know what quotes get us? Exactly. ;-)

Category: Family | Permalink | 2 locked comments

If you want a google wave invite email me. Or you could send me a direct msg via identica or twitter.

So far for me, it's yet another email account to keep track of.

We'll see.

Category: Technology | Permalink | 0 locked comments