tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1974750962386831312024-02-07T19:21:44.486-08:00Blended MusingsOwen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-56637594098229809642010-12-13T04:37:00.000-08:002010-12-13T04:40:05.709-08:00Top Google result for Skype could be Malware<p>Trying to download Skype this morning I found a very strange link at the top of the Google listings.</p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtoHuYAcIr9IewRgolWtFG_3a1yd98TIRsZ-CtUygmVktjIh91weDOcR9_c2-bTYSxunz4gSYnrPgk79IDX4um6gDfG1nhg-H72nu6vx-Ar2a5ks3_sc-hiJQ6iJLf1Akqc2ETRBQhQsbr/s1600/skype_google.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtoHuYAcIr9IewRgolWtFG_3a1yd98TIRsZ-CtUygmVktjIh91weDOcR9_c2-bTYSxunz4gSYnrPgk79IDX4um6gDfG1nhg-H72nu6vx-Ar2a5ks3_sc-hiJQ6iJLf1Akqc2ETRBQhQsbr/s320/skype_google.png" width="297" /></a></div>
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<p>(Click image for full size version)</p><br />
<p>Clicking on the link brought me to this suspicious looking page, with a URL ending in skype.php, but nothing further.</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aKhGhJhpkWRV3683LnUpppE-oWe62pvILBwQHEV0k6LS2i-_hL6-iNwnorfKsXF7gLztQmQnUVOHi0ZwJ2r8uvtmU1PoptBqGUKU5M_UPMXZ1O1e9QEIlpuiRkjYDVmngBrCK29xbuDT/s1600/skype_dest_pt1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aKhGhJhpkWRV3683LnUpppE-oWe62pvILBwQHEV0k6LS2i-_hL6-iNwnorfKsXF7gLztQmQnUVOHi0ZwJ2r8uvtmU1PoptBqGUKU5M_UPMXZ1O1e9QEIlpuiRkjYDVmngBrCK29xbuDT/s320/skype_dest_pt1.png" width="272" /></a></div>
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<p>(Click image for full size version)</p><br />
<p>And the bottom of the page</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvkW-iOacE97_zURENLGWvZhIQjZ5Rbw4lYJCgvKxt_-wSzWD5Gx4_8RZxxW1gaoVYurS4Zi2msMFdash_dTQw8hjC2c1i_tbjfvhc81U9LfMrhS9gyDM4mSh2T9Bc9oroccgRWMlG4yuD/s1600/skype_dest_pt2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvkW-iOacE97_zURENLGWvZhIQjZ5Rbw4lYJCgvKxt_-wSzWD5Gx4_8RZxxW1gaoVYurS4Zi2msMFdash_dTQw8hjC2c1i_tbjfvhc81U9LfMrhS9gyDM4mSh2T9Bc9oroccgRWMlG4yuD/s320/skype_dest_pt2.png" width="207" /></a></div>
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<p>Clicking on the download link (either), brought me to a page that didn't even mention Skype at all (either in the URL or on the page), and wants me to input my email.</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoj0s0xjFyG9Ew8Q-kcYK3OVMZDworhRIHuT59Ug36Tm80YKM84mtk64BbUpETbvCUVnHL1oBm72guzTjqfyz40UvH7do6DBx2Kff1wE9xDOZPpy3jynSxKtLsV5yDf4o9s5UOQxxMIg2/s1600/skype_last.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoj0s0xjFyG9Ew8Q-kcYK3OVMZDworhRIHuT59Ug36Tm80YKM84mtk64BbUpETbvCUVnHL1oBm72guzTjqfyz40UvH7do6DBx2Kff1wE9xDOZPpy3jynSxKtLsV5yDf4o9s5UOQxxMIg2/s320/skype_last.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<p>(Click image for full size version)</p><br />
<p>Pretty sure this is some form of malware, adware or just collecting emails for spam purposes. Otherwise, there would be a little bit more of Skype on the detail pages.</p>
<p>However, getting to the actual Skype client isn't much easier. I tried to download the actual Official Skype client, and spent about 15 pages getting to the download.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-32060828864392883472010-11-04T06:52:00.000-07:002010-11-06T03:43:47.740-07:00RSpec/Textmate puts for better debugging printoutsI loved this <a href="http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/2009/09/23/rspec-textmate-pro-tip">awesome tip</a> by <a href="http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/">Rick DeNatale</a> on how to get Textmate to properly print out "puts" when running rspec tests.
But I had a problem. When I'd run the code outside of rspec, the use of rputs would cause an exception because the method was undefined.
So I've changed the code a little bit so it works in all instances.
Add the following code as the very last lines of spec/spec_helper.rb:
<pre><code>module Kernel
if ENV.keys.find {|env_var| env_var.match(/^TM_/)}
def puts_with_html(*args)
puts_without_html( *["<pre>", args.collect {|a| CGI.escapeHTML(a.to_s)}, "</pre>"])
end
alias_method_chain :puts, :html
end
end
</code></pre>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-80114715076600280322010-11-04T04:54:00.000-07:002012-05-07T06:37:50.423-07:00RubyAMP installation for ruby 1.9 and rspec 2<p><b>Update:</b> My change has been pulled into RubyAmp and can be installed as follows:</p><pre><code>cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Textmate/Bundles
git clone https://github.com/timcharper/rubyamp.git RubyAMP.tmbundle
gem install rb-appscript
osascript -e 'tell app "TextMate" to reload bundles'
</pre></code> <br />
<br />
<p><b>Original post:</b></p>This is a forked version of the bundle which supports the new RSpec.tmbundle which supports rails 3 and ruby 1.9.x. Once the pull request has been accepted, you should be able to use the main version. <br />
<br />
<pre><code>cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Textmate/Bundles
git clone git://github.com/lukaso/rubyamp.git RubyAMP.tmbundle
gem install rb-appscript
osascript -e 'tell app "TextMate" to reload bundles'
</pre></code> <br />
<br />
If you need the RSpec.tmbundle, here are the installation instructions from: <a href="http://github.com/rspec/rspec-tmbundle">https://github.com/rspec/rspec-tmbundle</a> <pre><code>cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/
git clone git://github.com/rspec/rspec-tmbundle.git RSpec.tmbundle
osascript -e 'tell app "TextMate" to reload bundles'
</pre></code>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-76767265222006093602010-10-18T01:46:00.000-07:002010-10-25T08:06:59.345-07:00Getting RVM, Textmate, Ruby 1.8.7 and 1.9.2 and Rails 3 to play nice<div class="p1">
It's taken a while of fighting though various blog posts to get to a mac with a stable Textmate, RVM, two versions of Ruby (1.8.7, 1.9.2) and two versions of Rails (2.3.8 and 3.0.x).</div>
<div class="p1">
Without further ado, here are the hard steps I've worked through to get it all working:</div>
<h1>
RVM</h1>
<div class="p1">
use .rvmrc to set your projects to the right ruby/gemset (create a gemset as well):</div>
<pre><code>cd myproject
rvm 1.9.2@myproject
</code></pre>
<div class="p1">
Build textmate wrapper following the rvm instructions, then replace contents of textmate_ruby file:</div>
<pre><code>#!/usr/bin/env sh
source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm
cd .
exec ruby "$@"</code></pre>
<h1>
RSpec Bundle</h1>
<div class="p1">
Update this to a very recent version. (from github)</div>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<div class="p1">
Also set RUBYOPT to rubygems in Shell Variables under the Advanced tab in TextMate setttings.</div>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<h1>
RSpec</h1>
<pre><code>gem install rspec-rails</code></pre>
<div class="p1">
Follow instructions here:</div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><a href="http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails">http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails</a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<h1>
Plist fix for textmate</h1>
<div class="p1">
Shut down textmate:</div>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<div class="p1">
Make sure you are using ruby 1.9.2</div>
<pre><code>rvm use 1.9.2</code></pre>
<br />
<div class="p2">
</div>
<div class="p1">
Then:</div>
<pre><code>git clone git://github.com/kballard/osx-plist.git
cd osx-plist/ext/plist
rm plist.o
ruby extconf.rb && make
mv /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Support/lib/osx/plist.bundle /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Support/lib/osx/plist.bundle.old
cp plist.bundle /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Support/lib/osx/</code></pre>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<div class="p1">
Restart textmate</div>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><a href="http://altentee.com/2007/installing-the-cvs-bundle-for-textmate-for-mac-osx/">http://altentee.com/2007/installing-the-cvs-bundle-for-textmate-for-mac-osx/</a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<h1>
Git.tmbundle</h1>
<pre><code>mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles
git clone http://github.com/jcf/git-tmbundle.git Git.tmbundle</code></pre>
<h1>Ruby on Rails.tmbundle</h1>
<div class="p1">
The Ruby on Rails bundle will need to be reinstalled as well to avoid the following error</div>
<pre><code>Ruby on Rails.tmbundle/Support/bin/intelligent_migration_snippet.rb:71:in /bin/bash:
-c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `'' /bin/bash: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of fileto_a' for "\n\n def self.down\n drop_table :tags\n end\nend\n":String (NoMethodError) from Ruby on Rails.tmbundle/Support/bin/intelligent_migration_snippet.rb:96:in</code></pre>
<div class="p1">
Find the update and install instructions at <span class="s1"><a href="http://github.com/drnic/ruby-on-rails-tmbundle">http://github.com/drnic/ruby-on-rails-tmbundle</a></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-49991109013432117982010-07-31T11:31:00.000-07:002010-07-31T12:04:50.846-07:00British Car Insurance is InsaneI witnessed an accident in central London while having lunch just over a year and a week ago. I only saw the aftermath, a porsche rolling slowly onto the sidewalk, and a man limping out of a pickup truck. My back was turned at the time, and I swivelled my head only on hearing the two cars smash. I did deliberately check the state of one of the traffic lights, probably very relevant to who was responsible, but which light escapes me now. <br /><br />I gave one of the drivers my card, in case a witness was needed. I thought it was the civic thing to do, especially as the police didn't arrive during the 20 minutes I was at the scene.<br /><br />Aside: Funny thing the police. Two minutes after the accident, a police siren came howling towards us. I remember being impressed by how quickly they arrived (especially because the Met Police are largely invisible unless George Bush is in town, when suddenly they crowd everyone else off the streets). The police car slowed into the intersection, swerved deftly around the airbag littered vehicles and continued on. Clearly they had better things to do, such as fill out paperwork (see below).<br /><br />I imagine the British car insurance industry got involved shortly thereafter, and they are the insane ones. Since that accident, I've filled out one witness statement for the insurance of the Porsche, another for the insurance of the Nissan pickup. Additionally, the Met Police needed a statement. These were all required in the first month. <br /><br />Four months later, an investigator came to see me at work (she was from one of the insurers, I haven't a clue which) and took a verbal version of the statement I'd already given. And now today, a year and a week after the accident, apparently the company that provided the hire (rental) car to one of the insurees, can't do their work without their very own version of a witness statement.<br /><br />I don't understand why they couldn't all share one of the previous four statements.<br /><br />I'm seeing this process from the other side as well. My own car had a poorly secured construction fence dent a side panel. Five months later, the claim against the company with the fence is sitting with the lead solicitor of complex cases at some nameless legal firm. I've even sent them photos.<br /><br />It's no wonder negotiations in Northern Ireland need a few centuries, when a bog standard traffic accident takes several years.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-86651470122608877492009-07-31T08:33:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:38:15.449-07:00Mac Office 2008 SP2 Can't Open Some FilesMicrosoft has finally acknowledged that Mac Office 2008 SP2 doesn't work, and that a fix will be released 'in August'.<br /><br />The problem is that .xlsx, .pptx, .docx, etc files, do not work in some instances (quite many instances in my experience). This is extremely annoying since Office doesn't come with a roll-back feature. Not only that, but this is supposed to be a stability release, not the exact opposite.<br /><br />Here's their <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx?MODE=pv&CTT=PageView&clr=99-0-0&target=abce2ca1-4efe-4bb0-bd21-34ad9242779d1033">mea culpa</a>.<br /><br />I've used another work around than the ones they list: Numbers from <a href="http://www.apple.com/iwork/">iWork 09</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-54042787382802529672009-04-11T15:20:00.000-07:002009-04-19T14:42:21.800-07:00Mozy Backup - Getting Lost In the Cloud - A Bad Experience<div>I've been an enthusiastic supporter of using cloud based backup services, and specifically of Mozy for some time. All of my computers at home are backed up using Mozy, and briefly we used it at work as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>The service worked pretty well backing up, though it suffered from frequent failures (timeouts, machine in sleep mode, etc) and quite pokey upload performance. But I figured, better backed up than sorry.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of my computers has a drive which had 900GB of data on it, of which 365GB were backed up by Mozy. This monster drive failed, and nothing I did could get the data back.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've replaced the drive (a month ago) and have been trying to get my data out of Mozy ever since.</div><div><br /></div><div>First of all, I have no doubt that my data is in their data center somewhere, eager to be restored, and I have no doubt that someday, I'll have it all back, but the trip from here to there has been long, and is still far from over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is my story (stretched over a month):</div><div><br /></div><div><ul><li>Drive failed. <br /></li><li>Started a restore, but struggled to find which part of the archive was up to date.<br /></li><li>Picked the wrong part of the archive and started restoring (through the client), which takes forever to get ready (365GB)<br /></li><li>Realized I picked the wrong part of the archive, and canceled the restore.<br /></li><li>Started a restore on the correct part of the archive, though this part of the archive was still significantly out of date, so I would be losing some recently saved files. (365GB)<br /></li><li>Restore kept stopping and not continuing, so I contacted support. (Download speed varied from 400 mega-bits/sec to 1.2 mega-bits/sec on my 24 mega-bit line. Same as the upload speed, even though I have ADSL).<br /></li><li>Their recommendation was to cancel the client restore (which was now at about 13% done) because a web restore would be much faster. I questioned the support persons reasoning about 20 times, but eventually gave in.<br /></li><li>So I canceled and requested a web restore. This turned out to require some waiting. Actually, a lot of waiting while the download files were generated. In my case, it required about 3-4 days. Thankfully, they sent me an email when it was done.<br /></li><li>In the mean time, the client restore which I had canceled, inexplicably started up again, but now listed the restore size as 600GB (with 3-4 weeks to get it all back) and started from the beginning.<br /></li><li>With the web restore setup completed, I found 145 .exe files to download, named 1 through 145! I started downloading the first file, and the transfer speed was just as slow as client restore. Given the massive amount of work it would require, I gave up on web restore, especially because I couldn't stop the client restores anyway.<br /></li><li>Backups also were starting up during the restore, which slowed things down. So I disabled scheduled backups.<br /></li><li>At the same time, my Avira Anti-virus identified some viruses in restore, so that gummed up the works, while a dialog hung open asking for my input. I couldn't sit there for the next 3 weeks, so I disabled the anti-virus.<br /></li><li>Even after disabling, scheduled backups continued to run for several days, regardless of what I had requested in the interface, much like the phantom restores.<br /></li><li>Eventually I had to reboot the machine because it had lost network connection, one of many reasons a Vista box seems to need frequent restores. This should not have been a problem. But...<br /></li><li>After reboot, the client restore had to start from the very beginning again, not remembering where it was (even though most data had apparently been restored)<br /></li><li>Am now waiting for restore to complete. It's back at about 3% complete after 3 days.<br /></li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div>As you can imagine, I am no longer a big fan of Mozy. I think their software quite frankly sucks, and their customer service, though friendly and prompt, led me down a bad path, and hasn't been able to help me whatsoever.</div><div><br /></div><div>Be curious if anyone else has had a similar experience. Well, at least one person <a href="http://wonko.com/post/it_turns_out_mozy_isnt_so_hot_after_all">did</a>. <a href="http://kensnyder.blogspot.com/2009/04/protecting-your-data.html">Here's</a> some other ideas about how to do this.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-11326047264408067392009-02-12T16:27:00.000-08:002009-02-12T16:41:59.796-08:00Windows 7 Epson Stylus DX9400F over a network with print server setupThis is a quick guide to helping others use Epson printers, or at least the Epson Stylus DX9400F model with the bundled network print server in Windows 7.<div><br /></div><div>I was able to install all the software and drivers perfectly onto Windows 7. The problems arose when I wanted to install the EpsonNet Print software (which allows printing over a network instead of via USB cable -- assuming you have the EpsonNet print server hardware). The software install consistently crashed with the following message: Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library. Runtime Error! Program: E:\COMMON\ENEZINST\EasyInstall.exe. No go.</div><div><br /></div><div>I searched and searched, but I couldn't find an updated version of Windows 7 EpsonNet Print. However, it turns out you can get all the features of the printer without it.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Printer</span></div><div>I simply went to Windows Menu >> Devices and Printers >> Add a printer, and selected 'Network' printer, and it quickly found the printer, let me name it, and I was done.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Scanner</span></div><div>Equally, I wanted to use the scanner. Well, Windows Menu >> All Programs >> Epson Scan >> Epson Scan Settings let me choose a local or network scanner. I chose network, and again, it quickly found the scanner. I tested and said OK, and that was working as well.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Card Reader</span></div><div>The card reader showed up in my networks listing, so no nead to do anything there.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's it. It worked.</div><div><br /></div><div>Caveat: The printer comes with a ton of other software, and I haven't tested it all, but those were the main features I needed over the network on Windows 7, so now I'm extremely happy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hope this helps you.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-15470573488329225652009-01-30T02:14:00.002-08:002009-01-31T12:50:56.158-08:00Windows 7 First ImpressionsI've put Windows 7 through its paces, and compared it to a Mac I've been trying out. Here are my impressions.<br /><br />I've now been running Windows 7 on my laptop at work for about a week. And I've been comparing it on a Sony Vaio SZ from 2 years ago, against a 6 month old MacBook Pro running Mac OS, which I’ve been using for about a month. Before this, I was mostly using the Sony with Vista on it.<br /><br />On the laptop, the upgrade from Vista went seamlessly, and actually didn't take very long, though I have to say I didn't pay that much attention. Once it finished, I was up and running straight away.<br /><br />So what are my impressions about Windows 7?<br /><br />I think it's fantastic. Even though it’s clear that we’re looking at an improved version of Vista, I really wouldn’t want to go back to Vista. The new UI is the biggest improvement, and solves numerous usability problems. Windows 7 has been stable so far in my use of it, and I’m seriously thinking of letting people at work upgrade to it, though I’m worried about the upgrade path once the beta runs out.<br /><br />Positives<br /><ul><li>Library and favourites – This feature is great. I’ve always found myself trawling through explorer dialogs and windows over and over again to get to the same folders. Now you can put any folder you want in a favourite or into a library, and they are always one click away. Big time saver.</li><li>Taskbar – The taskbar is very Mac like, in that both open applications and applications that are pinned to it, are in the same place. But the implementation of showing windows for each application is what makes the feature so good. An application which is running has a subtle box around it, and multiple boxes if there are multiple windows open. Hover over the icon, and Win7 pops up thumbnails to show you each window. Usually that’s enough to, and you can click on the thumbnail and go to the window on one smooth motion. However, hover over a thumbnail, and the full window is revealed with all other windows made seethough. This saves huge amounts of time.</li><li>Window moving key sequences and gestures – This I like, because now with a simple gesture—dragging a window to the right of the screen, I can resize that window to take up half the screen. Same for the left. Now I have two windows taking up half the screen each, and I can compare them. If I drag a window to the top, the window is maximised. Again, big time saver. Together with the taskbar, I can switch between different tasks on my laptop with ease.</li><li>Revealing the desktop – Hovering over the right bottom corner shows the desktop, and clicking minimises all the windows. Again, I can get to what I want with a simple mouse gesture and a click.</li><li>Connecting and disconnecting secondary monitor – this was better in Vista than in XP, but still cause a lot of problems because occasionally the driver would forget what state it was in. Win7 appears to do better, though I’ve had the same Vista problems arise, and I suspect I’m merely benefiting from a more stable driver. I’d really like to see some improvement on this topic, as it makes using a laptop with a second monitor a lot harder than with a Macintosh, which seems to get this one right all the time.</li><li>All Vista drivers seem to work (or Microsoft came up with a new one that work and I didn’t notice)</li><li>Less User Access Control messages – this isn’t huge for me, but it is quite nice not to constantly be clicking the UAC messages.</li></ul>There were a few smaller problems, so not everything was peachy.<br /><ul><li>Once I’d upgraded, I found that the contents of my profile had been moved. This seems to have something to do with the new Libraries, but many of my development tools (Netbeans, SSH, etc) expected some hidden directories to be at the top level of my profile, and didn’t work until I move them back there. I think this is what killed Chrome as well, though I’m not sure (it seems to install itself in the profile instead of in Program Files, so maybe this is Google’s fault, not Microsofts).</li><li>I can still manage to get the secondary monitor into a state where it won’t go to full resolution until I reboot (mentioned this above).</li><li>Sound volume didn’t show up on the taskbar until I fiddled around with it for a while. That was annoying. (I can’t remember how I fixed it, sorry).</li><li>Some of the Sony tools don’t appear to have fully made it through the upgrade, meaning that the Sony Update Manager doesn’t seem to work. But, there haven’t been any updates from Sony in a while, so I’m not too worried.</li><li>Chrome failed to work until reinstalled, as mentioned above.</li></ul>Compared to the Mac, there’s a lot to like in Windows 7. Here are some points of comparison for me. YMMV.<br /><ul><li>Really like the new Win 7 UI much more than the Mac. It’s just more efficient, such as making a window full size.</li><li>Mac wins hands down for the sleep feature, which works instantly on the Mac, and takes plenty of time on Windows. The Mac also barely drains the battery in sleep mode, while Windows last about one night at most in sleep mode.</li><li>This particular (much newer) Mac, performs much better, and the windows machine in general feels it needs to hit the disk constantly. In fact, excessive disk IO is a long standing windows problem, and it doesn’t appear that Win 7 solves it.</li><li>Since I use office products a lot, and Outlook 2007 especially, Entourage 2008 is a pale imitation and literally makes using the Mac much less pleasant than the Windows equivalent.</li><li>But I do like doing my Ruby on Rails programming on the Mac much better, as it has a proper linux-like terminal, where Win7 is still hanging around with the god awful cmd.exe.</li></ul><br />In addition to the Sony, I've fresh installed Win7 three more times, in a VirtualBox VM on the MacBook Pro, in a VMWare Fusion VM on the MacBook Pro and on a Pentium D desktop which operates as my main Media Center, with a Hauppauge T-Nova 500 dual tuner DVB-T (freeview in the UK) card. I'll write about the Media Center experience (mixed) in a different post. All installed without significant problems, though the media center didn’t recognize the Linksys WRT54G PCI card, meaning it was a bit of a struggle to get online.<br /><br />So how did I get on with the virtual machines? Pretty well, actually:<br /><ul><li>Though everything installed perfectly, VirtualBox was a real pain to use, as it fails to install its guest tools, so there is no UI and mouse integration. Also, I wasn’t impressed with performance, with the VM occasionally slowing the rest of the Mac.</li><li>VMWare Fusion works fantastically well (I’m still using it), especially in Unity mode, where the applications integrate seamlessly into the Mac environment. I installed Win 7 as a Vista VM, which seemed to work flawlessly. I haven’t see any slowdown in the machine (though I do have 4 GB of RAM which helps). However, there are times when the VM’s UI gets corrupted, especially after the Mac coming out of sleep. And oddly, Fusion seems to suspend the Windows VM when the Mac goes into sleep mode, meaning that when the Mac wakes up, you have to specifically resume the Windows VM.</li><li>However, I’m happy with the Mac now since I can use Outlook 2007 in a Unity mode, which eliminates my problems with Entourage.</li></ul>Hope this is all helpful. If your experience differed, please let me know in the comments. Any questions, let me know as well.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-54078683247258867602009-01-16T16:35:00.000-08:002009-01-16T16:49:06.893-08:00iPhone3G Six Months OnI've written about my experiences with the iPhone a few times already, <a href="http://blendedmusings.blogspot.com/2008/07/iphone-problems-when-switching-from.html">here</a> and <a href="http://blendedmusings.blogspot.com/2008/08/iphone-3g-one-month-on.html">here</a>. It's been an interesting ride.<div><br /></div><div>I would say that with the release of firmware 2.2, the serious stability, crashing and battery issues are solved. Though I've done 2 full factory restores to get there.</div><div><br /></div><div>The phone now performs fairly well. And I'm back to liking it, which was in doubt for a while. In fact, when I went to the US in November I had to use my old HTC S620 (no unlocked iPhone), and the battery life on that phone was terrible in comparison. And the iPhone wifi worked very well during my stay there, which somewhat made up for the unlocking issue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another big improvement for me, has been the release of the Calling Card application on the App Store. This means that I can make international calls without paying through the nose.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there are still things that annoy. For one, the lack of cut and paste, which is matched with the fact that you can't forward SMSes. This means someone texts me directions to a restaurant, and then I have to write them down on a piece of paper and type them back in to the SMS that I send on. Annoying!</div><div><br /></div><div>The GPS is great, but why can't I get turn by turn directions?</div><div><br /></div><div>And the integration with Exchange works, but I can't send meeting requests.</div><div><br /></div><div>And the last, most annoying bug is the fact that the iPod plays the same song every time when I put it in shuffle mode. Can't that be randomized?</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-53212361388537546472008-09-26T07:33:00.000-07:002008-09-26T08:29:20.713-07:00XenServer 5.0, Feel the Bullshit: Open Storage API<div><a href="http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/home.asp">Citrix </a>trumpets openness in their latest press release announcing <a href="http://www.xenserver5.com/">XenServer 5.0</a>, without delivering the substance. XenServer 5.0 is indeed based on Xen 3.2, an actual open source project. But somehow the openness doesn't make it to the shipping product except in the marketing message.</div><div><br /></div><div>My current example of the bullshit marketing problem is the Open Storage API. This "unique" API allows us plebians to use the snapshotting and thin provisioning features of our SANs. In a fit of openness, they've added <a href="http://www.dell.com/equallogic">Dell EqualLogic</a> to the list of SANs supporting these features, which includes only <a href="http://www.netapp.com/us/">NetApp</a>. My company of course doesn't have either. So maybe I can roll my own. I'll just use the open storage API. How hard can that be? They're trumpeting it afterall.</div><div><br /></div><div>I started with Citrix's press release, which has a sub-heading: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Uniquely Open Architecture Simplifies Management and Improves TCO"</span>. They go on to explain that "Unlike other ... closed proprietary systems, the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">open storage APIs</span> in XenServer allow customers to access and control advanced functions such as snapshotting, cloning, replication, de-duplication and provisioning in their existing storage systems." [my emphasis] This is unfortunately qualified with: "...from vendors such as EqualLogic and NetApp."</div><div><br /></div><div>So where can I find the open storage API? I've searched google, the press release, the XenServer5.0 documentation, the community forums and more, and can't find the reference manual for this API anywhere. As far as I'm concerned, it appears to exist only in this press release.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, proprietary VMWare, does allow taking advantage of snapshotting and thin-provisioning on supported SANs, and our <a href="http://www.3par.com/index.html">3Par </a>SAN is one of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>So please explain to me how XenServer is more open? Where are these APIs? Isn't it all just marketing bullshit?</div><div><br /></div><div>Let me know your thoughts.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Find the press release <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080915/20080915005662.html?.v=1">here</a>. The SDKs that are actually available, <a href="http://community.citrix.com/cdn/xs/sdks">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-19529159682206795732008-08-26T15:29:00.000-07:002008-08-26T15:39:41.687-07:00Be Unlimited Broadband, now with special rubbish serviceI've been a happy customer of Be's for a long time (18 months). But the last 2 months have been miserable.<br /><br />The exchange I'm attached to, along with a good number of others, has been blessed with the following message:<br />Network Slow browsing/download speeds at the following exchanges: STREATHAM; NORBURY; BALHAM; HENDON; PRIMROSE HILL; BARNET; KINGSTON; SURBITON.<br /><br />It also has the cute message: Some Issues - Things Could Be Better<br /><br />Let me tell you how cute I think that mesage is.<br /><br />Customer service is completely unhelpful: 'Head office haven't given us any feedback on when things will be fixed. You'll find out when it's fixed in the forums.' Apparently there's an upgrade needed, but I suspect there's no cash for the upgrade and customer service has been asked to tap dance with customers.<br /><br />No refunds or rebates, a weak explanation, and no reduction of my leaving period (3 months). Since it still barely works, and I'm busy, I haven't done much about it. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to switch back to BT. When I had a telephone problem a few months ago, BT were here the NEXT DAY (yes, it was an Openreach guy, but somehow BT has more suction with them). That compares quite favorably to Be's 2 months.<br /><br />For the geeks: I'm getting as little at 1.9Mbps instead of the 17Mbps the modem is syncing at. And I'm getting 6-20% packet loss on pings.<br /><br />Aaaaaaarrrrrgh.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-79207702483762196262008-08-21T15:01:00.000-07:002008-08-23T19:05:48.842-07:00iPhone 3G One Month OnFolks, it's true. I fell out of love with my Jesus phone, and now I have to live with it for another 17 months of gloriously overpriced O2 contract.<br /><br />Why? Well, for one, I got to play with the Blackberry Bold, and that phone is just, well, nicer.<br /><br />The BBB has better speakers, a brighter screen, and the battery life, oh the battery life. Not to mention it's not locked into Job's crAppStore which is full of barely useful apps. Oh, and the BBB's UI is instant, not sluggish!<br /><br />On top of that, I did a quick inventory of the apps I've downloaded, and realized that I could very easily live without them--all of them. The only truly useful apps on the phone, are the ones that Jobs put there in the first place.<br /><br />And then there's the reception and stability, which seem to be getting worse every time I install a new round of 'bug fixes'. Now Safari crashes constantly, and I can barely surf the web since installing the 2.0.2 update, what with the phone dancing from one type of signal to another.<br /><br />This phone was awesome, I thought, and then reality hit. I knew I was caught up in the hype. I knew I shouldn't have fallen for it, but I did. At least I'm not alone<br /><br />My prediction: The iPhone 3G's big breakout move is going to fizzle by Christmas. Reasons: horrible reception and related press, seriously missing features, and the useless apps won't help anything.<br /><br />Sorry Steve.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-63876066091485381652008-07-26T02:45:00.000-07:002009-03-01T09:54:22.729-08:00iPhone 3G Annoyances When Switching From Windows MobileI just switched to the iPhone 3G, and to be honest, I love the phone. But...there are a number of things I'm discovering that really annoy the crap out of me.<br /><br />So, without ado, here are my iPhone 3G problems/annoyances:<br /><br /><br /><ul><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Calling Cards</span>: The only way to use a calling card, is to put the number in the actual contact, or type the number in manually. This wouldn't be so bad if a third party could write a little app to enable this functionality. But no, Apple has blocked the ability for 3rd party apps and web sites to put pauses in phone numbers, making this impossible. And, for this record, this change was deliberate, becuase it used to work in 1.1.3 or 1.1.2 and was subsequently removed. <strong>UPDATE: </strong>There are now a few calling card solutions: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/CallingCard.html">http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/CallingCard.html</a> and <a href="http://www.truphone.com/">http://www.truphone.com</a> so this is no longer an issue.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Can't delete email without network connection</span>: Exchange integration doesn't allow moving or deleting messages when it doesn't have a network connection. So when I'm in the subway on the way home, all I can do is read messages, but can't process them.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Can't create meeting requests</span>: Inexplicably, the iPhone 3G doesn't allow you to create meeting requests with other people, even though it has all the other meeting request features.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Mark as Unread is a pain</span>: Mark as unread can only be set on a message if the detail view is shown, which means you have to scroll past all the email addresses. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't open the next email automatically when you delete an email.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Battery too weak</span>: As everyone has said, the battery only lasts a day. Though to be fair, it's always lasted a day for me. The battery alert comes on at 20% and there's actually a fair bit of juice that comes with it. <strong>UPDATE</strong>: This has been adressed, and now I get much better battery performance than I did on my HTC S620.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Viewing upcoming appointments</span> <strong>on home screen </strong><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">impossible</span>: Can't view upcoming appointments on your locked home screen. This means I have to unlock and click on Calendar to figure out what's coming up.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">AVIs require additional software</span>: Putting AVI videos (really anything but Apple's mp4) on the phone requires a third party converter application. It's taken a hell of a lot of work to find one that doesn't crash.</li><li><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Can't unlock</span>: The fact that I can pay for an 18 month contract, and they still won't unlock the phone for me is rediculous. That's never happened to me before. (I know there's jailbreaking and all that razzmatazz.</li><li><strong>No forwarding of SMSs</strong>: Not an issue at all, unless your phone doesn't support copy and paste. :(</li><li><strong>No copy and paste.</strong> 'Nuff said</li></ul>I'll add or delete from this list as and when things change.<br /><br />Some other people are seeing different problems. Maybe yours will <a href="http://bindapple.com/iphone-3g-problems/">match</a>. And another <a href="http://thesaj.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/iphone-3g-my-thoughts-upon-and-rants-upon/">viewpoint</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13872605968652920693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-10371613764657981412008-07-05T19:42:00.000-07:002008-07-05T19:52:56.138-07:00On Vista, MySQL System Tray Monitor cannot start mysql serverThis problem caused me a bit of pain. I installed mysql and the gui tools, and all was well on Vista. However, when I rebooted (and I turned off the automatic starting of the mysql service), once up, I couldn't start up the mysql server. This may have been caused by installing as one user, and then using mysql through another user.<br /><br />The answer:<br /><ul><li>Run MySQL System Tray Monitor as Administrator</li></ul>How to do this automatically?<br /><ul><li>Click the Windows Start button (the big one at the bottom left with the logo)<br /></li><li>Click on All Programs</li><li>Scroll until you find Startup</li><li>Click on Startup</li><li>Inside, right click on MySQL System Tray Monitor</li><li>Select Properties</li><li>Click on the Compatibility tab</li><li>At the bottom, in the Privilege Level box, click Run this program as administrator</li><li>Click the OK button</li></ul>Additionally, if you want<br /><ul><li>If the MySQL System Tray Monitor is already started, stop it and run it again from here.</li><li>You can also set the same setting for MySQL Administrator</li><li>The same programs are also in the MySQL group in All Programs if you are not starting the System Tray Monitor automatically, you'll have to make the changes here.</li></ul>Hope this helps someone. Any questions, please comment.Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-82045296996367815292008-03-01T12:24:00.000-08:002008-03-01T12:25:45.632-08:00RIAA and EFF are in the same place<div class="snap_preview"><p>As strange as it may appear, the RIAA (lobbying arm of the music industry) and the EFF (lobbying group for civilian privacy among other things), are fighting a war for the same thing: control of their bits, their information. This control used to be self evident. The rule was simple: I own the information, I control it. This let the RIAA put their bits on little plastic disks, and charge huge sums of money. This same control, allowed private citizens (who the EFF is defending) to have some confidence that they couldn’t be aggregated, observed and analyzed in huge databases at the twiddle of a mouse.</p> <p>The two organizations are fighting for the same thing, and that fight is subject to the same inescapable forces. And as certain as gravity, the war they think they are fighting, has already been lost. No amount of legislation, protest, battle, will put the respective genies back in the bottle.</p> <p>In each case, there was a moment that signified a turning point. For the RIAA it started right at the beginning, with Napster, which allowed music sharing on an industrial scale. Once Napster had hit the scene, all was over. Despite the RIAA successfully blowing the service out of the water, the celebrations were only momentary. Many new services slipped right into Napster’s niche, and today, the children of Napster rule the Earth.</p> <p>As for the EFF, there is non other than Osama Bin Laden, who, by murdering 3,000 people, succeeded in enslaving the other 6 billion in a surveillance society. Terrorism has been used as an excuse for almost every loss of privacy, every subsequent invasion of what used to be our own space.</p> <p>But these incidents are effect not cause. Cause is the Internet. And though the EFF would like to put our personal information back in a jar, and the RIAA would like to stick their music back in the music shops, it would be like stopping the rising of the sun, or undoing the nuclear age. The Internet made information free, and not all of the information it made free is information we would like to set free.</p> <p>And now for the evidence:</p> <p>The US department of homeland security now searches laptops and MP3 players when people enter the country. Invasive? You bet. Worse than having someone go through your dirty underwear is someone going through your emails, isn’t it? (<a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/15/extreme-notebook-makeover-protecting-your-notebook-from-random/" title="laptop searches">laptop searches</a>) Here’s another example, where the FBI tapped the email of an entire ISP. Accidental? Yes. A surprise? No. (<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/18/fbi_email_surveillance/" title="email surveillance">email surveillance</a>)</p> <p>And I don’t need to tell you about the numerous attempts to stop the trading of music online, such as in the UK: (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7059881.stm">ISP control</a>). But to see how it’s all going, just head over to <a href="http://www.thepiratebay.org/">Pirate Bay</a>.</p> <p>It’s all over folks. It’s 1984 in 2008, and guess what? We get free music with a slight threat of a lawsuit in exchange for having our every move scrutinized by any government or worse, anyone with a powerful server. And maybe we can get the worst of both worlds: punitive lawsuits based on government surveillance!</p> </div>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-32951386085723528592008-03-01T12:22:00.000-08:002008-03-01T12:24:10.767-08:00Femtocells are girly crap<div class="snap_preview"><p>I hear so much about femtocells as the new cool technology. But I get stuck on the part where some dimwit actually installs one in their house.</p> <p>Here’s how I see the conversation between the mobile provider and their customer going:</p> <blockquote><p>‘Hello, my phone has crap service.’<br />‘Do you have a broadband line?’<br />‘Yes, from ThrottleNet? Why? I get crap service from them too.’<br />‘I’ll send you this device, you have to plug it into the back of your internet router. That will improve your call quality.’<br />‘What’s a router?’<br />‘That thing your broadband comes through.’<br />‘Oh, the one with the USB thing that comes out?’<br />‘Yes. Does it also have an Ethernet port?’<br />‘What’s that?’</p></blockquote> <p>Do you see where I’m going with this?</p> <p>The mobile providers are smokin’ the ganja, quite simply. They gotta give something for the inconvenience which is more than a ‘better’ connection and complex setup. Hopefully they have some bright ideas. I suspect the bright idea is to bundle broadband with the service, and then put the femtocell in the router. I’d like to see how that goes. Scale anyone?</p> </div>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-82430906736548917122007-12-27T15:25:00.000-08:002008-04-19T17:47:05.124-07:00Wake up Commercial Software, Open Source is kicking your assHere's why I don't like to buy commercial software. Maybe you have a different view.<br /><br />I'm currently in the position to purchase substantial amounts of software for my clients. And I feel weird. I sit and listen to sales people tell me why their commercial version of the software is better than the free and open source version I'm considering instead, and they are struggling to convince me.<br />Here are some of the reasons they give me:<br /><ol><li>Support: <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Them </span>The thesis here is that commercial software comes with support, so when something goes wrong, I can call the vendor, and they will efficiently speed a fix to me. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Me </span>What I seem to get from support is the right to call someone up during business hours and have them confirm to me that it doesn't work. I find that the leading open source applications tend to have forums full of extensive debugging information--much better than the commercial products.<br /></li><li>Certification: <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Them </span>I get the comfort of knowing that my configuration is certified and that it will work. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Me </span>In my experience, this 'guarantee' is revoked as and when it suits a vendor.<br /></li><li>Features: <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Them </span>I'm always told the commercial version has features that the free one doesn't. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Me </span>It's funny, but all too often, the commercial features aren't needed by me, so I'm not sure why I should pay for them.</li><li>You are cheap: <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Them</span> You can't expect to get everything for nothing. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Me </span>Well, yes, actually. If what I need is available as open source, that will do nicely, thank you.<br /></li></ol>And then there's my fundamental irritations with the products I get from commercial software vendors:<br /><ol><li>License keys: With commercial applications come license keys. I've had far too many software failures due to the vendor giving me bad license keys, or failing to inform me about upcoming expirations. This runs the gamut from Windows on a desktop all the way up to high availability software for mega servers. License keys are the bane of my existence. Isn't this one of the major reasons corporations aren't upgrading to Vista? Because it's just too hard to manage the damn keys and activations?<br /></li><li>Fees every time I add to the configuration: Commercial software vendors like to think that they are tailoring their solution to my needs. What this means for me, is that every time I add a user, add a CPU or change a server, I actually need to add to my license armada and pay money. What a serious management pain in the ass. Can't I just get one license that covers my whole organization, and then adjust it once a year?<br /></li><li>One product is actually many products: In addition to the previous problem, it turns out that most 'enterprise' (read expensive) products come with about forty different SKUs. In order to use the product, you need a 'base module', and a 'management module' and a set of 'user license packs' and a 'network access module', and so on. The product is useless without all the modules, but the sales person invariably forgets an expensive module during the quoting, and you only find out half-way through the implementation that more money will be required.</li><li>Every conceivable use is a different license: If you use it on one OS, and then switch to a new OS, that is a new license. Switch to new hardware: more money please. Add a networked drive: cha-ching. My perpetual licenses are always locked to hardware that will be obsolete in a year, so I'm constantly throwing one away and purchasing a new one, for the same product!<br /></li></ol>So in short: For so many reasons, I find myself having to be seriously convinced to go the commercial software route. It just makes my job of managing it, far to complicated, and my job is complicated enough.<br /><br />My advice to the commercial software companies out there: wake up and smell your user's needs. Your licensing methods are offensive, increase your user's costs immensely, and actually reduce the value your product adds. And remember, if you don't want to change, there's plenty of open source software out there for your users to turn to.<br /><br />PS: For some reason, so many integrators out there only know commercial software. They will relentlessly steer you that way, even when you tell them clearly you want an open source solution. I think there are two reasons: 1. Kickbacks, commissions, and lead generation. 2. CYA: Cover Your Ass. At least there is a vendor to point the finger at if something goes wrong. Neither of these reasons are compelling to me however.<br /><br /><strong>Update:</strong> Someone who totally agrees with me (humorous): <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/18/bofh_2008_episode_14/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/18/bofh_2008_episode_14/</a>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-49585402142785079802007-12-02T14:18:00.000-08:002007-12-04T06:05:33.910-08:00Vista Media Center Widescreen over S-VideoI've been struggling for months to get my widescreen CRT TV working properly in Vista Media Center. I've finally found the solution after grubbing through myriad forums and blogs. This applies most in Europe where anamorphic widescreen is common.<br /><br />Maybe this will help you.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The problem:</span><br />I got everything working, so that I could use the media center. My setup (the relevant parts):<br /><ul><li>ATI X1950 GT graphics card</li><li>Hauppauge Nova T-500 DVB-T tuner card</li><li>Bog standard box running Vista Home Premium</li><li>JVC widescreen CRT TV</li><li>ATI card connected to TV via S-Video cable<br /></li></ul>Everything looked fine when I watched recorded TV, but in fact, the images were stretched too wide. This was most noticable when watching fashion models waddle down the runway.<br /><br />It turns out it's quite simple:<br /><ol><li>Tasks -> Settings -> TV -> Configure Your TV or Monitor</li><li>Go through the wizard. When it asks 'Identify Your Display Type', choose Monitor.</li><li>Now here comes the wierd part. On the next screen, choose 'DVI, VGA, or HDMI', <span style="font-weight: bold;">even though</span> you are using S-Video.</li><li>On the next screen, choose 'Widescreen (16:9)'.</li><li>Then choose 576i as your screen resolution.</li><li>From there on in, do what the nice wizard says.</li></ol>I had to start and stop Media Center after this a few times, as well as playing with the zoom feature on videos, and suddenly, presto, videos were showing in widescreen.<br /><br />CAVEAT: Don't know yet what happens after a suspend or a reboot. Will update when I've got results.<br /><br />A few more Media Center Tips:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Ehveijk/mst/indexe.htm">MCE Standby Tool</a> will help solve your standby problems. However, do not enable the regular reboots. These seemed to get afoul of my dodgy Vista drivers, so things wouldn't start up correctly.</li><li>Don’t let Windows Update reboot the machine. Every time my machine reboots, something goes wrong. Do this manually, when nothing is recording and you are sitting there to make sure it is happy.</li></ul>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-69614030096482118572007-12-02T11:04:00.000-08:002007-12-02T04:08:30.330-08:00Do Not Sue list for Class Actions<div>I can recall getting a class action settlement for Toshiba (the floppy drive on laptops like mine--but not mine--did something wrong sometimes). What did I get? A $200 voucher to buy Toshiba stuff. Worthless since I wasn't buying any Toshiba stuff.<br /><br />My Verizon Wireless settlement got me even less (they rounded calls up to the minute for billing--was anyone really confused after their first bill?). I think it was a check for around $4 and Verizon agreed to make the fine print bigger.<br /><br />So who made money on all this? Well, one is forced to suspect that it was the lawyers. Check out the discussion on <a href="http://www.overlawyered.com/">Overlawyered</a>.<br /><br />So, here's my view. All the class actions I've been hauled into over the years have been of no value to me. Somehow I suspect I'm not the only one.<br /><br />Let's take the money away from the lawyers, and put it back into the pockets of the big corporations, so they can charge us less for products. How about this: a "Do Not Sue" register? If you are on it, class-action lawyers wouldn't be able to add you as a member of the class without your express approval.<br /><br />Now all you legal-eagle types out there will ask: So how do we keep the blood-sucking companies from giving us terrible customer service, and shoddy products? My answer: Hell if I know, but clearly class actions aren't doing anything to help us.<br /><br />Note: the class actions I've had the dubious pleasure of being involved with are not correlated with bad customer experiences I've had. Probably more the opposite.<br /></div>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-27678938400108352672007-11-30T18:04:00.000-08:002007-11-30T18:28:11.387-08:00CNet Promotes Second LifeThe highly impartial <a href="http://www.news.com">news.com</a>, is clearly shilling for Second Life. Nothing else can explain their rabid habit of writing articles about the crappy MMOG or whatever these virtual worlds are called.<br /><br />Number of articles on CNet's news.com related to:<br />Second Life: 15,200<br />World of Warcraft: 5,390<br />* Google search "Second Life" site:news.com; "World of Warcraft" site:news.com<br /><br />User Count:<br />SL: 500,000<br />WoW: 8.5 million<br />* <a href="http://gigaom.com/2007/06/13/top-ten-most-popular-mmos/">http://gigaom.com/2007/06/13/top-ten-most-popular-mmos/</a><br /><br />You decide who is impartial.Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-62244622001042835042007-11-03T20:34:00.000-07:002008-07-08T05:51:50.638-07:00Microsoft and FacebookSo Microsoft put $240 million into Facebook, valuing the social networking company at $15 billion. My ass. There is no such value. Here's how the negotiation actually went:<br /><br />Microsoft: Give us exclusive access to your ads.<br />Facebook: Woo, that'll cost you. We're a premium property. We'll negotiate hard, like the Web 2.0 muthas that we are. We have a high valuation, you know.<br />M$: We can pay. How much?<br />FB: A lot.<br />M$: OK, $240 million.<br />FB: We're *NOT* giving you 40% of the company for that! [Stamps foot.]<br />M$: Who said anything about 40%?<br />FB: Well, that's what the last VC said. [Timid sniveling look.]<br />M$: Just exclusive access to the network. Keep your company.<br />FB: But that's not fair. How can we boost our valuation? You *HAVE* to take a stake. You just *HAVE* to! [Stamps foot harder]<br />M$: [Writing check] Just remember, no Google.<br />FB: But take a chunk.<br />M$: Fine.<br />FB: It's incredible. [Face of extreme cunning.] You're getting, wait for it, one point seven percent!<br />M$: Here's the check. Don't spend it all in one place, son.<br />FB: That makes our valuation $15 *BILLION*. [Big smile]<br />M$: Whatever.<br />FB: 15 BILLION. [Bigger smile]<br />M$: Sign here. Right where it says: NO GOOGLE.<br />FB: [Signs] 15 BILLION. Wippee.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update: </span>Apparently I was right. Facebook thought they were worth <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/08/facebook_valuation/">$3.75 billion</a> (still a <span style="font-weight: bold;">lot</span>)<br /><qtl style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; opacity: 0; display: block; position: fixed; z-index: 999; direction: ltr; left: 279px; top: 413px;"><qtl style="padding: 0pt; height: 22px; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 255); cursor: move; display: block; text-align: left;"><img title="close" style="margin: 1px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://qtl.sf.net/close.png" /><img style="margin: 1px 2px 0pt 1px; float: left;" src="http://babylon.com/favicon.ico" /><input style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 1px; padding: 1px; height: 15px; font-size: 10px;"></qtl><qtl style="padding: 1px; height: 20px; background-color: white; display: block; text-align: left;"><img style="margin: 1px 2px; cursor: pointer;" src="http://qtl.sf.net/copy.png" title="copy selection" /><img style="margin: 1px 2px; cursor: pointer;" src="http://qtl.sf.net/say.png" title="pronounce selection" /><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://search.babylon.com/?babsrc=qtl&q=%243.75%20billion"><img src="http://www.google.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%243.75%20billion"><img src="http://search.yahoo.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%243.75%20billion"><img src="http://www.flickr.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%243.75%20billion&search=Search"><img src="http://www.youtube.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/associates/link-types/searchbox.html?tag=qtl0e-20&creative=374001&campaign=211041&adid=0NM007JMM5JYDBDT13Y6&mode=blended&keyword=%243.75%20billion"><img src="http://www.amazon.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></qtl><qtl style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 5px; height: 236px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); overflow-y: auto; overflow-x: hidden; display: block;"></qtl><qtl style="height: 64px; display: block; background-color: white;"></qtl></qtl>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-80530212229666159662007-10-05T17:07:00.000-07:002007-10-07T16:11:58.646-07:00Buses SlipstreamingThe last time I got off a bus on my way home, two other buses arrived seconds later, all from my route. Now normally, seeing many buses on your favorite route is good news. But not here, since I had waited twenty minutes for my bus when they are supposed to arrive every 8-12 minutes. What a $!£$% nightmare!<br /><br />It's raised a big question in my mind. Why do buses slipstream? I.e. why do buses follow each other closely, one behind the other, sometimes even leapfrogging, like the lead cyclists in the Tour de France? Do buses like to herd, and will they do so whenever possible?<br /><br />I've come up with some possible reasons, but I have no actual evidence, and no scientific analysis:<br />- The buses leave their depots with almost no consideration for the schedules they are supposed to keep. Since the drivers don't check with each other about departure times, the buses arrive randomly<br />- More plausibly, the lead bus gets slowed down along the way. Now at every stop there are more passengers, slowing it down even further. This leaves the second bus is going faster than the lead bus. 1. Because it is not running into the initial delay. 2. As it gets closer and closer, there are fewer and fewer passengers to pick up. The second bus travels much faster than the lead bus, until it catches it.<br /><br />Does anyone know how to name this painful transportation illness?Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197475096238683131.post-79835051105440606672007-09-25T14:05:00.000-07:002007-09-25T14:58:50.288-07:00Terms of Service and Peer to Peer<p>I've been thinking lately about a hypothetical situation. Consider it a thought balloon.</p><p>If we run a peer to peer program, such as BitTorrent, or eDonkey, the RIAA and the MPAA love to root around in our computers and investigate what's there, without warrants or any invitation whatsoever. They look around, see what they can find--in my line of work this is called a fishing expedition--and if they are lucky, find some contraband: a shared movie or a new Britney Spears song (as if anybody wants those anymore). On the back of that contraband, they'll send us a demand for money. If we aren't suitably impressed, they sue us.</p><p>I'm not too excited by this. It actually kind of sucks, since most people didn't invite any industry associations to come looking at their machine.</p><p>What to do? The answer (maybe?), is Terms of Service. Terms of Service? you ask.</p><p>Stick with me here, because it will take a little explanation. You know how most web sites have terms of service? You have to agree all kinds of things. For example, blogger, in section 2 states the following:</p><p><code>You agree that you are responsible for your own use of the Service, for any posts you make and for any consequences thereof. You agree that you will use the Service in compliance with all applicable local, state, national and international laws, rules and regulations, including any laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from your country of residence and all United States export control laws.</code></p><p>Pretty stern stuff, actually. But that's how they keep the lawyers happy, and that's exactly what I'm proposing here.</p><p>Couldn't peer to peer networks take advantage of Terms of Service to control how the computers on the network are accessed?</p><p>I'm thinking along the lines of </p><p><em>you may only access this computer in order to get documents for your own personal use. The organization of information on this computer is copywrited and any access for reasons of property control, or determining the sharing of files, is not permitted. In fact, your invitation to access this computer is completely at my discretion, and you are not invited if you will use the information you gather for the purposes of copyright enforcement.</em></p><p>I don't know. It's a bit clumsy, obtuse, and maybe too specific. The wording is almost certainly wrong, but is there wording that isn't? Is the principle sound from a legal point of view? Could each computer on the network, tell the RIAA to buzz off, 'you're not welcome anymore'?</p><p>It would be nice to think that we have a right to the privacy of our own computers. Shouldn't the RIAA require probably cause before they can investigate? A little bit like how we can hide our caller id before making a call on the telephone.</p><p>So let's say there is a legal wording that works. What happens?</p><p>Well, the next time the RIAA, or any other enforcer accessed our computers, that organization would be liable to a civil suit for violation of terms in our Terms of Service. Now that would be radical.</p><p>And thinking further, maybe even the DMCA could be brought in, along the lines of the copyleft of the GPL. That could be cool.</p><p>Still, there are a few technical hurdles to be overcome. </p><p>Imagine the technological approach: Every time a peer to peer <em>client</em> accesses a peer to peer <em>server</em> (the machine with the alleged Britney Spears mp3 on it), that client would have to agree to the Terms of Service, before the server would serve anything.</p><p>Now of course, this could be extremely tedious for the user of the client to constantly agree to terms of service while using a peer to peer network. Thousands of packets across hundreds of servers would have to be agreed to during even the most basic execution of a typical eMule transaction. Each time the client accessed a server, ToS's would pop up. That's unworkable, really.</p><p>But there is a solution around the problem. It's software, and ToS standardization. </p><p>Basically, it requires that all servers on the network in question, use the exact same ToS. Now all the user has to do, is agree to the ToS for <em>all</em> servers that use this ToS. All the servers have to do is verify that the right version of the ToS was agreed by the client, and off they go.</p><p>This requires baking the ToS into the p2p protocol. This would force every communication in the protocol to include the following dialog:</p><code><br />client: request directory (or other sensitive info)<br />server: tos agreed?<br />client: confirm tos agreed<br />server: directory listing returned<br /></code><br /><p>OK, so it's just a thought. I'm curious what other people think of this idea.</p>Owen Lamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09755150714193835782noreply@blogger.com0