Technology: March 2008 Archives
...after all, the home of Starbucks and grunge rock has much to answer for. But not this time:
The alleged supplier of some of the net's most hated malware titles has been sued by Washington state's attorney general. Ron Cooke, the owner of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Messenger Solutions, stands accused of violating Washington's Computer Spyware Act and Consumer Protection Act for marketing programs that went under names including WinAntiVirus Pro 2007, System Doctor, WinAntiSpyware and Messenger Blocker.Now, can we get the Louisiana legislature to pass a similar law?
My 120GB Passport drive is just fine, but this one is tempting:
An external hard drive with a "soft-touch finish" that's "easy to grip, comfortable to hold and fashionable to carry", anyone? That's what Western Digital is now offering, in the form of its WD Passport Elite. The drive will be available in two capacities: 250GB and 320GB. They have a mini USB port for data and power, but you'll need to buy a double-headed cable separately if your computer's USB port doesn't provide enough juice.I still have about 15GB free on the 120, and could get more if I cleaned it up. I don't need this, but it's awfully cool. I should set a goal and hold out for the half-TB version that will no doubt come out at some point.
It may come back to haunt you like it has Hizzoner of Detroit:
The mayor of Detroit has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, stemming from a sex scandal six years ago. Kwame Kilpatrick, 37, who says he will fight the charges, could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. He was charged after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appeared to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide in 2002.As soon as your stuff enters the "telco cloud," it's no longer yours. Never forget that.
This is usually an extremely geeky subject, but this article from El Reg is more plain-english than most:
Zombie machines infected with Trojan horse malware can be used to relay spam or launch denial of service attacks. Compromised machines can be also be pointed to websites from which additional items of malware can be downloaded. The practice is normally used to update Trojan code, but it also creates a means for cybercrooks to make a "nice little earner". The income that can be earned grows with the numbers of installs, and varies based on the geographical location of an installation. For example, installing spyware on 1,000 machines in Australia earns $100 but only $50 in the US, and a measly $3 in Asia. A sample price list obtained by net security services firm sheds fresh light on the phenomenon.The scope of botnets is growing. It's why i make Kev use Linux on the home system.
When EMC made the $178m offer for Iomega last week, the only explanation I could come up with that made sense is that Iomega is sitting on some sort of intellectual property that the Evil Machine Company wants. Otherwise, this is like Cisco buying Linksys, where they just want to move into the mass market. Doesn't make a lot of sense.
I'm convinced on the patents/intellectual property angle now:
Iomega has changed its tune over EMC Corporation’s approach to buy the company after its suitor upped the offer to $205.5m. The storage vendor, which last week rejected an unsolicited EMC offer worth about $178m, today said it considered the revised to be superior to a proposed all-stock transaction with a stockholder. According to Iomega, the new offer will push up the bid price to as much as $3.75 per share. A week ago EMC indicated that it was prepared to offer to acquire Iomega for $3.25 per share.EMC is entering offer-Iomega-can't-refuse territory now.
...but there are exceptions to every rule:
Notorious spammer Robert Soloway faces an extended spell behind bars after pleading guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges last Friday. Soloway, 28, from Seattle, has previously been found guilty of sending spam in several civil cases, most notably when Microsoft won a $7.8m judgement against him back in 2005. But he's always avoided paying fines. Now, however, the man authorities have described as the "King of Spam" (arguably one of the most overused phrases in computer security) is in far more serious trouble. As well as facing a maximum sentence of 26 years behind bars, Soloway faces the indignity of being questioned about where he's stashed his ill-gotten gains while being monitored by a lie-detector.Now, put this clown in REAL federal prison rather than Club Fed for six months to a year. If he survives, parole him, making one of the conditions that he go around telling other wannabe spammers, phishers, and other assorted geek-criminals what it's like to be a prison bitch. Maybe that will stop some of them.
Worked with a guy who owned the original model, then bought the second generation. I didn't buy into Iomega until the Zip drive, but I still have mine in a box under my desk. I'm glad to see they didn't get sucked into the EMC vortex:
Portable hard drive maker Iomega has rejected a hostile $54.8m takeover bid from storage giant EMC.I don't see where Iomega would fit into EMC's plans, unless they're holding patents that would suit the hunger of the borg.The San Diego-based firm said in a statement that EMC’s indication that it was preparing to offer to acquire Iomega’s outstanding common stock for $3.25 per share “would not reasonably constitute a superior proposal”.
Even Coca-Cola is still Coca-Cola after all these years, yet FedEx felt the need to shorten Federal Express, and now Network Appliance wants to be NetApp? *shakes head*
Because Clinton was pretty ambivalent about it and Bush, well, if it isn't about oil or war, he's just not interested. Fortunately the European Space Agency does have an interest:
Look at the size of the ATV, dubbed "Jules Verne:"
Europe's new orbital cargo ship has launched from French Guiana on a mission to resupply the space station.The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is the biggest and most complex spacecraft Europe has ever tried to put in orbit.
The 20-tonne unmanned freighter left the Kourou spaceport at 0403 GMT, riding atop an Ariane 5 rocket.
The spectacular night launch in the South American jungle was declared a success once the ATV had separated from its booster 66 minutes after lift-off.
Look at the size of the ATV, dubbed "Jules Verne:"
Arod, my trusty Acer Travelmate C310, developed a serious problem last week. The external monitor port wasn't working. Now, for most of y'all, this isn't a huge deal, but for someone who projects powerpoint up on a screen regularly, it is a serious problem. It would cost at least $200 to fix the loose connector (assuming that's all it is). Additionally, Ubuntu has been telling me that the p-rimary battery in Arod is only charging to 35% of max capacity. That's another $100 for the battery. When the pricetag got to be 1/4 of the cost of a brand new computer, it was time.
I knew one thing for sure, I was going back to a 12" monitor. Arod is a 15.1" system. I let a colleague tease me into getting the bigger size two years ago, and it was a mistake. Arod didn't travel well in my backpack. Some of the trim cracked because titting the larger form factor in the pack was difficult. Another problem was that Arod, although he is a tablet PC, was uncomfortable to hold up and use in tablet mode in my lap on airplanes. With the second battery, he was just too heavy. I bought the Palm Lifedrive to read novels on, so that solved some of the in-flight issues, but the weight and size were still problematic. Back to the 12.1" size for me.
My research led me to several choices. HP sells two 12.1" form factors. One is a standard notebook that swivels so you can display DVDs better. This is an asset on airplanes, because you can start a video, swivel the screen, fold it back, and there you go. The other form factor is a full-fledged tablet system, where you swivel the monitor, fold it back, and the screen switches from landscape to portrait mode automatically. It also comes with a stylus so you can write on the screen directly. Both Stybba (Acer Travelmate C101) and Arod (Acer C310) are tablets. I've never seriously used the hand-written capability of these systems, but I do like the idea of being able to rotate the screen to portrait mode and read. This beats using the Lifedrive hands-down. The Palm device is good for novels, where everything is all text, but if I'm reviewing PDFs with illustrations, the full screen is essential.
I looked at Sony' s and Toshiba's small-form systems, and they were a bit pricey. I'm still not over the death of the power supply in the Sony Vaio notebook I was using back in 2001. Once bitten and all that. Acer's got the "Ferrari" line of notebooks, but they don't swivel. HP has figured out they should let the Compaq folks run with their notebooks, and it's the better product at the moment.
With the HP models looking lke the right road to travel, I started with the mail order places. CDW and PC Mall both had several models, but the tablets were still pricey, in the $1400 range. CompUSA had a couple of "off-lease" refurb models in the $800-$900 range. Circuit City and Best Buy had the best selection, ranging from $1000-$1200. I followed eBay for a while, looking at what was going at auction. It was mostly units a generation behind, and there were no bargains, with prices still in the $800-$1000 range. Wife has never been a used car person, so even though I said I was going to try to keep the purchase below a grand, she said, screw it, go buy something new. That put me back to Best Buy and Circuit City as the top choices. Since both have local stores, they're required to charge sales tax. They're both smart, though; they waive shipping charges. Either way, it's an additional $100 or so at this level.
Since I was paying sales tax anyway, I decided to go to the retail stores and have a look. We started at Circuit City, who had the HP TR1409, the 12.1" tablet with 1GB RAM for $1199 with a $50 mail-in rebate. The store closer to Lakeside Mall didn't have any in stock, so we decided to go out to the one in Kenner, with a stop at Best Buy along the way. Best Buy would give me some price comparison, plus they're an Apple dealer.
Yes, I seriously considered an Apple this time. There are two models I took a hard look at, the 13.1" MacBook, and the MacBook Air. The regular MacBook priced in the ballpark, $1199. It's light and thin. I would guess it doesn't weigh any more than the HP tablets, even though its monitor is larger. The Air priced at $1899, but wow, is it sweet. It's so thin and light! Yes, everything is external, but in the world of modern air travel, external devices aren't that big a deal. I can pack accessories in my suitcase, keeping the overall weight in line. The large capacity hard drives and the magic of DVD-ripping make it easy to stock up a few videos to pass the time until I'm reunited with my checked bag and the external storage. Plus, they're Macs. Working with UNIX and fiber-channel storage like I do, there's nothing marrying me to Windows anymore. I can run real Microsoft PowerPoint on a Mac, so classes aren't a problem.
Two factors swung me back to the HP: Tablet functionality and operating system. The two Macs were nice and thin, but they still have the classic airplane problem. When the guy sitting in front of you puts his seat back, you can't open the notebook to a 90-degree angle. This was a serious deal-breaker, but not the only one.
Operating system did play a role in my decision. I'll be the first to admit that Macs are better than PCs. Everyone I know who's ever switched to a Mac has never regretted it. The guy in the jeans is definitely cooler and better than the guy in the suit. In spite of this, however, MacOS is still a proprietary operating system. Yes, I know it's a UNIX now, but it is still what it is. I'm a big believer in open source. I want to continue to use Linux with the Gnome desktop and Mozilla applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird. So, I sighed and walked away from the Mac section at Best Buy.
Going back over to the HPs at Best Buy, I was startled. Circuit City was selling the 1409 for $1199 - rebate. Best Buy had the 1419 model for $1149, the same net price, but no hassle with the rebate. The two systems looked identical, so I had to read the specs. The computer at Best Buy was the 2GB RAM model, and for fifty bucks cheaper! Sold, says I. Unfortunately, they were out of that model! The guy says he can order it from their warehouse and ship it directly to the house, no extra charge. I was OK with that, particularly since I was able to have the luxury of putting my hands on the display and trying it out.
Last night, I cleared all of my stuff off of Arod, so I could pass him on to Kevin. Kev' s been using the desktop PC we've had in the den since the storm. It's in need of a re-format and general clean-out from all the crap he's accumulated on it, but otherwise, it's held up nicely. Last fall, I noticed that Kev started once again taking an interest in the piano, so I suggested to his godmother that she get him a MIDI bundle so he could connect his 66-key Yahama to the computer. We set up Stybba for that role, and he's had fun with it. Now he'll switch over to Arod, and I'm back on Stybba until the new computer arrives. I was trying some different things with Stybba and Ubuntu last night that I'll discuss on Linux-Blog.
Now, for the final issue when I buy a new computer, what to name it. Once upon a time, the first PC I ever bought was a Tandy 2000, an 80186-based box. It was in an all-white case and was much faster (8mhz at a time when the typical PC was 4.77mhz), so I named him Shadowfax, a tribute to the great white horse ridden by Gandalf in LotR. When I bought one of the original Compaq portables, he was named Stybba, the pony given him by Theoden, King of the Mark. Currently, Shadowfax is my main web/mail server, a 2U system in the rack. Stybba is the Acer Travelmate C101 that I'm on now. My desktop system is a Compaq named Hasufel, the horse loaned to Aragorn by Eomer in "The Two Towers." The 1U server in the rack that is now running the NOSRA website and wiki is Snowmane, the horse of Theoden King. The big 4U Compaq Proliant in the rack is Windfola, the rugged horse of Rohan that carried Dernhelm (Eowyn in disguise) and Merry to war in Gondor. My remaining AlphaStation, a 600au running Tru64 5.1b, is Roheryn, the horse Aragorn rode as a Ranger of the North. Roheryn was brought to him by the Rangers just before the war in Gondor began.
The new tablet PC will be, Firefoot, horse of Eomer, Knight of the Mark, sister-son of Theoden King, and King of the Mark in his own right after the passing of Theodin King:
Stybba will stay home, as my "e-book reader," and Firefoot will travel with me. I'm excited!
I knew one thing for sure, I was going back to a 12" monitor. Arod is a 15.1" system. I let a colleague tease me into getting the bigger size two years ago, and it was a mistake. Arod didn't travel well in my backpack. Some of the trim cracked because titting the larger form factor in the pack was difficult. Another problem was that Arod, although he is a tablet PC, was uncomfortable to hold up and use in tablet mode in my lap on airplanes. With the second battery, he was just too heavy. I bought the Palm Lifedrive to read novels on, so that solved some of the in-flight issues, but the weight and size were still problematic. Back to the 12.1" size for me.
My research led me to several choices. HP sells two 12.1" form factors. One is a standard notebook that swivels so you can display DVDs better. This is an asset on airplanes, because you can start a video, swivel the screen, fold it back, and there you go. The other form factor is a full-fledged tablet system, where you swivel the monitor, fold it back, and the screen switches from landscape to portrait mode automatically. It also comes with a stylus so you can write on the screen directly. Both Stybba (Acer Travelmate C101) and Arod (Acer C310) are tablets. I've never seriously used the hand-written capability of these systems, but I do like the idea of being able to rotate the screen to portrait mode and read. This beats using the Lifedrive hands-down. The Palm device is good for novels, where everything is all text, but if I'm reviewing PDFs with illustrations, the full screen is essential.
I looked at Sony' s and Toshiba's small-form systems, and they were a bit pricey. I'm still not over the death of the power supply in the Sony Vaio notebook I was using back in 2001. Once bitten and all that. Acer's got the "Ferrari" line of notebooks, but they don't swivel. HP has figured out they should let the Compaq folks run with their notebooks, and it's the better product at the moment.
With the HP models looking lke the right road to travel, I started with the mail order places. CDW and PC Mall both had several models, but the tablets were still pricey, in the $1400 range. CompUSA had a couple of "off-lease" refurb models in the $800-$900 range. Circuit City and Best Buy had the best selection, ranging from $1000-$1200. I followed eBay for a while, looking at what was going at auction. It was mostly units a generation behind, and there were no bargains, with prices still in the $800-$1000 range. Wife has never been a used car person, so even though I said I was going to try to keep the purchase below a grand, she said, screw it, go buy something new. That put me back to Best Buy and Circuit City as the top choices. Since both have local stores, they're required to charge sales tax. They're both smart, though; they waive shipping charges. Either way, it's an additional $100 or so at this level.
Since I was paying sales tax anyway, I decided to go to the retail stores and have a look. We started at Circuit City, who had the HP TR1409, the 12.1" tablet with 1GB RAM for $1199 with a $50 mail-in rebate. The store closer to Lakeside Mall didn't have any in stock, so we decided to go out to the one in Kenner, with a stop at Best Buy along the way. Best Buy would give me some price comparison, plus they're an Apple dealer.
Yes, I seriously considered an Apple this time. There are two models I took a hard look at, the 13.1" MacBook, and the MacBook Air. The regular MacBook priced in the ballpark, $1199. It's light and thin. I would guess it doesn't weigh any more than the HP tablets, even though its monitor is larger. The Air priced at $1899, but wow, is it sweet. It's so thin and light! Yes, everything is external, but in the world of modern air travel, external devices aren't that big a deal. I can pack accessories in my suitcase, keeping the overall weight in line. The large capacity hard drives and the magic of DVD-ripping make it easy to stock up a few videos to pass the time until I'm reunited with my checked bag and the external storage. Plus, they're Macs. Working with UNIX and fiber-channel storage like I do, there's nothing marrying me to Windows anymore. I can run real Microsoft PowerPoint on a Mac, so classes aren't a problem.
Two factors swung me back to the HP: Tablet functionality and operating system. The two Macs were nice and thin, but they still have the classic airplane problem. When the guy sitting in front of you puts his seat back, you can't open the notebook to a 90-degree angle. This was a serious deal-breaker, but not the only one.
Operating system did play a role in my decision. I'll be the first to admit that Macs are better than PCs. Everyone I know who's ever switched to a Mac has never regretted it. The guy in the jeans is definitely cooler and better than the guy in the suit. In spite of this, however, MacOS is still a proprietary operating system. Yes, I know it's a UNIX now, but it is still what it is. I'm a big believer in open source. I want to continue to use Linux with the Gnome desktop and Mozilla applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird. So, I sighed and walked away from the Mac section at Best Buy.
Going back over to the HPs at Best Buy, I was startled. Circuit City was selling the 1409 for $1199 - rebate. Best Buy had the 1419 model for $1149, the same net price, but no hassle with the rebate. The two systems looked identical, so I had to read the specs. The computer at Best Buy was the 2GB RAM model, and for fifty bucks cheaper! Sold, says I. Unfortunately, they were out of that model! The guy says he can order it from their warehouse and ship it directly to the house, no extra charge. I was OK with that, particularly since I was able to have the luxury of putting my hands on the display and trying it out.
Last night, I cleared all of my stuff off of Arod, so I could pass him on to Kevin. Kev' s been using the desktop PC we've had in the den since the storm. It's in need of a re-format and general clean-out from all the crap he's accumulated on it, but otherwise, it's held up nicely. Last fall, I noticed that Kev started once again taking an interest in the piano, so I suggested to his godmother that she get him a MIDI bundle so he could connect his 66-key Yahama to the computer. We set up Stybba for that role, and he's had fun with it. Now he'll switch over to Arod, and I'm back on Stybba until the new computer arrives. I was trying some different things with Stybba and Ubuntu last night that I'll discuss on Linux-Blog.
Now, for the final issue when I buy a new computer, what to name it. Once upon a time, the first PC I ever bought was a Tandy 2000, an 80186-based box. It was in an all-white case and was much faster (8mhz at a time when the typical PC was 4.77mhz), so I named him Shadowfax, a tribute to the great white horse ridden by Gandalf in LotR. When I bought one of the original Compaq portables, he was named Stybba, the pony given him by Theoden, King of the Mark. Currently, Shadowfax is my main web/mail server, a 2U system in the rack. Stybba is the Acer Travelmate C101 that I'm on now. My desktop system is a Compaq named Hasufel, the horse loaned to Aragorn by Eomer in "The Two Towers." The 1U server in the rack that is now running the NOSRA website and wiki is Snowmane, the horse of Theoden King. The big 4U Compaq Proliant in the rack is Windfola, the rugged horse of Rohan that carried Dernhelm (Eowyn in disguise) and Merry to war in Gondor. My remaining AlphaStation, a 600au running Tru64 5.1b, is Roheryn, the horse Aragorn rode as a Ranger of the North. Roheryn was brought to him by the Rangers just before the war in Gondor began.
The new tablet PC will be, Firefoot, horse of Eomer, Knight of the Mark, sister-son of Theoden King, and King of the Mark in his own right after the passing of Theodin King:
Stybba will stay home, as my "e-book reader," and Firefoot will travel with me. I'm excited!
