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Take The Happy Road0
Joe M posted in Musing, homelife on December 31st, 2009

Combing the web, I came across Flip a bad day.

It’s a good piece on how to turn a not-so-great day into a better one.

I have always had the philosophy that, for the most part, having a good day or a bad day… is a choice we make.

With the new year, approaching fast, this seemed fit for mention.

The article suggests thinking of a place that promotes thoughts of joy and relaxation.

I have never really been a person to believe in metaphysics or imagery, but I think the article does make some important points.

Regardless of what you believe, as far as spirituality goes…

How you approach your day can have a cascading effect.

If you take the glass half-full approach to your day…

You definitely won’t seem to have as many bad occurrences take place.

If I had to add anything…

Find items of interest in the news, first thing, and take time to laugh!

Whether you listen to or watch a morning show… or you read your RSS feeds, feeding your brain, first thing can help keep you well-rounded and maintain balance.

There is something about finding and reacting to humor during the first hour of being awake.

It ignites body processes that block pain receptors.

There are plenty of websites to ignite both your interests and your sense of humor.

Find them using Google… and bookmark them.

Take 10 minutes each morning to read them.

With the new year upon us…

Now is a good time to make a choice to have a good day, and a good year!

DirecTV Announces 3D TV0
Joe M posted in homelife on December 30th, 2009

DirecTV announced today that it will launch a 3D capable channel.

The satellite becomes fully functional in March.

Many of the details are pretty unclear.

They say that recent DirecTV boxes will simply require a firmware upgrade, to allow the 3D capability.

There are several questions that arise.

What content will be broadcast via the channel?

Will it require special glasses to view?

How well this catches on, or how much a fad it is will depend on a few factors.

Will the channel broadcast mundane programs in 3D, like the news?

One thing is for sure.

If they broadcast documentaries on mushrooms growing…

That is not exactly something that people will want to watch in a wide audience.

From what I can tell, 3D TV will face the same challenge as most websites.

The public will want content.

It will have to be programming that people will want to see in 3D.

The fact that all programs might be broadcast in 3D, alone… will not be enough to sustain a big audience, for very long.

Will it require that you grab your 3D glasses every time you turn it on?

The TV that you display it on, will also have to be 3D capable.

As of right now, I am not sure if the details for what specifications a 3D HD capable TV will actually have to meet.

Minitube, Youtube Without A Browser0
Joe M posted in free stuff on December 29th, 2009

I came across Minitube.

It’s a YouTube client.

The amazing thing is… it offers a continuous stream of video and works outside of a browser.

Available for Linux and Mac OS X.

Right now, there is no Windows version available, but looks like it’s in the works.

This is what Youtube should aspire to be.

Installing Applications With One Click (Windows and Ubuntu)0
Joe M posted in free stuff on December 27th, 2009

Tooling around, I came across allmyapps.

It’s a website that allows you to choose several applications and install them all, in just one click.

From what I can tell, the apps available are either open source or proprietary.

For apps like OpenOffice, it’s great… and a breeze.

The apps are quite extensive.

I don’t think you’ll find any paid packages there, such as MS Office or Adobe Photoshop.

Operating Systems supported are as follows:

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP

Ubuntu 9.10

Ubuntu 9.04

Ubuntu 8.10

Ubuntu 8.04

It looks like a great shortcut for anyone that uses a great deal of popular (the ‘non-charge’ type) of applications.

For apps like Firefox, VLC, OpenOffice, Adobe Flash and several others… it looks promising.

The OLPC XO To Come0
Joe M posted in opinion on December 24th, 2009

The OLPC Foundation has announced plans for the XO-3.

It will be a tablet, 8 and 1/2 by 11 inches.

It will have a virtual keyboard, no buttons, and will be waterproof.

The target date for release is 2012.

The target price is $75, or less than $100.

The original XO’s target price was $100, but fell short.

When parts and production came into play, it turns out that they had to charge $199 instead of $100.

The speculation is… that the XO-3 will have a similar experience.

The cost of parts plus the costs of production may drive the price up from the $75 price point.

I am wondering if the tablet will have the same market effect, as the XO?

Plenty of experts and persons throughout the IT industry scoffed at the aspirations of the XO.

Microsoft and Intel were not very anxious to get involved with the project.

Since that time, Microsoft has done 180 degrees, and actually slimmed down XP and Windows 7 to run on the XO, and netbooks and nettops.

Intel has plenty of items on its schedule.

The next iterations of OLPC ventures include products featuring Via, AMD and ARM processors.

The XO 1.5 will be released in January 2010, and the XO 1.75 will be released in 2011.

Mix And Match Rudolph / Predator Trailer0
Joe M posted in Musing on December 23rd, 2009

Battling The Addiction To Flash Games1
Joe M posted in free stuff on December 22nd, 2009

I stumbled across a basketball game, done in Adobe Flash.

It’s pretty tempting… and might keep you occupied for a little while.

Or, if you need an activity for the kids… this is perfect.

Check it out here.

The Evolution Of Malware0
Joe M posted in security on December 21st, 2009

Security is a hot topic these days.

In an article I found here, the author discusses the practice of scraping RAM from end devices.

That could mean POS terminals, or possibly printers.

The impression that I got was that mainly POS terminals tied into a Windows server system were at risk.

I would not be as bold to say that it affects only those systems.

It looks as though malware has really gotten sophisticated.

A team at Verizon has published a warning, in the form a report.

The scrapers could be used to harvest credit card, PIN or other critical account information.

The team at Verizon studied a spike in fraud, and traced it back to activity at a casino.

The information could be dumped to a server, in the form of a DLL file.

Once the information is dumped… the technology and the processes have been designed to traverse and send the data back to the thieves.

The article recommends several steps to take in security measures to lower the possibility of POS systems from being compromised.

The recommended actions are good practices for all systems, not just POS systems.

It’s a good read, even if you do not have a firm understanding of credit card or POS systems.

If you perform a security role, at all, it is a must read.

McDonald’s Offers Free Wi-Fi in 20100
Joe M posted in free stuff on December 20th, 2009

One interesting story this week, I came across.

McDonald’s will offer free wi-fi in 2010.

As a side note, I thought it was free.

I was wrong.

Currently, McDonald’s charges $2.95 for 2 hours of wi-fi access.

Although it might seem minuscule, this could be a pre-cursor to more free public wi-fi.

As trends in the monetization of services change, so does the product delivered to the end user or consumer.

Not too long ago, people were getting charged hundreds of dollars for Internet access, per month, by Internet Providers.

Charges and fees were hard to understand.

Companies like AOL would shock customers with large bills at the end of the month.

When the customer called to discontinue service, they were met with great difficulty.

How times change.

Now, or soon, wi-fi will be free at participating McDonald’s.

To my understanding, the freebie will come only at McDonald’s restaurants that currently offer the wi-fi service.

Shuttleworth Names New CEO at Canonical0
Joe M posted in opinion on December 18th, 2009

Canonical is the company responsible for the delivery of the Ubuntu Linux Distribution.

Mark Shuttleworth has been the CEO at Canonical.

Today, he announced that he is handing over the job of CEO at Canonical to Jane Silber.

He said he will still be quite active in Canonical, but feels great confidence in Jane Silber’s abilities.

Silber has been the COO of Canonical since the beginning.

Shuttleworth feels that he can continue to contribute on a greater scale to Canonical, as a result.

He wants to concentrate on product development and business partnerships.

What does this mean for Ubuntu?

According to Shuttleworth’s statements…  Ubuntu has a clear direction.

It will not change.

From the announcements…  Shuttleworth is pleased with the progress made at Canonical.

So, what I see…

Shuttleworth set the groundwork and the foundation.

He is moving forward to pursue greater opportunites for Canonical.

Over the past few years, Ubuntu has become a contender in the desktop.

People that would have never dreamed of trying a Linux distribution, now sing the praises of Ubuntu.

From what I have found…

The install and performance have won out, in comparison to my experiences with Windows.

The knee-jerk reaction of some, might be that things may not change for the better at Canonical.

My reaction is… I think Shuttleworth knows what he is doing.

Congratulations to Mark Shuttleworth on his new opportunities.

Dungeons and Dragons Demo’d on MS Surface0
Joe M posted in products on December 17th, 2009

SurfaceScapes Gameplay Session from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

The $99 Notebook from Cherrypal1
Joe M posted in homelife, products on December 16th, 2009

Cherrypal has announced a $99 notebook, the Cherrypal Africa.

Although it’s probably closer to a netbook…

The notebook reportedly has a 7 inch screen, a 400 MHz ARM processor, with 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB flash drive.

The notebook runs Windows CE and Linux.

The notebook is called the Cherrypal Africa, and is aimed at users in third world countries.

It’s much like the OLPC XO, but at half the price.

Since this is the initial model of the Cherrypal Africa…

I am waiting to see what reviews it gets.

The Cherrypal website boasts that the laptop is efficient and green.

I would love to see this, after evolving for about 18 months.

With netbooks still being a growing market…

ARM is getting positioned to take their place.

While reading about the Cherrypal Africa… I am not overly optimistic about this particular model.

I do think it shows promise.

It will help drive prices for the consumer down, more and more.

The day will be arriving soon, when we can buy a laptop that will do what we need, or our basic stuff…

Yet, won’t cost a small fortune.

Media Center Delivery With XBMC Live0
Joe M posted in free stuff, homelife on December 15th, 2009

I have been indulged in my media center, lately.

I am enjoying the delivery of content, via the web.

I was thrilled to stumble across XBMC a few weeks ago, and especially the Linux port.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been playing with getting it operational.

I went through some gyrations with the interface.

Messing around and searching sites… I found that there was an actual, bootable live CD version, complete with a USB installer… XBMC Live!

I downloaded it, and I can say that I am pleased with the operation.

It’s not exactly intuitive, but it is effective.

The plain vanilla interface for XBMC is great, for local music and video files.

For web content, you need a little help.  (I did, anyway.)

After Googling, I found that the best way to get the plugins for it, is to install SVN Repo Installer.

The initial boot screen for XBMCLive offers an option for creating a bootable USB drive.

It seems to work pretty well.

As for the SVN Repo Installer, I used the following guidelines and instructions:

From a command line on your XBMC Live machine…

1. Enter plugins directory

cd /home/xbmc/.xbmc/plugins/programs

2  Download installer

$ wget http://xbmc-addons.googlecode.com/svn/packages/plugins/programs/SVN_Repo_Installer.zip

3. Expand the file

$ unzip SVN_Repo_Installer.zip

OR   You can also use tar to expand the file, as it comes in most Linux distributions.

$ tar -xvf SVN_Repo_Installer.zip

4.  Configure the XBMC GUI

Settings >> skin settings >> home window

Turn on the show programs option in the main menu.

Go to main menu and choose Programs.

From inside of Programs, you can navigate and find the plugins.  Within that listing, you will find the SVN Repo Installer, and subsequently several plugins for video, scripts and music.

With the interface for XBMC, I love the fact that I have web delivered media, at the convenience of a menu-driven system.

Prior to discovering it (and Boxee), I was resolved to simply downloading individual media files, through a web browser, then trying to find a suitable player (and settings!) with which to play each one.

XBMC is becoming a great addition to my media center.

With XBMC Live, you can use a regular machine in your household, and make it dual purpose… without ever touching the hard drive, or your Windows install.

The Cost Of Being Online And Being Social0
Joe M posted in opinion on December 13th, 2009

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, said in a recent CNBC interview:

“I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.”

Asa Dotzler, director of community development for Mozilla, saw the interview.

He was not pleased, to say the least.

He has also proclaimed that the privacy policy for Microsoft’s Bing is better than the privacy policy for Google.

You can read his blog posting here.

For the most part, I would tend to think that looking at an individual’s data in the mass of Google infrastructure would probably be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Sure, if you are a little paranoid… and think that they are actually out to get you… it could be unsettling.

Reading over the posting, I am scratching my head.

I approach the whole internet thing, much like Mr. Schmidt.

I doubt there is anything that most of us do, that anyone would find interesting.

Even though Bing’s privacy policy may have better wording… I think I would still rather trust my privacy to Google.

In the big scheme of things… I have the opinion that there is not a search engine or ISP out there that will not buckle to a government agency, if pressured… if only due to a loophole within a privacy policy.

As we continue to find new ways to socialize online… one of the tradeoffs is…

That our information is easier to access… and more of our information is available for access.

Microsoft Introduces exFAT For OEM Devices – For A Small Fee0
Joe M posted in products on December 11th, 2009

Microsoft won a lawsuit against Tom-Tom earlier this year for using the FAT file system.

Microsoft is now offering to license exFAT, an updated version of FAT…

To the tune of $300,000 per license.

FAT is the File Allocation Table.  It’s leftover from the days of DOS.

exFAT is the updated, feature-added version.  Call it the descendent of FAT, if you will.

Since that time, many manufacturers have decided to use FAT as an easy platform to base their flash memory devices, as well as physical-based storage devices.

That could include cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, USB sticks… just to name a few.

It could include any device that has storage capacity.

So far, Microsoft has signed Sony, Canon and Sanyo.

exFAT provides some updated features from the original FAT and FAT32 systems.

It promises more file handles (for more files) and a 256 TB storage capacity.

It also offers some manufacturers the ability to customize the filesystem.

I am not sure, if that means, “Lock it down,” and / or, “in a proprietary format.”

Does that mean that manufacturers will be able to lock down or control a consumers ability to copy / share data stored on such a device?

It makes a person wonder.

It ought to be interesting to see what flexibility and application exFAT provides.

Who will be happier with it, consumers or OEMs?

Google Tackles Real-Time0
Joe M posted in products on December 10th, 2009

Google signed a deal with Twitter and Facebook.

Now, when you search on an item…

Google will search Twitter and Facebook to see what results come up.

If there are entries in either, they will appear in the format of the bottom part of the picture, above, periodically scrolling.

If no one is talking about the item… it will not appear on the search results page.

(So, it has to be an item that is ‘hot’… and lots of people are buzzing about it.)

Extensions For Google Chrome Now Available0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on December 9th, 2009

Google has released their extensions for Chrome.

There are more than 300 available.

You can check them out here.

Boxee Unveils The Beta0
Joe M posted in free stuff, homelife on December 8th, 2009

Boxee announced their hardware delivery for 2010.

(Up until now, I have been running the Alpha version, with the rest of the public.)

I watched the news conference via Livestream, earlier.

Boxee Chief Executive Avner Ronen was onstage, to facilitate the majority of the announcements.

During the press conference in New York, they unveiled the new application.

It looks promising.

An improved UI…

One thing that jumped out at me, was the ability to queue content.

So, while you are watching one show, you will be able to run a process in the background that will have the next show ready to play.

For now, the application is in Beta.

That Beta version is only being tested in a select group of users, not available freely to the general public.

It’s been reported that the application will be available to the general public, in early 2010.

Also, during the conference, they announced their partnership with D-Link.

They talked about the hardware in somewhat vague and ambiguous terms.

They will release a hardware box.

It will have wifi and have an SD slot.

Clearly, from the conference… there will be several subscription services available to run on the Boxee application and the hardware.

Major League Baseball and Netflix were two services that were mentioned.

The statement was made that there would be no support for iTunes.

Not sure if that means no access to the store, or media play… or both.

From the news conference…

The plan is to release a version of the Beta to the public, in January, at CES.

The conference is quite lengthy…  but a must for the content addict.

If you are interested, you can watch it here.   (Not sure how long the link will be active.)

Amaze Your Friends With Klingon Tweets0
Joe M posted in Musing, free stuff on December 7th, 2009

Okay…

Just for fun.

I came across this, and could not help but smile.

Tweet in Klingon is a site that lets you post tweets in Klingon.

(A tweet is a post to Twitter.)

The tweet is posted, with a link to an English translation.

I usually roll my eyes when I hear of anyone ’speaking in Klingon.’

For the most part… it sounds a little hokey.

But this site is pretty interesting.

I especially like the prefabbed tweet, “Your mother has a smooth forehead.”

Got to be a little bit of a geek to get that one.

How Will Chrome OS Affect The Desktop User Space?0
Joe M posted in Musing, homelife, opinion on December 6th, 2009

Listening and watching the news over the past few weeks, Google has positioned itself to enter deeper into the user space.

With Chrome OS being released in somewhat of a prototype…

Speculation is on the rise.

Google has also announced that it will release extensions for the Chrome browser, next week.

With all of this activity…

Many people seem to think that Chrome OS will be a threat to Microsoft’s various versions of Windows.

If you have seen a demo of Chrome OS, you know that it is very much an implementation of an idea based on cloud computing.

Since it’s based on the Linux kernel, it should be secure and offer some advantages for the common user.

Will people dump their XP and Windows 7 install to run Chrome OS?

If what we have seen with the demo of Chrome OS, so far, is any indication, I would say, “No.”

It will be a good tool to use, for each of them.

If you need to access an online account, securely… or your Windows install is hosed..

Chrome will offer a great alternative in which to perform research on the problems with it.

It will offer ways to check your gmail and your online docs.

From that standpoint, it will be a great addtional tool to have.

Since computers and the work force are still evolving…

There is plenty of space left in the market for several more appliances.

Specialized tasks can be handled accurately with different Operating Systems.

The fact is… even though we will use each in different ways… there is plenty of application for both Windows and Linux.

If you look around your household, you may find Linux running on things you never thought possible.

Microsoft aims to have a similar offering with Windows in the appliance space… but for now, their biggest domination is still the desktop market.

The bottom line is… the desktop, appliances, cloud computing… all will work best to complement each other in design.

My opinions and preferences aside… for users and administrators… it would be wise to broaden your knowledge on all of these.

Keep on your toes, and pay attention.

Google DNS Is Now Online0
Joe M posted in Home Support, free stuff on December 4th, 2009

Google has now moved into another venture.

Google Public DNS is now available for use.

DNS is the abbreviation for Domain Name System.

In the simplest terms possible…

It is a system of servers on a network that provide resolution to domain names.

Since the internet and many networks are based on TCP/IP protocol, everything uses an IP address.

It’s a system that uses four octets, separated by periods or dots.

192.168.10.111 is an example.  You can think of it, much like a home address.

That means that when you type www.acmesupplycompany.com into your browser…

Something has to tell the servers, routers, firewalls and the other infrastructure on the internet or your network the IP address of www.acmesupplycompany.com.

That’s it, in a nutshell.

There are thousands of posts, pages and minutia describing DNS and it’s function available for anyone to peruse.

Google is hoping to speed up browsing with caching, and add some security to the name resolution process.

Their hopes are to help users avoid malicious links and websites.

A good example?

You are on your favorite social website.  Another user has a virus, which makes a post to the site.

“Check out this link… It has some information about you, you need to read.  http://www.xxxyyyzzz.com.”

Without thinking, you click the link.

If you use Google DNS, if www.xxxyyyzzz.com has malicious code or is viral in any way, it will redirect you to another page with a warning first.  You will then have an option to continue on to the site, or back out.

What’s in all this for Google?

Outside of hearing the brand name, once again…

Google will definitely have access to the statistics and traffic going across their DNS.

I am sure they can find a use for all that information.

The only word of caution:  Make sure you read and understand the terms of use and privacy statement.

Do that, prior to making the changes and agreeing to the terms of service.

With that said, you can find the instructions for setting up your computers and routers at home to use the new service here.

Playing With Xubuntu And USB Drives0
Joe M posted in Home Support, free stuff on December 2nd, 2009

I spent some time helping a friend of mine a couple of days ago.

After expressing my thrills with Boxee, she decided to give it a spin.

She installed it, but evidently it was running dog slow.

After asking a few questions, we came to realize… she was trying to run it on Vista.

She had 2 GB of RAM and a Core Duo.  I am not sure what the processor speed was.

Still wanting to give her a chance to experience it… I decided to pull out a couple of 4 GB USB drives.

I downloaded and burned Xubuntu x86 (9.10) to a CD.

I decided to use Xubuntu, in hopes that the lighter Xfce desktop would make a difference in her performance.

Wanting her to have full function on the web when she uses it, I downloaded java, flash, etc.

When I attempted to install Boxee I was met with:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Downloads$ sudo apt-get install boxee
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
boxee: Depends: liblzo1 but it is not installable
Depends: libdirectfb-1.0-0 but it is not installable
Depends: libkrb53 but it is not installable
E: Broken packages

After Googling the error (Step 1 in all your troubleshooting, unless you know the answer off the top of your head), I found the packages at the following locations:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/i386/liblzo1/download
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/d/directfb/libdirectfb-1.0-0_1.0.1-11ubuntu1_i386.deb
http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/i386/libkrb53/download

Boxee installed easily, after downloading and installing the packages, manually.

As a side note…

I found that, to keep from duplicating work, it was easier to install items, then make a backup copy of the drive to the extra drive.

I opened a console and used the following command:

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb1 bs=128K of=/dev/sdc1 bs=128K

sdb1 was the drive I was copying from… sdc1 was the drive I was copying to.  The block size was 128K, the increments in which I copied the information, from one drive to another.

I would install a few items, then make a backup.

If I blew something up, during an install, I had a fallback and functional copy from one or two steps earlier.

I could copy the backup and revert back a few steps, instead of starting the process over.

I am still working through some minor issues, and getting ready to test the drives on older hardware.

The Future Of News On Google0
Joe M posted in Musing, opinion, products on December 1st, 2009

I have been watching the public exchange over Rupert Murdoch and Google, over the past few weeks.

Murdoch essentially wants Google to quick linking to articles on his companies related news sites.

It’s Murdoch’s observation that Google has been earning revenue by indexing articles from his organizations.

It has been reported over the past few days… that Murdoch’s news companies have been in talks with Microsoft… for the potential possibility of being exclusively indexed exclusively by Micrsoft’s Bing search engine.

So… what we could eventually see is Google News that is missing links from Murdoch’s companies.

Or… will we?

Google may not have the resources, now.

But what is to stop them from venturing into an alternative?

What if they built their own news organization from the ground up… or purchased a fledgling news company?

Thinking about what happened with Microsoft… Google may approach Rupert Murdoch’s observations as a challenge.

I might be completely off base.

Google seems to have a knack for drawing an audience… and utilizing their advertising dollar.

If they approach it the right way… It could turn out to be a positive spin of events, instead of a negative.

The interesting thing is… over the past few years that Google has been the dominant force in search…

People and companies have spent millions of hours trying to figure out how to rise to the top of search results for Google.

That’s a result of realizing the benefit of having their links at the top of each.

The major news organizations have wound up at the top… and yet, they feel that Google is not allowing them to earn their full revenue potential.