bitgeist

First SMS Spam

2007-08-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

Arrrg! Got my first SMS spam. Well, that is if you don't count the spam I get from my cellular provider. How nice to get stock pump and dump crap beeping on my phone, intruding on my viewing of Comedy Central's Daily Show. Now I know for sure that the communication systems that we have spent so much time building will collapse under the weight of all the unsolicited garbage. Somebody always

Problems with Skype login

2007-08-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Not a good day for Skype users:By Joosep on August 16, 2007. UPDATED 14:02 GMT: Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as

The Day the iPod Died

2007-08-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

I bought an 5th generation iPod video in June. It died last night. When I plug it into a computer, the screen flashes white repeatedly and the computer doesn't see it. Reset or disk mode doesn't work. Sigh. At least a call to Apple technical support was a pleasant experience, and they will ship me a replacement. I'm not sure what happened. I was listening to it in my car on the way to a

Don't Fake Value

2007-07-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

While trying to create picture "sets" in yahoo's flickr, I ran into the annoying limit of three sets for free users. I like a free service as much as the next person, and I understand that I'll have to pay if I want more than the basic experience, but I hate it when they try to up-sell based on arbitrary limits. Charge me for things that cost money, like more bandwidth or storage. Don't charge

Connecting to the SIP Network

2007-07-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

I found a nice list of Telephone numbers around the world that you can call to connect to the global SIP VoIP network.http://www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/pstnNumbers

Skype on the Nokia N800

2007-07-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Skype was released along with new firmware for the N800 on Friday. Too bad there doesn't seem to be any links to the news on Skype's website. Even though Gizmo was already available, Skype is important because so many people already have it and there is a healthy hardware market for Skype-enabled products.Skype is important for me because many people in my family already use it.

Loving my Nokia N800

2007-06-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

I've had my Nokia N800 for a few months, and I'm loving it. I take it with me when I travel, and I don't need my laptop as much any more. Battery life is great. I'm a consumer of information, so the on-screen keyboard isn't much of a problem. It wouldn't work for me f I was trying to write long papers or edit spreadsheets. I've even been using it as a crappy still camera and uploading to

Admitting a problem first step towards recovery

2007-05-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

It is really incredible to see Microsoft admitting just how insecure their previous versions of Windows are."In Windows Vista, the built-in administrator account is disabled by default. In previous versions of Windows, an Administrator account was automatically created during Out-of-Box-Experience (OOBE) with a blank password.""An Administrator account with a blank password is a security risk. To

Hashedpuzzle headers and Outlook 2007

2007-02-06T11:49:00.000-08:00

I noticed some new headers with messages sent by Outlook 2007. Microsoft has added the x-cr-puzzleid and x-cr-hashedpuzzle headers as part of their anti-spam measures. Not much showed up on internet searches, but I did eventually find this Microsoft document:http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/6/b/76b1a9e6-e240-4678-bcc7-fa2d4c1142ea/csri.pdfIn essence, the sender calculates a simple hash

When will I be able to buy a SIP phone off the shelf?

2006-11-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

Whenever I go to an electronics store, I see a bunch of Skype, Windows Live, and Vonage VoIP phones. I wish stored would sell basic SIP phones or ATAs that are not tied to a particular service. When the happens at the local retailer, then it means that VoIP is mainstream. How long? Bets anyone?

New Windows Defender, old definitions

2006-10-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Windows Defender moved from beta to release this week. For some reason they still ship definitions that are almost a year old. Why have people download the product and then connect for updates?

I wish Tor was useful

2006-10-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Given the recent disclosure of people's search habits, and the reports of Goverment requests for extended log retention, I though using something like Tor might be a good thing. I guess the Tor network is overloaded, as it is very slow. I know that I shouldn't give up on it. The best thing would be to run a Tor server and help out, but for the moment, I've stopped using it.

Free is not Freedom

2006-08-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Another example of how free (as in no cost) software is not really free (as in freedom):"Upon 45 days written notice Oracle may audit the use of the program.You agree to cooperate with Oracle's audit and provide reasonable assistance and access to information. You agree that Oracle shall not be responsible for any of your costs incurred in cooperating with the audit."This is from their free

iPod works like it should now

2006-06-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

I upgraded to Ubuntu Dapper, and now my firewire iPod works like it should. Perhaps I will finally wipe OSX off my PPC machine too.

What's the purpose of a model number?

2006-05-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

Two orders of Dell Latitude D610 laptops within a few months of each other. I get different video cards. First batch had ATI, second has integrated Intel. What is the point of a model number if the hardware keeps changing? A lot of vendors do this, and it really makes things difficult for open source users what want to know "what should I buy that works with open source software?"

Words from the Past - Still True?

2006-05-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

"...the Internet is taking away our power every day..."Bill Gates - http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/exhibits/17.pdf"My nightmare scenario is that the Web grows into a rich application platform in an operating system-neutral way...How should we extend the Web? At a high level, this is very clear. We should support all the key internet standards and become key suppliers of Internet technologies to

Spyware and Recovering Old Systems

2006-05-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

I hate spyware. I spent the good part of today cleaning up a users workstation. It is amazing how this stuff gets into a system and hides. I was ready to wipe and re-install.Also, had fun today pulling an old server out of storage to see if I could recover data from ten years ago. One volume was dead, but the important stuff was alive. I had to set up a client for the server software, which

Security: Too much of a good thing

2006-03-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a great article on the complexity of security:Every so often someone sits down and says to himself, "Security isn’t complicated enough. What would be really good would be if no one understood how to do it properly." One thing the Windows kernel does really well is security. Every single object has an associated access control list, which allows fine-grained access control to pretty much

MS Exchange Server = Admin Torture Box

2006-02-01T15:24:00.000-08:00

It is really unfortunate that Microsoft used the Jet Database engine for the Exchange Server 2003 message store. As our company was switching over to Exchange, my reading prepared me for corruption issues and lengthy off-line maintenance. Now I am going through the long process of fixing it up due to some odd corruption issues. The literature tells administrators to do some periodic

New Computer Hell

2006-01-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

I spent the afternoon helping a family member set up a new computer. It was not a fun experience, and I don't know how any regular person can stand it. The system shipped with no printed user guide or CDs, Windows XP kept popping up windows asking so many questions that it was overwhelming. Register this or that, do you want this or that Internet service, do you want the firewall to allow this

Broadcast Flag Keeps Coming Back Like A Bad Rash

2006-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Congress keeps coming back to the broadcast flag issue, and they were up to it again last week. Earlier, the FCC had caved into the content creators, only to have the decision reversed by the courts due to the FCC's lack of authority under current law. Now Congress is considering extending the authority of the FCC to allow them to issue a broadcast flag ultimatum. I hope Congress will remember

Microsoft Update Hell

2006-01-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

I really don't know how Microsoft expects people to keep their systems patched. Given the recent security problem with Outlook and TNEF attachments, I thought I would give Microsoft Update a try. Microsoft Update is a new service that combines Windows Update with Office Update. I tested it on a variety of configurations, and Office seems to be a problem because it often asks for the original

I guess anyone can be an engineer

2006-01-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this tech support reply from a "Tier Support Engineer, Gold Support" for a particular company that shall not be named. Their site used to work with both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but recently they had regressed. I just had to laugh at the support engineer's strange attempt to string some words together into a sentence:"Well i get your point that you are using NON IE

I can't borrow that book

2006-01-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

Not all books are created equal. Buy a book in the store, and you can lend it to a friend. Buy a book in electronic form, and you cannot lend it. This happened to me, and I think we are getting closer to the world that Richard Stallman describes in his essay: The Right to Read

iPod and Linux - Troubled Waters

2005-12-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

After a few weeks with the "ideal" iPod setup (Mac and iTunes), I decided to give Linux and the iPod a try. It hasn't gone too well with Ubuntu. I reformatted the iPod for the PC, and hooked it up through the firewire cable. Linux seems to read that a firewire device is being attached and removed, but not much else. Even putting the iPod into disc mode doesn't seem to make a difference. It is not

Inkscape is wonderful

2005-12-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

I've finished the logo for the bsdtalk podcast. Inkscape is just awesome for this kind of image creation and manipulation. With the GIMP and Inkscape, I can create all the web graphics that I need. Not bad for free.

Started a podcast: BSDTalk

2005-12-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

I couldn't find any podcasts dedicated to the BSD family of free operating systems, so I decided to start one. It is called BSDTalk. I guess I'll ramble on about my experiences with BSD and see if anyone listens. Publishing a podcast on iTunes requires giving them my credit card. I'm not a huge fan of that, so no iTunes yet. I did submit the feed to www.podcastalley.com

Saving Old Hardware with New Linux

2005-12-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

I ended up with an television tuner card that is so old that there are no Microsoft WindowsXP drivers for it. Put in it my Linux machine and it worked without any configuration. I'm able to view television with TVTime on my computer screen. Not bad. There is a computer junk shop in the next town that has a whole bin of these old TV cards for less than $20 each. Useless to new versions of

Spending time in the iPod cult

2005-11-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Through some luck, I ended up with a free used iPod. I'm playing with it using my iMac and iTunes to get the "real" experience. After a while, I'll try it with my Linux machine and compare. It is a version 4, so iPodLinux doesn't fully support it yet, but as soon as it does, I'll install Linux on the iPod itself. I've always felt fairly ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, but I'm

The Value of Newbies

2005-11-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Is there any value to "newbies" in the open source development model? New users are often treated with disdain. As an open source project becomes more popular, the number of clueless users seems to grow to the point where they can overwhelm the newsgroups with basic questions are already answered in the basic documentation. Should projects strive to make things easy for the novice, or should

Accessibility issues as a weapon

2005-11-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

Interesting discussion from Peter Korn's Weblog regarding the move to the Open Document Format in Massachusetts."However, given Microsoft's history in Massachusetts around accessibility, it is especially disappointing that they would try to use accessibility concerns to try to kill Massachusetts move to ODF. This is all the more galling because (a) most of the achievements in Windows

People forget about the license issues

2005-11-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

Why choose open source software? Freedom. How many times do you have to get burned by a license to learn? How many times do you have to discover some problem that is fixed in the next version, and then have to pay for the next version just for a bug fix? How many times will the license be changed to extract more money out of you, or features removed and placed in the more expensive version?

OpenBSD 3.8 Coolness

2005-11-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

OpenBSD 3.8 is out. I have been playing with this free clone of Unix for a few years, and recently have started using it in production. I really like the focus on security and simplicity. Upgrades and updates are still a little more complicated than I would like, but I'm sure it will improve over time.

Enough of these expensive formats!

2005-10-31T07:56:00.000-08:00

It is quite annoying that PDF is so popular as a government format, given that most people will need to purchase expensive software to fill it out electronically. The free readers allow you to print them after filling them out, but the free readers lack the ability to save and modify the forms. We really do need something better. I hope more forms are distributed in the Open Document format.

DRM Music Woes

2005-10-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

I feel sorry for people who have bought into media that is locked up in Digital Rights Management. A perfect example of the problems associated with that technology: Yahoo Music is changing prices and capabilities. "Monthly fees will jump from $6.99 to $11.99 USD...Current monthly subscribers can opt to keep their $6.99 pricing, which is still advertised by Yahoo, but will lose the ability to

It only works if you help

2005-10-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Computer programs crash. It doesn't matter if it is commercial or open source. I do feel that people have an obligation to report bugs with open source software. Too many people give up the second a piece of open source software crashes. What they don't realize is that it is a community effort, and that the developers really do want to fix the bugs and improve the software. Without feedback,

2005-10-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Cleaning up the messI spent six hours last night restoring a friend's Microsoft Windows computer to a usable state. It had been eaten alive by spyware and strange software conflicts. I've traded those types of problems for a different set by going with non-Microsoft at home. I've been using Linux at home for a few years, and so far I like the deal. Even though some tasks might be a little

2005-10-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Playing with MythtvMythtv is a nifty open source Personal Video Recorder (PVR) project. With a bittorrent plugin and an easy way to browse available online content, it could almost replace my Tivo. Too bad that all the available content is really just illegal copies.

2005-10-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

Asterisk Between FriendsI've been playing with the Asterisk "PBX and Voice over Internet Protocol Server" for a little while, but mostly as a plain PBX system thanks to a Digium Wildcard FXO. Today was interesting because I showed a friend how easy it is to setup with Asterisk@Home, and we created an IAX trunk between our systems. We also linked our systems to an outbound service that lets us

2005-10-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

miniVox MV100 USB SpeakerphonePicked one of these up today. Worked as advertised on commercial operating systems. Now I'm having fun getting it to work on the "other" operating systems. OpenBSD gives some nice details: uaudio0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0: FORTEMEDIA FM1083, rev 1.10/0.01, addr 2I will also try it on a recent version of Linux.

2005-09-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone should drive a Ford Escort.The world would be a better place if everyone drove one kind of car. Mechanics would not have to stock parts for multiple cars, which would save a lot of money. Safety would be improved by reducing the distraction of figuring out the controls while driving. Hiring mechanics would be easy because every mechanic would be certified on the Ford Escort. Quality

2005-09-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Google has started to support other operating systems on their video site by going with Macromedia Flash. This is perhaps a pragmatic way to solve the problem, but I would have preferred it if they had continued with the open source VLC player that they had originally used. Flash is multi-platform, but only to the platforms that Macromedia chooses to support. Linux on the PowerPC chip is not

2005-09-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

Voice over IP is really generating a lot of buzz right now. Unfortunately, the only common link between all the VOIP providers is the Plain Old Telephone Service lines. The only way to get Skype to talk to Vonage is to use the old phone network, which costs money. SIP seems to have a good shot at being the bridge, but not everyone is supporting it, and name space and directory services is still

2005-09-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

I don't want my free and open source operating system to replace Microsoft Windows. I just want it to be an option. I want to be able to choose my operating system and hardware. This requires open standards and protocols.Options drive competition, which drives innovation.

2005-09-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

I picked up an iRiver IFP-790 (256MB) for $50 at staples. This is a great MP3 player for podcasting for the price. The voice recording options are great. It has a good built-in microphone, and the line-in supports both line level and mic level input. I plugged my very cheap PC headset with microphone and got very decent quality. I think I'll look for a small stereo microphone. I guess the Samsung

2005-09-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

I bought a replacement for my much loved Creative MuVo TX-FM. The MiVo was perfect for the features that it offers, but it lacked some features that I wanted, so I picked up a Samsung YP-MT6. I wanted to give my money to a company that supports Ogg Vorbis, and I also wanted a device that would do mp3 encoding. The Samsung is nice, but the built-in microphone is just as crappy as the MuVo, and the

2005-09-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sent feedback to google about their lack of support for other operating systems in their video service. At least I got a repsonse, even if it was a generic one:Subject: Re: [#33636093] Please support other operating systemsHi,Thank you for sharing your feedback about the Google Video Viewer.Currently, your system must meet the following system requirements inorder for the Google Video Viewer to

2005-09-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

AJAX kicks butt. Microsoft feared the combination of Netscape and Java, which would put the applications on the network instead of the operating system. I'm sure Microsoft will find a way to kill AJAX, most likely with a competing technology that is not cross platform.I'm looking forward to the day when my browser is my window to my applications. I'm already fairly web-enabled, but the experience

2005-09-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

It is time for google to start supporting other operating systems. They derive a lot of benefit from the open source world, but their special services seem to only support Microsoft Windows.For a long time, google video has only supported Microsoft Windows. It is based on the open source Video Lan Client.Now, google talk is available, and only support Windows. Oh, and it is based on the open

2005-09-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how a recent version of a Linux desktop uses so little memory. I have an old 233mhz laptop with 128MB RAM. Ubuntu 5.04 will boot to the gnome desktop without touching swap space. The system is still slow due to the slow CPU and hard drive, but it works. I'm downloading the preview release of Ubuntu 5.10 to see if things get better or worse with a very new release. A lot of the

2005-09-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

I heard an interesting way to raise money in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina: Work from home for a day.A business can allow certain employees to work at home for a day, and the employee agrees to donate the gas savings to an organization such as the Red Cross. This makes funds available, and reduces that demand for fuel.Nifty.

2005-08-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

So here begins another rant about commercial software.I upload a quicktime movie (.mov) to a web site. When you click on the link on the web page, the quicktime application launches within the web browser window and plays the movie. Sounds nice, doesn't it? If you right click on the movie, you get some options, including some that are listed but greyed out and not available. If you attempt to

2005-08-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ok. So everyone and their uncle is talking about google's new IM and voice offering. Many see it as just Yet Another Instant Messenger. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps is doesn't have any amazing features, but I think it is still significant. Google chose the open Jabber protocol, XMPP. Jabber has been around for a while, and the protocol has been accepted as a standard. Jabber allows anyone to

2005-08-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

Just spent the weekend in the woods where there is no cell phone signal. What a nice break. It is almost sad that there is an effort to get rid of these "cell phone free" zones. Some parks are now offering wireless internet access. Geez!

2005-08-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

McDonalds provides proof that aliens are here. According to the CIA, the world population is currently 6,446,131,400, and McDonalds claims over 50 billion served. So where did those extra 44 billion people come from? Maybe they aren't people!

2005-08-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

It is still about freedom. Updated quicktime on OSX, and it pushed some advertising at me when quicktime started up again. Now I hear that the latest version of OSX no longer includes iMovie. Open Source is about freedom, and about not suffering under the whim of the commercial manufacturer.

2005-07-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided that Ubuntu Linux is my favorite desktop Linux. I've always been a Redhat fan, but Ubuntu has been great over the past few months. I still prefer RedHat for the server because I have more experience with it. Who knows if this will get me to take some time with Debian on the server.

2005-06-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

Today is the end of full support for Windows 2000, although security updates will be available for a few more years. I think there is real value to the system in this case. For under $200 dollars you get a system that receives security updates for ten years. I don't know how they make much money off that. The move to XP on the Desktop and 2003 on the server has been slow, as we are less than

2005-06-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

I've stopped listening to the radio. Podcasts are my friend now, and I don't know if I could handle my hour drive to work without them. Regular news is just too depressing. Between Tivo and Podcasts, I never watch or listen to anything that I don't want to. I can't wait until the U.S. Elections. I'll be missing all those political ads that they spend so much on.I've been using the Creative Muvo

2005-06-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Exchange 2003 - A complex beast. I think end users like it and administrators hate it. I haven't used the older versions, so it might be viewed as a wonderful thing by those who used previous versions. Compared to running a Unix mail server, though, it is nuts.

2004-04-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

"I'm willing to pay a premium just to have things work together." - Top manager speaking about Microsoft products. It is sad that people quickly forget the changes in Word formats, Outlooks tnef attachment types that can't be opened by Outlook Express, etc.

2004-01-29T07:17:00.000-08:00

Boy, am I behind the curve. I just stumbled on to the world of moblogs, or mobile web logs. Yafro seems to be a funny one. Typing is soooo last year. Now we just let a picture be a thousand words.

2004-01-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, Mplayer is an open source media player. I was having trouble with Apple's Quicktime player and some damaged MPEG files, so I downloaded MPlayer for OSX. Love it. It is amazing how well this open source stuff works on a variety of platforms. I could open files that Quicktime Player hated, and I could open more formats. I could also resize and go full screen. Once again, software that

2004-01-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

Nice book Peer-to-Peer. The world of peer to peer applications is more complex than I thought. I hope that no single vendor will grab this space and own it, although I can see it starting to happen with the IM space.

2003-12-31T06:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it is the end of 2003. Not a bad year, although not a great one. I'm actually earning less this year than last year due to cuts at work. Hopefully this will change if management can turn this ship around.

2003-12-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

I need to do a study: How many security holes are found by people within an software company vs. outside the company. This could be hard to do, as some internally discovered holes could be secretly pushed into an upgrade, which would skew the results. My guess...Most holes found from outside people with no access to source code. Anyone care to help?

2003-12-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

Competition is a great thing. My cell contract was up, but there were few perks for existing customers. Become a new customer somewhere else, get a cool new phone with all the great features, and get great prices on a new plan. Gotta love it. If your supplier is not giving you a good deal, it is sooo easy to go somewhere else. Not only can I change providers, but also phone manufactures if I

2003-11-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

Voice over Internet Protocol - Interesting. I'm thinking of ditching my land phone and trying one of those pure internet services. Updates later.

2003-10-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

I have nothing to say.

2003-10-27T10:34:00.000-08:00

"If you do not accept the terms of the license agreement..." Then what? How many people have a choice? How can an agreement hold if one side has no choice? Choice. So many people and organizations are moving deeper into technologies that provide no choice. Really too bad. How many people even read a license agreement? How many people know what is being done around the world to make them

2003-10-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

I hate having a cold.

2003-10-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Time to invest in power generators or solar electricity. It is amazing how unreliable the grids are becoming around the world. I'd love to be off grid.

2003-10-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

OpenOffice.org has come a long way. Check it out.

2003-10-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

It is a real shame that we use only a small portion of what our software can do. I am not sure that much of our new technology gives us any efficiency boost. Companies are bleeding money trying to buy the latest, but most employees don't use any more features of their word processor than they did back in WordStar for DOS. Why do I have to take cuts in benefits while higher-ups complain about

2003-10-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

How do we get people to care about freedom in the digital age? Most people don't care, they just want "it" to work. How do we get the general public to see the long term effects of builidng their life around proprietary protocols and formats? Ok, I think a million people out there are asking this question, so this blog entry seems so overdone. Why do I care? Why shouldn't I just let the

2003-09-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen." Samuel Adams

2003-09-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

Gotta love new CDs. A little piece of paper came in one that I recently purchased Thank you for purchasing this CD. Each audio track on this CD is protected from unauthorized copying. Great care has been taken to ensure a high-quality listening experience, with no degridation of normal CD sound quality. This CD is designed to play in standard audio CD players and also contains an

2003-09-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

bitgeist joins the world