Les Jones

Must tell JustLisa

Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 2 Comments |

From a Gmail RSS ad - www.lisa.com - domain name for sale $2,400,000 USD

Australia set to test Internet censorship

Sunday, November 16th, 2008 | Politics, Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

Herald Sun - Australian web filter to block 10,000 internet sites:

“It is unclear how ACMA will scale up their blacklist to 10,000 websites and what will go on the list,” he said. Conroy said the list would contain illegal and unwanted content but we still have to see what would end up on that list.

“Under the current mandate that includes adult material, which would mean most material that could be rated R and, in some circumstances, material rated MA15+.”

Holy [CENSORED IN AUSTRALIA]! Rated R material could be banned from the Internet Down Under.

So could MA15+, which is roughly the equivalent of the PG13 rating in the U.S. “The “MA15+” rating is restricted to those 15 and over meaning those under 15 cannot legally view the film without being accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. It may contain strong bloody violence if justified by context, strong implication of sexual activity, and strong impact coarse language (though ‘very coarse language’ should be infrequent), and ’strong themes’.”

Oddly, the same material might be played on Australian broadcast TV after 9:00 PM.

Both are not suitable for people under 15, but this is not legally restricted as TV is a broadcast medium. MA15+ rated material can be shown between 9:00pm and 5:00am. The AV15+ rating signifies that the program contains significant violence, and may only be shown between 9:30pm and 5:00am. If it is being viewed in a cinema, an adult must accompany a child if it is under 15.

Note: R18+ rated material is sometimes shown on broadcast television in Australia such as Eyes Wide Shut, Basic Instinct, Pulp Fiction, The Godfather and Kill Bill. However, such films are usually edited to make the films more appropriate for an M, MA15+ or AV15+ audience. Incidentally, Australian broadcast television is considerably more relaxed about sex and coarse language than the American networks.

I suppose it’s the height of foolishness to expect logic or consistency in censorship laws, but these seem to be pretty random.

How to add an image to your RSS feed

Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

I noticed this Google feed included an image in the browser. Here’s the source code showing how it’s done:

<image>
<title>News for EarthLink, Inc. - Google Finance</title>
<url>/finance/s/qv80KJx2Jqw/images/logo_blue_small.gif</url>
<link>http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ELNK&amp;client=news-rss</link>
</image>

See, this is why I read The Onion: handy computer tips

Monday, November 10th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

The Onion - Gmail Offers Drunk E-Mail Protection: “Gmail now provides an optional series of questions to make sure users are relatively sober before sending an e-mail.” And it’s true - go to Gmail’s Settings and click Labs.

For years I’ve been saying email programs need this:

Intelligent software didn’t avert the current financial crisis

Friday, November 7th, 2008 | Economics, Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

Business Week - What the Market Crash Taught Me About Tech:

For years I’ve listened to software companies tell us that, with technology, our decision-making will be made easier. And we’ll be making better decisions. We’ll have better facts. We’ll be able to do better analysis—in small businesses, large enterprises, and financial-services firms.

And yet, the markets still crashed despite all this cutting-edge magical stuff. Where were the alerts? The safeguards? Those special programs and whiz-bang tools that so many tech companies promised? It didn’t do much for Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and AIG. Those guys had a lot of great and expensive technology, but they still tanked.

This financial crash has taught me that even the best technology doesn’t do a very good job predicting anything—or even helping business owners and managers make decisions. At best, technology can help us do something faster. But we are a long way off from artificial intelligence. So, the next time some software sales guy tries to tell me that his business application will do anything more than increase productivity, I’ll be hard-pressed to believe it.

If that strikes your interest, read Jaron Lanier’s year 2000 piece One Half of a Manifesto about the ongoing failure of artificial intelligence to live up to its claims:

An official Turing Test is held every year, and while the substantial cash prize has not been claimed by a program as yet, it will certainly be won sometime in the coming years. My view is that this event is distracting everyone from the real Turing Tests that are already being won. Real, though miniature, Turing Tests are happening all the time, every day, whenever a person puts up with stupid computer software.

For instance, in the United States, we organize our financial lives in order to look good to the pathetically simplistic computer programs that determine our credit ratings. We borrow money when we don’t need to, for example, to feed the type of data to the programs that we know they are programmed to respond to favorably.

In doing this, we make ourselves stupid in order to make the computer software seem smart. In fact we continue to trust the credit rating software even though there has been an epidemic of personal bankruptcies during a time of very low unemployment and great prosperity.

We have caused the Turing test to be passed. There is no epistemological difference between artificial intelligence and the acceptance of badly designed computer software.

Fishing scam: bogus Network Solutions email

Friday, October 31st, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

I got an email yesterday that was fishing for my Network Solutions login that I use to administer my domain names. I knew it was bogus because they sent it to a different address than the one I gave to Network Solutions.

In the email below the www.networksolutions.com text was hyperlinked to http://www.networksolutions.com.com42.asia/.

Continue reading the rest of this post ›››

EXIF viewer plug-in for Firefox

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 | Photos, Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

FxIF is a Firefox plug-in that displays EXIF data that cameras record to image files. Once it’s installed just right-click on an image and choose Properties to see what settings the photographer used. It’s almost like View Source for photographs.

Note that some image software trashes the EXIF data, so sometimes there won’t be anything to see. For instance, here’s the original photo I uploaded and that I used to generate the EXIF data above. Here’s the smaller preview that the WordPress software that runs this blog created. In the process of downsizing the image WordPress threw out the EXIF info.

Thanks to Ken Rockwell for the tip on customizing the D40’s EXIF comment setting.

One thing Internet Explorer does better than Firefox

Thursday, October 9th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 2 Comments |

I use Firefox on all of my computers, but I’ve been using Internet Explorer 7 in the hotel’s business center this week.

IE7 has one feature I like better than Firefox. When you right-click to open a link in a new tab, Firefox opens the new tab at the far right of your open tabs. I sometimes have a dozen or more tabs open, so it’s a long drive to get to that last tab. IE7 opens the new tab immediately to the right of the current tab, which is much smarter.

Photokina announcements and new Photoshop CS4

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 | Photos, Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

The Photokina photography show is this week in Cologne. Digital Photography Review has a roundup of news.

Lots of cameras and lenses debuted, but the big software news was version 4 of Adobe’s Creative Suite, including Photoshop CS4. Wired and Macworld have previews. There’s also an extended version of CS4 with more 3D features.

CS4 uses your video card’s graphics processor unit (GPU) to accelerate many operations. Besides just speeding things up, Adobe has used the new-found speed to make some preview operations available that weren’t practical before. For instance, instead of typing scaling factors into a dialog box and waiting for the results you can now scale images up and down in a live preview by dragging your mouse.

CS4 is available in a 64-bit version. With 32-bit operating systems and 32-bit processors you’re limited to 4 GB of RAM. No matter how cheap RAM becomes or how much you can afford, a 32-bit operating system can only address 4 GB of the stuff. (2³² = 4,294,967,296 bytes, which is 4 Gigabytes.)

In theory a 64-bit operating system you can address up to 17.2 billion gigabytes of RAM, though 64-bit versions of Windows are limited to 128 GB and most 64-bit processors also have limitations.

Gmail now offers encryption of all pages

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

Found at Slashdot. To SSL encrypt your browser’s interaction with Gmail follow these steps:

1. In the upper right corner of the Gmail window click Settings.

2. In the General settings tabs that is the default scroll to the bottom. Select “Always use https.”
3. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
4. Close Gmail.
5. When you re-open Gmail confirm that all page URLs begin with https instead of http.

Doing the Backup Thing

Thursday, August 7th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

The last two nights I’ve done some backup work.

Last night in Apple iTunes it was File | Backup to Disk. That was 5 DVDs of MP3 data. I still need to grab 500 songs off of my wife’s laptop when she’s not using it.

Tonight in Google Picasa it was Tools | Backup Pictures for 8 DVDs of picture and video data.

All of the DVDs are going off-site. I also have a spare 60 GB hard drive that gets plugged into a USB enclosure periodically to back up everything in My Documents. That drive also gets taken offsite.

Onsite there’s a 320GB USB/Firewire drive for more frequent backups. I’m finally starting to feel good about our backup strategy. The DVD burner on the new PC helped, as did making a new hard drive on the new desktop PC our primary storage device. We dodged some bullets the last couple of years when we relied only on our increasingly-old laptops that our toddlers routinely body-slammed onto the wood floors. New desktop + onsite backup + multiple offsite backups = peace of mind.

Steve Jobs Pancreatic Cancer is a Rarer, but more Survivable Type

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

Last week I asked why people weren’t more concerned with Steve Jobs’ having pancreatic cancer, which is a particularly deadly form of cancer. It turns out he has a less common form that’s also less deadly. From USA Today - Apple CEO Steve Jobs brings pancreatic cancer to the fore:

Q: What type of tumor does Jobs have?
A: There are several kinds of pancreatic cancer. His tumor reportedly is one of five types that begin in hormone-producing cells.
These types of tumors tend to be slow-growing, says pancreatic cancer specialist Margaret Tempero, deputy director of the University of California-San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Q: How does an islet-cell tumor differ from other kinds of pancreatic cancer?
A: About 85% of pancreatic cancers are adenocarcinomas. They grow quickly and are far more deadly than the type of tumor that Jobs had.

Q: How common is pancreatic cancer?
A: According to the American Cancer Society, 31,860 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. Islet-cell cancers are very rare, however, with only 200 to 1,000 new cases a year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

HTML Help Files No Longer Work on Windows Server Apps?

Friday, August 1st, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

I knew that the help system on one of our server applications didn’t work. Someone just told me why. There was a Microsoft patch that intentionally stopped HTML help file access from servers across the network for security reasons. Microsoft support file here. In my case I moved the help file to my PC and ran it from there.

Free Windows Security Software

Thursday, July 31st, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 3 Comments |

Tam’s post about computer security prompted a comment that grew too long, so I made it a post here. Here are some free Windows security apps you might be interested in.

Last year someone turned me on to Iobit’s Advanced WindowsCare and I like it. It checks for spyware, bad registry settings, and general Windows optimization. The personal edition is free. One tip: WindowsCare doesn’t automatically check for updates. Before you run it each time you should click on the Options menu and choose Update to make sure you have the most current version of the program and threat database.

I’ve used Microsoft’s free Defender anti-spyware software since it was first released. It’s stable and updated frequently.

My PC repair guy recommends AVast as a good, free anti-virus solution that doesn’t slow down your system. I’m going to give it a try when my McAfee subscription runs out.

As far as Web browsers, Firefox has generally been more secure than Microsoft Internet explorer and Firefox 3.0 has even better security. I got a comment on my blog today that smelled like spam (pardon the pun). I followed the link to check it out and Firefox warned me I was loading an attack site and asked if I was sure I wanted to continue.

For WiFi security, this is a pretty good selection of advice.

Steve Jobs’ Pancreatic Cancer is a Bombshell - Why Isn’t Anyone Paying Attention?

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 6 Comments |

I’m amazed that people are blasé about the fact that Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs had pancreatic cancer. This is terrible news for Jobs and Apple, and most people don’t seem to realize how dire his situation is. Here’s the casual mention in Ad Age.

So when Mr. Jobs catches a cold, Apple sneezes. And that’s why the rumors and innuendo swirling about his health are particularly serious for Apple. It started with blogosphere buzz in June after Mr. Jobs — who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 — appeared extremely thin, bordering on frail, while introducing the latest version of the iPhone.

You probably have friends and relatives who had cancer, got treatment, and lived for years or even decades. It’s an increasingly common and happy outcome thanks to medical advances. The difference is that those people didn’t have pancreatic cancer.

I know about pancreatic cancer because my friend James at work had it. That’s when I learned that it is one of the especially bad cancers that people don’t survive for long. According to Wikipedia 95% of pancreatic cancer victims die within five years of the initial diagnosis. Jobs was diagnosed with in 2004. It’s now 2008. That’s four years. It’s unlikely he’ll be alive in 2010.

Last week you may have heard that Randy Pausch, best known as the professor who gave the “Last Lecture,” died. When he gave that lecture he knew he had pancreatic cancer and his days were numbered. He died less than two years after his initial diagnosis.

Steve Jobs is living on borrowed time. He’s been fortunate to push his time out more than most. I wish him all the best. He created some of the best technology of his generation, and we won’t have him much longer.

Mozilla 3 Tips

Monday, July 7th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

At LifeHacker.

Least Helpful Programming Advice

Friday, June 27th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

Here’s an email response I received Thursday.

However, as a possible workaround, utilizing the REDACTED API and the REDACTED API you could have something written that could have the notes section updated with this information.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

REDACTED,
Technical Support, Level 2

I tried to think of answers that would be even less helpful.

You can solve that problem using certain sequences of keystrokes on your keyboard. Just don’t ask which ones!

Or how about:

I have a truly marvellous solution to this problem which this email is too narrow to contain.

HTH!

Or maybe:

Yes. Yes, there is a solution. Here’s what you do:

No need to thank me. I’m in tech support out of a sense duty and a love for all mankind.

Whoa. You Can Download YouTube Videos with RealPlayer

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 1 Comment |

I just noticed there’s a new option when I watch YouTube videos. I can download them to my hard drive in RealPlayer format. Info here. I never liked Real because of their privacy-stomping, Windows-crashing ways, but that’s pretty cool.

Got Windows XP? Turn on ClearType. It Will Change Your World.

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

When I turned on the new computer I thought something was wrong with the video card because the text didn’t look good. Then I remembered I had enabled ClearType on the old computer. For some reason Microsoft doesn’t make ClearType the default. Once I enabled it the new monitor looked right.

Here’s how to enable ClearType font-smoothing. It only takes a second and it makes Windows fonts look 100% better.

ScreenGrab Add-on for Firefox - Screencap a Scrolling Page

Friday, April 25th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Have you ever wanted a screengrab of a Web page or other doc that was longer than your monitor was tall? Now you can do that with ScreenGrab for Firefox. You also have the option of just capturing the visible part of the screen, or just capturing a selection you make with your mouse cursor. You can save the capture to a file or copy it to the clipboard for pasting into another program. Sweet.

Flashlight-a-holics, Meet YouTube. YouTube, Meet Flashlight-a-holics

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 | E-commerce, Tech | Permalink | 10 Comments |

A Maglite is a gateway drug to a serious flashlight addiction. Surefires, Streamlights and Fenixes are the hard stuff. I’ve got one of each now and I’m still looking for the perfect light.

My perfect every day carry flashlight de jeur would have a CREE LED bulb which is the most efficient thing going. It would use AA batteries for easy availability and the option to use Lithium AAs for higher output. It would have a tailcap switch for better ergonomics. Finally, because today’s high output LEDs are too bright at full power for some applications it would offer at least two light levels - high and low.

I thought this Fenix L2D CE Q5 was the light for me, but the tailcap switch is too sensitive and the body isn’t grippy enough. On the plus side it meets my other requirements and the light output of the CREE is amazing - even better than the Surefire E2D but with twice the battery life on high. (Want the Fenix? Make me an offer.)

The Internet has a new way to enable our madness. People these days are posting flashlight videos to YouTube.

• NiteCore Defender Infinity (the current object of my lumen lust)

• Fenix P2D, P3D + comparisons
• Fenix P3D CE Flashlight

These next videos are all from glowgadgets, AKA Doc from glowgadgets.co.uk. He’s a genius at using YouTube for promotion.

Doc’s first video shows just how far behind Maglite has fallen compared to the little LED lights that fit in your pocket and run forever.

• Flashlight Comparisons - Fenix vs Surefire & Maglight

• Flashlight Comparisons - Fenix vs Surefire & Maglight Part 2
• Fenix Diffusers on P3D CE & P3D Premium 100 Rebel Torches
• Fenix TK10

Doc Speaks Out! This guy really makes me want to buy something from him.

See also:
- What’s on My Nightstand?
- Archie Gates and Some New Flashlights

Scroogle - Google with Privacy, SSL Encryption

Friday, April 11th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

I discovered Scroogle in my Sitemeter logs. Scroogle is a proxy that processes your search through Google but masks your IP address and strips out cookies. Scroogle claims they delete their access logs within 48 hours.

There’s also an option to use SSL encryption so that no one can monitor what you’re searching for or what results you get back. (But once you click on a link and leave the results page be aware that your Web traffic will be open to prying eyes, as always.)

Visit the main page for plug-ins for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. Be sure to select the SSL versions.

New Gmail Feature - Custom Time

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

Subpoeanaed Emails Reveal Microsoft Knew About Vista Problems

Monday, March 10th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | No Comments |

New York Times - They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know:

We usually do not have the opportunity to overhear Microsoft’s most senior executives vent their personal frustrations with Windows. But a lawsuit filed against Microsoft in March 2007 in United States District Court in Seattle has pried loose a packet of internal company documents. The plaintiffs, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen, bought PCs in late 2006, before Vista’s release, and contend that Microsoft’s “Windows Vista Capable” stickers were misleading when affixed to machines that turned out to be incapable of running the versions of Vista that offered the features Microsoft was marketing as distinctive Vista benefits.

More Aerogel Links

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 | Tech | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Aerogel pictures from NASA, illustrating aerogel’s insulating properties and mechanical strength.

United Nuclear sells Aerogel.

Aerogem sells aerogel jewelry, though it seems uninspired.

See also:
- Commercial Application of Aerogels for Backpacking