Archive for March, 2008

The WordPress team surprised me this weekend by releasing WordPress 2.5.

Of course, I spent the next 20 minutes upgrading all ten of my blogs. Yes, it only took 20 minutes to upgrade them all and most of that time was spent uploading the upgrade to each of the sites.

The famous 5-minute installation was a breeze, and all of my plugins work flawlessly.

If you have a WordPress blog, you should think about upgrading, like now. 2.5 is a huge change, and you’ll be glad you did it. You’ll even look cool in your vintage sunglasses no matter how out of fashion you are.

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I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I’m getting a new toy in two days and I think the waiting is going to kill me. To calm myself down I have been browsing sites just to keep my mind on other tech toys rather than the one that is coming next week.

You see, I am a techno-toy junkie. If it involves tech, and it involves a device I can carry with me, I want it. In fact, I am so addicted to tech and toys that I spend days looking at all of the different manufacturer websites. I spend hours checking out different suppliers and I compare prices, availability, and most of all “geek factor.

On Tuesday I will have a Nokia N810 in my hot little hands and then I plan on giving that little sucker a workout. I have wanted one of these for a couple months now, and I am so jazzed that I am getting one. My next quest is a Nokia N95, which I hope to get within a couple months. I was looking at them today and I must say, once the newness of my N810 wears off, I know I will be completely focused, okay obsessed, with getting the N95.

Is it wrong that I put Dymo labels on everything I own?

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When Facebook decided to make profiles public, I cancelled my Facebook account. Yup, it was a personal decision, which you may or may not agree with. I don’t really care. What I did care about was the fact that I had only added those people to my Facebook account that I wanted to know that information. When they decided that people would have to “opt out” of sharing their data, I opted out of Facebook. Now I am glad I did.

A security lapse made it possible for unwelcome strangers to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook Inc.’s popular online hangout, circumventing a recent upgrade to the Web site’s privacy controls.

The Associated Press verified the loophole Monday after receiving a tip from a Byron Ng, a Vancouver, Canada computer technician. Ng began looking for security weaknesses last week after Facebook unveiled more ways for 67 million members to restrict access to their personal profiles.

But the added protections weren’t enough to prevent Ng from pulling up the most recent pictures posted by Facebook members and their friends, even if the privacy settings were set to restrict the audience to a select few.

Sure, it was only a temporary security “bug”, but that is one of the many reasons why I no longer have a Facebook or MySpace account. I am not paranoid sharing who I am with the world, and I am not scared of sharing some of my information. I just think I should have the right to decide what gets shared and what doesn’t.

When it comes to using the Internet, I prefer not to use exterior shutters to keep inquiring minds from seeing too much.

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Imagine my surprise tonight as we are walking through a store browsing for items, and I see a rooster just sitting there. Man, I have to tell you, I really thought I was seeing the techrooster.

Then I realized it was just a big fat ordinary farm rooster. Just my luck! If you haven’t been following the techrooster, you’re already behind the curve. I bet you won’t see this guy near any treadmills. Ha!

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It’s bad enough that the Chinese government has no regard whatsoever for human rights and their respect for the people of Tibet is next to nil, but now it appears that “someone” is trying to lash out at sites that are actually reporting news abut what’s happening in and around Tibet.

The attacks on mailing lists and online forums contain information related to recent events in Tibet and may appear to come from a trusted person or organization.

A shadow war against organizations supporting Tibetan protesters has erupted in cyberspace, mirroring efforts by Chinese authorities to quell unrest in the Tibet.

“Somebody is trying to use pro-Tibet themed e-mails to infect computers of the members of pro-Tibet groups to spy on their actions,” said Mikko H. Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, in a blog post on Friday. “And this is not an isolated incident. Far from it.”

The cyberattack involves sending e-mail messages to mailing lists, online forums, and people known to be affiliated with pro-Tibet groups. To enhance their legitimacy, the messages contain information related to recent events in Tibet and may appear to come from a trusted person or organization.

Some may think it’s just hackers trying to take advantage of the situation, but it looks more like a coordinated attack to me.

With the Olympics drawing closer, pro-Tibet protesters might want to invest in some term life insurance, you know, just in case.

Save Tibet!

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Does this sound like something you would use? I’m not so sure I would want to use a service like this, but maybe it’s just me.

If you’re security minded, you might keep your important paper documents in a safe-deposit box at your local bank. If those documents are digital, you can keep them in a virtual safe-deposit box so that they’re not only secure, but also available from anywhere.

Wells Fargo Bank will soon offer its retail banking customers a personal online safe-deposit box that it calls “a natural extension” of the company’s 156-year security legacy.

The Wells Fargo vSafe service is the first online storage solution offered by a financial services company, according to Katherine McGee, senior vice president of Wells Fargo’s Internet Services Group.

I’m not sure I would send my most personal data over the internet, encrypted or not, to a “facility” that I have to pay $5 per month (for 1 GB of storage). Why not buy a USB stick for $10 – $20 and store your stuff yourself? I’ve been using a USB stick and TrueCrypt for my personal “records” for a couple years now.

You could always hide your documents away in your Briggs and Riley luggage.

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Does that headline shock anyone, really? Stand outside a Wal-Mart for an hour and tell me how many people look like they are going inside to look at computers, let alone Linux based computers.

Wal-Mart has stopped selling Everex’s Linux-based PC in its stores because of a tepid response from customers, although it will continue to sell the product online, the retailer said Tuesday.

The customer response to the US$199 Everex TC2502 Green gPC desktop was not as high as expected, said Melissa O’Brien, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman..

Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the U.S., agreed last year to carry the product as a test and stocked it in about 600 stores where it saw high interest in computers.

“The idea was to see if shoppers in our stores would respond as they do online to the offering. The answer is that customers did not respond to expectations, so we decided not to restock,” O’Brien said.

So, who sits online and ends up ordering the Linux PC’s? The housewives? The working couple who barely has time to see each other let alone find time to order a computer? The out of work realtor who has nothing better to do? No. The geeks. The nerds. The computer savvy people who know just what their getting when they decide to order a “Linux PC”. Duh.

Once everyone gets it through their head that mainstream America has no idea what Linux is, the sooner we can all move past that and work on ways to make sure people have a choice in the future. Whatever you do, don’t listen to the kid that appears to be trying the best acne treatment when it comes to making such a decision. Trust your instincts.

Just over a month ago we were saddened to learn that our devoted friend and family member, Flash, had bone cancer.

There is no more sobering word in the English language than the word cancer.

I still remember the day he picked our son out of the bunch of us. We had been looking for the “perfect” family dog for months and had decided to spare no expense in finding the perfect companion to grow up with our children. We contacted a local breeder and went to meet with her and the puppies.

When we arrived we were introduced to Flash’s mother, Pele, and his father, Banner. We got to see their temperaments in action, and we were amazed at them both.

Pele

Banner

We also learned that Banner was the son of Faera’s Future Classic, call name “Thunder”. Thunder is a champion Golden Retriever whose bloodline is well known and whose offspring have produced numerous “assistance” dogs around the country.

Thunder

Magic happened when we got to meet the puppies. Let me just say now, that if we had a bit more money at the time we would have come home with two, or maybe even three, of them. We sat on the front lawn watching the puppies play and one of them walked up to our oldest son and laid down in his lap.

The puppy was making it clear that he picked our son. We played with him a bit and moved him over to the side so we could all play with one of the other puppies, but within moments he was pushing his way back through the crowd and into our son’s lap.

The choice had been made. We paid a deposit and we waited three more weeks to bring him home. That was the day our lives changed forever.

When we arrived to pick him up, the breeder brought him out to us and he immediately ran up to our son. He remembered him, that was very clear. Because he had picked our son we decided to let him name the new addition to our family.

His name was Flash. There were two reasons for this name. One, was the lightning bolt shaped mark on his forehead, and the other was for the superhero. Hey, when you are four years old, it’s important to pay homage to your superheros.

From the moment we walked in the door, I knew this dog was hard headed. Once he got something in his mind, he wasn’t going to change it, and you knew it. He made it clear early on that he wanted to be in charge, so I spent the next few years letting him believe he was.

For nearly six years he has been a devoted friend, an energetic playmate, a trusting guard, and most of all a loving family member. He was always cheerful, he was always happy.

Flash Dance

Our vet recommended seeing a specialist who could confirm the cancer diagnosis, and let us know what the options were. As we walked out of that specialist’s office, my wife and I knew what was coming, but neither one of us wanted to face it. We drove home and reviewed our options. No matter what we decided we knew we had to do the right thing for Flash.

It turns out, he made the choice for us. Three nights ago, when I went downstairs to let the dogs in, he was nowhere to be found. It was getting dark and I had to grab my shoes and a flashlight. It took me 15 minutes to find him in the backyard. He was laying in the wooded area behind our home. It took most of his energy to get up, and he slowly limped into the house.

For the next two days he did nothing but lay in his bed by the front door. He could barely walk to go outside to do his business, and once he did he came right back in and laid on his bed.

Two weeks ago, I told Flash that he needed to let me know when it was time. I begged him to tell me when he had had enough. Yesterday, he told me. There was something in his eyes and the way he cuddled into me. There was a message there. He was telling me that he wanted to go. He made it clear that he was done.

I didn’t want him to be done. I still don’t want him to be done. I want to play ball with him. I want to take him for walks through the neighborhood. I want to feel his warmth at my feet. I promised him I would do the right thing when the time came, and I did. But right now, all I want is my friend back.

Say what? Is there really a large enough market out there to support focusing on a narrower subset of people? Ask.com is going to focus on married women looking for help managing their lives.

Whoa. Are they going to have a competitor to Google Earth that shows street level views of where their husbands are? Seriously. I can see where some people might have questions, I can’t think of any questions someone might ask that’s specific to married women.

In a dramatic about-face, Ask.com is abandoning its effort to outshine Internet search leader Google Inc. and will instead focus on a narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.

As part of the new direction outlined Tuesday, Ask will lay off about 40 employees, or 8 percent of its work force.

With the shift, the Oakland-based company will return to its roots by concentrating on finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies, children’s homework, entertainment and health.

Doesn’t everyone have questions about recipes, hobbies, children’s homework, entertainment and health? I just don’t understand how you can focus such a product on married women as if they have questions unique to just them. I can’t think of a single topic, from portable playgrounds to a walk in tub, that would relate to “married women” only.

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Exciting news on the Windows Server front. Was that last sentence an example of an extreme oxymoron or what?

Want to run a Coppermine photo gallery on a Windows 2008 Server? In the past, that’s meant that the popular PHP application for photo galleries would run more poorly than on a Linux or Unix server, for which PHP had been optimized.

But the specialist in the PHP language, Zend Technologies, says that’s no longer the case. The Zend Core commercially supported form of PHP has been certified by Microsoft as ready to run “with performance and stability” on Windows Server 2008, said Andi Gutmans, co-founder and CTO of Zend. That means passing more than 100 compatibility tests, plus collaborating closely on certain Microsoft technologies.

For example, Zend worked with Microsoft’s FastCGI component for its Web server, IIS, to make FastCGI set up and run PHP applications efficiently. The IIS Web server is now built into Windows 2008, and the two companies made certain the PHP interface to FastCGI worked smoothly, Gutmans said in an interview.

This really is kewl news, for those that will be brave enough to upgrade their production servers to 2008 anyway. Me? Not yet. I really love seeing things in action, I wish I could see the Windows Server software running in a real environment, like I can see macs running at the Apple Store, or like I can see designs up front and in person at directbuy. How about it Microsoft? When are you going to open a Microsoft Store?

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