Category Archives: General Tech Stuff

Ever had one of those times when Blockbuster or Netflix just don’t have anything you want to watch? Now there’s a solution. I may have to rent “Fundamentals of Machine Lathe Operations”; I hear it’s boffo.

The Sony home theater-in-a-box that I bought last week worked well, but it only had two digital audio inputs. Since Buckeye is about to start their HD beta test, and since a little bird told me that my odds of being selected were quite good, I wanted a receiver that could accomodate the Xbox, DVD player, and an HD settop box, so it was back to Best Buy. I found a good deal on a open-box Pioneer VSX-D811S, a much nicer receiver than I would otherwise have bought. It has component video switching and some other nifty features, along with support for 7.1 surround. I also picked up some open-box Sony speakers. Everything works great… but that’s not my point.
Yesterday, I got a real dose of home theater. From my chair on the back deck, I could hear: David and Thomas playing baseball next door (complete with the occasional ping of the aluminum bat when somebody got a hit), a couple of lawn mowers, an F-16 flying overhead, a train, one each lawn mower and weed eater, lots of birds, the occasional Harley ripping past on River Road, Matthew squealing with delight as he climbed through the deck railing to get a golf ball, and my neighbor’s dog. That’s my kind of home theater: live, glorious, surround sound; full-motion, high-definition video, and Scent-O-Vision.

The next time someone asks me for a recommendation for high-availability storage, I’m going to tell them to buy one of these. (Hat tip to Jeremy for the link).

Microsoft’s Developer Network website has started a set of RSS feeds. This is huge news if you’re a Windows or ASP.NET developer, since it means that you can get up-to-date content with much less hassle. If you’re using an aggregator, you’re in luck. If you’re not, well, you should be.

I got a (form) letter from Tim O’Reilly yesterday; he’s the head of O’Reilly & Associates. Tim is a very bright guy who has done a lot to help build the Internet’s knowledge infrastructure. Much of what he’s done has been cultural, and the letter falls into that category.
O’Reilly is asking its authors to put their books under the Founders’ Copyright. He believes that the existing copyright system has deviated from the Founding Fathers’ intent: that the interests of authors be counterbalanced with the public good. It’s hard to argue with him, when you see that companies like Disney are able to protect their works, basically, in perpetuity, even though many of those works are based on public-domain works themselves. (If you’re wondering why you should care, see this FAQ; it does a better job explaining than I could. This article is also pretty good).
Anyway, Tim’s asking that O’Reilly authors agree to have their books fall under the Founders’ Copyright. For those authors who agree, O’Reilly will release their books into the public domain (under the “Creative Commons” reuse license) after 14 years have passed. This doesn’t harm the authors in any meaningful way, given that in 14 years almost none of O’Reilly’s current books (and definitely none of mine!) will be of anything but historical interest. The practical value of releasing that content to the public is pretty small too, but the symbolic value is large. That’s why I’m going to sign the agreement.
One minor kibitz: the agreement O’Reilly sent us has three choices: put the book under Founders’ Copyright, leave the copyright alone and have the book taken out of print (which is what would happen normally), or leave the copyright alone, but give the author a chance to find another publisher when ORA decides to take the book out of print. Most publishers now allow the copyright to revert to the author when the book goes out of print. (Some even put the copyright in the author’s name– the publisher gets an exclusive perpetual license to use the work, until they decide they don’t want it any more.) I’m a little disappointed that Tim didn’t offer authors the option of having the copyright returned to them.
When I get around to it, I’ll probably be putting both this blog and E2K Security under the Creative Commons license.

John was admiring my KungTunes-driven “what’s playing” list. It turns out that there’s an equivalent for Windows Media Player. That means that there’s almost certainly one for WinAmp, but I’m too lazy to look for it.

I just found NewsGator, which aggregates RSS feeds directly into Outlook! How cool. I’m going to have to try it and see how it works with Outlook 11. This could be big.

If you read more than one or two blogs, and you’re not using an aggregator, you’re missing out. See, most of the software used to publish weblogs is designed to support RSS, a protocol that allows syndication. (For those just joining us: syndication is republishing someone else’s content, as when your crappy local paper publishes someone else’s weather data.) Anyway, the advantage of aggregators is that they gather up all the weblogs you’re interested in and put them in a single interface, so you can skim through them quickly. Mainstream news sources (including the NYT, Christian Science Monitor, and others) have syndicated feeds, too. I currently have about 50 blogs in my subscription list.
On the Mac, I use NetNewsWire. On the PC, I’ve heard good things about Syndirella and NewzCrawler, though I haven’t tried either of them.
Now, word up to DefenseTech, Bob Thompson, The Bloviator, and JohnP: your blogging software doesn’t support RSS. Please upgrade. That is all. (I was going to add Charlie Stross to the list, but even though there’s no link for it, pasting his URL into NetNewsWire does the trick.)
Personal to Julie: add the “syndicate” div to your template, OK? I had to find the URL by hand.

So, I finally found out how to make my blog reflect what I’m listening to: Kung-Tunes is a small background application that asks iTunes what’s playing, formats the result using a template I specify, and uploads it using scp. Worthless, but nifty.

So, while I was in Seattle, McDonald’s announced that it’s going to start offering wireless access in its stores. This is interesting insofar as it shows how WiFi is spreading beyond traditional geek havens. However, last night while driving home from the airport, I stopped for gas. Turns out that T/A Travel Centers, a large network of truck stops, is adding WiFi access too. (They’re still rolling it out, and I have a call in to their project leader to get more details). I already favor the Monroe T/A because it has the nearest Popeye’s, so this is an extra bonus.
This provides terrific proof that the market for widespread WiFi is still growing rapidly. I love the idea that I can combine fueling and emailing, even though I can get email on a handheld. Of course, I could go off on a lengthy digression about how stupid it is that most major airports (which, as you may have noticed, are often filled with impatient laptop-toting connectivity junkies) don’t have WiFi but that truck stops and fast-food restaurants do, but I’ll spare you.
Now, to teach my 8-year-old how to pump gas so I can stay inside and use the laptop…

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I can certainly see how thismight come in handy.

Mike Masnick writes this cautionary tale: How I Accidentally Became a Porn Spammer. Be sure you have some spam filtering, or you too may end up as a p0rn kingpin.

Computerworldrecently reported that Slammer was the work of a terrorist group. As it turns out, a reporter had squatted on a terror group’s domain name and taken the site over– he was the one who made the claim. Computerworld has retracted the original story and posted an explanation. The reporter in question, Brian McWilliams, has done a couple of other slimy things, too, as described in the . Keep this in mind the next time you see a mass-media story about anything having to do with computer security (and, beware of security shops like Mi2g.com that fall for this kind of hoax– would you trust them to provide accurate data if they’re taken in by something like this?)

At long last, the book’s sample chapters finally arrived. If you’re interested in security for Exchange Server, go check ’em out. (And if you’re not interested but still have $35 to spare, buy the book anyway!)

Microsoft Press finally has the book’s page up! There’s supposed to be a sample chapter, but it’s not up yet.