Genetic Savings and Clone

Cat cloning. Uh boy. So this means that instead of just ONE that won't come when you call it, you have SEVERAL? and they all look THE SAME??

CNN.com - Camera phone clicks may carry jail time

To this I say "good". Phones are for making phone calls.

CAMERAS are for taking pictures.

Next G5 Multitasks Operating Systems

OK...I've waited long enough. I want one now.

Slashdot article.

Free land for modern-day settlers

Come and get it...free land.

Auntie Em! Auntie Em! There's no place like home, there's NO place like home!!

TV Cream's Top 100 Toys

Here's a fun look back at some of the toys we once wished for. Recognize any? I seem to recall a Merlin once...and a 150-in-one Electronic Kit...

External TV Tuners/PVR Devices Tested

Want a TiVO? Check this out. Some cheaper alternatives for your PC.

Slashdot article.

2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist

Here's a bit of fun. The TOP searches from the billions of queries through Google. The top search might surprise you :)

SCO shares plunge

Dang. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer company.

Male fish bear eggs in Potomac

Well, it's not a third eye in their foreheads, but the next best thing.

Martha Stewart speaks out on prison life

We've been waiting for this headline...

ASUS S-Presso

Here's a bare-bones box that's sure to thrill. Just add a kikn vid card and the biggest, fattest hard drive you can afford.

Spam in the Wild, The Sequel

Here's a great article with some stats / charts etc regarding enterprise-class spam filters, at the e-mail level.

Spammers ordered to pay $1 billion

Yay! Spammers who finally have to pay the price. You reap what you sow :)

Flaw in Google's New Desktop Tool

Run the Desktop Search tool from Google? I do...and love it. Here's a /. article on a potential security flaw. If you use it, and are connected to the Internet via high-speed, you might want to uninstall until Google releases a new version.

Ten to Avoid—The Worst Products of the Year

If any of these are on your Christmas list, you'd best get a new list.

Suspect faces hearing in stolen fetus case

I blogged the early story about this last week; here's the happy ending. ...as happy as it CAN be, anyway.

Bionic Dolphin design fulfils lifelong dream - Dec 17, 2004

One word:

KEWL.

Spilled bees on highway a honey of a mess

The only thing missing from this story is that it DIDn't crash into a Cheerios truck.

Apple fights RealNetworks' 'hacker tactics'

Now this IS poetic justice. A corporate giant like Apple refusing to acknowledge RealNetwork.

I've never been a fan of Real since their "bloatware" started getting out of hand. The "free" media player they offer is so full of crap, it takes an extra half hour AFTER installation just to shut off all the "send usuage info to a Real server" and "play intro movie on launch" and "show relevant channels" and "prompt for what you had for breakfast today so we can target you with yet more advertising" options.

Sure, they have a good compression scheme for multimedia...but to me, it's simply not worth it...I haven't used Real in over 3 years and I don't think I'm missing anything.

Their advertising is scum. Their software is scum. And in conversations with peers, dealing with them on a corporate level is the same - they are scum.

MPAA to serve lawsuits on BitTorrent servers

Careful out there! The MPAA is watching you if you have a Bit Torrent server.

Once again, more fuel for my age-old argument - the best way to share stuff is with private servers.

FTP - the "original" peer to peer network.

ZigBee Wireless Standard Ratified

Sweet!! This looks like it could be fun. Basically it boils down to a short-range, low-complexity wireless protocol, ideal for home use, or smart badges.

mmmm....wireless peripherals...mmmmm...more remote controls...

Is your desk making you sick?

Here's an interesting question, and I've often wondered about this issue. Here are the very scary numbers.

...remember to take some alcohol wipes with you to your cubicle from now on.

Man bites dog

What more is there to say? "Man bites dog"...only the best in journalism.

Phone tapes between Amber Frey & Scott Peterson

That's right. You know he's guilty. Now hear the conversations.

Full story here.

Google unveils library project - Dec. 14, 2004

Ambitious project, this will be a great resource. Accuracy of information on the internet has always been in question...here's a step closer to having more facts.

Merriam-Webster Online

I have to find one of these today. My spine hurts.

'Streaking team'

That's right. A US college has it's own streaking team.

They even did a tour of other colleges last year. We're just not sure who the winner is, or how the game is played.

Students shun search for information offline - Dec 9, 2004

Doing some research? This might help determine HOW you research.

Do-Not-Call Registry Coming to Canada

Now this IS something useful, a Do Not Call registry in Canada.

I love this post, in response to the Slashdot article:

"You can have my phone number...

... when you pry it from my cold, dead Nokia.

I'd love to see a do-not-call registry in this country. However, given the track record of this government, I'll make the following not-so-bold predictions:

* If they say it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, it will cost billions. Even in Canadian currency, that's a fair sum.
* Because of the glacial pace of operations, the registry will be so out of date as to be useless.
* Random chunks of the database will be carelessly left within public view.
* The work of creating the database will be given to firms which have traditionally been financial supporters of the party.
* The database will be deficient in some fundamental way, e.g., it won't be able to handle multiple numbers for individuals, and correcting this will cost millions more.
* If the office handling the registry is outside Ottawa, it will be in a riding that elected a member of the party.

I could go on; colour me cynical. Far better than a "do-not-call" registry would be an "okay-to-call" registry. Why should I have to opt-in to prevent intrusive calls? If you want to receive unsolicited phone calls, you should jump through the hoops to get them, rather than others doing so to prevent them. The last thing I want to do is give this government my phone number. Let's not even start talking about filling out a census form...."

Good summary...very Canadian, indeed.

De-spamming Your Inbox The Hard Way

OK - I just had to post this one, it raises SOOO many questions. Since I've linked directly to the Slashdot article, you will see most of those questions have already been raised, as well as a link to the original post (I wonder if the result of the spam reduction wasn't due to a new version of Outlook as well...the author mentions a new ver of Exchange, but doesn't mention WHAT version of Exchange. Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003 marry up quite nicely, and Outlook 2003 has a great spam filter built in).

De-spamming your inbox? Not so bad if you a) are on the admin team for a domain b) you own the domain & e-mail server c) a techie, but not so easy if you are the average end user.

It's tough out there...and there is no, repeat, NO one stop solution. Often "the" solution is a combination of solutions. eg, mung your reply address, post only an anonymous e-mail address publicly, have a look at your ISP for some ideas (eg some ISPs insert the word "spam" somewhere in the subject of suspected junk mail - this makes it easy for the end user to filter). Sometimes installing a filter such as Spambayes is in order.

Keep your techie buddy close!! Buy him doughnuts once in a while. Heck even a spindle of blank media. He (or she) will be more than happy to help rid your inbox of spam - it's a nuisance for everyone.

Butane lighters banned from airliners - Dec 9, 2004

Well, this just makes TOO much sense. After all, no one can smoke on board a plane anymore, might as well prevent them from bursting into flames!!

Malware authors mixing a lethal cocktail

No surprise here. An article quoting staff from Kasperksy Labs.

Good to take heed, however...your best defense, as I have always maintained, is a fully patched system with an up-to-date virus scanner (yes, even in Linux). Another good idea (for Windows) is Ad Aware Pro, or, at the very least, Spybot Search & Destroy. These two programs monitor running processes (without a lot of overhead) and try to stop known "bad" processes from installing/being executed.

Be careful, and good luck!!

Disney backs Sony's DVD format - Dec 9, 2004

Here we go. Betamax all over again...? hopefully not. However, someone stands to loose a LOT of chingo in r & d when the "final" format is delcared the winner.

As long as it plays dual-layer media, I'll be happy. Oh and Divx, Xvid, MP3, and SVCD.

Hollywood allies sue DVD jukebox maker

Speak of the devil. Hollywood, that is.

Here is a perfect example of a legitimate, and legal reason to copy DVD media to a device - for a media server.

Wow Hollywood is pretty touchy to sue over this one. It's consumer device already!! No piracy involved at all!!

Sheesh.

Latest News and Financial Information

Here's an article covering someone who got arrested for a modded X-Box. Granted, the person in question worked at a retail store, and they probably should not have had a modded X-Box in the display case.

However, it raises the now-old argument...is it bad to mod an X-Box? Saying yes also means it's bad to hop up your car. Your car was designed to perform a certain way, and altering that configuration violates the intended purpose.

So all you tuners out there, bad, bad, bad.

Granted, a modded X-Box could play pirated games. That doesn't mean the user WILL, however. Same argument about DVD decryption, and I use the VCR argument for all of these. It was ruled in court that VCR's are OK for the consumer to own and use. Sure, they could record protected works, but that doesn't mean they will. Same goes for X-Boxes, or you car. Just because a modded X-Box can play a pirated game, that may not be why you wanted it modded. Maybe you wanted a media player without the tangle of wires from a computer in your living room. Maybe you're just tired of all those disk changes and wanted a bigger hard drive in your X-Box to dump your games to. Nothing wrong with that...and it's not illegal. Neither is hopping up your car...sure, it could go 200 km/h, but that doesn't mean you will.

Oh, and for that matter, you can't put new windows in your house either. Or a new bathtub. Don't like the curtains? Too bad.

Rat brain flies jet

A friend sent me this one, a great read.

Parents strike to protest messy kids - Dec 8, 2004

Passive resistance gone wrong...or effective discipline?

A Tale of Two Geodes

Linux with no moving parts? Yep.

PalmSource announces Linux support

Hey, this Linux thing is catching on. Next your Palm Pilot will have it. Kewl :)

Online university that gave cat diploma sued for fraud (phillyBurbs.com)

Dang, and I had my cat enrolled, too. Now they're shut down. So much for a triple income!!

Lycos Pulls Anti-Spam 'Vigilante' Campaign

Well, it was fun while it lasted. I actually got permission to run this screensaver at work. Yes, at work. Where is that? Well...three letters...sometimes called "big blue"...

Ironic that management said YES to using company bandwidth to launch a (smalll) DDoS attack on known spam ip addresses.

Anyway, Lycos pulled the plug, just days after releasing it.

Too bad, I liked this screensaver almost as much as SETI.

Adware cannibals feast on each other

From the "I Love The Smell Of Spyware In the Morning" dept.

CBC Montreal - RCMP arrest 11 in satellite bust

...everyone paid their satellite bill, right?

IBM sells PC group to Lenovo

It's official. Well, sort of. IBM has yet to make their announcement, but they're selling their PC division (laptops / desktop computers)

Although I personally prefer their hardware, it is more expensive than their competition, Dell and HP.

End of an era...IBM is among the PC pioneers (everyone remember their first XT?)

Fiorina: HP talked about breaking up - Dec. 7, 2004

Hm, so another article on industry giants, mergers, and possible breakups.

I like the part in this article that mentions HP's "lucrative" printing business. Let me tell you something I learned while working as a contractor for HP.

Say you're a huge industry giant. Let's say you're big enough to produce, market, ship, and sell printers. Ok, so you charge, for arguments sake, $100 for a printer that costs $85 to build. After shipping and other overhead, there is not much of a profit margin on the hardware. However...the consumer is now faced with occasionally replenishing the consumables; the paper and ink. Now, since you're an industry giant, you produce your own consumables (but probably not paper). Which gets us back to the ink. The consumer comes back to you for ink.

Let's say you need to ship some ink to a neighbouring country. You have a barrel of ink at the border, and it costs a few pennies for the contents. There's this thing called a tariff. So you ship it across the border, and apply the tariff on the other side. So the price on the barrel just increased.

Now lets say you ship it back again. Price goes up again. And back across. Price goes up. Back again. Price goes up again. And so on. And so on. What was pennies for the barrel just became dozens of dollars per barrel. Divide that up into small plastic cartridges...

One solution...laser printers. The initial cost is high, but the operating costs per page tend to be lower. While I couldn't find any specific stats, here is a forum that discusses some of the variables.

Just last year I purchased a new inkjet, 4 color printer. Cost, with cartridges, came to under $80. About a month ago I replaced all 4 cartridges, to the tune of around $70 after tax. For another 10 bucks I could have bought a new printer, with warranty, AND new ink. Blech!

Sounds "lucrative" to me!!

eBulletin - Global Warming: A Perspective from Earth History

Our earth is in trouble.

Yep, we've heard it before...but papers such as these suggest global warming and the results will happen much, much sooner than as predicted earlier.

Start teaching your kids NOW how beautiful nature is...their children may not have much of it left.

CNN.com - Company lets U.S. travelers�'Go Canadian' - Dec 7, 2004

What?! Americans dressing up as Canadians?? What on earth for??

Slashdot | Linux-PVR Distribution LinVDR 0.7 Released

Dig entertainment? Tired of programming your VCR?? check this out. I was thinking of getting a TIVO - until I saw this article. Here is the project homepage.

CNN.com - Police: Woman�hit teens after golf ball�struck car - Dec 7, 2004

OK...I've heard of road rage...but this person has taken it to a new level. Not good!

Firefox users ignore online ads, report says

Hm. Here's that Firefox thing again. ...and yeah...I'm one of the Firefox users who hate ads, so yes, I have adblock installed, enabled, running, processing, blocking, preventing... you get the idea.

MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD 1.0 EMAIL CLIENT HAS LANDED

...Hot on the heels of Firefox 1.0 (alternative to Internet Explorer, and a grrreat browser...I use it at work AND at home), Thunderbird 1.0 was released today.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Century of Flight

I've been playing MS Flight Sim 2004 (A Century Of Flight) quite a bit lately, here is the latest update.

The level of detail for the various airports is quite stunning...if you get a chance, have a look at an airport you are familiar with...it might not be 100% accurate, but hey, at least it's there. I found several airstrips that I know, not even airports - way out in the middle of nowhere. For example, Gang Ranch, BC, 108 Mile, BC, and Tofield, Alberta.

Microsoft TechNet: Home: "TechNet Plus Delivers What IT Pros Need"

...My homepage. For geeks & nerds only.

CBC News: China has SARS vaccine: report

Well, this is good news!!

Welcome

Hello!!

Welcome to my blog. Everyone else has one, and since I don't have a webpage to neglect, I thought I'd start a blog.

...what's a blog? Well, according to Webopdedia (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/blog.html), the word "blog" is defined as "(n.) Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual."

OK so this blog is my online journal, in short.

Hopefully you will get a laugh, enjoy a story or two, maybe view a few pictures, and relate to this, our global - and still human - village.