I just heard from my dad last night that my brother had passed away unexpectedly.
Rest in peace, Ben.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
NYT on Vista
So my dad emailed me about the New York Times article (They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.) on Microsoft Windows Vista, and I had to write back:
There were some fascinating bits covered by Slashdot about the "Windows Vista Capable" labeling, and how Intel pushed for its i915 graphics chipset to be labeled by Microsoft as "Vista Capable" even though it obviously couldn't run the Aero interface, which led in part to the current lawsuit and resulting mess with Microsoft's marketing and product labeling.
I think it's hilarious that this has since made it to the New York Times. :)
I think ultimately the MS product managers gave into the urge to Ship Something Now rather than fix the known issues with Vista and wait for another 6 to 12 months for greater driver availability from hardware vendors. As it is, both the techie and public perception of Vista (regardless of technical merits or the facts) is the worst for any consumer operating system since Windows ME.
MS should essentially give up and cut its losses on Vista. It needs to release Vista SP1 once it's thoroughly tested and vetted, and then fork off their current Windows 7 development branch to release an incrementally improved version of Windows as soon as feasible to sell something other than Vista.
This also illustrates the project management and business problems with long development cycles. Microsoft has become wedded to the idea of expensive, major OS releases at infrequent multi-year intervals, as opposed to Apple's almost yearly Mac OS X releases or Canonical's twice-yearly releases of Ubuntu Linux with periodic long-term supported releases that get bugfixes and security patches for at least 3 years.
I think that more than any particular competitor, Microsoft's greatest challenge is its own development practices. If any $50bn commercial software company can turn itself around, it's Microsoft, but they need to admit and fix their mistakes.
There were some fascinating bits covered by Slashdot about the "Windows Vista Capable" labeling, and how Intel pushed for its i915 graphics chipset to be labeled by Microsoft as "Vista Capable" even though it obviously couldn't run the Aero interface, which led in part to the current lawsuit and resulting mess with Microsoft's marketing and product labeling.
I think it's hilarious that this has since made it to the New York Times. :)
- Microsoft Had Doubts About the 'Vista Capable' Label February 12 2008
- Microsoft Internal Emails Show Dismay With Vista February 28 2008
I think ultimately the MS product managers gave into the urge to Ship Something Now rather than fix the known issues with Vista and wait for another 6 to 12 months for greater driver availability from hardware vendors. As it is, both the techie and public perception of Vista (regardless of technical merits or the facts) is the worst for any consumer operating system since Windows ME.
MS should essentially give up and cut its losses on Vista. It needs to release Vista SP1 once it's thoroughly tested and vetted, and then fork off their current Windows 7 development branch to release an incrementally improved version of Windows as soon as feasible to sell something other than Vista.
This also illustrates the project management and business problems with long development cycles. Microsoft has become wedded to the idea of expensive, major OS releases at infrequent multi-year intervals, as opposed to Apple's almost yearly Mac OS X releases or Canonical's twice-yearly releases of Ubuntu Linux with periodic long-term supported releases that get bugfixes and security patches for at least 3 years.
I think that more than any particular competitor, Microsoft's greatest challenge is its own development practices. If any $50bn commercial software company can turn itself around, it's Microsoft, but they need to admit and fix their mistakes.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
GeForce 8x00 Series Comparison
As part of a semi-annual graphics card roundup, I'm going to analyze the state of the PC gaming market for current-generation nVidia PC video cards.
Introduction
If you want an nVidia card for PC gaming (as opposed to an ATI card), then you really need one of the new 8x00 series cards. They offer DirectX 10 support and a unified stream processing architecture which integrates previously separate vertex and pixel shaders and adds geometry processing as well. If the preceeding sentence means nothing to you, these are the latest and greatest technological advances in software and hardware for gaming video cards. (See nVidia's 8800 FAQ and 8800GT FAQ for basic information on these cards.)
However, if you haven't followed the gaming hardware market closely, it can hard to figure out what you need. There's a variety of 8x00 series cards available, ranging from the budget 8400GS to the mid-range 8600GT and 8600GTS, the upper range 8800GT and 8800GTS and the luxury 8800GTX cards. For the purposes of this comparison, I'm assuming you're not going to drop more than $350 on a video card, which excludes the 8800GTX from this list.
I'm also looking at single graphics cards here; most 8600 and higher cards support SLI mode, where you can use at least 2 graphics cards simultaneously to dramatically improve your graphics performance. You need both a motherboard and a power supply that support this feature in order to use it, so if you haven't built or purchased a system with this in mind, you likely won't be able to take advantage of this feature.
The cards below are all PCI Express x16 or PCI Express 2.0 (three of the 8800 series) so you need to have a motherboard with appropriate PCI Express support and open slots. If you still have an AGP-based motherboard (this is most likely the case if your motherboard is over 4 years old), it's time to upgrade and buy a new one if you're looking to buy a current graphics card. While there are AGP-based GeForce 7-series and Radeon HD 2000-series cards on the market, there are no AGP-based GeForce 8-series cards yet available.
I'm a big Newegg fan and have happily bought computing gear from them for years; so while you may prefer to buy your hardware from somewhere else, I've quoted Newegg's current prices (including rebates and standard 3-day shipping costs) and provided links to their product pages for the items below.
I've also listed primarily EVGA graphics cards below. Again, I've happily bought and used many of their boards in the past, so this reflects my personal preference. In specific cases, other manufacturer's cards are listed, but in my experience, EVGA has made solid, reliable graphics cards over the past decade.
Price Points
While there's a huge variety of cards and options available, I always like to know what I can get for a given dollar amount. With that in mind, let's look at the major price points right now:
For $325, you can get a very nice new 8800GTS G92 card with 512MB. While it uses 256-bit memory access compared to other 8800GTS which can use 320-bit memory access, this doesn't appear to have much effect in real-world performance. Having 128 stream processors compared to the 96 available on older 8800GTS cards does make a big difference, though. The G92 GPU is a significant improvement over the older G80 GPUs used in previous 8800GTS cards, so this is an obvious choice for high performance at a non-luxury price.
If you need to spend less than $300, the 8800GT 512MB cards like the EVGA listed below are a good deal. The clock speeds are slightly slower than newer 8x00 cards, but with 112 stream processors onboard, it can chew through pixels all day long. These are the heavy hitters at the upper end of nVidia's lineup on our price scale. While the 8800GTS G92 can be a better deal for the money, the 8800GT 512MB boards are still solid graphics cards for the money.
At $200, the 8800GTS G80 320MB cards are an excellent buy. For over a third less than the 512MB or 640MB 8800 cards, you can buy a very capable board. If you're running your games at 1680x1050 or lower resolution, you can get the same performance as the 640MB cards for a lot cheaper.
At $150, the ASUS Silent 8600GTS 256MB stands out. It can run completely silently without the need for fans or active cooling, which make this an excellent choice for home theater or small form factor PCs, or anyone who cares about their power bill.
At $125, other 8600GTS 256MB cards are a good buy. These can run most current games at acceptable quality and mid-range resolutions (1280x1024). Most of these will run hot, so be aware of the need for extra cooling and good airflow in and around your PC.
For under $100, 8600GT 256MB cards are the entry level for anyone who enjoys modern gaming. These can easily handle older games like World of Warcraft if the rest of your system is up to par, but will not run current demanding titles like Bioshock and Crysis well, if at all. A good 8600GT can get close to 8600GTS cards in performance, and it still sports 32 stream processors and a 128-bit memory interface, so it is significantly better than any 8400 series card.
Comparison Table
* = Stream Processors (unified geometry/vertex/pixel shaders)
I've also listed the 8400GS above for comparison. Since it has half the stream processors, slower clock and memory speed, a 64-bit memory interface and uses slower GDDR2 memory, this should only be a choice for people who Just Need A Cheap Graphics Card. If you play any amount of non-casual games, you're better off going with a cheap 8600GT instead.
Introduction
If you want an nVidia card for PC gaming (as opposed to an ATI card), then you really need one of the new 8x00 series cards. They offer DirectX 10 support and a unified stream processing architecture which integrates previously separate vertex and pixel shaders and adds geometry processing as well. If the preceeding sentence means nothing to you, these are the latest and greatest technological advances in software and hardware for gaming video cards. (See nVidia's 8800 FAQ and 8800GT FAQ for basic information on these cards.)
However, if you haven't followed the gaming hardware market closely, it can hard to figure out what you need. There's a variety of 8x00 series cards available, ranging from the budget 8400GS to the mid-range 8600GT and 8600GTS, the upper range 8800GT and 8800GTS and the luxury 8800GTX cards. For the purposes of this comparison, I'm assuming you're not going to drop more than $350 on a video card, which excludes the 8800GTX from this list.
I'm also looking at single graphics cards here; most 8600 and higher cards support SLI mode, where you can use at least 2 graphics cards simultaneously to dramatically improve your graphics performance. You need both a motherboard and a power supply that support this feature in order to use it, so if you haven't built or purchased a system with this in mind, you likely won't be able to take advantage of this feature.
The cards below are all PCI Express x16 or PCI Express 2.0 (three of the 8800 series) so you need to have a motherboard with appropriate PCI Express support and open slots. If you still have an AGP-based motherboard (this is most likely the case if your motherboard is over 4 years old), it's time to upgrade and buy a new one if you're looking to buy a current graphics card. While there are AGP-based GeForce 7-series and Radeon HD 2000-series cards on the market, there are no AGP-based GeForce 8-series cards yet available.
I'm a big Newegg fan and have happily bought computing gear from them for years; so while you may prefer to buy your hardware from somewhere else, I've quoted Newegg's current prices (including rebates and standard 3-day shipping costs) and provided links to their product pages for the items below.
I've also listed primarily EVGA graphics cards below. Again, I've happily bought and used many of their boards in the past, so this reflects my personal preference. In specific cases, other manufacturer's cards are listed, but in my experience, EVGA has made solid, reliable graphics cards over the past decade.
Price Points
While there's a huge variety of cards and options available, I always like to know what I can get for a given dollar amount. With that in mind, let's look at the major price points right now:
- $325 = 8800GTS G92 512MB
- $275 = 8800GT 512MB
- $200 = 8800GTS 320MB
- $150 = Asus Silent 8600GTS 256MB
- $125 = 8600GTS 256MB
- under $100 = 8600GT 256MB
For $325, you can get a very nice new 8800GTS G92 card with 512MB. While it uses 256-bit memory access compared to other 8800GTS which can use 320-bit memory access, this doesn't appear to have much effect in real-world performance. Having 128 stream processors compared to the 96 available on older 8800GTS cards does make a big difference, though. The G92 GPU is a significant improvement over the older G80 GPUs used in previous 8800GTS cards, so this is an obvious choice for high performance at a non-luxury price.
If you need to spend less than $300, the 8800GT 512MB cards like the EVGA listed below are a good deal. The clock speeds are slightly slower than newer 8x00 cards, but with 112 stream processors onboard, it can chew through pixels all day long. These are the heavy hitters at the upper end of nVidia's lineup on our price scale. While the 8800GTS G92 can be a better deal for the money, the 8800GT 512MB boards are still solid graphics cards for the money.
At $200, the 8800GTS G80 320MB cards are an excellent buy. For over a third less than the 512MB or 640MB 8800 cards, you can buy a very capable board. If you're running your games at 1680x1050 or lower resolution, you can get the same performance as the 640MB cards for a lot cheaper.
At $150, the ASUS Silent 8600GTS 256MB stands out. It can run completely silently without the need for fans or active cooling, which make this an excellent choice for home theater or small form factor PCs, or anyone who cares about their power bill.
At $125, other 8600GTS 256MB cards are a good buy. These can run most current games at acceptable quality and mid-range resolutions (1280x1024). Most of these will run hot, so be aware of the need for extra cooling and good airflow in and around your PC.
For under $100, 8600GT 256MB cards are the entry level for anyone who enjoys modern gaming. These can easily handle older games like World of Warcraft if the rest of your system is up to par, but will not run current demanding titles like Bioshock and Crysis well, if at all. A good 8600GT can get close to 8600GTS cards in performance, and it still sports 32 stream processors and a 128-bit memory interface, so it is significantly better than any 8400 series card.
Comparison Table
Cost | GPU | Core | SPs* | Memory | |||||
Card | clock | size | type | ||||||
8800GTS G80 | 576Mhz | 96 | 1800Mhz | 640MB | 320-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8800GTS G92 | 670Mhz | 128 | 1940Mhz | 512MB | 256-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8800GTS G80 | 540Mhz | 96 | 1700Mhz | 640MB | 320-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8800GT | 650Mhz | 112 | 1900Mhz | 512MB | 256-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8800GT | 600Mhz | 112 | 1800Mhz | 512MB | 256-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8800GTS G80 | 500Mhz | 96 | 1600Mhz | 320MB | 320-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8600GTS | 675Mhz | 32 | 2000Mhz | 256MB | 128-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8600GTS | 700Mhz | 32 | 2100Mhz | 256MB | 128-bit GDDR3 | ||||
8600GT | 565Mhz | 32 | 1400Mhz | 256MB | 128-bit GDDR3 | ||||
EVGA 256-P2-N758-TR | 8600GT | 684Mhz | 32 | 1620Mhz | 256MB | 128-bit GDDR3 | |||
8600GT | 540Mhz | 32 | 1400Mhz | 256MB | 128-bit GDDR3 | ||||
EVGA 256-P2-N732-LR | 8400GS | 450Mhz | 16 | 800Mhz | 256MB | 64-bit GDDR2 | |||
I've also listed the 8400GS above for comparison. Since it has half the stream processors, slower clock and memory speed, a 64-bit memory interface and uses slower GDDR2 memory, this should only be a choice for people who Just Need A Cheap Graphics Card. If you play any amount of non-casual games, you're better off going with a cheap 8600GT instead.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Dirty Vegas at Sheetz, one night only
So yesterday I was in the Sheetz off of Route 50 near the Loudoun - Fairfax county line, the one on Poland Road, stopping to fill up on gas like I normally do. I get out of the car, and while I'm swiping my credit card on the pump, I hear what sounds like a Dirty Vegas track. Huh, interesting. I must have got that album about 5 years ago, listened to it for a couple months, then completely forgot about it.
I go in to use the men's room, and this guy comes in to wash his hands. He has long shoulder-length dirty blond hair, and he's singing along to the track. "Days go bayyy-yeee..." And then he keeps going. "My hair's so long, I don't know what I'd do... Like Ozzy Osbourne, aye really want to meet yoo-ooou." Ha! I can't even remember the last time I heard anyone singing in a men's restroom.
Guess the guy's an employee since he had an official Sheetz hat and said bye to the staff as he went out. Wonder if he'll be playing again sometime soon.
I go in to use the men's room, and this guy comes in to wash his hands. He has long shoulder-length dirty blond hair, and he's singing along to the track. "Days go bayyy-yeee..." And then he keeps going. "My hair's so long, I don't know what I'd do... Like Ozzy Osbourne, aye really want to meet yoo-ooou." Ha! I can't even remember the last time I heard anyone singing in a men's restroom.
Guess the guy's an employee since he had an official Sheetz hat and said bye to the staff as he went out. Wonder if he'll be playing again sometime soon.
Friday, November 30, 2007
upgraded blog layout
so I stopped being lazy and upgraded the blog to use the new "layouts" instead of the old "templates" system on blogger.com. looks purty, or something.
Free + open-source software I use
After reading Lifehacker for a while, I started thinking about the software I use every day. I've been trying to better organize my files, downloads and apps, and it'd be handy to have a list of what I actually use and where to download it. I primarily use free or open-source software on Windows XP, both because it works well, and because it's freely available and I can download the apps anywhere, anytime I have Internet access.
I've organized the software by how often I use it - daily, frequently or infrequently. I've also included other standard programs like antivirus/security, office software and runtime libraries (.NET and Java).
Since it can take a lot of time to go through and google for an app, visit the site, find the download section and find the current version to download for thirty-some apps, I've included links to the download pages and the current version of the app, as of today, Friday November 30th 2007.
Linked downloads (second link) are EXE installers for Windows XP in English from North American servers. If that doesn't work for you, click on the download page (first link) and select what you do want.
Daily
Frequently
Infrequently
Antivirus/security
Office software
Runtime libraries
I've listed older versions as well since some apps (specifically system admin or backup software) require a specific older version. If you're not sure what you need, get the most recent version.
I've organized the software by how often I use it - daily, frequently or infrequently. I've also included other standard programs like antivirus/security, office software and runtime libraries (.NET and Java).
Since it can take a lot of time to go through and google for an app, visit the site, find the download section and find the current version to download for thirty-some apps, I've included links to the download pages and the current version of the app, as of today, Friday November 30th 2007.
Linked downloads (second link) are EXE installers for Windows XP in English from North American servers. If that doesn't work for you, click on the download page (first link) and select what you do want.
Daily
Last.fm 1.3.2 Share your musical tastes and get recommendations
SpeedFan 4.33 PC hardware monitor (no direct download link as requested by site maintainer)
SyncBack Freeware 3.2.14 Backup files with profiles and schedules
TrueCrypt 4.3a On-the-fly volume-based encryption (no direct download link as requested by site maintainer)
Frequently
7zip 4.42 Compression/archiving tool, understands popular formats (.zip, .rar, .tar.gz, .bz2)
Google Gears Offline access to websites (still in beta)
InfraRecorder 0.44 Burn/edit/create CDs + DVDs, more user friendly (like Nero)
Paint.NET 3.10 Image and photo editing (like Photoshop Elements)
PDFCreator 0.9.3 Ghostscript Print any document to a PDF
XnView 1.91.6 Complete Multi-Language Image viewer, converter and basic editor
Infrequently
AutoHotKey 1.0.47.05 Windows and application automation via hotkeys
AutoIt 3.2.10.0 Windows and application automation, scripting language
DriveImage XML 1.2.1 Live system backup (like Acronis TrueImage or Symantec Ghost)
Explore2FS 1.07 View files in Linux ext2/ext3 filesystems from Windows
Handbrake 2.41 DVD -> MP4 converter (convert your DVDs for your iPod)
K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.3 Audio/video/compression codecs for MP3, MP4, DivX, QuickTime and many others, includes alternative media players like Media Player Classic
- NetStumbler 0.4.0 Wireless traffic analyzer/monitor/snooper
PC Wizard 2008 1.81 Get details on your PC system info (like SiSoft Sandra)
Sumatra PDF 0.7 Lightweight PDF viewer
Uptime NT 1.01 Show system uptime in Windows NT/2K/XP (command line)
WinImage 8.1.0 Read and write disk images to/from floppy, CD, DVD (30-day shareware)
- winMd5Sum 1.0.1 Get/check MD5 checksums for files
WinMTR 0.8 Network diagnostic/tracing tool, combines ping + traceroute
Antivirus/security
Ad-Aware 2007 Free 7.0.2.5 Anti-spyware
avast! 4 Home 4.7.1043 Anti-virus
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5.503 Anti-virus
Office software
Gnumeric 1.6.3 build 2 Lightweight spreadsheet
- OpenOffice 2.3.0 with JRE, 2.3.0 without JRE Full open-source office suite, requires Java JRE
Runtime libraries
I've listed older versions as well since some apps (specifically system admin or backup software) require a specific older version. If you're not sure what you need, get the most recent version.
Dot Net Runtime 3.5, 2.0 required for Paint.NET and other .NET applications
Let me know if you find this useful or have suggestions for the list.
Internet Explorer for OS X
ies4osx is a convenient way to run Internet Explorer natively on Mac OS X, without having to pull up Parallels or reboot into Windows with Boot Camp. Lifehacker (which is now one of my favorite sites) posted it this morning at Run Internet Explorer on Your Mac with ies4osx.
I haven't used this package on the Mac, but it's derived from the latest version of the IEs4Linux package which lets you run Internet Explorer natively on Linux. I've used IEs4Linux on Ubuntu Linux 6.10 and 7.04 and it really works rather well.
It's particularly handy for accessing financial and corporate sites that require IE for their functionality. That's less of a problem now than it was 2 or 3 years ago, thanks to the continued growing popularity of Firefox and Safari.
I haven't used this package on the Mac, but it's derived from the latest version of the IEs4Linux package which lets you run Internet Explorer natively on Linux. I've used IEs4Linux on Ubuntu Linux 6.10 and 7.04 and it really works rather well.
It's particularly handy for accessing financial and corporate sites that require IE for their functionality. That's less of a problem now than it was 2 or 3 years ago, thanks to the continued growing popularity of Firefox and Safari.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
qotd
"The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield." - George Orwell, ''In Front of Your Nose", 1946
Wikipedia articles on the Congo
Jessica has been reading through The Poisonwood Bible, which touches upon Patrice Lumumba and the Congo Crisis at the end, so I tracked down these Wikipedia articles on the Congo and Leopold II and Congolese independence for her:
Leopold II of Belgium: 1835-1909, son of Leopold I of Belgium, who married Princess Charlotte and arranged then-Princess Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert.
Congo Free State: Leopold II's private state in the Congo, 1885-1908; now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
King Leopold's Soliloquy: 1905 satirical pamphlet by Mark Twain criticizing Leopold II's actions in the Congo, in which the King supposedly argues that bringing Christianity to the country outweighs a little starvation (text available from American Museum of Natural History).
Force Publique: private army used by Leopold II to govern the Congo Free State and enforce production quotas; evolved into local colonial army after Belgian takeover of the Congo in 1908; nationalized and Africanized by Patrice Lumumba in 1960, deeply involved in the Congo Crisis, which led to Joseph Mobutu seizing power in 1965; Mobuto's overthrow led to the First Congo War from 1996-1997 and the resulting tensions then led to the Second Congo War from 1998-2003.
update 1018h:
King Leopold's Ghost: book published in 1999 (made into a documentary in 2006) which details the history of the Congo Free State, and mentions the roles played by George Washington Williams, who coined the term "crimes against humanity", William Henry Sheppard, E. D. Morel, Sir Roger Casement and Joseph Conrad in reporting, documenting and publicizing the atrocities carried out by Leopold II in the Congo.
Leopold II of Belgium: 1835-1909, son of Leopold I of Belgium, who married Princess Charlotte and arranged then-Princess Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert.
Congo Free State: Leopold II's private state in the Congo, 1885-1908; now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
King Leopold's Soliloquy: 1905 satirical pamphlet by Mark Twain criticizing Leopold II's actions in the Congo, in which the King supposedly argues that bringing Christianity to the country outweighs a little starvation (text available from American Museum of Natural History).
Force Publique: private army used by Leopold II to govern the Congo Free State and enforce production quotas; evolved into local colonial army after Belgian takeover of the Congo in 1908; nationalized and Africanized by Patrice Lumumba in 1960, deeply involved in the Congo Crisis, which led to Joseph Mobutu seizing power in 1965; Mobuto's overthrow led to the First Congo War from 1996-1997 and the resulting tensions then led to the Second Congo War from 1998-2003.
update 1018h:
King Leopold's Ghost: book published in 1999 (made into a documentary in 2006) which details the history of the Congo Free State, and mentions the roles played by George Washington Williams, who coined the term "crimes against humanity", William Henry Sheppard, E. D. Morel, Sir Roger Casement and Joseph Conrad in reporting, documenting and publicizing the atrocities carried out by Leopold II in the Congo.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
not so zoho
You know the nice things I wrote yesterday about ZoHo? I take most of them back.
Their word processing app is fairly decent, but their wiki and creator products really aren't that good. The wiki support page is full of unanswered questions dating back nearly a year, the database creator is agonizingly frustrating to use if you trying to do anything non-drool-inducing (like add a formula to calculate someone's current age given their birthday), and the docs are double-plus-ungood.
Microsoft's got nothing to worry about there.
Their word processing app is fairly decent, but their wiki and creator products really aren't that good. The wiki support page is full of unanswered questions dating back nearly a year, the database creator is agonizingly frustrating to use if you trying to do anything non-drool-inducing (like add a formula to calculate someone's current age given their birthday), and the docs are double-plus-ungood.
Microsoft's got nothing to worry about there.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
online + offline web apps
Lifehacker has an interesting bit about Zoho Writer adding full offline access with Google Gears. I hadn't looked at Zoho before, but they have an excellent suite of web apps, and if you take the minute or so required to install Gears, then you can take your word processing docs offline, edit them (can't add images offline, but text + formatting works fine) and then sync up the changes once you go back online.
This is really cool, for laptop-using humans, or if you have crappy 'net connectivity and still need to work on stuff.
One really interesting part of Zoho's suite is their Creator app for online databases. Imagine being able to set up MS Access-style database apps, online, in just a few minutes. This is the sort of thing that should make Microsoft really, really worried. You don't need MS Office, Windows Server, IIS, VB or ActiveX controls... just this online app that takes 30 seconds to sign up, and 5 minutes to build a basic address book app. Or a recipe catalog. Or an inventory system.
This is really cool, for laptop-using humans, or if you have crappy 'net connectivity and still need to work on stuff.
One really interesting part of Zoho's suite is their Creator app for online databases. Imagine being able to set up MS Access-style database apps, online, in just a few minutes. This is the sort of thing that should make Microsoft really, really worried. You don't need MS Office, Windows Server, IIS, VB or ActiveX controls... just this online app that takes 30 seconds to sign up, and 5 minutes to build a basic address book app. Or a recipe catalog. Or an inventory system.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Fast flux on Wikipedia
I was reading through the October 15 2007 CRYPTO-GRAM
newsletter and saw a mention of "fast flux" DNS used by the Storm worm from earlier this year. Not knowing what it was, I went to Wikipedia and ... nothing! Not a single solitary mention of what it is.
Being a research and security geek meant I could not let this stand. So about an hour later, after some googling and scanning and reading, there is now a stub Fast flux article on Wikipedia that I started. Maybe this can help the next poor uninformed but interested soul who goes looking for enlightenment.
newsletter and saw a mention of "fast flux" DNS used by the Storm worm from earlier this year. Not knowing what it was, I went to Wikipedia and ... nothing! Not a single solitary mention of what it is.
Being a research and security geek meant I could not let this stand. So about an hour later, after some googling and scanning and reading, there is now a stub Fast flux article on Wikipedia that I started. Maybe this can help the next poor uninformed but interested soul who goes looking for enlightenment.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
New job
So I'm leaving the military-industrial complex tomorrow to go work back in the private sector for Blackboard.com (BBBB) doing storage engineering. I'll be off for a week on vacation, then start at the new job on Tuesday September 4th.
I lucked into this position thanks to LinkedIn, which I only bothered with because of an invite from a former co-worker. I highly recommend it, it's worked well for me so far.
I lucked into this position thanks to LinkedIn, which I only bothered with because of an invite from a former co-worker. I highly recommend it, it's worked well for me so far.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Best IPv6 post evar
Proposed IPv6 Cutover By 2011-01-01
After hearing folks at work talk about messing around with IPv6 over the past half a year, this made me laugh out loud. Hah!
After hearing folks at work talk about messing around with IPv6 over the past half a year, this made me laugh out loud. Hah!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
I am
5 US Senate terms
7.5 US Presidential terms
15 US Congresses
20 cycles of Moore's Law
30 years
120 seasons
360 months
1,560 weeks
10,950 days
262,800 hours
15,768,000 minutes
946,080,000 seconds old today
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
NOAA's hurricane satellite politics
Slashdot post + commentary: Say Nothing About the Failing Satellite
Article from the Miami Herald: Candid storm chief gets a lashing
There's some informative discussion on Slashdot between former NOAA folks and JPL folks regarding the design, launch and technical details on the QuikSCAT satellite, in addition to political commentary.
Article from the Miami Herald: Candid storm chief gets a lashing
There's some informative discussion on Slashdot between former NOAA folks and JPL folks regarding the design, launch and technical details on the QuikSCAT satellite, in addition to political commentary.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Dell now shipping PCs with Ubuntu
Dell is (finally) shipping PCs, specifically Dimension E520 N + XPS 410 N desktops and Inspiron E1505 N laptops with Ubuntu Linux installed as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. Cool.
While it may be hard to find the links to the Ubuntu systems from their front page, you can go to http://www.dell.com/open to order their non-Windows systems.
While it may be hard to find the links to the Ubuntu systems from their front page, you can go to http://www.dell.com/open to order their non-Windows systems.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Blame Xerxes
or Ancient Dead Persians Can Have Enormous Influence on Information Technology
Did somebody order a server wrong?
Blame Xerxes.
Blame Xerxes.
Did somebody fat-finger a config again?
Blame Xerxes.
Blame Xerxes.
Machine room overheat on the weekend?
Blame Xerxes.
Blame Xerxes.
It's just not fair, it's just not right.
We tried so hard and he put up a fight.
He's two thousand years old and covered with dust
but we just can't win, he's got that ancient Persian stuff.
Did somebody order a server wrong?
Blame Xerxes.
Blame Xerxes.
Did somebody fat-finger a config again?
Blame Xerxes.
Blame Xerxes.
Machine room overheat on the weekend?
Blame Xerxes.
Blame Xerxes.
It's just not fair, it's just not right.
We tried so hard and he put up a fight.
He's two thousand years old and covered with dust
but we just can't win, he's got that ancient Persian stuff.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
My own Google Maps mashup
So it's not really a mashup. I'm not using the Google Maps API, but the new My Maps functionality within Google Maps. Very easy to use, even with cut-and-paste data.
The data comes from a BusinessWeek article on The Biggest Metro Areas with the Lowest Rents. Kinda neat, gives a nice at-a-glance representation of the cheaper bigger areas to live in the United States. Minus one outlier (Salt Lake City), it's all in the Midwest and South; and 15 out of the 20 are inland. Only two (Houston and Jacksonville FL) are on the ocean.
I've drawn a polygon encompassing the "central" area of large metro areas with lowest rents, and it's interesting that the polygon is centered on the Mississippi River and Ohio Valley. You've also got Texas + Oklahoma + northern Alabama and Georgia, but half of these metro areas are on or near the big river valleys and the Great Lakes.
The data comes from a BusinessWeek article on The Biggest Metro Areas with the Lowest Rents. Kinda neat, gives a nice at-a-glance representation of the cheaper bigger areas to live in the United States. Minus one outlier (Salt Lake City), it's all in the Midwest and South; and 15 out of the 20 are inland. Only two (Houston and Jacksonville FL) are on the ocean.
I've drawn a polygon encompassing the "central" area of large metro areas with lowest rents, and it's interesting that the polygon is centered on the Mississippi River and Ohio Valley. You've also got Texas + Oklahoma + northern Alabama and Georgia, but half of these metro areas are on or near the big river valleys and the Great Lakes.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Cisco VPN Client and Linux Kernel 2.6.19
Was trying to install the Cisco VPN client for Linux on a Fedora Core 6 (kernel 2.6.19) system and ran into some errors. First it complained about linux/config.h not being present and accounted for. Did some googling, turns out that you should be using linux/autoconf.h instead of ye olde linux/config.h. That's cool. But even after doing a
I still got a bunch of build errors from interceptor.c, specifically "CHECKSUM_HW undeclared" and "too many arguments to function skb_checksum_help". Great. More googling. Turns out that CHECKSUM_HW got replaced by CHECKSUM_PARTIAL and CHECKSUM_COMPLETE (see kernel.org for details), and skb_checksum_help's argument list changed.
So more googling, and I found the terribly helpful page put up by Alexander Griesser on Cisco VPN Client and Linux Kernel 2.6.19, which includes a vpnclient-linux-2.6.19.diff file you can use for easy patching. w00t!
sed -i 's/\/config\.h/\/autoconf\.h/' *.c
I still got a bunch of build errors from interceptor.c, specifically "CHECKSUM_HW undeclared" and "too many arguments to function skb_checksum_help". Great. More googling. Turns out that CHECKSUM_HW got replaced by CHECKSUM_PARTIAL and CHECKSUM_COMPLETE (see kernel.org for details), and skb_checksum_help's argument list changed.
So more googling, and I found the terribly helpful page put up by Alexander Griesser on Cisco VPN Client and Linux Kernel 2.6.19, which includes a vpnclient-linux-2.6.19.diff file you can use for easy patching. w00t!
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