Author: Alan Henry

Categories
Opinion TechNews Bytes

Copyright Crackdown

In an attempt to further erode your rights and encroach on the realm of fair use, the music industry is sinking more money into preventing you from using your own music that you’ve bought and paid for the way you’d like to use it instead of sinking more money into finding oh, I don’t know, actual talent or new music that will invigorate their industry. A textbook example of an industry that has absolutely no problems with beating the dead horse that is their customer base (namely because that customer base simply won’t stand up for themselves and make a statement back at the music industry) has made another move indicating that they’ll either sue you, infringe on your rights, take your money, or perhaps all three, is now introducing new technology on music CDs that is designed to limit the number of copies of the CD you can make, and will get in the way of you putting your freshly bought tunes on your favorite mp3 player.

Yes, you heard me right-you bought the music, it’s yours-or is it? Not if the music industry has anything to say about it. They’re fighting tooth and nail to retain as much control over how you use the music as possible, what you do with it, how you listen to it, where you listen to it, and how, if at all, you share it with other listeners. Sony BMG and EMI are the first to introduce this technology (which isn’t specifically surprising in itself) and Sony’s technology specifically targets the iPod in order to limit your ability to rip your Sony-owned artist’s tunes to the ever-popular iPod, without specifically requesting a workaround from them. The usual arguments are already stirring; what is fair use, what rights do you have, how do you get around this technology (and it really is only a matter of time before its cracked), and more, but in reality this leads to a larger question-how far can the entertainment industry go on walking into your living room and telling you how to enjoy the product they sold you, and how much do you own it?

[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121949,pg,1,00.asp ]

Categories
People Tips and Tricks

Andy Walker’s New Book Scheduled for Release in October

Andy Walker’s new book, Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Security, Spam Spyware and Viruses is slated to hit the store shelves in late October, and you can already preorder the book at Amazon. [ Amazon US | Amazon CA ] The book looks good so far, and looks to be full of tons of valuable information for anyone who finds themselves floundering in the wired world looking for ways to keep themselves safe and understand exactly what all of the commotion is all about! More details are over at Andy’s blog:

[ http://blog.cyberwalker.com/?p=147 ]

Categories
People

Leo Laporte on Mad Penguin: The PC and Open Source Will Outlive Windows

MadPenguin.org [ http://www.magpenguin.org/ ] has an interview with Leo Laporte, focusing on the notion that the PC and open source software and standards will long outlive Microsoft and Windows. What’s that you say? Never? Microsoft will always be a permenent fixture? Leo doesn’t necessarily agree with you, and he gives some very good answers to the questions of why, what’ll replace Microsoft at the top of the technology innovation world, and the future of technology.

Leo starts out with a little background to his faith in open-source and the impact it’s had on technology and the nature of the internet, and how the culture of open source and free information has influenced people, companies, and the constant battle between keeping information available and open versus large media agencies trying to keep information locked down. The conversation then moves into Leo’s opinion that the PC will outlive Windows, and why. Check it out:

[ http://madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=4791&page=1 ]

Categories
Gear and Gadgets TechNews Bytes

Apple Releases the Mighty Mouse!

Here it comes to save the day! Mighty Mouse is on its way!

Okay seriously. Leave it to Apple to design and develop a mouse that has multiple buttons and a scroll ball but doesn’t actually have any buttons. It’s pretty sleek looking, don’t get me wrong, but seriously, they could have chosen a name other than Mighty Mouse. It just sounds…well…silly, and brings to mind images of the old cartoon. Oh well, maybe that’s what they wanted to do. Anyway, the new mouse features multibutton support (especially in the form of two buttons at the top of the mouse, finally giving Apple users the right-click that’s been long coded into the OS but languished as a hidden feature) and some other special features for the side buttons and the scroll ball. It’s pretty neat, but the $49 price tag is nothing to smile at-it’s not surprising since all of Apple’s keyboards and mice are expensive (Apple keyboard: $29, Apple wireless keyboard: $59, Apple mouse: $29, Apple wireless mouse: $59) and the Mighty Mouse was sure to fit in there somewhere. The Mighty Mouse is wired, and here’s to hoping it’ll start shipping with every new Mac. When it’s the default mouse for the Macintosh, then we’ll have a winner on our hands. I can’t imagine Apple doing anything else, though.

Check out the Mighty Mouse:
[ http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/ ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts TWIT Archive

This Week In Tech [TWIT] // Episode 16

Another TWiT in the can and ready to roll! This week’s guests are Leo, Pat, Steve Gibson, back again for another session, and John C. Dvorak. Topics covered this week are events at Defcon 13 (for those not in the know, the hacker convention in Las Vegas), the new record for an unamplified WiFi link (125 miles), the evil that is the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act, and glory that is the Community Broadband Act of 2005 (write your government officials, kids!), the wonder of Etymotics earbuds (even if they aren’t white), the important question of who the most powerful tech journalist in the world is (Dvorak doesn’t care because it’s not him, that’s all), upcoming news on TWiT live shows, and much much more!

Download away!

This Week In Tech [TWIT] Episode 16 // July 31, 2005 – [ episode notes | download ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

Command-N // Episode 8

This week’s episode of Command-N looks like a blooper reel of the previous episodes. Not sure how much content is involved, especially since I myself haven’t had a change to watch it yet (the early week blitz of podcasts and video is amazing!) but it look promising and good for a few if not many laughs. Should prove to be a good hilarious beginning to the work week, and don’t forget the Command-N “Your Video for a Shuffle” contest [ Your Video For a Shuffle ] going on right now, for all of you amateur and not-so-amateur cinematographers out there!

Anyway, check out the most recent Command-N!

Command-N Episode 8 // August 1, 2005 – [ episode notes and download links ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

Systm // Episode 3

Finally! A new Systm to help the hours pass by. Systm is always good stuff, and this one is no exception. This episode is all about cables, and reveals a professional production secret; that pros dont buy those expensive monster cables and whatnot that you see in Radio Shack and Best Buy at ridiculous prices-they make their own! This epsiode of Systm aims to show you how to make your own high quality AV cables, organize them, and get professional quality sound and video out of homemade cabling, and make it pretty while you’re at it. Looks good, and as always a how-to from Kevin and Dan is more than welcome. Check it out:

Systm Episode 3 // July 30, 2005 – [ episode notes | download links ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

DiggNation // Episode 5

This week’s DiggNation has been moved, so it looks like Kevin Rose and company are finally really starting the campaign to get all of their franchises and programs under the same banner-that banner being Revision3. [ http://www.revision3.com/ ] Don’t worry, the old DiggNation.com url will take you right where you need to go though, so no worries there.

Regardless, this week’s DiggNation is up and ready to download, and includes commentary and review on stories like Yahoo’s aquisition and subsequent free release of Konfabulator, the release of Microsoft Windows Vista beta 1, Firefox hitting the 75 million download mark, and much much more. Check it out:

DiggNation Episode 5 // July 28, 2005 – [ episode notes | download ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts TWIT Archive

This Week In Tech [TWIT] // Episode 15

A couple of days late, but no worse for the wear. This week’s TWIT looks better than ever, and it looks like a long one at that! This week the founder and CEO of Opera [http://www.opera.com/ ] Jon van Tetzner stops in for a chat, and Steve Gibson from GRC [ http://grc.com/ ] comes by to talk as well!

The usual suspects are in the house too, talking about all sorts of tech news and issues this week from Google’s financial explosion to Microsoft’s modest earnings, Motorola’s pending iTunes telephone, PayPal hacks, the school in Richmond, Virginia selling iBooks at 50 bucks a pop, the silliness of the name Microsoft Windows Vista, and much much more! Grab it now and check it out!

TWiT Episode 15 // July 26, 2005 – [ episode notes | download ]

Categories
Sites and Downloads TechNews Bytes

Wiping Apple Off The Map

An update to that tidbit yesterday; noticed on the first day of its launch, Microsoft Virtual Earth was noted strangely to not have Apple’s headquarters on the map at its Cupertino, California address. Astute observers noticed the on Google Earth, Apple’s headquarters, in all its overhead glory, was seated firmly where it should be, but on Virtual Earth there was nothing but a warehouse and an empty dirt lot.

I know, I know, Microsoft didn’t do anything insidious and remove Apple headquarters, they’re just using old satellite photos. Very, very old satellite photos. So old in fact that the World Trade Center is still standing in New York City, for example. But regardless, Wired News picked up on the story today and actually managed to get hold of a Microsoft spokesperson, who gave the predictably amusing reply:

[ http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68308,00.html ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

Weezy and the Swish // Episode 7

New Weezy and The Swish this week, up and ready for your enjoyment. This week, according to the show notes:

Listen to Laura chewing God knows what in your ear! After that, we have Weezy joining us through the wonders of teleportation and time travel. She reads more goodies from the Internet love letters and then both her and Laura offer their thoughts as to how they might translate into a real life situation. Later, Laura takes a stab at rapping to the ingredients of snack foods and recyclables. Plus, we have Laura and Weezy exploring testing possibilities for potential Chinese wives.

Sounds good to me! Check it out:

Weezy and The Swish Episode 7 // July 25, 2005 – [ episode notes | download ]

Categories
Sites and Downloads TechNews Bytes

MSN Virtual Earth Deletes Apple HQ

So, if you didn’t notice, MSN unveiled Virtual Earth [ http://virtualearth.msn.com/ ], yet another step behind Google Maps-which has been all the rage for a while now-(it’s only a matter of time before they copycat again with some virtual earth globe thingy which emulates Google Earth) and Microsoft has made their first blunder…or offensive stab. Look up the address for Apple Headquarters, better known as 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, and on Google Earth you get this [ http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.332307,-122.030103&spn=0.005924,0.010131&t=k&hl=en ] and on MSN Virtual Earth you get this [ http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?ss=apple&cp=37.333411|-122.029708&style=h&lvl=17&v=1 ].

Aside from the quality of the two images being vastly different, and in my opinion Google’s being far superior(when’s that satellite footage from, Microsoft? 1972?), there’s one thing missing from the MSN Virtual Earth image. Apple Headquarters is missing. Yup, completely gone, not there, poof, kaput. But-we know it’s there, so where is it? Who knows, I’m waiting to hear what the PR folks at Microsoft manage to cook up to cover their butts this time, but whatever it is it’ll probably be a doozy.

The Guardian broke the hilarity-I mean the story, so check out their take:

[ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/msn_earth_deletes_aple/ ]

Categories
TechNews Bytes Tips and Tricks

Hacker Mitnick Advises on Security

Kevin Mitnick, perhaps one of the security world’s most famous convicted hackers, now spends much of his time consulting on matters of IT security for various institutions, and his message is clear, real, and while not old, definitely fresh for some ears. Social Engineering is a much greater threat than viruses, worms, and other software threats. While the software threats are ever present and ever changing, computers can be designed to protect against them, to see them coming, and to defend themselves, without the user having to know much more than how to install the preventative software. However, when it comes to social engineering, the human factor comes into play and only well-trained staff can stave off the wave of attacks performed that way.

I often joke with friends about how easy it would be to call someone who left a reciept in the gas pump before I pull up and pretend to be from their bank, verifying their personal information using only their name, a phone book, and the last four letters of their credit card, and how people should definitely be more careful with their personal information-everything from those pesky credit card applications you get in the mail to, of course, gas station and ATM reciepts-all of it can lead to identity theft if a talented and intelligent social engineer or hacker gets their hands on them. Kevin Mitnick, thankfully, agrees with me. He proposes that organizations create a “human firewall” of sorts, where red flags go up in people’s heads when the wrong questions are being asked out of the blue, or someone can’t provide the identity verification they need to, or when someone is asking questions they should probably know the answers to.

Social engineering isn’t just easy, it’s a significant threat. I read stories about someone walking in to an executive’s office one day, dressed well, and says he’s from IT and here to look at the “Outlook problem” he had been having. The executive, happy someone had come, didn’t even mention that he didn’t recall having a problem, but let the gentleman sit at his computer and begin working. A few minutes later, the man got up, told him “it should be better now,” and left with a keydrive full of the executive’s confidential corporate data. Whether the story is true or not, we can all see it happening easily, when we live in a world where many people can’t remember the names of their IT support staff much less their faces, or ubiquitously yield our information to anyone who asks because we assume authority. I don’t think anyone’s suggesting you stonewall the people who are there to help you, but be cautious about giving our your information, and if it feels wrong, dig a little deeper.

That’s my two cents, here’s PC World’s:

[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121922,tk,dn072205X,00.asp ]

Categories
Gear and Gadgets TechNews Bytes

Who Is Driving? Tiger Is Driving!

Or more appropriately, “Apple’s Tiger Drives A Car.” In this year’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge, Team Banzai has developed a fully autonomous vehicle running on Mac OS X, version 10.4, more commonly known as “Tiger.” The logistics are actually spectacular, they used a VW Touareg controlled by PowerMac G5s that operate every aspect of the vehicle, from the gas and the brakes to the steering and the GPS navigation system. The event takes place this fall, but I’m already curious how their vehicle will perform in the qualifiers and hopefully the subsequent race.

[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121920,tk,dn072205X,00.asp ]

Categories
TechNews Bytes

Are Digital Music Fans Going Legit?

A British study this week revealed that online legal music downloads are spreading and growing at an incredible rate, moreso than illegal music downloads, which came as a shocker to researchers, and might be evidence that legal music downloads are actually filling the niche needed in the music market for the first time. Music industry lawyers have long decried legal downloads as a fluff option that won’t stop the “plague” of illegal downloads, and that only lawsuits are the way to resolve the problem, but perhaps now a little more evidence on the side of “give people a better option and they’ll take it” has accumulated.

Personally I think that legal music downloads are the way to go, and had this service appeared earlier and the music industry not fought tooth and nail to make them either go away altogether or prohibitively expensive, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in right now, with fans alienated and music buyers jaded and having to pay armies of lawyers, but I used to think they’d eventually smarten up. They haven’t yet, and while I can only hope this study might lend some strength to the argument, I doubt they will. Until the day they do, the rest of us can take joy in knowing that legal music downloads are popular among our peers, and probably going to grow and become more competitive in the future, which can only mean good things for you and I, the consumer.

[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121924,tk,dn072205X,00.asp ]

Categories
TechNews Bytes

Getting Help: Is Anybody Out There?

PCWorld did an experiment, a very good one, I might add. They went from website to website, taking 12 popular and frequently visited and used websites, and looked about for their “contact us” link or form, and then submitted a question. They then timed how long it took for that site to get back to them with a personalized reply specific to their question. Sites like Amazon, Google, MSN, eBay, and Craigslist were all subject to the litmus test, and to say that the results were surprising is an understatement. The results weren’t particularly flattering, and reveal that getting real help and attention when shopping or doing business on the web is still a long ways away from calling over a salesperson in a brick-and-mortar store, and that companies have a long way to go before they can claim to have effective and responsive online customer service and support.

Regardless, the results are in, and now you know who you’re on your own with and who you’re not-especially when some sites, like Amazon, for example, go to great lengths to hide their customer service telephone number from shoppers, and do everything in their power to make you surf a FAQ or set of help pages before even being able to consider contacting them. I’ve been on both sides of this equation before-you want to give people the tools to help themselves, and you want the signal-to-noise of the questions that get through to be pretty high, but often that means treading carefully on the line between good customer service and good customer education, and to these companies’ credit, it’s not an easy line to walk.

Here’s the results.

[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121869,tk,dn072105X,00.asp ]

Categories
Tips and Tricks

Keeping Your PC Healthy

ExtremeTech.com has an excellent piece today on keeping your computer in good working order. From physical maintenance to cleaning up your system’s software, purging startup files, and getting together something of a maintenance regimen for your system, you can keep your computer in tip top shape at all times and make sure it’s in excellent running order, and you see any problems coming over the horizon long before they actually turn into significant issues. Definitely the way to go.

The article is broken into a few sections to help make it a bit easier to navigate, and also in case you’re pretty sure you have a handle on one segment or another, but all in all it’s good to keep them all in mind, and at least check them out a bit-I found a couple of ideas I hadn’t thought of, but would be more than happy to impliment, like making sure to take as good care of your external peripherals as you do your system itself. Read all about it:

[ http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1840074,00.asp ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

Command-N // Episode 7

Some more growing pains this week for the guys over at Command-N, but nothing that’s not actually good news, as I’m sure their popularity is going through the roof, much like the other tech-related podcasts and video broadcasts on the new as of late. They should have it sorted out shortly, but hopefully that won’t keep us from heading over and downloading the most recent Command-N that’s up and ready for viewing.

This week’s topics include IBM finally (or again, depending on your take on it) killing support for OS/2, the TechTV meetup, comparing blogging backends, the weekly web picks, and much more. Head over and check it out now!

Command-N Episode 7 // July 25, 2005 – [ episode notes and download links ]

Categories
Programming and Podcasts

DiggNation // Episode 4

This week’s DiggNation is up and ready to be heard! They take on topics this week like DiggNation’s exposive popularity, the hacker that got fed up with spam and hacked his way into and subsequently deleted a spammer’s database, open source beer (caffeinated, even!), Rockstar’s stopping production of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas following the hot coffee mod fiasco, and more! This week’s a good one, go off and download it!

I noticed that the video casts are down now, probably because they’re going through bandwidth like nobody’s business, but they’re planning on getting the videos back up soon. In the meantime, head over and listen to what they got!

Diggnation Episode 4 // July 2 2005 – [ episode notes | download mp3 ]

Categories
TechNews Bytes

Microsoft Names New Operating System “Vista”

Looks like the new Windows operating system, up to this point referred to as “Longhorn,” its codename used by Microsoft developers, has been given an official marketing name. The new OS, due out sometime in 2006, will be dubbed and sold as Microsoft Windows Vista.

Not sure how I really feel about that, I mean, I had become so used to two-letter acronyms that identified the OS, you know, “2k” for Windows 2000, “ME” for Windows Millennium, “XP” for Windows XP, and so on. I know, I know, I’m nitpicking, but hey-marketing is a big part of it! Anyway, the new OS finally has a name and we can stop calling it “Longhorn,” which is fine by me.

You can read the press release here:
[ http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/22/technology/microsoft_vista/index.htm?cnn=yes ]

And see the newly unveiled Windows Vista website here:
[ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx ]