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When is Cisco, D-Link, Netgear, going to learn to turn on encryption by default?

It still astounds me that computers seem to halve people's intelligence. What is WEP going to get you?

Yes, I just karma whored a google search for "WEP encryption break".

Also, I don't use WEP at home, nor do I use any kind of encryption by default at work for our ethernet. In fact, I've only heard of things that are by default encrypted like interbank communication, and I would assume the military might use some encryption between some links, but its not universal.

So please, WAP manufactures, start doing what none of us already do on a daily basis. It will improve security.

Here's the free version.

As the article notes, Gracenote currently has 50 million tracks in their database, while current online offerings aspire to a mere 1.5 million songs. Clearly there is room for improvement.

However, one issue that the article doesn't address is how users might navigate the so-called "celestial jukebox". A large catalogue may be useful if one specifically knows the artist/album/song one is looking for, but browsing a catalogue such as Gracenote is impractical (especially since music can be relatively difficult to classify). I believe that personalisation will play a major role here - I'm still waiting for a comprehensive online service that provides recommendations on a par with those provided by Audioscrobbler. The iTunes store is very weak in this area, while Yahoo seems to have invested significant effort into this area (in terms of technology, it ties in nicely with their search personalisation). It will be interesting to see how important this aspect of the buying experience becomes as the depth of their respective catalogues increases.

This thing is also avaliable on DS :)

you can also now view chicago real estate listings in google earth.

http://google.weblogsinc.com/entry/123400012704937 5/

"This is the real deal--a terrific application of Google Earth that enlivens its potential and illuminates one path into the future of local search. Prudential Preferred Properties has created a network plug-in for Google Earth that identifies real estate listings in and around Chicago, giving the user flexible search and browse tools that are automatically updated. Here is the announcement and instructions; you need a free coipy of Google Earth, which every high-speed household should be running anyway."

Referenced here: http://javascript.weblogsinc.com/entry/12340002670 34921/

Uh, hasn't friendster had a lot of performance problems over the past few years?

http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default .asp?cmd=show&ixPost=108070

http://www.sickdoggy.com/archives/000372.html

http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/3341461 825857782/

http://bbs.fuckedcompany.com/index.cgi?okay=get_to pic&topic_id=1761473

Wouldn't you supply your employees with free food?

Incidentally, one way Google keeps its people onsite is by providing a free laundramat. I find the idea of my co-workers (not to mention the occasional visiting celebrity) seeing my literal dirty laundry deeply disturbing.

It will be a couple more months before the deadline passes that voip providers in Canada have a 911 service. http://voip.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000930038950/

This article has a review of the player. Not ready from prime time software buat a great idea though. As another poster pointed it its based on the open source Irate software .
It also looks like an ipod shuffle sideways with a screen.

When the page is done with its slashdotting, you can submit your music to the indy page

Imagine if the government decides to rule on the side of interoperability http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/entry/123400090 0039337/ If you can hear the sound of all Sony and Apple's R&D money flushing down the toilet with one pass of the government's mighty pen, you might be ahead of the game. It's true there's a slim probability of the interoperability legislation going into effect, but the saber rattling is always unnerving.

Thank humanity for big blue!

Apple Spotlight Patent Reveals 3-Year Head Start on Microsoft

Apple Spotlight patent predates Microsoft's Longhorn announcement by three years

It's not nearly as big as the Lynx. Here are some pictures to put things in perspective.

It's not nearly as big as the Lynx. Here are some pictures to put things in perspective.

It's not nearly as big as the Lynx. Here are some pictures to put things in perspective.

Well, for everyone else, here are some strategies to combat comment spam. There should be plugins or upgrades available for whatever software you're using that add these features:

1) Add ref="nofollow" to all links posted. Google will then ignore this link when assigning pagerank. This is invisible to the user.
2) Force the browser to calculate a javascript hash everytime a comment is posted. This prevents automated spambots from posting comments. This is invisible to the user.
3) Filter for common words (viagra, poker) then manually approve those comments. This is a lot of work for you, but no work for your users.
4) Use captchas - your users must type in the text in pictures when posting a comment. This is extremely intrusive for your users.
5) Approve every comment. Lots of work for you.
6) Disable comments. It's better than giving up your blog as, sadly, many people are choosing to do.

Presumably, the clicker "bug" is actually a feature. If you accidently damage the screen, you can use it to navagate by sound. There are other problems with the firmware, such as making a slight static-like sound when the volume gets changed. It may be possible to revert to an earlier version by using the "ipod wizard" http://media.weblogsinc.com/common/videos/pt/ipodw izard.zip

J,

Forget about Fred. You best focus on figuring out the portents of this:

http://www.michaelbuffington.com/archives/2005/02/ the_grand_expir.html

Key excerpt:

[Michael's blog entry here]

-----

So what is to prevent him, or me, or anybody, from setting up a Weblogsinc-style collection of blogs and arb...er, ad-bitraging away most of your $600/day?

Pretty much nothing, I reckon.

Thoughts?

------

Let's see what he says...

Also, here's the link to my comment: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/123400086003 1229/#c124683)

And here's the link to my source for the $600/day stat:

http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2005_02_09.shtm l#012219

As far as RAM and internal drives being upgraded... Yeah, you can, but you void your warranty and it takes two putty knives and some good luck to open the case. Not exactly what I would call easy.

According to several websites opening a Mac Mini and replacing the RAM does not void your warranty unless you break it while doing so. However, Apple provides a list of what is user-servicable on all there computers. Unfortunately, the Mac Mini is not on that list yet.

Right now (Jan 21, 10pm GMT) the eXeem Lite site only allows to download a lite version of the eXeem Lite Beta Tester 0.18 version, i.e. the version intended for private testing only. If you install it, it will ask for the betatester's code.

But according to this post we can expect a "lite" version of the recently released eXeem 0.20 to be available within a day. At least that is what the authors claim.

how about Cat Swartz's coverage at CES for engadget. just watch how Kevin Rose of G4TechTV drools all over her 30 seconds into the clip ;)

For those daring enough, you can download it here.

http://p2p.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000703025392 :)

I've been a strong advocate of the social bookmarking service named del.icio.us since it started (check here for an example). And almost every single day, a new tool appears and enhances the use of this service. This new one, DURL , written by Robin Millette , lets you type an URL and see if some other people already "delicious'ed it." And this is very efficient because it leads you to people who not only bookmarked the URL, but also assigned to it some pertinent keywords or tags, giving you new and fresh ideas. Services like Bloglines or Technorati among others certainly can return hundreds of links, so they are good for 'popularity contests.' But for building social communities and introducing you to sources you wouldn't have thought of, they don't compare to del.icio.us. Read more for lots of examples...

As I'm not sure if I convinced you, let's start with a real blog, Smart Mobs .

If I feed the URL http://www.smartmobs.com/ to Bloglines by submitting the search string "http://www.bloglines.com/citations?url=http://www .smartmobs.com/&submit=Search," I receive 3358 unsorted results.

If I do the same with Technorati , I find 1,614 links from 1,234 sources, sorted by date.

In both cases, this produces a number of references which is hard to browse. Why a particular site has quoted Smart Mobs? It's not obvious to find an answer.

So, it's time to use DURL, which returns a more manageable number of 45 results from del.icio.us.

http://www.primidi.com/images/durl_1.jpg

Here is a screen capture of the page returned by DURL. You can see that some people are reading Smart Mobs because they associated it with the concepts of "creativity" or "ubiquitous computing". Others are using tags such as "collaboration," "mobile" or "community." (Credit: Robin Millette/del.icio.us).

Let's check for example the tag "Social Software."

http://www.primidi.com/images/durl_2.jpg

It brings us to del.icio.us/hbryant/social_software . (Credit: del.icio.us). Wow! Exciting! New tools for del.icio.us! Let's visit Soooo del.icio.us people can't stand it! .

In a summary, with only two clicks, I found a gold mine. Do you know another service which is that efficient?

Now, let's return to the previous page and check the link to the "community" tag.

http://www.primidi.com/images/durl_3.jpg

This time, this leads us to del.icio.us/oubiwann/community . (Credit: del.icio.us). From there, I can now read a "definition of Mundialization" or discover what is the "World Government of World Citizens."

The more I use del.icio.us, the more I like it. This doesn't mean I'm not using Bloglines or Technorati, but I'm using them for 'exhaustivity,' not for 'discovery.'

[And here is an additional note for Robin Millette, the author of DURL. In fact, you can do the same search on del.icio.us by adding the string "http://del.icio.us/url?url=" (without the quotes) before the URL you want to see if it has been delicioused. But it might be too geeky for some of you.]

Source: Robin Millette, December 20, 2004; and various websites

This post from the Dr.'s blog is interesting, as Volkerding had said himself that he had pericarditis.

The previous post mentioned in the blog is about a middle-aged smoker - anybody know if Volkerding is a smoker?

(Like everybody else, I wonder what Patrick's problem turned out to be in the end... )

It's funny how people accuse russian virus writers and chinese sending spam.
But the most of the spam comes from USA, maybe via owned chinese hosts.
http://spam.weblogsinc.com/entry/4463682046968893/

Fark.com sells their editorial, and the loyalty of their uses.

I found this photograph... maybe that will help?

Does that mean trippling of the range??? I'd sure appreciate a fetaure like that... Here're some bluejacking links. Also, great general bluetooth info on the WebLogsInc.

It is, in effect the new frontier for innovation by companies such as Alvarion. Intel is pushing hard in this areas as they see this domain as an untapped area where they can gain traction.

This article is informational: http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp%3FArticleID%3D 3753

Of course, WiMax, is being promised as that solution to the perennial problem, the Last Mile , which is kind of what this guy is trying to illustrate.

Unfortunately though, the cost of driving a truck around, far outweighs the benefit of providing bandwidth for 'free' - One is reminded of the old calculation for the bandwidth of a truck, somewhat updated here, "Never underestimate the bandwidth of an Interstellar Truck"

Here's my favorite "Social Software"...

I use MeetingPoint and MobiLuck on my Nokia 6600.

Mobiluck is better and easier than manual bluejacking. Plus I like that app a lot. I use it when I want to choose who to pest.

Meetingpoint is in a slightly different business... it does not need ANY manual interaction, just set the message you want to send, put your cell in a pocket and walk around, automatically spamming every cell that gets close enough. Oh, and it also runs on palm, pocketpc, windows. But not linux. I keep pestering the authors to get it for my PowerBook... it has a class-1 bluetooth thing - would love to bluejack everybody whitin 300ft...

Way, way more here SocialSoftware Weblog.

There's a dead iPod shown here

For Christ's sake, will slashdot come clean on how much money they charge Engadget (WEBLOGS, INC. NETWORK) for these story placements? The submitter, Ptorrone, is the author of the article (Phillip Torrone), yet this is not disclosed in the slashdot post.

Engadget is an infomercial site. It's not a blog. If you doubt the commercial relationship between slashdot and Engadget, check out how many submissions have been accepted from Ptorrone in the last 60 days. Also note that each of the accepted submissions are Engadget articles written by PhillipTorrone.

How about RSS synching for iPod, or even better, RSS with text-to-speech generation synching.

/me invisions listening to slashdot while jogging.

PS: Do we like or hate engadget? I forget.

Strange but true, one of the early codenames for the Macintosh project was intended to be "Bicycle." I believe it was Steve Jobs who wanted it called that.

Reference: Bicycle vs. Macintosh(The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

ClearChannel has a program called Burn Live (the name was changed to "Instant Live"® after an unfortuante incident) that records most of the entire concert direct from the soundboards. Their deal with Worst^H^H^H^H^HBestBuy also has the CDs in those stores after the show.

Some people don't think Burn Live is all that, either. Note that ClearChannel is trying to lock out competition of their live CD burninating model by using the patent system.

It does appear, however, that they are supporting PCMCIA cards (as do some of the Japanese models). Look at the final pic on this page, in particular this image. On the left side of that appears to be a PCMCIA slot.

Damn. It seems like a day doesn't go by without Slashdot linking to some engadget article. Yesterday the Engadget Senior Editor admitted that he's been submitting Articles on Slashdot without a disclaimer saying 'hey, I'm from Engadget. Here's my story over at my site.' Interestingly, he never posts with his slashdot account, but keeps getting his self-hyping article submissions accepted.

Now here's this article posted on Slashdot referencing a child-site of Endadget called joystiq. Engadget and Joystiq are part of the "Weblogs, Inc. Network"

I tried to check the submitter's slashdot account. Doesn't exist. Why would Timothy use this nickname (oldskoolar) to attribute the submission when it doesn't exist? Now slashdot is not only running promo articles for engadget sites, it's pretending that they're submitted by users who don't exist.

I'd bet that the folks at WIN are paying slashdot to run these promos to drive traffic to their pseudo-blog sites.

You can't break the law and then bitch about how the law is wrong. Its questionable if chalk advertisements are legal, companies typically pay permits for that medium. After IBM and NBC outraged people by spray painting messages around town, I think advertisers are treading lightly. If chalk advertising was clearly legal you'd probably see "eat at mcdonalds" all over your city.

Well what's the real complaint, that he was held without a reason or that he was arrested for chalking the sidewalks? Did the cops give him a reason, later on, when they weren't in front of cameras? If not, I agree that's fascist. When asked, "Do you have any fear of being arrested during the Republican Convention?" JK responded: "I think anybody planning an act of civil disobedience has to accept the risk of getting arrested ... There is a chance I could be arrested. Am I criminally defacing property? I don't think so." I think he knew what he was doing was legally questionable.

I work in advertising, so I know chalk art is questionably legal. I guess that's my point. Read for yourself:

Chalk art is one form of guerrilla marketing, an in-your-face, direct-to-the-people kind of advertising. Guerrilla marketing in public spaces can be tricky and even illegal, as Nike and Microsoft found out separately last fall when they took heat from New York City officials for slapping promotional decals on sidewalks and buildings. "I guess we haven't addressed that during any meeting I've attended," says Heather Freeman, who does public relations for Red Sage (www.redsage.com). The chalk art is just supposed to be "fun and friendly." It's unclear whether the city agrees. The District typically requires permits for any disruption of a public space, including an event or activity that might hinder foot traffic or the movement of the disabled on a sidewalk. Permit requests go to the city's Department of Transportation, and permits are issued by its Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs.

Personally, I think it's bullshit if they are enforcing it to different degrees, like letting pro-lifers put messages everywhere but not letting the bike guy get the word out. He obviously wasn't keeping the shit low-profile by talking to the media.

Actually, it's not as simple as that. There have been many complaints about programs that track many tcp connection attempts being broken as well (like P2P applications for example).

I wonder if this would affect web and application servers with high client counts or large transaction rates too. This may just be the beginning of these complaints.

It seems that they're just adding functionality similar to a WiFi keychain. Once you've found a wireless network, you can set up your laptop to connect.
I've actually needed service like this, as I've gone to several small businesses where the person I spoke to had no idea whether or not the shop was WiFi capable. It would have saved me at least ten minutes in each occasion if I could turn on an iPod or one of these keychains to see if service was available, and possibly find a strong reception point.

From the Sunglasses/MP3 Player link:

We have a little addendum to our Tech from the Tour de France feature from a couple of weeks ago: this special pair of Oakley sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player that Lance Armstrong was spotted wearing. No idea whether they're planning to ever sell these or not, but a little bit of research reveals that the sunglasses only have enough room on them for 35 songs, which makes us think that they probably have somewhere around 128MB of storage somwhere in there.


True, but that doesn't mean Lance plays only 35 songs for the entire Tour. Does anyone know if the Tour rules prohibit changing electronic media and so forth? He could play a new set of 35 songs every day. At least that would be interesting trivia, what songs did Armstrong listen to every day of the Tour..

Is that Prince Markie-D of the Fat Boys?

no guarantee when more fuel would be arriving
True. We all pray this war will be over soon and everyone will get enough fule.

Dell Offers $100 For Old iRaq

http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAi d/wm467.cfm

Myth #3: Outsourcing will cause a net loss of 3.3 million jobs.

Fact: Outsourcing has little net impact, and represents less than 1 percent of gross job turnover.

Over the past decade, America has lost an average of 7.71 million jobs every quarter.[4] The most alarmist prediction of jobs lost to outsourcing, by Forrester Research, estimates that 3.3 million service jobs will be outsourced between 2000 and 2015--an average of 55,000 jobs outsourced per quarter, or only 0.71 percent of all jobs lost per quarter.

Myth #6: Outsourcing is a one-way street.

Fact: Outsourcing works both ways.

The number of jobs coming from other countries to the U.S. (jobs "insourced") is growing at a faster rate than jobs lost overseas. According to the Organization for International Investment, the numbers of manufacturing jobs insourced to the United States grew by 82 percent, while the number outsourced overseas grew by only 23 percent.[5] Moreover, these insourced jobs are often higher-paying than those outsourced.[6]

http://outsourcing.weblogsinc.com/entry/0388528174 117152/

nsourcing growing at a faster rate than outsourcing
Posted Apr 11, 2004, 4:18 AM ET by Subramony S.

The New York Times is running an article on the benefits of insourcing and how it is growing at a much faster rate than outsourcing.

Proponents of free trade point to the near-record 6.4 million Americans who worked for foreign companies as of 2001, the last year for which complete figures were available. They also note that while more jobs are being outsourced than insourced, the number of new workers employed by foreign companies more than doubled during the 15 years ended in 2001. By comparison, the number that moved offshore - roughly 10 million, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis - grew by only 56 percent in the same period.

***

I'm tired of this myth of outsourcing hurting jobs and the US economy. for the most part, its only low level, low paying, entry level positions being outsourced to places like india. the outsourcing saves companies money so they can hire people in higher paying, mid-level positions. Read the links I posted. While currently we have more jobs outsources then insources, the rate if insourcing is increasing faster then the level of outsourcing. For those of you wondering, insourcing is foreign companies in the USA hiring USA workers.

Since these foreign companies are hiring USA workers, they are taking away jobs from workers in their native homeland. Isn't this not fair to workers in their native homeland? Shouldn't we deny business with these companies until they fire all of the USA workers and hire native homeland workers? Because, thats the attitude you have with companies outsourcing to india. it should play both ways, right?

Your job belongs to your employer, not you. Your employer exists to make money, not provide you with a job. To get a job, you must have certain skills/talnets that an employer wants. If you get laid off, its your own fault for putting al your eggs in one basket (all your skills in one trade). The problem is with YOU, not your employer.

United States, 56.74%

Canada, 6.80%

China (including Hong Kong), 6.24%

But this "thespamweblog" article from November 2003 shows:

UNCTAD estimates that the majority of spam victims are in the USA but it also says that in March 2003 the USA was the source of 58.4% of spam, followed at a great distance by China (5.6%), the United Kingdom (5.2%), Brazil (4.9%) and Canada (4.1%).

The same source report (along with sources of digital attacks was mentioned in theInquirer. I'm sure if I kept tracking links in google, I'd find other reports and other percentages.

Maybe recent US lawsuits have, within a few months, forced most spammers off shore or perhaps it's just part of the offshoring of US [SPAMMER] jobs.
;-/

In regards to my sig, a bit of dark thoughts: imagine if China became a strict Moslem nation. If stealing incurs the lost of a hand, I could see the penalty for sending spam to be the loss of one finger for each separate mailing. Of course the worker would be fined and their boss. Eventually that might make a dent in spam. >:=}>

-l

Secondly, most of the spam I receive are not even from the US. Most of the stuff is from Asia or worse, eastern Europe. Do these regulations apply to them, too?

they send the spam to servers and recipients in the USA. Jurisdiction is not only based on where they are located, but also where they conduct business and where the harm is directed.

The FTC has filed a lawsuit against the scumbag spammer known as Global Web promotions. I filed a lawsuit against them last year. Their scumbag lawyer has made many misrepresentations to the court. I will be posting it on my site shortly.

As more people figure it out, hacking seems to be helping.

Notice, I said 'hacking' not 'piracy.'