I was reinstalling the laptop the other day and installed FF 3.5. Used it for an hour, uninstalled and replaced with 3.0. A fresh install of 3.5 on a faster hard drive was noticeably slower than a well used 3.0 on an older hardware. Not just the start-up, but a regular use too. To me, personally, no amount of new features can justify that. So unless 3.6 comes with a performance fixes - thanks, but no.
It seems like a good time to re-pimp my dnsfix utility that undoes the effects of their NS response mangling. I wrote six years ago when VeriSign tried to pull the exact same NX proxying bullshit with its SiteFinder "service".
Given a fiasco after a fiasco trying to secure regular WiFi connections, what are the chances that wireless window sensors are anywhere close to being secure ? It's interesting because unlike wired sensors, connections of these ones can be accessed from the outside.
As a side note - I looked at using wireless cards to control the access to the front door and ultimately decided against it. The only cards that cannot be cloned with trivial snooping are those that can do proper challenge-response or private/public key authentication. There are NO such cards available at home security market (lots of snake oil stuff though, LOTS). One has to look at the financial services segments (traditional wireless smartcards), but the hardware hardware (even of the eval kits) is prohibitive.
All in all, your DIY security solution will most likely to end up being of the 'security through obscurity' variety. Caveat emptor.
Here's an off-the-shelf cell phone controller for BMWs from 1997. Unfortunately, the test driver totaled the only prototype they had, so the company had to switch back to pimping Aston Martins.
Poor man's version of this is to use a USB IR transmitter. You basically position it in front of TV's IR sensor and connect to the computer with a very long USB cable (typically provided). The only issue is that some remotes use custom IR frequencies that are not supported by readily available transmitters.
Now imagine that this computer is a size of a card deck, with a touchscreen. And it understands which area of the house it is in. And it automatically shows you all actionable elements in the interior - lights, fireplace, shades, speakers, etc. And it has an IR transmitter, so it also acts as a TV remote. And it has a WiFi, so it is hooked up to all networked devices in the house such as DVR and media box. And it run a SIP client that is hooked up to a landline. And a module for the cell calls. That would've been pretty sweet, wouldn't it ?
I watched their CTO's Google Talks presentation and it was really interesting. I got all excited, joined their beta only to realize that they - IMO - misused the technology they had and designed a rather mediocre product. Wuala wants to be a backup tool, a sharing tool, a social networking medium as well as few other things. In other words it lacks focus and wants to do everything - an approach that rarely works.
> I don't think I want to be liable for the data that someone puts on my PC
I don't want random people's data on my disk. Period.
I was a beta tester for Wuala and the lack of access control to my donated disk space was the biggest issue. I talked to their CTO and suggested to have an option of donating the space to specific peers only, which should've not been hard to do given they have the social grouping support in place already. He didn't see an issue with wildcarded access though, so they were not planning (nor in fact did) anything about it.
It is also a case of not "wanting something for free", but more of "not wanting to pay upfront for something that may suck". Right now buying a game is effectively a gamble based on whatever other people had to say about it. So it is, of course, easier to download "full version" and see if it lives up to its ratings. But the problem is that there's no easy way and no real incentive to purchase the copy of the game if it *is* good.
In fact, I wonder if distributing a game for free and then having an easily accessible "pay us" button would work. I know that I'd pay this way in an instant if the product is good and I am using it.
Slashdot Mirror
Any references to back this up ?
I was reinstalling the laptop the other day and installed FF 3.5. Used it for an hour, uninstalled and replaced with 3.0. A fresh install of 3.5 on a faster hard drive was noticeably slower than a well used 3.0 on an older hardware. Not just the start-up, but a regular use too. To me, personally, no amount of new features can justify that. So unless 3.6 comes with a performance fixes - thanks, but no.
It seems like a good time to re-pimp my dnsfix utility that undoes the effects of their NS response mangling. I wrote six years ago when VeriSign tried to pull the exact same NX proxying bullshit with its SiteFinder "service".
1. In Vancouver it rains only once, but for 6 months. Oct/Nov through Mar/Apr.
2. Unbelievably expensive real estate.
A very nice place otherwise.
This is neat, but I would rather have the exact opposite - an ability to answer landline calls on my cell, when I am in the house.
And it was pretty dumb, so gotta wonder why someone would post it ..
A redirect to .org seems to be an appropriate option.
It'll be a single function call in the next Mathematica release :)
Given a fiasco after a fiasco trying to secure regular WiFi connections, what are the chances that wireless window sensors are anywhere close to being secure ? It's interesting because unlike wired sensors, connections of these ones can be accessed from the outside.
As a side note - I looked at using wireless cards to control the access to the front door and ultimately decided against it. The only cards that cannot be cloned with trivial snooping are those that can do proper challenge-response or private/public key authentication. There are NO such cards available at home security market (lots of snake oil stuff though, LOTS). One has to look at the financial services segments (traditional wireless smartcards), but the hardware hardware (even of the eval kits) is prohibitive.
All in all, your DIY security solution will most likely to end up being of the 'security through obscurity' variety. Caveat emptor.
Here's an off-the-shelf cell phone controller for BMWs from 1997. Unfortunately, the test driver totaled the only prototype they had, so the company had to switch back to pimping Aston Martins.
Poor man's version of this is to use a USB IR transmitter. You basically position it in front of TV's IR sensor and connect to the computer with a very long USB cable (typically provided). The only issue is that some remotes use custom IR frequencies that are not supported by readily available transmitters.
> Go to the computer, click file ..
Now imagine that this computer is a size of a card deck, with a touchscreen. And it understands which area of the house it is in. And it automatically shows you all actionable elements in the interior - lights, fireplace, shades, speakers, etc. And it has an IR transmitter, so it also acts as a TV remote. And it has a WiFi, so it is hooked up to all networked devices in the house such as DVR and media box. And it run a SIP client that is hooked up to a landline. And a module for the cell calls. That would've been pretty sweet, wouldn't it ?
> memory usage of less than 2 kilobytes
Not with some nicely fragmented traffic, it's not. :)
I watched their CTO's Google Talks presentation and it was really interesting. I got all excited, joined their beta only to realize that they - IMO - misused the technology they had and designed a rather mediocre product. Wuala wants to be a backup tool, a sharing tool, a social networking medium as well as few other things. In other words it lacks focus and wants to do everything - an approach that rarely works.
Q. Can ComputracePlus be detected?
A. .. snip .. The Agent can survive a hard drive re-format, F-disk command and hard drive re-partitioning.
http://www.absolute.com/computraceplus/faqs.asp
How about they test it by finding one of the Apollo Lunar Modules ? :)
In fact, I'd very much like to see NASA test upgraded Hubble this way too
> I don't think I want to be liable for the data that someone puts on my PC
I don't want random people's data on my disk. Period.
I was a beta tester for Wuala and the lack of access control to my donated disk space was the biggest issue. I talked to their CTO and suggested to have an option of donating the space to specific peers only, which should've not been hard to do given they have the social grouping support in place already. He didn't see an issue with wildcarded access though, so they were not planning (nor in fact did) anything about it.
http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/2008/2/14feb6-bitter-beer-face.jpg :)
It is also a case of not "wanting something for free", but more of "not wanting to pay upfront for something that may suck". Right now buying a game is effectively a gamble based on whatever other people had to say about it. So it is, of course, easier to download "full version" and see if it lives up to its ratings. But the problem is that there's no easy way and no real incentive to purchase the copy of the game if it *is* good.
In fact, I wonder if distributing a game for free and then having an easily accessible "pay us" button would work. I know that I'd pay this way in an instant if the product is good and I am using it.
.. "no tabs in the middle of the line" rule. Especially relevant in multiple variable declarations:
I meant this of course -
http:///.
> Pidgin's clean interface is one of its strongest points ..
.. where do I begin .. :) I saw the following elsewhere,
Oh my
and I think it's pretty accurate summary of the situation -
> Pidgin is an IM client designed and coded by programmers.
> Trillian is an IM client designed and coded by UI designers.
While ideally designers should design and programmers - code.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/papers/cmn08.pdf
Pi in a coffee certain takes Kopi Luwak to another level. :)