Another tip for Slashdot readers using Firefox... get the Firefox Slashdotter Extension. It expands hidden comments inline using AJAX, allows you to change skins, informs you via an icon on the status bar if you got mod points, displays links to Coral Cache, plus more.
So in the near future if I wanted to communicate securely I will either have to learn how to use smoke signals or train pigeons to carry letters to my friends? All the while I thought all these advances in communications was a good thing... I guess not.
This article on the globeandmail.com talks about the inventor of one such device and the associated software (RenCode) and how easy it easy for thieves and others to get their hands on it.
...you will find that in many cases especially at the "lower to mid end", the guts of the brand names and those of the small names are the same. For example, in DVD players, the Denon 1920 has the same internals as a certain Sylvania model. In the lower price ranges, most big names outsource their production to the same companies who also assemble/manufacture for the no-names.
Sony must have underestimated the power of its nemesis in the HD format wars. Microsoft is a seasoned veteran of FUD... It has been waging these campaigns for a while now versus Java, Linux, Open Source, etc.
Microsoft took advantage of Sony's rootkit blunder to score major points in that FUD battle. The only way to battle Microsoft here is for Sony to be on the offense itself.
The latest version of Adblock (ver 0.5.3.042) fixes memory leak issues. Firefox 1.5.0.1 also addresses at least two memory leak problems. After upgrading both Adblock and Firefox to the latest versions, I find the memory leak problems I suffered from before more or less resolved.
What about the computers people leave turned on to download files overnight? I am guilty of this too but at least I turn off the monitor and leave just the PC on. Maybe an option is to use a laptop to do the downloading as these are not as power hungry as desktops.
With regards to memory leaks, it is not all Firefox' fault. I just updated Adblock this morning to the latest version and it definitely lowered Firefox memory footprint on my PC. Whereas Firefox memory usage would steadily grow to around 250 - 300 megs after a couple hours use before I installed the latest Adblock now it appears that it has stabilized to 100 - 125 megabytes, again after a couple hours use. Adblock even acknowledges it on their download area in Mozilla's extension site that the new version "mends memory-management for Firefox".
Sure you MIGHT notice the difference assuming the master used was of pristine quality AND you are viewing the 1080p video using top notch equipment on at least a 100 inch screen. For most folks watching on 50 or even 60 inch HDTVs (assuming these were 1080p capable), 1080p and 1080i would probably be not much different from each other from a viewing distance of 10 to 12 feet.
1080i / 720p is good enough for most people with real world budgets. Also most HDTV broadcasts are currently in 1080i or 720p... Broadcasting shows in 1080p will require much more bandwidth.
When I started using Linux a few years ago, I used Evolution which I liked very much. Unfortunately at the time I did not find it easy to integrate it with Spamassasin so I move to KMail. I found KMail's interface not as polished as Evolution's but it did integrate pretty well with Spamassasin.
Then my ISPs started offering spam filtering service on its servers and I found that it was more effective than running Spamassasin locally (or training the email client locally to catch spam) and I switched email clients yet again... this time I decided I was going to use Thunderbird, the main reason being just like Firefox, it runs on both on Linux and Windows PCs. IMHO, UI wise, it is in between Evolution (better) and KMail (not bad).
...then learn Java according to this BusinessWeek Article. Apparently LAMP (Perl, Python, and PHP) are the languages (fad?) for the 00's (according to the said article).
Useful secrets for those with FF memory leaks..
on
Firefox Secrets
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Disable back/forward caching in about:config:
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers 0
Enables trimming Firefox memory usage when you minimize all Firefox windows:
PCIe or PCI-Express is the new bus that has began to replace AGP in most new motherboards and PCs being sold today.
Next year, it will become more difficult to get a non-budget, non-midrange, 6800GT or X800 class AGP card as both nVidia and ATI have now shifted manufacturing to their PCIe cards such as the nVidia 7800 or ATI X1800 class cards.
If you had a bad experience with a certain brand or personally know someone who has had problems, you are most likely going to avoid that brand for a long time.
I had stopped using Western Digitals after I had a clicking problem (and subsequent failure) on two of them! It also did not help that the Western Digital hard drives on the Dell workstations in a group I was working with, failed in succession. As a result, I have been buying and recommending Seagate Barracudas which I find are pretty reliable and very quiet.
Maxtor seems to be ok and I am using one of those but they are not as quiet as the Seagates.
Using GNOME feels like a step backwards in time with it's quirky and limiting interface (for experienced/power users) that aspires to be Mac like.
IMHO, it is time to focus on one UI (KDE) and a dozen distros at most with a unified GUI driven software update/upgrade utility. Users should not be forced to use the command line for updating / patching the kernel, video drivers, etc. Only then will there be hope that regular users will start adopting Linux and Open Source en masse.
I have been noticing that more of the latest gadgets like HDTVs, subwoofers, amplifiers, DVD players, etc., now just go into standby mode instead of turning off. I could actually hear the transformer of my subwoofer humming even when it is supposed to be off... The only way to turn it completely off is to unplug the power cord.
Yes, the article says that the caps were made by Nichicon which is a high quality Japanese based capacitor manufacturer unlike the taiwanese manufacturers that made the leaky caps using a flawed formula.
I too bought 865 based motherboards made by Intel specifically because they had caps made by Nichicon so I was disappointed to find out these boards may potentially have leaky caps. I guess that with cheap competition from China, Nichicon was under pressure to cut corners and thus cut costs. In case of motherboards at least, it appears there comes a time when competition ends with inferior products all around.
...after he tried to rip another Sony produced CD "Healthy in Paranoid Times" by the Our Lady Peace:
Disappointing, to say the least..., October 14, 2005
A Kid's Review (Amazon.com)
I tried copying this CD, not knowing that it was protected. So, I ripped it to my hard-drive and burned it. But, when I inserted the burned copy into my computer, the screen froze for a while, and an installer icon appeared on the taskbar in the bottom right. It installed somthing - and now I cannot burn anything, with any program. I've even tried using a different, external CD burner. A disk error comes up during burning, even if I am not not burning audio CDs.
This was not a fluke. I've talked to other people this has happened to. Avoid anything with "copy protection." Sony might as well burn viruses onto the CDs they distribute.
The article is full of talk about building Lego like application which to me sounds like it can only be implemented by building on the concept of Design Patterns, especially well designed Interfaces for allowing modules to communicate with each other. As usual, it appears Microsoft is just following the footsteps of smaller, nimbler companies...
Oh well, at least When the next patch (1.04) comes out Mozilla is now on target to claim 100 million copies of FireFox have been downloaded since every patch is actually a re-install of the whole thing:-)
I may be wrong but isn't the Chernobyl reactor cooled by liquid metal (graphite I believe)? If I am not mistaken, the Chernobyl disaster showed that water cooling is safer than liquid metal cooling.
I wrote a small stopwatch app for it with programmable alerts that emit programmable wav sounds every few minutes or so. I use this app to display the elapsed time (more legible than that of a regular stopwatch) while the programmable alerts remind me of the start and end of an interval while I am riding my trainer (stationary bike). I also use it to play mp3s while it simultaneously reminds me of the intervals while riding my trainer.
I have it taped to a camera tripod so it is within easy reach while I am in my trainer... that way I can select the music I want to play and / or reset the intervals while excercising.
Let me add to the list RTS games which are more suited to the PC such as Warcraft3, Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, etc. These games however, will play very well on even on a PC with an old GeForce 256 video card. Oftentimes, it's not the fancy graphics which makes a game great...
1. Use a motherboard with BIOS controlled fan speed controller that controls the speed of fans based on built in temperature sensors. Example - Intel's PERL line of motherboards. Bonus is that this board controls the fans both in Linux and XP. Nice to see the fan speeds going up and down using gkrellm.
2. Install a quiet running hard drive... such as those from Seagate or Samsung.
3. (Optional) Use a quiet CPU heat sink fan such as the Zalman 7000 series.
Slashdot Mirror
Another tip for Slashdot readers using Firefox... get the Firefox Slashdotter Extension. It expands hidden comments inline using AJAX, allows you to change skins, informs you via an icon on the status bar if you got mod points, displays links to Coral Cache, plus more.
So in the near future if I wanted to communicate securely I will either have to learn how to use smoke signals or train pigeons to carry letters to my friends? All the while I thought all these advances in communications was a good thing... I guess not.
This article on the globeandmail.com talks about the inventor of one such device and the associated software (RenCode) and how easy it easy for thieves and others to get their hands on it.
...you will find that in many cases especially at the "lower to mid end", the guts of the brand names and those of the small names are the same. For example, in DVD players, the Denon 1920 has the same internals as a certain Sylvania model. In the lower price ranges, most big names outsource their production to the same companies who also assemble/manufacture for the no-names.
Sony must have underestimated the power of its nemesis in the HD format wars. Microsoft is a seasoned veteran of FUD... It has been waging these campaigns for a while now versus Java, Linux, Open Source, etc.
Microsoft took advantage of Sony's rootkit blunder to score major points in that FUD battle. The only way to battle Microsoft here is for Sony to be on the offense itself.
The latest version of Adblock (ver 0.5.3.042) fixes memory leak issues. Firefox 1.5.0.1 also addresses at least two memory leak problems. After upgrading both Adblock and Firefox to the latest versions, I find the memory leak problems I suffered from before more or less resolved.
What about the computers people leave turned on to download files overnight? I am guilty of this too but at least I turn off the monitor and leave just the PC on. Maybe an option is to use a laptop to do the downloading as these are not as power hungry as desktops.
With regards to memory leaks, it is not all Firefox' fault. I just updated Adblock this morning to the latest version and it definitely lowered Firefox memory footprint on my PC. Whereas Firefox memory usage would steadily grow to around 250 - 300 megs after a couple hours use before I installed the latest Adblock now it appears that it has stabilized to 100 - 125 megabytes, again after a couple hours use. Adblock even acknowledges it on their download area in Mozilla's extension site that the new version "mends memory-management for Firefox".
Sure you MIGHT notice the difference assuming the master used was of pristine quality AND you are viewing the 1080p video using top notch equipment on at least a 100 inch screen. For most folks watching on 50 or even 60 inch HDTVs (assuming these were 1080p capable), 1080p and 1080i would probably be not much different from each other from a viewing distance of 10 to 12 feet.
1080i / 720p is good enough for most people with real world budgets. Also most HDTV broadcasts are currently in 1080i or 720p... Broadcasting shows in 1080p will require much more bandwidth.
When I started using Linux a few years ago, I used Evolution which I liked very much. Unfortunately at the time I did not find it easy to integrate it with Spamassasin so I move to KMail. I found KMail's interface not as polished as Evolution's but it did integrate pretty well with Spamassasin.
Then my ISPs started offering spam filtering service on its servers and I found that it was more effective than running Spamassasin locally (or training the email client locally to catch spam) and I switched email clients yet again... this time I decided I was going to use Thunderbird, the main reason being just like Firefox, it runs on both on Linux and Windows PCs. IMHO, UI wise, it is in between Evolution (better) and KMail (not bad).
...then learn Java according to this BusinessWeek Article. Apparently LAMP (Perl, Python, and PHP) are the languages (fad?) for the 00's (according to the said article).
Disable back/forward caching in about:config:
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers 0
Enables trimming Firefox memory usage when you minimize all Firefox windows:
config.trim_on_minimize true
PCIe or PCI-Express is the new bus that has began to replace AGP in most new motherboards and PCs being sold today.
Next year, it will become more difficult to get a non-budget, non-midrange, 6800GT or X800 class AGP card as both nVidia and ATI have now shifted manufacturing to their PCIe cards such as the nVidia 7800 or ATI X1800 class cards.
If you had a bad experience with a certain brand or personally know someone who has had problems, you are most likely going to avoid that brand for a long time.
I had stopped using Western Digitals after I had a clicking problem (and subsequent failure) on two of them! It also did not help that the Western Digital hard drives on the Dell workstations in a group I was working with, failed in succession. As a result, I have been buying and recommending Seagate Barracudas which I find are pretty reliable and very quiet.
Maxtor seems to be ok and I am using one of those but they are not as quiet as the Seagates.
Using GNOME feels like a step backwards in time with it's quirky and limiting interface (for experienced/power users) that aspires to be Mac like.
IMHO, it is time to focus on one UI (KDE) and a dozen distros at most with a unified GUI driven software update/upgrade utility. Users should not be forced to use the command line for updating / patching the kernel, video drivers, etc. Only then will there be hope that regular users will start adopting Linux and Open Source en masse.
I have been noticing that more of the latest gadgets like HDTVs, subwoofers, amplifiers, DVD players, etc., now just go into standby mode instead of turning off. I could actually hear the transformer of my subwoofer humming even when it is supposed to be off... The only way to turn it completely off is to unplug the power cord.
Yes, the article says that the caps were made by Nichicon which is a high quality Japanese based capacitor manufacturer unlike the taiwanese manufacturers that made the leaky caps using a flawed formula.
I too bought 865 based motherboards made by Intel specifically because they had caps made by Nichicon so I was disappointed to find out these boards may potentially have leaky caps. I guess that with cheap competition from China, Nichicon was under pressure to cut corners and thus cut costs. In case of motherboards at least, it appears there comes a time when competition ends with inferior products all around.
...after he tried to rip another Sony produced CD "Healthy in Paranoid Times" by the Our Lady Peace:
Disappointing, to say the least..., October 14, 2005
A Kid's Review (Amazon.com)
I tried copying this CD, not knowing that it was protected. So, I ripped it to my hard-drive and burned it. But, when I inserted the burned copy into my computer, the screen froze for a while, and an installer icon appeared on the taskbar in the bottom right. It installed somthing - and now I cannot burn anything, with any program. I've even tried using a different, external CD burner. A disk error comes up during burning, even if I am not not burning audio CDs. This was not a fluke. I've talked to other people this has happened to. Avoid anything with "copy protection." Sony might as well burn viruses onto the CDs they distribute.
...in order to kill Juba, the elusive sniper that has sapped morale in Baghdad.
The article is full of talk about building Lego like application which to me sounds like it can only be implemented by building on the concept of Design Patterns, especially well designed Interfaces for allowing modules to communicate with each other. As usual, it appears Microsoft is just following the footsteps of smaller, nimbler companies...
Oh well, at least When the next patch (1.04) comes out Mozilla is now on target to claim 100 million copies of FireFox have been downloaded since every patch is actually a re-install of the whole thing :-)
I may be wrong but isn't the Chernobyl reactor cooled by liquid metal (graphite I believe)? If I am not mistaken, the Chernobyl disaster showed that water cooling is safer than liquid metal cooling.
I wrote a small stopwatch app for it with programmable alerts that emit programmable wav sounds every few minutes or so. I use this app to display the elapsed time (more legible than that of a regular stopwatch) while the programmable alerts remind me of the start and end of an interval while I am riding my trainer (stationary bike). I also use it to play mp3s while it simultaneously reminds me of the intervals while riding my trainer.
I have it taped to a camera tripod so it is within easy reach while I am in my trainer... that way I can select the music I want to play and / or reset the intervals while excercising.
Let me add to the list RTS games which are more suited to the PC such as Warcraft3, Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, etc. These games however, will play very well on even on a PC with an old GeForce 256 video card. Oftentimes, it's not the fancy graphics which makes a game great...
1. Use a motherboard with BIOS controlled fan speed controller that controls the speed of fans based on built in temperature sensors. Example - Intel's PERL line of motherboards. Bonus is that this board controls the fans both in Linux and XP. Nice to see the fan speeds going up and down using gkrellm.
2. Install a quiet running hard drive... such as those from Seagate or Samsung.
3. (Optional) Use a quiet CPU heat sink fan such as the Zalman 7000 series.