March 06, 2007
Stop, Linux Time
With Micro$oft asking $4k/business for updates to Win2k and earlier operating systems for the change in DST, you've got to wonder what byzantine implementation they have for time. My Linux boxes are happily purring along with their DST zone updates (which, had I left the automatic update manager running, would've been done without my interference). If something horrific had gone wrong, I could've followed any of the many paths offered in this LinuxWatch article, all they way down to editing the time zone file myself.
There's an unofficial patch to get around this silliness.
While I'm on a short rant; I was playing with Vista at a store the other day. I don't get it. It's like XP with a bigger Start button and a different alt-tab interface. Woo. Why do I need to have 1-2 gigs of RAM and a top-of-the-line video card for that again?
Posted by griffjon at 09:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2006
It's worse than we thought
So, I've been using CVS for this summer class to keep all my reading, presentation slides from the prof, articles for my paper, and writings themselves, in sync across my home laptop, my travelling Linux laptop, and my thumbdrive (and my work computer at times, and a private directory on my website).
Though it comes with some annoyances when handling big annoying docs in directory structures and not plain text files, it's made my life a lot simpler (no more counting files in a directory, sorting by most-recently-modified, etc.)
So yeah, I'm working on my paper at the GTown building (the roof has a great view of the potomac, electrical outlets and open wireless!), and I just raised my arms and shouted towards the Potomac "I LOVE CVS!"
I especially love the automatic version numbers. I am on rev 1.2 of my paper. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.
I think this qualifies me for dorkiness, beyond geekiness.
Posted by griffjon at 04:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 21, 2006
Pringles Cans on the Saudi Border
This, among some others, are re-posts from my class blog that I deem readable and not-too-deep-into-the-materials enough to mirror here
In "Weaving the Authoritarian Web: Liberalization, Bureaucratization, and the Internet in Non-Democratic Regimes," Boas, details primarily Saudi and Chinese control on the Internet. This really made me want to buy some land on the Bahrain/Saudi border and install a little headless Linux box connected to a high speed or multi-modem dialup unfiltered connection in Bahrain on one end, and a wifi cantenna rig (O'Reilly recommends Pringle's) on the other.
Actually, in for a dime, in for a dollar, might as well use the winning methodology of the most recent DefCon "security" conference's wifi shootout (the 2005 winner achieved 125 miles), or the 2003 winner, which managed over 30 miles with equipment (beyond the wifi card and laptop) under $100.
The underlying point to the Boas paper of course is that they don't have to be perfect, just good enough to make the few who can evade the restrictions politically insignificant. This will continue to be somewhat of a cat-and-mouse game, as costs for access to alternate technologies/networks will likely fall over time (e.g. satellite, cell networks from neighboring countries, mesh wifi networks that route out through foreign connections, etc.), not to mention brave souls willing to take risks, as Jake mentioned talking about the Chinese reporter who posted a "blistering letter on the newspaper's computer system attacking the Communist Party's propaganda czars and a plan by the editor in chief to dock reporters' pay if their stories upset party officials." (The plan got dropped, but the hero of the story eventually got fired and the entire section of the newspaper has since been shut down).
Regardless, these ingenious little (architectual) tools and original-sense hackers provide an invaluable resource to ICT development; the Pringle's Cantenna has already found a use for an Egyptian entrepreneur to connect his home to his Internet cafe, and I can only imagine there are other similar projects.
Creativity becomes almost as valuable as access in rolling out ICT infrastructure projects, and the same forces are at work -- laws (protecting monopolies or restricting radio frequency usage, for example), cultural norms (a mesh network requires cooperation and a method to arrange antennas to maintain a mesh and not get stolen), market (cost-to-connect, cost of equipment...), and architecture; but it is with the architecture that creativity can have the impact. The others (law, culture, market) are beyond the control in almost every development project's time-frame and budget, but the architectural challenges might be already being pursued by the "mice" of the world.
Posted by griffjon at 05:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 06, 2005
Europe throws out software patents
EU is a bit smarter than we are on this side of the pond re: software patents. Software's inherently covered through copyrights; patents on software were expected to have a chilling effect on the EU F/OSS community.
Posted by griffjon at 07:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2004
Go FireFox!
It's not real blog unless I cover Open Source Software, too.
Slashdot this morning that not only did FireFox (the alternative to Internet Explorer that kicks ass) run a full 2-page ad in the NYT, today they got a very favorable article
With Firefox, open-source software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your parents', too. (Your children in college are already using it.) It is polished, as easy to use as Internet Explorer and, most compelling, much better defended against viruses, worms and snoops.
Microsoft has always viewed Internet Explorer's tight integration with Windows to be an attractive feature. That, however, was before security became the unmet need of the day. Firefox sits lightly on top of Windows, in a separation from the underlying operating system that the Mozilla Foundation's president, Mitchell Baker, calls a "natural defense."
Seriously, any of you out there who are still using IE, just stop, it's not safe, and it is giving you a horrible experience, even if you don't realize it. Make the switch. Firefox imports EVERYTHING -- bookmarks, password, history, it's all there. Plugins are a snap. IT's so, so much better than what you're used to.
Posted by griffjon at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)