Category: Technology

Within a piece about computer security on Macintoshes, Arik Hesseldahl makes the following spurious assertion:

There’s two problems with that statement: First off, Mac users on average pay more for their computers, are self-selected because they tend to know more about technology than your average PC buyer, and by and large are a bit more affluent than those who buy cheapo commodity Windows PCs.

Macintosh users also self-messiah themselves as above the common rabble, so of course they’re smarter and prettier than the Windows-using hoi polloi. But more technical? Not in my limited experience.

I work in a part Macintosh, part Windows shop, and I have had to research and teach some fairly basic Macintosh procedure, such as editing the hosts files and whatnot.

That is, they’re normal users who happen to use Macintosh. On the one hand, some of them are more technical and into the glamour of their chosen technology; on the other hand, that technology and the operating system are pretty much idiot proof, so you don’t have to learn much about the technology since the GUI doesn’t crap out.

On the other hand, Windows machines are pretty much a commodity, so the basic user knowledge baseline is much smaller, but anyone with any curiosity into the technology will have to learn to get it working correctly. Additionally, since they’re default still for youngsters learning, most extremely savvy people will start on Windows PCs, whether they end up on Linux or OS X or one of the even more compartmentalized niche OSes whose acronyms are only known to cabals of the initiates. Maybe these bring the technology savvy average up enough to account for the monkeys trying to compose The Tempest in Microsoft Works or, heaven forfend, Microsoft Paint.

Still, the assertion that Macintosh users tend to know more about technology than your average PC buyer merits an objection, your honor. Perhaps Macintosh users tend to have more hubris about technology than your average PC buyer. Which plays into the hands of those who would threaten the Macintosh users’ security with viruses, trojans, and worms (oh, my!).

Maybe Google wants to become the next Netscape: New Microsoft Browser Raises Google’s Hackles:

With a $10 billion advertising market at stake, Google, the fast-rising Internet star, is raising objections to the way that it says Microsoft, the incumbent powerhouse of computing, is wielding control over Internet searching in its new Web browser.

Google, which only recently began beefing up its lobbying efforts in Washington, says it expressed concerns about competition in the Web search business in recent talks with the Justice Department and the European Commission, both of which have brought previous antitrust actions against Microsoft.

The new browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft’s MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars from its competitors.

How come Google hasn’t complained that all Gecko browsers, such as Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape come standard with Google cued up in the unavoidable search bar? Oh, right, because this little tweak benefits Google.

Remember the last time some pioneering Internet company turned away from innovation and tried to protect its market share in Washington?

Neither, apparently, does Google.

The splash screen for the new Netscape 8.1 browser:

Logging in? I just started the freaking browser. Is this browser communicating with its mother ship every time I open it?

Yes.

The better to serve me, no doubt.

Two researchers at MIT have created a man-control mechanism given the chickly name "loving cups" designed to control males:

Researchers have come up with a novel way to keep long-distance lovers in touch — high-tech wine glasses that glow warmly however far apart the pining couple are.

When either person picks up a glass, red light-emitting diodes glow on their partner’s glass. When one puts a glass to their lips, the other glass glows brightly.

Guys, they have couched this into some touchy-feely chick experience of shared love, communal libation, or what have you, but that’s just the hook. The real purpose of the contraption is to provide her with an alarm that alerts her to how much you drink. Sure, it’s a wineglass now, but soon it will no doubt be embedded in your favorite fraternity mug.

All I got to say is that these things should have an epilepsy warning associated with them, particularly if they’re going to blink every time I take a drink.

(Link seen on Electric Venom.)

In an era where privacy and human rights advocates trash Yahoo! and Google for revealing information to various governments’ sundry agencies, why on earth would the new AT&T (SBC) run radio spots identifying people by name and revealing their interests and how DSL will deliver what you’re looking for quickly.

For example, Doug from (insert your market here) who likes ice dancing but is kind of embarrassed by it. AT&T has built a campaign around announcing they know what you want and they’re not afraid to share it.

All right, I am getting a lot of referrers which list a local file as entry page. These files have a variety of names which seem to make them computer-generated, such as:


C:\Documents_and_Settings\sahil\Local_Settings\Temp\payday_259.html
C:\Documents_and_Settings\Joe_Sharkey\Local_Settings\Temp\golf0.html
C:\Documents_Settings\Admin\Local_Settings\Temp\GoldMine47.html


These come from a variety of ISPs around the world, including a great number here in the states.

What the heck is up with that?

Hey, Web developers, here are some handy cheat sheets for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and such: http://www.blogsip.com/node/45

(Link courtesy of Bucci.)

Forget the Most Holy and Exalted Overlord of Quality title I already got, I want this one:

Senior Anal Software Tester. Hopefully, that’s anal-retentive, not some sort of Java-In-The-Butt application.

Some people, me included, were a little peeved when America Online added its advertising bots to all Buddy Lists this week:

I mean, it’s bad enough we have full volume flash ads on the Buddy List window with the obligatory mouseover pop under ads and the insistent AOL Today or their equivalents, but now we get AOL adding things to our Buddy List. What’s next? Removing other bots for its advertisers’ competitors or banning screen names with product names in them? Or is it….the “Words In Your Mouth” campaign?!

How far fetched is this? Don’t think about it, because it’s not.

Battling Google, Microsoft Changes How It Builds Software:

Jim Allchin, a senior Microsoft Corp. executive, walked into Bill Gates’s office here one day in July last year to deliver a bombshell about the next generation of Microsoft Windows.

“It’s not going to work,” Mr. Allchin says he told the Microsoft chairman. The new version, code-named Longhorn, was so complex its writers would never be able to make it run properly.

The news got even worse: Longhorn was irredeemable because Microsoft engineers were building it just as they had always built software. Throughout its history, Microsoft had let thousands of programmers each produce their own piece of computer code, then stitched it together into one sprawling program. Now, Mr. Allchin argued, the jig was up. Microsoft needed to start over.

Mr. Gates resisted at first, pushing for Mr. Allchin’s group to take more time until everything worked. Over the next few months, Mr. Allchin and his deputies would also face protests from programmers who complained he was trying to impose bureaucracy and rob Microsoft of its creativity.

Forget the bug jail; I want a bug dungeon, somewhere deep and dank to send naughty developers.

Oh, sure, some tech snobs liken Bill Gates and Microsoft to The Devil and the AntiChrist, but face it, you pasty-legged, Macintosh-huffing zone dweebie, when Steve Jobs introduces the iPodPeople, a music player with the ability to download music, photos, OnStar service, debit card, and other software protected by GUID and DRM which you can implant directly into your freaking head, you’ll line up around the block for the outpatient surgery.

And feel good that you’re helping overturn the Microsoft hegemony.

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

To which I would add a seventh: Biometric identifiers. Sure, it does price some timid criminals out of the market of cybercrime, but it also increases the risk to the innocent or the protected. After all, whereas the serious criminal who really, really wants to get in only had to guess your passwords and PINs, now he or she needs your body part.

(Link seen on /..)

SPAMIS, that Microsoft-hating, anti-spam group whose very mention has brought most of my traffic (Google-driven as it may be), has issued another communique, an unsolicited e-mail message which concludes:

[SPAMIS NOTIFICATION]: 
Fully "READY" to Begin Increasing Public Service Announcement
Emails to 20 Times the Amount of Internet Users by 25 Times the 
Current Sending Rate & Speed When a Certain Activity Transpires.  
[CURRENTLY IN WAITING FOR THIS ACTIVITY TO TRANSPIRE]

Of course, as I’ve read too many mystery novels and have watched my share of film noir, I automatically assume that the means something of extortion, but perhaps I am simplistic in thinking that perhaps this SPAMIS group is threatening to send MORE SPAM unless Microsoft comes through with….???

What’s the difference between an Apple salesman and the typical Apple user?

See if you can spot it.

opt-in broadcast email advertising is a completely legal method of
reaching millions of people with your message instantly…

is your business or organization utilizing broadcast email advertising
to reach millions of people a day for free…?

Funny, I didn’t opt in for that….