Fusion shatters a myth
Yep, sure was hot here in Fusionville (25 miles west of Boston). Why, it felt hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.
Only it wasn't. Intrepid Fusion and Network World staffers went outside equipped with an egg and a digital thermometer. They stood there watching the egg until symptoms of heat exhaustion appeared.
The egg white remained clear and runny. Bah!
Complete results of the experiment
Bridging .Net and Java?
Might Borland (yes, of course they're still around!) be working on some way to get .Net code to run under Java and vice-versa? DevX has an interesting report on the possibility - which might also just be a company CEO getting a bit carried away during an investors' meeting.
Via CamWorld.
Cracking wireless encryption
This paper (in PDF) describes how a Rice University student and a couple of AT&T Labs researchers cracked Wired Equivalent Privacy, the standard used to protect 802.11 data.
Via Slashdot.
08/09/01
AT&T Broadband cuts off non-IIS servers to fight Code Red
Yes, yes, of course, Web servers such as Apache aren't affected by Code Red (beyond the minor annoyance of seeing some Code Red-related file requests in the logs).
But AT&T Broadband has taken the shotgun approach to reducing Code Red traffic on its cable-modem service. Unlike some broadband providers, which are only disconnecting infected IIS servers at the end of cable modems (as you read yesterday, AT&T Broadband is now blocking ALL incoming traffic on port 80(scroll down a screen or two on this AT&T Broadband support document).
Among the affected sites: theroadtospringfield.com, an increasingly popular Simpsons fan site that had been running a playoff-like competition to pick the most popular Simpsons character, ever.
As you might expect, AT&T's unilateral move is royally annoying those customers who would never touch IIS with a ten-foot pole. One Compendium acquaintance wonders if Code Red isn't really just a convenient excuse for the ISP to get rid of pesky power users: "My concern is once again they're dumbing it down to the shut up and browse group."
Bluetoothless
David Reed doesn't think much of Bluetooth. His main complaint: the way Bluetooth is fundamentally a closed system:
Bluetooth development is being done as it might have been in a Stalinist economy. Central planners are making all the decisions, rather than let a market economy develop. And we all know what happened to the Soviet system.
Bluetooth's developers are making a similar mistake by treating the Internet as a second-class citizen. Bluetooth devices are a closed system. They are designed to talk to only each other. The Bluetooth standard is not set up so that, say, a PDA could talk to a computer and wirelessly pull information from the Internet. The Bluetooth consortium seems to hope it can build a world that can be completely controlled, walled off from everything else, but that's like thinking East Germany could ignore the prosperity of West Germany. I wouldn't bet against the Internet anytime soon. Bluetooth's developers, by doing just that, are reducing the value of their technology.
08/07/01
Tennessee town bites into Apple
OK, so Apple is opening all its own retail stores to sell tie-dyed computers. Seems they've run into some trouble with a proposed store in Germantown, Tennessee. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports the town Design Review Commission is holding up the store:The problem, said Germantown chief planner Wade Morgan, was the computer company's logo, which incorporates an apple design.
Germantown's sign ordinance doesn't allow food items, Morgan said.
Via As the Apple Turns.
And you thought TI-99/4A fans were over the edge
Anybody remember the Audrey? You know, that pastel kitchen PDA that 3Com sold for about three days last fall?
Not only do some hardware hackers remember them, they've apparently been spending vast amounts of time reverse-engineering them. Sowbug's Audrey Hacking Page has more details than is good for the average person about the inner workings of the thing and its QNX and Palm-OS apps. There's more at, surprise, audreyhacking.com.
Via Slashdot.
08/07/01
Biometrics coming to your local supermarket
Someday, swiping your ATM card at the local Ultramarket won't be enough to liberate your groceries - you might have to have your thumbprint scanned, as well. One Kuro5hin user reports:
While shopping this past weekend, I wanted to pay by check for my purchases at a national shoe store chain. The clerk explained that they now fingerprint customers who pay by check to protect against check fraud.
You can read up on the technology at this page.
Steve Ballmer a-hootin' and a-hollerin'
Ever-vigilant Web prowler Mark Gibbs spotted this video of Microsoft honcho Steve Ballmer running around a stage like a madman, yelling "I love this company!" On the one hand, it's nice to see somebody so enamored of something. On the other hand, by the end of the video, it was painfully obvious that Ballmer needs to start working out more - I was worried he was going to collapse and die right there.
Obligatory bandwidth warning: It's a 3M-byte .mpg file.
An appropriate use of surveillance technology
Speaking of Web images, this one somehow seems most appropriate. How do you say "Big Brother" in Catalan?
Via Boing Boing.
08/06/01
Just how far PC prices have fallen
Way back in 1981, Software Arts, the company that helped launch the PC revolution with VisiCalc, held a staff meeting to discuss IBM's announcemennt of the IBM Personal Computer. Software Arts taped the meeting; here's a snippet from the transcript
"The IBM Personal Computer can be tailored to fit the user's needs. A basic system for home use attached to an audio tape cassette player and a television set, would sell for approximately $1,565 in IBM Product Centers", meaning it may be discounted elsewhere, "while a more typical system for home or school with a memory of 64K bytes, a single diskette drive and its own display would be priced around $3,005." [Audience: Whoa! Some talk. "$3,005?" "Around..."] "$3,005. An expanded system for business with color graphics, two diskette drives, and a printer," it appears to be the Epson printer, "would cost about $4,500." [Audience: Surprise.] Pretty competitive!
Via Anil Dash.
Does Starbucks' CEO get his own wireless strategy?
A couple of months ago, Starbucks announced plans to equip several hundred of its stores with wireless networks so users could tune into the Web while sipping their lattes.
802.11b Networking News casts a jaundiced eye on Starbucks CEO Orin Smith's follow-up announcements on the effort: He seems to think that a major benefit will be to let customers order their coffees online and then buy tickets to concerts from within the confines of a Starbucks shop:
Why would you order a drink via a computer when you're in the actual Starbucks? Why would you specifically buy tickets in a Starbucks location online rather than anywhere?
Note: Some links may no longer work.
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Tracking down a stolen Mac; Dead C Scrolls; Googlewhacking; How bad is it in the Valley?; Storage lessons from the Wayback Machine; The pub-seeking handheld; Internet gang wars; Outlook XP breaks MIME.
Why should iMac owners have all the eye candy?; Luxo Redux; So you think your job is bad; Google as a DNS replacement? Not so fast; Nokia exec cites stock plunge in speeding-fine appeal; The tragedy of the .coms; The Google parlor game; Some people *like* Steve the Dell Guy; Ban all Microsoft attachments?
Dot-com to bare all; iMac Dance; Wendy's remembers Dave; Search engine bites the dust; Wendy's Web site ignores Dave's death; Geek comic strip; Youngest security expert ever; Spam poetry; Confessions of a hacker; Breathless Apple; Dave Barry does Windows XP.
Dropping everything to vote; The best Apple rumors, ever; Guess Steve Case isn't getting into Harvard; Make your own O'Reilly cover; Boosting your wireless juice; Telnet lives!
This space intentionally left blank (vacation).
The most useless software ever; Is Microsoft getting ready to squash PC vendors?; Excite@Home: The Watergate of the New Economy?; No more 3Com Park. Is CMGI Field next?; Are you an e-bore?; This site'll have you coming and going; Entertainment Weekly's loss of innocence; Ensign Crusher as Entertainer of the Year; Oh, for the old days.
The Museum of Broken Packets; Just in time for Thanksgiving; Tourist Guy found; Why virtual offices suck; A domain ruling that sucks; Hacking the iPod.
Why you shouldn't ship computers via UPS; When .Net requires Java; High-tech grafitti artists; Spam from beyond the grave; New group tries to oversee the whole Internet; Paging Dick Tracy; Students use PDAs to cheat; Windaz for Aussies, Newfies; Another alternative to Passport; A virtual honeynet
Bill Gates: Father of open source; Verizon exec: Monopoly is good; Weird molecule names; E-mail: too much of a good thing?; A cluster of one; More woes for dot-bombers; Spam as weapon in the war on crime; Just when you think the Web can't get any better; Just when you think the Web can't get any worse; More proof I shouldn't be a wiseass; Using your Web logs to ID hacker attacks; Help save the FAQs; Who do you trust, baby?; Powerpuff Girls powerless against virus; Big IP pipe between US, Europe.
The profit of turning thugs into programmers; Work Name Generator; A programmer's lament; The world's best ATM; Are anti-spammers killing people?; Web services and storage; Get your Aerons here; Perl for the XXI-imum century; Microsoft's blocking of non-IE browsers.
Government info taken off the Web since 9/11; Beware hackers who talk too much; A contest you can enter sitting down; Now don't try this in the office; Bob Patterson must die; Finally, a useful 404 page; Tech calls from hell; Teletubbies XP; More XP fun; Anthrax and e-mail; Larry's ID card; World's longest gum-wrapper chain.
Let's drop PDAs on Afghanistan; Voice control? Try grunt control; Spam gets back to business; A content-management portal; Share your system tray with the world; Would you let the recording industry onto your network?; Al Queda's low-tech high tech; 9/11 archive; Shoe company gets open source after all; Pod people, coming soon to a cube near you.
Larry and Scott's dueling ID cards; Cringely: Broadband is dead; The dangers of Photoshop; The dangers of copy protection; Microsoft mining whois for telephone solicitations?; How to REALLY throw a LAN party; Good fences don't make good 'Net neighbors; How Google adapted to 9/11 news; Web services as over-hyped hooey; Why shoe guys shouldn't do open source; Online air hockey.
AT&T waives 9/11 wireless charges for some; Shifting gears; Craig Burton on the Novell/Microsoft suit; In search of the post-PC interface; Vibrating PDAs and wearable phones; Gary Condit's Web site; No, that isn't a real photo of a WTC tourist; How to throw a LAN party; How sucky is your intranet?
For grizzled 'Net veterans; UK ISP forced to pull deceptive ads; Pretty Good encryption controversy; Are you as smart as Miss America?; Really securing your computer; Still lots of insecure IIS servers; Kids, don't try this at home; Anthrax Kills; Larry's national database; Nimda hysteria?
Attack and post-attack items.
999,999,999 bottles of beer on the wall; Finally, a wind-up cell phone; Enough with the ringing!; The VoIP calculator; 802.11b insecurity; Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf explains IOS DHCP; Is ENUM the mark of the devil?; AOL gives user permanent demerit; The Ballmer music video; Cleveland news flash: Y2K was last year.
Re-routing around censorship; Us vs. them in scripting; The boss button; Fighting off the hackers for fun; Peer computing as a weapon of war; Unix poetry; The Windows Fatal Exception Decoder; New Fusion widget: Getting rid of spyware; The sound of 200 cell phones going off at once; Taleban Web site hacked; Hey, sysadmin, remember Sircam?
On the importance of flame wars; Bill Gates sees dead people?; A markup language for grunts and groans; Is Microsoft leaking those Ballmer dance videos?; Good Samaritan not so good?; Steve Ballmer works up a sweat; Open-source wireless cracking; When technology goes too far; Another dumb computer arrest?; Is Cisco Communist?
Moron marketers threaten 'Net users; Finding free wireless access; Complete wastes of time; OS holy war flares in North Carolina; Are programmers weird?; Somebody actually buys an X10 camera; We're number, uh, two!; Those after-hours computer discussions; An entire city running on Linux; Distributed spam fighter under development; Could a Warhol virus infect the entire 'Net in 15 minutes?; Tell AOL what to do with its CDs.
Fusion shatters a myth; Bridging .Net and Java?; AT&T Broadband cuts off non-IIS servers to fight Code Red; Bluetoothless; Tennessee town bites into Apple; And you thought TI-99/4A fans were over the edge; Biometrics coming to your local supermarket; Steve Ballmer a-hootin' and a-hollerin'; Speaking of Web images; Just how far PC prices have fallen; Does Starbucks' CEO get his own wireless strategy?
Crackers getting more sophisticated; Sex and Microsoft Office; The wonders of science, part MXXII; Finally, a useful virus; A shocking game controller; Big Ball of Mud school of programming; Two vitally important new resources; Adobe: Ooops; Eudora Welty, dead at 92; Centralizing Unix administration in Perl; Spellchecking the entire Web.
Worm turns on Microsoft Web servers; The day the ISP died; Cell-phone users have no shame; Even Internet consultants can screw up the 'Net; Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers; The ultimate cup of coffee; The solar-powered ISP; Everhost; Internet VCer: Oops; The Lego Palm and the pink fuzzy laptop; The Microsoft-English dictionary; Putting a loved one in the home.
Saving those all important VoIP calls; This site is a bright idea; Could wireless end messy divorces?; How much will that software really cost you?; Ghosts of failed dot-coms; The spy's guide to securing your Cisco routers; Oprah for Internet czarina?; What's Microsoft doing at an open-source conference?; Like a big pizza pi; Cyber-bullies; Better check your phone bill; Have some birthday pi.
How HP wastes energy to save energy; New toy for the bored and lonely; Weird programming languages; When sponsors are speakers; The case of the disturbing backwards monitor; Congress to ICANN: Drop dead; Yet another video game made into a movie; Smile, you're on Candid (Police) Camera; High-speed hotels; Network Solutions blocking name transfers?
One of the fathers of Usenet dead at 45; Are you ready for insta-spam?; Diary of a site collapse; Skirting the issue; Assimiliating the Web; Trolling for help; Software wars; Rating the rater; True tales from the help desk; How about spam embedded in your mail?
Unix diapers; A beautiful waste of time; A P2P taxonomy; This page is too stupid; Homeless dot-commer bogus?; Whee, Linux is fun!; Blue Screens everywhere; Forget viruses: This fungus eats CDs; Microsoft revises Smart Tags a bit; Homeless dot-commers.
Slashdot crashes the NSA; They may be Smart Tags, but they're not Original Tags; What open source and California wines have in common; Jakob Nielsen no tyro; How to make Windows 2000 really, really secure; Where the Internet begins; A useful computer bug; The clothes make the geek; The end of the Internet; Why PDF bites; Novel use of a wireless phone; Hidden info; When Web sites tell too much.
DSL modems are so '90s; Bye-bye Netscape; Get ready to upgrade those mail servers; The anti-.Net; The real reason to buy a Palm; Anatomy of a DDoS attack; Pain is good.
