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Gearblog News for week 34
By Gearhead, NetworkWorld.com, 08/18/05
Headlines:
Finally Got Their Attention Dept.: The Zotob worm has got more publicity than it deserves for a simple reason: "During several hours Tuesday afternoon [Keynote Systems] saw download times for ABC and ESPN increase from their normal 2 to 3 seconds to 'well over 24 seconds.' Availability for the two sites dipped for a short time to around 10% at 2:45 EDT Tuesday." -- from "Zotob worm slows media sites", Network World 08/17/05.As a result of their infestations ABC, ESPN, NPR ... they all put the event into heavy rotation pointing up, as ever, the mainstream media displaying their total self-absorption.
And in other news:
Knew They Wouldn't Like It Dept.: "OS X on x86 Videos Get Apple's Attention" via Slashdot. Apple prove that they don't get it ... there's no way they can stop the spread of information about OSx86.
Idiot Box Dept.: "While OpenTV provides different levels of functionally to each operator, I was most impressed by OpenTV's 2.0 PVR that is currently available to Foxtel subscribers in Australia. Those lucky Aussies who happen to live in the land of Oz are able to experience interactivity in a way that Tivo and Media Center users can only dream about today. Their 2.0 PVR allows viewers to not only choose among 4 -8 camera angles on select programming, but even more exciting they are able to choose from 4 - 6 audio streams as well." -- from an interesting item titled "OpenTV: TiVo, We're Not in Kansas Anymore" on Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection and which really points up how in this technology segment we are falling behind. Just what we need, more television.
The What Me Worry? Dept.: You know your dumb neighbors with the open WiFi access points? McAfee is coming out with a solution to help them: "McAfee Wireless Home Network Security software automatically sets up encryption keys on Wi-Fi routers and the PCs connected to them and then rotates the keys every three hours" from "McAfee readies home Wi-Fi security tool" on Network World. The software will work with WEP, WPA, and WPA 2. As of next week it will be available for purchase online and be available in stores next month. Of course your neighbors won't actually use it 'cause they don't understand the problem in the first place. Sigh. And we haven't mentioned all of the dumb businesses who need this protection even more than the consumers ...
The What Are They Smoking Dept.: "An operating system shell provides on a display screen a graphical user interface through which a user interacts with the operating system. The operating system shell provides a background noisy display rendered on the display screen in accordance with a background physical lighting model, and an ambient notification rendered over at least a portion of the background noisy display to provide a user notification. The ambient notification is rendered in accordance with an ambient notification physical lighting model that is different from the background physical lighting model." -- a patent assigned to Microsoft. Are we missing something here? Does this sound, well, lame?
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Comments
On the Zotob thing - I couldn't agree more. I got a note from my boss that night wondering if we were protected. Looking at what the virus vendors & MS were saying - the think was classified low risk. Wht was Paula Zahn talking to an MS VP about this?
\\Greg
Posted by: Greg Martin on August 19, 2005 10:50 AM
