Sunday, August 31, 2003

 
Give yourself a clap

The recent spell of virus outbreaks seems to be have proved that there are still some incontravertible rules of viruses or worms.
- you cannot get a virus without acting on an attachment somehow
- the above rule may not apply if MS have placed a bug in Windows
Which means that to protect yourself from a virus you need simply
- to learn to handle viruses
- to keep Windows patched.
Luckily for McAfee and Norton, most of us are too stupid or lazy or uninformed to grasp this, so we all throw money at them and hope they'll protect us.

Personally I would like to see most companies switch off incoming attachment receiving.
If you MUST send a file, send a link and the receipient can make a conscious choice to download it. Either using file transfer services such as FileCourier or by simply giving a link to a website where the file can be found.
This will lessen the waste of bandwidth that goes on these days and will hopefully mean a return to good old platform independent simpletext.

I have not been caught by a virus (though I've been sent plenty) but finding I had 200 emails on 23rd August because of MsBlast or Sobig or whatever, viruses which exist simply because most recipients are so lazy, has really started to get up my nose. Grrr.

Saturday, August 30, 2003

 
Too clever by half

I have just been unable to post to this blog for nearly 2 weeks because I have been travelling in central Europe. This is because I have been staying in places so advanced they have digital phones, which has made modem use pretty tricky.
I managed one burst of net use, when a low cost hotel in the former East Germany charged me a big lump to use their simple terminal in reception.
I couldn't help thinking that the world had somehow gone backwards...

Friday, August 15, 2003

 
Toto Toilet

A highly advanced Japanese public ablution facility is coming to a street corner near you soon.
The user interface is reportedly so complex that foreign tourists in Japan have subjected themselves to extreme aqueous humiliation while trying to figure it out.
Do a web search on the "Toto Toilet" and you'll see what I mean. For those who remember the "SuperLoo" the Toto makes that look like an abacus in a bucket.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

 
Express gets to end of line

Development on Outlook Express will now end.
"Our investment in the consumer space is now focused around Hotmail and MSN" said Microsoft.
Personally I'm happy with that. I was sick of finding that messages archived from old version would not always import into new versions.
But seriously, it may also mean that ISP's who give away an email client on their free CD's decide to choose something else (e.g. Netscape Messenger). Lets get back to choosing a program on it merits rather than because the Evil Empire shoved it down our throats.
Oops, sounding a bit bitter there.
I must say that while all states but Massachussetts have wimped out of punishing MS for the browser wars in the US, I'm proud to see the EU are pursuing a more up to date complaint (the Media player monopoly abuse). It's an odd perspective for me, sat in Seattle, where both sides of the battle, MS and Realnetworks are local companies...

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

 
Out of the box

Only in Seattle could you bump into a whole department of Xbox programmers at a barbecue. Interesting crowd. Amusingly it appears that MS Office programmers regularly enter the Xbox dept, turn off any unwanted lights and shout "I'm paying for that !". Who says the days of cross subsidising products to win market share is dead ?

Thursday, August 07, 2003

 
Want an extra set of prints, Sir ?

Click here to read about a man who has turned a van into a giant pinhole camera so he can go on the road and take huge pictures. Who said there weren't any great eccentrics any more ?

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

 
Fancy a flutter ?

Did you see the ludicrous story about the Pentagon creating a futures market for betting on terrorist acts ? Well, a group of academics have come up with an alternative where you can bet on the actions of the Whitehouse (who will they invade next, when will Bush be impeached etc).

Of particular interest is the cached copy of the original Pentagon website that they display for information purposes.

Monday, August 04, 2003

 
Luddite of the week

I just sent a 55 page document to 10 people by email.
It had started life as a pile of hand written sheets and I had pretty quickly converted it into a big PDF.

At least 8 of those people have requested that I instead print and post it.

These are technology professionals from California.

Can you believe this still happens ?

Friday, August 01, 2003

 
Pain in the Ipod

Great product just been withdrawn in the UK. It allows the output from the Ipod MP3 player to be transmitted on a weak FM signal you can pick up in the car radio.
I have a similar thing here in the US myself. It means anything with a headphone jack can be used near a radio and the radio used as the amp and speakers. Handy for playing MP3's through the clock radio in a hotel room when all you have is a PC with pathetic speakers.
It's not a very strong transmitter - you need it near the radio in question for it to work.
But in the UK it counts as an unlicensed radio station and hence users (not vendors) are breaking the law. Which seems a bit OTT.

Random musings. No more.

March 2003 ♥ April 2003 ♥ May 2003 ♥ June 2003 ♥ July 2003 ♥ August 2003 ♥ September 2003 ♥ October 2003 ♥ December 2003 ♥ January 2004 ♥