October 3, 2007
Gutsy Gibbon on its way
The next release of Ubuntu will be here soon!
I use Ubuntu on my laptop as my choice for personal use and professional.
I can run anything I need on it - even windows applications - and it is rock solid.
I can't wait to see what the next version brings!
Posted by dottie at 7:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 24, 2007
Google pushing vastly more efficient PSU's
The typical Power Supply Unit (PSU) in a PC converts only about 50-60% of the AC voltage that is pumped into it. The rest is dissipated as heat and power for driving the cooling fans.
Even the most efficient PSU's only reach 85% efficiency which is good, but can be a whole lot better.
Google has a tradition of building their own servers, leading the way for large server farms through the years -solving problems that other people thought they could live with. Not Google.
They have designed a PSU that is over 90% efficient.
How?
Well, traditional PSU's supply four or five different voltages. Most of these voltages are never used by the motherboard. Why is that? Well, the standard that defines how PC's are built has never been updated - it's a legacy issue.
Now, Google are working with Intel, and no doubt others, to try and get an new, open standard adopted that will lead to more efficient, quieter and ultimately cheaper computers. Well done Google!
It's not evil, but it is bad - super bad!
Posted by dottie at 2:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 23, 2007
Sue me first Microsoft!
Microsoft recently claimed that Free Open Source Software (FOSS) like Linux, OpenOffice, Firefox, etc. actually infringe a number of their software patents.
It's a load of baloney, but, even if it were true isn't it a bit like the pot calling the kettle black? Didn't Microsoft steal the GUI from Apple who stole it from IBM?
Digital Tipping Point have started up a WIKI page to allow you to sign up and add a message urging Microsoft to sue you first (don't worry it won;t REALLY happen).
Wiki where you can add your name and message - make yourself heard!
To my mind, this is right in line with the new 'paradigm' that multi-national companies have adopted of late - litigation as a revenue stream.
The big media companies have been using the RIAA to sue individuals for over 3000 dollars a pop and all it costs them is the price of a stamp. The recipients of advisory letters from the RIAA have the choice to pay or fight.
Should an individual choose to fight and win then they still must pay their legal fees which would amount to a much larger heap than 3000 dollars - so they pay (although the EFF has helped out in certain cases that could stand as precendent...)
Looks like Microsoft is doing its usual band-wagon hopping, and long being an intimidator with hefty legal departments I expect to see them proceed with their threats.
We shall see...
Posted by dottie at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 8, 2007
Hacking the DMCA - Ed Felten p0wnz AACS
This is of course an answer to the whole 09-F9 brouhaha
Visit the site and grab your numbers. Mine are listed below, but you aren't allowed to read them or even tell people you know where THEY can read them or indeed even allude to the fact that they exist at all. SOOPER SEKRIT!!!
4D 45 C5 E4 CD C0 F3 85 21 E6 11 6B D7 48 6C 3B
0F 19 C4 71 81 15 61 66 DC 9B 27 4C 6A 66 75 20
BF 93 3E C4 03 7C 4C 82 C6 E3 EB D0 E1 7E D8 2D
5B 7F 2D 95 42 E9 68 0A 66 3C E8 70 3D 2A 38 8C
45 3D 50 33 FB B7 DE F9 C7 67 47 81 BF 3B B2 64
52 49 3F 92 A1 27 0E 5D AF 4F 39 23 F0 0A 76 95
71 4C 84 AA B4 5C D9 35 1D C8 A1 8B 4C 14 61 73
The best part is because I have put these medusa-like numbers on my blog, if the big media companies choose them as a pseudo-random key to encrypt the latest turd of a movie or album from their stable of over-hyped, under-talented 'musicians', then they fall foul of the DMCA - a federal offence in the U.S.!
Yes!
Fight the man!
Posted by dottie at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 3, 2007
What's in a number?
This number has been very popular of late:
The original number is in Hex, so to add a bit of variety people have been expressing it in different forms. Here's the decimal version:
9-249-17-02-157-116-227-91-216-65-86-197-99-86-136-192
Posted by dottie at 2:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 8, 2007
Oh my goodness!
A christian edition of Ubuntu.
I kid you not
check out the virtual Rosary
Linux CE (not churhc of England, but Christian Edition) - stuffed full of strictness to make sure that all those good little Christian children won't learn about the important skills needed in modern life - analytical thinking, sense of humour and an open mind.
Why don't they just use OSX? That is supported by a preachy, evangelising cult with a dodgy figurehead
:)
Think different or dont think at all!
Posted by dottie at 1:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2006
Microsoft update-o-rama
WTF?
What is Microsofts fuckin story today? eleventy-million dubious security updates!
Windows: annoy, nag, disturb
Me: Oh-fuckin-KAY! I'll install the fuckin updates!
Windows: thank you...
Me: click
Windows: EULA, Important! Please read!..
Me: click, click
Windows: ...reserves the right to install Satan...
Me; clickity-fucking-click
Windows: ..eternal damnation...
Me: click. ...fuck..I've done it again, sold my soul to the devil. Damn you Gates!!
Windows: Please restart your machine to install evil in your soul - would you like to register with Beelzebub now?
Me: Will there be virgins?
Posted by dottie at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2006
Big Fat Hard One
750 Gigs
....!......
Seagate Barracuda 750 GB, 7200 RPM
Posted by dottie at 8:37 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2006
New business...
I'm thinking of starting a business to build quiet, powerful PC's for two niche markets - gamers and musicians.
Gamers - dont care about how noisy their PC's are (well...) they just wan the fastest thing they can get and make it look good too please!
Musicians - They need - fast, quiet, LOTS of storage, stable and low latency audio interface, decent MIDI interface.
I have built both these types of machines and I am signing up to be a wholesaler with some online computer component sites (don't cost me nothing, as long as I am VAT registered, which I am!)
If you want a custom built computer for gaming or for recording music then let me know!
SO now some Google linkage fodder - computer, high spec computer, fats computer, powerful computer, gaming machine, quiet pc, pre-built computer, custom built computers.
Posted by dottie at 5:10 PM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2006
Other PC
I have two machines - one for work and one for play.
Unfortunately I recently had to rationalise down to one - feckin power supplies....
My other computer was meant to be used as a music machine as well as a gaming machine.
When I bought it I thought it would be a great idea to get a rack case. Its the loudest feckin computer I have ever had even with the expensive CPU coolers, power supply and silenced graphics card cooler it still sounds a bit like a hoover in a box.
This is no good for music where a whining fan in the background makes recording acoustic music impossible.
I have a plan - water cooling.
Right, Mark. Water. Inside your computer. Okely doke.
It'll work and I wil lbe able to build it so I can cool my CPU, POwer supply and Graphics card and all without a single fan.
Silence. So I can more easily hear my enemies creeping up behind me in Half-Life.
Oh yeah.
Posted by dottie at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2006
Furgin Power supplies
Came home last night to find that the power supply on my work computer had fugged itself to death.
Although I didnt know that at first. The smell of burned silicone made me think that my porcessor, memory, motherboard, hard drives, case and possibly even the wooden floor had been thrust through the veil and were now playing texas hold-em in some afterlife waiting room for computer parts (the wooden floor being very confused and wondering aloud why it was there, but winning every second pot so happy enough..)
I carefully (with tears in my eyes) took the cover off the computer expecting the contents to fall out as either a fine ash or a vitreous goop of plastic, copper and silicone.
Thankfully neither happened.
I spent an hour tapping and smelling all the major components to find that the smoothing capacitor on the power supply had fired itself and thankfully nothing else.
It does mean that I had to swap out the power supply from my gaming computer (someone is determined that I dont get to play Oblivion). I took the opportunity to swap the memory in too so I now have 2 Gigs on my work computer which is very fine indeed thank you (Photoshop only takes 10 minutes to produce a text field now...).
At least I now have an excuse to order stuff from Komplett!
Me want: big screen surround sound new processor
Me get: new powersupply, DVD media for backing up my work and some extra memory!
Comments
rory
get ouwa that garden !
Posted by dottie at 10:29 AM | Comments (1)
April 21, 2006
Spinning Apple
Just noticied that Apple are being creatively ambiguous with their use of language (have I only just noticed? nah)
They describe the iPod ghetto blaster as the 'home stereo re-invented'.
Apple always want to be seen as the inventors.
They don't invent. They innovate. They stand on the shoulders of giants and re-work, re-imagine, re-purpose even co-opt, but invent they do not.
The whole thrust of the reality distortion field for years has been to 'think different'. With all the iPods of one ilk or another wandering around I find that about as believable as a 'sub' culture like the Goths claiming they are being individuals.
Yah. Right. mmhm.
Apple is a marketing company. They survived tough times on the power of their marketing alone. They have managed to win over legions of fans who act as apologists no matter how dissapointed they are by Apple's releases.
iPod battery life too short? - well at least its not an iRiver
iBook showing phosphene-like spots on the screen? - well, at least its not a Dell dude!
the latest OSX update trash your fonts, recent work and backups? - well, at least you dont have to handle the icky windows interface
Am I a Microsoft apologist? Certainly not. I remember Windows 1 when it came out. It didnt actually do anything. It was a graphic desktop that did nothing and was tied into DOS and was still tied into DOS until very recently.
My take on it? All operating systems are evil.
Choose your poison and get on with it but dont expect me to listen to your fanboy tales!
Posted by dottie at 7:22 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2005
Tinkering
I'm doing some tinkering with my blog right now so if it goes down on you (...) it'll be back shortly.
Posted by dottie at 6:04 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2005
Disk disaster
I had my main hard drive fail a few weeks ago. I thought at the time that I might be able to retrieve the information but I found out a few days ago that it was mostly gone.
I have backups of the most important stuff - old emails, business stuff, development work etc. but the real kick in the balls is all my pictures fomr the last few years are gone, gone, gone...
Most of the baby pictures of my niece Alannah, all the pics from Rosscommon over the last few years, family get togethers, parties, walks. All gone. I was slightly freaked to say the least :)
In a way its freedom - I have to start form scratch.
When I was younger I used to get excited by seeing a sheet of blank paper - my mind would go into overdrive with the possibilities of what I could draw on it.
My computer is now a blank sheet.
The timing is strange too - coming at a time when I am trying to slough off some old habits, memories, bad times. Less shadows, more light.
In a way the disk crash was spring cleaning.
Never having liked spring cleaning I invested in some backup software, a mirrored drive and lots of DVD's - I'm lazy at heart - I always end up doing loads of work in order to avoid work :)
Posted by dottie at 1:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2005
Last entry before the big move?
I bought myself a new server.
Well I didnt buy it, but I handed over a load of money to a company that is looking after one of their machines that is accessible by me and me alone.
This means that I am moving this blog, my work website (www.webpusher.ie) and various other sites onto that server.
I set the whole server up myself (apart from the very confusing Server 2003 security bits and bobs - thanks to my mate Damo for setting that up for me in return for setting up his blog for him) so yay to me!
This naturally means a new install of Moveable Type - the blogging tool that powers this piece of shite literary masterpiece which means that this may well be the last entry on this blog on this server.
Boo fucking hoo.
There have been quite a few technical issues with the sites I have been hosting with my current hosting provider. While most of the time the response to the issues has been 'satisfactory' often the problems have dragged on and the response has been 'barely satisfactory'. I actually have the impression now that there are about three people working there.
Anyway, onward and upward, dont look back for fear of being turned to a pillar of salt and all that.
Posted by dottie at 11:26 PM
April 14, 2005
Mac mini (again)
Just checked the price of upgrading the Mac Mini memory through Apple - €330 plus VAT - jaysus.
However, through Komplett - €130 with VAT.
I'd love to hear a Macvangelist explaining why the memory from Apple is better, blessed by Steve, whatever...
Posted by dottie at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
mac mini is here!
That was quick!
Looks good - it really is tiny. Comically so. I hope I dont lose it under some papers on my desk and throw it out by accident!
More reports to come....
Posted by dottie at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2005
Tiger tiger burning bright
Apple have announced the release date for Tiger - the next version of OS Ecks.
Seeing as I have just ordered a Mac Mini, I asked if I would have to pay the $129 to upgrade my 'old' version of OS Ecks - apparently not.
WOSRT CASE SCENARIO - I will have to pay €15 for an upgrade CD.
We shall see!
Looks good though:
Start a Revolution on Your Desktop
A revolution? When will Mac stop telling us all to 'think different'? They have millions of people worldwide using their products - if we were to think different we would all use Linux and buy Creative's MP3 players instead (but wait... wouldnt that mean.... doh!)
It smacks of teenage rebellion to exhort us to 'think different'.
Mac OS X Tiger will change the way you use a computer. Breakthrough search technology, stunning graphics and media, unparalleled connectivity, an intuitive user interface and a virtual toolbox chock full of cleverly integrated features — all atop a rock-solid UNIX foundation — give you the most innovative, stable and compatible desktop operating system on the planet. Period.
Wow.
All that for €15? I'm getting a boner just thinking about it...
Posted by dottie at 8:06 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2005
SkypeIn!!
Skype have just added some very cool functionality to their little VoIP machinery.
What they did previously was to allow you call any normal number in the world for just the price of a local call. A friend of mine in Moscow uses ths all the time and after a couple of months still hadnt used up the €25 I had put into his account for him (the site wouldnt accept his credit card - he's Irish and living in Russia, I guess they thought he was a pirate or somesuch....aaarrrr!)
Land lines are great, even in these days when mobile phones have made the dream of being contactable everywhere at every time a reality (do I smell a whiff od sarcasm here?). Land lines have a different modality of operation - with a land line you sit down and have a long chat to your family and friends, it's like visitng without travelling. Mobile phones often dont encourage that.
What Skype has now done is to make it possible for you to effectively have a land-line number that follows you wherever you go. You can rent a number with Skype that is local to a specific area, say London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York wherever. When people phone that number from the local area they will get patched through to you for the price of a local call. So what? you say. Well, you can be anywhere. Also your friends in Paris can ring your local number there and get patched through to you, also wherever you are for the price of a local call.
Nifty.
When we have a version of Skype for those PDA cum Mobile phone things and broadband access for mobile devices is widespread and cheap then I can see the death of a few telephone companies. Or maybe, wait, legislation? Surely they wouldn't...
Posted by dottie at 9:41 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2005
Terrorbytes!
I'm considering upgrading all the disks in my computers to SATA drives.
The advantages are that they are quiet, big, fast, easy to install, and use cables that take up WAY less space.
Downside? none that I can think of.
It does mean that the total storage space of my computers will be very close to 1 Terabyte.
Fuck.
When I started in college 16 years ago (holyshit batman!) my computer had 16 Megs of RAM, a 16 MHz processor (486DX - with turbo switch - oooh!) and a hard drive (which in itself was a wonder) that was all of 40MB in size.
That means that in the intervening years my storage space has grown by a factor of roughly 25 thousand.
The speed of my CPU has increased by a factor of 200.
And Microsoft Word is STILL sluggish*.
Bastards!
(* Note however Unreal tournament runs like a dream!)
Posted by dottie at 10:33 AM
February 23, 2005
P2P, secure, distribute, data repositories
People who value data need to store it somewhere. Usually the choice is a big monolithic building with tons of concrete, lad, stainless steel, guards, dogs, electric fences, passwords, you name it.
There could be another alternative.
USB pen drives.
HUh?
Well think about it. It shouldnt be too hard to fit USB pen drives with WiFi or whatever wireless technology is suitable. Then you have a little bit of P2P code running on the drive that stores a meg or two of random data somewhere on the drive.
In this way you can have a P2P network containing your information distributed all over the (technologically advanced) world. The data is safe because there is never enough of it in one place to be downloaded and analysed and it is safe from destruction because the same code is located in many mnay different locations.
The idea is that the meg or so on the pen drive will contain packets of data belonging to numerous documents of different people.
How do you get it to these folks and get it back?
Fucked if I know - I think the ideas up, I dont implement them...
Posted by dottie at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
January 31, 2005
Distributed Computing
For those that dont know, distributed computing works by asking ordinary joes with computers and internet access to download a little piece of software that acts as a screen saver on their computer. Wehn the screen saver kicks in the software will retrieve a bit of data from a central location, crunch it for a while and send back the results.
The most famous of these is of course the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) distributed computing initiative. This has been trying to find signs of intelligent life in the universe by processing data from Radio Telescopes. No results so far...
There are a few other distirbuted computing projects taking off, none quite as ubiquitous as the SETI program, that are actually achieving results.
One of these is the study of the problem of global warming.
The results? We're fucked apparently. The program ran something like 50,000 simulations - a lot more than the previous largest run of 128.
Apparently the earth seems to be a lot more sensitive to greenhouse gases than previously thought. Meltdown expected by 2050.
I'll be 80 by then. I'll probably appreciate not having to make my pension stretch to heating bills...
The other thing about this is that you must choose between either SETI@HOME or the climate net program. What happens when there are more of these initiatives? Research bodies will have to adopt aggressive marketing to try and convince people to download there distributed computing client.
What about having a distributed computing client that would accept both data and algorithm (the maths bit...) from one of the research bodies so that you install one distributed computing client and then the computing power is available as a pool to whatever research bodies need it.
I dont know how it would be divvied up - committee? Round robin? Throw of the dice? Equal shares?
Posted by dottie at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2004
Fixed?
Hopefully that fix will last long enough to allow me enjoy Christmas and maybe even New Years Eve!
Spammers deserve to have their legs ground into mince meat , made into bad burgers and then force fed to them.
They are destroying the fabric of the internet, undermining the whole reason the internet exists - to communicate.
Its like trying to talk to someone across a quiet room, except there is some fucker in the corner with a loud hailer, and another wandering the room with flashing lights and billboards, placing them between you and your friend having your nice little conversation.
Its either spam or its us - war, on.
Posted by dottie at 12:30 AM
December 6, 2004
The love child of segway and Robocop
Next years stocking filler
Posted by dottie at 12:29 AM
October 29, 2004
Mobile technology comes one step closer!
This is great - another step along the road to cyborg heaven!
Imagine where this could go - smaller electorincs to the point where you could embed one of these in your eye! No need to put it in the field of vision, you could nestle it off to the side of your eyeball and reflect the beam off the back of the front of your eyeball. Hook that up with whatever the latest incarnation of Bluetooth and WiFi (GPRS?) will be at that stage and implant some of these (thought operated sensors implanted in your brain) and you are good to go with keyboard less, screenless, wirless always on connectivity.
You could watch porno movies while at church and no-one would be any the wiser! well, there might be *some* evidence but that can be explained away as 'religious ecstasy' :)
Posted by dottie at 3:16 PM
September 5, 2004
Wanderly wagging
I've just discovered (well a few days ago actually..) that Dublin has a nascent WiFi network - not really sure that it can be called infrastructure as it is something instaled by pubs and cafés themselves.
WiFi for those who dont know, is basically wireless internet. Most people are familiar with the internet connection afforded them at work., locked into one place by the restriction of 5ft of CAT5 cable. Now imagine not needing that cable. Imagine working from a cafe, or even better a pub, with a creamy pint of Guinness sitting beside your laptop. Andif it gets crowded or you need a change of scene - close you laptop, finish your pint/tea and you are off to a new corner of your distributed office space.
Best of all, most of the pubs and cafe's supply their WiFi for free!
Hopefully this will be the case for a long time to come, but I can see it going the way of charging your mobile in the pub, with a cafe filled with 'business lunches' all day using the internet for the price of a couple of cups of coffee. Irish businesses cant afford to be shelling out for services that dont pay dividends
Posted by dottie at 2:34 PM
August 31, 2004
Linux!
This is my first post from the wonderful world of Linux!
Its suprisingly easy to install although I had heard that laptops made it more difficult, I had no problems, just set it running, some adjustments (network settings and the like...) and here I am!
Cool.
I'm going to install Linux on my microwave next.....
Posted by dottie at 2:35 PM
Linux
I have completed the transmogrification from Nerd to Geekboy.
Yes, I finally did it.
I installed Linux on my laptop.
If anybody wants me today I'll be in Easons choosing a pocket protector.....
Posted by dottie at 8:52 AM
July 23, 2004
The new peeping toms
The interconnectedness of the web means that it is easier than ever before to find out personal details about just about anybody. Often this is seen as the end of privacy. I don't think so.
Now is a time of great change in the way people socialise on a macro scale. The internet allows enhanced forms of traditional communications through chat rooms, emails. More and more people are going to start storing their lives online. GMail allows you to store 1 Gig of data online - Google encourages you to do so. You can share photos with friends ad strangers, you can share your thoughts in Blogs like this one! This worries people.
It shouldnt if they keep in mind that sharing information online is a bit like dressing in front of a window with the curtains open. If you do that then you can't control who is going to walk past and see you, or even who is going to hide in the bushes taking photographs :)
Sure there are folks who can make sure no-one ever finds out anything about them and still conduct their lives mostly online, but that requires specialised knowledge, software and often hardware.
The real power of all this interweb socialising will only be felt when ordinary folks can pull across the digital equivalent of curtains to hide their virtual nether regions from the gaze of the world.
Posted by dottie at 6:43 PM
July 15, 2004
Holographic projectors
Some guys at Cambridge Uni have found a way to make a 2d screen display a diffraction pattern fast enough to allow it to display full-fram video when a laser light is shone through the diffraction pattern. Cool.
Imagine your laptop with no screen (or a pull out material jobbie) - you just use a handy surface to project onto. A chair in front of you, a wall.....clouds!! :)
Posted by dottie at 7:36 PM
March 5, 2004
Those inscrutable Japanese are at it again
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/03/03/HNnttspeech_1.html
They have invented voice recognition that requires no speech and a 3d cellular phone audio system that helps you find people as their voice seems to come from the direction of their physical location. Nice.
I remember there was this invention which I thought (and still do) was a great idea at the time. All I need now is a decoder ring!
Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Finger whisper! A communications peripheral and personal hygiene device rolled into one!
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/342/C2320/
Posted by dottie at 8:15 AM