2600 Book

When I was listening to the latest episode of “Off the Hook” this morning, they said that they were going to be releasing a book in July.  It is a collection of articles from the magazine plus commentary.  The book is evidently quite large, they mentioned 900 pages.  It sounds like an interesting read for anyone into this type of material.  You are basically going to read about the evolution of telephones, computers, computer laws, and political agendas.

Famelix GNU/Linux

Anyone who like the look and feel of Windows Vista, but doesn’t like to actually use Vista as their operating system, should check out this linux distro from Brazil.  I have to say that I suppose that I don’t have anything against MicroSoft per say, but I derive much more enjoyment from using Linux.  I have not personally used this distro, but from the screenshots I have seen the project looks amazing.  Their website says that the reason for making this disto look like Vista is to help people migrate to linux.  I will agree that it is very close to the interface that you get with Vista, but there is something about it that makes it look better.  I am going to download the iso later and give it a whirl some one of these computer laying around here.  I hear that the download takes a while so i will most likely wait and download it overnight.

Allergic to Wi-fi?

This is great!  These people are claiming that they are allergic to wi-fi. Had they actually done their research on wi-fi, they would have discovered that there is no way to get away from it.  I live three miles from a small town and at any given moment I can pick up 4 wi-fi connections besides the 2 I have active.  I work in a town that is very small and there are hundreds of devices broadcasting wi-fi signals.  The actual power output of these devices is quite small.  I would think that a microwave would be of bigger concern if you were in fact allergic to microwave frequencies.

Scientology Issue

I love L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi and I claim no ill will toward the Church of Scientology, but this story out of London was a real bonehead maneuver.  The kid held up a sign that called Scientology a cult, okay it said “evil cult”, but the issue was with the word “cult”.  They were going to charge him with some kind of disturbance of the peace.  As anyone with half an education should know, any religious group is a cult.  Before people get all excited about a word, maybe it would be good to know the definition.

Rain

We have received about 2 months worth of rain here in the last 2 days.  While 2 months worth of rain here is not exactly a huge amount compared to other places, we have an extremely large drainage area compared to the actual capacity for getting rid of excess water.  This results in water in many, many places that it was not intended to be put.  It stopped raining for about 3 hours, but is now back in full swing.  Normally I don’t mind rain; however, it is getting a little out of hand.  The creek that runs by the backyard is now the backyard.  Too much more of this stuff and it will be in the house.

Permanent Denial-of-Service (PDOS)

I saw this on slashdot.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=154270&WT.svl=news1_1

This is one of those things that could pose a huge problem for users of any type of networking “box”.  Things like routers, wireless routers and APs, firewalls, etc.  Basically anything that is connected to the network and has its own embedded OS.  I have done something similar to this to myself while trying to flash OpenWRT onto a router.  The flash failed and the result was a blue box of crap.  That was fixable though.

The really scary thing would be the flashing of new firmware onto a router (or other device) that allowed an attacker to monitor traffic for passwords, etc.  This could be done without the users knowledge.  You could even make the device appear to not be sending traffic when it actually is communicating with nefarious servers.  If the methodology of phlashing can be perfected we can all expect to be looking for even more problems on the network.

Countdown to Surgery

If you have read this blog, you know that my father-in-law has cancer.  Well, the surgery is set for May 29th.  So we are slowly making our way to this date.  I must say that the waiting is really grating on my family.  My wife and her sister are getting pretty tense about the whole situation.  My mother-in-law is still in this complete state of denial.  Its actually amazing to watch and if it was not my family it may even be humorous.  I don’t mean that is a disrespectful way at all.

One of the rather strange things that is happening is the amount of “advice” you receive from people who have no idea what is going on with the family.  It seems that is times like these everyone has a piece of advice for you, whether you want it or not.  I know that they are just trying to be helpful, but sometimes it does more harm than good.  So my wife is trying to shelter my father-in-law from outside influences for the next two weeks.  I don’t know how that is going to work.

This surgery is a pretty dangerous procedure.  It involves the removal of part of the esophagus and stomach.  The the whole thing is reattached with part of the intestine if I understand it correctly.  Amazing!  I had no idea that such a thing was even possible.  The crappy part is the recovery process, which goes on for weeks and weeks.  If you live through the whole ordeal, you get the pleasure of having more chemo.  This is why people should shut-up instead of giving their two cents worth.

Customer Throws the Phone

I had a customer on the phone that was having trouble with his television.  Actually, he was not having trouble with the TV.  It was the cable box that was acting up.  It turned on, but would not accept any commands from the remote.  So basically, he had to get up off the couch to change channels.  I went through all the basic remote control troubleshooting techniques to no avail.  The thing would not work right.  I could tell that the guy was getting pretty pissed off, but I was trying my best to resolve the issue.  I then told him that he should contact the cable company as they should be able to replace the cable receiver or remote.  I suddenly heard, “It’s not the f—ing cable remote”!!, followed by some loud crashing noises.  I could then he him and his wife yelling at one another.  She was telling him that if he was going to throw a shit fit he could go somewhere else and do it.  This was quite entertaining.  A few seconds later, some hung up the phone.

Television Remote Standardization

Mr. John C. Dvorak, in his PC Magazine column, was discussing the standardization, or lack thereof, of USB cables. Well I have another standardization gripe, TV remote controls.  The majority of the new televisions will not work with the older style universal remote controls.  Not a problem for me personally as I don’t mind using 2 different remotes.  The problem arises when a customer whose satellite remote or cable remote that used to handle all of their equipment, now does not control the new TV.  Suddenly their new and improved TV seems like a downgrade.  Its all about perception in a customers eyes.  When something like this happens they will be sure to tell all of their friends.

I am Gonna Gripe

This lady comes in the store today and tells us how she paid late fees on Saturday when she rented her movies.  Great!  Then she says that when she got the movies home, her daughter told her that she already paid the late fees.  Well the damn computer will not let you pay them twice, its stubborn like that.  We look up the account, sure enough the lady and her daughter both paid late fees.  Only not on the same movies.  If you bring them back on time then these things don’t happen.