Musings
Musings
Inspired by a number recent problems that various friends have had with
spyware, I thought I would make some basic recommendations on what to do. I
thought about sending everyone to Brian Livingston's Window
Secrets - but most of his recommendations require $$$ - fine for corporate
IT environment, but who wants to spend more money on their home computer.
Use a Mac or Linux - there are far fewer viruses & spyware currently
targetted at either platform. If you're using Windows then here's what I do (BTW
even Mac/Linux users need a hardware firewall and a spam filter):
- A Hardware firewall like the Linksys BEFSR81 or D-Link
DI-604 4-Port Broadband Router - protects your computer from inbound
attacks from internet.
- A Software firewall - Zone
Alarm (basic version is free). Its a pain to setup for the first few
days, but it will tell you when a new piece of software is trying to make an
outbound connection from your PC.
- Antivirus software - many excellent products are free for home use, I use
AVG from
Grisoft. Set it for automatic updates and run at least once a
week.
- Spam Filter - SpamBayes, installation
instructions and the FAQ. SpamBayes is better
than any of the commercial alternatives that I've tried including Cloudmark.
- AntiSpyware - None of the tools detect and removing everything. Brian's article shines in
documenting the threats. He recommends three tools: Microsoft
AntiSpyware beta, Webroot Spy
Sweeper, CWShredder
- use all of them. Update and run full scans at least once a
week. BTW CWShredder exists to defeat just one piece of spyware its
noxious variants: CoolWebSearch
- Browse the web with Firefox not Internet
Explorer (IE). A large amount of the spyware is installed surreptiously on
your machine when you browse websites. Firefox doesn't have the same
vulernabilities as IE - if only because its been developed since many of the
vulernabilities became well know. Firefox obviously has its own weaknesses but
with 5-10% of internet users they're not going to be widely exploited for a
while. Use IE only when forced by site that won't work in Firefox
- Updates - run a recent version of Windows (2000 or XP) and either turn
automatic updates on or use Windows update (requires IE :-) - look for it at
the top of your programs list on your start menu. BTW never trust a link
that you find to Windows Update on the web - it might not take you to the MS
site.
If you find your self hit by spyware Brian's article talks about
how to use Hijack This and where to ask for help.
Good luck
I'm trying to find a small MP3 player for my wife. For the most part she wants to listen to spoken word (training materials, etc), with some music. Since the player needs to be small (preferably carried around the neck), I'm assuming that I want Compact Flash.
Must have list:
1) Small size
2) Good quality sound
3) Good battery life (prefer AA to AAA
4) Supports MP3 and WMA
5) Decent user interface-that doesn't require a degree in CompSci to use.
Important (but not essential features):
6) Supports Voice recording > 1 hr in length
7) FM receiver
Nice to have
8) FM transmitter for playback in the car
It needs at least 512M, perhaps even 1G.
A few minutes of reading CNet's reviews suggest the IRiver's 700/800 series would seem to fit the bill.
What other Flash players can you recommend?
Which review sites do a good job (other than Consumersearch)?
We choose a Creative Nuvo M200 - it sounds great
I'm trying to swallow the "Getting
Things Done" koolaid and wondering
what other Windows users do to manage
their todo lists. Are you using
GTD?
I know there is an Outlook
addin (for $US 70 ), but I'm not prepared
to pay that especially since I
don't keep outlook open all the time. I
saw Merlin's post (How does a nerd
hack GTD?) and I like the
idea of making the lists text files (especially
since I can then use subversion to store my lists). Does any one else use
text
files? If not what tools are you using?
1) Just a series of text
files
2) A PIM like Evernote
3)
Other software (like: TodoList2)
Specific
questions:
1) Merlin uses a QuickSilver
trick to append a line of text to a file without switching contexts
(ie
applications). What do you do?
2) Do you have an automatic method to
get the actions from each project into your _@nextactions
list?
I'm not much of a hardware guy at the best of times and installing a new
dishwasher was always going to be an interesting experience.
Always assume that everything currently installed in your house is a special
case. Our old dishwasher was attached to the water supply with a copper
pipe. This copper pipe had non-standard fittings at both
ends. I spent over an hour trying to bend the old copper pipe to be where
the new dishwasher wanted it to be. Then I realized it couldn't be made to fit
the new dishwasher. So I took the old copper pipe to Preston Hardware, looking at the pipe they
told me that my shut off valve had non standard thread size (oddly enough I
think someone installed an outdoor tap as shutoff). So I had to cutoff the
old thread from the existing shut off, install a new compression adapter (there
was just enough pipe to do this) and install the new hose.
All told it took over 3 hours to install the new dishwasher!! but it doesn't
appear to have leaked, so it was worth the effort (and the infinite supply of
plumber's tape I used).
I have a few gmail invites at my disposal email me at mlevison at gmail if you want one.
Update - their all gone for now. I'll update this post if I get anymore. A number of people have have left comments (not what I asked for) or sent email (what I asked for), since I declared them all gone on Saturday. Don't bother, I don't have anymore for now/
Update: isnoop gmail invite spooler currently has about 170,000 - try your hand there. In addition all my future invites will be sent there.
Update: Please don't post comments requesting gmail invites. Use the isnoop spooler linked to above.
A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges.
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
Found Via Larry O'Brien
This post now hosted at: http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2006/11/want_to_get_the.html
On Saturday my wife and I had rare treat - an evening out with no baby
girl. After a mediocre dinner at a local restaurant we went to see
Stage Beauty at the
Bytowne (our local repertory theatre).
The movie is set in the time of Charles II, when all the women's roles were
played by men, among them Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) who is known for his
performance of Desdemona (from Othello). Ned's dresser Maria (Clare Dane)
desperately wants to be an actress in her own right but the laws of day won't
allow it, so she pays to play in second rate theatre that puts on plays in a
pub. The dramatic tension between Ned and Maria is wonderful and keeps the
movie going at an excellent pace. I've only two small complaints about the
movie: Rupert Everett's character (Charles II) was a bit too over the top
and some of parts of dialog were occasionally hard to make out. All in all
we were amazed especially since the two American actors playing the lead roles
never once slipped up with their accents. Billy Crudup deserves an Oscar
for this performance.
I'm stunned at how EA appears to treat its employees like slaves (http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/):
If I could get EA CEO Larry Probst on the phone, there are a few things I would ask him. "What's your salary?" would be merely a point of curiosity. The main thing I want to know is, Larry: you do realize what you're doing to your people, right? And you do realize that they ARE people, with physical limits, emotional lives, and families, right? Voices and talents and senses of humor and all that? That when you keep our husbands and wives and children in the office for ninety hours a week, sending them home exhausted and numb and frustrated with their lives, it's not just them you're hurting, but everyone around them, everyone who loves them? When you make your profit calculations and your cost analyses, you know that a great measure of that cost is being paid in raw human dignity, right?
While I can't prove this is true, it certainly rings true. Shame on Larry Probost, Shame on EA. I certainly won't be buying your games anytime soon.
Found via Larry O'Brien
Update: Just in case you want more reading on this try http://snarkyspot.blogspot.com/2004/11/ea-spouse-speaks-out-against-game_07.html, finally the ubiquitous slashdot has picked up this story. Good luck to everyone the employees at EA.
From
Spyware Warrior: "a rogue anti-spyware[1] blog."
I suppose scum will always sink the lowest level. Spyware Warrior on the other hand is great blog if you're interested in the details of who is scum.
[1] spyware-removal.blogspot.com - won't do the favour of proper link that will boost their rank in google.
May the
New Year (5765) be a good year to you.
With apologies for abusing my blog to do this. I have a few GMail invites to hand out, email me at mlevison at gmail
This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000's of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.
Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!
Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)
Path List
1. Minding the Planet
2. Luke Hutteman's public virtual MemoryStream
3. Mark Levison - a little .NET, a little photography
4. (your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person).
(NOTE: Be sure you paste live links for the Path List or use HTML code.)
For over three years know, I've searching for a knowledge management tool that is capable of keeping with information needs.
My motivitaion. After years of reading news groups, web sites etc., I'm struggling to keep track of the things I've read (and tried to saved). I would like to find a tool that allows me to capture nuggets and search for information.
My needs
- Store and search quickly: plain text, rich text, html [1]
- Allow me to reference (link to) files (often PDF, word documents) on my disk
- Support attributes/tags (see Adobe Photoshop Album as an example)
- each item/note can be tagged with many different tags
- the tags are organised in a tree structuretags can be used as part of the search criteria, for example: If I've a number of items with the "Java" tag and then I search "Security" in Java. Only items tagged Java are searched for the word security.
- text search over all entries
- search must return a list of items (not just jump from one item to the next)* scales well (handles > ten thousand of entries)
- search supports regex or (wildcards and booleans)
- doubles as good bookmark manager (after all bookmarks are just knowledge).
- Export all contents to text/XML format -- so I can change to a different piece of software at a later date.
Here is what I've tried:
- MDE Infohandler - strange UI, no html support
- Anynotes - database doesn't scale well, no html support, graphics objects must be pasted in one at a time.
- Mybase - searches to slow
- askSam - no navigable organisation (tree based or otherwise), search only. Everything must be added as a form.
- TreePad - no html support
- Zoot - no html support, hostile GUI
- various wikis - most can't save HTML files, except Twiki - which I found impossible to manage (in addition I should have to run a web server on my machine just to do this).
- Zope - too painful to manage. Managing my notes would be come a fulltime job. * The Brain - too slow, doesn't scale, ...
- Omea from Jet Brains (think IntelliJ and Resharper) - the version I played with was very slow (and it hogged a half gig of memory - not acceptable even on a dev box). Update: Dmitry (Omea developer), says things have improved. I will take another crack soon.
- One Note - great for taking notes but not very good (yet) for keeping track of information.
- CodeLib - very professional looking UI. But it doesn't allow me to paste a web page into the notes area. In addion I'm not sure I like the breakout of notes/code/files/url's etc into seperate categories. When I'm trying to read something I expect it to flow. I don't expect to change windows to see the images etc.
After much playing in the past year, I've realised that what I want is UI/structure of Adobe Photoshop album glued onto a PIM.
So far the only serious contenders I find are Chandler (OSAF - due ???) and Project Hystack at MIT.
How do you manage information? Are they're any other app's you've tried??
Update: Tried CodeLib (see notes above, as per Alex)
[1] I need rich text/html because I want to be able save webpages including pictures for later reference, even if they go offline.
Technocrati tags: PIM
I've been back from vacation for over a week, but I'm only just finding time to blog again. My web logs suggest that more than a few people have come here looking for recommendations on places to stay. Here are our discoveries (all infant friendly):
- Crescent Isle Cottages reasonably priced, two bedroom cottages. We choose Crescent Isle because they're among the cheaper cottages near the national park. It was exactly what we'd expected: small, clean, with a stove and BBQ. As an amazing bonus we saw Blue Heron's feeding almost every night we're there.
- Rick's Fish'N Chips & Seafood House a little spot just by the roadside. The fish and chips are surprisingly good. It was worth driving 20 minutes out of way.
- Dalvay by the Sea The sticky pudding is one of the best desserts I've eaten. We could only stay for afternoon tea, too bad our daughter wouldn't have allowed us the time to come back for dinner.
- Tree Seat B&B in Baddeck. Quiet, comfortable with an excellent breakfast. Barb is an excellent host.
- Horse Junction Cafe curiously the campground's website doesn't mention the restaurant. Amazing food, also the campground has some awesome ice cream.
Happy vacationing
This is a followup to How Mike Murphy lost my vote
On Sunday after I'd emailed his campaign Mike replied. I apologise for taking so long to post his reply. Work is a bit busy right now. My comments come at the end
Hi Mark 1. Abortion is an issue where opposing views are found in most political parties and across Canada. It is no different in the Conservative party. Stephen Harper has been very clear on our party's position; a Conservative government will not legislate on abortion, nor will a Conservative government sponsor a referendum on abortion. 2. In response to your question on sending troops, Canada, thanks to ten years of neglect we have no additional troops to send anywhere. I think each situation requiring troops will have to be addressed on its own merit whether it is with or without UN approval or for that matter a US led operation. 3. The Conservative party feels that issues such as same-sex marriage should be made in Parliament and not by unelected judges. We will propose a new vote on same-sex marriage and in keeping with our voting policy it will be a free vote for Conservative members. I want to assure you however; a Conservative government would fully support and defend the freedom of religious organizations to determine their own practices with respect to marriage. My own position is rather traditional; marriage is between a man and woman. I do feel however, there must be the same legal protection for all committed couples. 4. While the Party would "decriminalize" 5 grams or less, we do not in any way advocate drug use of any kind. The use and possession of marijuana must remain illegal. Possession of 5 grams or less should be dealt with through summary convictions (fines), to be imposed and paid at the time of apprehension or appearance, and not resulting in a criminal record; The 30-gram limit proposed by the committee is too high, and is five times greater than permitted by the extremely liberal drug laws in Holland; Possession of more than 5 grams should still be considered a criminal offence; trafficking any amount of marijuana must remain a criminal offence; We are calling for the following conditions prior to implementation of the proposed summary conviction process: 1. Fine amounts should be specified, and should increase significantly for subsequent offences; 2. Fine payment should be vigorously enforced; Best Regards, Mike Murphy Conservative Candidate Ottawa Centre
I would like to thank Mike for the courtesy of his reply. However in replying Mike entirely missed my point. Since the conservative party promises free votes I want to know how Mike will vote. Not what the party's policy is on issue. Mike is supposed to represent my interests and so I think it reasonable that he share his thoughts. Finally on the issue of troop deployment he doesn't even address the question. I asked where he would stand on Joint operations with the American's that lack significant international support (in other words similiar to Iraq).
Oh well it's down to two choices for me know the Ed Broadbent (NDP) or the Green's. If its Ed then it will because of Ed and inspite of Jack Layton
To my regular readers (assuming I have any), you might find this post isn't of interest you, it's about the Canadian federal election.
I've been a Red Tory (fiscal conservative and socially liberal) all my life. In previous federal elections I voted Progressive Conservative. I've even worked on an election and leadership campaign for the party. So when this election was called, naturally I looked at the merged Alliance/PC party as my first choice.
However after hearing comments from various members:
- Rob Merrifield called for third party counselling for women who want to terminate a pregnancy
- Cheryl Gallant on recent amendments to Bill C-250 "The danger in having sexual orientation listed, is that encompasses, for example, pedophiles. I believe that the caucus as a whole would like to see it repealed."
I've begun to wonder if the new Conservative party has a hidden socially conservative agenda. So I decided to ask my Conservative candidate (Ottawa-Centre) Mike Murphy how he would vote on the following issues (assuming a free vote):
- Abortion - If the changes Mr Merrifield proposed were turned into legislation.
- Joint operations with Americans - if the American's ask us to send troops somewhere without UN approval (or a widespread international consensus).
- Gay Marriage - if the "Not Withstanding" clause of the constitution was invoked to ban gay marriage.
- Decriminalization of Marijuana - if the previous bill were reintroduced.
I sent Mike an email on Monday June 7, a follow-up on Wednesday and called his campaign office on Thursday. So far no reply. Apparently, Mike is not interested enough in my vote to call me back. I guess its time to shop for a new party.
Mike you had your chance and blew it.
A followup was posted Mike Murphy replies
Update: Keith suggested in my comments, I ask the other candidates how they would vote. Its not really relevant, we know that the Liberal party views (1. Not interested in legislation, 2. Didn't send troops to Iraq, 3. They will respect the constitution, 4. They were the ones decriminalizing it). Ed Braodbent of the NDP holds views that are even further to the left.
Update: I'm honoured that 64.230.72.227 took the time to accuse me of being a liberal party hack. Its too bad you don't have the courage and honesty to say who you are. You certainly know who I am. All I can tell is that you use Sympatico, that you're in Ottawa and you're modem was on the internet as HSE-Ottawa-ppp236396.sympatico.ca. As for your charge, I'm not a Liberal party hack. I worked for Helen Cooper's election campaign (Kingston) and played a small role in Hugh Segal's leadership campaign. I'm trying to engage in an interesting debate around ideas and all you can do is taunt as if we're back on the school playground. Is this the level that public discourse has descended to?
Then Furl is for you. I'm often searching on Google Groups for tidbits of .NET information, once I've found something, I need place to copy it so I don't lose it. Sometimes, I have 30 tabs open in Firefox so I don't lose things.
Furl allows you save a page, just by clicking on a button/link in your toolbar. Once saved the page is part of your personal furl archive. It supports categories and full text searching of your archive. Now for the best part. It also acts as a recommendation engine. From the FAQ:
The recommendation system is based on two simple concepts: ratings and neighbors.
Whenever you furl something and give it a rating of 3 or better, you have given it a POSITIVE rating. Give it a 1 or 2, and you've given a NEGATIVE rating. Clicking on a red X on your recommendation page also counts as a NEGATIVE rating.
Your neighbors are computed as follows: Whenever you and another user agree on an item (you both give it a POSITIVE rating, or both give it a NEGATIVE rating), then you are that much closer as neighbors. Whenever you disagree, you move that much farther apart. Items that only one of you has rated are not considered.
Whenever you visit the recommendations page, the system computes your neighborhood - a small subset of users in the system that represent your closest neighbors (your neighborhood is listed at the right-hand side of the recommendations page as "Furlmates"). Then, your neighbors vote for the items they have rated, both positive and negative. The votes are weighted for each neighbor (so your closest neighbors have more weight than others). The votes are tallied up, and the "winners" are listed in descending order as new recommendations.
All in all a useful new toy. Added bonus it works with IE, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, Opera etc. Found via Grokking Furl: Storage, Search, and the PersonalWeb
If you need to save every page you ever visit you might also try: Seruku found via ResourceShelf
For possibly the first time ever I've discovered a cool new tool before Mike Gunderloy writes about it. Grin
We currently have 2.4 GHz spread spectrum phone and 2.4 GHz router (Dlink Air-Extreme). Unfortunately the phone and network don't play nicely together. Whenever the phone is in use the wireless computer loses access to the network. Even without the phone in use the network strength is only ever ~30-40%. So we're looking for recommendations for a replacement phone
Features we want:
- Good voice quality
- Doesn't interfere with our wireless network.
- Call display
- Range of ~50 ft.
- Reasonably privacy - so our neighbours can't accidentally hear our conversations (nothing sophisticated)
- Good battery life.
Are there any good 900 MHz phones still available?? Are the new 5.4 GHz phones any good?? Is their range especially through walls ok?? What phone do you use??
BTW I've tried changing channels on both the router and the phone - nothing helps. It appears the phone is just too noisy,
Update: We've had the Uniden 5.8 GHz for a few months now. Mostly the phone works well enough. However even though we only use the phone 20 ft from the base station we sometimes get a lot of static. (No microwave ovens or baby monitors are on when have problems). Its frustrating when technology doesn't just work.