Category: Net

Categories
Microsoft Music Net

More free music*

I love free music… well, I love free legal music.  I may have to wait a while for another Mercedes Benz mixed tape but starting tomorrow (2/8) MSN Music is starting its Grammy blitz by giving away one free song from each category.  A panel of music professionals is going to attempt to predict the winner in each category… then MSN Music will give away the song predicted to win.  So, not only is it free music, it’s good, free music.  You know it’s good, the professionals told you so.


Now, before you point out that I’m just being a corporate pawn to Microsoft let me say this… first: I am a total pawn, second: even if I weren’t a pawn I still like free music.  So there, I’m a sell-out… but I’m a cheap, stingy sell-out… that must be worth something.


There will be one free song per day, starting on February 8th.  Using my top-secret, internal Microsoft sources I’ve determined the order the songs will be released in is:



  1. Tuesday, Feb. 8: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance/Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
  2. Wednesday, Feb. 9: Best Rock Song
  3. Thursday, Feb. 10: Best Rap Song
  4. Friday, Feb. 11: Best R&B Song
  5. Saturday, Feb. 12: Best Country Song

So, there you are, in the greatest of corporate traditions a big company has told you what you’re going to like.

Categories
Movies Net Web

It’s about freakin’ time

The broadband world has been here for a while but getting good content over the net is still not a simple matter.  Where’s that on-demand, world-wide entertainment network we’ve been promised?


Well, for you fans of Indian movies there is now a site for you which allows you to download digital copies of movies.  Movies like Raincoat which your local movie store will never carry… or new releases like Dhoom which even aren’t yet available on Netflix.  Not only are the latest movies available but you can get them much faster than driving to your local video store and way faster than Blockbuster Online.


If movies with people randomly bursting in to song and dance are your cup of tea, then check out Masala Downloads (http://www.masaladownloads.com).


If, on the other hand, Jean-Claude Van Damme is your cup of tea… simply switch on Spike TV… he’s sure to show up at some point.

Categories
Blog Net Web Weird

The shrinking web

The reason the World Wide Web is called the World Wide Web is because it’s filled with interconnected links, allowing you to move from site to site.  Do you ever do that?


When I first started using the web, yes, I did click around from site to site, it was kind of neat.  Now, when I want some information I go to a search engine (typically Google, but I’ve just installed the MSN toolbar, but I digress), type in a search and go directly to the info I want.  I do very little “browsing” when on the web.  Two reasons:



  1. Many sites actively seek to keep you on their site
  2. The web is getting really, really big… wandering is not as interesting as it used to be, there’s just too much random crap.

The thing that has brought back interest in web surfing for me is the concept of the blog sphere.  A blog sphere is a subset of a subset of the web; it’s the blogs (one subset) I read (another sub set).  This narrowing of scope has made it much easier to navigate the web in an ad hoc fashion as I am no longer presented with the overwhelming scope of the web… I’m presented with the web as seen by people I think are interesting (who find interesting links, produce interesting content or are, simply, interesting).


All day today I’ve been listening to a new, free album I downloaded from Mercedes Benz (yes, the auto manufacturer).  Seeing as you don’t expect go looking for music on a car manufacturer’s site and I don’t own a Mercedes (or a Chrysler for that matter) it’s unlikely I would have happened upon this site on my own.  I found it because Paul left a comment on my blog, and he entered the URL for his blog.  Reading his blog I found the info on the Benz free music download.


Viewed as a whole, the web is full of a bunch of random crap.  Viewed through the filter of the people with whom I share a connection it becomes a whole lot more interesting.

Categories
Net Photography Web

Tracking down the best photo sharing site

For a while now I’ve been wanting to get more of my pictures on line to share with friends and family.  Here are the sites I’ve dug up to date.  Any suggestions or comments?

My requirements:

  • A ton of space (unlimited would be nice, I have over 24 gigs of images)
  • Ability to have a custom domain (e.g. http://images.little.org)
  • Customizable look and feel
  • Per gallery security

 

Nice to have: per image comments.

Some photo hosting sites:

 

Some photo review sites (they tend to be geared to artists who want to get feedback, some only allow you to upload one image per day).  Not quite what I need.

 

 

Categories
Net Software Tech

Some geeky fun

I was chatting with Omar over lunch the other day and he was telling me about his latest wireless network setup and his frustration with trying to troubleshoot connection drops.  I feel his pain… my wireless network is a combination of one Microsoft base station (naturally) and two Linksys bases (two totally different models, of course).  I was unable to connect to the network when in my bedroom for about 6 months.  Everything worked everywhere else… but in the bedroom?  No.  Gah!  I think I solved the problem, but I’m not sure.  I’ll have to document that later after I’m sure I understand it (no use posting embarrassingly wrong advice… I know I’m an idiot, but why tell others? I’ll keep the illusion up as long as I can. 🙂 ).


So… where am I going with this rambling post with zero useful content thus far?  NetStumbler.  Omar commented that he wished he has a tool to tell him all the networks in his area and on what channel they communicated (yes, you can change the channel on your wireless base station for better connectivity).  There are probably a bunch of tools, the one I’ve found useful is NetStumbler. 


Netstumbler is a fun little app that can provide hours of entertainment for geeks.  This software will look for WiFi networks in range, document their SSID (essentially the network name), if they are encrypted, their channel, the signal to noise ratio and, if you have a GPS on your laptop, the coordinates.  It’s a very useful tool for working out network issues… or for finding open networks (war driving is apparently a popular hobby).  Check it out if you have some time to kill or feel like living out your hacker fantasies.



Oh, war driving… Do you remember War Games with Matthew Broderick?  If you don’t, rent it, it’s a fun movie.  In War Games Matthew’s character was trying to find a game company’s mainframe by having his computer methodically dial every single phone number in a given area code and logging the phone numbers connected to computers – he was war dialing.  War driving is the modern equivalent where people put a WiFi-equipped laptop in their car and drive around logging open wireless networks.  Using software like NetStumbler you are able to drive around then dump the results to a program like Microsoft MapPoint to graph out all the open networks in your area.  Why?  Geeky fun, mischief or whatever reason doesn’t really matter, it just reminds you that you shouldn’t assume that because your computer is in your house that your data is safe.  My advice: turn on some form of encryption (WEP for most), hide the SSID and enable MAC filtering.  If you don’t know how to do that, check your manual, it’s worth learning how.

Categories
Net Security Software

Google, say it ain’t so!

Update: obligitory slashdot link


Wow, who’d have thought this would happen? 



And before any conspiracies start… no, Microsoft didn’t do it. 😛


The problem is a new worm on the loose is causing a distributed attack on search engines in it’s quest for new e-mail addresses to which it can send itself (my English teacher just rolled over in her grave).


Okay class… repeat after me: “I will update my anti-virus software once a week if not more often.”


News.com story…



Google, other engines hit by worm variant
By Richard Shim and Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


              
update Major Internet search engines were crippled Monday morning by a variant of the MyDoom worm, rendering Google inaccessible to many users and slowing results from Yahoo.


The attack also affected smaller engines, including Alta Vista, a Yahoo subsidiary, and Lycos.


A Lycos representative said the company is aware of the problem and is working to block the performance obstacles. A Google representative said the company was working to figure out what was happening.


FULL STORY

Categories
Net Software

Interesting article on PC Myths

PCWorld has a good write up on PC myths… but read carefully as their ratings seem to contradict the text at times.  They rate the responding to Spam myth as a level 4 out of 5 on the bogus meter but then include this quote:



“Knowing who to opt out from is key,” says Schwartz. “Opting out of legitimate companies drops you off their lists, but when you do that with ‘real’ spammers, the results are unclear.”


So, what is it?  A myth?  If the results are unclear can you be sure?


A summary of the myths (go to the article for full details).



Busting the Biggest PC Myths
We expose the bad advice that wastes your time and money.




  1. Magnets zap your data.
  2. Using a cell phone on a plane interferes with the navigation and communications systems of the aircraft.
  3. If you don’t ‘stop’ a USB device before unplugging it from a PC, you’ll screw things up.
  4. Cookies track everything you do on the Internet.
  5. Windows’ Japanese edition uses haiku error messages.
  6. Terrible things happen if you turn off your PC without shutting down Windows.
  7. Opting out of spam gets you even more spam.
  8. Hackers can destroy data on your computer’s hard drive.
  9. Turning off your PC daily to save power shortens its life.
  10. The government reads everyone’s e-mail.
  11. Saddam Hussein bought PlayStation 2 consoles to use in Iraq’s weapons program.
  12. DOS is dead.
  13. Only a pricey surge protector can keep your devices safe.
  14. If you don’t periodically run your laptop batteries down to zero, you’ll lose battery life.
  15. If you don’t use an antistatic wrist strap while tinkering with a PC, you’ll ruin hardware.

Categories
Net Weird

It’s a weird world

I’m always amazed at how far the on-line world has come in the last ten years.


I’m even more amazed at how much I assume everyone else is amazed by that. 



  • I live in a special little world called Silicon Valley.

  • I live in a world where everyone has an e-mail address (and most have three). 

  • I live in a world where I look suspiciously at any business that doesn’t have a web site (even Internet addiction centers have web sites).

  • I live in a world where anything that can’t be Googled doesn’t exist.

  • I live in a world where most things that can be Googled still don’t exist (killed in a rocket car?  yeah, right).

  • I live in a world where WWJD stands for What Would Jobs Do?

  • I live in a world where people will buy a Mini because it’s compatible with their iPod.

  • I live in a world where a reality distortion field isn’t science fiction, it’s protected by the ADA.

  • I live in a world where the coolest computer company only has a fraction of the market and makes most of their money selling MP3 players.

  • I live in a world where a project doesn’t end when you ship, it ends when you get the T-Shirt.

Ah… paradise.

Categories
Hotmail Net

Hmm, I was going to charge more than that

While I was only joking about selling addresses (see comments) it appears the AOL workers are a little less loyal to their users.


A snippet of the whole article from Reuters:



US Charges AOL Worker Sold Customer List for Spam
Wed Jun 23, 2004 07:07 PM ET


By Andy Sullivan


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. investigators said on Wednesday they had arrested an America Online employee and a Las Vegas marketer for stealing the Internet provider’s customer list and selling it to a purveyor of “spam” e-mail.

AOL members were flooded with millions of unwanted messages because of the scheme, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. district court in New York.

Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, was charged with stealing a list of 92 million AOL customer screen names and selling them to Internet marketer Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas.


[snip…]

Categories
Net Weird

It’s like crack… for pranksters

You always hear about people getting scammed, you can’t swing a cat without hitting a little old lady who lost her identity on the Internet.  How often do you ever hear about scammers getting scammed?


Mike pointed me to the hilarious bulletin board discussion chronicling the exploits of community of tech savvy people and what happens when a con artist tries to cheat one of them out of a laptop.


A warning in advance… the thread is really really really long.  You may want to start by reading it to get the feel (it is worth digging in a little to enjoy the group as they feed off each other).  When you get overwhelmed by the volume move over to one of the summary pages to get the Cliff’s Notes version.