Confessions Of A Closet Geek

Connect Your PC To Your HDTV

2006-02-09T20:26:00.000-05:00

This from Digg.com, enjoy:

We've got the ins and outs as well as the gotchas all in one spot so you can take advantage of that HDTV set as a PC monitor. If you've ever wondered about the different resolutions between monitors and TVs or to determine what adapters this might require, this is a must-read.

read more | digg story

10,000+ songs & music videos free

2006-02-08T17:09:00.000-05:00

A new site is letting smaller bands actually get their music out there. (200MB's worth at least) The powerful search function lets you find music you have never heard that fits your taste and is actually good.

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Where Real Men Get Their ROMs

2005-06-14T22:24:00.000-04:00

Good Roms Heaven: If you want to download the occasional game, look elsewhere. If you want a comprehensive archive of virtually every single console game ever created; including full MAME sets, this is your link. Seeds for almost everything, and it takes advantage of the ever-online Pirate Bay tracker.

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Wal-Mart: "Hey, we're still selling VHS"

2005-06-14T22:23:00.000-04:00

Only those who know me will get this one, from Digg.com.

"Wal-Mart Stores will continue to sell VHS tapes for as long as its customers want them, a spokeswoman for the world's largest retailer told CNN/Money."

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The Systm Crew Wants Your Feedback

2005-06-13T19:41:00.000-04:00

The following from Kevin Rose and the guys from Systm.org -

"Since Systm was released we've received tons of emails with your feedback. We want to make sure your voice is heard so we've created a new drop box where you can submit all your comments about past episodes and suggestions for what you would like to see in future episodes. Systm.org is being revamped as well."

For more info visit www.systm.org

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iWork: Apple's Alternative to Microsoft Office?

2005-06-13T19:38:00.000-04:00

Want an alternative to Microsoft Office? Apple thinks that it has the contender.
Matthew David gives a first-hand look at Apple's new iWork software: a presentation tool (Keynote 2) and a document design application (Pages).
Does iWork cut the mustard, or is it just an imitation? Click the Digg.com link below and decide for yourself.

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Will Apple Keep Mac OS X Off Generic PCs?

2005-06-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

This a great online column that looks at the various methods Steve Jobs and Apple may use to prevent users from installing Mac OS X for Intel on generic PCs.
Hardware-based security of some type is seen as the most likely form of protection, however Apple could also block workable drivers for anything but Apple hardware.
The only thing that really scares me about Apple going to Intel processors is that if all of a sudden Apple's marketshare grows to become more competitive with Microsoft, I truly believe Steve Jobs could make Bill Gates look like the Pope.

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Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Sneak Peek

2005-06-11T22:46:00.000-04:00

Warning IT spoiler ahead - Get a sneak preview of the new features and improvements coming in Service Pack 2 (SP2)for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, scheduled for release in the second half of 2005. Click the links below for more - you have been warned.

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A One Stop Freeware Repository, Neatly Organized and POP-UP Ad Free!

2005-06-10T23:16:00.000-04:00

Stumbled across this on Digg.com-

"This is an excellent resource for freeware of all kinds. Lots of different utilities, games, tools Etc. Well organized into over 50 folders. All the freeware files contain a nice brief description and author/homepage information."

Hope this helps make up for a lack of posts recently.

read more | digg story

Kevin Rose Leaves G4

2005-05-23T21:01:00.000-04:00

Kevin Rose has announced via his website (www.kevinrose.com) and weekly podcast (www.thisweekintech.com) that he has been released from his contract with G4. Friday, May 27th will be his last day on Attack Of The Show.
According to Rose he asked for his release so he could have more time to concentrate on his tech content projects like Sytem.org and TheBroken.org.

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Download Systm 1 Hour Early

2005-05-17T14:12:00.000-04:00

Sign Up for the Systm Newsletter and recieve the link to download the systm ONE HOUR early! (Even though it might take an hour to download.) Official release time is 8:00 PM MAY 23! (7:00 PM if you sign up.)
For those geeks who live in a cave, Systm (no e) is the latest brainchild from supergeek Kevin Rose formerly of Tech TV (now G4), and is the grown up version of his previous project thebroken.org.

read more | digg story

Entire Senior Editorial Staff of LinuxWorld Mag Resigns

2005-05-14T21:07:00.000-04:00

The entire senior editorial staff of LinuxWorld Magazine has today announced that they will be leaving the magazine, effective immediately.
According to a news release - "We regret that Sys-Con Media has been unable to apply a standard of journalistic ethics that we can comfortably operate under."
Click the link below for the full story.

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Star Wars Opener To Cost Employers Millions

2005-05-12T09:43:00.000-04:00

Employers are expected to see a dramatic spike in absenteeism as workers play hooky to see "Star Wars: Episode III," when it opens May 19, according to a new report in the New York Post.
That loss of productivity could cost employers as much as $627 million in the first two days that the picture.
Click the link for the full story.

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Canada to Regulate VoIP

2005-05-12T09:40:00.000-04:00

Finally the Canadian Government appears to have made a good decision in the area of emerging technology.
The CRTC, Canada's equivalent to the FCC, has announced that it will regulate VoIP providers, as a way to ensure their long term survival.
Both Bell Canada and Telus had lobbied the government not to relegate VoIP, which would have meant that both providers could have slashed their current rates as a means to undermind this burdgeoning technology.
For more click the link below.

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Bob Hunter 1941-2005

2005-05-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

I was deeply saddened this morning when I was told that Greenpeace co-founder and fellow Canadian Bob Hunter had died on Monday of prostate cancer at the age of 63.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hunter in 1992 while I was working as a reporter covering the politics/crime beat for the Sarnia-Lambton (Ontario) Gazette.
Hunter was in town to promote his latest book, and was giving a speech at a local civic luncheon on the importance of having the Canadian and American Governments working in concert to protect the vast natural resources of North America.
I was fortunate enough to be able to get to talk to Mr. Hunter after the luncheon in a one on one interview for what was orginally suppose to be 20-25 minutes, however that interview ended up lasting over 60 minutes and I was truly amazed at what a good hearted man he was, and how optimistic he was that he and Greenpeace were winning the war on Ecological and environmental terrorism.
Here is the Bob Hunter's Bio from the City TV website were he worked as a Ecology reporter for the popular Toronto area TV station.

(www.pluse24.com) "Throughout his life, Citytv Ecology Specialist Bob Hunter fought every battle you can imagine in his zest to save the environment. He was the co-founder of Greenpeace, recognized as one of the leading enviro-action groups in the world. He stood down ships seeking to stop whaling and later the Canadian seal hunt, forcing himself before powerful vessels aimed on killing the innocent creatures he vowed to protect. He took on critics and corporations, the well meaning but misguided and the greedy anything-for-a-buck crowd. In the end, Bob emerged with so many victories. But he finally lost the one battle he couldn't win - the fight to save his own life. He died from prostate cancer Monday morning. He was only 63. Bob came late to the CityPulse family, but like so many of his other endeavours, he made an immediate and special impression. His stories on everything from Temagami to his journey along the Thelon River and his tracking of his old friend, Capt. Paul Watson's journeys with the Sea Shepherd Society, prompted action and outrage alike. Nothing pleased him more. But Bob was a seasoned pro well before he arrived on the shores of the CityPulse newsroom. He was a columnist for the Vancouver Sun and later for Eye Weekly and the author of 13 well-received books - one of which won a Governor General's Award. He ran for the Liberals in a provincial by-election in 2001, losing to the N.D.P.'s Michael Prue. He hosted "Hunters' Gatherings" on CablePulse24 for several years, bringing new colours to both sides of intense green issues. His editorials on the station won countless awards. His "Paper Cuts" segment on Breakfast Television was a morning ritual for hundreds of thousands. And the accolades he brought to the medium were reflected off camera as well. Bob was honoured as one of Time Magazine's Eco Heroes of the 20th Century. A scholarship in his name continues to enrich students at the U. of T. And his passion for the environment proves it was easy being green. But it was his power with words that inspired so many. "I think my earliest heroes, if I had any, were writers," he once recalled. "And having seen it, I had to express it. Otherwise it wouldn't have been worth living."But Bob took that living seriously, risking his life most famously in the early 1970s, with an iconic image, sandwiched between a whaling ship's harpoons and one of the great mammals, in an effort to protect it from a crew bent on harvesting the creature. He later repeated the death-defying act at Canada's seal hunt. Those who witnessed his bravery remain in awe of that courage all these years later. "Greenpeace as an organization already existed at that time," recalls fellow eco-warrior Dan McDermott. "The mind bomb of that action - putting yourself between the harpoon and the whale … arguably saved the whales." Hunter was also there protesting nuclear tests and the dumping of toxic waste. And he never shied away from the danger or the controversy. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999, he tried treatments that were both conventional and unconventional. In the end, none worked and the cancer spread. He fought his final battle the way he had so many others, discussing it on his show and giving updates on his progress until he was too ill to continue. He's survived by his wife of 31 years, Bobbi, a 26-year-old son named Will, his 19-year-old daughter Emily, two children from a previous marriage - 41-year-old Conan and 37-year-old Justine - and four loving grandchildren. At the time of his marriage, he recalls promising Bobbi that their life together "won't be dull". And to the end he delivered on that vow, leaving an indelible mark on both history and nature that - like the ecosphere he tried so hard to protect - will be his legacy."

Rest in peace Bob, you will be missed.

P.S. - To contribute to The Robert Hunter Scholarship for Environmental Studies, contact the University of Toronto, Innis College, at 2 Sussex Avenue, or call 416-978-0169.

Yet Another Reason To Never Leave Home With Your Laptop (VIDEO)

2005-05-09T22:20:00.000-04:00

In this video a guy demonstrates just how easy it is to open a Kensington laptop lock using a roll of toilet paper, tape, and a pen. It's really scary to know that a roll of toilet paper is all that it takes for someone to take your laptop.

read more | digg story

Playing Vinyl Records with Lasers

2005-05-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

A small Japanese company called ELP believes it can bring old school albums a new spin at life Ã¢?? thanks in part, to CD technology itself.
Its Laser Turntable is a record album player that replaces the traditional turntable stylus with a group of five high-tech lasers.
I wonder how my Honeymoon Suite and Supertramp albums would sound.
Click below for the full story.

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Apple releases iTunes 4.8

2005-05-09T16:31:00.000-04:00

Apple today released iTunes 4.8, an update to its digital music jukebox software and its client for the iTunes Music Store.
Version 4.8 includes new Music Store features and support for transferring contacts and calendars from your computer to your iPod (requires Mac OS X version 10.4 on your computer), according to the documentation.
Click the link below for more information.

read more | digg story

Create Your Own Buffer Overflow

2005-05-05T23:28:00.000-04:00

If you've ever wanted to create your own buffer overflow or just to see how one works, check out this tutorial. The article talks about how a buffer overflow works and a guided example to help you on your way. Definitely worth checking out.

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Hacking Classified Data Via Cut And Paste

2005-05-05T10:32:00.000-04:00

There's a great story on news.com, about how geeks have apparently recovered classified data on a military PDF through cut and paste.
The document in question is the final report on the death of Italian citizen Nicola Calipari, who was killed at an Iraqi checkpoint on March 4.
The U.S. military released it's final report on the incident to the media yesterday and decided to blackout, not delete, portions of the document which it considered sensitive and classified.
Apparently curious geeks discovered if they cut and pasted the blacked out portions of the report into a word processing program, it allowed them to read to classified portions of the document.
The full story is here.

Password Generator - No More Passwords To Remember

2005-05-04T23:01:00.000-04:00

Do you use the same password everywhere you go? What if it's stolen? Don't worry!
With this javascript app, a secure password is generated by combining a master password with a site's domain name. Therefore, the password will always be unique, virtually unbreakable, and, although you only need to remember one password, it is still very secure.
Click the link for more.

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Spying On The Spyware Makers

2005-05-04T22:59:00.000-04:00

Ben Edelman may be spyware's most dangerous enemy. The 25-year-old researcher has spent years analyzing how spyware and adware programs work and disclosing his findings publicly. That often results in red faces and, occasionally, lawsuit threats from companies like WhenU and Claria, formerly known as Gator.
Click below for the full story.

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A Little Mac Post

2005-05-03T22:41:00.000-04:00

the new iMacs were released today.
Prices remain the same (be prepared to part with an organ), but now bluetooth & airport are standard as well as 512mb of RAM, dual layer DVD burners, 2.0ghz speed bump, and better graphics card.
eMacs also saw a bump up to 1.42ghz G4s, dual layer DVD burners, and a better graphics card.
Click the links below for more info.

read more | digg story

Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Download The Free Guide

2005-04-30T16:14:00.000-04:00

Put your mind at rest and keep your kids safe online with tools that let you control what they access on the web.
Download your FREE 4-page guide now!

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Something Awful Diggs G4TV A New Hole.

2005-04-30T16:11:00.000-04:00

This is from Digg.com:

"Todays SomethingAwful update deals with G4TV's dismal state of affairs as the worse representative of gaming available. As usual with somethingawful remember it's a entertainment site not a serious news reporting site."

The story's an interesting read, athough I think the writer was a little harsh on Kevin Rose, for more info click the link below.

read more | digg story

Getting Ready For Tiger

2005-04-28T09:09:00.000-04:00

Is your Mac ready for a smooth transition to Tiger? Maybe you're in need of a Spring housecleaning anyway.
Check out these tidy tips from Derrick Story, then roll out the red carpet for Mac OS X 10.4.
The article includes an optional series of useful and prudent tips for those of you getting ready to update to Tiger, click the link below for more info.

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RockXP - XP Product Key Backup and Recovery

2005-04-25T17:09:00.000-04:00

RockXP is a great little application that allows you to retrieve the Windows XP product key that you used when you installed Windows XP.
This is handy if you need to reinstall but have "misplaced" or "lost" the CD cover with the serial sticker.
In addition, the program lets you save the product activation to a file, and even enables you to recover usernames and passwords contained in the Windows Secure Storage.
Click the link below for download details.

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Free Online .GIF Editor

2005-04-25T17:05:00.000-04:00

This is a great .GIF editor and the best part is it's free.
You get all the standard features including setting the size, cropping portions of the image and changing how the image looks and behaves.
I'd say it's worth a click.

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Get Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 Free

2005-04-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

Here's a freebie for all the super geeks out there, you can get you hands on a copy of Microsoft's new Visual Studio 2005 Beta for free, including shipping by clicking the link below.

Just fill out the form, and yes it must be real info, and make sure you put your occupation as a developer (after all aren't we all developers), and click submit.
Here's the link.
Thanks to Scott for the tip.

iPod a 'life-changing' invention: CNN/Money

2005-04-16T10:22:00.000-04:00

CNN.com has a good story on how the iPod not only revolutionized the way we listen to music, but also probably saved Apple from extinction, here's an excerpt:

"Apple's iPod made it to CNN/Money's - 5 inventions to change your life. So how did the iPod -- which is, essentially, just an update of the long-forgotten Walkman -- capture about 70 percent of its market, and turn once-fading Apple Computer into the hottest company in Silicon Valley? Only by being brilliant in every way."

Click the link below for the full story.

read more | digg story

Microsoft Talks Longhorn

2005-04-16T10:15:00.000-04:00

Another Digg.com posting:

"As Microsoft approaches a major milestone in the development of Longhorn, company executives are talking more about the features of the Windows XP successor, which they say will be easier to use, more secure, and less costly to manage than earlier versions of Windows."

I think I read that correctly did it say a Windows OS will actually be secure? For more info visit the links below

read more | digg story

Hacked Highway Sign Sets Speed Limit At 100 MPH

2005-04-13T22:38:00.000-04:00

An electronic highway sign on Interstate 75 in Michigan told drivers: "Speed limit 100 mph go go go." For months, the signboard in Genesee County had been alerting commuters to construction that starts this month. Someone hacked the sign, which is controlled by a computer through a subcontractor.

read more | digg story

Please Help Stop the RIAA

2005-04-13T22:33:00.000-04:00

This from Digg.com, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF), pioneers in the fight for strong consumer fair use laws is attempting to stop the RIAA and their lawsuits by circulating a petition and garnering as many signatures as possible.
Once the EFF get 100,000 signatures, they will deliver the petition to the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary Committees.
Please visit the link below and sign and try to help, especially if your from Canada where the RIAA is hoping to strike next.

read more | digg story

Using Gmail as a Spam Filter

2005-04-12T11:51:00.000-04:00

Using a neat forwarding trick between the Gmail and another email server, you can use Gmail to filter spam and forward only good email to your regular email address. The added advantage to this system is full email backup and online search on Gmail.

read more | digg story

Tiger Unleashed

2005-04-12T11:48:00.000-04:00

Today Apple has changed it's homepage to countdown the days till Tiger is released on April 29th. As of 8:45 am the Apple store is down. According to Apple "Mac OS X v10.4 Ã¢??TigerÃ¢?? will go on sale Friday, April 29, at 6:00 p.m. during special events at AppleÃ¢??s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers."

read more | digg story

REVENGE OF THE SITH Officially Gets A PG-13 Rating!

2005-04-11T23:02:00.000-04:00

On May 19th, fans of all ages will see the final installment of the STAR WARS saga with EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH. However, for first time ever it will be rated PG-13! The MPAA is expected to release an official statement or press release sometime this week.

read more | digg story

Top Spammer Gets 9 Years in Prison

2005-04-08T23:14:00.000-04:00

Here's an update from a previous posting:

A Virginia judge has sentenced spammer Jeremy Jaynes to nine years in prison for sending over 10 million e-mails a day with the aid of 16 broadband lines. Because the case marks the first felony prosecution for spam, however, Judge Thomas Horne postponed the sentence while the ruling is appealed.

read more | digg story

Convert any format to any format! Insane!

2005-04-08T23:11:00.000-04:00

If your like me at some point you have stumbled across some wacky file format that you just cannot figure out and would love to convert the file to something you can actually use, well save the cursing because I found this on Digg.com today:

"This site is crazy; using their products, they offer tutorials on how to convert just about ANY file format to ANY file format. Try it out."

read more | digg story

The Apple Never Falls Far From The Tree

2005-04-06T23:11:00.000-04:00

From Digg.com:

This site has many of the popular apple commercials in quicktime format. Old and new they're here. There's even a commercial with Bill Gates praising Apple. It also has some other rather strange commercials such as Leonard Nimoy singing about the Hobbit.

Happy viewing

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Firefox, Mozilla Bug Exposes Data

2005-04-05T23:07:00.000-04:00

Both Firefox and the Mozilla browser suite are vulnerable to attacks through flawed JavaScript engines, a security firm reported Monday.Firefox and Mozilla users can try this test that Secunia has created to confirm that their browser is vulnerable.

read more | digg story

Hackers Write Spyware For Cash, Not Fame

2005-04-05T15:12:00.000-04:00

Another Digg.com Posting:

More than 70 percent of virus writers are now writing spyware under contract, one more piece of evidence that hacking has evolved from mischievous hobby to money-making criminal venture, a security firm reported Monday.

Click the Digg News link below for more info.

read more | digg story

digg adds blogging features

2005-04-05T12:22:00.000-04:00

I love Digg.com, and they've added a feature which allows users to automatically upload stories found on Digg to their blog, which is how this story was posted, cool eh.

New to digg today: the ability to digg stories to your blog. Choose a story that you wish to blog, then click "blog". digg will instantly post that story to your website. If you donÃ¢??t like the way a story is worded, you also have the ability to rewrite your blog post. Supported blogs: Typepad, Live Journal, Blogger, Moveable Type, and WordPress. (note: you must be a registered user to see these features)

read more | digg story

Maxthon, The Next Mozilla?

2005-04-05T10:10:00.000-04:00

As many geeks know when it comes to web browsers there are at least half a dozen or so good options.
Windows users usually go with either Internet Explorer (IE) or Mozilla Firefox, and I was no different, until a friend urged me to check out Maxthon for my surfing needs, and I must say I am impressed.

The first thing that struck me about Maxthon was how similar it looked to IE, however that's where the similarities ended.
One of the first features I look for in a web browser is tabbed browsing, which is something that first converted me Firefox two years ago, and of course Maxthon has this feature but uses it in a much better way than Mozilla by having the tabs reside in the browser window and not in the taskbar. Also like Firefox, Maxthon has a built-in pop-up blocker called Ad Hunter, which also blocks those irritating pop-under ads.
I love RSS, and Maxthon has a built-in RSS Reader, which makes reading your RSS Feeds easy, without having to launch a third party application. Adding feeds to your RSS Reader is done through dragging and dropping the information into the RSS reader.
Mouse Gestures is a something I have never really used before Maxthon, but after using it for a while you begin to appreciate the time it can save. Once enabled Mouse Gestures allow you to perform a variety of functions by holding the right button on your mouse and moving your cursor in a certain direction. For instance an up or down motion will refresh the page, move it the left and you can go back to a previous page and moving it in an "L" shape will close the window tab your have open.
There are of course many more features that I love about Maxthon like page zooming, simple collector, web services, password protecting tabs, URL aliases, more than 400 plug-ins, 300 + skins and an external utility bar which allows you to start third party programs with one click of a mouse from within your browser.
Maxthon also uses very little in the way of system resources, in fact the benchmark tests I ran showed Maxthon used about 60% less RAM than IE, that in itself to me is a good enough reason to give it a try.
For more information about Maxthon visit www.maxthon.com, or you can download Maxthon here.
Give it a try, and let me know what you think about Maxthon by posting in the comments section.

The Little Browser That Could

2005-03-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

FlexBeta.net has a great story on the history of Mozilla, from Phoenix to Firefox and every build in between.
Mozilla is a phenomenal browser, and my kudos definitely go to the author.
You can read the full story here.

Mytob Worm Woes Continue

2005-03-30T17:20:00.000-05:00

Symantec on Wednesday confirmed that the e-mail worm Mytob continues to plague the internet, and in the last week alone has had as many as eight variants released, bringing the total number of variants to 12 since the beginning of March.

The two latest variants, W32.Mytob.R and W32.Mytob.S, have thus far been classified as mild to moderate threats by Symantec, however the anti-virus vendor is still advising subscribers to manually update their anti-virus definitions as the newest versions of the worm also adds a text file to a compromised PC, which in turn blocks anti-virus applications from automatically updating.
The two newest versions of Mytob are distributed through mass e-mailing campaigns, utilizing "backdoor" techniques to infect Windows based systems. Once infected, the worm then uses it's own SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) engine to redistribute itself to e-mail addresses harvested from the infected computer. In addition Mytob also exploits the Local Security Authority Service Remote Buffer Overflow in Windows, a security hole that has already been addressed by Microsoft via Windows Update.
E-mails infected with Mytob generally contain subject headings like "Good Day", or "Mail Transaction Failed", and one variant called W32.Mytob.Q, also contains another low level virus W32.Pinfi.
Symantec has created a removal tool and instructions for users infected with Mytob, you can download it here.

Canadian Government To Join P2P Fight

2005-03-29T11:09:00.000-05:00

Canadian users of Peer To Peer (P2P) filesharing networks like Kazaa or Limewire may soon become the victims of lawsuits as the Federal Government is preparing to introduce legislation which would make downloading or uploading copyrighted material to P2P networks illegal. Currently downloading or sharing copyrighted materials over P2P is not a crime in Canada as the country has very broad fair use laws in place, however the Ministry of Heritage and Industry seeks to amend those rights much to the pleasure of Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA).

"Clearly, once we get implementation there'll be no doubt . . . it'll be illegal to engage in unauthorized file-sharing," said Graham Henderson of CRIA.
In addition to amending the Canadian Copyright Act the Federal Government also announced it's intention to sign two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, which would force ISPs like Rogers and Bell Sympatico to keep activity logs of individuals who download large amounts of copyrighted material. Those activity logs could then be subpoenaed by groups like CRIA when they sue P2P filesharers. ISP's would also have to contact and issue warnings to any customer that uses their internet connection for illegal activities such as downloading off P2P networks.
According to a press release by the Ministry of Heritage and Industry the new amended Canadian Copyright Act would "clarify that the unauthorized posting or the peer-to-peer file-sharing of material on the Internet will constitute an infringement of copyright, (and) it will also be made clear that private copies of sound recordings cannot be uploaded or further distributed." In addition the new act would also make it illegal for consumers to circumvent or "crack" copy protection on CD's and DVD's.

Using Your Wallpaper For Wallpaper

2005-03-24T09:15:00.000-05:00

If your looking for some real cool wallpaper for your computer's desktop, then why not use a high quality digital picture of the wall behind your computer to give the illusion of the monitor being invisible.

I stumbled across this on BoingBoing.net this morning, the picture above was posted by Cory Doctorow and is accompanied by the following explanation - "Transparent Screens is a Flickr photoset of laptops whose desktop wallpaper has been set to a digital photo of the walls and windows behind them, so that they appear to have totally transparent displays. The effect is striking."
I thought it was cool too, for more invisible desktops you can check out a full gallery here.

Jeeves Become A Billionaire

2005-03-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

Just when you thought the .com boom was over comes word from CNet and SlashDot that AskJeeves.com, the search engine that most geeks laugh at, has been sold for $1.85 billion.

InterActiveCorp, owners of Expedia.com, TicketMaster and Match.com, will purchase the search engine, including it's subsidary websites Excite.com and IWon.com, in a complicated deal which is being primarily accomplished through a stock swap.
Following completion of the deal, InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller will assume the same position with AskJeeves.com.
There is a full report on the deal here.
AskJeeves.com was started in 1996 and claims to handle over 40 million search queries a month, although I have never actually met anyone who has ever used their website.

PyMusique Promises To Turn i-Tunes Into DRM Free Tunes

2005-03-20T21:30:00.000-05:00

A group of hackers seem destined for Apple CEO Steve Jobs hit list as they are claiming to have written a program called PyMusique that will strip i-Tunes of it's Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Cody Brocious is a 17 year old high school student from Pennsylvania who helped create PyMusique, and he told ZDNet.com on Friday that the application was created stictly as a means to buy songs from the i-Tunes music store without having to worry about Apple's strict DRM.
"The intent of the project was to be able to purchase files from the iTunes Music Store," said Brocious in the interview. "I believe very firmly that the project is ethical and does nothing but good for the community at large."
Apple's i-Tunes is the most successful legitimate online music store, and part of it's success is based on the DRM involved with i-Tunes songs. The security involved with their DRM has made it very easy for Apple to convince artists that they can safely sell their music online.
With PyMusique a user can purchase a song from i-tunes DRM-free, thus allowing them to burn or port their purchase to as many media or devices as they wish, a blatant violation of i-Tunes terms of service.
Thus far Apple has yet to publicly comment on PyMusique because until recently the software only worked on Linux based systems, however Brocious claimed in the interview that they have also created a Windows version of the program which is almost certain to raise Steve Jobs eyebrows.
As a side-note one of the programmers involved with PyMusique is Norwegian Jon Johanson, who helped crack the CSS encryption found on DVD's in 1999.

Keep Your X-Box From Becoming An Ex-Box

2005-03-20T20:27:00.000-05:00

The Register in Britain is reporting that despite an X-Box recall by Microsoft last month many owners of the popular gaming console are still waking up in the morning and smelling the fresh aroma of melted plastic and a fried processor.

The recall began when X-Box owners began to report that their units were catching on fire, prompting Microsoft to immediately issue a recall for the nearly 14 million units sold and offer to replace the power cord at no charge. However reports persist that despite the new power cords many are still experiencing X-Box fires in their living rooms.
The story on The Register says that power cord was never really the problem and that the real culprit seems to be the X-Box's power supply.
Apparently Microsoft thought they could remedy the problem by giving owners a new cord which features a shut-off switch that would be triggered if the unit began to run too warm.
You can read the full story here.

Apple Joins The Darkside

2005-03-18T08:51:00.000-05:00

Molly Wood from Cnet.com has an excellent story on how Apple has gone from underdog to evil empire over the last few months.

First Steve Jobs and company sued bloggers at ThinkSecret.com for releasing details about the new Mac Mini and i-Pod Shuffle prior to MacWorld, and now it seems that Apple is going after anyone who manufactures anything even closely resembling the i-Pod Shuffle.
I love Apple but I have to admit that using Microsoft-like tactics leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
You can read Molly Wood's story here.

Linspire Turns 5.0

2005-03-17T21:54:00.000-05:00

Well it took three years and $20 million but Linspire, the Linux distro formerly called Lindows, is set to unveil version 5.0.
According to Linspire boss Michael Robertson, the newest version contains over 1,200 improvements over previous versions including a new graphical user interface (GUI), a quick 8 minute install wizard, hundreds of new built-in applications and the ability to install Linspire to your system's hard drive or run it "live" from your computer's CD drive.

Price points for Linspire seem to be set at $49.95 for a downloadable digital version and $89.95 for the CNR version. Also look for Linspire CD's to be available for shipping in the next two weeks. You can check out Linspire 5.0 here.

Revenge Of The Sith Spoilers

2005-02-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

If your like me and are counting the minutes until Star Wars Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith opens on May 25 and are in dire need of a fix here's one for you.
I stumbled across a site which has tons of unreleased screenshots and reveals some key plot points in the next installment of every geeks favorite space opera.
Click here for the site and don't say I didn't warn you.
And if that doesn't help and you still need a Star Wars fix then maybe you should try buying a landspeeder, like the one for sale on Ebay here.

First "Spimmer" Arrested

2005-02-22T09:21:00.000-05:00

A U.S. teenager became the first person ever arrested and charged for Spimming at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) last Wednesday.
Spimming occurs when an individual sends out spam through an instant message network like MSN Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger.
Anthony Greco, an 18 year old from New York City, had allegedly sent 1.5 million unwanted spim messages over the MySpace.com network, advertising everything from low interest mortgages to porn.
In addition to sending spim across the network, Greco apparently sent an e-mail to MySpace.com and threatened to publicize his spimming methods to other spammers unless the company signed an exclusive "marketing agreement" with him which would then legitimize his efforts.
Greco was then lured to LA under the pretense that he would meet MySpace.com President Tom Anderson and he could then negotiate and sign his "marketing agreement", Greco was immediately arrested upon his arrival at LAX.
Following his arrest Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hoffstadt told ZDNet.com that Greco was the first person ever charged with Spimming. ""We're just beginning to get the tip of the iceberg," said Hoffstadt. "This could be a new wave as online communities start up".

i-Tunes/Napster Trade Shots

2005-02-20T22:24:00.000-05:00

The war over which Digital Rights Management (DRM) is better continues as Apple and Napster continue to trade shots.
It all started on Tuesday when Apple CEO Steve Jobs sent an e-mail to record company executives saying among other things that Napster's DRM for it's new "Napster-To-Go" streaming service had a security "gap" and that the gap could be exploited by visiting a webpage for instructions, of course Jobs linked to the website in the e-mail, and concluded by saying "Thought you should know if you haven't heard about this".
Napster CEO Chris Gorog was quick to respond to Jobs claim by issuing an e-mail that pointed web browsers to a site which offered a free program which could then be used to strip i-Tunes Fair Play streaming service of it's DRM.
Now I thought about weighing in on this until I ran across Leo Laporte's comments on his radio show today where he discussed the issue of DRM and said - "Gorog wins this round. All protected music is susceptible to the Napster-To-Go crack - it’s essentially recording the analog output as you listen to the song. iTunes FairPlay has been cracked fair and square by DVD Jon and software to strip out the copy protection is widely available."
Well said Leo.

The Sound Of Silence

2005-02-19T08:22:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a few days late with this, but it deserves a mention nonetheless.
Scott Moschella at PlasticBugs.com has declared war on the RIAA by downloading a song from i-Tunes, cracking the Digital Rights Management (DRM) and then offering it for download on his website.
The only catch is the song by Ciccone Youth is actually 63 seconds of silence. And to make things even better Moschella "bought" the song by turning pepsi bottles upside down in his local Ralph's store and finding a code under the bottlle cap for a free download as part of the Pepsi/i-Tunes promotion.
Once he downloaded the song Moschella then used a program called JHymn to crack the DRM, and then offered the song for free on PlasticBugs.com.
To date a few thousand people have downloaded the song, and his site crashed yesterday after BoingBoing.net and Digg.com picked up the story.
But his site's back up now and you can read the specifics of his experiment, including screenshots here.

Will RipGuard Kill The DVD Ripper?

2005-02-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

Macromedia announced today the next generation of DVD copyright protection, as RipGuard is set to debut in upcoming DVD new releases in the not so distant future.
RipGuard is set to replace the Content Scramble System (CSS), which most DVD's currently feature.
CSS copy protection was first released in 1999, just before the DVD revolution, and most movie studios and DVD distributors were quick to adapt the new technology, however within months of it's debut DeCSS was released as an open-source project thus rendering copyright protection useless. To date nearly 100 DVD "back-up" programs have utilized DeCSS.
However Macromedia believes that RipGuard will pick up the guantlet and succeed where CSS has failed.
"CSS encryption standards are binary", said Adam Gervin, senior marketing director for the entertainment technologies group at Macrovision. "They're great until you break it, and then it's worthless. DeCSS made its way into the public's understanding, that perfect digital copies can be made in minutes. The cat's out of the bag".
However with RipGuard, Gervin believes pirates will be in for a much tougher battle as the new applications biggest weapon is the fact that it eliminates the entire digital bitstream. With current DVD's, DeCSS "cracked" the digital bitstream and converted the data it into a single analouge hole, which then allowed users to copy and burn content to a DVD-R, and in the process produce a perfect copy of the original.
However with RipGuard any attempt to bypass copy protection through these means will result in the ripper software crashing or freezing.
"RipGuard will stop 97 percent of rippers by market share," says Gervin. "Look for MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) studios to adopt complete DVD protection (using RipGuard) in 2005", continued Gervin.
And to further boost Gervin's claims that RipGuard will soon debut on a video store shelf near you, THX has given the program the thumbs up after it's engineers conducted independent tests in an attempt to circumvent RipGuard protection. In addition Gervin told ExtremeTech.com that most of the major movie studios have committed to use RipGuard in future releases although he declined to elaborate any further citing FCC regulations.

Grammy's Enter The Internet Age

2005-02-14T21:30:00.000-05:00

I missed the Grammy's last night and now I'm kicking myself.
I meant to watch the show, and was really happy that Norah Jones took home at least one statue. I discovered Norah Jones last year when I got her first DVD as a gift and I've been a fan ever since.
What really caught my eye though was the Grammy won by Jazz singer Maria Schneider which was done so even though she did not sell a single copy of her "Concert In The Garden" CD through record stores. All sales of Schneider's album came via the internet.
"It's a new way for fans to be closer to artists and artists to be closer to fans," said Schneider of her web sales. "For me it's been very gratifying".
The web-only Grammy win provides further proof to the music industry that the internet may indeed be the future music store for fans.
In 2004 legitimate online music sales were in the area of 143 million songs, up from only 19 million in 2003.
"This record cost $87,000 to make, I already made my money back," continued Scheinder. "(And) I'm not splitting the profits with the distributor, the record store or the record company, so it's working so well for me."
Schneider was the first participant in a new online program called ArtistShare where all album financing is done through donations from the artists fans. Initially 10,000 copies of the CD were pressed, with 9,000 being sold to those who donated money for the project through ArtistShare.
The remaining 1,000 copies are then sold through an online auction.
"They (fans) came into the project long before I completed my CD," concluded Schneider.

The Mother Of All XP Tweaks

2005-02-14T19:50:00.000-05:00

On the advice of a fellow geek, I downloaded The Windows XP Tweaking Companion (WXTC) from TweakGuides.com recently.
Now after using XP-Pro for the better part of 3 years I figured there wasn't much more that I could possibly tweak, and if there was I could always go where I usually go - BlackViper.com, but boy was I surprised when I downloaded WXTC.
This puppy had just about everything you could ever possibly need to know about tweaking Windows XP and at only 1.8 MB there really is no reason to download the PDF file.
I highly recommend downloading WXTC, and even though it's free you should shoot the writer a couple of bucks for all of his hard work.
You can download WXTC here.

Microsoft To Enter Cell Phone Market

2005-02-13T22:02:00.000-05:00

It's being widely reported in Europe that on Monday Microsoft will announce a partnership with hardware developer Flextronics, to create a series of low cost phones designed to work in conjunction with Windows Mobile Platform (WMP).
WMP has taken more than it's fair share of abuse over the years, but the latest version seems to be a lot more stable than previous editions.
Flextronics is the Taiwan based hardware company who helped develop the XBox, Microsoft's first foray into the hardware market.
Rumors of the new partnership began swirling in France on Sunday night at the 3GSM World Congress, an annual mobile industry gathering in Cannes.
And although Microsoft would not confirm the rumor, OregonLive.com did get this quote from John Starkweather, Mobile Product Manager from Microsoft when asked about the new partnership.
"The significance of this partnership is extremely high-volume, low-cost devices that don't have any concessions in terms of functionality...seamless integration with Outlook, applications, calendar, e-mail, tasks, contacts — all wirelessly".

Futuremail - E-mail With An RSS Twist

2005-02-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

Just stumbled across this on Digg.com.
It's called Futuremail and it allows you to create e-mail reminders that are then stored and e-mailed to you on the date and time that you specify.
One of the features that really caught my eye was the ability to share your future e-mails in an RSS feed, which would be great for any collaborative or group projects you may be working on - check it out here.

Geeking Out With The Geek Show

2005-02-11T23:13:00.000-05:00

I just discovered a new show tonight on Book Television called The Geek Show.
The show is from Edmonton, Alberta Canada and is fairly low budget, it's actually shot in one of the the hosts diningroom, but it's pretty funny nonetheless.
The show also has it's own website - www.thegeekshow.com - and is definitely worth a peek as all past episodes are archived on the site, so check it out.

Two Babes And The Penguin

2005-02-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

For those geeks out there who need some additional motivation to give Linux a whirl, you should check out the new "Linix Virgins" website.
The premise is pretty simple take two girls put them in mini skirts and then ask them to build a computer and then have them install Linux on the system. Episode One is available here.
Thanks to Alex "yeah he's the dell dude" Albrecht for the link.

Tuesday Tidbits

2005-02-08T00:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a round-up of the latest news in Geekdom.

~It appears that Kazaa owners Sharman Networks were logging the IP addresses of users of their popular P2P network. The logging went against the advice of developers of the Kazaa Media Desktop who told Sharman that logging IP addresses could make people view the P2P client as spyware and scare users to other P2P networks. The IP logging came to light in an Australian court on Monday as Sharman Networks continues it's legal fight with the RIAA over copyright infringement.
~ Speaking of fighting, AskJeeves continues it's battle for legitimacy in the world of Google and MSN Search as it has purchased BlogLines one of the better RSS readers available on the market today.
~ Someone finally did it, they organized all the best free software available on the internet into one place. Thank-you.
~ Hackers at a U.S. convention this past weekend discovered a security flaw that could allow non-Internet Explorer browsers like Firefox and Opera to display spoofed pages of real websites by simply adding a little code to a link.
~ Microsoft is looking to finally release Longhorn to Beta by June of this year. Longhorn is the code name for newest version of Windows which is set for a late 2006 release.
~ NewsForge.com has a story that some IT experts are predicting that the first Spyware written specifically for Firefox will emerge this year.
~ Was I the only geek who appreciated GoDaddy.com's ad during the superbowl?
~Marc Morford has an awesome story on SFGate.com titled simply "Why Does Windows Still Suck", you can read the article here.
~ The Desktop Linux Summit gets underway this week in San Diego. Among the guest speakers will be keynote addresses by Ron Glasser of Real Networks, Mitch Kapor of The Mozilla Foundation and Michael Robertson CEO of Linspire. Other speakers of interest include Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome.com who will have a Powerpoint Presentation on the best and worst of Linux in 2004.

Thanks to everyone who has e-mailed me after seeing me on Call For Help on Tech TV Canada last Thursday and through the weekend re-airings. Your kind words are appreciated.

AOL Joins Browser Wars

2005-02-07T19:36:00.000-05:00

AOL has jumped head first into the browser war between Microsoft, Apple and Firefox as their new browser went Beta today.
The new browser uses Internet Explorer's engine and integrates pretty well with it's proprietary desktop search utility.
AOL's announcement of it's browser entering Beta seems to fit in well with company's recent attempts to remain relevant as it is also on the cusp of offering a Voice Over IP (VOIP) service.
You can read more about AOL's browser here, and see a screenshot here.

A Cheaters Guide To Superbowl Ads

2005-02-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

If you missed the Superbowl, or your like me and really don't care about it that much to begin with, but you still want to know what everyone is talking about on Monday morning around the watercooler check out this site for every ad that aired during the game.
Be sure to check out the banned ads for GoDaddy.com and the one that features Mickey Rooney's butt (thanks Fox).
By the way go Pats.

RIAA Sinks To New Low

2005-02-05T19:40:00.000-05:00

In what can only be best described as one of the scummiest things the Recording Industry Association of Artists (RIAA) has done to date in their effort to curb P2P filesharing, the group that enforces copy protection for musicians has filed a lawsuit against an 83 year old Grandmother who died in December.
The RIAA has alledged in court papers filed in West Virginia that Gertrude Walton, who went by the user name "smittenedkitten", shared over 700 rock, pop and hip hop songs over Kazaa.
The problem of course is that Walton died over a month ago after battling a lengthy illness and her daughter Robin Chianumba, who lived with her grandmother for 17 years, told the Charleston Gazette that Walton did not even own a computer and definitely did not file share over Kazaa.
"I don't know if this is a scheme to get money, I just don't know what's going on. I am concerned, said Chianumba. "I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park to attend the hearing."
For it's part the RIAA has acknowledged it had made a grievous error, and intends to drop the lawsuit against Walton.
"Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago," said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy of the mix-up. "We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case."
But the withdrawn lawsuit and makeshift apology still leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Chianumba. "I believe that if music are going to set examples they need to do it to appropriate people and not dead people".

Thanks to Digg for the tip

Giving Away Gmail

2005-02-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

Ok I'm sure almost everyone has one by now, but somehow I ended up with over 100 Gmail invites in my Gmail account this morning so I'm giving them away to the first 100 people who email me at james@closetgeek.net. Not sure what Gmail is click here.

A Little More Linux

2005-02-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the Linux theme I seem to have going on right now, in addition to live Linux OS CD's it seems live Linux game CD's are all the rage.
The following are bootable Linux game distros which means you can take them anywhere you go and use them on almost any system without physically installing the games on the computer.

1. Games Knoppix - watch for an updated version later this month.
2. Advance CD - A bootable Cd for use with Mame and NES-Roms. Not sure what Mame is go here.
3. Linux Live Game Project

Thanks to Scott Moschella for the links.

18 Live Linux Distros, No Waiting

2005-02-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

OSNews.com has a great round-up of the 18, yes that's right, 18 most popular live Linux distros.
A live Linux distro is a Linux operating system stored on a bootable CD, which is a great way to learn Linux without actually installing it on your system.
You just pop the CD into your computer and turn your system on and viola you have a Linux OS.
I personally use SUSE Linux, after playing around with Knoppix for a few months, on one of my systems and love it.
You can read the OSNews.com round-up here.

Welcome To Gmail Central

2005-01-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

Gmail helped revolutionize the entire webmail landscape when it was first released to beta in April 2004.
One person loved it so much they have created a Gmail Tips website that's designed to be a portal to all known Gmail tweaks and add-ons.
You can visit the Gmailtips.com here.
Thanks to Digg.com for the link.

Oops I Goofed

2005-01-27T12:49:00.000-05:00

After a little further checking and thanks to some very informed geeks it turns out Exeem does in fact contain some spyware bundled with some pretty intrusive adware.
I've found a better solution with Exeem Lite which is guaranteed to be 100% spyware and adware free, you can download it here.

The Greatest American

2005-01-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

The Discovery Channel is looking for the Greatest American of all Time.
They are in search of nominations until February 1, at which point they will cull the list down to 100 people by March.
Then watch for a new show on Discovery Channel in April and May as they countdown from number 100 to the greatest American of all time.
You can nominate up to five people here, and for more information you can visit this link.
Thanks to Ann for the tip.

Exeem Goes Beta

2005-01-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

Former users of Suprnova can finally end the weeks of mourning over the abrupt shutdown of the popular bittorrent site as eXeem™ has finally gone beta.
eXeem™ is the newest peer to peer (P2P) file sharing application to hit the web from the creators of Suprnova.
Some of the best features of the new P2P application include a solid rating and comment system, easy network uploads and the elimination of nodes and trackers.
The program is currently in beta, and is ad-supported but it doesn't contain any spyware.
You can download eXeem™ here. Thanks to Digg.com for the link.

Thursday Geekdom Round-up

2005-01-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

A little bit of a different post here's what's going on in Geekdom today.

~ ThinkSecret.com has finally found legal representation in it's fight against Apple. ThinkSecret.com is owned and run by 19 year old Harvard Law student Nick Ciarelli, and is being sued by Apple for posting stories in late December about a variety of unreleased products that Apple was planning to announce at Mac World including the Mac Mini and iPod shuffle. ThinkSecret.com is now represented pro-bono by renowned San Francisco Internet lawyer Terry Gross who once represented the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the group who champions consumer fair use laws.
~ According to The Wall Street Journal, HP will now region encode printer cartridges so that consumers will be forced to buy replacement cartridges for their printers in the country where they live. For example if you live in the U.K. and buy cartridges from a U.S. vendor the cartridges will not work in your European bought printer. The full story is here.
~ It looks like the long awaited sequel to the 1998 movie version of the TV show the X-files is getting closer to production. According to a story in the Sun Newspaper in England series creator Chris Carter is close to finishing the script for the new movie and David Duchovny has already committed to the project. The full story is here.
~ Microsoft yesterday announced plans to offer it's Outlook e-mail client as a subscription service. CNet has the story here.
~ AOL has announced that they are jumping into the desktop search arena along with Google and Yahoo. ZDNet has the story here.
~ Slashdot is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice has reached plea agreements with two men who operated P2P filesharing hubs. William Trowbridge of Johnson City, New York owned and operated MovieRoom.com from 2002 to 2004, while Michael Chicoine of San Antonio, Texas ran Achenon's Alley. Both men plead guilty to conspiracy to commit felony criminal copyright infringement and face up to five years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines.

Looking For Geeks

2005-01-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

As many of you know getting access to this blog can be accomplished in one of two ways, either directly via http://jamesmason.blogspot.com, or through a redirection from my domain www.closetgeek.net.
I bought the domain ClosetGeek.net because I wanted to create a website devoted to the beginning or mid-level geek who was looking for tech news, information and troubleshooting.
I have been working on the new site for a while now, and it looks to be ready for beta on March 1, and go live sometime shortly thereafter.
I've now reached the point in site development where I can begin the process of recruiting site contributors.
I am looking for people to contribute original content in the following channels - Windows, Linux, all things Apple, Open Source software reviews, general troubleshooting, online security, WIFI, blogging, hardware reviews, internet news and trends, gadgets, white hat hacking and modding.
In addition to being a geek, contributors should have good writing skills, be avid tech enthusiast and be willing to submit content on a regular basis.
If you are interested please send me an e-mail here, and include the following:
- A brief description about yourself, including why you consider yourself to be a geek
- Your age and where you live
- What channels you would be interested in posting, and how often you feel you could contribute
- Some samples of your past work (links if possible, but definitely no attachments), or a link to your blog if you have one.
- Contact information
Remember you do not have to be the most experienced writer in the world or an HTML guru to contribute, the only real pre-requisite is that you must be a geek.

RIP Tech TV

2005-01-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

The worst kept secret in the U.S. television industry was confirmed today as G4 Tech TV Founder and CEO Charles Hirschhorn announced that the network would be re-branded G4 TV on Februaury 15.
G4, owned by Comcast, purchased Tech TV (TTV) from Vulcan Ventures last year and quickly merged the two channels into one entity, and over the last 12 months has stripped the channel of most of it's tech content, and instead pushed programming aimed at gamers.
Most experts agree that G4 purchased Tech TV, solely because TTV had more than 50 million subscribers in the U.S., while G4 languished with less than 5 million.
The new G4 will almost certainly be all video games, all the time.
This signals the beginning of a huge void for people looking for tech news and content on television, and will not do much to win over the original Tech TV audience who have nothing but disdain for G4.
No word yet on what is to become of G4 Tech TV Canada. The Canadian Tech TV is majority owned by Rogers Communications, with Comcast holding less than 1/3 ownership, and as a result G4 U.S. has next to no say in content north of the border.
Rogers had no immediate comment when contacted, stay tuned for details.

A Mac In Every Home, CES Round-up

2005-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

First a warning, if you plan to watch Apple CEO Steve Job's webcast from MacWorld, skip down to the CES round-up.
Among the announcements expected from Jobs on Tuesday is the release of a sub $500 iMac. ThinkSecret is reporting the unit will come without a monitor and have a G4 processor, a 40-80 gig hard drive, a combo optical drive, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, 10/100 base-T Ethernet, Airport Extreme capability, VGA and DVI. Bundled software included with the system is thought to include Appleworks and iLife, without iDVD. The unit will be housed in a flat enclosure with a height of less than 2 inches, so users can place the iMac either beside their Windows machine or under a monitor.
The new unit seems to be in line with Apple's desire to convert Windows users over to Mac. In addition to an affordable iMac. Apple is also rumored to be developing their own version of Microsoft Office, code named "sugar", and expected to be branded iWork 2005 upon release.

CES Round-up - The announcements that got the most buzz at CES:
- TIVO's new HD Unit that comes with a cable card slot, so analogue cable customers can use the device.
- HD DVD will be in stores by the end of the year with at least 100 titles available by Christmas. Also look for Toshiba's stand alone HD DVD burner around the same time.
- Yahama YSP-1, winner of best of CES, is a home theatre receiver which replaces speakers with beams and offers superb virtual surround sound.
- The world's largest Plasma TV at 102 inches.
- DAVE.TV - a new service designed to allow content providers to join the IPTV revolution.

HD DVD To Make 05 Debut

2005-01-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

Supporters of HD DVD, the next generation of DVD's, say that the first titles in the newest DVD format should be on store shelves by Christmas 2005.
HD DVD media can hold a whopping 50 Gigabytes (GB) of information compared with today's single-layer DVD media which hold 4.7 GB. Among the biggest supporters for HD DVD are Sanyo, NEC and Toshiba.
Initially about 100 titles will be available including all the Harry Potter, Batman and Spiderman movies.
Entertainment companies like Paramount, Warner Home Video and HBO have committed to having some of their biggest franchises including The Sopranos and Six Feet Under released in HD DVD.
In addition Toshiba announced at CES on Friday that their first generation HD DVD recorder will also be available by Christmas.

Microsoft Joins Spyware Fight, CES Day One Round-up

2005-01-06T11:10:00.000-05:00

Microsoft finally joined in the fight against Spyware as they announced today the availability of it's new anti-spyware application on it's website.
Spyware is software that is secretly installed on a users computer, and tracks which websites they visit and automatically displays pop-up ads in your web browser.
The new program, currently in Beta, is available for download here.

CES 2005 got underway in Las Vegas last night, with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivering a key note speech on the best features of MS's new Portable Media Center (PMC) software. And just to prove that even Bill Gates isn't immune to the "Blue Screen Of Death", while demonstrating PMC to host Conan O'Brien, the application unexpectedly froze prompting O'Brien to joke "right now nine people just got fired". Then if that wasn't funny enough following the address Gates told CNet.com that he compares anyone who doesn't support intellectual property laws to communists.

Huard Speaks Out

2005-01-01T16:26:00.000-05:00

Former G4Tech TV Producer Dan Huard has posted a good story on his blog about the events that led to his recent dismissal.
Hats off to Huard for having courage to speak his mind, you can read the entry here.

Christmas Wishes

2004-12-27T23:00:00.000-05:00

First a disclaimer - this post will have nothing to do with technology or geekdom.
In the spirit of the season I want to extend a special thanks to some people who helped make 2004 such a great year for me.
First on the geek side thanks to Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome.com, the guys at TheRegular.org, uphillbattle.org , and Wayne Perkey at RadioTechTalk.com in Louisville Kentucky for the regular work.
My deepest appreciation also goes to Jacqui and Rick of HoneymoonSuite.com. Speaking of Honeymoon Suite, thanks also go to Derry and Johnnie for being so kind and taking some time with me when ever there schedule permits. I really admired these guys when I was a kid and it's been an honor knowing them.
Special thanks to Andy Walker of Cyberwalker.com and Call For Help on Tech TV Canada and Emily Steinoff for their words of encouragement.
Thanks to Leo Laporte, also of Tech TV Canada for being the best technology teacher a student could ever have.
Brian Vollmer of Helix also gets a special thanks for allowing me the opportunity to get to know him and become involved with a band I loved when I was a kid. You can buy Helix's new DVD here.
And thanks to everyone who visits Closetgeek.net or JamesMason.ca on a regular basis and takes the time to send me an e-mail or post their views in my comments sections. You have made this site a joy to do.
Best holiday wishes to everyone, and hopefully 2005 is even better than 2004. Peace.

Canada Still Safe Haven For Pirates In 2004

2004-12-21T23:27:00.000-05:00

This time of year a lot of publications, media outlets and tech websites love to roll out what they think the biggest stories of the year were in the world of technology.
In Canada, the biggest story of the year had to be a Federal court ruling on March 31, when the highest ranking court in the Great White North deemed that Peer to Peer (P2P) file-sharing was in fact legal and that groups like the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CIRA), could not sue file swappers.
The ruling meant that users of P2P networks like Kazaa and Limewire could continue to download and distribute music and media files to their hearts content, and not fear being sued in court.
The court's main reason for ruling in favor of file swappers was because of the Canadian Copyright Act (CCA).
In the mid 1990's, record companies lobbied the Canadian government to levy an extra tax on the sale of blank CD's and DVD's in an effort to ensure that artists received some sort of compensation for their work.
The Canadian government agreed, and amended the CCA in 1997 to include the new levy, however there were also some other amendments made to the act at the time.
The main amendment was made in the area of fair use.
Essentially the CCA states that if you buy a CD or other media you do have the right to "back-up" the media to your computer and burn as many copies of the media as you want. You may also share the media with other users across a network as long as you or the individual who obtains a copy of the media do not profit from the transaction in any way.
"The Federal Court decision certainly wasn't good news," said CIRA President Graham Henderson at the time of the ruling.
And to further boost the government's position on fair use, in June the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that ISPs could not be held responsible for any customers who may violate international or domestic copyright laws, and could not be forced by groups like CIRA to reveal file swappers identities.
These ruling are in stark contrast to what is going on in the U.S. where at least 1,000 file swappers have been sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement.

The Learning Curve - Unix Style

2004-12-16T13:19:00.000-05:00

Students of the Computer Science program at the University of Illinois at Chicago were recently presented a unique challenge.
Each student was instructed to find 10 flaws in latest Unix kernel, the core component of operating systems like Mac O.S. 10 and Linux.
The class taught by Daniel Bernstein found 44 flaws in total.
And although most were found in rarely used applications, at least a dozen were thought to be serious security vulnerabilities.
To make matters worse, the flaws come on the heels of an announcement by an independent software testing company who stated they had discovered 950 flaws in the latest Unix kernel.
Now although 44 may seem like a significant number, it is in stark contrast to Windows XP, which to date has had in excess of 5,000 flaws.

Yahoo To Launch Desktop Search In Early 05

2004-12-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

Yahoo will follow Google's lead and dive head first into desktop search in early 2005.
Desktop search seems to be the next frontier in the battle for internet supremecy as both Yahoo and Microsoft seem to be a few months behind what Google is doing in Mountainview, California.
Earlier this year Google began Beta-Testing Gmail, a web-based e-mail client whose main selling point was an incredible 1 gigabyte of storage space. Yahoo Mail quickly followed suit and increased their storage space to 100 MB from 6 MB, and Microsoft's Hotmail is currently in the process of upgrading customers to 250 MB from 2 MB.
And now the race is on for the top spot in the realm of desktop search.
Desktop search allows a user to run a search string in a search engine and gather results from the internet as well as their computer's harddrive.
For instance if you ran a search string for the Boston Red Sox on Google Desktop Search, Google would automatically search the contents of your hardrive and if you had an AIM or MSN Messenger conversations about the BoSox those conversations would show up in your search results.
At the heart of Yahoo's new search tool is X1 Technology, which was developed by Bill Gross.
Gross was the brain child behind search marketing company GoTo.com, which eventually became Overture and was bought by Yahoo for over $1.6 billion in 2003.

Can You Keep A Secret?

2004-12-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

Now I know that I may walking a fine line here, but the United States Congress is set to publicly release a new report called "Cybersecurity For The Homeland" on Monday.
The report examines what the US government needs to do to improve it's overall tech infastructure in an effort to prevent tech terror attacks.
Well why wait until Monday, I managed to get my hands on a copy of the report and you can download it here and make your own decisions about the US Government's plans for IT security.
Oh and by the way if anyone from the FBI is reading this entry, I would like to point out that I am not a US citizen and therefore the only way I can be charged with leaking this report before publication would be to apply to the Canadian government for an extradition order.

Microsoft Finally Joins Blogosphere

2004-12-02T10:21:00.000-05:00

Microsoft finally entered the world of Blogs on Wednesday as they went live with MSN Space.
MSN Space is currently in Beta, and contains many advanced features that users will probably love.
RSS Syndicaton, Integration with MSN Messenger, Photo Blogging (you can even upload via e-mail) and an easy template and design system are some of the best selling points of this free Blogging system.
If your unsure if MSN Spaces is for you, you can check out a free video from Microsoft here.

I-Tunes North Almost Here

2004-11-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

The Globe And Mail is reporting that despite some setbacks I-Tunes Canada will finally go live some time today.
I-Tunes is the music download service offered by Apple in The U.S. and Europe and looks to compete with both Napster.ca and Canada's original legal music download service PureTracks.com.
It was in October that Apple announced I-Tunes foray into the Great White North, more than a year after PureTracks.com started operations.
No word yet on the cost, but since both PureTracks and Napster offer .99 downloads, and the fact that I-Tunes charges $1 in the U.S. and Europe, it seems to make sense for Apple to stay within that price point.
Since launching I-Tunes in April 2003, Apple has sold more than 150 million downloads.
The best part of I-tunes going live is that hopefully Apple will finally add some Canadian artists to their download library.
I would love to see artists like Johnnie Degiuli and Liam Titcomb get some world wide exposure for their solo CD's, both of which have just been released and are awesome.
You can download I-Tunes here.

Make Love Not Spam

2004-11-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

This is awesome.
Lycos in Europe has decided to hit Spammers where they live, on their servers.
A new website, developed by Lycos - MakeLoveNotSpam.com, has a downloadable screensaver which once executed joins other screensavers in launching a denial of service attack on known spam servers.
The idea is to overburden Spam servers to the point where they become slow and maybe even crash.
This would in turn force Spammers to endure ridiculous bandwidth bills for what would essentially be useless IP traffic.
According to a Lycos spokesman in Germany, each screensaver would generate an average of 3.4 mb of traffic per day, which means that if 10 million screensavers are downloaded they could collectively send upwards of 33 Terrabytes of traffic towards Spam servers.
So let's see I could help slow down Spammers hardware, clog up their bandwidth, and have them waste time by trying to figure out what is legitimate traffic and what is just garbage -sounds like an early Christmas gift to me.
You can download the screensaver here.

Free Windows XP For Pirates

2004-11-25T23:24:00.000-05:00

There is a great story on ZDNet.com about how Microsoft is offering free copies of Windows XP to anybody who has a machine running a pirated copy of the OS.
The scheme is pretty simple first you have to sign up for Microsoft's Genuine Advantage Program and then let the folks from Redmond, Washington check to see if your OS is legit or not.
If your copy of XP is pirated, Microsoft will send you a free copy with a new serial key just for being honest.
Of course there is a catch, you must also fill out a witness statement and tell Microsoft what store you bought the computer from, and provide a copy of the bill of sale so Bill can go after the manufacturer.
Thus far about 80,000 people have taken part in the program.
You can read the full story here.

Getting A Thousand The Hard Way

2004-11-21T20:19:00.000-05:00

If you think the guy that did the documentary Super Size Me had issues, then you should meet Brian a fashion designer from California who has added a new twist to the Pepsi challenge.
Here is the lowdown, Pepsi has released a new Holiday Spice variety of it's cola which according to their promotional department, has been spiked with ginger and cinnamon.
Now here is where it gets strange, Brian for some unknown reason decided to take a friend up on a dare to make Pepsi Spice the only liquid he would consume for 45 days. This means for six weeks Brian will consume no water, milk, ale or anything else in liquefied form unless it's Pepsi Holiday Spice.
The reward for abusing his body in such a manner? $1000 - yikes.
To help Brian cope he has started a blog documenting the daily torture he is enduring while on his Pepsi Spice diet.
Blog entries include him discussing a rash he has developed on his neck (he actually refers to it as a ovarian cyst), his need for an anal massager for his diarrhea problem, his swollen tongue and his excessive nose bleeds.
To read more about Brian and his Pepsi Spice adventures click here.

G4 + Tech = RIP Tech TV

2004-11-14T17:05:00.000-05:00

Ok I have done everything I can to avoid hoping on the "Let's Bash G4TechTV" for the last few months or so, but in light of recent events I have decided to add my two cents.
First a little background. Tech TV was recently purchased by U.S. Cable giant Comcast and mergered with their sad little specialty channel dedicated to video games G4 TV.
After the merger the new channel was relabeled G4TechTV and as part of the merger G4 axed some of the most popular shows on Tech TV including Call For Help, Tech Live and Fresh Gear.
In the process of eliminating these shows several of the most popular Tech TV personalities were fired including Leo Laporte, Cat Schwartz and Jessica Corbin.
Fast forward a few months and G4 has stuck again, axing 80% of the on-air talent on the channel's most popular show The Screen Savers, and canceling Unscrewed with Martin Sargeant.
The genocide occurred on Thursday at 11 AM PST, with the effected staff being told to be out of the building a few hours later.
Among the axed was host Alex Albrecht, Mod Mad Man Yoshi, Dan Huard and Martin Sargeant. In fact the only on-air talent that survived The Screensavers cull was co-host Kevin Rose and Sarah Lane.
For regular watchers of G4TechTV, Thursday's axing should come as little surprise since the Tech has been less and less regular since G4 took control, in fact the channel has essentially been pillaged and plundered by Comcast for the better part of the last few months, still I held out a healthy optimism that Comcast would see the error of their ways and bring the tech back to fruition.
Alas it seems the naysayers were right though, as it looks like we are witnessing the slow and painful death of a true TV maverick.
Tech TV filled a void that seems to be absent on TV nowadays - Tech news and info for the masses.
RIP Tech TV you'll be dearly missed.

Spammers Get Jail Time

2004-11-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

The fight against SPAM got a huge boost yesterday as a Virginia court sentenced Jeremy Janes, 30, to a nine year prision sentence for sending millions of junk e-mails to AOL customers. In addition Janes sister, 29 year old Jessica DeGroot , was fined $7,500 U.S. after being convicted of three counts of sending e-mails with fraudlulent and untraceable routing information.
The pair were involved in a scam called "The Fedex Refund Processor", which promised people ability to earn up to $75 U.S. per hour via their computer, as long as they paid a processing fee to the duo. In one month alone the pair recieved 10,000 credit card payments of $39.95. The scam was based out of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Prosecutors in the case compared the siblings to modern day snake oil salesmen, and charged the duo under the state's anti-spam law, which was passed in Virginia in 2003.
The legislation, thought to be thoughest in North America, prohibits the distribution of unsolicited or untraceable bulk e-mail. AOL is headquartered in Virginia.
"Spam is a nuisance to millions of Americans," said Virginia's Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore following the sentencing hearing. "But it is also a major problem for businesses large and small because the thousands of unwanted e-mails create havoc as they attempt to conduct business".

Can I Google Your Desktop

2004-10-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

Google on Thursday announced the release of the first public Beta test for it's newest creation Google Desktop Search (GDS).
GDS is a small application, less than 400k, and allows users to access e-mail, office documents, visited websites and even MSN Messenger chat logs from within a web browser.
Essentially, when you run a search string on Google your search results will now include files and folders found on your computers harddrive.
Now as cool as this may sound, I for one wouldn't recommend downloading and installing this application purely from the stand point of privacy and security.
For example, if you run Windows XP with user accounts, and someone with a limited account initiates a search, they could access files and folders on the computer administrator's account, now that's just plain scary.
Imagine someone having complete access to your business e-mail and documents by just doing a search on Google from your computer.
Now normally I love everything Google does, and I am almost always involved with any sort of Beta test they offer, but I think this time I will definitely pass on the opportunity to install and run GDS.
But if your the adventurous type and feel you have nothing to hide you can download and test GDS here.

Sydnicate The Geek

2004-10-13T19:56:00.000-04:00

Ok I have finally gotten off my butt and syndicated Confessions Of A Closet Geek through XML and RSS.
You can now add my blog to your RSS reader by clicking on the XML button on the right hand side of the page.
In addition I will be adding a headline feed from my blog to my website, so if you are on JamesMason.ca you can see the title of all my blog postings within the last month. Blog archives will not be available through RSS or XML, not yet anyways.
So give it a try and if you find any bugs, please send me an e-mail and let me know.

The Spam Wars

2004-10-11T19:53:00.000-04:00

Todd Marshall has a good story on ZDNet.com about a new approach in the fight against Spam. Basically all e-mail a person sends would be stored on the sender's ISP server until the intended recipient checked his e-mail and decides which e-mails he wants downloaded onto his computer.
This new approach would make it next to impossible for a Spammer to hide his identity, or spoof the headers of an e-mail and even better if the Spammer is sending out 10,000 e-mails at a time all of those messages would then be stored on his ISP's server, and I don't know of any ISP who would appreciate or tolerate a customer storing thousands of e-mails at a time on their servers.
You can read the story here.

Gates Keeps His Cool

2004-10-10T11:14:00.000-04:00

Last week Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was addressing students at UC Berkeley when a very inquisitive student attempted to draw Gates into a verbal sparring match over what he referred to as the company's "illegal business practices", here's an excerpt (thanks to Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer).

Student: You mentioned earlier, Mr. Gates, that universities are a really important source of great innovators, and so I expect that you consider being able to recruit from that source of great innovators pretty important to you. (Laughter.) So I'd like to find out if I could have a show of hands in the audience, I'd like to find out how many people in this audience might have concerns about working for a company that's been found guilty of illegal business practices, that limits the choice that its customers have to choose a product they want to use and the type of media they want to watch, and that has also been found guilty by the Federal Trade Commission of misleading the public?
Moderator: I think we get your point.
Student: Could I have a show of hands from the audience, please?
Moderator: I think we get the point. Thank you. Thank you.
BILL GATES: But what's the question?
Student: Do you think you might do better at recruiting students from universities if you improve the business practices of your company?
BILL GATES: Sure

Hey at least Bill was honest.

Pop Goes Hotmail

2004-09-28T17:33:00.000-04:00

As of March 2005, fans of MSN Hotmail will no longer be able to Access their e-mail via Outlook or Outlook Express, as Microsoft has announced they are reconfiguring Hotmail to help combat spam.
With Hotmail, an account holder can use what is known as Web DAV to download messages from Microsoft's server directlty into an e-mail client, thus saving the need to open a web browser to retrieve e-mail.
Under Hotmail's new policy, effective Monday, new users will only have the ability to use WEB DAV if they pay uncle Bill $19.95 per year, Hotmail currently has approximatley 185 million users.
Existing account holders will have until March 2005 to subscribe to the new service or be forced to browse to Hotmail's site to check their e-mail.
I don't know about you but it looks like one more reason to keep using Gmail, or even Yahoo.
A little known fact about Yahoo, if you set-up a e-mail account using a .ca extension instead of .com, you can have all mail routed through your favorite e-mail client via POP.
In Outlook Express go to tools then accounts and when you configure the new e-mail account enter the POP3 server as pop.mail.yahoo.ca and then enter smtp1.your-isp.com as the SMTP server, and OE will automatically download your mail from Yahoo's servers.

Google To Enter Browser Wars

2004-09-21T20:15:00.000-04:00

How cool is Google.
First they develop hands down the best search engine in the history of the Internet.
Then they created Gmail, a web-based e-mail client that offers an amazing 1 gig of storage, and in the process force other web mail providers like Yahoo and Hotmail to up their storage capacities in order to compete.
Now, mere weeks after their IPO on the NASDAQ, rumors have surfaced that Google is in the process of designing it's own web-browser to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer(IE).
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Google has registered the domain name Gbrowser.com, hired a top Java developer from Sun Microsystems, snapped up four coders who helped create IE for Microsoft and more importantly scooped one of Microsoft's main programmers who was working on Longhorn - the next version of windows scheduled for release in early 2006.
Officials with Google of course will not comment on whether or not Gbrowser is in fact in development, however based on their track record and the fact that they earned $1.67 billion through their IPO, I would say Gbrowser will definitely be a reality.

PS - As a side note the first person to comment on this blog entry will receive a Gmail invite.

More On Save Betamax

2004-09-14T13:49:00.000-04:00

Over 4,000 calls have been received by congress today as part of Downhill Battle's effort to save the Betamax Decision. You can still do your part if you are in the United States here's some phone numbers:

Senator Orrin Hatch 202-224-5251

Senator Ernest Hollings 202-224-6121

Congressperson John Conyers, Jr. 202-225-5126