Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon
Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
Ya take ’em where you can get ’em! Firefox has won a small victory against the Evil Empire (Microsoft.) Even if it is just an icon!
Microsoft to use Firefox RSS Icon!
Maybe this is the start of bigger wins to come? We can only hope!
1 BILLION for AOL?!?! And, only 5% of AOL, at that. I wouldn’t give you 1 penny for all of AOL, but that is just me!
Google Offers 1 Billion for 5% of AOL
Unquestionably, Google has the bucks to do this… but, I have to wonder, are they just doing it to bust Microsoft’s chops?
“Google has offered to pay $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in America Online, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, effectively pushing Microsoft out of any negotiation with Time Warner. The news marks a major setback to Microsoft’s efforts to gain a more even footing with Google in the search industry.
If the rumors prove true, it would mean nearly a year’s worth of negotiations between Microsoft and AOL would have been for naught. Microsoft had endeavored to convince AOL to drop Google for MSN Search, as well as combine the sales and advertising departments of the two companies.”
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This week’s podcast is “in the can!”
Dr. Bill Podcast – 15 – (12/16/05)
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(I had to re-engineer the audio after the fact… sorry for the “just OK” audio quality! LONG Story!) Bad Nietzche Quote!, Early Edition (Friday Evening), Geek Software of the Week: 7-Zip, Shareware authors deserve their money!, Shareware vs. Open Source, all the formats 7zip will unpack, Linux loves KDE, so he has an opinion, leave him alone!, different window managers for Linux, CGI Image that looks like a real photograph!, Movies without human actors aren’t far off, as are video games that are photorealistic!, “Easter Egg” in OpenOffice 2.0!, Microsoft patch for IE is out, fixes the fix for the Song BMG Rootkit!, 3000 Swiss servers move to Linux!, Slowing down and stopping light!, Quantum Computers, Anti-Spyware uses Rootkit technology… what do YOU think about it?, Hints about what coming… Star Wars and Bunnies?, Dell attempts a secret Open Source trial, M$ is evil!, M$ forces “Microsoft-Only” policies, another hint about bunnies, the coolest Geek Software EVER!, VPN for peer-to-peer, Star Wars done in 30 seconds by bunnies… yeah. Bunnies are fast. Until next week!
OK… this is odd. BUT, in the interests of furthering Geek Culture, Dr. Bill presents:
Star Wars Re-Enacted by Bunnies! (In 30 seconds!)
Enjoy! And, may the Farce be with you! And, to my son, Ben… see, I told you Chewie was a bunny!
OK, I have long given you “Geek Software of the Week” recommendations… this may be Geek Software of the YEAR! VPN (or “Virtual Private Networks”) can be hard to configure, use and manage. Also some VPN configurations can be less secure than others. Now, we have a SIMPLE, FREE and VERY SECURE VPN for users to connect two (or more) computers (and therefore LANs) to one another even behind firewalls and NAT addressing schemes. It is multi-platform (Windows and Linux now, shortly for the Mac), and can be useful for “Road Warriors” in hotels that need to connect to a system behind a firewall safely. DEWD! This is SO cool!
Sign up for free now, and enjoy secure VPN computing! This totally rocks! Also, use Steve Gibson’s Super Secure Private Password creator to further secure this connection. That link is available here:
Microsoft is evil. I have mentioned this fact before in this Blog. One of their evil ways is to strongarm vendors into an official “Microsoft only” software policy. “We only recommend Microsoft!”, a vendor must say in order to maintain good relations (not to mention special incentives and discounts) with the Evil Empire! So, is Dell Computer breaking with Microsoft, ever so slightly? There have been rumors in the past that Dell was going to offer desktop system with Linux pre-installed. (Horrors!) Could they now be testing pre-installing Firefox on their systems?
Dell Pre-installed Firefox on some U.K. Systems
We can only hope the rumor is true! After all, it would make sense from a customer service point of view. If Dell can install a secure Web Browser (Firefox) on their systems before they get into the hands of their customers, then they will have less issues later with Spyware and Ad-Ware infections to deal with. It is just economics, and good customer service. But will the Evil Empire retaliate? Stay tuned!
Spyware and Ad-Ware is evil. They are beginning, more and more, to use rootkit technology to help them hide their evil work as they infect computers. Should the ANTI-Spyware vendors “fight fire with fire?” That’s the question posed by this eWeek article:
Anti-Spyware Battles Rootkits with Rootkit Tactics
Aluria is one company trying to design programs to fight the evildoers. Rick Carlson, a vice president for sales and marketing at Aluria says, “We’re hooking into the OS and monitoring every read and write command given to the file system by the operating system.”
Aluria is responding to a new generation of spyware that uses kernel rootkit features to avoid detection. Must you become the enemy to defeat the enemy? A question that will be debated from here on out, I am sure!
The speed of light is considered the one universal constant in the the universe. The speed of light in a vacuum is defined to be exactly 299,792,458 metres per second (or 1,079,252,848.8 km/h, which is approximately 186,282.397 miles per second, or 670,616,629.4 miles per hour). Whew! Exact, aren’t we? Anyway… what if you could slow it down? What if you could stop it? Well, a researcher (physicist Matt Sellars) has done it! Why? Imagine using pulses of light to transfer and store digital information as quantum bits, instead of bits of electric current as we do today. Dewd! We are talking mega-fast computers!
Slowing Down and Stopping Light!
“Quantum computers will one day exploit quantum mechanics to perform incredibly complex mathematical operations at high speed. And if the researchers can find a way to store the light pulses for a very long time, they will also have memory that operates on a quantum scale.” I can’t wait!
Novell announced that the Swiss government will be migrating 3000 of it’s servers to SuSE Linux!
“Operational efficiency and cost were key factors driving the Swiss government’s decision to move to Linux, according to Novell.”
That, and they can depend on it not “bluescreening” every so often!
Well, it took SIX MONTHS of Internet Explorer being open and unpatched to the exploits that we mentioned before, but Microsoft has FINALLY released a patch for the problems on “Patch Tuesday.”
Other “Patch Tuesday” patches fix the previously released “fix” to the Song BMG rootkit remover that M$ provided. Remember, SECURITY FIRST!