Category: Computers, Science & Technology

Folks have railed against me for liking the idea of using Ethanol as a fuel. And, I admit that using corn as a source for Ethanol is problematic! However, when President George W. Bush was laughed at for saying that research was pointing to switchgrass as an Ethanol source, folks may have been a bit premature!

It turns out that plain ol’ boring switchgrass is a very good source for biofuel! A recent study says that we can get well over 500% more power out of using switchgrass than goes into cultivating it! That’s no small return!

Biofuels from Switchgrass Offer 540 Percent Return on Energy Inputs

“(NaturalNews) Biofuel produced from a fast-growing variety of grass can produce 540 percent more energy than is used during its manufacture, according to a study conducted by researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers grew switchgrass on 10 different farms, ranging between three and nine hectares in size, for five years. They calculated the energy used to produce the fertilizers, herbicides, diesel and seeds used in the switchgrass production. Because no large-scale biorefineries currently exist, the researchers used estimates to calculate how much biofuel could be produced from the switchgrass farms’ output. In contrast to an earlier study, which found a net energy gain of 343 percent, the researchers found a 540 percent energy gain from switchgrass. The researchers did not include in their calculations how much energy used to ship the switchgrass to a refinery. In order to keep these costs low and the energy output high, they recommended that biorefineries be constructed near the fields on which switchgrass is grown.”

So, leave the corn for food and livestock feed, and use switchgrass! (What else are you gonna do with it?)

Yep… I am struggling with my new laptop (see a previous post) to try and do the podcast using it. Turns out it has a Realtek HD sound card that is proving problematic. I am working on it… if nothing else, I will get a podcast out soon with my old setup. But I gotta try a few things first. By the way, I have already dumped Vista… yeeesh, what a junker Vista is! Sigh. I have installed XP Pro and I have found the drivers for the notebook. But, it has been slow.

Adobe has reported that their flash player’, prior to version 9.0.124.0 have a potential vulnerability that is exploitable “in the wild!” Please click on the link below and update your copy of the Adobe Flash player!

Description of the Problem

Link to the Latest Flash Player

“The exploit appears to be taking advantage of a known vulnerability, reported by Mark Dowd of the ISS X-Force and wushi of team509, that was resolved in Flash Player 9.0.124.0 (CVE-2007-0071). This exploit does NOT appear to include a new, unpatched vulnerability as has been reported elsewhere – customers with Flash Player 9.0.124.0 should not be vulnerable to this exploit. We’re still looking in to the exploit files, and will update everyone with further information as we get it, but for now, we strongly encourage everyone to download and install the latest Flash Player update, 9.0.124.0.”

It came in yesterday afternoon from Tigerdirect via UPS! DEWD! My new Acer Aspire 7520 notebook computer! Tigerdirect had it on sale, and I bumped up it’s memory to 4 gig! 4 GIG! Dual core… rock on! It does have Vista on it… but, to be fair, I am going to give it a chance… I’ll let you know how that goes… but one thing surprised me… the quality of the built-in webcam! It is a 2 megapixel webcam… and it has a GREAT picture! I may even do a DrBill.TV show with it! Cool!

This link may not last long… but here it is:

Acer Aspire 7520-5757 Laptop Computer – AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55 1.8GHz, 802.11b/g Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, DL DVDRW, 17″ WXGA+, Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium

For you geeks, here’s the lowdown from that page:

“Acer Aspire 7520-5757 Laptop Computer

Powered by capable yet affordable AMD Athlon 64 X2 Mobile Technology, the Aspire 7520-5757 laptop computer is ideally suited for any home computing or entertainment environment. Impressive NVIDIA graphics, a 17″ Acer CrystalBrite widescreen, and ultra-realistic Dolby® Digital Live sound provide alluring audio/video playback, gaming and more. Plus, the 7.4-pound Acer Aspire 7520-5757 Laptop Computer presents Acer Video Conference, an exciting communication solution for worldwide, face-to-face video chatting, as well as 802.11b/g wireless technologies. This 7.41-pound laptop computer delivers desktop power and versatility, in a portable chassis with plenty of entertainment and business options. The Acer Aspire 7520-5757 Laptop Computer boasts an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55, 1GB of DDR2 667 memory (which I bumped to 4!,) a 160GB HDD, and an integrated Super-Multi drive with double layer support.”

GEEK OUT! GEEK OUT! (Pardon my excitement!)

By the way, I like the modular approach to the system… it made it easy to replace the two 512 meg DIMMs with two 2 gig DIMMs!

I downloaded RC1 and I like it… now RC2 is out, and we are even closer to a release of the Firefox 3 browser! It seems faster… and I like some of the new features. The “look-and-feel” is not THAT different, but it seems a bit “cleaner.” All-in-all, my favorite web browser is getting a well deserved up-fit!

Forefox RC2

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Revision3, the leading IPTV content company was attacked by a DoS attack. The FBI has been called in… whoa!

Inside the Attack that Crippled Revision3

Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 tells the whole story: “As many of you know, Revision3’s servers were brought down over the Memorial Day weekend by a denial of service attack. It’s an all too common occurrence these days. But this one wasn’t your normal cybercrime – there’s a chilling twist at the end. Here’s what happened, and why we’re even more concerned today, after it’s over, than we were on Saturday when it started.” Read the whole story at the link… but here’s a bit more:

“A bit of address translation, and we’d discovered our nemesis. But instead of some shadowy underground criminal syndicate, the packets were coming from right in our home state of California. In fact, we traced the vast majority of those packets to a public company called Artistdirect (ARTD.OB). Once we were able to get their internet provider on the line, they verified that yes, indeed, that internet address belonged to a subsidiary of Artist Direct, called MediaDefender. Now why would MediaDefender be trying to put Revision3 out of business? Heck, we’re one of the biggest defenders of media around. So I stopped by their website and found that MediaDefender provides ‘anti-piracy solutions in the emerging Internet-Piracy-Prevention industry.’ The company aims to ‘stop the spread of illegally traded copyrighted material over the internet and peer-to-peer networks.’ Hmm. We use the internet and peer-to-peer networks to accelerate the spread of legally traded materials that we own. That’s sort of directly opposite to what Media Defender is supposed to be doing. Who pays MediaDefender to disrupt peer to peer networks? I don’t know who’s ponying up today, but in the past their clients have included Sony, Universal Music, and the central industry groups for both music and movies – the RIAA and MPAA. According to an article by Ars Technica, the company uses ‘its array of 2,000 servers and a 9GBps dedicated connection to propagate fake files and launch denial of service attacks against distributors.’ Another Ars Technica story claims that MediaDefender used a similar denial of service attack to bring down a group critical of its actions.”

“… In the end, I don’t think Media Defender deliberately targeted Revision3 specifically. However, the company has a history of using their servers to, as Ars Technica said, ‘launch denial of service attacks against distributors.’ They saw us as a ‘distributor’ – even though we were using Bittorrent for legitimate reasons. Once we shut them out, their vast network of servers were automatically programmed to implement a scorched earth policy, and shut us down in turn. The long Memorial Day weekend holiday made it impossible for us to contact either Media Defender or their ISP, which only exacerbated the problem. All I want, for Revision3, is to get our weekend back – both the countless hours spent by our heroic tech staff attempting to unravel the mess, and the revenue, traffic and entertainment that we didn’t deliver. If it can happen to Revision3, it could happen to your business too. We’re simply in the business of delivering entertainment and information – that’s not life or death stuff. But what if MediaDefender discovers a tracker inside a hospital, fire department or 911 center? If it happened to us, it could happen to them too. In my opinion, Media Defender practices risky business, and needs to overhaul how it operates. Because in this country, as far as I know, we’re still innocent until proven guilty – not drawn, quartered and executed simply because someone thinks you’re an outlaw.”

You probably won’t see it on TV, since no one follows space stuff anymore but us hypergeeks! Sigh. But it will be SO VERY COOL!

Back to Mars: After ’99 failure, NASA sets sights on lander touchdown Sunday

“After a nine-month, 422-million-mile trip from Earth that began last August, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander will catch up to the red planet Sunday to begin its three-month science mission. Its mission is series of soil analysis projects that involve digging lightly into the Mars surface to study the history of water, ice and life potential in the planet’s soil. But before those soil analysis projects can even get under way, the Phoenix has to successfully land on the planet’s surface, which, as NASA knows by experience, isn’t a sure thing. More than eight years ago, in December 1999, NASA’s Mars Polar Lander project came to a disastrous end when the craft’s descent engines shut down early as it prepared to land on the Martian surface. The lander went out of control from a high altitude, crashed and was destroyed. Since that mission, changes were made in the design of the Phoenix, the next-generation lander that is expected to touch down on Mars at 7:38 p.m. EDT Sunday. Once the Phoenix lands, NASA won’t know if the mission was successful until 15 minutes and 20 seconds later. That’s how long it will take for radio signals to get back to Earth with confirmation of a safe landing. The radio signals move at the speed of light and will travel approximately 171 million miles to reach Earth. The system improvements on the lander stem from the results of a NASA review board, which investigated the failure of the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) mission, said David Spencer, the Phoenix deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.”

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project has announced it’s new “Version 2.0” of it’s $100.00 laptop… this time they are shooting for $75.00 per laptop (more or less.) It looks more like an electronic book.

Design revamp for ‘$100 laptop’

The wraps have been taken off the new version of the XO laptop designed for schoolchildren in developing countries. The revamped machine created by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project looks like an e-book and has had its price slashed to $75 per device. OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte gave a glimpse of the ‘book like’ device at an unveiling event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first XO2 machines should be ready to deliver to children in 2010. Mr. Negroponte said he hoped the design would also be used by other manufacturers. ‘This laptop comes from a different point of view,’ he said. The new version loses the green rubbery keyboard, sporting instead a single square display hinged at its center. This allows the device to be split into two touch screens that can either mimic a laptop with keyboard or the pages of a book. ‘Over the last couple of years we’ve learned the book experience is key,’ he said. The idea is for several children to use the device at once, combining the functions of a laptop, electronic book and electronic board. ‘It is a totally new concept for learning devices,’ said Prof. Negroponte. The new machine will also be more energy efficient, half the size of the first generation device and lighter to carry. It will continue to sport the XO logo in a multitude of colours so that children can personalize them. ‘The XO2 will be a bit of a Trojan horse,’ said Prof Negroponte. Initially it will be promoted as an e-book reader with the capacity to store more than 500 e-books. ‘Currently developing nations such as China and Brazil are spending $19 per student per year on books,’ he said.”

You just have to download it. Keep this in mind when your old version 7.x expires!

Here’s the link:

Grisoft AVG FREE 8.0

I have had a lot of folks that I set up with the free version in the past ask me about the upgrade. IT IS STILL FREE!

A new Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been released. Version 5.2 will add additional driver support and several new features.

Red Hat refreshes its Enterprise Linux distro with version 5.2

“The latest version of the company’s commercial version of Linux for businesses offers new hardware support, several new features, and performance and stability improvements. The company’s Enterprise version is the premium edition of its Linux distribution. Back in 2003, the company split its business up into the Enterprise effort and Fedora, its sponsored open source project. Users wishing to receive support, training and documentation pushed to deploy the RHEL releases. Thus for general consumers, Fedora is a much more economical option. By comparison, with RHEL, update cycles are roughly every 18 months, with various levels of support available. Additionally, any documentation and training provided by Red Hat typically focuses on the Enterprise release. Red Hat says version 5.2 includes ‘extensive driver updates,’ and that the company will certify IBM’s new Cell Blade systems. Enhanced capabilities including power usage, scalability, and manageability are now provided for x86/x64, Itanium, IBM Power, and IBM System z in this release. The OS should provide better support for suspend, hibernate, and resume functions on laptops, while also improving graphics capabilities, Red Hat said this morning. Additionally, the included application set has also been given an update, which includes a Firefox 3 Beta (perhaps now replaced with a release candidate) and OpenOffice 2.3.”