Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

For the uninitiated, an “Easter Egg” is a hidden “treasure” in games that may be “mini-games,” or scrolling lists of game makers, and other odd things. You would not think that such a trivial, silly thing would be in an office suite, but you would be WRONG!

Mini-Game in OpenOffice 2.0

This is a “Space Invaders” type game, and is actually pretty cute! The “instructions” and other info appear to be in German… but it is playable… and just a mite weird that it is in OpenOffice! It just shows that the OpenOffice developers are whimsical!

CGI (Computer Generated Imagery, according to Wikipedia) is getting better and better. Take a look at this image:

Amazing CGI Image

Yes, that is a CGI image… NOT a photo. What can you say, but… wow!

Imagine the day when whole movies are made with NO actors… when Video Games are this photo-realistic. We are NOT that far away!

Linux Torvalds, original developer and “creator” of Linux, cuts to the chase on the KDE vs. Gnome debate of which major windowing environment to use with Linux. His suggestion… us KDE.

Linus Says Use KDE

And, the Doctor agrees with Linus… ’nuff said! KDE it is! (Grin!)

Linus’ Quote:

“I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE. This ‘users are idiots, and are confused by functionality’ mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don’t use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn’t do what I need it to do. Please, just tell people to use KDE.”

If you are VERY cool (and maybe VERY rich) you MAY have 1 gig of memory in your PC! (Not your hard drive, now… your RAM! I trust you already have a larger than 1 gig hard drive!) But consider this… there is now an 8 gig DIMM! That’s 8 gig of RAM on one stick! Dewd!

8 Gig DIMM from Samsung

“OEMs that use Samsung’s high-density memory can increase the amount of installed memory and keep slots in reserve for future upgrades. Samsung memory such as the new 8GB FB-DIMM is ideal for space-constrained applications in blade and 1U servers.” Now, we’re talkin’!

OK, folks, never let it be said that the Doctor is unfair. I gripe and the time about Microsoft’s problems… now it is Firefox’s turn! Now, don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE Firefox, but a flaw has been found in the new version 1.5 that can cause Firefox to crash, and so far, it has not been patched. (Though I am sure it will be soon!)

Firefox Flaw Found

So, be aware of this problem, and watch this space for an announcement of the patch!

OK, history buffs, if someone asked you, “Who ‘invented’ the World Wide Web?” Would you say, “Al Gore?” No? OK, who REALLY invented it? Why Tim Berners Lee, of course! In 1992, the web was a “product” of the Mr. Berners Lee (now, of course, SIR Tim!) as part of his Masters Degree work. Of course, the Internet existed for MANY years before this… we are talking only about the WEB… got it? (Yes, Virginia, there is a difference!)

Anyway, Sir Tim archived the VERY first web page ever:

First Web Page

OK, pretty boring… but what do you expect? It was the FIRST! Still, very cool history!

Rootkits – They are very evil! The Wikipedia definition for “rootkit” is: “A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. These tools are intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, which helps an intruder maintain access to a system without the user’s knowledge. Rootkits are known to exist for a variety of operating systems such as Linux, Solaris and versions of Microsoft Windows. A computer with a rootkit on it is called a rooted computer.”

It seems that the majority of rootkit “infections” these days are coming from Ad-ware and Spyware!

Where Do Rootkits Come From?

This makes it all the more important to STOP ad-ware and spyware BEFORE they install themselves! See my earlier Blog entry on this week’s “Geek Software of the Week”… using ClamWin and WinPooch! You must stop the ad-ware/spyware evil! Don’t get “rooted!”

I like Firefox a lot! And the new Firefox 1.5 rocks! I also like some of the Firefox themes and add-ons! I told you previously about “FasterFox” and it amazed me… well, here’s what I would do if I were you. (And, what I did do, because I am me!) Riiiight! Anyway, install Fasterfox from here:

FasterFox

Then install the Noia 2.0 eXtreme theme from here:

Noia 2.0 eXtreme Theme

Whoa! Very cool! I like the look! Now, add in your local weather report, by clicking here:

ForecastFox

Set it up with the wizard provided when your re-start Firefox, and you are surfin’ like the Doctor! Allright!