Paul O'Flaherty

First step of writing a review – Remove head from bum!

XYZ Computing had their review of Linspires latest linux OS offering ” Linspire Five-O” slashdotted today.

Now, I am a linux fan and have multiple linux boxes lying around here and if anything really annoys me, it’s when somebody who doesn’t seem to know his elbow from his arse-hole does a review of an operating system.

Now, before I get flamed let me say this: I don’t read XYZ, and have no idea of the general quality of their reviews. I did however read this one, and the following quote was enough to make me realize that reviewer really knows SOD ALL about other OS’s.

The minimum requirements for Five-O:
- 800 MHz or higher processor
- 128 MB of RAM (256 MB or higher recommended)
- 4 GB free space
- SVGA or higher resolution and monitor (3-D graphics accelerator card for some games, screen savers, etc.)
- CD-ROM or DVD drive, Keyboard & Mouse
- Linspire-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones
- Linspire-compatible 56 Kbps hardware modem, cable modem, or DSL modem
- Ethernet card for Internet/LAN connectivity

These lax requirements is what allows Linspire (and other Linux distros) to run well on both inexpensive and old computers- both of which may have trouble with Windows XP. This is why the OS can be found on cheap computers at places like WalMart and while a $500 laptop may seem like a bad idea, you really do not need too much of a computer to power this OS.

Now, lets take a quick look at the specifications for Microsoft Windows XP Professional:

PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

What a difference a little research or knowledge about your subject matter can yield! Enough said!

Konfabulator is free!

That’s right! Konfabulator has been acquired by Yahoo and is now free!

She canne take it any more, Captain!

James Doohan has passed away at the age of 83. He will be forever remembered by millions of Star Trek fans as the miracle working engineer, Montgomery “Scotty” Scott.

You can read more about his career and life on his BBC obituary.

A unified IM protocol! It’ll never happen!

Robbd3 over on Tech4front, thinks that the true Holy Grail of Instant Messaging would be a unified protocol that allowed AIM users to speak to Yahoo, MSN, etc, et al.

Unfortunately this will never ever happen! Why? Because many of the companies that create IM clients have to much invested in their enterprise IMs to allow outside connection. Also, it’s just damn impractical for them as they have a lot of advertising embedded in their IM client.

Now in order for it to be a suitable vehicle for advertising their IM client has to offer unique features that other clients do not, such as streaming audio, video or whatever. The need to keep their users locked into to their client will always keep the protocol closed.

Yes there are clients out their that allow you to talk on multiple networks, however they all lack the many of the abilities and features of the individual clients and many simply just provide the plain IM features.

Couple this to the fact that providers such as Yahoo regularly change their protocol so that the “other” clients such as GAIM and Trillian are forced to update, in the hopes that their users will come back to the Yahoo client, just goes to show how unlikely it is that the providers will ever get into bed on a single protocol.

Also, I don’t think I’d want one at the moment. There are too many spammers on the networks, and if we only had one protocol their life would be so much easier. It’s also nice to be able to be available on one network, say Skype for business related IM for example, and not have to talk to everybody who’s on Yahoo and wants me to play online.

A unified client gives you the ability to do just that, select which network you want to talk on, and be transparent across them all no matter what client someone else is using, without all the tedious hassle of starting up “invisible” and blocking/unblocking everybody you might/might not want to talk to while you’re online today.

It’s kind of like having two phones. A home phone and a cell. If some people only know your cell number yo can turn it off if you don’t want to talk to them, but it doesn’t stop you from making calls.

That’s the major drawback for a unified protocol, and why a single unified IM client that does everything is still, for me anyway, the Holy Grail of IM.

Taking Keyboard Maps to the extreme!

Some people love games like really realistic flight simulators where you get to control every aspect of everything, and need to use every key on your keyboard, including combinations of CTRL and ALT in order to fly the thing. That used to really annoy me as I’d never remember them all and would end up with a huge keymap on my desk in front of me, or even one of those cardboard cutouts designed to go over your keyboard.

Well, those days may soon be gone thanks to this cool number keyboard, which has mini led displays for keys which can display anything you want on each key. The keyboard hasn’t made it to production yet but lets pray that it does as the possibilities for this one are endless.

Check out the Optimus Keyboard.

SkypeIn!

This is going to absolutely rock when it comes out of Beta!

SkypeIn gives you a regular telephone number that people can call, and you can get the calls directly on your Skype client, anywhere in the world. Best thing is they only pay the cost of the call to the number, so if they live in the same area as the number then they only pay local rates. What makes this really cool is that you can get up to ten different numbers, in different countries, so you’ll always be a local call no matter where you are!
Awesome!

Unified IM! The Holy Grail!

A single unified instant messaging client that does all the major networks (including Skype) and supports plugins so I can add other networks would be a wonderful thing. Instead of 6 clients running I could have just one! Just one icon sitting in my system tray, a simple standardized interface no matter what protocol I am chatting on and just one program update to worry about! Damn, that would be great!

Unfortunately, finding a unified IM client that does everything is kind of like a Grail quest! You’ll never find the thing! Sure you’ll find pretenders, and holy relics along the way, which almost fit the bill (such as GAIM and Trillian), but still none of them do everything.

Wavigo sounded promising, but alas it turned out to be a design disaster and it’s approach to the matter was no better than having multiple clients running (I go into more detail on wavigo on the Blog Resource forums). Initially the concept was promising! It should handle all the major IM protocols including Skype, and handle RSS feed and podcasts. How cool a concept! How sad that it sucks.

I’m asking for a little divine intervention in order to discover the Holy Grail of IM clients. If anybody knows of one that fits the bill, then let me know. If nobody knows of one, but would be interested in exercising mans power of creation, then let me know.

Disaster – a lesson to be learned

Backing up is an important part of computing. It’s all to easy to loose everything if you don’t take proper precautions. Trust me, I just lost almost everything.

I normally back up the contents of my computers to my server, so their is always a minimum of two copies of everything. Well, the other day I decided to upgrade my server, by wiping it clean and installing a new OS and starting from scratch. The process itself only took a few hours, but what happened in those few hours was disastrous.

My main PC is the only one with enough capacity to back up all the important data files from my server, so I copied everything over before beginning the upgrade. Now as I said before, I always have two copies of everything, one on whatever computer created the file and one on the server. My main PC however, tend to end up with everything that’s really important on it, as that’s where I do most of my work and the others are primarily for testing.

Well, while the upgrade was about 10 minutes from completion, the unthinkable happened! My PC, which was now the sole repository of all things important suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure. Everything was lost! Everything!

It’s things like this that really reinforce the need to back up to removable media such as CDs or DVDs.

As it stands I’ve lost everything back to October 2004 (my last backup to removable media), about 7 months worth of email, download, and work. I may glean some stuff back from my other machines but the loss is still huge for me.

So take it from me folks! One backup medium is not enough!

With that in mind, I would appreciate it if everybody that knows me, sends me a quick email with your Instant Messenger details so I can add you all to my Outlook again!

12 Minutes to infection

Sophos has come up with some pretty interesting research: apparently, there’s a 50 percent chance unprotected Windows PCs will be compromised within 12 minutes of going online. Sophos came to that conclusion based on research covering the last six months of virus activity. The company said authors of malware such as spam, viruses, phishing scams and spyware have increased both the volume and sophistication of their assaults, releasing almost 8,000 new viruses in the first half of 2005 and increasingly teaming up in joint ventures to make money. The new-virus figure is up 59 percent on the same period last year.

As always these stories of the speed of infection once a PC is hooked up to the internet are unnerving, however their is a very simple way to protect your machine to ensure you don’t get hit by a squadron of virii.

Don’t hook your machine up to the internet until you’ve prepared it and patched it. Everybody know somebody with an internet connection. Get the the patches, firewalls and anti-virus updates off them first. Burn them to Cd and install them on you computer. Slipstream any service packs and updates to make a new installation Cd. Install your anti-virus and anti-spyware software and any updates.Ensure you firewall is not just installed but running before you connect to the internet and you’ll be as safe as you possibly can be before going online.

I know this may take a while longer than just bringing your new box home and plugging it in, but it is certainly worth doing, and relatively easy to do, even for a novice user.

Your PC is an investment, and a potential storage are for sensitive information. Security should be your primary concern!

Via Slashdot.

[Currently caressing my eardrums: Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud) - The Beautiful South - Carry On Up The Charts: The Best Of The Beautiful [UK] (03:50)]

Microsoft Might License Xbox Software

Your next 42inch TV might have a built in Xbox! Don’t laugh, it just might happen

A move by Microsoft to license the Xbox Software to all other devices run Xbox games could mean a massive revenue increase for Redmond, and could also spell trouble for the likes of Sony and Nintendo! Especially as cash conscientious parents get involved in the purchasing of console for their children. After all, a reasonably priced combined TV with in Xbox capability is bound to be cheaper than a TV an separate Xbox right?

The only uncertainty here, is whether it’s Xbox, or Xbox 360 that Microsoft is thinking of licensing.

[Currently caressing my eardrums: Falling Down the Mountainside - David Gray - Lost Songs 95-98 (04:50)]