Login to Post Comments Suck
You visit a web site and like the article enough to want to post a comment … of some kind. Then the website has a block that prevents you from posting. Comment-blocking. They do this by:
- login required or
- 3rd party service for comments
- non-working captcha
- requiring javascript for commenting of any kind (usually for anti-privacy domains like google.com)
Boo. The internet should be anonymous, if you want it that way. Sometimes you just want to say something without the repercussions to other areas of your life.
If I were not afraid of the repercussions, I’d setup a database of logins to websites that you could use to post with. If I had friends in foreign countries with servers, we could setup a loose federation.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to choose against privacy?
BTW, you can post on-topic comments here without a login.
Cloud Computing is Careless Computing
I was listening to a Linux Outlaws podcast where I heard a quote from Mr. Richard Stallman that caught me as true. I looked up the real quote.
“I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there’s a sucker born every minute. The US government may try to encourage people to place their data where the US government can seize it without showing them a search warrant, rather than in their own property. However, as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear.” Here’s the source link.
Careless Computing. Your data is stored someplace else and no longer under your control. A good, clear, and accurate term.
There are good uses of Cloud Computing, but not without lots of very careful thought.
Simple Shipment Tracking CGI Script 1
Over the years, I’ve used a few different techniques to track UPS, USPS, and FedEx shipments. I’ve tried direct links to the shipper’s website, email status updates with cron, and just using the store’s shipment tracking. The email tracking interfaces have changed to be less-than-useful to me. Logging into the shipper’s website just to track a shipment became a hassle. No thanks.
None of these made me happy, so this morning I created a trivial CGI script + data file to track shipments. It isn’t anything too fancy and you need to edit the data file manually, but it feels better than the other alternatives.
Notice to SONY PS3 Devs
Notice to in-house SONY PS3 Developers
is not how real programmers create a random number to seed public/private key encryption.
If you haven’t heard, the PS3 private key has been cracked. . There may not be anything that SONY can do to solve this, but there may be. It is too early to tell and perhaps they thought ahead like the Blu-Ray guys did and have a way to invalidate the key stored on the device and replace it with something new. It is unknown what effect that will have on existing games, settings, and networking. This could be impossible to solve. OTOH, how many customers will really do this in the real world? Less than 1% I’d guess. What I’d be worried about are BluRay and Netflix perfect copies of content getting out.
BTW, I do not own a PS3. I’m still rockin’ a PS2 from about 10 yrs ago. ;)
Rdiff-backup vs Duplicati on Windows 2
I like backups. I like them more since losing many, many GBs of data over a decade ago – before I got backup religion.
Many of the long term readers know that I’m always looking for a better backup method.
I’ve been using rdiff-backup for about 3 years on Linux systems and mostly like it, but it isn’t perfect. Yesterday, I decided to check out a new way to backup my Windows7 laptop, Duplicati. I’d seen a few GUI tools for Windows that use the back end Duplicity tool. I’d always been interested in Duplicity because it does things that many other free tools do not. Things like encryption and networked backups to lots of services (Amazon S3) or just over ssh/sftp.
Keep reading for more on the different experience with Duplicati vs rdiff-backup.
Tips for Digital Photo Organization, Storage and Archival
By some standards, my 10,000+ digital photo collection is either very large or trivial. I suspect that professional photographers probably have hundreds of thousands of photos. Many of those will have different post-processing.
Organizing, backing up and archiving digital photos and images doesn’t have to be complicated to do well.
Organization
As you take the photos, place them into your organization. If you delay more than a week after returning from that once-in-a-lifetime vacation to Africa, then you probably will never perform any useful organization. Below are 8 steps to help you organize your photos efficiently.
Skype from Regular Phones at Home 8
Last year I found a few articles on how to setup Skype to work with a PBX like Asterisk or FreeSWITCH. This last weekend, I finally got Skype working using my home phones. The solution was tested on Windows and deployed on a Linux PC. I’ve deployed it on Linux as a replacement to expensive home phone service. Using Windows introduces many undesired issues for me (stability, license costs, etc).
I wanted the ability to extend this solution beyond a simple 1 line phone in the future, possibly adding a PBX and other PBX capabilities around this Skype-at-home use.
Features
- Use normal home phones just like regular phones. Making and receiving calls like you’d expect. Visitors to your home don’t need any instructions to make phone calls (except 911).
- Setup speed dial entries to both Skype and normal telephones. It would probably be useful to create 911 speed dial entries to your local police or fire department switchboards
- Cheapest home phone solution that I’ve discovered that doesn’t demand tracking of your web traffic.
- Voicemail
2010 Article Summary
I was going to create a Top 10 List of 2010 here. Then started looking through the articles and some constant themes can out.
- Virtualization For Desktops and Servers
- Disk Encryption
- Backups Rock!
- Risks and Concerns for Cloud Computing
- Quicken Runs on Linux – ’nuf said.
- Security Isn’t Easy
- Passwords – Never the Same and Use a Password Manager
- Desktop Security Tips
- Browser Security Settings
- WiFi Router Security Checklist
- Privacy Is Gone Online
- Don’t Use Adobe Software
- Windows Software to Avoid
- Free Security Tips Ebook
- Dealing with Computer Viruses
- Been Hacked?
- How To Build A Home Server – Cheap
Previous Best Articles Here
Happy New Year!
New Toy-Thermaltake BlacX Duet eSATA Dual Dock
I received a Thermaltake BlacX Duet eSATA USB Dual Hard Drives Docking Station for Xmas. I’d asked for it since almost no non-nerd would have known what it was. Today was the first day that I got a chance to plug this baby in.
First Impressions
Comcast Limited-Basic TV
So I finally did it. I cut the TV lineup from 300+ channels to something called Limited Basic because they had a deal on ISP+TV for $30/month that I couldn’t refuse.
Last week, I dropped off all the equipment at the local Comcast office. What equipment?
- Motorola HD Tuner (not a DVR)
- ETA – phone to SIP converter
- DTA – weenie digital QAM tuner to lowest quality TV coax as possible
I had the triple-play from Comcast for the last 3 yrs. TV, Phone, and ISP. It was over $150/month; unlimited North American phone calls, 300+ TV channels, and a 12/3Mbps ISP connection. No real complaints except the price. For about $120 less, I have 22/5Mbps ISP, no phone, and the Limited-Basic TV which is supposed to be local channels, 5 shopping channels and 10 local access channels. I expected a single useful Spanish language channel – not the one I wanted. I’m certain the price will be higher than the $30/month promise due to local fees and taxes. How much higher is still to be answered.
Thankfully, I have an HD TV with a ClearQAM tuner. It used to get most cable channels from 2-118 – a little over 100 digital channels plus the 8 HD channels locally broadcast in my area. Since last May, most of those channels are encrypted. I get 2-27 analog with the DTV versions of those channels. No CNN, no TV-Guide, no USA, TNT, etc … still there are a few nice surprise channels – like Telemundo (Aurora), a few other Spanish channels and 3 HD PBS channels. I haven’t counted them all, but I think it is about 25 useful channels not counting any shopping or religious channels. I’m really pleased. OTA reception of HD where I live is hit or miss, so having cable access to those HD channels will be nice.