Finally I Don't Do Windows
(Technology • )
The other day I bought a new and beefier desktop computer for the company and, as usual, I was forced to buy a Microsoft operating system along with it. I meekly complied because I’d been unable to get my aging printer to work with the version of Linux Ubuntu I’d been using on the company’s other dual-boot desktop.
I’d been able to keep the printer working under Windows XP, but it turns out the new desktop includes Windows Vista. Vista represents a step backward in Windows performance, as far as I’ve been able to tell, but a big step forward in shiny plastic-looking memory-hogging animated icons.
Along with Vista, Microsoft also has served notice it no longer will support my old printer and some of my best software. No surprise to those forced to tread this ground already, but it turns out Vista sucks, and is only better than XP at violating its customers’ privacy by snooping through their files to sniff out copyright information.
Luckily, I no longer have to use Microsoft’s invasive and bug-infested products, now that I’ve re-paid for them over and over and over and over again.
Because the latest version of Ubuntu detected and made friends with my old printer, scanner and other hardward as soon as I installed it. The only other reason I’d stuck with Windows so long was that I’ve become somewhat proficient in and used to Photoshop, and the Adobe people who make it can’t handle Linux.
But it turns out that the open-source graphics program Gimp has made leaps and bounds and, with a tweak here and there, can help me produce just what I need in terms of web graphics.
When I started using Linux a few years ago, I just tried it for fun. Turns out I am spending much less money on software, and I’m probably more productive on Ubuntu than ever in Windows, and for absolutely sure on the clunky Vista.
OK I’ll turn off the geek now and return you to your regularly scheduled program.
→ B.Dunn, Oct 23, 2009, 09 08 am
Add a comment [2]
Comcastic Web Intrusion
(Internet • Technology)
Beginning earlier this month, I was surprised when, after apparently mistyping the URL of a web site, I did not receive the customary “could not locate remote server” message on my web browser.
What the fuck? I wondered, as I had clearly, somehow, wandered into a Comcast web site consisting mostly of Yahoo search results. For which I had no use and had not requested.
It took a few seconds of reading to realize that Comcast, still, unfortunately, my Internet service provider, has been monkeying with the Internet’s Domain Name System. Since around July 9, as it turns out, Comcast has hijacked the eyeballs of customers in its markets across the country and forced them onto its own web site any time they mistype a domain name.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Comcast tries to disguise this marketing ploy as a “service,” you know, “to help high-speed Internet customers get where they want to go online even faster and easier than before.” Beside the fact that Comcast didn’t notify customers up front in any meaningful way before pulling this stunt, and that DNS redirection actually confuses most people and slows down their attempt to get where they want to go, and the fact that this is an obvious marketing ploy (else why brand the rediret page with Comcast and Yahoo logos) – beside all that, there are Internet-specific mechanical reasons why DNS redirection is a really bad idea.
The non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which coordinates the web’s maze of unique domains and IP addresses, maintains a group of people of some expertise, called the Security and Stability Advisory Committee. As you might imagine, their task is to advise ICANN on matters involving the security and stability of the Internet.
Here are some of the conclusions they reached six years ago, when VeriSign pulled a DNS-redirection stunt similar to this latest Comcastic venture:
“VeriSign’s change appears to have considerably weakened the stability of the Internet, introduced ambiguous and inaccurate responses in the DNS, and has caused an escalating chain reaction of measures and countermeasures that contribute to further instability.”“VeriSign’s change has substantially interfered with some number of existing services which depend on the accurate, stable, and reliable operation of the domain name system.”
“Anti-spam services relied on the RCODE 3 response to identify forged email originators. “
“In some environments the DNS is one of a sequence of lookup services. If one service fails the lookup application moves to the next service in search of the desired information. With this change the DNS lookup never fails and the desired information is never found.”
“VeriSign’s action has resulted in a wide variety of responses from ISPs, software vendors, and other interested parties, all intended to mitigate the effects of the change. The end result of such a series of changes and counterchanges adds complexity and reduces stability in the overall domain name system and the applications that use it. This sequence leads in exactly the wrong direction. Whenever possible, a system should be kept simple and easy to understand, with its architectural layers cleanly separated.”
Eventually, I imagine, the folks at ICANN will reach the same conclusion about Comcast. In the meantime, if you’d like to have your web browser work the way it used to, you can actually opt out of this Comcastic “service.” While the company never made this information available to me, the opt out is here.
Those Internet service providers who fail to study historical web mis-steps are destined, so it would seem, to repeat them.
→ B.Dunn, Jul 29, 2009, 06 12 am
Add a comment [1]
Knock and the Door Will Be Opened
(Technology • Internet)
I never met or spoke to Fjalar Ravia, but only got to know him through the single most useful web site I have ever (repeatedly) read. I’ve been visiting so long that I don’t even remember how I found it in the first place.
Fravia, as he was known, was born in Finland and about six months my junior by age, but his brain was many decades more advanced. Early this month, he died after a long illness.
Most for some reason seem to ignore the gateway to true knowledge, but Fravia was gateway receptionist for many years, and has left the door open for anyone willing to read and work a bit in order to uncover uncharted universes of information.
For anyone who cares to travel far beyond mere Googling and venture into the Internet wilderness, may I recommend Searchlores. “Though this knowledge comes to you free of charge,” Fravia says, “it does require of you an open mind and some self-doing in order to understand the techniques contained within.”
Happy trails.
→ B.Dunn, May 26, 2009, 07 15 pm
Tragedy Hits Home
(Food • Technology)
It wasn’t the lightening that accompanied the latest round of monsoons last night and knocked out the electricity just two days before our new emergency generator is expected to arrive via special drop-shipment straight from China to the Sugar Land suburbs.
No, it’s worse than that: The smoker – a plain Jane Oklahoma Joe but nonetheless long-time reliable workhorse of the outdoor kitchen – has sprung a rust hole the size of a silver dollar in the bottom of the firebox.
OK, I know you must clean out the firebox after each use because ashes plus water equals a powerful corrosive that eats its way through iron and steel. But you gots to wait until the fire dies and the metal cools before removing the ash. And while you’re waiting if you happen to partake of a nightcap or two after dinner, well, you just might have to wait until morning to clean out them ashes. And by then you could have torrential night rains.
Which is to say, a rust hole the size of a silver dollar in your firebox, given sufficient time.
Doubled-up aluminum foil has served just about as long as it’s going to, but it’s becoming sadly obvious that it’s time to put the old smoker out to pasture.
Luckily, that gives me the perfect excuse to go smoker shopping.
→ B.Dunn, Apr 28, 2009, 02 50 pm
