Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I created a silly little video tutorial (maybe NSFW) that shows you how to open, and then turn off/on an OLPC XO laptop.

[video link]
- YouTube star Lisa Nova does a commercial in my video, in an effort to boost views, and perhaps convince YouTube to find a solution to the cleavage question — what will stop people from inserting unrelated breast shots into videos, so they have a sexy thumbnail, and thus more clicks?

Antivirus software is generally crud. I say this as a computer programmer with a degree, and over a decade’s worth of experience in cleaning viruses off computers. I would never pay for antivirus software for my home computer (at work, possibly). In fact, I haven’t had to pay for AV software yet. I became jaded years ago while reading VMyths by Rob R. He confirmed what I suspected - that the AV update system model is broken, and not the best that programmers can offer customers.

Here are some free AV products (that aren’t always easy for novices to find):

• AVG Free - and yes it’s still free past May 2008, using their free Version 8.0. You just have to look past the Trial version.
• Avira AntiVir is also free.
• ClamWin is based on ClamAV for Linux.

Also required when using a free AV product, is a free Spyware detector/remover. Spyware is a mean (malicious) bit of softWARE that may not spread like a virus, but ruins your computer at least as well as a virus. Antivirus companies tend to charge for spyware detection (which is stupid, since spyware breaks a computer just as well as a virus, and it can be detected in much the same way as viruses are), and it’s how they convince more people to pay for “premium” products. Why bother? There are volunteers out there who don’t charge anything, and ask only for what you can afford to pay them at your discretion.

I’ve only had one virus infect any of my own computers or disks since I started back in 1984. (It’s possible some got through, and were never detected, but that’s VERY unlikely because they are usually easy to spot due to poor programming or intentional destruction/extortion/bragging caused by the well written ones). I’ve downloaded music and TV since the late 1990s using a variety of services, mostly P2P. And the only time a virus infected my computer, it was from surfing to a malicious webpage with an insecure version of Java installed on my computer. AVG detected it in an automated daily scan, and I was back to normal, feeling slightly more vulnerable, but in reality unscathed.

/End bragging

(more…)

I’m at the UofR at the Microsoft “Heroes Happen Here” conference/presentation. I’ll include updates throughout the evening from my XO Sugar-Linux laptop.

6:30 - Right now my former graphics professor is giving an introduction.
6:40 - Will Craddock is giving a 41 slide presentation from 80 originally.
- IIS 7 is a completely new product over ver. 6.
- Server 2003 install was “arduous”, and 2008 doesn’t need an admin password set until you start it up.
- Single Management Console is improved.
- PowerShell is a new addition (was in Exchange 2007).
6:45 - Group Policy runs as a service for a user, giving new ways to make changes without reboots.

Vista not well installed in Regina in corporate workplaces… heheh.

6:50 - Demonstration of the MMC
6:57 - Talk about Windows Server 2008 Core and adding a GUI for it from www.petri.co.il

7:04 - Firewall more intelligent than Vista pre SP1.
- Protection Features - Network Access Protection. NAP, I want that right now (didn’t get enough sleep last night).
- AD Rights Management - File permissions could be network based, so files can’t be taken home to be opened. Note that this is essentially DRM for the corporate world!

7:17 - Virtualization still not as “robust” as VMWare, but moving in the right direction apparently.
-Hyper-v virtualization
-Virtualize applications to run legacy software.

7:23 - Ruby and PHP have worked better on Apache.
7:27 - MS Silverlight is their “Flash killer”. MLB is using Silverlight to stream games online.
First session wrapped up.

SQL Server is the next presentation. I just showed off the OLPC XO-1 to Will and one of the surprisingly few women in attendance at the event.

7:57 - Security discussion.
7:59 - The projector quit! What does a room full of computer geeks do when a computer in a presentation stops working? Panic, of course ;-)
Actually, a restart of the equipment fixed the problem 4 minutes later.

8:13 - Speaking of crashing (no this isn’t a set up to a Microsoft joke) my XO locked up after trying to browse for a photo I took of the SQL presentation! I pressed CTRL + ALT + Erase and X shut down and restarted in under a minute.

8:34 I’ve been trying to figure out where to find the photo files, and flickr crashed the Mozilla browser (or maybe Flash) again, and Photobucket.com might have worked, but I didn’t figure out the non-Journal file system fast enough.

8:44 The presentation is wrapping up a bit late. The other session(s) has wrapped up. I spent time trying to upload the photo to my blog, but WordPress had trouble with the “browse” just about like Flickr did. I had to restart the browser after it was stuck doing nothing.

There are prize draws…
8:49 Some more people in the crowd including professor Yang were looking at my XO laptop.

8:53 Another appeal from CS Dept. for industry to work with the UofR.

8:55 Enrollment in CS around North America is down 75% from the 1990s, but industry is picking up in demand. There’s no way to meet the demand - we’re being asked to influence kids to have them study Comp. Sci.

8:58 It’s too bad Yang had to give his full speech twice. It’s not bad, it’s just too long for how late it is getting. I heard some people complain about not having good parking options when they arrived. The room was also advertised wrong as “Education Classroom” which was confusing because there is an Ed. Building, and Classroom building.

9:03 Will’s repeating a speech for CIPS and guest speakers coming up including a MS employee from Estevan, SK.

9:06 Prize draws starting finally? ;-)…

I won nothing.

10:10 Moved the photos easily off the XO onto my USB drive by:
1- Plugged in USB drive.
2- Went to Journal
3- Selected Photo
4- Pointed to the copy option, and clicked on the picture of the USB drive
- The photo copied to the USB drive then.
5 - Back to the previous screen and repeat as required.

…You know it’s going to happen sooner or later in your life, but would just really like to avoid it.

Microsoft DRM customers, you’re about to get even more screwed. If you haven’t yet, join the fight against Digital Restrictions Management. While people will be enjoying their MP3s for decades to come, MSN music buyers of “legal” music, are going to have to sue if they want to play their bought music on computers of the future. If you started out on XP, and get a Vista machine or a Mac, your music will be GONE.

==

Ubuntu 8.04 comes out sometime tomorrow according to the countdown they are providing. Ubuntu Linux is free from DRM, and strives to always remain ‘free’ in every sense of the word.

I’m not at all surprised to hear that “experts” are confirming what I’ve been saying about Vista since day 1. It’s a flop, it’s the Windows ME of the business computing world. Everyone managing a business computing network would prefer to stay with XP, but Microsoft isn’t going to let them for much longer. A revolution is coming, and it’s not a revolution of new software for the PC either. It will be businesses and consumers fighting to keep support for XP, and thus millions of perfectly capable Pentium III and IV computers.

In other computer news, I’ve added the new Ubuntu version countdown to my blog’s sidebar. It’s out in just 10 days, available free for download, or on CD using ShipIt.

Today was a good way of spending a day. For lunch I ate with my cousin, and Huffb1, Jadon, and Dani at the Park Cafe for a little SaskBlogs party.
The afternoon disappeared, and I went to supper at Passage to India (very fast service, and great food).

After supper my friend and I saw “Smart People” [8/10] at the Galaxy. It had a lot of intelligent humour, sort of rare for a Hollywood movie. After going home for the night I watched “Vacation” [8/10] with Chevy Chase. And now I’m part way into “Splash” [5/10] which I’ve also seen before, but not for decades.

Having an XO laptop might change the way I blog. I’ve “live blogged” twice today. Maybe it just seems that with a wireless laptop you can blog even while things are happening away from your “main” blogging station.

One of the more notable bloggers in Canada is Canadian Cynic. He rightfully nearly blew a gasket when I suggested a few months ago that he might have a few things in common with Kate from Small Dead Animals. Frankly I think he’d deny breathing oxygen if he heard that Kate admits to doing that. But anyway, the point of me bringing up CC is that he has a cool challenge to take on. If you’re reading this, you’re challenged to remain polite for the entire day of Monday (at least while conversing on your blog). The winning “side” gets the respect and admiration of, well, probably the same people who declare victory.

Good luck comrades. And yes, I used the word comrade to ham this up a little.
And if you’re a “progressive” and don’t play nice on Monday, I’ll paddle your bottom.

Hat tip to Wingnutterer

==

On Sunday I went on a road trip to Wood Mountain with my pal Jesse, and I picked up my new XO laptop from the OLPC program. It’s so tiny, when I saw the box I honestly thought it was a part, like the box for the AC adapter maybe. Photos and videos will come later this week.

I also bought a huge amount of discount cheese. The wheel of cheese was almost bigger than the XO laptop, but cost about 5% as much. I’ll also eat the cheese, whereas the laptop I will not so much as lick, unless asked nicely.

Service Pack 1 is coming. If you aren’t hiding under the bed (a suitable spot), and are one of those geeks who has actually been saying for more than a year that they “are waiting until SP1 is out before they try Vista,” your wait is nearly over.

Personally, I couldn’t care less that Microsoft’s biggest flop since Windows ME is about to break a bunch of peoples machines even further. Its as if Hostess has announced an update to the Twinkie — Only people with poor taste in food will care. Vista is still years away from possibly being as good as XP or Ubuntu are right now for 90% of computer users out there. I’m waiting for 2012 before I start using Vista. By then the bugs may be out, and the design flaws will be hacked around by computer programmers who aren’t enslaved to Big Media. And by then my copy of XP will be as obsolete as Windows 98 is today. (Incidentally I used a Windows 98 SE laptop to fix up my Data Link watch just the other week though. XP couldn’t do it.)

UPDATE: See this Vista video for a laugh.