Television – arfore dot com

1

This next week the Senate is expected to vote on legislation to delay the transition of broadcast television in the United States from analog signals to digital signals.
The initial deadline was to have been February 17, 2009, however some in Congress as well as President Obama claim that more time is needed due to the […]

Technology, Television

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Fringe, a new series on the Fox network that is using a new format Fox dubs Remote-Free TV. The episodes are longer than your average sitcom.  The Wikipedia entry on the show states that this series will have less commercials and promos.

While this is true, one of the interesting bits is that before each commercial they […]

Television

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Windows – arfore dot com

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This is part one of a short series of articles detailing the process I went through to restore a friend’s table pc after her hard drive dies due to a head crash. Background

My friend has a Gateway CX210X Convertible Notebook. This model uses a SATA internal drive. Her drive died sometime last Friday afternoon […]

Computers, Operating Systems, Windows

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One of the small annoyances I have with Firefox is the default URL used for the Google search plug-in.  While I generally just type in a search term and hit enter, I do sometimes just hit enter without a corresponding search term just to get sent to the main Google page.  Why do I do […]

Mac OS X, Software, Windows

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Those of you out there who are running an installation of SCT Luminis 3 may have noticed that the browser check always comes up warning you that the browser is unsupported when using Firefox 2, even though all the features seem to be completely supported.
This is due to the fact that the browsercheck javascript does […]

Linux, Mac OS X, SCT Luminis, Software, Windows

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0

Well, over the weekend some of the other sysadmins of the world provided the solution to the Office 2007 file download problems.

It’s all about the mime types. For those of you not in the know, a MIME type is an Internet Standard that is used to help webservers and e-mail servers know what kind of files are being served up and sent out. Check out the Wikipedia article for more.

Apache, Linux, Windows

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1

So with the impending roll out of Microsoft Office 2007 here at work, we have discovered something interesting. Apparently IE 6 and IE 7 don’t understand how to deal with the new file types that were introduced with Office 2007.

Windows

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Copyright – arfore dot com

0

Everyone wanted DRM-free music and EMI partnered with Apple to make it happen.

Now apparently it’s not being done right. Of course, we all knew that the account holder name and associated e-mail address was being stored in the DRM encrypted tracks. But somehow everyone seems to think that Apple was going to just cease to embed that because the song was DRM-free.

Ars Technica has a story up on this.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some data was being analyzed in aggregate, although Apple’s current privacy policy does not appear to allow for this. As with the dust-up over the mini-store, Apple should clarify what this embedded data is used for.

Copyright, Cyberspeech, Music

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0

So, according to a story on Reuters, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is evaluating whether or not to ban Novell from didtributing future versions of their Linux OS.

“The community of people wants to do anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it. They have every reason to be deeply concerned that this is the beginning of a significant patent aggression by Microsoft,” Eben Moglen, the Foundation’s general counsel, said on Friday.

Copyright

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Cyberspeech – arfore dot com

0

I you have read my previous post, GPG Best Practices, you will know that I am a fan of setting expiration dates on my GPG keys.
This has not always been the case. As with many computer users I tend towards the lazy, and if I can keep from having to re-learn a password by […]

Computers, Cyberspeech, Privacy, Security

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1

Like many people who have some concerns over security on the Internet, I have started to use digital signatures for all of my mail sent from my regular e-mail client on my Mac.
While there are several avenues for this, I chose to use GPG. While I know that this means jumping through a couple […]

Computers, Cyberspeech, Privacy, Security

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0

Everyone wanted DRM-free music and EMI partnered with Apple to make it happen.

Now apparently it’s not being done right. Of course, we all knew that the account holder name and associated e-mail address was being stored in the DRM encrypted tracks. But somehow everyone seems to think that Apple was going to just cease to embed that because the song was DRM-free.

Ars Technica has a story up on this.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some data was being analyzed in aggregate, although Apple’s current privacy policy does not appear to allow for this. As with the dust-up over the mini-store, Apple should clarify what this embedded data is used for.

Copyright, Cyberspeech, Music

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0

So I ran across a story on Slashdot about how ABC/Disney had a blog shutdown over the posting of some audio clips from a radio-station affiliate in conjunction with the blogger’s letters to the radio station advertisers over their tacit support of the comments and views of the talk radio hosts on the station.

The Slashdot post linked to a blog posting on the Daily Kos: State of the Nation that had more details.

Blogging, Cyberspeech, Free Speech

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Apple – arfore dot com

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While re-loading the OS and apps on my iMac at work, I ran into major issues whilst updating MS Office 2008.  When running the first update, Office 2008 SP1 (12.1.0) I had no problems, however none of the other updates would run.  I kept getting the error “You cannot install Office 2008 Updates on this […]

Apple, Mac OS X, Software

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Lately I have noticed that when browsing the web my external hard drive would spin up when there seemed no need.  I had just given into the mysterious and not concerned myself with this until yesterday.
After a few searches, I turned up a post on Apple’s discussion boards entitled Safari pauses & spins up ext […]

Apple, Mac OS X

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I noticed something today in the new iTunes Store interface.  When you hover over a song in the store you are presented with a nifty play icon that replaces the track number in the album listing.  This is quite similar to the iTunes Store interface functionality on the iPhone/iPod Touch OS.  Clicking on the play […]

Apple, iTunes

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6

So this morning I fired up my iMac at work to continue on with editing this PHP form I have been working on.  Now I usually use TextMate for my daily editor, since it is very lightweight.
Since I hadn’t actually created a TextMate project file, I just selected all the files and opened them using […]

Apple, Software

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In my process of tranferring my DVD collection to a digital media server I discovered that the Apple TV software is smarter than I thought.
I have been ripping my DVD collection using Handbrake on my Mac and transferring them to a Windows box which is shared out via my internal only network to the Apple […]

Apple, Apple TV, Technology

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Java – arfore dot com

0

At work we run the WebCT Vista course management system by Blackboard.
Recently I was requested to figure out how to import the security certificate from the command line so that we could add this to the login script used for our campus computers. The main reason behind this was to eliminate the need for […]

Java, Security, WebCT Vista

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Miscellaneous – arfore dot com

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Last week my friend Lindsay and I were making the rounds of the various thrift stores and used furniture stores in Valdosta.  It is quite interesting to see what people get rid of and to think of ways to use some of it.
At one of the thrift shops we found three VSU glasses.  One of […]

Culture, Miscellaneous

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I just got finished reading Stealing MySpace by Julia Angwin.  In it there was this great conversation about the firing of Ross Levinshohn by Peter Chernin, the soon-to-be former COO of News Corps.  Here it is: “You’re not happy, are you?” Chernin said. “No, I’m not,” Levinsohn agreed. “This isn’t working out, is it?” Chernin said.

“No, it’s not,” […]

Miscellaneous

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5

Lately there has been a lot of flack going on over the Early Termination Fee (ETF) system that the major cellular carriers use to encourage consumers to abide by the length of the contract that they have signed.
Apparently a lot of people are upset that the various cellular carriers are wanting to charge a fee […]

Miscellaneous

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1

So the USGS has almost completed the survey of the Bakken Formation. Estimates on the amount of oil contained in the shale formation range from 900 billion to 200 billion barrels. A poster on Slashdot said that “Such a reserve would go a long way toward securing US energy independence.”

What exactly is energy independence? […]

Miscellaneous

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1

While watching Shark tonight I saw a commercial for the new Dyson root 6 handheld vacuum cleaner.  The commercial was pretty cool.  It showed the vacuum cleaner being built, in a Lego-like fashion.
Aside from the coolness of the commercial itself, it occurs to me that the design of the root 6 is quite similar to […]

Miscellaneous

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Poetry – arfore dot com

0

The Gypsy Violin
by Munda

The compelling violin lures With an irresistible yearn Dance, dance, please dance for me

I can no longer adjourn!

Ethereal notes float from its strings Caressing like a lover’s hand Sensual music, Angel’s touch

Leading the way to wonderland

Embracing with utter delight Craving, beckoning me Tempting my lonely heart

Dance, dance on my melody!

Faster, faster the music escapes Without compassion to body or soul Seducer of lonely hearts

Until dancing is my only goal

Faces gyrate while I dance on passion
Flashes of fire in the corner of my eyes

Poetry

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0

When You Are Old
by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and gray and full of sleep And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true; But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead,

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Poetry

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0

Who is She?
by Gabriel Rosenstock

Who is this goddess of yours? Who is she?

‘Pure fantasy, I wager.’

‘Is she not clear to you?’
‘No, she is not.’

‘Clearer than day is she
‘ clearer than night …’

‘Not clear to me …’

‘Day in night is she
‘ night in day …’

‘I see her not …’

‘Look inside yourself!’

‘Difficult …’

‘Then look at her frost

covering the grass.’

ref. url: Who is She? In English and Gaelic

Poetry

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0

Music
by Walter de la Mare

When music sounds, gone is the earth I know, And all her lovely things even lovelier grow; Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees

Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies.

When music sounds, out of the water rise Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes, Rapt in strange dreams burns each enchanted face,

With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place.

When music sounds, all that I was I am Ere to this haunt of brooding dust I came; And from Time’s woods break into distant song

The swift-winged hours, as I hasten along.

Poetry

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0

Today is the birthday of Lord Byron, an English poet born in 1788 in Scotland. He was born George Gordon Noel.

His first success was the poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage written in 1812, which is based around his journeys from England to the eastern Mediterranean.

Check out today’s daily poem for another of his more recognizable poems, She Walks in Beauty.

This particular poem is one of my favorites, and it was featured in the television series Beauty and the Beast that ran on the CBS network in the US from 1987 until 1990.

Poetry

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Security – arfore dot com

0

One of the current hot topics in many technology circles concerns the cloud-computing model.  Wikipedia has the following definition for cloud computing: a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.

One of the biggest criticisms and concerns with this approach is the ownership, integrity, and […]

Security, Technology, arfore.com

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1

UPDATE (2009-04-26 7:06PM EDT): Apparently I was mistaken.  When poking through the preferences of ClamXav in order to restructure my watch folders, I noticed a checkbox that I had overlooked.  Apparently you can add the login item from within the main application.  However, it still doesn’t start the Sentry app when adding the item.  You […]

Security, Software, arfore.com

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0

So in the process of applying the new SSL cert here at work, I discovered an issue with the reCAPTCHA service.
The problem was that I was getting errors saying that my forms were only partially encrypted.  This was due to my use of the reCAPTCHA library, which by default doesn’t use an SSL connection to […]

PHP, Security, Web Apps

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2

So, a friend of mine was setting up a Linksys WRE54G Range Extender on her wireless network to eliminate a dead spot in her house.
She had issues with the Windows-based setup utility because it hardcodes the TCP/IP settings on the computer due to the fact it assumes that your network won’t be setup to work […]

Computers, Security, Technology

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0

At work we run the WebCT Vista course management system by Blackboard.
Recently I was requested to figure out how to import the security certificate from the command line so that we could add this to the login script used for our campus computers. The main reason behind this was to eliminate the need for […]

Java, Security, WebCT Vista

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Web Apps – arfore dot com

0

So in the process of applying the new SSL cert here at work, I discovered an issue with the reCAPTCHA service.
The problem was that I was getting errors saying that my forms were only partially encrypted.  This was due to my use of the reCAPTCHA library, which by default doesn’t use an SSL connection to […]

PHP, Security, Web Apps

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There are many really nice web apps out there now. Some of them are designed for pure entertainment, others are designed for tracking personal information, and still others serve a clear design purpose.
Here are a couple that I like:

My Mile Marker – a nice app that helps you track your car’s mpg over time.
Wufoo […]

Technology, Web Apps

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Sungevity is a company that does residential solar panel installations. They have this cool web app that lets you enter you address and then determines how much energy you will need. They use satellite imagery to help design the system.
When you’re ready to see how much solar your home needs, Sungevity makes it […]

Alternative Energy, Web Apps

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