2005_02_01_archive

Sehubungan dengan berbagai komentar KRMT Roy Suryo Notodiprojo

akhir-akhir ini di berbagai media, kami, komunitas blog Indonesia

berkesimpulan bahwa beliau kekurangan informasi atau bahkan menerima

informasi yang tidak benar tentang blog. Kami sendiri memandang bahwa

blog adalah hasil dari evolusi bertahun-tahun di Internet, yang

semakin menunjukkan bahwa Internet adalah wadah nyata untuk saling

menghubungkan orang-orang di dunia nyata.

Kami juga yakin bahwa KRMT Roy Suryo sebagai seorang manusia tentulah

sangat membutuhkan kasih sayang dari orang lain. Oleh karena itu,

kami, komunitas blog Indonesia pada bulan penuh cinta ini sepakat

untuk mendedikasikan hari Valentine tahun 2005 khusus untuk KRMT Roy

Suryo Notodiprojo.

Salam hangat selalu serta penuh perhatian dan kasih sayang dari kami

untuk KRMT Roy Suryo Notodiprojo di Hari Kasih Sayang ini.

Tertanda

Komunitas Blog Indonesia

ps. Bagi rekan-rekan sesama blogger yang ingin ikut berpartisipasi,

silakan lihat undangan acara ini.

Posted by Herman Saksono on 3:43 PM 1 comments

In Jakarta, smoking can be expensive, very expensive

Indonesian citizen. Why?

I'm not against smoking, I don't have problem people risking their

health for sheer pleasure, however I DO against public smoking*.

Passive smoker is just as bad as active smoker. If you are a

non-smoker you know how awful it is sitting next to a smoker. I've

been in that situation, and I just cannot understand why these smokers

are not sensitive enough to understand that not everybody wants their

smoke. They keep on puffing their smokes right up my face, without any

guilt or shame.

So what makes me feel awful for being an Indonesian citizen?

Our national economy is driven by Tobacco Companies (rokok). If you

look at your newspaper, on Finance/Investment section, notice that

Indonesian blue chips stocks are dominated by Tobbaco Companies.

Compare this to Singapore where its blue chips stocks are dominated by

IT industry. Under this dependency to Tobbaco Companies, any

regulation against public smoking will have a hard time in the House

of Representative (DPR).

However, today I am suprised that last Friday, Jakarta's state

legislature passed a bill that bans smoking from public area (UU

Pengendalian Pencemaran Udara). You will be fined up to Rp 1,000,000

for smoking on public area. This is a very strong decision and can be

bad for economics since 98% of the Jakarta income from tolls is coming

from cigarettes toll. Yes, by smoking those poisons you actually helps

Indonesia's macroeconomics.

You may ask: 'What does the law good for, if our law enforcement is

still impotent?'

I dont think our law enforcemnt is impotent, it's our Police

Departement thats not working hard enoguh. Maybe there are not enough

polices, maybe police's salary is still too low. I dont know. But law

enforcement in Indonesia is not impotent. All it needs is a proper

reward and punishment, like what happened recently in Jogja where you

will be fined Rp 15,000 if you dont wear Standard Helmet. Rp 15,000 is

a small amount of money, but now, everybody wears standard helmet.

Reward and punishment can be so amusing.

Labels: politik

Posted by Herman Saksono on 9:47 AM 6 comments

Feb 10, 2005

Giordano's obnoxious clerks

Because their sales clerks are very obnoxious. I mean, really

obnoxious. They are making Planet Surf's clerks looking like a stiff

mannequin.

First, they will always refer you as 'kak' (means brother or sister in

Indonesian). Maybe I should remind them that nobody has been using

that word centuries ago! Not only I feel alienated every time they

call me 'kak', but it also makes me feel weird and uncool.

Secondly, they will force you to try on their garments like a mad

Amway salesperson. If you eventually decided to try it and decided not

to like it, they will offer you other models. And it will go on and on

and on and on.

So I you are a Giordano newbie, I share a few tips on: How to avoid

and escape from Giordano's clerks

1. The ground rule: Don't go to Giordano if you are not going to buy

anything.

2. Avoid any eye-contact with any Giordano clerk. Some of them are

cute, but in the inside they are eeeevil. Once you are making

eye-contact with them, they will start forcing you to go inside

their stores, forcing you to try on their product and eventually

forcing you to buy it. So everytime you saw a Giordano store, look

away and pretend it doesn't exist.

3. Just say no to Giordano clerks. These critters are going to use

any possible argument to make you buy their products. Imagine one

of those Amway nut but far more attractive and fashionable. It's a

lot easier to say 'No' to those clerks.

4. If they asked you why you said 'no', answer them with: 'Because

you are ugly!,' or 'Because you're not a virgin!,' or 'Because I

slept with your mom!'

5. For the last resort: RUN!

Labels: shopping

Posted by Herman Saksono on 9:15 PM 7 comments

Feb 9, 2005

Finding Shoes

more dreadful. So I seriosly need a new pair of shoes. After

travelling to Semarang to find a good pair of shoes and returned empty

handed, I made a bold decision: I will buy another Converse in Jogja

(ok maybe that's not too bold).

Maybe the year of Rooster is bad luck for me, because every single

store no longer stock the size 9 (my size) of my favorite model. Okay,

I'll buy another model which I less like. Guess what? The size 9 of

the less liked model is also out of stock. Mmmm okay, I'll buy the

model that I least like, because I seriously in need for a new shoes.

Guess what, they also don't have the size 9!!!

Geeeezzz, whats with all of this shoes scarcity! First they no longer

sell casual Nike shoes? Now they no longer sell size 9 Converse shoes?

Whats next? I have to go to Giordano stores and forced to try on

something before I can buy a pair of shoes?

What is this world turning to?

Labels: shopping

Posted by Herman Saksono on 11:09 PM 0 comments

Government's Employees are a pain in the ass

As much as I hate Giordano clerks, nothing beats government employees

for it's obnoxiousity and arrogance.

Last Tuesday, my good friend's brother run ovar a man at the mBanteng

area. So we rushed to mBanteng (we were at Lor Kali Cafe when the

accident took place) and helped the guy to the hospital. It was a

no-plotless story with lots of uninteresting details, so I'm not going

to write the entire story, but this incident reminds me how much I

hate government employees (pegawai negeri).

Government employees should realize that they are working for us. We

paid you guys! Everytime the government taxed our salary, everytime we

paid extra 10% when we buy something at McDonalds, everytime Pertamina

sucks Indonesian oils reserve (technically Indonesian oils belong to

us), and so on.

Wanna know the best part of it? We have to pay 330,000 rupiahs for

slow and unfriendly service (all in my friend's debt), just to find

out that the guy who was hit is completely ok. Just a couple of

bruises. No fractured bone. No brain damage.

SBY, if you are reading this, aren't the extra cash from funding cut

for unleaded gas (Pertamax) should go to public health? Especially for

the poors? 330,000 rupiahs is quite a lot of money.

Anyway this is the guy who was hit by my friend's brother:

I took the picture when we were waiting for X-Ray photography result.

Labels: diary

Posted by Herman Saksono on 8:53 AM 0 comments

Feb 8, 2005

Nike Embargo?

of shoes.

Since my old Converse starts tearing down, I decided to buy a new pair

of shoes. Frankly, after hopping from one shoes store to other shoes

store I still can't find a good model. I dont know why, but these

days, every single shoes sold in shoe store are very lame looking. And

then, I started noticing something really queer: nobody sells Nike

shoes anymore.

Then I decided to go to Semarang, hoping to find a really cool looking

shoes, only to be dissapointed by the fact that Semarang stores sells

the exact same models as in Jogja. Just as lame and mediocre as the

shoes sold in Jogja. Even worse, they also doesn't sell any Nike

shoes.

Are we being embargoed by Nike? I hope not.

I might ended up buying those Converse shoes at Malioboro Mall....

Labels: diary, shopping

Posted by Herman Saksono on 9:28 AM 2 comments

Giordano

Whoever invented Giordano marketing strategy needs a swift kick on the

ballz.

Labels: shopping, thoughts

Posted by Herman Saksono on 8:41 AM 0 comments

Feb 7, 2005

SCTV is so gay

I hate when companies changed their logo just for fancy's sake. Some

recent logo changes were good (BII, Excelcommindo) because logo

adjustment were necessary to suit their new philosphy. But take

Indosat for example, it's new logo is making Indosat looking like a

weak newcomer in communications industry. And list goes on.

But the award for worst new logo goes to SCTV for it lame ass logo

hyped as Satu untuk Semua. Not only it looks amateurish, its philosphy

doesnt seem to serve anything.

Even worse, 20 were poisoned during the logo's launch event. The

culprit: Boxed Rice that was served during the event!

Labels: art and design

Posted by Herman Saksono on 3:39 PM 3 comments

Student Protest 101

Roundabout (aka. Bunderan UGM), which is a popular venue for UGM

students to protest against.... everything. So, everytime SBY's

administration is proposing something, I have to hear annoying march

and disturbing oration. It's not that I against them, because most of

the time I go for their views. It takes quite sometime for me to

realize what they are doing wrong. It's not the content that makes me

sick, but the presentation that stirs me (and the rest of Jogja

community) away.

We live in a world where package is everything. Where package

overshadows the actual content. By saying that, I didn't mean that you

should protest against Sumadi's appearing on Kedaulatan Rakyat collumn

every single edition, and wearing a pink and cuddly outfit. For non

Jogjakartans out there, Sumadi is the person who owns the largest

selling newspaper in Jogja, Kedaulatan Rakyat. And yes, he appeared on

every single edition of KR.

I'm saying that student protest should package their statement in an

effective manner as possible to achive the ultimate goal(s). Shouting

and yelling is not effective at all. It is, infact, very ineffective.

Therefore, I decided to write several tips for student protester out

there on: 'How to protest in an effective way':

1. You protest to raise awareness on certain issue to the public,

press, or even better international community. Don't mix your

personal sentiment to the government with the protest. It'll make

you looking like an emotionally-unstable student who has no life.

TIP: Try to appeal the public by doing something that appeals them

(doh!). Don't give away flower becuse it is so overused and thus

making it very ineffective.

protester wearing a green army jacket that seems hasn't been

washed since it was bought. And don't get me started how ugly the

hair looks. You may think that people doesnt judge the way you

look, but the truth is they DO. TIP: Take a bath before

protesting. If you dont take a bath often, take a regular bath a

week before protesting. Wash your hair. Put on some Nivea

moisturizer (or even better: Body Shop's Tea Tree Oil Mattifying

Moisture Gel--pictured right) to enhance your skin's complexion.

On P-day, wear a clean clothes. Tucking your shirts will helps.

3. Make a nice protest boards, because a good and visually engaging

protest boards can be as effective as a good oration. Don't just

write a lame-ass phrases and write it on a piece of cardboard.

TIP: Ask a friend majoring in communication and/or graphic design

to design a complete visual communication tools. It doesn't has to

be expensive, but it has to be visually effective.

4. Be a good PR. Practice your speech few days before protesting. As

a friend who you think a good speeechwriter to help you wrting

your speech.

5. Drop happening-art. It sucks, weird, and making you looking like

an emotionally-unstable student who has no life.

6. Behave. Manner does matter. Act like a responsible adult.

7. Be creative. Design an integrated concept for your protest. Create

a distinct visual identity. This will helps people to recognize

what you are fighting against.

Well thats about it. Happy Protesting!

Labels: survival tips

Posted by Herman Saksono on 8:28 AM 4 comments

Feb 5, 2005

Sultan HB X

To be honest, I'm impressed how Yogyakarta's Governor, Sri Sultan

Hamengkubuwono 10th performs lately. I'm not a big fan of his, but his

recent moves shows a bold direction where our crowded dan

human-resource-rich province is heading, namely with the recent

development of infrastructures and commerce facilities.

Recently, the local newspaper writes a report on possible hurricane in

Southern Yogyakarta beaches. Thay said, that it will be a big

hurricane and may cause a major damage.

I didn't expect the government to do anything, because thats what they

normally do in the past: always late in anticipating any disasters.

However, I was suprised when I read today's paper, where Sultan start

commanding many organizations to prepare for the disaster, in case it

does happens.

I'm impressed. If he keep on impressing me like that, I might

eventually voted him.

Provided that our legislative body changed the status of my

Province...

Labels: politik, thoughts

Posted by Herman Saksono on 9:03 AM 0 comments

Evaporating in Motion

long? I just bought this brand new Boss In Motion perfume (or some

fashion elitist might call it Eau de Toilette, but its potato potato

to me), and this thing only last for a 1-2 hours. That is mad.

I want my hard-earned S$73 back.

Labels: diary, random, shopping

Posted by Herman Saksono on 8:51 AM 6 comments

Feb 4, 2005

Light up your face with gladness, hide every trace of sadness

There are certain songs that made you cry, even though you feel

completely ok. Same thing happens to me the other day. I was listening

to this song called Smile which was sung by Michael Jackson (ok get

rid of those questioning eyes, some people might call him a child

molesting plastic, but he has done many wonderful song, start giving

him a break man!).

Anyway, the song is about how to cure you sadness with smile, how to

make you feel magnitudes better with just a simple smile. I started to

imagining how the music video would be, because this great song (which

was dedicated for Charlie Chaplin, CMIIW) never got the opportunity to

be visualised into music video. However, for no obvius reason, I

started to get all teary.

Soo, I imagined the video started with a bunch of commuters sitting on

subway, early in the morning, going to work, feeling lonely and

forgotten. Imagine low saturated, high contrast video. To make things

short, it ends when the sun starts shining, and they saw many cute and

funny things, and these bored commuters start smiling and all.

Okay it may sounds really lousy, but believe me, it would be a great

video. Its just that I sucks when it comes to explaining things in a

non oral way.

Labels: thoughts

Posted by Herman Saksono on 8:40 AM 1 comments

Feb 2, 2005

First Post

This should be my first post on this blog. Here, you will find my

personal rants, a tad of random thoughts, and some annoying

quick-facts. Please note that this blog represents my very inner ego,

which, quite frankly doesnt represents me in real life.

Anyway, have fun!

Herman

Labels: diary

Posted by Herman Saksono on 8:33 AM 3 comments

March 2005 � Home

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

About Me

My Photo I regard that mind is meant to be free and moving mind

to mass is a destiny. I can be geeky when it comes to movies,

art and culinary, but really, I am simply a man with an

irregularity, or many.

View my complete profile

Sidelinks

* Album Terakhir

Era digital memaksa pelaku industri musik menjual produk dengan

cara eceran. Tanda-tandanya antara lain: album repackage dan ring

back tones.

del.icio.us bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by

hermansaksono to blognotes - more about this bookmark...

* Susno Duadji, Harapan Baru Polisi

"tugas saya yang paling berkesan selama ini karena bisa

menjebloskan menteri, mantan menteri, dan direktur BUMN, yang

memakan uang rakyat"

del.icio.us bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by

hermansaksono to blognotes - more about this bookmark...

* Soeharto Sebaiknya Dinobatkan Sebagai Pahlawan

Ada sebuah alasan yang sangat masuk akal

del.icio.us bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by

hermansaksono to blognotes - more about this bookmark...

* Dian Sastro: Ciuman Hanya Untuk Membentuk Karakter

Mau donk karakter saya dibentuk Dian Sastro!

del.icio.us bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by

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2006_10_01_archive

Wiring my house

The Finished Project

This weekend I re-wired my house. The house had some old CAT5 cable

that connected up several of the rooms.

Original Wires

Old Wiring

Old Wires

Return air duct

There were a lot of problems with the old wires but here are the main

ones:

#1- The old wiring was quick and dirty. There were no faceplates or

jacks installed, the cables just hung out of the wall. This room used

to be the computer room and all of that was behind a desk so it was

fine. Now this room is the guest bedroom and it's NOT fine.

#2- Ironically the new computer room is not wired into this room so

most of the other rooms are connected via wire but the computer room

is connected using wireless. When one person is streaming video from

TiVo or downloading from the internet, that wireless gateway gets

saturated quickly!

#3- The guest bedroom (former computer room) is the only room with a

live phone jack so the DSL modem is there and the base for the

wireless phones. Not a good place for anything when guests are staying

with you!

#4- The cables for the downstairs got there using the return air vent.

For two or three cables that may be ok but I was going to pull a lot

more than two or three.

The plan was to run 2" flexible conduit from the attic to the basement

furnace room. The only place I could run the conduit was through the

flume space. My house has a rectangle flume that runs from the attic

to the basement and has the furnace vent, return air, and air ducts

running through it. There is plenty of space there for a 2" conduit.

The furnace vent is shielded and doesn't get hotter than what you can

touch so the conduit will be safe there.

Location for 2" flexible conduit

The attic

Conduit location

Originally I had wanted to run the conduit through the walls. You can

see in the picture above a spot where I cleared away the insulation. I

drilled a hole through what I thought was the drywall nailer and it

turned out to not be that! The top of the wall I wanted to use was

under the support structure of the roof and I was not about to drill a

2" hole through that! I ended up cutting a hole in the tin covering

the open ducting space in my house.

My son's bedroom

In order to feed the conduit through two floors, I was going to need

access not only to feed it but to cut another hold in the tin plates

that hold the ducts in place. I chose my son's bedroom because it was

behind a door. My other choice would have been the dining room and I

think my wife would not have liked that. Did I mention that my wife

didn't know I was doing this because she was out of town?

Now that I knew where I was going to run everything I was ready to

start cutting holes.

Finding a stud

Marking and starting the hole

Finished hole

There are two reasons that hole is that large. I needed room to pull

the conduit and I wanted to cut clean between two studs to make the

patch easier. To patch this I cut another 2x4 the width of the hole

and screwed it to the two studs. That created a nice board to mount my

drywall to when I was done. I forgot to take pictures of the 2x4 I

installed but below you can see the patched wall. I also found an old

Pepsi can that was left in there when the house was built.

Hole for conduit

Looking up space to the attic

The conduit was a pain to install. I actually had to do it twice. My

brother stopped by and helped me pull it once and after he left I

found that the conduit had looped in the flume space. Not only would

it be a pain to pull wires through (if even possible), the conduit was

resting against the flume. I didn't like either of those problems so I

pulled it out. With the help of my 7 year old son (he helped quite a

bit on this project) we re-installed the conduit.

Conduit installed from the attic to the basement

The next step was to pull the wire. The conduit came with some very

nice pull string in it but it all fell out the first time we installed

it. I had to use fishtape to get the first wire installed. A very wise

man told me to pull a string with each cable I pull so I would be

ready for the next pull. The first cable was easy to pull.

The first cable pulled from the basement to the new computer room

I also had to locate the wall in the computer room and drill a hole in

the attic to fish the cables down the wall. I only used conduit for

the big pull to the basement. Out of the conduit the cables run in the

attic to the wall and down the wall to the hole I cut out. Because

it's low voltage, I used these nice "mudder frames" rather than

electrical boxes. They are much easier to work with and your cables

don't get all bent up in a box.

Two cable pull

I also ran one coax cable to each room. Pulling the coax was much more

difficult. The cable is heavier and has to come off a spool rather

than out of a box. I pulled 5 CAT5e cables and one coax cable to the

computer room. I have two servers, my computer, and a switch that I

wanted home runs for. The fifth CAT5e cable is for phone.

Finished job in the computer room

The old computer room had the only working phone line in the house. I

ran new CAT5e cable to the source of the phone line and then ran a

home run to the basement for phone. That allowed me to remove the old

phone lines from the walls and replace the old jacks with a modular

system that has phone, Ethernet, and cable all in one jack. I forgot

to get a blank faceplate so I put the old phone jack faceplate over

the old cable hole in the guest bedroom.

Wires pulled and jacks punched down

Finished guest bedroom

Finally the job is done. Eventually I will purchase a wall mount rack

to hold punchdown blocks and a patch board to connect everything. For

now I just put connectors on the cables and ran them to my switch. It

feels good to have my house wired correctly with the ability to pull

more cables any time I need.

The attic

fix moms computer without leaving your

Fix Mom's Computer Without Leaving Your Desk

This is an article about an excellent set of tools for remotely

accessing/operating other peoples PCs.

read more | digg story

posted by Nick Payne @ 10:42 AM 0 comments links to this post

0 Comments:

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busy guy with broken computer

Busy Guy with a broken computer

of the 5 girls from the last post, #1 is still friends, #2 is still

friends wanting more, #3 just used me for sex, #4 is troubled but

friends (and wants more but not happening), #5 seems to be just

friends or still not able to try to work something out to get together

more, and there is a new #6 as of just a few days ago. She is a

sweetheart, but young and used to date a guy I used to work with (so

she knows most of the people I still work with). She got completely

screwed over by the guy (cheater, treated her like shit, etc.). We

will see how it goes. I'm not trying as hard as I did on a few of the

others, so it may actually end up being something, plus I'm not

radiohead binary theory ok computer in

Radiohead Binary Theory - OK Computer + In Rainbows

Puddlegum recently posted an interesting analysis of some deeper

meanings/coincidences between Radiohead's new release In Rainbows, and

their seminal 1997 OK computer. Interestingly, the number 10 proves

uncannily significant.

For a near Wizard of Oz / Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon experience,

set up a new new playlist with the following track order. Set it with

a 10 second crossfade, and see how the two albums blend together VERY

well . . . perhaps too well . . .

1. Airbag (OK Computer)

2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)

3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)

4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)

5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)

6. Nude (In Rainbows)

7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)

8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)

9. Let Down (OK Computer)

10. All I Need (In Rainbows)

11. Karma Police (OK Computer)

12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)

13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)

14. Electioneering (OK Computer)

15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)

16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)

17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)

18. No Surprises (OK Computer)

19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)

20. Lucky (OK Computer)

2007_04_01_archive

Destroying your computer has a competition?

Ukraine hosts computer destruction championship

Appetite for destruction

By John Leyden

Published Monday 29th September 2003 12:56 GMT

More than 300 sledgehammer-wielding, mouse-kicking Ukrainians took

part in a competition last weekend to destroy computer equipment in

the most spectacular way possible.

The First Open Computer Destruction Championship, held in the central

Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, were organised by a local radio

station and designed to raise awareness about the perils of spending

too much time in front of a PC, the BBC

reports.

There were three main events: chucking a keyboard, kicking a computer

mouse, and the "creative destruction" of computer monitors.

Ironically, winners in each category received computer equipment as a

prize (but you probably guessed that already).

Competitors told Ukrainian TV that the event helped purge them of

computer angst.

Radio engineer Yevhen Hrytsenko, who threw his keyboard an impressive

40.2 metres to win that event, said he felt "liberated from computer

addiction".

"Just recently I busted my monitor at home. I was so angry at it,

luckily I didn't destroy the keyboard, so I could throw it here

today," he said.

Eastern Europe, and the Ukraine in particular, was a breeding ground

for the sport of mobile phone throwing, which has now spread

internationally.

Anthropologists are yet to explain why a country with one of the

lowest GDP (annual income per head) figures in Europe could spawn such

a passion for abusing hi-technology equipment.

If you're tempted to abuse your PC, check out our guide: 102 ways to

kill your computer. �

posted by Vic. @ 8:43 PM 0 comments

Ukrainian Girl Terminates ATM!

Ukrainian teen fights the Rise of the Machines(TM)

14-year-old terminates ATM

By Lester Haines

Published Wednesday 13th October 2004 10:27 GMT

A 14-year-old Ukrainian girl has struck a blow for humanity in the war

against belligerent technology by completely destroying a Yalta cash

machine - with her bare hands.

The plucky freedom fighter took on the avaricious ATM after it

swallowed her cash card. In the ensuing battle, the youth - described

by police as "looking like she couldn't hurt a fly" - caused �4,500

worth of damage to the Privatbank dispenser. The unnamed girl told the

press: "I just got angry and couldn't control myself after the machine

took my card. I train regularly at a local boxing club to keep fit - I

guess I must have learned a few things."

Absolutely. If the young lady in question would like to contact El

Reg, we have a few bits of obstreperous kit which would benefit from

an application of the "Ukrainian Handshake" - starting with the UK's

murderous cyberloos. �

posted by Vic. @ 8:42 PM 1 comments

Free Energy ElectroPower Source for sale!

Ukrainians punt free energy generator on eBay

Self-destructing 'electro power source'

By Lester Haines

Published Monday 3rd July 2006 15:42 GMT

Here's one for the technically-minded among you to ponder: a Ukrainian

"free energy electro power source" which has popped up on eBay.

Quite how the 100kW+ wonder machine works is anyone's guess, and the

vendors are remaining pretty tight-lipped on the matter. It doesn't

run on petrol or diesel, but does consume 1200m3 of air per hour.

Quite remarkably, in can apparently operate simultaneously in a

vacuum, which attests to its hi-tech capabilities.

There are, nonetheless, a couple of clues as to the possible power

source. First up, the blurb carries this dire warning aimed at

preventing purchasers from investigating the machine's innards: "With

the purpose to provide technology safety, the case of electric power

station will be closed, and at its unauthorized opening electric power

station will be self-destructed."

Secondly, the same outfit is punting rather a lot of ex-military

Geiger counters.

Long-term readers may remember that back in 2004, the Ukrainians

admitted they had somewhat absent-mindedly mislaid hundreds of nuclear

missiles. Based on the available evidence, we have pointed the UN's

nuclear watchdog in the direction of this auction, where they can get

an example of the electro power source right now for a mere �143,600.

And, if the chaps from bomb disposal are able to get the cover off the

thing without taking out an entire city, the truth of the wonderous

generator may soon be revealed. �

posted by Vic. @ 8:40 PM 0 comments

Oh those Ukrainian Women...

By LUKAS I. ALPERT, Wire Services - New York Post

A Ukrainian woman was busted trying to smuggle drugs inside her

vibrator.

"She told us she had put the drugs there because she thought no one

would ever think of touching it,

let alone looking inside it," said a Ukrainian border-police

2006_04_01_archive

Rachel Singer Gordon Blogs!

Just noticed this post from Tame The Web about Rachel Singer Gordon

starting a blog. I'll bet she updates it more regularly than I do this

one!

But seriously, I usually like her columns so I'll be very interested

in her blog. Being on the upper-ish end of GenX, I definitely know

where she's coming from about being "in-between" in the library world.

Her LJ column she mentions in her intro post definitely stuck a chord.

2004_11_01_archive

otra vez

Once again.. I am going to try to start blogging..

If you look at the history of my past posts, you'll see that my life

as a blogger has been in fits and starts..

It's a bit weird feeling to be writing to an unknown audience, and

putting yourself out there -- this odd struggle to somehow remain

2007_08_01_archive

fMRI rap

Take an fMRI of someone improvisationally rapping. The brain is

simultaneously creating rhyme and reason (meaning).

computer specialist reported as best

Computer Specialist Reported as Best Paying Job with Associate Degree

According to CNN, Computer Specialist positions rank as the #1 best

paying job for individuals with an Associate Degree. Jobs in this

category include Computer Support Specialist, Help Desk Specialists,

Network Specialists, Network Administrators, and Network Security

Specialists.

Harper College offers a variety of certificate and degree programs to

help prepare students for these jobs. Get started on a new career in

only two semesters by earning a Computer Support Specialist

for those who are having adobe cs3

For those who are having Adobe CS3 issues!

Adobe Creative Suite CS3

I've heard a lot of issues with the latest suite of applications from

Adobe, whether it's the full master collection, design collection or

web collection - I've only heard of one installation of Adobe CS3 that

installed successfully on the first go (for the record, he was a

Windows XP user). Others have had to install multiple times, changing

Windows settings, safe mode and more. All from Windows XP and Vista

users.

A twitter friend of mine Nick Hodge from Microsoft Australia linked me

to his article with his experience of installing Adobe CS3 on his

machine. At the end of it he comes to a successful result, you may or

may not have the same issues as Nick experienced but he points out

many ways to try and install Adobe CS3 for you to try.

2007_04_01_archive

Phishing Angst in light of VA Tech tragedy

Phishing Angst in light of VA Tech tragedy

Unfortunate but true, there are those individuals that would attempt

to profit in a devious and mal-intentioned manner from any tragedy.

These threats come in many forms, ranging from phishing scams, spam,

websites, fax, telephone and beyond. There will likely be a number

mal-intended attempts made to collect money, personal information and

the like by many individuals posing as organizations designed to

provide a form of aid or funding for the VA Tech tragedy.

The best defense against this type of threat is to simply research the

organization that you intend on giving money, support or information

to prior to engaging them. If you receive an unsolicited email or

something that looks suspicious there are a number of sites that

maintain a fairly updated list that can all easily be found through

your favorite search engine.

All of this said, if you feel compelled to donate your time, expertise

or money in aid of those affected by the VA Tech tragedy then please

do so. There are currently a number of well known organizations

working to help those affected such as the American Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/article/0,1072,0_312_6578,00.html and VA Tech

is also directly accepting donations on their website at

http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/memorial_fund.php.

Below is a list of domains that were registered immediately following

the Virginia Tech tragedy. It should be noted that at the time of this

article none of these domains have been reported as being used in a

malicious manner, but please keep an eye out and protect yourself

against the many risks associated with identity theft, fraud and

beyond.

vatechshooting.com

vatechshooting.net

vatechshooting.org

vatechshooting.info

vatechshooting.us

vatechshooting.biz

vtshooting.com

vtshooting.info

vatechmassacre.com

vatechmassacre.net

vatechmassacre.info

vatechmassacre.biz

vtmassacre.com

vtmassacre.net

vtmassacre.org

vtmassacre.info

virginiatechrampage.com

vatechrampage.com

vtrampage.com

virginiatechmurders.com

virginiatechmurders.net

virginiatechmurders.org

virginiatechmurders.info

virginiatechmurders.us

vatechmurders.com

vtmurders.com

hokieshootings.com

hokiemassacre.com

Best Regards,

JJC

Posted by JJC at 16:30 0 comments Links to this post

Sunday, April 1, 2007

A few tips for the home user.

The world has become somewhat accustomed to basic physical and

personal security over the years; but what of the cyber security

realm, from the perspective of the basic home user? In today's age of

online banking, billions of electronic transactions, online shopping,

electronic records management and so much more affected by or even

wholly controlled by technology it is absolutely imperative that even

the home computer user have a basic understanding of cyber security. I

have detailed a few basic steps that should be taken to mitigate many

common threats.

Virus - Install and maintain current anti-virus software and

signatures. It's not enough to simply buy an anti-virus application

and leave it on your computer. Every day a large number of new

computer viruses or virus variants come out, as a direct result of

this all of the major anti-virus software companies release updates

regularly (sometimes every few hours) that need to be placed on your

computer for you to truly be protected. Many anti-virus applications

can be configured to automatically download and install such updates.

For the cost-conscious user I recommend AVAST http://www.avast.com,

it's free for home users and consistently rates high in independent

tests!

Patch - Ever get that annoying popup from your task bar? Well, it's

not just an annoying message, these things are really important.

Though software and operating system manufacturers try to design and

build their products using security standards and to the highest of

standards they do miss things. These things that they miss result in

potential backdoor access to your computer, holes that give the

would-be hacker or application access to any and all data that may be

on your computer. RedSphere maintains an updated list of patches and

vulnerabilities under the News -> Cyber Security section.

Lock - When you are not using your computer, logout of it or lock it.

If you live in a home with multiple family members you should create

new and unique accounts for each user of the computer. This will

accomplish a few things; first it will create accountability for other

users / children, without a unique account you can't determine who was

visiting certain websites or downloading certain applications. Be sure

that everyone is educated and informed that they need to either lock

the computer or logout of it when they are finished with their

session. If they do not do this, another user could do whatever they

wanted without being held accountable.

Disconnect - The vast usage and adoption of high-speed technologies

such as DSL and cable modems has made the ever-connected PC a more

common thing than not. The more time any computer or system is

connected to the internet the more likely it is to be infected by a

virus, attacked by a worm or hacked by a hacker. This can easily be

mitigated by disconnecting the computer from the internet, this may

mean that you edit your dial-up connections, turn off your computer or

modem, or even disconnect cables.

Backup - Even taking all of the steps mentioned above and beyond,

there will always be the possibility of data becoming corrupt or

otherwise destroyed. Most of us have already experienced at least one

or more times data-loss. Whether a program erroring out while we are

working on an unsaved document, a hard-disk failing, a virus or worm

or even a natural disaster we can protect ourselves cost-effectively

and easily. A large number of home computers now have CD or even DVD

recorders build into them and include software to create backups. CD

and DVD media are but one of many options in the wide world of backup,

others include USB Thumb Drives, External Hard-Disks, Network Attached

Storage and many many other options.

Be Mindful - Simply put, use your noggin! What do I mean when I say

this, doesn't everyone use their noggin? Of course they do, but there

are so many more implications relative to Cyber Security. Don't open

emails from unknown sources, don't give anyone your social security

number or any other Personally Identifiable Information online, don't

send emails containing confidential information, don't install

peer-to-peer software or any of the aforementioned. This topic is a

pretty big one and I'll address in much more depth at a future date!

In closing, there are a great many things that you can do to better

protect your data and security and the above list should give you a

free antivirus software for your home

Free Antivirus Software for your home computer

No excuse for not having Antivirus as you can use a completely free

version of AVG.

AVG Free Edition is available free-of-charge to home users! AVG Free

Edition is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only.

Use of AVG Free Edition within any organization or for commercial

purposes is strictly prohibited.

AVG Free Edition has the following limitations:

* AVG Free Edition cannot be installed on server operating systems

(such as Windows Server 2003), nor can it be used for the scanning

of network drives.

* Scheduling options in the AVG Free Edition are very limited (only

one scheduled update per day, one scheduled scan per day etc.).

* AVG Free Edition receives updates via a lower priority service.

Priority updating via ultra reliable Akamai servers is only

available for purchased products.

* AVG Free Edition does not offer advanced testing options, such as

automatic healing, password-protected archives reporting,

adjustment of scan process priority and many others.

* AVG Free Edition has no technical support!

ex husband gets jail time for keylogger

Ex-husband gets Jail Time for Keylogger

It's taken almost two years but a Schenectady man has finally admitted

to putting spyware on his ex-wife's computer and logging her activity.

David Monty who pleaded guilty to stalking and felony eavesdropping

now faces a sentence of 18 months to 3 years.

Go to jail

According to court documents, Monty created a blog in his ex-wife's

name and disclosed information about her clients. He also emailed this

information and blog links to the five physicians she worked for. He

collected information by intercepting her E-mail, Instant message

conversations and passwords. She was soon fired and had to search for

new employment.

Much of his sentence has already been spent in Schenectady County Jail

and he could be eligible for parole this spring. The victim who said

"It's done and over with and I can get on with my life" also

acknowledged she'll be writing letters encouraging the the parole

board to keep Monty safely behind bars for his full sentence. She also

received a five year order of protection.

As I've written before, use of key logger spyware is despicable. This

software is sold openly as a tool for parents to spy on this kids but

it is more commonly used for illegal and destructive purposes.

Links:

Bits from Bill: WinPatrol 14 Enhances Keylogger Detection

PC World: WinPatrol Adds Keylogger Detection

Scotty Icon Free Download WinPatrol 2007

2007_07_01_archive

2007_08_01_archive

wa lau eh computer spoilt

wa LAu eh... computer spoilt...

i was writing regarding to the last post i posted up

The laptop is not going any better today.

the past 2 days i have been operating on my macbook pro and removing

the memories of the computer out... yes, i found the screwdriver and i

just SCREWED HIM up...

i was too foolish in my thinking, did not much research and acted

recklessly. yesterday i operate, i then realized the hard disk used in

the macbook pro is a SATA hard disk, the hard disk case i have is IDE

one.

so i went online to find the cheapest 2.5 SATA casing, on ebay, 2.99

for the case and 10 dollar postage. i was complaining too expensive,

so i try my luck in the neigbhourhood to see the computer store sell

this type of casing or not.

They sell... but u guess the price

10 dollar?

WRONG!

a bit more 15 dollar?

WRONG!

it was 27.50 for the cheapest i found

27.50 for a case? u daylight robbery or not?

then i realized they did not rob that much to the other 2 shop i ask

later, 30 dollar and 39 dollar....

WA... TA MA DE... i can go online and buy 2 of these cases and cheaper

then buying in sydney kingford... bloody hell...

i come here sell SATA case, enough to make me rich already... these

blood sucker.

with such price, i was SERIOUSLY in doubt...

so the guy offer a 10 dollar screening of my hard disk, so he screened

and tell em my hard disk is protected, need mac software to unlock

now using other people computer, typing my post...

Fuck la, now have to learn a new command call fsck in the reboot of

the laptop

Wa is fsck? U was to fuck then fuck, now fsck? even the word check

2005_05_01_archive

Sanity in the Chaos

I'd like to post on the merits of keeping lists. Now I'm not

ordinarily a list keeper and I'm not one of those people who derive

great satisfaction from crossing things off. But in the midst of

startup land where chaos rules due to the sheer number of things that

need to be accomplished and are being worked on daily, lists are

mandatory. We currently have 3 people working full time and 2 people

part time remote. We've been having one team meeting per week and

develop milestones for the next week. While we don't always accomplish

all milestones and some of these milestones shift, even in the

mid-week time frame, it's incredibly helpful to write them down

somewhere (we use Groove) for all to see.

As the Franklin-Covey guys say, "woosh!"

Posted by Tim Wolters at 8:43 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Startup Velocity

I had forgotten how fast you can move in a startup organization. Nix

that. I had forgotten the feeling of how fast you do move in a

startup. My new company, Collective Intellect has only been around for

4 weeks now. The idea is around providing a new set of indicators and

analysis into the financial service industry. This idea has been

brewing for some time but the accelerating force of leaving a paying

job and working on it whole heartedly is incredible. It's like you've

reached some terminal velocity and all of a sudden a magic wand is

waved and drag drops to near zero.

In the space of these four weeks with a very small team we've made

incredible progress.

* incorporated

* opened bank accounts

* spoken with numerous pundits in the financial industry

* validated the idea

* put together "the pitch"

* signed on industry expert advisors

* had several meetings with prospects

* spoken with about half a dozen venture capitalists

* spoken with about two dozen "angels"

* built out an entire subsystem for the product

* midway through a fairly intensive research effort

* mocked up the gui

2006_11_01_archive

Jonoska review

Further to my post a few days ago, Natasha Jonoska has very kindly

agreed to my hosting a copy of the full review of my book Theoretical

and Experimental DNA Computation.

fix that lcd flat panel monitor

Fix that LCD Flat Panel Monitor

HOW-TO:

Fix a faulty LCD Monitor Power Supply

Problem: You have a LCD monitor that either does not turn on or turns

on and off randomly. There might even be a high pitch squeal when it

is on.

Solution: Replace the power supply of the monitor.

Options:

1) get a new monitor (cost: too much)

2) get a new power supply (cost: too much, that is, if you can even

find one)

3) FIX IT YOURSELF (cost: FREE)

I will show you how easy it is to fix it with the scrap parts you

already have.

Amazon.com Widgets

I received a FREE lcd monitor (remember the cost) that would turn on

but after 15 minutes or so would turn back off and would not turn on

unless it was unplugged then plugged back in. After opening it up, I

noticed there was a bad capacitor on the power supply. So I dug

through all my spare components to find an identical (rated)

capacitor.

When I got it changed out and powered back on, it still had a high

pitch squeal and random power problems. So I just replaced the whole

power supply.

The power supply of the monitor had 6 connections. 3 ground, 2 12volt

and 1 5volt. I have several old computer power supplies, so I used one

of them (cost: Free)

All I had to do was strip it down to what I needed.

Next I mounted the PS on the back of the monitor. Using the existing

mounting points (for wall mount) Make some custom connections (cost:

Free), so the monitor can easily be taking apart.

hi

Hi

computer in pen livescribe pulse

A Computer in a Pen: Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is a computer in a pen! It features a

Samsung ARM 9 (32-bit, 150 MHz) processor, 96 x 18 pixel OLED display,

a high speed infrared camera that takes over 70 images/sec, dual

embedded smartpen microphones for mono recording, 3D recording headset

for stereo recording/playback, and an embedded speaker. It comes with

1 GB or 2 GB of storage.

The smartpen synchronizes the recorded audio with notes written on the

Interactive Dot Enabled Paper with Dot Positioning System (DPS).

Select the written text to playback the corresponding audio. Then

transfer notes to your PC to backup, replay, and share them online.

The Paper Replay Notebook costs around the same price as a regular

notebook, and users can print their own dot paper for free on their PC

printers.

Livescribe is also launching the Livescribe Developer Program to

invite programmers to develop applications for the Pulse Smartpen.

Some applications available soon include handwriting and audio

conversion into digital text, Spanish translator, games, books, and

special education tools for visually-impaired people.

Wow. I could've really used the smartpen to take notes in class!

[Livescribe via Ubergizmo]

Check out the Livescribe Smartpen CNET video:

2007_06_01_archive

The Exception is the Rule

Recently, I was trying to help a client (let me call them

"StartupCompany") mired in conflicts, exceptions, errors, anomalies,

lapses, modifications and other deviations from the norm. These

annoying exceptions were playing tricks with my blood pressure, so I

had to be wired to a wearable blood pressure computer for twenty-four

hours. As if StartupCompany didn't have enough interruptions, now my

wearable computer was inflating a blood pressure cuff at random

intervals throughout the day.

Every time the cuff inflated, I petulantly asked myself: Why can't

they run a project like real people living run-of-the-mill,

low-blood-pressure lives?

That night, I was using the Yellow Pages, and in the A categories in

the Yellow Pages index, I chanced to notice a curious pattern. Here

are the first few items:

Abortion Services and Alternatives. These were the first two entries

in the index. I decided to skip them both, so as not to take sides in

the pro-choice/pro-life conflict. I had enough conflicts within

StartupCompany.

Abuse - Men, Women, Children. I decided to continue my scan of the

index, and this was the next entry. The normal process of family

living involves people loving and respecting each other, communicating

well, and behaving appropriately according to societal norms. But when

people start behaving inappropriately, they need Abuse Services. In

StartupCompany, people normally respected one another, communicated

well, and behaved appropriately according to societal norms. But they

sometimes didn't, and they lacked "abuse services" for coping.

Academies (including private schools and special education). When the

formal education system doesn't provide special knowledge or handle

special cases, private academies and special education are called for.

People within StartupCompany often needed to know things they hadn't

learned in the public schools, but StartupCompany had no provision for

special education.

Accident Prevention. Accidents aren't "supposed" to happen,

StartupCompany had accidents. In order to improve, they needed

processes to prevent accidents and to mitigate their consequences.

Accordions. Despite what some people think, accordions are perfectly

normal, though not everybody learns to play them or appreciate them.

Still, StartupCompany could have used some entertainment to lighten

the mood once in a while.

Accountants. Accounting is also normal, but, if everything always went

according to plan, we wouldn't need to account for things so

carefully. We have to protect our financial well-being from mistakes

and misbehavior, and that's what accountants do - and also what they

should have been doing in StartupCompany.

Acetylene Welding. Some welding is normal, and some is for repairing

things that are not supposed to break - but do anyway. StartupCompany

lacked a "welding team" to handle lots of stuff that broke.

Acrylic Nails. Most normal people have fingernails, so why is there a

nail business? Oh, yes, it's the human interface, and StartupCompany

had to cope with conflicting ideas of what made a system beautiful -

but they had no special beauty experts to resolve the conflicts.

Acting Instruction. We all need to "put on an act" now and then when

we're caught by surprise. StartupCompany's people certainly needed

training in how to behave in improvisational situations, but there was

no acting instruction.

Acupressure/Acupuncture. If we were all healthy all the time, we

wouldn't need medical services, and if "normal" Western medical

services worked all the time, we wouldn't need acupressure and

acupuncture. So, there are not only abnormal services, but

meta-abnormal services - the services when the normal abnormal

services fail - certainly true in StartupCompany.

Addressing Service. Have you ever tried to maintain a mailing list?

Almost all the work is not the mailing itself, but maintaining the

addresses. It's even worse for email, because email services haven't

yet evolved "normal" ways of dealing with changes. Gee, neither had

StartupCompany.

Adjusters. Adjusters, of course, are an abnormal service from the

get-go. Without accidents, we wouldn't need insurance, and if things

stayed on course, StartupCompany wouldn't have needed risk analysis.

But they did.

Adobe Materials and Contractors. Adobe materials may not be "normal"

where you live, but here in New Mexico, adobe is a normal building

method. StartupCompany, too, has its idiosyncratic processes that are

not normal in other projects - and newcomers have to learn about them

or pay the price. But StartupCompany had no special services to bring

newcomers up to speed.

Adoption Services. Yes, sometimes people are not wanted by their

parents, and StartupCompany certainly had some unwanted people. But,

they lacked "adoption" services for moving unwanted people around.

Adult Supervisory Care. "Normal" adults can take care of themselves

without supervision, and normal workers wouldn't need much managing at

all. But StartupCompany had two adults who could not take proper care

of themselves, and the managers spent an inordinate amount of time on

these two out of a hundred.

I stopped there, sobered by my reading. It was now clear to me that

StartupCompany, being a startup, had an overly simplistic picture of

what it takes to run a company. I needed an adjustor to adjust my

blood pressure - I needed to see that my job as their consultant was

to teach them that deviations are normal, and that they (and I) could

do what real people do:

o stop whining and deal with them

o create systems to deal with them

o create systems to prevent them

And, of course, I have to do these three things in my own company -

computer guys come back

2005_02_01_archive

Hello, it's me again, Martha.

I am writing today because Abbie cannot write today.

He is not writing because he lost his computer privileges.

He lost his computer privileges because he did something very bad.

He hurt someone and you are not supposed to hurt anyone.

And someone can be anyone.

I dont think he meant to hurt anyone.

And he didn't mean to hurt someone.

But I told him if he didn't stop running around in the middle of the

night he was going to hurt someone.

And he said ha to me and kept running.

And he ran on the bed, and he wanted to jump onto the windowsill.

I think there were things outside he wanted to see.

I don't know.

I do know that he is just a foolish cat because he didn't look where

he was leaping.

So when he jumped on the bed, he actually jumped onto someone's head

first.

And then he jumped onto the windowsill.

When he was on their head.

So he scratched them.

On the eyebrow.

And what do you know, he hurt them.

And they were sleeping.

I was sleeping, too, right close by.

I had to wake up too because everybody was awake at that point.

And there was bleeding.

They had to clean it up.

Did you know pirates used to paint the floors of their ships red, so

the blood did not show up and upset everybody when there was a fight.

So anyway there turned out to be a really big cut and it looks wicked.

There will be a scar and everything.

Scars are great.

They mean you have had your lumps in a fight and you came out okay.

I suggested an eyepatch even though the cut is above the eye.

Eyepatches are neat but not for too long because I like to see in 3D.

But because he was bad he is not allowed to use the computer for a

while.

This makes him sad because I think he was playing a game that he

really liked.

And now he can't play his game until he apologizes.

He wont apologize.

He didn't apologize for the time when he bit my ear for no reason when

I said good day to him and wasn't it a lovely day.

He didn't apologize for the time when he grabbed the tuna fish from

the bowl and ran and hid and wolfed it down and I got no tuna fish to

eat.

He didn't apologize for the time when he did his business in the

fireplace and not the litterbox.

I don't think he has an apologizing bone in his body.

And trust me he is big enough that he has a lot of bones.

But I'll tell you one thing.

He's very lucky he scratched up the guy and not me.

Because if it was me he scratched up, I would have beaten him up.

Thrashed him soundly and keelhauled him.

As it stands he didn't get beat up.

But he sure got yelled at a lot.

computer performance monitoring tool

Computer Performance Monitoring Tool (written in C#)

After a long long time.. I finally got the time to post a blog (this

is due to my very busy schedule). Today I will talked about measuring

computer performance remotely using WMI classes

Problem at hand: We have this Pentium III server that chokes from time

to time, due to heavy load processes . The server runs several

distributed and web applications. To monitor it and prevent possible

slowdown I decided to create a tool that will track the server CPU%

utilization, Memory Used and Disk Usage levels. The tool will alert

user/administrator when one or all of these variables reached

pre-defined criteria (ie. CPU% >= 90%).

The Solution: Using the WMI classes, the tool will connect to the

remote server and get these informations:CPU, Memory and Disk

using System.Management; //Namespace for to access WMI classes

ConnectionOptions options = new ConnectionOptions();

options.Username = strUserName; options.Password = strPassword;

mgmtScope = new ManagementScope("\\\\" + strHostName +

"\\root\\cimv2",options);

//Get the CPU %

ManagementPath mPath_CPU = new ManagementPath();

mPath_CPU.RelativePath =

"Win32_PerfRawData_PerfOS_Processor.Name='0'";

mObject_CPU = new ManagementObject(mgmtScope,mPath_CPU,null);

//Memory Available (in MBytes)

ManagementPath mPath_Mem = new ManagementPath();

mPath_Mem.RelativePath = "Win32_PerfRawData_PerfOS_Memory";

mc = new ManagementClass(mgmtScope,mPath_Mem,null);

// Disk %

mPath_Disk = new ManagementPath();

mPath_Disk.RelativePath =

"Win32_PerfRawData_PerfDisk_PhysicalDisk.Name='_total'";

mObject_Disk = new ManagementObject(mgmtScope,mPath_Disk,null);

Here's a screenshot of the final product.

Value-added features are processes list, disk collection and user

sessions. This tool was written in C# (Visual Studio .NET). Take note

2007_10_01_archive

Digium is doing things right

Background

Digium is the company behind Asterisk, the popular open source PBX.

Digium was founded in 1999 by Mark Spencer, the creator of Asterisk.

Since then, Asterisk has been deployed around the world on millions on

computers. Despite that fact, Asterisk still does not have a large

market share of the PBX market. Why is this? In the past, there were

many reasons for this:

* No brand recognition of Asterisk

* No proven track record of successful implementations

* Commercial support was needed

* No Linux expertise on staff

* Afraid to use open source software

These concerns were once valid, but today most of them have been

addressed by Digium.

They made Asterisk easy to use

Digium has been working hard to overcome the historically steep

learning curve associated with implementing Asterisk. They have

accomplished this with two major improvements. First, Digium created

an open source software appliance called AsteriskNow! that bundled

Asterisk inside a pre-configured version of Linux. Most of the work

for this appliance was done by the magic pixie dust known as rPath.

Secondly they have developed a simple web-based interface called

Asterisk GUI to configure the PBX. This is a great improvement when

compared to manually editing multiple text-based configuration files!

More recently, Digium has acquired a company called Switchvox. This

was done so that Digium could take advantage of the advanced GUI that

Switchvox had created. The best part about this acquisition is that

Digium is going to be releasing the Switchvox code under the GPL

license! Check out this quote from Mark Spencer:

So as a contrast right, look at what Fonality did. They bought an

open source project [trixbox/asterisk@home] and then turned it into

a proprietary product. What we are trying to do is go the other

way. Take something that started out as a fully proprietary product

and to try to leverage that to bring some additional technologies

into open source.

They offer professional services for Asterisk

Digium now offers a wide range of professional services to meet the

needs of any organization. This includes consulting, training, and

technical support. They also offer a product called "Asterisk Business

Edition", which benefits from the usability improvements listed above.

Digium appliances

Digium has also recently started selling a hardware appliance called

the Asterisk Appliance. This appliance is designed for deployments of

up to 50 users. It supports 8 analog ports, and can process 25

concurrent calls. There are no moving parts in device, which means no

hard drive to crash. Instead, it uses an upgradeable flash card to

store voice-mail, greetings, configuration settings, and recorded

calls. Digium offers three levels of support for the device, including

a 24x7 option.

This appliance is great, but it only serves the small business

environment. I have heard that Digium is working on a larger appliance

that will support hundreds of users. This is a great thing, since it

will allow Asterisk to be deployed in a majority of businesses around

the world. Only the largest deployments would require more than the

this new appliance can deliver.

It was also recently announced that 3com would be selling a 3com

branded Asterisk Appliance. This means that Asterisk will reach a much

larger audience through the 3com brand. 3com is offering support

services for their version of the appliance.

What does the future hold?

Digium has made great strides in making Asterisk both powerful and

easy to use. However, one area that I see lacking is scalability.

Asterisk works great for a few hundred phones, but how about a few

thousand phones, like you might see at a University? The most common

way to increase scalability of Asterisk systems is to use a SIP-proxy

such as SER or OpenSER. For instance, the University of Pennsylvania

is rolling out a 15,000 unit Asterisk-based phone system. To achieve

the scalability they needed, they decided to implement SER along with

Asterisk.

How does Digium expect to support large Asterisk installations if they

require a third-party SIP-proxy that doesn't even offer commercial

support? My guess is that Digium will acquire a SIP-proxy like SER or

OpenSER so that they can offer a complete solution without needing any

third-party software.

Another obstacle that Digium faces is Microsoft. Microsoft is about to

enter the small-business VOIP market with a product called Response

Point. The biggest advantage of this product is that it includes

intelligent IVR, or speech recognition technology. This will allow

users to dial anyone in the phone directory simply by speaking their

name. This commonly used feature could persuade businesses to choose

Microsoft over Digium.

Digium has several options to respond to this threat. First, they can

try to create a working system based on open source projects such as

Sphinx. I have no clue as to how much work this would be, but I expect

that it would be difficult and time-consuming to achieve high-quality

IVR. If you know anything about the current status of Sphinx, please

leave a comment. How well does it currently work? Can it provide a

voice directory feature like Microsoft Response Point does?

The second option for Digium would be to partner with a commercial IVR

company. They are already partnered with Lumenvox, but I am not sure

what this includes. For instance, I do not know if this will provide

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2003_09_21_archive

iSync, iCal updates just days away

Sources said that iSync 1.2 and iCal 1.5 are on the way, and will soon

be posted to Software Update.

Apple is expected to release the updates within the next few days, or

next week. The updates have already been provided to a number of Apple

employees.

iCal 1.5 (build 644) and iSync 1.2 (build 117) will both include

several updates. iCal will feature aesthetic tweaks as well as some

interface changes; the event inspector will be an integrated drawer

instead of a separate window. Users will also be able to customize

calendar colors beyond the presets.

iCal 1.5 will also support different time zones: Users will be able to

control what time zone each event is in on an event-by-event basis,

or, instead, will be able to set the time zone for the entire

application.

The new iCal will require iSync 1.2, and won't work with the older

Version 1.1. iSync 1.2 will offer full support for Symbian-based

phones like the Sony Ericcson P800 and the Nokia 3650, and will work

with iCal's calendar.

Sources said not much else has changed in iSync 1.2, though error

messages include more detailed problem descriptions. For example, one

tester was having problems synchronizing via Bluetooth due to

connection errors, and iSync 1.2 explained that a firewall was

blocking the Bluetooth connection.

2006_07_01_archive

Communication

Yesterday, I taled with my landlady until late.

Actually, I went back home quite late so, the time we started to talk

was already late.

We talked about when she was a young mother.

She said she felt isolation. So she organized the mothers club.

She posted the note on the board in the local shop and gathered the

mothers.

She made a helping system. If a mother take care of other baby, she

got a point and she can also ask help using point.

Mothers can go out easily and feel fair.Moreover, it is free!

Now, sometime, I feel isolation. What shall I do about it?

People need to solve the problems by themselves.

Shall I put the note saying "I am lonly"? Maybe people would consider

me as a mad

.last Saturday, I really wanted to go a pub or club.

I could not find a person who could be my comapny.

I just go on my own.

Well, it is nicer than just stying the room.

I talked with some people and go home bofre 10pm.

Actually, i was satisfied with it.

Just staing there for one hour and talk with some people and go home

and sleep.

If I had company, of course, it mihgt be nicer but still OK.

But if you have some idea to have some drinking friend, let me know!

Theseday, I am often in the computer room at the UCL. Engineering

department building.

If you are my UCL fried, just drop in and see me.

posted by Tomoko @ 3:43 AM 1 comments

Festival

I went to a Festibal at Finsberry park with my landlady.

The name of the festival is "RISE". Do you know?

i did not know this kind of festival before.

According to her, ther are lots of festival in London.

some of them are not free , but still we can find the

nice free festival in london.

At the Festival

We can see the stages which were playing different kind of music.

My landlady is paticulre about African music.

So we watched African stage and Indian stage.

Among the audience, I found some dirty person. I guess he might be a

homeless.

He was also dancing.

Have you ever seen dancing homeless?

is that common in England?

Ther are lost of shops too.

I got a leather brecelet at the price of 2�. it is nice to walk around

and watch them.

My landlady likes Japanese Ainu tribe music. but at this festival,

there was no Aibu tribe music. She is going to attend another festival

next month , which has Japanese Ainu tribe music.

2007_05_01_archive

ASIMOV1

Colin has built a fully functional prototype for the Defcon

competition, ASIMOV1, using two high torque, serial port controlled

servos! He's also got a cool circle detection code working which

identifies white circles against a black background and shoots them

down. Trust me, you wouldn't want to go in front of that robot in a

white underwear! Check out the video above. You'll also see a video

clip in which ASIMOV1 is working as a simple laser guided gun! We've

2006_03_01_digitalhistoryhacks_archive

Brief Hiatus

reason 329 that i cant seem to get post

Reason #329 that I can't seem to get a post out every day

When I pondered becoming a mother, I was full of flowery ideals. I

just figured that the sweet (quiet) baby would just slip right into

our normal, everyday lives.

I seemed to be in denial of the fact that the BABY would one day be a

TODDLER. And that TWO BABIES would someday be TWO TODDLERS.

First, I lost the ability to eat an entire meal without having to get

up six times to retrieve SOMETHING for SOMEONE.

Next, going to the bathroom by myself (let alone with the door closed)

went out the window. I can even do that little chore with a child on

my lap, if necessary. Ah, dignity.

And now? The final straw. I have lost my computer time because someone

(DADDY!!!!) thought it was a good idea to introduce said toddlers to

pbskids.org:

computer updates

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im weighing offer from apple

I'm weighing an offer from Apple

So it's a complicated situation but I want to keep everyone in the

loop. Bottom line is I've received an overture from the Mothership

with a mention of a Think Secret type settlement if I'll stop

impersonating Dear Leader on the Web. Nothing nailed down at this

point but frankly, honestly, I'm tempted to just take it. I've had a

wonderful time doing this blog and have made some great new friends

and I'd miss doing it. Also, in my case there are other parties

involved, most notably my sponsor, with whom I have a contract to keep

doing the blog. That's why I say it's a complicated situation.

Discussions will continue and I probably won't be able to disclose

what we're talking about. Until things get worked out I'll be posting

sporadically at best. To all of you who celebrate Christmas I wish you

a happy holiday. To everyone else, enjoy the time off. Spend time with

your loved ones. Turn off your computer. Remember what's important.

Little hint: It ain't this. Peace out to all, and to all a good night.

alls fair in love and russian computer

All's Fair in Love and Russian Computer Labs

That's right. Getting a computer in the lab is some tricky business.

You have go hunting, stalk your prey carefully, and pounce at the

first possible opportunity.

Okay, so last week was - interesting. The RSL intensive continued, so

I had Russian classes every day from 9:30 until 1:00. Then in the

afternoon and evenings, we had the academic class. Classes only meet

once a week in Russian - but they meet for a very long time. Each

class period is broken into two 1 hour and 30 minute sections with a

twenty minute break in between. So on Tuesday and Friday, I had RSL in

the morning and then other classes until 8 in the evening. It was fun,

let me tell you. And exhausting. And thus, you see, a lack of updates

regarding my life.

Incidently, Galya - my entirely awesome host grandmother - thought

that this schedule was ridiculous, unmanageable, and I thought for a

minute that she was going to call Bryan and inform him that she

thought just that. The word babushka doesn't work for Galya - all the

connotations are wrong. For one thing, she really isn't very old -

early sixties at the most. She reminds me a lot of how Anna was when I

was little. She's very active, independent, funny, and I would not

want to cross her. She doesn't know much English, but she doesn't mind

repeating herself and rephrasing things until I understand - or

resorting to gesturing.

I like my host family (even the psychotic dog is beginning to let me

befriend it), but its difficult readjusting to living in a family

situation. I'm too used to being on my own and taking care of myself.

I didn't manage to convince my host mom - who isn't a morning person -

that I could boil water to make myself coffee in the morning (all

coffee is instant coffee - it makes me sad) for about a week. She gave

in when I needed to leave quite early last Sunday morning for a group

excursion, but for the previous week, she'd get up, fix me some sort

of breakfast, and then go back to bed. My nine-year-old host sister

has started back to school now, so the past week she was up getting

Nastya off to school anyway. However, I'm allowed to do most of my own

laundry - my host mom takes care of the settings on the incredibly

complicated washing machine, but I get to sort, hang up, and put away

my own clothes.

I also have to remember to give my host mom an idea as to where I'm

going and when I'll be back, or else she'll get worried. Very

different from the past three years of dorm life. At the same time,

it's not like being at home - she doesn't care if I'm going to stay

out late (or all night) she just wants to know what my plans are. For

one thing, you really can't stay out late in Maury County - what's to

do? The times I've been out late were the result of going to visit

family or friends and talking until the wee hours of the morning.

Here, there's plenty of things to do, and after a certain point you

have to just spend the whole night out. The Metro stops running at

midnight, and the bridges to the islands from the mainland go up to

allow ships through around 1:30 or 2 and don't go back down until 5 am

or so, so if you go out, you'll probably wind up staying out if you

live on one of the islands. Thus, I got in at 6 am this morning after

going out with a group of girls from the program. Which wasn't a

problem for my host mom - since I had told her that I was going out.

(Actually, I think she was happy that I went out, I think she worries

that I study too much.) And, when all is said and down, walking from

the metro station to the apartment is probably safer at 6 am than it

2007_03_01_archive

Life-Long Computer Skills

In one of my favorite blogs to read "The Blue Skunk Blog" by Doug

Johnson he shares a list of life-long computer skills written by Jacob

Nielson. Here they are:

o Search strategies, like forming good queries and judging relevance

of results

o Weighing the credibility of online information

o Techniques for dealing with information overload

o Writing hyperlinked online text

o Computer presentation skills (nip bad PowerPoint habits in the bud!)

o Workplace ergonomics

o Debugging -- not the heavy-duty stuff, but the logical process of

tracking down errors

o Usability basics, for making informed decisions on a product's ease

of use

This makes SO MUCH sense to me. Rather than teaching how to do

PowerPoint it makes sense to focus on what is a good presentation!

What would you add or subtract from this list?

I want to add asking good questions and using the power of the

computer to find the answers.

Janice

Labels: change, johnson, technology

posted by janice at 7:26 AM 0 comments links to this post

Computers in Classrooms (observations of a sub)

I haven't written for a while about my observations of how computers

are used as I go through many schools as a substitute. That is mainly

because it is basically all the same. So far I have seen three levels

of use:

1. The computers are off most of the time. I suppose they are

occasionally used as a reward.

2. The computers are used as a center. In the best cases the

computers are set up with a certain website and the students have

instructions for what to do. (Starfall and FunBrain are common

sites). It is hard to tell when I am subbing what is really

expected and done on a normal day.

3. In one third grade classroom the computers were not all set up in

one corner or along one wall. They were placed in different

"reading nooks" around the room and it was clear that they were

used for writing because of typed pages and other things showing

around the classroom.

I have also observed how hard it is to use them well. There is so much

going on in a classroom and so much that a teacher needs to be

thinking about. Adding to that whether students are using the

computers well can be overload. We really need to help teachers to use

these powerful tools in ways that promote learning. The center

approach is a step in the right direction. At least they are being

used and everyone gets a chance. But have you ever sat next to a kid

doing one of those games and observed what they are really learning?

In so many of them they have a choice to rack up points somehow and

they figure out how to do it without reading or doing any math. They

are developing some skills, but different ones than most teachers

think they are developing.

Right now I am thinking that if I was in the classroom very early in

the year.... maybe in the first week of school, I would sign up for a

simple online project that would motivate the kids and help them to

learn about using the computer. It might be something that we mostly

do with the whole class like an email project that we send letters as

a class. Then as the year went on I would look for ways to use the

computer for projects that support the curriculum. If a classroom has

5 computers some sharing will have to happen. It might be a centers

approach... or maybe like the Inspired Classrooms approach. But it is

all SOOOOO far from what is happening in most classrooms that I just

that is what computer said

That is what the computer said

On the way to school today I had a near death experience. I was

waiting at a stoplight. As soon as the light turned green I promptly

stepped on the gas. I was running late for my 8am class. Suddenly, a

large yellow school bus roared through the intersection from the

street to my right. It nearly scrapped my front bumper. Obviously, the

school bus ran a red light since I had a green light. I don't need any

direct evidence. It is proof by common sense. Everybody knows that is

the way a stoplight works. My reasoning may seem silly, but we have

learned to trust computers, almost to the point that we don't think

for ourselves.

The other day while surfing the net I came across an interesting

story: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3772215. Basically, a man

at an Indian casino wins $1.6 million from a slot machine. The problem

is that the slot machines are supposedly programmed with a maximum

payout of $2,500. The casino has a sign near the slot machine

advertising this maximum payout. The casino management then tells the

man he really didn't win, there was a mistake.

I am pretty sure this guy won't get $1.6 million dollars. He was in a

tribal casino on sovereign tribal land and thus subject to their laws.

Ethically, I am not sure. I am the type of person that will own up to

a mistake. If I accidentally give someone an incorrect price, I will

apology to all my viewers computer

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2005_10_01_archive

A new email:

"Hello,

I will be celebrating a 25 years anniversary alone I am sure.This Tue

the 25th of Oct is our big 25 years.

But,I don't know who I will be celebrating with...I or my husband..I

is his characters name on-line.

Lets just say that he took me out to buy a Diamond Ring tonight and I

ask him on the way home if it was to keep me away from him for the

weekend and he said,yes!..I said ok I can do that. He even took off

Mon and Tue,and any other time he would be excited to go to the

coast..He said No i don't want to go...

He can't sleep anymore all night long. He has been going to bed about

1 hour later or even 1 1/2 hour later,on a work night!..He gets up

around 4.00 as he says he can't sleep because he is dreaming of

work...NOT,He can't wait to get up to play this EverQuest game.

But,that is not the worst of it.His brother lives with us and has been

out of town on a work assignment. My husband sits there and plays 2

computers all at the same time. He plays his brothers character at the

same time,2 different computers.

He works,comes home and sits on his computer until bedtime. He

sleeps,wakes up,and plays his game. He plays from Fri evening about

5:00pm until 2:00 am, Sat morning. Then he is up on Sat morning about

5:30 and that is him sleeping in...

He then plays for 19 hours straight. Then he is up again at 5:30

am..and all the way until about 11:00 pm. Then the week starts all

over again.Yikes...I never thoughthe could be the one to become

addicted to anything...

The house has suffered,I mow the lawn!!Like one lady said,he is

nothing but a paycheck to me.But,I think he just doesn't understand

how it feels to me. He does not miss me that is apparent to me.

If it is not this game then it would be the TV.His 1st love was the TV

for the 1st 20 plus years of our marriage,now it is just the computer.

He talks to his game buddies more than to me ever.He has said to them

2 times as much as he has ever said to me..

I think there is a problem...I don't care if you put this

on-line..Maybe this is what it will take in order for him to see he

has a REAL PROBLEM.. Don't get me wrong,I know here he is and what he

is doing? But,does he know where I am and what I am doing? Does he

care?"

posted by J at 8:06 PM | 2 Comments Links to this post

This email arrived a while ago, but I felt somewhat uncomfortable

putting it up right then and there because it seemed so (too) raw...

"I am sitting here with tears running down my face. I have just

printed the basic papers required to file for divorce.

Divorce, my 2nd. First from an abusive raging alcoholic. 2nd? From a

once incredibly sweet, kind loving devoted husband who now spends

every waking minute playing EQ. I try to think back on when it all

went wrong... 2 years ago? 3 years ago? Probably even before that when

he was playing other games where they had weekends away for their

Quake tournaments. I thought he was young (he is younger than me) and

he would grow out of it. And in time it seemed he had. Until we moved

back to the States.... He picked up EQ again and so my story of sorrow

picks up here.

I had threatened divorce multiple times this year. He said he would

change. Said he would delete the game. Said he would cut back. Said he

would pay the bills on time. Understood that as my health problems

mounted and my health diminished that my ability to contribute to our

family income also greatly diminished. Knew I counted on him more and

more for support.

I feel trapped. I don't have a job, I don't have an income. We have

become seriously in debt. He still buys additional software packs -

"but they don't cost that much!" $29.95 here....again there. Pays our

bills constantly late - NOT because we didn't have the money, but

because he didn't bother to open up the bills until we get collection

notice calls and letters and I start nagging.

One of my extreme low points? 3 or so months ago, I coyly asked him if

he would join me in the bedroom as I was feeling romantic and hoped to

make love. His response? "Sorry, I can't right now". I asked why...he

said, "I have made arrangements to meet up with others on here"

referring I guess to his guild members.

Turned down for sex to play a computer game with strangers. What does

one tell themself - it's my fault? I've gained weight....my health is

bad, I don't contribute enough. It's so easy to blame myself. Even my

mother quickly jumps on the band wagon. You mustn't interest him

anymore. Why is he so bored with you?

..... I'm so depressed and disgusted and angry and sad and humiliated,

frustrated and bordering on hopeless. Where did our dreams go? Our

future, our mutual goals and hopes? He has no friends. He forgot his

mother's birthday.... He has become detached and cold. And I feel

numb.

Last night, angry beyond belief because I found out that he had just

paid our car insurance and it was due to lapse (the kicker - our car

is at the body shop due to his car accident a week ago) I got onto his

computer and deleted EQ. He had again promised me for days that he was

going to delete it. Refocus on our marriage, refocus on himself. Yet

there was the game still running nonstop on his computer.

And yet, tonight at 2am I find him playing EQ. He had of course

reinstalled it. Told me that sometimes he needs to have downtime and

will be playing the game. I said, well then I guess I will proceed

with filing for divorce. He just grunted and kept playing. Now I am

only worth grunt responses.

And so here I sit. A prior alcohol and drug abuse counselor, knowing

that you can't make threats you don't intend to keep. You can't pour

out the alcohol just like you can't erase the computer game.

Tears stream down my face. I don't know where I will go. How I will

take care of myself. What I will do next. I honestly don't even know

if I care anymore.