Jennifer Garner (Hi-res)

Five pages of high resolution Jennifer Garner Photos (safe for work).

Christmas Blast Off!

Michael got a rocket from his sister for Christmas. We went out and launched it about a half a dozen times. He said it was "awesome!"

Self-Heating Individual Serving Coffee Cans

Straight out of the "what in the heck?" department comes the self-heating individual serving coffee can. A chemical reaction between calcum oxide (quicklime) and water inside the can itself (not mixed with the coffee I presume) heats it to 145 degrees for up to 30 minutes at the touch of a button. It's said to be safe, recyclable, and relatively cheap considering the new technology and gimicky-nature ($2.25 per 10 oz can). It's expected to move to hot chocolate, soup, and other foods after the initial coffee buzz (pun intended).

CNN reports Microsoft may CHARGE for security!

CNN reports that Microsoft may charge extra for security software. Hmmm, get rid of any real competition in the browser market, embed your browser deep into the OS, leave it wide open to hacks and exploits, then charge extra to fix it! Thanks guys...

IBM's "Linux Client Migration Cookbook"

IBM's guide to switching to Linux for the Desktop. If you've ever read an IBM Redbook, you know what you're in for, but there's a lot of good information included. I like that fact that this book is on planning and implementation. These guys think the process through completely, not just theoretically. The Redbooks have never been accused of skimping on info. The PDF comes in at 268 pages and is free.

Supercharge Your Universal Remote w/JP1

Hifi-remote.com has an article called JP1 - Just How Easy Is It? that covers the basics of this grassroots technique of completely customizing universal remote controls beyond the capabilities of their built in programming buttons. With JP1, you have control over what buttons send what code, etc.

Schneier's tips for "Safe Personal Computing"

Bruce Schneier lists his personal rules for safe computing. These are all good ideas.

Safe Personal Computing

I am regularly asked what average Internet users can do to ensure their security. My first answer is usually, "Nothing--you're screwed."

But that's not true, and the reality is more complicated. You're screwed if you do nothing to protect yourself, but there are many things you can do to increase your security on the Internet.

Two years ago, I published a list of PC security recommendations. The idea was to give home users concrete actions they could take to improve security. This is an update of that list: a dozen things you can do to improve your security.

• General: Turn off the computer when you're not using it, especially if you have an "always on" Internet connection.
• Laptop security: Keep your laptop with you at all times when not at home; treat it as you would a wallet or purse. Regularly purge unneeded data files from your laptop. The same goes for PDAs. People tend to store more personal data--including passwords and PINs--on PDAs than they do on laptops.
• Backups: Back up regularly. Back up to disk, tape or CD-ROM. There's a lot you can't defend against; a recent backup will at least let you recover from an attack. Store at least one set of backups off-site (a safe-deposit box is a good place) and at least one set on-site. Remember to destroy old backups. The best way to destroy CD-Rs is to microwave them on high for five seconds. You can also break them in half or run them through better shredders.
• Operating systems: If possible, don't use Microsoft Windows. Buy a Macintosh or use Linux. If you must use Windows, set up Automatic Update so that you automatically receive security patches. And delete the files "command.com" and "cmd.exe."
• Applications: Limit the number of applications on your machine. If you don't need it, don't install it. If you no longer need it, uninstall it. Look into one of the free office suites as an alternative to Microsoft Office. Regularly check for updates to the applications you use and install them. Keeping your applications patched is important, but don't lose sleep over it.
• Browsing: Don't use Microsoft Internet Explorer, period. Limit use of cookies and applets to those few sites that provide services you need. Set your browser to regularly delete cookies. Don't assume a Web site is what it claims to be, unless you've typed in the URL yourself. Make sure the address bar shows the exact address, not a near-miss.
• Web sites: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption does not provide any assurance that the vendor is trustworthy or that its database of customer information is secure.
• Think before you do business with a Web site. Limit the financial and personal data you send to Web sites--don't give out information unless you see a value to you. If you don't want to give out personal information, lie. Opt out of marketing notices. If the Web site gives you the option of not storing your information for later use, take it. Use a credit card for online purchases, not a debit card.
• Passwords: You can't memorize good enough passwords any more, so don't bother. For high-security Web sites such as banks, create long random passwords and write them down. Guard them as you would your cash: i.e., store them in your wallet, etc.
• Never reuse a password for something you care about. (It's fine to have a single password for low-security sites, such as for newspaper archive access.) Assume that all PINs can be easily broken and plan accordingly.
• Never type a password you care about, such as for a bank account, into a non-SSL encrypted page. If your bank makes it possible to do that, complain to them. When they tell you that it is OK, don't believe them; they're wrong.
• E-mail: Turn off HTML e-mail. Don't automatically assume that any e-mail is from the "From" address.
• Delete spam without reading it. Don't open messages with file attachments, unless you know what they contain; immediately delete them. Don't open cartoons, videos and similar "good for a laugh" files forwarded by your well-meaning friends; again, immediately delete them.
• Never click links in e-mail unless you're sure about the e-mail; copy and paste the link into your browser instead. Don't use Outlook or Outlook Express. If you must use Microsoft Office, enable macro virus protection; in Office 2000, turn the security level to "high" and don't trust any received files unless you have to. If you're using Windows, turn off the "hide file extensions for known file types" option; it lets Trojan horses masquerade as other types of files. Uninstall the Windows Scripting Host if you can get along without it. If you can't, at least change your file associations, so that script files aren't automatically sent to the Scripting Host if you double-click them.
• Antivirus and anti-spyware software : Use it--either a combined program or two separate programs. Download and install the updates, at least weekly and whenever you read about a new virus in the news. Some antivirus products automatically check for updates. Enable that feature and set it to "daily."
• Firewall : Spend $50 for a Network Address Translator firewall device; it's likely to be good enough in default mode. On your laptop, use personal firewall software. If you can, hide your IP address. There's no reason to allow any incoming connections from anybody.
• Encryption: Install an e-mail and file encryptor (like PGP). Encrypting all your e-mail or your entire hard drive is unrealistic, but some mail is too sensitive to send in the clear. Similarly, some files on your hard drive are too sensitive to leave unencrypted.

None of the measures I've described are foolproof. If the secret police wants to target your data or your communications, no countermeasure on this list will stop them. But these precautions are all good network-hygiene measures, and they'll make you a more difficult target than the computer next door. And even if you only follow a few basic measures, you're unlikely to have any problems.

I'm stuck using Microsoft Windows and Office, but I use Opera for Web browsing and Eudora for e-mail. I use Windows Update to automatically get patches and install other patches when I hear about them. My antivirus software updates itself regularly. I keep my computer relatively clean and delete applications that I don't need. I'm diligent about backing up my data and about storing data files that are no longer needed offline.

I'm suspicious to the point of near-paranoia about e-mail attachments and Web sites. I delete cookies and spyware. I watch URLs to make sure I know where I am, and I don't trust unsolicited e-mails. I don't care about low-security passwords, but try to have good passwords for accounts that involve money. I still don't do Internet banking. I have my firewall set to deny all incoming connections. And I turn my computer off when I'm not using it.

That's basically it. Really, it's not that hard. The hardest part is developing an intuition about e-mail and Web sites. But that just takes experience.

Cube: Zero Trailer

Here's a (low quality) trailer for upcoming Cube: Zero, the prequel to the awesome Cube and (lesser quality but still good) Cube 2: Hypercube.

Wow...

Here's a well-done slideshow of what our troops lives are like. Touching pictures.

Blockbuster Ends Late Fees in 2005

This is the beginning of the end in my opinion. We are on the verge of a fundamental change on how society expects to access media. We are showing (with our dollars) that there are better ways to access media than to drive to a store, pick from what's left, and then pay a penalty when we're late getting it back. Blockbuster is scrambling to make changes in order to keep their customer base. Netflix is a good start. Blockbuster is trying to out-Netflix Netflix, but I think physical media is on its way out. I've seen video on demand. I've seen broadband speeds. I've seen horrible digital rights management schemes (that will fail). Consumers and movie studios will need to eventually settle on a comfortable common ground. My guess is it won't be the way either side wants it and it won't be quick, but I think 2004/2005 will be remembered as the timeframe when the change started. Here's an MSNBC article covering the Blockbuster announcement.

Killing the 5 Myths of Linux

A great response to the 5 Myths of Linux.

Myth #1 - “Linux is hard to install.”
Myth #2 - “Linux is free and therefore unsupported.”
Myth #3 - “Linux is for techies and does not have an interface like Windows.”
Myth #4 - “There is not much software developed for Linux available.”
Myth #5 - “To use Linux I have to give up my Windows software and buy new software.”

How to Install Debian

Here's a two part (part 1 and part 2) article on installing Debian Linux. Normally I wouldn't even bother since there are quite a few other How-To's for this, but I thought this one touched on some important (or at least not too common) aspects of a Debian Install. Part 1 focuses on the actual install while part 2 focuses on getting the best performance from your drives, configuring sound, configuring video, and configuring printing.

Half-Life 2 Causes Motion Sickness (Updated)

I felt particularly "whimpy" feeling sick after watching Half-Life 2the first time, and I have felt that way after playing for a long time (well over an hour) a couple of other times as well... Seems I'm not alone. The suspect? Narrowed FOV (field of vision). Apparently normal human vision is around 180 degrees, in Half-Life 2, it's set to 75 degrees (Counter Strike: Source is set to 90). So in effect, you're running around with tunnel vision. It's an interesting read.

See also: here, here, and here.

Update: Even CNET is covering the story!

From the CNET forum: The reason people get motion sickness from playing half life 2 more often than in other games is that it has an uncommon field of view (fov) this is the angle of how many degrees the player can see from side to side on screen at one time. Most First Person Shooter games have a fov of 90 degrees. The default in Half Life 2 is 75 degrees. In effect, Half Life 2 is slightly more "zoomed in" than other games. For experienced gamers used to the standard 90 degrees, the different field of view can be disorienting causing motion sickness. The way to solve this problem is to change Half Life 2’s fov to 90. Go into options and go to keyboard, hit advanced options and enable the developer console “~” then go back into the game and press the tilde “~” key to enter the console. Type these commands:

sv_cheats 1
fov 90

To return the fov back to default enter fov 0 into the console.

Stanford Confirms: Linux Has Fewer Bugs!

This WIRED NEWS article says after a four year analysis of 5.7 million lines of Linux source code, the Linux kernel programming code if better and more secure than the programming code of most proprietary software.

Linux 2.6 Kernal has 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code. Commercial software typically has 20 to 30 bugs for every 1,000 lines of code according to experts. This means that if Linux Kernal 2.6 was a commercial product, it should contain 114,000 to 171,000 bugs. Just a thought... Windows XP (a commercial product) has 40 million lines of code. :)

Knoppix 3.7 Released

Knoppix 3.7 is out, here's a quick review of it from OReillynet.com. There's a new "live installer" option that lets you install new software even when running Knoppix from the CD. Each package is temporarily installed to a RAM-mounted volume.

apt-get primer

Newsforge has a decent apt-get primer giving lots of info behind the single most powerful command for Debian (and it's derivatives) GNU/Linux. Worth a read if you run Debian.

Half-Life 2 Completed (Movie)

Here's a CD-sized video file of a guy sailing through the entire Half-Life 2 game in about 3 hours. He obviously focused on speed as opposed to the "experience". Many enemies were avoided/left alive, many optional areas were left unexplored, but also many super short-cuts were divulged. There are a couple sections in the canal that he cut out minutes of gameplay simply by exploiting an unexpected fence jump or long range barrel explosion to open a gate. I only watched the first parts of the game (that I'd already seen). Reminds me of the video of the guy beating Quake I in like 19 minutes or something...

Network Area Storage: Cheap AND Easy!

Have an old P200 lying around? Wanna shove some big hard drives in it and plop it on the network to make an instant NAS server? Then you need NASLite. All you need is an old machine, floppy drive, network card, and some big ol' drives to plop in it. It boots/runs from floppy. It comes in Samba (Windows File Sharing protocol), FTP, and NFS flavors (100mbit and gigabit versions). This is a nice way to reuse old hardware. Impressive!

All Original Movie Ideas Thought Of...

So here are trailers for the new versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (first impression: ick) and Speilberg's War of the Worlds (first impression: this could be good) for your comparing pleasure.

Google Suggest (Beta)

Try out Google Suggest (beta). It suggests search topics as you're typing in the Google keyword field. This does not seem to work on Opera 7.6 (not sure about earlier Opera versions) but it works fine in IE and FireFox.

History of Windows (Very Interesting)

Here's a very interesting (and long) article discussing the history of Windows and why it's having such problems with malware now and what Microsoft is doing to fix it. The article also discusses *nix and MacOS and how they may be left behind by not learning from Microsoft's mistakes. I'll say it again, this is a loooong article.

Name That Tune!

Play a game of Name That Tune with any artist you like. Just type their name in the upper right hand corner and be presented with a multiple choice quiz of their music. Pretty slick! (It's been getting hit pretty hard, so expect some "too busy" errors until things settle down).

Have you seen this Super Cop?

Check out this hilarious video clip of a Supercop.

The History of Linux

Here's an interesting History of Linux article. Definitely a good read.

Hints for Santa... Updated!

An elf called saying he needed to gather some ideas for Santa...

Sean: A nice set of drillbits, Return of the King (Extended Edition) to complete my collection, the Matrix Collection (10 DVDs!), a dowel jig, and Half-Life 2 (the silver package) to put my new graphics card to good use...

Christy: candles, bath supplies, anything (surprise her) etc...

Michael: Legos Knights Kingdom, newer Bionicles (note the lid shape), Leap Pad books, etc

McKenzie: My First Leap Pad books, dress ups, books, her own computer (joke),

Maggie: a clipper set, and plenty of rawhides...

Sopranos Fashion (Behind the Scenes)

HBO.com has an interesting behind the scenes look at Dressing the Sopranos. It is interesting to see how much thought goes into each character's "look" and to read some interesting costume rules that were followed when deciding who wears what.

Virtual Memory Guide v4.1

Adrian's Rojak Pot posted a new version of their very nice virtual memory guide. If you're interested in optimizing your virtual memory configuration, read this guide!

FireFox, Opera, & IE Keyboard Shortcuts Chart

Here's a handy chart showing the keyboard shortcuts for the various browsers.