Mac's or PC's ? It's not really a question anymore!

First, let me begin this article by stating the following : I was a PC User for 15+ years ; and I didn't really like Mac's running OS 7, OS 8 ; as well as OS 9. Another thing ; I'm tired of getting in conversations about (if) Mac's are better than PC's.

OSX Tiger (10.4) is an awesome operating system ; and make's a Mac seem like a well made old Volvo which always starts - (remember those?) and never locks your keys in the car , where as the PC is more like a cheap built Yugo. It will get you to where you are going - most of the time, but occasionally it fucks up and leaves you stranded. In the work place, this can often be totally unacceptable. I am a web developer, and I need Photoshop to run (properly, every time) or I'll go onto the next platform. That's what happened to me, in the last 2 years. I switched to Mac, because it ran everything I did properly -- allowing me to think / do other things online which were more 'fun'.

You see, when I owned a PC the following things were always important factors:

*Virus Protection
*Anti Pop-up Tool
*Spyware Removal
*Windows Blue Screen Errors
*Restarts / Application Crashes

Now after owning mac's for a last few years ; I've grown to love & respect the California computer company which (should have) been run by Mr.Jobs from day 1. Changes he's made to Apple are visable in all of Apple's products, and most importantly - in it's software as well. And the issue of windows / OSX is a dead one ; Mac's now run Vista / XP dual boot, allowing me to run both (if I wanted to) but I must admit that now that I run OSX --- I don't want to. Windows is a huge memory hog, and the time that it takes to perform the same functions (programs I want to run) is much longer than that of OSX. Ever timed how long it takes for Photoshop CS to open on your PC, then on your Mac? That's the bottom line no one will tell you. Sure, mac's cost more and you'll pay a premium for your hardware.

If that's your biggest gripe, build a PC like I did and get it to run OSX86 (OSX for the PC ). You'll have to have at least a P4 processor, & the Athlon XP will not work for you if you go that route. Oh, and I should mension - it's totally illegal because OSX86 is a 'pirated' (i like the word liberated better) version of OSX built to run on the x86 (PC) platform.

... so why did PC users become so 'ANTI - Mac ? ' I guess only a history tour of computers can solve that for us. I think most PC / Windows users base their opinions of Mac's on Mac OS 7, 8 & 9 ; which accounts for the majority of Apple Mac operating system(s).

Check out this cool photo of Apple's Evolution (1976-2007) :
Apple's Evolution - '76 - '07

Remember the Apple II ? That was my FIRST computer, and I loved it. My dad brought it home for me, and I had a table in my parent's garage for the unit which had been customized into a (portable) which looked more like a suitcase on steriods with a heart monitor sized, amber screen.

Then my uncle bought a Mac SE in '87 (my first Mac experience) ; which I remember as being a hell of a lot of fun. For the times, it was very futuristic, as Apple hardware is today. I remember all of the little black and white games my cousins and I would play on the machine. I think this Mac had a Floppy + 20MB hard drive... ahhh, remember those days ?



The 1040ST Atari Computer

Atari ST would be my next platform, by fate. Yes. Atari made home Computers. No, they weren't junk. I had a 1040ST at the time, with external 20MB hard drive ($2,000) and it was the 1st 16-bit home computer ; a very capable little machine. I even had a color monitor, and this PC was very far ahead of itself for the times. I mean, PC's were still playing 8-bit 'Mario Bros' style games at the time, and the ST could compute games of Sega Genesis graphics quality. 16 bit Sound for games even came out of the monitor's built in speakers ; connecting the sound was easy - it was the same cable as the monitor.

An old Atari 520ST AD

Games were not the only function of my TOS based 1040ST ; connecting an external 2400 Baud modem provided dial up BBS access which was basically our 'the interent' of the time. I had to FIND people whom knew this computer ; which was rewarding in the end. I found a guy named Wes Malestino, in Cotati (near SF) whom really knew his stuff and could fix my ST. I used the wonderful Atari ST for years for word processing, games, programming & graphics. This system rarely crashed, and was great with Lucas Arts games. Here is a pic of the old Atari TOS / GEM Operating system ; which was ROM chip based - no HD for your Operating System needed!

Next we were onto an LC, LCIII and then the color powerbook 520c in 94. Not much had changed, because they all still ran that old flavor Mac OS - which didn't change a whole hell of alot from year to year. Apple would keep 'adding' features, but all in all the look and feel were still the same. It was like what Windows 98 and Windows 2000 look like side by side.... sure, they're different - but they're also the same!

From about 1993 on, I built my own PCs. Yep, they all kinda blur together -- if you are a real tech head you'll know what I mean. There have been hundreds of PCs. There was a sx 33 in there, then a dx 66, then a 133 ; then p3's and P4's, blah blah blah. They were all, well, windows running PCs. Some of them had Registry errors ; some of them had the occasional blue screen error. For the most part they were pretty good machines ; and they did their jobs. My only gripe would be - the consistant time I had to set aside to either prevent / or repair problems which had surfaced from windows related problems.

What do I mean ? Come on guys. Even IF you haven't got a virus in '10 years!' ; it's because you are running Norton or McAffee. Those Programs are total resource HOGS. Watch as you run Norton in your task manager, how much memory it takes up in the background while you use your PC. Sure, you can overcome it - with buckets of RAM.

...and even then, that doesn't save you from that email attachment you just opened in outlook. Sorry Charlie.


Fact of the matter, if (I was) going to make a virus---gee, whom would I make it for? This huge pool of PC users, or this small pool of Mac users ? ...and which is easier ? My Mac wants a superuser password for every application install. It's that simple. I think that's one of the biggest flaws of XP which was corrected in later years (now it asks for permission, which can be easily hacked - w00t!) because it allows applications (well, complete and total crap - really) to install in the background with out you knowing it.


Now I have both a sleek aluminium Powerbook 15" 1.5ghz g4 and a MacBook. I must say they are both quiet, fast, and above all -- dependable. Isn't that what we've all been waiting for ? A dependable, well designed machine which works every time, no exceptions ? How about a machine that runs Windows, or Mac OSX ?

The OS debate is OVER folks ; when Mac's are able to go both ways. If you hate OSX, buy a Mac because it's sexy, quiet, light, sleek and well built with great features - and it will run Windows. If you hate Windows, buy a Mac because it has OSX. Either way, don't ask me about it anymore ; I just want to keep charging you to fix your Windows box when it fucks up.

Old Electricity meters - another FRAUD on Americans which costs over 1 billion / year !

My electricity meter is about fifty years old, and it's likely that yours is too. Even if it's new, it probably uses the same ancient technology as mine. Those meters were created for a world with cheap, abundant power. Well, the world has changed...so why hasn't my electricity meter?

It turns out, that if all United States power companies were to upgrade to new electricity meters today, America would save roughly $35 billion in energy costs over twenty years and it would eliminate the need for around 625 power plants. How could something as simple as an electricity meter suck so bad?

The most significant (though not only) problem with old electricity meters is that they charge you the same amount no matter what time of day it is. Electric utilities keep a constant supply of electricity flowing out into the world in order to maximize the efficiency of the power plants. At night, electricity flies through the grid and, with no one awake to use it, it simply dissipates. Then during peak hours, all electricity produced by large power plants is used. In fact, expensive and inefficient 'peaker plants' have to be turned on daily to meet demand.

But none of that matters to me. Running my dryer during the day costs exactly as much as running it at night. So why should I change?

This is why the great green state of California commissioned a study three years ago, in which they switched a few thousand Californians to a new kind of electricity meter that charged higher rates at peak hours and lower rates at off-peak times.

And now, the results are in. People with programmable thermostats decreased their peak power use by as much as 10%, and no consumers in the study didn't decrease their peak power use substantially. The Brattle Group recently got a hold of this data and they've done some economic analysis that knocked my socks off. Their report, which is where I got the statistics above, is shocking.

New meters that enable "dynamic pricing" programs would decrease the energy use of America by 5% minimum. If broader technology applications were put into place, such as in-home power plants, plug-in hybrid-to-grid technology and other so-called "peak shavers" we could decrease the electricity demand of America by 20% in 20 years!

On top of that, the program would eliminate the need for expensive peaker plants, reduce greenhouse emissions, and reduce or eliminate brownouts. More than that, though, i just makes sense that you'd pay more when demand is higher and supply lower. Isn't that how economics works? Apparently not when you let the snail-paced power companies lead the charge.

Via GreenBiz and The Brattle Group

Microsoft - used a pirated version of Sound Forge 4.5 to make the Windows Tour

Deepz0ne is a very well known cracker, whom cracked the copy protection on Sound Forge version 4.5. Why is this important?

Microsoft has been busted yet again. They (or the sub-contractor whom created the Windows Tour ) have been using a totally pirated, cracked version of Sound Forge to create files that are inside the Windows Tour folder.

These files have been made with Sound Forge 4.5 (The cracked version) first cracked by a cracker called "Deepz0ne".

Deepz0ne was one of the founders of the cracking group "Radium" and cracked the first ever Sound Forge 4.5, for illegal, pirate use. This is amazing news to the tech world ; Microsoft is using pirated software, and not just that -- but to create a product which it has sold around the globe - Windows XP.

It seems that Microsoft have got the pirate copy, and just made the files on that.

How do I find this you ask? Just do the following:

Click on "My Computer" on your desktop.
Double click the C:/ Drive (Local Disk)
Double click the "WINDOWS" folder.
Double click the "Help" folder.
Double click the "Tours" folder.
Double click the "WindowsMediaPlayer" folder
Double click the "Audio" folder

You will then be presented with WAV files. Right click any one of these, and open it with NotePad. Scroll right to the bottom and you should see this:

"2000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5" The first 4 digits may alter, but everything else stays the same.

As you can clearly see, Deepz0ne's cracked SoundForge was used to create these files, which is illegal, because the software is used was a pirated copy of Sound Forge 4.5. Microsoft, got some answers for the thousands of pirates you've put in jail for the very same thing? Do you think that the pirates you put in jail turn as large of a profit using this software as ; well ; YOU for instance ? For a company of your size to use pirated software (is the real crime) and home users who copy MS Word are not the criminals that are profiting from the use of your software titles.

Look it up on your PC, and you'll quickly begin to see the (larger picture) that faces us as a nation of software users.

RIAA is now going after University of Washington Students

The RIAA Is Now Going After University of Washington Students
The below letter was sent to all University of Washington students at 4:03PM 6/25/07:

This message is being sent to all students with approval from the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Life.
_____


Dear Student:

I am writing to inform you of a development that could become a serious issue for some of our students--the law governing downloading and sharing of music and video from the internet. Under copyright law, it is illegal to download or share copyrighted materials such as music or movies without the permission of the copyright owner. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in recent years has taken an aggressive approach to stopping this illegal downloading and file sharing. This has put many students at the nation's colleges and universities at some legal risk. I write first to caution you against illegally downloading or sharing files. Your actions when you do so are traceable and could result in a significant financial penalty to you. Second, I want to inform you about a new process the RIAA has initiated and the University's role in this process.

The RIAA is now sending colleges and universities a letter for each instance they find of a student illegally downloading material from the internet and requesting the university to identify the individual student and forward the letter to him or her. The letter, called an "Early Settlement Letter" notifies the student that he or she has 20 days to settle with the RIAA by going to a designated website, entering identifying information, and paying a set amount, usually between $3,000 and $5,000, but sometimes considerably more. If the recipient chooses not to settle, the RIAA will file a lawsuit and the offer to settle for the amount stipulated is no longer an option.

The University has been notified by the RIAA that we will be receiving a number of these early settlement letters. After careful consideration, we have decided to forward the letters to the alleged copyright violators. We do so primarily because we believe students should have the opportunity to avail themselves of the settlement option if they so choose. Not forwarding the RIAA letter to students could result in their being served with a lawsuit, with no chance to settle it beforehand.

The University is unable to provide legal services to students who have violated copyright law through illegal downloading or sharing. If you receive a letter from the RIAA, we encourage you to engage a personal attorney. If you have questions, please let us know.

We know how tempting it is to download music or movies and share files with your friends. But you need to know that it is illegal to do so and that the consequences can be severe. Please inform yourself of the requirements of the law and please obey it. Otherwise, it may prove costly for you and your family.

Sincerely yours,


Eric S. Godfrey
Vice Provost for Student Life
OVPSL@u.washington.edu

If I had Dana Perino's Job, I'd shoot myself.

Perino stuck by her argument from Friday that President Bush never intended for the executive order to apply to Cheney any differently than it applies to the president’s own office. Asked why Bush was exempted, Perino claimed it would be “awkward” for the president to ask an executive branch agency “to come in and investigate himself.”

On Friday, Perino refused to say whether Cheney is a member of the executive branch. Today, she returned with an answer: like “every vice president,” Cheney has “legislative and executive functions.” Does that mean he is a member of the executive branch? “Look, I’m not a legal scholar,” Perino said, again calling it an “interesting constitutional question.”


Perino claimed ignorance about other key questions in this scandal. She said she didn’t know when President Bush had altered the executive order to exempt Cheney, or why the order was amended in 2003.

Also, Perino rejected a call today from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recuse himself from the Justice Department’s internal debates over whether Cheney is violating the executive order. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Perino.

Transcript:

QUESTION: But, Dana, how could the vice president earlier in the administration argue he didn’t have to turn over records about the energy task force, for example, because he was a member of the executive branch?

PERINO: Ask the Supreme Court.

QUESTION: He clearly stated that.

PERINO: You could ask the Supreme Court, who ruled in his favor.

QUESTION: But he did not say, I’m a member of the legislative branch as well, so I don’t have to — I mean, he clearly stated that there was strong executive power and he didn’t have to turn over these records.

Now, when it suits his interests, he seems to be saying a different legal argument.

PERINO: Look, I’m not a legal scholar. And there’s plenty of them that you can find in Washington, D.C.

But just that very point that you’re making there shows that he has functions in both the executive branch and the legislative branch.

QUESTION: But he didn’t mention those dual functions in the earlier legal arguments at the beginning of the administration. He only used the executive branch argument.

PERINO: Look, you can try to call his office and try to get more information. I’m not opining on his argument that his office is making.

What I can tell you is that the president did not intend for him to be treated separately from himself in this executive order regarding the ISOO office.

QUESTION: So, also though, you mentioned a moment ago that the vice president gets his paycheck from the Senate.

Does the White House then also believe he should get funding for the Vice President’s Office from the legislative branch instead of from the executive branch?

PERINO: I don’t know. These are not decisions…

QUESTION: But you just noted that. You just noted that he gets his paycheck…

PERINO: The reason I noted that is because I’m trying to illustrate the point that he has roles in both the legislature and in the executive branch.

QUESTION: But the National Archives documents they want have to do with his executive branch functions. I mean, the secret documents, one assumes, are from his duties as vice president.

PERINO: If you — in the executive order, the president and the vice president are discharged separately from agencies, in which — it would be awkward if the president, who was the supervisor of this office, was asking that office to come in and investigate himself.

And in this executive order, the president is saying that the vice president is not different than him.

QUESTION: And when did he decide that, just in 2003?

I mean, he…

PERINO: In terms of the executive order? I need to go back…

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: He did it for a couple of years before that. He just was doing that out of the good of his heart, or…

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: I think so.

QUESTION: OK.

(inaudible) also has a 30-year history, which is part of why the National Archives oversight office is concerned because other presidents had provided — other White Houses had provided this information. And so it really is a break with a pattern.

Why is that necessary?

PERINO: I don’t know why the E.O. was amended in 2003. And I can try to go back and find out.

What I do know is that when the president wrote this E.O., it’s clear in the reading of it that he does not intend for the vice president to be seen as separate from himself. And they are not asking someone who is subordinate to them to come in and investigate them. And I think that the ISOO office has had only a complaint about the Vice President’s Office, not about other places within the executive branch.

And so that can be resolved either by the Justice Department or, as I am telling you as the president’s spokesman, he did not intend for the vice president to be seen as separate from himself.

QUESTION: Was the president satisfied that Alberto Gonzales has not responded yet after five, six months of a request by this office to have this issue mediated?

PERINO: I think — I have not asked the president if he’s concerned about that. And I would ask you to call over to Justice Department to find out about their…

QUESTION: Should Alberto Gonzales recuse himself because he was White House counsel?

PERINO: No, I don’t think that’s necessary.

QUESTION: I mean, if the argument was so clear that you’re making about he wasn’t part of the agencies, then why didn’t he make that argument coming back? That’s not the argument he made.

PERINO: I don’t know why he made the arguments that he did.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: It might not have been clear to them. And I don’t know all the discussions that they had back and forth between the Vice President’s Office and ISOO.

What I’m telling you is that the — in the reading of the E.O. and in asking about the interpretation of it, that’s the answer I’ve got.

Homeland Security ( DHS ) Government Computers Exposed to Hackers

The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to Congress.

In one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. The agency's headquarters sought forensic help from the department's own Security Operations Center and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team it operates with Carnegie Mellon University.

In other cases, computer workstations in the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration were infected with malicious software detected trying to communicate with outsiders; laptops were discovered missing; and agency Web sites suffered break-ins.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said such problems undermine the government's efforts to encourage companies and private organizations to improve cyber security.

"What the department is doing on its own networks speaks so loudly that the message is not getting across," Thompson said.

Congressional investigators, expected to testify Wednesday during an oversight hearing about the department's security lapses, determined that persistent weaknesses "threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of key DHS information and information systems," according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office being released later in June.

The Homeland Security Department's chief information officer, Scott Charbo, assured lawmakers his organization was working to prevent such problems.

"We need to increase our vigilance to ensure that such incidents do not happen again," Charbo wrote in testimony prepared for Wednesday's hearing. "The department takes these incidents very seriously and will work diligently to ensure they do not recur."

The computer problems disclosed to the House Homeland Security subcommittee occurred during fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006, and occurred at DHS headquarters and many of the department's agencies, including TSA, the Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Customs and Border Protection and others.

The subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., said break-ins to government computer networks and theft of information are "one of the most critical issues confronting our nation, and we must deal with this threat immediately."

All the problems involved the department's unclassified computer networks, although DHS officials also have acknowledged to lawmakers dozens of incidents they described as "classified spillage," in which secret information was improperly transmitted or discussed over nonsecure e-mail systems.

Microsoft - the biggest software bully on the block

Microsoft threatens its Most Valuable Professional

Who said you could improve our software?

By Will Watts
Published Tuesday 5th June 2007 10:25 GMT

What's the best way to attract a pile of threatening lawyers' letters from Microsoft? Sell pirate copies of Windows? Write a DRM-busting program?

Londoner Jamie Cansdale has just discovered a new approach. He had the temerity to make Redmond's software better.

As a hobby, Cansdale developed an add-on for Microsoft Visual Studio. TestDriven.NET allows unit test suites to be run directly from within the Microsoft IDE. Cansdale gave away this gadget on his website, and initially received the praises of Microsoft.

In fact, Microsoft was so pleased with him, it gave him a Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) award, which it says it gives to "exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their high quality, real world expertise with others".

However, his cherished status did not last. In December 2005, he started getting emails from a Microsoft executive called Jason Weber. The problem was that TestDriven.NET supported the Express edition of Visual Studio. Express is the cut-down version that anyone can download for free from the Microsoft website. It is limited in various ways, and is intended only for hobbyists and students. Everyone else is supposed to shell out for the paid-for versions.

In fact, as a .NET hobbyist himself, Cansdale says he used Express to develop TestDriven.NET. Ironically, he only got access to a fancier version of Visual Studio as part of his MVP goody-bag.
But MS doesn't want you supporting Visual Studio Express with your add-ons.

Weber wrote to Cansdale that he had violated Express licence agreements: that he was accessing APIs not available to those who only had the Express version of Visual Studio, or that he had reverse engineered APIs - also forbidden.

Cansdale said from the off - and has stuck by this - that he only used APIs in the public domain, published on Microsoft's MSDN website for all to see. He invited Weber to be specific about the API/licence term that was violated.

Weber blanked him, and then began an exchange of increasingly acrimonious correspondence, which can be read on Cansdale's website here and here.

In the long sequence of emails that followed, Weber treated Cansdale with immense condescension:

"Craig Symonds is a busy Microsoft executive. We're fortunate that we could get 30 minutes with him for a conference call"; consistently evasive when asked to identify the specific legal problem, meanwhile trying to bully Cansdale to withdraw Visual Studio Express support and remove his "hack".
Cansdale took legal advice, and bravely dug in his heels.

At one point, in a splendid example of the right hand being unaware of who is getting the left hand's index finger, Cansdale got a letter presaging another MVP award only to have it hastily withdrawn the next day (find this incident the bottom of the second page of emails.)

Finally, Microsoft lost patience, and in the last few days has hit Cansdale with a flurry of lawyers' letters, also available on his website [see here and here]. Cansdale now has until 4pm Wednesday 6 June to disable the Visual Studio Express features of his product.

We await the deadline with bated breath.

Meanwhile, a quiet word in the ear of any earnest young programmer who is considering downloading a copy of Visual Studio Express and slaving deep into the night, striving hard in the Microsofty ways, in the hope one day of earning the glorious rank of MVP.

Do ya feel lucky, punk? ®

There is no flag large enough to cover up the shame of killing innocent people