uvageek

So there are days when my brain is mush and I wander aimlessly the web searching for random information. A waste of time by all means but at least there are those gems of information that make you chuckle from time to time. The subjectively put together 25 Worst Web Sites is quite interesting, though I must agree that the Number 1 worst web site truly is just that. Check it out for yourself sometime.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127116-page,8-c,sites/article.html#

So I do have to say that I’m quite impressed by Timex and their Triathlon watches that they offer that come with a GPS locator. Can we just say, “Whoa.” I mean seriously that’s pretty wild that you have the ability to a) be traced, but also b) be able to track distances that you’re running for training purposes all the more accurately. I surmise that it’s still commercial grade in which case it could be anywhere within 150 foot radius but for all intensive purposes that rocks. And the price, still pretty low as the highest seems to be $300. Check it out at: http://www.timex.com/bin/detail.tmx?item=753048113774#

So after the long wait, Microsoft Office Beta 2 Technical Refresh (TR) was finally released on Thursday, though with not quite the fanfare that I expected it to be released with. A week earlier it was released to Microsoft staff (according to blog postings) and so it was inevitable that it would be released to the public shortly there after. Nonetheless, I’m quite pleased with a lot of the bug fixes (though I’ve yet to confirm all 6400 of them ;)), the polished UI among other things and the fact that the crash rate has decreased ten fold (primarily thinking of PowerPoint when opening up files from a SharePoint site) or the flickering refresh issue I was having with InfoPath.

All in all, I’m a happy little kid with this upgrade Fortunately it looks like it expires on May 15, 2007 which gives me ample time to procure the software once it actually comes out on market. So far as Kramer would say, “I’m lovin’ every second of it!”

Have you ever pondered what files you have on your hard drive that are filling your drive up and yet you just can’t seem to place your finger on them. You’re not sure if they’re log files for something or if you’ve just not realized how much money you’ve been spending on iTunes perhaps.

Look no further than Sequoia Treemaps. Different than what you’re probably accustomed to, but actually quite nice to help you visually see just what’s clogging your system.

Now if you’re looking for something a little more granular because hey you’re more of a numbers kind of person, then maybe you should check this out:

Folder Size for Windows Explorer

Pretty snazzy Windows Explorer plugin that allows you to see just how clogged some of your directory structures are.

Dark Reading - Host security - Researchers Find Technique to Quickly Erase Hard Drives - Security



If you’ve ever been worried about someone snooping your data perhaps after you turn your work laptop into your employer when you leave, you might want to consider using something like Jetico’s BCWipe. It’s a program that essentially writes 1’s and 0’s all over your harddisk, making the data unretrievable without some super pricey equipment. Additionally it usually can take up to a day to wipe say a 100 GB harddrive (yes, even a 7200 rpm drive will take a while).

So sure, that’s fine if you’ve got a couple of days to plan things and you need to make sure that your drive is wiped before you leave, but what about those instances where you just need to wipe something immediately? Well, it would seem that the US Government is investigating doing something about this. Many times there is a need for the immediate disposal of media, and using something like the aforementioned software just doesn’t cut it. Enter the media disposal system reference in the aforementioned article. Holy smokes that’s sweet. But my curiousity is why not just use a good ole fashioned microwave? I mean, when I was in college, I used a microwave to destroy CDs from time to time and they were more or less unreadable. However, by no means do I suggest this, as it is hazardous to both your health and a fire safety issue.The only caveat to the story is that the device weighs a whopping 125 pounds. Granted it mentions that they’re working on putting together something that is a little more transportable, but for the time being it would seem that’s a little out of the question.

df20060517.jpg (JPEG Image, 640×480 pixels)

So I came across this reading Schneier’s blog… hilarious

Comcast rolls out Motorola SBV5220 cable modem with battery backup - Engadget

So I have to say that I’m mildly amused by the fact that Comcast finally realized that they needed to provide a battery backup of some sort for the media delivery system. Notice, I’m not calling this a cable modem even though Engagdet seems to call it that. Considering that all forms of media - internet, television and telephony - are delivered through their “cable modem” I find it interesting that they’re including their “modem” with battery backup. Probably the most critical reason to do this is obviously so that if the power goes out and there’s an emergency you’re able to dial the proper authorities. Verizon of course put this in from the get go, making it external the modem itself.

So yeah, Comcast, you’re behind still oh and your speed isn’t too peppy…

So I get a kick out of the fact that now four months later that Alex Bosworth’s article on 6 Places to use AJAX is coming up on digg.com. Maybe there’s hope for me afterall?

Nonetheless, I find it interesting that there is such an outcry for using Ajax anywhere and everywhere. On the discussion boards that I read on a regular basis, I hear people talk about how it would be great to start programming all of their applications with Ajax mixed in. It’s interesting to see this idea put forth mostly because it’s completely useless to think that way.
I remember writing a simple form program a year ago for a friend and doing it all in Javascript so that it would have form validation, embedding it in code that would then be displayed on the page. My friend came back and said, “But why not write it entirely in PHP?” Sure, PHP was what the server was using for its backend application server, but JavaScript worked perfectly fine for what the need was.
I see this occurring more and more with regard to Ajax. There’s a need for it here and there such as Alex mentions, but there are times where it’s basically pointless to have such code included when it adds a level of complexity that some coders aren’t ready for and in some instances becomes so much of a hindrance to the end user that it drives people to other sites in search of the information for which they seek.

So over at the SWING group, a part of the Computer Science department at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, there’s a group working on a project known as PERM - Practical End-host collaborative Residential Multihoming framework.
Yes, not your usual perm, not the kind that you wear in your hair, unless of course you’ve got an 802.11 network router interweaved in your french braid.
So what does this mean? How is this useful? Well, in some cases if you’re good friends with your neighbors, it allows you to truly maximize the bandwidth that you have and extend the range of your wireless device that you use to connect while at home. And for those of you that don’t know your neighbors well, but you can see that they’re one of the 30 wireless networks nearby, you are essentially extending the hand of friendship, getting to know your neighbors maybe and exchanging WEP/WPA keys and getting your groove on with this PERM.
What do you mean there are multiple networks in your neighborhood? Well in the case of the northern Virginia neighborhood that I reside in, there are approximately 30 802.11b/g networks that I can pick up, though I’m pretty confident that we’re the only 802.11a network in the neighborhood.
So what’s the point? Check out the PERM project, test it out, play with it, extend your mobility and really get the best bandwidth for your buck. Sure it probably invalidates all of the internet providers terms of service that you signed when you started your service with the company, but hey it couldn’t hurt to try it out as a scientific experiment right?

So this previous evening one of my roommates and I were tinkering around with Mozilla Firefox and came across the “about:mozilla” link that takes you to an easter egg page with a quote from the Book of Mozilla, 7:15.
Pretty hilarious quote from the fictious book that the developers of Mozilla would include this in the browser. And sure, this might not be new news, but it’s something that I doubt most Firefox users know about, so it’s time for Firefox User Awareness Day - April 17.