earobinson.blogspot.com

yup I did move my blog

2007-05-17T21:10:00.000-04:00

Ill move it back when I can have rss feeds for each tag

Moving my blog ... maybe

2007-04-10T11:48:00.000-04:00

Well Im going to try out wordpress again, so as of now you can check out my blog at www.earobinson.wordpress.com

April Laptop Screenshots

2007-04-03T12:46:00.000-04:00

With Windows

Without Windows

Adopting Ubuntu - Linux switch can be painless, free

2007-03-24T10:46:00.000-04:00

March 23, 2007
By David Conabree

The author is a regular reviewer of new high-tech gear and longtime computer user.

In all the "switcher" TV ads that the folks in Apple's marketing department have come up with, the choice is always the same. Go with the clunky and complicated Microsoft Windows machine, or pick up the hip and sleek designer Apple computer running the Mac OS (hip and sleek short form for "operating system"). They're good ads — heck, I've even gone to Apple's website just to watch them.

But there is another choice out there that a lot of people simply aren't aware of because there's no slick marketing campaign behind it.

For many people, e-mail, web surfing, picture editing, listening to music, making spreadsheets and basic word processing are just about all they do with their computers. Today's Macs and Windows PCs are impressive machines indeed, but their power — and price — can be overkill for the average computer user. If you're looking for a new computer and you're not sure whether to go Windows or Mac, I'd suggest also paying some attention to the "L" word.

No, not that "L" word. I'm talking about Linux.
A brief history of Linux

For those of you not familiar with the world of Linux, let me give you the Coles Notes version. Some time ago, a rather creative software engineer in Finland decided he wanted to build a new computer operating system in his spare time. In what ended up earning him a near god-like status in the "geek" hierarchy, Linus Torvalds and a growing group of volunteers eventually did the highly improbable, putting together a new kind of operating system that could go head to head with the software that companies like Microsoft and Apple have spent millions developing.

Torvalds then went and gave his software, called Linux, away to anyone who wanted to use it or tinker with it, so long as they agreed to openly share any changes or improvements they made. Since that time, dozens of flavours of the Linux operating systems have come out, and the majority of them are utterly free. They're also stable, secure, easy to use, and generally not plagued by spyware and viruses the way commercial operating systems are.

Now, back to our story.
Ubuntu

Linux, and more specifically the free "Ubuntu" version, has come a long way in the past few years and is well worth considering for basic computing.

Best of all, it won't cost you a penny to try it out.

Like many Linux distributions, the entire Ubuntu operating system is available as a free "Live CD" you can download from the internet. Just burn the file [called an "ISO"] to a CD, and that's it ... you're ready to try Ubuntu on any home or business PC. Alternatively, you can pay a small shipping fee and have an Ubuntu disc delivered to you by mail.

Either way, reboot your Windows machine with the disc in the CD drive, and rather than starting up Windows, the computer will run Ubuntu directly from the CD. This means that your entire Windows installation, including all of your personal files, are left entirely untouched — nothing is "installed" over the existing content on your machine. Once you're finished trying Ubuntu, just take the CD out, reboot and your PC will start Windows exactly as it did before.

So what is it like?

Amazingly, Ubuntu feels much like Windows. I have converted several friends to Ubuntu over the years and every one of them has had the same opinion — everything is where you think it should be if you're familiar with a Windows computer.
Software

The Linux operating system comes with great open-source software, and the icons for them are right there on your desktop where you'd expect to find them. Want to write a memo? Ubuntu comes with Open Office, a full (and free) office software suite that works with Microsoft documents, such as spreadsheets, text files and presentations. For browsing the internet, you get Firefox, the same browser I use now for both my Windows and Mac machines. Play music in the Rhythmbox Media Player or play your videos in Totem — again, both included for free.

With the exception of gaming, which is limited, almost all of the average person's basic computing needs are well looked after with this package. I've used the last three versions of Ubuntu on my main portable web-surfing computer for years just to avoid viruses and spyware (as the vast majority of these nasty programs are written for Windows), and I have yet to be disappointed.

With the exception of gaming, which is very limited, almost all of the average person's basic computing needs are well looked after with this package.

If you like it, you can load Linux permanently onto a cheap "bare bones" PC from your local computer store, saving yourself a chunk of cash that you'd otherwise have to spend on an operating system, software and high-powered hardware. The Ubuntu software is free, although there is an option where you can buy several years' worth of support and troubleshooting if you feel you'll need some extra help.

I've also "resurrected" several old machines using Ubuntu and various other versions of Linux that are far more compact and less memory intensive than Windows or the Mac OS, so they don't need as much computing power to run them. It's amazing to see how quickly you can breathe new life into an old beige-box geezer and save it from the landfill, rather than junk it because it doesn't have the power to keep up with the latest commercial operating system.

The "Damn Small Linux" version actually comes in at a paltry 50MB for the entire operating system, complete with basic software to cover most daily computing needs — it's great for getting more use out of old desktops or notebooks.

Ubuntu, however, is far slicker and more powerful than these trimmed-down versions of Linux. If you're new to the Linux world and want to compare the experience to Windows or the Mac OS, I highly recommend Ubuntu as the best place to start. It will cost you nothing to try out, and you might just be surprised at how good "free" really is.

Source

The French Parliament switches to Ubuntu

2007-03-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

The French Parliament looks to be the next big Ubuntu switcher according to reports. Recently the Parliament produced an official government report that recommended the use of free software over proprietary software. The switch to free software is expected to provide a substantial savings to the tax-payers according to the government study.

Following this recommendation two companies, Linagora and Unilog, have been selected to provide the members of the Parliament as well as their assistants new computers containing free software. This will amount to 1,154 new computers running Ubuntu prior to the start of the next session which occurs in June 2007.

More detailed information can be read in French at ZDNet.fr and latribune.fr. There is also an article available in English from November 2006 pertaining to this same exact report at ZDNet.com.

Source: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/814

Ya ubuntu!

Netvibes announce the Universal Widget API

2007-03-09T13:09:00.002-05:00

Hello! The long-awaited Netvibes Universal Widget API has been released today!

Since our announcement, you've been thousands to subscribe to our announcement list and we thank you!

We believe at Netvibes that UWA can really change the way we produce and develop widgets. We've been working hard to release it. As you know, the Universal Widget API will replace the Mini-Module API that was used on Netvibes.

The launch of the UWA effort starts with a new website, a great documentation and of course some cool examples. You will then be able to implement your widgets on Netvibes, and also to have them running on Google IG and Apple Dashboard. As promised, more platforms are currently in the process of being supported. The Opera and Vista support are just a few weeks away.

As you...

Source: http://blog.netvibes.com/?2007/03/09/125-new-developer-website-preview-of-universal-widget-api-uwa

This is what its all about!

2007-03-09T13:09:00.001-05:00

My .vimrc file

2007-03-04T22:26:00.001-05:00

" Author: Edward Andrew Robinson
" Email: earobinson@gmail.com

" Mouse
:set mouse=a

" Backup
:set backup
:set writebackup

" Search
:set hlsearch

" Line numbers
:set number

" Syntax
:syntax on

" Indentation
:set autoindent
:set expandtab
:set tabstop=4

Blue Man Group on Global Warming

2007-03-03T23:44:00.001-05:00

Farmer's confession to undercover cop on murders

2007-01-24T00:25:00.000-05:00

KILLED 49 WOMEN AND FED THEM TO MY PIGS

Farmer's confession to undercover cop on murders

By Ryan Parry And Vanessa Allen

A PIG farmer accused of being Canada's worst serial killer confessed to killing 49 women, a court heard yesterday.

Robert Pickton allegedly told an undercover police officer: "I was going to do one more, to make it an even 50."

Pickton, 56, is said to have picked up the women, mostly prostitutes and drug addicts, from Vancouver's red light district.

He is alleged to have taken them back to his remote 17-acre farm, where he butchered them.

He is then said to have put their bodies through an industrial woodchipper and fed their mince to his pigs, some of which were later slaughtered and sold into the human food chain.

Jurors were warned that details of the crimes would be "like a horror movie" and relatives of the victims began to cry as the case was opened.

The court heard that a police interviewer had suggested he was caught because he hadn't cleaned up blood properly. He is said to have replied: "I was going to shut it down. That's when I was just sloppy. Just the last one."

...

Original Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=i-killed-49-women-and-fed-them-to-my-pigs-&method=full&objectid=18516513&siteid=94762-name_page.html

Having just read The Innocent Man 978-0-385-51723-2 (0-385-51723-8) I find that they are using a confession to undercover cop as evidence a bit creepy.

This term im taking

2007-01-16T16:08:00.001-05:00

CSC336H1

CSC343H1

CSC369H1

IBM Breaks Patent Record, Wants Reform

2007-01-11T19:48:00.000-05:00

"IBM set the record for most patents granted in a year for 2006. At the same time, IBM points out that small companies earn more patents per capita than larger enterprises and pushes for reform to address shortcomings in the process of patenting business methods: 'The prevalence of patent applications that are of low quality or poorly written have led to backlogs of historic proportions, and the granting of patents protecting ideas that are not new, are overly broad, or obvious.' And the company has been committing itself to a new patent policy: 'Key tenets of the policy are that patent quality is the responsibility of the applicant; that patent applications should be open to public examination and that patent ownership should be transparent; and that business methods without technical content should not be patentable.'"

Source: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/11/2134221&from=rss

UK in plastic electronics drive

2007-01-04T09:28:00.000-05:00

UK firm Plastic Logic has said it will build the world's first factory to produce plastic electronic devices.
The Cambridge-based company has secured $100m (£50.6m) venture capital funding for the German plant.
Once built it will manufacture circuits crucial for the development of novel gadgets such as electronic paper.
Unlike silicon, plastic circuits can be made using simple printing techniques and could dramatically reduce the price of consumer electronic goods.
The factory will be built in Dresden, known for its strength in silicon technology.
Plastic spin-out
Plastic Logic is a spin out from Cambridge University and has been developing plastic electronic devices since 2000.
The firm is working on "control circuits" that sit behind screens on electronic displays. In particular, it is working on the electronic circuitry for "electronic paper" displays.
These flexible devices can store the text of thousands of books or newspapers and could one day replace paper.
Industry experts forecast the market for plastic electronics could be worth $30billion by 2015.
When it is built in 2008, the new factory could produce one million control circuits in a market that is tipped to expand to 41.6 million units in 2010.
The factory will be backed by funding from Oak Investment Partners and Tudor Investment.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6227575.stm

Bug In blogger

2007-01-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

I have been talking with people on this thread about blogs being marked as spam and I have now made an entry in the google bug tracker as well as these screenshots and video.

2006-12-21T11:13:00.000-05:00

This is a test of how well google docs lets you post to your blog.

Report: Patent Law Stifles Drug Innovation

2006-12-21T11:08:00.000-05:00

A report by the General Accounting Office concludes that current patent law discourages drug companies from developing new drugs by allowing them to make excessive profits through minor changes to existing pharmaceuticals. While pharmaceutical research and development expenses have increased by 147% since 1993, applications for approval of "new molecular entity" (NME) drugs, or drugs which differ significantly from others already on the market, have risen only 7%. According to the report, the majority of newly developed medicines are so-called "me-too" drugs, which are substantially similar to existing drugs, are less risky than NMEs drugs to develop, and which "offer little in the way of therapeutic breakthroughs."

Under existing patent law, these "me-too" drugs can receive new patents separate from the already existing drugs they are based on, allowing drug companies to make substantial profits without signficantly enhancing the quality of drugs available on the market. According to the report, "the ability of drug manufacturers to easily obtain patents for minor changes to products, or to receive patent exclusivity for new uses of existing products, have reduced incentives to develop new drugs."

Commenting on the report, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that existing patent law allows drug companies to drive up their profits at the expense of patients needing innovative treatments. "The findings in this new GAO report," said Senator Durbin, "raise serious questions about the pharmaceutical industry claims that there is a connection between new drug development and the soaring price of drugs already on the market. Most troubling is the notion that pharmaceutical industry profits are coming at the expense of consumers in the form of higher prices and fewer new drugs."

In his own statement on the GAO report, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) touted a bill he has co-sponsored with Senator Mike Enzi, which would provide grants to scientists focused on developing innovative drugs.

Source: http://www.acsblog.org/ip-and-tech-law-report-patent-law-stifles-drug-innovation.html

Something Awful Search

2006-12-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

I have created two Google custom search engines to search the somethingawful.com, currently the archive search is not working but I think the other one is working great, and I would love to get some feedback.

Link: http://www.edwardandrewrobinson.com-a.googlepages.com/somethingawfulsearch

Google "did you mean..." suggestion inappropriate

2006-12-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

While researching the history of mafia in Rhode Island, I did a search for "RI mob" - look what Google recommends! Oh, won't somebody please think of the children! LOL

Search for this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=RI+mob&btnG=Google+Search

Source: http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_did_you_mean_suggestion_inappropriate_HILARIOUS

ePassports 'at risk' from cloning

2006-12-18T10:21:00.000-05:00

The ePassport is one of the many measures pursued by the United States and governments internationally after the horror of 11 September.
It will, we are promised, keep the unwanted and dangerous outside our borders, while streamlining entry for those welcome to come and visit.
But as the implementation of the scheme gets underway it is becoming clear that there could be serious problems with it.
With the old passport, we knew where we stood. If you lost it you knew you had lost it, but with the new, machine readable passports the story is very different.
When you take a digital photo the image is, in effect, a code, which means that however many prints you make they are all exactly the same.
Five-minute replica
So when Lukas Grunwald and Christian Bottger realised they could clone the new ePassport they were pretty sure it would be identical to the original, and undetectable. So how did they do it?
The chip inside the ePassport is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip of the type poised to replace the barcode in supermarkets.
The good thing about RFID chips is that they emit radio signals that can be read at a short distance by an electronic reader.
But this is also the bad thing about them because, as Lukas demonstrated to me, he can easily download the data from his passport using an RFID reader he got for 200 Euros on eBay.
Lukas is less forthcoming about where he got what is called the Golden Reader Tool, it is the software used by border police and it allows him to read the chip on his ePassport, including the photo.
Now for the clever bit. Thanks to a software he himself has developed, called RFdump, he downloads the passport's data onto his computer and then onto a blank chip.
Using a standard off-the-shelf component you can just buy at a component store you can have a cloned ePassport in less than five minutes.
Security risks
When the cloned ePassport is read and compared to the original one it behaves exactly the same.
The UK Home Office however dismissed the ability to get hold of the information on the chip.
A spokesman said: "It is hard to see why anyone would want to access the information on the chip.
"Other than the photograph, which could be obtained easily by other means, they would gain no information that they did not already have - so the whole exercise would be pointless: the only information stored on the ePassport chip is the basic information you can see on the personal details page."
The spokesman said the chip was one part of the security features of the ePassport.
He said: "Being able to copy this does not mean that the passport can be forged or imitated for illegal or unauthorised use.
"British ePassports are designed in such a way as to make chip substitution virtually impossible and the security features of the passport render the forgery of the complete document impractical."
According to Lukas Grunwald of the consulting company DN-Systems an ePassport holder is more at risk from someone trying to steal their data.
"Nearly every country issuing this passport has a few security experts who are yelling at the top of their lungs and trying to shout out: 'This is not secure. This is not a good idea to use this technology'".
DN-Systems' Christian Böttger also believes the system was set up in a hurry.
"It is much too complicated. It is in places done the wrong way round - reading data first, parsing data, interpreting data, then verifying whether it is right.
"There are lots of technical flaws in it and there are things that have just been forgotten, so it is basically not doing what it is supposed to do. It is supposed to get a higher security level. It is not," he said.
Danger
A European Union funded network of IT security experts has also come out against the ePassport scheme.
Researchers working within the Future of Identity in the Information Society (FIDIS) network say European governments have forced a document on its citizens that dramatically decreases security and increases the risk of identity theft.
RFID chips can be read at a short distance and tracked without their owner's knowledge, while the key to unlocking the passport's chip consists of details actually printed on the passport itself.
It is almost like writing your pin number on the back of your cashpoint card.
"The basic access control mechanism works based on information like the number of the passport, the name of the passport holder, the date of birth and then other data which are simply readable by anyone who looks on the passport," said Professor Kai Rannenberg of Frankfurt University.
"If you have that information and put the respective software into the reader, the reader can overcome the basic access control of the passport."
The experts say it is not too late to roll back and rethink the ePassport.
If not, the danger is obvious - that a scheme, the declared aim of which is to increase our security, could well do the exact opposite.

Original Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6182207.stm

Anti Net Neutrality Commercial on TV

2006-12-16T18:59:00.000-05:00

This commercial was on TBS. Its probably the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen from a commercial.

Feel free to contact the NCTA (the ad's sponsor):

National Cable & Telecommunications Association
25 Massachusetts Avenue, NW - Suite 100
Washington, DC 20001-1413
Phone: (202) 222-2300

http://www.ncta.com/ContentView.aspx?contentId=40

Brian Dietz is SVP of Communications
Phone: (202) 222-2358 Fax: (202) 222-2351
bdietz@ncta.com

Rob Stoddard is SVP of Communications & Public Affairs
Phone: (202) 222-2350 Fax: (202) 222-2351
rstoddard@ncta.com

Daniel Brenner is SVP of Law & Regulatory Policy
Phone: (202) 202-222-2445 Fax: (202) 222-2446
legaldepartment@ncta.com

http://www.ncta.com/Biographies.aspx

For more info on net neutrality check out http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/vint-cerf-speaks-out-on-net-neutrality.html

Google Fixes Yahoo-Copied Splash Page

2006-12-12T10:05:00.000-05:00

At 5:06 pm this evening we wrote that Google had apparently stolen the content and the look of a Yahoo page promoting IE7, even showing the Yahoo toolbar with the Yahoo logo blurred out. Six hours later, Google has replaced the site in question with an entirely new one. This one thankfully shows the Google Toolbar prominently installed.

I can only imagine the email strings being fired around Google HQ this evening. New site is below. Robert Scoble, who has lots of experience with PR headaches of this kind while working for Microsoft, gives some advice to Google.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/60138256/

This to me seems like an admission of guilt

Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!?

2006-12-11T22:31:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if this is stupidity, laziness, or a mix of both, but check this out.

Back when IE7 launched, Yahoo! created a customized version and began to market it

to our existing IE users. The "splash page" looked like this:

Today it seems that Google has similar intentions. So similar, that they decided to basically copy our page and slightly Googlify it. If you look, the design, layout, and most of the text are the same!

WTF is that about?

Was some product marketing person so uninspired that he or she decided it was "good enough" to just copy us?

Seriously, click those images and look at the full-sized versions. They're remarkably similar. And I've checked with our PR group to make sure that this was just a template that Microsoft gave to all partners. It's not.

Yikes. Even the toolbar in the Google version of the picture has bits of Yahoo still in it.

Source: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/008122.html

Can this really be true, If it is shame on google :(

Edit: well I did more digging and this is the original image from the google site found at http://www.google.com/toolbar/ie7/getie7.gif

Now check out the zoomed in version of that image

Still not convinced look at this

Now all we need to check is that yahoos site came fist.

Yup a very sad day for google

Seeking Iran Intelligence, U.S. Tries Google

2006-12-11T13:48:00.000-05:00

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.

Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way -- by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nuclear," three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.

Policymakers and intelligence officials have always struggled when it comes to deciding how and when to disclose secret information, such as names of Iranians with suspected ties to nuclear weapons. In some internal debates, policymakers win out and intelligence is made public to further political or diplomatic goals. In other cases, such as this one, the intelligence community successfully argues that protecting information outweighs the desires of some to share it with the world.

But that argument can also put the U.S. government in the awkward position of relying, in part, on an Internet search to select targets for international sanctions.

None of the 12 Iranians that the State Department eventually singled out for potential bans on international travel and business dealings is believed by the CIA to be directly connected to Iran's most suspicious nuclear activities.

"There is nothing that proves involvement in a clandestine weapons program, and there is very little out there at all that even connects people to a clandestine weapons program," said one official familiar with the intelligence on Iran. Like others interviewed for this story, the official insisted on anonymity when discussing the use of intelligence.

What little information there is has been guarded at CIA headquarters. The agency declined to discuss the case in detail, but a senior intelligence official said: "There were several factors that made it a complicated and time-consuming request, not the least of which were well-founded concerns" about revealing the way the CIA gathers intelligence on Iran.

That may be why the junior State Department officer, who has been with the nonproliferation bureau for only a few months, was put in front of a computer.

An initial Internet search yielded over 100 names, including dozens of Iranian diplomats who have publicly defended their country's efforts as intended to produce energy, not bombs, the sources said. The list also included names of Iranians who have spoken with U.N. inspectors or have traveled to Vienna to attend International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran.

It was submitted to the CIA for approval but the agency refused to look up such a large number of people, according to three government sources. Too time-consuming, the intelligence community said, for the CIA's Iran desk staff of 140 people. The list would need to be pared down. So the State Department cut the list in half and resubmitted the names.

In the end, the CIA approved a handful of individuals, though none is believed connected to Project 1-11 -- Iran's secret military effort to design a weapons system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The names of Project 1-11 staff members have never been released by any government and doing so may have raised questions that the CIA was not willing or fully able to answer. But the agency had no qualms about approving names already publicly available on the Internet.

"Using a piece of intel on project 1-11, which we couldn't justify in open-source reporting, or with whatever the Russians had, would have put us in a difficult position," an intelligence official said. "Inevitably, someone would have asked, 'Why this guy?' and then we would have been back to the old problem of justifying intelligence."

A senior administration official acknowledged that the back-and-forth with the CIA had been difficult, especially given the administration's desire to isolate Iran and avoid a repeat of flawed intelligence that preceded the Iraq war.

"In this instance, we were the requesters and the CIA was the clearer," the official said. "It's the process we go through on a lot of these things. Both sides don't know a lot of reasons for why either side is requesting or denying things. Sources and methods became their stated rationale and that is what they do. But for policymaking, it can be quite frustrating."

Washington's credibility in the U.N. Security Council on weapons intelligence was sharply eroded by the collapse of prewar claims about Iraq. A senior intelligence official said the intelligence community is determined to avoid mistakes of the past when dealing with Iran and other issues. "Once you push intelligence out there, you can't take it back," the official said.

U.S., French and British officials came to agree that it was better to stay away from names that would have to be justified with sensitive information from intelligence programs, and instead put forward names of Iranians whose jobs were publicly connected to the country's nuclear energy and missile programs. European officials said their governments did not rely on Google searches but came up with nearly identical lists to the one U.S. officials offered.

"We do have concerns about Iranian activities that are overt, and uranium enrichment is a case in point," said a senior administration official who agreed to discuss the process on the condition of anonymity. "We are concerned about what it means for the program, but also because enrichment is in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution."

The U.S.-backed draft resolution, formally offered by Britain and France, would impose a travel ban and freeze the assets of 11 institutions and 12 individuals, including the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the directors of Iran's chief nuclear energy facilities, and several people involved in the missile program. It would prohibit the sale of nuclear technologies to Iran and urges states to "prevent specialised teaching or training" of Iranian nationals in disciplines that could further Tehran's understanding of banned nuclear activities.

The text says the council will be prepared to lift the sanctions if Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA's director general, concludes within 60 days that Iran has suspended its enrichment and reprocessing of uranium and has halted efforts to produce a heavy-water nuclear energy reactor.

Many Security Council members are uneasy about the sanctions. The Russians and the Chinese -- whose support is essential for the resolution to be approved -- have told the United States, Britain and France they will not support the travel-ban element of the resolution, according to three officials involved in the negotiations. Russia is building a light-water nuclear reactor in Iran and some people on the sanctions list are connected to the project.

"The Russians have already told us it would be demeaning for people to ask the Security Council for permission to travel to Russia to discuss an ongoing project," a European diplomat said yesterday.

U.S. and European officials said there is room for negotiation with Russia on the names and organizations, but they also said it is possible that by the time the Security Council approves the resolution, the entire list could be removed.

"The real scope of debate will be on the number of sanctions," one diplomat said. "Companies and individuals could go off the list or go on."

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000959.html?nav=rss_nation

Breaking Benjamin "The Diary of Jane"

2006-12-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

The Diary Of Jane - Breaking Benjamin

If I had to
I would put myself right beside you
So let me ask
Would you like that?
Would you like that?

And I don't mind
If you say this love is the last time
So now I'll ask
Do you like that?
Do you like that?

No
Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
So tell me how it should be

Try to find out what makes you tick
As I lie down
Sore and sick
Do you like that?
Do you like that?

There's a fine line between love and hate
And I don't mind
Just let me say that I like that
I like that

Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
As I burn another page
As I look the other way
I still try to find my place in the diary of Jane
So tell me how it should be

Desperate, I will crawl
Waiting for so long
No love, there is no love
Die for anyone
What have I become

Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
As I burn another page
As I look the other way
I still try to find my place
In the diary of Jane

mmmm foot food

2006-12-05T00:43:00.000-05:00

ok so ignore how ugly and rude this guy is, and the part of the video where he eats something he peals off his own foot (1:39:00), the ideas are good all the same so lets look at them

Not So Silly String In Iraq

2006-12-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

American troops in Iraq have become masters of improvisation, like bolting jury-rigged armor to humvees to shield themselves from sniper fire and shrapnel. Lately, an even more novel item has joined their battle kits. Stratford, N.J., mom Marcelle Shriver recently got a call from her son Todd requesting ... Silly String. Marines working with his unit in Iraq had shown the Army combat engineer how it can be used to detect trip wires. Before searching buildings, for example, personnel spray doorways from at least 10 ft. away with streams of foam--and see if they're snagged by barely visible wires, which are often affixed to bombs. The Army acknowledges the off-label use, and Marine spokesman Captain Jay Delarosa says, "We force Marine trainees to improvise." Shriver is raising money to mail string to Iraq (aerosol cans are haz-mat and costly to ship). So the next time you waste string at a party, remember it could save a life.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1561143,00.html

Psiphon Now Available For Download

2006-12-01T13:14:00.000-05:00

"Project Psiphon has been released for public download under the GPL. CNN has coverage of the Canadian research project that 'works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does — China, for example.' While this idea is certainly nothing new to Slashdot, the fact that software like Psiphon is becoming publicly available is interesting. For a quick simplified 'How it works,' Psiphon has a Flash demonstration." Not a moment too soon, apparently. China is moving to assign IDs to bloggers, to register their real identities and track their statements online.

Source: http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/01/1446238&from=rss

Tutorial: http://psiphon.civisec.org/PsiphonAug232006.html

Damn Straight Go U of T

Me

2006-11-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

From Me

Bug In blogger beta still not resolved

2006-11-29T20:53:00.000-05:00

Well I previously posted about a bug in blogger beta and the funny thing is google emailed me to tell me it had been resolved but it still has not been. Wow thats sad :( More info can be found here http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-publishing/browse_thread/thread/6ff86ddce4e0a23b

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! War on Drugs

2006-11-29T01:02:00.000-05:00

French parliament dumping Windows for Linux

2006-11-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

France's gendarmes and Ministry of Culture and Communication have done it, and now members of the country's parliarment are about to switch to open source.

Starting in June 2007, PCs in French deputes' offices will be equipped with a Linux operating system and open-source productivity software.

The project, backed by parliament members Richard Cazenave and Bernard Carayon of the Union for a Popular Movement party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on Linux, with OpenOffice.org productivity software, the Firefox Web browser and an open-source e-mail client.

A spokesperson for the parliament's administration said a decision as to the choice of Linux distribution and e-mail client hasn't yet been made. Currently, some of the parliament's servers have been running Linux, with Apache Web servers and the Mambo content management system.

The project was the subject of a study by technology services company Atos Origin, whose conclusions convinced the French National Assembly to make the switch.

"The study showed that open-source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to the needs of MPs (members of parliament) and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the associated migration and training costs," the parliament said.

Open-source supporters have welcomed the decision. Benoît Sibaud, president of April, the association for the research into and promotion of open-source computing, said the decision to migrate to open source will enable the French parliament to have greater control over its information technology without depending on any one vendor and to make better use of public money.

This will be the first case of a French public institution switching its PCs to a Linux operating system. Previous open-source initiatives concerned servers, as was the case with the Minstry of Agriculture, and with OpenOffice and Firefox, which were adopted by France's gendarmerie.

Source: http://news.com.com/French+parliament+dumping+Windows+for+Linux/2100-7344_3-6138372.html

The Great Firewall of Canada

2006-11-24T10:34:00.000-05:00

"Canadian carriers Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, TELUS, and Videotron have all opted in to a blacklist, dubbed Project Cleanfeed Canada, provided by Cybertip.ca, the Canadian tip-line against child exploitation. The idea of having a national blacklist sends shivers down my spine. I'm a pessimist, I believe that any form of censorship will eventually be abused despite it's good intentions." Besides engtech's post on the subject, Dr. Michael Geist has some considered comments about this issue. From that post: "Critics are quick to draw parallels to Internet censorship in countries such as China. However, those countries involve state-based content blocking, with no transparency or legal recourse. In fact, several democracies - most notably Australia - have established limited blocking rules, while British Telecom, the UK's largest ISP, voluntarily blocks child pornography as part of its CleanFeed program. Even with various legal safeguards, many Canadians would undoubtedly find the blocking of any content distasteful. Yet to do nothing is to leave in place an equally unpalatable outcome that silences those would speak out against unlawful hate speech for fear of personal harm."

Source: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/24/054220&from=rss

Bug In blogger betta

2006-11-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

I have recently been experimenting with setting up a blog to post all the songs played on edge102 what I found was that my blog was marked as spam (no problem it does have a high post count) but the funny thing is that after typing in the word verification as to notify google that my blog is not spam, I'm asked for my password. Its at this point that the bug arises, google will not accept my password no matter what. If I enter the wrong password they tell me so, if I enter the correct password, (the one I used to log in to make the post in the first place) the screen refreshes and they again ask me for my password.

I hate bugs :(

Homemade sub captured with 3 tons of cocaine

2006-11-20T23:48:00.001-05:00

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) -- Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.
Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just 6 feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.
The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles (166 kilometers) off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula.
"This is the first time in the country's history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts," Berrocal said in a statement.
U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, FBI and Colombian officials aided Costa Rican authorities in the operation, Berrocal said.
Two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan were arrested and taken to the United States, since they were captured in international waters, Berrocal said.
Officials took the submarine to a Costa Rican Coast Guard station and were trying to determine its origins, the Security Ministry said. It was found with several tanks of gas, but Costa Rican authorities said the vessel, which had a bailer to keep out water, probably did not travel far.
So far this year, Costa Rican authorities have seized 18 tons of cocaine.
In March, the Colombian navy seized a 60-foot fiberglass submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean for transportation to Central America and on to the United States. Three people were arrested and two speedboats seized during the operation, but no drugs were found.
Colombian authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has become the top method of transport in recent years, as radar systems have made it difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/11/20/costa.rica.sub.ap/index.html

Noam Chomsky talks on the Iraq war

2006-11-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

Nine Inch Nails - Fuck You Like An Animal

2006-11-15T00:50:00.000-05:00

NIN - Everyday is Exactly the Same

2006-11-15T00:27:00.000-05:00

Desktop refreshed

2006-11-14T23:03:00.001-05:00

Posted by Mendel Chuang, Product Marketing Manager

Every once in a while, our products go through a change that we just can't wait to get out to you. That's the case with Google Desktop 4.5, which introduces a visual refresh of the Sidebar and some Google Gadgets. The cleaner and now transparent Sidebar integrates more seamlessly into your desktop environment while still providing convenient, at-a-glance access to all sorts of personalized information. This version is also compatible with the latest software such as Microsoft Vista, Office 2007, and Mozilla Firefox 2.0. There are more details on the Google Desktop Blog.

Google Checkout ready to go international?

2006-11-10T15:24:00.001-05:00

Since I live in Canada, purchasing or selling items on Google Checkout is not an option. I really wanted to check out the new "email invoice" feature they just announced today, but I'm unable to sign up as a seller. Bitter, I decided to poke around in the source code to see what I could find. [...]

Still no Canada?

Google to make it easy to download your data

2006-11-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

BobB writes to tell us that Google is promising to make the data they store for end users more portable and is urging other companies to do the same. From the article: "Making it simple for users to walk away from a Google service with which they are unhappy keeps the company honest and on its toes, and Google competitors should embrace this data portability principle, Eric Schmidt said at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco."

Source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/08/165211&from=rss

test of the email posting

2006-11-06T13:12:00.000-05:00

test of the email posting

Blog has been updated

2006-11-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Today I moved my original blog to earobinson-old.blogspot.com and my beta blogspot to earobinson.blogspot.com. I wounder what this will do to my page rank (currently 4), also I have setup a subscribe feature for my google reader and should shortly link that to my blog.

Update: the old blog will still have all the entries from this blog forwarded to it.

nsa uses linux

2006-11-03T00:01:00.000-05:00

As part of its Information Assurance mission, the National Security Agency has long been involved with the computer security research community in investigating a wide range of computer security topics including operating system security. Recognizing the critical role of operating system security mechanisms in supporting security at higher levels, researchers from NSA's Information Assurance Research Group have been investigating an architecture that can provide the necessary security functionality in a manner that can meet the security needs of a wide range of computing environments.

End systems must be able to enforce the separation of information based on confidentiality and integrity requirements to provide system security. Operating system security mechanisms are the foundation for ensuring such separation. Unfortunately, existing mainstream operating systems lack the critical security feature required for enforcing separation: mandatory access control. As a consequence, application security mechanisms are vulnerable to tampering and bypass, and malicious or flawed applications can easily cause failures in system security.

The results of several previous research projects in this area have been incorporated in a security-enhanced Linux system. This version of Linux has a strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture incorporated into the major subsystems of the kernel. The system provides a mechanism to enforce the separation of information based on confidentiality and integrity requirements. This allows threats of tampering and bypassing of application security mechanisms to be addressed and enables the confinement of damage that can be caused by malicious or flawed applications.

Linux was chosen as the platform for this work because its growing success and open development environment provided an opportunity to demonstrate that this functionality can be successful in a mainstream operating system and, at the same time, contribute to the security of a widely used system. Additionally, the integration of these security research results into Linux may encourage additional operating system security research that may lead to additional improvement in system security.

This work is not intended as a complete security solution for Linux. Security-enhanced Linux is not an attempt to correct any flaws that may currently exist in Linux. Instead, it is simply an example of how mandatory access controls that can confine the actions of any process, including a superuser process, can be added into Linux. The focus of this work has not been on system assurance or other security features such as security auditing, although these elements are also important for a secure system.

The security mechanisms implemented in the system provide flexible support for a wide range of security policies. They make it possible to configure the system to meet a wide range of security requirements. The release includes a general-purpose security policy configuration designed to meet a number of security objectives as an example of how this may be done. The flexibility of the system allows the policy to be modified and extended to customize the security policy as required for any given installation.

There is still much work needed to develop a complete security solution. Nonetheless, we feel we have presented a good starting point to bring valuable security features to Linux. We are looking forward to building upon this work with the Linux community.

Security-enhanced Linux is being released under the same terms and conditions as the original sources. The release includes documentation and source code for both the system and some system utilities that were modified to make use of the new features. Participation with comments, constructive criticism, and/or improvements is welcome.

Source: http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/index.cfm

World press freedom ranking 2006

2006-10-24T10:44:00.000-04:00

    No.          Country                                            Note
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   1            Finland                                            0,50
   -            Iceland                                            0,50
   -            Ireland                                            0,50
   -            Netherlands                                        0,50
   5            Czech Republic                                     0,75
   6            Estonia                                            2,00
   -            Norway                                             2,00
   8            Slovakia                                           2,50
   -            Switzerland                                        2,50
   10           Hungary                                            3,00
   -            Latvia                                             3,00
   -            Portugal                                           3,00
   -            Slovenia                                           3,00
   14           Belgium                                            4,00
   -            Sweden                                             4,00
   16           Austria                                            4,50
   -            Bolivia                                            4,50
   -            Canada                                             4,50
   19           Bosnia and Herzegovina                             5,00
   -            Denmark                                            5,00
   -            New Zealand                                        5,00
   -            Trinidad and Tobago                                5,00
   23           Benin                                              5,50
   -            Germany                                            5,50
   -            Jamaica                                            5,50
   26           Namibia                                            6,00
   27           Lithuania                                          6,50
   -            United Kingdom                                     6,50
   29           Costa Rica                                         6,67
   30           Cyprus                                             7,50
   31           South Korea                                        7,75
   32           Greece                                             8,00
   -            Mauritius                                          8,00
   34           Ghana                                              8,50
   35           Australia                                          9,00
   -            Bulgaria                                           9,00
   -            France                                             9,00
   -            Mali                                               9,00
   39           Panama                                             9,50
   40           Italy                                              9,90
   41           El Salvador                                       10,00
   -            Spain                                             10,00
   43           Taiwan                                            10,50
   44           South Africa                                      11,25
   45           Cape Verde                                        11,50
   -            Macedonia                                         11,50
   -            Mozambique                                        11,50
   -            Serbia and Montenegro                             11,50
   49           Chile                                             11,63
   50           Israel                                            12,00
   51           Japan                                             12,50
   52           Dominican Republic                                12,75
   53           Botswana                                          13,00
   -            Croatia                                           13,00
   -            Tonga                                             13,00
   -            United States of America                          13,00
   57           Uruguay                                           13,75
   58           Fiji                                              14,00
   -            Hong-Kong                                         14,00
   -            Poland                                            14,00
   -            Romania                                           14,00
   62           Central African Republic                          14,50
   -            Cyprus (North)                                    14,50
   -            Guinea-Bissau                                     14,50
   -            Honduras                                          14,50
   66           Madagascar                                        15,00
   -            Togo                                              15,00
   68           Ecuador                                           15,25
   69           Nicaragua                                         15,50
   70           Burkina Faso                                      16,00
   -            Kosovo                                            16,00
   -            Lesotho                                           16,00
   73           Congo                                             17,00
   -            Kuwait                                            17,00
   75           Brazil                                            17,17
   76           Argentina                                         17,30
   77           Mauritania                                        17,50
   -            Senegal                                           17,50
   -            United Arab Emirates                              17,50
   80           Albania                                           18,00
   -            Qatar                                             18,00
   82           Paraguay                                          18,25
   83           Timor-Leste                                       18,50
   84           Liberia                                           19,00
   85           Moldova                                           19,17
   86           Mongolia                                          19,25
   87           Haiti                                             19,50
   88           Tanzania                                          19,82
   89           Georgia                                           21,00
   90           Guatemala                                         21,25
   91           Angola                                            21,50
   92           Malaysia                                          22,25
   93           Comoros                                           22,50
   -            Zambia                                            22,50
   95           Niger                                             24,50
   -            Seychelles                                        24,50
   97           Morocco                                           24,83
   98           Bhutan                                            25,00
   -            Côte d'Ivoire                                     25,00
   -            Turkey                                            25,00
   101          Armenia                                           25,50
   -            Malawi                                            25,50
   103          Indonesia                                         26,00
   -            Sierra Leone                                      26,00
   105          India                                             26,50
   -            Ukraine                                           26,50
   107          Lebanon                                           27,00
   108          Cambodia                                          27,25
   109          Guinea                                            27,50
   -            Jordan                                            27,50
   111          Bahrein                                           28,00
   112          Cameroon                                          28,25
   -            Peru                                              28,25
   114          Gabon                                             28,50
   115          Venezuela                                         29,00
   116          Uganda                                            29,83
   117          Tajikistan                                        30,00
   118          Kenya                                             30,25
   119          United States of America (extra-territorial)      31,50
   120          Nigeria                                           32,23
   121          Djibouti                                          33,00
   122          Thailand                                          33,50
   123          Kyrgyzstan                                        34,00
   124          Chad                                              35,50
   125          Burundi                                           39,83
   126          Algeria                                           40,00
   127          Swaziland                                         40,50
   128          Kazakhstan                                        41,00
   -            Rwanda                                            41,00
   130          Afghanistan                                       44,25
   131          Colombia                                          44,75
   132          Mexico                                            45,83
   133          Egypt                                             46,25
   134          Palestinian Authority                             46,75
   135          Azerbaijan                                        47,00
   -            Israel (extra-territorial)                        47,00
   137          Bangladesh                                        48,00
   -            Equatorial Guinea                                 48,00
   139          Sudan                                             48,13
   140          Zimbabwe                                          50,00
   141          Sri Lanka                                         50,75
   142          Democratic Republic of Congo                      51,00
   -            Philippines                                       51,00
   144          Maldives                                          51,25
   -            Somalia                                           51,25
   146          Singapore                                         51,50
   147          Russia                                            52,50
   148          Tunisia                                           53,75
   149          Gambia                                            54,00
   -            Yemen                                             54,00
   151          Belarus                                           57,00
   152          Libya                                             62,50
   153          Syria                                             63,00
   154          Iraq                                              66,83
   155          Vietnam                                           67,25
   156          Laos                                              67,50
   157          Pakistan                                          70,33
   158          Uzbekistan                                        71,00
   159          Nepal                                             73,50
   160          Ethiopia                                          75,00
   161          Saudi Arabia                                      76,00
   162          Iran                                              90,88
   163          China                                             94,00
   164          Burma                                             94,75
   165          Cuba                                              95,00
   166          Eritrea                                           97,50
   167          Turkmenistan                                      98,50
   168          North Korea                                      109,00

Source: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2006/23/c3338.html

The City of Chicago goes Linux, saves over 85%!

2006-10-24T00:48:00.000-04:00

The City of Chicago goes Linux, saves over 85%!

The City of Chicago's announced successful migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for essential government programs including the vehicle registration system online job applications restaurant inspections ethics training and more. The City of Chicago migrated to Red Hat in order to reduce costs and improve support performance and scalability.

Google Launches "Google Docs"

2006-10-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

What's new in Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

We're still working to make Google Docs & Spreadsheets a better place, and we're listening closely to your suggestions. If you have anything you'd like to tell us, don't hesitate to let us know, and keep checking back for additions and improvements.

Just launched!

Writely and Google Spreadsheets have come together!

A combined list of documents and spreadsheets
You can see, create, and share all of your web-based documents and spreadsheets in one place. As your collection grows, you can manage and find them using tags, stars, and searches. Learn more

A new interface for Google Docs & Spreadsheets
The document and spreadsheet editors now share the same UI, as features of one product. Not every little detail is the same, since they do different things, but they certainly have a similar feel.

A consistent way to share
Sharing a document or spreadsheets works the same way now. We've even added an option to spreadsheets so you can let collaborators invite others to your spreadsheets. (This is the default way that that sharing works for documents.) Learn more

What's been keeping us busy

September 12, 2006 (Spreadsheets feature archives)

Multiple lines in the same cell
Use alt+enter (ctrl+enter on Macs) to add a new line in the same cell. Now cells that need multiple lines (such as addresses) are a breeze. Learn more

Gmail contacts
When inviting people to collaborate, you have easy access to your contacts' email addresses from Gmail, Calendar, and other Google applications. Learn more

Let anyone view
Have some data you want to shout from the rooftops? Check "Let anyone view" in the sharing pane. You can share or publish this URL to let others view your spreadsheet without specifically inviting them. Learn more

Take your data anywhere
Print easily via the "Print" option in the File menu. We've also added support for two popular formats, Portable Document Format (.pdf) and Open Document Format (.ods). Learn more

July 12, 2006 (Spreadsheets feature archives)

Cell borders
You can now create borders around a single cell, or group of cells. Pretty! Learn more

Hyperlinks improved
Now, when you select a cell containing a valid URL, you can click on the link icon next to it to access that website. We've also improved the hyperlink formula. Learn more

More choices when inserting columns and rows
Now, when you right-click on a row or column header, you have more choices on how many you want to insert at a time, and where you want them to go. Learn more

Move sheets
If you're working with multiple sheets in one file, this feature can help you keep them in order. Learn more

Right-click menu
Our right-click menu is now bigger and better. For example, right-clicking on columns will bring up the "Sort" option, and right-clicking on a row or a column will allow you to insert or delete.

We're not done yet...
Paste values, paste formats, and many more!

Source: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

Checking Google earth's 3D features

2006-09-25T23:05:00.000-04:00

I was on a flight between Paris and San Francisco last week when we flew over Greenland. The view was awesome, I felt I HAD to take some pictures.
I looked up the places on Google Earth and here is a comparison of the real picture and the Google Earth 3D modelization.
Pretty close to reality, isn't it?

Source:

Don't like ads? Stop clicking them

2006-09-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Do you click on advertisements in search engine result pages? If no, you might begin seeing less ads than you normally would. Barry Schwartz talks about a post on WebmasterWorld forum that explains how Google begun removing "top of the page" ads for users who don't click them.

In his example, he searches for "ipod" and refreshes the page ten times. After doing this, advertisements that were appearing at the top were moved to the side to make room for more organic listings.

Showing more ads to people who click them is actually a pretty good move on a couple levels. This must be Google's way of increasing click through ratios and creating a better user experience at the same time. For example, if ads are more likely to appear on the screen of people who click ads, CTR ratios could be a lot higher — putting an even bigger smile on the faces of advertisers.

Not only are advertisers happier, but the users who make a conscious decision not to click ads will like the change too. This "feature" fits well into Google's plan to give users what they want (and not what they don't).

Original Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=327

This terms classes

2006-09-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

This term im taking:
CSC263H1
MAT223H1
STA247H1

In Just over a year I have had Just over 10,000 searches.

2006-09-15T10:28:00.000-04:00

I have been using googles search history since Sep 7, 2005 (Well actually I started using it before that but then reset my searches) and in that time I have made 10,001 searches using google. Here is a screen shot of my trends.

The great Gmail spam test update 12

2006-09-05T14:53:00.000-04:00

You are currently using 8 MB (0%) of your 2761 MB.
New spam in inbox: 11
New spam in spam folder: 522
Total spam that made it to the inbox: 11
Total spam filtered into the spam folder: 1540

The great Gmail spam test has been running since 11/24/2005 01:19:00 PM
Send all the spam you wish to tggmst@gmail.com

Google ads off and on for beta

2006-08-29T08:50:00.000-04:00

It seems to me that every other day the google ads will be broken for the blogger beta this to me is really weird. Think google is doing it on perpous?

Talking with Skype

2006-08-29T08:46:00.000-04:00

Google Talk's got a new gig. Google and eBay have signed an agreement around text-based advertising and "click-to-call" advertising, in which Google Talk and Skype will power voice calls between customers and merchants. (Read the full press release here.)

Just as exciting are our plans to explore interoperability between Google Talk and Skype, making it easier for our users to chat with one another. This is just another step in our commitment to interoperability via open, industry standards.

Lewis Lin
Product Marketing Manager, Google Talk

From: http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/08/talking-with-skype.html

This is at least googles first step to teaming up with another IM / VOIP provider and bringing IMing closer to email so any one can IM anyone from any service. Way to go ebay and google, well I'm ditching my skype account.

Website to track solar-power output

2006-08-24T12:12:00.000-04:00

Largest system in Canada at Exhibition Place Project expected to boost interest in technology

If you've ever wondered how solar panels perform in Toronto under a variety of weather conditions and seasons, you'll soon get a chance to find out.Exhibition Place is creating a website that will let the public monitor, 24 hours a day and in real time, the electricity output of a 100-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system atop the historic Horse Palace.The $1 million pilot system, unveiled Tuesday during Green Day at the Canadian National Exhibition, is the largest in Canada and is likely to grow up to 20 times larger if plans to expand it are approved. But officials first need to conduct a feasibility study, including an analysis of the pilot system's performance data.Dianne Young, chief executive officer and general manager of Exhibition Place, said making that data accessible is key to building confidence in the technology."There is a high interest in solar, and if you can really see what the output is, people may take that plunge and buy it for their office buildings or homes," Young said. "This will prove to them that it works."It will also help people better understand the advantages solar technology offers over other types of renewable energy systems, said Rob McMonagle, executive director of the Canadian Solar Industries Association."People don't often understand there's a relationship between peak hours of sunlight and peak demand on the power grid, and this will make that case clearly," McMonagle said.His point: solar works best on hot sunny days when air conditioners are blasting and putting a strain on the electricity grid. Victoria, B.C.-based Carmanah Technologies Inc., hired to install the pilot system, is also in charge of setting up the performance-tracking website.Justin Taverna, project engineer at Carmanah, said two Web cameras installed on the roof of the Horse Palace will transmit live images of the solar arrays to the website. "In the winter you'll be able to see if an array has a blanket of snow on it and, if not, what kind of (electricity) production you get on cold winter days."The images, also displayed on a plasma-screen TV located outside of the Horse Palace, will offer insight into how cloud cover and different weather conditions affect system output, as well as the accumulation of dirt kicked up by traffic on the Gardiner Expressway.The system uses conventional solar modules from Sharp Electronics Corp. and newer "string ribbon" modules from Marlboro, Mass.-based Evergreen Solar Inc., both of which are at least 13 per cent efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. The website will track both technologies separately.Carmanah is using energy-monitoring software from Fat Spaniel Technologies Inc. of San Jose, Calif. to collect and display how much electricity the system is producing and how much of it the Horse Palace is consuming as a percentage of overall energy demand.The solar-tracking website is expected to go live next month. A link will be available on the Internet at Exhibition Place's website (http://www.explace.on.ca).The project is part of Exhibition Place's goal of becoming energy-sufficient by 2010, by retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient and using a combination of wind, solar, geothermal and co-generation technologies.The solar demonstration is expected to produce 120,000 kilowatt-hours of emission-free electricity a year, and annual savings of more than $10,000.

From: thestar.com

When I find the solar website Ill post it here.

Software development

2006-08-22T10:07:00.001-04:00

My picsa web albums

2006-08-21T15:45:00.000-04:00

Fallout 2

Jun 27, 2006 - 12 Photos

Promotion Badges

Aug 15, 2006 - 13 Photos

Google ads are borken again :(

2006-08-20T22:24:00.000-04:00

Well the google ads are broken again it would seem.

Google ads work now

2006-08-17T14:41:00.000-04:00

Well it seems that a day after I said that the google ads did not work they are working now :)

Way to go google!

Google Ads don't seem to work in googles beta blogger.

2006-08-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

Whats weird is that google ads dont seem to work in googles beta blogger, not sure If I'm doing something wrong but the the headers labeled "title" in the sidebar of my google beta blogger blog should have adds but don't. I wounder if anyone has been able to get this working?

It's Finally Here!

2006-08-16T16:45:00.000-04:00

Hooray! The new Google Talk features (file sharing, voicemail, and music status) have completed testing and are now available to everyone. Just use Google Talk normally, and it will auto-update to the new version over the next few days. If you just can't wait, you can download the new version directly.

From: http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/08/its-finally-here.html

2006-08-16T16:43:00.000-04:00

The International Herald Tribune is reporting that ICANN's contract has been renewed for the next five years. This means the non-profit corporation, which is responsible for allocating IP addresses and administering the top level of the Domain Name System, will not become independent from the U.S. Department of Commerce until at least 2011. The contract is also available as a PDF.

Real to plug Windows media support into Linux

2006-08-16T16:40:00.000-04:00

The media delivery software company and Novell made the announcement at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here. Novell said it will include the tool in its Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in the fourth quarter.

Currently, Linux users can play Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) content if they install closed-source modules, said Jeff Duchmann, general manager of client and digital rights management technologies at RealNetworks. That will change as the result of a licensing deal RealNetworks has signed with Microsoft and its settlement of an antitrust suit against the software giant. It will release open-source code to play the files as part of the Helix Community project it launched to bring RealNetworks technology to Linux.

Original Source: http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6105970.html

Google WiFi opens its, .... doors

2006-08-16T12:37:00.000-04:00

Just as google promised a year ago they are now providing free wifi to the mountain view community. Whats even better is they have a map of all the google wifi spots in the city, and they even mark the areas where there is currently no access. Whats even cooler is that if you live in a spot with no wifi access google makes this promise "f you live in an area without coverage and you are interested in the possibility of hosting a Google WiFi node on your property, please email us at mvwifi-support@google.com."

Man how I wish for free wifi, I could be making this post outside in the sun right now.

Firefox crop circle

2006-08-15T18:54:00.000-04:00

Original picture can be found here: http://lug.oregonstate.edu/index.php/Projects/Firefox/Firefox_Circle

The great Gmail spam test update 11

2006-08-15T17:18:00.000-04:00

You are currently using 9 MB (0%) of your 2754 MB.
New spam in inbox: 43
New spam in spam folder: 708
Total spam that made it to the inbox: 103
Total spam filtered into the spam folder: 1018

The great Gmail spam test has been running since 11/24/2005 01:19:00 PM
Send all the spam you wish to tggmst@gmail.com

The great Gmail spam test previous posts

2006-08-15T17:13:00.000-04:00

The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 10
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 09
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 08
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 07
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 06
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 05
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 04
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 03
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 02
The Great Gmail Spam Test Update 01
The Great Gmail Spam Test

Testing line break

2006-08-15T16:49:00.000-04:00

This is a test to see what the line break looks like.

edit 01: Nope I dont like that :(

Courses for first term

2006-08-15T15:49:00.000-04:00

So far for first term I am taking.
- STA247H1 LEC 5101
- CSC263H1 LEC 0101
- MAT223H1 LEC 5101

Ill update if anything changes.

My Web Bannars

2006-08-15T15:32:00.001-04:00

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src="http://lh5.google.com/earobinson/ROIf4JQeABI/AAAAAAAAAT4/3Z94uIDO4WM/madein_canada_80x15.JPG">

This should post to both my blogs.

2006-08-15T15:21:00.000-04:00

Will it work?

Image post test

2006-08-15T13:54:00.000-04:00

Blogger beta long post test

2006-08-15T13:03:00.000-04:00

This is a very long post. Im not sure how much of this post is going to be english and how much will be garbage but I want to see how the text wraps. Well Im going to start the garbage now. 123 456 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm 789 0qw ert yui opa sdf ghj klz xcv bnm

First beta blog post

2006-08-15T12:50:00.000-04:00

Just testing out blogger beta.