Java, New version of IE

Well, It's been awhile since I last had a chance to post here, sorry about that. I have been taking a mediocre programming class at school lately, and we are switching from Visual Basic 6 (old) to java using the current sun compiler. We had an easy assignment, with some simple math and the usual "hello world!" program, to start off, but me, not wanting to add consecutive integers by typing them individually went hunting for a good reference. I found this reference (pdf) which was more than enough to get me started with the language (at least for simple stuff). Knowing that some of the other students read this page, I thought  I would post the link.

In other news, for Windows users, Microsoft has released a beta of IE7 to the public here. Check out the tour and PCMAG review (thanks slashdot).

Google has also been busy, with a new version of their tool bar (for some operating systems/browsers only, I guess). Normally I don't like tool bars, as many of them spy on you or supply pop-ups but I do like google's spell checker, so I can put up with the minor privacy issues. More info on the new features here.

Happy (slightly belated) Lunar New Year!

Free Windows IT Pro Subscription

I'm not going to be home for a few days, but meanwhile, I have another link for you, which one of my parents sent to me and was also on techbargains to a free subscription of Windows IT  Pro.

Enjoy the Weekend

A few quick Links

Well, I have been pretty busy, with testing, but I found a few cool links for you.

First off, pointed out by GVOD is a clip on google video about the bad side of macs. Anyone has used an os9 or earlier mac (some of this applies to osX as well) should get a good laugh, though there is a little bad language.



In other news, a new gaim beta is out (haven't tried it yet). Still no video/audio support yet (unless you try this version)

If you want to get away from your computer for awhile, lifehacker is linking walkjogrun.net which offers a route planner for running based on google maps.

Speaking of google maps, google has added more levels of zoom to google local, as well as some new imagery (particularly in the UK) The google blog post has some interesting spots linked.

Reading my comments this afternoon, I noticed that someone was looking for info on Wireless networking. This has been added to my "todo" list of posts, but for now let me suggest that you enable some kind of encryption, even though it is a bit more work. Even though wep can be cracked (hackingdefined.com) in a couple of minutes it still keeps casual wardrivers out.

Mouseless Web Browsing

Well, I went and got sick again, so while I'm sitting in front of my computer trying not to puke, I noticed that Lifehacker has this great article on running Firefox with out a mouse. They also mention an extension which makes it easier.  This is a great way to confuse friends who are not as "computer literate" as some of us when you are bored in front of a computer, in a lab or office.

BitTorrent

I have been meaning to comment on Bittorrent for quite awhile (and I will still probably write a bit more on the subject later), but I have been motivated for a quick comment by a Slashdot post on a PCMag article. The PCMag article is a review of a couple clients (I usually use Azureus), once you get past the introduction. I just wan't to comment that Bittorrent is NOT illegal. It is simply a piece of software which connects peoples computers for distributed file sharing without a lot of work, and server load. The trouble is, that people use it to do illegal/bad things (like the screenshot provided by the article).  Because it is easy on the central server, bittorrent is actually a good way to obtain software, especially if you upload what you download. Large downloads, like Linux distributions and online (free/legal) tv shows often use bittorrent to cheaply distribute their content.

Some examples:
http://linuxtracker.org/
http://revision3.com (See my post a couple days ago)
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/

Often, bittorrent is faster than a normal download on popular things (the download speed is effected by the number of people uploading and the amount you are uploading), combine this with the advantages for the content distributors and you have good reason to give it a try, just be sure to forward the necessary ports on your router/firewall (6881-6999 by default, if I remember correctly). I will try and post some more info later, but the article listed above should get you started. If you are using a uPnP compliant router, many clients will take care of setup for you.

Sorry for the minor rant and enjoy your evening ;-)

Free Programming (E)Books

Apress has a bunch of programming text books for free if you give them your email address (seems like a good deal to me). Check them out here. They are all PDFs, a couple include code examples. Some will open in acrobat/acrobat reader if you have it installed, you can download these by right clicking their links and using "save target as" or using the floppy icon in the acrobat plugin's toolbar.

"Whonu" Search

Whonu  is a new search engine which uses the indexes of some of the other major search sites. It seems to have some interesting features, such as giving you an rss feed of your search. I haven't had a chance to do too much testing, but it seems at least worth a try.

Similarly, Profusion is another engine which searches a bunch of sites at once. Profusion has been around quite awhile and is good for finding things that your favorite engine can't find. Searches with profusion can take some time, but, like I said, you get a lot of hits.

30 Gigabytes of Webmail Storage!

30gigs.com which offers free webmail with 30 gigabytes of storage is accepting new people until the end of the month (usually its by invite only). The interface is  slow, and doesn't even come close to comparing to gmail's  but if you need a huge  mailbox, its worth a look.   If anyone wants a gmail invite, feel free to contact me.

Google Opens Google Talk Communications With Other Jabber Servers, Skype Video

Google has been more supportive of opensource and open standards than a lot of other companies lately. Their instant messenger, Google Talk, is jabber based, but up until now they weren't allowing communication between servers. Today they added this feature, which allows people using google talk to communicate with other jabber users on servers with this feature. I'm having some trouble wording this well, so as an example, I could use my Talk account to instant message my friend's account on jabber.org (I have tested this). 

If your not familiar with the jabber protocol (its not too well known), "screen names" are formatted like email addresses ( user@server). This identification can optionally have another handle added to the end with a slash, which indicates which "instance" of the other person you want to contact. For example, I could be logged into the same jabber account on my desktop and my pocket pc. I might be mben12@gmail.com/Gaim on my desktop pc and mben12@gmail.com/im+ on my Pocket Pc and someone who wanted to communicate with me would have the choice of sending a message to either or both clients. A few jabber servers can also communicate with some of the other more popular services (AIM/MSN/etc). If I'm making any sense, then Great! and go try it out. If not, check out the jabber website, or the google blog entry for more info.

In other news, Skype has (for Windows) released version 2.0 which adds video conferencing. For those who don't know, Skype is a VoIP program which works in a P2P (peer to peer) fashion, for free. It also offers connections to landline phones for a fee. I have found it troublesome but many people have had good luck with it. Personally I prefer sip based programs (see my previous post on the subject). Note that depending on the client you use, you can do video conferencing over just about any of the sip services, though several offer it by default. In addition to those I mentioned before, a new company, Ineen is offering sip based video conferencing for free using a skinned version of eyebeam.

"Systm"

I don't know how I missed this when it came out, but Kevin Rose and friends have released a new episode of "Systm"

For those who don't know, "Systm" is put out by Kevin Rose and some other former TechTV (from before G4 spoiled it) personalities. Each episode of "Systm" has been about one or two things you can do with computers, kind of video HOWTOs. This episode is about asterisk (haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet). Before systm, Kevin also had (has?) a show called "thebroken" which was about the more "shady" parts of computing. Both series are informative and well put together, though I personally prefer 'thebroken" in most respects. Kevin's new site, revision3, also has a couple podcasts.

Enjoy the show(s)

Xandros Desktop Free After Rebate!

If anyone is looking for a fairly user friendly Linux to play with, Buy.com has Xandros Desktop on sale for Free after $35 rebate. It has been awhile since I looked into commercial Linux distros so double check me, but if I remember right Xandros comes with a Linux port of PowerDVD among other hard to find commercial software.

Link Here: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202092111&adid=17662

More Fun with Google Earth

As I mentioned before, Google earth is a great 3d mapping program using incredible satellite images. One of my parents sent me this link which I think some people might enjoy.

Surprised the U.S. Government is putting up with this.

Be sure to click the "results" link near the top of the article for more, or just click here.

Easter Eggs

While it may seem a little early for colorful eggs and wabbits, this is a computer site so lets have an early egg hunt. One of the other blogs I read got me thinking about Easter eggs (can't remember which one) so I am going to give you a few. First off though, for those who don't know an Easter egg in computing is a hidden feature of a program that a programmer snuck into the code for amusement. I first got into finding "eggs" with all the ones hidden in the NewtonOS (an apple pda), but nowadays they are everywhere, especially in dvds and computer software. One of the more famous of these eggs, in the windows operating system, is the famous volcano names screen saver. You can try this out by selecting the 3d text screen saver in windows and making the text "volcano" (this is done from the screen saver settings button, next to the screen saver drop down box). I don't know if this works in XP or not, but it does work in most if not all the windows 9x operating systems. There are a few other windows ones, but I will let you find them for your self. Excel 97 had a full flightsim built in, but it is very complex to get to and I can't remember how (Google!). I personally found one on the Extended Fellowship of the Ring DVD (i think it was disc 1, but it has been awhile), look for skipped tracks.

If you don't feel like hunting for your self then try these sites:

http://www.eeggs.com/
http://www.dvdeastereggs.com/
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/6758 Actually, Google had some games in google talk for awhile (adventure and wumpus) but last I knew they have been removed.
http://www.eggheaven2000.com/
about:mozilla Depends on your browser. Older versions of Mozilla/Netscape/IE each say something different. I think the newer versions of IE just give you a red screen, but it still works in all the Mozilla based browsers.

Happy Hunting

Edit: Try this link for XP easter eggs

Lack of New Posts

I am sorry I haven't been posting here more often, but I have been
having computer troubles and have been busy. I seem to be having a
hard drive going bad, so it may be a little while before I am back
posting frequently. Hopefuly I will have more time to post later. For
now, if you are looking for some reading material, I recommend
"neatorama" (use google, I don't have the URL on hand right now)

Enjoy your weekend.

3D Animation and Drawing

I have been running out of ideas for this site a bit lately so I figured I would post on what I've been doing lately. While I'm not much of an artist, generally (I am somewhat into photography), I would like to learn to do some 3d drawing for the occasional small project. The last couple days I have been actually getting around to messing with a well known tool called blender. Blender is a great and very powerful animation/modeling package with a not quite standard interface. The interface is based on lots of small sub windows and lots of hotkeys. Often the hotkeys bring up more menus with options difficult to find through the main menus. It also uses all three mouse buttons, which doesn't bother me much but people not used to the middle mouse button (the scroll wheel on a lot of modern mice) doing something separate may have trouble with it initially.

The good news is that there are lots of free tutorials available on the web (just do a search on google) aimed at people with varying levels of skill. I found some of the video tutorials listed on the blender site very helpful. I also had another very helpful tutorial I found quite awhile ago, printed and threw in the "get to it later" pile (unfortunately I can't find it on the web anymore). I also found this snowman tutorial a good all around how to do basic modeling tutorial once you have a basic handle on the interface. If anyone gives blender a try and finds some documentation you like please do post it in the comments.

Here is what I ended up with after doing the snowman tutorial and a little of my own adjusting:

Windows Meta File Bug fixed

Well, in case I have any readers living with their heads in the sand (just kidding) Microsoft has released a patch (early this morning) to the WMV vulnerability that has been causing quite a stir lately. This has the potential to be a biggie so go run windows update or get it from technet.

Google's Latest Good Idea.

Google released a new tool called "Google Pack" this afternoon (pack.google.com) which seems like a great idea to me. It includes all the usual nifty Google software and some other useful utilities that everyone should have like ad-aware and a "special edition" of Norton's virus scanner. It also includes firefox. I would have liked to have see a firewall (zone alarm?) included but otherwise it is a great kit, as long as people use all the software. The news article I read also said that trillian is included but the Google website doesn't mention it and I haven't had a chance to try it for my self yet. If it turns out to be up to the usual Google standards I think I may start using it on all the computer people have me come fix due to spyware and virus problems that have no software what so ever on them, since Google also includes a tool to keep things up to date. This seems like more or less everything a new computer needs but I do hope Google decides to expand it with an optional firewall and office suite (openoffice or abiword maybe?)
Anyway, If you have a new windows XP machine it might be worth a try. The Google blog also has a post but I don't have the link right now since my ISP is having troubles.

As a follow-up to the aim issue I mentioned yesterday, it seems to have resolved its self as of late this afternoon. On the same topic of instant messaging, I have noticed that if you use the yahoo protocol with gaim 2 beta there is a new whiteboard feature which works surprisingly well, called doodle I think. Check it out (gaim.sf.net)

Gaim 2.0Beta, AIM troubles

As a break from all the homework the other day I unmasked gaim 2 beta on my gentoo install the other day and have been messing with it a bit. The gaim devs did make some needed improvements but they simplified the interface to the point that some really useful things are missing. For example, the add buddy button in a conversation window. I also don't like the changes they made to the away message system, though I do like that you can tell what your stats is now. The interface is to big and blocky. It also takes too long to assign a custom away message. It is nice to be able to set them independently for each protocol though. On the whole it is an ok release, though I do look forward to the final 2.0 release.

In other news, I have been noticing some problems with AIM lately, I can't connect at all and some of my friends are being kicked frequently. Those of you trying to contact me, try a different protocol. My various screen names can be found on my webpage.

Game in Google Earth

While idly browsing a bit tonight before bed, I came across a war game linked on digg that runs inside Google Earth. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but the idea is a good one. From the limited info available without actually playing, it appears to be a RISK type game with the real world as the board. This seems like it could be a lot of fun, but I need to either get around to getting google earth running on my linux install or try it in windows and I don't have time now. If your bored, post in the comments and let me know what you think.

The informative part (some background):

Digg is a fairly popular "social bookmarking" site which allows anyone to post a link and caption. That post then makes it up to the front page by being promoted "dug" by other users. The net effect of this is that you (more or less) get the best pages showing on the digg homepage and the quality goes down from there. Worth a look if you are searching for a new website to explore.

Google Earth is a program that displays good quality satellite images of the world (sometimes good enough to see individual cars on the highway, depending on where you are looking) in 3d. It can be used to plan routes and will give you a "fly-over" of your trip if you enter the start and end addresses.

Holiday Gift Trends (in teens)

One of the fun things about school is that after Christmas you get to observe the trends. This year, the gift of the year seems to be the Ipod Nano 2Gigabyte. There are also a bunch of PSPs floating around the school now. (I can't believe the office doesn't have a huge pile of Ipods and PSPs from annoyed teachers). My 4 person programming class this morning had 2 people come in (and continue) listening to new Ipod Nanos (Which aren't allowed). Even more amusing are the PSP people, who are trying to figure out how to browse the web during school, particularly to look at blocked sites. This is in theory possible as one of the science teachers does have an AP on the school network. The problem with all this is that the school uses a Proxy Server for filtering, and firewalls anything not routed through the proxy. For those not familiar with proxies, A proxy server is a server which you redirect your internet traffic through either to share it among computers or to filter it. Nobody seems to realize this so the speculation never fails to amuse me (as does the fact that the access point is completely open and unencrypted). Last year this same sort of fad gift giving occurred in cell phones (and people still SMS each other during class). Why doesn't anyone control this madness?

Anyway, Enough venting about school. In other news, Lifehacker posted a nifty link to a site that searches flikr based on a sketch you draw in a small box on the website. I am on my pocket PC right now, so I will fix the links later but for now you can check it out here (if the server isn't to busy):http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/
The original Lifehacker post can be found at: http://www.lifehacker.com/software/flickr/retrievr-search-flickr-by-sketching-146191.php

In the land of consoles: I posted awhile ago about the chronic overheating of the new Xboxes (PC only my self). Slashdot has links to the solution today: Water cooling (http://games.slashdot.org/games/06/01/03/2135238.shtml?tid=211&tid=137)
Wouldn't it just be easier for everyone if they invested their money in new (upgradable) PC hardware. Its more flexible, cheaper (if you know what you are doing anyway) and faster (except right after the console's release). So wouldn't it just be easier if everyone got computers and dedicated them to gaming to deal with the typical virus problems (though they are bound to spread to consoles sooner or later).

Anyhow, Sorry about the venting tonight, hopefully you get something out of it ;-)

Family Visits and Computers

This would have been better posted a week or two ago, but I am reminded now because of the aftermath.

When family member visits you tend to allow them to use your computer, which you hopefully keep virus/spyware/problem free. The trouble is, you don't know all that much still and/or aren't keeping too much track of their use (they are family after all). The guest says they "do this all the time at home" and sound like they know what they are talking about, but when they leave suddenly your computer is a disaster. Sound familiar? If not take this as a warning. This has happened inside my family and I just fixed a neighbor's computer after this happened to them (cool web search isn't). Watch out! and try to make your family aware of online threats (I can't believe how many people don't even have a virus scanner, firewall and antispyware tools yet run Windows). Not that I really know what to do about it, except keep track of your computer, particularly watch out for kids who instant message with even more clueless friends and exchange files/viri (I have some cousins who drive virus scanners crazy).

Just a friendly warning based on my nights activities ;-)

How To Save Some Money Online

A useful Post at last:

Online shopping is becoming much more popular, very quickly. Most companies offer coupon codes and discounts but you have to know where to look to find them, particularly computer/tech companies.

My primary site for finding discounts is Techbargains, which tracks mostly tech deals, but also keeps track of some of the other major online retailers (amazon, buy, etc). Techbargains updates several times a day and the weekend ads usually come out Friday or Saturday so you can plan ahead if you want something.

For Dell Coupons (Dell has lots of discounts which change regularly, at least twice a week) I usually look at what was the Dell Rasputinj which now appears to track a number of companies. It can be found here now. The forums for the Dell PDAs (Aximsite) have a section for dell discounts which usually has some good deals as well, check it out here.

http://www.fatwallet.com/ , Particularly the forums has lots of good deals, including some one time use dell coupons donated by other users. This doesn't mean they only list dell, you can find deals for just about any company, online or "brick and mortar"

http://currentcodes.com/ Has lost of coupon codes for a variety of online stores.

If you are in the market for books/movies Barnes and Noble has lots of printable coupons on their website (many also work online). They are indexed here or you can just play with the following url (just change the last number after "pid="): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/promo/coupon/bn_inc.asp?r=1&pid=10498

Happy Shopping ;-)

Pocket PC Blogging

I am very fond of my pocket pc (Dell Axim X30) and I don't have a computer handy at the moment so I figured I would look for some Pocket PC blogging tools and try a post. For now I have settled on a tool called Diarist . I also tried a tool called Pocket Blogger which I didn't like because I?d didn't have a good way of linking (you had to put in raw html tags). Both tools are free, Pocket Blogger seems only to support Blogger but Diarist supports a wide variety of services. Unfortunately neither tool has a spell checker, but both are free and have cab install files (on device install is very important to me because I rarely use windows and activesync). I am somewhat surprised that these are the only options I can find with limited on device googleing, so if anyone knows of a better option please do post in the comments. I have tried pocket outlook and mail2blogger in the past but since pocket outlook doesn't handle HTML the links aren't clickable. I may try webis mail but that can be saved for another time.

If any of you are in the market for a new Pocket PC, I highly recommend the Dells. They are all much faster than any of the other competition and priced reasonably. The community is also great, Check out Aximsite (if it's not clickable, the URL is www.aximsite.com) for lots of Axim related info as well as coupon codes. I would also keep track of techbargains.com which also lists dell coupons at least weekly.

Not my most exciting post, but maybe I will have time to do more later. For now, back to my AP US History Homework ;-(