Spam Filters Working?

At least, that’s what the FTC says. According to the FTC, ISPs are doing a better job at protecting their customers from spam.

This comes as a big surprise to me. I have two email addresses I use for most of my email, and my own domain for personal email. The addresses I use for most of my email are a Gmail account and a Yahoo! mail account.

For months I was getting almost no spam at either account. Sure, I’d get spam that both Yahoo! and Google were catching and putting into their spam folders, but aside from that, nothing in my inbox.

Now, I get 10 – 20 spam emails a day that manage to get past the Gmail and Yahoo! email spam blocking. This tells me, contrary to what the FTC says, that spammers are getting better at hiding themselves.

It’s a neverending battle.

Paying for Beta Testing

What do I mean by “paying for beta testing”? Well, many products seem to be released too early. Bugs galore still exist and buyers get stuck with a product that should still be in beta testing.

For example, the game X3: Reunion went gold on Oct. 17, released in the UK on Oct. 28. The on Oct. 28, there was the 1.2 patch. The U.S. release date was 11/5 with the 1.2.01 patch released on 11/11. For an example of a positive experience, I almost never see a Microsoft game patched.

Let’s look at Acronis True Image 9.0. I purchased this on 9/21 and since then there have been six or seven (too many to track) updates. Most of these occurred in the first month! Fortunately, I personally have not seen any bugs (knock on wood), but others have.

I’ve also seen iolo Software’s System Mechanic 6 go from 6.0c to 6.0p(!) since I bought it about 2 months ago. And in fact, the initial version, 6.0c, would not run properly on my PC. Every time I opened up Windows Explorer it would hang. They fixed this within 2 days, but how did this get out into the release?

On the plus side there is Raxco’s PerfectDisk 7.0. I purchased this last year (over a year ago) and it has had only three updates since then.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind one or two patches, but six or seven in one month’s time is too much. That, to me, means they aren’t testing enough at the developer. It’s not simply the spending of money on products, it’s that some products like backup software, antivirus software, etc. can get deep into the OS and crash or corrupt your OS if there’s a problem. That is something I don’t appreciate paying for.

TV Off? How Much Power are You Still Using?

A recent News.com article reminded me of something I thought about a while ago but then promptly forgot about … how much power is wasted by devices we either think are off (but really aren’t) or devices that are trickle charging.

For example, think about your TV. If you’re like most people (including me), you don’t walk to the TV and turn it on. You point your remote control at it and turn it on. But if it was really “off”, you couldn’t do that. There’s always some power running through it. Anything that will respond to a remote control is using power. In fact, consumer electronics account for 15 percent to 20 percent of household electricity use today, up from 5 percent in 1980, according to figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

When you turn off your PC by using the Windows Shut Down menu item, it’s still on also. If you were to open up the PC and look at the motherboard, you’ll see some lights still on. The only way to really turn it “off” is to connect it to a power strip and turn that off or to use the switch located on the back of the PC … or of course, unplugging it. By the way, you should remember this in case you ever have to add a card or RAM to your PC.

In my case, even turning off the power strip leaves something using power. I use UPSes on my desktop PCs, and the batteries on those are charging all the time. Even with a normal power strip, if it has some sort of LED on it monitoring power, that’s using power. Speaking of batteries, that brings up items like cell phones … if you have them plugged in, even if fully charged the charger continues to trickle charge them. I also have some power bricks that have LEDs on them indicating when power is applied … once again, even if the devices are off, the bricks are using some power, since the LED is on … and even without the LED I could verify this by touching the bricks (they are generally slightly warm).

So take some time to think about it. How many things do you have plugged in that don’t need to be? And remember, it’s not just about your wallet, it’s about wasting power that could be used by the rest of the world. Remember, we only have so much fossil fuel.

Free Wi-Fi Means Your Data Might Be Free for the Picking

I went to my favorite mom-and-pop coffee shop this weekend. I’d heard she had started providing free wi-fi, so I decided to ask. And I was right. This was cool because I love this shop; it’s not a Starbucks, but who cares? I like the coffee better and the wi-fi is free.

On connecting my laptop, I realized … there was no security on the wireless LAN at all. I guess I shouldn’t have expected it. Did I expect her to have a RADIUS server? Nah. But that’s the only way, in such an environment, to be secure, without her giving out the key to every customer for either WEP or WPA … and that would be just as insecure.

So what does all this mean? Well, you might think if you log into Gmail, you’re fine, because the little SSL lock symbol shows up indicating the password will be encrypted. The problem is, that means the data will be encrypted from the router to the Internet, and beyond. But as the data flows from your laptop to the router, it’s broadcast in the clear … no encryption because there’s no WEP or WPA.

This means, you’d better not login to your banking site, type in and submit any credit card numbers, use passwords you don’t want others to know about, etc. because that’s all send in the clear, with no protection at all.

Many people may not give this a second thought. The SSL lock symbol to them, means they’re safe. But they’re not if the shop uses wi-fi with no security, and I hope, as more shops offer free wi-fi, more people don’t get bitten by people snooping the airwaves.

Technorati Tags : Wi-Fi

Zork, Anyone?

West of House.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

>open mailbox
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.

>look
West of House.
You are standing in an open field west of a small house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
The mailbox contains:
A leaflet.

That is the opening to Zork. Infocom. I remember that company well. I remember their games; text-adventures, where you imagination was the key to a world you couldn’t see. Wow, it’s been so long, I had forgotten. But a WSJ Free Feature today reminded me of those halcyon days.

Titled “Keeping a Genre Alive”, the article discusses the few programmers who are still addicted to text adventures. Once a year, they participate in the annual Interactive Fiction Competition. The contest, just completed, is in its 11th year, and results can be found at that link. These people still write, post, and chat about these games, just text and a cursor on a screen.

Reading the article, I was reminded of just how different those games were. You didn’t see the alien rushing toward you (OK, OK, what alien, right?), but you had to imagine it. That was what was great, the sheer exercise of it all. If you gave up, tired, it wasn’t because your mouse hand was aching or your eyes were burning … it was because you were tired of thinking. The mental exercise of it all. And, if you wanted to you could stand up and grab a soda without having to “pause” the game or log out of your favorite MMORPG.

And that’s what I miss. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the occasional FPS or MMORPG. And no, it’s not like I really want to go back. Or maybe I do, and not just for text adventures.

What I miss are the days when a lot of entertainment was in your mind. Now, the game is all in front of you, on your ATI or nVidia card. And it’s not just on your computer. Want some entertainment? When I was a kid there wasn’t TV on 24 hours a day on 100+ channels. If you couldn’t find something on the networks, you were outta luck. And after the Tonight Show was over … well, cue the test pattern.

Nothing on TV? Instead … pull out a book and read it. If you were a kid, go outside, run around. Now, entertainment is very mechanical, and presented to you without the need for you to think. It’s all easy, all up front and right there for us.

And yes, that’s what I miss. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still trapped in our multimedia maze and loving it … but sometimes I look at my TV, turn it off and think … there it is. That’s what I miss.

Note: want some free Infocom text adventuring? You can play Zork, etc. at http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/ … all Java-based and free.

Newspapers, the Dying Breed

This should come to no surprise to anyone, except maybe newspapers.

MADRID (AFP) – Newspapers have no future without online and digital services, media executives heard at a World Association of Newspapers meeting in Madrid. Source: Yahoo! News

Honestly, I’m not sure why I haven’t cancelled my newspaper subscription. It’s nice to be able to read while eating breakfast, and until electronic paper starts to be viable, I’m pretty much stuck with hard copy. With electronic paper, ideally, it would hit the ‘Net and update itself, so I’d always have an up-to-date newspaper. On the other hand, it would be a lot more expensive to leave a newspaper on the train.

Realistically, though, more and more people get their news through the Web, and advertising revenues are down. Newspapers have to adapt or die.

A Voice of Sanity: Consumers are not = Criminals

Yes, there is still more Sony DRM news today. The first Trojan Horse written with the Sony DRM has appeared.

Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is collecting information from people regarding the Sony DRM … if you have something to add, here’s the webpage.

Finally, Microsoft is starting to take a look at this issue.

Today, a voice of sanity. A spokesman for the BEUC, an association representing consumer lobbies across Europe, said today “Private consumers … are not criminals and to portray them as such is insulting and counter productive”.

More details at Yahoo! News.

Yes, this is the big problem with DRM and copy protection in my mind. It assumes you are going to try to illegally copy the content. Let’s face it, it’s the minority that will do this. The vast majority will not, and should not be penalized for the actions of a few.

Beta-Testing for Free

I’ve become increasing aware of the fact that more and more software is released before it’s ready, with more bugs than you can shake a stick at, and with so many releases after the original shipping version that it’s hard to keep up.

It used to be that this type of patching process was most notable in games … in fact, it happens so often for game releases that if it doesn’t, I am surprised. I see a news item that says Game X has shipped, and then, prior to it even reaching the stores, I see a patch news item on the Web.

Now I’m seeing this with application software as well.

For example, System Mechanic 6. I’ve used System Mechanic since Symantec went to activation for SystemWorks. So I’ve used both 4 and 5 previously. I like to the software, but I first purchased the upgrade on October 18th. I believe the version that I downloaded was either 6.0d or 6.0e.

Today, on November 7th, they released version 6.0m. So they’ve gone through 10 new releases in about 3 weeks. And the first release I downloaded was unusable from the start. When I installed it, if I went to browse in Windows Explorer, and clicked on My Computer, the Explorer Window would hang. This was fixed in the second patch release (not the first), but how did it ever get out the door?

I have also seen about 5 – 6 releases of Acronis True Image since I updated to version 9 late last month. Perhaps October is a buggy month for software.

At any rate, I understand that QA-ing software is difficult, but there are companies, even smaller ones, that don’t have to patch a piece of software 10 times or more to get it right. Example: Raxco Software’s PerfectDisk 7 … since I bought it about a year ago it has only been patched twice … and those patches were released long after the initial release so it wasn’t like the bugs were obvious ones, as in the case of System Mechanic 6.

I’m glad that companies stand behind their products and patch them quickly, but I wonder if the Internet and the ability to download patches easily has made companies more cavalier in their testing procedures.

Adding an External Hard Drive (the Hard Way, Part 2)

So, today was the day when I hooked up my home-made (heh) external drive to my Linksys NSLU2. Once again, since is Part 2 of “doing it the hard way”, I had some problems. Part 1 is here.

First, the cord for the power adapter for the external drive enclosure was too short. So I tried using a universal adapter. OK, let me tell you … just because the adapter can supply the correct VOLTAGE does not mean it will work. If it doesn’t supply the correct CURRENT (in this case, 1.7 amps vs. the 700 milliamps I was getting from the universal), it won’t work. The drive would turn on, but it was not recognized by either the NSLU2 or a direct connection to the PC.

Extension cord time. Used the original adapter with an extension cord. That solved that. I attached the drive to Port 2 (a website said port 2 would recognize NTFS if you have the 2.3r63 firmware). Nope. Didn’t recognize it. Looking at the NSLU2 through the web interface … it didn’t see the drive as formatted.

Looked at the web again. Ah, it’s port ONE! Tried that. Worked fine. Now I tried to add users. Error message: can’t control users without the drive being formatted as EXT3 (Linux). Big sigh.

All right, at least let’s try copying files. Copied one small file. Fine! Copied a large directory FULL of files. Nope. “IO Device Error.” Tried ONE LARGE FILE. “IO Device Error.”

I decided to give up on NTFS and try EXT3. Formatted the external drive through the web interface. 20 minutes later (or so), it was good to go. And it worked!

Except …

The EXT3 file system does not like the “trademark” symbol. It also does not like the “registered” symbol. A few of my files had those symbols in the filenames. So I had to rename them.

My big issue with EXT3, BTW, is that now I can’t take the external HD and hook it up directly to a PC. If the NSLU2 ever fails, I have a 300GB brick in my office … at least until I reformat it and put data on it again … or buy another NSLU2.

Three hours later (yes, 3, because I had to set up all my PCs to synchronize files between themselves and the network drive. I used to synchronize to my “best” PC, but that meant it had to be on all the time, which was a pain), I was done. And despite the fact that I didn’t want to use EXT3 at the beginning, since I could add user control now, it was probably the right way to go.

Lesson learned: don’t trust what you read on the web.
Lesson learned: make sure you check current as well as voltage (it’s the current!)
Lesson learned: try not to use weird symbols in your filenames

Sony Can’t Stay Out of the News …

I wish I’d never starting posting about the Sony DRM issues, because now I feel like I have to continue the long, long story. But I’ll keep it short, as I think Sony is going to have to make some major concessions in order to stop this PR nightmare.

Today Mark Russinovich did more research into the DRM, and discovered that the patch that Sony provided, because of the nature of it, could crash your system, although that chance is slight.

However, Sony’s uncloaking patch puts users systems at risk of a blue-screen crash and the associated chance of data loss. The risk is small, but I made the point in my last post that the type of cloaking performed by the Aries driver prohibits safely unloading the driver while Windows is running:

It’s never safe to unload a driver that patches the system call table since some thread might be just about to execute the first instruction of a hooked function when the driver unloads; if that happens the thread will jump into invalid memory. There’s no way for a driver to protect against this occurrence, but the Aries driver supports unloading and tries to keep track of whether any threads are executing its code. The programmer failed to consider the race condition I’ve described.

Great, eh? In addition, the CEO of the company which provides digital rights management tools and software to global music publisher Sony BMG denied that his software is a rootkit. Technically, it is NOT, because it does not open a backdoor for communication. On the other hand, tell that to Blizzard.

We haven’t heard the last of this.