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Vol. 7, No. 21
5-23-07
1 Simplicity and complexity
2 Respect for sacrifice
3 Lead-free Pentiums, asking for a lawsuit, BSA BS, a crack in the Great Firewall of China, umm… no more guys?
4 Order from chaos
5 AV recommendations
Saturday evening was warm and pleasant and I spent about an hour sitting in a porch swing reading and just watching the activity along the street. Neighbors walking dogs, mowing yards, tending flowerbeds and pushing babies in strollers; passersby nodding or speaking to each other, stopping for conversations here and there.
A robin hopping across my front yard carrying a small twig and stopping every three or four steps to scan the area for threats, ignoring me but checking for cats, while a neighbor a few doors down cursed when he banged his knuckles while changing his oil.
It struck me that I existed in a wonderful world, sitting outside on a warm spring evening swatting at the occasional bee, reading an engrossing book (“Dead Watch” by John Sandford, if you’re interested) and soaking in the ambiance while sipping a beer and simply enjoying life.
But the time came when I had to leave my existence and go back to my life. I don’t live in a world of warm spring evenings and bees and good books, I live in a world of electronic complexity that would make Rube Goldberg cry.
I live in a world where a simple “Hi, how have you been?” message must pass through an ISP SMTP server to a spam filter to a virus scanner, then get shot across the ether to pass through a POP server, NAT firewalls, software firewalls, local spam filters and virus scanners and spyware scanners and my email security protocols before I can see the question to simply say “I’ve been fine, thanks for asking. And you?”
In the world in which I exist opening a page means going from page 55 to page 56. In the world in which I live opening a page means exposing myself to nefarious people who would steal my identity and open credit accounts in my name. It means making my every move across the Internet visible and traceable to all and sundry, regardless of their motives. It means someone who has the means can just be nosy and follow me around.
In the world I exist in (or at least the one I used to exist in) grocery stores would have sales. Sometimes you would need coupons snipped from a newspaper ad or flier, usually available as you entered the store, to get the special pricing but often the prices were just reset to whatever the sale price was.
In the world where I live you have to give up personal information to get a numbered card, which enables you to get the sale pricing while informing the grocery store of every piece of information about you and your buying habits.
In the world where I exist I have a name. In the world where I live I have a number, be it my phone number, my IP address, my Social Security Number, my driver’s license number, my Insurance ID number or my Kroger card number. I don’t have a name in life.
I don’t often wax philosophical but this just hit and I couldn’t shake the feeling that life is too complicated.
I encourage our readers to take the Memorial Day weekend off from life and just bask in existence.
Go to a cemetery and leave flowers or flags in honor of loved ones. Or complete strangers.
Go for a hike or just a walk around the block, call an old friend you haven’t spoken with for a while and bypass all the filtering. Go to a local park and watch birds, or stay in the neighborhood and watch the local shade tree mechanics at work.
Find a swing and read a favorite book. It’ll be good for you ;)
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Editor’s note: To our old friends and new friends, we would like to invite you to the "84Online Reunion" in our chat room on Thursday, May 24 at 8:00pm.
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Intel Corp. will stop using
lead in its upcoming microprocessors,
eliminating one of the most toxic components used in semiconductors
from its product line:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9020740
In an unconventional request, some users of Linux and other
open-source software are inviting Microsoft Corp. to sue them:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=intellectual_property_and_drm&articleId=9020379&taxonomyId=144&intsrc=kc_top
A new survey released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) shows
that illegal downloading of digital copyright works by young people
aged 8 to 18 has dropped by 24 percent in the last three years.
Overall, 36 percent of those surveyed admitted to downloading without
paying (because, you know, the BSA is ALWAYS right):
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132155-c,onlineentertainment/article.html
The Chinese government is backing down from plans to force millions of
Chinese bloggers to register their real names:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6682755.stm
And, finally, proof that nature is working hard at making males obsolete:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-05-22-shark-virgin-birth_N.htm
Copy us on the good stuff; Microsoft, leave the lawyer at home.
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
http://mattstodayinhistory.podshow.com
Download of the Week
If you've got lots of photos you'll
appreciate this freebie, Photozig Albums Express, which organizes your pictures
along with short videos and songs, into albums. You'll be able to create
multiple albums, organized in any way you want.
Easily search and browse for photos with tools such as keyword search
and filters.
You'll also find photo editing tools built
in, such as red-eye fix, resizing and cropping, changing the contrast and
brightness and so on. There's even a full set of tools for sharing photos,
including burning them to CD and sharing them on the Web, or easily sending
them via email.
One of the program's nicer features is its
customizable interface. Select beginner, intermediate or advanced and the
interface changes. At a beginner level it's all graphically based; intermediate
and advanced levels offer the ability to browse via a Windows Explorer-like
interface, and to see hidden files and folders. Get Photozig here: http://www.photozig.com.
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: My Gateway computer came loaded with McAfee
which expires in 7 days.
Is it a good deal, or should I be looking to purchase something else.
I haven't had any problems during the trial period. What do you
recommend?
A: There are many free and paid for anti virus
packages which are much
better than McAfee.
I have recommended AVG Antivirus for years and they have never let me
down.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
Art Maley from our team likes Avast. Another great free package.
http://www.avast.com/
If you want to purchase a package go for Kaspersky
http://www.kaspersky.com/
or Panda Software.
http://www.pandasoftware.com/
Hash
hash@ucanweb.com
Contact
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