What Makes Linux Different???

Here's a snapshot of my current Desktop Linux
(Fedora 8)

My Nvidia Card is running CompizConfig Setting manager and Compiz Fusion Icons. That's three browsers open up there: Firefox, Konqueror (like Apple's Safari) and Opera. The fourth window is running ATI TV graphics card and feeding live TV (CNN) and audio. Soon that will be upgraded to a Hauppauge HD (High Definition) Card (with Input and OUTPUT).

Screenshot was the software that comes with Fedora, which I've used for years. And the Text was done with The GIMP (Graphic Image Manipulation program.


My Twitter updates appear on the right of this Blog.

The Only Problem with Twitter is that it Grew TOO Big TOO Fast, and that leads to This:

But don't under estimate the Power of the People.

Steve Gillmor, of the upcoming BearHug "conference" is calling Twitter "A Declaration of Independence" of supreme importance to the next Election.

The "News Agencies" are waiting to see what Twitter is Twittering about to

assess the

NBS (Next Big Story).

Wingman in the Open.

On a side note:
A hot program for the Google Android Cellphone, uses some pretty cool Open Source software like Android Scan http://scan.jsharkey.org/
It scans Bar Codes grabbed by you cell camera and goes online to find the best prices for that item.

iPhone wants this...

EoS (End of Summer) This and That by Wingman

====================
The End of Summer (EoS in computer talk)
and a few This and That's struck my curiousity index.
====================

=====================================
KurzweilAI.net thinks this 2 inch by 2 inch black cube called a "Space Cube",
could be the world's smallest PC.

Story is Here:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=news_single.html?id%3D9304

===================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tried helping the Folding @Home project by my CPU was a bit dated. At an Nvidia Conference earlier this week a talk explained how much work X number of CPU' s can deliver and how much More a smaller number of Gpu's can do for the project.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Keynote Talks about GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) Power =========================================================================
Link:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10025742-64.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 =========================================================================

--------------------------- These Numbers are Astonishing: -------------------------

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang: In the keynote, Huang cited Stanford University's Folding@home program, a distributed computing project that uses about 2.6 million PCs--for a total of 288 teraflops of computing power--to study protein folding and misfolding. This is expected to deepen researchers' understanding of diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer. Nvidia has released a version of the Folding@home program based on its CUDA development environment using more than 24,000 GPUs. Though this number represents less than 1 percent of the total processors in the Folding@home project, it provides 1.4 petaflops of performance, or nearly five times the processing power of all the CPUs in use by Folding@home. The researchers at Stanford hope that GPUs will significantly accelerate the time to discovery for the cures for many diseases. ================================================================================ http://www.dailytech.com/Steve+Jobs+Obituary+Accidently+Published+/article12805.htm

Bloomberg News Service News "Whoops"
Steve Jobs Obit Accidently Published. =====================================================================

Yeah, even the biggies get things wrong...

Wingman out.

Computer Worm in Space

Computer viruses make it to orbit

The virus travelled on a laptop issued to an astronaut
===================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7583805.stm
===================

A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected.

They Are Everywhere...
Wingman.

As The WEB Leaks...

As The WEB Leaks

Sunday, Kevin Rose (Digg.com) on Leo Laporte's Show TWiT.tv (This Week in Tech) let fly a "rumor" about a New (Oooo...Ahhh!) iPod coming in September...

Other sites have followed suit with similar "RuMoUrS", like AppleInside.com.

Link:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/25/consensus_builds_for_rumored_sept_9_ipod_event.html

Other Sites that "Crank the Rumor Mill":
Valleywag http://valleywag.com/

Twitter http://twitter.com/ Get an Account....You need This!

Digg http://digg.com/ The Site Kevin Rose Wrought...

CrankyGeek http://www.crankygeeks.com/
John C Dvorak

I4U.com
http://www.i4u.com/article5011.html

Geekextreme.com
http://www.geekextreme.com/content/blogcategory/71/17/

And Yeah, Engadget.com falls in this List Too.
http://www.engadget.com/

Wingman, checking for "Dam Leaky Sites..."

A New Wired TAC on the DNCC

======================
A New TAC on the DNCC
=============================
CNET Article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10021657-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
==================================

Now you would think Denver was a pretty wired city to begin with, but a whole new infrastructure
had to be in place to handle the new technolgy demands of this Democratic Convention.

For example:
"The upgrades required approximately 3,344 miles of single strands of fiber and 140 miles of single strands of copper and coaxial cable.

Qwest also added approximately 2,600 additional data lines and 3,400 voice grade circuits to serve both the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field. Both venues are installed with video equipment with the capacity to to handle 130 simultaneous video feeds."

"As part of its planning process, the DNCC created a Technology Advisory Council, made up of representatives from Qwest, Microsoft, Cisco, Google, AT&T, Level3, Comcast, EchoStar, Hewlett-Packard, Symantec, as well as Denver city officials and Colorado state officials."

[From CNET Article-sited above]

Wingman, thinking about a Nun's Beauty Contest...
Story at USATODAY:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/08/priest-plans-on.html
PS: The Site is Down...

Microsoft Fights Back with a Clown

=========================
Microsoft Fights Back with a Clown
=========================

TooBiggusLinkus:
http://www.dailytech.com/Jerry+Seinfeld+Burger+King+Ad+Firm+Join+Microsofts+AntiMac+Guy+Ads/article12731.htm
==============================================================

Don't get me wrong, I like Seinfeld as well as the NeXT GUY (pun intended) , but really do we need a PC guy that wears a Puffy Shirt???

Back of the line... Back of the Line!

Wingman, winging it.

Who is the NeXT Guy referred to above??
Short History lesson, next Blog.

We're Down To a Billion... (According to Ars Technica)

(Here We Come)

Ars Technica Says: About a week ago we reached the magic number of 2.7 billion IPv4 addresses used, and that leaves about 1 billion IPv4 addresses left.

In other words, unless something unexpected happens, we'll be out of IPv4 addresses at some point in the neighborhood of 2012. So when the next Olympics come around, it's very possible that some of us will have to watch them online over IPv6. (Actually the official website of the 2008 Olympics is already available over IPv6.)

What Is IPv4 and IPv6???
For more Info about the current IP address configuration, and the soon to be here second IP address configuration, check out Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_mapped_address

For all the goodies to the Ars Technica, story go here:

==================== http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080817-were-running-out-of-ipv4-addresses-time-for-ipv6-really.html =====================

Wingman O-U-T.

Link to Google Books about Einstein. Very Nice.

Side Note Uno: Just finished Einstein: His Life and Universe. Excellent Book.


Side Note Two: New Facebook-like Site for Sports Fans, the BETA is Here:
http://www.sportsfanlive.com/

=====================

Wingman, really out...now.

Where's my Right-Click Menu???

Many sites have started to turn off the RIGHT CLICK MENU, to keep you from saving images or other stuff from their sites.

They do this with a piece of Javascript that they embed into their Webpage.

Now Javascript, according to security folk, can be a two-edged sword that leaves you vulnerable to intrusion by the darker elements of the web.

Some security holes found in MySpace and Facebook have been attributed to poorly formed javascript gadgets that script kitties put on their sites and create security holes on their own web pages.

Not a good thing.

But like 2 sided coins there is a good side to javascript too.

The above right-click menu blocking can be turned off with a piece of javascript too. And the code to do just that is:

javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu=null)

Put that into your Browser's location address of the offending Web Page, and Shazam!

Your Right Click Menu is Back..

Wingman, On Your Side...

Black Hats show "ASLR and DEP" problems in Vista

The Code hackers showed problems in Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) technologies which allows hackers to load any content they desire to any location on a user's machine.

=========================================================
Hacking Problems in Vista according to Blackhat Conference in Vegas
=========================================================
http://www.hackinthebox.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27765
=========================================================

Wingman Out,


----------------------------

Beijing 2008 Olympics

Scanned
Newspaper Front Pages:
===================================
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
===================================
Arizona Republic
(Sample scan)

Beijing Newspaper
Link:
===============================================
One World One Dream
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
===============================================

Let The Games Begin
Wingman

Just Say No to iPhone Update 2.01

Hack in The Box
who's logo is Keeping Knowledge Free

==============================
link:
http://www.hackinthebox.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27743
==============================

Hackers working to develop software that unlocks the iPhone for use on non-approved networks and in order to install unauthorized applications are warning users not to install iPhone Software 2.0.1.

Also by Hack in the Box:

==============================
http://www.hackinthebox.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27752
==============================
Asks: Why Pay Twice as Much for a Mac than a PC?
==================

That HP notebook is right on mark: ASP for retail Windows notebooks is $700. Mac laptops: $1,515. Yeah, right, they're more than twice as much. But there's more: The ASP for Mac desktops is more than $1,000 greater than for Windows PCs, and Mac desktop ASPs were higher in June than they were two years ago.

Wingman

Adobe AIR for Linux Samples

Adobe AIR Desktop Demo Program: Flicker Pile-On, grabs 50 random photos from Flicker to the Adobe AIR LIVE Desktop APP (First Image Top Left)

Click on One of the Images at it Zooms to Bigger Size.

Even Eweek's Joe Wilcox sees the Gig Is Up!

=======================================
4GB 14.1 -inch display HP Notebooks with 320GB hard drive
only $699.99 was sighted at Target.
Trend: Nearly half of retail Windows PCs now pack 3GB of RAM.
=======================================

link: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/
=======================================

Wingman

No Machine NX and Google Gadgets

================================

NX aka NOMACHINE is running ======= Added a Google Gadget to iGoogle

Fedora 9 64 Bit (laptop)

================================
Cool software that Just Works...
================================

The Coding Bug has hit me again, and I've started playing with Adore AIR and Glade Interface Designer and I want to eventually do work on Touchscreen apps (using a mouse in Gnome) and Bluetooth and GPS plugin apps.

Because of this I've decided to work on simple Gnome Desktop patchwork ( a starter program for Gnome Developers).

It's time to Give Back to the Open Source Environment that has changed my way of Looking at Software in General and Linux in Particular.

My Posts may not be as frequent as they have been in the past, but I'll be doing work on the System (Linux, Fedora, Gnome) that inspires contribution from us all.

Wingman

Of Hissy Fits and Nvidia chipsets...

==============================================
The INQUIRER tells us That division is Toast, go get the butter... http://www.theinquirer.net/feeds/rss/generic/en/GB/inq/latest/gb/inquirer/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/02/nvidia-chipsets-dead ==============================================
Let's Get Graphic...
That was the Take Away story at Nvidia (aka The Darkside). At XBIT, they offer an 18 page (summary) of Nvidia Geforce GTX 200 Graphics Architecture. And They think it's a Winner... http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx200-theory.html ==============================================


http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Nvidia_too_Launches_GeForce_GTX_200_GPUs/551-90354-581.html

TECHTREE.COM says Nvidia's launch is REAL Good. ==============================================

Wingman eyeing the chips

The BIG FOUR-FIVE

I Jump-to First Thing In The Morning.

On Firefox Google, I Jump-to the Folowing:

dailyrotation.com (http://www.dailyrotation.com/) I call it my morning Online Tech Newspaper.
It monitors over 300 tech sites and gathers the Headlines to a condensed view On One Page.
On the Top of that page are the Top TEN TECH News Items that I glean my Blogs of Interesting-to-me Concerns.

engadget.com (http://www.engadget.com/) I call it Gadget Scoop. New Gizmo-Gadget-Techy Goodies just released in the Wild.

theregister (http://www.theregister.co.uk/) This Site's Slogan is: "Biting The Hand That Feeds IT (Information Technology)". This is Tech News from across the Pond (UK) and leans toward the Big Box Side of Tech. I also listen to the excellent Incoherent Technolgy Podcast (on my PSP) that originates here.

LOL: the Life of Leo (http://leoville.com/) Leo Laporte and co-horts John C. Dvorak and Patrick Norton and Kevin Rose and other various TWITS are the Tech Media Guys I listen to the Most for Info on what the heck is really going on. Leo is the Host of 15 TWiT audio podcasts. And not a loser among them. Very professionally done, Leo has been the KFI radio show Tech Guy, a question and answer format. (http://thisweekintech.com/)

Security Now! (http://thisweekintech.com/sn) Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte. The Best Weekly Security Podcast Bar None. This along with Leo's TWiT podcast are weekly Must Listens. His latest Podcast explains How DNS works. As you must know, a recent "hole" in DNS was found.

The really good podcasts I try to save to my Sony PSP's limiting space. But a recent upgrade to PMP media player let's me store favorite podcasts on my computer's hard drive and stream them to the PSP via WiFi. Nice.

I try to encapsulate what I glean from the above listed sites to keep me on the cutting Edge without falling off, and post those thoughts and trends on my Blog: MedaCircus2.blogspot.com (http://www.blogger.com/home?pli=1).

A one stop spot that tries to get The Big Picture.

Wingman out.