http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php David Schwartzstein Blog Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:00:17 PDT http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=072010&newsid=2 Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:00:17 PDT slow news day is a synonym apparently with make up irrelevant crap and call it news.

You all know what I mean, right? TV news does those humanitarian puff pieces that they call news but really are just fabrications -- take some little orphan kid for a day on the town while interviewing them on why they're so awesome and should be adopted; show some three-legged dog that got rescued from Michael Vick's compatriots to hustle money out of you for PETA, the ASPCA, and your local animal shelters; talk about what celebrity got spotted at what grocery store chain in what neighborhood with whom; and scare you into believing that just about everything in the world can cause cancer (or, conversely, try to convince you that random things can cure or prevent cancer).

Online news is no different. Even in supposed business and industry type publications, there are articles fabricated out of seemingly thin air with no apparent basis of newsworthiness. One has to wonder if these are published with the intent of trying to manipulate corporate stock prices, to try to justify a writer's job by making a quota of submitted articles, or if these publications are really so naive as to believe that these news pieces are, in fact, news.

Take this article here: The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Apple surpasses Microsoft in security vulnerabilities

The basis of the article is that Secunia, a group which tracks security issues within published software inclusive of Operating Systems such as Mac OS X and Windows, says that Apple now has more security vulnerabilities reported in their database than Microsoft products do for year to date.

However, fifth paragraph:
"To assess the 'performance' of vendors in terms of vulnerabilities one should rather look at the changes in the type of vulnerabilities, code quality, handling of vulnerability reports, ability to update users, quality of patches, ability to communicate to end users, number of products, complexity of product portfolio, and other factors which cannot be read out of mere aggregate numbers."

Seventh paragraph, and portion of the eighth:
Renowned Apple hacker Charlie Miller said Apple's security problems have grown along with the brand's popularity, but the company has done fairly well in patching the holes in its products.

"Ironically, even though Apple has many more vulnerabilities than other vendors, you still don't see many actual attacks in the wild," Miller said.

So, the point of the article was to tell us that a report says that Apple has more vulnerabilities, but it doesn't necessarily matter? How is it newsworthy if the report says clearly that the results don't necessarily mean anything without a deep diving analysis into the vulnerabilities and products themselves -- and there's no such analysis going on in this article?

While they have a quote from a hacker saying that Apple's been doing well in patching holes and hasn't weathered nearly as many attacks, there's no mention as to whether the vulnerabilities count they're talking about is unpatched, patched, or combined -- if it's a combined number, and Apple has fixed (and these are illustrative numbers, I don't have any real data and I'm too lazy to try to find out) 99% of all vulnerabilities Secunia's aware of and Microsoft has only fixed 80%, then does it do any justice to anyone to sensationalize an article about Apple "having more vulnerabilities"?

I love my iPhone, all the other computing devices in my life right now are HP though, and I run Windows 7. So I don't honestly care one way or another about the whole Apple vs. Microsoft debate anymore.

I just hate how the media sensationalizes things by dragging a more popular party like Apple down simply to boost page clicks. Whatever happened to journalistic objectivity?

Okay, I've gone off on this enough. End rant.]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=072010&newsid=2 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=072010&newsid=1 Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:09:02 PDT the song. Rather, this is a discussion of my decision to improvise when it came to cooking dinner, almost burning down the kitchen in the process.

Yesterday, there were plans to do a background barbeque at a friends' place, and he and I stopped to grab some fish to do a fish grill. No one but the two of us actually bothered to show, so I ended up taking home two leftover, uncooked salmon filets. (We'd filled up on some awesome hummus and grilled ahi tuna steaks, so we didn't feel the need to have the salmon too.)

So tonight, of course, I'm going to cook the salmon. I decided to cook some pasta to go with it. That went without a hitch -- water, salt, pasta, not much you can mess up with that unless you're a total moron. However, I was going to prepare the salmon teriyaki style -- I could have sworn there was teriyaki sauce in the fridge, but there wasn't, and the pasta was already boiling so running out to get some wasn't an option.

So kitchen Macguyver mode went into effect! A little bit of oil, the last of the soy sauce packets I had hanging around from chinese deliveries past (somehow I ran out of bottled soy sauce in the fridge and failed to replenish it too!), some wasabi paste, a pinch of seasoning salt, garlic powder, squeezed lemon, and some cold sake. Shook that around in a ziplock bag, threw the fish in there for a minute, then threw it into a preheated oiled pan.

Flames. Four foot high flames when I threw the first piece of fish in. Maybe the pan pre-heated a bit too long? Perhaps I put too much alcohol in the marinade? In any case, flames. I'm glad I decided to pan-cook, because I have a freestanding George Foreman Grill that I'd usually use for something like this, and if I had, I probably would've lit the entire kitchen on fire, as there are cabinets above where that grill is whereas the stove just has a fan vent over it.

Horrible thing is, I don't have a fire extinguisher. When I saw the flames, the only thing I could do was jump back and pray that nothing caught fire and that the flame just went back down quickly (which it did fairly quickly). I think I need to get a fire extinguisher for the kitchen. I wonder if the landlord should be providing one of those, since I live in an apartment (code violation?).

Anyway, the kitchen didn't burn down, crisis averted, and that salmon was damn delicious! And as a grill cut, it came with the skin still on one side -- the oil and seasoning mixture crisped the skin up nicely, it was an awesome treat. The seasoning mixture also worked out perfectly as far as the fish flavor. Absolutely awesome taste! I was so happy with myself.

This does make me realize a strong need to replenish my fridge, though...]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=072010&newsid=1 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=11 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:43:17 PDT
iOS 4.0. The new operating system for iPhone. Here are my observations about it.

1. Mail

The Mail program has received a bit of a facelift. The unified inbox is a definite plus, as is quick access to the inbox folders of each e-mail account. I have five e-mail accounts on my phone, so anything that helps me ensure e-mail doesn't fall through the cracks is a huge bonus.

However, by making access to the inbox more convenient, it makes access to other folders less convenient - particularly on my office's Exchange account, where I have rules set up to sort through my mountains of incoming e-mail to place messages into folders. I've gotten very good, in fact, at setting up rules and it's something that helps me immensely. I can still, just as in iPhone 3.x, go to the Settings and define multiple folders to retrieve updates from automatically via Push technology. However, now I just have to dig a little deeper to get to those folders.

Okay, okay, it's only a simple scroll-down on the main Mail page, but still... I'd like to see Apple implement, particularly for Exchange users, the option to include non-inbox folders into the unified Inbox message list. For example, I might have a rule set to filter all email from my boss to the deleted items folder a My Boss folder for convenience, but I'd want to see the message just the same as if it was left in my inbox.

Oh, and one more thing ... Mark as Unread on Exchange and IMAP accounts would be a huge feature to add!

2. Multi-tasking

Let me preface this by saying I haven't done a ton of research into the subject. So I'm working off of some assumed knowledge based on observation and reading blurbs garnered from Steve Jobs' presentations.

Multi-tasking so far hasn't affected me one bit. The only "benefit" I've seen from it, so far, is the ability to switch programs without going back to the Home screen. Perhaps it's because the only programs I've needed in the past to do multi-tasking already could do it on the phone - because they were Apple's programs. As long as my calendar reminds me of meetings, my phone dings when a new email comes in, my alarm goes off in the morning, and I can be listening to my iPod or on the phone at the same time as I'm using an app or the web, I'm happy. I simply haven't felt much use for this feature yet.

One oddity of this feature is that programs don't fully quit when you leave them. They don't stay running, but they get suspended into the task tray and you have to quit each program manually by holding down on its icon until the icons wiggle about, and then clicking on the red close icon. Doesn't bother me really, but a way to simply close all open programs would be nice, or a way to simply quit a program directly from the program rather than having to leave the program, bring up the task tray, make the icon wiggle, then quit it.

3. Background Wallpaper on the Homescreen

I have my novelty picture of Brian Griffin, the dog from Family Guy, drinking a martini on my lock screen. I don't necessarily want that picture, though, behind my home screen icons, as it makes it harder to navigate. Apple has left no way of setting just a simple static-color background for the home screens. Plain black was okay by me, honestly. The workaround, of course, is to upload a picture into your phone of just a plain color (or any background you'd like for that matter), but it should be a default choice to set a solid color.

4. Speed!

The OS feels much faster than the previous iPhone 3.x releases. The animations seem more refined and fluid. It's a perception thing and I haven't done any actual measurements, but I'd say that it's a vast improvement.

Syncing up with iTunes seems much faster -- though I don't know whether that's because of iOS 4.0, or because of the new iTunes 9.2 64-bit that was released in support of the new iOS.

Obviously these are perceptual opinions -- but they're positive perceptual opinions, so let's smile and move on.

5. Tethering

The good news is, you can now tether an iPhone in the USA. The bad news is, you can now tether an iPhone in the USA.

I ranted not too long ago on this blog regarding the $20 AT&T charge just for the privilege of using your data plan in conjunction with your computer. I really can't wait until someone hacks this feature to unlock the tethering function in lieu of AT&T's evil charge. I could find it infinitely useful, but not so useful that I'd be willing to pay extra for it.

Yes, I'm still harping about this, even though it's not technically Apple's fault that AT&T does this -- though they obviously built the software hooks that allow AT&T to setup this mechanism.

6. Camera Zoom

The camera now has digital zoom. Only took four major software revisions, but we can finally zoom in. Thinking back on all those sporting events and concerts where I'd have liked to have been able to do this on my phone, it disappoints me that it's taken this long. Then I realize it's okay, because my hardware still has no flash and my pictures probably will come out too dark anyway. (Seriously, though, it's about time we got this feature!)

7. iPod

The ability to create and modify real playlists and not just the special On the Go playlists? All I can really say is, "gee golly, that's nifty!"

I'd also say the sound quality seems better. I'm still having some problems with the left channel when playing back in my car, though it could be the car stereo itself, but it seems to sound distinctly better. It could be perception created in my mind out of a deep want for it to be better, but hey, even if it's a mind game, this particular one I'll take!

Conclusion

Should you update to iOS 4? Yes. Based on the speed factor, and my opinion that keeping software updates up-to-date helps to protect data security on all platforms, I'd say that updating is worthwhile. You really have nothing to lose by doing so (unless you do a lot that requires Jailbreak and you're unlucky enough to have a model which can't be jailbroken yet on iOS 4 - I'm currently not jail broken, but will do so if and when a tethering unlock is available.)]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=11 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=10 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:55:54 PDT nifty gadget to use along with my desktop computer that I'd hooked up to my television to aid me in using the computer more effectively for my living room entertainment. (Short version: remote control) See, I had a wireless keyboard and mouse combo from Microsoft, but the range was so sort that it sometimes would skip a beat - using a mouse on a couch is awkward enough, but when it's got weak signal, it's near impossible.

Enter the GKM561R.

It comes with everything you need to get started. The keyboard/trackball, a USB dongle for the computer, and a set of batteries. The batteries are standard alkaline batteries, and are easily replaced via a cover on the bottom of the unit. I'd have preferred it if the battery door was hinged, to prevent the possibility of losing the cover at a later date, but it's certainly not the most important consideration.

Setup was a breeze. Premium and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 recognize the keyboard without the need for drivers - in fact, IOGear makes no drivers available, either on CD or on the web, and relies on this fact. This is very nice, particularly considering that there's a whole bunch of special functionality keys on this keyboard, for functions such as opening up Media Center, TV tuner, DVD player, controlling DVD and Media Center playback, and volume controls. So far, it's all just worked.

The trackball takes a little getting used to. For some reason, the way I've been holding onto the thing, I keep wanting to hit the Ctrl key thinking it's going to be the mouse click. However, it is very responsive. There's two buttons and a scroll wheel on the upper-left of the keyboard, and the trackball is on the upper-right. The ball rolls very smoothly and seems fairly accurate. You can adjust the accuracy and speed of the rolling by changing the DPI setting of the trackball amongst 400, 800, and 1200 dpi settings.

Having the USB dongle plugged into a front USB port, I measured that I'm sitting about 12 feet from the receiver. There's no loss of signal that I've been able to perceive whatsoever. In fact, playing Robot Unicorn Attack on Adult Swim's website, I achieved a score about 200,000 points higher than I'd ever achieved playing on my notebook with a local keyboard - considering the nature of that game, I find it interesting that having a screen farther away and a wireless keyboard got me a better score.

All in all, this is an awesome piece of technology, and something I'd recommend for anyone considering embracing a PC as part of their home entertainment system.]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=10 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=9 Sun, 13 Jun 2010 07:35:15 PDT
So for some reason I'm working in the Montreal office, which for contextual purposes takes up some floors in a huge skyscraper in the middle of town, but all the people around are co-workers that I work with today in Los Angeles except for a few faces I'd met in Montreal. I see two of my friends running across the sales floor, literally running, and they duck into a stairwell. I'm curious why they're running, so I go into the stairwell and hear them above me. I go to the middle landing, but they notice me and stop talking, apparently they just wanted to speak in private. I apologize for interrupting and I start going down the stairs. For some reason when I open the door to get back to work, the fire alarm starts going off. Not sure if it's a coincidence or I caused it, but I go through the door to the elevators and I'm frantically hitting the down button but the elevator won't work. So I go back to the stairwell and litterally start running down til I get to the ground floor and outside onto the street, hearing an announcement at some point how they believe it to be a false alarm but they'll have to evacuate anyway. I start walking around the building as people are filing out of the building, looking to see if I can catch any of my coworkers. I see one of them sitting on a bench outside, alone, and I sit down next to him. He tells me that most people he knows are going home because it's going to take too long to get all those people back into the building. I tell him that I think it's my fault the alarm went off, and he tells me that if it is people should thank me, because there are World Cup games on that people want to watch. And we get up and go walking to find a bar. And that's when I wake up.

I really, really have no idea what this means...]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=9 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=8 Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:27:46 PDT Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, Don't Stop Believin' by Journey, and Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond.

We even saw some girl sing there that was absolutely incredible. Apparently she'd previously been on American Idol - wasn't very surprising to find that out, and she definitely wasn't on because she's like William Hung.

Fun times, definitely have to do it again soon. Karaoke is such a cheap yet fun thing to do. Everyone should do it more.]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=8 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=7 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:05:40 PDT
You know a band is awesome - nay, legendary - when they have a seemingly endless supply of other bands imitating and giving them homage through cover performances.

So here's some cool YouTube links ... for some of those cover performances. Some of them are actually pretty damn cool. An a capella choral style performance of Fear of the Dark? SWEET!

Fear of the Dark
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Die With Your Boots On
Flight of Icarus
Number of the Beast
Children of the Damned
Powerslave
Remember Tomorrow
Wasted Years

Enjoy!]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=7 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=6 Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:36:53 PDT
I didn't have time to go home before the game to change, so I ran quickly over to the store to get some more comfortable clothes to wear. I'd originally just thought to grab a pair of shorts, but I figured when in Rome and picked up a Dodgers shirt, with Manny Ramirez' name and number 99 on the back. I guess that makes me officially a Los Angelean, a resident of Dodgertown in the foothills of Mannywood.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still a Mets fan. I'm not trading in my team. However, unless they're playing the Mets, I have no beef against the Dodgers. The Angels, on the other hand... I personally just hate the American League. I don't believe in Designated Hitters. I don't believe in the New York Yankees.

I'll also say that Dodger Dogs taste the best as far as stadium dogs go. I've been to a few ball parks in my life, and even better than New York, Dodger Dogs are awesome. I'm not even sure why, they're just delicious.

It was a fun night out. I really need to go to more games.

Oh, and in case you're interested ... it's always more fun when your team is winning. Dodgers had 10 runs by mid-game, and finished with a final score of 12-4 beating the Cardinals.]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=6 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=5 Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:08:57 PDT

• The Shield - How could they end the series like that??? Lamest finale ever, I wanted to see a happy ending for Vic.
  
• Justice - I thought it was one of the best legal dramas I'd seen, very unique perspective of the legal system from the defense side.
  
• Standoff - I thought the chemistry of the cast was great and the stories interesting.
  
• Law & Order - What the heck is NBC thinking? As TNT's advertisements say, the original is still the best!
  
• Dollhouse - The series was just getting good in the second season. I want to know more about what happened to bring about the apocalypse.
  
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - There was no finale. What happened to John Connor in a future where there was no John Connor?
  
• BBC's Robin Hood - We got closure, but apparently there were plans to have a third season, even after killing Robin, and I would've been interested in seeing that. The production in general was great.
  
• Legend of the Seeker - It looks like it's truly cancelled. A real shame, a great fantasy series. Shame on ABC for not picking up their own production company's program and running with it. It would've been a great prime time show, something different from the norm.
  
• Reaper - Possibly one of the funniest shows ever. Tyler Labine as "Sock" was an awesome character, and Ray Wise's portrayal of the Devil was spot on.
  
• Kings - An amazing series, excellent scenery and story telling, it's a shame it never caught on to a larger audience, something I blame NBC for with the horrible time slots it was always put in.

It would be nice if some of these were brought back. It's great that fans can resurrect shows through DVD sales and internet chatter, like they have with Family Guy and Futurama. It really sucks when you're just getting into a series, and then, BAM!, cancelled! Network execs really need to learn to give shows a chance...]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=5 http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=4 Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:49:44 PDT
Sometimes adapting to change is tough, though -- I stayed recently while on a trip at a residence that had done the same thing, and I was glad to have my Sling Box setup at home ready for me to log into to access my home cable and DVR. After all, such events as the 200th episode of South Park and the lead-up to the finale of 24 weren't things I wanted to miss, and watching kept me out of trouble at night and helped me unwind before sleep.

So now that I'm home, I just started really exploring the web, particularly Hulu, for watching shows.

The first con that's apparent is that not everything is up there, for one reason or another. For instance, the afforementioned 200th and 201st episodes of South Park haven't been posted amid contraversy regarding Islamic extremist terrorist threats - so much for not negotiating with terrorists.

However, there do seem to be a lot of pros that I'm finding.

First and foremost, the commercial format of most shows is very appealing. A total of four commercials in most shows that I've watched - a commercial before the show, after the show intro, midway, and before the credits - each lasting typically 30 seconds or less. Typical TV has 6-8 minutes of commercials with 22-24 minutes of show content in a half hour. It's like getting a few minutes of your life back with each program.

A definite plus, there's a ton of content that's not available on television. As a fan of Japanese Anime, I've found there's a ton of series posted on Hulu that are subtitled just days after airing in Japan. That's definitely wickedly awesome - official anime subtitle releases that quickly can only serve to help American importers make up revenues which might typically be lost to Fansubs. It's a great way for an ailing industry to embrace a new technology.

There's a collection of free movies on Hulu, though most of the movies are classic movies and the selection isn't huge. Still, it's cool to be able to on-demand watch one of my favorite movies, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I'm hoping the selection will improve. I'd even be willing to pay a small monthly fee if that'd help improve the selection, which I'm sure is on the horizon for Hulu anyway as a replacement to traditional TV delivery.

Most of the things I want to watch are either on Hulu or on standard over-the-air channels. I'm really considering cutting the cable - though that'll skyrocket my internet bill, with the damn bundling prices for everything. I bet I'll still save around $100 a month (Cox is the most price-gouging cable provider I've ever had to endure, I swear.)

So will I cancel cable? I don't know. But I can say that I'm fairly certain I could get by without it, if I had to. (Really, it's a shame that I'm so addicted to the television form of entertainment anyway.)]]> http://www.dmsmac.com/pctechyoda/itscrazymoney/news.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=062010&newsid=4