I just got off the phone with my internet service provider, Time Warner Cable/RoadRunner. For the past 38 hours I’ve had extremely poor internet access speeds. After doing some checking I’m seeing intermittant periods of extreme packet loss. The customer serivce agent I spoke with attributed this to the “cold weather” and said ti should get better by Monday when things are supposed to warm up. I might have bought this argument if I lived in Florida but I live in Minnesota. It got cold, so what? It gets cold every year. Since Thursday night we’ve had a low of -13 degrees Farenheit and a high of 8 degrees Farenheit but mostly it’s been hovering right around zero degrees Farenheit. Sure it’s cold but it gets this cold for a few days every year and this is not out of line. I can’t quite understand where the problem lies. The transmission lines themselves should actually improve in cold weather so the only thing would be equipment in the equipment cabinents but surely those are heated, this is Minnesota after all. It sounds to me like the customer service agent is trying to pass off this outage on the cold weather because they either don’t know what’s going on or they’re to embarassed to admit it’s some kind of routing problem.
Category Archives: Tech - Page 16
Calendar Server
WebCalendar is a highly configurable PHP/database based calendar package. You can set it up for use by either a single user or a group of users. It also operates a calendar server than can be viewed by any iCal-compliant application such as Mozilla Sunbird, Apple iCal, GNOME Evolution or RSS enabled applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, RSSOwl or FeedDemon. Another one of the features I enjoy is tha ability to set email reminders. One of the surest ways of reminding me about something is via an email so this is a fantastic feature for me. If you’re looking for a calendar solution be sure to check out WebCalendar.
Stop Badware
Three powerful institutions have teemed up against so called “malware “spyware” and “badware”. StopBadware.org aims to be a clearinghouse for information about badware. Organized by Harvard Oxford and Consumer Reports the site is currently collecting user stories and technical reports in an effort to better understand the problems and programs associated with badware. Part of the problem in dealing with badware is that it’s hard to nail down exactly what qualifies as badware. These researchers hope to answer that question based on user input. Eventually the site will include access to this database of user reports about specific applications and behaviors associated with badware. Many listings of spyware have found themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit from a listed company but hopes are that with the backing of Harvard Law School and actual reports from end users this site will be able to call out any company supporting badware without much fear.
I’m surprised this hasn’t received more coverage in the “geek” press (Digg, Slashdot, etc.) and expect StopBadware.org to become a significant player and information clearinghouse in the anti-badware arena.
Microphone Selection for Portable Recorders
For some time I’ve been keeping my eye out for a portable archival-quality audio recording device. This fall I finally purchased the recently released M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 and I’ve been thrilled with all this little recorder can do. I looked at similar products from Marantz and Roland but they didn’t meet my requirements as close as this.
One common accessory to these small recorders is a good microphone. Thanks to the folks at minidisc.org for putting together this great guide to microphones commonly used with small recording devices. As the saying goes “garbage in, garbage out” so a good microphone is key to getting a good recording. Of course this guide was originally written for MiniDisc recorders but the research should be valid for portable digital recorders as well.
As podcasts become more prevalent many people are finding that a good recorder and a good microphone are second only to content when it comes to podcasting to a large audience.
The End of an Era
On January 27, 2006 Western Union officially stopped sending telegrams. The fact that this was a non-event should tell you something about how important the telegram has become in our society but it wasn’t always that way. For many years the telegram was the only fast way to get a message transmitted over long distances. Indeed telegrams contributed much to our culture during the latter ninteenth and early twentieth centuries.
One of the contributions was the widespread use of code phrases and words to shorten a message. Today this may look something like “LOL” or “ROFL” in an instant message window but long before the invention of instant messaging telegraph companies and customers were abbreviating common messages with codes such as Western Union “92” code or “Wood’s 1864 Telegraphic Numerals”.
For more information on the history of the telegraph I suggest looking at “A Brief History of Telegrams” by the folks at retro-gram.com. You might also enjoy browsing some of the photographs at the British Science and Society Picture Library, which coincidentally has many other interesting historic science photographs, or reading about telegraph workers at the Norwegian Telecom Museum.
Historic Photographs
It’s important to remember that even in this digital age many resources can still be provided by local agencies. One such example is the photography collection at the Minnesota Historical Society. While not all of their resources are avilible online, many are.
One of may personal favorites is the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company collection. It’s amazing what you can find if you know where to look. On this site you can find photos of everything from power plants to the Alaska Highway Construction to Minneapolis Saloons. What a great resource!
Let’s also not forget that it would be impossible to get such insteresting photographs as the power plant and telephone company photos with the restrictions (real or just imposed by unknowning officials) in place today. Will our modern infrastructure be documented in art such as this for future generations to enjoy looking back at?
Digital Video Self-Help
As more people start producing digital video they have more questions about how to format and convert it. One site with quite a bit of history in helping people with the thorny issues surrounding digital video is VideoHelp.com.
This site started off as VCDhelp.com. As you may recall VCDs (Video CDs) were a popular pre-DVD digital format in Asia but never made a big hit in the United States. The site grew to include SVCDhelp.com and eventually DVDRhelp.com but is now branding as VideoHelp.com.
Here you can find a number of tutorials that walk you through just about any digital video format conversion you can imagine as well as forums, background information and hardware/software suggestions and links. The site is a virtual trasure trove of all things digital video. In my mind there is no doubt that VideoHelp.com and doom9.net are the definitive resources for help with digital video projects. Next time you’re looking for help with one of your digital video projects be sure to take a look at one of these great sites.
Learning Your Preferences
The folks at the Music Genome Project have spent the last six years analizing songs from over 10,000 artists. If you have ever wanted to expand your musical horizons but wanted some good suggestions about what music you might like take a look at their web-based music suggestion utility, Pandora. You start out listing some music you enjoy and the free service will start making suggestions of other music you may like. By listening to and rating these selections the service will start to build a profile of music you would like and theoretically get even better about suggesting new songs and artists. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. I’m surprised someone like the iTunes store or Amazon hasn’t started licensing this technology as a way to encourage people to buy more music.
The Mac Minitosh
Normally I’m not one for case mods but this is a really interesting one I found. Many people are familiar with the Macquaiums but the folks at destruc.tv have put a Macintosh Mini inside an old Macintosh Plus case. OS X running in a compact Mac case, now that’s something worth mentioning.
PS: Detailed instructions for building a Macquarium can be found here along with photos if finished mods here and here.
Photography is Right
Now more than ever photographers are under fire from government officials to stop taking pictures of “sensitive infrastructure”. Never mind that there is no evidence showing that photography has played an important role
in any terrorist attack in the last forty years. Perhaps more importantly unrestricted photography by private citizens has played a critical role in the fight for civil rights and protecting the freedoms we hold so dear. Much of the harassment faced by photographers is due to a lack of understanding by both the general public and police forces about what is and is not permitted in the United States. In general, if you’re on public property or have permission from the land owner you can photograph anything you want from that location. This has not changed by the implementation of the PATRIOT Act or any other national legislation to date which is a common mistake made by government officials. For a more complete understanding of the laws involved I suggest taking a look at Attorney Bert P. Krages The Photographer’s Right”. For a truly in depth look at the laws and concerns for photographers take a look at Bert’s book “Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making Images“.
Unfortunately, many police officers (and even federal agents) fail to understand these rights. One grievous example of this is the story of Ian Spiers, a Washington state resident and photography student, who was harassed by police on two occasions for taking photographs of a local lock and dam as part of a photography assignment. He details his experience on his web site Brown Equals Terrorist. Lest you think this is an isolated case I suggest you listen to the National Public Radio Morning Edition story where they interview several East coast photographers who have also been harassed. The rights of photographers are being trampled from coast to coast and over zealous government officials who seem to have no understanding of the law and little regard for individual rights are making a mockery of the constitution. If you’re interested in this sort of thing one resource where you can stay up to date on the issue is the news site PhotoPermit.org which tracks news stories related to legal issues surrounding photography.
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