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October 28, 2005

The handheld street directory

There were a few issues I hadn't planned on when I made the switch from car-driving to motorcycling a couple of months ago. For one, there's the greatest health issue of our time - bike-helmet-flat-hair-syndrome - which has caused me to get a dramatically shorter haircut. Another is the problem of getting lost - I hadn't realised how much I relied on the trusty Melways until I didn't have it with me (it's a bit big to conveniently carry on the bike).

The is a Melways for Pocket PC, but it takes up a whole SD card (due to the way the copy protection works; this means that I can't carry my music and movies with me too), and doesn't take full advantage of the JASJAR's VGA screen. There's also Microsoft Pocket Streets, which I shelled out $24.95 for, but its maps are truly awful. Only about 10% of streets are actually given a name. At least it's cheap (most map software is >$200).

Another option is to use the excellent online street directory. However, there's so much rubbish all over the site, the actual map is only small (although clicking the 'enlarge' button under the map helps somewhat). I decided to investigate whether I could get just the map, without the rubbish...

In Firefox, I hit Ctrl-U to see the HTML source, which showed me the link to their javascript source code:

<SCRIPT src="script.js" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT>

I then went to that link using Firefox, to find the parameters it was passing to the form named 'mapform', and then looked back to the HTML source to see where that form is sent to:

<form name="mapform" method="post" action="mapsearch.cgi">

I added the parameters to the mapsearch URL, and I had myself my first map. It's then easy to create a simple little program that let's me use my Pocket PC to look up whatever map I need.

There's a lot of sites like this, where simply manipulating the HTML makes it possible to get lots of cool stuff. As far as I can tell, there's nothing illegal about this - I checked street-directory.com's user agreement and couldn't see anything that stops this kind of behaviour. What do you think - is there anything wrong with munging HTML to play with web sites? Have you found any interesting examples of web sites that allow this?

Posted by at 05:34 PM | Comments (7)

A busy, Bleeding Edge day

It's been one of those days. We're off to Wangaratta for the weekend jazz festival. But before we leave, there's a barbecue for the new tenants at the Abbotsford Convent.

We've spent most of the day arranging things like telephone connections, and an iiNet ADSL service - HOORAY!!, it's on the Collingwood exchange, which means we can get ADSL2! - while interviewing a replacement for Matt, and researching the next Workhorse PC specs among other things.

Oh, and we started the day at the dentist's surgery for a mysterious toothache, which seems to be associated with nocturnal teeth-grinding, rather than any decay or damage. Could it be, perhaps, that we're showing signs of stress?

Plus we're working on a podcast. And trying to negotiate with the Sydney Morning Herald to actually buy the Bleeding Edge column, rather than running it on their Web site for free.

Posted by cw at 03:44 PM | Comments (2)

October 27, 2005

What we're worth

It's nice to know that the Bleeding Edge blog actually has a net worth. We can tell you exactly what it is: $US23,146.14. Unfortunately that sum isn't sitting in the bank account. It's a calculation based on the blog valuation formula derived from the value AOL put on the Weblogs Inc. purchase.

So how much is your blog worth?

Posted by cw at 03:41 PM | Comments (4)

Let Yahoo! be your [travel] guide

It isn't just newspapers that are being turned into threatened species by the advent of the Internet. The chaps at Lonely Planet are possibly feeling less than comfortable at the news that Yahoo! has developed a Travel Trip Planner that helps you develop the itinerary for your sojourn through the south of France, for instance, or that expedition to crack the Da Vinci Code.

The idea is that you save all the details of hotels, attractions, and useful web sites into your trip plan, then add your own notes, tags, driving directions etc. Once you've got it all set up, you can share your trip with friends or the Yahoo! Travel community.

Posted by cw at 08:30 AM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2005

Driven insane by 3 Australia

Having obtained my JASJAR phone, I was particularly excited about the opportunity to connect it to 3G. 3G is a technology that allows mobile phones to transmit data around 2000% faster than the previous generation (GPRS). The only network compatible with JASJAR in Australia is provided by 3, who particularly promote it for the video calling capability. I had very little interest in this aspect of it - the idea that anyone would want to see me at 7 am while I'm talking to them is not one that many of my colleagues would be thrilled at. I was also less than impressed by 3's "value added services" - the name apparently referring to the value you add to 3's share price when you pay a dollar just to get the weather.

On the other hand, using the network to access the internet at 150kbps for $0.30 per MB from wherever I am is most appealing. Judging from what I overheard from other customers at 3's shop, nearly everyone else has the same idea. Maybe 3 should listen to their customers before their next round of marketing.

So, having decided to connect up to the 3 network, I popped over to 3's website, to order my connection. All seemed well, except that I couldn't work out how to purchase a plan, without a phone. So, I called the number helpfully provided on the site to get help. I found myself talking to an operator at 3's Indian telecentre, where all calls are routed to. I explained to the lady at the other end of the phone that I required a plan to use with my new phone, and that I already knew what plan I wanted (the $29 cap). "So, what phone do you wish to get with that", she asked. Ummm… well as I just mentioned I already have a phone. "Yes sir, but you need to get a 3 phone to use the features of the 3 network". Thanks, but I already have a compatible phone. "Oh, so you've already purchased a phone from 3?" No, I didn't buy it from 3, but it is compatible with 3's network. "I'm sorry sir, but only 3 phones are compatible with 3's network". What are '3 phones'? 3 don't make phones, they provide a network – and I've purchased a phone compatible with 3's network from someone else. "I don't know about that sir…" What does 'I don't know about that' mean? "You need to get a 3 phone to use the features of the 3 network". Oh dear, we've gone full circle. Maybe I should go visit a store… "Great! Bye!"

OK, so no luck communicating with the Indian service centre – perhaps the Aussie store will be more useful. The 3 store in Elizabeth St was staffed by three girls who looked about 16 years old. I rather wondered whether they had the deep telecommunications understanding to help the kind of city-dwellers that were interested in 3G technology. Listening in to the conversations they were having with customers, they all sounded something like this… Customer: "So, can I access push email through this phone's IMAP support? Or should I download a Blackberry client?" Staff: "Ummm… look at the pretty video phone! Did you know you can get Big Brother clips downloaded live?!"

I didn't have to wait long for service, as the folks ahead of me quickly realized they weren't going to get any useful information, and scurried away. I tried a different tack this time: I simply asked to buy a SIM. "Pre-paid or plan?" How much is internet access on pre-paid? "$4/MB". Oh, that's over 10x higher than the plan rates – I'll get a plan please. "And what phone do you want?" None thanks. "You need to get a 3 phone to use the features of the 3 network". Oh dear, this discussion again… Err… I have a 3 phone already from a previous plan (I lied). "OK, what phone is it? I need to enter it's serial number into the computer here, so it can verify the SIM upgrade." Oh sorry… I lied… I actually bought a compatible phone from someone else. I'm just after a SIM – mainly for the internet access. I want the $29 cap please. "OK, that will be $39 per month, including $10 per month over 24 months for the included phone." But I don't want a phone!!! "You need to get a 3 phone to use the features of the 3 network." Agggghhhh!!! I already have a phone! OK, I give up. Just give me cheapest phone you have. "Yes sir, we have a number of phones on the $29 cap for $10 a month – which one would you like?" Look, I'm just going to throw it out, so it doesn't matter, does it? Unless… can I give it to a friend to use with Telstra? "No, the phones are locked to our network."

I finally left with a useless phone – so much for the so-called "$29 cap"; it actually costs a minimum of $39 – and put the hard-won SIM card into my JASJAR. I set it up using the settings I found at Ross Barkman's excellent GPRS Info Page. It was worth the angst – the actual performance of the mobile internet access is wonderful. I've had no connection problems, and speeds have been as-advertised. If you want to keep your sanity, look elsewhere; but, if you don't mind sacrificing your mental health into to get fast mobile internet access, the 3 network comes highly recommended.

Posted by at 05:18 PM | Comments (14)

Safer Skype

What with something called a "heap overflow in security routine", which is the official description of a rather serious security hole in the current version of Skype, you might like to download the new version for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Posted by cw at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Google's base motives

Google has more plans for you and your stuff. It's called Google Base, [not currently up, but it looks like this], and the idea is that it hosts all manner of content that you assign to it.

Some of Google's examples of the sort of things you might post to Google Base:

It says that "You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local."

Sounds like a simple act of spontaneous generosity, huh? The sort of thing that would be eminently useful, if you happened to have a database of protein structures [how do those Google types come up with these things?]

Not according to Ars Technica: according to them, and others, the ultimate plan is to become something of an uber-classifieds site. [Just what Fairfax needs ... something else to dam those rivers of gold upstream].

No Wonder Craig's List seems to be trying to construct a walled garden.

Posted by cw at 12:08 PM | Comments (3)

The [new-look] Age

Oooh! The Age has introduced a new look for its online edition. The changes are explained here. Bleeding Edge likes it. What about you?

Posted by cw at 10:44 AM | Comments (13)

October 25, 2005

Australia gets its iTunes Music Store

You might like to check out the local iTunes Music Store. The official announcement won't come until 9am, but we've been doing a bit of business there since we checked it out just before 8am.

Tracks are $1.69, which is pretty steep, but that's what we've come to expect from the local music industry, whose mantra, of course is "Rip off the consumer at every opportunity".

Now what we have to do is check out whether, as usual, they're holding back on the latest hits.

Update: As we've posted over at Razor, Sony BMG have held back all their albums, which means that a huge number of the chart hits aren't available. One of our Razor commenters, Shannon, suggests that when you calculate the exchange rate and GST, we're paying 20c per track premium for the privilege of having our own iTMS store. You can imagine how much the record companies are going to be making out of that! And, as we all know, this music should be CHEAPER than CD prices, not more expensive.

Update 2: Coles Myer has just sent us a press release announcing that until February 28 next year, they'll be the exclusive source of pre-paid iTunes Music Cards [$20, $50, $100] available from Myer, Coles Supermarkets, Coles Express, Target, KMart, BiLo, Megamart, OfficeWorks and Harris Technology. They expect to sell a lot of them as Christmas stocking stuffers.

Posted by cw at 08:13 AM | Comments (9)

October 24, 2005

Relocating the cave

Next week, Bleeding Edge will be moving into a shared space in the Abbotsford Convent. It's a wonderful environment - "a community of multi-disciplined artists from writers to puppetmakers, animators to illustrators and painters" - that should be a fascinating place to work (provided we're not too close to any of the louder performing arts). Haven't got a phone yet, but fortunately it's close enough to the Collingwood iBurst base station to pull a strong signal.

We're hoping that in addition to bashing out columns and blog entries, the gardens and the community atmosphere will inspire us to do some creative writing.

Anyone else moving in there?

Posted by cw at 10:50 PM | Comments (1)

JASJAR - Best... gadget... ever

htcuniversal_small.jpg Last week I took the practical decision to buy a tool to improve my productivity - that is, the i-mate JASJAR phone / PDA / MP3 player / movie player / internet terminal / Handheld MS Office PC...

The JASJAR is actually produced by a highly secretive Taiwanese company called HTC, and is code-named the 'Universal'. It is also sold as the O2 XDA Exec, Orange SPV M5000, QTEK 9000, T-Mobile MDA Pro, and Vodafone VPA IV. The O2 is the only other brand sold in Australia, as far as I know - and should be available later this year or early next year. The only difference between the brands is the software pre-installed.

So, here are the highlights of what's in this unit:

And the major downside: it costs $1700 (!). Well, at least, it cost me $1700 because I bought it from Calculator King. If I was prepared to wait 4 days for it to be delivered I could have saved $120 by buying it from Expansys. Patience is a virtue...

(There's lots more information in this review - click "Continue Reading..." below to read the rest)

The fast processor, sharp screen, and better-than-average headphones mean that movies, music, and ebooks are a real pleasure. I've done all of my fiction reading on Ebooks for the last couple of years (using a Treo 600, and then an XDA mini) - but the JASJAR's screen makes the experience much more pleasurable. The latest beta of Mobipocket fully supports the high-resolution screen, including single-button access to a full-screen mode which fits more on the screen at once. The free TCPMP media player works perfectly - I spent Saturday morning lying in bed watching "XXX 2: The Next Level" (not a great movie by the way) while Evelyn enjoyed a sleep-in, undisturbed, since I could use the included stereo headphones. The headphones also work as a phone headset, including volume control and phone answer/hang-up button. There is an SD card slot, where you can insert up to 2GB of storage - enough for 4 movies, or 30 albums of music.

The keyboard combined with the high-res screen make the JASJAR much more useful as a business tool than previous PDAs. MS Excel is really usable - and the latest version (included with the device) includes charting functionality. MS Word handles tables now too. I'm a keen user of the powerful mathematical programming language and interactive analysis tool called J, and using it to hack at maths problems wherever I am is a real pleasure. I expect that each user of this PDA will find their own interesting applications - there's nearly 15,000 applications at Handango to choose from!

I've found the wifi and 3G networking both genuinely useful. The only local company that provides a compatible 3G network is 3 Australia, who are, unfortunately, completely insane. More on that in a later post. However, if you manage to defeat their system (which seems 100% focussed on ensuring that customers can't purchase anything useful from them) and actually get connected, you will find yourself with a handheld device with 150kbps (10 times faster than GPRS, which is what most phones use) internet access in every major city in Australia. Furthermore, it's quite reasonably priced (well, reasonable by Australian standards - anywhere else in the world and it would be considered quite ludicrously priced) - it costs around $0.30 per megabyte, which is around 20x cheaper than GPRS. I have used both wifi and 3G to remotely maintain my servers (using both Remote Desktop for Windows servers, and SSH for Linux servers), read my email, get the latest weather radar to decide when I can stay dry on my motorbike, and play networked computer games.

The most commonly heard problem with the JASJAR that I've heard is its size. Personally, I haven't found the size a problem at all. It fits just fine in my jeans pocket, my suit pocket, or my motorbike jacket pocket. I use a Bluetooth headset, so there's no issues with the size when using it as a phone - although even when I don't have the headset I still don't find it a problem.

For those that want something smaller, I highly recommend the i-mate K-JAM. As well as having a slightly less stoopid name than the JASJAR, it is also much smaller (it's thicker than the average phone, but width and height are a bit smaller than average). The screen resolution is 4x lower than the JASJAR, and whilst it does have a little slide-out keyboard, its only good enough for pecking at with one's thumbs. It does not have 3G, but it does have wifi, which is truly impressive for such a small gadget.

The K-JAM and JASJAR both have a 1.3 mega-pixel camera - I didn't test out the K-JAM's in much detail, but I have taken a few shots with the JASJAR's and it's much better than previous phone-cameras I've tried. It even has a powerful light for night shots, and a video mode which worked very well in my testing.

Unfortunately, the K-JAM and JASJAR use Windows Mobile, which compares very poorly to PalmOS. They do sport the latest version (v5.0), which is much improved, including allowing access to most functions using the keyboard or thumb-buttons, but PalmOS is still much more responsive and carefully thought-out. Having said that, it's still usable enough - it just takes a little longer than it should to do most things.

Posted by at 09:27 PM | Comments (10)

October 23, 2005

I think, therefore I back up my hard drive

A journalist at The Guardian loses his iMac G3 to a hard drive crash, and then imagines that without it, he cannot function:

Without my computer I couldn't function. Telling myself that Shakespeare wrote with a feather made no difference. My brain craved its connection to the computer's architecture of files and documents. My fingers ached for a keyboard. I couldn't remember how to research a story without Googling, and communication without constant access to email was impossible. I'd become so used to having a thought, and in the same instant writing it down and sending it somewhere, that email itself was now an integral part of the thought process. My brain had become tangled up in the world wide web. By myself, I didn't really exist.
Clearly, however, he'd lost the ability to think years ago. When the hard drive went to God, he lost his accounts, the text of numerous articles and most of a novel. If he'd been thinking, he would have backed them up.

Posted by cw at 06:35 PM | Comments (1)

CEOs - and the myths that cover their greed

At last, a chief executive who's prepared to spill the beans on the executive pay rorts that are robbing shareholders blind and causing enormous resentment among employees who are increasingly being expected to do more for less, so their so-called corporate leaders can fatten up their options packages.

The video of Ed Woolard, former CEO and chair of Du Pont, exposing the lies and conspiracies that have led to the plundering of shareholder wealth, should be required viewing in every boardroom.

And these voracious types are cheering on John Howard, as he sets in place the machinery to hack down the pay and conditions of those who earn the least. How about some industrial reform that cleans out corporate pig troughs?

Posted by cw at 03:06 PM | Comments (2)

The $1700 phone

I was amused to learn last week that i-mate has released a new phone, the JASJAR, at a price of $1700. Yes that's right folks, a phone that costs $1700. As soon as I heard this, I thought: What was the i-mate marketing department thinking? - The idea that anyone would spend $1700 on a phone is laughable. Perhaps they thought that some people are so laden with insecurity that they think that a $1700 phone could somehow make up for their deficiencies, thus making them more attractive to the opposite sex.

By the end of the day, I had purchased one.

You see, a few minutes after reading about the JASJAR, my now-obsolete XDA Mini phone rang, the caller's name appearing on its dated, low-resolution display. I dealt with the call as quickly as I could, hoping that the caller wouldn't become insulted that I was dealing with their call using previous-generation technology... Later, at lunch, I had to reach for the XDA Mini again, in order to settle a vital matter causing great debate amongst my colleagues (being: "does Coca-cola contain cocaine?"). Waiting for the slow GPRS connection to finally tell the XDA's Pocket Internet Explorer the answer (which is: "no, but is does contain 'de-cocained' coca leaf), I could see my colleagues rolling their eyes, wondering what kind of try-hard internet entrepreneur would have to rely on such 2nd rate telecommunications tools.

So as you can see, I really had no choice. I'll be posting a review of my new gadget shortly, and I will do what I can at that time to justify to myself and others that paying $1700 for a phone is not, in fact, completely insane, but rather is a rational business decision.

Oh, and to answer the obvious question - at this point, no, there is no evidence that my new phone has made me more attractive to the opposite sex. Although my girlfriend, Evelyn, is very pleased to have received a hand-me-down XDA Mini.

Posted by at 08:28 AM | Comments (7)

October 22, 2005

Broadband losers

The Americans, God bless them, think that THEY'RE being ripped off when it comes to broadband Internet. According to Salon magazine, they're being outstripped by practically every civilised nation.

It's all because the Federal Communications Commisions has allowed telecom monopolies to discourage real competition among broadband providers, "giving free rein over the market to the cable and DSL giants".

"The typical download speed of a DSL connection in the U.S. is 1.5 Mbps, while the average cable-modem connection downloads at 3 Mbps," says Salon. "These connections are adequate for streaming low- to standard-quality video, but are far too slow for applications like high-definition video. Furthermore, they pale in comparison to what is being offered in Japan, where consumers can download high-definition movies in less than five minutes."

How do you think they'd react if they lived in a country like Australia, where they had a REAL telecoms monopoly? Where they have typical download speeds that aren't just MUUUCH slower than those of the US, but aren't regarded by international authorities as genuine broadband?

Which is why we laughed hysterically at the Financial Review's story today that claims "a surge in broadband connections over the past six months has helped lift Australia's ranking on a global league table of advanced internet use". We've got 10.09 "broadband" subscribers per 100 inhabitants as of June 30 this year, according to the article. Umm, that's the same level Iceland reached at the end of 2002. And as we said, unlike Iceland's service, it's not real broadband.

The AFR, which apparently hasn't worked out the difference between broadband speeds in overseas countries - even those poor put-upon Americans - and what we're getting here, opines that the increase in connections has "cooled concern over an issue that has dogged the Howard government for years": ie, very poor performance in international broadband figures.

Sorry. It doesn't. And the Financial Review shouldn't be misleading its readers by suggesting otherwise. Personally, we'd like to see Ziggy Switkowski and his fellow booby, Senator Richard Alston, that song and dance act that presided over Telstra and national communications policy for far too long, publicly tarred and feathered. They've done the residents of this country a terrible dis-service, and seriously hampered our commercial prospects.

Posted by cw at 02:28 PM | Comments (3)

October 21, 2005

The bleeding edge of barbecues

It's only an hour or so since Bleeding Edge arrived back home, and immediately we're faced with a tricky technology question. Does it take longer to cook a pork chop on a Weber kettle barbecue fitted with one of those gas conversion kits? Frankly, we prefer charcoal, but the spouse regards it as messy and time-consuming, so it was only a matter of time before we lost that particular argument.

The new kit seems to be working well, and fortunately we got one of those models with a thermometer in the handle, so we can see how quickly it heats up (very quickly indeed). So far, it seems to be doing a good job. We'll report later on the flavour.

Posted by cw at 07:52 PM | Comments (2)

Bleeding Edge is back

Gosh! It's awfully wet around here. Wasn't at all like this up at Merimbula. But it's nice to be back. And it seems we do have a little willpower left, after all. Aside from that one visit to the Internet cafe, we managed to stay away from the laptop. Aside from using it to play DVDs - the entire first series of Deadwood. Which is, in our opinion, fantastic.

Posted by cw at 07:00 PM | Comments (2)

October 19, 2005

A computer-free holiday

It's a new record for Bleeding Edge. We've managed to stay away from computers and the Internet since last Friday morning, and we've only logged in now to check for an important e-mail. Of course, once we dropped into the DragNet Internet cafe in Merimbula (an excellent one, by the way, where they actually allow you to hook up your laptop) we had to make a brief post. And clear out a lot of comment spam.

Matt installed a new version of Movable Type on Friday, and while it doesn't actually stop comment spam, it makes it easier to deal with it. In the past two weeks, we've been getting hundreds of the things every day. We'll be taking further action when we get back.

In the meantime, we hope you're enjoying yourselves as much as we are. The weather is great!

Posted by cw at 10:25 AM | Comments (2)

October 14, 2005

A short break

What with being completely stuffed, Bleeding Edge has decided to head north for a week. The current intention is not to post at all, not to look at our email, not to even open the computer. The mere fact that the computer is coming up to Merimbula too indicates that we don't really expect that's going to happen, so maybe you will get the occasional message from us.

The forum will be active as usual, of course. (We like what's going on there, by the way.) We do hope you can stay out of trouble for a week.

Posted by cw at 10:16 AM | Comments (3)

October 12, 2005

Tracking Google Earth

As new applications for Google Earth roll out - a crag map on the Sydney rock climber's guide for instance - and people work out ways to make money from Google Earth, you're probably going to want to keep track of things via the Google Earth Blog.

Posted by cw at 06:34 PM | Comments (1)

October 11, 2005

Yahoo! gets podcasts

What with putting a proposal to Fairfax that they take up the Computer Help broadcast that the ABC dropped as a podcast - they're very interested, and we'll keep you informed - Bleeding Edge has been checking out the podcast scene. We've glad we've got a 60GB iPod, because there's much more good stuff around than there used to be.

And the Yahoo! podcast directory beta seems to us to be much better than Apple's, or anyone else's for that matter. It makes tracking down and loading podcasts absurdly simple.

And that's only the beginning. Yahoo! plans to add "social features" - ratings and recommendations for instance - and it will be adding podcasts to other search results. It also makes features like high-speed replay available for Web listeners. [In the world of the time-poor, you need all the help you can get.]

Geoff Ralston, Yahoo's chief product officer, told Podtech.net that the new service reflects the spirit of Web 2.0: "I think that it’s something that is great and new about podcasting. It is about taking this audio content and injecting community into it. It’s injecting community with the people who are listening to podcasts, injecting community to those who are creating those podcasts, and then allowing them to publish it and get it out in a real time basis to those people.

"That’s been a core part of how we’ve thought about creating a site around podcasts. So the community can go in and take a look at the podcast and rate them, review them, and create a tag space around them. The result is that the community on a ongoing basis is talking about podcasts on Yahoo, and telling the rest of the community what’s cool, what’s new, what’s happening, what is a great podcast, and what you should be listening to."

Posted by cw at 08:46 AM | Comments (3)

October 10, 2005

Music industry wants an iPod tax

The Japanese music industry can't sit idly by while people who've paid for CDs, or bought tracks from music stores put it legally on their iPods to listen to it. It wants to increase its profits by charging them twice. Or in the case of people who use their iPods to play only podcasts - and we're sure there are people who do just that - charging them for things they haven't provided.

So it asks the government to put a tax on iPods, on the basis that some people may be using them to play tracks for which they haven't paid. They would have made much more money, of course, if they hadn't blocked the local iTMS for so long, but then they would have had to provide something in return for the money, which is, you know, tedious, when you've got a government that's prepared to let them screw the public.

Posted by cw at 11:19 PM | Comments (1)

October 07, 2005

As we've pointed out, our

As we've pointed out, our financial institutions are fudging the figures on the incidence of phishing and online fraud, and like us, Bruce Schneier is calling for governments to force them to protect their customers.

Schneier argues his point well, although we can't agree with his suggestion that the banks and credit card companies are covering their customers' phishing losses, because it's "cheaper and simpler to pay the costs of fraud"

There is considerable evidence that the banks are leaving many of their customers holding the baby, despite their public denials.

He's quite right, however, when he points out that even those customers who are reimbursed, pay a grave price in inconvenience and stress.

In Australia at least, the stress is worse than he suggests, because the first thing banks and credit card companies will do, in these cases, is try to pin the blame on their customers. The effect can be shattering.

As Schneier says, "The actual problem to be solved is that of fraudulent transactions. Financial institutions make it too easy for a criminal to commit fraudulent transactions, and too difficult for the victims to clear their names. The institutions make a lot of money because it's easy to make a transaction, open an account, get a credit card and so on. For years I've written about how economic considerations affect security problems. They can put security countermeasures in place to prevent fraud, detect it quickly and allow victims to clear themselves. But all of that's expensive. And it's not worth it to them."

And it isn't just our legislators that are letting us down. So are the media. Most journalists seem to actually believe what the financial institutions are telling them.

Posted by cw at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

A new MSCONFIG

One of the tools we recommend all the time to people who are having performance and other problems that are almost certainly associated with programs that load themselves into the Startup menu is MSCONFIG.

Among other things, it allows you to identify applications that most people hadn't a clue were operating, and turn them off. (For identifying what the programs do, and whether they should be on or off, we recommend this site.)

Now Microsoft has released a new version of MSCONFIG for users running Windows XP SP-2. It's a small preview of some of the code from the new Windows Vista operating system.

It adds a new Tools tab that allow users to launch 13 diagnostic tools from within the utility, rather than having to grab them from other areas.

And while you're at it, if you've got a network, you might be interested in the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP.

Posted by cw at 05:54 PM | Comments (1)

Nostalgic? Sober up.

Feeling nostalgic for those friends you made back at school? If you are, resist the temptation to click on any messages about school reunions that ask if you're the person in the attached picture ... which of course, says F-Secure, is not a picture..

What it is [you've guessed already, right?] is a new variant of the Sober worm.

And on the topic of malware, CME is a great initiative aimed at ending the existing confusion in which different anti-virus vendors give the same virus different names. This new Sober worm, for instance, is variously identified as Sober.R, Email-Worm.Win32.VB.b, W32.Sober.Q@mm, W32/Sober-O etc. The CME identifier for it is CME-151.

Posted by cw at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2005

Merciless progress

It was about five years ago now that your bloodied correspondent picked up a tiny little plastic stick at a PC show in Melbourne and immediately wrote out a cheque for (from memory) $350 or so.

We had no way of knowing that the 32MB Trek USB ThumbDrive which so took our fancy was the first product in a category that would become ubiquitous. We did know, however, that it made a lot more sense than floppy diskettes.

Here's an idea of just how commonplace they are now: a couple of weeks ago we attended the Face the IT media conference in the Hunter Valley.

All the journalists at the event received briefing material on a USB key. Not just any key: a 1GB Sandisk Mini Cruzer. You can buy it online for $137.95, which makes our original purchase - still working today - look pretty extravagant.

We've had several models since then, some of which have failed in a matter of months, which is why, these days, we stick to Sandisk Cruzers.

Given that Christmas is not all that far away, it might be a good idea to start dropping hints about how nice it would be to have, say a 2GB Sandisk Mini Cruzer. By the time Santa goes shopping, it will probably cost a little less than today's $279.95. Given the price of reliable products such as these, it seems false economy to buy cheaper versions.

Perhaps the most useful thing you can do with a 256MB USB key is to use it as the next generation Windows XP rescue platform.

Bart Lagerweij's freeware PE Builder at nu2.nu/pebuilder/ is a brilliant program which compresses the Windows XP operating system to run on a 256MB USB key or a CD. You will find some background and instructions at tomshardware.com/howto/20050909/

As usual, Tom's Hardware goes into quite a bit of detail, offers some alternative approaches and recommends using HP's format utility snipurl.com/9hcl to format the USB.

It also explains how to set the boot sequence in your PC to allow it to boot up from a USB key.

Depending on the age of your computer's motherboard, you might have to download a BIOS update.

As with most things, however, Bleeding Edge decided to look for the lazy man's solution. We downloaded and installed PE Builder, popped the Windows XP installation disc into the CD drive then ran it, choosing to save the files in the default directory it nominated. In the meantime we'd downloaded a handy utility called PEToUSB. It formats a USB key to FAT16, sets the partition as bootable, sets the volume boot sector ID and copies across the operating system files created by PE Builder. You simply point it at the files PE Builder file directory - it knows when you have the right one - check that it's found the USB drive and start it up.

There's a forum on this topic at snipurl.com/hzrm.

Depending on the capacity of the USB, there is quite a selection of plug-ins you can add to your PE Builder USB. You can see them at bootcd.us/BartPE-Plugins-Repository.php. There's a tutorial at snipurl.com/hzsl. There's another repository of plugins for the program at oss.netfarm.it/winpe/

Bleeding Edge was astonished by the number of useful applications that happily start up from a USB drive. Jeremy Wagstaff has a list at his Loosewire blog at loosewire.typepad.com/blog/ and there is a list of helpful utilities for a USB drive at weblogs.asp.net/nleghari/articles/usb.aspx

You might first have a look at the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows because it adds considerable functionality to PE Builder.

As we were writing this, we read a story about the music industry beginning to look at USB drives as a medium for selling album collections. They're clearly following the lead of Magnatune.

Whether you store songs on a USB key or not, Magnatune is worth checking out because it sells music by the shareware model - try before you buy.

If you head to magnatune.com you can listen to 418 complete albums, from classical through jazz to new age, electronica, metal and punk, decide whether you like them, and if so, buy them for as little as $5 apiece. If you want a music player for your USB key, you might try XMPlay un4seen.com/xmplay.html

On the other hand, with any luck Santa might buy you a Sandisk Cruzer Micro MP3 Companion. It allows you to slip a MiniCruzer into a slot and play up to nine hours of MP3 or WMA files on a single AAA battery.

Had we waited five years, we could have bought one of those, plus a 2GB key, for roughly the same price that we paid for that first 32MB USB key. That's progress for you. Bloody merciless.

Posted by cw at 04:15 PM | Comments (2)

End of an era

I hadn't realised I'd been doing the Computer Help segment on ABC Radio for quite so long - 12 years or so - until Peter Moon, Jon Faine and I started reminiscing today, during what was the farewell show.

Who knows how many questions Peter and I have tried to answer over those years? Clearly it's a lot, and frankly I'm relieved not to have to race in to the studio on Thursday mornings, never knowing what I'm going to be asked to talk about or attempt to solve.

Nevertheless, I am thinking of trying to set up some sort of podcast equivalent, so stay tuned.

Posted by cw at 11:32 AM | Comments (11)

October 05, 2005

The DVD movie burning How To

This month's PC User magazine just turned up on the doorstep. It was a little late, but it's definitely worth the cover price, for the "DVD Movie Burning Superguide", which goes into the topic chapter and verse, and provides a "Ripping & Burning Toolbox 2005" on CD.

We loved the way they got around the fact that ripping and burning Hollywood movies is illegal ...

"It is perfectly legal to make copies of your own home DVD movies."

A few pars later: "All DVD-Video movies, whether Hollywood blockbusters or no-budget home movies, use the same basic disc format, known as UDF."

And in the next column:

"Commercial DVD movies generally use a type of copy protection called Content Scrambling System (CSS). The only way to rip these DVDs is to use tools such as DVD Decrypter, SmartRipper and DVD Shrink, which ontain an illegal piece of software called DeCSS, which defeats CSS."

Posted by cw at 09:08 AM | Comments (3)

October 04, 2005

An aid for collaborative writing

The utility, and sheer ingenuity, of Web-based applications continues to grow, with the release of Writeboard - a new application from 37 Signals, who gave us Backpack and Basecamp.

The company has a great philosophy: "We always build products that we need."

If you need to collaborate on a small writing project, you'll probably find you need it too. You have to learn how to format text - there's a formatting guide - but it makes passing documents backwards and forwards and comparing versions very simple.

We've been thinking of writing a couple of e-books with some colleagues, and this could be a great help.

Posted by cw at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

A bird's eye view of rental scams and real estate

It's truly wonderful, the way some people can find interesting uses for new technology.

Would you believe, for instance, that Google Earth can help you outwit real estate agents and property owners who try to hoodwink you?

Then there's a blog that exposes the little swifties that New York real estate agents like to pull.

We thought the idea hadn't caught on over here, until we discovered Peter Mericka's site. There's some interesting stuff there, although it could learn quite a bit from Curbed.

Posted by cw at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2005

Computer-assisted unwellness

Isn't it encouraging to learn that our electronic friends are crippling our bodies, affecting our eyesight, exposing us to addictive behaviour, and possibly malignant tumours?

Even the keyboard might be spreading disease [PAY WALL], says Jeremy Wagstaff ... depending on how messy you are.

And that's without considering the effect of longer working hours and increased stress caused by the fact that these time and labour-saving devices [HA-HAAAH!] have imposed on us all unforeseen and frequently unpaid responsibilities, such as managing e-mail and developing tech support skills - or having to negotiate with tech support services. That alone can increase your blood pressure.

So why is it we experienced such irrational joy this afternoon playing with the lighweight USB 2.0 Toshiba External DVD SuperMulti Drive that we've finally bought for the Portege R200? The fact that we now have the ability to do more things with the laptop means we almost certainly will. This can't be a good thing, can it? We're sick, aren't we? Really sick.

Posted by cw at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2005

Bleeding edgy about restaurants

Just had lunch at a local restaurant with the Bleeding Edge spouse. We've eaten there three times in the past two weeks, and the food, as usual, was excellent ... until the final mouthful of bean and chick pea salad.

In mid-chew, I crunched on something that might have been a grain of sand, but somehow, definitely wasn't. There was something distinctly troubling about the quality of that crunch. It just didn't feel like a grain of sand. I spat out the half-chewed mouthful on to a paper napkin and had a bit of a dig around. Sure enough, I discovered something that tends to spoil the finest of meals - a small crystal of broken glass.

I have a friend who 30 years ago had to endure some painful surgery from ingesting broken glass, and I'm aware that it can be extremely dangerous.

While I was pretty sure I hadn't swallowed any of it, it was always possible, given that when I explored the untouched portion of the salad, I found another small piece of glass.

I immediately alerted one of the waiters, suggesting that he should warn the chef to throw out the salad. I went upstairs to the bathroom, and thoroughly washed out my mouth.

A couple of minutes later, the chef turned up, asked to see the piece of glass, and insisted on taking it back to the kitchen.

When he returned, he informed me that the restaurant couldn't accept any liability, because they hadn't had any breakages for 10 days.

I was, to say the least, astonished. And given that I was feeling somewhat anxious about the potential consequences, I gave him a bit of a dressing down, pointing out that he should be more concerned about the welfare of his guests than any legal liability, but in any case, it wasn't a matter of the restaurant "accepting" liability.

Unless he was suggesting that I'd brought along my own piece of broken glass to munch on, the restaurant had served it to me, and it was therefore liable for any consequences, and if he felt otherwise, he should immediately communicate with a solicitor.

I'm afraid that I used my finger to emphasise some of these points. He told me to stop pointing my finger at him. Which I did. I then gave him my card and asked to speak to the manager, who turned out to be the owner.

She was apologetic, and clearly concerned. But she also assured me there had been no breakages in the kitchen. I've spent a little time in kitchens, and I wondered how she could be so sure. Even in a household kitchen, glass chips and breakages aren't all that rare. If an employee had broken a glass, would they necessarily tell her? And shattered glass can travel quite a distance. If a couple of shards lodged in a nearby salad, would they know?

I told her that I wasn't in any position to clear up the mystery for her, but I wasn't interested in making a fuss. I explained that it was most unlikely that I or the Bleeding Edge spouse - who'd shared the salad - had swallowed any glass, and that there would almost certainly be no consequences. It seemed to me a good idea however, that she should advise her insurance company in the morning, in case either of us did display symptoms.

She insisted on refunding us the cost of the meal, although we insisted in turn on paying for the two glasses of wine. She gave us her card, and asked me to keep her informed of any symptoms, or lack of them.

Since then I've been suffering from the power of suggestion. I'm sure I can feel cuts on my tongue, and in my throat. From time to time, I can feel something sharp lodged in my oesophagus. I can't help but wonder whether, tomorrow, there'll be signs of internal bleeding. Which makes me feel, you know, bleeding edgy. A quarter of an hour later, the Bleeding Edge spouse said she was worried that perhaps she hadn't chewed as vigorously as she ought to have, and felt like throwing up. [Which wouldn't be a good thing to do, would it, because if there was a splinter of glass, it would be just as dangerous coming up, as going down, if you know what I mean.] Something like this can really play on your mind.

It's too bad, because I really like the restaurant. And even if nothing happens (as I'm sure hopeful will be the case), dare I go back?

Aren't there procedures that restaurants should follow to avoid what is surely a dangerous situation? Oh. I've kept the evidence. Two pieces of broken glass, and a chunk of bean salad.

Posted by cw at 02:37 PM | Comments (9)

October 01, 2005

Having met Robert Scoble's challenge

Having met Robert Scoble's challenge to institute automatic OPML support, Dylan Greene's blogging software, DABU, has convinced the Microsoft uber-blogger to switch. At least temporarily.

In case you're asking ... "What's OPML?" well, Dave Winer knows.

Posted by cw at 02:50 PM | Comments (1)