Yesterday, I upgraded the software which runs the Cheerful Curmudgeon site to the latest version, WordPress 2.0. Unfortunately, this seems to have made some articles reappear as new for some of you. My apologies if you are seeing the same articles again. Other than that hitch, the upgrade to WordPress 2.0 seems to have gone […]
‘Ear bud’ headphones can cause hearing loss, experts warn
My name is Art and I’m a worried father. The Associated Press is reporting on studies which indicate that iPods and other portable music players are often used in ways which damage hearing. I am particularly disturbed to learn that the ear bud headphones are significantly worse than other kinds of headphones. Naturally, my son […]
Government Site Serves Up Entertaining Irony
As reported by Netcraft in US Government Security Site Vulnerable to Common Attack, The U.S. government site that tracks cyber security risks was recently found vulnerable to cross-site scripting, a technique commonly used in hacker attacks and web site spoofing. Several security sites have published a demonstration of the security hole in the web site […]
Travelling with VOIP
I am on the road this week, working in Syracuse, NY. I recently replaced my desktop computer with a laptop to facilitate this sort of trip. My phone system is VOIP (voice over internet protocol) based so, in theory, it should have been easy to take it with me. This ended up being significantly more […]
Sony BMG Replaces Invasive Music CDs
In case you are not aware, Sony BMG recently released over 50 music titles with some anti-piracy software on the CDs. The software, dubbed XCP, silently installs a "root kit" on a Windows computer, opening up some nasty security risks. The only difference between XCP and the stuff the you buy McAfee VirusScan or Norton […]
Transitioning to Greener Fuels
If only we could stop using fossil fuels, polution levels would plummet, colicky babies would be cured, my Husky dog would shed less, and world peace would prevail. Hydrogen, solar power and electricity offer tantalizing alternatives to gasoline, natural gas, and coal. There are lots of problems with switching to hydrogen, including the cost of […]
MySQL 5 Arrives
eWeek writes, MySQL 5 Arrives Three years in the making, MySQL 5.0 was finally released on Monday. MySQL AB delivers new, and long-awaited, ANSI SQL features in this latest version of the popular open-source DBMS. These new features include both read-only and updated views, stored procedures row-level triggers, both read-only and non-scrolling server-side cursors, and […]
Bank Shuts Down Web Site After Phishing Attack
Would you like to lose all of the money in your bank accounts? Fall for a phishing attack. These are web sites which are cleverly designed to look like your real bank’s web site but which actually collect your personal information and hand it over to crooks and thieves. Here is a short story about […]
Highly Recommended: OpenOffice.org 2.0
The long anticipated version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org (the $free Microsoft Office "replacement") was released yesterday. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the equivalent of Microsoft Office Professional: Access, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint plus a drawing program which Office does not have. Additionally, OOo can create Adobe Acrobat files, which Office cannot. Did I mention that OOo costs nothing? […]
Free Database Software
MySQL 5.0 Database software, such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, can be tremendously expensive, often costing more than the rest of the entire computing system (hardware, operating system, and application software). It looks like this equation may be changing. The Register reports in, MySQL destined for ‘majority’ market share MySQL is fast approaching majority […]
Laptop Will Not Hibernate
This is so frustrating. I have this nifty new laptop that I have upgraded to 1.25 GB of memory and it will not hibernate. Virtually all of the time, I get a bubble that says, “Windows – System Error, insufficient system resources exist to complete the API,” just like in this screen snapshot which I […]
Coming to a Browser Near You: Microsoft Office Replacement for Free
This press release on Sun’s web site announces the new agreement between Sun and Google for Google Desktop on Sun’s Java platform. That is very nice but the last couple of paragraphs hint at something much bigger: Only the Beginning The distribution of Java and the Google Toolbar underscores Google’s advocacy of Java technology…. The […]
A Better Photographic Mousetrap
Every once in awhile, someone integrates existing technologies in a way that clearly makes life better in simple, clear ways. I think that Kodak has done so with their EasyShare-One camera. Wired News reports it well in, Death of the Digital Middleman After a summer-long delay, Kodak has begun shipping the first digital camera with […]
Cheaper Memory: Thanks iPod Nano?
Nikonians News: Cheaper Memory: Thanks iPod Nano? mentions, “Consumers may enjoy short-term price drops on flash memory-based products thanks in part to the iPod Nano.” If you are looking to buy another memory card for your digital camera, this fall may be the time. I knew that I liked the iPod Nano; now I have […]
Weekend o’ Death
This must have been a weekend o’ death, with my laptop dying and Joseph’s venerable “big screen” monitor passing on to the next world. It turns out we both suffer from / relish the symptoms of “dual monitor syndrome.” It sounds like he has a pair of LCD screens while I use the LCD in […]
Replacing My Desktop Computer
Time for another big technology leap. I am switching from a desktop to a laptop as my full time machine. Until Saturday morning, I had had a desktop machine and a laptop. The laptop died a horrible and inconvenient death, though. (Now all it says when I boot is, “Trap 00000006 Exception.”) Rather than buy […]
Diamonds are not forever
According to this article in PhysicsWeb, Diamonds are not forever (August 2005), diamond is no longer the hardest material. Don’t you just hate it when the underpinnings of the world, the things you know, turn out to be untrue?! The hardness of a material is measured by its isothermal bulk modulus. Aggregated diamond nanorods have […]
Finding Support for Open Source Software
We have all heard of open source software. Many of us have even seen it in action (e.g., the Firefox web browser or the Thunderbird email program). One nagging concern still blocks many people from actually using open source software: how do you get technical support? Certainly paid support is the easy-to-find option for many […]
Understanding URI, URL, and URN
Prompted by a question from my wife, I finally went off and figured out the difference between a URI and a URL and a URN. I gleaned my analysis from the W3C’s article, URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0. This might be the key paragraph: Over time, the importance of this additional level […]
The Origins of Ctrl Alt Del
Ever wonder where Ctrl Alt Del came from? Watch this short video: The Origins of Ctrl Alt Del
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