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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

The amazing microbial fuel cell: turns poo into power

Now if they can just put this in a car....  Imagine, no more pulling over 10 times on a long trip so the kids can go potty.

Microbial Fuel Cell

Researchers at Penn State, working in cooperation with a scientist from Ion Power, Inc., have developed a microbial fuel cell that can turn wastewater and bacteria into hydrogen. According to Penn State, the new process can get up to four times as much hydrogen straight out of the biomass than what can typically be generated by fermentation alone. But Bruce Logan, the co-inventor of the process (seen at right), doesn’t think he smells a solution to the world’s energy problems, saying that there’s just not enough “waste biomass to sustain a global hydrogen economy.
Engadget]

Spyguard blocks WiFi

This is too cool.  They can't ride on something that they can detect. :)

Window

WiFi-blocking paint and wallpaper are a good start, but if you need total protection from all those hackers that are out to get you, you’re going to have to do something about those windows, right? You could just live and work in a windowless sub-basement like we do, never seeing the light of day or interacting with another living creature, or you could try and put an end to your paranoia with Spyguard, a transparent film that blocks any and all WiFi signals from leaking out through your windows. You could also just take your chances and secure your network by encrypting your traffic, it’s really up to you.

[Via The Wireless Weblog]

[Engadget]

Monday, April 25, 2005

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?



Your Linguistic Profile:



45% General American English

30% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern



Not sure what it means... but I am from the south y'all. :) Thanks Technodaddy for pointing this out.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Suspended animation becomes a reality?

So THAT'S the reason why everyone seems to pass out after I eat eggs...

Suspended animation has long been a hallmark of science fiction. In long voyages spanning tens of light years, crews would be put into a state of suspended animation and revived as the starships come close to their destination. Now an experiement with mice has moved the concept further away from the realm of sci-fi and closer to reality.

Now, a group in Seattle, WA, has published a report in Science this week, with the remarkable discovery that hydrogen sulphide (H2S), the terrible smelling gas given off by rotting eggs and sewage, can reduce the metabolic rate and core body temperature of mice. Or, in plainer English, it induced a state similar to hibernation.

Obviously, it's a ways away from being applied to humans, although we're both mammals. However, it's definitely an interesting development.

Other science news covered this week include the effect of e-mail on your IQ, retreating Antarctic glaciers, innovations in space flight, and more.
[Ars Technica]

Star Wars Revelations...

I haven't watched it yet but the site looks cool...

Have you seen the newest Star Wars movie yet? No, not some bootleg of Episode III on a p2p service. I'm talking about Revelations. It's what happens when you get a fan with a vision to tell a part of the Star Wars story who meets up with the latest personal digital technology. Revelations runs at 40 mins and it's a tale that fits in post Episode III and prior to Episode IV. More importantly it shows what the vision of one person looks like when brought to life though digital technology that would have simply been prohibitive for an individual to afford or too complex for a mortal to use. Probably worth quoting George Lucas again...  “Anyone with a Macintosh and a Sony digital camera can do anything I can do. I just happen to have a few cameras and a few Macintoshes". What a great promotion for the Star Wars folks but a much better promotion of the tools that were used to create it. While most consumers still prefer to consume content rather than create it for those with the vision and the talent, it's amazing to see what can be done with stuff that's just off the shelf and available to anyone.
[Michael Gartenberg]

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

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Trix adopted us...

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The boys don't like trix..

Oh, Wait, Those E-Tax-Filers Should Be Worried About Security

EEK, does this mean I can claim that my identity was stolen from me by the government?!?

Remember on Friday (tax day) how we noted that those who were e-filing their taxes weren't really worried about their security? Well, it turns out they should have been more worried. Perhaps much more worried. The Government Accountability Office, in an amazing display of bad timing, waited until this week to tell everyone about all the security problems the IRS's computer system has. Apparently, a big chunk of those security holes were pointed out three years ago, but the IRS hasn't bothered to fix them. In addition. the GAO found plenty of new security holes as well. Basically, it sounds like there are little to no access controls in the system. That is, if someone has any internal access to the system at all, they can easily look up and modify both tax returns and financial crimes reports. To make things even more fun, the master list of usernames and passwords is "widely available." Makes you feel safe, right?
[Techdirt]

Monday, April 18, 2005

BlackBerry and Windows Mobile clients for Live Communications Server

I saw this on a few sites but this one was the most thorough.

Huge news from the Real-Time Communications product team at Microsoft. First, we'll be getting a Live Communications Server client for Windows Mobile devices sometime in the second half of this year. I've been happy using the MSN Messenger client that comes with the Windows Mobile-powered Audiovox XV6600, but being able to communicate with other corporate LCS users will be a huge win-- right now, if I want to IM with someone inside Microsoft's perimeter, I have to dig out the ol' laptop. MS hasn't yet announced pricing or functionality; I think it's safe to assume that the Windows Mobile client will have a subset of Office Communicator's functionality, in the same way that Pocket Outlook is a subset of desktop Outlook.

The other news astonished me: Research In Motion, producers of the BlackBerry line, have signed an agreement with MS to produce a Live Communications Server client for the BlackBerry platform. This is terrific news for the LCS team, and great news for BlackBerry users who want to combine their existing mobile e-mail service with IM and presence. Of course, it raises the bar for the Windows Mobile team, who now have to contend with the loss of what would otherwise have been a significant capability advantage. With Magneto around the corner, though, I bet they have some other tricks up their sleeve.

[Exchange Security]

PPC-6601 Roll Back

Well, after this link I decided to roll back. Seems we may have to have a special ESN before we can use EV-DO. I am not sure if it was the update or the 3900 Bluetooth stack but the system was very unstable. So now I am back to the original radio ROM and the OS ROM that includes WMP10.

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This better not get on the internet...

Sunday, April 17, 2005

SPI Labs: PPC-6600 Unofficial EV-DO Update *Updated*

Sadly, I am in a 1x area....  But the update worked on my phone and everything seems ok.  I will know on the ride home if I loose any coverage..
[Sprint PCS Info]

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Sprint rolls out the beginnings of EV-DO today

This is big news for folks with the PPC-6601 as it is currently the only device that would be able to use EV-DO... At least that is what I read on other sites.

sprint pcs logo

This isn’t the grand official launch of Sprint’s nationwide EV-DO, which is still expected to happen in Q3, but today Sprint is rolling out PRL 10027, which will de facto enable EV-DO in all devices that support it. Though PRLs generally refer to roaming, PRL 10027 has been modified to provide feature status, as will denote EV-DO. Because this isn’t the “official” launch, it means there’s no guarantee you’re going to be able to get coverage in any specific locations, and because PRL releases generally happen over time, you may not be able to receive it over-the-air immediately. But Sprint is turning on their EV-DO network, quietly, a bit in advance of the planned official launch, and devices should start to take advantage of it as customers begin to receive the new PRL.
[Engadget]

8x8 cuts price of its Packet8 Broadband Consumer VideoPhone

Wow, that and the fact that Vonage STILL doesn't have a Pensacola (850) option, makes me want to go back to 8x8...  And we could do video calls now too!!

Packet8

We suspect it’s mainly because they haven’t selling very well in the first place (do you know a single person who has one?), but 8x8 has cut the price on their Packet8 Broadband Consumer VideoPhone from $250 down to $99. That is with a two year service agreement, but they’ve also cut the price of their monthly VoIP and video calling plan from $29.95 to $19.95. Apparently that strategy of paying for placement in Alias and Will & Grace wasn’t the huge subscriber bonanza they thought it was going to be—or maybe it’s just that there aren’t that many people who want to make video calls.
[Engadget]

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He brought his lunch?!?!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

SnapStream Beyond TV Beta Program Update

Looks like we will see some new stuff from BeyondTV!!

Here are some new features we can talk about:


Language Localization
The first option, for our international customers, is a build that
includes French and German language and regional settings support into
the Beyond TV product.  This means that most all of the product from the
Installer to Viewscape has been translated by professional linguists
into both languages.  As well, all of the date/time formats now honor
the local system settings, so you no longer have to see "3:00pm" when
it's really 15:00 o'clock. 

Codename Retro
The second option, for our more adventurous testers, is the new
"Codename Retro" set of builds.  Retro is the name for our next
generation product that includes a number of cool features (some of
which are so top secret we can't even mention them yet :) ).  The first
feature is the ability to back capture live tv.  This means that if
you've watched a show in live tv and decide to keep it, when you hit
"record" it will record all of the show back to where you started
recording it.  Also new is the ability to listen to and time shift FM
radio.  If you have a tuner card with a radio input, you will be able to
listen to all of your favorite stations through Beyond TV.  As well, you
can pause, fast forward and rewind just like you can in Live TV. 

Monday, April 11, 2005

Intel ships first dual-core chips

Oh baby!  That would mean I could put dual core Intel chips in my blade farm and have quad processor VMWare ESX boxes!!!!  <insert evil cackle here>

Intel dual core

So it looks like Intel is actually delivering the goods on their two, two, two chips in one dual-core CPUs a little earlier than they even expected (and how often does that happen?). The last update was that we’d see them roll out by the summer, but they announced today they’ve actually just started shipping them already. The Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 isn’t exactly the catchiest name we’ve ever heard (they’d better hire some fresh blood in their naming department if they’re planning on putting out those sexy multi-core chips in the next few years), but the 3.2 GHz chips sport two separate processing units that operate independently and promise to be all that and a bucket of chips. But you know how these things go — we’ll have to see how much these things live up to the hype of “newer, faster, more expensive” (actually, we’re pretty sure they’ll live up to the more expensive part without too much trouble). AMD will be hot on Intel’s heels, with plans to ship out their first dual-core microprocessors next week.

[Engadget]

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Fat Sandy in her favorite spot... The bed.

The Nabaztag, the WiFi-enabled ambient bunny

Am I the only one that finds the somewhat freaky?  So freaky that I want one. :)

Nabaztag

From Violet, the designers of that USB-powered fragrance diffuser we mentioned last year, comes the Nabaztag, a cutesy competitor for the Ambient Orb that connects up to the Internet over WiFi (instead of an FM subcarrier network) and uses changing colors on its belly(or move its ears) to let you know whether you have new email, or what the weather’s like outside, or how the stock market is doing, etc. There’s also something or other about one Nabaztag being able to communicate with another, but it’s not clear exactly what they mean by that. Anyway, goes on sale in France later this month with a retail price of €95.

[Via Popgadget, also tipped by PRCman]

[Engadget]

Friday, April 8, 2005

HAL bionic suit going to market

Oh, now this is too cool. :)

HAL bionic suit 2So the unfortunately-named robotic HAL, Hybrid Assistive Limb, is finally making it to mass production after a ten year development cycle. This bionic suit gives its wearer extra strength by providing a worn exoskeleton that gives an extra boost to walking and climbing movements. Each time the wearer takes a step, bioelectric sensors attached to the skin monitor the movements, send the data wirelessly to an attached computer worn in a backpack, which in turns tells the robotic limbs to take a step right along with the user, adding strength to the movement. Potential applications for the suit include helping people with brain and spinal injuries as well as act as a wheelchair replacement for the elderly. We just want one so we can be the next great crime-fighting cyborg superhero — but at $19,000 a pop, we kinda can’t afford to be that altruistic.

[Engadget]

Microsoft Completes Acquisition of Groove Networks

Wow, I can't say that I am surprised by this though.  I felt that they would do this two years ago.

Microsoft has today announced the completion of the acquisition of Groove Networks. The acquisition had hit a legal stumbling block, which has since been dropped.

Three days ago, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8085638">it became clear</a> that a judge would not allow a restraining order against Microsoft. Such an order would have prevented them from completing the purchase of Groove. Michael Matthews, a former Groove employee and the instigator of the legal action, said that the deal would benefit only the two main shareholders in Groove; Microsoft and Ray Ozzie, Groove's founder. It emerged through court papers that the deal was worth $120 Million.

Microsoft plans to continue selling Groove products on a standalone basis, whilst deciding how best to integrate them with its existing Office software. Groove makes productivity software that allows multiple users to work collaboratively on computer files simultaneously. As part of the acquisition, Ozzie will become one of three CTOs at Microsoft, reporting directly to Bill Gates.

"While Groove and Microsoft technologies already work together in very powerful ways, we've only just begun to realize opportunities to better address the needs of information workers at a time when the very nature of work itself is changing," said Ozzie. "I'm eager to contribute my experiences and lessons learned over the past 20-plus years in computer-supported collaboration to help shape the next wave of Microsoft Office System technologies and other future products."

View: More Info, Microsoft.com

Read full story... [Neowin.net]

Thursday, April 7, 2005

NASA Eclipse Home Page


NASA Eclipse Home Page
Looks like we will have an event at 6:15pm tonight here on the east coast.

MS just released a new free tool that allows you t...

This looks cool!

MS just released a new free tool that allows you to monitor performance between
the exchange server and the client. This was an internal tool that has now been released
to the public. This kind of performance monitoring can be difficult to get so it's nice
to see MS releasing tools like this to assist admins.
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/04/06/403409.aspx
[rcpt to:]

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Robo Urinal: Behold Your Porcelain Master

Um...  What are the hands supposed to do?  I don't think any man is going to want to let a robot take hold of his johnson...

robo_urinal.jpgShakeutron will never judge you. Shakeutron is here to help. Shakeutron would like to buy you a nice steak dinner. Shakeutron did not mean to offend you. Shakeutron would like you to come back. Shakeutron cries 1.5 gallons of tears. (Thanks, baud boy!)
[Gizmodo]

Groceries Online Catching On In NYC

The wife has been talking about starting up a company that does just this.  Not just groceries but fast food, hardware store... Whatever.  Kind of a call in butler.  Seems that it is taking hold again.

The online grocery market has certainly gone through its share of ups and downs. However, over the past few years there have been a bunch of stories about a next generation of online grocery stores that seem to be getting more traction. One of the more famous is FreshDirect in New York City -- where online grocery shopping makes a lot more sense. Apparently, residents there agree, as a new study shows that more than half of NYC residents have tried online groceries -- though, that doesn't mean they all have been happy with it. Still, it does suggest that there's demand for such a service in some places (especially urban), if it's done right.
[Techdirt]

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Katie's new hairstyle

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Wasp MAV: Seven-Ounce Drone

On the other end of the spectrum from The Predator...

wasp_mav.jpgSmaller than the death-dealing, missle-launching UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehice) drones is the MAV—the Micro Air Vehicle. This particular model, called the Wasp, is currently being tested with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and weighs just seven ounces. It can be controlled from the ground (via a taut string and an 11-year-old) or can wirelessly follow a pre-plotted path using GPS coordinates, snapping pictures from forward and aft cameras. It's not unlike the ship-orbiting 'options' from Gradius, except they can't deflect as much laser fire.

ITSY-BITSY DRONE [DefenseTech]

[Gizmodo]

Monday, April 4, 2005

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Contrast

Redneck Haiku

Too funny not to post.

I wish I knew who invented Redneck Haiku, but I don't. These are from the book, Redneck Haiku, by Mary K. Witte.

Housealarm

Wedding night fireworks
as Flo's ex-husband threatens
to bring back the kids.

Go to the dentist?
Grandpa went once, and now look.
He has no teeth left.

Turkey fryer bought
from cable shopping channel
burns down trailer park.

Betty Lou surprised
to learn you can get pregnant
in church parking lot.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, "SMELLY HOUN' DAWGS ASLEEP/ON STEPS UP TO THE TRAILER/REDNECK HOUSE ALARM!"

[The Sudden Curve]

U.S. Drones Crowding the Skies to Fight Insurgents in Iraq

This is a good read.  I didn't know The Predator was so big!  And they are clouding the sky in Iraq...

Hitachi: 1 Terabyte Hard Drives Coming

ooooh, 1TB drives.....

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies on Monday announced plans to build hard drives using perpendicular recording technology that it says could allow for 1TB desktop drives and 20GB microdrives. The terabyte milestone is still a ways off, however, as Hitachi estimates the new drives won't reach consumers until 2007.
[BetaNews.Com]

Gmail Storage Continues to Creep Up

This is cool.

Slowly but surely, Google has honored its promise to take Gmail storage beyond 2 GB. As of Monday morning, Gmail users found 2057MB of e-mail capacity, and the number continues to march upwards according to a counter on the free Web mail service's homepage. [BetaNews.Com]

One more time from WordPress

Doing this from the admin page.

Sunday, April 3, 2005

SANS ISC alert tool

I just found this and it looks cool.  If you are responsible for any kind of connectivity where you work, you should check them out.

The post is about the DNS Cache poisoning, but they link to the tool there too.

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2005-04-03

http://www.labreatechnologies.com/ISCAlert.zip

Geeks with Guns

These two clips are from a friend of mine who got a 500 Magnum .50 cal Smith & Wesson.

He says it is the most powerful handgun in production, in the world. :)

He says that he is selling it so if you want it, let me know.


Loading


Shooting

Sansun Silencer LED Lighted Keyboard that flashes when your cellphone rings

Hey, this looks cool.  I used to have a roll-up keyboard but this looks even cooler.

Sansun Silencer LED Lighted Keyboard

It’s been a mighty long time since we’ve found an illuminated keyboard worth writing about, but ap0calypse has a review of the Sansun Silencer LED Lighted Keyboard, which besides making it easier to tap away in a darkened room, also lights up when your cellphone starts ringing (sounds similar to those FlashStickers we mentioned a few months ago and that Mobile Sensor Pen we wrote about a year ago). The cellphone has to be within 16 inches of the keyboard’s GSM signal sensor, but ap0calypse found that it definitely does work, with the lights on the keyboard’s number pad flashing on and off about a second before the phone started ringing.

[Via I4U]

[Engadget]

Event ID 11 in the system log of domain controllers

I was getting quite a few of these.  Seems there was a bad node out there in the ad.  Found this on the MS Knowledgebase.

Event ID 11 in the system log of domain controllers

Article ID : 321044
Last Review : September 22, 2004
Revision : 3.0
This article was previously published under Q321044
 
 
The following event may be recorded in the System log on one or more of your domain controllers:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: KDC
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11
Date: 4/1/2002
Time: 1:40:14 PM
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName Description:
There are multiple accounts with name host/mycomputer.mydomain.com of type 10.
This may also apply to other service principal names, for example: host/NetBIOSComputerName.

CAUSE

There are two or more computer accounts that have the same service principal names (SPNs) registered.

RESOLUTION

Locate the machine accounts that have the duplicate SPNs. To do so, use one of the following methods.

Method 1

NOTE: If you do not have the Windows 2000 support tools installed, install them from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM before proceeding. The Setup executable file for the support tools is located on the CD-ROM in the Support\Tools folder. The installation does not require you to restart the computer, but you may have to restart the computer so that the environment variables are updated.
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type LDP, and then click OK.
3. Click Connection, and then click Connect.
4. Leave the default settings, and then click OK.
5. Click Connection, and then click Bind.
6. Leave the default settings, and then click OK.
7. Click View, and then click Tree.
8. In the Tree View dialog box, type DC=YourDomain,DC=com in the BaseDN box, where YourDomain is your domain.
9. Click Browse, and then click Search.
10. In the Search dialog box, type DC=YourDomain,DC=com in the BaseDN box.
11. In the Search dialog box, type serviceprincipalname=HOST/mycomputer.mydomain.com in the Filter box. If the service principal name that is referred to in the error in the system log is different from this example here, type the service principal name that the error refers to.
12. Under Scope, click Subtree.
13. Click Run.

Method 2

Use the Ldifde utility to dump the machine accounts for the domain, or from the suspected container or OU:
1. From the domain controller, open a command prompt, and then type the following string:
ldifde -f domain.txt -d DNDomain
(NOTE: If the machines that seem to have the duplicate SPNs are located in a certain OU (for example, Florida), you can refine the base dn, for example: -d "ou=florida,dc=mydomain,dc=com".
2. Open the text file in Notepad, and then search for the SPN that is reported in the event log.
3. Note the machine accounts under which the SPN is located.


When you have located the computers that have the duplicate SPNs, you can either delete the machine account from the domain, disjoin and rejoin the machine to the domain, or you can use ADSIEdit to correct the SPN on the computer that has the incorrect SPN.

ADSIEdit

In most cases, the computers have unique names, for example: machine1 and machine2.

The SPN that is reported as duplicate may be HOST/machine1.mydomain.com. With ADSIEdit, you can edit the SPN list on machine2 to delete the duplicate SPN (HOST/machine1.mydomain.com), add the correct SPN (HOST/machine2.mydomain.com), and then allow it to replicate to your other domain controllers.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

APPLIES TO
Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP1
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP2

The instance name specified was invalid

I had a bit of trouble upgrading to sp3 of the MSDE and found this helpful.

3.7.4 Upgrading Existing Instances of MSDE 2000 To SP3a
The following information applies only to Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000).

The examples in this section will upgrade an existing instance of MSDE 2000 to SP3a, and also disable the network connectivity for that instance of MSDE 2000. If the instance must accept connections from applications running on other computers, do not specify the DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS parameter.

The examples in this section assume that the sa login has a strong password. For more information about the sa login password, see section 3.7.2 Security Considerations for MSDE 2000 SP3a.

To upgrade SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine

Open a command prompt window.

>From the command prompt, use the cd command to navigate to the folder containing the MSDE 2000 SP3a setup utility:
cd c:\MSDESP3aFolder\MSDE

where c:\MSDESP3aFolder is either the path to the folder into which you extracted the MSDE 2000 SP3a files, or the Desktop Engine SP3a folder on the SQL Server 2000 SP3a CD.

Execute one of the following commands:
For a default instance using Windows Authentication Mode, execute:
setup /upgradesp sqlrun DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1
For a named instance using Windows Authentication Mode, execute:
setup /upgradesp sqlrun INSTANCENAME=InstanceName DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1
For a default instance using Mixed Mode (where AnAdminLogin is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role), execute:
setup /upgradesp sqlrun SECURITYMODE=SQL UPGRADEUSER=AnAdminLogin UPGRADEPWD=AdminPassword DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1
For a named instance using Mixed Mode (where AnAdminLogin is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role), execute:
setup /upgradesp sqlrun INSTANCENAME= InstanceName SECURITYMODE=SQL UPGRADEUSER=AnAdminLogin UPGRADEPWD=AdminPassword DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1

 

NewsGator in Wordpress

Well, I found it.  The b2 plugin works like a champ!