Capdiamont’s Weblog

My answer is it is suicidal. Fun little note on Novell’s marketing on Vista.

A: Don’t know. So far my friend, close to the Caltrans yard in Eureka, has had three so far, another will come out on the 6th of May.

The modem is currently “offline” until that time. The cable was put in brand new when receiving the service, and still looks new. The modem has been replaced. After the tech’s come out, it works for a little bit, then quits. It worked great with COX as the cable company. The person on the phone yesterday at their tech support told me it was probably something outside of the house, low signal or something. She said it could vary by time of day, weather, or a whole host of problems. Time of day? The closeness to the Suddenlink facility should be a strong signal 24/7. Weather? I’d expect that from my satellite TV, though Dish Network is hardly out at all, including during bad weather. Suddenlink TV goes out more often at my parents, than my satellite. So…. how does weather affect Suddenlink internet? The real reason is probably they went too cheap with equipment, in Humboldt, or not allowed to replace faulty equipment without it totally failing. Gotta increase those profits.

Our advice to her… get Yahoo DSL. Then it was over coming, that DSL goes through  the  telephone lines, but doesn’t tie up the telephone line, like a modem will. We would if we weren’t five hundred feet short. Grumble.

RIAA announced today that users will have to pay royalties to record studios in order to whistle or hum songs. RIAA spokesperson said, “Just like webcasters they need to pay $0.0014 per song, per person who is within hearing range.

Update:

2009 rate is $0.0018, 2010 is $0.0019

That is right folks, some folks down there are claiming to be EMF sensitive, and had their leaders reject free Wifi downtown 4 to 0. Never mind within a one block area of downtown, there was already 25 hot spots. One more is too much!

SR Democrat:

Wireless disruption

Sebastopol officials reject offer of free Wi-Fi downtown due to health concerns; proponents say that’s ridiculous

By ROBERT DIGITALE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Concerned about possible health effects from wireless Internet networks, Sebastopol officials have reversed course and turned down a free Wi-Fi area network.

The City Council voted 4-0 last week to rescind an agreement with Sonic.net that would have allowed the Santa Rosa-based Internet provider to install the network in the city center as it has done in the downtowns of Santa Rosa and Petaluma.

Sebastopol Mayor Craig Litwin thanked Sonic for a “very nice gesture” but said citizens had voiced concerns that “create enough suspicion that there may be a health hazard.”

Sonic CEO Dane Jasper said his company is sympathetic to those who blame radiofrequency signals for their health problems.

But he maintained that the exposure from a Wi-Fi network would be “a drop in the bucket” compared to the amount that people receive daily from TV, radio and cellular phone signals.

Moreover, he said, downtown Sebastopol already has plenty of businesses emitting Wi-Fi signals. In a one-block radius around the town’s central intersection of Bodega Avenue and Main Street, Jasper detected 25 such signals. His company had proposed to add one more signal at that intersection.

“Wi-Fi is pretty much everywhere,” he said.

Jasper and Wi-Fi critics strongly disagree on what is known about the possible health risks from radiofrequency, or RF, signals.

Jasper cited the World Health Organization. Its Internet site concludes: “Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects.”

But critics said good studies exist that show ill effects to both adults and children from such signals. And they disputed Jasper’s contention that one more wireless network will have a negligible effect on Sebastopol residents.

“A little bit more is going to cause a little more problems,” said Jeffrey Fawcett, president of the Sustainable Health Institute, an educational nonprofit based in Camp Meeker.

Last fall the council reached agreement with Sonic to install the network, which would allow wireless Internet connections for people with Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as laptop computers and cell phones.

Sebastopol resident Sandi Maurer gathered support to persuade the council to reconsider the matter.

Maurer, who said she is sensitive to electricity much as some people are sensitive to chemicals, worked with others to gather roughly 500 signatures from people concerned about the effects of Wi-Fi signals.

Sebastopol Councilwoman Linda Kelley requested that the issue come back to the council last week, giving Maurer and other critics a chance to successfully plead their case.

“I feel very grateful to the City Council, to Linda Kelley,” Maurer said.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com

At odds over Wi-Fi effects, former colleagues fume

By NATHAN HALVERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Robert Porter was practically shaking with outrage when he stood in front of the Sebastopol City Council last week.

Porter, who has a doctorate in electrophysiology, couldn’t believe the arguments he was hearing about the negative health effects associated with a proposal to provide free Wi-Fi in downtown Sebastopol.

“These people might genuinely believe there is evil in this stuff, but they can’t provide any credible evidence,” said Porter, a former SSU physics instructor. “I was fuming by the time I went up to speak.”

Divisive issues can spread by strange means in a town the size of Sebastopol, and can drive wedges between longtime acquaintances.

The backstory of how the council came to reject an offer by Sonic.net to provide free wireless Internet in downtown Sebastopol is a great example.

Porter is a longtime acquaintance of the main opponents of free Wi-Fi, including the woman who successfully orchestrated the petition to derail free Wi-Fi downtown.

Sandi Maurer, who describes herself as electro sensitive, gathered more than 500 signatures and along with others convinced the City Council to overturn its earlier decision to allow free Wi-Fi.

She learned of electromagnetic fields, EMFs, in the mid-1990s from Michael Neuert, a Santa Rosa resident who has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin.

Neuert was an apprentice of Porter. They met at a Sebastopol spiritual retreat known as Summerland in the 1980s. It was a place where people meditated and convened with spirits. Maurer also attended.

In the early 1990s, Porter decided to design a gadget that would mitigate the electrical radiation produced by electric blankets. Neuert became his apprentice at that time.

Porter abandoned the project after he concluded that electromagnetic radiation in the low levels found in blankets — and Wi-Fi — does not cause serious health problems.

Neuert, who became interested in electric radiation from Porter, decided to continue pursuing the issue of electric radiation after the project and his apprenticeship ended.

“Robert is wrong,” Neuert said. “I’m sensitive to electric radiation.”

Neuert started a business testing people’s homes for EMFs, and providing solutions that ranged from a couple hundred dollars to as much as $25,000.

Neuert introduced the concept of EMFs to Maurer, who says cutting back her exposure to electric radiation has improved her immune system, hair growth, memory and speech.

When Maurer learned of the plan to provide free Wi-Fi in Sebastopol, she began her crusade.

“People have very strong feelings,” Maurer said. “It’s really emotional for people who have electrical sensitivity.”

The debate is burning on local online bulletin boards, such as www.waccobb.net, where there are comments like, “We should require proof that it is safe. ‘Unlikely to be a health risk’ is not enough for me. “

Dale Dougherty, publisher of Make and Craft magazines based in Sebastopol, sounded off from the other side on the O’Reilly Media blog.

“If it wasn’t Wi-Fi, it would be fluoride,” Dougherty wrote. “Something is needed to affix to their anxiety. I can only be glad that they weren’t alive when the city decided on electrification a century ago.”

One thing is for sure, the debate isn’t going away. Daniel Osmer, who founded the group Science Buzz Cafe, plans to invite a panel of experts to debate both sides of the potential health effects of Wi-fi.

“I know people on both sides of the issue here,” he said. “It’s gotten pretty heated.”

You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or nathan.halverson@ pressdemocrat.com.

Link. It is sad to see such waste. Others though, say such waste is how they survive, keep it coming. There has to be a cheap way of helping them. You have got to see the photo gallery. One man smelting lead, in the same pot probably used to cook their food in.

“The U.S. right now is shipping large quantities of leaded materials to China, and China is the world’s major manufacturing center,” Weidenhamer says. “It’s not all that surprising things are coming full circle and now we’re getting contaminated products back.” In a global economy, out of sight will not stay out of mind for long.

This makes for a good start to the new year!

Due to its bankruptcy filing, The SCO Group has been delisted by Nasdaq, which has also suspended trading of the company’s shares. By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
December 28, 2007

The SCO Group has been removed from the Nasdaq Stock Market because the company declared bankruptcy in September.
InfoWorld

The stock market delisted SCO and suspended trading of its shares (SCOX) at the beginning of trading on Thursday, SCO said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Nasdaq had told the company in September that it would be delisted, and SCO’s subsequent appeal of that determination was turned down.

SCO has been waging an expensive legal battle against IBM for years, claiming the company inappropriately used copyrighted SCO Unix code as part of its support of the Linux operating system. SCO suffered a major loss in that case in August when a federal judge ruled that Novell, not SCO, owned the Unix copyright. In September, the Lindon, Utah, company said the ruling might cost it US$30 million and that it had just $10.4 million in cash.

In October, SCO said it had a “potential” buyout offer for $36 million from JGD Management, a company affiliated with investment firm York Capital Management. That deal would have to be approved by the bankruptcy court.

I finally decided this, after it popped up telling me Firefox stopped working. Yet I didn’t have any problem with it, a half a second prior to that. It gives me two options on the pop up window, “ok” to close firefox, and the little x on the upper right hand corner. Both do the same thing, closes out Firefox. That’s right, no option to wait for Firefox to respond, just close it down. I haven’t had this problem with any other program, just Firefox. Does Microsoft really have to try and maintain it’s near absolute dominance of the market, by interfering with a competitor’s program?

This isn’t the first time it has happened. The first few times, I figured Firefox wasn’t completely compatible with Vista. I figure it is a deliberate Microsoft thing.

My end state with the iMac is it doesn’t try to the hard drive or the cd drive, but displays, “DEFAULT CATCH, code=300 at %SRR0: 0000b030″ in really small print. Next idea is put the old hardrive back in. If it works, to do a firmware update.

The shuttle got the 500gb sata and stick of ram from the linux server. The linux server has a dead motherboard. I originally tried the 160gb hd in the iMac, forgetting the limit, from the shuttle. I was able to boot the 10.1 CD, but unable to see the HD. Trying the 80gb gave me the current results.

Another place for info is MacMod. They have nice articles on converting the iMac’s to use an external monitor, or use a PC ATA power supply.

Here is a good article on making it a server, iNAS.

iMac mods 1

iMac mods 2

More good news for those trying to break the Microsoft monopoly and make all the computers share files easily with each other. Note the documentation hasn’t yet been shared as of the article date, only an agreement to share the documentation, after signing a nda. I have to wonder though, if at some future date, when they change things, if they will continue to share the info.

Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Sat Dec 22, 10:00 AM ET

Developers of open-source Samba software will find their work a little easier thanks to an agreement with Microsoft, signed last week, that will give them access to previously secret data on how the Windows operating system works.
Microsoft was compelled to make this information available following a March 24, 2004, European Commission antitrust ruling against the company. In July 2006, the EU fined Microsoft €280.5 million (US$338.6 million at that time) for failing to provide documentation on Windows protocols to its rivals. Microsoft lost an appeal of that decision in September, setting the stage for the deal.

The deal was signed with a nonprofit group called the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation, (PFIF) which negotiated on behalf of the Samba team because Samba is not represented by a corporate entity. PFIF will pay a one-time fee of €10,000 and, in return, will be able to allow open-source developers, including the Samba team, to access the documents.

Developers will have to sign nondisclosure agreements and will not be allowed to redistribute Microsoft’s documentation, but they will be able to write open-source software that implements the Windows protocols. The deal will also clarify which patents Microsoft believes are related to this technology, making it easier for open-source developers to avoid patent violations.

Antitrust rulings forced Microsoft to set up protocol-licensing programs in the past, including the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) and the Work Group Server Protocol Program (WSPP), but these efforts were not compatible with open-source software licenses.

To reach an agreement with the Samba team, Microsoft created a new type of WSPP licensing agreement, which gives developers access to the Windows protocols as well as a clear list of the patents that Microsoft has declared relative to its technology.

“They’re giving us all the documentation to make everything work,” said Jeremy Allison, co-author of Samba. “We will have no more excuses to suck… if we don’t have something, we won’t be able to say it’s not our fault we don’t know how to do it.”

Samba and Microsoft executives had been meeting since March in hopes of hammering out a deal, said Sam Ramji, director of Microsoft’s Open Source Software Lab, in a blog post entitled “If you’re surprised, you’re not paying attention.”

“I expect that this will significantly improve the process of Samba development, and produce better quality interoperation between Windows and Linux/UNIX environments,” he wrote.

Samba is an open-source version of the file-and-print software used by Windows. It is a standard component of the Linux and Unix operating systems, allowing these systems to share data and work alongside Windows clients.

But development of Samba has traditionally been back-breaking work. Developers would analyze network traffic to try and glean how Windows was working and then build their software based on that knowledge– a process called reverse-engineering.

With the new agreement, developers will have access to Microsoft’s own protocol specifications and will be able to build their software based on those documents, Allison said. That, in turn, will accelerate the team’s development of its next generation of software, which will implement the new Sever Message Block (SMB) 2.0 protocol, used by Windows Vista.

Though the deal was reached on Thursday, developers were still waiting for the final technical aspects of the document hand-over to be settled, Allison said. He expects to get his hands on the technical specifications fairly soon. “I’m guessing that for my Christmas vacation I’ll have some enjoyable things to read,” he said.

It’s about time. I remember being in South Korea, and our email, for most of the peninsula was shut down for twenty-four hours. This is US Army email systems. My thanks to Microsoft for that.

Other items, I found a nice manual put out by Linux Format on Open Office with a DVD at Borders! The DVD has the software, video tutorials, “huge” clip art collection, extra fonts, and templates. I use Open Office about daily, though in a most basic way. I do my time card, and bank account info in calc, and basic word in Writer. I hardly take advantage of it’s power. It will be mice to learn some more.

I use a formula, so I only have to put total hours worked, and it figures out how many are regular, and how many are overtime. I haven’t figured out how to make it figure out the hours itself from the hours put in from the jobs I do.

The bank account stuff took more time than necessary. I have the front sheet for a summary for all the pay periods, and a sheet per pay period. The summary sheet is updated automaticlly. It seems as though there should be a easier way to the bank account.

Last Item, is I finally got my hands on a old blue berry iMac, 6GB HD, 256Megs ram, 333Mhtz processor, os 9.2.2, ethernet, and usb 1.1. I’ve already tore it apart, cleaned it, and put back together. I’ve got it to serve a website to the network, very easy. My main idea for spending $50 on this thing, which came with a bit worn out keyboard, and puck mouse, is to be a file server. I’ve turned on file sharing. Yet neither the other macs or the windows xp, or vista can see it. I’ve also heard you can only put up to a 128gb hard drive in it. The max os I can run on it is Panther 10.3.9. Should I upgrade to panther? Could usb 1.1 slow speed be livable if running hard drives off them?

Richard Koman, newsfactor.com Mon Dec 24, 1:08 PM ET

One of Apple’s major marketing themes is that Macs are less susceptible to viruses, Trojans, and other hacker attacks than Windows PCs. While that argument has yet to hold much sway with enterprise I.T. departments, it is causing the U.S. Army to add some Macs to its networks.

Lt. Col. C.J. Wallington, a division chief in the Army’s office of enterprise information systems, told Forbes that the Army is adding Macs to make its networks harder to hack. Wallington said that making networks more heterogeneous might make it more difficult for attackers to compromise an entire group of computers.

These things don’t just happen overnight. The Army’s CIO, Gen. Steve Boutelle, called for more diverse computer networks back in August 2005. He said the Army should deal with a broader range of vendors to increase competition and harden I.T. defenses. But thus far, the Army has allowed only a trickle of Macs to enter military facilities. The Army buys only about 1,000 Macs during its twice-a-year buying seasons.

Macs ‘Shrug Off’ Attacks

One key barrier — besides Apple’s price premium and the general I.T. resistance to Apple — has been incompatibility with Common Access Cards, a security key card program the military uses heavily. Early in 2008, the Army will adopt software that will allow Macs to use CACs.

The Army is impressed with Apple Xserve servers’ ability to withstand attacks, Wallington said. “Those are some of the most-attacked computers there are. But the attacks used against them are designed for Windows-based machines, so they shrug them off,” he said.

The Army’s Apple program is being led by Jonathan Broskey, a former Apple employee. He says it’s not just that Macs are a less inviting target than Windows; Apple’s version of Unix is inherently more secure than Windows, he says.

But some observers point out that as Macs have become more popular, Apple has had to release increasingly substantial security updates. Apple’s QuickTime was recently shown to suffer from fairly serious security holes. And security company F-Secure has identified over 100 Mac-specific exploits over the last two months.

Macs ‘Behind the Curve’

Broskey, however, maintains that the large number of patches shows the strength of Apple’s reliance on open-source software for its operating system, but that military I.T. will have to be aggressive about deploying the updates. “The Army’s no different from any corporation,” he was quoted by Forbes as saying.

At least one security expert isn’t all that impressed with the Mac as a battle-hardened OS. Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators said Apple had to patch security flaws five times as much as Microsoft. “I love my Macs, but in terms of security, they’re behind the curve, compared to Windows,” Miller told Forbes.

Miller added that the Army needs a better security strategy than just adding Macs to the mix. He said attackers will just target whichever platform is weaker, which might just be the Macs that are supposedly more secure. “In the story of the three little pigs, did diversifying their defenses help? Not for the pig in the straw house.”