Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep

In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.
A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.
The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess."
Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.

AOL kills Netscape

AOL LLC today pulled the plug on Netscape Navigator, the Web browser that once owned the lion's share of the market and that was the focus of a landmark federal antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. In an announcement posted to AOL's blog for the browser, Tom Drapeau, the director of the company's Netscape brand, said the team is ending development and would cease issuing security updates as of Feb. 1, 2008. "Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape-branded browsers, hand the reigns [sic] fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox," Drapeau said. I guess beating of a dead horse is finished -At last! A moment of silence please!

SCO bumped off Nasdaq

The SCO Group has been removed from the Nasdaq Stock Market because the company declared bankruptcy in September. 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.
WOW! The have been out since Sept 2007 and it took the Commission nearly 4 month to bump the off of the stock market? Talk about red tape! They should have thrown this evil company with all these wrong doing a long time ago! SCO is a complete 'fail' and not it is dead! Whoohooo!

Serious Flash vulns menace at least 10,000 websites

Researchers from Google and a well-known security firm have documented serious vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash content which leave tens of thousands of websites susceptible to attacks that steal the personal details of visitors.
The security bugs reside in Flash applets, the ubiquitous building blocks for movies and graphics that animate sites across the web. Also known as SWF files, they are vulnerable to attacks in which malicious strings are injected into the legitimate code through a technique known as cross-site scripting, or XSS. Currently there are no patches for the vulnerabilities, which are found in sites operated by financial institutions, government agencies and other organizations.

Its amazing that with all this vulnerabilities, how does insecure sites like USTREAM.TV and STCKAM.TV actually still functioning? If so are they infected too? If they are, then how many clients machines have they infected? It is getting scary out there, even for protected systems. in fact, the question is: Who is 'really' protected? No one?

Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML

If you figure that preliminary design is all about object discovery, then detailed design is, by contrast, about behavior allocation - that is, allocating the software functions you've identified into the set of classes you discovered during preliminary design.
When you draw sequence diagrams, you're taking another sweep through the preliminary design, adding in detail. You use sequence diagrams to drive the detailed design. We advocate drawing your sequence diagrams in a minimal style.

Case Driven Object Modeling - This is what I have beens saying for the past 5 years to my Colleagues and co-working Engineers: 'Visually define Behavior and Allocation of your Objects and Classes so the next person who looks at your Design / Procedures and Code can easily and quickly understand what you are trying to do and what were "your" state of mind when you designed what you did.' But I guess, at least most of us, are either too lazy to add this one extra step to our software cycle or we are looking for job security. The harder the code is to understand the more job security we have with the company that we work for.

Malware Bumps Google Ads From Web Pages

A security company has identified a Trojan horse program that replaces Google text advertisements on Web pages with ads from another source, depriving Google of revenue and potentially causing problems for end users.

Is this a orchestrated effort on part of other advertising companies to take Google out of the dominant position? Yes yes yes! I know...This is a conspiracy theory - but what if someone - somewhere in the world that had enough money and power and decided to knock off Google off it's dominant throne of online advertising! It is possible.... nahhhh! Google is too big for anyone to fool around with, or is it?

IBM rolls out new search tool for e-mail: ComputerWorld Says!

December 20, 2007 (Computerworld) -- IBM rolled out new search software from its research labs today that's aimed at allowing users to find information that may be buried in the vast amount of e-mail many people now store on the desktop.
The new IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES), which can be downloaded for free, is a semantic search tool aimed at bringing the search mechanisms made famous on the Web by Google Inc. to the desktop, said Douglass Wilson, distinguished engineer and chief technology officer of IBM's Lotus Development Corp. unit.

Call me old fashioned, but I still think that IBM, quietly, is the king of the computer world! Is there an aspect of computers that I BM is not involved in? FYI, IBM is the largest Software Vendor! I bet you thought that title belong to Microsoft, right? Seriously...Am I right?

Vista sets 2007 land-speed record for copying and deleting: Says The Register!

48167 Days and 23 hours to create CD!!
t's been almost nine months since we first reported on Windows Vista's inability to copy, delete and move files without stalling indefinitely, and yet the problem continues.

What caught my eye in this story and when you read it, I am sure it will get your attention that MS has had nearly a year to fix such a basic problem as Copy & Move and they still refuse to fix it. Since if they fixed it, they have to admit to fact that developed such a dead duck that can't perform even the basic OS operations like 'copy' and 'move'! Unbelievable! Can someone measure the size of these Mircrosofties egos! Is it Ego, or is it marketing and damage control? Does Microsoft really think by ignoring these problems, they would really go away or the Users magically are hit by total and instantaneous dementia? How advises these people and why are they listening to their advise? Come on Microsoft! Grow up and take responsibility for your actions! Please copy the core code from XP and review it against vista! You will find many of your questions will be answered! But the dumb thing is the fact that you refuse to acknowledge the existence of these basic problems! Do we really have to wait for Service Pack 3 to to get a working Copy and Move functions? Seems so! But can you imagine if Microsoft decides not to acknowledge the existence of these problems and would refuse to fix them? Then we will all be sure that Vista is a DEAD Horse. As it is, Most people think that way and the best proof of it is the fact that people are staying with their existing Windows XP systems (hence not upgrading to newer hardware) - They down grade from Vista to Windows XP or they down right ask for a brand new machine to come with Windows XP on it (Dell decided to offer their systems with XP)!
Well there you have it, in a nut shell - Microsoft is too big to even care about such basic problems in their OS. Here we are expecting that complex matters like security and scalability be improved? Maybe we, as buyers of Microsoft's products, should demand for basics, first...

Facebook settles text-messaging suit! Yahoo_Tech says...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pressured by a lawsuit, Internet social network Facebook Inc. will adopt new measures to prevent its 58 million members from sending text messages to recycled cell phone numbers. The settlement was announced Tuesday by attorneys for an Indiana woman who claimed Palo Alto-based Facebook had been profiting from text messages sent by its members after the intended recipients had given up the phone numbers. The lawsuit filed by Lindsey Abrams of Patriot, Ind., said she received text messages with explicit comments and other upsetting content — and had to pay 10 cents each time. Facebook received a share of the fee, according to the complaint.

Well that was quick - too quick for comfort, if you'd ask me! Does this mean that Facebook was profiting from this scheme somehow - hence the quick turn around? Nothing is proven of course, but isn't this a very quick about face for FaceBook (no pun intended)?

Adobe! Optimize Flash (Server and Client)... Pretty Please!

Adobe Flash client / Shockwave server, both have made wonders for Internet and Internet content as we know it. But they are resource Hogs! CPU - Memory and Bandwidth! Does Adobe think that we all have unlimited resources and CPU powers and huge internet bandwidth at our finger tips? The answer is no and they know it! So how about some Optimization Adobe? Will help a lot. Who? Users of such contents (nearly all of us) - Producers of such content (all of them). makes a lot of sense to me. What would you say to Adobe if they had all your attention?

Google Wants To Index Your Videos! TechCrunchs says!

Google has launched Sitemaps for Video, an extension of their webmaster sitemaps program that will assist webmasters in having their videos indexed by Google.
To be indexed, webmasters must create a sitemap page that provides a list of videos on each site that is compliant with Googles sitemaps protocol, which since November 2006 is standardized with Yahoo and Microsoft as well. Webmasters then simply submit the URL of their video sitemap to Google for indexing.

"Do no Evil"! hmmmm! Is this not the motto of Google? But it seems that google has it's hands in everything that we are doing. Google is now in the Alternative Fuel - and now they want to get their little grubby hands on the videos that you have 'IN YOUR COMPUTER'! Question is: Why? Why does that interest Google and what is the long term profit that Google sees in it? Google is turning to a multi-tentecles monster, connected to more and more aspect of our lives! Is this not Evil in itself? I guess we have no choice, expect to wait and see! One thing is for sure: "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolytely!"

UStream.TV Gets Some Cash And General Wesley Clark Says TechCrunch!

What does General Wesley Clark know about live Web video? Apparently enough to land him a seat on Ustream.TV’s board of advisors. Or maybe they just liked his shiny medals. The company also announced a funding round today from Band of Angels and Western Technology Investors, which specializes in debt financing for startups. The amount was not disclosed. Are these the same people that bellyache that they can't hire a janitor to clean their offices but they get a 4 star retired general on the board of advisors? WOW! Who they kidding? They are 'phishing' for some credibility and they are willing to pay for it! What also is interesting that we found out they don't have a "hiring Freeze" as they say they do. Ustream you getting so obvious. A bit of tact goes a long way!

Apple keeps critical security fixes to itself???

Apple has released updates for two widely distributed products that harbored a raft of security vulnerabilities, some of which were actively being exploited by miscreants. Unbelievably, the company isn't presenting either as a security fix to mainstream users despite the risk the bugs pose for its millions of users.

That statement in it self was hard to digest! Apple had the fixes for the holes that were being actively exploited, but did not distribute them? Is that what they are saying? i have a hard time believing this! Why would Apple - and for that matter - any company do that? Let's make some sense!

IE7 installations may eclipse IE6's by end of 2007

Internet Explorer 7's share continued to grow, reaching nearly 37%. It is poised to eclipse its predecessor, IE6, which has fallen more than 14 percentage points since the beginning of the year, to 40.2%. Altogether, IE was in use on 77.4% of Internet-connected computers, down from 80% at the beginning of the year.
IE's main competition, Firefox, held a 16% share of all Internet-connected computers. That's up from 13.7% at the beginning of the year. Apple Inc.'s Safari held 5.1%, up from 4.7% at the beginning of the year.
Seems that no matter what is said about IE or what IE does wrong, it still rule by a wide margin.

Large Smartphone! Is this the Trend?

Well it seems that the mini phone are out! Brick large phones are in. Seems everyone want to consolidate music - PDA - Phone functionality in to one. But that is a hard task that most companies are failing to deliver. It seems that Phones are taking the 8GB as their adopted memory configuration, except Apple iPhone that is configured to 16GB. PDA functionality is paramount and the ability to read Microsoft Office Documents are a must. But what every company building smart phones are suffering from is - yes you guessed it - is battery life. All these functionality and all on such a small battery! Apple, prior to the release of iPhone, was toying with the idea of having two batteries in the phone. One powering the Phone and PDA functionality and the second will be used solely for the iPod build in to the phone. The Sheer excess weight of a second battery and longer charge time changed their mind. So this is universal - Batteries are not good as we know them, at least they are not good enough for these complex and multifunctional Smartphones that they are building today. May be it is high time to call on the battery companies like copper top (:)) to start working on this problem. Even the silly Rabbit that never stops can join in too!

Microsoft issues Vista, XP service pack blockers

Microsoft Corp. posted a tool to its download site today that will block automatic installations of several upcoming service packs, including Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP SP3.

I think this is a great idea, especially for those that are waiting impatiently for the Vista SP-1 and XP SP3. Better not install any Service Pack before it's time. Vista SP1, which enters public testing Tuesday, is scheduled to wrap up in the first quarter of 2008. Windows XP SP3, on the other hand, has a delivery date of sometime in the first half of next year. Patience!

MS rejects Web 2.0 moniker for IE

Microsoft has resisted the temptation to sip from the Web 2.0 Kool Aid with confirmation that the next version of its browser will be called IE 8.
The choice of moniker comes after the angst-ridden rejection of alternative titles including iIE and IE for Web 2.0. Confirmation that Microsoft has resisted the siren call in favour of the tried and tested comes in a posting on Microsoft official IE blog by Dean Hachamovitch, general manager.

Microsoft has rejected the idea of Web 2.0 for IE 7 and now for IE 8! Why should we be surprised? Nothing new about that!

Microsoft kills Vista 'kill switch'

While it has never recognized the term "kill switch," Microsoft's beefed-up antipiracy software could effectively render a PC running Vista unusable for anything other than paying for a legitimate product key. Microsoft called that "reduced functionality." This fall, Apple iPhone owners called the practice "bricking." In all cases, users hated the concept and haven't been shy about sharing their opinions.What changes did Microsoft make? If you're thinking that Vista's product activation -- or its validation and revalidation -- are history, think again. Only the results of not activating a copy of Vista and of failing validation have changed, according to Alex Kochis, the senior product manager for Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program.

What I like to find out is this: How many people out there really believe this? Is this this the Crocodile Tears? MS is softening up?

Apple's iPhone making its way into business use?

Although the media and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have pushed the iPhone as a consumer device, apparently some business users are finding out that they like it too. Staunch business customers who are tech-savvy, complain about the lack of email flexibility that the iPhone provides, citing Microsoft Exchange and RIM BlackBerry Server functionality being absent. To some business customers who need mobility in the first place, though, the device is still easier to use than a Windows Mobile device or a BlackBerry.

Question is: Can an iPhone with it's present format can be useful in business? I Think not! Application written for business have to be ported to iphone and in it's present form, that can not be done. But if Apple is right and iPhone truly contains the actual sunset of OS X, then imagine how many Apps you can run on that little machine. I guess we have to wait till iPhone 2.0 before we can make a determination if Apple iPhone is suitable for Business world! I guess it all comes down to what biz will adopt! Remember Blackberry? Everyone laughed and the little Canadian company went right ahead and crated "CrackBerry" that no one can stay away from! Oh yea! Can iPhone make it that way? Yes, but Apple has to stop taking all the orders from AT&T and insert some of it's own and come up with better versions of iPhone that people can develop and test for and create all the tools for it and then introduce it to the Dev world as a plug in for XCode 3.x. Now that would take iPhone one step closer to become a legit option as a business tool. I am sure Apple knows that...

Volta Web is here at last!

Microsoft is releasing on Wednesday a technology preview of its Volta Web developer toolset, which is intended to make it easier to build multi-tier Web applications, including applications useful in SaaS environments.

VOLTA WEB! At last is here. Microsoft is releasing Volta Today. Once and for all we can write Apps directly form Visual Studio (unfortunately need VS2008 to integrate to the IDE for true visual development) - Include C# - JAVA - VB.NET or IronPython, etc. and run it as WebApps and or as WebService. Yahooo! Remains to be seen. I just downlaoded it and now I have to find the VS2008 form one of our MSDN and test the whole thing. Another question hat I have for Microsoft is this: Can I develop an Application for Local Stand alone use and then, totally transparent to me as a developer, can I recompile the whole thing, so I can make a WebApp? Am I dreaming? Could this be an early X-Mass present? LOL!

A.M.D. Delays Energy-Efficient Chip Again

The energy-efficient chip that Advanced Micro Devices was counting to win customers away from Intel has been delayed again, the company said yesterday.

The company confirmed that a technical irregularity has delayed widespread availability of its Barcelona chip for servers until early next year. The company had announced in September that it was beginning to ship it to customers
Don't you get the feeling that AMD is totally incapable of building efficient chips? that always have the hottest (consequently the lest efficient chips) and they keep promising better efficiency? Well - don't get me wrong - it is directly because of the existence of AMD that INTEL is treating us so nicely and dropping the prices left and right. If AMD was not there, INTEL would go back to being the Evil Monster that it really is. So, yes, I am grateful to AMD. Please lets make since really good chips with much better efficiency and lets do it NOW! Shall we, AMD?

Ecto is Dead! At least for me! Now is the turn of MarsEdit 2.x

Well I tried my best and I was never able to get the Ecto to get an included picture back from Flickr! So I guess ecto is out for the time being. Now it is time to use MarEdit. I use to use the older version but, after the sell of blogger to Google, it never worked! So I stopped using it!. With he new version released, I am trying it now! Lets see!

Rolls-Royce reportedly hacked by Chinese spies

The agency, known as MI5, recently sent letters to some 300 banks and accounting and legal firms warning that "state organizations" of China were plying their networks for information, according to the Times of London on Monday.

The U.K. government refused to confirm the letters. However, the reported correspondence comes just a month after the U.K.'s top domestic intelligence officer warned of "high levels" of covert activity by at least 20 foreign intelligence agencies, with those of Russia and China the most active.

This amazes me! Nothing is enough for the RED Chinese Communists! They do want more and more and nothing is enough for them! We should stop trading with them! Just for 2 years and then then they will act like normal and civilized! Their Spies are the most active ones in the world! They work Anything and Everything and Anyone. They work Defense and they work even technology and Business! If this is not stopped, in 5 years we will be speaking Chinese! Worse than German.

This Ecto Text Only

Testing Ecto 3.0 beta! Can it work with Blogger? Text Only!

How to minimize the pain of an Office 2007 upgrade?

Seems like a wired thing to say, knowing that Office 2007 has by far the best GUI than any other App made by MS. I guess we are all so used to the old and ugly way of doing things, that any changes and improvements will bring screams of pain! Strange cyber world we live in!

Ignoring dead documents, wrestling with templates, and other changeover joys!

Now that is a contradiction in term! Dead Docs? What is that? If someone created that - better said got paid for creating that - then how could it be dead? I also sure that the Doc that they called dead, would be needed by someone in the enterprise at sometime. So - NO -

California gov site invaded by smut and malware again

Raising troubling questions about the security of America's government websites, more domains ending in .gov have been found hosting links that push porn and malware.
Makes you wonder who is minding the Store, doesn't it? I always wondered who is really developing these sites and who is managing their access and security. Can we assume that this, like everything else, has been outsourced to India or is the Chinese that they have taken over that function too?  I wouldn't put it passed them to give the whole thing away, so they don't have the pay the North American Developers. Ba Humbug! 

AT&T: Faster 3G version of iPhone due in '08

Current iPhones connect to AT&T's EDGE-based network for intensive data-transmission chores such as Web browsing and e-mail. EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) advertises in-the-field download speeds in the 70Kbit-to-135Kbit/sec. range, although its technical top end is 384Kbit/sec. AT&T's 3G (third-generation) network, deployed only in major metro areas at this point, uses HSDPA/UMTS technology (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System) and boasts download speeds between 600Kbit/sec. and 1.4Mbit/sec., according to past AT&T statements.

The iPhone's reliance on the much slower EDGE technology was roundly criticized before the smart phone was launched in June, and the issue has come up again as Apple released the iPhone in Europe, where 3G-based cellular networks are much more widespread than in the U.S. But in September, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it plain that the iPhone would stick with EDGE for now because of power and battery issues.

"The 3G chip sets are real power hogs," Jobs said at the U.K. rollout of the iPhone two months ago. "Our phone has a talk time of eight hours, and that's really important when you want to use [it] for Internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to five-plus hours, something we think we'll see later next year."

Doesn't that give you the feeling of total orchestration? Nothing left to chance. Nothing spontaneous about it! They knew 3 years ago what the storyline was going to be. May be even more. Does that not leave a bad taste in your mouth? No Really - does it not?

mdworker Slows down OS X - 100% CPU Usage! Here is the solution!

Updated your Mac to 10.5.1? Your system is too slow? It is due to a Process called: "mdworker" that does hashing for the Spotlight indexer! it takes close to 90%-100% of the CPU Cycles, in some cases, for a week and more. Solution:1
* Boot with your Leopard DVD. Choose english Language for installation and as soon as the Menu bar shows up go to Utilities menu and run Disk Utility and select your main drive. Perform: Repair Disk Permissions. Allow the process to finish. and then quit installation and reboot normally from your main drive. When you run the Activity monitor and look at the tasks. "mdworker" task should be running between 3%-5% CPU and now all is well. You r machine is back to normal.
*Solution 2: Go to Apple site in this URL and Down load the 10.5.1. manually and then quit all other running apps and apply the update manually and then go and perform Solution 1.

Microsoft wraps up MOU for Siberian data centre

Microsoft said yesterday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Siberian government which could see the software giant park its latest data centre on a remote, sub-arctic part of Russia. The city of Irkutsk has been pinpointed as a possible location for Microsoft's latest data-pumping farm. Perhaps the firm has been eyeing up the Siberian city as a possible location from which it can spit out web-based apps to the masses because of its favourable weather conditions, which could provide natural cooling to the data centre.
Here id what comes to mind: Why is MS diverting like this? What is it up to? Is this the final push to total Web based MS Applications? Is this the last weapon ion Microsoft's toolbox to deal with Software piracy?  MS is so rich that if they gave away all their software to all their clients for free, they can continue for decades!  Why are they so preoccupied with deal with piracy (Must be Gates paranoia), but they do not have the same attitude about fixing Security holes and Bugs that are rampant in their 'selling' software?  Windows XP, after seven years, still has security holes the size Mr. Gates Estate in Seattle.  I am not even going to talk about Vista and all the problems that comes with.  Problems that could have been solved before it's release.  They prefer to work on those unnecessary / or at least low priority tasks, but not allocate their time to the 'real' problems at hand.  Way to go Microsoft.  You are in a downward Spiral - and you can't even feel it.  Granted, it is a slow one.  But definitely a downward move.

Leopard Achieves UNIX 03 Product Standard Certification

SAN FRANCISCO, November 19, 2007 – The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced that both Mac OS X Leopard and Mac OS X Server Leopard from Apple Inc. have been awarded a certificate of conformance to the UNIX® 03 standard. UNIX 03 is the certification mark for systems conforming to the latest UNIX product standard developed by The Open Group Platform Forum for the Single UNIX Specification version 3.

This certification is significant as it further broadens the installed base of UNIX systems in the marketplace to include a popular desktop platform. In addition, Apple’s UNIX 03 certification is a milestone for the UNIX certification program since Mac OS X is the first operating system derived from the open source BSD base of historical UNIX products to meet the certification requirements.

T-Mobile Bows to Pressure, Unlocks iPhone in Germany

T-Mobile will sell an unlocked version of Apple's popular iPhone in Germany while it fights a legal challenge from rival Vodafone, the company said last week.

The move comes shortly after a court granted an injunction requested by Vodafone mandating that T-Mobile either sell an unlocked version of the iPhone or withdraw the product from the market.

Apple has done the same in France!  My question to YOU and to Apple is:  Why can't we have the same power in North America to force Apple doing the same thing?  Why do we go along with tyrannical practices of these Corporations in North America?  May be it is high time for us to get off our hind legs and ask for our rights like Europeans do!  Don't you think so?  Apple stop treating your own people  as well as closest country to you with disrespect! 

FIFA signs up India's Satyam as IT services provider

DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) - Software group Satyam has become FIFA's first major sponsor from India after being appointed as their official IT services provider for the next seven years.

Under an agreement signed on Saturday, Satyam will join global giants such as McDonalds and the US brewer Anheuser-Busch as one of six World Cup sponsors.

The Indian company will provide Information Technology (IT) support for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups to be held in South Africa and Brazil respectively.

Danger - Danger Will Robinson!  The Indian geeks are coming... En Mass!

Well is is one way for advertising yourself to death.  Satyam is a large company and not it is a large company with credibility of World Cup IT Support!  On top of that, since they are contributing these services, they might even receive tax relief from their government too.

Question is - apart from all the typical jokes - Is Indian IT Really good because of being cheap or is it "REALLY" good?  I am beginning to think that it is really good, and if that is the case, then may God have mercy on the Should of our IT systems.  If they are as good as I think that they are, and they are so so cheap, then there is not place for North American IT anywhere in the world.  True, they still don't have our experience and perhaps - sophistication - but they are acquiring it and fast!  We better wake up, so what Japan did to us as far as Auto industry was concerned - will not happen to our IT industry by India!  Isn't it enough that Chia has its controlling hand all the up to our throats when it comes to Tech based hardware - now we are inviting India to take over the IT and Software as well?

Canadian students win prestigious Cluster Challenge at SC07

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/home.asp Six Canadian undergrad students from the University of Alberta did themselves -- and their country -- proud, winning the first ever "Cluster Challenge" event at the international Supercomputing 07 conference held in Reno, NV, last Friday.

Team Canada snagged the top spot in a contest intended to demonstrate the power of modern cluster technology, beating five other teams -- from the universities of Colorado and Indiana, Purdue University, Stony Brook University and the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.

Go Canada Go!

Firefox version 3 makes beta

After 27 months of hard work the Gecko 1.9 rendering engine has been integrated, and the development team is feeling ready to share its project with the world.
Version 3 has improved security features to combat phishing and communicate with anti-virus software, as well as respecting parental-control settings such as those used by Windows Vista. Better zooming and tab controls, and tweaks such as offering to save tabs on closing and use of the Mac OS X spellchecker, are also included. More than two million lines of code have been changed and 11,000 issues fixed. Remains to be be seen.

Hushmail warns users over law enforcement backdoor

Hushmail has updated its terms of service to clarify that encrypted emails sent through the service can still be turned over to law enforcement officials, providing they obtain a court order in Canada.
September court document from a US federal prosecution of alleged steroid dealers reveals that Hush Communications turned over 12 CDs involving emails on three targeted Hushmail accounts, in compliance of court orders made through the mutual assistance treaty between the US and Canada. Hushmail is widely used by privacy advocates and the security-conscious to send confidential emails. Hush mail?  are you kidding me?  Now that is a great example of how we all have lost our Privacy and Basic rights!  Just put the word Terrorism in from of anything / and then you can DO anything to anyone.  I thought we were a lot better than that in Canada, but it seems I was wrong!  May be those bastards that caused 911 and promoted Terrorism have already won.  We seem to be living just like them now - in fear at all times and loosing our rights one by one.  Are we are the right path?

Trojan spreads using PI which has a Trojan traveling with it!

They are trying to convince email users that their telephone conversations are being recorded in a ruse designed to scare prospective marks into buying bogus security software. Emails promoting the campaign are laced with a new Trojan horse malware.
The Dorf-AH Trojan horse appears as an attachment in emails claiming that the sender is a private detective listening into a recipient's phone calls. This "detective" claims he's prepared to switch sides and reveal who has paid for the surveillance at a later date. They are getting better and better about it!
Watch out people! This is a multi level punch - It comes thru Social Engineering - then Jumps to Phishing and then goes to a Torjon horse which in turn contains a payload of Virus! Damn they are good and they are getting better all the time!

Ultra-portable Apple notebook to appear down at Macworld Expo?

AppleInsider reports that Macworld San Francisco 2008 will be the launching ground for Apple's long-rumored ultra-portable laptop.

The 13-inch portable, which AppleInsider first detailed back in February, will mark the Cupertino-based Mac maker's re-entry into the sub-notebook market -- arriving in a form-factor that's approximately 50 percent lighter and strikingly slimmer than the company's current 15-inch professional MacBook Pro offering.

I read this in: MacMegaSite

Been sitting on this one for a few days, since I am so sick and tired of Apple Rumors!  Aren't you?  Why can't we all accept that Apple is another electronic company and from time to time introduces new products, instead of treating every new event and introduction of a new product as the third coming of Christ.  I suggest that strongly!  Ooops, forgot to say, I am a Mac user and a Windows Developer!  LOL!

Drop your iPhone data plan, keep voice??

TUAW Says:

"Sick of paying $20 a month for EDGE? Want to save $240/year? TUAW reader Josh tipped us off to his iPhone News post that reveals that you can now remove it from your plan. If you rarely use EDGE and live around ubiquitous WiFi (like I do), this is a great way to save some money."

Then why did you buy an iPhone? Apart from music, the best thing about iPhone is it incorporated WI-FI and internet based functions.  True, edge is not the fastest gun in the west, at least not anymore, but it gives you 'unlimited' Data transfer!  Now that should, in any body's mind, be better than nothing.  The $20 a month brings a lot and its worth much more than $20, considering that a 512MB Transfer will cost you $200 if you are a Rogers Subscriber in Canada.  So, better keep you 'unlimited' Data Plan.  Highly recommanded.

Apple TV goes to the movies

Sure, Apple TV is pretty close to useless if you wanna watch stuff on your television. But it's a godsend to at least one independent filmmaker.
This weekend, at a neighborhood movie theater in Brooklyn, New York, an Apple TV made its way into the projection booth, streaming a high-def digital flick onto the big screen. And when we say big screen, I mean the really big screen.

Half of computer users are Wi-Fi thieves! So harsh...

More than half of computer users have illegally stolen Wi-Fi connections, according to The Times - but only 11 alleged offenders have been arrested in the UK, as the police seem to think those deploying Wi-Fi should be more careful about securing their connections.
Question is why do we have to call them Thieves? They are not taking anything with them - they are leaving anything behind! Also, are we not responsible for our won things? The responsibility of securing out WIFI systems are entirely on our own shoulders.  So lets perform out duties first, and then we can call them thieves!  Mind you, if we do what we have to do - there will be no 'open' WIFI for anyone to steal it - hence no more thieves thievery!!

Blue Cloud! IBM's new Data Centers!

IBM offers cloudy blue data centre vision for small and medium size operations.

Blue Cloud - Data Centers operated locally by small and medium size companies. Is this the beginning of the end to the large Data Centers sucking the blood of their customers that can not afford internal Data Centers? We are going back and forth on the Back end and front end tiers like they are going out of style? Thin clients huge servers also present problems too. We started with Huge Data Centers and Then clients connecting to Main frames. Then we went to Thin Servers and Fat Clients. With the advent of Internet Speed we want to go back to Thin clients and local Data centers! Can we make out minds up? I guess not, eh?

Neuroboffins develop mind-reading computers

A man who has been paralysed for the last eight years might be able to "speak" again, by having his thoughts read by a computer.  

I read this on The Register

I guess, the next stage will be translating the brain waves to text and graphics that can be read and viewed by others!!
Can any of us fathom the implication of such device? Can you imagine what will happen if governments and large corporation acquire such technology? Reading our minds? Can you imagine if such a device is installed in every Mall and Shopping center that you go to and the sales people will present you with the item that you are thinking about?  WOW...  The dimensions of such a device and it;s social implications are way beyond my simple mind!  LOL

Bebo’s Big Push Into Video

TechCrunch says:

"Bebo is taking on YouTube (and Hulu). Today, it opened up its social network to video partners who want access to its captive audience. Launch partners include CBS, MTV Networks, ESPN, the BBC, Channel Four, BSkyB—Bebo is very popular in the UK—Next New Networks, Crackle, Ustream, Last.fm and JibJab. The partners can keep all advertising dollars from the videos (and from music too). Bebo gets to keep its members on its site."

May be before that Bebo should solve the bandwidth enigma of taking video on first, and then go against Youtube and hulu.

New Maps from MS Live and PhotoSynth added

Look for the new Maps incorporated in the MS Live Search. Detailed. More importantly, PhotoSynth will be integrated in to the Rendering / Viewing system. If well integrated, it should be amazing.

Analysts grade Vista's first year: Did not meet expectations

"If Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista were graded for its first year, its report card would read, "Not meeting expectations," analysts said Friday, a year and a day after the operating system code went "gold" and was sent off for duplication."
I read this Article in ComputerWorld.
That might be true - and I am sure it is. But the problem is that MS has not moved fast enough to release the Service Pack 1 for vista, which in turn would change a lot of opinions towards Vista. Microsoft - get a Move on and deliver SP-1. Only worry that I have right now is this: Once SP-1 is released and Installed - how many other things will break and how many new bugs will be introduced? May be that is the reasoning for Microsoft not releasing Vista Service Pack 1. Test Test Test!

DOJ opposes extension of Microsoft antitrust oversight

Well here we go again!

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday joined Microsoft Corp. in opposing efforts by California, New York and several other states to extend the 2002 antitrust settlement with the company, saying there is no legal basis for another five years of oversight.
I read this at ComputerWorld
When will they know that this Monster has grown to a size that it can not be broken! It is even more important and larger than the OLD Ma Bell! MS can not be touched broken and or modified. If they attempt it, there will be disaster - Chaos and bad stuff for all of us. they should have thought about this when Windows 95 came out! Not now!

AMD hit by birth defects lawsuit

Chip giant AMD was yesterday slapped with a lawsuit from a former worker who claims that exposure to hazardous chemicals during pregnancy had caused multiple birth defects in her son. Now I am nost surprised any more as to why giant Chip Makers like IBM - Intel and AMD move the Chip Production to to Third World Countries! If they had it in North America and/ or Europe that would be sued out of Existence!

Botmaster owns up to 250,000 zombie PC

"An American computer security consultant on Friday admitted using massive botnets to illegally install software on at least 250,000 machines and steal online banking identities of Windows users by evesdropping on them while they made financial transactions." The Question is this: Will we ever have Machine / Operating systems / Applications that are SAFE? I think not!

IndiaTimes website 'attacks visitors'

DO NOT VISIT IndiaTimes under any circumstances!

Visitors to the IndiaTimes website are being bombarded by malware, some of which appear to target previously unknown vulnerabilities in Windows, a security researcher warns.
In all, the English-language Indian news site is directly or indirectly serving up at least 434 malicious files, many of which are not detected by antivirus software, according to Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher at ScanSafe. She said at least 18 different IP addresses are involved in the attack. "The end result of the compromise is that the user, going through their normal course of activities, is subject to a really massive installation of malicious files," she told us. "Coupled with the low detection by antivirus vendors, it does put the end user in a very vulnerable position."

The Winds of change at Adobe

Well stranger things has happened. Changes are happening at Adobe too. We heard that Adobe is to clean up the GUI, man-machine-interface, of the Photoshop. Now we all know and love Photoshop for it's immense power as a tool for pro and ammeter alike. But we all, can attest to the fact that Photoshop is one of the hardest applications to use. True, in time, you will learn how to use it. But I have never heard that one person claim that they know Photoshop 100%. Same goes for man y other huge applications like MS Word, etc. So now, out of the blue and after 15 years of the business as usual, Adobe has decided that enough IS INDEED enough. We assure Adobe, that nothing could better for all the users and potential users of Photoshop will look forward to these changes and improvements to next update of Photoshop. But does this mean that we have to learn a whole new Photoshop? Something to ponder for those of you who know Photoshop well.

The new Claim and or Rumor of an Apple Tablet!

Well here we go again! A new claim from an ASUS insider that Apple Tablet / Brick is real and on it's way soon. A New MacBook Po mimicking the Tablet PC with the OS X super set? OS X for Pen Computing? sounds so familiar to me! Last time IO heard that it came from the Redmond under the name of Windows 1.0 for Pen computing and it was immediately was picked up by Toshiba and others. But the whole idea failed and failed badly. Several Years ago, MS, reanimated this dead horse in form of Tablet PC with a much better handwriting recognition and a slick Physical Form Factor. Still, not many takers! Not a Flop, but certainly nothing to write home about. Now is Apple's turn. Mind you, Apple also toyed with the idea of a tablet before. Yes, you are right. I am talking about Newton. No Color - too large for a PDA - too small for a laptop. Ran for a while, but thanx to Mr. Jobs, it was dumped! The followers / users and zealots for the Newton are fierce and they love it to the point that even know - more than 7 years after the discontinunation of Newton, they are using it. I guess we have to wait and see

MinWin - Windows 7.0 - Another Release of Windows?

Well it seems that MS is hard at work for the next generation of Windows. Code Names MinWin (Smaller - tighter kernel) / Windows 7.0. What is interesting to me is this: Is this version going to be as late in release as the last version (vista)? If so then MS better get a move and fix Vista - Add the missing parts (namely: WinFS - et al). As for us Developers and Users alike, we should all get to be Vista savvy and start using it to it's full potential. I am afraid there are no other viable choices! But, if and that is a huge IF, Microsoft will be in time and will release the Windows 7.0, then question will for in everyones mind as to: why did we wait for long for the release of Vista and what was the Role of Vista! MS will have a lot of explaining to do then.

November 9 - A Big day in Europe! iPhone Introduced!

Well We had our big day in North America Several Months ago. Now seems to be the turn of Europe. The big Day there will be 09 - Nov - 2007. iPhone will be released there. Will it be anything similar to North America? Will there be over night line ups? Will the hype be the same in Europe?

Furthermore, when will iPhone be released in Canada? When will Rogers, the only GSM Carrier in Canada, stop it's power of Monopoly and release an affordable DATA Package that does not cost $500 for 512MB per month and would mimic the package in US at the same price? This will not stand! Rogers - Repent!

FIRST OS X TROJAN HORSE FOUND IN THE WILD!

Is this the beginning of the end? well I realize that every good thing must come to an end, but does that mean that we have to load up our Macs with those ANTI-VIRUS bloatwares? We had a good run though. Full 5 years of scrutiny and safety. I guess now Mac users will full appreciate what windows users have been groin thru fort he past 12 years!

I strongly suggest that no Mac users try to get the so called "Free Porn". You will be sorry!

Possible fix for OS X Leopard. (at your own risk!)

Follow these steps to recover from the blue screen of death!

1. Reboot into single-user mode (hold Cmd-S while booting machine)
2. Follow the directions OSX gives you when you get to the prompt (I think these were them - just type the two commands it tells you to):
fsck -fy /
/sbin/mount -uw /
3. Remove the following files:
rm -rf /Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Application Enhancer.framework
rm -rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Application Enhancer.bundle
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist
4. Exit, to continue booting normally
exit

Might help - has helped many up to know.

Avoid Installing OS X Leopard via Upgrade!

Well I have seen a lot of complaints on the installation of (upgrade) an d Blue Screen of death! Apple and even Microsoft have never been good at UPGRADE! That is why I have never upgraded a Windows machine from one Windows to another! I am firm believer that the installation builders never know how to deal with an upgrade since they do not know anything about the true nature of the actual software. So that is why, no matter where I worked, I have always assigned couple of developers as the actual Installation builders. Now we know that that is how it is suppose to be and why I have been so firm about it.

I guess the situation was not as bad when we switched to Tiger – but even then the machine that had a clean install ram faster than a machine that was upgraded and I had to go back and reinstall it fresh with a copy of Tiger. This is nothing special or even specific to Apple.

Microsoft will you wake up? Office 2007 is dying!

Office 2007? Eye Candy? For sure! But seems to be so hard to configure. I just spend 20 Minutes of my time trying to make the "LAYOUT menu" appear on the so called Ribbon! No luck. May be the should call that stupid Ribbon "the noose of death"! slowly - But surely most of us are getting fed up with MS! Redmond Wake up and smell the crap! Office is the only software package in your product line that is worth something. Are you trying to kill your cash cow? Will Blog this...
Any ideas as to how to make the Layout menu appear on the noose of death? Oops I meant on the Ribbon from Hell?

16 Coolest New Features In Mac OS X 10.5 That You Didn’t Know About

16 Coolest New Features In Mac OS X 10.5 That You Didn’t Know About

here are my responses to it:

1.) Text Edit opening . DOCX Files! WOW! that is nice!

4.) Guest Login? hmmm! We are all trying to kill - deactivate or even remove the guest account and Apple wants to make run by default? I Hope not! Biggest holes in UNIX and Linux has come from Guest accounts getting elevated access level and also from VI.

5.) WooooW. Spell check and Grammar check from the OS? May be Redmond can wake up and smell the coffee! They don't even have the spell check. let alone Grammar! Even though they have THE most powerful and complete Spell Check / Grammar check ever developed and evolved up to the office 2007! Is that not a shame? Their excuse: "they don't want to trespass on smaller companies market"! Can you believe that crap?

6.) Scroll non-Active Windows! Now Apple is coming along (kicking and screaming) to fix this problem that they always had since I bought my 128K Mac with 400KB internal floppy and 800KB external one! you must first activate a windows with one action and then with a second action do something. MS has had the single click (activate + Action) since windows 3.1. Now this is not by no means what is in windows. But this is THE first step to move in that direction. Hope they will come all the way and fix this inherit problem with the GUI.

7.) Printing! No way! I won't believe it even if I saw it! I still can not print to windows Shared Printer! Can you believe that? Apple knows nothing about printing, if the target device is not a 110% certified AppleTalk compliant system! So we will see! Apple has always had problems with Networking and Remote Printing / spooling. In contrast they are the best in Printing to AppleTalk device and RIPs. No one can trace the root of this problem and it is known phenomena with Apple. Nothing new there. We will see!

8.) TCP/IP Auto Tuning? We have heard about this in the networking communities and we still have not seen it materialized? Now, of all people, Apple has fixed it and brought it to reality? Apple? hmmm! This remains to be seen!

9.) Mail.app Archive feature, Great for Backup and having a good solid off site data.I hope it is not just for emails, but it is also for contacts - to do, et al.
13.) Font Auto-Activation: Damn great! Less memory spend on pre-loaded fonts that you might never use and more memory for OS and Apps! Yahoooo...

14.) Instant Screen Sharing From Finder sounds really great. I bet the incorporate the Apple Remote Desktop to the Find. At least, the components that allows you to share and control remote macs. Question is: Can you do that with a XP/Vista to? If not now, will it be incorporated in the future updates for the Leopard?

Qunama!

Qumana?  Seems to be nice BlogTool!  But have a hard time connecting to Blogger!  But now a day which bloogtool haven't problems with it?  Can you name one?

Commodore unveils lineup of US-bound gaming desktops

Unlike some companies we've seen, it appears that Commodore Gaming is actually keeping its word, as the company has just now released the final details on its lineup of flashy US-bound gaming rigs. The Cg, Cgs, Cgx, and Cxx machines progress gradually from least extreme to highly 1337, and all four can be customized to suit your every fantasy. To give you an idea of what's on tap (if you've got the coin), the Cxx packs a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor, twin 500GB 7,200RPM hard drives in a RAID 0 array, 2GB of Corsair RAM, DVD-RW optical drive, an 850-watt power supply, Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, Windows Vista, and dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra GPUs to boot. As far as pricing goes, word on the street is that the base system will start out around $1,700, but we'll know for sure when these come stateside in Q3.

Timex's iPod-controlling i-Control watch hits the FCC

Chalk another one up to the rumor mill, as it looks like the leaked PowerPoint slide we saw just last month was indeed referring to an actual product. Thanks to an FCC filing, we now know that Timex is actually cranking out a Made for iPod timepiece in its Ironman series. The i-Control isn't the most handsome of watches, but it will be available in a water-resistant casing, sport Indiglo backlighting, and play nice with your dock connecting iPod. According to the documentation, users will clip an included RF transmitter into their Pod, which will allow the watch to control the volume, track, and play / pause function so long as the it's within "about ten feet" of your wrist. Of course, it still sports the same alarm, chrono, recall, and interval timer modes as the rest of its siblings, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like you'll see any scrolling track tags on this one. As expected, there's no word on price just yet, but click on through for a more detailed shot of it all sprawled out.