On the surface, Windows XP’s automatic updates seems to be a good idea: your system is regularly patched, the updates are downloaded during off-hours, installation is painless. A problem with this is the implementation of the nag-you-until-you-capitulate-and-reboot option. For example, consider the dialog above. After installing the (snicker) Windows Installer Update Patch, I’m asked to […]
Automatic Update Usability Read More »
Last night, while trying to comment on one of the blogs I frequent, I received this message: Your comment was denied for questionable content. Yes! I’ve hit the big time. Next up is an AM radio syndication deal, VH-1’s Behind the Music (you don’t want to know), an “unauthorized” biography, and a cover story in
I saw the buzz (and the ludicrous conspiracy theory) about Amazon’s investment into 43 Things. Amazon’s interest makes sense given many of the principals were previously involved with Amazon’s rocking p13n team. They make features like this that sucker you into spending more time and money on Amazon’s site and enjoying it. I don’t mean
While browsing through Sunday’s newspaper ads, I saw a vendor advertising “Wireless N” with some magical, rounded integer percentages of improvement over “Wireless B.” I’ve also been reading stuff about “WiMax” and “Wi-Fi.” Since it takes an EE to spell geek, and I happen to be one, I thought I’d find out what all the
WiFi versus WiMax – what’s in the numbers? Read More »
Sometime Tuesday, my laptop crashed. I don’t know exactly what happened, except when I woke up, the machine had powered itself off and would not get past its POST. I power-cycled the machine several times, expecting different results. No, I’m not crazy; computing is just that nondeterministic. I undocked the laptop and tried again. This
Computing was supposed to make life easier Read More »
My Dell Latitude is nearly four years old, which is about 85 in Laptop-years. Sure, the glide pad has an unnatural sheen in the middle, buffeted by hundreds of hours of hackery; the bumps on the “F” and “J” keys wore off a long time ago; and the cooling fan groans whenever I do serious
Referer link spamming is when someone from Site A fakes out web servers on Site B into thinking someone was referred from Site A. The hope is that Site B is running one of those dynamic visitors lists and, by doing so, Site A appears on Site B’s list when Google’s indexing spider visits. Google
Link Refererer spamming Read More »
I’m nearing the one year anniversary of DVR ownership. If you don’t have a ReplayTV or TiVo, and you watch TV, you’re missing out on a very cool device. Think of it as a VCR with a 40+ hour capacity, but with no tapes to rewind and it’s programmed by selecting the show you want
All hail the DVR and syndication Read More »