Archive for Technology
02.23.07
Posted in Technology, Politics at 3:11 am by stark
Professional golfer, Fuzzy Zoeller, has filed a lawsuit over malicious entries in his Wikipedia entry that recently described him as a former wife and child abuser who was hooked on alcohol and drugs. While the invalid statements are no longer listed, Zoeller is seeking damages against the actual person who made the modifications to the popular community based encyclopedia. Seeking compensation for damaged reputation, mental anguish, and loss of Income, Zoeller is seeking out the user of an IP address he claims was tracked as the actual Wikipedia author responsible for the changes. It will be interesting to see the results of this case, and what exactly Zoeller receives as compensation, if anything.
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02.22.07
Posted in Technology, Windows at 5:38 pm by bobbyjoe
A federal jury ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion in damages to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Microsoft Windows operating systems.
“We made strong arguments supporting our view and we are pleased with the court’s decision,” said Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Joan Campion, declining to discuss details of the decision.
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Posted in Technology at 11:14 am by stark
After months of speculation, it appears Google has finally launched their subscription package of premium, hosted business applications, known as Google Apps. Designed to be a competitor for the market dominating Microsoft Office suite, Google Apps will provide a host of tools which are all available online. The Google Apps package includes Gmail for your domain, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Google Page Creator, and Google Start Page. Many of these tools have been available for months in various beta testing variations and some of them remain free, but in a much more limited format. For example, existing accounts to these tools have a 2 GB per user limit on storage, with Google Apps, that limit is 10 GB. Is this a good move by Google, and does this package have what it take anything away from Microsoft Office and its main competitor Open Office (which is completely free) ? At the $50 per year subscription fee, it is bound to get some interest, but will it be enough?
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Posted in Technology, Entertainment, Television at 1:57 am by stark
With such huge hype behind the big G’s takeover of Youtube last year, one can’t help wonder how good a decision it really was when yet another huge partn er seems to be reconsidering it’s deal with the search engine giant. According to a person knowledgeable in the talks, CBS has decided to step away from a multi-million dollar deal due to an inability to come to an agreement on the length of the deal. Responsible for blockbuster shows such as Survivor, CSI, and The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS has been the leader in television broadcasting for several years and is definitely a big loss to the entire Youtube userbase. While an agreement is not yet ruled out, it is looking likely that a much smaller agreement is the most likely possibility. So, with last weeks news of Viacom throwing down the hammer and walking away from Youtube, did Google make a big mistake in purchasing the online video resource? I would never count Google out, and all it takes is one big application and all these broadcasters will be right back at Google’s doorstep…
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02.21.07
Posted in Technology, Microsoft at 12:50 am by stark
It has recently been reported that Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista, may require 4 GB of memory to operate at its best.
David Short, an IBM consultant who works in the Global Services Division and has been beta testing Vista for two years, says users should consider 4GB of RAM if they really want optimum Vista performance. With Vista’s minimum requirement of 512MB of RAM, Vista will deliver performance that’s ’sub-XP,’ he says. (Dell and others recommend 2GB.) One reason: SuperFetch, which fetches applications and data, and feeds them into RAM to make them accessible more quickly. More RAM means more caching.”
While RAM option have been steadily increasing in the big PC manufacturers, 4 GB still seems like a bit much for the average user. Good thing Microsoft was really thinking about their target market with this one…
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02.19.07
Posted in Technology, Music, Business at 6:24 pm by stark
The 2 major players in the burgeoning satellite radio industry have announced a deal to merge into a single company. The move, announced as a merger of equals, will combine the services of both companies to create a much more comprehensive lineup to subscribers. Sirius CEO, Mel Karmazin, will lead the new company with XM CEO, Hugh Panero, sticking around only until the deal is closed. While the deal has been announced, it still faces several hurdles including antitrust approval and provision with the Federal Communications Commission that specifically forbids the two companies from combining. What this move means for subscribers is still a question that can’t be answered. On one hand, subscriptions may go down, due to reduced cost and shared resources, but on the other hand may go up as a result of price fixing due to the monopolistic nature of the merge.
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02.17.07
Posted in Technology, Web Design, Programming at 7:21 pm by stark
Although you might not know it by the name, a captcha is one of those little boxes you see, more and more lately, that ask you to type in a random code to verify that you are a human being and not a robot. There are many different varieties, but the basic idea is an image that is obscured slightly but readable by a human and used as a passcode for secure entry to a system or task. Something similar to this:
The user is asked to type in the string buried inside the image, and if it matches, they are given access to a specific resource, such as posting a comment or logging into a site.
The 7 step captcha breakdown
The basic idea behind adding a captcha to any website can be summarized by the following 7 steps:
- Generate some random text.
- Add that text to a cookie/session/database so you can retrieve it again from another page.
- Write the text onto an existing image.
- Display the image to the user wanting access to a resource.
- Provide a form, where the user enters the code and submits the form.
- Verify the code against the key you stored in step 2.
- If the codes match, then grant access.
In the next few sections, I’ll step through the code for a very basic example of a captcha script for your own website.
Read the rest of this entry »
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02.15.07
Posted in Technology, World, World News at 7:34 pm by stark
It seems like every few months an article comes out highlighting the U.S. failure to keep up in the global broadband race. While the same excuses continue to be made for why the problem is happening (country size, lack of need, greedy corporations, to much legacy infrastructure), the fact of the matter is the U.S. is no longer in the top 10 broadband accessible countries and every day falls farther and farther off the pace for new technology to the average consumer. Countries like Korea, The UK, and Japan continue to expand their user base while pushing the limits on technology while the U.S. companies fall farther and farther behind. As this becomes more and more of an issue, the U.S. may find itself unable to compete in the new Web 3.0 or Web 4.0 worlds. Let’s hope the big telecom’s have their wake up call someday soon before it’s too late.
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