A girl and her computer

Crippled iTunes

2007-06-01T10:57:00.000-04:00

New iTunes steals your ability to turn Apple music into iPod-friendly MP3s [via boingboing.net] >O
I'm so not surprised.

Personally, although I own an iPod, I never use it. I know this statement probably makes me sound bad.... ._.
The "biggie" about owning an iPod was managing to hook it up to my linux box. Once I did it (painlessly, if I might add), I lost interest in it.
I even formatted it into a mac-ipod to add a little bit more complication to it, but yeah... once it was done, I wasn't interested in using it anymore. =/

Nowadays all it takes to sync up your iPod to your linux box is plugging it in and opening amaroK.

CBS bought last.fm

2007-05-30T11:25:00.000-04:00

Music site Last.fm bought by CBS. =O

I'm no sure this is making me sad nor happy. But I guess when earlier this month they said they would provide video streaming, they probably knew this was cooking.
When I read the video-streaming bit, I was a little skeptic as they barely seem to be able to do what they do. However, perhaps now everything falls into place.

Microsoft's surface. I don't know..... I wouldn't want to have to reboot my coffee table because it froze badly... and BSOD doesn't really match my decoration.

Recommended software!

2007-05-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

Recommended software entry! Wee!

A friend of mine bought himself a new computer. Because he didn't want to spend much money, as his sole intention was to replace his dinosaur-old computer, he went for an averagely cheap over-the-counter computer that came with windows xp pre-installed.

I know. BAAAAD IDEA.

Because this is the third world, and Micro$oft doesn't like people who aren't willing to pay high amounts of money for defective products, my friend got the "Windows XP Starter Edition" pre-installed. I think this version of Windows is one that those of you in prettier areas will never get to see and only consider it to be a matter of crypto-softwarelogy.

Anyway, jokes aside... there are lots of applications my friend does not get and is not allowed to install. One of them is Windows Media Player.
When he told me this, I tried to cheer him up by telling him that this is actually GOOD NEWS! as the less Micro$hit on your comp, the better. But I don't think he thought I was doing a great job at helping.

So, I recommended him VideoLAN/VLC.

VideoLAN, as much as wifey hates it, is a wonderful MultiMedia player that supports many many codecs and video/audio formats. It is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux, and it's free.
It installs fast and nicely, it has a very intuitive interface without much stupid eyecandy, and it doesn't hog your RAM. \^_^/
It can be skinned to look prettier, if that's what rocks your boat; and it can also be used to stream music and videos, but we won't go there yet. Concentrate on the playing your music easily part.
The most important thing about software like VLC is that it's OPEN SOURCE, which means, anyone can see the code that makes the application work and suggest changes, tweaks and improvements to it; as well as security fixes.

If you find that the software you use to play videos, dvd's or even music is too bloated and too fucked-up, give VideoLAN a try. I have a feeling you might like it a lot, and who knows... maybe that old video auntie sent you of her puppy Rigobert that you could never open with WMP or QT can be played now with VLC. =D

A side note about FOSS:
Free Open Source Software (FOSS) reaches you at no cost. However, writing these applications does cost the programmers time, patience, resources, etc.
Usually the people behind these applications -who are regular human beings like you and me- do these projects in their spare time, because they don't get paid for it. As you can imagine, since they don't make a living out of this, they most surely make a living out of something else.
Sometimes users protest about not getting features they want or stuff they want in their FOSS, disregarding the fact that the person who writes this software is putting everything on his or her part on it and getting nothing in return.
So, please, if you find a piece of FOSS to be useful to you, remember to support the writers of this software. They all take donations and it helps them a lot to make ends meet more smoothly and keep writing the software that is so useful and we like so much.
You don't need to donate a lot, and you aren't in obligation of donating money, just please consider it next time you have some spare money. It goes to a good cause. ^_^

Yahoo! Unlimited

2007-05-16T14:49:00.000-04:00

Yahoo has just begun implementing the "unlimited" mail storage system. =D The storage-meter on my account is gone (I'd appreciate a counter that tells me how much space I'm using, though) now I can have an unlimited number of old e-mails that will be stored in Yahoo!'s unlimited hard disks. >P

The bad news is that yahoo! photos will be replaced by flickr, which is sad because I used to store lots of interesting photos there that I will now have to backup. =/

I keep wondering about the Y!Disk and whether I'll be able to store large files there, cuz if that is correct, I might have less trouble backing up 120 gig of data in the future.

!

GAIM is now Pidgin

2007-05-07T13:16:00.000-04:00

GAIM is now Pidgin.

From what I'm reading there seem to be some notable improvements, and the new Pidgin also has a portable feature that allows you to load it onto a pen-drive and use it without installing it to the computer. =] Think of it as a "light" version of an instant messenging client.

I don't know when Lenny will have it, and I'm not in the mood to compile from source lately 'cos I've a headache and a backache of huge proportions; but those of you running Windows ~~and Mac~~ may already test it by downloading it and installing it from its official site.

I haven't tried this "on the fly" option (by loading it to a pen drive) yet, but if it works it could prove very useful.

Personally, I like multi-protocol clients because it's incredibly annoying to have 100000000 different clients open to connect to the 100000000 IM networks that people use.
In this way, with just one client (uh... some call those "program") you can use many different networks, like AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, etc. Even LJ's IM or Google Talk; all at the same time. You can also be signed up to two different AIM (or whatever) accounts at the same time, and chat from both. That often saves resources (that your comp can use for something else), RAM, time and you have less chances to crash your system.

Additionally, it provides "tabbed" chat-windows, which helps at keeping things organized, in clear view and handy. It comes with spell-check support and several other options, it allows transfer of files, buddy notifications, custom away messages, custom IM icons and all that jazz.

But the best part of it is that it is FREE AND OPEN SOURCE. =D

Good news... sort of.

2007-05-01T13:42:00.000-04:00

Dell to use Ubuntu on Linux PC's. =D Although I know this is for the most part irrelevant, as most people will hire someone to wipe off the GNU/Linux installed on their new machines and have a pirated copy of MSWindows installed on it, not even taking a minute to check out Ubuntu (which is a great distro, imho) nor to give it a chance. =/..

I know I sound like a pessimist. It is not my intention, by the way.

Michelle's pick of free webhosts

2007-04-16T21:38:00.000-04:00

Do you remember the days before geocities was bought by yahoo? Do you remember the days of xoom? How about darkhosts/darkservers? Redribbon? Do those names sound even remotely familiar to you?

It seems nowadays it is very hard to find a webhost that satisfies your needs, if you plan to put up a non-profit, highly informal personal site that looks good and lets you use all those cheesy scripts one sees on paid hosts.

Today, reading my round of daily feeds, I found AwardSpace, and I was awed by their features.
Don't get me wrong... I know many of these hosts die away unexpectedly because they offer too much for too little (or even for nothing) and that quickly puts them out of business.
However, awardspace seems to be fairly reliable (I wouldn't trust it with important data, mind you) for small personal sites, or for those of you wishing to try out your madskillz at webdesign.

For as much as $0.00 you get (and I'll copy and paste from the site):

200MB Disk Space
5GB Monthly Traffic
2 Domains Hosting
5 Subdomains
Free DNS Server
PHP, Perl/CGI-BIN
1 MySQL Database
FTP/FrontPage Access
5 POP3/IMAP E-mails
Instant Account Setup
Web-based File Manager
Easy-to-use Control Panel
Reliable RAID Backups
GRID Hosting Platform
Super Fast Servers
Reliable Data Center
99.8% Uptime Guarantee
24x7 Network Monitoring
Forum Support
NO BANNER ADS
Fully Upgradeable

This sounds quite good to me.

I have just signed up for an account in order to try it. I already have a webhost and I'll be sticking to it for as long as it holds on together. D=
For the basic type of account (that is the free one) you get a file size limit of 500KB (half a megabyte) which prevents you from uploading media. I think this is reasonable considering they are providing a free service. You don't get SMTP either; which means mail-scripts will not be able to send e-mails, but I doubt many people in my flist are benefiting from this option.

You do get traffic statistics, usage reports, ssh (again, I doubt anyone in my flist benefits from this option), mailing lists manager (careful with that!), php, database, email filters, spam protection, cronjobs, and a bunch of other options that are undoubtedly interesting. Especially for a FREE webhost.

If you don't have a domain name, you can assign it a free one. If you do have a domain name, you can easily direct it to your account. =]

Most importantly, your website will be hosted on a unix-like server (ie: linux) which makes it more stable and reliable than any windows-based server can ever dream of being. Plus, you don't need to contact your sysadmin eeeeeevery time you need to change file permissions (which is, once again, something I doubt lots of people in my flist do... You all seriously need to be geeked up by me -safe for a couple of exceptions-).
You can try uploading content management software like joomla! or mambo. Or blogging/journalism stuff like wordpress; discussion boards, image galleries (teh-yum!) e-commerce solutions, etc.

If you want to get a free domain name, but you don't know how to do it, head towards http://www.freedomain.co.nr/ to get an http://www.yourname.co.nr domain. =] All they ask is
1) a link back to co.nr (a small button)
2) valid personal information

co.nr has a 2 months inactivity limit, after which they will delete your account without notice.

I've been using godaddy.com for paid domain names. They don't charge much and they are good.
co.nr also offers a cheap domain registration service, for US$5.99 a year per domain name. In this case, since you are paying for it, you don't have a two-months inactivity limit. =]

If you know of other free-domain services, please let me know. ^^

So, I guess everyone can get started learning website-building basics, or advanceds (XDD), or those of you wishing to try out new things but not wanting to risk ruining your paid website, you could use this kind of service to do so (which is what I plan to do, btw). I'll be looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with, if you want to share it. I will share mine as soon as I've put something pretty in it. ^-^ (Mostly pictures of my kitties, hahaha)

Right now, I'm off to dine out with friends. ^_^v

It lives!

2007-04-15T13:33:00.000-04:00

System is fully operational. >D!!!

Last night I went to bed feeling incredibly annoyed at the fact that I couldn't boot up after cloning my defunct hard drive. It turns out the bios had switched from booting from hd0 to booting from hd1. I suppose this happened because of all the hard drive mess I made because I couldn't open the carrier, so I had to disconnect the cdrw drive, run knoppix from the dvd-rw drive, use the connectors from the former to make the old hard drive a secondary slave to the dvd thing... oh, well. I will type up all the stuff I did last night in a further entry.

The thing is, after last night I was wisely advised to go to bed, I was feeling very pissed off at the "no-booting" thing, and somewhere in the back of my head I suspected I needed to play with the bios.

Today I did just that and found out the switch in booting devices. I switched back to hd0 and... magic! It booted.

Now I am assessing damage and checking what is working and what is lost. Hopefully not much has been lost... HOPEFULLY.

Well, before I turn off the computer and do some hardware re-arrangement I am going to type this up since it's still fresh in my memory and I know if I wait for a couple of days, I will forget something.

About 20 days ago, I lost one of my hard drives.

Right now, if you ask me , I think there are many reasons why this hard drive could have been damaged.
Off the top of my head, I can think of the unstable electricity line in my previous residence (we like playing with electricity... heh); the sudden failure of my computer's power source about six months ago; the close proximity (almost promiscuity) in which I have placed my hard drives inside the computer case... the many months my computer stays on... the lack of a UPS unit until a couple of months ago... etc.

Whatever the reason, the truth is the hard drive started clicking and reading from it became impossible, to the point it would make the entire system either freeze or crash.

Now, in spite of cryo's hard feelings toward GNU/Linux (hahaha!), we all know Linux is sweet and lovely and it doesn't usually crash nor freeze. That's not Lin. It's its retarded neighbor Windoze.
So, this is a sure sign that the problem is major.

I've tried running knoppix without removing any of the hard drives and accessing data (for recovery) from there. It was pointless, as the bios would recognize there was an IDE drive connected to the motherboard, but could not access it.
Ultimately, I had to remove the hard drive and use knoppix to go online and do my basic pestering of everyone.

You see... the lost drive contained, among other things, the /home partition. An integral part of the GNU/Linux OS as far as regular users are concerned... and we all know you don't just log in as root because it may compromise your system badly. Logging in as superuser is for windoze users. They do it all the time. That's what Micro$oft teaches users of its products: "Be stupid. It makes us profit." Especially considering how people in richer countries would rather buy a new computer than be bothered to clean their system. =/

But let's not get political. Michelle, a third-worlder who is willing to starve herself for antiques and music but not for software, decided to:
a) Rescue her system
b) Rescue her data
c) Pay as little as possible for it.

Since the hard drive was, without a shadow of a doubt, comatose; it was evident a new hard drive was going to be needed. Here Michelle was faced with two options:
a) Steal a hard drive
b) Buy a hard drive.

Option a was tempting but all the planning was annoying and Michelle is lazy, so she decided to shell out the ONLY money she was ready to spend, and she bought a new hard drive.
Now... there are caveats to this.... Because nothing is simple when Michelle is involved.
My old hard drive was 120Gig large. Not too large if you consider the size of HD nowadays. I wanted a 200 or 250Gig one, but the price of them made me run out of the shops calling the National Guard.
I settled for a 160 Gig one. ._. But it's cute, yanno?

Since I was at it, I decided to change the old ide wires (flat gray wires that are used to connect IDE devices, like hard drives, CDRW drives, DVDRW drives, etc) for new, round, blue and pretty IDE wires. Why? Because they take up less room and they allow better circulation of air inside the computer case, that's why.
She also needed some screwless screws which sound like a paradox but they exist, I assure you they do.
(Note: Are screwless screws screws that have never screwed? If so, can we call them virgin screws?)

Now the job to do was, of course, connecting everything and recovering the data. Right? That is the trickiest part of the job.

To begin with, cases nowadays are a bitch and everything fits tightly, so if you need to take one thing out, chances are you are going to have to disconnect other stuff in order to remove it. >[ In addition you might bump into something delicate and fuck it up. >[
What I needed to do was connecting 3 hard drives, a CD drive and a DVD drive. >[ crappy considering I didn't have enough wires to do that. But I somehow managed to do it by disconnecting the CD drive and using those wires to connect the faulty drive, the putting the new drive in the old drive's old place and rebooting from the DVD drive with the KNOPPIX cd on.

IMPORTANT NOTE: EVEN IF YOU DON'T USE LINUX AND HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN AT A RADIUS OF 10 KM OF A LINUX USER, DO DOWNLOAD KNOPPIX AND HAVE IT AT HAND FOR RESCUE PURPOSES. In case of emergency, it might be the only way to save your data.
And yes, you can use it with a portable computer too.

I booted from knoppix (you need to tell your bios to boot from CD in order to do this. It's probably the easiest bios configuration you can do, and it will spare you of lots of trouble) Prayed that it wouldn't crash upon detecting the faulty hard drive -it didn't- and once kde was loaded, I looked for GPARTED.

GPARTED is a free, open source utility that allows you to partition your hard drives and manage those partitions.
It works pretty much like Partition Magic, only it doesn't cost you a lot of money for something you will rarely use, and it's open source, which means it gives people the chance to learn and the chance to work on the project for improvements.

Making use of it, I partitioned the new hard drive and formatted these partitions in the same manner the partitions in the old hard drive were partitioned.

This took only a couple of minutes, but I had to set up a root password to use the gui. Usually you don't need a root password with knoppix, because you use sudo to gain root access, but in some cases, when using an application thoughtlessly might cause permanent loss of data (note: nothing is ever lost permanently, if you believe in computer forensics) you need to set up a root password to move on.
Generally speaking, knoppix won't ask you for root passwords because it uses sudo, (I will not explain sudo here. Just hold on to the idea that knoppix doesn't require root passwords) I went to the knoppix dialog (a chubby penguin by the KDE logo) and set a root password that was easy to remember: knoppix
XD
It was a break from my usual passwords. I think I haven't used a simple password since... uh... when was that? 1999? 2000? Anyway... once there it was just a matter of dragging and clicking.

After doing that, the next step was cloning the data from the faulty drive to the new one.
In order to do this, I used dd_rescue.

A word of warning about dd_rescue: There is dd_rescue and ddrescue. I got lost trying to understand why Debian (Knoppix is based on Debian) calls ddrescue dd_rescue. Apparently they aren't the same thing, but =/ There is just so much you can ask for me when I'm nervous about losing my JoyDi and Murnau stuff. ;o;

I opened the text console (aptly named "konsole" in KDE) and typed:

sudo dd_rescue -p /dev/hdd1 /dev/hdb1

Let's examine this command chunk by chunk:

sudo: I used it to gain root access.
dd_rescue: the command I'm using to clone the partition in question.
-p: I used the -p flag to keep permissions and ownership intact. Otherwise, I would have had lots of problems when returning to the computer's system.
I advise to use this flag.
/dev/hdd1: The first faulty partition
/dev/hdd2: The first target (new) partition

I will not explain the b and B blocksizes because it's... a long explanation. The default should work on average, but if you find yourself at odds with the process you might want to change these. typing dd_rescue -h offers some nice help about other flags you might make use of. The -r (reverse copying) can be a good option for badly ruined drives.

I did the same for the second partition, etc, until the process was finished.

Then, I did:
sudo fsck hdb1
and
sudo fsck hdb2

fsck is file system check, and it is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED that you run it if using an ext2 partition... which is unlikely cuz you don't use linux. =P

After that, I shut down the comp. Unplugged it. Removed the faulty hard drive, plugged the CD drive back in, and restarted it expecting it to boot from grub. (Grub is a Linux bootloader that can boot Linux as well as other Operating System -for example. windoze-)

... IT DIDN'T!! D=!!!!!
I only got a prompt when past the initial bios screens. D=!!!!

It was late, and morgane_le_fey was bidding me to GO TO BED ALREADY and telling me awful things about Debian. D=!! But in the end, she said maybe I needed to rest my overfried neurones and I would come up with an answer the next day.

So it was.
Appantely, with all the HD switching I did, and rewiring I did, the automatic settings in the BIOS had decided to try to boot from hd1 instead of hd0. >[
I switched it back to the following order, which is the one I think makes the most sense for my system:
Booting order:
1- floppy
2- CD0
3- CD1 (DVD)
4- hd0
5- other devices

Saved options and exited bios setup, and voilá, I saw my pretty grub screen asking me whether I wanted to boot from the latest kernel or an earlier one. *_*

*kisses screen*

Once in my system, I lit a cigarette and watched in pleasure how everything had been cloned correctly.
But alas... my joy was to be short-lived, as I watched how something I had considered but ultimately forgot, came back to bite me hard in the rear.... the size of the partitions is incorrect. ><
This means, I will -during this week- attempt to back-up everything that had not been previously backed-up, and re-write the partition table of hdb (Drive "D" for Windoze users).
Writing to the partition table of a hard drive might entail loss of data. Permanent loss of it.

In the meantime, I'm creating a grub disk, because I can't find my old one. ;o; I think it's probably lost among the many many many boxes of stuff that remain unopened 4 months after having moved.

Things I need to do now to feel at ease with myself and close the computer case:

a) Re-arrange the drives inside the case.
b) Get an additional wire to plug in a hard drive fan. (fan= cooling device. Not a frothing individual with high estrogen blood levels who screams "OMG!!!LULZ!!!" and faps at the images in his/her computer screen.)
c) Finding my grub disk and/or recreating it
d) backing up what wasn't backed-up.
e) Re-write partition table in hdb to make it "see" the real size of the partitions, or, if this is impossible, re-arrange partitions and create a new partition with the free disk space that is viewable and writable from the system.

Oh, btw, since I was at it, I upgraded to the latest testing branch of Debian -Lenny- leaving behind my etch days in the same way I left behind my sarge days when we moved from the latter to the former... and so on. Etch was good, it was really good. May it enjoy praise and love in its newly acquired "stable" form.

Computer fixing progress

2007-04-14T21:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I have just replaced the flat ide wires for the round ones. They are blue because it matches the leds in my case's rear fan.

It seeeeeems I didn't mess it when connecting the wires, I put the 1st pin where it had to go, and the rest of the pins seem to have followed nicely. =D
This is uncomplicated when one is putting the comp together because everything is loose. It is complicated now because everything is fastened and I am TOO LAZY to unfasten it. =/ So, I couldn't see much.

What I have seen, though, is the amount of kitty hair inside the comp. o_o
I've taken the opportunity to clean the comp's intestines again.

I also bought these thumb-screws or screwless-screws (which sounds like a paradox) I bought 8 but the guy said he didn't feel like opening the bag and gave me a full bag of them. o_o But I only paid for 8. Well... I guess now I'm giving away thumb-screws to people, but it seems nobody appreciates my presents. ;_;
YOU'LL SEE WHAT PAIN IT IS WHEN NO PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER SPINS YOUR SCREWS!!! (That sounds funny...)

Well, now my problem is... I don't have any more ide connectors. Hahahaha... *headesk* >< So I'll see if I can use a usb carry case to clone the dead HD. ~_~
Another option would be to temporarily remove the CD-RW drive (slave), since I can still run knoppix from the DVDR one (master). ~_~ I wonder if that will work? I think it should work.

I have a spare IDE connector for the wire that goes from the MoBo to the 3 1/2 disk drive (a dinosaur, I know, but remember I love antiques. =P) But I don't think I can connect an IDE HD to that connector? Or can I (and it will work)?

Hmm... if anyone has any hints, they will be much appreciated. ^_^♥

Hardware failure happens

2007-03-31T21:24:00.001-04:00

My hard drive died last night.

If I was supposed to do something for you (I remember a translation I promised and an upload I promised to two different people), please bear with me for a couple of days until I manage to sort things out.

Sorry.

Have fun in the meantime.

Edit: BTW, this is not an April's fools joke. It's real. I know the timing is awful.

No love for hotmail

2007-03-29T15:22:00.000-04:00

From Boing-boing:

Hotmail users deemed too dumb for employment at firm

Pete says:

    A guy, who works in the department of a Human Resources consultancy company, says they made a selection process in which, among other things, they asked for a person with ample experience in using the internet (navigation, searches, formats...).

    They received 50 candidacies, from which 30 came from Hotmail-directions, all of them erased as they entered.

    The reason: You can't pretend being an internet expert and use a Hotmail account at the same time.

Link.

I just simply hate hotmail, so I guess this is amusing for me.

Virtual Stickies!

2007-03-14T01:19:00.000-04:00

Lately I'm all about productivity.
I know it won't last, though, because I'm lazy at heart.
But for now, I want to fancy myself a very productive person that GTD (gets things done). Ph33r me.

And in my quest to GTD while struggling through very busy times at work, I found a very interesting website that might very well help one boost one's productivity (or at least combat early signs of Alzheimer's O_O ).
Stikkit.

This is, basically, virtual stick-it notes. Ones that talk to your PDA, your cellphone or your e-mail. =D

You need to create an account (it's free), and then you can start typing "stick-it" notes. You don't need to download anything at all. This works like... hmm... getting an e-mail account at yahoo or gmail. The service is web2 powered, and it seems to work quite well, from what I've been seeing.

What can it do for me? Well, for example, for lists of to-do things, you can ask it to remind you of whatever it is you have to do by e-mailing you when the task is due.
You can also keep a portable list of contacts, be reminded of due bills, birthdays, anniversaries, keep bookmarks, or just jot down notes.

It can be synced to your calendar software -if you use one- or contacts software -if you use one-.

Be reminded of TV shows, release dates, events, meetings, etc. It's like a life cron job. =P (yes, that was nerdy)

I think for now I'm gonna be using it to be reminded of birthdays. =D So, I'm gonna be harrassing your userinfo pages for this purpose. Hehehe. ^_^

I need to set this to work with my cellphone.

The site is very intuitive and very very very easy to use. It will take you only a few minutes to start building your own stickits. However, if anyone thinks a tutorial might be needed, they have very helpful forums with tons of them.

Computer parts paradise

2007-02-01T01:07:00.000-05:00

OK. I'm spazzing out and drooling a little

iTunes alternatives

2007-01-31T11:05:00.000-05:00

Alternatives to iTunes:

Songbird: Pretty much looks like iTunes, only it's black. =P

Audion: I haven't tried it, but it gets very good reviews.

Winamp has a plugin to manage the iPod library as well, and foobar has foo_pod. I haven't checked these either, though.

CD Swapping!

2007-01-12T18:56:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, guys, for me music files are fine but nothing replaces the actual media. Be it a CD or its analog parents (LP's for example); I really love those and cherish them greatly.

I am not going to even start touching the somewhat itchy topic of "I don't have money to buy CDs! OMG! I have bought a new cellphone/color contacts/etc!" here because that always makes my eye twitch.

I'm simply going to talk to those of you who appreciate CD's (LP's, cassettes, etc.) more than mere streams of intangible bytes.

I think the growing trend in this aspect last year have been sites that facilitate CD-swapping. Real CD's, not copies.

Among those, perhaps lala.com has taken most of the credit. I think I blogged about it about six months ago, when it was still in "beta" and you could only join by getting an invitation code.
Right now, the invitation system has been dropped and everyone can join.
Basically, the site works as middle-man, getting people in touch so that they can exchange CD's that they no longer want for CD's they do want.
Lala.com is only available to users in the US ( =/) and it charges you 1.75 per swap, but facilitates the envelopes to send the CD's.

You can go to the site, or you can read a very nice and extensive review here.

Another good option might be SwapaCD, which -again- is only available to users in the US (so, half my flist has stopped reading by now. ._.) I think this is because of the different laws ruling in every country, and the owners of these sites not wanting to risk being issued a cease & desist order or facing a lawsuit.
You earn SwapaCD credits by sending out CDs, and receive CDs by spending earned credits.

On the other hand you have chancexchange, which allows users from every country to swap CD's. Where's the catch? You wonder. Well, you can only exchange CD's with people in your same country.

I am only listing the sites that do not seem to require paying a fee to join, and basically work as a peer-to-peer network where you don't have to "buy" a CD, but rather you simply exchange them for another CD.
There are numerous vendors that "buy" your old CD's and re-sell them; or even allow users to sell their stuff through their interface for a small (or not) fee. Amazon comes to mind.

=]

Well, I hope this is useful for someone.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2006-12-23T00:53:00.000-05:00

I won't be around during the holidays, so I want to quickly, and without taking much of your time, wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I really don't care whether you celebrate this or that, I believe wishing happiness to people shouldn't be such a terrible thing. So, here... take my wish for happiness if you will, and if not, well... you are allowed to not be happy, nobody will blame you for it.

Have fun!

Oh, Debian. How I love thee.

2006-12-14T17:10:00.000-05:00

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

- Matt Groening

So, yup, it looks like Debian will rename Firefox to Iceweasel in their next release, and it looks it's a final decision. =/ I'm not sure I like the name, though.

BTW, where's the upgrade promised for December 4th?
http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/

OK, I'm being biased. It wasn't actually "promised", it was speculative.

The RIAA lies

2006-12-09T01:43:00.000-05:00

The RIAA, who claims to defend musicians, is now asking that composers and songwriters are paid less royalties, so that record companies can earn more.

If you needed something else to believe that they are hypocrites, there ya go.

Record industry executives said there was nothing strange about seeking a rate change that would pay less to the people who write the music.

Yup, nothing strange. I'm not surprised at all.

Phobos

2006-12-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

Fear and Terror. Phobos and Deimos.

That's the name of Mars's two tiny moons.
When I was around 8 years old, my grand-uncle explained this to me as he walked me back home from school.

Today, watching APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day) a picture of Phobos caught my attention and reminded me of uncle Jos.

When I was a child, I imagined Mars and its moons to be scary places.

Right now, I think the Earth (and some of its inhabitants) is by far a lot more scary.

Kiwi!

2006-11-14T03:51:00.000-05:00

How much are you ready to sacrifice in order to follow your dreams?

Kiwi!

Local wikis

2006-11-11T18:52:00.000-05:00

Wikipad. A very interesting wiki-like application that I think is ideal for those of you in college that need to do papers and research. I think it's very helpful when it comes to organizing ideas. I'm linking the windoze version of it, but there are versions of it for linux and mac. Python-coded, which is really nice.
I think it's very nice and helpful if you are acquainted with the wiki way of organizing information. It might also help at work for some of you, and even at story-telling. =]
If you know of other locally-run wikis (that run on linux, hehe) let me know. =]

The robe of a ghost

2006-11-07T21:59:00.000-05:00

The ghostly tail of comet swan. I loved this picture and I want to share it with you.
A comet traveling endlessly through the universe, the ghostly rims of its gossamer gown gently sweeping the dark emptiness among a myriad of twinkling stars.

It evokes thoughts of unreachable and silent beauty.

The other day I was talking to Mauhaut about gazing at the stars. I think I've always been a star-gazer. Although living in a noisy and crowded city sometimes opaques your view of the sky, you always know the stars are there... even if the tumult doesn't let you see them, or the busy life you lead hides them away from you and keeps your gaze pinned to the monotonous ground.

Sooner or later, we raise our heads, and our eyes go to the skies looking for peace, for that overwhelming feeling of immenseness and smallness.

Thanks to all the twinkling stars that wink at me from above when my stare is pinned to the ground, because you guys make me lift my chin and hope for a piece of eternity.

♥

Oh, well. I need to clean stuff here and go home. =]

Viruses, wikipedia and geniuses

2006-11-06T13:16:00.000-05:00

Once again, virus authors use wikipedia to spread malware. Not the first time it happens, but I think it's worth mentioning.

I also found this article today: How to think like a genius.
I don't think I'll ever get to think like a genius, but I'd appreciate getting a little upgrade

Zune not compatible with Microsoft's DRM?

2006-10-25T12:11:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's Zune Music Player Incompatible with Microsoft's own DRM Ecosystem. LOL. Microsoft never ceases to amaze me (at their craptasticness).

In more interesting and beautiful news, I want to share with you this link to gorgeous wildlife pictures. ^_^

Size matters

2006-10-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

I've found a very interesting article about sharing big-sized files.
There are lots of sites that provide this service, unfortunately the seemingly most popular ones are quite crappy at getting the job done.
For example:
Megaupload is very disappointing, as it won't let you download unless you either pay them (so much for their claim to being "completely free") or you live in a rich country. YouSendit has moved to a paid service, requiring people to create an account to either upload or download.
Rapidshare can be a pain in the ass, SendFile is becoming a pain in the ass; and I could go on forever.

I know many people don't really care about this, because of psychological quirks that I will not discuss now (I might do so later) and I will be contented with just tagging as the "It looks like I'm sharing but I'm actually just making you covet" syndrome.

For the rest of us, here's a list of big-sized-file upload sites. ^_^

MediaFire: Allows uploading an unlimited number of files up to 2.5Gig; multiple simultaneous uploads and downloads, supports most download managers (something I personally use a lot and is very useful if you need to resume a large download). No login or signup required. Ad-supported. The Mail feature has its quirks.

GigaSize: You can sign up for a free account and upload files up to 1.5Gig in size for free, they will store it for a minimun of 90 days. If you choose to not sign up, you can upload up to 300 M large file and they will be stored for 45 days. I don't think it supports resuming of downloads or download managers though. No ads.

Other services worth mentioning:

Sharebig: Free uploading and downloading of up to 1.5 Gig. No sign-up required.
TransferBIGfiles: Reminds me of yousendit. File size must be less than 1G and it will be stored for 5 days or 20 downloads.

For Windows or MacOS users, there's also pando; an application that lets you send files up to 1 Gig to anyone with an e-mail address.

MediaMax is what streamload used to be. I have been using their service for years for personal reasons (mostly backups, personal and work-related stuff) and it also allows me to share files with others if I choose to do so. It's a paid service though. You can send files to other streamload users and receive files from them almost instantly and without any "cost" to your monthly allotted bandwidth. Their current price is US$37.95 per year, it gives you up to 1Gig of downloads, and doesn't put a limit to how much you can upload or to file-size.
Sending files between streamload users is unlimited in size.
You can download their upload/download client for free at their site, (even if you don't have an account with them) and you can upload files to any user's account too. (I know, that's a feature that screams "spaaaaam!")

4Shared: Similar to streamload but with limitations, you need to sign up for a free 1Gig account. You can upload files up to 50M in size. Rumored to give free unlimited downloads.

Do you know of any other good XXL-sized file upload/download service? Please, let me know! ^-^

I mentioned download managers ut supra and I want to make a special mention to one firefox extension that I really, really enjoy: It's DownThemAll! and it's very useful when you are downloading a large number of files (scans, picture galleries, batch of files, etc.) I used to use it a lot to download scans, otherwise my right-clicking finger would have died in spastic horror. ^_~
It's easy to configure and install (just click on the install link).

Oh, talking about firefox! Firefox 2.0 has been released today. =D It looks very, very pretty and has some very cool new features.

In images

2006-10-22T00:07:00.000-04:00

I've found this: 111 free photoshop plugins. =] For Mac and Windows. I think some of them work with Paint Shop Pro too, and I am still to try them out with the Gimp.

Rumors

2006-10-06T09:01:00.000-04:00

There's a rumor about Google wanting to buy youtube. The article offers some interesting "behind the scenes" points about this "rumored" buyout.

Add-ons and interesting reads

2006-09-26T21:56:00.000-04:00

1) Rikaichan. An extension for Firefox that draws a tooltip with translations from Japanese to English/French/German/Russian (you choose) as you roll your mouse over Japanese text.
Very useful for those of us somewhat unable to break free from the tight grip of the Japanese entertainment industry. =P

Quoting from the site:

Japanese to English/German/French/Russian dictionary. Just hover the mouse on top of a word, and a popup appears. Automatically de-inflects verbs and adjectives. Detailed kanji view.

Please go to http://rikaichan.mozdev.org/ or http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/ to download a dictionary file for this extension.

As usual, installing extensions to firefox is very easy: you just click on the link that reads "install now" =]

An interesting article I found today at lifehacker.com is titled: "What happens to your email when you die?" It reviews this article from C|Net that elaborates about the problems relatives face when a close one dies and takes the passwords to the grave.
I have always considered this, to be honest (and I doubt it'd surprise anyone, really). Would the ones left behind be able to cancel my accounts? And how easy would that be for them?

Security update

2006-09-19T20:52:00.000-04:00

Another MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer) security exploit has surfaced. It is related to javascript, and it's been found running in the wild.

Once again, and at the risk of sounding extremely repetitive, DO NOT use Internet Explorer. Use Firefox instead. Firefox is much better, when it has flaws they are rapidly patched, it's more stable, and more secure.
Opera is also a good option. (I quite like Opera. It's my second choice browser)

Firefox plugins and extensions.

2006-09-17T17:50:00.000-04:00

I've been asked this question a bunch of times before, and although I know I've written about this before, well... here it goes again in case someone missed it.

How do you check what plugins are installed in your firefox browser?

Open a new tab, and type "about:plugins" in the address bar (minus the quotation marks); hit enter and you will get a list of all plugins installed for Firefox and their status (working or not). ^_^
You don't need to be online to do this.

Do not confuse "plugins" (for example, Java plugin or flash plugin) with Extensions. Extensions are meant to extend the functionalities of your browser, giving it the ability to do something extra. Plugins are meant to let you access information coded into a third-party's format (like macromedia's flash).
A good example of an extension is the "WeatherFox" extension, which adds to your browser the ability to inform you about weather conditions in your area. ^_^ It's one of my favorite extensions. Or the del.icio.us plugin, which allows you to save bookmarks to del.icio.us at the click of a button in your toolbar. ^_^

Blogging about music

2006-09-13T22:46:00.000-04:00

Mog. A Music blOG. Or at least, that is what I think they intended to go for with the name of the site.

This is some sort of not-so-popular last-fm. Their submission engine only supports three players on only 2 Operating Systems, which leaves some of us out. (I signed up anyway, 'cause I simply couldn't resist it)

They have some nice options for musicians (although I don't think it allows you to stream your own music, which is a moot point), and just like last-fm, it tries to build a social network of fellow music junkies.

I think the project would be more interesting if it didn't try to be an hybrid between last-fm and myspace.

So far, it's in beta mode. I signed up when it was launched (several months ago) and I never received my confirmation e-mail. I signed up again today with a new account and I did. I still cannot activate my first account, and several links on the site (forums, for example, where you are told to go if you require further help) do not appear to work.

Potential? Maybe. I'd definitely watch it, and I'm looking forward to a GNU/Linux plugin so that I can further test it.

Quickie from the workplace

2006-08-16T11:39:00.000-04:00

Do you have a youtube account? Do you use the "recommend to friend" tool?

Read this.

=/

Oh, and windowzers, patch your OS.

On DIY toys and computers

2006-08-14T23:33:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been neglecting my nerdy side. But after taking a look at those DIY mp3 players I know I want to build one. =]
You probably think "why someone who already owns a 'spiffy' digital music player (the iPod nano that I rarely use) would want to waste time building one herself?" and the answer is very simple: Because what you build yourself is a lot more valuable and precious than anything you can buy. =]
"Don't you have better things to do? Like trying to become literate, for example? "
Uh... nah. This is more fun.
I often joke and/or make fun of my "redneck" origins, but the truth is I think it's been those afternoons that I've spent watching how dad and uncles and cousins worked to fix cars, what's made me love to fix stuff myself and what's made me think that no matter what it is, if another human being did it, then I can also do it.

Oh, well, but I am still delaying the upgrade of KDE on my BELOVED Debian box, 'because... I always ruin something when I upgrade KDE. >_<

I am considering building myself (in addition to the mp3 player) a second box which will run under either LFS or Gentoo. Just for the sake of it. Because I've always wanted to do Linux from scratch, or even build my own distro (which will probably be Debian-based as far as package management is concerned) (And it still needs a name, so I'm taking suggestions!)
I have some spare parts, but I'd still need a processor, a motherboard and a case. I have some small~ish HD's (10 Gig), an old crt screen, some ram, some fans, lots of wires... and I've always wanted to do this step by step blog-post "how to build your own computer" with pictures and all.
I think it'd encourage everyone to tweak around with your comps, because when you see it you will all think: "Well, if Michelle, who is stupid, ugly, lame and ignorant; can do it, then of course I can do it too!"
It always makes my eye twitch when I read anyone saying "Oh, vey, I must call the computer repair people to get my RAM upgraded... so expensive!"

I also want to mod my case...
But alas, all these things require money, which is something I do not have right now.

Do it yourself

2006-08-08T23:28:00.000-04:00

Today I found this wonderful site: "Make", which is dedicated to DIY people. =D I am one of those, hehe. I find it very entertaining to do stuff myself, as it helps me "unplug" from daily horrors. I particularly like their blog. It has an RSS feed that you can add to your feed-reading, if you are so inclined (I did! haha!)
The article that piqued my curiosity for the site was the one about BookMooch. BookMooch is a free book trading and exchange community. Basically, you sign up, enter the books you have to offer, someone requests them, you send them and get points; then you can request books. ^_^ I think maybe this is a great idea for those of you about to go back to classes... perhaps.
I haven't signed up and tried the site myself, since I doubt anyone wants to receive or send books from abroad (from this abroad, cuter abroads are OK); but you might want to try it. ^_^

When I was a kid my parents bought me an awesome book at a book-fair. This book was about "inventing" things, or rather, DIY toys. It was great, although I could never make the most fascinating ones because the parts required to make them were very expensive.
This magazine reminds me a little of that "How to make your own electronic toys" book, only this one is for grownup kids. ^_~

US people, defend your privacy! Stop surveillance!

2006-08-02T23:22:00.000-04:00

Last Year in my country a law like this tried to be passed. Through everybody's effort, the citizens of this 3rd World hole managed to escape the nightmare that it would entail. (Note: Apparently, wikipedia thinks this is not the third world, but we all know wikipedia can't be trusted.)

Now, the US is trying to bring this nightmare onto their people. If you live in the US and you value your privacy, take action now. It might be too late tomorrow.

Spread the word. Tell everyone you know. And if you wish to place a button like the one ut supra, you can do so by pasting the following html code on your journal:

<a href="http://action.eff.org/fisa">
<img src="http://www.eff.org/images/homepage/stopbills.png"
alt="Stop the Surveillance Bills!" width="148" height="70" border="0" /></a>

The bill:

Stacks the deck against anyone challenging illegal surveillance programs in court, sweeping legal challenges into the shadowy Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts.
Guts long-standing statutory limits on secret surveillance by the government, threatening to make search warrants for national security wiretaps optional rather than mandatory.
Permits even more dragnet surveillance, creating a secret approval process for electronic fishing expeditions that could sweep up the communications of millions of Americans.

Here's what the press is saying:

Washington Post: "Mr. Specter's bill ... has been turned into a green light for domestic spying. It must not pass....This bill is not a compromise but a full-fledged capitulation on the part of the legislative branch to executive claims of power."
Los Angeles Times: "[Specter's] compromise solution is too much of a compromise and not enough of a solution."
New York Times: "The bill the president has agreed to accept would allow him to go on ignoring the eavesdropping law.... [The FISA court] is not the right court to make the determination [about the domestic spying program's constitutionality]."

Good luck. Fight for your rights.

Recommended Software

2006-07-29T20:17:00.000-04:00

I've tried Picasa. [I tried the GNU/Linux version which conveniently comes in a .deb package. Heh. But this is the link for the Windows version, 'cause I know you guys don't love on my pretty Debian ;o; ] It doesn't look bad. It's quite handy for organizing and retrieving pictures. I just regret the wine [windows emulator... regardless of the Wine Is Not an Emulator acronym] interface.

I think this is a very useful application for those who have lots of pictures across different folders (or even in one folder) and wish to organize them, tag them and sort them.
Picasa had quite some fun scanning my some of my folders.
It looks good too, ignore my rambling against the wine interface.

I wonder what virtualrms will have to say about it... I think it will yell at me. =[

BTW, talking about pictures and the internet. I don't remember whether I recommended the "down-them-all!" Firefox extension before. If I didn't, I do now.
I know some of you are members of communities where people post lots of pictures or scans. This extension allows you to automate the process of downloading these pictures without actually needing to right-click-save each and everyone of them. ^_^

Similarly, the VideoDownloader extension simplifies the process of downloading videos from youtube and similar sites.

As usual, to install these extension you simply click on the install link.

Warning!

2006-07-28T23:14:00.000-04:00

From http://arstechnica.com/ (emphasis, mine)

According to security software firm McAfee, the trojan known as FormSpy has been spammed as an e-mail attachment that pretends to be from a legitimate source. When the attachment is opened, it installs a Mozilla Firefox extension known as "NumberedLinks 0.9." Unlike the real NumberedLinks 0.9, which is an open-source Firefox extension that allows web navigation by unique numbers attached to web page links, this doppleganger instead silently downloads a suite of keylogger applications that spend their time looking for credit card numbers, PIN numbers, passwords, and other user data from web, ICQ, FTP, IMAP, and POP3 traffic. This information is then sent back to the spammer's web site.

Extensions aren't the only things being spoofed. According to SurfControl, a new threat has emerged in the form of an e-mail containing what purports to be a link to download the newest Google Toolbar. Upon clicking the link, the user is sent to a fake web page that looks exactly like the real Google Toolbar download site. However, the download link on this site is actually a trojan designed to turn the user's computer into part of a spam botnet

As usual, and at the risk of sounding repetitive. DO NOT open e-mail attachments carelessly.

These exploits apparently only run on Windows (Why am I so NOT amazed?) but it's still a safe practice to NEVER open e-mail attachments carelessly, regardless of what OS your box is running.
K?
K.

On a completely different topic, Has anyone tried Picasa? What's your opinion about it? (There is a windows version for it)
My concerns are mainly about security and reliability; but any comment about it is welcome. \^_^/ so if anyone has tried it and has some opinion, I'll highly appreciate it.

Now... off to eat something. I'm starving! ~_~

Music Box

2006-07-25T22:57:00.000-04:00

Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma is my favorite cellist (after Pau Casals.. heh.)

A friend of mine sent me this link to youtube and I want to share it with you. ^_^

I hope the link works. I think this Bach's prelude is probably one of the best known cello pieces around the world. I love his interpretation, and I highly disagree with the commenter that said it should be played faster (Noooo! No way!)
I think people have become used to Yo-yo Ma's interpretation (usually faster) of this piece. As for myself, I much prefer Bylsma's.

Anyway, regarding J.S. Bach: nowadays Bach is among the top 5 classical composers, but many years ago -believe it or not- his music had been "forgotten". It took Mendelssohn to rediscover Bach. ^_^

A few years ago I watched a DVD about Pau Casals's life. He went through so many hardships, but still he never gave up.
I find this kind of stories highly motivating. Quite often I am told to be indulgent with someone because he/she has had "a hard life"... and I often wonder if the speaker and the subject of the conversation have the remotest idea of what a hard life is like.

Anyway... let's not get there... I'm all wuv-wuv-music tonight.

Switching to a different genre, lately I've been listening to Matti Paalanen a lot. I've discovered him through last.fm and I like him very much.

Unfortunately, as with many independent ambient artists, it's hard to find stuff by him. =/

The Mozilla Firefox cheatsheet

2006-06-26T01:38:00.000-04:00

I've found, via lifehacker (see links on the sidebar) this very useful piece of information: The Firefox cheatsheet. The page contains a lot of not-so-obvious tips and shortcuts for the average user that might help a lot when one is engrossed into tweaking the Firefox browser, or after some serious (or not so serious) software mishap.

The tips are windows-user oriented in some cases, although most of them are OS independent. Check it out.
I think it's a good idea to bookmark it to del.icio.us, so that you have it at hand in case of disaster. ^_^

Have fun!

Technorati tags: Firefox.

Yahoo! Mail hit by worm.

2006-06-13T15:54:00.000-04:00

Yahoo mail hit by worm. Yahoo mail users, please read the article.

More about it here.

Technorati tags: security

Beautiful Images

2006-06-02T12:56:00.000-04:00

Beautiful.

It's a pity the picture is a little too small for my screen resolution, otherwise I'd make a wallpaper out of it.

I love having beautiful pictures to look at when I'm working at the computer.

This one is impressive. I think the fact that it's computer-generated has impressed me the most. Although I can see some details that give away the non-natural origins of this image, I was awed when I saw it because it is so believable one would think it's a photo.

Hehe. This one would make some of us paw at the screen. hahaha!

Microsoft to buy eBay?

2006-05-30T23:07:00.000-04:00

Goodbye eBay. Goodbye Paypal. [from yahoo! news]

I wouldn't risk a cent there if this is true. I heard (actually read) the rumor a few days ago and my first thought was "Paypal, oh, no, not paypal!". The potential for disaster this could have!

And let's not even get started on the issue of monopoly.

Blog birthday

2006-05-06T13:54:00.000-04:00

This blog is one year old today. ^_^ Thanks to everyone reading!

Tor button firefox extension

2006-05-05T10:58:00.000-04:00

Interesting! Tor button Firefox extension! If you are using Tor, you may want to check it out.

Joan Miro's tribute

2006-04-21T21:24:00.000-04:00

How stupid is this?

Very stupid, imho.

Bookmarks!

2006-03-18T18:29:00.000-05:00

I just want to (for the umpteenth time, perhaps) recommend an internet service that you might find of use:
del.icio.us

I know the name sounds like something cooking-related, but no! It's bookmarks. Social bookmarks. (that thing IE users call "favorites"... a word that should only be used to tag male slaves.)

Recently, a good friend found herself losing a bunch of her bookmarks by accident, and I was reminded of what a fine service del.icio.us provides.

del.icio.us is like... portable bookmarks. You store bookmarks in there and they are available to you from any computer.
Of course, these bookmarks are public, so don't go posting anything too private there, as others will also see it.
But for the rest of the stuff (especially if you want to check something at home that you bookmarked at the office) it's priceless.

=]
Be sure to give it a look.

If you want to check my portable bookmarks, they are here. Signing up is free and if you use firefox you can get the del.icio.us extension that adds a button to your navigation bar allowing you to tag and save stuff to your del.icio.us account with just one click. It's really simple, and as usual, if you feel like using it but have questions, don't hesitate to ask me. =]

I've chosen to share my bookmarks openly (hence why they are linked in my journal's layout) but you might choose not to. It's up to you. ^_~

iPod on GNU/Linux

2006-03-15T22:07:00.000-05:00

A very dear friend sent me an iPod nano as a present. (His motivations will remain undisclosed. =P)
As I've mentioned quite often, my beautiful compie runs a beautiful operating system: GNU/Linux.
GNU/Linux is wonderful because it's FREE (as in freedom), which means you get to tweak things you wouldn't be able to tweak with proprietary software.

Lots of people seem to believe you cannot use your iPod with GNU/Linux. I've found this to be completely false, and for that reason I'll explain here how I've gotten my iPod to work under the OS that I love.

So, basic stats of what I'm running:
Computer Architecture: PC, intel P4 processor
iPod: iPod Nano 1Gig (smallish and cutish and black)
Operating System/s: GNU/Linux
Distro: Debian (etch) (has a bad rep, but it's not as complicated as people make it look)
Kernel: 2.6.11-2-686

Stuff that your kernel needs to have: hfs support (hfsplus) Unless you have a windows iPod, in which case you need to be able to read vfat (which all distros do). I'll explain later on.

Earlier kernels (2.4 family) will need to enable hfs.

Stuff you will need to download and install: gtkpod (I haven't been very lucky using Amarok to copy music to my iPod. Maybe that is because I am missing some step in the configuration.
Stuff you will need to read: This.

Now let's proceed.

1. Plug in your iPod to your computer using the usb cord.
2. Wait until it gets automagically mounted.
3. Let it charge until the battery icon is full.
4. Open gtkpod (go to your console of choice and type "gtkpod". -minus the quotation marks-) (yes, that's how complicated it is to run applications from console.) Go to edit ->Preferences and specify your mount point.

You will notice that two removable devices are detected. In my case, they were named sda1 and sda2.
This is because the iPod drive is partitioned. sda1 (in my example) is smaller and contains the iPod firmware. (I don't like firmware, I believe in freedom... I'll try my claws at GNUpod for this reason, but I'll do so later.) The other partition will be sda2, and that's where the iPod stores your data.
Mount the sda2 partition only. You don't need to touch the other partition.

Note: If you have root access, you could especify the mount point, but I'd rather not, since I use other usb gadgets and it could get messed up. Besides, that's why autodetection of the filesystem is there. Duh.

If this is the first time you run your ipod nano, the default filesystem is mac's hfs. If you want to be able to use it with Linux and Windows, you might want to follow the instructions in the link I provided above, and format it into vfat.
If you want to be able to use it with Linux and Mac, do no formatting and keep reading.
If you want it to use GNUpod... wait until I post again. >]

Your brand-new, pristine, virgin iPod doesn't have an iTunesDB file. You will need to create one.
In order to create one, click the last button on your right, the one that reads something like sync to iPod or just sync.
It will warn you that the world will come to an end if you do this. Ignore it. (who cares about the world, anyway?) None of that will happen, and you'll get a new and blank iTunesDB file.

Now, this is where all the fun begins.
Import your media folders from your hard drive.
All files will be checked. Uncheck those you don't want to transfer or create a new playlist (New Playlist button) and drag and drop the files you want to transfer into it.
Once you are done, click the sync button again.
Again, it will warn you that you are a horrible creature from hell that will bring the world to an end and destroy your iPod. Ignore it. Go ahead, nothing bad will happen.
Once it is done, close gtkpod.
Unmount (safely remove) the mounted partition (in this case sda2).
Unplug the iPod from your computer.
Enjoy.

If you want to append files to your iPod...

Plug it in using the usb cord, wait until the device is shown among the available devices (a few seconds wait) and mount the largest partition.

1. Open gtkpod (I already told you how to do this.)
2. Click the read database button (leftmost)
3. Once the database is loaded, drag and drop items to the playlist.
4. Sync. (the button that reads "sync" actually syncs.)
5. Once it's done, unmount the iPod partition.
6. Unplug iPod.
7. Enjoy.

You could, of course, do all this from the console using the mount and umount commands, but I'm going for the eye-candied way here because I know people like eye-candy. ^_~

Well, enjoy yourselves. I'll go have something to drink while listening to Chopin on my iPod as soon as I've clicked "publish post" and finished my cigarette.

Ahh... sexy.

I know what you spammed last summer

2005-12-11T11:25:00.000-05:00

I'm putting this here just in case any of you finds it useful (and for personal reference).
I think those using WiFi might want to take a look at it, since WiFi'ers seem to be a little bit more at risk (not that the rest of us aren't).

When you are using WiFi, encryption is very necessary, otherwise anyone could be using your network, getting into your comp, spying what you are doing, obtaining sensitive data about you and possibly commit some crime against you or in your name.

Gmail encrypts your login, but the rest of the e-mail transactions are not encrypted. Unless...

Unless you do this. Don't let the word "Linux" in the page title fool you; this is a very easy trick that anyone can do, even windows users.

More evil from Sony

2005-12-09T11:48:00.000-05:00

More evil from Sony. Yes, again.

Browsers

2005-11-29T23:46:00.000-05:00

Microsoft Internet Explorer's Extremely Critical Vulnerability. This vulnerability, which remains unpatched, has been discovered about six months ago. (And remains unpatched). It compromises the security of an otherwise fully-patched windows xp with sp2 system. (meaning, even if you have a fully patched system, you are still vulnerable)

On the other hand, Firefox 1.5 is here, and Opera has also upgraded.

Windows vs. GNU/Linux

2005-11-28T22:58:00.000-05:00

(from slashdot.org. I'm quoting this because it's priceless. you should all read it. now.)

Let's assume, that by some miracle, some subcontractor, ShitSoft (MS) manages to break a deal to sell shit (Windows) for food (OS) for McDonalds (IBM) customers for their fastfood restaurants (PC) sometime in the late 80ies so ShitSoft gains monopoly on fastfood restaurants and thus the food market.

There are 12'000 people involved in devising the best methods to fling shit at the customers, to feed them with shit, to serve shit in the most appetizing way.

Because people don't know anything better, people buy ShitSoft's "product". ShitSoft must be producing a huge market many hungry people rely on, right?

ShitSoft is a nice friendly company, so it donates less than 1% of its profits to help combat diseases, so this is why we should keep eating shit.

Also, ShitSoft also has around 12'000 employees, whom are contractually obliged to eat shit.

ShitSoft has been on the top for a while, they clearly created a product that everyone LIKES, because they don't know any better. That product has created jobs for millions of food specialists, contractors and plastic cutlery producers. (Because they would be totally out of their jobs if people would eat something different, right?)

But as in every fairy tale the bad, ugly guy appeared: community owned greenhouses started producing quality vegetables. They gave it away the plans of building such greenhouses and the seeds for the vegetables, only asking to share them with everyone who wants those plans and seeds.

ShitSoft had to do something: they started their "Get the feces" campaign, where they involved several independent researchers, with only a few million shares from ShitSoft or being a board member at ShitSoft. Those researchers claimed that everyone who uses community owned greenhouses must be a communist for not supporting Real hard working American produced quality branded shit wrapped in nice shiny package, but preferred vegetables. They explained that shit has a much lower Total Caloric Overall, than vegetables and that ShitSoft's shit is produced by a trustable american corporation while the vegetables are clearly on the way to ruin the american economy.

The campaign is still undecided to be effective or not, but let's not forget another issue: ShitSoft's product created a huge industry to modify some of the product's erm, "features". Some customers wanted to decrease the value of the quality shit (no idea why would they want to do that), by buying products from third party companies to make shit lose it's smell and taste, and to drive away the flies. Can you not see how ShitSoft helps the economy?

There have been certain allegations before, that ShitSoft's product is not adequate for human consumption. Such a nonsense! It is a shame that we can't disprove that since ShitSoft's End User Shit Agreement specifically forbids the analysis of their latest, "eXPerience the Shit" product and all former versions. Some people slandered ShitSoft before by claiming that shit causes diarrhea and infections and that generally everyone just should refrain from eating shit, but ShitSoft dismissed such scandalous claims.

Be patriotic, support ShitSoft, down with vegetables!

(Link here)

Internet Explorer's serious vulnerability

2005-11-23T23:34:00.000-05:00

"A remote IE exploit with implementations is currently in the wild. From the article: 'Exploit code for a critical flaw in fully patched versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser has been released on the Internet, putting millions of Web surfers at risk of computer hijack attacks.' Aparently all you have to do is browse the page to be affected. There is no patch, but since it is a JavaScript exploit, you can work around it by disabling JavaScript."

source: slashdot.org

"But... Michelle! I only surf the net and check e-mail! That is not going to happen to me!"

Yeah, yeah, sure. These people also thought it couldn't happen to them.

Sony has a rootkit

2005-11-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

I have been absent recently due to personal reasons.
I want to thank everyone who has sent me words of courage and support. I will not discuss my personal life here, though, since that is not the purpose of this blog. Nonetheless, I wish to thank everyone who has sent their condolences.

In other news, by now I guess you might have already read this. Last week (before I randomly crashed aKregator) it was the "talk of the week" on Ars Technica and other tech-related sites.
To be honest, I am not surprised. $ony and Micro$oft are the two toughest DRM pushing companies (not to say that other companies are not "into" DRM. I know Apple likes the idea too) I think (and this is my personal opinion) the reason why Micro$oft is rather pissed at $ony, aside from the fact that their rootkit exposes just how easy it is to breach Windows security and easily turn any Windows computer into a zombie (well... in case someone was absent-minded enough not to know it yet), is because $ony implemented this rootkit BEFORE M$ did it themselves and established a way "to do" DRM and tried to file even more patents on protocols et al and forced every media-related company to pay them for those patents, etc. You know how this story goes.
Loosely quoting the Simpsons, "(Bill Gates) didn't get rich by signing checks."
Additionally, about the AIM bots. I've deleted them the moment AOL took the liberty of adding them to my buddy list for me.
I am not surprised Microsoft intends to buy AOL, because this sounds like domino effect:
Yahoo! and Google are on frank and open war. Microsoft and Google are on frank and open war. (I used to have a prettier link than the that one, but I can't find it) Yahoo! wants AOL's userbase (which they couldn't get). Microsoft and Yahoo! are getting friendly with each other. Well... grab your bag of popcorn and watch how they either tear each other's eyes out or team up and dominate the world and make us all their slaves. =/
Here it is! Hehehe.

AIM worm on the loose

2005-10-31T07:33:00.000-05:00

"According to a recent article on C|Net a new worm is swiftly spreading via AIM to many computers. It delivers a brutal root-kit which bypasses security software and takes control of a PC." From the article: "The worm was spotted in an AOL IM chatroom and infected one of the PCs that FaceTime uses for worm bait. The company said it also has seen the pest hit other computers. 'It is still out there, and it is definitely something the user should be leery of ... The rootkit is designed to not be detected, and that is the scary part.'"

(from slashdot)

GNU/Linux style Halloween

2005-10-30T23:27:00.000-05:00

"In a cool contest with a Halloween theme, BitDefender is inviting Linux enthusiasts to crash test their upcoming antivirus solution for Linux e-mail servers. The most thorough beta tester will receive 1,000 German beers and a trip to BitDefender's corporate headquarters in Romania, where they will attend meetings with Count Dracula, the BitDefender development team and other local luminaries."

Awww... I wish I had enough resources to participate. I want to go meet Count Dracula.

Article here.

In similarly themed news; TEH Halloween Computer is here. and it totally pwns you.

MySpace security flaw

2005-10-16T13:12:00.000-04:00

Read this if you are using myspace.

Personally, I find myspace to be highly annoying, but then again, that is just my personal point of view.

Lockout

2005-10-15T10:55:00.000-04:00

name lockout
version 0.2.3-2
group misc
size 100000
file-size 12862
description
A self-imposed discipline and productivity enforcer Lockout is a tool that imposes discipline on you so that you get some work done. For example, lockout can be used to install a firewall that does not let you browse the Web. Lockout changes the root password for a specified duration; this prevents you from secretly ripping down the firewall and then browsing the Web anyway. In case of an emergency, you can reboot your computer to undo the effects of lockout and to restore the original root password. See also http://thomer.com/lockout/

Well, I think I might need to install this. ._. Sadly.

despicable spammers

2005-10-08T08:33:00.000-04:00

I will have to do something about spammy commenters. =/

Off the record

2005-10-06T21:39:00.000-04:00

A dear friend pointed me to this fine plugin and I want to share it with you.
Enter OTR. Off the Record messaging. This plugin aims to protect your privacy, making sure no traces of your conversation are left on your computer.

Quoting from the site:

Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging allows you to have private conversations over instant messaging by providing:

Encryption
No one else can read your instant messages.
Authentication
You are assured the correspondent is who you think it is.
Deniability
The messages you send do not have digital signatures that are checkable by a third party. Anyone can forge messages after a conversation to make them look like they came from you. However, during a conversation, your correspondent is assured the messages he sees are authentic and unmodified.
Perfect forward secrecy
If you lose control of your private keys, no previous conversation is compromised.

The plugin is available for GNU/Linux (several distributions), Windows and OSX users using gaim and Adium (and Trillian, I think.)
For Debian, I just did apt-get install otr-gaim and it was fetched from the repositories and installed without a glitch.

This is a very fine tool for those concerned with their privacy, especially if you are sharing a computer (ex, work environment).

Update: October 13th:
Newsforge is running a very nice article about this plugin and general privacy in IM's. Don't miss it.

Microsoft does it again

2005-10-06T15:32:00.000-04:00

From NewsForge.

Bill Gates' Microsoft caught in a bald-faced lie about HD DVD-ROM discs.

As a commenter duely noted, Microsoft spreading FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) and providing inferior solutions is not really news. What I find fascinating is that people continue to use a product made by a company that blatantly lies to their faces.
If it was any other kind of product, people would switch.

I guess the reigning ignorance of the average Joe User has a lot to do with this. Most people not only do not know they are being lied to, they additionally do not know they have options outside of Microsoft.

This is why people need to be educated about freedom and taught about their options.

Spread Firefox.com under attack again.

2005-10-04T07:27:00.000-04:00

The Spread Firefox Team became aware this week that the server hosting
Spread Firefox, our community marketing site, has been accessed by
unknown remote attackers who attempted to exploit a security
vulnerability in TWiki software installed on the server. The TWiki
software was disabled as soon as we were aware of the attempts to
access
SpreadFirefox.com. This exploit was limited to SpreadFirefox.com and
did not affect mozilla.org web sites or Mozilla software.

We have scanned Spread Firefox servers and at this time do not believe
any sensitive data was taken, but as a precautionary measure we have
shutdown the site and will be rebuilding the web site from scratch. We
also recommend that you change your Spread Firefox password and the
password of any accounts where you use the same password as your Spread
Firefox account. We will notify you again when the site is back up
with
instructions on how to change your password. (Note: We do use MD5
hashing on the passwords, but MD5 cannot protect all passwords against
off-line dictionary style attacks.)

After Spread Firefox was compromised in July, we instituted procedures
to ensure that we apply all security fixes to the software running the
site (Drupal and PHP) as soon as they become available. Unfortunately,
those procedures overlooked the installation of the TWiki software
since
it is not used by the main Spread Firefox site. When the system is
rebuilt, all the software will be audited to ensure that security
updates will be applied in a timely manner. We deeply regret this
incident and any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sincerely,

Spread Firefox Team
Mozilla Foundation

Opera Browser is now ad-free

2005-09-22T22:07:00.000-04:00

The Opera browser has been released free of advertising. (article from arstechnica.)
Last month they were giving free registrations, and it seems the idea was fruitful, as we are now presented with an ad-free browser.

Still no news about opening up its code, though.
But this is a good step. Opera is my second choice browser, and I like it a lot.

Macs and Open Source

2005-09-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

Happy equinox everyone.

Newsforge is running a very interesting article about running open source applications on Mac's that every Mac user should check out.

Beautiful wallpaper

2005-09-15T20:55:00.000-04:00

I've found this gorgeous wallpaper today at kde-look.org and I thought about sharing with you. ^_^ I have made it my default wallpaper.

Additionally, I want to recommend kde-look and gnome-look to all of you for desktop eyecandy.

20 things the Technology Industry doesn't want you to know

2005-09-10T14:38:00.000-04:00

PC world is running an interesting article titled 20 things they don't want you to know.
While the most techie-inclined won't find any earth-shattering information in it, those of you with a real life outside of your computer boxes (^_~) will probably find it interesting.

Be sure to check it out for a numinous experience. haha.

Chair Tossing chez Microsoft

2005-09-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

"I am going to fucking kill google!" Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer is reported to have said after tossing a chair against the wall when learning one of his employees was leaving Microsoft to go work for Google.

This is so funny, I think I don't need to watch soap operas for some time now. Hahaha.
Anger management issues anyone?

Linspire giveaway

2005-09-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

The people at Linspire are giving away free copies of this GNU/Linux distribution through digital download at their site.

Linspire is a paid Linux distribution, whose most notable feature is looking very similar to Microsoft Windows.

I don't like Linspire very much, for reasons that should be obvious by now:
a) It looks like Windows.
b) It contains closed source software.

But if you want to check it out and try it, go ahead. Remember the offer will expire soon.

Update regarding Creative Zen

2005-09-01T15:57:00.000-04:00

From Slashdot.org

TheChillPill wrote to mention a Register article which reports that Creative has instituted a recall for some 5GB Zen Neeons. The reason? About 3,700 were shipped with the Wullik-B email worm. From the article: "Creative is reporting that the virus affects players with serial numbers between 1230528000001 and 1230533001680 that have shipped in Japan in late July. According to a translation of Creative's statement (in Japanese) on the security flap the firm has temporarily stopped shipping Zen Neeons players while its partners assist in the recall of the infected batch. The firm said it has identified the source of the outbreak and fixed the problem. Creative said the virus contamination issue was confined to Zen Neeons players and didn't affect any of its other products."

I thought I'd mention it, just in case any Zen user is reading.

The Open Source PC

2005-08-31T10:45:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News is running a very interesting article called The Open Source PC.
You should check it out, as it offers a set of open source solutions to replace proprietary / closed source applications in your computer.

Another interesting Yahoo! News article that you might want to check out is "Open Source for all", which discusses the basics (very basics) of Open source for the regular, non-geek computer user.

Both links provided via slashdot.

Another very interesting article on this topic comes from newsforge.com: Free Software's replacements for Desktop Applications.

Be sure to check them out and have fun! ^_^

Opera Browser turns 10 years old

2005-08-30T22:16:00.000-04:00

Oh, Opera turns 10 years old today and opera.com is giving out free registrations for their browser. If you want to get rid of the banner ads on top of it, you might just crash the party site and get yourself one.
Hurry, the offer will be up only while the party lasts. ^_~

In less happy news, Creative Zens ship with worm. If you own one of these digital music players and you bought it recently, please check out the article.

Now, yes, have fun.

Talk about google-talk

2005-08-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

Google-Talk encryption
I'm taking a look at the dev's pages again and also at the KDE wiki, and what I'm gathering is that:

a) Google talk uses QCA for encrypted connections, just like jabber (because it's a jabber spin-off).
b) Apparently they use SSL protocol encryption.
c) Their (buggy) dev page is here.

Because this is very new and google talk is in beta, I guess the information changes all the time and tends to be somewhat incomplete.

How to use Google talk with gaim.
Forget Google talk's howto because it contains errors. If you follow their instructions you'll never be able to connect.
Follow Michelle's instructions instead and you'll be able to talk to your friends through the newest IM and prove that you are a cool nerd. =P

1) Open Gaim, and click on the "Accounts" button (bottom, left).
2) A new window will pop-up. In this window you will see a list of all the accounts you have added to gaim. Click on the "Add" button.
You will get a dialog that says "Add account"
3) Chose the following:
   Protocol: Jabber
   Screen name: The part of your gmail account before the @gmail.com (example: if your gmail address is johndoe@gmail.com, your screen name is johndoe.)
   Server: gmail.com
   Password: This should be your gmail password, but you don't need to type it now. What's more, if I were you, I wouldn't type it.
   Alias: A fancy nickname that you want to call yourself. The Google Talk pages say you don't have to type anything here, but you can go ahead and type something if you wish. Nothing will break.
Remember Password: If you want to use this feature and you typed your password before, go ahead. I wouldn't, but that's just me.
Auto-login: It will log you in every time you start gaim.

Now, to the fun part:
Before you click "save" you will see a "+" sign that reads "show me more options". Click it.
You will see the window expands and you get more options as promised. XDD

Here is where we get the most dissimilitudes with the Google talk pages, because if you follow their instructions at this point, you won't be able to connect.

Fill the options as follows:
Jabber Options: Check the box next to 'Use TLS if available,' AND the Force old SSL box.
They actually tell you to check only the TLS box and leave the others unchecked. Unfortunately if you do that, it won't work.
Port: 5223
They say port 5222. AFAIK nobody has been able to connect through port 5222. Port 5223 seems to work fine though.
Connect server: talk.google.com
Proxy type: Use Global proxy settings.

Click save and login.

To add people you need to add their gmail addresses. (johndoe@gmail.com) which supposedly you know because they are your friends.

A vulnerable Onion.

2005-08-20T01:13:00.000-04:00

Tor Cryptographic Handshake Vulnerability.

So, you know, apply the patch.

Updating from an onion

2005-08-06T22:56:00.000-04:00

Last night I managed to install Tor and get it running, although I didn't manage to route the connection through a proxy. Why? Because I was stupid enough to not run the proxy. (DUHH!!!!) Right now, as I type, the next tab says I'm in Sweden. The fascinating thing about this is that I am absolutely certain that I am NOT in Sweden.

So, how did I manage to do this? Very easily. In fact, a lot more easily than I had expected.

Steps to installing and using Tor with GNU/Linux.

1) Download Tor from http://tor.eff.org . Config, make, make install. If you are using Debian, apt-get install tor. You will need libevent to configure and install and make it work.
2) Donwload and install privoxy. (Same procedure)
3) Run privoxy by positioning yourself in the /etc/privoxy folder at the command line and type privoxy (easy, hehe.) Some distros make it run by default. You can find information on how to tweak settings at privoxy's home page: http://www.privoxy.org .
4) Add the following line to /etc/privoxy/config
forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .
Don't forget the dot at the end. You can add it at the very beginning of the file (I did that).
5) Open Firefox, go to Edit > Preferences > General > Connection Settings and redirect your http traffic and ssl traffic to 127.0.0.1 port 8118
5.a) You can use the "switchproxy" extension for firefox if you wish, it works too.
6) OK everything. Empty your cache, close firefox and re-open it. Point it to http://config.privoxy.org It should tell you whether you're using the proxy correctly.
So far so good.
7) Go to the command line as REGULAR USER. DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING AS ROOT. type tor
Tor will start and if it's correctly installed, it'll say so.
8) Open a new tab in Firefox, and go to http://www.whatsmyip.com/ Supposedly, you know what your ip is, and if everything is working fine, the site will show you a different ip which can be in any country.
9) That's it. Have fun. ^_^

Verification required

2005-07-27T09:10:00.000-04:00

In other news, you might want to check this out if you are an expee user: Microsoft will require users to verify the legitimacy of their Windows, if your copy of it is found to be a pirated one, you will be unable to download software updates from them. If you don't verify your copy of windows, you'll also be unable to download software from them.
Unless you pay, that is.
Well, read the article. I've nothing to add about it because those are the rules, and if you accepted those rules (ie: you installed the software) you gotta play by them.

GNU/Linux is free and open source.

CSS recommendations

2005-07-24T15:40:00.000-04:00

I haven't done a software rec in a while, so I thought it was about time I did. =]
Only instead of recommending "applications" I am going to recommend web resources.
Enter the 10 best resources for CSS.

You know you want to check it out if you design websites, either for fun or professionally.

Ugh...

2005-07-23T01:56:00.000-04:00

Windows Vista is probably the ugliest software-related name I've heard after Mandriva. Ugh.

New Mozilla / Firefox release this week.

2005-07-18T17:45:00.000-04:00

News.com reports that apparently a coding misstep in the newly released Firefox 1.0.5, Thunderbird 1.0.5, and Mozilla 1.7.9 might leave without functionality some of its extensions. For this reason the Mozilla foundation plans to upgrade its products once again this week.
On the bright side, it seems (according to news.com) that the next Firefox will have bit torrent support as well.

In other firefox news, you probably noticed the Firefox Google Bar is already out and ready. Additionally, some security issues with its prior releases (google bar's) have been fixed.

This afternoon it seems I'm "patching entries", I'm not actually touching any new topic. =/

Remember about Microsoft's Windows XP Remote Desktop control vulnerability? Well, it affects other windows versions as well.
From news.com:

Until a patch is available, Microsoft suggests users block TCP port 3389 (the port used by RDP) on their firewall, disable Terminal Services or Remote Desktop if not required, or secure remote desktop connections using either Internet Protocol Security or a virtual private network connection.

Which is pretty much disabling the service. It's good to see they are not throwing a "Buy anti-virus software! Download and install our patches!" sentence at users any longer, like they usually do in these cases, because we all know there is no anti-virus or patch for this flaw.

In days like this I feel like hugging my GNU/Linux box.
Talking about which, I hope to have a little spare time tomorrow to review some very interesting applications running on Linux; among them BRL-CAD.

Technorati tags: Firefox, Security, Windows, Software

Security bug in fully patched Windows XP SP2

2005-07-17T09:35:00.000-04:00

After last week's roundup of security advisories (and some patches) for MSWindows and other MS products (MSWord, MSIE, etc), a new and potentially dangerous security bug has been reported, although there is no patch for it as of yet.
This bug affects users turning on the Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP, and allows the remote execution of code (that is, someone whom you haven't authorised to access your computer might, from another computer, get into yours and execute code on it with malicious intentions).

What is the remote desktop function? It's a feature that allows you to control your computer while you are not at it. For example, from work or while you are away on travel. (If you have ever seen those ubiquitous "PCAnywhere ads", you probably have an idea of what I'm talking about). Ideally such a feature should only allow the computer owner (and his workgroup) to access the computer in question. Well, thanks to this bug an ill-intentioned anonymous person might access your computer and cause a DoS attack from a remote location (remote location = from another computer).

The bug affects Windows XP users in spite of their Windows firewalls being turned on, SP2 installed and being fully patched.
Microsoft recommends users of its products to enable their firewall, install antivirus software and download Microsoft's security fixes, however none of these actions seem to prevent this particular remote exploit (in other words: their recommendation is useless in this case).

Microsoft has reported they are working on a patch that could be available in August. *points at date today... ahem*
Secunia advises to "Restrict incoming traffic to affected systems to reduce the risk."
Michelle (not half as a reputable source as secunia.com, although perhaps a lot more radical in this case) advises to turn off the service.

Oh, well. I'm warning you about this because I know many of you -in spite of my shameless propaganda for GNU/Linux- are using MSWindows. I am not. ^_^

Technorati tags: Security, Microsoft, Windows

Spread Firefox (dot) com under attack

2005-07-15T10:21:00.000-04:00

This is the e-mail I received today:

On Tuesday, July 12, the Mozilla Foundation discovered that the server hosting Spread Firefox, our community marketing site, had been accessed on Sunday, July 10 by unknown remote attackers who exploited a security vulnerability in the software running the site. This exploit was limited to SpreadFirefox.com and did not affect other mozilla.org web sites or Mozilla software.

We don't have any evidence that the attackers obtained personal information about site users, and we believe they accessed the machine to use it to send spam. However, it is possible that the attackers acquired information site users provided to the site.

As a Spread Firefox user, you have provided us with a username and password. You may also have provided us with other information, including a real name, a URL, an email address, IM names, a street address, a birthday, and private messages to other users.

We recommend that you change your Spread Firefox password and the password of any accounts where you use the same password as your Spread Firefox account. To change your Spread Firefox password, go to SpreadFirefox.com, log in with your current password, select "My Account" from the sidebar, select "Edit Account" from the sidebar, then enter your new password into the Password fields and press the "Save user information" button at the bottom of the page.

The Mozilla Foundation deeply regrets this incident and is taking steps to prevent it from happening again. We have applied the necessary security fixes to the software running the site, have reviewed our security plan to determine why we didn't previously apply those fixes in this case, and have modified that plan to ensure we do so in the future.

Sincerely,
The Mozilla Foundation

Yesterday and the day before yesterday when I tried to access the spreadfirefox.com site, I found it was down. =/ I thought the server was down for different reasons, though.
It is quite of an annoying time to do this (not that there is actually an OK time to hack a site... at least not from the point of view of users), especially considering a new release has been available since Tuesday. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but I bet it isn't.

Technorati tags: Firefox, Security, Computers and Internet

About Browsers and Improvements

2005-07-14T08:28:00.000-04:00

Interesting news about two browsers that you might want to check out. Mozilla's Deer Park and Opera. Both are available for Linux and windows; amd Deer Park is also available for Mac's OSX.
In the first place, please take a look at Mozilla's Deer Park announcement. Deer Park offers some new and interesting functionality, like the ability to download and install security patches to the browser without having to re-download and re-install the browser itself. This feature was, perhaps, among the most requested ones by Firefox and the Mozilla suite users. It's really nice to have this functionality at last. Kudos to the Mozilla development team. =)
(download link from ftp)
I think I'll be playing with it later today or maybe tomorrow and I'll write a more thourough report about it.
Deer Park also includes improvements to the pop-up blocking feature as well as security enhancements.

The second browser-related news I mentioned has to do with Opera. Apparently it's official that the new release of Opera browser will support bit torrent. (Whee!) In spite of the FUD campaign against bit torrent that we've seen lately (by those who want to associate the technology behind bit torrent with piracy... don't make me name names...) the feature is very interesting, since it would allow Opera users to manage software downloads in a fast and reasonably secure way from the browser. (I've always loved their download manager, and quite especially its "resume" feature).
As per the whole FUD campaign I mentioned before, remember that you can't blame technology for the use people give to it.
If you could do that, then if a driver ran over someone crossing the street it wouldn't be the driver's fault, it'd be the car's and the car maker's.
If you stuck your fingers in the electricity outlet and you got electrocuted, it wouldn't be your fault for being stupid; it'd be electricity's fault.
This kind of faulty reasoning is what those who try to blame bit torrent for piracy are trying to impose on us. Bit torrent can be used (and in fact, is used) for legal downloads of software (ex. Linux, and several applications), documentation, etc. Bit torrent doesn't "hypnotize" you or subliminally convince you to download illegal copies of movies, warez or music; and using bit torrent doesn't mean that you are doing something illegal per se, in the same way that driving a car doesn't mean that you are a criminal.
As usual, the question is how people use technology, and that does not depend on technology but rather on the users' moral.

Technorati tags: Browsers, Computers and Internet, Opera, Mozilla, Bit Torrent

X.org welcome to Debian

2005-07-13T14:57:00.000-04:00

After a very long wait, XOrg's X11 has finally arrived at Debian Sid (unstable). For those of us who ~~cling desperately to~~ use Debian GNU/Linux this is something we were looking forward to for some time, and of course, it's happy news.
David Nusinow, the main maintainer of the package, has made some comments about it on his blog that you might be interested in reading.
Personally, I think X11 is more advanced that Xfree, especially considering that a lot more programming has been going on at Xorg than at Xfree, and I find xorg to be more stable in addition to it.
For the record, if you are still in doubt about what X11 is, you might want to check this.

Technorati tags: Software Debian Xorg Linux

Firefox 1.0.5 released

2005-07-13T07:20:00.000-04:00

Firefox 1.0.5 was released yesterday. The upgrade includes security fixes as well as improvements to stability. Go get it!

Technorati tags:Firefox Security Browsers

Technorati doesn't love me

2005-07-12T22:37:00.000-04:00

It looks like technorati doesn't like this blog. Isn't it a shame?
I've e-mailed support, but according to what I've been reading online, it might take them quite a long time to actually get to check the error I keep getting.
Insert sad pout here.
I know the internet will survive without this blog being indexed by technorati, but you know... I'd be a very happy puppy if it worked.

If you want to learn what technorati is, just take a look at it. I'm sure their main page does a much better job at explaining what they are all about than I could ever dream doing.

Edit at 0:38AM: They have actually replied very fast to my support ticket (Thank you, Ryan!) but I'm still unable to find a solution for my error bound blog. I guess I'll keep waiting for a while longer.

Edit at 8:10AM: It works now! Thank you, Technorati!

Technorati tag: technorati

Live bookmarks in Firefox

2005-07-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

You've probably heard of news syndication before, and you probably thought it was just one more of those complicated and useless things that become quickly fashionable on the internet only to die away a few months along the path.
So, here I am today only to tell you that live bookmarks are actually very useful, that they don't seem to be going to die away any time soon, and that they are very easy to set up and offer an interesting feature that you might become addicted to in almost no time.
Basically, syndication of news and blogs means you don't need to go to the news source (or blog) in question's website to see if there are any new articles. You can move your cursor over the live bookmark and a list of recent articles will appear. Clicking on the article name will take you to the article itself.

But, words can be confusing (especially if it's me who's typing them) so let's take a look at a few images and I'll teach you how to use live bookmarking on Firefox.

I like to keep things organized, because I believe the more organized you are, the less time you waste (and the more free time you will get in the end). So, I usually manage my bookmarks accordingly.
Since I'm assuming you are new to live bookmarking, I'll advise you to be organized in order to make the best out of it and learn fast.
So, first click on "Bookmarks" (upper menu) and select "Manage Bookmarks" (Usually the second option). A new window will appear in front of your browser window. This window is split in two. It looks like this.
Click on "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" and then click on the "New Folder" icon.
A new folder will appear and you will have to give it a name. When you close the Bookmarks Manager, a new folder will appear on your toolbar, like this.
Now you are ready to start adding live bookmarks for blogs and news sites in an orderly way.
Let's try:
You are, I assume, reading this blog. You will see an icon on the lower right corner of your browser that looks like this:

(It might look a little different according to what Firefox theme you are using. In some themes you'll get an orange rectangle that reads RSS.)
If you move your cursor over it, you'll see the following tag:

click on it and a tag reading "subscribe to this page's feed" will appear. Click it. a small menu with your bookmarks will appear, chose the folder you created specifically for this purpose (Live bookmarking). Click OK and go check your toolbar folder.

When you click it, a list of live bookmarks will appear, if you move your cursor over them, you'll get a list of recent articles that you can easily navigate at a glance.
That's it.

Technorati tag: RSS

Microsoft and Claria, a match made in... hell.

2005-07-11T22:58:00.000-04:00

About 2 weeks ago it was mentioned that Microsoft intended to buy adware/spyware company Claria (formerly known as Gator). I also explained what Claria/Gator was all about and why their products have been often questioned in regards of privacy and business practices.

A couple days ago, while browsing random tech-related news, I found this article telling us how Microsoft's anti-spyware (beta) application has downgraded Claria adware detection and removal. Basically (and in simple terms) this means that whereas Microsoft's Anti-spyware manages to detect Claria/Gator/GAIN software, it doesn't take any action on it and lets it silently do its malicious job in your computer.
Microsoft has denied giving Claria special treatment, and claims that the downgrade in threat level aims to be "fair and consistent with how Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) handles similar software from other vendors,". Unfortunately Microsoft fails to tell us who these "other vendors" are.

Allow me to remind you that Claria/Gator/GAIN software is, according to a Webroot report, the second most prolific adware install, being detected on 2% of all the computers connected to the internet (in case you didn't figure it out already, 2% of all the computers connected to the internet in the entire world = a huge number of computers); other reports place it the the #1 position with over 6% of worldwide computers affected by it.

Claria software, which is in itself very hard to remove, is included in applications such as Dashbar, Gator, PrecisionTime and Weatherscope (among others). This kind of software collects and sends information about you, which is later sold to Claria's customers (this might compromise your privacy and security to varying levels). It downgrades your computer performance (for example: it makes your internet connection slower), and pops up unrequested advertisement while you navigate the internet, often displaying ads for competitors of the vendors who have paid to be featured in a certain spot of a certain commercial site (disloyal business practice).

Additionally I would like to point out that this change in MS anti-spyware application behavior is not being properly informed to the user.

A nice list of free (of cost) anti-spyware software can be found here.

Technorati Tag: Spyware.

Free as in speech AND beer

2005-07-06T18:00:00.000-04:00

Right now, considering that I'm at work and this computer runs windows expee (I'd call it windows-mega-poo, but ignore me) I'd like to make a quick software recommendation.

7-zip.

You are probably quite acquainted with windows programs such as winrar and winzip. Both of them are proprietary applications and both of them require that you pay to keep using them once the trial period has expired.

7-zip, on the other hand, is a free, open source application that runs on windows platforms and can handle several archive types: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB. It is very easy to use; it has a nice, intuitive and unbloated GUI, it's fast and you don't have to pay to use it. You shouldn't be downloading warez versions that are illegal and might contain viruses embedded in them, when you can safely use 7-zip for as long as you like at home and/or at the office and just get the work done.

You might want to give it a try. The official site for 7-zip has some nice screenshots and guidelines that will give you a good idea of how the application works.

The second recommendation will be for another free, open source application: FileZilla.

FileZilla is a fast, nice, easy to use, free and flexible FTP Client. Either if you FTP to your personal site or if you use it for FTP downloads, FileZilla is a reliable solution for windows users.

Additionally, has any of you tried the applications I recommended last time? If you did, let me know what you think about them. ^_^
*is a curious person*

Yay!

2005-07-06T16:39:00.000-04:00

^____________________^
No software patents in Europe.

All about the penguin

2005-07-01T17:36:00.000-04:00

Tux Magazine.
You know you want to read it... and besides, it's free. =P
It might answer some usability questions for those of you who feel curious about linux but don't yet dare to try it.

(pdf download.)

Additionally, I've found this article to be rather interesting... especially because a feature similar to this one has been available for free with linux for some time now. Heh...

[/linux propaganda]

Claria...? Gator...?

2005-07-01T16:35:00.000-04:00

Some years ago, an application called Gator that could be downloaded for free on the internet, promised to make your internet experience easier and better by storing your passwords so that you didn't have to remember them every time you logged in to a password protected area (e-mail accounts, etc.) This application became rather popular among a variety of unsuspecting users who, unbeknownst to them, were sending valuable information to a third party. This third party (Gator) superimposed their own ads to the sites Gatorified people navigated.
You might argue that you don't really pay attention to ads (regardless of it being a disloyal business practice), but still there are a few things you should take into account before disregarding the importance of this invasive practice.
a) They were sending information about you to a third party behind your back and in the vast majority of cases, without your knowledge.
b) They were storing your passwords! True, they were being stored into your computer, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have access to them. Such a practice can potentially mean an application developped by them or anyone else can access private accounts such as your banking, credit records, paypal, ebay, etc.
c) They didn't inform you of this correctly.
d) Gator was hard to remove single-handedly.

Later, Gator (enjoying quite a bad reputation after their business practices became better known) changed its name to Claria, but they didn't change their ways. Taking their scum into the next level of corporativeness they decided to enlist major sites among their supporters, and continued to push their ads on top of regular ads, as well as they continued to gather information about you and your navigation habits. Now the adware was embedded in other "attractive" software, like for example Kazaa (p2p client) which people installed blindly and used blindly, ignorant to the fact that while they were downloading the latest U2 song, information about them was being widely transmitted over the net.

Claria/Gator/GAIN is one of the major scumware providers on the internet, infesting hundreds of thousands of computers with their privacy menacing software. Additionally it has been noted that their practices don't meet their lawyers claims.

You can read more about Claria/Gator here.
Additionally I strongly recommend that you NEVER store passwords anywhere other than in your head if you value your security and you NEVER use such kind of software/features ("remember password") if you don't want to find yourself in varying degrees of chaos. (That includes "Roboform")

You probably heard about identity theft on the internet and how fast it is becoming common while governments fail to do anything notable to counteract it or help the victims. Such "remembering" applications might possibly be the perfect vial for these crimes, and if you install them your are exposing yourself to serious danger.

Software recs

2005-07-01T01:54:00.000-04:00

Now, since I have a spare moment of internet time I'll take advantage of it by recommending two pieces of software.
As you can expect, they are free and Open Source.

1) ClamAV. Antivirus. Primarily intended for *nix-like system (for example, linux) it's been ported to several other OS's. You can find versions for Windoze and MacOSX. Even if you know your OS doesn't attract scumware, it's always a good idea to have an anti-virus around, since the fact that said scumware does not affect your system does not necessarily imply that you aren't spreading it to your friends without knowing.

2) Abiword. Word Processor. Lately I've found myself using Abiword a lot more than OO's writer. Perhaps that's because I find Abiword to be lighter and load faster. Available for Windoze, MacOSX and several GNU/Linux distributions, this is the kind of application that one generally overlooks at first. For those of you who do a great deal of writing and want a nice application that shows documents right, loads fast and comes with "can't-do-without" features such as spellchecking; this is a must have/must try.

In other news... Did you hear Microsoft is going to buy Claria?
Claria (formerly known as Gator) is a well-known spyware/adware provider.
Didn't I tell you already that Windows IS a virus? Geez... I bet they are going to embedd the spyware inside longhorn... XDDD Are you still going to pay to get spammed? Or are you ready to make the switch?

Now, yeah, gotta get myself a cigarette and go to sleep.

Racist Spam

2005-06-30T13:06:00.000-04:00

Got to the office, sat at the comp, checked office's e-mail... then checked my own private e-mail and there it was: Spam.
Two messages had arrived into my inbox from someone I don't know, with a subject line that surprised me "Trotz Stellenabbau".
It's been some (long) time since I had to give up my German classes due to lack of money but I still remembered enough to understand it, and I did know it was nothing I could be mailed about.
This is a virus's doing.
Actually, the message itself isn't a virus, but this is the result of viral activity.

You can read more about it here. Basically, this is malware that, behind your back, starts sending spam e-mail. The virus spoofs the sender email and uses a random address from a list of e-mail addresses it has retrieved from an infected computer. So, in simple words, the mail looks like it's been sent by someone that you might know (or not) but in truth it's been sent by someone else.
For this reason just blocking the sender's address (like Yahoo! mail lets you do) will just not work and you will be probably blocking out someone who has nothing to do with this. Their e-mail address just happened to be in a list some spammer happened to come by; and now it's being used to make it look as if they were sending spam, which they probably aren't.

Read the article I linked above, and if you are using an e-mail application such as MSOutlook ~~go shoot yourself in the head~~ follow the instructions here to block the real sender of such spam. After you've done so, please do yourself a favor and download a better tool for reading and sending pop3 email: Thunderbird. Thunderbird will import your address book and old messages, so that you can seamlessly switch.

Aside from this, remember to keep your antivirus updated. If you think an antivirus application is too expensive, you can always use free alternatives which are just as good and effective.

Avast!
AVG antivirus
are two good examples. (there are others)
Additionally, you might want to try free online-scans services that both panda-antivirus and symantec offer in their websites.

You know this is important because of many reasons:
1) Viruses put your privacy at risk. A virus can not only wreck the data kept in your computer, it can also "steal" sensitive information about you and steal your identity. After it has done so, it can go and put your home on a mortgage, buy an expensive car at your expense, or commit online crimes that would all point towards you. You will have a VERY tough time trying to prove it was not you who did these things and chances are you/your family will lose a lot of money while at it.
2) Viruses attack your friends. If you don't give a shit about your personal security or finance, you might perhaps care about your friends.
3) Your computer being a zombie means your computer no longer belongs to you. Since your computer is in your home, it means you have just let someone in.
4) Your ISP might trace malicious activity to your zombie machine and decide they no longer want to give you internet access. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) might just decide to take their service away from you and you'll have no way to go online.

Existencialism...

2005-06-30T00:05:00.000-04:00

If you fancy yourself at least slightly geeky you should definitely read this. Heck, even if you don't think you are geeky you should still read it. It's a comic strip and it's crack funny.

Yesterday I've been trying to build a comp out of a very old/very crummy PC-Chips MoBo and an equally dated PentiumII processor. It was fun. Since this MoBo model is not being manufactured anymore I had to look up a bit to find some way to flash its BIOS and make it "see" a 20GB HD... I managed to flash it but it still didn't see the HD correctly (well, at least I didn't ruin the MoBo for good!). I might try again tomorrow with Maxtor's software... my goal is to install FreeBSD on it, but when I try to it keeps giving me DMA-related errors. Debian just hangs while trying to load Linux-IDE drives.
It was pretty uncomfortable to flash the MoBo's BIOS without having downloaded it from the official site, and flashing only updated it to a 2001 version, but darn, I'll keep looking. I'll be contented if I can find a 2003 version of it (which I doubt) because I think it'd be easier for it to "see" the HD in its full size and work the DMA right (tbh, I suspect the DMA is to blame for all the headaches this MoBo is giving me). Anyway, it's been fun... makes some underexercized areas of my so-called brain work.
In other news, my sister's comp (running Win-ex-pee and AVG antivirus) claims to be infected by a certain trojan horse virus (dropper.small.24.L) that no antivirus except AVG can detect. (Trust me, I've run several online scans last night trying to confirm the trojan horse's existence.)
If any of you are having a similar problem, I'll recommend you to Not do anything, since this small.dropper thing sounds a lot like a false positive. The infected file is part of the OS and makes the language bar work, remove it and you'll lose the functionality.

Debian Updates at last

2005-06-07T02:56:00.000-04:00

Hell has officially frozen over. Debian has updated.

OK, I know those of you who aren't Debian fans (that is, each and every one of my friends) won't find this to be the least interesting or even comprehensible, but... DEBIAN HAS OFFICIALLY UPDATED!!! OMGWTFBRBBBQ!!!!!eleveneleven

Read it here. or here.

Right now I'm feeling a little like nothing goes my way, and it occurred to me that if I was to switch to macs, Steve Jobs would associate Apple with intel.... oops! =P

Del.icio.us - Portable Bookmarks

2005-06-06T14:10:00.000-04:00

Oh, I would like to mention something about del.icio.us ; Think about it as "portable bookmarks" combined with "social bookmarks". Since I don't have a computer* I'm using it a lot lately. If you are interested you can check my del.icio.us bookmarks here (I doubt anyone is, though). I think it is particularly convenient when you want to bookmark a site for further reading but you are not at your computer (for example: work, school, public internet, etc.) and also in order to share interesting articles or sites with friends or colleagues.

Well, gotta stop babbling and do something to justify the monthly pay... that is, I gotta work. =p

* my computer was stolen. Burglars broke into my father's office at night and took it among other things. I had taken my computer there a few days before because I was planning to fix some stuff in it. Yeah, it sucks. Life goes on.

The reason behind it all

2005-05-06T16:03:00.000-04:00

All blogs seem to have some kind of "mandatory" first post where one introduces oneself as well as the purpose of said blog.
I was intending to make a funny post, but I think this is the most suitable place to explain what my motivations are.
Let's see: I am a female, I'm in my mid twenties, I don't feel comfortable posting pictures of myself or revealing too much information pertaining my private life because I believe in privacy. That aside, I can tell you:
1) I am a GNU/Linux user. My favorite distro is Debian, although I'm trying to get away with LFS. I've tried other distros as well... the list gets long.
2) I have a college degree that has nothing to do with computers. I've never taken a single computer-related course or class in my entire life.
3) I love art, literature, music, opera, ballet, traveling and interior design. I love computers as well.
4) Standing at an impressive 5'7" and weighting slightly over 100lbs, I sit at the comp and type. I consider myself the "regular" type of female, aka "girl next door".
5) I speak more than 3 languages fluently... and I don't mean programming languages.
6) I can drive, cook, fix a tap and pull my computer entirely apart only to put it back together later.
7) I don't live at my parents' basement. I actually own the apartment I live in.
8) It is not my intention to flirt over the internet. Much less to use a blog for it.
9) I love my family very dearly.
10) I love pets.
11) I hate obnoxious and whiney people. Snotty nerds with an inferiority complex and lots of pedant attitude are more than unwelcome to be anywhere closer than a 100 mile radius from me. Get yourselves a life outside of your computers.
12) My hair is auburn-ish. Hence the profile picture.
13) I love Italian food (it's a heritage thing, I suppose) and French desserts (it's a heritage thing too, I guess), although I've never lived in Italy nor in France.
14) I am far from being rich.
15) I work hard to pay for my own expenses (food, clothes, electricity, phone, internet, etc.). I am a savvy shopper and it is my ultimate goal to save enough money in my life to not have to work after I'm 50. Right now it doesn't seem like I'll achieve my goal.
16) I have friends. I mean real friends. Real people. Not just screen names. And I go out with them, hang out with them and have a standard social life. My friends are not computer-geeks.

That said, the purpose of this journal is to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances who are interested in computers/internet and particularly in free open source projects. My personal journal is off limits to you.
I am not typing from the point of view of an "expert" who addresses fellow "experts". I am typing from the point of view of a regular user (aka Joe User) who addresses fellow regular users (aka fellow Joe Users). I could do the former and attract a lot of losers here with whom I might have some sort of perverse fun, but I choose to do the latter and share the blog with more normal and friendly people who DO have a life; like me.

If you don't like what I type, you always have the choice to NOT read it. I won't stop writing because you don't like my blog. There are millions of blogs out there, just go elsewhere and you might find what you are looking for.

Additionally, take a look at the CC license below. See it? Break it and I'll take legal action. I do need the money.