Tag Archives: computers

That Whole Windows 10 Thing All the Kids Are Talking About

Technology, , , , , ,

So, after about 10,000 notices from Microsoft telling me that my need to upgrade to Windows 10 is necessary to keep the planet from exploding, knowing that the infamous Jor-El might have doomed Krypton by not upgrading to Windows 10 himself, I decided to finally do it on my laptop. I’m not excited about it. And I’m not really anxious to use the new Windows 10, especially considering how every time I hear about Windows 10, it’s because either Microsoft has decided to go all NSA on its customers (recording and using all of their personal information, plus recording everything you do) or for some reason Microsoft decided to only support some drivers (basically whatever drivers that aren’t ones you need to run critical components that use the power of your computer). But I was getting tired of Microsoft “automatically” scheduling yet ANOTHER attempt to install Windows 10 on my computer. So I said fine. Let’s get this over with.

An aside: The last time I said “fine” over this matter, my laptop was incapable of downloading the new install, so the whole process failed. Not a good sign. This time, however, was much better as it didn’t even get to downloading the install file because it was incapable of getting past the “downloading updates” to reach the install phase of Microsoft Failure 2.0.

So, working my way around it, it is now downloading the upgrade (even though the install has downloaded the new operating system about 70 times while it was threatening to just install it without my permission. I guess when I give it permission, it then has to go through and download it again. Again, not a lot of confidence building on Microsoft’s part.

So, I’m now at 68 percent completion of just downloading the install. So, if my operating system gets replaced with Linux by some bizarre coincidence during this install, then I won’t be extremely surprised. A bit amused, maybe, but not all that surprised.

If Windows 10 installs, I look forward to wading through all of the advertisements that Microsoft thinks should now be a natural part of my operating system. I assume it will also delete my windows media player and offer to install a new one for about fifty bucks as well. I so wish to return to the days when you actually had to type C:\ and then “windows” or “win” in order to run Microsoft Windows, meaning it was your choice, not a default setting on your computer. I so miss those days.

Stupid Passwords

Social Networking, Technology, Writing, , , , , ,

Years ago, when I was first learning a programming language (BASIC for back when it was practically the only language you could learn on the first personal computer, the TRS 80), I created a program and established a password system, because I thought this would be the wave of the future, where everyone would need passwords to get into programs. Turns out I was right, even though that doesn’t mean I was really all that forward-thinking, as it did seem kind of obvious at the time. Well, my first program I designed was a computer game called U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command, and part of the beginning of the game required you to enter a password (yes, really exciting gaming I was making back then). I chose something I figured no one else would ever guess.

Well, another one of the kids learning computer programming with me tried out my program, spent a few seconds thinking about me, looked at the blinking interface asking for a password and then typed OMEGA. He guessed my password on the first try. Yeah, I felt really stupid, and to this day I still haven’t figured out how he did it, other than the possibility he was actually watching me when I coded it in back when I wasn’t really paying attention to who was stranding behind me while I was typing.

The point is: It was a stupid password.

Fast-forward to today, and Mashable has printed an article telling us just that: People still use stupid passwords. Their list (from Mashable) of the top overused passwords is:

  • 1. password
  • 2. 123456
  • 3.12345678
  • 4. qwerty
  • 5. abc123
  • 6. monkey
  • 7. 1234567
  • 8. letmein
  • 9. trustno1
  • 10. dragon
  • 11. baseball
  • 12. 111111
  • 13. iloveyou
  • 14. master
  • 15. sunshine
  • 16. ashley
  • 17. bailey
  • 18. passw0rd
  • 19. shadow
  • 20. 123123
  • 21. 654321
  • 22. superman
  • 23. qazwsx
  • 24. michael
  • 25. football

Yep, believe it or not, people are still using PASSWORD as the number one stupid password. The others are equally obvious, which basically make the point for us that people generally use things they can remember to be their passwords, which means that quite often the average user, being a nimrod, is going to use something that is going to be massively easy to crack.

For years, my own password process has really evolved, then devolved and then re-evolved after one of my overused passwords got broken into, and my email sent to everyone as spam mail. It’s amazing what people choose for their reasoning behind passwords, which is why for the longest time I was using the name of a password used in a movie about computers a long time ago. I even named one of my stuffed animals after that password, and for years, I kept using that, or variations of that name, as a password. Stupid idea, and let’s just say that my eventual evolution didn’t come soon enough.

Some of the other names on that list are ridiculous, and I’m embarrassed that people would actually make such mistakes. “123456”? Really? Or “abc123”? I can see “Superman” just for the nostalgia factor alone, but “qwerty” and “654321”?

Okay, part of me also has to look at this from another angle. Sometimes, I think companies we do business with create password situations for us that really don’t make any sense. I’m a lot more careful about my email and my banking information than I am with my Netflix queue or a password I’m required to make up for a job search service I’m only ever going to use once in my entire lifetime. The other day, I was required to fill in additional information AFTER my password that was completely irrelevant to me, meaning that if I ever had to challenge my information (to get my password back), I’m never going to remember the answers to those other questions they wanted me to come up with. I’m talking about stuff like “What is your wife/significant other’s favorite color?” As I don’t have a wife or a significant other, I’m mainly making shit up there when I have to come up with an answer. In one the other day, it gave me six different questions to choose from, and to be honest, anyone who had to answer one of those questions has a much different kind of life than I do because I don’t have a favorite sports team, a significant other (which was the subject of three of the six choices I could use), a maiden name, or even the middle name of my best friend (haven’t had a best friend in quite a few years now). What would make those kinds of challenge questions better is to let me make up my own question and then present my own answer. Otherwise, chances are pretty good that I’m going to be clueless whenever it comes to trying to figure out a one-time password that I am not going to remember, and no, I don’t write them down somewhere because that’s the one thing you SHOULDN’T do with passwords.

I think I’ve said about enough on that subject. Please enter your password, writing it in iambic pentameter, to continue to my next irrelevant point.

My Ipad Makes All Other Devices Obsolete

Business, Technology, , , ,

I’ve had my Ipad 2 for a few weeks now, and let’s just say that every other device I bought before it has turned out to be useless in comparison. For the longest time, I was convinced that I would find no use for an Ipad, figuring that it was one of those devices that doesn’t really do anything I need. Boy, was I wrong. Let me explain the features that have made this device my daily technology “thing”.

1. Email. I can check both my regular email and my work email on the same device. In addition to this, it also updates my calendar with my work calendar, so that I am always able to check my schedule and not have to rely on my office computer to do so. That’s really nice.

2. News. I used to use a Kindle to read the Washington Post. Now, I read the Washington Post on the Ipad. It also means not having to lug around the Kindle every day. Even my Kindle books can be read on the Ipad, using the Kindle app (at least for now until Apple decides it no longer likes Amazon).

3. Web surfing. Yeah, that rocks on the Ipad. It rocks on my computer, too, but when you can do it all on one device, it’s great.

4. Movies/TV/Music. All of it is on my Ipad. I can watch or listen to anything I want. Some movies I couldn’t watch on the Ipad because they weren’t in Itunes. Well, I bought a program that converts them. We’re fine with that now, too.

5. Comic Books. I can actually read DC and Marvel comics on the Ipad using their subsequent apps. The price of the comics is a bit expensive, but it’s possible to do so, and one day I might just start buying them that way. Not sure yet, though.

6. Pages/Numbers and Powerpoint-like software. I’ll be able to put all of my school-teaching powerpoint slides onto the Ipad and bring it into school to do my lessons. It may takes some configuring, but I suspect it will make life much easier than trying to maintain other devices and flash drives and all that crap.

7. Apps Galore. There are many games, productivity software and so much more that are available for the Ipad. I found a drawing program that I’m starting to use to draw my Stickman comics. It’s making it so that I can do a lot of things I couldn’t do before, without having to be tied down to a computer.

Negatives:

1. It’s not my main computer. It’s not as powerful as my main computer. It’s not in a Windows environment, and yes, I hate all things Mac. I’m not one of the fanboys of Apple at all, so this part of the equation does not make me happy.

2. Can’t play WoW on it. Even though World of Warcraft is designed to practically play on an Etch-A-Sketch with such low requirements the game has, it still can’t be played on an Ipad. Nor do I think it ever will be. This means that I have to still use my main computer to play the game. Which is fine because even if the Ipad could play it, I doubt I’d get the processing power my PC gets when playing the game.

3. Apple makes the thing. Yes, that’s a negative. Apple still has its walled garden, and I fear that it’s going to end up blocking off something I like to do because Apple tends to be moronic when it comes to things like that. They’re having a fight right now with Amazon, which means I may lose my Kindle ability on the Ipad eventually. It has problems with Google, which may mean loss of access to that environment. Apple has that “can’t play well with others” problem, and because of that I’m always fearing that my device is going to be as useless as my Motorola Xoom. What a mistaken purchase THAT was.

Hackers are destroying the future of the Internet for all of us

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Hackers are a strange breed. To begin with, there’s really no one central reason why they do what they do. Some are altruistic, some are assholes, and some are just nuts. Others, well, who knows why they do what they do, other than the thought of trying to do something that others think can’t be done.

Recently, a group of hackers, the Lulz crowd, have decided to hack for the sake of hacking. I don’t know what their rationale is, although there is a sense that they have some kind of foundation behind what they do, as they vowed to protect Sega because of its business practices, while going after pretty much everything else. However, for the common person who is just using the Internet for the simple purpose of exploring all there is to offer, hackers are making the Internet a less attractive place than it was only weeks before.

Recently, they went through antics of hacking some database and then posting the passwords of people all over the Internet. What purpose does this serve, other than to show that passwords can be broken, and that people generally don’t choose the greatest passwords. Well, to be honest, most people don’t seem to be password protecting stuff that is critical or crucial. They’re password protecting a message board that forced them to create a password, and to be honest, when you have to keep making passwords for everything you access, you tend to get lazy and choose very simple to remember things. That’s where “Omega” becomes an option for a password instead of H78j738gckzh9peK>L;c. Yeah, that last one might be a lot harder to crack, but let’s be honest here. Most of the hacking that has been done has been because a database was broken into (one that most people don’t have the password to anyway), so that their passwords, which could be the greatest password EVER created, are automatically given to the hacker. So, it doesn’t matter how well you come up with a great password. If the infrastructure that you use the password on is stupid, so then is your password.

What has been happening is that these people are using their skills as cracking codes and making life miserable for common people, just for the sake of showing it could be done. I’ll let you in on a not very well kept secret. I’m an expert at killing people. Got trained by the Army and everything. But that doesn’t mean that I spent my free time hunting down people and killing them in order to show others how easy it is for me to do. There is some point where the common sense in people should show through, and with hackers the lack of restraint has made that almost impossible.

To make it worse, hackers are now to the point where any thought used against them automatically results in a group of hackers targeting someone who has nothing to do with them. Some years back, I was an opinion editor of a newspaper. When we ran an opinion column that made a couple of stupid arguments against moped riders, a group of glorified moped riders started point of service attacks on the newspaper and then on my own personal account. Rather than engage in conversation with other people, they took it upon themselves to attack people who disagreed with them. It actually took a member of their group to call for sanity before the attacks stopped.

This is the mentality of the hackers today. And they’re making it so that people don’t trust the networks with whom they do business. Right now, I have no desire to turn on my Playstation 3 and deal with Sony, mainly because I can’t trust Sony to stop hackers from stealing my personal information. I don’t blame Sony, but at the same time, I find it foolish to trust their network. This is an easy way to create a chilling effect on entire industries, as I also don’t trust a lot of other technology companies with whom I might have also wanted to do business, because this anarchic approach to business has made it so that I just don’t want to waste my time having to deal with the ramifications of stupid, evil people.

I find hackers to be one step below the screamer in a press conference who wants to shout down everyone who disagrees with him. The reason I put it one step below is that at least the screamer has a reason he’s doing what he’s doing, that’s not as simple as yelling just to stop people from being heard. A hacker, in this context, is a screamer who yells for no reason, wanting ONLY to make sure that no one can be heard and then demanding credit for being the one who yelled the loudest.

Unfortunately, businesses have almost no way to counter this type of behavior, which means that fewer and fewer of them are going to risk the chance of being destroyed by some malicious individual who only wants to create destruction in his path. They’re a lot like spammers who sent out millions of emails for the sole purpose of trying to scam one individual out of hard-earned savings.

For awhile, I was on the fence about hackers, especially when they worked to undermine oppressive regimes like Iran and China. But when they then turned their talents on the average person for no reason other than to see if they could do it, I stopped being a potential fan. I’ve seen too many good people who have been seriously hurt by people who thought it would be fun to disrupt the status quo.

You see a lot of this in online gaming communities these days. Some games have been completely obliterated by this attitudinal attack. They’ve even started to go after some of the biggies, like Eve Online. Why? Because they can. No other reason than that. Someone tried to make an obscure connection of a link to Sony, but even that was really weak. It looked like they attacked Eve Online just because it was there. And that’s pretty sad.

Unfortunately, I believe the problem is going to get a lot worse before it gets–no, actually, I don’t believe it’s going to get any better. As long as they remain anonymous, they can take the cowardly route of attacking people behind masks. And that’s been the problem with the Internet since the beginning. What was its one fundamental strong point, its anonymity, has also been its weakest as well. From Internet chatroom fights with flame wars started by anonymous big mouths to where we are today, as long as this element continues to dominate the field, it might bring about the demise of the usefulness of the Internet itself.

And that would be truly sad.

Exploring the Ipad 2 & the desire to own every new piece of technology

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I finally broke down and bought an Ipad 2. I had bought a Motorola Xoom some months ago, and I had been very disappointed in that product, mainly because it has turned into a glorified doorstop. I’m often the victim of techno hype, in that too many reviewers acted like it was the great alternative to the ipad, but then when I finally got it, I discovered it wasn’t ready, nor was it really as compatible as it should have been with the things that I wanted to use. I could never get any of my music to be recognized by its music reader (people told me to download a different music player than the one installed), the books really sucked, as google books was never the solution to the e-reader issue (people told me to download another book reader), the movie player didn’t play ANYTHING (people told me to find another video player, which I did, and I never did succeed at getting a decent enough one that really worked on the Xoom). Basically, everything I did on the Xoom was subpar and not up to speed. Great doorstop. Or great e-mail reader, if you have wi fi only.

So, I went to the Apple store and they finally had iPads in. I bought the AT&T 3G version, which so far is great, although I suspect the 3G aspect of it is massively overpriced no matter what model you buy. That’s one thing NONE of the cellular companies have figured out in the United States. It’s like we’re in the Middle Ages here, and no one will do anything to make it better.

But my problem is really that I tend to buy whatever new technology thing comes out as soon as it does, and I sometimes pay the consequence for doing so. I bought a Nook Color when they came out, and I was severely underwhelmed by it. They’ve made great innovations with their current ones, but because I bought the first rendition of the Nook Color, I’m left with yet another very expensive doorstop that people tell me is so much better in a later edition. One of my other failings is that when I’ve been screwed once, I don’t give the company a second chance. So I won’t be buying a new Nook. Sorry. Once bitten and all that.

But so far, I love the ipad. I haven’t gone all crazy with it yet, but I’m slowly moving towards getting rid of my Washington Post subscription on the Kindle and choosing alternatives on the iPad. It’s so mucy nicer carrying that thing around (it’s a lot lighter and easier to carry than the Kindle). So far, I haven’t turned on my Kindle once since buying the Ipad. The only thing is: I have no intentions of buying books on the Ipad because their selection is horrid, and their prices, like most Apple offerings, are atrociously way too high. The only advantage I’ve seen so far with the Kindle offering of the Washington Post is that you download the whole thing at once and then don’t have to have a connection to read it. With the iPad, every time I read something, it seems to want to have a connection to the server in order to turn the page. Tried reading the Washington Post on it, and again was seriously underwhelmed. I’ve also noticed that with the Kindle I would read an entire article because you scrolled through them one by one. With the iPad, I scan articles and read very little, kind of like the old way I used to read a newspaper, and that’s definitely not something I like, and it’s a hard habit to break when met with the opportunity.

I’ll let you know further how I do with the Ipad. I’m trying to use the wifi more often than the cellular connection because after the third day, I checked my usage, and man, I was not impressed with how quickly I am using up my monthly amount. Again, while this is more a complaint against AT&T and Verizon, that’s something they need to fix, or they’re going to price themselves out of the cellular market. I think they believe they’ll continue to win because they’re the only game on the block, but what’s going to happen is that someone is going to invent something that circumvents the need for them, and people will jump ship really freaking fast, eliminating them overnight. It’s what normally happens with business and economics; they just don’t seem to believe it’s right around the corner, a lot like Comcast doesn’t realize it’s on its death bed because of how shitty it treated its customers over the years.

Anyway, haven’t posted much lately, mainly because I’ve had very little to say. My writing career has somewhat sucked, and as that was pretty much all I had in my corner, I find myself not very happy these days.

Is There a Cure for Spam?

Economics, Politics, Social Networking, , , , ,

Years ago, when the World Wide Web was still a few years away, one of the hottest communication tools available was a thing called Usenet. Sadly, some people may not know much about it, know it only from its current, sorry state, or had experienced it and fondly think of all of the potential that was destroyed. It was the forerunner of message boards, in that everyone connected to the Internet was able to go to a non-graphical environment and communicate messages with each other on various topics. There were different boards set up that ranged from soc.tennis (social networking about tennis) to alt.sex.bondage (alternative sex about bondage). Yeah, at one point there was a message board for practically everything out there. And it was showing us that the future of the Internet was going to be place where everyone could discuss things, and the alienation of one’s own desires and habits was no longer going to be a problem in the future.

This worked for several years, and it was a lot of fun talking, arguing, flaming and networking with so many people across the planet that you would never get a chance to meet any other way. The global community was finally upon us.

And then something ugly happened. People trying to sell things, mainly scams, realized that this was a far better (and cheaper) process than sending out letters to people at 23 cents a pop (the price of a letter back then, or at least somewhere back then in the past). Quickly, they started sending out hundreds, and then thousands, of messages to these message boards on Usenet to the point of where people could no longer read the actual messages because there was nothing but spam. The more popular boards were destroyed almost overnight. No one could write there anymore because it was nothing but spam.

So people started moving to moderated boards. But they found ways to start spamming those as well.

This was during the time that the Internet was making its transition from word text to a World Wide Web, and unfortunately we didn’t do anything about the spammers during this period, so they moved along with us. Realizing they could do the same thing with email, they practically have destroyed the very concept of email today, much like they did with Usenet.

Spam is starting to destroy the next frontier of the net as well. I have a blog on my own web site that I maintain. Every day, it receives hundreds of spam comments on every post that I write. I have to catch every message that comes through by a spam filter that makes it really hard for me to even try to read through messages for approving. I do it, and it takes time, but the spammers don’t care that they’re sending fake message in hopes of getting me to advertise their crap for free through my posts and messages. Oh, they think they’re intelligent by writing little comments like: “I really loved your post about a generic topic that I care a lot about, but perhaps your readers should check out my pictures of girls with tits for more information” and they’ll include a link to, yes, pictures of girls with tits (which will most likely lead anyone stupid enough to go there to a site that is designed to try to take over your computer).

Recently, I started posting a lot of my writing on several different mainstream sites that allow you to maintain blogs. A good example is Open Salon (where I’ll probably be posting this as well). Unfortunately, you can’t post a story or article on the site without being innundated with spammers trying to sell crap. The moderators try to do something about it, but they’re overwhelmed, much like the Usenet people were, so the spammers are probably going to win. Eventually, the site will either do something seriously draconian to cut down on spam, or the site will become overwhelmed and people will stop visiting there, causing Open Salon to eventually just close up shop cause it won’t be worth the effort for the eventual non-payoff.

So, what can we do? It doesn’t seem that there’s any way to stem this tide of shit that comes from some really sinister people who don’t care that they’re doing everything to destroy the potential marketplace of ideas by turning it into the marketplace of crap. What’s even of more concern to me is that I don’t think anyone even has the problem in their cross hairs, thinking that eventually the problem will go away, or something better will come along that makes it no longer a problem.

That’s the problem. That’s what we did in Usenet. Those of us trying to fight it were ignored, and then everyone eventually just left, thinking that it wasn’t worth their time. Instead of fighting back, they cave in and lose the very foundation of what brought them there in the first place.

Is that what’s going to continue to happen? Are we going to lose every great thing on the net because some really stupid thinking people feel it is their right to destroy whatever comes along? Why isn’t this a much bigger issue for people? It affects so many people, yet no one seems to give it any real attention. And those that do are completely ignored.

What more must we give up before people finally say enough is enough?

The Laptop finally died….

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I’ve had an HP laptop for many years now. It’s been a great machine, and for some reason it always managed to stay current with the latest machines. This evening, I was starting it up, thinking of bringing it somewhere to write, and the screen just fizzled out. It’s still giving off a light, but the actual computer image is no longer there. Everything’s running fine, so basically the screen just no longer works. And I don’t feel like fixing it.

I’ve been thinking of getting something to replace it for awhile. I can’t really afford anything right now, but unfortunately the laptop is officially dead to me. Really not sure what to do next.

Apple and Adobe fighting is a lot like when Mommy and Daddy were fighting cause Daddy Slept with the Waitress and Lied about it after

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Okay, maybe not the same. At least I don’t see Apple or Adobe having to sleep on the couch or sneak into your room to ask “Is Mommy Still Mad?”.

It’s been really bizarre lately to listen to the fight between Apple and Adobe about whether or not Flash has broken up the family. Mommy and Daddy, stop fighting, Flash will be good and stop getting into trouble at school if you just stop fighting!

Okay, again, that doesn’t seem to work, but let’s put some history into perspective here because both Apple and Adobe seem to have forgotten how the relationship used to work. You see, I used to work as a computer technician years ago for a university, and I remember when Adobe was the big boy in the computer software bin. Adobe Photoshop was the big kid on the block, and I distinctly remember an Adobe sales rep talking to us about Adobe when me, a PC technician, asked, “why are you still making software for Apple?” Back then, I really didn’t see a future for Apple, and honestly, neither did 99 percent of the rest of the planet. But the rep told me that Adobe continued to make its software for both platforms because Apple still did make good computers, and as long as they continued to make quality software for Apple, they were still going to be around to make those good computers. She told me that it was important for Adobe to continue to support both platforms because both platforms were important for different aspects of the creative community.

Flash-forward a decade, and I was shocked to hear Steve Jobs actually trash talking Adobe, which made me wonder if he even remembered how hard certain companies were working to keep Apple as a viable manufacturer of computer equipment. Back then, I don’t think Adobe would have suffered all that much if it dropped Apple as its main platform for its software, but they never did, and they continued to work with Apple to keep making software that helped Apple become the main type of machine for creating design applications. Somehow, something happened that has really put a real wedge into the middle of what used to be a really cohesive agreement.

All I can think is that Apple has completely forgotten how important Adobe is to its software line, especially with its personal computers. If they’re planning to focus on only iPads, iPods and iPhones, then it makes complete sense, but if they’re still planning to make quality computers, why are they doing everything possible to derail their own future? If other manufacturers of multi-platform software see Apple’s encounters with Adobe as a forerunner of their own future encounters with Apple and Macintosh, then Apple is doing everything possible to destroy its own future as a computer manufacturer.

Look, sometimes Mommy and Daddy get back together for the good of the kid, so perhaps Apple needs to start thinking ahead rather than picking fights with former partners. Of course, sometimes Mommy leaves Daddy so Daddy can hook up with Angelina Jolie after she breaks up with her crazy ex-husband, even though everyone said Daddy was nuts for dumping a hottie like Jennifer Aniston, so if that’s the case, we understand. But someone please think about the children….