Computing

Deja Vu

February 25, 2004

In a recent case of deja vu, Slashdot today points to a Microsoft application for a patent on a Virtual desktop manager. It is quite simply amazing. It is also identical in so far as I can tell to the various X-Windows based systems I was using nearly a decade ago. Some have suggested that the use of a key to access the screens may be novel, if so what does that mean for Expose? I have a hard time buying the argument that using a key to access a desktop would be a non-obvious invention.

Some good news for the Midwest

February 25, 2004

For those (like me) who are stuck paying for a phone line that has never bene used just to get DSL, Reuters is reporting today that Quest plans to announce DSL without voice today. The move will make DSL more competitive with cable modems which users can already get without subscribing to cable service.

How safe is your phone book

February 25, 2004

Cnet has an article about bluesnarfing. Several cell phones, especially Nokia hand sets are susceptible to an attack via a bluetooth hole. The hole makes certain handsets open to allowing someone to get in, copy the address book and phone numbers and leave no evidence of the attack behind.

According to the article Nokia is taking a head-in-sand approach to the problem. They are not planning to release an upgrade because of the "limited" number of handsets impacted. Instead they suggest that people turn off bluetooth all together when in public places or put the phone in invisible mode (though this does not prevent bluesnarfing).

Dave Winer's new cell phone

February 24, 2004

Dave's looking for a new cell phone. He says he hears "Verizon is great." I'd say Verizon is by far the best carrier in the US. However they are several rungs short of great. I'd recommend them because there is no better option. I'd switch in about 1.0002 seconds if there was a comparable option. About.com has a good list of some of the high-end phones. Not much there from Verizon though.

Atom vs. RSS

February 22, 2004

Jeff Beard has some comments on the ongoing debate over RSS vs. Atom as means for providing/consuming syndicated news feeds on the web. He hits the nail on the head with this comment: "Many bloggers, while ahead of the curve, are not going to understand what a namespace is. Put it in terms and context of how it will affect them where they live, and get this out into the mainstream media channels."

This is a problem not only with the RSS vs. Atom debate, but with so much of technology. Technologists LOVE to come up with solutions.

It's been a busy week

February 20, 2004

I've been out of the loop a bit this week. It's been a busy week for the folks over at The PHP group. Following on last week's release of 5.0 Beta 4 this week they released PHP 4.3.5RC3.

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