What have I been up to?

Been hot on the trail of a PocketPC. Picked up the HP iPAQ hx2495 running Windows Mobile 5. The OS is a mixed blessing. It’s the newest but that also means it’s the least supported. Windows Mobile 2003 SE has been around for a while and just about every application out there supports it. WM5 is new and very few apps support it but more are being ported all the time.

Of course, the first thing I looked for was a good IMAP client and I think I’ve settled on WebIS Mail from Web Information Solutions. It’s a little different working with an IMAP client that specifically doesn’t want to stay online but I think I’m getting the hang of it. More later.

Update, Dec 9: OK, maybe WebIS Mail isn’t the right answer. I just can’t get myself used to working offline and, given the state of wireless communication for me, I’m not inclined to learn. I think I’ve found an alternative, though. See the next entry for details.

What have I been up to? Read More »

Thank you!

(This one’s making the rounds and I got such a charge out of it, I want to make sure you all get a chance to see it.)

Thanks – no I really mean it!

Many Thanks to you all: I must add my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on envelopes cause I now have to get a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I want to thank you who have taken the time and trouble to send me your chain letters over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these
products are atheists who refuse to put “Under God” on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a
perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer have any sneakers — but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their cookie recipe.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me somewhere and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish.

Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time).

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program. Yes, I want to thank you so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favor!

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM (EDT)this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump as big as a basketball.

I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician………………Have a wonderful day…………

did I say thank you??

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SONY music CD DRM installs uninstallable software

(This courtesy of Rod Begbie’s Groovy Links.)

Mark Russinovich of SysInternals fame, maintains a weblog where he discusses technical topics and posts generally useful information he finds while investigating the various technical topics he follows. He’s not given to flights of fancy or fallacy, which is why I’m posting this. In this entry he details a search he undertook on one of his own machines when he ran his Rootkit Revealer. It seems there were some hidden processes and device drivers that he didn’t remember ever installing! Turns out that the Digital Rights Management software on one of the music CDs he’d played, using the software that came on the CD, installed all this stuff. It’s a fascinating posting, from a technical detective standpoint as well as a DRM information perspective. Well worth reading, even if you can’t follow the technical details.

The upshot: Be very careful but especially when it comes to DRM.

Update, November 3, 2005: The San Jose Mercury News reports today that Sony has released a patch to address the hidden software. Registration may be required to read the story but I’m sure it will show up elsewhere, too.

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High quality music downloads

MusicGiants is a relatively new music service. Launched September 29, it features music encoded with Microsoft’s Windows Media Lossless format, which, according to Microsoft, ensures that there is no loss in quality over the original. The service costs $50/year and $1.29 per track, although they waive the yearly fee if you give them $250 for downloads. Yes, it requires that you use their client software, something that I find unfortuntate but, still, to get legal high quality tracks without having to worry about an actual CD, it’s probably worth it. Myself, I still prefer to actually have the CD in my hands but I may sign up just for grins.

See this article on BetaNews for a review.

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Google’s web-based RSS reader

It’s here but you’ll need a Google account, which you can easily create, or, if you have a GMail account, you can use that. Matter of fact, you can use any of the accounts that you have already created with Google.

My early opinion? It’s not a Bloglines but it’s an OK start.

Update, October 21: Well, I’ve played with it a bit and I’ll take function over form anyday. Yeah, it’s cute and the way it interacts with the user is neat-o keen but if you’ve got an active site you’re tracking via RSS or more than a couple of subscriptions, I find it too unwieldy. Maybe it’s just me … I haven’t given up yet and will continue to work with it but, for now, Bloglines is still my number one app.

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Finally, an extension for tweaking Firefox

Heretofore, tweaking Firefox has been a matter of reading an article, running about:config and playing with the values there or, if you’re trusting, running FireTune. Finally, someone’s come out with an extension to help you manage your tweaks. While there may already be a number of these out there, FasterFox is the first I’ve seen. Screenshots are here if you wanna see what it looks like before you install it.

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NSLookup for WINS?

Ever need to do the equivalent of an nslookup on a WINS server? No, it’s not the same. As I’ve said before, Windows IT Pro has a lot of good newsletters and the most recent issue of their “Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE” gives a pointer to NBLookup.exe that Microsoft released about a year ago.

What can you do? Pretty much what you would expect but see the Microsoft article link, above, for details.

NSLookup for WINS? Read More »

TabMixPlus – Firefox extension for tabbed browsing

Yeah, I know, there are a LOT of extensions out there that enable/assist with tabbed browsing in Firefox. I’ve just run across Tab Mix Plus and am trying it out. It’s replaced 5 extensions for me and, so far, it doesn’t look like I’ve lost any functionality.

And may even replace SessionSaver .2.

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