Blogs Are So… Yes - Today.
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Paul Boutin today claimed on Wired magazine that blogs are a 2004 relic that have been superceded by the likes of Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook etc:-
This argument was later described as "flamebait", and at least one blogger admitted that they had fallen for it. If indeed it was such, then this would be tantamount to trolling in the blogosphere: An open invitation to the kooks to migrate from the realms of Usenet and various esoteric online forums to infest the alleged "tsunami of paid bilge" with their incessant idiosyncrasies and four-letter-word-laden flame-wars.
Is the blogosphere really destined to become a domain of Kadaitcha-Man-like supertrolls and macho insult-contests run by over-testosteronised individuals attempting to score points off one another by means of character-assassination and flagrant depersonalisation of lesser mortals deemed as "f*ckwits"? Hopefully not: That kind of thing has its rightful place in certain newsgroups on Usenet and the like; but hopefully won’t be spilling over into the adult blogosphere anytime soon. "I’m hoping that Boutin’s post took about the same amount of time as it did to come up with that Twitter message, because it has about as much value. Is everyone going to have a blog? No — and they never were. Facebook and Twitter are probably enough for many people. Not writing at all is enough for many people. But why does it have to be all or nothing? What we have now is the option to micro-blog (i.e., Twitter) some thoughts, post others to Facebook, share things on FriendFeed or through Google Reader, and blog things that take longer to think through. But I guess that’s not as catchy as a “blogs are dead, Twitter killed them” scenario."
It is my sincere hope that blogs will remain a focal point of online self-expression without invasion from kooks and trolls from Usenet or anywhere else. It would be a great shame to see this proud channel of online-individuality fall victim to the cyber-thuggery and neo-macho-egoism of the newsgroup terrorist or die out as a result of the rise of microbloggers. I very much doubt that this is or will ever be a realistic scenario in all honesty. The mere possibility of it ever being the case could be quite unsettling to some people though. Do you think it possible? Is there any danger of an "asswipe-invasion" at any point? Your thoughts please:- |
IzeaFest - Repose
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If you’re a blogger and you missed IzeaFest you did yourself a big disservice. Maybe you couldn’t get to Florida; but it was streamed online - and it was well worth taking the time out to watch. If you did miss it then you missed out on a fantastic social opportunity; online or at the event. But all is not lost; it’s mostly all been recorded - The presentations that is, and you can view them all by clicking here.
What actually happened? Watch the videos and see. Ustream isn’t the most reliable online streaming media at the time of writing; so maybe uninterrupted coverage with high-definition picture quality is not going to happen. There was a significant lag in the live feed at times; with occasional streaming interruptions to both sound and vision - But to share in the live online experience I can put up with that. It was no different with Gnomedex or tc50; both of which were again amazing and informative venues. Now think: Ten years ago it was something like as described above; if your single-core 233MHz processor could handle it. Today the people of the world are talking to one another; sharing pictures, watching one another: The internet and emerging technologies are uniting everyone - And that can be used as a force to promote good and further progress and achievement…So why is it happening, to a large extent, only in America? As I’ve said in a previous article , it’s due to a number of factors: Some of those being apathy, inept societal social structure combined with a lack of motivation, a political system based upon and still working in the method of an ancient class-structured defunct society where freedom only belongs to the wealthy and upper-class - In the UK anyway. It’s because of cultural divides, of linguistic barriers, of racial tensions caused by hanging on to past grievances, and because of religious intolerance, among other things… But hey wake up world - You’re missing the point: There’s no need for any of that now: We’ve come out of the 20th Century now; and the Age of Pisces has ended if you want to look at it astrologically. This is the Age of Aquarius; the 21st Century - Harmony and understanding; sympathy and trust abounding…Mystic crystal revelation and the mind’s true liberation: Technology. Tech-no-lo-gy. No sorry Mr stuck-up English politician with the stiff upper lip; you’re living in a time-warp. There’s no excuse for deluding yourself that you’re an island any longer: Look around you - The whole planet’s an island; a tiny blue-green island in the vast blackness of space: Pull your big head out of your arse hole and wake up. This is make or break: The planet is teetering on a precipice - Lean one way and the entire human race falls into oblivion and extinction within a few hundred years or less. Lean the other way and we become a peaceful happy united people of Planet Earth in the Star System of Sol; a slightly-larger than average star nearing middle-age, located in Sector 1; depending upon which galactic map you use, of the Milky Way galaxy. We have the technology - let’s use it wisely. We have the opportunity - Let’s grab it with both hands. Look to the future with an open, inventive mind and use all our resources to further our purposes in a spirit of unity. The way we’ve been living until recently is so yesterday. Unite or ignite. Trust or combust. Co-operation or self-extermination. The time is now; the choice is today - let’s choose wisely. - That was a very Gnomedex-y kind of message: Gnomedex has ended, true; but the message needs to be remembered. Gnomedex, tc50, IzeaFest - It’s all a different part of the same thing; so let’s not just have it happening in America - It has to spread to the UK: Things always spread from America to the UK. Hopefully it’ll happen sooner rather than later; but not just in America and the UK. IzeaFest - It was more blogger-centric admittedly - But since bloggers seem to be some of the only people with any sense these days we deserve it and we need it. Last century we, the Human Race, came close to destroying civilisation as we know it with our technology. This century let’s hope that we won’t make the same mistakes twice, and that we unite through our technologies; that our ideas and advancement become our language, a language understood universally.
Finally I’ll remind you that you can view recordings from IzeaFest at http://www.Ustream.TV/IzeaFest What do you think about the above points? Please do comment: Staying silent will only help things go downhill at a growing pace; at least it has done so far. Peace. Namaste’. |
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A Geek’s Toolkit Supplement: Loaded USB Drive
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Being a geekette; that is a female computer designer/builder, as well as a blogger, I often get asked by my girlfriends (And some of their boyfriends too - Shh!) to pop over for a cuppa and attend to some problem they’re having with their computer. Most of these problems turn out to be software-related, so it’s always a good idea to come prepared - Although I can download most of what I need from the internet, sometimes their internet connection is not working for whatever reason, and more than one is on dial-up - Which can make downloading a program a 2-hour job in itself. To combat this I have a 1Gb USB flash drive with most of anything I might need on it; plus loads of links to anything useful on the internet itself that might be useful which I haven’t bothered to include because I probably won’t need it. |
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I pop the cord from which the USB stick hangs around my neck, and go to sort out their issues. I mainly have program installers in the form of .exe files on the USB drive: These are always useful. I also am able, in a worst-case scenario, to provide them with a temporary internet connection via my mobile device, for which I also carry a USB bluetooth dongle to plug into their computer on the rare occasions where it is necessary; such as an instance a year plus ago where a friend somehow lost the driver for their network interface device and was unable to communicate with their router as a result: I removed the old driver which was faulty but obviously didn’t have that particular driver on the USB device; so I set up a temporary internet connection via my mobile phone/bluetooth and downloaded a new driver, installed it - Target neutralised. The items I have on my USB drive are listed below: I’m sharing this with you as I’m assuming that as a geek you too get called out to similar situations; but being unable to fix it on the spot you end up taking their computer home, doing the work in your spare time, and returning their computer at a later date; which causes inconvenience to both parties. |
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The files I carry around on my USB device are as follows: 1. AVG Anti-virus.exe installer: You’d be mightily surprised how many people don’t run an anti-virus program! They might find that their computer slows down with use; and, not realising that it is caused by the registry getting cluttered with crap among other things, they start removing programs which they think are unnecessary in order to attempt to get the machine to speed up again, one of those “unnecessary” programs being their anti-virus program. 2.. A free anti-spyware program; such as AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy - For the reason stated above or that they didn’t even know what spyware was etc. The latest AVG antivirus has built-in spyware-protection, but that protection is not exhaustive, so it’s always a good idea to install extra spyware protection supplemental to that. 3. Free FTP clients in .exe installer format, such as WS-FTP-LE and FileZilla: They do occasionally come in handy. 4. Diagnostic programs; such as Core Temp.exe, Diskcheckup.exe… I know; rather than listing them all here I’ll show a picture of all the icons below and to save a lot of my time I’ll let you Google for them all. Obviously the folders are of my own making: Batch Files contains some useful batch files that I wrote or copied, Dragons Websites contains the URLs of the websites of the millionaire entrepreneurs from the BBC series “Dragon’s Den”, Glint(Program) contains the .exe file of the Glint System Monitor program, KK contains pictures which I use regarding Kustom Komputa; Suppliers, Parts, and Circuits contains URLs to suppliers of computer hardware components, plus a few electronic circuits, Web Shortcuts contains hundreds of various useful URLs, Websites contains copies of all my website files from some of my various sites, WP Plugins contains some useful WordPress plugins. Some of the files, such as DSC00* are photos from my mobile phone. aports.zip shouldn’t be on there as it’s a program that contains malware. OEM Exel and OEM INXP are folders containing branding files which I add to the OS to indicate that I am supplier, builder, and maintenance tech for a particular computer. The file “Kustom Komputa” is a copy of some files from my Kustom Komputa website. WP Themes contains WordPress themes. The Folder “Self-Installing Scr” contains a number of screensavers that I created and which automatically install on the computer upon activation of the .exe file thereof. (No malware involved.) The folder Paint.net contains the program Paint.net, and the folder “Sounds” contains some alternative Windows sound effects as spoken by the Daleks from the BBC TV series “Dr Who”. There are also a number of shortcuts which you don’t normally see on any Windows desktop. These shortcuts; such as “Sound Recorder“, “Volume Control“, “Command Prompt“, “Device Manager“, and “Sleep or Hibernate” are described on this site, including the method to create your very own icon(s).
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So that’s pretty much it: Carry this lot plus your own personal files around on a USB flash drive and you won’t go far wrong. HTH (’Hope That Helps.) |
Portable Shortcuts
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At times I’m browsing through folders and remember that I need to make a backup to another internal HDD of a particular file or subfolder, or I discover a file in the wrong folder. Sometimes I snag a picture from somewhere and add it to the My Pictures folder. On my computer I store my main picture library on my D: drive; which is a relatively large drive on a separate disk all to itself. I built my computer myself: As you may have gathered if you’ve spent any length of time browsing my blog; I’m a computer-designer & builder as well as a blogger. This one I built for myself is from a range of a particular baseline design of computer I call INXPense. As an experiment and to use up an old hard-drive I had lying around I used a 40GB Hitachi HDD as the system drive (C:) and I try to keep as much as I can off that drive and store it on the other drive(s). |
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(The reason for this is that should the system drive fail on me (Which has happened to me at least once already with another computer.) I have a recent backup of C: which I keep up-to-date; and therefore it’s a simple matter of removing the old disk drive and installing a new one; restoring the twenty-something gigabyte backup to it, and I’m ready to go again within the hour; avoiding too much downtime. Previously on the other computer mentioned above I had a 320GB HDD split into 2 partitions of around 160GB each. The operating system stored all pictures by default to the My Pictures folder…etc. In a short time I had filled up over half of the system drive C: with mainly files that had little or nothing to do with the o/s and I’d backed up everything to an external hard drive - Hence when the internal HDD took a dive I had a backup of all the contents of both drives: So installed a new internal HDD (15 mins.), restored the contents of the C: drive backup onto it, (> 1 hour) then had to partition it ( 1 hour) and install the contents of the D: drive backup onto the newly-formed drive D: (> 1 hour). Altogether the machine was down for about 1/2 day which pissed me off no end. If it happens again I won’t have that problem. (I could have used RAID 1 instead; but that requires a second identical hard-disk and I just didn’t have the room in the case nor the SATA ports on the motherboard - and those PCIe RAID controller cards come in at nearly £20 ($35-39USD) cost each - Even the PCI RAID cards are almost £15 ($26-29USD) - And although I had all necessary components in stock I didn’t want to utilise resources unnecessarily.) |
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This is becoming a little long-whinded admittedly; but I’m getting there: - So you’ll appreciate that I don’t want everything I input accumulating on the relatively small C: drive or it’ll fill up fast. Every now and then I transfer a small accumulation of files, such as pictures, from where the operating system puts them by default - In this case the My Pictures folder, to the Pictures library on the D: drive. The immediately obvious way to do this would be to open the My Pictures folder, highlight an icon, click Edit>Select All, then cut everything, open the D: folder, browse to the Pictures folder which is in a folder called “Media” on D:, and paste. What a load of hassle! There’s a much easier way - I call it a “portable shortcut”: |
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Enabling hidden-folder viewing reveals a system-folder called “Send To” in %windir%Documents and SettingsUsername. (Where %windir% is the root-directory of your system drive; usually C: ) Right click on this folder and create a shortcut to it on your desktop. (You might not believe it but that was a major part of the operation.) Here comes the boring bit: Create further desktop shortcuts to folders and drives that you use a lot; for example a shortcut to D: drive, if like me you happen to have another hard disk or partition of a hard-disk at that location. On that drive you may have, for example, a folder called “Recipes” and another called “Dress Patterns“. (Or even “Motors” and “Porn“.): Create desktop shortcuts to whichever folders you feel like doing so; especially those that you use a lot and transfer files into and out of a lot. Be thorough. I appreciate it’s very boring after a while; but the more decent shortcuts the better. So that you don’t overlook a shortcut that you create I suggest that you create a new folder and label it something like “New Shortcuts“. Put all your newly-created shortcuts in that folder as you create them. When you’ve finished creating and rounding up all the shortcuts you like, it’s time to edit them - yes all of them individually. (I know this is getting very boring; but it’ll be time well spent in the end.) What you want to do is shave off “Shortcut to” from the shortcuts name; thus “Shortcut to D:” becomes simply “D:” and so forth. DO keep the shaved shortcuts in your “New Shortcuts” folder; otherwise if you let them spill onto the desktop you could think that they’re direct-path icons which might lead to some confusion: If you like you could even create a folder within New Shortcuts called “Shaved Shortcuts“; just so that you know where everything is: It’s better to be meticulous and safe than slightly careless and sorry. Once you’ve done that; copy the contents of your Shaved Shortcuts folder by highlighting a single shaved shortcut, click Edit in the toolbar at the top, and click Select All, right-click a highlighted shaved shortcut and select Copy. Now mouse-over the Shortcut to Send To icon on the desktop, right-click it, and select Paste. You’re all but finished: If you don’t want to keep the New Shortcuts folder and anything inside it on the Desktop, then it seems a shame to delete it after all that work - So mouse-over it and right- click. Select Send to… - Where do you want to send it to? All those shortcuts you just created are now made available as portable shortcut (LOOK!) places that you can send that, and indeed any other shortcut or file, to in the same manner. Sending the file to anywhere will not delete it from its original location though; so after you’ve sent it wherever you choose, you can then erase it from the Desktop if you like; safe in the knowledge that your hard work is in the folder that you sent it to. |
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Test it out again if you like: Create a new text file on the Desktop and call it “Test“. Mouse-over it, right-click and send it somewhere using your enhanced Send To… menu: Now go where you’ve sent it to and you’ll find it. So in future anything that you download; you can use the Desktop as the default download location rather than fiddling about specifying the file to download it to, if you like: As soon as you’ve downloaded your file(s) to the Desktop and checked it (them); just mouse-over, right-click, send it (them) to its (their) final destination(s); then delete it (them) from the Desktop. - This can and does save a lot of time - Especially if you’re transferring files from one folder to another:- Imagine that you have a file in the folder C:My DocumentsFashionTops that you want to transfer to D:PicturesCatwalkModelsTops: If you have a portable shortcut in the Send To folder to Tops that is the destination folder then all you need do is browse to the source folder C:My DocumentsFashionTops and send the file straight to Tops on the D: drive without all the faffing about. |
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There are many useful enhancements you can make to your Windows XP operating system and this is just one of them. There are others mentioned on this blog-site; as well as at http://www.pcmech.com. Here they’re all free so far at the time of writing; at pcmech.com there is so much content that there has to be a charge for some of it; but what you get for a small fee is well worth it in my honest opinion. Yes I’m a member, and no I’m not currently getting paid for advertising it: This is just a complimentary favour at this point in time. This site, kkomp.com, is currently at time of writing totally funded by advertising: I don’t currently charge anything for anything: Nil, nada, sweet FA. If you’d be so good as to look at some of the adverts, click a few, even buy something you might like, or give it as a present to someone even, then it will help to fund this site. |
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The iPress File
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I heard about it first from David Risley http://www.davidrisley.com/ and now I’m reading about it: The WordPress App for the iPhone. What does it do? It allows you to post to a WordPress blog; providing your iPhone doesn’t disintegrate while you’re doing it that is. http://kkomp.com/archives/664
According to what I hear; setup is simple, using it is simple, and creating and editing text is - would you believe -simple: Unlike the crack in your iPhone which has now evolved into a complex latticework and is threatening the rigidity of your casing. If you have a black iPhone then out of sight is out of mind; so carry on regardless - Until you pick up your iPhone one day to find that it crumbles into dust in front of your very eyes.
The App functions very much as does WordPress on your desktop machine: It allows you to view and edit previous posts, preview and edit current posts, and save them in a number of states, including New York, Idaho, Texas, Delaware, and Illinois. Draft, Published, Private, and Pending. You are also facilitated to set a date for publication in addition to password-protecting posts.
WordPress for the iPhone is a powerful and stable App, unlike the casing, for mobile blogging. For people with large digits; you can always edit it later on when you get onto a computer with a decent usable keyboard. The good thing about it is that it’s super-high value and free - Which the iPhone unfortunately isn’t and isn’t.
If you’re a blogger who went out and bought an iPhone then it’s well worth getting this App, as it’s guaranteed to outlast the equipment it’s stored on.
Quite obviously it must have passed its sell-by date and the outer covering of the food item is starting to decompose.
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Blogger for Hackers
OMG I'm creasing up: I just can't believe I spelled "amateur" a m e t u r e - LMFAO!
- The Wild West in Cyberspace?
“Blogger accounts for around 2% of malware.” Says Sophos’s senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley. “It’s head and shoulders above the rest.”
This may be partly due to Google’s ownership of blogger; therefore ensuring spidering of content straight into one of the leading search-engines: Hackers have no problem getting their malware out; and any changes made in blogger; for instance insertion of new malware, soon appears on Google’s search.
Sophos appears to be under the impression that Google are actively weeding out hackers, spammers, and the like. My experience of Google’s policy as regards these issues is that they simply ignore the problem; however I may be wrong.
- “There be bugs in that there Google.”
Certainly the problem of web-based malware is growing rapidly - With Sophos seeing 16,000 malicious web pages added every day ( Twelve per minute.), and that may well not be all of the total picture.
Says Sophos’s Senior Technology Consultant, Graham Cluley:
“You could post a link into someone’s blog and even if you checked that link at the time, it may be totally harmless. In 20 minutes time the hacker says ‘OK, Google’s now checked me, now I’ll update the page’. So you have to continually scan all of the links on all of the blog pages to do this properly. Which basically is another whole new Google, re-spidering the web to check if there’s something malicious there.”
And Google itself says
“Google takes the security of our users very seriously, and we work hard to protect them from malware.”
“Using Blogger, or any Google product, to serve or host malware is a violation of our product policies. We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware from our network.”
Danger Lurks on the Web
Yeah right: Spidering the googleweb for malware is just not a viable proposition for Google; so unless a hacker emails Google and tells them in advance that malware has been planted at x location, then there’s no way to stop it affecting at least one computer before it’s removed. If it infects that computer and spreads across the web then it’s like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted: The hacker has won regardless of any and all subsequent actions taken by Google and/or anyone else.
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