The Torrent of Evil

There is a lot of bad press about bit torrents. Much of it is perfectly legitimate (the bad press that is).  Not sure what the percentage it, but if I had to guess, I’d say 99.5% of all torrents are breaching copyright. However, the concept of bit torrents is not illegitimate, or illegal, irrespective of the majority of how it is used.  Like a car – cars don’t speed, but can be used to do so.

A very useful method of transferring data between peers, but used so often to share copyrighted info, it has gotten a bad name.

New Apple Laptops

Apple have released their new laptops, with a new MacBook, and Macbook Pro (with various optional configs as per normal).

New Apple MacBook

Not sure when they will be available here – around Xmas based on previous experiences.

Hmm – Current Averages

Wow – this is a popular site!  Looks like I’m averaging a massive 8 people per day This is compared to my other site (Stu’s Shed) which is currently averaging 800 / day.  Guess we all would rather be woodworking

Just how much data?

The following table has been sourced from http://www.erikoest.dk/dp.htm

Following on from my marketing scam article.

• Bytes(8 bits)
  • 0.1 bytes: A binary decision
  • 1 byte: A single character
  • 10 bytes: A single word
  • 100 bytes: A telegram OR A punched card
• Kilobyte (1000 bytes)
  • 1 Kilobyte: A very short story
  • 2 Kilobytes: A Typewritten page
  • 10 Kilobytes: An encyclopaedic page OR A deck of punched cards
  • 50 Kilobytes: A compressed document image page
  • 100 Kilobytes: A low-resolution photograph
  • 200 Kilobytes: A box of punched cards
  • 500 Kilobytes: A very heavy box of punched cards
• Megabyte (1 000 000 bytes)
  • 1 Megabyte: A small novel OR A 3.5 inch floppy disk
  • 2 Megabytes: A high resolution photograph
  • 5 Megabytes: The complete works of Shakespeare OR 30 seconds of TV-quality video
  • 10 Megabytes: A minute of high-fidelity sound OR A digital chest X-ray
  • 20 Megabytes: A box of floppy disks
  • 50 Megabytes: A digital mammogram
  • 100 Megabytes: 1 meter of shelved books OR A two-volume encyclopaedic book
  • 200 Megabytes: A reel of 9-track tape OR An IBM 3480 cartridge tape
  • 500 Megabytes: A CD-ROM
• Gigabyte (1 000 000 000 bytes)
  • 1 Gigabyte: A pickup truck filled with paper OR A symphony in high-fidelity sound OR A movie at TV quality
  • 2 Gigabytes: 20 meters of shelved books OR A stack of 9-track tapes
  • 5 Gigabytes: An 8mm Exabyte tape
  • 10 Gigabytes:
  • 20 Gigabytes: A good collection of the works of Beethoven OR 5 Exabyte tapes OR A VHS tape used for digital data
  • 50 Gigabytes: A floor of books OR Hundreds of 9-track tapes
  • 100 Gigabytes: A floor of academic journals OR A large ID-1 digital tape
  • 200 Gigabytes: 50 Exabyte tapes
• Terabyte (1 000 000 000 000 bytes)
  • 1 Terabyte: An automated tape robot OR All the X-ray films in a large technological hospital OR 50000 trees made into paper and printed OR Daily rate of EOS data (1998)
  • 2 Terabytes: An academic research library OR A cabinet full of Exabyte tapes
  • 10 Terabytes: The printed collection of the US Library of Congress
  • 50 Terabytes: The contents of a large Mass Storage System
• Petabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 bytes)
  • 1 Petabyte: 3 years of EOS data (2001)
  • 2 Petabytes: All US academic research libraries
  • 20 Petabytes: Production of hard-disk drives in 1995
  • 200 Petabytes: All printed material OR
    Production of digital magnetic tape in 1995
• Exabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes)
  • 5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by human beings.
• Zettabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes)
• Yottabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes)

iPhone / iPod Touch as a Handyman’s Tool

The iPhone 2.0 software upgrade allows applications to be downloaded and run on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Quite a number of these use the device’s accelerometer to varying degrees of success. They certainly provide a new twist on interactions with the device (he he – sorry).

There are a couple of programs out already allowing the device to be used as a spirit level, and hopefully soon there will be one that acts as a digital one, and the device then could be as useful as the Wixey Digital Angle Gauge. The programs that provide this functionality are free, and actually work surprisingly well.

Although I’ve mocked this image up, the screen shot of the program is the actual one provided by the programmers, and this isn’t April 1.

(It’s obviously a mock, as on my device, the lower bubble is at the top of the gauge when it is in that orientation.  It is surprisingly responsive, but perhaps these days not so surprising – technology is just a little mind blowing!)

iPhone & Spirit Level Program

Keeping up with the Web

The web is a very dynamic place, with some web pages changing by the day, hour, or even minute. Constantly typing the in address of each of the sites you want to check (or at best clicking on a bookmark for each one) quickly becomes a chore.

There is a better way, as this short video details.

Example of an Email Phishing Scam

This arrived in my inbox the other day, and is a perfect example of a phishing attempt (phishing – setting out a lure / bait and hoping someone bites (and sends in personal information – passwords, credit card numbers etc)

Subject: Global Email Alert
From: Global Email {Monash Email Solution} <helpdesk@monash.edu.au>
Reply to: monashhelpdesk@live.com

X-Mesa de Concertacion-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information
X-Mesa de Concertacion-MailScanner: Found to be clean
X-Mesa de Concertacion-MailScanner-SpamScore: s
X-Mesa de Concertacion-MailScanner-From: helpdesk@monash.edu.au X-Spam-Status: No Dear Student/Staff Due to the recent development on the circulation of email from outside the school in request of your first name, username and password, we did advise you ignore the message and remove it from your email account because it is a HOAX not from the school but from outside source trying to gain access to your private message. With regard to this development, we advise you respond to this email with the following information of your yours so that we can carry out a complete over-hauling our database and enhance security on your email account:

Your Department:{*********}

Your Complete Name:{********}

Your Username:{***********}

Your Current Password:{**********}

Your Current Possition In School :{********} STAFF ONLY

Your Current Level In school:{********} STUDENT ONLY

Upon verification of the above information, an email will be sent to you from this office on the next step to take to make sure that your email is well protected from outside intruder. Regards Global Email Center.

–
Este mensaje ha sido analizado por MailScanner
en busca de virus y otros contenidos peligrosos,
y se considera que está limpio.
For all your IT requirements visit: http://www.transtec.co.uk

There are a number of subtle clues as to why this is not genuine – see how many you can find, and also just think – if you got this in your inbox, would you have picked it at first glance or not?

Content Copying – an outcome

Had an email discussion with a site that had copied content directly from here to their site.

It was short, and lead to a successful outcome – that being the removal of my article from their site.  On the back of that, there are a few other sites that I will now be in contact with, and hopefully have similar successful results.

I have no problem whatsoever with sites commenting on my articles, even talking to my points, or reinforcing their own with references to mine.  The problem I feel is those who simply copy the content directly, often without credit.

So far, none of these sites have provided email contact details, but if you head over to a site such as whois.com, and enter a URL, you can find out the registration details for the URL, which includes contact details.

Keyboard for (Young) Kids

Came across this the other day, and got one for our (young) daughter, who is forever trying to pound away on Daddy’s computer keyboard.

It is a genuine USB QWERTY keyboard from Crayola, that works on PC and Mac, is the size of a normal keyboard, but by leaving off some of the keys (such as the numeric keypad) means the other keys can be significantly larger, making it easier for younger hands.