Mr. Calacanis is an enigma to me.  On the one hand, he’s a very intelligent, charismatic and successful businessman.  On the other hand, he sometimes comes off as a bit teen like.  Now, don’t get me wrong, acting teen like is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in Mr. Calacanis’ case, it probably is a result of his enthusiasm and passion.  He is a young person, but no longer in his twenties (I don’t know how old he is, in fact) and uses any and all technology to his benefit.  Seemingly, he is constantly on the go and, as such, uses services like Twitter and his mailing list to get his message out.  He has, however, given up the one thing he was known for: blogging.  He writes mostly to his email list now.  I think that is ok.  I have signed up (you can too, here: http://www.tinyurl.com/jasonslist) and have, so far, gotten several really well written, well thought out messages from him.

The message today, a rebuttal to a posting in the New York Times about the Tesla car company, was another well thought out message.  In it, Calacanis defends the Tesla company and it’s desire to seek out a four hundred million dollar loan from the government that would be repaid, with interest, and is not part of the bail outs that the government appears to be willing to give.  (I cannot post the message here, but The Huffington Post got permission from him and it is here.

Tesla, for those who do not know, is a startup car maker specializing in electric vehicles.  I’m not going to use ‘green’ because nothing that is manufactured is totally green.  What I will say is that Tesla’s are greener than your average combustion engine vehicle would be.  Tesla currently has one vehicle on the market, a hundred thousand dollar sports car.  Mr. Calacanis purchased one of the first and now enjoys his new car.  For that, he has taken a great deal of criticism. He writes about it frequently and shares photos of the car.  I don’t really understand why anyone has a problem with this.  If you don’t want to hear about the car, just don’t follow him.  You KNOW he is going to talk about it. Why not?  He earned his money and what he wants to do with is his business.

I always enjoy listening to him when he makes appearances on This Week in Tech, hosted by Leo Laporte.  I may not always agree with him, but he makes lots of sense and is doing very well, so has to be right quite a bit of the time.  Mahalo, his latest web venture, gets better and better and Engadget-part of his former WebLogs, Inc company (he sold to AOL a while back) is THE place to go for gadget news.

I only have one question about this whole Tesla business…when will they develop a car that I can afford? How many Duracell's will I need? (ok, that’s two.)  Ok, one more…when is going to appear with Dvorak again?

Here are some stories that caught my eye, in no particular order...

• Nearly one million PC's cleaned of fake anti-virus.  Microsoft reports that it's malicious software removal tool has cleaned nearly one million PC's of the fake tool.  The malware, which went by many names including System Antivirus 2008, XPert Antivirus and Vista Antivirus 2008 was more annoying than destructive.  It planet software that alerted the user that their machine that pops up messages explaining that the machine is infected and directs them to purchase more in order to stop the popups.  Annoying, indeed.
• Apple's 'big black friday' turns out to more of the same.  This company does not know what 'big' means when it comes to savings.  They still want people to regard them as a 'premium' brand.   Nevermind that the iPod is pretty much a commodity now and is on sale at quite a few places. Why go to Apple's store for them?
• The Large Hadron Collider to be offline much longer than thought.  A liquid helium leak in September caused damage to the doomsday machine and will take longer to repair.  I guess doomsday will have to wait a little longer.
• Nintendo's Wii a big hit on Black Friday.  Contrary to many doomsayers-MSNBC, I am looking you-Black Friday has turned out be a bright light 'in these dark economic times.'  Leading the charge was the Nintendo Wii.  Using internet statistics, the Wii was the top product search on Pricegrabber.com and Shopping.com.  eBay reports over 3,100 Wiis sold on eBay for an average price of $349-nearly one hundred dollars more than it's retail price.  Amazing for the machine that was not supposed to STILL be on top.
• Amazon's Kindle has an 11 to 13 week backlog, but you can get one today...if you don't mind a refurb unit.  Amazon is now selling newly refurbed units for $329.  That's a bit high for a refurb, but you CAN this amazing device much quicker than waiting for a new unit.
• Motorola cancels it's newest Razr cell phone.  No loss here.  Razr has grown long in the tooth and Moto really needs something new and fresh. It needs something soon, too or it will be on the outside looking in.
• Space Shuttle lands in New Mexico after two scuttled attempts in Florida.  Bad weather prevented the shuttle from landing at Kennedy and was diverted to New Mexico.  The shuttle is fresh from it's mission to supply the space station with new rooms, a waste water recycling system and basic repairs.  It was, however, minus one tool belt.

Today is ‘Black Friday’, the traditional day in the US where stores pull out all of the stops to get people into those stores and spend money.  They usually attract buyers by featuring certain products at pretty good prices, hoping those buyers will spend money on other, higher priced items as well.  Problem is, these ‘doorbuster’ deals are usually in very, very low quantities.  Plus, you need to wait in long lines, hoping that you are one of the lucky few to get said items.  Generally, people will start to line up around 2 am or earlier.  It is an odd, fascinating and sometimes ‘fun’ event. 

Well, in the spirit of Black Friday,  I have gathered up some links below to some really, really cheap or free things that you can download and put together.  The links are to papercraft or cardboard builiding sites.  I have included some useful things like iPhone holders, iPod cases, docks, other useful items.  There are also a few links to some not so useful, but cute items that any geek would like.

iPhone/iPod

• iPhone stand
• iPhone scanner stand
• iPod stand
• iPod video projector (this is pretty cool)
• iPod slip case

Floppy Disk uses

• Floppy disk notebook
• Floppy disk dock for Zune or iPod

Fun stuff

• HAL-9000
• The pencil powered media player

Other

• WiFi antenna
• The Ultimate Print Out Guide

Papercraft is a fun and sometimes useful hobby.  There are lots of great websites that have free patterns or can point you towards companies that specialize in the hobby.  I encourage you to give some of the look and maybe get your kids involved (assuming, of course that have children.  If not, give it a shot anyway.)  There are some really amazing things that can be done with paper.

The One Laptop per Child XO Laptop is now available to the general public once again. As before, it is a two-for deal: You buy two, one for yourself and one destined for a child somewhere on the planet.  The price is $399 and is eligible for Free shipping.

The OLPC is a stripped down, bare bones and ruggedized laptop.  Meant to be used in harsh environments and by, primarily, children.    It features a 1200x900 dual mode display, a webcam, a custom Linux operating system and Wi-Fi as well as something called ‘mesh’, which is not the Microsoft Mesh, by the way.  Mesh, in this case, is sort of like a peer based networking scheme.  The laptop was designed to consume a little power as necessary.  It lacks a hard disk, but does have a one gig flash drive and 256 mb of RAM.  It’s user interface is something called Sugar and easily used by children.

You can read more and purchase the laptop from the Half Byte store. Laptop Magazine has a hands on review of the innovative little laptop here.  The Wikipedia entry is here and, finally, you can download a live cd version of Sugar here.

PC Magazine, last week, announced that it’s last printed issue of the magazine would be the January ‘09 issue and, there after, would be a web only publication.  Since then, a number of podcasters either lamented the passing or celebrated it.  Some, like Alex Lindsay, wonder why there are still so many magazines and newspapers STILL on paper. (He also said he reads the New York Times on his iPhone…I have to wonder how he can still see, but that’s another story.)  Mr. Lindsay, like many of his colleagues also wonder why in the world DVD’s are still around and why don’t people just get everything on the Web.  For awhile, I thought this to be West Coast thing, but I’ve also heard it from some East Coasters as well.  I think age is more appropriate, though.  Most of the podcasters that I listen to are pretty young.  However, some of my own co-workers (also younger than I) feel sort of the same.  These are people who read just about everything online, watch TV shows on Hulu or from iTunes.  (if this sounds familiar, I have posted about this in the past…I just find it fascinating.)

Personally, I am very reluctant to buy movies on line (unless it is a DVD) because of my ISP, which is Comcast.  Comcast has a 250gb limit.  If you break that limit, you could face loss of service.  For me, that is not much of an option since Comcast is pretty much the only game in town for my neighborhood.  I live in a neighborhood that is simply ‘not wired’ right.  FiOS is in the area, but my neighborhood does not yet support it. Ditto DSL.  So, Comcast it is.  I’m not going to bash them.  I do have pretty good service from them and the 250gb cap is actually pretty generous compared to other American ISP’s.  I am cognizant of that cap though. I don’t have problem with one or two movies a month, but I don’t watch Hulu and don’t purchase many TV shows from iTunes or the Zune Marketplace.  The quality, for one, of the shows on those services seem to vary and it is probably not the fault of either service.  I blame Hollywood for that.  (iTunes does seem to be a bit better in that department, but Zune really just started with downloadable TV shows.)

Alex Lindsay and company claim they get all of their television-or a significant portion-online. But, I think what they fail to realize is that television entertainment is still a broadcast medium and supported by commercials.  If enough people are getting that entertainment mostly from downloads, then the ratings go down and, poof, the show is canned. 

I don’t know, maybe I am just old but I like holding a nice glossy issue of PC Magazine or Electronic Gaming Monthly-rumored to be the next casualty-or buying that DVD to put in my collection, knowing that I can safely play that DVD and not worry some service going belly up and taking my purchased content with it.

Mr.. Shankland is certainly entitled to use whatever browser he wants and for whatever reason.  He wrote of his switch in a posting on C|Net.  He says that since he ‘spends hours a day using the Web-not just browsing, but also uploading photos, issuing instructions’ to his bank, editing documents on line (!) and other such things so the tenths of seconds ‘add up’.  Really?

Mr.. Shankland shares a story about how he spoke to Mozilla’s Chairman Mitchell Baker and told her of his switch and why.  She commented that maybe that would be the kick they need to improve Firefox. We’ve been increasing our focus for some time.’  Ok, if that is true, why do they need to increase it?  Is that an admission that Firefox’s performance really is subpar to Chrome?

Mr.. Shankland, in an effort to show how fair he is, points out the shortcomings of Chrome. Problem is, he failed to point the biggest problem that I saw with it: it does not render all sites correctly.  This blog, for instance, does not display properly.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to discredit the author nor am I making light of his writing. No, I’ve read his stuff before and generally like what he says.  I just take issue with his argument that Chrome is better because it is faster. In fact, other authors have made the same statement.  In my own experience, I found SOME sites did APPEAR to render faster than in Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3, but, for the most part, I really could not tell any difference.  And those sites that did render faster were not very complex-like the Google homepage and other Google pages. (Cue the conspiracy theory.)

The fastest browser I have used-in rendering that is, NOT startup time, is Safari.  The latest release does seem faster. However, it, too, does not fully render this blog.  It is closer, but not complete.  And, really, what good is that speed if the page does not fully render?

I still think that Chrome feels (and looks) more like a browser that is still on the planning page and not close to usable.  Yes, I know it is beta, but feels more like an early alpha.  It is, however, better than the current public beta of Internet Explorer 8. I have no doubt that by the time IE 8 is released, it will be better.

To each their own, I suppose.  If nothing else, Mr... Shankland did make me reconsider my browser of choice and maybe that makes his post worthwhile reading anyway. 

Looks like the changes to the Live eco system are starting now, or I’ve just been under a rock lately. While searching for information on Japanese television pioneer Kenjiro Takayanagi, I noticed a balloon pop out next to each entry in the Live Search results.  Each time I moused over an entry, a little pop out would display with a synopsis of the entry.  Pretty cool feature and similar to the Google add in for Firefox that displays a thumbnail of the result.  Ask.com had a similar feature, but I don’t think it lasted too long. 

Touches like this-and more accurate results-are going to help Live Search a lot, but I doubt Google has anything to worry about for awhile.

I’ve been pretty tough on Mac OS X lately, so it is only fair that I write about a gaping hole in Vista’s kernel.  The flaw is in Vista’s networking api, but can cause a buffer overrun and corrupt the kernel’s memory leading to a blue screen of death, code injection or installation of a rootkit.  None of it is very pleasant.  This flaw is particularly nasty in that it affects both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista.  It is Vista specific and, for once, XP is not vulnerable.  Worse, the fix is not expected until THE NEXT SERVICE PACK!  C’mon, Microsoft…you should fix any and every vulnerability much quicker than that-unless the SP is being released next month, which I highly doubt.

So, there, fair and balanced.

A federal judge has ruled that SCO does, in fact, owe Novell two and a half million dollars after all.  Thanks to SCO, it has now been determined that Novell still owns Unix, no matter what SCO thinks.  Novell sued SCO after SCO claimed that IBM used Unix code in Linux.  That claim was debunked by, of all people, SCO itself after an internal audit failed to prove Darl McBride’s claims.  There were a lot of claims, lawsuits and other gongs on by SCO, Novell, IBM and others and the story is just one big pile of poo now-no, make that a giant steaming pile of poo.  Ars-Technica has a nice summary here. 

If anything, the SCO case proves that there is a huge problem in the world of intellectual property, licensing and patents here in America.  That Darl McBride actually thought he could turn his struggling company around and make money from the court system shows that he was more than misguided.  There are precedents for this tactic, so I guess he figured ‘what the hell’ and tried.  It’s a wonder his company lasted as long as it did.  Oh, wait…there’s a reason.  During the initial trial where they were suing IBM, they threatened other companies who were using Linux.  Some of them caved and ‘licensed’ the code in question.  I would call it extortion.  Then, in what could only be called a desperation move on the part of Microsoft, of all companies, Microsoft ‘invested’ in SCO via a third party.  This influx of cash allowed SCO to live for another few years and continue the legal abuse instead of, oh, I don’t know, INNOVATING and DEVELOPING a real product, perhaps?  I guess it was only a software maker in spirit. 

All I can say is good riddance to this company.  I am truly sorry that people-good people-will lose or already lost their jobs, but this company has lost it’s reputation, good name and any chance it may have had to turn itself around.  That it chose to sue for profit rather than actually producing a product shows that it has no long term plan for survival and needs to just go away.

(The cool tip is below…)

One of the drawbacks of the Kindle is that the screen is not backlit.  So, I bought a book light.  Problem is, I need to use the little cover that Amazon ships with the device in order to attach the light.  Well, I like to read while I am laying down and that makes holding the device in the cover a bit awkward.  Yesterday, I found the answer in the Yahoo! KindleKorner group.  The answer is so darn simple, I kick myself for not seeing it:  Take bottom of the strap and wrap it around the lower right corner of the device.  Reference the photo to see what I am referring to.

There is a better cover in the works, check it out here.

(More…)

Always in search of ways to get more content, and to possibly save a penny or two, I went searching for alternatives to Amazon.  Well, so far, there aren’t any as Amazon has a pretty good system in place.  However, there are a couple of sites that do offer services close enough to Amazon to be useful.  Feedbooks.com, which I’ve written about before, is a good alternative.  Another one is Manybooks.net. Manybooks is a site that lists ebooks that in the public domain and are available for download right on the device.  The texts appear to be from the Gutenberg project.

I encourage anyone who owns a Kindle to join the Yahoo! group.  There is a good community there and lots of useful information.

Two reports of malware surfaced this week for the Mac OS X operating system.  Both cases require the user to download the package and then enter their password WHEN PROMPTED BY THE OS.  (Tangent:  so, it is perfectly acceptable for both Linux and OS X to prompt the user to allow something to run, yet Vista does that and gets derided for it?  This is truly a ‘WTF’ moment…) The malware packages do things like mount a disk image, change DNS settings and other shady things. 

Of course, since I read about these on the TUAW website, the typical ‘we’re ok cause we use Macs and aren’t dumb like Windows users’ mentality prevailed in both the articles and comments.  The comments, especially, just reinforce, yet again, the idea about Mac elitism and smugness.  Case in point:

“Ebel3003 said 2:45PM on 11-21-2008
I'll begin worrying as soon as you don't need to be completely computer illiterate to become infected.”

Umm…yeah.  Now, I listen to several podcasts that feature mostly Mac die-hards, including Macbreak Weekly and This Week in Media and have heard, repeatedly, the panel members say they don’t really worry about things when surfing the ‘net and downloading files.  They pretty much said just how cavalier they are, so…I’m thinking Mr. Ebel3003 is either putting up a front and trying to be smug or he’s just ignorant about his fellow Mac users. (To be fair, not all Mac user’s are like this. I’d bet most are not, but it is the vocal ones who give them a bad name.)

The flood gates are cracked a little.  It won’t be long before they are wide open and the Mac “community” will need a row boat to stay afloat.  Let’s see how smug they are then.

Links to the TUAW posts:

• http://www.tuaw.com/2008/11/21/new-mac-os-x-malware-osx_lamzev-a/#comments
• http://www.tuaw.com/2008/11/18/new-variant-of-rsplug-trojan-making-the-rounds/#comments

The park, near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, closed in September after it’s owners filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Some of the investors involved in the park, more or less, forced them to put the park up for sale.  There are at least three parties interested, one of which has said they would re-open the park, presumably maintaining the music and Hard Rock theme and name. Another interested party has said they would not re-open the park but would, instead, dismantle it and move it’s rides and attractions to other venues.

I hope the park remains and re-opens.  It was a fun little park with plenty of promise. If, however, it is dismantled, I hope it would be by Cedar Fair and they relocate the Maximum RPM rollercoaster and the Nights in White Satin attraction here to Kings Dominion.  Those are two of the cooler attractions at Hard Rock.  Nights in White Satin is beyond description, it is one of those things best experienced.  While drunk, perhaps. 

This park opened a year too early or, possibly, a year too late.  I really think the economy-gas prices, specifically-are what led to the park having problems.  The somewhat high admission price and parking fee didn’t help.  Charge thirty bucks for admission and five dollars – or nothing – for parking and they’d fill the place up with people.  They don’t so now they are stuck between a … oh, I’m not gonna say it.  You know what I mean.

A Visit to Hard Rock Park on YouTube

This has to be the oddest week ever in the history of manned space flight.  Since the shuttle Endeavour’s docking with the space station, an odd-maybe goofy-set of events have taken place. Among them are:

• a spider-an orbit spider, irony did ensue-went ‘missing’.  Said spider’s web was a mess and not the mystical works of art they are on earth. Seems spiders do, in fact, need gravity.
• a tool belt became another satellite when an astronaut made a mistake and let the belt drift away
• the inhabitants will be drinking water that was formerly urine, among other things, courtesy a new filtration/recycling system.  The new system will go ‘live’ sometime in the spring…after much testing.  I can’t imagine why.
• the space station got upgraded: two new bedrooms, a second bathroom, gym and kitchen were added to the station, completing the living quarters.  A Starbucks is rumored to be going up next to the gym.  (I am kidding about that part…but, who knows.)
• the space station turns ten years old this week, no word on new shutters or paint.  It did, however, get a grease job (on the solar panel joints) as well as new ball bearings.

In all seriousness, this has probably been one of the most intense station oriented mission in quite a while.  While I may make light of some of the events, I am also very impressed with what the astronauts are doing and the fact that the station has been occupied, almost continuously, since that first Russian module went up ten years ago. That we’ve stuck by the station and continue to fund and support is an amazing feat in and of itself.  I hope we continue that and more.  I also hope they find that spider.  You know, speaking of that spider, I wonder what it thought about liftoff.  You just KNOW it had to wonder what the hell was going on.

Microsoft has announced new changes to the Zune Pass program that will allow subscribers to get up to ten free tracks a month.  Subscribers will be able to select tracks they have downloaded to keep even if they stop the subscription.

Microsoft also announced that, soon, up to 90% of the marketplace will be MP3.  The rest will be WMA only.

So far, EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner have signed on to the new terms, so not all of the subscription music will be available for the 10 tracks a months program. (note: several independent labels will also participate.)  The participation of these companies is, no doubt, a snub of the nose to Apple and iTunes.  They are also going to provide DRM-Free MP3 files for purchase.

The changes make Zune Pass an even better deal since the ten tracks equal about ten dollars, making the Zune Pass a more reasonable $4.95 a month.  Not too shabby at all.

Yesterday, I read where anti-matter can be created, released, whatever by shooting a very high powered laser at certain materials for a given time.  Today, I read about NASA deploying interstellar Internet.  I prefer to think of that as the ‘sub-space relay’.  Seriously, NASA has tested the Disruption Tolerant Network or DTN, rather, NASA has tested the beginnings of this new network.  Modelled on the way the Internet works, DTN can handle delays, disruptions and other factors just like the Internet.  Subspace radio, anyone?

NASA has already used ION drives in a few space craft but who can doubt that warp drives are on the way, what with the work being done with anti-matter and all that cool stuff.

What about transporters?  Well, work has been done there too.  Years ago, light photons were successfully transported.  Light photons are one thing, people, though, quite another.  The energy to disassemble a person and then put them together would kill them first.  Of course, isn’t that what it does?  Create a copy, destroy the original?

Personally, I just want the replicator and holodeck.  Oh, right.  Replicators are a step closer with the three dimensional printer and holodecks are pretty dang close too.  Immersive gaming and things like World of Warcraft could arguably qualify, though you cannot directly touch and interact in a 3-D environment, it seems people do get submerged in fantasy.  Just like this posting.

Ain’t tech cool?

Podcasters and bloggers are treating this as something amazing and another reason to have an iPhone.  Right.  No other handhelds have this ability.  Um, no.  Windows Live Search Mobile has had this capability from day one.  This posting, back in APRIL, discusses Live Search Mobile.  Put simply, it is AWESOME.  I can say a word and Live Search will attempt to find an establishment or road or whatever.  I rely on it quite a bit and it has yet to fail.  I guess because it is not from Google or Apple it does not matter.  Whatever.  It adds tremendous value to Windows Mobile and my Moto Q.

Judge William Alsup has rejected Psystar’s claim that Apple uses anticompetitive practices to keep companies out of the Mac OS computer market.  The company has 20 days to try to have the judge reverse the decision. 

CNET is reporting that the Judge said "The pleadings...fail to allege facts plausibly supporting the counterintuitive claim that Apple's operating system is so unique that it suffers no actual or potential competitors"

While it is likely that Psystar was just trying to bait Apple, and I really have no feelings for or against them, part of me was wishing they would prevail.  Apple’s reluctance to allow the operating system on non-Apple hardware is absurd.  I understand that they want to protect the ‘experience’, but, please, it is just an operating system. 

Psystar’s days are numbered.  I wonder how many people will weep over the loss.  I suspect the corks will pop at Apple on that day.

Microsoft, today, released both PC software and Zune firmware updates.  The updates include three new games, Checkers, Sudoku (groovy!) and Space Battle.  Texas Hold’em gets an update as well.  Additionally, numerous performance enhancements and stability enhancements have been made.  Some cosmetic changes as well as a new Social feature, Listening Habits Like Me, has been added.  Fire up your Zune PC software (but don’t connect your device yet) and grab the update.

Additionally, the flash based Zunes all got price DROPS.  The 4gb is now $99, 8gb is $139 and 16gb is now $179.

The holidays have come early!

Apple has updated Safari to version 3.2 for both Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista.  A dozen security holes were plugged, including some that were deemed ‘very serious.’  The holes could allow someone to take over the compromised machine.

The more serious holes include:

• a heap buffer overflow issue that could allow a specially designed html page to cause application termination or arbitrary code execution.
• a heap buffer overflow in CoreGraphics handling of color spaces could allow a specially designed image to lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
• a problem with memory access issues in ‘libTIFF’s handling of compressed TIFF images could cause, yet again, application termination or arbitrary code execution.

And the list goes on.  This proves, yet again, that no  matter how smart your developers are, no matter how diligent they think they are, they are not perfect.   I think “PC” should remind them in the next ‘get a mac’ commercial.  But, hey, if he doesn’t, I don’t mind picking up the slack.  After all, it is my duty to point out that OS X Leopard is broken and needs to be fixed.

I thought I would put all of my postings in one place, but rather than to do that and create a rather long article, I decided to put links to them.  Below is a list of my digital TV switchover postings and links:

• More information on the switchover
• The digital switchover is not far away
• Venturer converter box
• Venturer converter box-Update
• Venturer remote control information
• Digital Converter boxes