2006 October

Maybe it is a simple matter of Zeitgeist, but I was pleasantly surprised to read Michael Shermer’s column in the November Scientific American. Shermer is well-known as the publisher of Skeptic and his monthly Skeptic column. Although his subject is not exactly the same as what we have been discussing the last several columns, it [...]

In this white paper, you will gain valuable insight on how to achieve secure access to any server or network device from a single interface in your data center. Topics covered include centralized access and control, tracking the tools, integrating management tools, Avocent data center management tools, KVM server management, serial over IP, power management [...]

After the setup process described in the previous installment is complete, you can manage all of your color settings using the Color applet that is added to the Control Panel.
Double click the applet to access the Color Settings dialog box. From the Color tab, you can configure Image Color Management (ICM) and Display Calibration. Under [...]

Syngress Publishing, Inc., today announced the publication of Hack The Stack: Using Snort And Ethereal To Master The 8 Layers Of An Insecure Network, by Michael Gregg and edited by Stephen Watkins.
According to Gregg, “The first thing many people think of when they hear the word hack is some type of malicious activity. Although some [...]

Today’s report is a bit of a rant. Not against Microsoft or Google by themselves. Actually it’s a rant against how closed fisted competition actually works against potential revenue for any involved company.
Now a minute ago I said that this was not a rant against the previously mentioned companies. In actuality, it involves them, however, [...]

Will XP’s SP3 (service pack 3) ever be shipped? Perhaps the release of Vista makes this a moot point? Whatever your opinion, I would not spend a lot of time fretting over this issue.
Think about it, we know that these same updates will continued to be released over the Windows update tool for as long [...]

Before you install the Color Control Panel Applet, you should be aware of the system requirements. It is only supported for use on Windows XP (Home or Professional Editions) with Service Pack 2.
There are no specific hardware requirements, other than your system must meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP and have a [...]

nPassword is a secure password manager that stores your information in a password protected database using 256-bit AES encryption. It supports convenient drag and drop logins, password expiration, individual browser settings, keyword search, and more. The program also includes a password generator that can create secure ’speakable’ passwords and passwords based on user defined templates.
Other [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
A Collision Domain is the network segment of ethernet packets which can collide with each other connected by hubs and repeaters.
Let’s see how Collision Domains are created. The CSMA-CD [Carrier Sense Multiple Access - Collision Detect] or IEEE 802.3 protocol standard recognizes that collisions exist. As a result, there [...]

This news is certainly disturbing, but it is gratifying to hear that at least two of the companies affected are willing to back up their customers’ assets.
But just how bad is this issue? Just as important, is this simply a trend that will continue to get worse? Or instead, maybe this is just old news [...]

With more and more people using Windows XP to work with digital photos and images, it’s important to have results that contain accurate colors. One way that you can improve the quality of pictures and graphics is to use the Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP.
Many people are not familiar with the Color Control [...]

The other day, Microsoft announced that it will be dropping support for Windows 98. The question that now needs to be asked is whether Microsoft will maybe release the OS into the Open Source arena. Should this be the case, you can expect to see various new operating systems based on this widely used technology. [...]

A few years ago I found an obscure Washington law that, at least on paper, says you can appeal a Small Claims ruling by posting a bond of $100. I just uploaded a new page about this ‘lost law’ here. But the courts never actually use this rule. Instead, they follow a different Washington law [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Data transmission may also be “coded” in different formats. In an optical network a pulse of light will represented by a 1 (one) bit and no light will present a digital zero bit. The NRZ [Non-Return to Zero] or always ON format will transmit a sequence of [...]

Today’s report is not really OS specific, rather an examination of a question presented to me by my girlfriend the other day. Much like any other day, I was boring her to tears with a tale of my latest desktop tweak and she had apparently had enough because she stopped me.
In a very kind tone, [...]

Fedora is a powerful, fast-changing, freely available operating system. It can be used as a productive desktop or server environment. Like other Linux distributions, it’s not only an operating system like Windows or Mac OS X, but a collection of a couple thousand software packages that provide a complete working environment, including desktop productivity applications [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
Electronic Arts has had a bad week. Not only has EA been under the gun for the alleged spyware in BF2142, which I previously wrote about, the in-box (or in this case, in-patch) surprises keep coming. According to the readme for the 1.01 patch, you should remove the security [...]

Dr. William Pulleyblank, Vice President of IBM’s Center for Business Optimization, will present a Keynote Address titled “Optimization Everywhere: Five Critical Issues” at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS ) annual meeting in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, November 8, 2006.
In his address, Dr. Pulleyblank will discuss how over the last two decades [...]

Celestia is a real-time 3D space simulator that allows to to travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All travel in Celestia is seamless; the zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few [...]

Could it be true? Maybe, just maybe Sony has just been resurrected from the dead after a long series of failures and PR mistakes.
It’s funny, but I remember a time not too many years back when I swore by Sony’s products. Then it simply became too complacent and paid a dear price as it faced [...]