Today’s Nifty Gadet

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Mark Urbin

As my gentle readers  may have noticed, I am a big fan of gadgets, from simple to bright & shiny electronics.

This gadget falls under the simple, yet useful and cool category. It’s a six in one multitool shaped like a key, and this fits very nicely on your key ring.  The small blade is very handy, and the design keeps it safe when it is on your keyring.

This is one of my favorite multitools.  It’s handy, I typically have it with me (the massive Swiss Army Multitool my brother game me years ago did a lot of stuff, but it was too damn big to carry around.  A tool you don’t have is of no use), and the tools on it (screwdrivers, small knife) are useful in everyday life.

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“Orion Light” proposed

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Mark Urbin

Bigelow Aerospace is  proposing a scaled down version of NASA’s own Orion project.  They claim they can have it up and running by 2013, while NASA’s projected date of March 2015 for getting Orion in space is seen as fuzzy at best.

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Cleaning up after the “pros”

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Mark Urbin

The PC the dojo I train/teach at caught a nasty virus.  I cleaned it up, but the owner “knew this guy” who would “clean up” the system fairly cheap.   “This guy” logged in remotely, and “cleaned up” the system until it would only boot to the “Blue Screen of Death.”

I’m talking serious “BSoD” here. That is what you got if you tried to boot in safe mode, even command mode safe mode.  The Windows recovery mode won’t even recognize the Windows XP install after this guy got through with his “professional” cleanup.

So, I had to clean up after the “professional.” I managed to recover all the data off the drive, in addition to get the data they had backed up on Carbonite.

Once the apps & data are back and running on another system, I’ll rebuild the system the “professiona” trashed.

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Best use of Federal Stimulus money I’ve seen so far.

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Mark Urbin

NASA somehow has gotten hold of $50 Million of the 9% of the federal stimulus money being spent in 2009 and is using it “to seed development of commercial passenger transportation service to space.”

NASA does some good stuff, but they couldn’t agree on the basic specs without spending more than $50 million dollars.  Given that the shuttle fleet is being retired next year, and that will leave the US government without a reliable method for getting men safely into space, handing the problem over to the private sector makes damn good sense.

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Bad move by Apple

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Mark Urbin

Apple barred the new Google Talk App from the iTunes App Store.

The initial claim was that the app duplicated core services of the iPhone.

To get around Apple’s monopolitics ban, point your iPhone browwer to www.google.com/talk.

There has been other fallout from Apple’s ban, besides pissed off customers, the FCC is asking questions and Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors.

Then there is also the added buzz about Google Talk this has generated. Perhaps it would have been better for Apple just to have allowed the app in the iTunes app store.

Filed under: Apple, Google, Internet, iPhone | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

First new Nuclear Reactor in the US in 10 years is on track.

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Mark Urbin

The Tennessee Valley Authority is bringing a new Nuclear Reactor on line, on schedule and on budget, in order to provide clean, “carbon free”, electricity in useful quanties, to their customers.

Clean and safe nuclear power is supported as the “green option” by serious leaders of the environmental movement, including Gaia theorist James Lovelock, Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore, and Britain’s Bishop Hugh Montefiore, a longtime board member of Friends of the Earth.

Of course, there are uneducated watermelon groups opposing this step toward clean, American engergy indepence, including the obviously confused “Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.”

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Bad PR for the Kindle

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Mark Urbin

As I’ve noted before, it is my theory that Amazon does not actual sell e-books on it’s Kindle device, it leases the book to the reader.

Another point of evidence to support that theory has just come out. According to this New York Times story, Amazon can delete e-books off your Kindle, that you have “purchased” from them, without your knowledge or consent.

One of the books removed, George Orwell’s “1984”

Keep in mind that Amazon was the first company to grab a noticable portion of Apple’s iTunes digital formated music business by offering MP3 files without copy protection.  Amazon is using it’s dominate position in the online bookselling business to force an ugly “DRM” scheme on its customers that assumes that they are thieves.

Amazon, and publishing companies, need to recognize that they make most of their money off avid readers who are willing to spend money to support their favorite authors.  Their fear driven reaction to the fear mongering of the RIAA is pushing them toward a business model that is hostile toward their best customers.  They would better serve their customers, and their stockholders, by working with the customer instead of treating them like criminals.

Portions of this post were first published on the Urbin Report.

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NASA to destroy the Space Station in 2016

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Mark Urbin

They use the more PC term, “De-Orbit”, which means letting the incredibly expensive International Space Station drop out of orbit and burn.  Any large leftover chunks are supposed to fall into the Pacific Ocean.

The station has cost $100 billion to put into orbit, build and maintain, so far.   No plans to replace it with something useful that I’m aware of.

Hopefully it will provide a decent lightshow on the way down.

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100 Basic Geek Skills

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Mark Urbin

Wired has an article on 100 Essential Skills for Geeks.

I wasn’t surprised to see I have many of them.  Here are some of my favorites.

Properly secure a wireless router.
Crack the WEP key on a wireless router.
Leech Wifi from your neighbor.
Screw with Wifi leeches.

Knowing how to screw with people stealing bandwidth from your website is good too.  Not only did I have a commercial site leech bandwidth from me, they were using one my 3D images for their logo.  So I replaced that file with a jpg of two Rhinos having sex.

Work from home or a coffee shop as effectively as you do at the office.
Wire your own home with Ethernet cable.

I had the house wired with Coax Ethernet, before I switched to CAT5.

Install a Linux distribution. (Hint: Ubuntu 9.04 is easier than installing Windows)

Just did an Ubuntu install yesterday, before I saw this article, and it was easier than installing Windows

Successfully disassemble and reassemble a laptop.

A valuable IT skill, along with knowing how to bypass OS login passwords.

Create a website using vi (or Notepad)

Be able to explain why it’s important that Han shot first.
Know why it is just wrong for Luke and Leia to kiss.
Stop talking Star Wars long enough to get laid

That last one is important.

Sleep with a Cricket bat next to your bed.

I have a Cricket bat, but it’s not my the bed. The Jo staff is much nastier.

An interesting list, I fail on being able to name all the Dwarves in The Hobbit, but I’m much more a hard SciFi fan than a fantasy fan.

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The World’s First floating nuclear power plant

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Mark Urbin

It’s not the one the Russians are building. Given the Russian’s record of failure with nuclear reactor’s and generally poor environmental record, any buyer’s are doing so at their own risk.

The world’s first floating nuclear power plant was built in the early 1960s by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It was the MH-1A Sturgis, a converted WWII Liberty ship.  The BBC falsely reported that the Russians were building the first floating nuclear power plant back in 2006, and other news agencies are still repeating their mistake.

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