Comment DNS Blocking (Score 5, Interesting) 88
We just got a message yesterday from China Telecom that unless we can state a business case for port 53 DNS will be blocked for our locations in China. Basically, are you using DNS? What?
Comment XBMC + Sickbeard + USENET (Score 1) 479
I like me a Windows platform, so I've settled on XBMC as a front end (you can do multi-room with a MySQL database and profiles). I use a HDHomeRun for a few ClearQAM channels available for free with my cable internet and USENET (supernews.com) for all my tv downloading needs. I don't miss my old satellite setup at all.
Comment Re:For me, and many of my fellow college students. (Score 2) 697
Of course, I'm 'stealing' TV from Usenet, but that's a moral decision I can easily live with.
And I think that's the point... it's hard to feel bad for big media when we all feel like they are raking us over the coals and have been for as long as we can remember. The only think I'm ever going to be willing to pay for again is an all-I-can-watch buffet of 720p or better streaming content. And it had better be cheap, since it needs to compete with free...
Comment Re:The Cable Companies Understand This Trend (Score 1) 697
I'm not sure about your provider, but at least with Time Warner if you call up and threaten to drop service or go to a lower tier they will give you a discount. I'm currently saving around $15/mo and every time it runs out I just call in and get a new discount applied to my account.
Comment What about Usenet? (Score 2) 697
So I have completely gotten rid of cable/satellite by going the Pirate way (arrr...). I've got a subscription to Usenet, coupled with sabnzbd, Sick Beard, Couch Potato and Media Browser on Windows Media Center.
It takes a while to setup and get working, but it's really the best solution I've found. A nice bonus is that there are no commercials...
Comment Re:Windows 7 sucks! (Score 1) 766
Your post makes me think that might be *just* a bit of a technological Luddite.
Sure, some things in Windows 7 are harder, but lots of things are easier...
As a counter example, I would hold out search in the start menu.
If you wanted a novice user to open a particular program, and you were explaining to them how to find it over the phone when they had Windows XP it always went:
1. click on the start menu
2. click on all programs
3. click on FOLDER
4. you don't see folder? try clicking on the double arrows at the bottom... do you see it now?
5. did you find it? (it's taking forever because they have three or four columns of stuff)
6. OK, click on APPLICATION
That's 10 minutes you'll never get back.
In Windows 7:
1. click on the start menu
2. type APPLICATION into the search box
3. click APPLICATION at the top of the list
I'll tell you, my life as a system administrator is 100% easier because of Windows 7. Between MDT, Group Policy Extensions and the user friendliness of Windows 7 I spend less time supporting the OS and more time improving our systems. Now look what you've done, I sound like a freeking Microsoft commercial.
Comment Re:kaaaching (Score 1) 766
With three years for transition (and several where we knew the end was coming) this isn't an issue for our company. Our transition plan is for new computers to be on Windows 7 and any computer that gets re-imaged is automatically upgraded too. Right now a little more than 60% of our desktops are on Windows 7 due to this policy being in effect for the last two years.
The biggest consumer of time was learning to use MDT, and now that we have it in place our deployments actually take LESS time than they did when we were rolling out Windows XP.
Submission + - Swiss Geologist on Trial for Causing Earthquakes
Hugh Pickens writes: "BBC reports that Markus Haering's company had been working with the authorities in Basel, Switzerland to try to convert the heat in deep-seated rocks into electricity but the project was suspended in 2006 when drilling triggered earthquakes, one of them with a magnitude of 3.4, that led to $9m of damage. Haering's team planned to drill a series of holes penetrating up to three miles underground with water being pumped onto rocks with a temperature of more than 195C. Basel's location on top of a fault line – the upper Rhine trench – had been deliberately chosen because the heat was closer to the Earth's surface. A risk assessment has since shown the prospect of further quakes is too high to continue drilling in the city and Haering faces up to five years in prison if the judge finds he intentionally damaged property. Haering has admitted the 3.4 magnitude earthquake was stronger than he had expected and that his team "had very little knowledge of seismicity" before starting to drill, but called the quakes "a learning process for everyone involved" adding that project leaders had drawn up an emergency plan: "Every minute, we knew what was going on and were able to act instantly." Despite Haering's trial, the Swiss appetite for geothermal projects has not diminished, with engineers beginning preliminary drilling in Zurich to see whether the area was suitable for a similar scheme, and St Gallen, in eastern Switzerland, plans to start work on its own geothermal project next year. Drilling efforts are being closely watched in the US, where the energy department is sponsoring more than 120 geothermal energy projects in several states."
Submission + - SSL renegotiation attack becomes reality (theregister.co.uk)
rastos1 writes: A Turkish grad student has devised a serious, real-world attack on Twitter that targeted a recently discovered vulnerability in the SSL protocol. The exploit by Anil Kurmus is significant because it successfully targeted the so-called SSL renegotiation bug to steal Twitter login credentials that passed through encrypted data streams. All in all, a man in the middle is able to steal the credentials of a user authenticating himself through HTTPS to a trusted website.
The attack description is available on securegoose.org
The attack description is available on securegoose.org
Monkey Island To Return 153
Briareos was one of several readers to write with news that TellTale Games, along with LucasArts, will be bringing new Monkey Island games later this year. Tales of Monkey Island will be a series of episodic games released for PC and WiiWare in the coming months, and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be a remake of the original 1990 game, available on the PC and Xbox Live. A trailer is available for the former, and this is what the press release says about the latter: "The development team at LucasArts is bringing the game into the modern era with all-new HD graphics, a re-mastered musical score, full voiceover, and an in-depth hint system has been added to help players through the game's side-splitting puzzles. Purists will also delight in the ability to seamlessly switch between the updated HD graphics and the original's classic look." Grumpy Gamer has a nostalgic look back at the franchise.
Nationwide Domain Name/Yard Sign Conspiracy 324
robertjmoore writes "Everywhere I go lately, I see these lawn signs that say "Single?" and then give a URL with my town's name in it. Being a huge business intelligence geek with too much time on my hands, I decided to track down who was behind them and wound up uncovering ten thousand domain names, a massively coordinated and well-funded guerilla marketing machine, and the $45 Million revenue business hiding behind it all. Hot off the presses, these are my findings."
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