January 2011

There were 62 posts published in January 2011 (this is page 2 of 7).

Cutting the cable

A friend of mine, fed up with the high cost, just canceled his cable television service after another friend showed him how he could watch his shows on the Internet or through streaming services like Netflix. Another friend got a Netflix-streaming Blu-Ray player for Christmas and is considering doing the same. They both will likely save a bunch of money.

Netflix reported yesterday that they’ve reached the 20 million subscriber mark. They have a $10 billion market value: more than some Hollywood studios. Netflix’s stock jumped over $16 to close just shy of $200 a share on the news.

As I’ve been saying many times, cable television is going through a sea change in how it does business. If cable doesn’t offer a-la-carte programming, people (formerly known as “consumers”) will get it through Netflix or through other Internet sources.

Facebook now offers secure connections


Facebook’s porous security model is one reason why I never “link” my Facebook account to other websites.

Facebook finally provided a way to keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account. But you have to go out of your way to enable this protection, and you might have to wait. Still: Jump on this.

Facebook has at long last offered an option to use the encrypted HTTPS protocol, a feature it will begin rolling out today but won’t finish for a “few weeks.” You should check now if it’s available, and sign up as soon as it is enabled for your account. The performance overhead is minor—zippy Gmail, for example, uses HTTPS for everything—and it’s an important step to keep your Facebook account safe from being hijacked on an open or poorly secured wireless network.

via The Facebook Setting You Should Change as Quickly as Possible.

Newter the EPA?

I used to think that Newt Gingrich wanted to be President someday. He’s no dummy. He’s slimy, but no dummy. Then I read that he wants to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. I mean, it’s not like having clean water and air are important or anything.

What has it come to when the smartest potential GOP presidential candidate proves to be a moron like all the others?

Whopping the product properly

From the user guide of a Chinese-made USB drive enclosure:

Whopping the product properly

You must click the “safely remove hardware ” icon on the right of the taskbar, if you want to stop the product and then there a direction telling that the USB Mass storage device can now be safely removed.then you can whop the USB cable from the USB port and then there appeared a direction telling that the USB Mass storage device can now be safely removed.then you can whop the USB cable from the USB port

Egyptian protesters march, denounce Mubarak

This is remarkable. Dissent is not usually tolerated in Egypt.

Thousands of anti-government protesters have broken a police cordon in the Egyptian capital and are crossing a major bridge over the Nile to join hundreds more demonstrators massed on the other side of the river.

The demonstration calling for an end to Hosni Mubarak’s government is the biggest Egypt has seen in years.

Police are showing unusual restraint in what appears to be a concerted effort by the government not to provoke a Tunisia-like mass revolt.

The demonstrators chanted, "Long Live a Free Tunisia" and "Down with Hosni Mubarak."

via Egyptian protesters march, denounce Mubarak :: WRAL.com.

Shift colors

The new server is answering web requests now. Seems like most everything is in place but the mailserver stuff. That should be changed over shortly, too. If you try to email me but it gets bounced for any reason, please try again shortly. These DNS changes take some time to propagate through the Internet.

(The title of this post comes from the announcement made on a commissioned Navy vessel when it gets underway. The colors are flown from the fantail when the ship is docked and moved to the mast when the ship gets underway.)

Space station spotting

International Space Station


I’ve been having fun tracking the International Space Station using the free Linux satellite tracking package Gnome Predict. This morning’s pass was exceptionally good, with the space station sailing almost directly over my home in Raleigh.

I took a series of long-exposure photographs to try to capture the station’s path across the sky but the station’s high path presented a problem. My 18mm lens was not nearly as wide as it needed to be to capture the almost 180 degree arc the station traveled in. Thus, I had to hastily reposition my camera and tripod in the dark as the station progressed through the sky and simply hope for the best.

The truth is, I should have gotten up about 10 minutes sooner in order to get things set up, but I misremembered the approach time.

If I get into this hobby further (and I think I will) I will have to get one of those equatorial mounts in order to keep the stars from blurring as the Earth rotates. Time to start saving up, I guess!

For those of you who have not yet discovered Linux, you can also track the ISS at the legendary site Heavens Above or at SightSpaceStation.

Server switcheroo

In the next 24 hours or so I will switch MT.Net and other services over to a new server. If things go as planned you will not see any disruption in service.

I will likely throw the switch about 9 PM Monday evening.