TECH: PRINTERANYWHERE shaping up nicely

Thursday, August 24, 2006

This utility allows you to “share” someone else’s printer.

Doesn’t make sense (to me) if you’re on a lan with a printer. That is, if I am home and want to print on my home office’s printer from my laptop in the living room, then I can share without this utility.

BUT if I want to print on that home office printer when I am at work say so my wife can read something, then this fills the niche.

It would also seem to eliminate the dreaded fax machine. I can print on my friend’s printer in North Carolina if he wasn’t such a Luddite. Rather than try to fax something to him.

That’s not to say this isn’t without drawbacks.

Clearly, it routes thru a server outside of my control, so I wouldn’t use it for anything I wouldn’t want to see int he newspaper. But, then that describes email and the internet as well. It would seem easy to have the two stubs at each end negotiate a public private key pair allowing the architecture to stay the same but the security to be bullet proof. Then when I “fax” my order for dinner tonight, I wouldn’t have to be concerned that anyone will know what I was having.

That pki implementation would also prevent eavesdropping, and serve as a model for peer to peer encryption.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: MEEBO, and the MEEBOME widget,

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

http://www.meebo.com

This is an IM aggregator. It makes it possible to watch several IMs at the same time. That didn’t know my socks off.

Now they have a widget that you put on your web page and it allows a visitor to IM you. Hey now that’s interesting.

I put it on my personal webpage and let’s see if anyone uses it.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: 1AND1 blog option shoots me in the foot

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

This critique is obsolete. See comments below.

When the 1AND1 hosting provider offered free blogs, I tried it.

I was singularly unimpressed when it turned out to be nothing more than a free WordPess blog like this one. Why was I fooled into thinking that there be something substantive behind it? No big deal. No harm. Nothing but some wasted time and effort.

Today, blundering about with MEEBO, I realized that my web page was down.

And, know one told me. Show’s you how popular I am! Arghh!!

I used FIlezilla to ensure that all my files were in tact there. Phew, that could have made me depend on my LUGGABLE to get them all back in place. OR, my backups. But, now need to pull the fire alarm … yet.

It appears that 1AND1 redirected the webpage to the blog unbeknowst to me. Double Arghhh!

I deleted the test blog, and eventually … … after ten anxious minutes … … it refreshed everything to where it should be.

Lessons Learned: Watch for the unintended consequences.

Updated 2007-04-07

1and1 has a new blog destination from it administration page. It now gives you a blog that appears to be a hosted version of WORDPRESS. It know longer throws you to the free WORDPRESS DOT COM site. That’s both bad and good. Good in that you can use javascript if you can figure out how. Bad in that the free WORDPRESS site has lots of assumptions that you can use without knowing too much. I pinged 1and1 support and they have no doc, no faq, and no real support for what they have deployed. (Dangerous?) They said it would be out RSN (Real Soon Now)! You, and so will Christmas. Any way this critique is no longer applicable. But I’d suggest caution in proceeding with the offering.THe reward MAY be worth the risk.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “YouOS” an “interesting concept”. Not really an OS, but something else. What I don’t know?

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

http://www.youos.com

It certainly has made me think. (Always a dangerous proposition!) I may quibble about it as an OS. IMHO an OS brings bare metal to life. YouOS stands on the shoulders of whatever OS is installed on one’s hardware. Having said that, it “feels” like an OS. Maybe if I write an app, I may have another thought, or two. Certainly congrats and kudos are in order for an “interesting” implementation.

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LIBERTY: How to get the gubamint, and their “regulated” utilities, to respond … media!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

This morning on Jim Gearhart’s show on 101.5, he reported on the results of his airing of a listener’s trouble getting a utility pole repaired. Jim recounted the man’s ordeal trying to get help from JCPL, followed by attempt to get the BPU, who “regualtes” it, to do something. Ten months of frustration get fixed in one day due to Jim’s recitation. Everyone was falling all over themselves to get out of the limelight.

Lessons Learned: (1) Involve Jim sooner in your plight. Maybe eventually he’ll run for guv! (2) Recognize that the cozy relationship between the regulator and the regulated has NOTHING to do with satisfying you the taxpaying consumer. (3) There is no free market in regulated services. Just as we identify a tax by whether or not you can avoid it (i.e., tax unavoidable / fee avoidable), so to we can identify a free market as one in which you have a choice (i.e., any choice no matter how absurd or unpallitable is at least a choice). The interesting question is: If the gubamint madates that I have no choice, is that not in effect a tax? Sure seems that way to me.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: “FREE TO CHOOSE” … … about the proper role of gubamint!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8058189042056883618&q=free+to+choose

Now hte internet is really demonstrating it’s power. Here’s a snapshot of Milton Freedman and in 1980 discussion predicts pretty accurately the expansion of government into all sectors and the loss of freedom we would suffer. True true.

I especially liked his description of the fate of minorities in elections. Everyone is force to conform to the majority. Where in the marketplace everyone is uniquely satisfied. He correctly finds that gubamint “takes over” corporations and politicians then “milk” them for contributions.

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MONEY: Well got another lesson in estate planning …

Monday, August 21, 2006

… a friend dies with an estate, and the NJ state grave robbers will take 15%. When will people realize that this is grave side robbery. Proper estate planning should result in the deceased leaving nothing for the state to tax. Arghh, give it away, spend it, buy gold coins, whatever!

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Another gubamint lie! You have some control … right.

Monday, August 21, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/2ufb8

NYTimes.com > New York Region
For Benjamin Miles, 4, in Brooklyn, pushing for a green light is fun. But does it work? That’s another story.
For Exercise in New York Futility, Push Button
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: February 27, 2004

***Begin Quote***

For years, at thousands of New York City intersections, well-worn push buttons have offered harried walkers a rare promise of control over their pedestrian lives. The signs mounted above explained their purpose:

To Cross Street
Push Button
Wait for Walk Signal
Dept. of Transportation

Millions of dutiful city residents and tourists have pushed them over the years, thinking it would help speed them in their journeys. Many trusting souls might have believed they actually worked. Others, more cynical, might have suspected they were broken but pushed anyway, out of habit, or in the off chance they might bring a walk sign more quickly.

As it turns out, the cynics were right.

***End Quote***

It’s a small thing, but at the same time, a  huge example.

Push the button, citizen! And we in the government will respond. Fooled you again sucker.

Can you ever envision WalMart doing that? No, they have phones around the store. Ever call one? An associate or a manager comes pretty promptly. Even KMart, has such a system.

Ever call teh gubamint? Yeah, that’s a snooze. Most people would rather go for root canal than endure that.

Small fib these sings? Yup.

BUT, part of the big lie!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: Getting organized … used the ACRONIS disk utility to create a “data” drive

Sunday, August 20, 2006

I am getting organized. I’ve created a partition for my E drive and have begun moving all MY files to that drive. If I create it, then it’ll be there. Easy to backup.

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Posted by reinkefj

GUNS: “ballistic fingerprinting” is barabara striesand

Saturday, August 19, 2006

http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=152684

Straight shooting for better gun laws
By James Alan Fox
Monday, August 14, 2006
***Begin Quote***

What is so wrong with ballistic fingerprinting Sure, I’ve heard the argument that gun barrels can be replaced or modified. As a parallel to actual fingerprinting, criminals sometimes wear gloves or alter their fingertips, but that doesn’t discourage us from collecting this kind of forensic evidence.

***End Quote***

Immoral, ineffective, and inefficient

Immoral – RKBA! If there is a “right” to bear arms, then you can not do ANYTHING that infringes on that right. Fees, licensing, and “fingerprinting” are all infringements. You have no basis to do it.

Ineffective – Gathering data is inherently error prone. Gathering data by the gubamint is a joke in terms of accuracy. Who keeps all this data? When the gubamint collects the guns prior to genocide, all this data tells them where to go.

Inefficient – It has been shown that shooting as few as one hundred rounds changes the ballistic fingerprint. If ammo is a a few cents per round, then everyone can change their profile by a quick trip to the range. Hey and here’s a flash! Criminals don’t obey laws. So they won’t be submitting fingerprints voluntarily — personal or ballistic.

It’s a giant waste!

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Posted by reinkefj

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