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Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally - New York Times

The New York Times has an interesting article about cellphone jammers that are used illegally and clandestinely in certain businesses.

As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half a conversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels is turning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent.

The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States — prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation.

This is interesting. If nothing else, this article is probably going to raise awareness that these devices exist. It makes me want to buy or borrow one just to play around with it. See the full article.

Windows Is Free (A TLUG Article)

Software piracy of Microsoft Windows operating systems is probably pretty prevalent among geeks and non-geeks. It's illegal and arguably immoral, but many people do it anyhow with various excuses. Dave Gutteridge wrote a detailed and convincing argument that piracy of Windows is not only helping Microsoft's software get adopted, but it is also likely hindering the adoption of Linux and/or other open source operating systems.

A recent column on Zdnet, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, discussed the reasons why people won't change from a retail operating system to a free one. The implication is that Linux can't even give away their software.

That sounds pretty dire. Windows retails for around 200 US dollars, give or take depending on which version and where you buy. If the above statement by Mr. Kingsley-Hughes was true, it means that Linux is so bad that people would gladly pay 200 dollars to avoid it. Do users really think Linux is that lame?

This article is not to defend Linux and counter the points that Mr Kingsley-Hughes made. Instead, the intention here is to simply use his article as a starting point to discuss in depth an issue which, so far as I've ever seen, is missing almost entirely from the debate over Windows versus Linux versus Mac.

Mr Kingsley-Hughes gives five essential points to explain what is so bad about Linux that it can't even succeed for free. On the whole, users aren't all that dissatisfied with Windows (I agree). Too many different versions of Linux (I sort of agree). People want certainty that hardware and software will work (I agree that's what people want, but I don't read the situation the same way that Mr Kingsley-Hughes does). As far as most people are concerned, the command line has gone the way of the dinosaur (It has for me, I love the GUIs. But, I'll get into this more below). Linux is still too geeky (Linux developers are still too geeky, sure. I totally agree that the people mainly developing and advocating Linux often don't see users' needs the way users see their needs.)

All the above reasons have some truth in them, but consider how the price comparison makes those points seem so much worse.

Want to read the whole article? It's longish, but important enough and the subject matter complex enough to need the detailed examples, anectdotes and explanations. Go read Windows Is Free (A TLUG Article).

WorldWideWeb - The Birth?

There has been a long historical debate on when the Internet first came about. The first thing you have to do to keep it very straight is to define the terms and whether the debate is talking about the first network, the "World Wide Web" or the larger Internet. Since so many people at all levels of expertise use these terms interchangeably --and their organic terms anyhow-- it can get difficult and confusing.

However, there was a moment on a usenet message board system where an expert in these matters named Tim Berners-Lee first outlined and proposed the WorldWideWeb as a project. Thanks largely to the fact that these mailing lists have been archived in many places, including Google Groups, we can go back and see the message as it was first posted, typos and all.

The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system.

The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by support groups.

Read the full message on WorldWideWeb Summary.

Blogger Templates: S08

For fun, I just switched to a different template. To download the same template, go to Blogger Templates: S08. What do I think so far?

Pros: It's beautiful. It's kinda reminiscent of flickr's color scheme. It's fluid and modern at the same time. It has a fixed, non-scrolling background.

Cons: It's heavily reliant on transparent PNG image files, which do not work so well in Internet Explorer v6.0. If the site's columns have a white on gray look to you, this is caused by this issue.

What do you think?

Cylo 3style 3D Mouse

All I can really say here? NEAT!

A demo video showing the main applications of the Cylo 3style mouse. The mouse provides rotational input for scrolling, 3D, media and gaming. The 3style mouse is free moving in 3 axes and replaces all mouse functionality. See www.cylo.com.au for more info.

See the video again at YouTube - Cylo 3style 3D Mouse.

Answer From Blogger

Well, this was not the answer I was hoping for, but it was what I expected.

From: support@blogger.com Blogger Help
To: arcojedi
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:40:30 -0600
Subject: Re: Permissions

Hi there,

Thanks for writing in. To move a blog to another account on the new version of Blogger you will need to invite yourself or someone else to join the blog. To do this, go to the Settings | Permissions tab, click on the "Add Authors" button, enter the email address of the person you would like the blog to be moved to and click "Invite". An invitation will then be sent to the email address you provided. Open this email invitation, click on the link to join the blog, and enter the Google Account username and password that you want the blog moved to. You should then see the blog on the dashboard of that account. You will then have to login to your other Blogger account and add your second account as an admin member of the blog by clicking on "Guest" from the Settings | Permissions tab.

Please note that currently you will be unable to remove yourself as a member of the blog if you are the owner of the blog. We appreciate your patience as we continue to improve Blogger.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Original Message Follows:

---

From: <arcojedi@____.com>
Subject: Permissions
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:09:51 -0800

Hello,

I am attempting to transfer the ownership of this blog to someone else. This is a blog on blogspot and we both are under new blogger.

We are attempting to follow the instructions here - http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41448 - and I have successfully added Scott as an admin. However, when he attempts to remove me by following these instructions here - http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41465 - he is unable to do so. Please see the following post with screenshot to understand the issue more clearly. http://techlifeblogged.blogspot.com/2007/02/plans-awry.html

If there is any way that this could be addressed, we'd appreciate it. I would be happy even if the blog were deleted and added to his account. Just so long as no one else (e.g. a spammer) were to nab it in the interim, this would not be a problem.

The documentation help files are outdated as of the new version of Blogger. This is an issue that has been discussed on the Blogger Help Group several times. http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-howdoi/search?group=blogger-help-howdoi&q=How+do+I+move+a+blog+between+accounts%3F&qt_g=Search+this+category If you could address this specific to my issue and make sure it is listed under known issues and addressed, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!
::Jim

Oh well. What can I expect? It's free, right?