December 11, 2008
Another Google Chrome problem
I have been using DropBox and love it. unfortunately it doesn’t support chrome. So the updates were not happening. The Dropbox forum says that your default browser has to be IE or FireFox to have sync working. I switch back to FireFox and sync works. Sorry Chrome.
Posted by Martin at 6:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2008
Second Chrome bug
I have been watching alot of stuff on Hulu. It uses Adobe Flash player. Hulu plays fine on Firefox under vista. It finds the right speakers and plays videos. In Chrome, the video plays and the audio is silent. There is no place I can find to reset where the audio is going to. In Chrome, the regular windows sounds work, as does Pandora. Maybe it has something to do with the interaction between Hulu and Chrome which I haven't figured out yet. Back to Firefox.
Posted by Martin at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 9, 2008
My first Chrome bug
Well, other than the usual that many sites won't support it because it is not identified as IE or Firefox. That isn't so bad, because if you say go ahead anyway, Chrome does a fine job. No this one is on evite. When you click on "add to my Outlook Calendar", it tries to open an evite.vcs file. Chrome opens the file in a browser window and shows you the plain text (the wrong answer). Firefox gives you an "open with" prompt suggesting MS Outlook (the right answer). Not a bad bug and I bet with poking around in configuration I could fix it, but that is a bit of a rookie mistake.
Posted by Martin at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 6, 2008
was going to sign up for DocStoc but now am not
Read the fine print....
you agree that DOCSTOC is free to use such Submission for the purpose of providing you with the associated services and you grant DOCSTOC a sublicensable, nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to (in any media, whether now known or not currently known or invented) link to, utilize, use, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, distribute, modify and prepare derivative works of the Submission.
I just want somewhere to store and sync my files. I don't want to grant a license...
Die docstoc
Posted by Martin at 8:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 30, 2008
removing software
Vista running slow again. Time to ditch stuff
ditching the following apps:
Ask.com toolbar (never use, don 't know how it got installed)
apple mobile device support (don't have an iphone)
apple software update (never use apple software)
Auction Lizard 3.2 (never used)
Analytics reporting suite beat 3.1 from Boulevart (what? no idea what this is)
bonjour apple. What is this?
Deduper 1.2 from Topalt. Crap application, doesn't work.
Doomi, never used
Ecto for Windows (still using w.bloggar for free thank you.)
Google toolbar for IE. I never use IE. I use the google sidebar.
go to meeting, go to webinar. will install again if i use service
Symantec live update (moved to AVG)
Norton security scan (moved to AVG)
quicklist (never used)
Speed Meter Pro (didn't activate, didn't provide enough value to pay for copy, it should be free)
Symantec Antivirus (moved to AVG)
reboot. Still slow, working on other problems.
Posted by Martin at 1:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 6, 2008
I have a rentacoder job
bid on it here download the NDA here
Posted by Martin at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 22, 2007
Safari easy install
So I start up Safari on Windows for the first time. It takes me to Apple home page of course (annoying), but SteveJ curiously does not ask me to import my preferences from Firefox or any other browser. I am used to windows programs asking that. At first I think he missed the opportunity and i am pissed. Then i poke around in the bookmarks and there are two new folders, "imported IE bookmarks" and "imported Firefox bookmarks". Thanks Stevej. Also in there are a BUNCH of pre-set bookmarks which I don't want, but that is how Steve J is paying the bills.
Posted by Martin at 7:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 21, 2007
Downloading Safari for Windows
Apple - Download - Thank you. I ditched IE about three years ago and never miss it except on Microsoft only sites and Sharepoint where they have the back-end tie in. I love Firefox. But it is not as professional as Safari. I hope SteveJ didn't put too many ads and iTunes crap in there that make it unusable.
Posted by Martin at 4:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 25, 2005
Norton and Microsoft hate each other (still)
So I come back from two weeks on vacation and boot up one of my home desktops, a Sony Vaio. Everyone wants to update. Fer Chrissakes, it has been two weeks since we have seen our daddy! What a bunch of children these programs are. Usually thes update run smooth. But this time Norton tried to pull a fast one. I switched from the Norton personal firewall to the Microsoft XP firewall about six months ago. When Symentac went out to update it's virus files (expected) it also turned back on the Norton firewall without any warning. Well, ok, i can't say for sure there was no warning as I was just clicking through the screens as fast as possible since every program wanted to update itself. They could have stuck it in somewhere, but I didn't notice. Half an hour later my machine froze. The keyboard and mouse stopped working. The system clock in the lower right was stuck on 4:34pm. No amount of pounding on the screen changed anything. I lost a two page blog entry in the hard reboot. I figured it was a fluke so I didn't change anything. After dinner it froze again at 7:13pm. I disabled the Norton Firewall and installed WebRoot SpySweeper just for good measure. But it was Norton and Microsoft fighting it out I am sure.
Posted by Martin at 7:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 3, 2004
Another site with IE lock-in against FireFox
Many financial institutions are using higher levels of security. Today I found out that my bank, CSFB requires IE. CSFB Private Client Services - Login. Firefox doesn't have the right Java implementation (the Msft extended one). OOps.
Posted by Martin at 9:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
Firefox bests Netscape in browser share
From my server logs on DGC:
Firefox 7%, Netscape 6.3%.
wow.
Browsers (Top 10) - Full list/Versions - Unknown
Browsers Hits Percent
Unknown ? 22959 41.5 %
MS Internet Explorer18617 33.6 %
FireFox No 3883 7 %
Netscape No 3486 6.3 %
Mozilla No 3166 5.7 %
NetNewsWire 1516 2.7 %
Safari No 799 1.4 %
LibWWW No 354 0.6 %
Opera No 240 0.4 %
Konqueror 99 0.1 %
Others 197 0.3 %
Posted by Martin at 8:58 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 16, 2004
Removing TightVNC
TightVNC is a failure from usability perspective. I am deleting it.
Posted by Martin at 7:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 4, 2004
Problems with BlueBeat
Ok, I am running so many different spy, spam, firewall, and virus programs that it is becoming a pain in the ass to figure out what is blocking what. But I figured out one thing. Norton Security Suite blocks BlueBeat player. I went through all the programs turning them off one at a time to get the BlueBeat player to work. Norton is the one that was blocking. I was only running the ad blocking, privacy and virus, not their firewall (using the XP firewall). So there must be something in the cookie handling. I tried adding Bluebeat to the allowed sites and configuring Norton, but gave up. I guess I could keep trying to allow it, but I just turned it off. Now naked without virus detection. The price I will pay for 320 kbps digital music!
Posted by Martin at 9:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 2, 2004
The problem with VNC at home
Ok,
have been trying TightVNC. I installed the server on one WinXP Home edition Pc and started it as a service. Installed the viewer (and server) on my laptop on the LAN as well. The laptop found the server just fine using the internal IP address assigned by the Watchgaurd firewall. Unfortunately I have Comcast without a fixed IP address. Comcast won't allow any FTP, Ping, or any type of traffic to the IP address of my firewall. So I can't even open a port to allow the traffic through to the TightVNC server. So unless I want to buy a fixed IP address from Comcast, I can't run the software. That is too large a barrier for most home users. The solution has to work without having to provision anything from your broadband provider.
Still looking.
Posted by Martin at 8:26 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
considering remote desktop software and services
Thanks Steve for: Northwest VC: Great tool for home network. Over the last two years I have looked at many options for "what is next after IP Sec VPNs". I took a hard look at all the SSL VPN companies out there. Ended up not doing any investments in part because I thought it was a small market already with alot of companies (when I started) and in part because I couldn't get jazzed about the thickness of the value the SSL VPN companies were putting on top of standard SSL. The other issue is that what you got was a web access portal to your applications and desktop. This causes you to have to write alot of web virtualization for different applications. In many ways it was more work for the VPN vendor than standard IPSEC VPN software.
Then there is the whole idea of hosted solutions. Like Aventail and Go2MyPC. There are new ones coming out. What I am looking for is some technical invention in this market. Something that is defensible and makes a 10X improvement on some key feature. Like speed, managability, etc. Making it on cost only is not enough.
Over the next couple weeks I will also try out all the VNC options built on open source like UltraVNC and TightVNC. You may even put endpoint P2P solutions like Grouper in this camp.
I think this is about more than virtualizing a certain specific set of features (like file sharing and IM) or about remote desktop access. What I really want is a virtual network connection that will work over any IP connection that I have regardless of the firewall/configuration between me and the destination. I want that connection to be secure and look just like another local network connection inside the firewall. I want all my desktop applications to work exactly the same without any new interface. Nirvana eh?
Posted by Martin at 7:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2004
Ameritrade another site broken by Firefox
Ameritrade requires IE or Netscape to run it's Streamer application. Probably due to requiring a signed browser. Bummer for Firefox. I guess I gotta keep IE around.
Posted by Martin at 2:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 8, 2004
The power of combo media
Received this e-mail from factcheck.org today:
The site received 5X the normal traffic right after Cheney mentioned it (incorrectly) during the debate. In the room I was watching it, maybe half the people were on their laptops while watching. Truly powerful merged media!
FactCheck Upgrades Service
10.08.2004
Well, we never expected that to happen!
As nearly everybody now knows, Vice President Cheney's reference to "factcheck.com" at the debate Oct. 5 touched off an avalanche of publicity and new visitors to our site. Our University of Pennsylvania server was overwhelmed. The number of visitors during the 24 hours after the debate reached five times our previous peak volume, and we have no idea how many tried to get on the site and failed.
We have now contracted with Boot Networks, a California company, to handle the hosting of FactCheck.org. The switchover began Thursday, Oct. 7. The content of the site will of course remain under the control of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, as always.
Visitors should notice that pages now load much more quickly. We are assured that visitors should be able to reach the site even at times of unusually high volume.
However, some features will be unavailable for a time. The "search" function is temporarily disabled, as is the "e-mail to a friend" feature. Streaming video of TV ads is not available. We are working to restore all these features as quickly as possible. In the meantime, our core content should be fully available.
We apologize for any inconvenience, and we thank you for your patience as we work through these "growing pains."
--Brooks Jackson
Director, FactCheck.org
Posted by Martin at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 7, 2004
Deleting more software
I have been a big proponent of Zone Labs Zone Alarm Pro. I bought the product and a subscription to their service. Unfortunately as I had predicted, Microsoft in XP SP2 has put enough firewall function for free that I no longer need Zone Alarm Pro. Also about the same time that I installed SP2, my subscription for Zone Alarm Pro ran out. I like subscription models for software. But they need to have a graceful degredation at the end of the subscription. What I expect is that all the features and functions that I had during the time I was paying I keep. What I don't get is the updates. That is not what happens at the end of Zone Alarm. Key features like program authorizations for internet connections stop working. This pissed me off. I would have uninstalled it on that principal alone. Looks like they sold out just in time.
Posted by Martin at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Write your congress to vote against teh Induce Act
The media companies are at it again. Tech firms rally against copyright bill | CNET News.com Trying to legislate their way into a continued monopoly by moving the liability bar for infringement WAY up the stack to anyone who enables any part of copywrite infringement. Here is the relevant test:
(g)(1) In this subsection, the term `intentionally induces' means intentionally aids, abets, induces, or procures, and intent may be shown by acts from which a reasonable person would find intent to induce infringement based upon all relevant information about such acts then reasonably available to the actor, including whether the activity relies on infringement for its commercial viability.
`(2) Whoever intentionally induces any violation identified in subsection (a) shall be liable as an infringer.
The act would create a whole new category of "infringers". Basically ANY technology company that touches anything. This is bad for the venture capital, bad for innovation and bad for the economy in general. The tech business is driving economic growth, not the media business. Why shut off growth to protect a legacy monopoly? Bad policy.
I hope Kerry comes out with his "wrong bill at the wrong time" speech as forcefully as he has been talking about the Iraq war. The Induce Act actually has as much potential to impact the future economic growth prospects of this country as the war in Iraq. It is that important.
Write your congressmen. Oppose this act.
Posted by Martin at 8:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 28, 2004
Moving to Firefox
I am tired of comments not working in IE on MT so I am moving to Firefox. Get Firefox. I am also tired of the spyware holes and security issues and am looking for new features. I hear that Firefox has an interesting RSS implementation and look forward to that. The install was painless, but Firefox didn't import my bookmarks correctly so I gotta edit something to make them grab the URL correctly for the MT poster. Any Firefox experiences out there?
Posted by Martin at 10:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 17, 2004
DSL closes the gap on Cable in Q2
For some time I have been waiting for the Nasty Baby Bells to get into the broadband act in a serious way. It seems like last quarter they did. In fact they added more subs than cable during the quarter bringing down the ratio of cable/dsl to 1.6:1. Lots of people have picked cable as the winner. I actually prefer DSL due to the higher upload speeds, but the cost of Cable is quite compelling. I don't like sharing my bandwidth either. I guess since the Nasty Babies have driven everyone else out of their networks, they think the coast is clear to start trying to make some money. Funny behavior.
"Providers of DSL added 895,000 subs in the quarter while cable operators added 831,000, LRG said. Cable now accounts for about 17.5 million subs in the country, while DSL boasts a little more than 11.1 million." From the Hollywood Reporter.
Posted by Martin at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 9, 2004
My virus woes in USA Today
Posted by Martin at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 22, 2004
Thoughts on Identity
I have been thinking about identity managementy systems lately. I asked one of my trusted sources on such things, Eric Lindvall. He had some good pointers and thoughts about user/server authentication...
don't know if you've found these, but they're somewhat helpful
different points of view:
http://www.cryptonomicon.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=631
http://www.pgp.com/company/ctocorner/
i assume you know about these guys:
http://www.voltage.com/technology/ibe.htm
if you're ready for some heavy reading, this hase some interesting
ideas:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2003/HPL-2003-18.pdf
this is a general interesting list of whitepapers:
http://itpapers.zdnet.com/search.aspx?cid=22&tag=tu.sc.ont.dir1&x=40
what are people going to use encryption for?
is it ever going to come to a point that the email that goes between
my mother and i is encrypted? even if it were just clicking a button
on and off, would it even be worth doing?
it's just my general impression that people don't seem to feel they
have much to hide in general, and i would have to think part of that
is because they don't.
would the world be a safer place if everything was encrypted? likely,
but i don't think that it'll really happen until it's just an
automatic feature in hotmail (where it detects that you're talking
with someone who accepts encrypted email and automatically turns it
on).
the only problem with that, is that if you don't have the user
conciously aware that they are using encrypted data (if you don't
require extra or more stringent passwords to get at your private key,
etc) it basically defeats the purpose of most of the encryption: if
you can just type in the name of their dog as their password and get
into their email, which automatically shows you the decrypted versions
of their emails, what good did it do that it was encrypted?
so.. things are marginally improved -- people can't sniff email in
transit and see everyone's messages. so that's good.. but.. i don't
know who will pay for that incremental improvement.
e.
Posted by Martin at 1:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2004
Another tatic against Spyware
Props to Rich for : Tong Family Blog: Dummy Files for Spyware. The concept is simple, you want to use applications that are funded by spyware? Just replace the files that actually do the bad work with ones that don't do anything bad and trick the application into believing it is whole when it is not! Great idea!
Posted by Martin at 9:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 12, 2004
Wow that was fast Cisco
Just days after Gartner blasted Cisco for not having enough security in the network, Cisco to buy security start-up
The company is putting down $5 million in cash to acquire tiny Twingo Systems for its technology designed to protect corporate networks from weak spots (the end point devices activity logs) in remote access. Twingo basically has a client that cleans up a device after an SSL VPN session so that any cookies, passwords, or cache data from the session is erased after sign-off. Neat little trick.
Posted by Martin at 8:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New approach to light-weight identity
Tried PKI type authentication systems? Fun huh? What if you could enter some simple piece of information like your e-mail name and get authenticated to the same level. Without a big set-up routine? Now you can with Welcome to Voltage Security, Inc.
The basic approach of Identity based authentication versus certificate identification is to basically match some personal characteristics about you (either through questions, or stored) against a trusted database (like your credit history). Given enough data points you can approach authentication and validation levels of PKI. Some even say surpass. Especially when you start asking questions that are VERY hard to spoof like: What is the current balance of your Visa card? What are your two last addresses? What are the last three purchases on your Amex? Transaction based information is the hardest for a criminal to get. Profile information, even things like social security numbers, are actually pretty easy to get. My last three credit card purchases are hard to get. And they change frequently.
I have a feeling that these kind of identy systems are much more the future of authentication than certificate models.
Posted by Martin at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2004
Cisco slammed by Gartner...
Cisco was slammed by Gartner this week for not doing enough to manage malicious packets. Gartner claims that 30% of all packets traversing the net are of some malicious nature, spam, virus, or intrusions. That number actually surprised me. I guess it shouldn't since way over 50% of all e-mail is SPAM. Gartner points out that since Cisco probably touches nearly every packet on the internet, they could be doing a much better job of filtering. Hummmm.....
Posted by Martin at 8:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 10, 2003
Another game security entry
I posted about the issue of cheating at on-line games earlier this year and the CEO of SecurePlay Software for Game Developers (Flash/ Java) with Cheating Protection e-mailed me chime in about his product. Wow, this blog thing actually works!
The SecurePlay approach is much harder to get to market though. It is an SDK that game developers need to buy and integrate into development. The PunkBuster approach is much easier to sell (and buy) because they write agents per game. If you are playing a certain game, get the punkbuster for that game and you have something that monitors for all the common cheats. I have got to believe that a client software that knows more about the specific game you are playing would be better at detecting cheats. Also, as a player, I may want something that I buy on my side that is doing the checking. Just because a game developer tells me his game is safe, do I believe him?
There are alot of ways to cheat. Not all of them detectable by a computer. For example, player collusion against the house. How does the house know that two players have an IM session open and are sharing information? Or are on the phone together? SecurePlay does have a helpful guide to many of the traditional ways to cheat a game in the physical world and their translation to the computer world.
Posted by Martin at 9:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack