The Ultimate Monitor

Liebermann Inc. a Los Angeles based company announced their new four monitor display called the 'Grand Canyon Display'. The company claims it is the 'largest, highest image quality and highest resolution LCD displays in the world.' With monitor sizes up to 92', and maximum resolutions at 6400x1200 pixels.

Now the problem, a four-monitor, 92' display costs $17499.99.

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Stupid Computer Products

Winner: USB Coffee Cup Warmer

Yes, I am not joking someone created a USB coffee cup warmer. This device originated in Japan, and now has made it into the US. Apparently, the device only works on pre-heated liquids (such as: coffee, tea, etc..), it also lacks a real heating element. It uses the heat generated by two voltage regulators to keep coffee warm.

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Check this out...

Fun w/floppies: "How to make a starship enterprise out of an old floppy disk"

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VeriSign's SiteFinder

On September 15th, 2003 VeriSign inserted wildcard resolvers into their top level DNS root servers (.com and .net domain names) that forces all unregistered or mistyped domain names resolve to VeriSign's SiteFinder search engine. The biggest problem with this change is that it breaks the reverse-DNS lookup verification process used by mail servers to insure that incoming mail is coming from a valid domain. The other problem is that it violates the way that DNS is suppose to work.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser does something similar when you type a non-existent domain name, it will redirect you to the MSN site to assist you in finding the site you're looking for. This feature can be annoying for advanced Internet users, but novice users it might actually be of some benefit.

Note: If you run BIND 8 on your DNS servers, you can patch them to work around this problem.

The Aftermath
On September 19th, 2003 ICANN created the following advisory. On September 23th, 2003 VeriSign responded to the public outcry over the SiteFinder service.

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Cheap 802.11 Antenna

You may have seen projects that make 802.11 antennas out of Pringles and coffee cans. Now you can learn how to make a 802.11 antenna from an old floppy disk and a paper clips.

WiFi Speed Spray

Do you live in a polluted environment? If so, you've probably experienced data transfer slow-down. Then WiFi Speed Spray™ can overcome the effects of pollution, increase fidelity, and provide you with the fastest wireless data transfer possible. Approved by the FCC, and 802.11b compliant! Compatible with Windows and most versions of Linux.

(Read the fine print...)

Mr. Security Says Patch Your System NOW!

Microsoft has announced some newly discovered vulnerabilities in the Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. These vulnerabilities are similar to those leveraged by the MSBlast (Lovesan) worm that crippled many systems across the Internet a few weeks ago. This patch (MS03-039) is a available at their website:

Industry experts believe that it is only a matter of days before a virus exploiting these vulnerabilities appears. It is strongly recommended that you download the patch and install it on your personal computer(s) at home. Note: Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME users are not affected by these vulnerabilities and users with these operating systems DO NOT need to download and install the patch.

There is also another situation that needs your attention. There has been a rash of hoax and virus-containing email messages making their rounds for the past few days, focusing on the theme of the September 11 attacks. These messages should be deleted without forwarding or opening the attachments. One in particular, which mentions a WTC Survivor virus, is a hoax and has been circulating for over a year. Please do not forward it to anyone.

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RIAA vs. A 12-year-old girls

I believe that RIAA has the right to protect the Intellectual Property of the artists it represents. I don't agree with their recent tactics of suing file swappers, but it is means to an end (I guess).

Although now, I think they have stepped across line of overzealous enforcement, on Tuesday (09/09/2003) the RIAA sued a 12-year-old girl in a New York city housing project on the Upper West Side. The girl was wrong for sharing the copyrighted material, but forcing her mother to pay $2,000 fine, then having to apologize and admit that her daughter's actions violated U.S. copyright laws is very excessive in my opinion.

Check out Boycott-RIAA.com for more information.

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Checkout These New Products:

- HP's ScanJet 4670 digital flatbed scanner (Q3122A), it is very cool looking. It features, vertical see-thru scanning. ($199 US)

- Lexmark PrintTrio Photo P3150, the features include:
- Built-in memory card readers that accepts CompactFlash I & II, Memory Stick, Multimedia, Secure Digital, SmartMedia and Microdrive
- Borderless, 6-color inks for professional photo prints and copies
- Host-based black, white and photo copies. Reprint your favorite photos with the push of a button.
- 48-bit CIS flatbed color scanner easily handles books, traditional photographs and more
- Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi on photo paper; up to 2400 x 1200 dpi on all other paper types
- All this for only $99 US...

Note: I am only mentioning these and other products in my blog because I like the features that they have to offer, and in no way am I endorsing them.

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Cool Sites

Free Classic E-books:
- Planet PDF
- Project Gutenberg

Miscellaneous Sites/Products:
- Whacky Japanese TV Skits: I am pretty sure that some of a these videos are destined to be Internet cult classics.
- Digital spy camera: This digital camera is so small that it will fit on a keyring. Note: I am pretty sure it will cause some privacy issues (can you say, 'Camera Phone').
- Insultingly stupid movie physics: Only a true geek will like this site...

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Another Free OS Alternative...

SkyOS (http://skyos.org/) a free operating system for x86 PCs. Features include multiprocessor support (SMP), virtual memory, memory protection, multitasking and threading, and much more. The minimum requirements for installing SkyOS are: Pentium, 32MB RAM, VESA compatible video card, and a bootable device.

Water-Cooled PC

If your planning to overclock your PC, you might want to consider using a water-cooling system. Water-cooling systems are very quiet and keep the temperature of your CPU and other component in your case much cooler than adding a few fans to your heat sink. The main problems with the technology is that it is more expensive then fans, and you have to run plumbing inside your case.

For more information check out:
- Koolance, they sell an external cooling system that costs about $230 US.

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Things that make you hum...
Interesting set of photos of a tow boat hitting a bridge and surviving...

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In the news:
The worm at the heart of the Big Apple
How the MSBlast worm MAY have contributed to the East Coast blackout. [Interesting article]

Phantom.net
This is suppose to be a new gaming console, but a great deal of people are saying it is fake. The site is very elaborate, although it is amazing how much publicity it has generating for a product that is not even real. I know companies that would kill to get this publicity.

Are we Ready for Ternary or Quaternary logic
For several decades all digital computers have used binary logic (1s and 0s) as its base logic. Now that transistors are getting smaller and smaller, they are getting harder and harder to produce. Chip-makers around the world are looking at ways expand the base logic of microchips beyond two. [Interesting article, but technical]

Cool sites:
Webby Awards
Web sites that have won awards for being the best site in the category.

National Weather Service
Free weather information without ads.

SayItBaby.com
Allows you to send someone a personal or anonymous video message...

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Throwing out the baby with the bath water...

Over the last few weeks, there have been some funny situations and quotes in the news, here were two that I found very humorous:

1. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) now blames text-messaging for helping bad movie fail more quickly at the box office. In the olden days (only just a few years ago), it use take a fews days for word-of-mouth to spread that a certain movie was bad. So, the theaters were able to get a few good days of screen play before people wouldn't come to see the movie any more. Now, people have their new fangled cell phones and can instant message their friends while watching the movie and tell them its a stinker.

In my humble opinion, text messaging cell phones are not the problem. If a movie flops too quickly at the box, I think the blame should fall on movie industry for making a bad movie.

2. Now, anyone who uses Microsoft Windows knows how stable and secure their OS and applications? Well, Scott Charney, Microsoft's chief security strategist, told a group of developers at the TechEd 2003 conference in Brisbane that information collected from Dr Watson (MS error reporting tool), revealed that "half of all crashes in Windows are caused not by Microsoft code, but third-party code."

Isn't that great news to know that Microsoft is only responsible for half of all your system crashes? Whew, I know that I can now breath a sigh of relief. Now, we can start blaming third party developers for the other half of your crashes.

Companies needs to get a clue and start fixing the real problems, and stopping finding someone or something else to blame!

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A new reason to patch your computer...

Microsoft recently release a new cumulative patch (MS03-032) for the Internet Explorer browser. This patch fixes several new and existing exploits in the IE browser. This patch has been marked as 'Critical' by Microsoft, so I would highly recommend that you and yours upgrade.

If you want to take this whole process to the next level, I would recommend going to the WindowsUpdate site and upgrade to all the latest patch there.

Happy safe computing...

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New RIO MP3 Players

Rio is about to introduced two new MP3 players. I know this doesn't sound very interesting, but these players have some awesome new features.

The first product is called 'Nitrus' (it will retail for about $300 US), the cool thing about this player is that it has a built-in 1-inch 1.5GB hard drive, and it is very small. The second player is called 'Karma' (it will retail for about $400 US), it offers 20GB hard drive, an Ethernet port, RCA stereo output ports, and can play music from your computer to through the Karma and into your stereo.

Both of these devices are have long battery life (about 16+ hours), great sound, and supports a few different CODECs including some open-source ones. Both devices can play following digital audio formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, and OGG.

Note: As far as I know the devices are not for sale as of yet...

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Move Over MS03-026, its MS03-030 Turn

Well, you may have been one smart ones who patched your computer early and survived MSBlast worm without a problem. Now, you have to make sure your system is ready for next vulnerability (MS03-030) that may soon be exploited.

Microsoft patched this vulnerability On July 23, about the same time that it created the MS03-026 patch which prevents the MSBlast worm from infecting your computer. The security bulletin describes the patch as a "critical" vulnerability in DirectX. According to the Microsoft, unprotected systems can be exploited simply by playing a MIDI file or visiting a malicious web page.

The problem is in a DirectX component that relies in a library file called 'QUARTZ.DLL'. This DLL is used by several applications, including Internet Explorer to play MIDI files. All a malicious programmer has to do is a make a specially crafted MIDI file that can cause a buffer overflow error, which can allow an them to take control of your system, or cause some type of system damage

To protect yourself, do one of the steps below:

1. See the security bulletin: MS03-030 and download the patch for your version of Windows.

- OR -

2. Goto to the WindowsUpdate site install the latest patches.

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Cool Stuff Updates:

• If you're a Christian check out the following site, it is about Mel Gibson's new Passion Movie that should be coming out about easter. The movie is about the last 12 hours Jesus life before he was crucified. It looks really good and has a very high production value, check out the site for more information. Note: Mel Gibson produced the film and is not staring in it


• The Pulse Detonation Engine is the next generation air craft engine, that is suppose to replace the jet engine.


• Gamma-ray weapons are the next generation weapons that will replace some of our more conventional weapons.

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Sorry I have not posted recently, but I have not had time. But here is something to that I hope you find interesting...

Cool web sites that I found:
- Human Clock
- Industrious Clock
- Cool Text-to-Speech Sythnisizer
- XBox Emulator

Beware MSBLASTER Worm

Well, its finally here a worm that takes advantage of the security hole in Microsoft RPC (Remote Procedure Call) Interface. The Worm is called MSBLASTER.EXE (W32/Blaster). Several different security professionals have to prophesying the coming of this event for weeks.

Now, I have said it before, and I will say it again, if you use Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, or 2003 and not installed the Microsoft patch MS03-026, do it now!

This worm has already hit my mother and knocked her computer off the Internet. From what I have read about the problems she is experiencing, it failed to install itself on here computer. The problem is that it corrupts here ability to get online.

To protect yourself try following these suggestions:

1. Install a firewall at the perimeter of your network.
2. Update your anti-virus signatures.
3. Update your application and OS patches.

Inside MSBLASTER:
The way this worm works is that it tries to force an unprotected computer to download and execute a copy of a file called 'MSBLAST.EXE' from another compromised computer. When the application gets executed on the newly compromised host computer, it then begins scanning for other vulnerable systems to infect. One of the interesting feature of this worm is that it is suppose to include the ability to launch a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack against WindowsUpdate.com using the infected computers.

Coming Clean...
If your computer does become infected by the MSBLASTER Worm, then follow the steps below to remove the it.

1. Open RegEdit by typing "REGEDIT" at the Run... command.
2. Locate the following registry key: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run' and delete the following value: 'windows auto update'
3. From the Run... menu type following command delete the worm: "del %Windir%\system32\msblast.exe"
4. Open Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar, open up the Process tab. Find the 'msblast.exe' process, right-click it and select 'End Process'.
5. Patch your system with MS03-026.

Or, download one of the following removal tools:

- Symantec Removal Tool
- Trend Micro Removal Tool
- F-Secure Removal Tool
- Computer Associates Removal Tool
- McAfee/NAI Removal Tool

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