Tag: Technology

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Been a fast – slow week….

It’s been one of those weeks where the days fly by but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten anything accomplished.

On the plus side, I’ve gotten all the FexEx, UPS, & USPS shipments that I was expecting.

So now i’m good to go for the next shooting competition. I’m looking forward to it.

One of the other shipments was the new Apple TV 1080P I really like the machine a lot. There are a couple minor warts on it…

Hero appletv 2ndgen

Apple TV

On the Plus side, I like the new AirPlay feature. Even though I’m not using Lion I can realize some of the benefits.

The Netflix interface is one hell of a lot nicer than the Netflix interface in my DVD player. With the player, I have to answer 3 questions and wait for it to figure out that the network cable plugged into the back of the machine is live and that the network is really there and that netflix is really there… On & on.

With the Apple TV, selecting Netflix just displays a menu and you’re off & running. It’s very nice.

The only real annoyance I have with the Apple TV is at least in part, not apples fault. The problem is this; If you’re on a DSL connection trying to stream HD content from the Apple Cloud is really slow.

For example, It’s not at all uncommon for me to see wait times of 2 hours before the movie I want to watch is going to be playable.

If Verizon in their infinite mercy would put FIOS in the town, or if one of the cable companies would supply internet up here, this would probably not be an issue.  I’m still trying to figure out what kind of idol and religious ceremonies or animal sacrifices are necessary to get decent service out of Verizon. If anyone has suggestions leave them in the comments. 

Of course in Cuppertino where EVERYONE has access to blazing fast internet, it isn’t an issue.  I’m sure that the Apple Engineers or Apple Software Quality Assurance never saw any problems and probably never even considered the issue.

Ethernet Cable

However In the REAL world…  High speed internet DOES not exist everywhere.

Thats the part of the problem that is NOT Apples fault.

The part of the problem that is Apples fault is this;

If I have content that I’ve purchased, stored  on a Network attached storage device like Apples Time Capsule or another network hard drive from another manufacturer I can’t directly access that content with the Apple TV.

Yep, I can’t access that data that I own the rights to play unless I have a computer running iTunes turned on and pointed at the network storage device. (In this situation, computer can be an Apple Computer, iPhone, or iPad, or PC running iTunes).

So even if I have told my computer to download the video and stored it on my local network which my AppleTV has access to… I can’t just tell the Apple TV to play the movie. I have to leave my computer or some secondary device running…

My Xbox 360 doesn’t have a problem doing this… but It can’t play the Apple video data because of the damn DRM.

SO… Hey Apple! You’re not being very green! Why do I have to have a device that I’m not USING… turned on so that I can use another of your devices that I am using?

In point of fact… in this arrangement I might as well just plug my computer into my TV and use IT to watch the movies, and shows that I’ve rented, or purchased, and I can stream Netflix too.

After all… The HDMI connection works either way.

This little bug a boo is Seriously annoying to me. In fact, I consider it to be a MAJOR flaw in an otherwise very slick machine.

The Apple TV is a network device, it has full internet capability and it is obviously capable of checking the DRM status of any file it is asked to play. You can watch it do the check when you try to access a film or show from the cloud. So it shouldn’t be any big deal for the Apple Software engineers to add the feature.

I like the Apple TV enough that I’m not going to return it. When it’s out of warranty I’m going to hack the hell out of the bitch! Especially if Apple hasn’t figured out that Access to NAS devices is critical to the success of the device if they’re planning to capture the video market. I’m absolutely sure that some really smart folks are working on a modification even as I type this…

But First… I’m going to write a nice letter to Apple and explain why I think it would be best for them to add the function.

Given Apples attitude toward such suggestions I’m absolutely sure that they will promptly ignore and then lock the Apple TV up even further. But I can dream right?

Cloud Storage

Cloud

Having a slow internet connection from a single source in my town is one of the reasons that I’m not terribly interested in internet cloud storage that everyone and their brother is all excited about. iCloud, Amazon Cloud, dropbox, whatever…

For small files… sure it would probably work ok. For big files…. Like movies, music, or for large encrypted files… cloud storage is next to useless to me. Actually, cloud storage is beyond useless because I don’t have the patience or desire to wait for uploads or downloads.

It’s cheaper for me to throw another NAS device on my network than pay the yearly fees for increased storage that I may or may not be able to access depending on the vagaries of my internet provider.

This is why I have 5 TB of local network attached drive storage, and an additional 5 TB of portable USB dives.

I’m also not really sure that I want my stuff stored on the internet. We’ve already seen that banks and even the government can’t protect our personal data. Why should I think that cloud storage is going to be any different?

Maybe I’m being un-necessarily paranoid, but honestly there is stuff on my computer… well lets just say I don’t think I’d want it broadcast across the world wide web…

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CISPA Ahhh a rose by any other name, Is still a stinking pile…

First it was SOPA, and PIPA.

Now it’s CISPA.

People, this is classic government Bull Shit! One of the thnigs that you must remember about our governement is that the idiots running it are… well idiots! 

Having worked however briefly with the government, I can tell you one true thing. Projects, AKA Bad Ideas never die. They’re just recycled.

Politicians are inherently lazy. They’re not going to create anything new or original they’re going to pick up the tattered remains of some discarded bill. They’ll read about 10 lines of the summary, then they’ll put a new name on it, dress it up with some fancy new benefit and have it on the Senate floor again in a year.

“One Bill” Gill Cedillo is a great example of this. Except in his case he kept presenting the same bill over and over again in the House. He thought it was a good idea for illegal immigrants to have drivers licenses. Every year for 4 or 6 years he’d dust off this stupid bill and present it to the House.

One year is was about Safety, then Next years he said the illegals would get insurance, the next year he made the case that California would see increased registration fees, and so on. In every case his bill was voted DOWN because the people raised hell and in a loud voice told Sacramento HELL NO! 

The people saw that giving Drivers Licenses to illegal immigrants would make being here illegally seem more legitimate. 

The problem with politicians is that they keep presenting the same shit in a different Sunday Hat over and over again. After a while, we’ve all heard about some astoundingly bad idea and voted it down enough times that we think it’s a dead issue. When we turn our attention elsewhere… that’s when one of these moronic ideas gets through the House and Senate and becomes Law.

So it is with this new stupidity.

CISPA Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

First of all there are only a few organizations within our Government that have the technology and / or brain power to begin to worry about cybernetic data. They ALREADY share information and have since shortly after 911.

The real concern with this Act is much the same the same as it was with SOPA and PIPA OUR privacy. Unless you’re ready for an Orwellian future we all need to pay close attention to the erosion of our privacy.

The primary opposition for this incarnation of a Gee we’re the government you can trust us to spy on you act is that the controls for who is spyed on, where, when, and why are so weak. By WEAK I mean without warrant, or even probable cause.

Even President Obama who in my opinion has serious socialist leanings is against this particular act. He’s already stated publicly that he will not sign this into law. (Hey, even a broken clock is right 2 minutes a day.)

So for those who missed it the first time…

365 Orwell1984

CISPA Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

Allows for the routine monitoring of any corporation, or individual who the government may find of interest. This monitoring will be done with no warrants, and no judicial oversight.

Couple this with the concept that all it takes for you to BE a terrorist is for the President to SAY you are a terrorist.

The implication is obvious. If someone in the government were to decide that you were a bit too much of an activist or you were exposing criminal wrongdoing via a blog, email, YouTube, or other electronic means. (Think about the secret service scandal. )

The electronic evidence could and would be turned over to government representatives simply because they asked Google, AT&T or whoever. BOOM, suddenly you’re arrested for being a terrorist insurgent trying to undermine the United States. Oh and by the way,  the government would have all the evidence they needed to try, and convict you in a military court. Hope you like GITMO during hurricane season.

This act if passed would also circumvent the Wiretap act and Electronic Privacy act. Both of these acts were passed specifically to prevent this kind of abuse.

So get on the phone, get on email, post your opposition to your blogs, LIGHT UP THE CONGRESSIONAL SWITCHBOARD Demand to be heard.

Demand that your representative answer why suddenly they’re willing to undermine our freedoms? Why haven’t they repealed the Wiretap act and Electronic Privacy act if they now think that CISPA is the proper way to go?

Take control, make your representatives REPRESENT YOU!

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Another computer related Heads-Up

I dont’ mean to be a Mr techie in this blog but I can’t really help myself.

Especially when I know there are readers of the blog that are not technical and who might get hurt by nefarious people using computers to do bad shit.

This morning I got two bits of email that caught my attention.

Your Order Page 1 copy

This first one appeared to be from Dominos.

It looks pretty good except for a couple of mistakes.

The most obvious is that the time is wrong. I received the email at 8 am according to my email program but the order says it’s 11 am. This is a time zone issue.

The second problem is that that email they sent it to was never used for anything that might result in being added to a mailing list. And I don’t use that email address at all anymore.

The real sting for this one is that all the links that you’d click on to find out why you were being sent a pizza that you didn’t order, actually go to a web page that appears to be hosted in Thailand.

I can’t imagine why dominos would outsource their automated pizza order clearing to a server in Thailand.

The easiest way to check stuff like this is to put your mouse pointer over a button (HOVER) but DO NOT CLICK.

Often, your email program will display what the link address is. In this case hovering over the Click Here to Track displayed nnsg.osea2.go.th

Giving credit where credit is due, this is clever…

Think about it.

You didn’t order a pizza, so you think oops this is a mistake and you click to find out if the pizza is on the way or if you can cancel it.

Every single link on the page tracks back to the nnsg.osea2.go.th address.

I’m not listing the exact page, the image here is just a jpeg it’s not going to take you anywhere bad.

Email1 copy

The next email this morning is old school!

This one comes from an address that I don’t recognize, it’s got no subject line, and contains an RTF Word document.

Need I say DON’T Ever open email that looks like this. And NEVER open the attachment!

Without getting into the dirty underbelly of email headers and all that stuff that would probably make the average non, to moderately technical person bleed from their eyes. Let me just say this;

This email is wrong on a number of levels.

When I look at the header information I’m pretty sure this is a spoof. What that means is this.

The XXXXXXX@bellsouth.net email address has been grabbed by some evil fuck and is being used as a disguise.

XXXXXXX@bellsouth.net is probably a real email address. It’s probably someone who at this moment is getting a ton of angry emails from people that they don’t know. This is probably some person like you who’s just trying to get through their day without a lot of drama.

The RTF file looks like it’s got some suspicious code in it. I haven’t done an in depth analysis and don’t plan to.

It looks like the real point of origin is an old style yahoo email server. But I’m not even sure of that.

What I’m pretty sure of is that the originating server is somewhere in Asia I’m guessing Thailand.

I say this because BOTH of these emails track back to the same place.

Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

This center is actually located in Australia but would handle traffic for lots of places in Asia.

I’m betting that someone in the Australian center did some maintenance over the weekend or installed a new server and it’s security isn’t fully online. The Aussies are pretty good about minimizing spam and other nuisance email from passing through their servers. I’ll be sending examples of the emails to them so that they can track the culprits down.

The point of my rambling here is to just remind folks to be careful online.

Be circumspect when you’re opening your emails, things are not always as they seem even emails that appear to be from someone you know might be tainted with something nasty.

And for goodness sake make sure your anti-virus software is up to date and functioning.