internet kaspersky security: Apple update finally fixes important DNS bug

Apple update finally fixes important DNS bug
Patch prevents cache poisoning attacks, says security vendor

Microsoft Windows Mojave
So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

What to Call this Post...
How about Blogging isn't for cowards? Or maybe Linda's other big day off? A funny thing happened on the way home? Playing good samaritan has it's spinoffs?

This is really hard for me to publish, but what the ... Close your eyes, Linda, hold your breath and jump!
Ok, here goes... Oh, yeas, and I have sat on it for nearly a week...

Well, thanks to Our English Lass, who is still in one piece, I have a few Tuesday's off until she becomes Mother and Child. Having just had a week off the Monday-itis was massive yesterday, so I gratefully took her suggestion and had the day off.

Popped off to best friend's house, put in my Avon order. Stunning stuff really, and not worth blogging about, I know.

Came home with a piece of chockie on my tummy, feeling good about the lippies she gave me. Did a u-turn before getting home and went off to see Junior's mate who is about to turn sixteen. Thought I might buy him a pair of shoes for his birthday so he thinks he's got his pressy and gets a bit of a surprise with the rest of it.

Knock on door. Door opens. In walks Linda. Hello D, would you like me to buy you some shoes for your birthday? Oh, you already have new shoes? Excellent. What, that pair down there, next to the pair of shoes that belongs to Junior?

Uh, didn't I drop Junior off at school this morning and wasn't he wearing those shoes?

Junior!!! I call several times... Where is he, D? In your bedroom hiding behind your chest of drawers? Come here you gutless wonder.

D seems to think that last bit is funny. Right about that time I am starting to feel sick. He emerges. Finally. The Emergent Kid.

Put those shoes on. (They could not have been any more obvious if they were painted yellow with flashing signs anouncing Truanter This Way...) Get in the car.

Where are we going, asks Junior. I stop outside hubbie's place of work. In here. We are going to see your father.

Now comes the begging...

Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad... etc etc etc. All in incredible monotone.

Get inside, anounce to Junior - You tell him. I sit down and wait for it...

And of course, the upshot of it is that, yet again, I have to go to the school and enquire as to WHY he is not at school and we have not been informed...

Now, Don't know if I told you this, but the dean in charge of dear darling Junior was going to put him on a principals report. Yesterday, I assumed. Get him some counselling. Plus careers help, so that we can pull him out in Sptember, on his 16th birthday if things don't go well...

Dean not available, see his form overlord. Thingy, whatever he is called. Adviser? Deputy or assistant principal?

Oh, he knew Junior was going onto a principal's report at sometime... No, the normal thing is to wait until a child is away three days in a row before contacting the parents/carers. Oh, really, away seven schooldays in a row last thing last term? And not here yesterday or until now today? Doesn't that make it NINE days? Isn't the advice that he is not there overdue by three times?

Find the head counsellor. That in itself was a miracle in a school this size. We see the counsellor together.

Guess what? We don't look like a happy family... Being sanguine, of course, it is the ultimate insult. Happy? I hate being asked that question. I was happy until you asked me... Strange, I know. And not very condusive to a good chat with the school counsellor. Hmm, my Mum never even got to see my counsellor, so I suppose I am doing well. (Well, what else do you do when your student's Mother turns up with the truant in hand. Apart from sack the paid truancy officer? Wait till I find him...)

So, why should junior stay at school, or even be there in the first place? For the first time in a long while it Is All About Him. He's not going to get a job just on his good looks. Unless.... Nah....

See, I have to push through here. I have been sick to my stomach this morning, I am still reeling and ready to crawl into a hole called mental illness, resign from the noble sisterhood of motherhood, whatever... But in the end, it's all about Junior.

I sit there in front of him and tell his counsellor (who probably hasn't seen all Junior's notes) that he has Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and a few more things to boot. That he didn't learn to read until he was ten years and nine months old, and then he taught himself on footrot flats books... That we have had an uphill battle right from the start. He didn't even talk until he was four, and then there were his muscular problems....

If I don't fight for my child, who will? Like a Paul Coleman song, not good enough for ... not bad enough for... Not good enough to just walk out there and take the world by storm, even if he does stand there and shake his fist at it with his opposition defiance disorder... Not bad enough to get the help he has always needed.

If I don't fight for my child, what will become of him? My heroes are the parents of the young lady with Down's Syndrome who stuck out the fight and saw her achieve her NZqa's or whatever, in a normal school and normal classes. But they were teachers, and knew how to fight.

I have given this school ample opportunity to teach my son, and was determined to make them do it, too, but they had time on their side. All they had to do was sit back and do nothing. And I am the baddy who has failed, who has allowed their son to become a truant, who could make him go to school (haha) but couldn't make him learn. Couldn't make him excited, or at least stop him from getting bored....

Well, the fight isn't over yet, and I am just going to get off my butt and run again. Go to aquarobics in the freezing cold, push my body to the limits, sore back and all. Keep my mental wits about me.

And as a Christian, I can say, to myself if not to you - 'having done all, to stand'. (Ephesians 6:13) Or my favourite - 'Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: For the LORD upholds him with His hand.' (Psalm 37 verse 24, and it's a ripper of a psalm in all it's total. Must go and read it up now. TTFN)

Cray takes supercomputers to the desktop
Desktop supercomputer costs from US$25,000

So what is this MythTV anyway?
OK so I have already talked here about why I prefer mythtv to MediaPortal, it’s not an exhaustive list but I think it makes a pretty compelling argument for Mythtv. However what makes an even stronger compelling argument for MP is its support for NZ's DVB-T broadcasts, and hence I use it. The latest from the mythtvnz mailing list is that Freeview HD is now working well in myth with the patches from pkendall, so hopefully it is just a case of getting the updates to ffmpeg etc into the main mythtv 'trunk' (is that what it called?) and we will be away!

Anyway I should get to the point of this post. I want to list a couple tips I picked up for improving mythtv here, as I alluded to earlier, myth does require more work than MP or GBPVR but it’s worth it:

1) Adding FM radio. I have no idea why this isn't included by default, it can't be hard and all other major HTPC programs have it. To get it in myth requires a bit of a hack, the setup instructions are here. As they note on the wiki page, it is a hack but looks like a plug-in in the end. It doesn't perform like a plug-in (in terms of sharing the card with recording etc) but it is good enough. Also this page gives an idea to the sort of changes to the menu structure that could be made if so desired.

2) By default myth only allows one job (such as commflagging, or a user job such as a special transcode) at a time. Assuming you are running a somewhat modern processor you can get away with a lot more, especially if you have a dual core. Under the 'general' settings in mythbackend setup, change the max number jobs to say 3 or 4. Also set mythcommflag to begin at the start of the show rather than wait until it has finished.

3) Make sure you enable plugins such as mythmusic, mythvideo and mythweb. If you are using Mythbuntu the Mythbuntu Control Center is the easiest way to change these settings. Mythweb in particular is great, and if you can successfully enable access through your router you can check out your computers status, and create recordings even when you are way from home.

That’s all can think of for now, but there are plenty of other settings worth investigating by hunting through the menus. There are some other good features that I never managed to fully implement, such as http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mythwelcome and automatic sleep/wakeup.

Next I will spill my thoughts on Media Portal, and the improvements made now we are at RC2.

Peru to be first with new OLPC laptop with Windows
The little green laptop will be given out to school children throughout Peru

Squeezecenter and Softsqueeze - how to make a great centralised music server for the office
Ingredients:

1x E4800 2.4GHz C2D workstation w/4GB RAM, 250GB HDD ~$1000NZD (It does some other tasks too)

2x Logitech Z2300 THX Cert 400w RMS 2.1 speakers ~$200NZDea (Director + IT Guy)

1x Logitech Z4 2.1 ~$70NZD (Reception)

1x ... (more in the full post)

Backdoor in Skype? We need an open-source replacement
A backdoor in Skype?

It has long been speculated that there might be a backdoor built into Skype, something that would allow Skype (the company) or the police to easily monitor Skype conversations. Skype is closed software and can therefore ... (more in the full post)

Exciting news for Gen-i Wellington!
Just spotted this Scoop article on LinkedIn news . . . . Telecom and Gen-i are getting a new home in Wellington at 52 Willis Street. This will be awesome, as currently we are so fragmented across the CBD (6 buildings I believe!). Looks like a funky design - go the windmills!

So it goes on...
The saga of the Mobile Me debacle continues.

Now over 7 days since my wife had access to her mail. I would imagine that Apple could have totally replaced any servers affected many times over within seven days. The average corporate IT dept can fix things in 24 hrs - I am sure the problem is bigger, but then so are the resources Apple has available to deploy!

Worst of all is the fact that there just seems to be no comment coming from Apple about the nature of the issue and when they expect to have things up and running.

On top of that it has still barely stopped raining....!

We did go and see Dark Knight today. IMHO one of the better Batman films to date. The late Heath Ledger is, I think, an excellent Joker - a memorable Swansong performance from an actor who had much potential. If you like that kind of thing, it's a great film with lots of action. We are in danger of trying to explore 'the reason why' a bit too much though - Batman is because Batman is! We need not be troubled with his navel gazing when we have so many of our own issues to resolve, I feel.

Well, have a good weekend, Dear Reader!