Test

My avatar.

fuel cell motorcycle

Hmm...wonder if this fuel cell thing will pan out.

Emperor at Work

CNN Report: Robber Tricks ATM machine

Are You Logged In?

Are You Logged In?: "But not everyone visits Froogle Wishlist, or Search History, not many people have heard of Google Spreadsheets or Picasa Web. But everyone has heard of Gmail and a lot of people use it, although it's in beta and it still requires invitation. I think Gmail was created to make people have a Google Account and remain logged in."

(Via Google Operating System.)

Blogger Beta

Google has launched a beta of the new Blogger.

Some highlights.

Your blog is open to all readers by default but new privacy options allow you to restrict your blog to only readers you choose. These readers will need to log in before reading your blog. You can also limit the blog reading to only the blog's authors.

Templates are the same. I expected more here. I find the variety and quality of templates on blogger to be less than that offered on Wordpress.com

The labeling system is new as well. Most blogging platforms allow the user to tag posts so that they are organised by topic. This has been lacking from Blogger for a while and is one other reason I switched my blogs to Wordpress.com.

Blogger pages are now dynamically generated and served from a database a la Wordpress.com.

Using the new Blogger will require a Google account. If you already have a Google Account, you can merge your Blogger account with it when you switch. This option did not work for me. A message appeared telling me the beta was in limited trial and that I might receive an invitation to test it.

Not much hear in the new Blogger to impress me to switch back.

Google Finance

TechCrunch has the latest on Google's newest site, Google Finance.

Google Pages

This morning I received the following email letting me know that Google has launched a new service they are calling Google Pages.

"Hi there,



Thanks for your interest in Google Page Creator. We appreciate your patience, and we're excited to tell you that we enabled your account today, so you can start making pages now! To get started, head over to http://pages.google.com and sign in with your Gmail password. We haven't opened up Google Page Creator to everybody yet, so you'll see a message on our home page saying that accounts are unavailable — you can just ignore that.

Google Page Creator is an experiment on Google Labs. Google Labs is where we put projects before they're ready for prime time so that we can start getting feedback from our users. So, please, tell us what you think, what features we should add, what problems you're experiencing, or anything else that can help us make Google Page Creator a better tool for you. We're listening.

This is the only email we'll be sending you — unless you'd like to receive updates in the future.



— The Google Page Creator team"

According to the web site for Google Pages is "a new product that makes creating your own web pages as easy as creating a document in a word processor". While that may be the intent I do not see too many people using this "product". Does Google already have another product for that, Blogger? Is this meant to replace that? Is Google Pages targeting a different audience that Blogger? All questions whose answers may reveal themselves in a few months I assume.

The "product" is fairly rudimentary. The interface is typical for Google; unattractive but functional.

I am not sure what Google's target audience is for this tool. Maybe novice user who want a simple web page and who are VERY afraid of HTML will find it useful.

TechCrunch » Firefox 2.0 Alpha Released

TechCrunch has a link to a site claiming to have an Alpha version of Firefox 2.0. I could not find any such alpha verion on the official mozilla site so I wil refrain from downloading this one. The security of my computer is more important than having the latest and greatest (assuming this is legit).

Update:

Apparently the folks over at ZD-Net agree that this alpha release is unofficial and one is best to avoid installing it.

Microsoft's Other OS

I found this article as a blurb on the daily ITBusinessEdge newletter. The blurb links back to the MicrosoftWatch web site.

Microsoft's Other OS

Microsoft Research has developed a prototype of a micro kernel operating system, code-named 'Singularity.' Its most surprising feature: It has nothing to do with Windows.

The Top 10 Information Security Myths

My current employer buys into this myth very heavily.

MYTH #3: External consultants know more about information security than in-house personnel do.

Technorati Tags: computers

International body adopts network security standard

International body adopts network security standard

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved last month a comprehensive model that identifies critical requirements to ensure end-to-end network security.Specifically, the global standards group formally adopted ISO/IEC 18028-2, which defines a standard security architecture and provides a systematic approach to support the planning, design and implementation of information technology networks.

The standard is based on X.805, a framework Bell Labs created several years ago. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), another standards body, adopted it before ISO.

Firefox Extensions

SOHO Networking

I am thinking ( I have been for over 3 years) of acting on some of my small business ideas. There are a growing number of people with home offices in my neighbourhood. I do not know the exact number but I believe that in the Montgomery , Montgomery Wood, and Montgomery Walk development we have close to 500 homes. Most of these homes have wireless.

I am making the assumption that within a block of units (8 homes) there at least half have wireless and most likely all have a home computer with DSL or cable broadband. I based this assumption on my own block. I pick up at least 6 wireless signals from my family room. Most of the wireless signals have no security and almost all use the default router settings. I am betting there are lots of people out there like Mukesh and Nilima.

I think there is money to be made offering an in home setup service for small offices/home offices. I think I can use my neighbourhood as a launching point for the business. I can place a small ad in the association newsletter or a posting to the web site. I am hoping that word of mouth would provide enough marketing initially to get from one gig to another. Hopefully some of the home clients would refer me to small business clients. But first baby steps.

I have thought up a short list of services I could provide.

• Home networking


• Wireless networking


• Security
  
  
  
  • patching
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • anti-spy-ware
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • anti-virus
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • ad-ware removal
  
  
  
  


• PC tuneup (defrag, temp file removal)


• Software installation and configuration


• Hardware installation and configuration


• Blogging and web site hosting

I have not thought much about how much to charge. Should it be an hourly or fixed price for a defined service (a la carte)? Should I have the clients sign off when work is complete? Should I incorporate or do a sole proprietorship until the business gets larger? Can I manage the work load? How do I limit this to weekends only at first?

Single Sign-On

These two articles cover creating an authentication system for UNIX, Windows and OS X.

1. Paranoid Penguin - Single Sign-On and the Corporate Directory, Part I


2. Paranoid Penguin - Single Sign-On and the Corporate Directory, Part II