Don't log off

BBC Radio 4 - Alan Dein attempt to cross the world on a series of late night excursions via Facebook and Skype.

This is not how Facebook works!

If you create a Facebook profile with nothing on it apart from a message on your wall with just a message to call, then nobody will see it. You need to "seed" it with some "friends". Without this seed it will not grow organically.

Once you have got friends that are interested in this sort of arrangement, i.e. talking to strangers for no other reasons other than that they are located in another part of the world, it will grow exponentially. So much so there is no way that you could even hope to talk to all these people.

Facebook works on the fact that it is communication between people that already know each other. Well, at least initially. After a while your "friends" will maybe connect with you other "friends" and it will snowball.

Seems to be a long winded way of describing the concept of a VPN.

This is good. The more people are made aware of how the Internet works a true picture of how governments and LEAs monitor communications will develop. Not that many users will understand.

I downloaded episode 2 (the only one that seemed to be indexed by get_iplayer.exe) - I will try again later for any other episodes.

Using Asus Digi+ VRM

Whereas the product-brief for Digi+ VRM promises great things, in practice, it is difficult to see if this is the case.

These are my notes and findings relating to Digi+ and VRM

Having a quick look at it in the flesh and trying to make sense of the on-screen messages I thought it was an idea to take a real look at the article on techinstyle.tv "How to tweak DIGI+ VRM on P8P67 Series motherboard".

It does make a little more sense and if they say what is going on it is probably a beneficial thing to have on the motherboard if you are attempting to overclock. I still question the motives of doing this as I think that it a "climbing Everest" activity. If you are not overclocking it is probably not necessary.
I seem to be able to clock the i7-2600k at a conservative 4GHz, it sounds like it could be pushed a lot further but I am still getting better WEI scores that I do from my AMD X6 (not that the WEI scores are known to be worth much). The proof of the pudding will be in the way that video encoding works in comparison, However, I do have a pretty powerful machine to do just that.

The article takes lot of words to basically say you are probably better off with setting the VRM to "Auto" - but I guess that giving the user to adjust the settings manually is a good USP for Asus. And, in circumstances where you are having problems with stability it may work well for you.
Sadly, the level at which the participants in the discussion seem to exist are from those that don't even understand Intel SpeedStep and are also bemused by the readings they get from CPU-Z. This is even after clunk.org state this quite clearly in their beginners guide.

On balance, it is probably worthwhile having this extra processor on the motherboard. However, if the computer was only going to be used for media rendering and other normal activities it is probably overkill. In my case I was experimenting to see what it was all about.

I originally purchased the Asus P8P67 LE m/b, whereas this has the Dual Intelligent Processors for EPU (EnergyProcessing Unit) and the TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) it did not feature the Digi+ VRM processor (hence the absence of the extra heat sink)

The adjustment of the digi+ VRM load Line Calibration 

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 Links:

•  Overclocking guide

Seven Book Air

• Configuring a Hackintosh   - main page

A reverse Hackintosh - Installing Windows 7 on a Mac Book Air as the main o/s

A quote from Scott Raymond:

"...... it was a fairly simple procedure to install the Windows OS from a USB stick with the use of rEFIt, an EFI boot menu toolkit."

He then goes on to say that he tried the CNet procedure but ended up using:

"..... the USB-based system rescue drive that Apple provides and wiped out the drive partitions, ......"

... here I get a conflicting message as he then goes on to describe booting from a DVD and then installing the  Boot Camp Additions. I can't really see the benefit here of having Windows as the only operating system and when I tried this I just followed the Boot Camp instructions.

While the Boot Camp instructions and installation procedure were not perfect I managed to do so using an external USB DVD drive. I did not want to crack the seal on the Apple recovery USB stick as it was my intention to return the MBA after I have  performed my proof of concept on it. That you can install Windows 7 in Boot Camp and fully activate it using Daz. Even with Boot Camp you end up with a Mac Book Air that will boot either into Windows or OSX (depending on your last boot - there the are options to boot into the other o/s - but I forget what the exact procedure is)

Like many of the commentators on the article I found that I spent most of my time in OSX even though I had the option of using Windows 7 and MS Office on the Mac. In closing I cannot see the value of using a MBA when I can purchase 4 similar Windows 7 machines for the same price. I know that they are not a sexy and they may break sooner but the time value of money being what it is, I can take my $750 after a year of use of my Acer 522 and put it towards another MBA or whatever is available in the sub-notebook/Ultrabook range at that time.

• Windows 7 On The MacBook Air: Don't Go There  -  Scott Raymond ZDNet July 28, 2011.
• Install Win 7 on MacBook Air from a USB drive - Dong Ngo CNet

Advanced Google search operators

There is probably a reason that Google do not publish these commands as they, while being very useful for the webmaster to secure their  sites, can also be used by hackers to find information that is purposely hidden from "normal" searches.

A screen-shot from the www.googleguide.com website

An example of things that are normally hidden from a "normal" search are the location of data directories. The use of the inurl: operator with an argument of "index of" will reveal directories on the webserver that not been protected by turning off indexes.

This indexing behaviour can be turned off by a server directive:

       <Directory /var/www/sitewatch>
          Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
          AllowOverride All
          # Indexes (in Options line) removed 10 Jan 2012
          Order allow,deny
          allow from all
       </Directory>

Links:

• AKA - "Google Hack"
• The googlehacks website
• “Google Hack” honeypot

RPi

Index to pages featuring the Raspberry Pi on The Technology Muse

Since starting this project I have had to rebuild my website and I am in the process of transferring a lot of the material to this blog. I have made significant changes to the navigation of the posts/pages as they have been transferred to this blog. This page should be starting place for all of the posts.
This post updated 20 June 2012

• Using the RPi as a Media Server - this was the most popular at the time starting this index, probably as it was the first.
• RS Components - Ordering the Raspberry Pi
• Premier Farnell
• Intel's NUC and the Raspberry Pie
• Using Fun Plug on a Dlink DNS-323
• Frustration in purchasing a Raspberry Pi
• Where to buy a RPi
• Update on Raspberry Pi - What I decided to do 23 March 2012
• The distinction between a Media Sever and a Media Centre 
• Is an ITX form motherboard an alternative? 
• Other alternatives such as the PandaBoard

---

At the time that I was compiling this index I was retraining myself in posting the information on the RPi on my website as I was in the process of shutting the website down. The reasons for me shutting it down are irrelevant to this post. However, if you are the person that precipitated this action, or an agent/lawyer of that person, and you are reading this (I haven't seen your visits lately), my website was never about you or a vendetta against you or your companies (see the comment on this post).

If you threaten me with something that you will do if I don't remove information about you I am likely to re-post that information on this blog. If something is obviously libelous I will remove it. However, the expression of the opinion that you and your business practices are somewhat suspect are simple that, opinion. The posting of a street address, one that is associated in other places on the Internet with your business is neither an invasion of privacy or libelous. I have no intention of taking sides with your former employees no matter what has transpired between you. The only reason that information about you appeared on my website was due to an observation of mine and the response of some of the visitors to my website.

crossdomain.xml

CrossDomain - The collection and aggregation of data from multiple Internet resources.

The crossdomain call seems to originate at nsdsvc.com and s.nsdsvc.com- the AppDddWrapper.swf (ShockWave Flash) function is likely to be responsible for the aggregation of Flash content from multiple web resources.

The call has been observed with relation to a number of websites including DropDownDeals.com - it is not thought that this server activity is malicious, an indication of a hacking attempt or an indication that the website that it appears to originate is in anyway mis-configured.

Links to other posts related to Crossdomain on this blog:

•  Systems and programming on The Technology Muse

This post is a synopsis of what was on my website - more will be added as interest is seen on this topic.

Who cares about the New iPad battery charging?

Our NiP seems to hold its charge as it should and provides more than enough battery life in normal operation.

Time will tell on this new road trip. Lots of new movies and content have been added on the iPad 3 and it will give the "retina" a run for its money.

The article in ZDNet by SJV-N "Apple say 100% iPad recharge 'problem' is by design. Dr Soneira, who identified the problem disagrees.

When I read the post the only talkback was a jib at the 4G/LTE  issue in Aus. We will have to see if there are any Aussies talking about it on the streets.

How to enable 32-bit emulation

Windows 7 64 bit (and some earlier versions) will emulate an 32 bit operating system automatically.

The adjustments and settings that you can make in program properties w.r.t. "Compatibility Mode" will not allow a program that had been written to run in a 32 bit environment to run on a 64 bit machine.

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A cache access of one of website pages from Shanghai.

This was assumed to be someone looking for ways to run programs such as DVD43 on a computer with a 64 bit Windows operating system.

Will Vidalia Block Copyright enforcement companies?

• Pages relating to Vidalia Tor on The Technology Muse
• Programming and Systems

Landed on my page: Does PeerBlock Work?  ---- Daytona Beach.

Yes - But Peerblock will not prevent a "Copyright enforcement company" from seeing your IP address.

Vidalia Tor  will obscure your IP address but it be too slow for downloading.


I have a complete analysis of how PeerBlock can be used and how it is used to block rogue computers from your computer.


I have also extensive notes on how to use Vidalia Tor, the selection and configuration of the torrc configuration file including the selection of the appropriate exitnodes (Tor Network ExitSevers).

If you surround yourself with Syncophants

You may have the delusion that you are invincible.

Syncophants - a..k.a. Yes Men, actually an alternative spelling for sycophant

• Syncophant and sycophant on the Urban Dictionary
• Sycophancy on WikiP  - Ass Licking, flunky, fawning

This post was aimed at the person or persons that are of the opinion that they can get me to take down information on them from my web presence just because they are accustomed to getting their own way.

It is my contention (or even opinion as I don't want to be accused of slander!) that this person is surrounded by those type of people. Those that don't say "yes" get abusive language used against them and threats that if they do not comply "action" will be taken against them.

get_iplayer

get_iplayer.exe is a separate downloading program (from the BBC iPlayer download facility) and can be used to download  BBC TV and Radio, DRM free and not time limited.

Since Po-Ru`s ipdl.exe broke late in 2010 I have been using a variation of Phil Lewis's get_iplayer.exe for BBC TV and radio (a fork by David Woodhouse, infradead.org) .

It was thought that ipdl broke due to  the changes that the BBC instituted to make iPlayer compatible with Apple's iOS4, a full account can be found on Po-Ru`s blog.

I have found a few "work-arounds" as even get_iplayer has been broken over this time period. The version that I have working uses a different version of the FLVstreamer module.

The get_iplayer package is an extremely complex and competent suite of Perl scripting using the RTMP library.

Other pages relating to get_iplayer and the RTMP library:

• RTMP and RTMPdump - Freeware console application for downloading RTMP and RTMPE streams
• get_iplayer development on tempusfugit.ca
• Downloading 4OD and Channel 5 using RTMPDump. 

I use get_iplayer to build my archive of BBC programming. get_iplayer is a very competent Perl script that has many options. get_iplayer can be used as a command line program and there is a GUI PVR version of get_iplayer, that runs get_iplayer in a scheduled mode.

Some more links:

• How-to configure and use get_iplayer on a Windows computer
• Linux pages on this blog and the development of get_iplayer  
• All about the RTMP libraries - RTMPDump etc. 
• All pages relating to iPlayer on The Technology Muse
• get_iplayer lives! - The Infradread Website

Court Order

The issuance of a court Order or Subpoena is a bit of a "chicken and egg" issue.

The reason that I use the "Chicken and Egg" terminology is that you cannot get a court order to obtain the identity of a violator of an act until you have established that the violation has some basis in law. In the  case of copyright infraction perpetrator has been caught sharing or publishing the copyright material  and has likely been partially identified. This identification is likely to be by an IP address, this address is likely to be that of an ISP but could also be the address of a DNS service (or Zone File host).

Court Order

The issuance of a court Order or Subpoena is a bit of a "chicken and egg" issue.

The reason that I use the "Chicken and Egg" terminology is that you cannot get a court order to obtain the identity of a violator of an act until you have established that the violation has some basis in law. In the  case of copyright infraction perpetrator has been caught sharing or publishing the copyright material  and has likely been partially identified. This identification is likely to be by an IP address, this address is likely to be that of an ISP but could also be the address of a DNS service (or Zone File host).

Court Order

The issuance of a court Order or Subpoena is a bit of a "chicken and egg" issue.

The reason that I use the "Chicken and Egg" terminology is that you cannot get a court order to obtain the identity of a violator of an act until you have established that the violation has some basis in law. In the  case of copyright infraction perpetrator has been caught sharing or publishing the copyright material  and has likely been partially identified. This identification is likely to be by an IP address, this address is likely to be that of an ISP but could also be the address of a DNS service (or Zone File host).

You have had an interest in me for far too long!

Expressing an opinion is not slanderous, nor is stating a fact

About the photograph above
This is not just a "Statue face upside down" it is the base of a column used in the water cistern in Instanbul. The Medusa column base, Yerebatan Sarayı, Instanbul, Turkey, is used here to show an example of lack of respect.

The lack of respect here is that of the Byzantine Turks for the Phoenicians that the column base was taken from a previous temple. The fact that the Medusa head would have been under ground and under water and therefore never seen by anyone (until now as the cistern is open to the public and is a major tourist attraction in Istanbul) shows that the Turks had no respect for what went before.
Even the church of Aya Sophia was built with plundered materials from previous empires. I guess the conversion of the church to a mosque and then to now a museum is further lack of respect?

How to remove false information about yourself from the Internet

Researching this topic I came across an article by Ryan Dube, makeuseof.com, January 16, 2009.

Whereas I do agree with many of the points and techniques suggested by Ryan in his article, as someone who has been accused of posting material that could be seen as similar to that which is discussed here, I do have a few comments of my own.

Ryan discusses a situation where libelous content is posted without backup documentation. He goes on to explain that in cases where the intent is to defame the reputation of another. In my case I was just expressing an opinion about a service. Well, that is how it started out.

Ryan observes:
"Unfortunately, the odds are pretty good that you may be dealing with an unstable or unreasonable individual. They may get obnoxious and rude in response to you, and refuse to cooperate".

This is one of the reasons that I took my site off-line. It NOT the only reason.

It is clear to me that the complainant is neither stable or reasonable. He is definitely rude and obnoxious and he has resorted to what I term "Bully tactics".

In any case, I contend that my website did not contain any material that could not be verified and the information was not private. If there was anything that was "private" it was posted as it was a quote from someone else - and stated clearly on my site that this was the case.

Also not only the "offending" information as been removed, but the whole website has been removed from the Internet.

If this was the intent of the complainant then he has been successful, however this does not mean that the activities of this individual will not be described somewhere else on the Internet.

Ryan further reports in a situation that he found himself involved: 
"I was able to trace down the sender’s ISP, and after submitting an official report for both spam and distribution of private information – the spammer’s ISP issued him a warning and removed his Internet access for a full week. It was very sweet retribution."

This is not going to work!
All the "spammer" is likely to do is get pissed-off and go down to the local library, create another identity and re-post the offending material.
The problem with this he/she is likely to re-post the information in an even more anonymous manner which will leave you, the complainant,  "up the creek without the proverbial paddle".

-------------------------------

As described by Ryan the content that is in the Search Engines cache can be problematic in that it can mean that the information doesn't go away just because the original poster has taken it down. To do this you NEED the cooperation of the original poster.

In my case it was further complicated in that I was given information by a 3rd party that appeared to have a dispute with the same individual. The information so posted has been removed from Google cache. The statement of opinion on his business practices has not.

It is my suspicion, due to the nature of the communications up to this point, that I am not the only one that the individual in question has tried to intimidate in this way.

The personal information held by ZoneEdit

Under what circumstances will a DNS service release your contact information?


Legal Implications and ZoneEdit

ZoneEdit have your real name and address

As seen in their statement of Privacy Policy, they will surender your details if subpoenaed with a court order.

The Legal implications for your ISP

What are the legal responsibilities of your ISP with regard to the surrender of your personal information?

This post will discuss the legalities of using your Internet connection to run a website.

• Running a website on your residential broadband connection

How "safe" is Linux?

• Linux on The Technology Muse
• Running a web server on your home Internet connection

Having run a webserver for a couple of years with complete control over its monitoring and configuration I have recently had cause to wonder whether it had eventually been Pwned.

Although I religiously monitored my server logs and I didn't detect any activity other than the "normal" hacking attempts, I was surprised to receive a report that my IP address and Host was probing the servers of my partners company! I immediately disconnected the server from the Internet and took steps to obtain a new IP address and host.

• Pwned according to the Urban Dictionary

The Mail Online

The Daily Mail website takes over number one Internet spot

This was discussed by Emily Bell, a co-founder of The Guardian's hugely successful website, on the BBC Radio 4 - Saturday 4th March 2012.

A previous article that I was looking at when she was on the CBC with Jian Ghomeshi 2011/03/03  was 
Pirate Bay founders jailed for a ship already plundered - Monday 20 April 2009

Emily Bell is director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism.

Daily Mail site is a feast for Search Engine Robots.

Update on Raspberry Pi

I have decided to wait on incorporating the RPi in the D-link NAS - mainly due to the fact  that the boards are still mythware.

I am going to configure a full-size Linux server and try out my ideas there first. I continue to see searches for more information on the Raspberry Pi project (Apache WebServer and Media Server) - I will make further updates on this blog.

The Second attempt at intimidation by Wayne McAlpine

This is an email sent to Ontario-corporate-tax@tempusfugit.ca (some of the links have been removed) - My suspicion is that they all originate from Wayne McAlpine

Subject: The individual who is hosting his home website is putting incorrect inflammatory information about myself.

Please deal with this or legal action will commence against this individual.

Another email was received from Bill Poplawski poplawskibill@gmail.com entitled: "Privacy infringement"

Pipeda and all government agency's have been notified.
You obviously have not done enough home work as the laws state that you are a legal entity and officer of your corporation living at home with mom and dad, i wonder if this makes you feel good??
As an officer of a corporation you state that your website is private and you have to be a moron because the site is accessible on the WEB, you should govern yourself accordingly!!?

Ps :  you don't think CIRA doesn't give up info on registered domain names??  Screenshots of your site have been stored.
You have been notified several times in the past to remove all content regarding   The people not related to your corporation, stop the slandering.... Etc,
Now all of the necessary government agency's including Rogers will be investigating you and your corporation.
You WILL stop!!
I have been very patient with you, you don't have permission both written or verbal to post copy write material.
You received photos but did not and can not provide proof of permission to post those photos. I would suspect that your interest of some people will diminish if not right out stop.
My patience with you is over, I am legally moving forward, with the intentions of depleting your savings.

You provided on your site access to a page for which the name Bill Poplawski
And below the word hhmmmm..
And below that tough guy and a sign below that and that sign is red and white and below that the word the bully and below that of a statue face upside down. Funny how the name tough guy and bully were underlined to link to both accessible pages within your domain, of pictures as though your intentions are to identify to the world who you are challenging This will not be tolerated nor ignored as already indicated to you by means of emails. Demanding you and your staff to stop, the slandering.
It was not a question it was a statement.
These requests  were met as you removed some content for 5 mins and the same and then some ( info) was reinstated on your site. Your not funny, I feel you are stupid. As my home town and province is hamilton Ontario. I know business in Ontario, better then any other province.

I am requesting one last and very final time that you stop your slandering and posting Of info you have no permission in doing so. The irritations will be reciprocated as you think my silence is weakness. Rogers is now interested in you. Your site has me interested in you. You have been interested in me far too long, posting me my picture and slandering with them ( the profile and picture ). 

• First attempt at intimidation by Wayne McAlpine
• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act 
• Personal Property Security Act - PPSA.ca 
• Rogers and any interest 
• CIRA - Interested Party web-form 
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada 
• Performing a NUANS search on a corporation
• Maybe The Technology Muse and Joshua Sham are one and the same?  

I think that the: "You have been notified several times in the past to remove all content regarding   The people not related to your corporation, stop the slandering.... Etc," really means that Wayne McAlpine has threatened me that it I do not remove information about him and his companies he will do something that I will not like.

The information on his is true and collected mainly from public sources, i.e. the Internet and other websites, so it cannot be called "slander".

I do not have a corporation. 

Santa Clara visits

This is who Wayne McAlpine emails when he finds something about him on this blog.

Visits were logged 3rd and 4th May and  again on the 21st March http://technology-muse.blogspot.ca/2012/03/calling-me-ass-hole.html  (I can't even remember making this post and subsequently deleting it as it had no relevance.)

Also 12 June 2012 after some activity from Winnipeg. 

The visit to the page on OneWorld made no sense as there was nothing there but a list of companies that Wayne had known to have used. As far as I know there is nothing slanderous in posting such a list - there were no statements made there that could be disputed.

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Also 28 May 2012. This time the search was for his full name (less the E for Edward)

It is also noted that Google are headquartered in Santa Clara County, Mountainview. If Wayne has managed to get them to look at my pages on him then I guess that this is an achievement on his part. However, as Google have not contacted me or made any suspensions or removal of content from this blog I guess that they are OK with the content.

Also, it is my understanding that if material is removed or requested to be removed I would be informed about that process. If I were to continue in my supposed violation then Google could close my blog and possibly my accounts. As I have written in the past, Google are very much concerned with freedom of speech and see that the introduction of laws to silence citizens, or effectively doing so by allowing all and sundry to see what they are writing and who they really are, as being something that they do not support.

If these visits are indeed from Google I have arranged the content so that if a search is made on this blog for Wayne's name that the posts that are relevant to his compulsion in that he is of the opinion that I am out to get him and "Flame" him and his companies, that the posts will come to the top of the search result. I would hope that anyone reading these posts would see that he is clearly out of his mind in thinking that he is important enough to have the information removed and that there is anyone else reading it apart from himself.

Also if these visits are from the Google Abuse department you will be clearly able to see that I have "done my homework" and researched what you consider to be abuse.

It should also be clear that Wayne McAlpine is a bully and has made several attempts to intimidate me and has even threatened legal action in his version of a SLAPP

My interest in him is only passing, it reflects more on what I see as the malady that affects the whole Internet. The fact that he has responded in the way that he has is the reason that I have re-posted what he wanted me to remove.

Here are a few more posts that relate to my observations on who the Internet and Social Media is misused:

• Forum Crap - the nonsense you find in most forums
• The Business Cyber Bully  
• My definition of a "Scam"

IP Address Spoofing

DOS attacks (and DDOS) - the use of Spoofed IP addresses .

• Cockroaches of the Internet - Basically, they are the cockroaches of the Internet, they are intelligent, and they have bigger and more effective weapons than you can ever hope to have.
  A quote posted by bradknowles at 4:51 PM on February 1, 2007 on
  ask.metafilter.com
  This was with respect to spam  and being blacklisted on mail servers.
• WikiP on IP address Spoofing
• Arbor Pravail - stop DDOS attacks
• Spoofed IP Address Distributed Denial of Service Attacks: Defense-in-Depth - SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room 

The SANS Institute paper, which I cannot re-post a quote from (they request that you don't),  talks about the methods by which an attacker can, with root access on a Unix system, open a Raw Socket and can assemble a header so that it looks like it is a connection from any source that the hacker wishes.

David Nagorski

This was a link found to the VATSIS venture and Terry Bradshaw (hence Wayne McAlpine)

David Nagorski - Chief Technical Officer (CTO) - VATSIS

A search on my website for "dave nagorski" was seen 20 March 2012, Edmonton. Doing a bit of research he is the owner at Saskatoon Maximum Security.

The fact that I had posted some information on Mr. Nagorski seemed to create a bit of a problem for Wayne McAlpine. The page that information was posted to was one of the ones that Wayne was citing with respect to "take this down - or I will sue!".

There is also another (possible) connection, through the OneWorld fiasco, is a company called Zimana. This is a company that deals in anti-key-logging software.

Apple Buyback

I couldn't help laugh at a comment on ZDNet. I guess the poster could have been being facetious (but that is not in general keeping with the level of feedback there). The "buy back" is the buy back of stocks in the company, not old model iPads!

It must have been a troll? Nobody had commented back when I looked - there is always time. In any case I don't see how they came up with a figure of $320 for highest-end iPad2 model ??????

The New iPad

I purchased 3 on the day that they were released to sale in Canada.

The Windows 8 Metro interface

.... and the future of Android on the tablet/desktop

Microsoft are desperate for an effective "touch interface", this is what they hope that they have a winner with Windows 8 Metro.

• The Metro Interface and schadenfreude for Microsoft.

WorldWideFab

Having received an invitation (13 March 2012)  to "connect on LinkedIn" with an Alexander Poplawski:

I was curious to know what the origin of the email address was:

I think this constitutes abuse as defined by Google:

This a clear case of Impersonation.

RPi frustration

The main frustration that I have with the Raspberry Pi project is not the difficulty in procuring the hardware, it is the nonsense that I see springing up on the Internet from those that appear to be "milking" it for all they can get.

The project and foundation are supposed to be founded on "educational" aims, if there is anything to learn from all this is "how not to launch a product". I understand and appreciate all the hard work that those responsible for this project have put in to date, but the announcement of the project as being "released" when there are now quite obvious problems with supply of hardware, is pitiful.

• Systems pages on The Technology Muse
• Using the Raspberry Pi as a Media Server.
• Where to buy the RPi 

The forum and You Tube activity from those that have "plans" for the RPi, or those that are just showing off or have an agenda (like generating sales or fame) is getting more painful than usual. Both these formats continue to be largely useless to find really useful information. That you do find is mainly of the Warholian variety.

I am quite happy to wait until I have the hardware to perform my experiments. I have a specific goal that I want to achieve. One that I have been working on for a few years now. I do not see the RPi as a means to show how clever I am or to gain notoriety. Frankly, the forum activity and competitions that I see around "What are you planning on doing with the Raspberry Pie when you get your hands on one?" as merely as a diversion and not very helpful. Those that enter and post to such seem to be mainly immature males with nothing much else going for them. (I realize that this is a gross over-simplification but it is an expression of my frustration - it is not limited to this project, but to most of what I see and find on the Internet with regards to technology)

Update May 2012:

Since starting the posts on this blog about the RPi I have  had to re-post a lot of what I previously had on my website to this blog. This also resulted in my place on the RS Components waiting list for the RPi to lapse as the email address for the updates got lost in the process.

I am still thinking of using the RPi and my notes will continue to be posted to this blog.

• The RS Components website
• The Premier Farnell website.

Youtube Raspberry Pi

This is a great opportunity for those that don't have the hardware to exercise their 15 minutes of fame.

Has anyone done anything useful yet?

• Using the RPi as a Media Server

Using a tablet for business

Yes, you can use a tablet for business but it doesn't really matter what type.

The iPad will remain dominant for a number of reasons not the least of which is that it was a brilliant concept and it was there first.

This is why Android devices will never gain any significant market share and Microsoft have no chance of success (hopefully) with any of their Windows 8/Metro offerings.

The reasons for this have nothing to do with what is better or specifications. It doesn't matter how much resolution the screen has or the number of apps or the size of the community developing for whatever platform. The key is the concept itself.

A tablet can be used to present and to communicate, the two main activities in business. Real work is always going to be done on a keyboard device. Sure you can improve the tablet to the point where you can add a keyboard, but it is not really a tablet then! In the future this is probably what the PC will be. There is no "post PC era", it is just that the form will be different from what it is today. The business user will connect his/her "super-tablet" when they are not on the road to their office network in their offices. They will have full keyboards, as many and as large (and high resolution) screens as they want and do all that they have done in the past.

The consumer will be happy with a tablet similar to what we have now - and it is likely to be an iPad.

• What I think about the Windows 8 Metro interface. 
• The Asus Transformer Prime 
• Using a tablet for website admin

The Shmoo Group

I guess I have hit a nerve here?

That is what comes when you crow about pwning things. Especially when it comes to injecting pictures of a goat's anus.

 What The Shmoo Group (TSG) say about themselves:

... a non-profit think-tank comprised of security professionals from around the world who donate their free time and energy to information security research and development.

The words above are from the group - TSG - a group of hackers from 2006 who claim to have answers to security issues. It is more like a front to present a business case for their existence (well that is my opinion)


The Shmoo Group had various projects to present at ShmooCon, an event to promote themselves, including Google's Summer Of Code and a host of other things to promote the FUD around wireless security.

This is just what the AV and Anti-Malware industry does to promote fear so that computer users purchase their products.

• Airpwn  - a Wireless Injection Script
• Firesheep  - another "storm in a teacup - fire in a coffeeshop"
• The t.co Domain and Twitter
• The Shmoocon website - ShmooCon 2012

The New iPad and SEO

Is the choice of name for the iPad 3 an attempt by Apple to thumb their nose at Search Engine Optimization?

Now those trying to capitalize on the new product cannot target the iPad3 or iPad HD and  Internet searches have nothing to differentiate them.

The keywords "New" and "The", both not really keywords, do nothing to enable the granularization of searches.

An example of this is an email that I received from Targus Canada - as soon as The New iPad was announced was an offer for the chance to promote cases for the new model. If the author of the email had read any of my pages they would know this is exactly the opposite of what I am about.

• My SEO pages

Ultrabook Myth

The term "Ultrabook" is trademarked by Intel.

This means that manufacturers cannot offer Sub Notebook computers with AMD processors and call them "Ultrabooks".

This means there is also no point in manufacturers putting anything more powerful than the AMD "e" series dual-core APUs in computers that are in this segment. This is a pity as there are a number of models, The Asus eeePC 1255B for example, that are selling at half the price that the Intel powered computers are being sold at.

The fact that there is a myth that you NEED the computing power that the Intel chip gives you is largely not true for most users. True, AMD could put more powerful processors in hardware to compete with the Intel powered "Ultrabooks" , but they cannot call them an "Ultrabook" as that would be a trademark infraction.

Well done Intel!

If you are looking for an alternative to an expensive Ultrabook take a look at the AMD powered Sub-Notebooks by Asus, HP, Sony and Lenovo (to mention just a few). I currently use an AMD powered notebook with a "c" series dual-core and that serves me pretty well. I would like to have some more power but I can't justify the price-tag of around $1,000 (depending on model - plus and minus a few hundred) for an Intel powered device.

The Intel powered computers are damned sexy, but are they worth twice the price?

If you think you need the power. Well I use my non-Intel to do all the things that I would do if I had an Ultrabook, run Microsoft Office, compose webpages and administer my website, download movies and TV from Bittorrent and even do my tax returns on it. Sure, it is not a power-house and it would be a little slow to play games or to watch downloaded movies, but that is what desktop media-centres are for.

Social backlash

• Commentary on Social Media on The Technology Muse

I was re-visiting a page that I penned on the "Facebook Social Plugin", the fact that it could easily be faked and your login details highjacked.

The practice of getting users to sign in to Facebook so that they can access information linked from another website is likely to cause Facebook, and other social networks that try the same thing, more harm than good.

Those that are skeptical about the use of Social Media in the workplace and advertising are going to be even more suspicious if they are presented with this nonsense. If you want that information you are more likely to find it elsewhere and the fact that you are being asked to sign-in to another service should make you think that there is something else going on here.

Asking you to "Like" something is one thing, but in this case you don't even know that you might, but you have to log-in to find out. In either case the potential advertiser has your information.

I hope that the majority of Internet users will work out that these are just ways of "farming" your personal data. I am pretty sure that these techniques are not seen as "good things" by the European Union and probably breach the UK's "Data Protection Act". North America and the rest of the World need to wake up!

Asus Transformer Prime TF201 Toronto

I managed to find one on-line (I think it was the only one in Ontario) and now I am thinking of returning it to a retail store.

• This is a link to my review of the AsusTF-201

It is brand-new and has Android 4.0.3 (ICS - Ice Cream Sandwich). I also have the keyboard/dock for the TF201

I was thinking of putting it on Craig's List but I decided that I didn't need the hassle as I was within my 14 days return policy.

Pages relating to tablets on this blog:

• Have Microsoft missed the boat with tablets? 
• Using a tablet for business
• Running Microsoft Office on a tablet
• Using a tablet as a webmaster administration tool. 
• Comparing to the iPad and the Playbook 
• Waiting for Jelly Bean

Asus Transformer Prime Review

This is not a re-hash of the specs, press releases and advertizing.

The rare and much sort after Asus Transformer Prime is possibly a contender to the Apple iPad (1, 2 and 3). It is the successor to the Transformer TF101.

HomeGroup Networking

Is Windows HomeGroup networking a viable solution for home networking?

It was my plan to use a Linux Samba share server to provide a solution to what I observed to be a deficiency in the operation of Windows Homegroup.

My observation is that Homegroup is unreliable in a Windows 7/IPv6 environment. but so are Samba Shares.

• Powerline Networking discussed 
• Samba Shares

Google Privacy - the changes 1 March 2012

Having had a chance to poke around the Google privacy settings that are going to come into force 1 March 2011, I have come across a few interesting things.

When I had a look on Google's Dashboard to see what information there was in my profile I started to have a poke around some of the other areas and settings. As I don't have individual profiles in many of Google's other products, like G+ for example, I don't have to be that worried. Apps like Picassa and Docs I have only really used them to see what they could do for me. My profile in Blogger is sufficiently obtuse.

An interesting help file was found relating to what Google consider as "Confidential Personal Information":

Using a Raspberry Pi as a media server

The posts on this blog started out life as pointers to the work that I was publishing on my website. Since the announcement of the RPi I have had to temporarily shut down my website and I am in the process of re-posting the content on this blog.

My original idea was to replace the Debian Linux controller in the D-Link Network attached Storage unit with a Raspberry Pi with the aim of being able to have more control on the copying of terrabytes of data to the 2 * 2T drives.

• RPI Frustration  
• Where to buy the Raspberry Pi

I have started an index to all the pages relating to the Raspberry Pie on this blog (Link). I suspect that the visits to this page are more from those that are trying to locate a place to buy a Raspberry Pie computer rather than how to use it.

---

 

My installation of the RPi:

The housing for the Pi Media Server

The plan is to replace the controller in the D-Link DNS 323 Network Attached Storage with a Raspberry Pi. The housing has capacity for 2 3.5" SATA drives - at the moment 2 * 2T Byte drives are being used for a total of 4TB.

The attempt of installing Fun Plug on the DND-323 was not successful and the set-up of a Samba share on the Debian Linux, native to the D-Link device, was not made.

Using the Raspberry Pi with Fedora ARM it should be possible to create Samba shares in a flexible manner.

All I need to do then is to work out a way to transfer 4T of data from my "Windows" NTFS drives to "Linux" ext3/ext4 ones.

SATA 6 would be nice.

• Systems Pages on the Technology Muse 
• Intel's NUC and the Raspberry Pie 
• Linux pages

Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

First of all, the PIPEDA is an Act not a Government Agency. That means you cannot inform the PIPEDA. If you have a dispute with a person or an organization then you would have to mount an independent case with the government agency that administers the PIPEDA.
You cannot inform an act.

The PIPEDA ........ generally does not apply to non-commercial organizations - I am not, and nor was my website, a commercial entity or organization - therefore the PIPEDA is not applicable.

I am a private citizen and my website represented my views on things.
There has never been  a commercial reason for the website's existence. My website was privately administered and was not associated with a business or corporation.

Previously I WAS the director of an incorporated company, although some of my thoughts on incorporation were detailed on my website this should not be taken as an indication of my business status.

I have long since dissolved the corporation and the corporation was in a different name to my on-line persona.

• The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act on Wikipedia 
• Office for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada 
• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada on this blog
• Personal Property Security Act - PPSA.ca - Including making NUANS searches.

The Privacy Act took effect on July 1, 1983. This Act imposes obligations on some 250 federal government departments and agencies to respect privacy rights by limiting the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. The Privacy Act gives individuals the right to access and request correction of personal information about themselves held by these federal government organizations.

I am also NOT a government department or agency - The PIPEDA does not apply to me and my activities.

What the PIPEDA does set-out for applicable entities:

An organization may collect, use or disclose personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider are appropriate in the circumstances. 

The information is collected......

7 1 (c) the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic or literary purposes; 

The information is/can be used........

7 2 (b) it is used for the purpose of acting in respect of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual; 

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Having your home address known by the wider public does not threaten your life, health or security unless you have something to hide.

I believe that I was collecting information in a (citizen) journalist manner. Not that the PIPEDA has any bearing on this.

Intimidation is a threat to security.