Walking into my Dentist’s office this morning I discovered the Herndon offices of the Jeff Barnett for Congress campaign. Aweseome. We have a veteran running to replace Frank Wolf. I must get involved, more later, but here is a link if you want to help me replace Wolf:
Tagged election 2010The last few days my internet speeds for actual usage seem like 1989 with a 2400bps MODEM over noisy dialup lines… I am measuring 2Kbps most of the time using scp and web sites are essentially unusable.
The really strange thing is that all the speed test websites, once they’ve loaded the speed test (which takes 5-10 minutes) claim that my internet speeds are 13-15Mbps down and 3-5Mbps up! That would be great if that were my actual experience.
Initially I though Comcast had done something evil to DNS servers (and their servers are crazy slow and buggy), but I’ve completely by-passed Comcasts name services by using a caching DNS server with Google (8.8.8.8) and OpenDNS (208.67.222.222) as forwarders. That got rid of the “DNS Helper” ad site, and DNS is faster, but web usage is still slow beyond belief; outside the house. The house wiki is screaming fast, and I can stream content from one computer to another easily enough.
Anyone else experiencing a sudden downturn in internet speeds?
Update: I am more and more convinced that Comcast is rate limiting everything except speed test traffic; Flash and Java based speed test sites continue to claim I am getting 13-15Mbps download speeds, yet my actual download speeds for web traffic are drastically smaller:
Dragonfly[658]: wget http://www.webmetrics.com/landingpage/bitcurrentcloud2/The_Performance_of_Clouds_Complete.pdf --2010-09-28 09:02:31-- http://www.webmetrics.com/landingpage/bitcurrentcloud2/The_Performance_of_Clouds_Complete.pdf Resolving www.webmetrics.com (www.webmetrics.com)... 156.154.25.17 Connecting to www.webmetrics.com (www.webmetrics.com)|156.154.25.17|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 5593363 (5.3M) [application/pdf] Saving to: “The_Performance_of_Clouds_Complete.pdf†100%[==========================================================================================>] 5,593,363 170K/s in 33s 2010-09-28 09:03:04 (168 KB/s) - “The_Performance_of_Clouds_Complete.pdf†saved [5593363/5593363]Tagged broadband, internet speeds
If you are using Google Voice to screen incoming calls, I recently discovered how to disable screening for calls from people you know. This counts on you regularly adding the numbers of people you have calling you into your database, but that is easy using the Google Voice web interface.
Go to the Google Voice web portal, pull down the Settings Menu to select Voice Settings
Then in the center, click the Groups tab (this assumes you have added the numbers of people you know to groups).
Edit each Group you have (friends, family, coworkers are the groups I have)
Enable Call Screening for this group needs to be turned Off
Then as you add people it will no longer screen calls from their known numbers, and new calls from unknown numbers will still be screened.
Tagged google voice, mobile phonesThere is a pretty good write up of the dangers in allowing your browser to accept Cross Site Scripting (XSS) or allowing your web server to carry XSS here:
Guardian Article on Javascript based XSS Twitter Hack
The article mainly focuses on the recent Twitter exploit, and the dangers of server-side XSS exploits, but we can easily protect against this stuff at the browser level too with NoScript add-on to Firefox. FlashBlock and Click to Flash help with Flash issues, but Javascript is more pervasive and XSS is more commonly implemented in Javascript.
I have been seeing so many of these on Facebook lately and am concerned that people are visiting Facebook with vulnerable web browsers. If you are using any browser other that Firefox with NoScript active, and you think you are secure – please let me know what you did to fix your browser. This is the vulnerability that forced me off Safari and Chrome (both of which seem faster, but less secure than Firefox with NoScript and Flashblock).
Tagged cross site scripting, flash, javascript, web browser security, XSSThis brings back many fond memories of playing Call of Cthulu with friends when I was stationed in Hawaii….
This little home server makes my old nOrhtec MIcroServer GP look huge in comparison…
Guru Plug Server Plus, 512MB memory, 512MB flash storage, two Gigabit ethernet ports… I could run caching DNS, MediaWiki, Router/Firewall and openVPN services on this little guy and only burn 5W of power…
Amazing.
The old MicroServer GP has only 256MB of memory, a 20GB microdrive, and one fast ethernet port… I am running openSuSE on it now.
There are more details and ongoing discussion at:
plugcomputer.org
I think that the new iPods look great, but that the best news out of Apple today was the price reduction on the classic AppleTV devices… only $149 while supplies last…
The new AppleTV also looks pretty cool, and at $99 it will likely be a market success, but it does not do 1080p; and I have concerns about it picking up all the internet media that I want.
The real media center is probably a Mac Mini, but it’s a lot more expensive.
Old AppleTV: 100baseT/802.11n, 720p, 160GB drive, Mac OS X 10.4 with some bits stripped out $149
New AppleTV: 100baseT/802.11n, 720p, no drive, iOS under the hood $99
Mac Mini: 1000baseT/802.11n, 1080p, bigger drive, full Mac OS X 10.6 upgradable, can work as a DVR with EyeTV $699
Let’s be comprehensive, and compare:
AppleTV (new $99) stream Netflix, iTunes, Flickr, YouTube, Internet Radio, MobileMe, etc
AppleTV (old $149) stream iTunes, Flickr, YouTube, Internet Radio, MobileMe, hack to play Boxee, XBMC, etc
Roku ($59, $69, or $99) stream Netflix, Amazon, Pandora…
Boxee Box (coming in November), plays Boxee content
GoogleTV software coming soon, on which media boxes?
Popcorn Hour ($179 – $361), plays many media formats, can even add a DVD or Blu-Ray drive
Sony Netbox ($130) streams Sony Bravia services (encapsulated Netflix, YouTube, etc)
Update:
Apparently all Profile 2.0 (aka BD-Live) Blu-ray players have an internet connection for upgrading firmware and streaming live audio and video from internet sources. Our new Panasonic DMP-BD85 streams Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and Pandora… This essentially means that the streaming-only devices we are comparing above are redundant if you already have or plan to get a Profile 2.0 or newer Blu-ray player.
Classic (40GB and 160GB) Apple TV features:
stream youtube
stream internet radio (hundreds of stations)
stream audio, photos, video from iTunes computer on your own LAN
stream photos from MobileMe, Flickr – or sync them from iTunes on a local computer
stream podcasts from internet – or sync them from iTunes on a local computer
stream and sample music from iTunes Music store – or sync music from iTunes on a local computer
rent or buy Movies and TV shows and Music from the iTunes Music store (though that’s pricey)
preview all the trailers you want
With a patchstick hack – Classic Apple TV can also:
run XBMC to view local to disk, or NAS, or LAN movies/music in nearly any format
run Boxee to stream TV shows, podcasts from the internet – or play local media
run CouchSurfer to view internet websites and Flash content (requires extra hacking and either an Intel based Mac OS 10.4 machine or Intel based Tiger install disks)
A lot of us have Linksys home routers. They are cheap, effective, and easy to use. I’ve have a BEFSR81 8 port fast ethernet broadband router/firewall for many years… it recently started locking up when anyone in the house shops Amazon.com using Firefox (started in early May we think).
Frequently the router will lock up on pages other than Amazon’s home page; usually while doing DNS queries to get some of the many sub-domains Amazon uses… Occasionally the whole router will crash and I have to reset it to get it working again.
I am running hardware version 3.1 and firmware 2.51.0 (though I swear I applied 2.51.4 update successfully in the past, it’s reporting 2.51.0). While re-applying firmware update this morning the trusty old Linksys died and would not recover.
A mad scramble to get internet again led me to buy a D-Link EBR-2310 from a local Office Depot (how cool that Office Depot carries the entire D-Link line!)… which will give me time to recover the Linksys I hope, and time to research running a linux server with two network ports as a router and firewall.
http://homecommunity.cisco.com/t5/Wired-Routers/BEFSR81-crashes-when-accessing-amazon-com/td-p/333269/page/5 the second to last post on this topic is very informative, and it looks like a DNS specific bug…
I love D-Link’s new line of gear, especially their “EtherGreen” low power high speed gigabit ethernet switches… so I suspect this router from D-Link will be fine, but it only has a four port hub on the LAN side. The Linksys BEFSR81 had an amazing 8 port switch on the LAN side… excellent and still cheap.
Tagged home networking, Linksys BEFSR81, routerThis weekend my partner and I decided to finally execute a many year plan to set up a home theater in our basement. We shopped around a little and scored an LCD television, receiver, disc player, and speakers from a local Best Buy. I was sad to see that the decade old practice of price gouging on the HDMI cables, TOSLINK cables, and component video cables continues. The cheapest price Best Buy had for any HDMI cable of any length was $39.99! They had HDMI cables all the way up to $149.99!!! A high quality HDMI cable of the same length is $2.91 from Monoprice.com and only $3.60 from BlueJeansCable.com. Both mail order companies have hassle free packaging. I knew there would be a mark up for the local store, and I was even willing to pay a small one (say 4x the web price), but over 13x!?!? Shame on you local retailers. We also checked a local Lowe’s and they were not much better, HDMI cable prices ranged from $29.99 to $89.99 for essentially the same cables.
This extreme price gouging was all very publicly exposed 8-10 years ago in news papers and on the news. I assumed market pressures and exposure would bring the prices into a reasonable markup, but I was wrong. We paid perhaps 24% more for the Blu-ray player and perhaps 14% more for the TV that we could have scored on the internet to both save on shipping and support the brick and mortar store. The receiver was a bargain because it was an “open box” item missing it’s manuals, pink noise sensing microphone, and it had a substitute remote as it’s original was missing… We got the speakers for less than internet pricing because we were buying so much stuff all together. Am I wrong to be all rant enabled over the cable and incidentals pricing practices? I know they have to make a living, so a reasonable markup on every item is perfectly understandable.
Best Buy:
Monoprice:
Already have:
An interesting find, if you are looking for home entertainment options, is that the most modern A/V Receivers and large screen televisions are dropping composite and S-video connectors and reducing the number of optical and coaxial digital audio inputs. The largest televisions are also dropping the analog (NTSC) tuners. For many people this will not be a problem, as modern Blu-ray and up-scaling DVD players all support HDMI (and new TVs and receivers have plenty of HDMI connectors). We have (and I suspect we are not alone) a lot of older gear that still needs to connect though, and it was hard to find gear that connects via S-Video and old fashioned composite video. I am not sure what newer XBox, Playstation, and Wii games connect with – I suspect it has all gone to HDMI give the dearth of older connections on newer model TVs and receivers. We also wanted an analog tuner because we use a ChannelMaster system to rebroadcast security camera feeds and our DISH satellite receiver throughout the house, having the analog tuner means the newer TV can pick that up too.
Update: I was able to mail order replacements for the missing remote control and pink noise microphone for $65 from NewRemoteControl.com, and I found a free PDF of the manual online.
Tagged entertainment, HDMI cable prices, home theatreThere is a whole lot of hoopla about a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan dominating the news, the blogs, and the political zeitgeist of America for several weeks now.
One of my friends aptly calls the whole fiasco horseshit… and he’s correct… but I think it is manufactured horseshit.
I don’t think people are really all that offended by any new house of worship, or religiously sponsored community centers… I think this is a very carefully targeted and manufactured wedge issue meant to simultaneously depress mainstream American voters so they have lower voter turnout numbers this November 2nd while exciting the lunatic fringe haters so they are encouraged to vote because they are angry about something.
If everyone votes, it completely diffuses this sort of insanity.
Just like many other manufactured distractions, the facts don’t support the claims and assertions of the talking heads.
It’s not a mosque. It’s not that close to the former world trade center. Sufis (the sponsors for this community center) are generally not terrorists. Americans largely don’t really care in any case. Most of the blowhards talking loudest about this have the least facts (which is typical also for these manufactured wedge issues). Move on America… and remember to vote in November, when you don’t vote you let the most politically motivated on all sides have their say unchallenged. Be the voice of moderation and speak your mind.
Update: turns out I am not the only one who finds all this hoopla suspect, a friend pointed this out: Salon article “How the “ground zero mosque” fear mongering began”
Update 2: on a more humorous note: Outrage Over Plans To Build Library Next To Sarah Palin
Tagged church & state, election 2010, intolerance, Politics, Religion