E-thoughts

POE Digital Wall Clocks

E-admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:01:35 +0000

Here are some interesting digital wall clocks which require only an ethernet connection for both power, and to synchronize to any web or local NTP server. Power is via POE (Power-Over-Ethernet), provided by many newer ethernet switches, or an add-on adapter between the switch and clock. A built-in web server allows setting the time zone, clock brightness, etc. from any PC on the network. Most other similar clocks require a separate power supply and a central management device.

CSS has 4 and 6 digit clocks, with 2 and 4 inch digits, in red and green…

http://css-timemachines.com/

Inova has 4 and 6 digit clocks in red and green, and also a 12 inch analog clock…

http://www.inovasolutions.com/network-clocks/products/LED-clock.html

Prices start around $175 US.

Counterfeit Windows Software

E-admin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:25:09 +0000

A rhetorical question, at best… Why does the world’s largest Online Auction Site ignore the high volume of counterfeit Windows copies for sale on the site? They cannot be unaware of it – right on the site, there are many blog posts, with thousands of views, warning buyers of the pirated software. Oddly, they are quite good at policing other questionable sale items.

And why does the Redmond Giant, always willing to torture a legitimate Windows owner with reactivation because of something as simple as a nic card change, turn a blind eye to this – and to the fact that the Auction Site makes a commission on every phony copy sold?

Hackers helping their enemies

E-admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:58:54 +0000

The hackers who claim to be supporting WikiLeaks by hitting MasterCard, Visa, Amazon, and various world government sites are probably causing little more than mild annoyance to the IT staff at these huge organizations – but they are giving strong ammunition to every group and public official who supports heavy government censorship and control of the internet. The web that results will likely be one that they did not want.

New look for e-thoughts

E-admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:29:57 +0000

Our new look came about because the previous theme was not compatible with the latest version of WordPress, and not because of any particular enthusiasm to change the appearance.

A couple of e-observations:

We have not been commenting on the morally bankrupt world of the largest corporations and biggest banks, since the mainstream media has finally discovered the subject, presumably as a result of extreme cases of executive greed during the current “recession”, if that is the right term.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 recently, and just as with IE 7, is determined to force it onto every server and desktop PC, by tricking users into installing it, most often by hiding it among real security patches. Nothing new here except for the version.

Firefox won’t open?

E-admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:17:25 +0000

One cause of Firefox 2.x suddenly not loading is corruption in the Firefox section of a user profile. This can be verified by logging into the affected system with a different user account. If Firefox works – then the problem is in the profile. The common solution is to delete the folder, but that will delete all custom settings, including bookmarks. One file, in particular, can become corrupted if the browser crashes, and renaming or deleting only that file may fix the problem in a less drastic way. It is “xpti.dat”, and is found in the Firefox section of the user profile, which is normally found here:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\randomstring.default

Microsoft’s IE 7 GetItNow

E-admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:57:43 +0000

Microsoft tech support claims to know nothing about this, however on Windows 2003 and XP systems which are still running Internet Explorer 6.x, some combination of service packs and hotfixes causes the browser home page to randomly open to the Microsoft GetItNow download page for Internet Explorer 7. Apparently the Microsoft obsession of forcing IE 7 onto every system has caused them to stoop low enough to try to trick users, especially those using Windows 2003 on corporate servers, into installing it. It is random, and does not occur on all systems, so it might be that this is the idea of some wayward programmer at Microsoft, rather than a corporate plan. It is a nuisance to individuals, but can be a serious issue if IE 7 is installed on a business server that may have custom software that is not compatible with it. The change is done on a per-user-profile basis, so it is not easy to disable this globally. Blocking access to Microsoft.com would do it, however, that is not practical, since Windows Update would no longer work, etc. However, the GetItNow site is reached using a redirect to go.microsoft.com, and this can be blocked easily – just add “127.0.0.1 go.microsoft.com” to the C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file. This only other effect seems to be to disable the rarely useable links in Event Log messages, since they also use go.microsoft.com. The change is easily undone if required.

Those Bailouts again….

E-admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:57:51 +0000

Kudos to CBS for reporting this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/12/eveningnews/main4717298.shtml

More of that Corporate Greed…

E-admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:41:40 +0000

One more example – “HP uses third party to sell printers in Iran” :

http://www.boston.com…HP…Iran

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all!

E-admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:09:33 +0000

A wish for a peaceful holiday for everyone.

US broadband and what improvements are needed

E-admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:51:41 +0000

Robert J. Berger posted on his blog “Cognizant Transmutaion” about the poor ranking of US broadband compared to other countries:

http://blog.ibd.com/how-the-world-works/national-shame-swaths-of-non-rural-us-without-broadband-time-for-re-divestiture/comment-page-1/

He proposes divestiture – separate, perhaps municipal, ownership of the physical cable, fiber, poles, rights-of-way, etc. ISP’s and various content providers would then all have equal opportunity for access to the infrastructure, allowing true competition. This is an excellent e-thought…