links for 2006-02-26
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The official versiontracker repository of Macintel compatible apps.
wikiHow is highlighting a great article this morning on how to keep your goldfish alive for decades. If you got kids and you hate flushing a pet fish then running out trying to find an all night pet store then this is an article you should read.
“It’s true that a number of Americans have lost jobs because companies have shifted operations to India. And losing a job is traumatic. It’s difficult. It puts a strain on our families,” he said. But instead of responding with “protectionist policies,” Bush said the United States needs to improve education and job training for displaced workers. (Mercury News)
Isn’t this the guy who is supposed to be protecting American jobs? And he wants the most rapidly developing, highly educated sector to get better education because their jobs are being sent overseas to people who work for 3x less money? Now I know I’m sick. I’m going back to bed.
Vacations are great…
at making you realize life goes on outside of work.
Snopes.com, debunkers of urban myths and fraudulent emails, has a great article on…well…today, Presidents Day…er..Washingtons Birthday…uh…well you’ll just have to read it to find out.
Here’s a snippet:
Snopes.com: Washington’s Birthday has become Presidents’ Day (or President’s Day, or even Presidents Day; the usage is inconsistent) for many of us because federal holidays technically apply only to persons employed by the federal government (and the District of Columbia). Individual state governments do not have to observe federal holidays — most of them generally do (and most private employers and school districts follow suit), but federal and state holiday observances can differ. For example, former Confederate states have observed several holidays not recognized at a federal level (such as June 3, Jefferson Davis Day), and controversial Arizona governor Ev Mecham drew headlines in 1987 when one of his first official acts upon inauguration was to rescind an Executive Order issued by the previous governor that had established the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (a federal holiday) as an Arizona state holiday.
It’s very interesting and well worth the time.
Looks like pretty soon you’ll be able to use your favorite Windows applications from Google (e.g., Picasa, etc.) on your Linux box.
Desktop Linux: The Linux Picasa implementation includes the full feature set of the Windows Picasa 2.x software. It is not, strictly speaking, a port of Picasa to Linux. Instead, Linux Picasa combines Windows Picasa code and Wine technology to run Windows Picasa on Linux. This, however, will be transparent to Linux users, when they download, install, and run the free program on their systems.
Looks like some mob justice is about to break out.
Anil: I’d been following Judith’s story of her lost camera with great interest until the latest update shocked me:
“Well,” she said, “we have a bit of a situation. You see, my nine year old son found your camera, and we wanted to show him to do the right thing, so we called, but now he’s been using it for a week and he really loves it and we can’t bear to take it from him.”
Judith’s not the mob justice type of person, but if ever there were a good reason for a bunch of nosy curious bloggers to track someone down and make them do the right thing, this would be it for me.
I feel bad for a kid whose parents are that lost and misguided.
Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing Blog says:
I agree with the commenter on this post: she should post this family’s name and hold them up for shame and ridicule. This is theft.
and commentor Erikerikerik says:
People who have no sense of right or wrong need to be shamed into submission. Seriously. They really do need thousands of letters telling them that they are doing the wrong thing by keeping something that belongs to someone else. This isn’t a gray area: this is something that really all people should believe in– “People should be entitled to the things that they paid for.”
Yup, gonna be a fun time tonight. Anyone got a rope?
I got this from over at Dane’s Business-Opportunities Blog this evening:
Thomas Edison: Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
via Worthwhile Living
Microsoft has admitted it knew about the issue caused by USB devices and a significant decrease in the battery life of so equipped laptops and says it will soon be releasing a fix.
eWeek: The issue comes down to the way Windows XP Service Pack 2-equipped notebook PCs react to the presence of USB 2.0 devices. With a one of the devices attached, the machines basically burn more power and thus, when switched to battery power, don’t run for the same length of time on a battery charge.
The cause is rooted in the intricate way in which USB 2.0 devices interact with ACPI, the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface power management software included with Microsoft’s Windows XP Service Pack 2, hardware testers who discovered the issue report.
Gird those loins Mac users, it looks like someone’s actually going to attempt to attack the OS X platform and you don’t want to be the person who unknowingly clicks the “Accept” button and messes up your system.
Extreme Tech: The worm is called OSX/Leap-A, according to a posting on the Web site of antivirus software company Sophos, which said the worm is spread via instant messaging programs.
The worm attempts to spread via Apple’s iChat instant messaging program, which is compatible with America Online’s popular AIM instant messaging program, according to the Sophos Web site.
The worm sends itself to available contacts on the infected users’ buddy list in a file called “latestpics.tgz,” according to the Sophos Web site.
The vast majority of malicious hacks are aimed at Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system and some of its products, largely because Microsoft has more than 90 percent of the market for computer operating systems.
“This first Macintosh OS X threat is an example of the continuing spread of malicious code on to other platforms,” said Vincent Weafer, senior director at Symantec Security Response, in a statement.
The worm will not automatically infect Mac computers, but will ask users to accept the file, Weafer said.