Author: Bob Beela

Enno ter Keurst, Waalre, the Netherlands, IT Consultant with Atos Origin.
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Fitna movie removed from LiveLeak

Another message on the LiveLeak website:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.
This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.
Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.
We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

Very disturbing, I didn’t think this could happen.

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Fitna movie on LiveLeak

Message on the LiveLeak website:

Welcome, and thank you for visiting LiveLeak.com. Due to an increase in traffic and targetted hacking attacks, we have had to disable certain features. We hope you enjoy all that we have available at this time and we further hope that you will visit us again to explore the full range of features and interactivity that LiveLeak has to offer. If this is your first visit to LiveLeak.com we apologise for the fact your first impression of the site will be limited, check back in with us soon and you can join one of the most unique media sharing sites on the net offering everything from uncensored news through to entertainment. Thank you for your patience.

Somebody is pissed off!

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Windows Vista sp1

Well, this week SP1 for Windows Vista came out. I haven’t had any problem with Windows Vista so I wasn’t really waiting for the update but my Windows update icon popped up and said “A new update is available for you“.

Before starting the update I checked the small print on the Microsoft website. There are some drivers which are a problem but Microsoft has build in some kind of mechanism which prevents the automatic update of PC’s with such drivers. I didn’t seem to have this problem so I started the download.

The whole SP1 package is something of 470MB. The update of my machine was only 82MB and was downloaded quickly. Installing the update took about 15 minutes and went on without any hiccups. After the reboot my machine was ready and everything seems to work.

I have been reading on the net about people complaining about not getting the updates, the fact that drivers are not compatible and that Microsoft is not offering the help people want. I agree that Microsoft should do more that only “their best” in solving the problems with driver. On the other hand people should also complain with the other manufactures for not providing drivers which are “Vista compliant”. I recognize the same problem when I have to explain to a customer why a certain software package cannot be used because it is not “Windows XP certified” and the supplier doesn’t want the certify it because it thinks it is costing to much. If only the manufacturer had started of with building a software package which is based on the Windows software principles.
I remember, many years ago,  getting my hands on the Apple Software bible. It was a handbook on how Apple software should be constructed and what requirements it had to meet. If only there weren’t so many manufacturers who are looking for the quick buck and make to many shortcuts.

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Software upgrades!

In the last three I’ve updated some important software I use and I would like to tell you about it.

I have updated:

  • My desktop OS from Windows XP to Windows Vista,
  • WordPress from version 2.0.11 to 2.3.3,
  • Joomla from PHP-Nuke 7.6 to Joomla version 1.5.1.

Vista upgrade.

Last year in december I decided to upgrade my desktop computer OS to Windows Vista the Business edition. Before upgrading I made a list of the software I use, the peripherals I use and what I use my computer for. Upgrading is always something which has to planned carefully.
I build my computers myself and I try to buy “good” components. For instance, the motherboard I use is from Asus. A brand I have been using for years and which has never let me down. The CPU I use is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+. Not the fastest in the market but it delivers good performance for its money. For memory I pick Kingston modules and I read the fine print of the Asus motherboard manual so that I not stuck with non performing memory modules. Most of the harddisks I buy are from Western Digital. As I don’t play games on my computer I don’t really care about the graphic card. As long as it is quite and can deliver the resolution I need. I have a 24″ display so I need 1920 by 1200. My NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT does the job. 

My computer is mostly used for management of my websites and for editing my photo’s. I made the first step into digital photography a number of years ago when I bought a Nikon Coolscan II. That model has been replaced by a Coolscan IV-ED. One requirement when upgrading my OS is that my Coolscan has to work under Windows Vista. The Nikon support side told me that it did not have Vista compatible drivers. There were drivers for the Coolscan V-ED, so maybe it would work or work in the near future.
Of the software I use I only had to replace the Roxio DVD burner software and my Silverfast scanner software which was not compatible. Roxio I replaced with CD Burner XP (open source) and Silverfast was replaced by Nikon Scan 4 (not as good as Silverfast but it is Vista compatible).

I backed up my data and made the fresh install (I never do in-line upgrades). That process went without one hickup. I installed Office 2007, Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture NX, Firefox, Filezilla, Notepad++, SyncToy 2.0, McAfee, Adobe Reader, jZip, Diskeeper 2007 (Vista upgrade included), Realplayer, Nikon Scan 4, CD Burner XP. The result has been a stable platform, as stable as my Windows XP version.

It is March 14 and I still love my Vista setup. The graphics is crips and new, performance is good, stability is good and the new security features of Vista do not bother me at all. The Business version of Vista has some features which you cannot find on the home edition. One of them is VSS. With VSS Vista keeps previous copies of the files you create and alter. A feature you do not really need at home but is really nice in a business environment.
I work as IT architect and I wouldn’t mind having Windows Vista as my business desktop and I would recommend it to the customers I speak with.

WordPress

This website is based on WordPress 2.3.3. I wanted to upgrade to this version but the webserver I used did not have the right MySQL and/or PHP version. So I was stuck with the 2.0.11 version.
With the renewal of my contact with Flexservers (http://www.flexservers.nl) I upgraded my hosting package to a newer Virtual Private Server version with the right MySQL and PHP version. I finally could make the upgrade!

Upgrading WordPress has always been easy and this upgrade has been as easy as always. Backup your site and database, disable all plugins, copy the new files to the server, run the upgrade script and that is it.

WordPress rocks!

Joomla

There are two other sites I manage, both sites are sport related (http://www.the-bears.org and http://www.hvaoz.org). On one site is based on the Joomla CMS, the other on PHP-Nuke. Both are open source packages, Joomla is a Mercedes, PHP-Nuke is a Lada.
I had to upgrade my PHP-Nuke site because to add-ons I used were not updated anymore and security flaws and the PHP-Nuke version I used also had serious security issues. So what to do, stick with the security flaws or move to another MS and look for replacement add-ons. I decided to move to Joomla.

I found some specific sport related modules I could use. It only meant that all data I had had to be transferred, manually.

Joomla version 1.5.1. is beautiful. It is a new version which has completely been rewritten. But it has a “legacy” plugin which means modules and components designed for the 1.0.x version can work with the new version. Most of the popular modules and components have already been updated to the new version of Joomla so the Legacy plugin won’t have to be used for long. Moving from PHP-Nuke to Joomla is a major step especially if you have custom add-ons. Moving from Joomla 1.0.x to 1.5.1 is a step I will try out in the near future.

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Scoble goes (again) into a non-issue discussion

Again Robert Scoble has started a discussion about whether Apple is better than Windows Vista (link).
Just like the other instances he is trying to compaire apples and oranges.

Apple
Apple is a hardware and software supplier. It produces software (application and a OS) which will only run on hardware produced and sold by Apple.

Microsoft
Microsoft is a hardware and software supplier, but mostly a software supplier. It produces software (applications and OS) which will will run on any hardware, produced and sold by anybody, as long as it is based on the old PC design.

In his new post Robert complained about that his new Dell which gave him a blue screen while booting. I’ve been using Dell, Fujitsu, Asus, Compaq, Tatung and HP machines and I agree that there are qualilty differences between the brands but also between the models within a brand. None is trouble free and every model I have used needed two or three firmware updates in order to solve problems with OS during it’s lifetime.
So I ask Robert; Is a blue screen the problem of Microsoft or the problem of the hardware supplier.

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Looks like Google is scared shit

If you read the New York Times article about the action Google is taking to crash the Microsoft – Yahoo deal, you can only conclude “They are scared shit“.
A lot of bloggers are writing about how Microsoft is going to kill Flickr. I think just the opposite. Yahoo and Flickr could mean a good change for Microsoft. Neither Yahoo, Flickr or Google are a big player in the business end of the market. The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo could be a mighty combination.