When iTunes 7 was released, it was packaged with Apple’s software update program for Windows (looking vaguely like software update for OS X). It seemed like this meant that we could finally stop downloading a complete QuickTime + iTunes install each time there was a tiny update to iTunes.
However, iTunes 7.0.1 is out, and while iTunes can find it, Software Update can’t. So what is this application for?
See my family page for more.
My second success for a donated MX entry was back in early July (the first was February 1st). That was about a year for the first one, and then five months for the second. Yesterday, I had a third. While this seems like a big speed-up, this was for a different domain, so is really the first success and not the third. Even still, that’s about a month and a half for the first success for this donated MX, compared to a year for the original donation.
Again, please consider helping out if you can.
As of today, Grisoft’s AVG anti-virus software is reporting any Windows (non-console) application built using py2exe (maybe just with Python 2.4?) as a virus.
If AVG is suddenly reporting an application you have used for a long time as a virus, don’t believe it. Unfortunately, unless you disabled AVG, it will probably have already deleted (moved to the ‘vault’) the application.
I (along with many others) have reported this to AVG, but please do so as well. They need to learn to be more careful when detecting real viruses.
eWido’s anti-virus/anti-spyware software had the same problem a couple of weeks ago (by the 24th of July they had corrected the error). I had hoped for better from AVG.
(This is all the fault of the Backdoor.Rajump Trojan).
technorati tags:python, AVG, grisoft, eWido, virus, py2exe, false positive, Backdoor.rajump
On Tuesday, I was cleaning up and somehow managed to delete a fairly important folder, containing grades & teaching material that I had been working on a lot over the last month (so while some of it was backed up, it certainly wasn’t all safe).
This happened around the same time that I watched the WWDC Keynote, so I’m pretty sure that it was a jinx from those folks at Apple. I blame them entirely for the hours that I lost searching through my hard drive (positive that I had simply moved it by mistake), running disk utility (positive that it vanished through some sort of corruption with one of my recent crashes), and then finally running various undelete utilities and wading through the couple of GB that I’d deleted that day trying to find it (coming to terms with the realisation that it was actually me). (Active Undelete eventually recovered it for me).
I for one, welcome the all-knowing Time Machine that will come with Leopard (and the similar thing that Vista will have). As long as I can affordably give it enough space for the backups, this utility is something that is well overdue. If only I had them this week. I assume that this will be enabled on a per-disk basis, so those of you with things to hide can just disable it, or put sensitive information on a separate storage device, or just snap your live CD when the Feds come in.
(This problem did occur on my Windows laptop, but hopefully it’ll be an Apple laptop once Leopard is out).
technorati tags:time machine, apple, backup, undelete
In John Graham-Cumming‘s Spam and Anti-Spam Newsletter #37, John printed comments from Gordon Cormark regarding the TREC 2005 Spam Track submissions:
Several submitted by participants have their heritage in a filter product, but are experimental in the sense I mentioned above, and not available for download or purchase: […] tamSPAM (spambayes as configured by Tony Meyer)
However, this is not correct. I emailed John the comments below, but it seems he didn’t feel they were worthy of including in later issues. This doesn’t bother me (it’s a minor enough thing), they got lost in his mail. They’ll be in a later issue, but for the record, I’ll reproduce them here. Continue reading “Corrections to JGC’s Spam and Anti-Spam Newsletter #37.”
Podcasting’s first professionally-produced original drama series, SHADOW FALLS tells the eerie tale of a remote Northeastern town that holds secrets some will kill to protect and others will die to expose.
“Shadow Falls” has been getting a lot of hype on the DSC recently (to be expected, since Adam Curry was involved in production), but it’s weird how both Adam and listeners are describing this as something new.
Podiobooks.com has been serving up serialised fiction via podcasts for some time now (they have a great range – check them out), not to mention Escape Pod‘s short fiction (or more radio-show-style podcasts like The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd). Scott Sigler is on (finished? I’m a bit behind) his third original podcast novel, which is hosted by PodShow. In fact, I remember Adam mentioning Infection on the DSC (not just playing a promo, but raving about it).
It’s nice to have another story, but that’s all it is.
I’m not all that convinced about the “first professionally-produced” claim, either. What does “professionally-produced” mean? That it was done in a professional manner? That someone was paid to do it? Seems like Scott Sigler’s podcasts are professionally produced, as are some of the podiobooks.com ones. In fact, podiobooks.com offer a service where they produce the podiobook for the author. If that’s not “professionally-produced”, I don’t know what is.
I’d put a comment about this on the DSC or “Shadow Falls” pages, but you have to log in to PodShow Plus to do that, and I can’t.
technorati tags:podshow, podiobooks, scott sigler, shadow falls, escape pod, adam curry, podshow plus, dr floyd, dsc, daily source code
PodShow Plus sounded interesting, and I listen to quite a few PodShow podcasts (probably 90% of the podcasts I listen to come from PodShow, Farpoint Media, or the TWiT network), so a few days after the opening, I created a (listener) account (tonyandrewmeyer), and created a channel with a dozen or so of the shows I listen to (mostly the PodShow and TWiT ones). I’m not really sold on the idea of channelling all my shows through a single feed (I can’t check for new episodes of an individual podcast without a web browser, and it’s a single point of failure), but thought I’d see what all the fuss was about.
All seemed well at first. However, after a day or two, suspiciously few podcasts were coming through the channel feed. I checked, and, sure enough, the real feeds had episodes that the channel did not (strike one). (This bug has been mentioned on the DSC and is apparently fixed now).
I tried to log in to check the channel and see if I could fix the problem. However, I can’t login – it tells me that the details are wrong. The email address isn’t (or I wouldn’t have got the “welcome to podshow” email, which I did). I can’t see how the password could be wrong, but I suppose there’s a slim chance that I made the same typo twice in entering it (the password was blank in the “welcome” email – I have no idea if that is deliberate or not), so no strike for this, even though I’m 99% sure that it’s PodShow’s error and not mine. I used the “send me a new password” function (several times, now – so I have no idea what the password might be now), but have not received any such email.
Spam filters, you say? Nope, since I work on anti-spam software, I ensure that all filtering is off (apart from the gmail address, which isn’t the one I used). Anyway, the “welcome” email made it through, and I’ve grepped through all the received mail. Strike two.
Eventually giving up, I used their support contact function, explaining the problem (pretty clearly, in my opinion). That was about a week ago, and I have yet to hear anything at all (c.f. spam filters, above). Strike three (and this one is the worst).
So, while I still enjoy many PodShow podcasts, and I have no doubt that they’re trying to do something worthwhile, PodShow Plus isn’t something I’ll use or recommend. (For now, at least).
[Update (August 8th): three and a half weeks later, I got a reply to my support request. That’s just about as bad as not replying at all, in my opinion. Supposedly the problems I described have been fixed. However, I still can’t login. I’ve retried the “send me my password” link, but nothing has arrived yet.]
technorati tags:podshow, podshow plus, bugs
Weird. Seems that making your own soda (soft drink), which NZ’ers have done for years (I know SodaStream was around when I was a kid (say 20 years ago), but I don’t know about earlier than that), is just now hitting the US. Funny those things which are common for years in one country and then much later are a hit somewhere else.
technorati tags:sodastream, soda, geekbrief
TonyAndrewMeyer 