News

October 2005

Haloween celebration: a Photoshoping contest from Worth1000.com to introduce a monstruous dimension into classical art pieces.

Counterfeit Deterrent Marking and Banknote Detection System (again 2): The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) had discovered the existence of this technology implemented by a large number of printer manufacturers in their laser color printers to help authorities in the fight against counterfeit doucments and banknotes (see below). The owner of a HewlettPackard HP4600 (duplex color laser printer) just discovered that the technology has an added drawback: It forces the printer to always print on both faces of the paper (even if nothing useful has to go to the back of the paper, the printer will spend time printing the pale yellow dots on the back side). Thios roughly divide by two the printing speed in "simplex mode".

Free Culture @ NYU Protests DRM at Virgin Megastore: Free Culture @ NYU and friends protest and inform about DRM at Virgin Megastore in Union Square NYC.

Open Office - how to accelerate its load-time start speed: Since the availability of the version 2.0, there is a weird little background talk about load times and speed ot this version et it is often heard that Microsoft Office loads quite significantly faster. As a matter of fact, a couple of ideas can improve this significantly:

• You need to go to the Tools, then in Options. In the section about memory management, you must increase graphics cache up to 64 MB and memory per object up to 8 MB. You may not see immediate impact (it takes a few re-run for this to be fully used by OpenOffice).
• In the same place, you can also disable the Java option. Most of the load time seems to be spent in Java starting up. In my opinion, this is a secondary feature and 99% of users will never use it.

Kodak is after world records: 39 mega-pixels for a digital camera sensor. But don't hold your breath til the availability. This component will target medium-size cameras and its price will leave it out of the possibilities of even most professional photographers.

Search tools for web sites and Intranets: Your web site needs a search engine. You noticed that I recently changed mine from Atomz to Google AdSense for search. Here is the comparison of search engines I built in the process.

Transparent armour: The US Air Force just announced having discovered and developped a new armour material that is both transparent as glass and extraordinarily more resistant to compression and shocks. The windows made out of this material are so scratch-resistant that this improves significantly their quality and life length. Soon transparent planes like Wonder Woman's?

Best WiFi routers for Bittorrent: Bittorrent, like many other Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications puts a heavy load on the common home network router. I show here the results of an extensive Internet search for real-life experiences.

Open Office v2.0 is available: We have been waiting long, but here is the newest release of the free desktop suite in direct competition with Microsft MS-Office. I tell you, and I'll tell it again, if you use Word, Excel and PowerPoint, you ought to check this one. It is a fully professional solution with extended compatibility and it is free.

Many new features. The most striking ones are:

• On top of the compatibility with Microsoft file formats, the saved files can be produced that are compatible with the new OASIS OpenDocument standard (requested by a number of public administrations and companies in the world)
• An even better look-and-feel
• Always the (improved) ability to directly produce PDF files (with no additional tool)
• A new Mail Merge wizard
• Digital signature of documents
• Still free!

I keep recommending heartily this desktop software suite that I have been using in the last few years without any of my correspondents noticing any difference (for me the desktop software budget simply vanished in thin air - it's even better than getting an illegal copy of the latest Microsoft release/version).

De l'art de composer ses photographies: It is not because the new digital camera has millions of pixels that the photographs you shoot are breath-taking. Digital technology does not prohibit going back to the healthy tradition of Renaissance painting masters and speaking about composition. For those visitors able to read some French, the Clubic.com web site gives advice and simple tricks about the art of composing your own photographs.

A perspective of better photographs.

Origin:

After that we can't complain about our Postal Service: It's right the the French Postal Service (La Poste) is not always satisfying (astronomical delays, sometimes surprising costs, long queues, etc.) But we can no longer complain, there's worse. Much worse.

Recently, China was the theater where was trialed the Mianyang post office for selling about 2,100,000 letters from an advertisment campaign to a paper recycling company. Double whammy: Payed to route 2.5 million letters, the post office was earning more money without even minding to send these to more than one willing receiver.

I wonder whether we must rejoice in seeing the correlative reduction in SPAM/paper advertisment?

Source:

Weird, isn't it? Today, Englishmen celebrate a defeat: All Frenchmen will tell you that the Trafalgar battle (200 year ago, precisely) was a dramatic defeat. So, why is the Queen of England wasting time to celebrate? :-)

Our countries changed enough during in those two centuries that we can have fun with it.

Counterfeit Deterrent Marking and Banknote Detection System (again): The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) had discovered the existence of this technology implemented by a large number of printer manufacturers in their laser color printers to help authorities in the fight against counterfeit doucments and banknotes, because of the excellent quality of the color prints from these machines. As requested by the American Secret Service, it means printing (usually on the document border) a group of small fot color in light yellow (nearly invisible) that encode the brand name and the serial number of the printer. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) finally succeeded in decoding the meaning of these dots and filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request (PDF) with the US government to get some more information about how this is used.

Spies are really among us (at least in the US). Obviously, Big Brother didn't die in 1984.

Laptop batteries again? Did you notice it? As for cars, there are more and more laptop computers recalled by the manufacturer. For cars, there is a mechanical part to replace, a software program to upgrade. For computers, I get the feeling that this is always for a faulty battery (with an associated risk of explosion or burning). These last months, I believe I heard it from Dell, Toshiba, and now HP (135,000 laptops to repair).

I wonder whether there is a serious reliability problem with the engineers designing batteries or bettary chargers for electronic systems.

FNAC may open legal music download service: The French department store may soon open a legal downloading service aimed at music lovers. The interesting part seems to be the monthly fee for unlimited use: 15€/month. This is still more a rumour than information, though.

Cute PDF: is another free software tool to generate PDF files from any Windows application, just printing them to a pseudo-printer. Less simple than PDF-Creator (you need to install another additional software program - GhostScript), it is nonetheless very efficient, supports down to Windows 98 and can convert PostScript files into PDF format.

Linksys upgrade / Advice: While we still are looking for a firmware upgrade for our Linksys BEFSX41 routers that is simultaneously official and stable, I learned an intersting little bit of advice. It seems to be fairly important (maybe even critical in some cases) to always reset the router configuration to its default factory settings BEFORE doing any firmware upgrade. Of course, you should not forget to first write down the initial configuration (you will have to copy it back again after the upgrade). But this operation seems necessary to ensure that the upgrade goes right. In other cases, the lack of this resetting may lead to non functionning router or semi-random crashes (all the more difficult to identify and solve).

Are you really a geek? You know? The kind of guy a little off the main road because his passions drive him too often or too much; The kind who regularly fails to date with normal girls and women because of his attitude (but interested girls should also check the Why date a geek guy? web site).

Today, if you feel geeky, you just have to visit the InnerGeek.us web site to know how far you've gone. The test takes about twenty minutes. As a matter of fact, I hit 36.49% (Honorable: I can brag about it in the geek circles; Bad: My future is clouded until she knows Why date a geek guy).

Soft-toy Linux penguin: For the true computer enthusiast and the Linux lover, it is now possible to freely (Open Source under GPL license) manufacture a Linux animal (the penguin known as Tux) out of soft material. For this, you'll need a sewing pattern as offered freely on the www.free-penguin.org web site. Ok, some computer geeks are made of a weird stuff. But why not try this stuffed soft toy?

Fatal meeting between an alligator and a python: In the Everglades National Park (Florida), such an encounter finished badly for both participating animals. The burmese python decided to swallow the crocodilian, succeeded, but died when its body exploded under the pressure of a meal that was obviously too heavy.

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL color laser printer: A full evaluation of this low-cost color laser printer is done by the Ars Technica web site.

MS-Office and PDF, at last! Since years, Word and Excel users have wished to see MS-Office able to produce PDF files (see PDF-Creator below as well as OpenOffice that has been doing it for years), and Microsoft resisted. It was certainly a matter of protecting the attempts of the Redmond's firm at creating a competitive product/format (when you are a monopolist, seeing Adobe deliver such a widespread tools must have been irritating).

Today, Microsoft announces that MS-Office version 12 will support PDF file generation (and maybe some reading too). Obviously, it took the direct pressure of Massachussets American state (that officially announced its will to pull out of MS-Office) for Microsoft to start listening to its customers. But many people believe that Microsoft will only comply with the minimum feature list and the produced PDF files may well be under par.

Let's accept any little progress here. Or, let's go and download OpenOffice that does it all whille staying free and compatible with all Microsoft file formats. Forget about MS-Office. Like I did, think about the future: OpenOffice. For the last 3 years I used this free desktop software suite only and none of my correspondents had to complain about the files I sent around; The transition was that easy.

No Minolta for Canada: Big news for our firends of the other side of the Atlantic, Konica Minolta decided to stop selling digital cameras in Canada. Effective immediately. Probably, a backup solution will be found (using a web site like Phototrader); But nothing has been promised yet. In between, the wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary is to be liquidated at the end of the month. The market is not nicer than a few months ago. Let's hope that Konica Minolta will stay long enough to provide a real commercial life to Dynax/Maxxum 7D and 5D (this one is visibly able to attract a large public that may have been frightened by the 7D prices while loving its features).

NVU to replace FrontPage: Obviously FrontPage is really the minimalist soution to edit a web site (DreamWeaver is more powerful, easier to use and produces a better HTML code). But, today there is a real alternative from Open Source. Actively sponsored by Linspire (previously Lindows), I advise you to get in touch with NVU. It is written for Linux, Macintosh, Windows and FreeBSD. It is real reaplcement for FrontPage, but it still lacks a few important features like the DreamWeaver-like templates. Undoubtedly, as soon as these templates arrive (there is already a rudimentary set of templates), I could abandon DreamWeaver (presently my prefered HTML editor).

HP LaserJet 1022: Still happy with my new Black & White laser printer. I am even impressed by the blindingly short time to output the first printed page (and I am printing over the LAN!). I really like it.

Choosing a desktop processor: With the unbelievable increase in variety of CPU at Intel and AMD, it became nearly impossible to find your way on the path to a new desktop processor. There was a time when you'd just enter a computer shop and buy the fastest AMD your budget could afford. Sockets, number of bits, number of cores, cache sizes, bus speed, everything and the kitchen sink.

But The-Inquirer comes to help us with a selection of 4 CPU (with justification): “What to buy if you're buying X86 desktop processors”. Surprise (with detailed explanation): AMD Sempron is no longer a good choice for a cheap buy. On the opposite, Intel and its Celeron are holding their ground much better than what I'd thought a year ago.

False Maxtor hard drives: Some people in Japan were shocked by the discovery of false Maxtor 320 GB hard discs (there is none of that cpaacity in the Maxtor catalog). The immitation is very good (only inor errors in the product label would allow recognition). Of course, Maxtor denies the buyers any right to a warranty.

Test comparison of 22 hard disc drives: Last month, I bought a Maxtor SATA 300 GB hard disk drive (16 MB cache). I'm rather satisfied with it, as you could read it here. As a matter of fact, if I could have waited a little more I could have have seen the comparison of 22 hard disk drives published by the American web site of Tom's Hardware. It confirms the silence of the Seagate discs, the performance of Ultra-SATA drives and the fact that my Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 300 GB (6B300S0) is a solid performer (and it has a very nice price, too).

Maps back in time: It may not be often but it may come handy sometimes: Here is a web site providing maps of the Earth as it appeared back in geological times: Paleomap. For example, at the moment of dinosaurs disparition.

Linux Tip #11 (Fast OS comparison): With the coming of the new Windows version (You still have to wait until 2006), I tried to prepare a summary decision sheet of possible solutions for the owner of a personal computer. A fast comparison, but useful to keep things clear:

Reading Corel Draw! (.CDR) files: Somebody asked what I would suggest to read .CDR files produced by Corel Draw! My answer is quite simple: Irfan View. Free and with an amazing set of features.

The lie of the century: A web site where are shown numerous examples of western countries going to war because the population was told outright lies or enormous approximations (by the government): the lie of the century.

Dynax 7D tip #18: Dyxum.com: A nice web site dedicated to the Konica-Minolta Digital Single Lens Reflex (D-SLR).

Linux test #4 (Lycoris): Another GNU/Linux I checked in my search for a replacement to Microsoft Windows: Lycoris/LX. But I was quickly disappointed. Despite the nice web site and set of features, it does not really answer to my own needs.

Some of the pros are:

• Everything shows this distribution was built to be immediately usable and immediately lovable. The appearance has been worked upon neatly (e.g. the desktop wallpapers were choosen for their obvious graphical elegance; nice touch).
• Everything multimedia seem handled correctly (audio as well as video).
• Microsoft-type networks should be easy to use for anybody already knowing the Windows environment.
• Some applications (KWord and KSpread) are provided to replace MS Office (I tend to prefer OpenOffice, but a separate installation should be easy enough).
• Installing additional applications should be easy seeing the package management tools that have been polished for real-world users (not only developers), but I couldn't test it by myself..
• An online upgrade manager is available (similar to Windows Update).

But my use of the Operating System implies some real difficulties:

• Totally English-oriented (I could live with that, but not all of my readers).
• Apparently, no solution to support existing Windows applications (maybe in order to simplify it all, but it does not solve my own migration constraint from Windows 98).

As a matter of fact, I feel the developers spend a significant time choosing simple and reliable solutions instead of sophisticated ones even if this may not adapted to some needs. The result is a product that should attract novice users that may be frightened by more complex Operating Systems. Reasonable price of 45€. Evaluation: 8/20.

Other links

• An excellent freeware source : NoNags.
• Tom's Hardware Guide is THE reference web site about computer hardware. Can be found in various languages:
• English THG
• French
• German
• Italian
• etc.

Le site est aussi disponible en français