One advantage of hosting one’s own web server is that one gets full access to the log files, indicating stuff about who visited and when etc. I’m using AWStats to produce nice analyses of my web site’s traffic. For example, Monday and Tuesday are the busiest days of the week, and early morning and early… (read more)
Yesterday, I installed a new mouse: one of these. To those that know me well, deliberately choosing a Microsoft product might seem a rather surprising move, but I do actually like their mice. Apart from a brief switch to a cordless mouse a while back, my current mouse has been “in the family” since I… (read more)
Today is a big day for Mozilla releases – the application suite hits version 1.5 (get it from mozilla.org), the Mozilla Firebird browser hits the 0.7 milestone (get a friendly installer for MS Windows systems from Firebird installer site). Oh, and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 is out too (get the Windows installer from the Thunderbird installer… (read more)
Co-worker who is not really technically-minded approached me to discuss emailing encrypted files to a work contact (the files contained confidential data and cannot be sent “in the clear”). Anyway, taught her about public-key encryption and, specifically, how to use GPG (GNU Privacy Guard). She quickly grasped the concepts of how public-key encryption works, specifically… (read more)
Having fun with the new MP3 player. Have basically figured out how to use all the functions, with the “help” of the Korean-English instruction booklet. I defy anyone to claim that this was even looked at by anyone whose first language is English. Mostly this can be a little frustrating, but sometimes it is amusing…. (read more)
One of these arrived today. Click the picture for more details … It’s an “iBead” digital audio player. The main unit is about the size of a cigarette lighter, only weighs 40g (less than an ounce and a half) and has a headphone socket. It fits nicely in a shirt pocket. The whole unit plugs… (read more)
For some reason, The Confluence Project appeals to my mind. It is a project to take a photograph at every intersection of whole numbers of lines of latitude and longitude. For example, the nearest “confluence” to me is at 52 degrees North and 1 degree West, which is in the middle of a field in… (read more)
Discovered a surprisingly useful bit of software yesterday, namely PDF-Creator. It provides an easy (and completely free) way for Windows users to make PDFs, without having to buy something expensive like the full Adobe suite. PDF-Creator installs itself as a ‘printer’ on your system, so you can create PDF documents from any application that can… (read more)
A colleague at work has drawn up a very good checklist explaining how to keep a Windows PC safe and secure, and to keep the information on it private. His advice basically boils down to the following: Install a personal firewall; Install anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date; Get rid of Outlook, Outlook Express and… (read more)
Now this sounds like fun. Whilst browsing BBC News, I learnt about the First Open Computer Destruction Championship. Basically, a bunch of geeks in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya set about destroying their computers in an interesting and spectacular way. The winner of the keyboard-throwing event threw his keyboard more than 40 metres. Gosh. 😯… (read more)
