Archives for March 2007

Is Firefox Really Free?

March 31, 2007 by Leave a Comment

FACT: I know more people who’ve bought Firefox (and other free software) than I do those who got the free software for free.

Does Your Ignorance Betray You?
I turned off the busy street into the alley and suddenly felt an uneasy feeling of loneliness. I suppose it was because the place was a bit spooky, to say the least. The alley was almost empty, dirty and seemed dark, even though it was probably midday. An eerie wind blew seemingly directly at me, blowing polythene bags at me. I skipped over them and headed for the dirty little sign that said, ‘Cheap Software’.

The software was indeed dirt cheap. You could get the latest Microsoft software for pocket change! Not to mention many, many other notable software. Despite the temptation, I had not gone there for bootlegged software ( yes, I think piracy is wrong, immoral, and criminal) – I had come for something very specific. I had come for Firefox, the award winning browser. To my surprise, the guy at the counter told me I could have the latest copy for just under $5. He went on to add that for that same price, each, I could have some other software too. The interesting thing to note is that Firefox, and all the $5 software on offer at that particular place is what is normally termed as free, open source software. The guy was offering to sell me stuff that I could get for free. Surprise, surprise.

The sad fact is that millions of people the world over, especially in the so-called developing world buy all their software at roughly the same price. They get Microsoft and other for-sale stuff dirt cheap because what they pay for are illegal pirated copies and they get otherwise free software at a price because they have no idea it’s free.

I have no problem with you willingly buying something that you can get for free – heck, I’ll even sell it to you! I believe we should all have the option to pay for whatever we want to pay for, even free things. What ticks me off, however, is when one is ‘tricked’ into buying anything. Of course your ignorance is always your fault but taking advantage of it isn’t nice at all. That’s what this post is about: getting rid of buyer ignorance. So go on, gather all your friends and let me tell you about an award winning software whose price is shocking!


Is Firefox Really All That?
Yes it is, and more! You can skip my long explanation why by going here.

I’m sure you’ve heard tons about the virtues of Firefox so I’ll keep it short. Like any other surfer, I am concerned about my speed and efficiency online. Lately, I also think about my privacy and security. The only browser that meets all my need is Mozilla Firefox. Firefox was built to be the fastest, most efficient and secure browser available. It lives up to all that and also gives you the option of personalizing it by getting useful little add-ons.

I know there are hundreds of faulty and plain useless software out there so you are probably skeptical. I would be too. My secret of telling whether any software is any good is finding out whether that particular software has any fanatical fans who sing its praises. Firefox passes this test:
Yes that is the Firefox Logo in a crop field. These guys made it. If they love Firefox that much, it just goes to show that Firefox is simply that damn good. Period.

How To Buy Firefox and How Not To Buy Firefox
As I said earlier, if you want to buy something that you can get for free then go right ahead. However, since you’re going to pay, anyway, wouldn’t it be better to pay the person who made what you’re paying for? In this case, that is the Mozilla Foundation. If you want to pay for your copy of Firefox, then go here.

That, though, is your problem because Firefox is so free that I can even get paid to give it to you. Don’t believe me? Check out the orange image at the bottom of my sidebar. Otherwise, you can get Firefox for free, no strings attached, by clicking on the image below:
Firefox 2
Go here to grab 27 cool tools to personalize your Firefox and make it even cooler(after your download, of course).

I know! How can something so cool be free? Well, technically you’ll have to pay for internet access. (If you write me a nice letter, I can send you a copy on CD.) 😉

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Tips Hacking and Reviews

Some Link Love

March 29, 2007 by 2 Comments

Did you know that if you leave a comment on this blog, you’ll get something back in return? Today, I’m giving something back to:

Starprose is asking for testers to give feedback on StarProse Corporation’s new product: The Ultimate Lottery Suite.

Mama Shady tells a funny story, possibly of identity theft, in which her cash goes on a little vacation then comes back. She gets so angry that now she’s off to ‘brood, or think about bees and things and flowers.’ By the way, she also owns this dead-ish blog with a cool name (thumno). Yes, I can’t take waiting for you to do something with it anymore so I’m being…’proactive’.

Archer (aka mwanamishale) anabonga storo ya vile alienda kubanjuka kwa ma-club za Nai siku moja na vile alipewa mawuoiyess videadly. (Archer talks about his clubbing experience in Nairobi).

One of the leading stories over at Kenya Imagine is that of the Iranians taking British soldiers hostage. The post itself is very well written and insightful and makes one ask himself whether we’re getting the whole story…

Kirima has a very nice and well thought out tutorial on Ten Ways To Marry the Wrong Person. “With the divorce rate over 50%, too many are apparently making a serious mistake in deciding whom to spend the rest of their life with. To avoid becoming a “statistic,” try to internalize these 10 insights.”

Following this post, which mentions the death of Google Answers, Crabcakes – a former Google Answers Researcher points us here, where you may find other former Google Answers researchers. On her blog, she talks about how she prepares a layout and asks the question: Which came first, the photo or the layout?

———–

Do you want some link love? It is so very easy to get some: just comment intelligibly anywhere on this blog. Don’t forget the rules though.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

The Blogosphere turns Nasty (we're talking death-threats)

March 27, 2007 by 1 Comment

“I have canceled all speaking engagements. I am afraid to leave my yard. I will never feel the same. I will never be the same.” Kathy Sierra

She said this in a blog post explaining why she is leaving the blogosphere, among other things: “I do not want to be part of a culture–the Blogosphere–where this is considered acceptable. Where the price for being a blogger is kevlar-coated skin and daughters who are tough enough to not have their “widdy biddy sensibilities offended” when they see their own mother Photoshopped into nothing more than an objectified sexual orifice, possibly suffocated as part of some sexual fetish. (And of course all coming on the heels of more explicit threats).”

Things such as this make me lose all hope for humanity. Why is it that certain things have to happen. Why do always have to seek confrontations, to attack others? Can’t we all just get along? Probably not. Man will always be man, online or offline. This has been true for eons and we should all find way s of dealing with conflicts brought about by the insecurities, greed or just plain evil of other people.

This does not mean I condone attacks against other people. No. I abhor them. I am just admitting that there is always going to be those among us who will not want to respect other people. Death threats, of course, are another matter altogether. Last I checked, making a death threat was a crime. Therefore, those who made such threats to Kathy Sierra must be brought to book. What they did is unacceptable and unjustifiable.

If you look at the threat closely enough, you will get the all-too-familiar feeling that the threats against Kathy were made partly (or precisely) because she is a woman. This is just sad. I mean, this is 2007! That some men still think its okay to demean someone just because she’s a woman is just ineffably disturbing and wrong. It only says this much about the perpetrators: they are insecure, feel inadequate and probably even jealous of Kathy’s immense success in the blogosphere and picked on her because they perceived her to be an ‘easy’ target (again, because she’s female). This can only mean that these people are also cowards.

As bloggers, we should attack any and all forms of such behaviour in the blogosphere. Such people cannot and should not be let to get away with anything. Attacks of this kind simply must stop, especially those tinged with the foul odour of gender-based aggression and/or discrimination.

To Kathy: my thoughts are with you and I offer my support in any way. I hope you decide to blog once again – the blogosphere is not all bad. Don’t let them win.

Finally, a word to the anonymous death-threat maker: if you’re going to threaten me with death, at least be man enough to do it face to face (or at least not anonymously) so that I can smack your foul mouth and see what you have to say about that.

Filed Under: Blogging, Miscellaneous

What everybody ought to know about Online Sex Offences

March 26, 2007 by Leave a Comment

The thought that the internet opens up a vast new avenue for sex offenders to reach out for kids scars me stiff. Ever since I started this blog, I’ve wanted to write on ways to protect ourselves and our kids from such criminals. But I’m no expert at this and the actual writing of the post was rather difficult. However, I recently found a way of overcoming this. Yesterday I told you about using Yahoo! Answers to research for your posts and just to expound further on how this can be done, and also to show how useful it can be, I went ahead and prepared the rest of this post using Yahoo! Answers. (Yeah, now your research doesn’t have to be limited to 2 hours at the library and 4 more googling) 😉

What exactly is an online sex offense?
Amber puts it this way, “I would think an online sex offense is when an adult goes online and finds minors to try to coerce them to meet and commit sexual acts on/with them or even inappropriate sexually charged conversations with a minor on an IM or through email. ” Personally, I think that an online sex offense’s victim isn’t just limited to a minor. Such an offense can be committed against anyone. Therefore, unwanted and undesired sexual advances of any kind are a sex offense, online or not. Obviously, some of these offenses are more ‘serious’ than others. Particularly, I think sex offenses committed against minors are horrible and are the most serious of these offenses.

How Can we Protect Ourselves?
I don’t get much help from my research on Yahoo Answers on this one. That illustrates a basic problem with Yahoo Answers: your questions won’t always be answered as well as you want them to. Keep in mind that the guys answering your questions aren’t necessarily experts; they are more likely normal everyday people like you and I.
So, how do you go about protecting your kids?

  1. It is important to have open communication with your kids and educate them on safe online behave and on online safety procedures like these ones. Your kids don’t need you to be their friend, they need you as a parent. Clearly outline the possible dangers in everything they do online and make sure they know what’s safe to do and what’s not.
  2. If they are not co-operative then you need to do whatever you can to find out how they spend their time online and who they associate it while online. If you have to, spy on them using the excellent spyware programs available. Here’s an excellent tool for doing just that.
  3. No internet profiles. Not on myspace, not anywhere else. This may sound extreme but i is the safest possible approach. Think about it. If you(or your kids) don’t put yourself out there, then no one can find you. Not even a hardened sex criminal. (At least not easily)
  4. There shall be no computer in your child’s room. The computer should not be your child’s ‘go to’ place when he/she is feeling lonely or sad. Nor should it be a secret personal playground. The computer should be placed in an open area, like the dining area or living room, where people pas by regularly. This way, your child will think twice about getting intimate with anyone or about breaking your rules on net safety (see #1 above).
  5. If you suspect anything, anything at all, is amiss then notify the authorities A.S.A.P. Better be safe than sorry. None of us wants to see another horrendous crime (think murder, rape etc) on CNN that started out ‘innocently’ on the net.

For more on safe internet practices go here.

This post was prepared with assistance from a question asked on Yahoo! Answers.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Tips Hacking and Reviews

Get Answers. Now!

March 25, 2007 by 3 Comments

Ask A Hacker. “Any and all technical questions answered by a real computer hacker. This is the kind of thing we can bill hundreds an hour for, but you get it for free. What a steal! Send your techincal question to mailto://question@askahacker.com/. And don’t worry, we’re all white hats here. What, you don’t trust a random anonymous web site on the internet? Why not? If we wanted your intimate details, don’t you think we’d be offering you a free screen saver or something?” (From Site)
“The internet crosses national and legal boundaries world-wide. Your next door neighbor could hack a computer in China, use that to hack a computer in Nigeria, from there hack a computer in Russia, then take a trip through Saudi Arabia, go through Vietnam, Argentina, Norway, Egypt, Japan, Poland, and then from Poland finally strike at you.”

Obviously, if you need technical help, as a hacker. Why not?

Yahoo! Answers. You can pretty much get an answer on any question you want. It can also be used to some degree as a polling tool to get opinions on various subjects. Personally, I like to answer other people’s questions and it is kinda fun. I really like this site, you can get anything answered. Yes even your homework. The only problem is that the people who answer your questions are normal everyday people and hence the quality of the answers may not be all that you expect it to be. Still, its a really cool site from Yahoo! You won’t believe how addictive it is.

———
You may have noticed that today’s cool sites all focus on getting your questions answered. Why did I do that. Well, I want to tell you of an interesting way of using such sites. If you blog, you sometimes want to write a post but your creative juices just aren’t flowing as they usually do – to get them flowing again, just go to a site like Yahoo Answers, ask an open ended question and you’ll be surprised at what you uncover – this may also be a great way to carry out some basic research for your posts (you know, to get an idea of what people think of what you have in mind).

Too bad Google Answers is no longer in operation. Finally, you may want to check out the Coolest Toilet EVER!!

PS – Comment here. You’ll get something in return.

Filed Under: Cool Sites

Why I blog, and other stories from the Blogosphere

March 23, 2007 by 4 Comments

First off, if you’re still trying to figure out what blogging is, go here. This post was inspired by one of my readers, Erick.

Why should anyone in his/her right mind want to blog? There’s no simple answer to this. I suppose any answer to this question will fall into one of these broad reasons:

  • One blogs so as to share ones knowledge, thoughts and opinions.
  • One blogs to make money.

So why do I blog?
I suppose I could go on and on, playing with words trying to rationalize my addiction to blogging. As they tell all addicts, the first step is always to admit you are addicted. So the simple answer is that I blog because I am addicted. But why did I start? Why am I addicted? The answer is a bit selfish. I love to read and I read a lot, probably more than is normal. When I read, I get an obsessive compulsive (haha) urge to share my newfound knowledge and insights. The easiest way to do that, is to blog. I also secretly hope to make some money off blogging, but I acknowledge that I am not that experienced. In fact, that’s another reason why I blog : to gain experience on all things internet, so that I can come back in a few years, snap my fingers and earn millions online. 😉 Above all, I love having people read what I write.

Okay, Why does the rest of the World Blog?
The Journal has this to say: Technology is allowing anyone with a computer, the ability to type, and an Internet connection to become a published author—of sorts. Web logs, or “blogs,” are the latest way that students, businesses, and many others are publishing their musings. Read more of this.

Webmasterview: Blogging’s something for anyone and everyone. I can’t think of anyone who can’t benefit from knowing more people, never forgetting a thought again and improving on their thoughts with little or no effort. Read more….

David Weinberger: As a writer, thanks to blogs I’m more intellectually stimulated than I’ve ever been in my life. I can’t get to sleep because I have ideas I want to respond to or that I want to instigate. I bolt out of bed in the morning to get in a little more time thinking out loud and thinking together. The water’s boiling with our ideas.

More:
35 Bloggers tell you why they Blog.
I Cite.

What about You?
Why do YOU blog?
Why don’t YOU blog?

Leave a comment and tell us why, I’ll pay you. 🙂

The photo above, ‘Even the Sims Blog’, was originally uploaded by nickf to flickr.

Filed Under: Blogging, Miscellaneous

How to Download Flash Movies and Games, and Youtube Videos

March 18, 2007 by 2 Comments

Have you ever come across a real nice flash movie or game that you wished you could download and display proudly on your desktop? I have. We all have, I bet. The problem is, its not very easy extracting flash objects off of web pages. In fact, I have had the problem for years – ever since I came across flash joke of the day(DISCLAIMER: ADULT HUMOR), which was a good number of years ago(when they had no obvious way of letting you download their marvelous jokes). Let’s not even mention the hundreds of flash games I’ve always wanted on my desktop. AND what about downloading youtube videos – wouldn’t that be cool?

If you’re like me, well you’re in luck. Today I’d like to point out a nifty download: a tool that I have been looking for for years. The Flash Movies Extractor. This tool can:

I don’t know about you, but I’ll sleep easy tonight. Yeah I love flash that much. 🙂

Filed Under: Cool Sites, Tips Hacking and Reviews