2007 – Page 18 – Mostly Harmless

February 10, 2007

PayPal Security Key (Looks like SecureID to me)

Paypal_logo Saw this link on Digg. Engadget had some info on this last month too.

The PayPal Security Key.

Generates a unique six-digit security code about every 30 seconds. You enter that code when you log in to your PayPal or eBay account with your regular user name and password. Then the code expires – no one else can use it.

PayPal Security Key – PayPal.

Two factor authentication available on PayPal. They look like a bank so it’s about time.

I don’t use PayPal much. I have concerns about getting verified and dislike a company getting access to my bank account. Credit cards have an established dispute system in place for fraud; someone charges my PayPal account and gets it from my bank money and it’s good luck to me.

If I did use PayPal frequently then I’d get this immediately and make sure charges and transfers must use this. It won’t protect against the smart phisher (Phisher: “all we need is your code for 30 seconds, plenty of time!”) but it will help against sites that harvest peoples IDs and static passwords.

February 3, 2007

Blu-ray DVD

When I bought the PS3, I also purchased Superman Returns and Sleepy Hollow. With the Sony blue-tooth PS3 remote control, the PS3 works really well as a DVD player.

I’m not a HD buff so I did not expect how much better Blu-ray is compared to regular DVD. The difference was like comparing HDTV shows with regular NTSC shows.

I started to watch Sleepy Hollow but was interrupted by the kids.

I like most Johnny Dep movies but don’t think I should watch that one around the 3 and 5 year olds…

February 1, 2007

Cartoon scare in Boston

Saw this image off of CNN’s web site for the two who pleaded not guilty for the Boston scare.

vt1.cartoon.scare.ap.jpg

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, please look at the defendants and try to tell me they are not guilty.”

I think Boston way overreacted.

From the article

Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards “bomblike” devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city.

That’s like saying “We saw a suitcase and had it been a suitcase nuke like on that 24 episode, thousands of people could have died.”

January 31, 2007

What children say

The kids were rude to my Dad in the evening. When he came down to get something later they asked him

Kids: “Grampa are you feeling happy? Are you happy now?”

Grampa: “Why do you ask?”

Kids: “You were unhappy before.”

Grampa: “I’m happy.”

Kids: “Can you read us a story?”

On the way up my son asked me to carry him

Jan: “I’ve had a long day and I’m tired.”

Son: “Why did you have a bad day?”

Jan: “No one knows why.”

January 26, 2007

WordPress visual editor

Looks like I’m not the only one with the problem loading the visual editor. The fix (I’m using the built in editor right now) works and per the article is located here.

Click on the “Original Format” link go to the wordpress/wp-includes/js/tinymce directory and just

patch -p0 <3144-gzipoptoins-tinymce.patch

and poof the visual editor just works.

January 24, 2007

Upgraded to WordPress 2.1

So far so good. On the upgrade from 2.0.7 the TinyMCE visual editor does not work while on my test blog it does work. I don’t use the visual editor so no big deal for me.

After installing and trying out many plugins and themes the options table in my wordpress database is a mess. I may just export everything and re-import into a clean database just to clean out the cruft.

January 24, 2007

Very Bad Upgrade

Sunday I went to Stefan’s to upgrade my main server. It was running Fedora Core 1 and was well past an upgrade.

I wanted to get away from Fedora because it was not supported in a way that I liked. But I did not want to waste too much time so I took with me the latest Fedora and tried to upgrade.

The new Fedora did not like my hard disk setup and refused to see the existing system. So I figured I’d put on Opensuse 10.1, move files on the file system and do an install over the old Fedora Core 1.

Everything that could go wrong did. Massively. Non-stop. The DVD drives did not work. The boot sector was not installing. It installed but refused to boot.

I finally moved the mail and web pages over to another server (more that 3 GB of data) and did a clean install of Opensuse. I’m still recovering. Last night I finally got postfix with TLS and SMTP AUTH working. The web pages are working (sorta).

January 20, 2007

PS3 and no Wii yet

256px-Raymanravingrabbidswiibox Around New Years day, me and the family went out to hunt down the mythical Wii. Our expedition had seen first hand that the Wii was real and with the right game be hysterical.

Alek bought a Wii in December and among other games got Rayman: Raving Rabbids. The graphic is from the Wikipedia entry. If you are unfamiliar with the game, then you wont understand when I say “The cow tossing mini game is great!”

You really needs to play the Rayman on the Wii to understand. It’s a low budget, lower graphics, unconventional controllers game system with no hard drive. Nintendo is brilliant.

The mythical Wii eluded us. But Target did have a large number of PS3’s so we picked up the 60 GB Playstation 3. It’s a slick package and Call of Duty 3 is good fun (not for when the kids are around). The built in Blue Ray DVD is attractive and I picked up a PS3 Bluetooth remote control in Chinatown.

I don’t recommend that people buy the PS3 right now. I told a friend of mine that I got one and he said “But you have a 360. Why buy the PS3?” He was right: the two consoles are not different right now. Buying one really makes no sense until really good PS3 only games become available.

January 12, 2007

WordPress SSL Admin plugin (patched)

A while back WordPress.com released a plugin which protected your login with SSL. Normally when you administer a WordPress blog, it’s done via http. The plugin was originally released for the WordPress 2.1-alpha release. After a few updates it stopped working.

Over at Haris.tv this gentleman fixed the plugin and released a patch version of it which works with 2.0.6 as well as 2.1 (I have not tried 2.1 yet). It works like a charm (been playing with it all day). If you use a wordpress blog, have SSL set up on your web server, then it’s a must have and you should install it ASAP.

Year: 2007 (page 18 of 18)

PayPal Security Key (Looks like SecureID to me)

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Blu-ray DVD

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Cartoon scare in Boston

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What children say

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WordPress visual editor

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Upgraded to WordPress 2.1

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Very Bad Upgrade

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PS3 and no Wii yet

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WordPress SSL Admin plugin (patched)

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Jan Dembowski