Blogger receives death threats

Halt! Before you run off to check if your windows are shut and the door is locked I would like to mention to all of you that this did not happen to a Sri Lankan blogger.

While surfing I came across a news report that Kathy Sierra a prominent blogger in the United States has received death threats. Even though we may all think that this has little significance to us Sri Lankan bloggers, I decided to do this post since we are part of the global blogging community.

Kathy Sierra’s blog is called Creating Passionate Users and she is the author of several bestselling books and her main interest is in Artificial Intelligence. She has also been working as a game developer previously. The exact nature of the death threats are available on her blog for everyone to read, the link is Death Threats against bloggers are NOT “protected speech”.

Some believe that she received the death threats because she is a female technologist who is very prominent. Leading Word Press blogger Robert Scoble who authors the Scobleizer blog has decided to keep away from blogging for a week because his name has also been mentioned. Several others bloggers are also keeping away from blogging in the wake of this threat and some have disabled anonymous commenting.

This is indeed a sad incident for the blogging community as a whole regardless of the country to which the blogger originates from. I believe that people can criticize others using comments but posting death threats is going way too far and the people who do these stuff are deranged individuals.

Hopefully the police will get to the bottom of this before any harm comes about to anyone. I hope that Kathy will resume blogging once again and I cannot imagine what she is going through but she has the support of all the Sri Lankan bloggers.

BBC Article : Blog Death threats spark debate

 

Hunt for a TV Tuner Card

The Reason : I am a fan of Lost and Art TV is showing Season 2 on a weekly basis but since AXN which I receive over Dialog TV is repeating Season 2 on a daily basis I want to catch the show so that once they start showing Season 3 then I can follow it on AXN instead of relying on Art TV. AXN is showing it at odd times since it is the second rerun of Lost season 2 so I have no choice but to record it and watch it at a convenient time.

The Hunt :I have always had in the back of my mind that I want to buy a TV Tuner Card but kept postponing it and the above gave me a good reason to buy one. So after checking at a few places to find one that suits my budget but had the features such as capturing, scheduled recording, time shifting proved to be a challenge. Usually the responses were “time shifting – huh?”, “no sir we can do capture but no scheduled recording or time shipting”, etc. So finally a colleague who went to Unity Plaza to look for some CD’s told that he found a TV tuner card that supports capturing for Rs 3000/= but it did not have the software for scheduled recording, time shifting. Last week since the episode of Lost from when I would shift from Art TV to AXN was fast approaching I hopped into Unity Plaza and looked at a few places with the thought that if there is nothing with better features then I will go for the one that my colleague bumped into. After going around I came across the PC Partner showroom and was about to walk past since I was under the impression that their stuff will not suit my budget but I went in anyway to check it out since my computer is a Panora which is dealt with by PC Partner/PC House (whatever you call it). To my surprise they had a not so well known brand name called “ePro” (even brand names in other shops were not well known) which had the software for scheduled recording, time shifting, etc plus the usual FM radio all for Rs 3500/=. I for whatever reason then walked around again and then went back to PC Partner to buy it for Rs 3500/= but got the same card for Rs 3000/=.

The quality is not fantastic but it is okay for Rs 3000/= and hopefully it will improve once I get myself a S-Video cable to connect the Dialog TV decoder to the computer instead of using the coaxial cable. I of course will need a pretty long S-Video cable since the Computer and Dialog TV decoder are in opposite sides of the room and at the moment I am not even hunting for one since I am not sure how much a 10 feet S-Video cable will cost(not sure whether they make them that long). I can always remove the decoder and connect it near the computer but since the home folks are also watching Lost at the same time it stays near the TV since they want to watch when it is shown and I only watch when I am free.

I do have a problem of a increasing Picture-Sound delay as the recording progresses so I have told my home folks to stop the recording during the rare advertisement breaks and restart the recording when the programme resumes which then minimizes the delay. I figure the delay is because this is a low end TV tuner and capture card or maybe it can be corrected by adjusting a setting which I haven’t figured out yet. I could not even get the Remote Control to work and I am still working on that too.

Website : epro Internal TV tuner card

 

Cannot remember Windows XP Administrator password

Just a few days ago I happened to notice that I did not remember the Administrator password that I assigned for one of the computers in my office. So yeah after a few days of trying to remember it, I came across a nifty bit of information about how to reset the forgotten password.

I did not create a password reset disk and the only other user on that computer had “User” priviledges. So I carried out the following steps to solve the problem.

1. Boot from a Windows XP bootable CD and press Enter when it asks “Press any key to boot from CD”.

2. Once you get into the installation, the first screen indicates that setup is inspecting your system and loading files.

3. When the “Welcome to Setup” screen shows up press Enter to setup Windows now.

4. The licensing agreement come next – press F8 to continue.

5. The next screen is the “Setup” screen and gives the option to repair and read as “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged Setup can repair it”. Use the up or down arrow key to select the installation (if only one is installed then it should be already selected) and press “R” to begin the repair.

6. Let the repair run and now files will be copied to the and afterwards the system will be rebooted. During reboot do not press any key when it asks the question to reboot from CD again.

7. The “Installing Windows” option is highlighted on the next screen and carefully watch for the “Installing Devices” progress bar and when it appears press SHIFT + F10.

8. Now the DOS prompt will open and now type “NUSRMGR.CPL” and press Enter. Now the User Accounts screen that you get in the control panel will appear. You can now change the password and exit the screen.

9. Continue the Repair process and do not stop it and then when everything is complete the new password will work.

 

3G in Sri Lanka a success/failure

Anyone who has been reading the business sections these days would have noted with interest how the management of Tigo Sri Lanka have downplayed the use of 3G technology for the time being. They have said that the technology is not mature and all else. Are they just making excuses for not grabbing a 3G license which was quite costly mind you or is it a really genuine picture of 3G? 3G has been successful to a certain extent and then has been unsuccessful and has been in instances become over hyped. Certain European operators have experienced this problem. But then this is Sri Lanka and not Europe and the 3G market may be different here. The prices of entry level 3G products are dropping and as we have seen in Sri Lanka the prices of the high end 3G phones will come down. There are some really cheap 3G products in Pettah too.

The major application of 3G at the moment is video calling which is only possible if both ends are equipped with 3G phones and the odds of that happening at the moment is very low. Then there is the ability to transfer high speed data. This high speed is not as high speed as DSL, etc but then when you are on the move, what are the odds that you will be able to have access to a DSL terminal or a Wifi access point. Oh also it is not guaranteed that the areas will be covered by Wimax services. Your 3G phone will become handy then if the network is 3G enabled in the location or else it is back to the good old cyber cafe.

The major reason why 3G was slow to develop is the lack of applications other than Data Speed and Video Calling. At the moment the applications are being developed.

Two major mobile networks Mobitel and Dialog GSM have gone into 3G with the latter carrying out expanding their 3G network and the former carrying out 3G testing in Kandy and the rollout will commence this year. At the moment Hutch Sri Lanka is totally hush about 3G – well at least I have not heard anything. Anyway I am not so sure whether Hutch is contemplating moving out of the Sri Lankan market since Hutch sold shares of Hutch India to Vodafone.

I for one am certain that my next mobile phone will be 3G even it has to be a entry level 3G phone, hopefully it is a highend one though. It won’t be long until we see the real impact of 3G on the Sri Lankan market.

 

Wimax

Those of you who actually keep yourselves updated on the developments on the technological front would have noticed that a lot of talk is taking place regarding Wimax these days and Dialog launching Wimax in the southern areas. And if you are not updated but still curious on finding out what I am blogging about, please continue reading.

WIMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and is the saviour of all of us who cannot afford our own houses and continually move from place to place like gypsies. Oh not to mention it also helps us to avoid the suspicion of the landlord or landlady who for no apparent reason when you take the application for getting ADSL on the fixed phone line that is in their name and therefore has to be signed by them, tend to think that you are trying to somehow take ownership of the phone connection or even worse, the house.

So basically Wimax is a broadband internet connection without the phone yup you heard it right, there is no need for a phone and is known for its last mile broadband access capabilities where the existing telecommunication is not upto the standard or does not exist at all. Therefore it makes sense to go for Wimax than for drawing cables or setting up infrastructure.

It is said that Wimax is as fast as the other broadband services and it also shares the same problems of services such as ADSL. ADSL slows down when many users are making use of the bandwidthand it is the same with Wimax.

In addition Wimax has another advantage is that it supports non line of sight communication with the tower unlike in other microwave technologies. This means that you can catch the signal bounching off your neighbours window without having a pole of 50 or more feet to have a line of sight connection with the antenna. However line of sight gives a stronger, more stable and faster access speeds over non line of sight.

But I for one am eagerly anticipating the launch of Wimax in Colombo and the suburbs in order to get myself a broadband internet connection. At present the Dialog service is on trial in the southern areas and when it launches officially and is made available in colombo and the suburbs I hope to get myself one. Provided the cost can be supported by my wallet.

 

 

FOSS Stuck

I tried out a plan to convert to FOSS most of the software that we use in office that have FOSS alternatives such as to use Open Office instead of MS Office. It just did not pick up since most of the people seem to be addicted to the relatively free (Rs 100/=) Microsoft products that we use.

I have not given up yet and I am hoping to restart the plan and to be more firm about it and make it a success so that we will not be shell shocked and have to spend money to purchase licenses once the IPR is strictly enforced in Sri Lanka.

 

Kottu on Mobile

Last weekend I thought of having a look of how Kottu looks when viewed from a mobile phone with a not so advanced browser. The phone that I used in this experiment was a Sony Ericsson K300I which apparently happens to be the phone that I am using and Lo and Behold I was impressed.

The posts from other bloggers were clearly visible and I was able to visit some of their sites as well. The things that were not visible was the “Blogroll”, “Popular Posts” and of course the “Photo” section. Maybe these are also viewable using the more advanced mobile phones (mine is obviously not a member of that category).

I was also impressed with my blog too. Since it was also visible with nothing missing and I was able to read your very informative comments too. To be exact I was not able to access my blog when it was hosted on Blogger but now it looks like WordPress at least lets me see it on my mobile phone. My next experiment will be to make a post using my mobile phone.

 

flurrymail : Mobile email

Yesterday I got a call from a person and he told me about this really interesting site and the service it offers. It is called flurrymail and it is mainly targeted at providing email access to mobile phone users. They say that we do not need a smart phone for checking emails from any of our email accounts.

 

It is supposed to be using the WAP connections on the phone. I have not tried it yet and I am now studying the possibility of using my mobile phone to check emails via flurrymail.

Could anyone who has used this service please advice on the pros and cons. I wonder how much the phone bill will come to since this service using the GPRS WAP connections to access it’s server.

 

Fifith Mobile Operator and a Wi Max Operator

I read in the newspaper today that Sri Lanka will be getting a new mobile operator which will be the 5th Operator in Country. At the moment the leading operator is Dialog GSM. The TRC says that applications for licenses will be called soon.It also says that the TRC is also issuing licenses to have a Wi Max (a cousin of Wi Fi and is the long distance version if Wi Fi) operator in the country. Although Wi Max is relatively new technology and has some problems such as penetration through walls, etc. Although slower than regular cable based services this will prove to a more cost effective way of providing internet connections, etc.

 

Email Virus Alert – Received by E Mail

I received the following message by email :If you receive an email titled

“It Takes Guts to Say Jesus” DO NOT OPEN IT. It will erase everything on your hard drive. This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM; AOL states that this is a very dangerous virus, much worse than “Melissa,” and that there is NO Remedy for it at this time.

Some very sick individual has succeeded in using the reformat function from Norton Utilities causing it to completely erase all documents on the hard drive. It has been designed to work with Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It destroys Macintosh and IBM Clone computers.

This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it. Pass a warning along to EVERYONE in your address book and please share it with all your online friends ASAP so that this threat may be stopped.Please practice cautionary measures and tell anyone who may have access to your computer. Forward this warning to everyone you know who might access the Internet.

Joyce L Bober
IBM Information Systems
Pittsburgh Mailing Systems
412 – 922-8744