Week 2 of my attempt to complete my rendition of a 365 Project. This week, the iPhone took the majority of the photos. Several pictures were taken in Atlanta while I was taking care of business at the courthouse and then visiting a law school friend for a few days.
Conan O’Brien Wants No Part of NBC’s Late-Night Hijinks
NBC’s weekend announcement that Jay Leno would return to 11:35pm under pressure from NBC affiliates left a question in the air: what would happen to Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show? Most rumors suggested Conan would get a 12:05am time slot, so as to not violate a rumored clause in his contract. But today, Conan finally speaks.
“After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.”
“My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.”
At the moment, Conan appears to be without an offer for a new show, assuming NBC allows him to leave for another network.
“There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.”
Someone give this funny man a job. Before your competitor does!
In the meantime, Conan might have to keep doing commercials.
Conan O’Brien Says He Won’t Host ‘Tonight Show’ Following Leno – Media Decoder Blog – NYTimes.com.
Posted in me, opinion, random.
January 12, 2010
Mozilla Firefox 3.6’s Hidden Taskbar Previews
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 1 has just been released. Download links for Firefox 3.6 RC1 are here for a variety of languages. If you’re curious as to what has changed, release notes highlighting known issues and caveats are also available. As usual, performance improvements are baked into this release. Mozilla also included some improved eye-candy by including Personas in Firefox 3.6. Most importantly, more of the HTML5 specification has been implemented, including the native video tag!
The final version of 3.6 is likely to be very similar to this release candidate. Unfortunately, this means if you use Windows 7, one useful new feature will be missing from this version and the final version of Firefox 3.6: taskbar previews.
With taskbar previews, every single tab you have in your Firefox windows will get their own individual thumbnail preview when you hover over the Firefox in your taskbar. Additionally, the number of icons stacked in the taskbar will reflect the number of tabs you have open. This is best illustrated with the screenshot below.
From the screenshot (larger version) you can see I have three tabs open. Thumbnail previews are shown for each of the tabs. Additionally, in the taskbar you see three stacked icons. This allows you to switch rapidly between tabs in Firefox, just from the taskbar! With Window 7’s new taskbar, this new tab interaction paradigm makes a lot of sense!
It looks like this feature is working perfectly in the screenshot, but the Firefox developers didn’t think the feature was ready to be enabled by default in 3.6. (Bugzilla #525475). From my limited testing, its not the snappiest feature on my older laptop, but it does seem to work reliably. Follow these steps to enable this feature on your computer.
Enabling Taskbar Preview in Your Firefox Profile
- Type about:config in your location bar.
- Click through the warning page.
- Search for the appropriate setting: browser.taskbar.previews.enable.
- Change the default from false to true. Once this is complete, the setting should be bold as shown below.
After you finish, you should start seeing your tabs in the taskbar previews! This setting should persist through the Firefox 3.6 release candidate process all the way to the final release of 3.6. This means you shouldn’t have to go through these steps again to re-enable this setting.
Some other Windows 7 taskbar features, like Jump Lists (Bugzilla #473045) won’t be making an appearance until Firefox 3.7 is released, likely later year (originally scheduled Spring 2010). But enabling this feature in your Firefox profile should make life a bit easier while we wait on Firefox 3.7.
Posted in tech.
January 9, 2010
Project 365 – Week 1
This year I decided to start a daily photography project. One that caught my eye was Project 365. The premise is simple: post a picture for every single day of the year. The picture must have been taken that day, with any camera. Simple, and there was even a Flickr group dedicated to Project 365.
Since I have an abundance of free time lately, I decided why the hell not, I’ll give it a try. The pictures below are the result of Week 1 of my Project 365. All were taken with the Nikon D50 using a 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. Its likely my point and shoot Canon and iPhone will eventually be the source of some content since they’re more travel friendly. As you can see, a relatively boring week this week. Cold and windy out, nothing particularly interesting to see so all indoor shots. I did manage to create my first HDR.
Yea, I’ve seen better too 
January 7, 2010
My First HDR Picture!
HDR of a Plant
Yes, its a plant. It was nice enough to hold still for me.
January 3, 2010
Windows 7: Impressions Several Weeks Later
Several weeks ago I installed Windows 7 on my Dell Latitude D420. My initial impressions of the newest operating system from Microsoft were good and over time, have actually improved. Maybe I was just tired of XP and its quirks, but overall, this seems like a far more polished product. Some of these improvements may have come from Vista, but I never had the opportunity to try that iteration of Windows. At the time, I didn’t want to upgrade because it wasn’t supported by my school’s IT department. When you have someone else that has to make your computer work, you’re hesitant to change things.
Five of the improvements I’ve appreciated most over the past several weeks are as follows.
1) Faster apparent performance
cc licensed flickr photo shared by nahkahousu
I don’t have benchmarks to quantify my perceptions, but Windows 7 definitely feels faster. The computer boots up Windows 7 at least as quickly as it booted up XP. Once I’m logged in, Windows 7 continues to impress. In XP, the computer would be sluggish if I tried to look at other web pages while streaming the Muppet’s rendition of the Bohemian Rhapsody. Now, I can stream that masterwork from Youtube and look at other pages without the lag. I did upgrade my Mozilla Firefox installation, so its possible that upgrade was the true cause, not Windows 7. I have also noticed faster apparent performance in Microsoft Visual C# Studio Express 2008 loading solutions and compiling small dinky programs I cook up. Finally, iTunes honestly seems to load faster. Yes, iTunes. Like I said, I don’t have benchmarks, but it just feels faster.
2) Better organization and use of system tray icons
Instead of cluttering my system tray, Windows 7 lets me always hide icons, always show icons, or notifications for that icon only. Now, I can tweak the settings so my battery status is always guaranteed visible while my Pidgin system icon remains hidden unless I have a new message. Perfect! But that’s not all. The functionality of some of these system tray icons has also been greatly improved. One great example is the wireless network icon, shown below.
Now, after just one click, I can choose which wireless network to connect to. Even Intel’s relatively excellent wireless drivers in XP didn’t offer this!
3) Start Menu Search
This may seem trivial, but Windows 7 now has the ability to search the start menu items as you type. I first got addicted to this functionality using Gnome Do and Google Desktop. Granted Do is significantly more powerful, and Google Desktop indexes more files, but the ability to search the start menu was a major reason I installed those programs.
4) Perfect and Quick Sleep
I’ve been jealous of the ability of Apple’s MacBooks to wake from their version of sleep nearly instantly. Now I can finally do the same. Resuming from sleep now only takes a second at most, whereas in XP sleep took closer to five seconds. Sure, its only a few seconds faster, but the improvement makes a huge difference in daily use. There’s no more hesitation when I want to use the computer, I simply lift the lid and am ready to go almost instantly!
5) Improved DOSBox Performance
Yes, its nerdy, but I’ve recently taken to wasting some of my free time by playing X-Com: UFO Defense and Master of Orion 2. I have PlayStation 3 so I have my dose of latest generation games, but sometimes I reminisce for the classics. Oddly enough, both games run significantly smoother in Windows 7 versus XP.
My opinion on XP versus Windows 7?
Good riddance XP. You had your time, but now there’s something better.
There are many other improvements in Windows 7, but these are the five that came to mind for me. Its been years since I’ve said this, but I can honestly recommend this Microsoft operating system to others. Ubuntu still has its place and will continue to be used on a daily basis, but Windows has now begun to approach the polished experience of Mac OS X.
<a title=”Lauttasaari speeding” href=”http://flickr.com/photos/nahkahousu/2301066415/”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/2301066415_eb4d7b8057.jpg” /></a><br /><small><a title=”Lauttasaari speeding” href=”http://flickr.com/photos/nahkahousu/2301066415/”>cc licensed flickr photo</a> shared by <a href=”http://flickr.com/people/nahkahousu/”>nahkahousu</a></small>
January 2, 2010
The Food of Vancouver
Here are some pictures of the dishes I encountered this year in Canada. There were several meals where I neglected to take pictures of the meal and didn’t realize it until a good portion was already finished. So much for self control. All pictures were courtesy of my first-generation iPhone. Its not the best camera in the world, but its always with me and makes for passable impromptu shots.
January 2, 2010
Ghostland Observatory Comes to Charlotte!
Some pictures from an amazing show by Ghostland Observatory this past Saturday at the Neighborhood Theater.
Posted in charlotte, nc, photos, random.
December 16, 2009
Secure Wireless for the Holidays
The holidays are here and for many, this means travel. This means more people on the road, and more people using various wireless hot spots to get online. Signing onto an open wireless network is not as safe as you might think.
If you didn’t have to enter a password to get onto the wireless network, then you are on an open wireless network. You often encounter these networks at your favorite local coffee shop (or Starbucks if you insist), public libraries, and many large airports (some provided courtesy of Google). More recently, even restaurants, large and local, have begun offering free wireless to their customers. A lucky few may even encounter established municipal wireless projects within range of their laptops!
The data transmitted on any open wireless networks may be susceptible to interception by third parties. The operators of open networks make no guarantees regarding the confidentiality of data you transmit on their network. They merely wish to provide another convenience for their clientele. The impetus is on you, the user, to protect your own data.
This is no different from an age where we communicated with wires. The last time you plugged in an Ethernet cable, did you check to be sure no one was splitting off the wire?
Companies are well aware their employees will check their work emails from an open wireless network. As a result, many require their employees to use a VPN system to access their corporate email on open wireless networks. A VPN system encrypts the data between the employee’s laptop and the company’s server. This prevents any third party from peeking at the data transmitted on the open wireless network. This gives the employer confidence in their data’s security while simultaneously giving their employee the freedom to work where they see fit.
If you have a VPN system assigned by your employer, USE IT! It may be a hassle, but it at least prevents eavesdropping.
If you do not have a VPN system, or if you are on your personal system, then its more complicated. You could set your own VPN system up using some open source packages like OpenVPN. There are also commercial providers of personal VPN services if you don’t want to deal with the hassle. Or, if your needs are relatively infrequent, and if you have a Dreamhost account, you could setup an SSH tunnel. This guide is a more specific and updated version of a guide Lifehacker posted some time ago.
An SSH Tunnel
The following method will allow you to use an SSH client to encrypt your application’s Internet traffic by establishing a tunnel between your computer and another computer you trust. I’m only going to discuss how to link your computer to a trusted computer. For most people a shared web hosting account at a web host will be sufficient. Your web host must provide SSH access to your account for this to work.
1. Gather the Required Components
- An Internet connection you wish to secure
- An SSH client that supports tunneling. I use a variant of PuTTY called PuTTY Tray
- An application that supports a SOCKS4 proxy. Most applications (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc) already have this feature.
- An SSH server running on another computer someplace you trust (ex: a web hosting account with SSH access).
2. Set up your SSH client
I will demonstrate how to set up an SSH tunnel using PuTTY-Tray
First, open PuTTY and type in the host name for the SSH server. I’ve used hostname.here in the example above. Next, give this session a name so you can save these settings for the future. I’ve used session name here as the value in the example above
Next, scroll down on the left until you see “Tunnels” as shown above. Next, put the number 5000 where it says “Source port.” Be sure to select the Destination just below to “Dynamic.” After you finish, press “Add.” You should now have D5000 in your “Forwarded ports:” section as shown above.
Go ahead and connect to your SSH server and make sure everything is working properly. You’ll have to enter your username and password of course. Once this is completed and you are at your shell prompt, you should be ready to configure your favorite browser to use this SSH tunnel.
3. Set up your browser to utilize your SSH tunnel
I now will demonstrate how to configure Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6 to use my new SSH tunnel.
First, you will need to tell Firefox about your SSH tunnel. Go into the Tools menu, then choose Options. After the options menu shows up, selected Advanced. In the tabs that are displayed, select Network. Your screen should look similar to the image below.
Next, select Settings. A screen similar to the one below should be displayed.
By default, No proxy should be selected as in the image above. Change the selection to Manual proxy configuration as shown below. Next, fill in the blank next to SOCKS Host with 127.0.0.1. On the same line, change the Port to 5000 or whichever value you specified in Step 2. Finally, clear any values you may have in the blank next to No Proxy for. Your dialog box should look similar to the one below.
This is the usual extent of the tunneling I do myself on a semi-regular basis. Be aware that your DNS requests will NOT be handled by the SSH tunnel. What this means is when you visit any website, a person could theoretically see this initial request. If I were to visit http://www.google.com with the above configuration, my browser would make an initial request to determine how to reach the website. This request will not go through the SSH tunnel we created by default. This in no way creates a security risk. The most information a third party could intercept is the mere fact that you visited a certain website. No further data will be intercepted.
If the above gap concerns you, you will need to do the following in Mozilla Firefox. You will need to manually enter about:config in Firefox, and then change network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to true. [via codeblog]
4. Test your SSH Tunnel
You’re done! Hit OK until you return to your web browser. Everything should be set up so go ahead and visit your favorite website.
To prove the connection is secure, terminate your SSH session. For me, PuTTY-Tray will refuse to close so I must forcefully terminate it. After PuTTY-Tray is closed, my web browser will no longer reach any websites.
5. Return your settings to normal
When you want to return to your default settings, where you don’t need an SSH tunnel to go online, go to the dialog box listed in Step 3 and change the Connection Settings dialog box to look like the window below.
That’s it! I hope you find this guide helpful during your holiday travels!
Images from the listed photographers in order:
Posted in tech.
December 10, 2009
Installing Windows 7 on a Dell Latitude D420
Microsoft released Windows 7 with a big ad campaign that alleged this version of Windows is the most usable version ever. You’ve probably seen the ads, including this sickeningly cute one:
The question on my mind was if this new operating system from Microsoft would run on my trusty Dell Latitude D420.
Dell Latitude D420
If you’ve ever used one, you realize it is no speed demon. The specs were underwhelming when new, and are borderline slow now. These are balanced and in my opinion outweighed by the laptop’s light weight and great battery life. It at very least is more powerful than the $200-300 netbooks available today utilizing Intel’s Atom chip. Besides, the trusty little laptop got me through law school, a bar exam, and is still trucking along months after its warranty expired. It deserved a shot at running Microsoft’s newest operating system.
- Processor: Intel Core Solo U1300 ULV 1.06 GHz
- Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300
- Video: Intel GMA 950
- Hard Drive: 60GB 4200RPM 1.8″ Hard Drive
Although this system is sufficient for Windows XP, straight from the factory it was not the fastest. Originally the system came with only one gig of ram. Adding an additional gigabyte greatly improved performance in Windows XP. I considered investing in a faster hard drive, maybe even an SSD, but was stymied when I discovered the D420 uses a 1.8inch PATA drive. This increased the cost of upgrading the hard drive beyond what I was willing to spend.
With my laptop’s specifications fixed, I examined Windows 7’s requirements. My laptop exceeded the minimums, suggesting I could at least install the operating system and give it a try. My primary requirement was Windows 7’s performance not be dramatically worse than Windows XP’s performance on my laptop. I could tolerate a slight decrease in performance, but any significant performance loss would just encourage me to spend on a completely new laptop.
That’s the absolute last thing I need at this point.
As Windows 7’s launch date approached, my interest in the new software continued to grow. I also became more sophisticated in justifying to myself that I should upgrade to Microsoft’s latest and greatest. Some highlights were as follows:
- Windows XP was already five years old when I got my laptop, and is now just over eight years old since the operating system was released. The look is getting dated and its time for something fresh. Also, I like the idea of offloading more of the UI to the video subsystem, even though my laptop’s video subsystem was mediocre at best.
- Microsoft has no further plans for additional service packs for Windows XP. (from Windows Service Pack Roadmap)
- Usability improvements in recent products like Office 2007 gave me some confidence that Microsoft finally understood what a well thought out UI really is.
After Windows 7 was released, I checked into the feasibility of upgrading my system to Windows 7. First off, I decided I would wipe my XP drive and install Windows 7 on a freshly formatted partition. This would give me a completely fresh system to work with. Fortunately, I had ample space on my 6TB home server to back up my important files.
My next task was to investigate any issues that might arise from my system’s configuration. I found the Latitude D420 listed as “Tested by Dell for Windows 7 Functionality” which means the system’s various components work fine in Windows 7. This should come as no surprise since the system was certified “Windows Vista Capable” when it was released, meaning its components had Vista drivers. Vista and Windows 7 share the same driver architecture, so even if no Windows 7 drivers existed for a component, Vista drivers would work just fine.
The Vista certification did not give me comfort regarding the system’s performance as “Windows Vista Capable” merely means the system could run Vista’s core features. The Windows 7 developers promised increased performance compared to Windows Vista, but would it be close to what Windows XP provided?
My last task was to run Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if I would run into any problems with the new operating system. The software gave me an all clear, so now I was out of excuses. On a cold Monday in December, I formatted my laptop and installed Windows 7.
As promised by both Dell and Microsoft, on first impression the laptop’s various components were detected by Windows 7 and properly configured with no intervention on my part. After logging into Windows 7 however, I noticed the system’s touch pad was not operating appropriately. Several quick Google searches later, I discovered Dell did not provide any recent touch pad drivers for my system. On a crazy hunch, I downloaded a set of ALPS drivers for a different Dell laptop, hoping they would work for my D420.
The drivers installed and worked!
I proceeded to install my usual applications (Microsoft Office 2007, Paint.NET, Mozilla Firefox, Pidgin, iTunes, and several other essentials. All appear to be running perfectly without a hitch. I managed to transfer my iTunes library over to the new iTunes install as well, so I didn’t lose any of the various iPhone apps I’ve downloaded.
After using the operating system for an evening, I must say Windows 7 feels as fast as XP, but much prettier. Battery life seems comparable to XP as well. I didn’t have any benchmarks to compare since my Windows XP install was pretty broken near the end. But Firefox still loads fairly snappily, iTunes moves along as fast as can be expected on a Windows system, and Microsoft Word seems to work fine on large documents (80+ pages) still. Time will tell if Windows 7 remains on this laptop, but the first few hours of use suggest Windows XP has finally been banished from my laptop!
December 7, 2009
