So I have some friends who can't use AIM for whatever reason and love to use Facebook Chat. I've always been disappointed because I could never keep in touch with them, since I don't leave facebook open on my workstation all day.
A solution came to me with some bored Google searches today!
Apparently there's a Pidgin plugin that lets you add your Facebook friends to your Pidgin messenger application! This means that you can chat with your Facebook friends alongside your AIM/MSN/Yahoo/MySpace/Google/etc. friends!
Moving all communication to one application is the best!
If you want to read more, check out these links:
Pidgin, The Universal Chat Client
Facebook Chat Plugin for Pidgin
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
An intuitive graphical OS? Where?!
So it's great that so many operating systems exist out there, Fedora, CentOS, Mandrake, Debian, Ubuntu to name a few. But there are inherent problems more or less across the board with Linux as an OS solution at all.
First of all, I run Fedora and have loved it for a long time now. There's been some issues with updates that have broken my systems, but every OS has it's problems, right?
My biggest problem with everything related to Linux OS's is everyone attitude towards using Linux. Basically, if you aren't a tech-savvy person, and you can't operate the command line, you are excluded from using it in most people's eyes.
An operating system that does not allow for full operation graphically is not user friendly, and will not sustain itself in a public market.
Linux provides opportunities for people who have computers that are too old, or people that want to save money, or not contribute to the growth of Microsoft or Apple.
Linux deserves to become a nice alternative to Microsoft OS's, but people need to give it a chance to grow. Developers need to make releases that don't require the use of the command line. Tech people need to develop methods to give support to non-technical people. We also need to test our releases to make sure they're not broken before they're released.
An OS should provide itself as these:
1. Easy to Use
2. Automatically Updating
3. Dependable
4. Low Cost
5. Providing Enhanced Computing Abilities
6. Compatible
7. Have a support team
So far, I've seen Fedora in particular struggling with 1, 2, 3, and 6.
I can't speak for all of the distro's out there, but Linux as a whole needs to rally to provide itself as more intuitive and usable to the real world.
Sure we're a bunch of geeks, but why not take open source to the next level of openness -- the non-geeks?
First of all, I run Fedora and have loved it for a long time now. There's been some issues with updates that have broken my systems, but every OS has it's problems, right?
My biggest problem with everything related to Linux OS's is everyone attitude towards using Linux. Basically, if you aren't a tech-savvy person, and you can't operate the command line, you are excluded from using it in most people's eyes.
An operating system that does not allow for full operation graphically is not user friendly, and will not sustain itself in a public market.
Linux provides opportunities for people who have computers that are too old, or people that want to save money, or not contribute to the growth of Microsoft or Apple.
Linux deserves to become a nice alternative to Microsoft OS's, but people need to give it a chance to grow. Developers need to make releases that don't require the use of the command line. Tech people need to develop methods to give support to non-technical people. We also need to test our releases to make sure they're not broken before they're released.
An OS should provide itself as these:
1. Easy to Use
2. Automatically Updating
3. Dependable
4. Low Cost
5. Providing Enhanced Computing Abilities
6. Compatible
7. Have a support team
So far, I've seen Fedora in particular struggling with 1, 2, 3, and 6.
I can't speak for all of the distro's out there, but Linux as a whole needs to rally to provide itself as more intuitive and usable to the real world.
Sure we're a bunch of geeks, but why not take open source to the next level of openness -- the non-geeks?
Monday, December 15, 2008
Facebook Virus - Be Careful!
A virus called Koobface has hit Facebook recently, and is currently the most commonly occurring virus, at least within my experiences with SSC tech support.
The virus appears like a video on a target's Facebook page. When the user clicks the link, a window comes up with what looks like a flash movie player, except that it prompts to "update" your flash player. When clicked, it installs a host of malware programs, and also setting up an HTTP proxy configuration at 127.0.0.1:9090 to filter web traffic for use in spyware applications.
The virus is easy to remove with Malwarebytes and any typical virus scanner, however after initial installation, your proxy server could still be set as 127.0.0.1:9090, disabling internet functionality. Koobface is able to set proxy information on all common browsers.
For more information about Koobface, please see these links:
PCWorld :: Koobface Virus Spreads
CNET :: Koobface Virus Hits Facebook
Symantec Technical Overview :: Koobface
W32/Koobface.worm
The virus appears like a video on a target's Facebook page. When the user clicks the link, a window comes up with what looks like a flash movie player, except that it prompts to "update" your flash player. When clicked, it installs a host of malware programs, and also setting up an HTTP proxy configuration at 127.0.0.1:9090 to filter web traffic for use in spyware applications.
The virus is easy to remove with Malwarebytes and any typical virus scanner, however after initial installation, your proxy server could still be set as 127.0.0.1:9090, disabling internet functionality. Koobface is able to set proxy information on all common browsers.
For more information about Koobface, please see these links:
PCWorld :: Koobface Virus Spreads
CNET :: Koobface Virus Hits Facebook
Symantec Technical Overview :: Koobface
W32/Koobface.worm
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Amazing skills with construction equipment!
I'll bet you've probably NEVER seen anything like this before.
Skills With A 15 Ton Front Loader - Watch more Entertainment
Skills With A 15 Ton Front Loader - Watch more Entertainment
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Too many friends?
Very interestingly, there's a lot of dynamics that go into a popular and successful article on the web. This article speaks to one fact that is very interesting about Digg and popular posts. Apparently the top diggers maintain very tightly controlled friends lists, ensuring that every friend they have on Digg is the kind of person to actually digg work that has been done, ensuring that the newly created article gets a kickoff right from the start.
Social networks and services offer an interesting complexity and advantage to the typical user's online experience. Knowing what your friends are doing, and sharing what you are doing, are only part of a complex online identity and maintaining contact with those that you know.
The article, Dealing with Friend Inflation, is a good read if social networking interests you!
--------------------------------------
Original Article:
It happens several times a day now. Ever since I opened my Twitter account approximately three months ago, the follow alerts have been gradually increasing in frequency to the point that they clutter up my email inbox if I don't clean them out often enough. http://bit.ly/15DAd
Social networks and services offer an interesting complexity and advantage to the typical user's online experience. Knowing what your friends are doing, and sharing what you are doing, are only part of a complex online identity and maintaining contact with those that you know.
The article, Dealing with Friend Inflation, is a good read if social networking interests you!
--------------------------------------
Original Article:
It happens several times a day now. Ever since I opened my Twitter account approximately three months ago, the follow alerts have been gradually increasing in frequency to the point that they clutter up my email inbox if I don't clean them out often enough. http://bit.ly/15DAd
Monday, December 8, 2008
Fedora, Updates, and a Lack of Professionalism
Alright, so I fully respect the whole open source initiative, but there's one thing that really makes distributions like Fedora faulty, and that's bad updates.
I've been with Fedora for long enough now to witness two catastrophic failures due to developers not testing their releases. The first of which was a HAL related issue on Fedora 8 where all I/O broke and the system was unrecoverable.
The latest bug involves dbus failing, and cripples automatic PackageKit updates and Bluetooth connectivity, at least.
Developers, you need to test your releases! You're lucky this dbus thing didn't cripple the system any further. As it is, Fedora is trying to be as user friendly as possible, and we're already showing a bad representation of that by forcing legit and unmodding users to tinker with the command line.
This is a lesson everyone can learn from, because it's only a matter of time until another untested release comes and destroy's people's operating systems via automatic update overnight.
I've been with Fedora for long enough now to witness two catastrophic failures due to developers not testing their releases. The first of which was a HAL related issue on Fedora 8 where all I/O broke and the system was unrecoverable.
The latest bug involves dbus failing, and cripples automatic PackageKit updates and Bluetooth connectivity, at least.
Developers, you need to test your releases! You're lucky this dbus thing didn't cripple the system any further. As it is, Fedora is trying to be as user friendly as possible, and we're already showing a bad representation of that by forcing legit and unmodding users to tinker with the command line.
This is a lesson everyone can learn from, because it's only a matter of time until another untested release comes and destroy's people's operating systems via automatic update overnight.
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