Hippo, birdie, two ewes...

... to the lovely and talented harmonyheifer!!! Have a great one!!

Many are cold,...

... but the fileserver still isn't frozen. I'm going to take this as a hopeful sign. If it works, it would also mean that the other 400GB drive I was having trouble with is also usable. I have a pretty good idea what I could do with, for example, a 400GB eSATA drive.

In other cold-related news, some anonymous person sent me a virtual gift of a polar bear cub with the note "Spread More Joy" attached. Um... Thank you very much, whoever you are!

(The cynic in me wonders whether this might actually be a random freebie intended to promote the giving of virtual gifts, but... It's cute anyway. Anyone else get one? Anyone out there giving virtual gifts?)

Wi-Fi security? Don't need it!

Security expert Bruce Schneier, in a Wired article titled Steal This Wi-Fi, writes

Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people -- and attracts the most criticism -- is the fact that I run an open wireless network at home. There's no password. There's no encryption. Anyone with wireless capability who can see my network can use it to access the internet.

To me, it's basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea. But to some observers, it's both wrong and dangerous.

He then goes on to explain why it isn't dangerous. I found it from this Techdirt post, but it's really nothing new: I've had an open access point at the Starport ever since I installed it.

It's very simple, really: everything wireless is treated as "outside the firewall" as far as anything inside, on the wired network, is concerned. It's behind a router that blocks outgoing port 25 (SMTP) to make life hard on drive-by spammers; everything else is open going out. Coming in from the big, bad Internet, nothing gets through except http, dns, and ssh. And from there to my wired network nothing gets in except http, dns, ssh, and ipp (so people can print, as long as they know the URL of one my printers). That's it.

The $75 Laptop Looms

Pixel Qi - Home

What computing can be, the XO laptop was just the first step.

Pixel Qi is currently pursuing the $75 laptop, while also aiming to bring sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens into mainstream laptops, cellphones and digital cameras.

Spinning out from OLPC enables the development of a new machine, beyond the XO, while leveraging a larger market for new technologies, beyond just OLPC: prices for next-generation hardware can be brought down by allowing multiple uses of the key technology advances. Pixel Qi will give OLPC products at cost, while also selling the sub-systems and devices at a profit for commercial use.

Posts in engadget and gizmodo try hard to make it sound like this is a bad thing; the NY Times article is a little more balanced. They all try to make it sound as though the OLPC is doomed. It isn't.

Note that Pixel Qi is licensing the display technology from OLPC. This does two things: gives the OLPC a revenue stream that doesn't depend on the whims of government contracts, and lowers the price of their most expensive component by raising the volume. What's wrong with that?

And if the side effect is gadgets that look good, have fantastic screens and great battery life, run Linux, and cost under $100, I'm all for it.

Monstrous Glee!

In other words, my copy of ohiblather's TechnoNerdMonster arrived today! It's even more wonderful on paper than it is on the screen, darker, richer-textured, and even more monstrously gleeful.

Now I have to clear off some wall space...

In other news to be gleeful about, my server has been up all day. So I won't have to install my new 500GB drive in it.