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4401

Living Room / Re: I read an eReader

« Last post by IainB on December 19, 2012, 05:28 AM »

@nosh: Thankyou for providing the link to that informative vid re the teardown of the Kindle Paperwhite. Looks like it is a beautiful piece of micro-electronic engineering.
After watching the teardown, I watched a related vid - a GoodEreader review of the Paperwhite. Very nice:

@joiwind: Thankyou for the Gutenberg webmaster's review. It seems as though there is a disconnect there with what the GoodEreader reviewers say. They talk about "sideloading" other sourced (i.e., non-Amazon) ebooks to the Kindle, via the USB port - which is what I happen to be currently experimenting with - and functionality was OK (i.e., not crippled). I am not a fan of Amazon's, but I have to say that, so far, and in my relatively limited experience, I have not come across issues with sideloaded books to the Kindle 4/2012 version.

As for the webmaster's complaint about the intrusive advertising on a "Special Offers" Kindle - well, I don't understand. What does s/he expect? Much as I dislike most ads, it seems to be an irrelevant complaint. The "Special Offers" Kindle is purely and simply a cost-saving option, and some people who opt for it might find it annoying. So. if you have bought it and found it annoying, then either get over it and put up with it, or pay the $30 extra to opt-out and have that option removed.
The "Special Offers" Kindle utilises a basic, tried-and-tested marketing concept for subsidising the cost of a service to the consumer. Same concept as commercial TV advertising. I intensely dislike TV commercials and watch TV only rarely, but I'd be quite happy with the Kindle Special Offers myself, just to save the $30 - as long as they don't intrude by pushing the adverts on-screen during my reading time (which they don't). It's not compulsory, and the option to pay to opt-out is there if you wanted it. User choice is still the rule - and you don't necessarily get that easy a choice with commercial TV advertising - so, fair do's to Amazon.

My hope is that someone will probably publish a hack to shut off the ads anyway, eventually. The Kindle is crying out to be hacked.
That would be interesting. Look at the US legal row over Dish Network's ad-skipping TV box, that broke out earlier in 2012.
Given half a chance, monopolistic/Fascistic corporates (including Amazon) would probably try to dictate that you watched their blasted ads 24/7 - even whilst you were on the can.

4402

Living Room / Re: bicycling suddenly a British speciality?!

« Last post by IainB on December 18, 2012, 12:05 AM »

I just thought I'd revisit this thread with an interesting bit of news with a twist, from the UK, on the cycling front.
One of my old UK cycling mates had alerted me to a BBC1 TV proggie in the 1st week of Dec.: The War on Britain's Roads.
After a lot of mucking about with free-use proxy servers, I managed to see a few bits of it, and it looked surprisingly good, and worriesome.
However, I was very surprised to read in the Guardian's bike blog that a lot of it was apparently staged (made up) and quite deliberately alarmist, and without any good substantiation. It was apparently a fake - a well-fabricated docu-drama, and the Guardian bloke (a fairly keen and experienced cyclist, it seems) fair ripped it apart - and rightly so, IMHO.

I confess myself baffled though. I know that a lot of the BBC (OKA the Biased Broadcasting Corporation) material has to be treated with circumspection on several well-defined subjects/issues where they seem to have to maintain their religio-political ideology and leanings - but cycling?    
Anyway, it had certainly taken me in. Gullible, I suppose. The thing is, I just hadn't thought to question the truth of it. I mean, why should I ? Why on earth would one need to suspect that the BBC might lie about something so banal, and that they might try to get you all alarmed and wound-up about it in the process, and with such a deliberately fabricated story - and then lie about it when questioned by a journalist?    

Gullible, that is, until I read the Guardian post: BBC's War on Britain's Roads: even more fake than we feared
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images, with my emphasis.)

Spoiler

BBC's War on Britain's Roads: even more fake than we feared
Guardian - Bike blog.
Posted by Peter Walker   Thursday 13 December 2012 10.39 GMT

Footage passed off as genuine in cycling documentary was choreographed by a filmmaker with paid participants, it emerges
Extracts from the BBC programme including footage of the courier race Link to this video

I'm not the sort to go picking a fight with the BBC. This is the Guardian, after all, rather than the Daily Mail. But I'll confess: I'm feeling a bit disappointed with the corporation at the moment.

It's all down to The War on Britain's Roads, the high profile, overly alarmist and somewhat skewed documentary based on footage from cyclists' helmet cameras which aired on BBC1 just over a week ago. I've written previously about the programme's wider faults and the condemnation these brought from MPs and cycling groups, but this is about something very particular.

My contention – and I'd say it's is a fairly serious one – is that the BBC and Leopard Films, the independent production company involved, would appear to have seriously misled viewers over a key element of the programme and are failing to own up to it.

If you watched the programme you'll probably recall the final sequence, showing a group of couriers in London taking part in an "alleycat" race in which they ignore just about every road rule going so as to complete a pre-set route fastest. The footage is undoubtedly dramatic, but utterly out of context: I've cycled in London off and on for 20 years, including as a courier myself for a time, and have never seen riding so reckless.

It also emerged that this footage was filmed for a commercial DVD by a US semi-professional filmmaker, Lucas Brunelle, and dates from six years ago.

All this we knew before the programme was broadcast. However, there is more.

A blog post published yesterday by Bill Chidley, usually known as Buffalo Bill, long-time stalwart and chronicler of the London courier scene who set up the Moving Target courier magazine, gives some fascinating extra background.

He points to a 2006 Moving Target article about the filming of the race which describes how Brunelle essentially choreographed the action and offered money to spur the riders on.

Childley summarises it thus:

   In other words, the idea was to create a race with maximum chaos on the road, and that this was what Lucas was looking for. To encourage the riders to go as fast as possible, and take as many risks as possible, Lucas also had put up £300 in cash prizes.

Let's contrast this with the narration on The War on Britain's Roads:

   Races across cities, like this one in London, are being organised by couriers to showcase their skills and speed.

No mention of the 2006 vintage. No mention of the filmmaker's orchestration. No mention of the filmmaker's cash.

Before the film was broadcast a BBC spokesman told me the alleycat footage was "genuine". He said:

   The footage has since been released commercially, but the fact remains that it depicts real behaviour on the streets of London.

That's broadly comparable to paying school pupils £100 to be filmed punching each other and using the footage to illustrate a story about school discipline. Yes, it happened, but it was crafted and manipulated.

What is worse still is that Leopard Films and the BBC apparently knew all about this from the start. Brunelle says they interviewed him, although none of this was used in the programme.

Oddly enough, it turns out that Brunelle never even gave them permission to use the footage, something he told the cycling industry journalist Carlton Reid, who has written at length about the programme, in an email.

I asked the BBC and the PR people for Leopard Films to confirm they knew the truth about the courier footage, the orchestration by Brunelle and the cash prizes, and why they did not tell viewers.

Their response pointed me to a BBC blog post by the programme's executive producer which blandly reiterated the "authentic footage" line and ignored the fakery involved. Their email ended:

   The BBC and Leopard Films are in agreement that Samantha Anstiss's blog on the BBC website speaks for itself on this and they will be offering no further comment.

That's the PR equivalent of them sticking their fingers in their ears and humming loudly. It's frankly pathetic.

To me – and I'm aware I'm writing as a cyclist – this seems equally shocking as the infamous dodgy trailer from 2007 which wrongly implied the Queen had stormed out of a photoshoot. That stunt cost the jobs of the BBC1 controller and the chief creative officer of the independent programme maker.

I'm not suggesting anyone should resign here – as I said at the start, this isn't the Daily Mail. But it does give a sharp lesson in the how little the BBC seemingly cares for truth when those maligned are not the monarchy, just mere cyclists.

The only things perhaps more surprising about the revelation of yet another fake BBC documentary (e.g., as QED in the polar bears documentary), were:

• (a) that the Guardian seemed to have actually done a piece of investigative journalism. Though admittedly it is not mainstream news stuff, I can't recall when I last (if ever) heard/saw that the Grundian had done a piece of investigative journalism.
• (b) that the Guardian had actually been critical of the BBC over this matter. The BBC and the Guardian had always previously seemed to have been joined at the hip - at least, as far as religio-political ideology and spin went.

Still, this has left me and my mates at the cycling club more than a little annoyed with the BBC.
You see, we exiled poms get annoyed, but can accept that the beeb's religio-political ideology led to, for example:

• the beeb determining in 2007 a policy, QED per their 28Gate documented conference, (refer Twenty-EightGate - The BBC's latest scandal) that they would maintain a bias in favour of CAGW (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming) airtime, and deliberately give correspondingly minimal airtime to skeptical views/science.
• the beeb dumping the brilliant broadcaster and naturalist Prof. David Bellamy (we all still miss his programmes) because - QED per Bellamy - he solidly refuted the scientific basis of the theory of AGW and alarmism of CAGW.
• the beeb keeping the marvellous Sir David Attenborough on because he apparently toed the party line in this regard. For example, I notice that he never gets into a position where he has to concede that something is attributable to AGW/CAGW, but neatly sidesteps the issue altogether by merely agreeing affably when some talking head explains to him why it is so. (I saw him doing this with the "Hockey Stick" a few months back. He was superb.)
• the beeb's (QED) employing and apparently protecting, covering up and promoting - if not deliberately encouraging - someone who was apparently a known paedophile/child molester/rapist (take your pick) from the '60s onwards (Le So Vile), and the deliberate concealment of this from authorities. I think the sick ideological rationale here was along the lines of "consensual sex with children is OK", but then I read that some people involved/associated suggest that it was probably fuelled by money for procuring children for the rich elite. The mind boggles.
• the beeb's deliberate broadcasting of despicable, fake and unverified "war" footage (QED) - photos and video - from Palestine, depicting individuals ostensibly injured by Israeli return fire in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks - the injured being caught in later footage apparently miraculously recovered and with no injuries from their mortal wounds. Plus one tragic scene during the recent Hamas rocket attack on Israel, of a service for a little Palestinian girl who had ostensibly been killed by Israeli return fire. It turned out later that she had been killed by a Hamas rocket exploding on launch. How could that be? Because Hamas has a strategy (QED) of deliberately using civilians as a protective shield and deploying its rocket-launchers embedded in domestic suburbs. (A war crime.)

You might ask: So what is annoying about all that? What's wrong with a bit (or a lot) of bias and ideology, if it is "for the greater good", or something?
Well, aside from the absurdity and "wrongness" of it all - on many levels - the British taxpayer is obliged by law to fund the BBC - it's a tax, you see. So the taxpayers are paying the BBC to do all that, and more - and the BBC pay themselves most handsomely from the tax revenue. They don't actually have to work to do anything the taxpayers want. Oh no, nothing so sordid as that. They get paid regardless.

But that's not necessarily the real issue here. The above pales into insignificance compared to what they have just now done.
No. What has got us so all-riled-up about it at the cycling club is not just the above (which admittedly is bad enough as it is), but the fact that the BBC have compounded it multifold by taking their vile fakery and propaganda into the domain of British cycling.
Is nothing sacred?
This time, they have gone too far. It is quite unacceptable. There should now properly be a Royal Commission of Enquiry on the matter.

4403

Living Room / Beware Godzilla Sleeping: The ITU's Internet Fiasco

« Last post by IainB on December 16, 2012, 06:18 PM »

This guy makes relevant points and sooo well too:
Beware Godzilla Sleeping: The ITU's Internet Fiasco
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

December 14, 2012
Beware Godzilla Sleeping: The ITU's Internet Fiasco

A mainstay of science-fiction and horror films is the monster that you're led to believe has been vanquished, but reappears in even more horrific form (sometimes bringing along "friends" as well) in the final scene, or the sequels, or often both.

Godzilla appears to sink back into the sea to leave a battered Tokyo in peace, but he's merely snoozing, dreaming happy dreams of future destruction.

It's worth keeping Godzilla in mind as we scan reports of the ITU's new telecom treaty, which despite a glowing ITU press release was quite properly not signed by the U.S. and many other countries, rendering the entire exercise not even a Pyrrhic victory for the ITU.

The result is that we stand today regarding the open Internet in much the same place we stood a couple of weeks ago before the ITU's WCIT meeting in Dubai even began.

But like Alice in Through the Looking-Glass, we had to do an awful lot of running to end up very close to where we started. And while this can be celebrated in the short run, in the long run it is a very worrisome place to be.

Virtually all of the dangerous dynamics that we've talked about many times in the past -- which led us to this point -- still remain in play.

The existing DNS (Domain Name System) continues to be a focal point of contention. ICANN's escalating mismanagement of the Internet's naming resources, culminating in their extortionist, damaging, and nightmarishly mutating gTLD expansion scheme -- designed to enrich the existing domain-industrial complex -- has driven a stake through the heart of any possible global cooperation in this area.

The DNS has been warped from a simple addressing tool into a truncheon of copyright and censorship enforcement -- with the U.S. leading the way with both related police actions without normal due process, and the insane filings of millions of often hilariously inaccurate takedown demands with Google and others, made all the worse since there usually are no effective penalties for false takedown filings.

Governments around the world continue to eye the Internet and the open communications it fosters to be primarily a threat, with its technology ripe for surveillance, and its users to be controlled, censored, flogged, imprisoned, and even worse. The ITU's newfound fetish for DPI -- Deep Packet Inspection -- makes the wet dreams of tyrants and others in this sphere all the more explicit.

These dynamics are continuing going forward. The risks of Internet censorship, fragmentation, and other severe damage to the Internet we've worked so hard to build will continue to be exacerbated, despite our holding the ITU pretty much at bay this time around.

It's not as if better paths forward have not been suggested in the past. But in answer to most such suggestions, the response has usually been fear of tampering with the status quo, tied to concerns that any changes might end up being worse than the de facto situation in which we find ourselves today.

But as we've now seen with dramatic clarity, the current situation is not likely to be stable in the long run. It is in fact highly unstable, and the risks of this instability ripping the Internet apart in fundamental ways are now worse than ever.

In the past we've talked about the possibility of creating new, purpose-built multi-stakeholder organizations to better serve the entire Internet community -- not just the relatively few lucky entities currently suckling the bulk of the bucks from the DNS gravy train.

Alternatives to the existing DNS -- secure, fully distributed systems for Internet naming and addressing -- such as IDONS and others -- have already been proposed, and could potentially eliminate billions of dollars in associated waste, while simultaneously ending the kinds of naming and DNS abuse problems that now seem synonymous with the existing DNS ecosystem.

Pervasive Internet encryption systems -- that would make Internet connections routinely far more secure from attacks and surveillance abuses -- are possible but resisted, often in concert with much the same kinds of arguments that tyrants have spouted since the dawn of civilization.

The despicable behavior of ITU leadership at WCIT is but a shadow of what the future may be like, unless we seriously take proactive actions now to protect the global, open Internet -- and the open access to information and communications that it engenders -- against those forces who would turn the Net into a tool of political, economic, and other forms of oppression.

The Internet Godzilla may be heading off to sleep for now. But he'll be back, along with his brethren and multitude of minions as well.

And if we haven't prepared, if we haven't taken action by then -- woe to us all.

--Lauren--

________________________

4404

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on December 16, 2012, 03:53 PM »

"I remember my grandad showed me a fake pound note from WWII. Apparently the Nazi’s dropped huge quantities of fake money to devalue the currency and f@ck the economy. Sort of like the bank of England eh?"
Source - here.

4405

Mini-Reviews by Members / Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on December 16, 2012, 05:32 AM »

Originally posted:	2012-12-16
Last updated	2013-03-13: Product is to be terminated July 1, 2013 2018-04-20: Refer also: BazQux Reader - Mini-Review

Basic Info

App Name	Google Reader - Product is to be terminated July 1, 2013 (Online RSS feed-reader or "news-reader".)
Thumbs-Up Rating
App URL	http://www.google.com/reader/
App Version Reviewed	This is a free online, browser-based, service, and the version is always "latest".
Test System Specs	MS Win 7-64 Home Premium, using latest Firefox browser.
Supported OSes	Any web browser.
Support Methods	Help: is via Google help forum.
Trial Version Available?	N/A
Pricing Scheme	N/A - is a $FREE service only.

Intro and Overview:
I thought it might be helpful/useful to post this review, as it could potentially save people a lot of time (if they were not already using a feed-reader).
There are some discussions in the DC Forum that refer to Google Reader, and these two seem most relevant:

• 1. Google Reader kills support for sites without RSS feeds
• 2. RSSOwl Alternative?

If you don't want to have to spend time wading through the often confusing mass or clutter on a website in order to read something of interest, then you can subscribe to posts on the website, or comments in a forum (e.g., including the DC Forum) without having to post something and requesting email notification of responses - as you normally would have to do.
To do this, you have to subscribe for yourself rather than expect the website to do it for you. For example, I have been doing this for several forums and blog sites for years, including the DC Forum.

You could do this too by subscribing to the RSS feed for the forum/website, and getting all the posts/comments delivered in your feed-reader – as I do. I currently use Google Reader, but others are probably just as good. The reason I settled on Google Reader (in Firefox) is that it has some excellent add-ons that greatly improve on its otherwise rather basic filtering tools – e.g., including one such useful tool as Google Reader Filter for Greasemonkey (https://userscripts....g/scripts/show/23671).

Screenshot of the GR UI.
Reading the comments from DC Forum.
This is via Firefox, using GR's "Compressed" setting and add-ons that control the layout and colour of the GR display screen. (This results in some of the on-screen artefacts appearing as black or opaque objects, but that doesn't particularly interfere with the efficient reading process.)
One of the subject lines (about Cody) has been opened, displaying the contents of the comment.



Description:
To get started, all you need is a Gmail account. Then you sign up to use GR (Google Reader), and you start to add to GR the websites or RSS feeds that you want it to deliver to you (these are your subscriptions). If the website does not have an RSS feed, GR will make a decent attempt to feed the site from its URL, if it can. I have found that most sites can provide a feed this way, with few exceptions, and for the exceptions, you can often obtain a pseudo-RSS feed by searching the net for same (usually for free).

The comments on some websites, or the discussions on some forums make for very cluttered GR pages, and, because GR has limited filtering tools, it is difficult to escape the clutter. Hence I use the aforementioned Google Reader Filter for Greasemonkey (https://userscripts....g/scripts/show/23671). This declutters the bulk of the website subscriptions in GR, according to your preferences.

However, a few discussion forums do not seem to feed through in conformance with the same labelling standards that one finds in many/most other forums, thus making them currently difficult to filter in any useful fashion even if you have Google Reader Filter for Greasemonkey.
For these sites, I am still playing about with the filters and exploring other approaches to see if I can get a workaround to this issue from my (the reader’s) end. It would be unlikley that the site Admin. would fix it.

From a website’s perspective, the probably bad thing about feed-readers is that you can read a lot of what you want on a website without actually going to the website itself – unless you want to read more about a certain post or comment thread, or post a comment. Thus, the website probably doesn’t get all your “flypaper clicks” to support advertising revenue as they otherwise probably would if you were always having to wade through the confusing mass on the website.

The really good thing about using a feed-reader (used with good filtering tools) is that it can usually be a tremendously useful timesaver – of your valuable time. Your reading material is served up to you on a plate in the Reader, grouped in whatever order you have chosen, for you to pick and choose by scanning headers/labels and then clicking on those items you want to read more of. We only have so much spare time or cognitive surplus, and I’d rather not waste either on wading through clutter and trying to scan/read everything useful on a website. I rarely actually visit a website unless there is something I want to do whilst I am there – e.g., to read more of an article or related posts, to seek help or points of view for some debate or resolution of an issue, or to make a point, or to communicate something that might be of help/use to others (as in this post).

Who this software is designed for:
Anyone who might wish to automate their reading input as far as possible, and minimise waste of time or cognitive surplus on material which is peripheral to their main needs.

The Good:
Does what is is designed to do, and very simply and effectively.

The needs improvement section:
The layout of the UI (User Interface) is somewhat less than perfect and is subject to periodic changes by Google. The current layour, for example, is the Google "White space" theme, and wastes a lot of space on the limited screen real estate.
Fortunately, their are add-ons (in Firefox) which can improve on this, though they sometimes succumb and fail when Google makes an ad hoc change - e.g., a theme change.
The limitations of GR can be rectified to a greater extent by using add-ons and Greasemonkey scripts.

Why I think you should use this product:
If you would like to optimise the use of your time/cognitive surplus, then automating your reading input via GR as far as possible would help you to focus on material which is central to your core needs, and avoid the clutter of subject material that might be peripheral to those needs.

How it compares to similar products:
Very favourably, but your effective use of GR would tend to depend on your preferences and meeds.
Some feed-readers and news-readers are browser-based online tools - e.g., as is GR - whereas others are client-based. I find that by using GR, Scrapbook and Read It Later (now called "Pocket"), most of my news-reading needs are met.

Conclusions:
GR is a very good online browser-based feed-reader and news-reader.
You don't need to install anything on your PC (except for the Firefox browser and any Firefox add-ons.).
The Firefox add-ons overcome the worst of GR's constraints and make GR much more effective than a lot of other Readers.

4406

Living Room / In support of the Internet Archive

« Last post by IainB on December 16, 2012, 12:41 AM »

This post was originally entitled: 17 days to go to help the Internet Archive reach their donation target.
EDIT - 2013-01-16 1859hrs: I changed the thread title to be more generic about The Internet Archive.)

I have many times said to myself "Thank goodness for the Archive", when I have needed to retrieve some pice of defunct/deleted web material.
I hadn't realised that the Internet Archive are in the midst of a donation request - 17days to go till they finish on Dec. 31 2012, with a target of $150,000. They only have $27,090 as at 2012-12-16 1930hrs (NZT). But look what they are after getting!

"A generous supporter has offered to match every dollar we raise 3-to-1 through December 31st. We are trying to raise $150,000 in donations by the end of the year - with the match, that will give us $600,000, enough to buy 4 more petabytes of storage."

As a donation lever, this would be hard to beat - you donate $1.00, they get $4.00.
I'm in, and am also signed up with a library card.

You can check out the details and make a donation via the link: http://archive.org/donate/

4407

Living Room / Re: Reader's Corner - The Library of Utopia

« Last post by IainB on December 15, 2012, 12:47 PM »

If the previous post/comment provides an example as to how commercial monopolists can drag things backwards by enforcing a change - something unwanted - on customers/readers alike, for apparently entirely self-serving reasons, then this following bit of news yanks the whole vector of change in a forwards direction:
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Programmer Begins Selling 100,000 eBooks on Amazon with New Algorithm
from Good E-Reader - ebook Reader and Digital Publishing News by Michael Kozlowski

When authors want to make a digital eBook, they have to sit down and write them. It often takes a fair amount of time to pump out the written work. Philip M. Parker who spearheads ICON Group International seeks to defy this convention. He has developed a new methodology to write non-fiction material based on an Algorithm. This has allowed him to list 100,000 eBooks on Amazon and his company close to 700,000.

This new computer system allows a full book to be written in close to twenty minutes. It is best suited to non-fiction and obscure technical documentation that might not exist. This includes business reports, technical, rare diseases and dictionaries. The company has developed a staggering number of Websters dictionaries for various fringe languages because of the open source nature.

The essence of this computer system is tapping into massive databases of content. It avoids plagiarism it rewrites the content and cross references other subjects written about it. You won’t get a creative perspective on any of the subject matter, but for technical documents it is unwarranted. Most people when studying a very specific subject just want the facts, graphs and statistics, something this system excels at.

The Singularity Hub mentioned that ”The success (and brilliance) of this system is that Parker designed the algorithms to mimic the thought process that an expert would necessarily go through in writing about a topic. It merely involves deconstructing content within a genre. He has some experience in this, as he has written at least three books the old fashioned way. It’s the recognition of how algorithmic content creation is (for the most part) that allows it to be coded as artificial intelligence.”

4408

Living Room / Re: What are Samsung AA-SS2P20B 2.0Ch USB digital speakers and how do you use them?

« Last post by IainB on December 14, 2012, 08:37 AM »

any chance theres something in the software for the 'parent' device, ie the series 9 notebook?

-Target (December 14, 2012, 12:18 AM)

I couldn't find anything relevant in the drivers or software listed for download at:
http://www.samsung.c...oduct/NP900X3B-A02US

4409

Living Room / Re: What are Samsung AA-SS2P20B 2.0Ch USB digital speakers and how do you use them?

« Last post by IainB on December 14, 2012, 07:32 AM »

Model AA-SS1P20B/US:
The AA-SS1P20B/US is listed as a SAMSUNG Accessory here:
www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops-accessories/AA-SS1P20B/US
- where it says:

USB Stereo Multimedia Speakers
No power adapter required for these full-range 2.0W speakers. Just plug them into your notebook’s or netbook’s USB port. Features a power and volume switch, headphone jack, MIC jack and stylish Samsung design.

The AA-SS1P20B/US is given as being compatible with a range of SAMSUNG laptops (listed at the link).
________________________________________

Model AA-SS2P20B:
I did find these speakers (AA-SS2P20B) referred to as Accessories for the Series 9 13' Notebook, in a .PDF file here: www. samsung .com/uk

There is less info. on the AA-SS2P20B. For example, it is given on a Spanish site (no photos though) as the DIGITAL MULTIMEDIA SPEAKER 2.0CH USB
________________________________________

@4wd: There are no holes for electret microphones. I cannot get at the AUX to see what it is. Would seem to require breaking the casing to get at the innards, and I am unwilling to do that just yet. Judging from the SS1 notes (above) though, the headphone jack and MIC jack are incorporated into the one AUX socket of the SS2.

The other information (given on the label on the back of each speaker) is as follows, and doesn't lead to much of use:

• The Chinese manufacturer - name is Kwangwon Tech Co. Ltd.. I googled that and came up with references to its Korean base and also:
  

  kwangwon electronics co.ltd is a supplier of computer 3d speakers and other products from guangdong, china.kwangwon electronics co.ltd does not currently advertise comprehensive company & product.
  
• Barcode: SEC S/N:CNBA9605882AD3IU19R0920 or SEC S/N:CNBA9606.882AD3IU19R0920 - googling that gave no result.
  
• AS 1588 - 3366 - googling that gave no useful result.
  

4410

General Software Discussion / Re: Are the new Firefox versions coming with adware built in?

« Last post by IainB on December 13, 2012, 02:08 AM »

@superboyac: Yes, it looks like it's probably on your PC. If you don't want to manually fix it per @Curt's comment, then I'd suggest you run Malwarebytes (free version will do) over your PC, plus a virus check on the whole disk. That should fix it.

By the way, some malware/viruses I have come across on infected PCs had effectively stopped/disabled firewalls and the running of virus/malware checkers, and even editing of the Registry. To save time/trouble, I usually remove the infected drive and use MBAM and then a virus checker to clean it as a slave drive to a clean PC.

4411

Living Room / Re: What are Samsung AA-SS2P20B 2.0Ch USB digital speakers and how do you use them?

« Last post by IainB on December 12, 2012, 07:40 PM »

@Tinman57: Ah! That probably explains it. I shall try and get the drivers at that link. Thanks.

UPDATE 2012-12-13 1654hrs:
The link you gave is for AA-SS1P20B/US and not AA-SS2P20B.
It looks like the SS2 (the one I have) might be a later (newer) model of the SS1 (?).

The references I can find also sometimes mention AA-SS2P20B and S/PDIF OUT Port in the same context. S/PDIF OUT is apparently a multimedia digital compression technology incorporated into some multimedia devices. I shall have to search up to see if I can find a driver to suit that can operate on my laptop. I can find no reference to such drivers at samsung.com via the link you provided.

4412

Living Room / What are Samsung AA-SS2P20B 2.0Ch USB digital speakers and how do you use them?

« Last post by IainB on December 12, 2012, 06:59 AM »

I don't know how the heck these things are supposed to be used. Wondered if anyone on the DCF might be able to throw some light on the puzzle.
A Korean neighbour gave me these speakers just before he left to go back to Korea, and I didn't get a chance to ask him about them.
The label on the back of each speaker says:

SAMSUNG
2.0Ch USB digital speaker
Model: AA-SS2P20B
2011 09

- and indicates the name of the manufacturer in China.
The back of each speaker has the words "Designed by SAMSUNG"

They are  2 desktop speakers - small, sort of oblong boxes - with a front face that is approx. 3" square and a sloped base that angles them up at about 45°.
Solidly made of black plastic, with no visible screws to open them, they have neoprene rubber on the base (presumably to minimise vibration).
There is a single USB plug that feeds into the back of the RIGHT speaker via a thickish cable, and a thinner cable comes out the back of the RIGHT speaker and goes into the back of the LEFT speaker.
The RIGHT speaker has 3 nearly flush-fitting (only slightly raised) buttons down one side, each one above the other, and a mini-audio socket below the 3rd with "AUX" written by it.
The three buttons, from the top are marked nearby:
* EQ/MUTE
* VOL +
* VOL -

When you plug the USB into the laptop, a little blue light comes on behind the grill on the speaker face of the RIGHT speaker - nothing on the LEFT speaker.
When you play some music and plug the USB into the laptop, nothing in Win7-64 sees it as a new device, and nothing seems to happen - no noise comes out the speakers, despite fiddling with the buttons.
The AUX port doesn't seem to be an audio IN port (I tried that), so is probably (?) an AUX audio OUT.
Leaving the USB plugged in causes the RIGHT speaker to get a bit warm on one side, so I presume that is an amplifier circuit heating up.

I did a search on the net hoping to find a spec and a handbook and drivers, but the only references I could seem to find were in a few Spanish-language sites that sometimes indicated that the speakers were "discontinued". If any site had a photo of the speakers (most didn't), they always showed the RIGHT speaker with a singe very prominent button - so it was a slightly different model to the ones I have.

The speakers seem not to have been used - they still have their adhesive protective plastic covering on (which I peeled back to get the buttons clear and access the AUX socket). So maybe the Korean guy hadn't  used them. I think he had an Apple phone, and I supposed he had got the speakers for that, but I'm not sure.

Anyone got any ideas on this?   

4413

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on December 11, 2012, 06:40 AM »

I presume these are all true...

Predictions: (Or, "I wish I hadn't said that."

  "Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
 -- Dr. Lee DeForest,  "Father of Radio & Grandfather of  Television."
 
"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in  explosives."
 -- Admiral William  Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the  atom."
 -- Robert Millikan,  Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923
 
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5  tons."
 -- Popular  Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science,  1949
 
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
 -- Thomas Watson,  chairman of IBM, 1943
 
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
 --The editor in charge  of business books for Prentice Hall,  1957
 
"But what is it good for?"
 -- Engineer at the  Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting  on the microchip.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
 -- Bill Gates, 1981

"This 'telephone'has too many shortcomings to be seriously  considered as a means of communication. The device is  inherently of no value to us,"
 -- Western Union  internal memo, 1876.
 
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in  particular?"
 -- David Sarnoff's  associates in response to his urgings for investment in the  radio in the 1920s.
 
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible,"
 -- A Yale  University management professor in response to Fred Smith's  paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith  went on to found Federal Express  Corp.)
 
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper,"
 --Gary Cooper on his  decision not to take the leading role in  "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make,"
 -- Response to Debbi  Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields'  Cookies.
 
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way  out,"
 -- Decca Recording  Co. rejecting the Beatles,  1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,"
 -- Lord Kelvin,  president, Royal Society,  1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the  experiment.  The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this,"
 -- Spencer Silver on  the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It"  Notepads.
 
"Drill for oil?  You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy,"
 -- Drillers who  Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for  oil in 1859.
 
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high  plateau."
 -- Irving Fisher,  Professor of Economics, Yale University ,  1929.
 
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value,"
 -- Marechal Ferdinand  Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre ,  France .
 
"Everything that can be invented has been invented,"
 -- Charles H. Duell,  Commissioner, US Office of Patents,  1899.

"The super computer is  technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required."
 -- Professor of Electrical  Engineering, New York  University

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."
 -- the head of IBM,  refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found  Xerox.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
 -- Pierre Pachet,  Professor of Physiology at Toulouse ,  1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon,"
 -- Sir John Eric  Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary  to Queen Victoria 1873.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their  home."
-- Ken Olson,  president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,  1977.

4414

Living Room / Re: Reader's Corner - The Library of Utopia

« Last post by IainB on December 07, 2012, 01:40 AM »

The ideal of the Library of Utopia seems to have just just inched a bit further away. After the above rather good news, you can now read about in the UK where Waterstones Screensaver on Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Draw Customer Ire (sic)
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Waterstones Screensaver on Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Draw Customer Ire
from Good E-Reader - ebook Reader and Digital Publishing News by Michael Kozlowski

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite owners normally take to social media to celebrate their new purchase. Customers in the UK are instead up in arms over new devices purchased from Waterstones. The company has put up a simple advertisement up promoting themselves via a firmware update that cannot be negated.

In the USA you can purchase a Kindle Paperwhite with Special Offers or Without them. If you pay the additional fee you are not served advertisements when your device is in standby mode or on the main screen. If you elect to save $30.00 you can purchase a model that will display these adverts. The Waterstones version does not really give customers the ability to opt in or out of the Special Offers program.

Customers are venting their frustration on the main Waterstones website. One person mentioned “I really enjoyed reading on it, but after a few days a software update was applied. This replaced the beautiful artwork the device displays when in sleep mode with some ugly advert for Waterstones. I hate it.” Another user chimed in and said”"Really a shame to force a Waterstones screensaver on a device that is supposed to be ad free. Whatever they may call this it is still advertising. I will be returning mine and ordering from Amazon.”

Waterstones sent an email to customers that said: “It is our view that this screensaver does not constitute advertising and differs substantially to the advertising-supported Kindles available to the US market. The Waterstones screensaver is a non-dynamic, static image that will change infrequently and not advertise any specific product, offer or website. It is not possible to remove the Waterstones screensaver to replace it with the former Amazon screensaver.” Waterstones added: “We apologize that this change was made without consultation, and hope it does not detract from or alter your reading experience.”

Some people might say (not me you understand), that that last line sounds a bit like "So long, suckers" - or possibly even something much more rude/offensive - but I couldn't possibly comment.

4415

Living Room / Re: DOTCOM saga - updates

« Last post by IainB on December 07, 2012, 12:53 AM »

What? You mean Life is like a poker tournament?
Sheesh. And there I always thought it was like a box of chocolates.
I always knew it was a mistake for Cadbury's to sell themselves to Mondelēz International.

4416

General Software Discussion / Re: need to create a basic floor plan

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2012, 05:25 PM »

@dojibear:
+1 from me for that.
icovia was the best I came across a while back. Only trouble for me was that it's in Imperial measures (feet/inches) - it doesn't seem to do metric units.   
I don't want to have to measure everything up again, but in feet/inches this time.

4417

Living Room / Re: DOTCOM saga - updates

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2012, 04:16 AM »

Looks like reason, and especially justice, are prevailing in this saga, at present. At any rate, this report from NZ Herald would seem to indicate that.
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Dotcom can pursue case against police, GCSB
By David Fisher
11:50 AM Thursday Dec 6, 2012

Details of the top secret international spy agency ring known as Echelon will have to be produced after a new judgment in the Kim Dotcom case.

The internet tycoon was also cleared to pursue a case for damages against the police and the Government Communications Security Bureau in a judgment which has opened the Government's handling of the criminal copyright case for its harshest criticism yet.

The order for the GCSB to reveal top secret details came as the High Court at Auckland ruled the spy agency would now sit alongside the police in a case probing the unlawful search warrant used in the raid on Dotcom's north Auckland mansion.

Chief high court judge Helen Winkelmann said the GCSB would have to "confirm all entities" to which it gave information sourced through its illegal interception of Dotcom's communications.

She said her order included "members of Echelon/Five Eyes, including any United States authority". The Echelon network is an international intelligence network to which New Zealand and the United States are members, along with Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The judgment also recorded Dotcom's suspicions he had been spied on at least six weeks before the GCSB admitted to doing so, and sought details as to whether others had been swept up in the illegal operation.

The Crown had raised concerns about "secrecy", saying revealing the information could "compromise New Zealand's national security interests".

Justice Winkelmann said the concerns - which included revealing how the GCSB worked with "intelligence allies"- could be managed through the appointment of Stuart Grieve QC. Mr Grieve was appointed by the court to view top secret information and judge its relevance to the case.

The judgment also raised questions about evidence given by Detective Inspector Grant Wormald, the officer who commanded the raid on the mansion. It said evidence he had given about possible "live footage" of the raid "contradicted" earlier evidence given during the hearing.

The police were ordered to provide evidence from a senior New Zealand officer in the US who told an internal publication he "monitored" the raid from FBI headquarters.

Mr Wormald is also facing questions about other testimony after he assured the court there was no surveillance other than that carried out by police. The GCSB's illegal spying operation later emerged.

4418

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2012, 01:01 AM »

..."House approves resolution to keep Internet control out of UN hands" ... by ... wait for it ... 397-0...

-TaoPhoenix (December 05, 2012, 06:23 PM)

Hard to believe, but true, by all reports.

4419

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 10:22 PM »

...(I confess that the DC thread not long ago about MSE losing some German lab's endorsement after poor zero-day detections shook my confidence a little bit.)

-cyberdiva (December 04, 2012, 08:32 PM)

Yes, I think that you may be referring to this discussion in DCF on 2012-11-30: Microsoft Security Essentials loses AV-TEST certification

I don't think that it was necessarily anything to panic about though.

4420

Mini-Reviews by Members / Windows Defender (also Microsoft Security Essentials MSE) - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 08:02 PM »

Originally posted:	2012-12-05
Last updated	2017-02-02

Basic Info

App Name	Windows Defender (also Microsoft Security Essentials MSE) (Anti-virus, spyware, and other malicious software detection/protection)
Thumbs-Up Rating
App URL	http://windows.micro...-essentials-download
App Version Reviewed	All $FREE versions and beta releases since Oct. 2010, including the current latest version:
User System Specs	Win 7-64 HP, Win8/8.1-64 and PRO, Win10-64 and PRO
Supported OSes	Bundled as "Defender" within Win8/8.1, and can be installed as "MSE" in Windows 7,Vista, and XP (64-bit/32-bit)
Support Methods	microsoft.com (link is to the download site). Updates to software and virus signature files are automatic, and can also be triggered via the Start menu to check for updates via Windows Update (in the Control Panel). Virus signature file updates can also be forced instantaneously from the application GUI. Help: is via links from the software GUI.
Upgrade Policy	Upgrades/updates are $FREE and loaded as above.
Trial Version Available?	For personal and small business use: $FREE Trial and Production version (they are one and the same). There is no PAID version.
Pricing Scheme	Defender is now bundled in Win8 and up, and MSE is $FREE For personal and small business use.

Intro and Overview:
Update 2015-05-14:
Protection for your PC

Windows Defender is now built-in to the Windows OS and helps guard your PC against viruses and other malware.
For a PC running an older version of Windows, you can download Microsoft Security Essentials.
______________________

Windows Defender Help quote:

Windows Defender is included with Windows and helps keep malware from infecting your PC in two ways:

• Providing real-time protection. Windows Defender notifies you when malware tries to install itself or run on your PC. It also notifies you when applications try to change important settings.
• Providing anytime scanning options. Windows Defender automatically scans your PC for installed malware on a regular basis, but you can also start a scan whenever you want. Windows Defender automatically removes (or temporarily quarantines) anything that's detected during a scan.

_______________________________________

This review follows on from a separate discussion thread in the DC Forum: Microsoft Security Essentials - new Beta out 2011-11-30 (updated 2012-07-11)
The virus-checking engine used by MSE used to be only available for businesses, and at a cost. It was regarded as being one of the best AV (Anti-Virus) tools available for business servers.
In October 2010 it was released for free for personal and small business users. I started using it as soon as the release was available, and it has been through several upgrades since then.
You can either use the released versions of MSE, or get on the beta or "pre-release" channel. (I have used both channels with no real problems.)
You can fit-and-forget MSE. The installation is straightforward. Once installed, everything is automatic, and seems to have been rock-solid stable (for me, at any rate). There are regular automatic virus signature file updates.
The user control is mainly around the setting of the default actions that are to be taken in the event of a malware detection at different threat levels - the actions are remove or quarantine. In the event, you can always tell MSE to ignore a given threat detection, thus it does not need to be blindly automatic or divorced from user control.

Over the time I have been using MSE on my PCs, it has detected several malwares, but my PCs have so far not been attacked by any really nasty viruses.

Description:
From the website:

Use Microsoft Security Essentials to help guard against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. It provides real-time protection for your home or small business PCs.
Microsoft Security Essentials is free* and we designed it to be simple to install and easy to use. It runs quietly and efficiently in the background so you don't have to worry about interruptions or making updates.

• Here is an example of the main GUI tab:
           
  
  
• Here is an example of a threat (OpenCandy) quarantine:
           
  
  
• Here is an example of a threat (Worm) quarantine:
           
  
  

Who this software is designed for:
Personal and small business users.

The Good:

• Does exactly what it was designed to so, and very simply and effectively.
• Also detects and treats the noxious OpenCandy adware

The needs improvement section:
(Nothing to comment on here.)

Why I think you should use this product:
Having used several other AV software applications, I would recommend MSE as the "no-brainer" default industry standard to go for.
I would also recommend that you use it together with MBAM (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO).

How it compares to similar products:
Very favourably. I prefer a belts-and-braces approach and I use MSE in tandem with MBAM PRO, and the two seem to work happily together with no apparent conflict.
There are various reviews and comments regarding MSE/MBAM in the DC Forum and elsewhere on the Internet.
Some DC Forum examples re MSE:

• Microsoft finally allows small business use of Security Essentials for free
• Microsoft Security Essentials - new Beta out 2011-11-30 (updated 2012-07-11)
• Windows Security Essentials
• free antivirus
• Is Antivirus Software a Waste of Money?

Conclusions:
Windows Defender aka MSE is an excellent AV tool. Performs as designed, and very well.
There are other AV tools, but to a large extent they would seem to have been eclipsed or made redundant by Defender/MSE, as the latter would now seem to be the de facto anti-virus application and virtually a no-brainer for the majority of PC users.

4421

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 04:18 PM »

If you go to the Google main search page, then you will see a line below the search box that reads:

Love the free and open Internet? Tell the world's governments to keep it that way.

If you follow the link, then you will be taken to the Google Take Action page, where you can read about:

• What’s at stake
• What you can do
• Past actions

Then, if you want, you can follow the link to Make your voice heard.
I added my ID to the list of 2.8million (and counting) respondents.
Interesting semi-realtime map they give of the respondents.

4422

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 03:35 PM »

Put this here as I found the spoof vid very funny and thought it might be appreciated:

...There's a very droll plug for the book on YouTube, Secret Leaked Video of Petraeus Outburst. Made me laugh till I cried.

-IainB (December 02, 2012, 05:25 PM)

4423

Living Room / Re: Reader's Corner - The Library of Utopia

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 02:50 PM »

In what looks like a breath of fresh air and clear thinking, Charlie Redmayne of Pottermore books seems to have a viable commercial solution to avoiding the prevailing tendency of the monopolistic **AA for mass Fascistic violence towards consumers.
Relevant and interesting post from goodereader copied below, with my emphasis.

Pottermore CEO Explains the DRM-Free Decision
By Mercy Pilkington, 2012-12-03

Charlie Redmayne spoke on two panels today in London at the FutureBook conference, the third annual conference put on by The Bookseller. Aside from the morning presentation in which he spoke on the importance of establishing a global brand for an author or a book series, Redmayne spoke quite vehemently in the later panel about how the practice of DRM-free ebooks can be better for publishing.

According to Redmayne, the Harry Potter ebooks were published without the restrictions imposed by digital rights management, allowing readers to put them on any device and allowing the sharing of the ebooks, similar to their print counterparts.

Despite some criticism about piracy concerns, Redmayne countered with evidence that piracy of the Harry Potter titles is actually 25% lower than when the titles were only available in print; additionally, he recounted incidences when the ebooks were actually placed on file sharing websites, but most were quickly removed when it became known that all of the ebooks are sold with an embedded digital watermark, essentially tracking the person who uploaded the pirated copy.

This ability to track an ebook stands to be a potential deterrent to piracy, especially if publishers are actually able to hold offenders accountable without creating a bigger problem in trying to prosecute offenders.

4424

Living Room / Re: LHC Researchers Expect First Glimpse of the Higgs Boson Next Week

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 08:23 AM »

This is amazing.
I didn't realise you get a first glimpse of the Higgs Boson - here.

4425

Living Room / Re: Patenting Human Genes

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2012, 04:06 AM »

...[  These people are out of their minds.....]...

-Tinman57 (December 03, 2012, 08:53 PM)

No, it's so cunning a plan that you could put a tail on it and call it a ferret.
If you were the arbiter of gene-patenting copyright, then you could presumably be the object/recipient of much corporate lobbying, praise and, erm ... funding.
You'd be on a gravy train for life.