I found this article interesting and funny, so I though you guys might like it. I still think is miscalculated a bit, people spend more time than this on the web while working.
"If you're reading this while your boss thinks you're hammering away on some code or updating that Excel spreadsheet, then you're likely one of the workers that spend about 25 percent of their work time doing personal stuff online. And chances are that your boss doesn't even know it.
Network security consultant firm Voco says that CEOs and CIOs of companies are often completely unaware of what employees are doing online during work hours, allowing them (especially the tech-savvy ones) to get away with all sorts of online goofing off. Employees tend to spend work time browsing eBay auctions, using online dating or social networking sites, chatting over IM, and more, and they do it for just over a quarter of the time they spend at work.
Sometimes, employees also make use of company resources to engage in nefarious activities, like downloading movies and music over P2P. According to Voco's data, for example, many of the prerelease downloads of Hellboy: The Golden Army were over corporate networks. Not only does this consume bandwidth meant for business, it also opens up corporate networks to spyware, adware, and other challenges for network security. And, of course, it could pose a legal issue for the company in question as well. "If investigators were tracking who was downloading, then the company address would turn up and the company would be the one facing legal implications," Voco consultant Paul Hortop said in a statement.
At the same time, not all "personal" Internet use is necessarily bad. Hortop points out that sometimes it can be a challenge to determine exactly what kind of use is inappropriate. "Is it more time-efficient to let staff do their banking online than having them leave the office for half an hour?" he asks. Additionally, workers spending time on social networking sites could actually help the company, given their increased importance to businesses.
Of course, surfing at work isn't exactly a new phenomenon. In a survey conducted in 2005, 93 percent of all US employees admitted to using their employer's Internet access for personal reasons as well as business ones, and 52 percent said they would rather give up coffee than their Internet connections at work. How much that personal Internet use actually impacts businesses is up in the air, however. Websense claims that such behavior costs American corporations nearly $200 billion per year, although given the tiny sample used when drawing that conclusion, the actual number may be quite a bit different.
Regardless of how much it's costing companies, what's important is to make sure you're actually getting your work done while you're not checking your friends' status updates in Facebook or overbidding on an eBay auction. Now, get back to work!"
Source: arstechnica.com
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Decrypting and Removing Commercials from TiVo recordings the easy way
I found this article on lifehacker and though that if you own a TiVo you might want to know this. I found it very helpful (although I don't use a TiVo myself, I know some of my friends who do and found this tool useful)
---Written as obtained from lifehacker. ---
While TiVo Desktop can transfer TiVo recordings to your computer or iPod, KMTTG downloads your TiVo's recordings, decrypts .TIVO files to a less proprietary file format like .AVI, and can detect and remove commercials to reduce the file size (and the time it takes to fast-forward through ads). Let's take a look at how to decrypt and scrub commercials from your TiVo recordings with KMTTG.
Note: KMTTG is a Perl program that works on either Windows or Linux and requires some light command line work. The instructions below are Windows-focused. KMTTG presumably stands for Kevin Moye TiVo To Go (Moye is KMTTG's developer). Moye explains what KMTTG is and why he built it:
KMTTG is a Perl/Tk program I wrote to facilitate TivoToGo (TTG) transfers that can download, create metadata, decrypt, run comskip & comcut (commercial detection and removal) and re-encode multiple shows you select from your Tivos all in one step. The program also has the capability to transfer and process shows automatically from your Tivos based on titles and keywords you set up.
You can select one or more shows at a time and then with one click of a button the program will download all the selected items, with the options of also automatically creating a metadata file for pyTivo, decrypting .TiVo files to .mpg, running comskip (commercial detection and removal program), and automatically re-encoding to a more portable format using mencoder, ffmpeg or any other command line encoder of your choosing. The program queues up multiple jobs and displays time, size and speed statistics for ongoing jobs.
Previously I was using different point tools to accomplish this, such as Tivo Desktop or TivoPlayList for downloads, pyTivoMetaGen for generating metadata files, Tivo Decoder UI for decrypting and various GUIs built around ffmpeg for re-encoding. I did not want to pay for or be limited by Tivo Desktop Plus. This is my attempt to simplify and automate these different tasks all into one simple GUI.
What You'll Need to Run KMTTG
Before you get started, gather up all the info and downloads you need to run KMTTG:
* A Windows or Linux PC on the same network as your TiVo.
* Your TiVo's IP address, which you can get by going to Messages & Settings > Settings > Phone & Network on your TiVo.
* Your TiVo's MAK (Media Access Key), which you can find by going to Messages & Settings > Account & System Information > Media Access Key on your TiVo.
* ActiveState Perl with the Tk module. Version 5.8 includes Tk, but the latest version 5.10 does not. I grabbed version 5.8 and had no problems.
Install and Run KMTTG
Got all that? Good. Let's set this sucker up.
1. Extract the KMTTG .ZIP file to a directory on your hard drive, like C:\kmttg\.
2. Extract the KMTTG third party tools (required for KMTTG to run) to your hard drive, and make sure all the subfolders go below your KMTTG source directory. In my example, I've got a curl, ffmpeg, and comskip subfolder in my c:\kmttg\ folder.
Once KMTTG and its dependencies are extracted and ready to use, if you have ActiveState Perl installed, you can just double-click on the kmttg.pl file to launch it.
First Things First: Configure KMTTG
Before you do anything with KMTTG, you have to tell it where your TiVo is, give it the Media Access Key, and also tell it where to save files. From the File menu choose Configure (or hit Ctrl+O). Enter your TiVo name and IP address and hit the Add button. Set your output directory to where you want KMTTG to save the resulting files, and enter your MAK, as shown. Then, select any other options you want. (I checked off "Remove .TiVo file after decrypt", for example, to save hard drive space.)
Click OK to save your options
If you've read this far, I assume you want to know how to do the whole setup. For complete details visit: lifehacker's complete article and instructions here
Source: Gina Trapani of lifehacker
---Written as obtained from lifehacker. ---
While TiVo Desktop can transfer TiVo recordings to your computer or iPod, KMTTG downloads your TiVo's recordings, decrypts .TIVO files to a less proprietary file format like .AVI, and can detect and remove commercials to reduce the file size (and the time it takes to fast-forward through ads). Let's take a look at how to decrypt and scrub commercials from your TiVo recordings with KMTTG.
Note: KMTTG is a Perl program that works on either Windows or Linux and requires some light command line work. The instructions below are Windows-focused. KMTTG presumably stands for Kevin Moye TiVo To Go (Moye is KMTTG's developer). Moye explains what KMTTG is and why he built it:
KMTTG is a Perl/Tk program I wrote to facilitate TivoToGo (TTG) transfers that can download, create metadata, decrypt, run comskip & comcut (commercial detection and removal) and re-encode multiple shows you select from your Tivos all in one step. The program also has the capability to transfer and process shows automatically from your Tivos based on titles and keywords you set up.
You can select one or more shows at a time and then with one click of a button the program will download all the selected items, with the options of also automatically creating a metadata file for pyTivo, decrypting .TiVo files to .mpg, running comskip (commercial detection and removal program), and automatically re-encoding to a more portable format using mencoder, ffmpeg or any other command line encoder of your choosing. The program queues up multiple jobs and displays time, size and speed statistics for ongoing jobs.
Previously I was using different point tools to accomplish this, such as Tivo Desktop or TivoPlayList for downloads, pyTivoMetaGen for generating metadata files, Tivo Decoder UI for decrypting and various GUIs built around ffmpeg for re-encoding. I did not want to pay for or be limited by Tivo Desktop Plus. This is my attempt to simplify and automate these different tasks all into one simple GUI.
What You'll Need to Run KMTTG
Before you get started, gather up all the info and downloads you need to run KMTTG:
* A Windows or Linux PC on the same network as your TiVo.
* Your TiVo's IP address, which you can get by going to Messages & Settings > Settings > Phone & Network on your TiVo.
* Your TiVo's MAK (Media Access Key), which you can find by going to Messages & Settings > Account & System Information > Media Access Key on your TiVo.
* ActiveState Perl with the Tk module. Version 5.8 includes Tk, but the latest version 5.10 does not. I grabbed version 5.8 and had no problems.
Install and Run KMTTG
Got all that? Good. Let's set this sucker up.
1. Extract the KMTTG .ZIP file to a directory on your hard drive, like C:\kmttg\.
2. Extract the KMTTG third party tools (required for KMTTG to run) to your hard drive, and make sure all the subfolders go below your KMTTG source directory. In my example, I've got a curl, ffmpeg, and comskip subfolder in my c:\kmttg\ folder.
Once KMTTG and its dependencies are extracted and ready to use, if you have ActiveState Perl installed, you can just double-click on the kmttg.pl file to launch it.
First Things First: Configure KMTTG
Before you do anything with KMTTG, you have to tell it where your TiVo is, give it the Media Access Key, and also tell it where to save files. From the File menu choose Configure (or hit Ctrl+O). Enter your TiVo name and IP address and hit the Add button. Set your output directory to where you want KMTTG to save the resulting files, and enter your MAK, as shown. Then, select any other options you want. (I checked off "Remove .TiVo file after decrypt", for example, to save hard drive space.)
Click OK to save your options
If you've read this far, I assume you want to know how to do the whole setup. For complete details visit: lifehacker's complete article and instructions here
Source: Gina Trapani of lifehacker
What is like to be a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay
They used to beat everybody. There was a man — he was really old and couldn’t see and couldn’t hear. If the guards told him something to do and he didn’t do it because he couldn’t hear, they went into his cage and beat him up. They did this for a couple minutes, and after that they took him out and brought him to isolation. That happened to me as well, a lot of times.--Murat Kurnaz--
There doesn’t need to be a reason. First they would use a pepper spray. It’s burning. It is hot. You have trouble breathing and opening your eyes. All of your face is burning — your eyes especially and inside your nose. You can’t open your eyes because they are burning very hot. Since you have trouble breathing, you have to cough all the time. Then they’d punch me with their elbows. After they were done, they would write something down as to what could be the reason for it.
We were allowed to do the call to prayer every day, but they used to play music over us at the same time. The music some of the time was rock music, but most of the time they played the [American] national anthem. Or they used to kick the doors.
The worst thing about being in Guantánamo was having to live in the small cages. Most of the time there was nothing in there with me. Sometimes I had only my shorts on and nothing else. Nothing else except my shorts and myself.
I never lost my hope, of course. Not losing my hope is an important part of my religion.
Read an excerpt from Kurnaz’s book Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo at esquire.com/wifl08.
Read: What It Feels Like...to Be a Prison Guard at Guantánamo Bay
Source: esquire.com
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Ev-ryTin Reviews - Google Chrome
As you all know, Google's new browser has enter the market and its making its presence known throughout internet.
I checked the browser and found it to be really fast, reliable and easy to use. The simple fact that it open a separate process for each tab is a neat feature. Then there is the look and feel which is unmatched by both, IE or Firefox. It would be nice to have a home page icon built in by default, but I can do without it.
In addition, there is quite a few tools that can help you find multiple issues or keep track of your browsing activities (see images below). Overall, there is a lot of similarities to Firefox, but it does bring new things and I think that, with time, as more upgrades and enhancements are added, we will be getting a more solid and powerful browser that will could potentially start taking away shares from IE and Firefox.
There is however a new extension in Firefox that would make it look almost exactly as Chrome, the only problem is, Firefox still has the same process for all of its tabs which makes browser crashes a problem. If the guys at Mozilla can fix this we would be talking differently.
TheEvryTin Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Get Chrome HERE
Get Firefox - Chrome Package 0.1.5 Here - WARNING - Its problematic to actually remove this extension once installed. If you add it and want it remove, follow the steps below:
1 - First remove the add-on
2 - Then, remove the folder called topper@digdug.org from your Firefox profile (make sure Firefox is closed before performing this step). This will make sure you keep your Firefox browser as it was.
Any questions, let me know.
Chrome tricks and config pages below:
About:Network
About:cache
About:crash
About:dns
About:histograms
About:memory
About:plugins
About:stats
About:version
I checked the browser and found it to be really fast, reliable and easy to use. The simple fact that it open a separate process for each tab is a neat feature. Then there is the look and feel which is unmatched by both, IE or Firefox. It would be nice to have a home page icon built in by default, but I can do without it.
In addition, there is quite a few tools that can help you find multiple issues or keep track of your browsing activities (see images below). Overall, there is a lot of similarities to Firefox, but it does bring new things and I think that, with time, as more upgrades and enhancements are added, we will be getting a more solid and powerful browser that will could potentially start taking away shares from IE and Firefox.
There is however a new extension in Firefox that would make it look almost exactly as Chrome, the only problem is, Firefox still has the same process for all of its tabs which makes browser crashes a problem. If the guys at Mozilla can fix this we would be talking differently.
TheEvryTin Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Get Chrome HERE
Get Firefox - Chrome Package 0.1.5 Here - WARNING - Its problematic to actually remove this extension once installed. If you add it and want it remove, follow the steps below:
1 - First remove the add-on
2 - Then, remove the folder called topper@digdug.org from your Firefox profile (make sure Firefox is closed before performing this step). This will make sure you keep your Firefox browser as it was.
Any questions, let me know.
Chrome tricks and config pages below:
About:Network
About:cache
About:crash
About:dns
About:histograms
About:memory
About:plugins
About:stats
About:version
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Customizing Gmail Addresses
If you want to create unlimited Gmail addresses for , say filtering out the incoming mail from work or your wife or something, just add a plus (+) to your user name and create a filter for that specific user.
For Example
To receive e-mail from your wife and have it filtered do this.
- Give your wife this e-mail address to send you stuff to:
yourusername+wife@gmail.com
- Then, go to your settings section and add a filter called Wife. Have any e-mail with a destination address matching yourusername+wife@gmail.com go into this filter and that's it.
From there on, any e-mail destined to that address is going to be sorted to that filter.
You can also add dots to the address. Gmail ignores all extra characters on the user name part of the e-mail address.
Source: Gmail Help Files
For Example
To receive e-mail from your wife and have it filtered do this.
- Give your wife this e-mail address to send you stuff to:
yourusername+wife@gmail.com
- Then, go to your settings section and add a filter called Wife. Have any e-mail with a destination address matching yourusername+wife@gmail.com go into this filter and that's it.
From there on, any e-mail destined to that address is going to be sorted to that filter.
You can also add dots to the address. Gmail ignores all extra characters on the user name part of the e-mail address.
Source: Gmail Help Files
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Future of Agriculture and Farming
By 2025, the world’s population will swell from 6.6 billion to 8 billion people. Climate simulations predict sustained drought for the American Midwest and giant swathes of farmland in Africa and Asia. Is mathematician Thomas Malthus’s 200-year-old prediction, that human growth will one day outpace agriculture, finally coming to pass? Advances in farming technology have kept us fed so far, but the planet’s resources are tapped.
The choice is clear—rethink how we grow food, or starve. Environmental scientist Dickson Despommier of Columbia University and other scientists propose a radical solution: Transplant farms into city skyscrapers. These towers would use soil-free hydroponic farming to slash demand for energy (they’ll be powered by a process that converts sewage into electricity) while producing more food. Farming skyward would also free up farmland for trees, which would help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even better, vertical farms would grow food near where it would be eaten, thus cutting not only the cost but the emissions of transportation. If you include emissions from the oil burned to cultivate and ship crops and livestock in addition to, yes, methane from farm-animal flatulence, agriculture churns out nearly 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions.
You can’t buy vertically grown groceries just yet. Most urban farming efforts have been small-scale experiments run in neighborhood parks. Despommier’s vision is bigger: a $200-million, 30-story tower covering an entire city block, stuffed with enough fruit, vegetables and chickens to feed 50,000 people. “With waste in and food out, a vertical farm would be like a perpetual-motion machine that feeds a lot of people,” he says. Most of the technology already exists, he adds, and with some refining, the project could be up and running quickly if granted 0.25 percent of the subsidies paid to American farmers in the past decade—a piddling $500 million.
Despommier is advising investors in Abu Dhabi and South Korea who are considering vertical farms for new eco-cities. Seattle and Las Vegas are investigating similar, smaller concepts. Turn the page to explore the farm of the future, inspired by cutting-edge research from agricultural companies and scientists. With any luck, it will help repel the Malthusian catastrophe for another 200 years.
Video and More
Gallery
THE AQUAPONIC MERRY-GROW-ROUND: Photo by Graham Murdoch
CROP CIRCLES TENDED BY ROBOTS: Photo by Graham Murdoch
THE WHOLE THING RUNS ON SEWAGE: Photo by Graham Murdoch
Source: PopSci.com
The choice is clear—rethink how we grow food, or starve. Environmental scientist Dickson Despommier of Columbia University and other scientists propose a radical solution: Transplant farms into city skyscrapers. These towers would use soil-free hydroponic farming to slash demand for energy (they’ll be powered by a process that converts sewage into electricity) while producing more food. Farming skyward would also free up farmland for trees, which would help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even better, vertical farms would grow food near where it would be eaten, thus cutting not only the cost but the emissions of transportation. If you include emissions from the oil burned to cultivate and ship crops and livestock in addition to, yes, methane from farm-animal flatulence, agriculture churns out nearly 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions.
You can’t buy vertically grown groceries just yet. Most urban farming efforts have been small-scale experiments run in neighborhood parks. Despommier’s vision is bigger: a $200-million, 30-story tower covering an entire city block, stuffed with enough fruit, vegetables and chickens to feed 50,000 people. “With waste in and food out, a vertical farm would be like a perpetual-motion machine that feeds a lot of people,” he says. Most of the technology already exists, he adds, and with some refining, the project could be up and running quickly if granted 0.25 percent of the subsidies paid to American farmers in the past decade—a piddling $500 million.
Despommier is advising investors in Abu Dhabi and South Korea who are considering vertical farms for new eco-cities. Seattle and Las Vegas are investigating similar, smaller concepts. Turn the page to explore the farm of the future, inspired by cutting-edge research from agricultural companies and scientists. With any luck, it will help repel the Malthusian catastrophe for another 200 years.
Video and More
Gallery
THE AQUAPONIC MERRY-GROW-ROUND: Photo by Graham Murdoch
CROP CIRCLES TENDED BY ROBOTS: Photo by Graham Murdoch
THE WHOLE THING RUNS ON SEWAGE: Photo by Graham Murdoch
Source: PopSci.com
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Cool Case: GhostofSyd's Thermaltake SwordM
Quote : "This case mod was commisioned by AMD. The shell was cnc milled from 1/2" aircraft alum and then chrome plated. All the components were supplied by AMD including Phenom 2.6 9900, 2x 3870 X2 HD Radeon, CoolerMaster Copper Sphere CPU cooler, WD 400GB HDD, 2GB OCZ PC2-8000 memory GB 790FX board, 750W PCPC power supply, sponser products include Iz3D 22" widescreen monitor, Thermaltake 7" 5.25 Bay LCD, Razer Lachesis Mouse, Razer Lycosa Keyboard, 4 Black SATA II cables Pioneer BD Reader + DVD +/-R/RW SATA, MS Windows Vista Ultimate "
Source: Virtual Hide-Out
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Republican National Convention
It is great to see a straight forward woman speak. Sarah Palin convinced me over voting for McCain tonight during the Republican National Convention. I believe that she is definitely a person of her word and that she will be bring some positive changes to the country.
I am not trying to convince anyone on voting for her, this is just my personal opinion. It would be nice to hear comments on other opinions. If you disagree with my opinion about Sarah Palin or, if you think like me, let us know. Express your opinion.
I am not trying to convince anyone on voting for her, this is just my personal opinion. It would be nice to hear comments on other opinions. If you disagree with my opinion about Sarah Palin or, if you think like me, let us know. Express your opinion.
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