ndmckinney|net » internet

Firefox 4 (Beta 8) First Impressions

Nick — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:30:38 +0000

After a couple hours of playing with the latest Firefox on my Mac, I’ve come to a conclusion: Mozilla has Google on the brain. The browser is certainly quick, but I’m not sure I’m going back to it. Safari and Google have stolen my heart. The Good: Loads pages quickly; provides me a way to [...]

Microsoft Complies with European Comission for 2 Months

Nick — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:04:53 +0000

Longer than anyone thought, but still a poor showing nevertheless. [From Microsoft kills Windows 7E, puts IE back in upcoming OS - Network World]

FCC Inquires About Google Voice App Rejection

Nick — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:19:44 +0000

TechCrunch is reporting that the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to Apple, AT&T and Google regarding the rejection of Google Voice related apps from Apple’s app store. In the letters, the FCC is asking both Apple and AT&T about their levels of decision making in approving/rejecting apps. AT&T has maintained that it has no [...]

Pros and Cons of Asymmetric Cryptography

Nick — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:01:56 +0000

Quick disclaimer: I love cryptography. I don’t fully understand the math that goes into it, but I love it all the same. Something that has baffled me for quite some time is why we don’t see more cryptography in consumer computing. Passwords, simple authentication tokens, are ubiquitous, even on single-user Windows computers. Real encryption, on [...]

What Kills Old Technology?

Nick — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:07:11 +0000

When I was much, much younger, I was online. Every summer, I would spend a couple weeks with my grandparents. My uncle, a professor of computer science at a nearby college, secured for me a spare computer, a modem, and user account. A handshake later and I was connected to the network. A further authentication [...]

The Network Really is the Computer

Nick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:01:36 +0000

Sun Microsystems, one of the stalwarts of the computing industry, has a simple motto: “the network is the computer.” Yesterday, Google took that motto to an entirely new level with the announcement of it’s Chrome OS. Details on Chrome are sparse (which has not stopped technology writers from writing ad nauseum about all the features [...]

O Hai

Nick — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:59:55 +0000

I love that flickr is so friendly.

Google almost ready to acquire DoubleClick

Nick — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:25:30 +0000

According to a number of news sources, the FTC stated today that it will not oppose the proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google. The proposed deal, at US$ 3.1 billion deal would make Google the largest internet advertising company in the world. However, the European Commission has not yet ruled on whether or not Google’s [...]

Honest Journalism?

Nick — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:23:00 +0000

Either way, I'm curious whether or not major (and minor, for that matter) media publications should disclose when they make changes of any sort, no matter how innocent, after publication.

...My question is this: is it better to have a full disclosure policy (à la Boing Boing), a limited disclosure policy (the Reuters model), or to simply make changes and hope no one notices (the Slate way)?

Ecto 3 Alpha

Nick — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:03:22 +0000

I’ve just downloaded the alpha release of Adriaan Tijsseling’s ecto blogging software. It’s a revamped version of ecto2, although “ecto3 is not ecto2″. Among the new features, ecto3 includes a new rich-text editor, as well as support for a number of other blog APIs. That’s about all I have right now. I’m just posting to [...]

Transmit is the worst FTP product ever.

Nick — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:42:19 +0000

If you visit my site recently, you might notice the look has changed. This is because the FTP client, Transmit, has deleted all the content of my WordPress directory when I tried to update it today. My content stayed intact (it’s in a database elsewhere), but all my themes, plugins, and add-ons have been destroyed. [...]

What’s the Point of Blog Spam?

Nick — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 05:58:38 +0000

I’ve more or less declared victory in the war on blog spam. Using some nifty filters, I’ve been able to catch automated posts on my site and prevent them from being posted. Like email spam, I’m having a hard time figuring out what the point of it all is. I have two theories why people [...]

Why Does This Work?

Nick — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 04:22:03 +0000

The BBC is reporting that internet scams from Nigeria are costing the UK billions of pounds. How in the world is it possible that this still works? I’ve never even seen one of scam letters before. How exactly does all this work? “Dear Sir: I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But if [...]

‘Enemies of the internet’ named

Nick — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 13:41:31 +0000

The group Reporters Without Borders [Reporters sans frontières, or RSF] has published their annual list of countries that are ‘enemies of the internet’. RSF states that the countries on this list are openly hostile to free speech on the internet. The list of countries, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Belarus Burma China Cuba Egypt [...]

Draft Cleanup

Nick — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 06:55:25 +0000

This will be the 201st entry on my website since moving to my current hosting company. I’m rather proud of my achievement, since I honestly didn’t expect to write as much as I had. While 200 posts seems like a lot, there were many more entries that were never written. Most of the unwritten posts [...]

Why I like Slashdot better than Digg

Nick — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:49:36 +0000

There are many conduits by which information travels about the internet. Two of the largest sites on the internet are Slashdot and Digg. Both sites bring news and information about technology. Slashdot is moderated; Digg is not, opting to be run solely by its readership. For this reason alone, I will always prefer Slashdot to [...]

Like MacGyver, But for Food

Nick — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 22:46:39 +0000

If you’re like me, you don’t go to the grocery store very often. You’re usually left with a few odd ingredients. What to do? Consult Snacksby. If you’re hungry and are too lazy to make a trip to the grocery store (or your local Chinese restaurant), type into Snacksby’s search engine a list of whatever [...]

I miss the old Internet

Nick — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:47:36 +0000

There is quite a bit of talk about the “Web 2.0″ and the “next generation of internet services” floating around lately, especially among the popular media. All this talk has, for whatever reason, made me nostalgic for internet technology of yesteryear. Many of these old technologies were simple, effective, and certainly useful today. For example, [...]

The War on Content Spam

Nick — Wed, 31 May 2006 18:01:46 +0000

My site has been attracting a lot of content spam lately. Most of it has been caught by my filtering software, so, until recently, there has not been any real problem. Yesterday, I wrote about the issue of network neutrality. That post, it seemed, attracted a lot of attention. I received several comments, but something [...]

Network Neutrality

Nick — Tue, 30 May 2006 03:41:53 +0000

Perhaps the most impressive technology to evolve in the 20th century is the internet. The internet has evoked a number of great metaphors about being the great democracy, the only true free press, and so on. However, the internet is also a business, and once Al Gore finished “inventing” the internet, the money began to [...]