POI: Show #30 - 05.20.2007

[Download Show #30 as MP3]

News

Seems pricey, but that is for movies released in theaters, that day
You will be able to watch a movie just released in theaters in your home
Downside is the $50 price tag, but it is a good start. Though in the article the president of Comcast said studios were willing to go as low as $30, which makes this a MUCH better deal than going to the movies.

Linux community crys "false"
Head of FOSS law department states, "many patents can be invalidated in court, while others can be invented around"
Microsoft and SCO have tried similar tactics before, but never wants to show where the offending code is
Linux community asks to be pointed at the offending code so that they can fix the legal issue.
Microsoft's law team has stated that they have no intention of filing suit.

Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks

Meebo Rooms Launched
Meebo's core product is a browser-based IM platform, allowing people to use multiple IM accounts on the one webpage. Meebo has 2 million registered users and gets about 1 million sessions and 100 million messages per day. According to the press release, meebo rooms "are places where people can chat and view media live with IM buddies, both inside meebo.com and across the Web on their own pages." Meebo has partnered with a number of content providers - including blip.tv, Capitol Music Group, CNET Networks, NBC Universal, and others. They are launching with pre-assembled meebo rooms from the 14 initial partners, with more to come. Techcrunch has more info on the features,

Right Click on Search Box (we've used digg.com for our example)
Click "Add a Keyword for this Search"
Type a name and a shortcut word
Once done you can type something like "digg Linux" into your location bar and it will search digg.com for Linux topics

Right click on bookmark
Click Properties
Type a keyword in the Keyword box
Now you can type that keyword into your location bar and it will take you to that bookmark

Penny Pinchers

Change 3 light bulbs that are on for more than 4 hours to compact fluorescent bulbs
Set your Water Heater temp to no higher than 120 degrees
Drive 10 miles less per week
Replace old TV with Energy Star TV
Unplug electronics when not using them
Insulate your water heater

Security & Privacy

Running as a non-administrative user is what gives Linux and Mac OSX some of its security
In Windows you run as an Administrative user, pretty much all the time. In Windows XP, the first account you type in, is an admin on the box and has access to the entire OS and it's registry. As well as the files on the hard drive.

Windows Vista kind of handles this with something called User Access Controls (UAC) but what about Windows XP Users?
A Microsoft Employee, Aaron Margosis, keeps a nice resource for running your computer as a non-administrative user.
Why Run as Non-Administrative User?

When running as administrator the programs your run have full access to your computer
An exploit can install all kinds of nasty stuff when it has admin privledges.

Anti-Virus programs like you to be running as admin
You are better off running as a non-admin WITHOUT anti-virus then you are with anti-virus as an admin

Gamer's Corner

We're still in rumor country on this one
But with the constant emergence of new game websites, this is not entirely impossible
Either a rebirth is in the magazine's future or it is on it's last legs
Nintendo has yet to comment on this

POI