Hunting Webhancer

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Webhancer is a web siteperformance analysis program that may be installed on your computer without your knowledge. I found webhancer installed on my system unbeknownst to me. As a consumer this incensed me as it was installed subversively and alters my windows network stack. I'm sure this doesn't improve performance either and appears to cause additional problems.

I initially went looking for background programs that might be causing network related problems I had observed. Every time I launched RealOne Player from Mozilla it would freeze for several minutes before playing the audio. Now that webhancer is removed it seems this problem is also gone. If I notice the problem again and Webhancer has not re-installed itself I will publish a retraction.

I'm not sure which programs are shipping with and installing Webhancer. Refer to Webhancer Spyware to detect and remove it.

Wireless Mesh Routing

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A while ago I mentioned that the only barrier I saw to Wi-Fi overtaking cellular usage was node switching, or rather the ability to stay on the network while moving between transmitters. John Markoff writes about mesh routing in this NY Times article. This is grass roots Internet at it's best. Done properly, it can reduce the digital divide for those who don't have access to broadband or who cannot afford it by current means due to their location.

The Day After

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The honking of celebratory horns went until at least 12AM outside my window. I'm sure the partying went even longer down on lower Yonge St., King St. and all across the country.

It's February 25, and it's 13 degrees celcius outside right now. Serendipity perhaps, or maybe all that celebration warmed up the country. I'm going for a walk to soak up all the smiling Canadian faces.

Several National Post articles were moving and humourus today. Canada's Moment of truth, A nation at a standstill, Shooting from the Lip, and my favourite for the day; Canada turns fear of failure into poise by Christie Blatchford.

I feel like today should be national holiday. Hey, fifty years to the day. Not a bad idea at all.

Canada Wins Gold!!!

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Fifty years to the day. Canada wins gold in men's olympic hockey beating the U.S.A. 5-3. Just for the record the goals were Paul Kariya (Chris Pronger, Mario Lemieux), Jarome Iginla (Joe Sakic, Simon Gagne), Joe Sakic (Ed Jovanovski, Rob Blake), Jarome Iginla (Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic), Joe Sakic (Jarome Iginla).

There are thousands of Canadians partying on the street tonight. Car horns are still going outside my window with Canadian flags flying proudly.

Sweden's Out!

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It's been a while since I've posted, but this is news! Belarus beat Sweden 4-3 in the quarter final in the last few minutes with a bizarre goal scored after Vladimir Kopat popped a shot from between the red and blue line off Tommy Salo's mask. The puck bounced over Salo's head and trickled into the goal. Belarus battled in the last two minutes to keep Sweden from evening it up and that was all she wrote. Sweden's out of the tournament and we wait for Canada to face off against Finland tonight.

Who actually wants 3G?

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Evan pointed out that 3G appears to be something that 3G proponents want and not consumers. "For what? Not video conferencing, but to watch stuff that his "creative people" would be creating. That's just what "consumers" want, right? To watch a movie on their 3" phone screen with its bitchin' sound system."

I can't even get a decent video conference going with NetMeeting through a NAT at either end without playing with various gateway settings at either end. I thought H.323 was supposed to make this stuff an easy to use standard? We still have a long way to go.

Evan made another good point that I've been pondering as well. By the time 3G actually does arrive, we may have enough 802.11 coverage to make it obsolete. The problem as I see it is that 802.11 doesn't operate like a cell. If I were to move from one transmitter to another the connection would have to be reset as my IP and routing information would all change. So 3G has some advantages still.

Macworld Keynote

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Apple does it again. Steve Job's Macworld 2002 Keynote shows off Apple's new suite of iTools and the new iMac. For the first time I perked up at an Apple computer and might seriously consider it for at least friends, and perhaps myself in the future. Rare. Apple has a great marketing machine. They make you really feel good about buying their products. Many of my associates scoff at Macs like I do, but the iMac is really geared for real people, doing real things. Something for people looking to improve on computing. Linux developers listening?

Most of us are Sheep

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Several bloggers have been referencing Microsoft's new Digital rights management operating system patent. This patent describe digital rights management baked into the operating system allowing only trusted apps to control media. This means that in future versions of Windows only "trusted apps" or applications certified by Microsoft can handle rights-managed data.

I really need to make a push towards using Linux in a desktop environment unless I'm going to follow the rest of the crowd and simply use whatever MS throws in front of me. I still use Windows as the following applications have me tethered to Windows; Photoshop, Illustrator, SoundForge. There are a few others but I can live without them. I hate having to make choices based on principal rather than technical merrit but hey, I don't always like to follow the crowd.

Dan Gillmour put it best recently. Most people are sheep, it turns out. They take what's put in front of them. Amen brother!

Linux is still not a viable alternative for the Windows consumer. Lots of work must be done before Linux is even remotely usable as Windows. That's an entire rant of it's own - stay tuned.