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Category Archives: IT

Web surfing privacy and being multilingual

In many cases, it’s easy to track your browsing – thanks to JavaScript which is by default executed in most browsers. For example, any site can figure out did you visit a particular another site or not. Like, find out which social networks you hang in. So far, it was mostly about showing more targeted [...]

HP photosmart c8180: perfect Linux support

Short summary of this post: HP Photosmart C8180 all-in-one printer works perfectly with Linux right out of the box.

Ovi Maps from Nokia: purely ashaming

Nokia has released own online maps, “maps.ovi.com”. I have tried this, and found them to be so much inferior to the competitors that I even feel ashamed for its home country (which is now my home country as well). I think in this area Google Maps set the reference, so I’ve done a small comparison [...]

Being web-cracked: experience and advice

Has your web site ever been “infected”?
This happened to me today, first time in my life. Hello from go00ogle.net. Below are technical details on what exactly happened, why I did not suffer any damage, and what I recommend to do in order to reduce your own susceptibility. The article is written for a non-technical reader.

Donald Knuth to European Patent Office: algorithms not to be patentable

Article at Groklaw.
My random pick:
“If Europe leads the way in this [allowing algorithms to be patented], I expect many Americans would want to emigrate so that they could continue to innovate in peace.”

Looking for a small, silent Linux computer

I want to buy a silent Linux desktop computer. No need to be any “high-end” otherwise.
This turned out to be a nontrivial task. After hours of browsing and listening to advices (thanks to my friends who already gave some!), I see the following options:

Wolfram Alpha: computation for everyone, for free

Wolfram Research, probably most known for their Mathematica calculation product, has launched an online service which makes various calculations and visualizations for free, and with just a web browser:
http://wolframalpha.com
This project makes me really respect Wolfram. I spent quite some time browsing the examples, almost exclusively from the “mathematics” part, picking like a shy visitor at [...]

(La)TeX, 10 years later

10 and more years back, when I studied mathematics, I was an active user and promoter of the (La)TeX typesetting system. Since then, I almost did not use it, but kept the warmest memories of this creation “by mathematicians, for mathematicians”. Yesterday… I can’t say I changed my mind, but I’m not so sure [...]

Software update for Nokia phones

Nokia gives an option to update the phone’s software, at least, for the more expensive models. I do not know, and would like to know, how other mobile phone vendors score in this area. Below is my rant about Nokia way of doing it. The writing is in negative tone, because things are noticed [...]

Get rid of junk on your desktop!

What a vandalism is this? Turning a keyboard into two pieces of junk?
No, it’s just the opposite – Bringing the Order, and Getting Rid of Junk!
I never use the “numeric keypad” on the right side. And it takes valuable space from my right hand. So what’s the problem if I got the hacksaw? Read on [...]

Posting from a mobile phone

It may be fun to post to the blog from a mobile phone. Doing so via the default web interface is certainly not the most convenient way (lot of extra traffic). Wordpress has blog by email solution, which is OK from traffic viewpoint, but I was scared by instructions – involving setup of a “secret [...]

Creating ride routes with Google maps

Use case: I want to draw a bike route on a map, for own joy or for sharing with my cycling friends. Google maps are cool, and free. As they are, they are not perfect for this task… but you can make them perfect with a tweak.

Nokia E90 camera image sample, or “The bullshit of megapixels”

The camera of Nokia E90 communicator is “3.2 megapixel”. Here is a cut of an image, made with this camera at best light conditions possible (even sunshine, not too bright). Close your eyes, photographers: you may get sick.

Such quality is not just ashaming; I’m now happy that I’m not working at Nokia any more [...]

Gnome has an idea about screen parameters different from Xorg.conf

I rebooted my home computer after a long uptime and suddenly the screen is terribly flickering. Reason? “I did not do anything” I installed software updates, added and removed users, but never mangled with the screen, as it was already tuned once and forever.
My Xorg.conf file has only one mode line, the one [...]

Example of bullshit

Last years, I was not much exposed to bullshit at work. In fact, almost not at all. Now I received an email with a brilliant example of the subject. A person has an email signature, which ends like this:

[MyCompany] is one of the global leading suppliers of Information Logistics
Solutions and Product Information. Our customers are [...]

Content Management System: To be or not to be?

Do I want a Content Management System (CMS) for my web site?

My web site is small.
It is not dynamic or interactive (and that’s how I want it to be at this moment. I do not want “dynamic spoon” or “interactive pants”).
It is authored only by me, no cooperation expected in the future neither.

So I probably [...]

Nokia E90: first frustrations!

After publishing first-minute positive impressions about Nokia E90 communicator, first negative ones have not been waiting for long.
Naturally, when changing from one device to another, a user wants to move data from the old one. Mine “old” was Nokia 9500 communicator. Note, it is the natural predecessor model of the same manufacturer. Phones have “data [...]

Nokia E90 communicator

Got a new device, the 2007 Nokia communicator edition, E90:

It is smaller than the previous 9500 communicator (in fact every new Nokia communicator model was smaller than the predecessor).
It has, in addition to what you’d expect from any such device, a built-in GPS receiver.
It is nice for touch. It has very sharp screen – both [...]

Compiling ipsec-tools-0.7 in RedHat EL 4

Stock ipsec-tools v0.7 does not build in RedHat EL 4:

Making all in racoon
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/octeon/src/ipsec-tools-0.7/src/racoon’
if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I../.. -I./../libipsec -D_GNU_SOURCE -include ./src/include-glibc/glibc-bugs.h -I./src/include-glibc -I./src/include-glibc -I./../../src/racoon/missing -D_GNU_SOURCE -include ../../src/include-glibc/glibc-bugs.h -I../../src/include-glibc -I../../src/include-glibc -DSYSCONFDIR=\”/usr/local/etc\” -DADMINPORTDIR=\”/usr/local/var/racoon\” -g -O2 -Wall -Werror -Wno-unused -MT isakmp.o -MD -MP -MF “.deps/isakmp.Tpo” -c -o isakmp.o isakmp.c; \
then [...]

Saunalahti, the Finnish ISP

I was a customer of saunalahti internet provider. Happily connected to their machines via SSH and maintained my rudimentary web pages.
Suddenly, the machine unix.saunalahti.fi disappeared. Soon it disappeared even from the nameserver. I discovered it after maybe a couple of months not accessing it.
Calling customer support. After usual 15 min. waiting in the queue:
(I) The [...]