Carbonized Blog

Apparently there is a virus email going around which claims to be from UPS. It contains a zip file which contains an executable (.exe) claiming to be an invoice. I'm sorry but I feel you have to be a bit stupid to open any attachment from someone you don't know let alone run a file which claims to be an invoice but is in fact a program. Also haven't these people heard of anti virus software? I personally run Anti Vir which is free and one of the better anti virus programs out there.

Apparently in 2003 Bill Gates sent an internal email complaining that the userability of Windows was actually going backwards. He comments that it took to many steps to install Windows Movie Maker. You can read the email at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp.

Just to say that Mozilla released Firefox 3 today so go download your copy from mozilla.com.

OK so after failing to get my host to remove my fake login page RSA decided to try and bully me into removing it. I refuse but to save hassle I have redesigned the page as can be seen here. And here is the content of their email to me:

I have just read the news that two spammers who had been abusing MySpace to send out spam messages for various things from selling ringtones to porn sites failed to turn up in court and were fined $234,000,000 (about £119.5 million) in their absence! Read full story.

If anyone actually visited this site this morning you would of seen a notice saying my account had been suspended. This was because I made a script to demonstrate how realistic fake login pages can look and how easy they are to make. You can see the page in question here (page design changed. See more recent entry). As you can see it even says it's a fake login at the bottom. All the script does is display the details you have submitted. I suppose I should add a few more hints that it's a fake login. Thankfully I had informed a member of staff at my hosts about the script when I made it and he helped sort the mess out.

Ok for some installing Linux along side Windows and dual booting between them is easy to do. For most of us it's something we have never done before and so is beyond us. Anyway along comes Wubi that does all the hard work for you. Wubi is a downloader and installer for Ubuntu.

Basically you download Wubi and run it. Wui creates a virtual partition on the drive of your choice and you can even specify the size for the virtual partition. On running Wubi it will ask you what drive to put the virtual partition on, how much space to use for it, what language to use, which type of Ubuntu to install (Gnome, KDE, KDE 4 remix, or Xfce but I suggest Gnome for people new to Linux), and for a username and password. It then downloads the Ubuntu you have selected and installs it. Once installed you can reboot your computer and at start up you will get a screen asking if you want to boot into Windows or Ubuntu (if you do nothing it will automatically start Windows after 30 seconds). And that's it. No damage to your Windows installation, no loss of file and if you want to un-install it just boot inWindows and run Wubi again.

I've been using this for a coupe of weeks now and mostly find myself using Ubuntu. The Gnome version (which is Ubuntu, KDE version being Kubuntu and Xfce version being Xubuntu) comes with Firefox 3 (web browser), Open Office 2.4 (office suite like MS office), Evolution (Outlook like program with mail and calendar), GIMP (graphics editor), an audio/video player, loads of games, cd/dvd burner etc. It does not come with avi playback nor mp3 playback but when you go to play one of these files it will tell you it needs the codec then offer to install it.

I personally don't use the default programs and instead I have instaled Amarok for listening to music, VLC for watching films and Thunderbird for reading email. Software is easily installed by using the Synaptics package manager which lists all available software and you just tick what you want to install (or untick if you have it installed and want to remove it) and click apply. it's that easy.

Went to see Iron Man this weekend and was very impressed. Film was far better than I expected it to be. It is over two hours long but at no point does it feel like it. If you do go to see it you have to stay to see the bit after the credits. It's a doozy.

Ok not really but close. Someone saw a picture of the variable star V838 Monocerotis and noticed how much it looked like the Firefox logo. Have a look for yourself.

Just seen Cloverfield and wasn't that impressed. The hype promised a lot but the film delivered little. And even worse was the in your face product placement for a certain mobile phone manufacturer. During the party someone starts filming the speech on one of the manufacturers phones and holds it up in front of the camera. The camera then 'accidentally' zooms in on the phone when trying to zoom in on the speaker. Later on the main characters phone battery dies so he goes into a electronics store that's being looted and goes and grabs a battery off a display full of this manufacturer's accessories (do new batteries even come charged?). And then in the subway station there is a huge poster for this manufacturer on the wall and is nearly every shot. At one point a character is stood in front of it whilst giving a speech but enough to the side as to not obstruct the companies name. There is also another blatant product placement for an American drink (Mountain Dew) where there is a vending machine in the room they are in and it is in most shots.

It's a shame because this film promised a lot but then again most of it was via viral marketing.