Not my usual sort of post. Reading the following feature article on MakeUseOf I quickly decided that I simply HAD to point you all towards it for your careful consideration.
Without further comment:
Unfortunate Truths about Child Pornography and the Internet
Before I joined IBM Australia in 1970, I spent most of the 1960s teaching Chemistry, General Science and Mathematics to older high school students.
A couple of times at the start of each year I would take classes of junior grade kids newly arrived from primary school. I always admired their freshness, openness and willingness to learn – that is, before years of high school regimentation wore off some of that freshness and keenness.
After more than forty years in the IT industry, I am attempting to undertake a broad-brush relearning of all things scientific, on various aspects of physics, chemistry, life sciences, cosmology, climate science and other things that have developed so much over those four decades and still intrigue me.
This includes wondering about how high school science teachers go about things these days. So I was extremely interested in a segment earlier this evening in the 7.30 program on ABC Australian television.
Physics and chemistry are the bane of many a high school student, but what if we're pitching the ideas to them too late? Can eight-year-olds absorb atomic theory? One teacher has asked that question in a bold experiment at a Brisbane primary school. And he says it shows young minds are much more advanced than we think.
Read the transcript and watch the recording here… Weird science reveals more advanced students … I think you’ll be surprised, or even a little amazed.
CDBurnerXP is free and very good software for burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks, but unfortunately the default installer installs OpenCandy which troubles some people.
Cranial Soup, for example, states:
They claim to be doing something noble, but the only thing sweet about OpenCandy is the sales pitch to naive developers that might just fall for it, tricking them into thinking it is somehow different than the typical common adware/spyware. … A lot of developers do seem to be biting the bait, but no matter how you slice it, it's still adware/spyware, and to me it stinks worse than the old fashioned kind.
The WinSCP program ( a free SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Windows) gives its reasons for including OpenCandy:
WinSCP uses OpenCandy advertising module in its sponsored installation package. By using this version of the installer you support WinSCP development. Thanks you! [sic] If you do not want to support WinSCP development in this way, you can always use the other ad-free installation package.
The OpenCandy module shows at maximum one ad and only during the installation. WinSCP application itself does not contain OpenCandy and does not show any ads.
OpenCandy is advertising application. It is similar to Google AdSense, except it displays advertisements in installation program instead on a website. These advertisements promote another software packages. The advertisements are selected by providers of software being installed (in case of WinSCP it means WinSCP developers). When user installing a software (WinSCP) chooses to install promoted package, revenue is generated and shared between OpenCandy and software providers (WinSCP developers).
The Wikipedia article on OpenCandy provides a partial list of software that uses OpenCandy, and states:
OpenCandy has attracted criticism because of privacy concerns. Past versions of OpenCandy were considered adware by Microsoft Security Essentials as they "may send user-specific information ... without obtaining adequate user consent". OpenCandy have claimed that this is because another company used OpenCandy without the formal warning in their EULA.
Well, as a software developer and vendor I can understand the supposed benefits of OpenCandy, but I wouldn’t use it myself and am not so happy about Windows installers that use it.
I’ve been using CDBurnerXP for a number of years, but only today came across its somewhat obscure option to avoid using OpenCandy. (Perhaps I’ve missed this option because it was only recently added, does anybody know when it appeared?)
Image (A) shows the regular CDBurnerXP download page, where I’ve placed a bubble to show the relevant link that’s very easy to overlook:
Clicking on the link “More download options” leads to an alternative download page, as shown in image (B), with the trimmed-down installer links circled:
WinSCP has a similar installer that omits OpenCandy.
I wonder how many other programs offer a bypass like this. While OpenCandy is fairly benign, it can be an unwanted intrusion on your Windows system, so bypassing it should be a universal option.
A friend of mine just emailed me the following amazing photos:
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What inspiring affection by the huge beast, truly an uplifting tale coming to us over the Internet tubes for our enlightenment and edification.
Now I know that Great Whites are capable of being much more than just primitive, mean chomping machines, so I can be far more unconcerned about dark shapes when I’m out surfing along Victoria’s coast.
The trouble is… Well, see for yourself: Link1 and Link2 and more going back to year 2007/2008 -- why do these persist, don’t people have anything better to do with their time?
I just came across the following recommendation for ALL users of Facebook:
For the reasoning behind it, see Facebook debunks viral hoax that it owns users' content
I wonder how many Facebook users have even considered this aspect. Would they have the same concerns. Do you (and why)?
Over at one of my other blogs, Basic Questions, I’ve managed to get my grey matter into gear again, see:
The Eudora mail client is still treasured by some people, myself included, even though it was decommitted by Qualcomm some years ago. It still does a very good job, and I don’t want to move on to some other mail client and lose functionality that I’ve come to depend on (not to forget nearly 20 years’ worth of mail logs).
I’ve just upgraded to a new desktop PC, and had to re-install Eudora. Back came a familiar problem: it kept freezing when I clicked the send button on some messages.
Luckily I’ve been through it all before, and knew the solution, no sweat. Here it is for you other Eudora users who might still encounter this problem – I know that I’m not the only one, we dinosaurs are not yet extinct!
SYMPTOM:
Eudora locks up (hangs, freezes) when the Send button is clicked.
CAUSES AND SOLUTION:
Most likely due to one or more of the three spell-checking files have read-only attribute set, meaning that they cannot be updated when any spelling is corrected, even a single word and even if the only spelling error is in the Subject line.
The files are uchange.tlx, uignore.tlx and usuggest.tlx
Selecting the option Warn me when sending/queuing message with misspellings
is what triggers the lock-ups (hangs, freezes):
Be sure to switch off this outgoing messages option.
Time flies – tempus fugit. Should I do it? When should I do it? Why not put it off until tomorrow?
Yes, that will be fine. Mañana Is Soon Enough for Me …
It was after a fierce struggle with myself that I wrote this blog post today -- or at all.
What I actually meant to eventually get around to recommending is that you do not delay in reading the following New Yorker book review:
“The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for the great psychic toll the habit takes on people. This is the perplexing thing about procrastination: although it seems to involve avoiding unpleasant tasks, indulging in it generally doesn’t make people happy.”
Go on, learn more about yourself, read this New Yorker article NOW.
I am extremely happy to announce that leading Spanish IBM partner Domino Plus has been appointed European value-added reseller and regional support point for NotesTracker. See the blog of Alejandro Ahumada here.
For the last few months I’ve been working with Dominique Perarnaud from Domino Plus who is implementing NotesTracker for a client in Spain.
He is delighted to have been given the opportunity to give a lunchtime presentation this Friday for ESLUG, the Spanish Lotus User Group.
Dominique plans to introduce NotesTracker and then share his leading-edge experiences using NotesTracker with XPages. Below are the meeting details…
Evento de ESLUG 2012
que celebraremos el dia 20 de Septiembre12:00 - 13:00
“Seguridad de aplicaciones con Notestracker”
IBM Forum,
calle Corazón de María, 44 esquina con Santa Hortensia,
Madrid
Ah, nostalgia. The following page has been on my website for years, and nobody has ever commented, I wonder why!
I’m still driving that trusty and comfortable Mitsubishi, got it when I first started working with Notes Release 3 way back in 1993. … Have no real desire to change, it still does a great job, and newer models don’t offer all that much more (the 80/20 rule at work again).
Here at
Asia/Pacific Computer Services
We Drive NOTES Further!
Beat that!
