s anybody else familiar the popular TV comedy called “Third Rock from the Sun” (the third planet — namely Earth — in our solar system)? The producers might wish to rename it “Third Sun from the Rock“. Third Rock from the Sun was a favourite television show in my late teen years though it did not equate to some all-time favourites.

Returning to the main subject, the following snippets cover the astronomical story sufficiently well and were delivered by CNN:

Astronomers have detected a planet outside our solar system with not one, but three suns, a finding that challenges astronomers’ theories of planetary formation.

…

If you stood on the planet’s surface, you would see three suns in sky, although its orbit centers around the main yellow star among the trio. The larger of the other two suns would be orange and the smaller would be red…

uch a suggestion will be best addressed to everyone in possession of a single mail account. It is nothing beyond a trivial E-mail management tip. The problem in question: When an E-mail account gets checked frequently in order to detect important incoming messages, false alarms or recurring E-mail distractions lead to disturbance and interfere with persistent work.

This is where the Urgent E-mail Account becomes of great value. By creating a new account, which is designated solely for important mail, notifications about urgent messages can be raised within just minutes. If the urgent account resides on the same domain as the normal/casual mail account, a filter can easily be created. This filter can be based on the name of sender/s or rely on a special word like ‘urgent‘ embedded in the subject line. Whenever such a filter test passes for a given messages, the message should automatically be re-directed to the Urgent E-mail Account.

Using a mail checker program, E-mail accounts which contain important messages can also be checked without consuming much computer power. By setting up a vocal/musical alarm, important messages can be configured to wake up their recipient. This type of solution is valuable if, for example, server problems occur late at night. Computer systems can automatically generate an urgent E-mail message once catastrophic events get detected. Unlike human, they are unable to make a telephone call.

Separating boxes to discern important message from the mundane

Bill Gates arrested in his younger days (photo in public domain)

eople without hands-on experience with site management ought to know that Microsoft attempt to ‘re-invent’ the Web by introducing a set of Windows binaries and then requesting them from sites all across the open Web.

The consequence: errors get raised in every site that is not powered by Windows.

Such files include:

• /_vti_bin/owssvr.dll
• /MSOffice/cltreq.asp (Office)
• /_vti_pvt/service.pwd (Frontpage — grey area and an illegal password request)

On a roughly daily bases, my error logs will list these files. So, I have just re-directed requests for all such files to microsoft.com/eat_your_own_garbage

This shifts the errors over to Microsoft’s own domain and takes up their own bandwidth. If enough people take similar steps, the folks at microsoft.com will soon get the message, which will ‘bubble’ up their error log tables.

There are previous, contextually-related items on:

• MSNBot causing havoc to Linux servers and
• ways in which Internet Explorer breaks the Web

Fujitsu have introduced the bendable electronic paper. It has plenty of advantages over thin displays in existence:

• No electricity is required for continuous display
• Minimal power consumption when changing screen image
• High-level display performance
• Flexible film substrate

…electronic paper can be conveniently used in conjunction with mobile devices as an easy-to-read and portable display device.

…

Text or images from mobile phones or other mobile devices can be transferred wirelessly to larger displays for easy viewing.

Use in the home can offer more convenient digital-media devices that can be carried from room to room.

Overall, it is a very exciting innovation. On the downside, it makes the dream of a paperless office slip away.

IBM have officially brought to an end their ties with OS/2. They now recommend a migration to Linux and quote dates when ‘the plug will be pulled out’ on OS/2. The article shrewdly states that IBM are unlikely to recommend the same type of switch from Windows to Linux. They recently filed a lawsuit against Microsoft who later paid close to a billion dollars in Windows vouchers. Consequently, IBM kissed, made up and dropped their case. Does that remind anyone of Michael Jackson and bribery?

BIG BLUE has hammered the final nails into OS/2′s coffin. It said that all sales of OS/2 will end on the 23rd of December this year, and support for the pre-emptive multitasking operating system will end on the 31st December 2006.

ike many others, I keep every password stored in my Palm. Virtually any username, password and network address which I must remember will be located under one category or another in electronic form.

Quite a long time ago I discovered, much to my surprise, that others use the exact same methods as me for storing passwords. This was not the case since they were influenced by somebody else, but simply because it seemed like the right thing to do; it came naturally. Most recently, it was a technologically-oriented lady whom I noticed ended up storing her passwords in the exact same fashion as me. This begs the questions: does every Palm user adopt the same habits? And if so, was it self-taught?

No doubt there is a certain pattern — a certain adaptable method. Many start off by entering various scattered password into a single password-protected memo (the ‘piece of paper in the drawer’ equivalent). As experience develops, time takes its toll and scale becomes an issue. Passwords begin to migrate to the address book, possibly to be laid in an organic form like password under the field called ‘other‘ or ‘address‘ while the account name becomes just ‘name‘. In due time, even a single category in the address book does not suffice because of the ever-increasing number of accounts. Then, different categories for different passwords get created. This establishes layering, or a shallow hierarchy.

There is a huge advantage to this approach: when each and every record containing a password is marked ‘private‘, there is essentially one ‘master password’, much like a master key. The method rids you from the need to remember passwords. One password will unlock all others. It enables you to use a variety of different passwords without ever needing to memorise them.

Yet, as a final word of caution, records are not entirely safe on your computer (the PC-side). When you HotSync your data, this data is transfered and then stored unencrypted (in readable form) on your filesystem. Access to your hard-drive enabled access to your passwords, especially by a Palm-proficient intruder, perhaps an overly curious colleague. Having said that, the method fully protects your password in cases of PDA theft. I once came across all passwords of an MIT system administrator (while searching the Web for Tasks conversion tools) and informed him immediately so that he could empty corresponding Google cache. Needless to mention, he was frustrated and puzzled.

In summary, read the suggestions carefully and internalise what other people have learned from their mistakes. Be aware of the pitfalls and sensitivities of the method to intrusion. Lastly, never let your brain be consumed by a collection of crypic passwords. Remember just one master password.

Cited by: PalmAddict

Compression is often used unnecessarily. Two advantages can be gained by compressing files:

• Centralising a collection of files in one single file
• Reducing the overall volume of data

Tarring of files can handle the former task while the latter can have no positive effects (e.g. when compressing JPEG files that are already condensed). In some circumstances, the data being compressed is very light to begin with. Why compress it and lead to complications (indexing and searching, latency in opening files, re-ordering, etc.)? Why compress Web pages in Apache when there is still incomplete support by browsers? As regards databases, anybody whose textual content exceeds 10 MB is serious about Web development and thus will have plenty of server space to spare.

There are a few cases where use of compression can be justified. For example, genome sequencing benefits greatly from compression (DNA can be immensely big). On the contrary, text-only content, which excludes graphics and other gratuitous media, will often be small in terms of volume. Old log files on Web servers, as yet another example, barely ever get accessed (hence no latency when uncompressed) and are easily reduced in size (patterns that recur make it over 80% compressible). Lastly, backups of large data volumes (e.g. mirrors) might be worth the complications associated with compression. That is exactly when size becomes the major issue.