Alexis Wilke's blog
Cell Phones now open to telemarketers!
Fri, 01/29/2010 - 12:57 — Alexis WilkeThat's it! The phone commissioners have finally decided that it's OK for telemarketers to call cell phones and try to sell you their products and services.
Personally, I do not think that, in itself, it is a bad thing... except that if I receive even just 1 call a day and have to spend 1 minute each time, I will be burning 30 minutes a month for nothing. (Okay, with 1,000 minutes a month, it wouldn't matter that much, but that's like text messaging... if you receive spam via your phone and you have to pay 20 cents for each spam email you receive, the bill goes up quickly ...
PostgreSQL and Drupal conflict
Sat, 11/28/2009 - 04:33 — Alexis WilkeWe have been running Drupal for some time now and we have noticed that it generates a very large amount of warnings in our log files.
The warning is in link with improperly formatted strings. PostgreSQL tries to follow the SQL specification to the letter and that means you cannot use the backslash character to escape special character sequences (such as \n for a newline character.)
I knew that in most cases the error was generated because of the function saving a full page or some other content in the cache. In that case, the system includes the characters: \012 and \015 (\n and \r.) That ...
The W3C has a new look for their website!
Sun, 10/18/2009 - 00:45 — Alexis WilkeIf you have not seen it yet, the W3C now has a new look.
They are using a Web 2.0 system with PHP running on their server along Apache version 2.x. In other words, they most certainly are running Linux as their server operating system.
And for those who do not know that yet, this is the consortium that takes care of making your browser work.
McAfee to acquire MX Logic, but...
Mon, 08/24/2009 - 22:09 — Alexis WilkeToday I read that McAfee is to acquire MX Logic (was http://mxlogic.net/).
I may have heard of MX Logic before, but the reason why I went to their website today is because I had multiple connections from their mail service to my mail system.
So I quickly checked out the MX Logic website to see what that company is about...
With proprietary technologies, a global security platform and a comprehensive suite of online solutions, MX Logic serves organizations worldwide to eliminate online threats and protect the integrity of their business communications.
They are selling ...
Space going green!
Sat, 08/01/2009 - 13:19 — Alexis WilkeToday, the only way to go in Space is to use rockets or fast planes (although the latter does not get you as far as needed to reach even the IST.) Either one of those uses a tremendous amount of quite poluting carburant.
In the future, however, we definitively need to find a way to build an elevator. The building of such a structure has not started though. At this time there are two main reasons why: (1) we think we do not have the technology, and (2) what we have thought about can break with the consequences of getting the debris all over Earth and that could be quite dangerous.
Now there ...
Your cell phone is hackable...
Thu, 07/30/2009 - 23:02 — Alexis WilkeThis is a quite interesting article which I thought I should share and keep a copy of!
Most of us, even if we can determine whether a piece of software (or hardware!) can be hacked, we just do not have the time to spend on testing each device we use to ensure that no hackers will be able to get it. We rely on the manufacturer to do that work for us.
This article shows that even though all manufacturers have protections, all are vulnerable! And that means your data is vulnerable on your cell phones... Hope this does not scare you too much!
Note by the way that those people who have plenty of ...
A new kind of memory!
Sun, 01/18/2009 - 13:59 — Alexis WilkeResearchers are always testing new methods to enhance computers. These days, as presented in the Physical Review Letters (Dec 29, 2008), people have been working on phonons. These are heat particules.
A new concept: Throwaway Software.
Wed, 10/01/2008 - 09:53 — Alexis Wilke
More and more, people are learning new software as they go. A few will stick to one software for a long time simply because it is easier, but changing is easy too, especially if the new system is easy to use. But how do you produce throwaway software? And is it worth the trouble? As we see things evolving, more and more, people want to use software anywhere they go. This means software that runs on the Internet in some ways. For instance, you can use Google Map anywhere you go, as long as you have a computer to access the Internet.
Can an iPod break your jaw?
Fri, 09/26/2008 - 23:52 — Alexis Wilke
Also I have an iPod, I won it (Yes. I did not buy it!) And I rather rarely listen to music in general anyway. In other words, I think I’m not at risk! However… Many people have their iPod on their ears while running outside. Nothing wrong with that until… lightning strikes. I’m not too sure why people would be running outside when there is a lightning storm, but the fact is that happens.
Hacking, Good or Bad?
Tue, 09/16/2008 - 12:06 — Alexis WilkeI already mentioned the American Government as being a target of many hackers.
You may also remember that in 1998, the Department of Defense was hacked by someone named Ehud Tenenbau. He was arrested at the time. He was still a teenager then.
Once back on the streets, he decided to wear a white hat and helped companies, many in Israel, to enhance their defenses. But that was only his day time job!
I guess that once you had a taste for a bad behavior, you just go on with it.
