Koozie Notes

BBEdit 8.0

BareBones releases BBEdit 8.0 with the requirement that your are running Mac OS X 10.3.5 or later. Before I drop $50 for the upgrade, I'll wait and see what others have to say on the new version.

-Chris

12" Powerbook Survives Fire

(via Gizmodo) Check out these pictures of a sizzled 12" powerbook that managed to survive a fire.

-Chris

Software Freedom Day

Looks like a local LUG will be participating in Software Freedom Day in Austin.

On August 28, 2004, we will celebrate the first annual Software Freedom Day. On that day, we will make the world aware of the virtues of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and encourage its widespread use. We will set up stations in public places to give away informational fliers and CDs with selected FOSS, including TheOpenCD and a Linux Live CD.

-Chris

May I have your E-JohnHancock?

Sean Doherty writes about e-signatures in his piece, "Making E-Signatures Count."

But even with E-SIGN and e-signature technology, organizations aren't jumping on line with electronic contracts. The concern is that electronic transactions and contracts won't stand up in court

The only businesses I know of using e-signatures are "brick and mortar" retailers. Can't wait until I can e-sign something as easily as I sign a piece of paper.
-Chris

Update 28 AUG 2004
Yesterday, I read a story about McDonalds will accept credit cards without taking signatures. Why, because a single transaction takes around 10 seconds to complete.

Need to Dump your Monitor?

Until September 6th, Office Depot will take your old computer and monitor.

Oral Arguments in Grokster vs MGM

I just finished listening to a 68 minute MP3 of the oral arguments in the Grokster vs MGM lawsuit on the EFF site. If you want to get a feel for the trial, please listen.
PJ covers the event on Groklaw.

-Chris

Secure Digital Photos

While reading a review on Canon's new digital camera, the EOS 20D, I noticed that the camera supports a verification kit for proving the authenticity of digital photos.

Support for DVK-E2 data verification kit
The EOS 20D becomes an option for law enforcement and any other industry which requires verification of image authenticity. The camera can now embed a unique encrypted signature into each image which enables them to be later verified using the DVK-E2 kit for authenticity.

I googled on the "DVK-E2" and found a press release back in Jan 2004 which describes some applications for the kit.

With the capacity to detect the slightest (single bit) discrepancy, the DVK-E2 kit is expected to be popular amongst law enforcement, insurance, news and other agencies that have a need to verify the legitimacy of digital images.

It would be interesting to find out if any digital photographs were submitted as evidence in a trial.

-Chris

WordPress Review

Linux Journal published an article on setting up WordPress, a blogging tool similar to MovableType.

Open-source applications often are criticized for their lack of a friendly user interface. This is largely because open-source programmers are writing the software for themselves and their colleagues, which means that anything other than core functionality is cast aside.
The authors of WordPress, to their credit, have spent a great deal of time on the user interface, trying to ensure that it is straightforward and unsurprising for nontechnical users.

Agreed. WordPress has a beautiful user interface for an open source project.

-Chris

Free Computer Books

The URL pretty much sums it up.
www.TechBooksforFree.com

-Chris

FUD Laughter

I would love to watch some video on this press release.

So when the announcement was made at a press conference in the UK that Newham, a borough of London, had just decided not to go open source after all and instead to sign on with Microsoft because their software was cheaper than open source and more secure, the room spontaneously burst out laughing. (via GrokLaw)

-Chris