Linux and open source, in general.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Sunday 31 August 2008, 10:53 AM
Photosynth aftermath.
After playing with photosynth for a few days, I have decided it is something I can do without. The worst thing I found about it is the fact that it uses Active-X, and I just can't bring myself to activate this app on a permanent basis. It has been a major security hole since it's inception, and I can't understand MS still wanting it include it in their line up. I would rather use a flash slideshow that is not browser specific. I'll wait until someone develops a similar app for Linux. I would think CompizFusion should have something like this, in their 3D line.
Wednesday 27 August 2008, 4:07 PM
Photosynth
Yesterday I downloaded photosynth to check it out. Today I took 4 photos of a hot banana pepper plant, from 4 different angles, as they suggest you use at least 3 different angles. It would only show 2 of the photos, while the other 2 were shown as a regular slide show. I also discovered that I had to use IE to view the results, as Firefox 3 would keep looping back to the download page. Not quite sure if there is a plugin for FF to view this or not. You have to use Active-X, which I consider a security concern. Their demo was impressive, so I'm sure I might have not completed all the required steps, or did something wrong. This may appeal to photographers, but considering all the extra photos you have to take to make it work I would rather use a regular slide show program. I am going to continue playing with this for a few days and see what happens.
Sunday 10 August 2008, 9:45 AM
VISTA dead in the water.
It looks like the way vista is constructed, and the way Microsoft chose to protect it will kill it. The following link has the full story.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1324395,00.html
"By taking advantage of the way that browsers, specifically Internet Explorer, handle active scripting and .NET objects, the pair have been able to load essentially whatever content they want into a location of their choice on a user's machine." This is not a new flaw, this is something that can only be fixed by a full re-construction of the OS. I wonder if this will cause a mass migration away from Microsoft products, because obviously they didn't consider this when building vista. IE has always been the most insecure browser on planet earth, and now with this new information it will need to be rebuilt from the ground up. So, anyone using vista, and IE, happily roaming around thinking they are safe, because they have been told this is the most secure version of windows ever had better be thinking where they go from here. Computer manufacturers forced to preload vista might be thinking it's time to start offering alternatives. Be interesting to see how Microsoft reacts to this news.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1324395,00.html
"By taking advantage of the way that browsers, specifically Internet Explorer, handle active scripting and .NET objects, the pair have been able to load essentially whatever content they want into a location of their choice on a user's machine." This is not a new flaw, this is something that can only be fixed by a full re-construction of the OS. I wonder if this will cause a mass migration away from Microsoft products, because obviously they didn't consider this when building vista. IE has always been the most insecure browser on planet earth, and now with this new information it will need to be rebuilt from the ground up. So, anyone using vista, and IE, happily roaming around thinking they are safe, because they have been told this is the most secure version of windows ever had better be thinking where they go from here. Computer manufacturers forced to preload vista might be thinking it's time to start offering alternatives. Be interesting to see how Microsoft reacts to this news.
