Stupid business ideas

If you are deaf and watch TV, you either have subtitles switch on or the TV program has sign language cover. Now this is normal in today's equal opportunities society. But this is new to my knowledge. The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office has published a British Sign Language video translation of the passport and visa page. Why? OK, I do not know if British sign language is the same sign language used in other countries (basically remove deaf peoples language barrier) but for British citizens this service is useless. I would understand a audio version for blind people. Anyway, I also had a look on the providing company's website and they offer sign language books. Why? Do they really think that these people can't read?

FCO website
SignStream

J

KDE goes cross-platform with Windows, Mac OS X support

The open-source KDE desktop environment is making the jump across platforms with broad support for Windows and Mac OS X. The core KDE desktop programs, the KOffice suite, and the Amarok music player are actively being ported.

well, I'm speechless ... finally I can play Kmahjongg now on my parents Microsoft Windows driven PC.

Link

J

Wireless USB Adapter, Linux and Windows

Here's a post from my personal blog. All the other posts there are in Estonian so I decided to copy it here also.

OK, I have to admit that I'm not a great windows user. Well, I don't use it at all. Anyway, I had to buy a new Wireless USB Adapter and the first thing I do is read the instructions. According to them, I have to go through certain procedures to get this little piece of magic to work under windows:
1. Insert installation CD
2. Choose a Language
3. Select a product
4. Agree software licence
5. Connect the adapter when being instructed to do so
6. Wait for confirmation of install

On linux:
1. Plug the damn thing into the USB socket and start work! Easy!

I'm still wondering why so many IT companies promote MS software ...

And to this theme a little humor about Windows CeMeNT. Enjoy!

J

New design

Well, got bored so I made my personal blogs design to blogger compatible xml and updated the design. Enjoy

J

Wednesday morning pleasures

Finding out, that the no mails have been received since last night and the /var mount is full is a awful thing. Anyway, these days the amount of spam received is huge. Over night we received 10 000 spam mails. Nice. Spamassassin has now something to do for today (finally). It will be sent to anti-spam school :)

J

Doing big things and saving a lot of money

Yes, this topic has been discussed over and over and over again and it has been proven that with small money, brilliant minds and a good idea you will achieve a lot. Examples of becoming big are out there, just read Google's success story. Anyway, reading other blogs of interest I found this:



A few minds can achieve a lot!

J

OpenID and the future

OpenID is a brilliant idea. Google tried it with their own login system but I'm fairly sure even them will go over to OpenID sometime in the future. The reason I'm writing about this is simple. I'm going to try it out. I certainly am going to try the method out with our new (still secret) service. All kind of identifications should be using this method (save time, energy, hassle).

The Register even reports that Yahoo! is going to use OpenID and so will Blogger. Oh well, good luck anyway.

Another interesting thing about logins and authentication came to mind with an ID Card. Yes, I do have one so I've already changed my computers main login system (only ID Card based on graphical systems, SSH allows username and passwords) and done some digital signing on-line and stuff. I only wonder if I can use it to login to Google or any other service one day. Time will tell.

J

PS! Future remark: program the ID Card authentication add-on for OpenID

Update!! Ok, the Estonian ID Card or eID is already linked to OpenId, nice!

SSH and firewalls

Today's dilemma was caused by SSH and my firewall settings. As I use a shared connection, I do not have any access to the router and firewall settings. But still, I need to connect to my home LAN by using SSH and our firewall does not allow incoming SSH connections but allows outgoing ones.

There might be a few methods to solve this, but I've been using mainly reverse tunnels. Warning! This use of SSH may impose a security risk to the site in question, or be a security policy violation!

As usual, I will go the easy way and just point to the answer: HowTo