• Category Archives Computers

  • Imagine a life with no computers……ahhhh……bliss…..

  • Raspberry Pi Zero

    Posted on by beno 2 Comments

    Are you sick of me yelling at the computer yet?
    Let me know if you are and I will see if I can change my tone….
    Ok, with that disclaimer out of the way, here we go…………..

    Who makes a computer these days and decides to not include any connectivity?
    I could understand it if it was a big computer, but things are just getting smaller and cheaper.
    The IoT market is booming. Connecting things (usually small and cheap) to the Internet is the next (current) wave of doing things.
    What tiny handful of functions could you do with a small computer that runs Linux, but has zero network options?
    What massive opportunity awaits a small computer that runs Linux and has Wifi or Bluetooth?

    If you have not been living under a rock, you would have heard about the Raspberry Pi computer.
    Its been out for a few years, it comes in three (four if you count their odd ‘rack’ mount) versions.
    To say it has been hugely popular is a massive understatement. They have sold millions of the things.
    Well, 3 days ago, they introduced a new version.
    They are calling it the Raspberry Pi Zero.
    Zero is for zero connectivity.
    Sure, it costs 5 bucks, that’s kinda cute and besides the point since you will not be able to buy it for that much (its been years since the first Pis were released and you still can not buy them for their released price due to their popularity), but it is going to cost a lot more, and take up a lot more space because of the adapters you need to buy and use to get it connected.
    So, 5 bucks for a computer that runs Linux, but that you can not connect to any network.
    It shocks me to the core. That a computer company would deliberately chose to make a computer that has zero connectivity from stock.
    All that experience, all that background, all that buying power, all the photos and blog posts of people putting Wifi dongles on your past computers to get them connected to the real world… All that and for your next computer you do not include an Ethernet port, you do not include Wifi and you do not include Bluethooth (low energy).

    I have never seen such a spectacular new computer fail as the Raspberry Pi foundation.
    They fought hard, they waged a war, the toiled long into the night, but at last, after months and months of hard work, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and launched the Raspberry Pi Zero.

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • Australia is the new USA?

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    What is going on down there?
    I leave town for 7.65 years and you lot lose the plot?
    Why am I yelling at my computer? (Again).

    http://www.cnet.com/news/australian-roads-ministers-stern-reminder-hoverboards-are-banned

    ….that’s the future that kids in Australia are facing after a local politician issued a sternly worded statement banning electric hoverboards, warning that they are unsafe and illegal to ride on public roads.

    One month out from the festive season, New South Wales Minister for Roads Duncan Gay admitted to being a “Christmas Grinch” but cautioned that parents should keep safety in mind when considering buy the battery-powered toys.

    To kick the Christmas cheer up a notch, the Minister warned that people found using a hoverboard on the road face a AU$637 fine ($463), or AU$319 ($232) for using it on a footpath.

    Clearly, people do not know how to respect other people, so the government has to step in and do it for us. Nice.

    There are so many angles working here that I am getting tired of all the zig zagging. Bottom line is this. Australia sure sounds a lot like the land of the apple pie. Sue happy and legislated to death…..

    It is a two wheel electric skateboard. Nothing more, nothing less.
    I’m suddenly feeling quite sad.


    Computers Life in the USA

  • 3D printed guns

    Posted on by beno Comment

    3D printers are on my radar, but not any time soon.
    In a nutshell, they are a ‘robot’ that allows you to print layer by layer a shape. The more complex printers will allow rather fine shapes, but even the cheap ones (under 300 bucks) can do some cool stuff.

    For the past little while, over here in The States, you have been able to hop online and pull down a file that you can feed into your printer and out pops a gun. It made a bit of splash when it hit the news, but soon died down once people saw they were pretty bad guns.

    Of course, Australia being Australia had to one up the war on geeks.

    http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/23/3d-printing-guns-new-south-wales/

    The Australian state of New South Wales has made it illegal to possess the blueprints necessary to make your own projectile weapons. Lawmakers have passed an amendment to the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 that makes it a crime to own information necessary to produce guns, like the Liberator. If a person is found to have “digital blueprints,” they could face a prison term of up to 14 years.

    So yeah, the USB stick in your pocket….?? Better hope that it does not have any plans on it that look even vaguely like a flare gun….


    Computers

  • Things attacking…..

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Back on the topic of IoT (sorta).

    http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/25/cctv-camera-botnet/

    Closed-circuit security cameras are supposed to make you safer, but some malware is turning them into weapons. Researchers at Incapsula have discovered code that turned about 900 Linux-based CCTV cameras into a botnet, which promptly bombarded an unnamed “large cloud service” that serves millions of people.

    In short, people had unsecured cameras on the Internet, which, surprise, got a tiny bit of extra code added to them. When that code was activated, the camera would either Ping, or poll a specific website.
    The sum of all those cameras adds up to a whole lot of extra pointless traffic for that web site and so people who try and visit the site get a slow or down experience.
    That is called a denial of service. People who need to use the site are denied.
    (It is probably another blog for another time, but you can buy these sorts of attacks if you are so inclined).

    Bottom line, I am not surprised to read about this sort of thing going on.
    A camera is a ‘Thing’, it is connected to the Internet (all though not always), unless it is secured (and hardened) it is in a dangerous place.
    We need to take control and think about just adding IoT into the mix just because we can.


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • 1 billion bucks

    Posted on by beno Comment

    The mind boggles. I like my gadgets, but wow, this takes it to a whole new level….

    Not sure if it is making it downunder yet, but Black Friday is the Boxing day equivalent. Crazy deals (you know, one tv cheap to suck people in and the rest at 5 bucks off) that people do crazy stuff to get (one lady last year took pepper spray to the store to keep other shoppers away from her desired deal).

    Well, of course, China could not be left out.
    They now have their version of the ‘big sale’… Take a guess at how much money one online retailer made on said sale….. Oh, wait, the answer to that is the title of the blog.. Ok, well, guess how long it took to make that amount of money.

    http://www.cnet.com/news/alibaba-just-made-us1-billion-in-8-minutes/#ftag=CAD590a51e

    Eight minutes. That was how long it took Alibaba to hit $1 billion in sales today on Single’s Day, China’s Black Friday equivalent.

    By midday, that amount had crossed US$9 billion, equalling Alibaba’s take for the whole day last year.

    Now, to be clear, Alibaba do not just sell gadgets, but everything. They are the Amazon (eBay) of that part of the world.
    But, that is still a lot of goods. A. Lot.

    I just find it interesting that there is that much money out there. How much of that billion dollars was spent on food or water?


    Computers