What is Bitcoin? From the official site bitcoin.org: Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency. Peer-to-peer (P2P) means that there is no central authority to issue new money or keep track of transactions. Instead, these tasks are managed collectively by the nodes of the network. Advantages: Bitcoins can be sent easily through the Internet, without having to trust … [Read more...]
Archives for 2011
Kingston Warns Certain Solid State Drives Need Firmware Update Or May Face Drive Failure
Kingston is warning customers of some of its Solid State Drives that a technical issue has been discovered that could lead to the drive failing in a small percentage of cases. To address the issue, Kingston recommends all customers of these hard drives upgrade the drive's firmware. The firmware correction is to correct the ssd hanging in the BIOS and boot failure. From … [Read more...]
CAPTCHAs Become Ads, Block Spam, Make Site Owners Money, Infuriate Site Visitors
CAPTCHAs are those squiggly words or letters that you have to enter on most registration forms. They allow a website to tell if you're human or a bot wanting to spam the system. Unfortunately, bots keep getting smarter and to keep up with them, it seems CAPTCHAs have become more difficult for a human to answer. Another trend seems to be that every square inch of real estate … [Read more...]
Data Execution Prevention Keeps Stopping The Print Spooler
Starting off the work week with an odd error is always a guarantee of fun times. Things like the Print Spooler should just work and usually happily will unless something gets in the way. Today's error involved Windows XP's Data Execution Prevention, or DEP, stopping the Print Spooler service from running any time it started up. … [Read more...]
Intelligence Agencies Eye Google Trends As A New Source For Insights
Last Thanksgiving, I observed that Google Trends was showing what would be some of the most common dishes served at the holiday's meals. Yesterday, NPR reported that U.S. intelligence agencies might be turning to Google Trends as another source of intel for emerging trends that their traditional sources might not catch. With a bit more analysis than my Thanksgiving observation, … [Read more...]