Just for Kicks

Ars Technica reports that Google wants DNS queries to show the IP addresses of the clients requesting the domains. When Google first revealed that it was providing free DNS servers for anyone who wants to use it, I was already suspicious. They can already track most of your movements through the Internet even when we’re not at Google. With the DNS service provided free of charge, they know even more about us.

With this latest request, the other shoe drops. With information like that, Google can know not only where those who are using their DNS service is going, but also where those who are using other DNS services are going.

Ars Technica just posted an article on the attempt to find the vulnerability that allowed the hacking attempts against Google with Verisign iDefense saying it’s due to an Adobe PDF file, while Adobe denying it and saying it’s due to Internet Explorer.

But let’s face it. Both of them are known vectors for exploits, so it isn’t much of a surprise to anyone that either of them are identified as the culprit. It’s not just the ActiveX feature in IE or the JavaScript executing feature in Adobe Reader that everyone likes to blame. The fact that both are so widely used makes them a huge target and incentive for miscreants to look for holes to exploit. I prefer to use little-known web browsers like Opera for that reason. And although I still use the Adobe Reader, I’m now considering moving to one of the other alternative free PDF readers around. Especially since the Adobe Reader seems to be such a hog on the system.

TechCrunch has a cynical take on Google’s pullout from China, which I find myself agreeing with. Namely, Sarah Lacy says that Google was losing business in China to Baidu anyway, and at the time it made the announcement, it has already decided to pull out. The announcement was a sort of “scorched earth move”, with a view of “buying Google some goodwill in the rest of the world”.

Many have written about Google’s hypocrisy in the past, its business decisions disguised as “do no evil” or some such thing. I think Aaron Wall has a number of posts on that, but he’s not the only one. Ultimately, I think, everyone has to remember that Google is a business. It’s in the game to make a profit. If it has to bend over backwards or compromise to do it, it will do so, as it did in China in the past. I don’t know why people expect something different from Google, as though it is supposed to behave like the Pope or something. Come on, this kind of double-speak is very common from businesses. So, yes, I agree with Sarah Lacy. But I don’t see why it should be surprising to so many people that Google does this sort of thing. Don’t ascribe sainthood to a business organization.

Although nowadays, because of my work, I mostly use Windows, and barely touch any alternative OS, I downloaded a few Linux distros early this month to play with. I got the latest Ubuntu 9.10 and OpenSUSE 11.2.

Ubuntu of course came with a GNOME desktop, and I used the OpenSUSE KDE desktop version. I know that GNOME has a lot of fans, but no matter how I try to like it, I somehow seem to take to the KDE desktop better. And it’s not just with this latest trial that I found this. I have always tried to like GNOME, but have somehow always found myself more comfortable with KDE, and gravitating to it in the end.

I suppose that now with Qt’s GPL license, the old arguments against KDE are probably moot. But I still don’t understand why I find it so hard to move to GNOME. Not that anyone is forcing me, mind you. I just find it curious why some people can like one desktop and others can’t get used to it. Maybe I have a KDE gene.

For a new OS like Windows 7, the default theme that loads after Windows 7 is set up is really pathetic. Compare it with the Vista and you’ll see what I mean. For all its shortcomings, at least Vista’s taskbar and background looked decent. Even the task bar in 7 looks horrible: the color is washed out, and somehow it just doesn’t have the 3D appearance of the Vista and XP’s task bars.

Of course you can change the default theme. I know that. But seriously, Microsoft, can’t you do better than that for a default theme? Even a clean blue background looks better than the wallpaper it’s shipped with. And the task bar color. Yucks.

The other themes that ship with Windows 7 are okay. Even the classic theme is nice.

I don’t get it. Why are more and more laptop manufacturers going for a 1366×768 screen? Why is it that so many new LCD screens created nowadays have fairly acceptable horizontal resolutions but such sucky vertical resolutions?

Back in the old days, we had a vertical resolutions like 480, from the 640×480 screens, then it progressed to 600, from 800×600, then 768, from the 1024×768 screens. Then came the very high resolution LCDs, which on small laptops were virtually impossible to read without adjusting the font size: 1680×1050 and 1920×1200. At least on those screens, the vertical resolution is decent. Unfortunately, you had to squint to read anything.

But why are we regressing again? Lately, I see a spate of 1366×768 screens in new models of laptops. Sure, words are more legible than on those 1680×1050 monitors. But why can’t we have more squarish laptops with screens like 1366×1024 or something like that? I want my vertical resolution back.

Wired and Techdirt are reporting that Metallica’s recent release of some music downloads have met with much hostile reactions from their readers. This is in stark contrast with the free downloads from Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, where commenters lavished praise and gratitute.

Comcast’s throttling of its customer’s bandwidth whenever they fire up a P2P program is now fairly well known. Well, they have been taken to court by one of their customers. It’s about time. I hope more customers follow suit.

Besides, why go with Comcast. They are many other ISPs around.