I think we first installed a PIX (no connection to PIXAR) firewall at the office in 1996. Oh, the memories of working with Classless Internet Domain Routing and Network Address Translation. Things were really happening fast!
Category: Tech
In One Ear, In the Other
With an apology to the hearing-impaired, headphones are required for this audio recording quiz.
I heard the effect in the recording before he pointed it out, but with the expectation there was a technical problem, I assumed a microphone was out of phase with the other mics. This is his follow-up entry.
Reeling Me In
Facebook wants me to watch their subscriber-submitted Reels. These examples are tame compared to others that have been appearing in my newsfeed.
Being an ‘Arlo and Janis’ fan must be the reason why Facebook’s AI is tempting me with scantily-clad young women. Not wanting to encourage the algorithm, I don’t watch them. The option to “See fewer posts like this” seems to have put more clothes on some of the girls.
Here’s one that YouTube recommends. Guitars and the straps holding them up immediately come to mind. I watched it because she’s left-handed. 😉
What hath TikTok wrought?
Rootkit Canal
The story of Sony’s notorious rootkit deployment, as told by Dave Plummer, the Microsoft developer whose code made the hack possible.
Credit for the deep digging to uproot the rootkit goes to Mark Russinovich, a founder of Winternals. Before becoming one of the voluntarily unemployed, I was very familiar with their Sysinternals Suite of utilities. Russinovich’s work was so outstanding that Microsoft bought Winternals and brought Mark on board.
Wave Bye-Bye
Here is every retail product that Bose is offering. The Wave music system IV is not among them, except for refurbished units.
https://www.bose.com/c/all-products
So there it is. Confirmation of the fading consumer interest in FM and CD.
Projecting into the Past
The least expensive video projection system with a laser light source is from Epson.
The most expensive digital projection systems with a laser light source are, of course, in movie theaters. I lost track of this link to a story that I meant to post ages ago. When the Covid pandemic hit, Sony decided to abandon the market, rather than pursue lasers as a light source.
https://www.digitalcinemareport.com/news/sony-stop-manufacturing-digital-cinema-projectors
Sony’s home projectors were also affected by the problem of UV light damaging imaging devices. The technology is called LCoS. It’s an LCD variant where light doesn’t pass through the panel, it’s reflected.
UV comes with the visible light from the UHP lamps found in every video projector before LED’s and lasers. When first reading about this problem I panicked, because my JVC projector uses LCoS. JVC issued a statement that their proprietary LCoS panels are not affected. Whew!
After ten years, my JVC DLA-HD750 is halfway through the lifespan of its third 2,000-hour UHP lamp, and I continue to be impressed with the image quality.