rudis dot net

Hey folks... The last day of the year begins with an early roundup of some interesting bits from around the internets:

• If you think you're safer using your credit card at a restaurant than over the Internet, you're very, very wrong. You need to read this one.
• How exactly does 14,800 pounds of ground beef go missing? (Brings new meaning to "Where's the beef?")
• Maybe the DHS should stop oppressing the average folks and take a look inward instead.

When NPR decides to delve into the murky waters of security and technology, professionals should probably take some notice:

• Marketplace reported (wait a bit for the audio associated with that blurb to be posted) on the increased dangers of identity theft predicted for 2008.
• NPR's Morning Edition also covered identify theft and gave a brief nod to Netscape Navigator's demise.
• At the peak, Amazon was selling 17 Wii's per second this Christmas. That's quite a bit of Wii.

It's a gorgeous day out here and the posts may be few and far between for the rest of the day. Mary & I will be taking some time alone at Monsoon tonight and I'll be sure to post some comments on the cuisine.

One last note is that EVE Online looks amazing on a 46" Sony Bravia LCD HDTV. Booted Windows XP on the MacBook Pro and hooked it up with a DVI-to-HDMI cable, piped the stereo out to the receiver and worked the controls with Apple's Bluetooth keyboard (old school) and a Logitech wireless mouse. The Trinity expansion with the enhanced graphics make it look like you're watching a movie. Great fun!

Happy new year everyone!

Sony has updated it's CONNECT Reader software to work with Vista - finally! The other surprise is that they've made it available for download by anyone who wants it. No longer do you have to buy a PRS-500 to have the privilege of using such a fine piece of digital craftsmanship.

It seems to be working well on Vista Business under Parallels on my OS X box. First thing the client did was download the latest version of the update software (never a good sign). I then quit the program and let Parallels take control of the "Sony Portable Reader System" USB device. The drivers and reader found each other sans incident, so I fired up the CONNECT software and it saw the reader and the inserted SD card (yay!). Book purchases went smoothly (Worlds of Deep Space Nine, if you must know). Transfers also went smoothly.

The CONNECT Store is as ugly, slow and annoying as ever, but at least everything works with Vista now. Unless they make significant changes, they really should steer clear of an OS X port. Crappy software and the Mac just don't mix well (look at Garmin's first attempt with their Training Center).