Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

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The Cost of Email Interruption: "The time it takes the average employee to recover from an email interrupt and to return to their work at the same work rate at which they left it, is on average 64 seconds." (PDF file)

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It worked - writing without distractions: "Looking back at a post from a few days ago about writing and how I planned to minimise distractions - it worked. I edited 4000 words and wrote 2000 more." [DonnaM]

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Murphy got me: "Why is it that on the day that I am running behind only one email message gets lost in the email ether - the one that included hours of work - and I have to drive all the way home (45 mins each way) to get it..." [DonnaM]

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Presentations from the Linux Summit 2003 in Finland: "Selected presentations from the Linux Summit 2003 can be downloaded from this page. Some material from the Linux training courses is also available."

An e-mail worm on the loose in Finland -- Comment()
I have received today a couple of dozen e-mail messages containing the following text:

See the attached file for details

There seems to be a .pif file included in some of the messages:

An attachment named 'movie0045.pif' was converted to 'possibly_dangerous_file_attachment' as it constituted a security hazard.

A colleague received over 400 messages in a short period of time.

Update: Apparently the e-mail messages are due to Sobig.F worm. The messages should be deleted at once if received.

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OK, Apple -- You Win: "Two days later, and I'm head over heels -- I've asked the G4 to move in for good. I converted my iPod from Windows to Mac (it's easy folks -- just plug the Windows iPod into your Mac and run "Restore"), dove into iTunes, configured Samba to share the Mac filesystem to my wife's PC, and made the G4 and OS X the center of my household computing universe." (InfoWorld via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

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The GPL will win, claims law prof.: "Moglen took issue with our view that the GPL was upheld by a social contract. Nonsense, he says: the GPL has been carefully crafted to maximise the opportunities copyright holders enjoy under the Berne Convention." [The Register]

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Camera phone sales set to rocket: "More people than ever will want a mobile phone with attractive features like cameras for their Christmas present." [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

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Phoning in Photos for Posterity: "Realizing he was living a historic moment, Salinas took out his camera phone, snapped photos of people walking home and uploaded the pictures to a website hosted by textamerica. While most people, including Salinas, could not make cell phone calls that afternoon, they found that Web applications, which operate on different channels on the cellular network, worked normally."

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DNA computer plays Tic-Tac-Toe: "After years of hype surrounding DNA-based computing, the first game-playing DNA computer has been created by researchers at Columbia University and the University of New Mexico, New Scientist reports. It's not SpaceWar though (or the Game of Life, for that matter). In this game of DNA-powered Tic-Tac-Toe, the human player makes his or her mark by dropping DNA into 9 wells that make up the board. The one centimeter-square wells contain enzymes that form logic gates. A green biochemical glow reveals the computer's 'move.'" [Boing Boing Blog]

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Big surprise there: "Cringely: Macs require less support, and therefore reduce IT head count. Preserve your job -- don't recommend Macs!" [synapse]

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DNA restriction enzyme tool adds 50-plus new features: "Mek & Tosj on Monday released a new version (2.0) of EnzymeX, a Mac OS X-only program designed to assist molecular biologists in their work with restriction enzymes. [...] allows molecular biologists to determine which buffer is most suitable for the two enzymes they want to use in a double digestion." [MacCentral]

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Aggregators Attack Info Overload: "Internet news addicts are turning in droves to so-called aggregator services, which relieve information overload by condensing multiple sites into a single feed. By Ryan Singel" (Wired News via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

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Obituary: Idi Amin: "Ruthless dictator whose rise to power was facilitated by the British colonial authorities, he went on to devastate Uganda." [Guardian Unlimited]

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RedHat is Even More Brain-Damaged Than I Thought: "It turns out the bug that sapped a day of my productivity has been known since April, and nothing concrete was done about it. Go RedHat." [The Fishbowl]

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Europeans are digital-snap happy: "Digital camera sales in Europe have been boosted by better lens resolution and budget cameras." [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

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Apple ships the G5: "Apple computer Inc. on Monday announced that its newest desktop computer, the Power Mac G5 is now shipping. First announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple bills the G5 as the world's fastest personal computer." [MacCentral]