The NSA has developed security configuration guidelines for different versions of Windows and Sun Solaris, with the cooperation of other government agencies and industry partners who provided their expertise and extensive technical review.

Used by numerous government agencies, the NSA has now made their configurations available to anyone who wants to take advantage of their extensive research on their website.

As anyone with a wireless network knows, placement of the access point and where you sit are quite important. You have to work around other networks in the area, cordless phones, microwaves and even refrigerators to get a clean line with as little noise as possible. And as more and more wireless devices come onto the market like the XBox360, Nintendo DS or PSP, it will become increasingly tougher to do so. Not to mention with the constant increase in the number of wireless networks popping up all around us.

Rotani Inc. believes they have a solution to this problem. They claim that their dual card “AirReferee” 802.11g router can filter out “real life” noise by 800% or more to help boost the signal strength and therefore increasing your bandwidth.

I’m not sure if anyone outside of Rotani has tested this theory, but maybe if it catches on with the manufacturers, we’ll be seeing some clearer skies in the WiFi world.

A man’s best friend. But to us, he was a friend to us all and more importantly, a member of our family. Through 11 years of our lives, our dog Sparky has been through everything from birthdays, to family dinners and gatherings. He’s been with us on walks in the park and watched TV by our sides.

His bowl sits in the kitchen where he would have his meals with us, and his bed is in the corner. A tin of biscuits and a container full of food just waiting for him to enjoy. A mat on the back porch where he would curl up on and watch out to the school yard just down the lane. His leash hangs on the door knob downstairs ready to go.

Sparky was sick months ago, but he pulled through. He was weak and could barely get up. He couldn’t climb the stairs and he would walk with a limp. The medicines the vet gave us seemed to help. His energy slowly returned but we knew he was not the same. He didn’t have that extra kick to him and he would lay around all day and night. He would play with us but just not as much. We knew, but I refused to believe it.

His eyes went cloudy one day soon after. We cared for him and pampered him and he got better. Able to see clearly again and he was back. We knew he wasn’t the same but he was getting better. He was strong and determined. He fought with all he had. We wouldn’t let him fail.

One day. Slowly, he would eat less and less. Slowly he became pickier as to what he ate. We gave him everything we could and bought different foods for him in hopes that he would eat again.

He grew thinner. And weaker. And we could see it.

But I refused to believe.
Our dog is a fighter! He WILL pull through! Just like all the times before.
He WILL get better. I just know it. I can feel it. His body will fight it.

But he grows weaker each day.
We took him to the vet on Friday. They keep him over night. Give him IVs and monitor him. They’ll do blood work and find the problem. They’ll heal him. I know they will.

Saturday comes and the tests come back. Kidney failure.
They’re not sure if there’s more they can do. They can give him medicines to slow the damage. He’s too weak for surgery for now. They’ll keep him over night one more time. They’ll make him better. He’ll pull though. I know he will.

It’s 4pm and we get the call.
They put him down.

The bastards.
I’m filled with rage and sorrow. I didn’t even see him today. I should have gone to see him today. But I refused to believe.

This house will never be the same again and I don’t know what to do.

We will miss you always Sparky. No other will ever fill this void.

Anyone with some basic computer savvy, a free computer and a little bit of money can easily make their own PVR/Media Centre.

Two of the better known time shifting software for Linux are MythTV (probably *the* most popular) and Freevo. I’m sure there are a few others but these are the two main ones.

For you windows users, you have SnapStream Beyond TV, Cyberlink PowerCinema, SageTV and of course Microsoft Media Centre.

Obviously the Linux solutions are open source and free for use while their Windows counterparts will cot extra but have better hardware support and be much easier to install.

There are tons of websites out there which will help you set up your PVR along with explaining hardware requirements so I won’t go through any of that here.

When anyone talks about PVRs, the first thing that generally comes to mind is TiVo. And since the beginning, TiVo has been exclusive to just the US, but as of about a month ago, TiVo finally announced that their service will now be open to Canada! Unfortunately, TiVo will not sell the boxes here in Canada and will not cover any damages under their warranty so we will still have to trek down to our neighbours in the South to pick one up.

For those of you who still would rather go with a commercial solution, Shaw offers an HDTV+PVR box for just under $600CDN. Bell too has a PVR box for $400CDN.

A little late, but mySQL 5 has been finally released and ready for production use! The long awaited version has a bunch of new support for things like Stored Procedures, Triggers and Views along with a slew of other new things.

Overall none of this stuff may be new to the database world, but to have it now in a very popular opensource database is great! That means it’s time for all you guys who have been holding out on mySQL to change over!! (You know who you are. Heheh.)

Last week, Sun Microsystems announced and released version 2.0 of their OpenOffice Suite. Boasting a new interface, improvements to Calc, and a new database program called Base, ZDNet’s George Ou set out to it out for himself.

Back in September, George Ou did some benchmark tests on an earlier version of Calc vs Excel but the natives became restless and questioned the results.

Now that 2.0 has been officially released. Here comes take 3.

Some great news from AMD yesterday as they released new pricing for all current models of their line of CPUs. Everything from their mobile Turion 64 up to their Athlon 64 X2 and Semprons.

A bunch of older models have also been removed from their price list like the Socket-A line and Socket-754 processors which sounds like they have been phased out in favour of their flashier counterparts.

DigiTimes has the full price list.

Woah momma!
39 megapixels of pixely goodness… mmmm……
Suddenly my 8.1 megapixels doesn’t sound so hot anymore.

Engadget has the full story.