http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/ en-us 2007-10-18T21:23:38-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/10/new_samsung_226.html When I buy computer hardware, I research the heck out of every product I consider buying, spend a week contemplating the best choice, and then finally jump. I don't usually make bad decisions, and while I didn't pick bad hardware, I just picked something not right for me after all. I'm hoping that one of my readers will be able to benefit. I purchased a 22" Samsung 226BW monitor (link is to Samsung's description of the monitor) a few weeks... Technology Kevin 2007-10-18T21:23:38-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/06/resurrection.html I'm quite sure that many folks thought BitWise had been completely abandoned, stuck forever at version 1.7.2. The fact that we just passed the one year anniversary of the most recent release was not lost on me. The release of BitWise 1.7.3 is mainly to fix a few Vista-related bugs (thanks Microsoft!) and improve the IP detection and handling routines on Windows, along with a few other minor bugs that have cropped up since the last release. I know this... BitWise Kevin 2007-06-25T10:22:30-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/05/windows_and_pc.html Vista came out in late January, and I knew it wouldn't be long before I needed to set up some Vista systems. Come March, I was working on my first few and have done a handful altogether since then. I don't know if the problem is necessary with Vista, but I have been very disappointed overall with these new computers. I'm not really sure that Vista is to blame as much as the PC makers. The first few systems that... Technology Kevin 2007-05-19T09:51:29-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/04/the_best_invest.html I certainly would not classify myself as en eBay junky, but I do occasionally like to do some searching to see what I can find, usually in the areas of music, games or old computer hardware. I recently came across a seller who was selling hundreds of old Commodore 64 games, some of them still in their original shrink wrap. I'm going to overlook the obvious question of why someone would have hoarded shrink wrapped games for the C64 until... Technology Kevin 2007-04-22T09:50:41-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/03/duh_hackers_hav.html Back when we first added encryption to BitWise, people used to joke with us about if we were willing to accept that we might indirectly support hackers by providing an encrypted IM service. We have never really worried about this because it seemed highly unlikely that hackers would actually trust any company-created encrypted IM. It looks like we were right. A recent ComputerWorld article caught my eye with the title Hackers build private IM to keep out the law. I... Instant Messaging Kevin 2007-03-31T16:30:58-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/03/antiviruses_rea.html I have for a long time thought that anti-virus programs were almost a bigger pain than the viruses that they are supposed to prevent. I got my proof last week when MIcrosoft announced that their OneCare program could blow away your entire Outlook data file or individual Outlook Express mail boxes if you received an attachment with malicious code. Full story at ComputerWorld. Hilarious. Just hilarious. It wouldn't be so funny if it were irreversible, but fortunately for those affected,... Technology Kevin 2007-03-11T21:14:32-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/02/thoughts_on_dig.html Last week, Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) published his Thoughts on Music on Apple's web site. Prompted by the calls for Apple to open up their iTunes/iPod FairPlay technology, Steve in response suggested that we should instead be focusing on pressuring the music companies to license their music without DRM. He sites that 90% of the world's music is still sold without any DRM on traditional CDs, and that protecting the other 10% doesn't do any good. Whether this is... Technology Kevin 2007-02-14T19:12:06-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2007/01/paved_with_good.html Almost every day I think "I really should take some time today and post on my blog." It looks like today is finally my lucky day. I see another month has gone by. But boy has it been busy! My brother (the one that I work for), his wife and my two nephews came for an extended visit (they live overseas). Fortunately, cell phones, email and other wonderful technology has made it easier than ever to have flexible work time,... Personal Kevin 2007-01-29T22:07:40-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/12/merry_christmas_2.html If you're like everyone else in my family, you're really going to think I'm crazy now (if you didn't already before). I just bought a $300 keyboard, the Kinesis Advantage USB Qwerty/Dvorak Black. See It. Here were the factors that went into my decision (in no particular order): 10% off sale when ordering before Dec. 31. My current keyboard is going on 9 years old (amortize $300 over 9 years and it comes to $30/year or about 8.2 cents per... Technology Kevin 2006-12-30T20:19:59-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/12/merry_christmas_1.html Merry Christmas to everyone. May peace be with you on this day.... Personal Kevin 2006-12-25T11:13:16-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/12/busted.html This story really made my day: Laptop helps man in Germany bust burglar in Brazil (CNN) A technically savvy man wired his home in Brazil to trigger a message to his cell phone in the event that the security system was tripped. He then logged in remotely and watched the man who had entered his house. The police were called and the man was apprehended. That's just brilliant! Maybe all of our newfangled technology really is good for something: catching... Technology Kevin 2006-12-17T14:51:16-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/12/the_ultimate_da.html One of the projects that I worked on this year (not related to BitWise) involved storing and processing a decent amount of data in a PC application. I had sketched out on paper all sorts of elaborate structures with hash maps instead hash maps, sorted arrays, lists, and ways to link them all together. I was really dreading implementing all of this, especially writing the algorithms to join the data together. Then I got this nagging little thought in the... Technology Kevin 2006-12-03T19:59:12-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/11/breaking_the_si.html It's been a long time since I last posted, I know. I think about it every day. If I even have any readers left, I'm sure all three of you have noticed that my posts have been slowing steadily since the beginning of the year. Rather than let the silence continue, I wanted to update everyone as to why there's been such a change in my posting habits. The original purpose of my blog was mostly to chronicle my developments... Personal Kevin 2006-11-28T20:30:15-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/10/intermittent_ou.html You may have noticed some intermittent connectivity problems this morning. One of the routers at our upstream provider began malfunctioning, causing data to sometimes get stuck in a loop. Unfortunately this event was out of our control, and even beyond the control of our data center. Full services were restored around 9:45 a.m. EDT. We apologize for any inconvenience that this downtime may have caused you. Please contact us if you continue to experience any issues. Lastly, while we do... BitWise Kevin 2006-10-13T09:50:19-05:00 http://www.kevinhock.com/blog/archives/2006/10/bitwise_172_for.html The download for BitWise 1.7.2 for Linux was replaced today with a version that fixes a rare bug that affects some network configurations. The symptom was a crash when logging in that could be worked around only by setting the IP address. The new version fixes this bug; no other changes were made. Thanks to "Nikola" from the forums for assisting with finding and fixing this bug.... BitWise Kevin 2006-10-10T19:53:41-05:00