Matthew’s Weblog

A study pointing to the increased productivity from investments in computers and IT.

An interesting article at ComputerWorld that investigates how individuals get more productive using IT - by finishing more projects but not by getting specific projects done more quickly.  The interesting part to me is the correlation with communications, where high-touch, high-tech individuals end up being the most productive.  And I really liked the examples of Betweenness and Reach in networking referenced here…

Lessons? Cultivate the communicators, and help everyone grow their networks to drive more efficiencies…

Technorati Tags: productivity, betweenness, reach, network

It appears that we do need to have some inspired ideas but the auto company’s claims that efficiency is so hard it isn’t economically feasible once again fall on their nose.  Doing things the same way as we always have just doesn’t work out well.

Ready for your computer to whisper sweet nothings in your ear with no one else to hear?  Sign me up…

Turns out that crackers (hackers with criminal intent) attacking computers are not actually creating most privacy incidents… usually it’s corporate mismanagement. 

Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.

Technorati Tags: privacy, crackers

So today was the installation of MythTV…

I used the MythTV reference for Ubuntu Dapper and the associated Dapper IVTV installation guide and while it seems pretty comprehensive I think it could be faster if packages were grouped to all install at the same time instead of explaining so much. I mean, I’m curious to know why they’re important but the fact that I have to use apt-get two dozen times instead of once or twice is silly.

It’s interesting, too, that on each new kernel installation the driver for the Hauppage 150 card is required to be reinitialized. So here are the commands for quick reference:

sudo m-a update,preparesudo m-a a-i ivtvsudo depmod -a

Unclear in the instructions was the creation of the database needed… here’s the setup instructions

and borging up the joint was the missing Qmysql3 driver…
apt-get install libqt3-mt-mysql


Here’s a listing of dates/times that usually mean you have a software bug.  Fun and useful…

New twists to leaving your access point in a default configuration… allowing crackers to decide what websites - real or imagined - you see by taking over your DNS DHCP settings.  Interesting and scary.

Also something that could be examined would be how many APs can be managed by wardriving… then you even know pretty close to the address and name of your target.

Technorati Tags: security, wireless, access+point