Archive for the 'Internet' category

If you want to convert your Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint files into PDF, just email them to pdf@koolwire.com.

But there’s more:

• iphone@pdfonline.com to convert from Microsoft Word or Visio to PDF file
• doc@koolwire.com to convert from PDF to Word or RTF file
• mp3@koolwire.com to convert from WAV to MP3 format
• wav@koolwire.com to convert from MP3 to WAV format

I just discovered (I have to admit that I had not to look very far) a small feature of the Opera browser (from version 9): the voice interface. This is fascinating, Opera accepts voice commands and can read the contents of a web page.

You have to first install a small add-in module (that is immediately downloaded from the Internet and available from a button in the icon bar of Opera) to reach these features. After a few seconds or minutes, the Internet user will be able to use his or her browser by pressing on a key to start the browser listening to your orders. Simple: Insert key, Baby open page, Insert key, and a new page opens. You must keep a relatively good American English accent, but it works quite well (even with a lot of background noise).

On the other side, you can request Baby read to listen to Opera reading the first lines of the page or the selected paragraph you previously selected.

Nota bene: I told Opera that I prefered to use Baby as a prefix to all commands rather than the bland Opera prefix; I find this cuter.

A feature that you must try too. In a free browser of very high quality.

Nothing is for sure, but Wired has an article about this issue: paying a monthly fee to have fully legal access to unlimited music download on P2P. Wired seems to believe that it would be a piracy levy on ISPs, but I think it would be a real license paid on a monthly basis.

Long ago, I had already published the old Copyright FAQ (”10 Big Myths about copyright explained” * by Brad Templeton), but here is a good post from PlagiarismToday: “10 Basics About Copyright Everyone Needs to Know“.

The very good anti-virus software got a little better with version 8. But the free version (which made it so popular) is not yet available. For now, you’ll have to stick to the excellent v7.5.

Pour ceux qui souhaitent le savoir, chaque utilisateur sur le site Rouamzeilles.net peut avoir des droits différents selon le rôle qui lui est attribué (par mes soins). Les droits attachés ne sont pas toujours évidents, même pour un habitué de WordPress. C’est pourquoi j’ai produit le tableau ci-dessous pour expliquer.

Cliquer sur le tableau pour le voir en plus grand.

If you want to do discreet (if not completely anonymous) P2P, Bittorrent and Gnutella or Kazaa are not your friends. With the advent of more attention from authorities, it is difficult to consider them as good opportunities.

I have been looking quickly at some of the possible solutions to protect your privacy while exchanging files over the Internet. I found the following ideas:

• Omemo is a recent Spanish development. I tried it and it is very obvious that the program is still in beta. Essentially, I was unable to download a file if it was not very small in size or to upload any. Let’s wait until it works.
• GigaTribe seems a good solution if you are willing to pay for the Premium package. It builds a closed network with your friends, but the standard (free) software is not able to grab files from multiple computers at the same time. So performance is very limited for the free version. GigaTribe3 is said to correct a number of issues some time later in 2008.
• Freenet is rather difficult to use at first, but if you run Thaw, one of the applications provided at installation, you will get a large choice of file downloads and performance while limited is not ridiculous: A few days for 2GB of video, it could be much worse. However, some may be troubled by the kind of data found there: While the common P2P data can be observed, you will also find conspiracy-related information and a quite significant load of pornography and child pornography (normally not found on the more open Internet).

I don’t know where the future of P2P lies, but it is certainly around some of these darknets (networks that are protected from external Peeping Toms). Freenet is supposed to be the best and most secured one, even if it is not perfect (it seems clear that some powerful agencies have setup some Freenet nodes in order to be able to spy the traffic).

For most of us, IPv6 has been a little more than vaporware. But in order to fight the upcoming lack of Internet addresses (as IPv4 addresses are more easily known), there is this new protocol, IPv6. It is steadily progressing and tomorrow, February 4th, several of the major international routers of the Internet backbone will start routing IPv6 packets.

It means that IPv6 will become a reality in most regions of the world, even if a lot more is to be done to make it overwhelmingly present.

everybody told you about it, Boeing is preparing a new medium range jet airplane that will do everything but coffee: It is nice, it is light, it eats 25% less fuel, it is less noisy.

But it has two problems:

• Boeing was forced to announce a dealy for the first deliveries (EADS-Airbus is not the only one to have such difficulties here)
• The FAA, US Federal Aviation Authority, is troubled by the sight of this airpline having a computer network open to the passengers. Here, I would say it’s rather good news bringing plenty of in-flight computer fun (email, web, IM, network games, etc.) but Boeing had a bad idea: The public network seems not to be isolated enough from the on-board network. So, the FAA is afraid of the possibility that some passengers may break havoc (voluntarily or not) on the plane’s instruments.

Sources: Futura Sciences and Wired.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, the game prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl (FPS PC game we appreciated a lot last year here at Roumazeilles.net) is now available for download at the Steam video game distribution web site of Valve. More, it will only be available there (no boxed DVD on the shelves).

It seems that this is proving the success of Steam as a distribution media (Valve did not limit it to its own games) and the efficiency of the channel (for the producers, it allows near immediate correction of bugs, removal of packaging-shipping, and coordinated distribution in all parts of the world; for the customers, it simplify the process and offers immediate pleasure - on the condition that you have a broadband connection).

When will Steam be considered as monopolistic?

I wanted to thank 2007 readers and visitors, so here are the 2008 Roumazeilles.net awards:

Best Guest Post Thanks to xo-fashi0n-x0 for her post of “La Cigarette“. A welcome poetic distraction from the routine of this web site.

Best Commenter This one was easy since ted is a persistent commenter with interesting insight and providing detailed information and feedback (both for the author and the readers). By the way, his web site is quite interesting too.

Best Linker Delphine Dumont, while staying attentive to what is happening on my web site, has been providing some significant and meaningful links and trackbacks. And all french-reading people should try and stop to read her blog.

Thanks to all readers, linkers and posters who made it possible. 2008 is certainly going to be even better and this will be reflected in the 2009 Roumazeilles.net awards.

We already knew that Englishmen prefer porn to sex. Now, this is the turn of Chinese to fail getting interested in one of the human activities we thought was really attractive

This is the conclusion of one comparison study from Google. They observe that their Chinese search engine is used for terms like names of Chinese banks or “stocks”. Contrary to the US Google, the word “sex” does not even make it into the top 10.

Source : The Inquirer.