There comes a time every now and then where you need to split up large files. If you have the luxury of those files being split anywhere, you can use something like WinRAR, which will split it up into whatever size you like. If it's good enough for file sharing, it's good enough for you, right?
So the Independence-to-Albemarle interchange has finally opened. While that's great news, it's apparently without any signage.
This means that anyone who (understandably) stays to the left to make the turn on Sharon Amity will suddenly find themselves headed to Albemarle instead. You see, the state is having issues with the signs going up - so drivers have no advance warning that the lanes are now open, and make sudden lane shifts, across the median splitting the diverging paths, to get back on Independence.
With the recent release of Virtual Earth, it would seem that the gauntlet has been thrown. While my instinct is to like Google Maps better, I think they are actually really close to one another. If you'd like to see some comparisons, check out this side-by-side viewer that lets you compare them.
First thought: It seems that Virtual Earth is a bit dated in some of their satellite imagery. About everyone has heard that they have pictures of the World Trade Center towers. So it's at least 4 years old. My yard (in both) appears to be about the same, and I would guess that it's probably 3-4 years old as well. There are a number of trees in the image that haven't been there for a while. Do they work? Sure.
I have to say that I like Virtual Earth's persistent state - when I go back, it leaves me just where I was the last time. Do I care all the time? Probably not. But I like it better as a default than Google's country-wide view. I don't think Virtual Earth offers driving directions - if they do, it's not obvious. And in general, markers seem to be better in Google Maps.
However, the satellite imagery itself on Virtual Earth seems to not only scale more, but be a better quality than that of Google. So I can't zoom in as much, and when I do, the image isn't quite as clear. Speaking of clarity, the street names in Virtual Earth generally seem to be a bit more legible than those in Google Maps. Though the one-way arrows on the Google images are very helpful. Great idea.
Finally, the Google Map bookmarks feature is nice to have, and I like the mashups that have appeared for it as well - but I'd suppose that Virtual Earth will have its own set before too long, as soon as people have a chance to play with the API. And while I don't think that Yahoo! Maps are even close in terms of quality, the option to show things on the map, such as hotels and the like, is very nice.
Last night we went to our second racing event in a month - something of a record for us. This time, it was to Lowe's Motor Speedway, for a night of bandolero and legend car racing. Both classes seemed pretty fast, and there were certainly some wrecks along the way. Plus, only a small portion of the track was used for the races - I'd guess maybe a quarter of a mile. So the races went quickly.
We also saw a race featuring the thunder roadsters, and then an event with CRASHCars to finish up the night. Actually there was another legend race after the CRASHCars, but it was late, so we left without seeing it.
So "new" accounting rules (that are, in fact, about two years old) are being noticed, meaning that credit card companies will shortly increase that minimum payment on you. In some cases, it might as much as double - meaning that it will no longer take 40 years to pay off your card balance, but only 10. That's nice.
Meanwhile, mortgages are being extended to 40 years, allowing the new home buyer to pay interest only for the first 10 years. In one example, your mortgage payment goes down by about $100 per month, because of the longer life of the loan. Unfortunately, they interest paid goes up by more than 50%. Good work if you can get it, and the mortgage companies appear able to do just that.
While I have a heck of a time remembering that it is "Motorsport" park (as opposed to "Motorsports" park), on Saturday night we went to visit the place. Before I continue, recognize that this is a big deal, as we aren't really racing fans. It just so happened that they had a special night where residents of Mecklenburg County could get in for free with ID. Luckily we had ID, so we went.
Concord Motorsport Park is a whole lot smaller than a lot that other track that is nearby, and it shows in their production values - it's not fancy, by any means. But it is fun. A smallish section of grandstand is reserved for families (no drinking), another section for, well, I guess it's also for families - but drinking is allowed. And of course there are the requisite open spaces where people can park their campers and whatnot.
Brian Livingston published an article last week that talks about picking the best online RSS reader. I can't believe it, because his first place reader is My Yahoo!, which he nearly dismisses with a wave of his hand by starting off "If you absolutely have to have to have stock quotes and local weather...". That's a back-handed compliment if I've ever heard it.
As a follow-up, he recommends that if you want to be able to "scale up" from a single user to a multinational enterprise, you should pick Newsgator. Huh? While I don't dispute it - and think that Newsgator might be fine - what happened here?
Earlier in the article, Brian goes into detail on the number of services offered by Bloglines, saying in a headline that they "Zoom Ahead". Apparently this is just for us geeks, and others should stick with Newsgator. Let's just go with that for a minute.
This article talks about using browser-based readers. Yet the only point that he really makes against Bloglines is that it doesn't support automated podcast downloads - a feature truly only available through Newsgator. Oh, and their client-side subsidiary, FeedDemon. Now Nick's a nice guy, and I really don't have anything against Newsgator.
But no matter how nice he is - how can his client-side solution give the win to a browser-based service? That just makes no sense. To delve further, Bloglines offers what Livingston calls a "universal inbox". I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I use the email functions of Bloglines regularly. Bloglines offers unlimited free searches. Newsgator gives you three for free. I don't have anything against services that require you to pay for them, but come on - you're writing an article to the public, and you enocourage a browser-based product that is better because of a client-side piece, doesn't offer as many features as other services for free, and can't even keep up in terms of market share?
I like Brian's columns, but this one is off. Way off.
Update: Nothing against Pluck, who seems to have a decent product coming along. But the column didn't mention them, so they weren't really relevant to this rant. Sorry guys.
It seems that Iraq may have spent as much as $300 million for faulty military gear - outdated, and perhaps even faulty! While I'm all for independence and everything - you just have to wonder. With all the deaths, all the problems, they can still waste (or possibly steal) $300 million. That's a lot of cabbage.
While we're speaking of freebies for download, don't forget about Plan 9 from Outer Space, now apparently in the public domain, and available for download from the Internet Archive.
Allegedly, the most excellent Greasemonkey extension is insecure, allowing folks to read files from your local hard drive. I tried Mark's leakage demo, only to find, well, nothing. I didn't get diddly. This may mean that it only works with particular versions (I'm using 0.3.3), it may mean that the code is no longer "active", so that it doesn't work, or it might mean that in some cases it's not actually a problem. I don't know the answer - but you should be aware, nonetheless.
After thinking about this momentarily, I came to the realization of why it wasn't happening for me. I have only two scripts installed at this point - Gmap Extras and UPS Track. Both of these scripts are set to work for only particular sites. Because of this, when I try Mark's page, Greasemonkey doesn't run - it doesn't think it needs to, since that's not one of the sites listed in the configuration. Adding it, or worse, adding "*", allows it to work just fine.
While I can't say that this makes Greasemonkey secure, it does make me feel a bit better. Of course, the sites that are listed may not be malicious now, they could become so with the current owners, or they could be taken over by someone who is. Still, it makes me feel a bit better that I'm open only to two sites - not to every site on the planet. And some of the more useful scripts, I'm sure, are open to every site you visit. It would appear that those are indeed dangerous.
Finally, it may be that I am vulnerable and it is simply that this site doesn't exploit that sort of vulerability. So if you're concerned about such vulnerabilities, you may indeed want to make the monkey frown, or perhaps banish him altogether. But it would appear that being completely vulnerable to every site in the world could be a bit of an exaggeration.
If you have the Linksys WRT54G or WRT54GS router, and want to update the firmware, this is your lucky day. While Sveasoft charges for the software, it is a GPL product, meaning that it can be distributed - in fact, it's nearly a requirement! So (at least) one enterprising soul has provided a site where you can download a vast number of Sveasoft firmware, for free!
Yes, Sveasoft has some valid points - picking up firmware on any old web site, or on a P2P network, may be dangerous. Keep that in mind, and if your router blows up because you didn't listen this time, maybe be a little more cautious the next time around. Or just pay the $20 to Sveasoft to download it. Some costs are worth paying. This may be one of them.
