Category Archives: Internet

Flickr Pro

I bought a Flickr Pro account a few days ago and went nuts uploading files, maxing out my 2GB limit for the month of April and using 10% of May’s allowance while uploading over 1700 pictures.

If you aren’t a friend or family, some 400 of those won’t be initially visible to you. If you are a Flickr user already, leave a message here and I’ll add you as a friend. If not, either leave your email and I’ll send you a password to get in, or sign up for Flickr and leave your screenname.

I’ve also put together about 30 photo sets that should be interesting to browse.

Amazon’s Shipping Estimates

Why does Amazon tell you Super Saver Shipping will take forever, especially when it usually ships way before the time they tell you it will.

For example, yesterday I ordered:

Shipping estimate for these items: February 21, 2005- February 21, 2005
Delivery estimate: February 24, 2005- February 28, 2005

“Colgate Phos-Flur Anti-Cavity Fluoride Rinse, Cool Mint – 16 oz”
Health and Beauty; $9.99

And yet it shipped today, February 14th, a full week before it was scheduled to ship.

I understand that the free shipping probably cuts significantly into Amazon’s bottom line (and therefore they’ll do a lot to get you to pay for shipping), but can they at least not lie about the ship date by a week!?

Update: The other items I ordered (3 books) were shipped the day after (Feb 15th). All arrived on Friday, February 18, almost a full week before the predicted arrival time.

Resnet

Resnet at the University of Minnesota recently added a new login procedure to get on the network every time you turn on your computer. It uses a login mechanism similar to logging into the wireless networks on campus. First you enter your username and password. Then it scans your computer for known vulnerabilities. The scan takes about 2 minutes to complete. After the scan is complete, the network will allow you to make outgoing network connections.

The system is not without flaws, namely

  • During periods of heavy load, I’ve seen random error messages that have prevented me from getting on the internet for as long as 30 minutes.
  • The system is inconvenient, as 2 minutes is a long time to do the scan.
  • Computers that shouldn’t have any vulnerabilities that it scans for (ie, Macs, Linux/BSD boxes, etc) still have to go through the same time consuming procedure.

Some ways of bypassing the login mechanism:

  • Keep your computer on 24/7
  • Buy a PowerMac and put it to sleep — this is a mode where the computer uses very little power (~10 watts) to only allow the computer to wake up quickly to a full powered on state. A nice side effect is that it keeps network connections open, which saves you from having to login again.