Michael’s Blog

It seems coupons.com has a requirement to stick controls on your computer in order to print their coupons. In order to print from their system, you must install their proprietary binary. What they don’t tell you this binary communicates with their servers, not just facilitate communication between your PC and your printer.

I don’t like 3rd-party software making un-disclosed changes to my system. One work-around cases like this is to simply re-install windows after every install/use of coupon.com’s software. Ubsurd? Nah. Simple tools for virtualbox.org can help.
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If you are going to have any sort of confidential data on your damn machine / thumbdrive, learn how to use real disk encyption like truecrypt. Ignorance of such technology is no excuse to loose personal and confidential data and embarass the institution you work for. Consider any media you carry as something you will not be able to have physical control over 100% of the time. If you’re traveling in a country that doesn’t allow encryption, either choose to break that country’s silly backwards law, or better yet, don’t carry confidential data in the first place. You are responsible for protecting that data.

It looks like our local http://www.texasradio947.com, which has great music by the way, choose a proprietary windows-media format to stream their audio in instead of using a open format like ogg vorbis. Even mp3 would be better than windows media. If you want to hear their stream under Linux, install mplayer then play the direct stream listed below. (their website link won’t work for firefox)

mms://67.18.103.116/kbso8551

By the way, online is the only way to listen to this station because they’ve long since changed their on-air broadcast to Spanish. While I’m sad to see the format change, I’m glad to see any station in any format that is not part of the clear channel communications industromusiccorpoconglomeration. Hats off to Texas Radio 94.7. When is the last time you’ve heard a Clear Channel station play something that wasn’t from one of the RIAA cartel’s labels?

Musical diversity in this country is as bad as beer diversity. Most people are only aware of the big labels’ artists and mega-breweries’ beer. There is much better stuff out there, you’ve just gotta get off the beaten path to look. You’ll be glad you did.

I make home-brew beer. Its fun and you end up learning about a lot of things in the process. Some things learned help keep the bull**** propaganda that we call news in perspective.
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