I just added the WordPress OpenID Plugin. I’m now OpenID-enabled! What does this mean? It means that aside from registering and logging in to this site, you can also use your OpenID to log in. Where do you get your OpenID? You probably have one already. If you have a Yahoo! account, you just need to enable it here. If you have a WordPress.com account, you already have it enabled. Even VeriSign is in the game. There are even more providers where you can get an OpenID from. How does an OpenID work? When you log in to an OpenID-enabled site, you can opt to just give your OpenID URL. You will be asked to log in to your OpenID provider. Once logged in, you can choose which information (e.g. name, email, etc) being requested you will permit your provider to send to the OpenID-enabled site. Once that’s done, you’re authenticated at the OpenID-enabled site and it can then proceed to registering you or letting you do things such as posting comments and the like. No more need for so many account names and passwords. Simple huh?
HD-DVD Concedes, Blu-Ray Wins, So What?
It’s over. Finally, the long running DVD format war has effectively come to an end. Toshiba declared yesterday that it no longer will develop, make, or market HD-DVD players and recorders. Because Toshiba is the biggest proponent of HD-DVD, their action essentially concedes defeat to Sony’s competing Blu-Ray format. The beginning of the end came about when Warner announced early this year that it will produce content only on Blu-Ray. Warner has a huge amount of content and when they shifted to Blu-Ray, it’s just a matter of time. Less than a month it turns out. So now i guess everyone will be producing Blu-Ray players, recorders, and media hopefully driving down prices. So what? The future of content is online.
A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche De Fiançailles)
When I first saw the trailer of A Very Long Engagement so long ago, I thought I have a pretty good idea what the story is about. I finally got to watch it last night and I found out that it wasn’t exactly as I expected. Set in France just after World War I, the story is about a girl, Mathilde, looking for her fiance, Manech, who went missing and presumed dead after the horrific Battle of the Somme. Yet she did not believe he is gone. When you love someone, when do you give up hope and admit that he is lost to you? In this case, you don’t. She went on a determined search for him and gradually put together pieces of the mystery. Despite all the difficulties she encountered and all the discouraging answers she got, she persevered. In the end, she finds out that… Well, I guess that’s for you to also find out.
Rating: 4/5
Why I Will NEVER Get Trend Micro Anti-Virus
Trend Micro is suing Barracuda because the latter supposedly infringes on a patent the former owns regarding the implementation of a anti-virus through an SMTP and FTP gateway. Apparently, Trend Micro is threatened by the less expensive solution of Barracuda which involves off-the-shelf hardware components and the open source Clam Anti-Virus. And so, instead of lowering its cost or improving its own features and services, it decides to sue on the grounds of its stupid patent. It only goes to show that they’re not really concerned about the security of computer users but only on their own profit. That’s just lame.
SSH Tunneling Via PuTTY
A day or two ago, I stayed at home. I have my notebook, a bunch of DVDs, a good speed Internet connection, pizza, and unlimited beer. Okay, not the beer, I’ve sworn off it. But what else do you need, right? The answer came as soon as I tried sending my first email. Connection failed. I did some sleuthing and concluded that for some bizarre reason, my ISP seems to be blocking SMTP. WTF! Anyway, rather than complaining and getting it solved by them (what’s the fun in that?) I searched for another solution.
Enter SSH tunneling. This technology allows you to forward most any network traffic through an SSH connection to your SSH server and on to the target server. You login to your SSH server, preferably one with unlimited access to the Internet. Then you can map local ports to be forwarded to your SSH server which will then act as an intermediary between you and your target server. Of course, although the communications between your computer and the SSH server will be pretty much secure, the communication between the SSH server and the target server may not be.
So how did this all work for me and my problem? I loaded up PuTTY and created a new session to my SSH server which is on an ISP who doesn’t block SMTP. Then under Connection->SSH->Tunnels, I added source port 25 and destination port mymailserver:25. I then connected and logged on to my SSH server. While connected, I reconfigured Thunderbird‘s outgoing email server to localhost and then pressed the send button. Voila! Mail sent! :)
Time to make that complaint.