Called a part of “spring cleaning”, one of the things Google has decided is to discontinue the Tanslate API, citing “substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse” as the reason.

If there is one thing one should never do is make a statement that your server is the most secure ever and taunt people to try and crack it.

Seems the maker of RedZone did just that and it took very little time for the challenge to be taken.

In light of the recent uproar about data mining by unscrupulous people exploiting a hole in the viewer media system, I thought it might be helpful to include a few ways to protect yourself.

These are not ideal by any means, but until Linden Labs bans these and any other data mining systems and fixes the security hole(s) they exploit, options are limited.

Imagine this scenario:

You are visiting a local shopping mall or favorite nightclub.

As you walk in the door, a rather shady private detective hired by owner to catch shoplifters, collects your name, address, age, financial information, what car you drive, takes a picture, and then sends all of that information to his (not the owner’s) home office.

All of this without your consent, or even knowledge it has happened.

Since the detective doesn’t have very good eyesight, he thinks that nearly everyone is shoplifting.

As if that wasn’t enough, if someone wants to, they can call on this detective, who gladly provides them with the information and tools to stalk you or even smack you around.

[NOTE: This is a repost of an article from way back in 2008. Some things are too funny to let go.] Our newest “OH Crap” moment comes courtesy of my favorite feline, George.

Someone recently asked why I prefer Linux systems over “another operating system” and one of the things mentioned during this conversation was software management.

As I was catching up on a backlog of RSS feeds, I ran across Linden Labs plans for rolling out a new “Community Platform” starting in March.

According to the article, it seems nearly all avenues of communicating with Linden Labs are undergoing a major overhaul.

Is this an upgraded way for Linden Labs to ignore it residents?

There are many programs capable of, if not specially dedicated to, creating sculpties on both Linux and Windows and they can range from free to “sell your soul down and the balance in 13 easy payments” expensive. I would like to introduce you to Blender and Jass as excellent options for your sculpty creations.

I recently installed UbuntuStudio 10.04 in preparation for some audio and graphics operations I would need to be performing soon. Normally, I would have stayed with my beloved Debian, but for sake of convenience1 , I decided to use UbuntuStudio and chose the 10.04 LTS edition. I am very sensitve during certain times about when [...]

Updates of changes on our site 17 April 2011 Reset requirement for user registration and log-in for comments to cut down on SPAM. User registration and log is once again required. 9 February 2011 Corrected errors on policy pages 1 February 2011 Updated Policies Changed Registration Form to be easier 14 January 2011 added gravatar [...]