I use Firefox most of the time - it does what I want, and it’s set up nicely for me. So, when I go to a page (mostly Microsoft owned sites) that has a SoapBox video on it, I know I’m in for trouble.

Take this post on the Windows Vista Blog about the Microsoft Silverlight DreamScenes.

If I click on any of the controls in the video - I’m instantly redirected to this page:

It’s not as though Firefox can’t play the video - if I can hit Stop quickly enough, it’ll actually play - but they deem it necessary to wrap the “embed” inside an Anchor tag.

IE ofcourse, doesn’t have an issue with this - it passes Click event to the plugin, and then discards it.

When the Orcas Beta 1 came out, I eagerly downloaded it from my MSDN Subscription on my home machine (no way am I letting it touch my main work machine just yet!). 

I couldn’t even get through the installer - it just complained about something not being right (I forget what). Brian Masden is encountering similar issues it seems - although he seems further along than me.

If an MVP can’t get it running on a clean Vista box - no wonder I’m having zero luck!

Keep fighting the good fight, Brian!

Crestock (a stock photography company) is running a photography contest. apparently it’s open to all comers, world-wide.

The prizes include a Leica D-LUX 3, and my favorite: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II.

The best bit? These three points on the competition page:

- You retain all copyright.
- We will not sell your photos.
- Your image will only be used in the context of the contest. 

(via Digital Photography School’s blog)

Here’s a quick do/don’t guide for those who’re running Wireless networks at home.

DO use encryption (preferably WPA, or WPA2)

Please, go in and select the highest level of security your Router can use. If you’re only using, say Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista, you should have no issue using the highest level of security.

In order of preference (and security):

• WPA2 
  aka “WPA2-PSK” or “WPA2 Pre-Shared Key”
• WPA 
  aka “WPA-PSK” or “WPA Pre Shared Key”)
• WEP
  aka “WEP-64″ or “WEP-128″ 

The last one arn’t really a preference - it’s more like putting a note on your front door saying “please don’t steal my stuff” - and then not bothering to lock the back door.  It’ll stop anyone who is honest from getting into your wireless lan - but that’s it.

For example, on my Linksys Router it looks like this: 

And on my Billion Router, it looks like this:

DO Choose a strong WPA Password

Whilst this isn’t so important for WEP (it’s quicker to just crack the encryption, than guess the pass-phrase) - it is a good idea to keep your WPA Passwords fairly long.

DON’T bother with MAC Address Filtering

There’s a misguided few out there who believe that using MAC Address filtering will protect them in some way. Unfortunely, they’re pretty vocal in their views and have convinced others to do this.

Side Bar: “MAC” stands for Media Access Control. It’s a very low-level way of identifying network equipment in your local network.

For more info, read the Wikipedia Article on MAC Address

Anyone who can crack your wireless security (assuming you have any) will find it very easy to just steal a MAC Address that IS permitted.  MAC Addresses are all controlled in software, so it’s very easy to simply listen to existing network traffic, and then use the authorised one

Disable any “Wireless MAC Filter” if you’ve enabled it - there’s really no point to it. Honestly!

DON’T disable DHCP

DHCP is a very useful piece of technology. Basically, when your router has it’s DHCP-Server enabled, you just have to connect a new device for it to start working.  It’s a standardised way of ensuring devices can self-configure themselves with the appropriate settings for the network they are connected to.

Some people believe that disabling DHCP will stop, or slow down someone trying to break into their network.  But it’s the same situation as using MAC Address filtering - someone can quite easily steal another IP Address, or just manually enter their own details. 

Just leave it enabled (the default), because disabling it will more likely cause you more frustration.

Following these tips will help keep your home network just that little bit safer.

I’ll be down in Sydney until Sunday late afternoon some time if anyone is looking for me.

Edit: Tuesday, I’m back, obviously

Bernard Oh posts that that the TechEd 2007 Australia site is now up. 

The price for standard ticket is $1,999, but $1,599 for early-bird registrations (before 21 May), looks like my estimate of $1500 wasn’t far off.  Add on another $300 for the Deep Dive Workshops if thats your thing.

I wonder if Paul Stovell is going to update his TechED Session Picker for 2007? Hint-hint

I’m the guy that, when forwarded an email about “amazing photos stored in an old Brownie Camera since 1941“, or this story about how some people get expensive paint-jobs for their cats will usually hit up Google for some Snopes reference.

So, today’s XKCD comic is quite up my alley:

Note: Comic is copyright, and used here under the Creative Commons licence. See XKCD for licence info

Andrew Coates announced that MIX is coming to Melbourne, Australia this year - as a slightly abbreviated 2-day version, and is being called ReMix.  Entry is only $140 (and includes Microsoft Expression Web), but there’s only 300 positions available.

Paul says he might be going, and the timing is pretty good too, because Paul & “chix0r” are planning to have their engagement party sometime around then too.

Sounds like a good excuse for me to visit Melbourne for a week or so. (I havn’t been since I was ~10)

via Neowin, comes this great story in the UK Daily Mail:

Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week.

The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop.

Good to see atleast one cat using public transport - rather than driving a car around.

There’s a much more relaxed approach to animals on public transport in Europe & the UK, nothing like here in Aus where you’re likely to be set upon by passengers or officials.  

Google is holding a free developer day around the world on May 31st, and Sydney is included.

Google engineers and product experts at each location will lead sessions in topic areas such as, “Developing with Geo: Google Maps, Google Earth and SketchUp,” “Tools for Better Web Development: The Google Web Toolkit, Open Source and Other Developer Initiatives” and “Mashups and More: AJAX, Google Gadgets and the Google Data APIs.

Found via BuilderAU

I’ve gone and created a public calendar in Google Calendar with the event details.

- View in Google Calendar
- iCal File (See Paul Stovell’s site for instructions for how to use it in Outlook 2007)
- XML Source
- HTML-Only View