Inside info on Russian malware operation

 An interesting article that provides some information on how a Russian operation makes millions by distributing so-called "scareware." 

New Tech Talk on finding old PG articles online

 The weekly Tech Talk podcast was posted yesterday at post-gazette.com/podcast. This week we talk about how to find old Post-gazette articles online. Next week's podcast on Monday will be the first annual Tech Talk Post-Halloween Dead Technologies Special. We'll talk about technologies that didn't survive the test of time for a variety of reasons.

When technology makes me laugh

Every now and then a bit of digital serendipity occurs and brightens my day.  Mostly it's just those cases where a computer has put several things together in a list and the twisted wetware in my brain makes a connection between them.  I guess that's why I always got a kick out of computer-generated poetry.

Today's example (see image) appeared when I went to my Netflix queue to add some new releases.

So if you find yourself at Caesars' Palace in Las Vegas, be sure to avoid the Resident Evil.

Another trip to the digital attic

TechMan has been in the digital attic again, and he has found some new treasures.

A column on Sept. 14 told how you can view old copies of the Post-Gazette on Google, which I call "going to the digital attic."

Just to review quickly, go to google.com and click "more" at the top of the page, then "even more" from the dropdown menu. On the resulting page, you'll see, about halfway down on the left, "News -- now with archive search." Click on the words "archive search."

There you will see in small letters next to the search box the words "advanced archive search." Click there. On the resulting page, type Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the box labeled "source" and enter your search term. You will now search only the Post-Gazette for your information. You also can search by date.

Once your search has returned results and you click on one of them, you'll get an image of the article and at the top of that page underlined in blue, the name of the newspaper and the date. If you click there, you will see the entire newspaper for that day, complete with photos, ads and stories. You can "leaf" through page by page using the page number box at the top or by clicking and dragging on the page itself.

Poking around in the digital attic, TechMan found that older precursor papers of the Post-Gazette are available. The Post-Gazette was formed in 1927 by a merger of papers, themselves the result of the merger of other papers. Two of those older papers can be viewed on Google.

If, in the source box, you type Commercial Gazette and then search on "Pittsburgh" or "Allegheny" to filter out other papers of the same name, you get stories from that paper, published from 1866 to 1900, although it appears that it is available digitally back to only 1877. The same thing works for Gazette-Times, published from 1900 to 1927 (and apparently available back to 1908.)

Now to some questions from readers. Two readers with a genealogical bent wrote that they had trouble finding obituaries by searching on names. TechMan tried with varying results.

A few possible explanations. First, not all editions are available. Some may have gone missing over the years. And not every death resulted in an obituary.

But a call to Google revealed that in order for a search to work, the word on the page on microfilm must be indexed by an optical character reader (OCR) machine. If the page is blurred or damaged or otherwise obscured (and remember these films were made from paper copies with printing that was more crude and that may have been damaged or worn), the OCR can't read it and that term will not be searchable.

My advice to genealogists is if your search fails and you know the date of death of the person, enter the word "Pittsburgh" and the date in the date fields of advanced search, then leaf through for the obits. Also look at days afterward because obits don't always appear right after a death.

Two readers wrote in about the availability of other area papers in the archive search, particularly The Pittsburgh Press. The Post-Gazette owns the rights to the Press archives, but they have not been digitized yet. This may happen in the future.

As to other area papers, the Tribune Review is available, but it does not appear to go back to microfilmed copies. TechMan was unsuccessful in finding other local papers. However, there are many papers throughout the country that have archives available on Google.

Another reader wrote in and said she could not find a link to the microfilm archives on the Post-Gazette Web site. That is because there is not one -- yet. Stay tuned.

And finally, a reader wrote to ask why she has to pay for certain stories. Starting in 1990, the PG had a third-party vendor digitizing content. For those articles, there is a charge. But beginning in 1998 and after, an increasing number of articles became available free through Post-Gazette.com.

I hope this has helped. Meanwhile, TechMan is heading for the digital attic to read about great Pirates victories of 1919.

Are electronics necessary?

It seems to me that one thing that will emerge from the current economic downturn is some idea of how deeply certain technologies have wormed their way into our everyday lives.

Although the current traditional wisdom is that all electronics sales will suffer as people have less disposable income, it will be interesting to see which technologies hold up best. My guess is that cell phones and televisions will do OK because they are viewed as necessities. Few people faced with replacing their phone or TV would decide to do without. However trading in an iPod for one with more storage or new features might not be as popular in hard times.

There are some fringe technologies that won't do so well, I think. Among these are Blu-Ray players and satellite radio. They are looked on as things we can do without.

There are some who say that entertainment goods always do well in a downturn because when people have less money they like to treat themselves with relatively inexpensive items like music CDs or DVDs. That remains to be seen.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how things shake out -- which items have turned from gadgets into necessities.

Steampunks mix history, technology and science fiction

TechMan has always had a soft spot for eccentrics, maybe because his interests tend toward the eccentric.

One of those interests is science fiction and the various subcultures it has spawned. There are the Trekkies and the Star Warsians and the cyberpunks.

One of the most unusual and inventive subcultures is the Steampunk movement. Steampunk mixes technology with history and manifests itself in literature, fashion and even music. Steampunk says, "I want to go back to the good old days, but I want to take my laptop with me."

The most popular Steampunk theme is imagining what Victorian times, particularly Victorian England, might have looked like had it had modern technology. Or the other way around, what technology would look like had it existed in Victorian times. So these folks build computers with typewriter keyboards and monitors trimmed in brass.

Steampunk grew out of science fiction of the 1980s and 1990s. The works of Frenchman Jules Verne and Englishman H.G. Wells have been grandfathered in. The time machine as depicted in the 1960 movie of the same name was a very Steampunkian creation.

In the late 1970s, modern works of Steampunk science fiction began to appear. This was coincident with the rise of the cyberpunk genre, one of TechMan's interests, with its view of a dystopian future. Although influenced by cyberpunk and appealing to some of the same audience, Steampunk looks to the past instead of the future for its inspiration and is often less dark than cyberpunk.

Credit for coining the name Steampunk is given to science fiction author J.K Jeter, who was looking for a general term for a type of fiction that included his own 1979 work, "Morlock Night," and works by Tim Powers ("The Anubis Gates," 1983) and James Blaylock ("Homunculus," 1986).

With the 1990 publication of "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, in which they imagined that Charles Babbage had succeeded in building a mechanical computer in 19th century England and what that would mean, Steampunk moved more into the mainstream.

There had been other mainstream works with a Steampunk outlook, most notably the 1965-1969 "The Wild Wild West" TV series, a favorite of TechMan in his youth.

Every good movement must have a convention and Steampunk is no exception. The California Steampunk Convention 2008 (www.steampunk convention.com) will be held in Sunnyvale, Calif., Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. What better     way to celebrate Halloween?

The convention will feature a performance by leading Steampunk band Abney Park, named after a graveyard in London. Members of the Seattle-based band have adopted the persona of sky pirates aboard the airship Ophelia. There will be vendors selling custom-made goggles (antique-look aviator goggles are a big item in Steampunk couture), Victorian-era men's and women's clothing, beaded ribbon chokers, corsets, airship registry documents (dirigibles are also big) and other period items.

You can waltz and polka the night away at the Steampunk Ball to the music of The Brassworks Band and the whole weekend promises to have a "Vernian atmosphere."

If you can't make the convention, and apparently it sells out, you can go to etsy.com and search on "steampunk" for a selection of thousands of pieces of handmade jewelry, goggles, corsets and other period pieces for sale.

TechMan is seriously considering getting a pair of those goggles.

Tech Talk on frugality

Frugality will be the topic on the Tech Talk podcast this week. In tough times like these, how can you save some money on your electronics purchases? Jody, Tim and I will give you some ideas. The podcast is usually posted after 4 p.m. Monday at post-gazette.com/podcast 

Electronics downturn?

 The New York Times has an interesting article saying that it looks like sales of electronic equipment such as TVs, computers and other gadgets may be plunging this holiday season because of the economic conditions. That may mean bargains from stores desperate for sales but is not good news for the retailers.

Big spam bust

 The Federal Trade Commission has shut down what it described as one of the largest spam operations on the Internet. Court documents say that the group's Mega-D bot, named after one of the pills it sells, was composed of 35,000 computers that sent 10 billion pieces of spam a day.

Looking for a cheap entry into Blu-ray? Now's your chance.

Samsung's BD-P1500 isn't their top-of-the-line Blu-ray player, but a lot of folks seem to love it.  A recent firmware upgrade makes it BD-Live compatible, too.  It's been hovering around $300 for a long time, but you can now pick one up for a song (and the entire Matrix movie collection along with it if you act fast).  If I had a spare $215 lying around, it would be on its way to me now.

Then again, word on the street is that it'll be $100 cheaper on Black Friday.  That's pretty much the price difference of the Matrix collection on Blu-ray, so the choice is yours.

Photo courtesy of samsung.com