Firewire Updates Pass Information Like a Wild Fire
The IEEE 1394 first created by Apple, also known as “firewire” will at last be seeing an update that will really increase your data transferring speeds. There will be two new updates to the technology; one, S1600 will reach theoretical speeds of 1.6 Gb/s and the other, S3200 with a theoretical speed of 3.2Gb/s. The best part is that these will be backwards compatible with both the FW800 and FW400 standards. These should be hitting the market within the next couple months.
iTunes Update
iTunes 7.7.1 was released today as a free download. This update brings bug fixes and stability updates to the table. Good news and bad news with this. The good news; my iPhone now seems to connect to iTunes right away and syncs, something that had been very annoying prior to this update where I would have to wait for minutes for iTunes to recognize it. So for any of you with similiar problems this seems to be resolved.
The bad news comes to all of you iPhone users who have firmware 2.0 installed on your iPhones. The bug where iTunes “recognizes” fake updates from the app store seems to still be there. In fact, when I went to check my updates, it claimed I had one, then brought me to the update page where i have 21 updates! To be fair, most of these were actual updates, albeit they were all ones I had already downloaded. We might have to wait for the official 2.1 iPhone firmware before any of this is fixed. In the meantime, we can be glad that alteast when the phone says you have an update, you better believe you have an update.
Vista Deserted for…Mojave?
Here’s a new one for you. After all the bad press Microsoft Vista has been receiving since, well, since its release; Microsoft has finally stepped forward to change something. How have they decided to handle this? Well they have put together a very expensive advertising campaign and here’s what they have come up with.
Microsoft Mojave.
After taking some actors random people and putting them on a secret camera, Microsoft decided to find out what it is people hated about Vista. The funny part; not one of these people had ever used it (hell I never touch PCs and I’ve used it).
That soon changed. After being shown around Microsoft’s “newest” Operating System “Mojave,” users decided that not only did they love it, but they couldn’t wait to make there purchase. Boy were they ever in for a surprise when they found out that they were using none other than Microsoft Vista (gasp).
With that done, those people, right then and there, became Vista fans. If I was there, I still would have claimed it sucked; I guess that’s why I never made it past the auditions.
The next test? Next they will have random people on the streets install “Mojave” and see that the upgrade process really is much less of a struggle than with Vista…right.
So what have we learned from this? Well, Microsoft is worried that all the bad press going about from Vista will retard sales of the Operating System, and force downgrading to XP (which it seems many people are doing), or converting thousands of people to OS X (also what seems to be happening). Seeing as Vista has already been out for a year, I think this fear is a little “old school”. What should they really be worried about? All the people who use Vista calling them up wanting to try Mojave, the Microsoft OS that people, surprisingly, like. That should be the slogan. If you are in the mood for a good laugh, check out “The Mojave Experiment”
Windows Mojave- People actually like it…no, really!
Mobile Me Finally Goes Mobile?
After what has been about 2 weeks worth of problems coming from Mobile Me, Apple has declared they have finally fixed all the problems that had currently been plaguing about 1% of Mobile Me users including lost messages (which were restored), and long term email outages. However, if any of you are still having troubles with Mobile Me, Apple asks you to go to this direct chat line to get any issues resolved.
Although this has definitely been a horrible two weeks for Mobile Me users and Apple, it is good to see the problems have been taken care of, and we can now focus on the future of what we hope to be, a great product.
HOW-TO #1: Turn your PC into a Super Server
This HOW-TO will guide you through the simple steps of setting up Xampp on your PC, and making it public with Hamachi.
WHAT IS HAMACHI AND XAMPP ANYWAY?
Xampp—-Many people know from their own experience that it’s not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP, and Perl. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP, and Perl. XAMPP is very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.
Hamachi—Hamachi is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service that you can easily set up in 10 minutes. It enables secure remote access to your business network, anywhere there’s an Internet connection. It works with your existing firewall, and requires no additional configuration. Hamachi is the first networking application to deliver an unprecedented level of direct peer-to-peer connectivity. It is simple, secure, and cost-effective.
1) Visit http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
2) For now I am only working with windows. Click the windows download link.
3) Scroll down the page until you get to the ‘XAMPP for Windows 1.6.7, 2008/07/06′ line. Then, just below that, are three download links. Click the one called ‘ZIP’.
4)You’re taken to a SourceForge.net page, and the download starts automatically.
5) Press ‘ok’ and open the downloaded file. (I use winRAR)
6) Extract that lonesome Folder to your root (usually ‘c:\’)
7) Now open up your browser again and go to https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/list.asp to download Hamachi. Again, download the windows version.
8 ) After that is finished downloading, open it and click ‘run’. Follow the on screen prompts to install it. Do not disable vulnerable windows services, and go with the basic (free) version; it’s just as good.
9) After the program is installed and launched, a dark gray window will pop up with ‘0.0.0.0′ at the top, and another window called ‘Hamachi Quick Guide’ will pop up as well. Go through the steps in the quick guide. After you’ve completed the guide, you will have turned on Hamachi, given your self a nick name, received a personal IP address, learned how to create or join a network, learned how to toggle your status in a network, how to set labels, and how to block peers.
10) Go to your root drive and open your xampp folder. Run ‘xampp_setup.bat’. Then if you want to run the servers as services on your computer run the following bat files:
- C:\xampp\apache\apacheinstall_service.bat
- C:\xampp\mysql\mysqlinstall_service.bat
READ THE README FILE BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11) Make sure Hamachi is running. Open up your web browser and type in the Hamachi IP address. You should be taken to a splash screen with the Xampp logo on it. Click your language. You should be all set up.
12) Make a new Network on Hamachi, and nag your friend to get Hamachi and join your network. Once they join they can access your server too. You can put up some websites or put up a proxy page, (not to get around school fire walls of course 
)
*****to add web pages, just place the web page into the ‘C:\xampp\htdocs\’ folder*****
Is Cuil Really “Cuiler” than Google?
Last night, a brand new search engine was born into the interwebs. And Anna Patterson declared it to be named Cuil (pronounced “cool”). Anna Patterson was a leader in the Google take over of 2004, in which Google came to be the number one search engine. After quitting in 2006, and starting her own way to reach the depths of the Internet “better than Google can,” she started working on Cuil.
At first look, Cuil seems like a nice search engine. It claims to search 10x more sites than Microsoft, and 3x more than Google, by searching 121.6 billion web pages. Well I put it to the test and here’s a nice break down.
First off, there are several things that I do like about Cuil. It has a “spotlight” search like feature (for those using OS X) and gives you suggestions as you type. Within this feature, if you are looking for a website, the first result will be the website, and will take you directly there. When you view your search results, you can see them in either 2 colums or 3 columbus, both look fairly nice, and both include sample pictures of what you can find in those web pages.
When put to the test against Google however, I do not think Cuil is quite there. First I put it to easy tests. I searched for Cuil in both engines. Cuil found a bit over 120, 000 sites, none for the actual Cuil search engine (ironic)? Google came up with just over 700 000 sites, the first one being a news article, and the second one being the Cuil website.
Google 1, Cuil 0
Next, I did a search for something a tad bit harder; soccer stores, with my zip code. Well I was very disappointed with Cuil’s little results. In fact, there were no results. Google on the other hand not only gave directories and maps, but also the soccer league of my area. Oy.
Google 2, Cuil 0
Finally the last test. Something very obscure. An xammp server set (spelled wrong on purpose). Well this time Cuil did a bit better, coming up with an astonishing 2 results. The pictures it displayed all seemed to be a knife and spatula or other kitchen utilities, something that did leave me feeling just a little confused. To the rescue; however, was Google who came up with 230 000 results AND fixed my spelling.
Google 3, Cuil 0
With those very simple tests in place, I must say the only thing Cuil is good for right now would be taking you to your favorite website (you know, the one you have bookmarked already). And even then, it only beats the time it would take one to find that site on Google by a second, if that. Cuil may get there some day, but until it does, I will be sticking with Google as my primary search engine.
And here’s a bonus test. For those Mac users using Safari and have the Inquisitor plug-in, let us see which gives better results.
In a search for lyrics for the song, “Help I’m a Rock” by Frank Zappa, Cuil’s live search did nothing, and the actual search came up with 0 results until I used proper grammar (an apostrophe in I’m). With Inquisitor, “help im a rock” brought me straight to a lyrics site.
Inquisitor 1, Cuil 0
Scary Happenings in the Music World
Watch out fans of pirating music, you could be in for a surprise the next time you head to the airport to fly to your favorite destination.
Brought to my attention by Macenstein, it seems that fairly soon, airport officials may be screening your laptop and MP3 players for large quantities of pirated music. If a “commercial quantity” is found, your next destination may be prison, and you won’t need be needing a plane ticket there. I myself am not a fan of pirating music, however this seems like a step in the wrong direction. They should be working to prevent the actual pirating, as opposed to the already pirated. How they are planning on doing this, and how they will know whether the music is your or pirated I am not quite sure. Here is the article I read about this matter. Will they be able to tell the difference between all the CDs we own and ripped ourselves onto the computer so that we can listen to them on our iPods or other less decent products? So many questions, that frankly, I hope the world never needs to find out.
Although this is not the first time reading about this, it seems they have taken a step forward in the development of allowing this. More on this as it comes.
Cutlass the Movie
A “hidden” section of the iTunes store holds a small amount of free media. Here, you can download certain songs, TV shows, movie shorts, and making ofs. Recently, I downloaded a 16 minute movie called Cutlass. This free, short movie has many big names in. It was written and directed by Kate Hudson and stars Virgina Madsen,Dakota Fanning and, Kristen Stewart (who will be starring in the new Twilight films, based on the series), and Kurt Russel. The blurb about the movie made me not want to download it, but it was free, so I carried through anyway. After just watching it, I must say I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. It is about a woman who’s daughter wants a very expensive guitar. As she mulls over how expensive this guitar is, she remembers a similar experience she had with her dad when she wanted to buy a car. The simplicity of the film really only adds to the enjoyment. At only 16 minutes, I would recommend watching this film to anyone who is interested in seeing how such a simple idea can be so interesting, if executed correctly. Here is the iTunes store link.
How Tos
An upcoming “feature” that I will be adding here soon will be simple how tos. The general focus will have to do with technology, however nothing is out of the question. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment.
