Archive for June, 2007
Shrek The Third
Jun 30th
Once upon a time. A third time. In a kingdom far far away. Again. This time the King Frog is dying, and Shrek and Fiona are the next in line to run the show. Shrek is not that happy about this idea, and Fiona has a some what serious proposal as well.
While having arrived yesterday, I went to the cinema with my housemates today. I have to say that it was quite enjoyable, and definitely had some great laughs, in my opinion, and cannot top the second movie of the franchise. However, it’s still great, and worth the money nonetheless. If you haven’t seen it yet, I won’t spoil it for you, but don’t give a dime about what the critics say about it.
Ranking: 7 / 10
Opinion: worth the money, but does not entirely live up to the hype.
iPhone: First impressions
Jun 30th
20 points of disappointment, all of which are totally valid.
1. Bluetooth is ONLY good for connecting a headset. That’s it.
2. There is no file browser on the device at all. Data must be organized (if at all) in the appropriate application.
3. The camera is a simple application that has ONE button: the shutter. Pictures come out okay on the device, but nothing too fancy on a monitor, especially if it was an attempt at a macro shot.
4. SIM card is damn near impossible to open, if at all. I didn’t look into it extensively.
5. Web browser is slow, even over WLAN. Even the simple OneList web app that was created takes around 20 seconds to load over WLAN. You can not highlight, cut, copy, or paste and text from a website, and you can not save any images you find from a website either. The only nice thing about it is the tabbed browsing, which crashed on me when I went to Engadget and YouTube on two tabs. This is the only application that allows you to use the keyboard in landscape mode.
6. The keyboard sucks. It gets slightly better after the iPhone “learns” you, as the employees said, but even then, it’s not a device you can use with one hand comfortably, much less without looking.
7. You can only send one picture at a time in an email.
8. No custom ringtones (yet, as we were being told) and the alert tones can not be changed whatsoever.
9. The default ringtones are incredibly lame.
10. The only form of customization outside of a lame default ringtone is the wallpaper, which you’ll only see when you need to unlock the device or when you get a phone call.
11. “Picture pinching” or using two fingers to zoom on any content is certainly fun to play with, but not practical whatsoever. This operation depends solely on using the device with two hands.
12. No document editor or native viewer. You can not store documents on the device to be viewed, they can only be viewed as attachments when they’re sent to your in an email.
13. Visual voicemail is laggy and reacts about the same way as pushing the fast forward and rewind buttons on traditional voicemail systems. The only advantage is for those that get that many voicemail messages a day that they need to sort them according to priority.
14. NO games. None.
15. No voice dialing.
16. No speed dialing (which can be made up by the “quick list”, but getting to that quick list isn’t as fast as holding a single key on a real keypad).
17. No video.
18. No MMS.
19. It’s still <4GB for $500 and <8GB for $600
20. It only takes around 2 hours to explore every menu without any options for expandability except to scrounge around for new web apps that will load slowly and nowhere near as smoothly as the native apps.This device looks like it was aimed at the general consumer who has the money to spend on such a flashy device, but it leaves so many basic features behind that it’s almost impossible to consider it a success as a mainstream device. It encourages the advanced user to move away from MMS and into email to send images, but leaves out any advanced features advanced users would be accustomed to, and still retains a huge price tag on top of it.
It’s certainly pretty and Americans will buy it because of that simple UI, but anyone who’s familiar with other operating systems would be appalled. This phone needs to be unlocked and cracked WIDE open to make much better use of the multi-touch system. That, or it needs an immediate update in iTunes to rework every feature.
Liger – Leopard enabler for Tiger
Jun 30th
Admit it, the look of Leopard makes you want it more. Nice transparency menu, Spotlight looks slick, the dock is even more cool. Well, the first Leopard rip of the Theme has surfaced on DeviantArt, and is now available for ya pleasure.
iPhone activation issues
Jun 30th
So. The first even more Apple insane people than I am rushed into the several stores that premiered the mobile device yesterday at 6 PM, and which ran special shifts until midnight. In all stores the devices arrived under armed guard, just in case. Now that people have finally gotten their hands on it, they want to play around with it. But they can’t. Why? AT&T experiences some very original issues. As of this moment, the AT&T network for the iPhone is down.
You finally get your iPhone (after maybe waiting HOURS) and what happens during activation? Error city! Many people are reporting various errors… the one I have seen a couple of times is the following:
We’re sorry, AT&T has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone.
Other people are seeing this error:
Your activation requires additional time to complete.
Argg….
I called the support number. The lady there told us that they were having bugs with validation and that we should retry every 30 minutes or so until it works. What the heck kind of advice is that? Some people have reported that support at 1-866-907-3484 will correct it; however, that number is currently dead at 2225 EST.Some people at the store were discussing that they had been trying to activate the phone for the last two hours without success.
This thread at macrumors has a discussion about this issue as well…
Did I predict this or what?
Here is a screenshot of one of the errors.
During this time, you CAN sync your music library with your device. Just drag songs or playlists to your iPhone as listed under Devices in iTunes.
The mentioned screenshot can be seen HERE.
Macrumors also has a forum thread in which people are reporting their iPhone activation issues.
iPhone support is as mentioned now integrated:
STILL gonna get one?
PicLens
Jun 28th
PicLens delivers an immersive full-screen experience for viewing photos on the Web.
Current Supported Sites
* Flickr
* Facebook
* Google Images
* Yahoo Images
* Friendster
* Picasa Web Albums
* Media RSS (example, quickstart guide)
Enjoy these features in the free PicLens plugin
* Multi-page search on Google Images and Yahoo Images
* Multilingual full-screen search
* Jump from PicLens to the corresponding Web page
* View photos in full screen with a single click
* Play a slideshow of image search results and photo albums
* Sit back and explore photos with your Apple® remote
Mac OS X 10.4.x and Safari 2.0 or 3.0 required.
Mac OS X 10.5 not yet supported.
→ Version 1.5.3 now available.
iPhone not so ‘hyper hyper’ anymore
Jun 27th
So now it’s coming. In two days from now, the first stores in the USA will have Apple’s iPhone in the shelves from 6 PM. It’s got a 4GB and 8GB memory inside, so you choose you much space you want. It’s got this nice, super-cool Multi-Touch screen, with which you can zoom in and out pictures, browse through Cover Flow, navigate websites, read email and flick through Google Maps. All of these are the features that are delivered with the phone. Quite nice, I seriously have to admit. And until June 11, this phone was somewhat sexy and I was happily waiting for the next generation mobile device.
As the very last thing during the Keynote Address in the WWDC 2007 in San Francisco, Steve Jobs explained how developers could start to create their applications for the iPhone in this very moment.
This means: No SDK (Source Development Kit) for true software development
How does this affect the potential user?
- All “applications” can only run inside iPhone’s Safari. If they run there, they run in your Firefox, too.
- Once you got the device, you will be stuck forever with the things Apple supplies to you (except the updates Apple releases, or potential other software we don’t know of yet)
- You cannot install any other applications, such as games, or other instant messengers, or even movie players.
All of this is because Apple does not supply the necessary snippets of code required, to create programs for the phone. May I mention that the phone runs OS X, Steve? And may I also mention that Mac OS X evidently has and even ships with SDKs so that developers can actually develop software for it?
Despite the super duper critics the iPhone has earned just now, this tiny little fact, takes away a lot of “wow” factor on the mobile device.
What’s also taking down the euphoria are the price plans, that AT&T and Apple have announced. It starts at 60 Dollars per month with unlimited data and limited text messaging. All plans include unlimited data, but the rest appears to be pretty limited. Revolutionary mobile device?
So. iPhone won’t let you install any other software, because there is none. And cannot be, without an SDK. Despite the fact that it runs OS X, and I can imagine writing applications for it cannot be so hard as OS X is also a UNIX. Oh well.
One last thing…
Things the iPhone doesn’t have:
• Songs as Ringtones
• Games
• Any flash support (Wha…?!)
• Instant Messaging
• Picture messages (MMS) (WHA…?!?!)
• Video recording
• Voice recognition or voice dialing
• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP)
• One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)
Stuff we already knew it didn’t have
• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
• GPS
• A real keyboard
• Removable battery
• Expandable Storage
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)
—-
So… who’s gonna buy one, still?
Not me, that’s for sure… a Cover Flow iPod with Multitouch screen doesn’t help this time, Steve…
=(
It’s back and worse than ever!!
Jun 26th
And just when I thought that we all have seen the last of this guy. I talking about Haddaway. Yes. Maybe you remember this song ‘What Is Love?’ ? Yes. That’s the guy. And he is returning for a revenge to torture radio stations, speakers, car radios… and to round it all up, he has even made it into iTunes. Sounds unbelievable, but hear me my friends for I speak the truth. I saw it with my own eyes:
Novus Ordo Seclorum on the PSP
Jun 25th
The above latin sentence is always connected the alleged secret society which supposedly controls the world: the Illuminati. The sentence means ‘the new order of things’ or simply ‘new world order’.
Ever since the PSP came out, nifty hackers and programmers have always been trying to find a way to make copies of UMDs – which do not reside on UMDs, if you know what I mean – playable on the device, as you can store data on the memory stick. With the very first Firmware versioned 1.5 this apparently was no problem, but Sony kept on closing loopholes in the code. We are now at version 3.50, in time the firmware has gotten a lot of other features which the device did not have before.
But this comes at a price: You cannot downgrade the firmware, and you cannot play homebrew games on the device, for all loopholes allowing to do so, are closed. Or… so it seemed.
A new exploit has come to light, which fittingly has been named the “Illuminati” exploit. This exploit allows practically anything homebrew to run on the device, even on current firmware 3.50. This is a major boost forward, and will allow for a whole new way of games and applications that can be run on the mobile gaming device.
As of yet, the exploit doesn’t do much except look pretty, but as a start this certainly has proven that the device is still hackable, and can run other things as those Sony intends to.
The Illuminati Exploit running – “Paving the way to another new homebrew era”
Full article is here
Ubuntu is Windows Genuine
Jun 18th
I read Digg like two hours ago, and found a link that links into the Ubuntu forum, in which a user shares his experience of trying out Windows Genuine Advantage protected software via WINE on his Ubuntu system. With a little logic, you would think that doesn’t work. But:
Genuine Windows is Ubuntu
I just did this for a laugh and didn’t expect it to work. I went to microsoft.com using IE4Linux ( http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page ) and tried to download Windows Defender, on Xubuntu. Of course, I was asked to do the Genuine Advantage test. I used the alternate authentication method (IE4Linux doesn’t support Active X), downloaded and then ran the genuine advantage application (which took quite a while to start). It gave me a code that I pasted into the authentication box, and to my surprise it verified me and forwarded me to the download page. This just goes to show how rubbish they’re validation software is. I thought it was funny though, so I’ve uploaded a recording of it to rapid share, which you can get here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/37580147/recording.ogg
(the file is about 10MB, so it might take a while to get)
So there you have it. Ubuntu is Windows Genuine compatible.
Source: Digg article and Ubuntu forums: Windows Genuine is Ubuntu
Linux Admin?
Jun 13th
Chase Resourcing has had the following sign gain off and wanted to know if you are interested
ROLE: Senior Linux System Administrator
LOCATION: Dublin 1, Ireland
REMUNERATION: Oustanding salary + package available
DURATION: 12 Month Fixed Contract
Alright? Sounds nice, without a doubt. I read on. I came to the point, which outlines the required knowledge. Curiously, I found a list that has nothing at all to do, with the role advertised. Or maybe I missed something and all of Microsoft’s products are now open source and are based on Linux. Or maybe I’m just demented. I don’t know.
Ideally the person will be self motivated and have comprehensive knowledge and experience in the Microsoft Windows arena with expertise in some of the following disciplines:
1. MS Windows 2000/2003 Server,
2. Citrix,
3. IIS,
4. MS SQL,
5. HP Proliant and Blade technology,
6. Veritas Storage Management & Clustering,
7. MQ Series,
8. VMWARE, Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring,
9. Microsoft Operations Manager.The person must take responsibility for the systems under management or systems being implemented.
I don’t say anymore to that…