Woot. We Bostonians are getting our very own Apple shrine store! Yes, we had ones in malls and stuff before, but this will be one of them 3 story glass cubes of a store, like the famous Fifth Avenue Store. Socool!
A Series of Tubes
An archive of old posts.
Tag Archives: Computers
Hackers are attacking the tubes!
Today the 13 Intertube root nameservers (the things that turn ip addresses into urls and vice-versa) were attacked by a few South Korean hackers, in an attempt to clog up the Tubes so badly we wouldn’t be able to use them. 3 of the servers were overwhelmed over a period of around 12 hours, but the other 10 were just fine, so nobody really saw any of the effects of this attack. Still, it’s apparently the worst attack against the Tubes since 2002. Huh.
His Steveness hates DRM just like the rest of us.
His Steveness posted an article on DRM (Digital Rights Management, the thing that prevents you from putting digital music on multiple computers, or listening to iTunes-bought music on anything but an iPod) on the Apple website earlier today. He says that there are only 3 ways Apple can go with the DRM from here:
or
He (and most of us, I think) states that the third choice is the best, since it would free up music a lot. He calls for the 4 major recording companies to abandon their DRM, and then Apple will drop the iTunes DRM, which would be awesome. This is actually a gutsy move by Apple, since if they did drop their DRM, they would possibly lose some of the people they currently have locked into iTunes and the iPod if their music was playable by other software and players.
I have one thing to say.
GO STEVE!
Windows Vista Unboxing
Well, I got all the pictures I took yesterday up on Tabblo, so here they are:
Yes, I know. There isn’t much of the installation, or any of the actual Vista, because I had to leave before it was finished. Oh well. I went back today and it really is as amazing as they say it is.
Windows Vista released to Consumers
Today Microsoft released the new version of their Windows Operating System, Windows Vista. I went with my friend Matt to pick up Ultimate Edition (he bought it, I don’t have that kind of money). I’m documenting it, and let’s just say it’s been an hour or so since we came back, and we haven’t gotten the installer started yet. Hmm. I wonder what that says about Vista? Just kidding. I’ll post the pictures when it’s fully installed.
Update: Almost 2.5 hours now, still no luck. We’re on the phone with the support person from Microsoft now…
Update 2: She sounds impressed that he built his own computer
Update 3: “You have to run the upgrade version by booting from the disc.” “I did.” *really long silence*
Update 4: Woot, It’s all installed now 🙂 He was running XP 32bit on a 64bit processor, and thus he was trying to upgrade to vista 64bit. Turns out that if you’re running XP 32, you have to upgrade to Vista 32, Vista 64 won’t work. Strange, but hey-it’s installed now.
Shivering Isles Might Make Me Buy Oblivion
So, there’s this little game out there called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which in reality is actually not very little at all. It’s actually gigantic, and very popular. It might have something to do with the weeks of gameplay content, the good storyline, and amazing graphics. But anyway, I haven’t gotten that interested in it since 1. it’s not really my kind of game (medieval fantasy hack&slash RPG), and 2. my computer can’t handle the über graphics.
Well, the second one can’t be changed, since my computer is a laptop, and a mac one at that, but the first one? Well, there’s an expansion pack that’s been recently announced, called The Shivering Isles, and I have to say, it looks like my kind of game. The world is supposed to be the creation of an insane god, hence the outlandish appearance. I think I’d really like this game, and its release might convince me to buy Oblivion.
Package #2 Part 2
Well, here’s the scoop on the mysterious Package #2. It’s a Dell 228WPF LCD, or a 22″ widescreen computer monitor.
Now, I knew a 22″ monitor would be big. But I really wasn’t expecting this. This thing is a BEAST. It dominates my desk, blocking out my view of half the things near the back (Including my ’84 Macintosh 🙁 ). Not that this is a bad thing, as the 1680×1050 resolution gives me a ton of screen space to utilize, and is just mouthwatering to look at.
I took a bunch of pix of the unboxing process and put ’em all on tabblo, check ’em out:
Package #2
The even awesome-er package that I discussed in my previous post just came, and it is indeed even awesome-er. More information to come in a bit, but for now here’s a teaser:
iPhone Followup
Well, it’s been a while since I posted anything. Last time I talked about the iPhone, and how awesome it is. Well, now I’m going to do a (sadly) negative post about the same phone. It has to be done.
So, the downsides of the iPhone. First of all, the keyboard. All the people (very few, but still some people) who used the iPhone said that the on-screen keyboard was tricky to use, and a bit unresponsive. I think Apple would have been better off putting a slide-out keyboard on it, because despite the fact that you cannot change the functions of hardware-based buttons, you can pretty much assume things that need a keyboard will be ok using that keyboard.
Next, the screen. That thing’s going to get scratched.
The back. It’s part white, part black, all wierd-looking.
The camera: 2 megapixels. This isn’t horrible, but it’s not very good for a smartphone camera.
And of course, the price. $499 or $599 for the phone, but if you add on the voice and data plans you’ve spent over $1000 in the first year. While this is average for a smartphone, and this phone is (despite its faults above) much better than an average smartphone, it’s still extremely pricey.
Oh well, I wasn’t planning on getting one anyway.
The iPhone Released
Well, new iPod/gadget from Apple Inc. (no longer Apple Computer Inc.) is here (or actually, it’s been announced. It’ll be here in June), and it’s called the iPhone. The name is a bit deceiving, since it’s really a lot more than just a phone, it even tops most of the smartphones out there (think Blackberry, Treo, etc.).
So, the features. It is a phone, yes. It lets you make calls at the touch of a button (a virtual button, the thing is like one giant touchscreen), and access your “visual voicemail”- a list of the missed calls with voicemail messages attached. That way you don’t have to listen to all the previous saved messages to get the one you want, just scroll until you find it. It also lets you access your e-mail (via any IMAP or POP3 e-mail service), send SMS text messages, and all that jazz that phones do. It also has a 2 megapixel (better than the built-in iSight and most other webcams, also currently the highest megapixel count in a cameraphone) camera in the back.
Aside from the standard phone features, the iPhone acts as a full-screen iPod as well. It allows you to scroll through the menus of artists, albums, songs, etc. by “flicking” the screen up, as if you were dragging it. One tap, and the song starts playing, with standard iPod UI. It shows the album art, as well as all the other album art you have, and lets you flip through the art like in iTunes 7. If you turn it on its side, the picture on the screen rotates to landscape view. Video? It does that. It shows video in landscape mode by default, on its 3.5″ 340×480 screen.
The iPhone does internet, too. It comes with both WiFi and EDGE (so you can connect to the internet anywhere you get phone coverage, basically), as well as Bluetooth compatibility for the new wireless headphones (mad ugly, in my opinion) that come with it. The iPhone has its own version of Safari built into it, and supports syncing of your bookmarks from a Mac or PC.
It comes in both 4gb (at the standard inflated Mac price of $499) and 8gb (again, $599) models, and should be released this June.