[Download Show #22 as MP3]
News
- Palm Inc. may be taken over this week for as much as two billion dollars. (Reuters / Unstrung.com)
- Potentially by Nokia or three other bidders
- Makers of the Zire, Tungsten PDA, Treo smartphones and the LifeDrive
Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks
- Don't Copy That Floppy campaign from 1992
- Apple TV Now Shipping
- Specs Here
- 40GB Hard Drive
- Ethernet Wired/Wireless
- Supports Resolutions 1080i/720p/480p
- HDMI and Component Outputs
- Syncs with iTunes so you are not streaming DVD quality videos across your network in order to watch them
- If you are purchasing TV/Movie content from the iTunes Store, this is a great way to watch those videos on your TV
- Rolling Your Own Devices
- Media Center PC
- Tivo costs 16.95/month (minimum) + The Purchase of the Box ($99-$799)
- Building Your Own Costs $500-$700 but no monthly fees
- Hauppauge PVR cards
- 64-bit Motherboard/Processor Combo Deals as low as $100
- 500GB and larger Hard Drives getting lower in price
- Initial Upfront Cost is greater, but long term savings are better
- Setting up the computer to respond to a remote control
- Some Great How-Tos on Internet
- Engadget - 1 year old, a little pricey, but allows for future growth. The parts used probably cost at least 1/3 less now
- Extreme Tech
- Ram Electronics - A budget solution, great parts but low on drive space (thus limited recording)
- Software Alternatives to Windows Media Center
- File Server
- Hard Drive costs getting lower everyday
- Depending on how much you want to spend you can get larger capacities and more reduntency than an large external hard drive.
- A more realistic solution than buying lots of external drives.
- Utilizing Linux as the base OS means not having to pay for another copy of windows.
- Linux Journal's How-To
- Some points to consider
- Shares created on a linux file server can be accessed via Windows, Apple, and Linux PCs
- Shares created on these servers can be reached from a media center PC, to play movies, music, and look at photos.
Security & Privacy
- How the NSA Secures their Computers
- Guides for various Operating Systems
- Windows XP, Server 2000, & Server 2003
- Apple OSX
- Sun Solaris
- More for the Enterprise world
- Handles Active Directory Group Policies
- Active Directory
- Group Policies
- Strong Password recommendations
- Remember last 24 passwords
- Max. Password age is 42 days
- 7 character length minimum
- Complexity requirements
- This is a pretty intense setup, but it is fairly secure. Also, this is a guide, and everything covered in the guide might not be usable or even neccasary for your environment but it is something to look at for a solid security foundation.
- A good backup strategy
- The Story:
- Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroy hours of work.
- Imagine wiping out a disc drive containing an account worth $38 billion.
- While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account — one of Alaska residents' biggest perks — and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.
- There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable.
- The only backup remaining was the paperwork itself — stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.
- Half a dozen seasonal workers came back to assist the regular division staff, and about 70 people working overtime and weekends re-entered all the lost data
- According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure.
- The department is asking lawmakers to approve a supplemental budget request for $220,700 to cover the excess costs incurred during the six-week recovery effort, including about $128,400 in overtime and $71,800 for computer consultants.
- For the less math-willing, that's $420,900 or about two shakes from half-a-mil, ooch!
- The Moral:
- Realize that its not "if" a hard drive will break, its "when" a hard drive is going to break.
- Don't just do backups, test them -- make sure an actual restore is going to work when you need it.
- PS3 Firmware v1.60 Released
- Released this past Thursday
- Folding@Home protein folding (distributing computing) for Stanford University
- Full On Screen Keyboard
- Remote Play with PSP vis Wireless AP
- Background Downloading for Playstation Store (FINALLY!)
- Unfortunately Sony keeps promising these big updates and other than the background downloading, not super impressive.
- Engadget confirms with "trusted sources" that Microsoft intends to release the "black Xbox 360" which will be dubbed the Xbox 360 Elite
- Limited quantities (couple hundred to several thousand)
- The case, controller, and Live headset will all be black and come in new packaging
- Will cost $479 and will be a thrid SKU, it will be sold alongside Premium and Core
- Elite hardware (in white) will take the role of Xbox Premium (basically after Elite is launched and sold out, Xbox Premium will have 120GB / HDMI)
- No word on when that will be, but its loosly estimated to tbe late summer or fall.
- Elite models run cooler than 360s, but they are NOT confirmed to have the new 65nm chips
- Prices may remain the same with the 120GB / HDMI hardware upgrade in the Premium Xbox, but you may still see a price cut on the line when 65nm chips start shipping.
- The HD DVD drive will NOT be internal or bundled -- Microsoft never did nor does not currently have plaes to put an HD DVD drive in the 360
- There are no current plans to integrate WiFi into the Elite or future Premiums (although that can always change)
- According to a comment on the forums of Engadget by I agree with CharlieX who wrote, "I don't know if it's a sign, but if [Microsoft] is unwilling to put a HD-DVD in their box, do they know something we don't?"
- Microsoft Goes After Playstation's Big Three
- The Games:
- Metal Gear Solid
- Final Fantasy
- Why might they succeed?
- Unlimited funds
- Larger user base than PS3
- PC Gaming Standard - Gamix
- Tomlinson - Windows Admin.
- Not a console, rather a specification.
- 1.8 Ghz, 512 MBs of RAM, 128 MBs of video RAM, a DVD drive, and four USB ports.
- Games:
- No Gravity
- Kiki the Nano Bot
- Slune
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