Sunday, April 22, 2007

Show #26 - 04.22.2007



[Download Show #26 as MP3]

News
  • Ubuntu 7.04 arrived this week
    • RC Canidate not final.
    • New version of the Gnome Desktop (2.18)
    • New version of XOrg Server
    • Better support for Video Card Drivers (Nvidia and ATI)
    • I've been running this version for a couple of weeks now and love it.
    • Linux is still not quite ready for the desktop, but man has it come a long way
  • NAB This Past Week
    • Apple
      • Final Cut Pro (Upgrade $499)
        • Format Hoe
          • Mix multiple formats on the timeline
          • Uncompressed 1080p footage
          • Support for 4k footage / ProRes (Oakley's Red)
      • Motion 3
    • Oakley: Red
  • New UI in Leopard
  • The Reason Mac OS X is late
    • 3) They have 6343 Get a Mac commercials left to film
    • 2) Apple employees are now working second jobs so they can afford an iPhone
    • 1) Vista sucks, there's no need to rush

Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks
  • Fotowoosh
    • Turn 2D images into a 3D model
  • Better Gmail Firefox Extension
    • Derek and I live in Gmail, and anything to make it better and more feature rich is fine by us
    • Adds Searches, Macros, Label Colors, and other Cool features
  • Google Announces Docs Addition: Presentations
    • Very little is actually known about it at the moment
    • This addition has been long rumored (almost since Google announced Google Docs)
    • Excited to have one less thing to install on my PC
  • Top 50 Productivity Blogs
    • I have been on a productivity kick lately, attempting to find ways to be more productive in several aspects of my life
    • Includes some of my personal favorites: Lifehacker and 43 Folders
    • Some other notable mentions include
      • Web Worker Daily for the work from home folks
      • Get Rich Slowly for those in need of a financial tune up
  • Outcry for ATI Drivers for Linux
    • ATI is not the only one, Nvidia has yet to deliver stable SLI drivers for their cards
    • Cards run hotter and louder than in windows
      • 65 C in Windows
      • 84 C in Linux
    • OpenGL performance is slow
      • Doom 3
      • Quake 4
    • Missing Overlay Modes
      • For watching video
    • X-Video Instability
      • You can use OpenGL output to bypass but you miss the Avivo layer which offers some post-processing and results in video that is a bit blockier, not a big deal for smaller lower res monitors.
    • Missing Extentions
      • Transparency
      • Pixel Texture Mapping

Penny Pinchers
  • Websites to Help You Save Money And Even Make a Little Too
    • The Simple Dollar
      • Main Focus is Tips on frugal living
      • Some look on investing
      • Primarily follows the Dave Ramsey style of personal finance, but throws in others
      • Great reviews on financial books
    • Get Rich Slowly
      • More focus on investing money
      • Occasional tips on frugal living
      • The idea here is smart monetary decisions that make you rich over the long term
    • Ben Stein's How Not To Ruin Your Life (Yahoo Financial Blog)
      • The Clear Eyes guy, really is rich
      • 18 month emergency fund
      • Written several books on investing
      • Great articles that look at a wide range of financial topics

Security & Privacy
  • Caught downloading?
    • Using the Gnutella or eDonkey network
      • File Sharing Monitor run by Logistep AG
        • How it works
          • Runs a search for the file just like you would and collects the IPs of the machines that are returned
          • The client requests to download a piece of the file from the host that was found through the search
          • The filename, size, IP address, P2P protocol, P2P application, time, and the username are inserted into a database, if the host permits the download.
          • The application does a WHOIS search for the ISP information and automatically inserts that into the database as well and sends an infringement letter to the ISP if needed.
        • The claim is that its foolproof and can provide "forensic-quality" evidence to a court
        • The question remains whether an IP address is sufficient evidence to sue a person, recent cases suggest that the RIAA and MPAA have needed more evidence than that...
        • Discuss wireless network security.

Gamer's Corner
  • Sony Discontinues the 20GB Playstation 3
    • US Only, Japan will still get 20GB goodness
    • 20GB does not have WiFi built in
    • 20GB never released in Europe
    • Basically, we Americans prefer bigger and better
  • Why the Wii has only a wee-bit of flash
    • Ancient Flash 7 instead of up-to-date Flash 8 or 9
    • Basically to run Flash outside of Windows, Linux, or Mac you need the Flash SDK (controlled by Adobe)
    • They have not released Flash 8 or 9 in their SDK

Editorial ("Power Up")

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