Sunday, June 17, 2007

Show #34 - 06.17.2007



[Download Show #34 as MP3]

News
  • Apple WWDC News
    • Apple held it's annual development conference this past Monday we have a little bit of news
    • First off, the Mac browser Safari will be coming to Windows in an attempt to increase market share. You can download the public beta at http://www.apple.com/safari.
    • New Leopard features include full 64 bit, new & improved Finder, and CoverFlow for files within Finder.
      • There is also a new menu bar, dock, Multiple Workspaces (Virtual Desktops) something that's been in most Linux desktops for a while now (at least 5-6 years)
      • All in all, Leopard is reallying coming into its own, and it will be nice to see the final product when it comes out in October
    • Better Game Support
      • ID Software has developed a 3D Engine that looks beautiful on a Mac
      • EA Games releases some of their bigger titles to Mac
  • VmWare Fusion Beta & Parallels 3.0 for Mac Released
    • VMware Fusion Beta
    • Parallels 3.0
    • Both of these new products offer the ability to run Windows applications in OSX seamlessly.
    • What does this mean?
    • It means that you are no longer confined to one OS or the other on a Mac. You can run your Windows applications in OSX without having to reboot your computer and without being tied to a virtual computer window. Run the application on your OSX desktop as if it were started from within OSX without VMware or Parallels.
  • Substitute Teacher Gets Retrial
    • Quick Backgroud - A teacher was substituting at a middle school. Went to the restroom, came back to find the students gathered around a computer showing porn pop-ups. The computer illiterate teacher, had to get help from other teachers to get the popups to stop. She was eventually tried as though she had intentionally shown the popups and was to be sentenced to 40 years in prison.
    • It was discovered that the anti-virus software at school was out of date and no anti-spyware software was installed on any of the school's computers even though a school official stated "effective filtering software was in place at the time"

Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks
  • [Koby] OpenOffice for OSX - Alpha Version Released
    • Requires Java, does not require X11 to be installed
      • To get OpenOffice installed previously, you had to install X11 (X Windows), the Unix Windowing server, on your Mac. You don't need to do this any more.
    • Some early reports state that you can not print and that it crashes a lot
    • This an Alpha release. It is not something that should be installed on a production box and used regularly.
    • However, if you do take the plunge be sure to submit bug reports so that you can help improve the software
  • Build Your Own File Server
    • Bit-Tech has instructions on building your own Linux based file server
    • The instructions are fairly straight forward and
    • They help you do it using older hardware so you can do it with spare parts in your house or by purchasing outdated hardware.
    • They even show you what programs you can safely remove to free up some hard drive space
    • The final product is a "headless" computer that handles file serving, torrent downloads (legal of course), and (if you want it to) encoding of music and video files.
  • LaLa - Listen to Music for Free, Pay to Take it With You
    • All Web Based
    • Purchased Downloads work with iPod
    • Warner Bros. Music & Indie Labels
    • Sells music by album rather than per track
    • Currently only works on Windows & Macs
  • 13 Real Heists
    • Finally real quick, Ocean's 13 came out last weekend
    • If you enjoy the Ocean's movie series, you might want to check out a link we have on our show notes
    • It is a real quick read about 13 real life heists.
    • From the legendary to the obscure, it is a interesting read
Penny Pinchers
  • What Movie Critic to Listen to
    • When it comes to movies, it is difficult to choose what to see
    • You have the critics opinion and your friends' opinions to help you
    • But what critics should you listen to? Some of them couldn't pick a blockbuster if their lives depended on it
    • So the folks at WiseGeek made a little survey that will help you find a critic to go by.
    • You rate a selection of movies from 1/2-4 stars and click that famous "Submit" button
    • You get a percentile rating on which critic you can best listen to
    • How accurate is it?
  • Shop Once Eat for a Week
    • Everyone likes saving money. One of the things that costs money is eating. Especially if you work in a office, away from home
    • Going out to lunch 4-5 times a week can get costly depending on where you go and what you order
    • The magazine, Men's Health, has a nice article that will not only save you money on food but keep you eating healthy
    • The idea here is you cook a nice, wallet friendly dinner and use the leftovers to fix a lunch to take with you to the office.
    • The meals are great including Shrimp Fajitas, Roasted Pork Loin with Peppers, and Fiesta Rice Bowl.
    • So eat healthy and be kind to your wallet this week. The site includes a shopping list that you can print. The total cost of the ingredients is around $50 on average.

Security & Privacy
  • Dreamhost Leaks 3,500 Passwords
    • One thing that we here at Power of Information are big on is, Password Security
    • Two of our biggest pieces of advice are to have secure passwords and to change them regularly
    • We have discussed secure passwords numerous times, so rather than go over it again right now, check out our show notes from previous shows (Show 11 from January 2007)
    • One thing we have mentioned but not discussed in great detail is the "change them regularly" part
    • It is important to change your passwords regularly, annoying as it might be.
    • Changing your passwords regularly will make a password obsolete after a period of time
    • If your passwords become obsolete after a period of time, if someone gets a hold of your password, they can only use it for a short time.
    • KeePass, the password safe we have talked about on here on several occasions offers an option to have passwords expire after a certain length of time. You can modify this time frame as well as set different passwords to expire at different times.
    • Some passwords that you might want to change regularly include your Email, bank, and PayPal passwords. Any password that has access to money should be changed every 30 days for good measure.
    • Regularly changing your already secure passwords can help increase your password security and help protect you against password phishers/crackers.
Gamer's Corner
  • Assassin's Creed to Drop in November
    • Think Ninja Gaiden Black but with next gen graphics and gameplay
    • You can find a trailer for the game here
    • This game is gorgeous so be sure to check it out
  • Poker
    • Online Poker Companies
    • Will Online Poker Help You in Real Life Poker?
      • Bad Habits?
      • Practicing the When to Hold/Fold
      • Reading others?
    • Book Recommendations from Jess
      • Winning Low Limit Hold'em (Lee Jones)
      • Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em (T.J. Cloutier & Tom McEvoy)
      • Phil Gordon's Little Green Book (Phil Gordon)

Editorial ("Power Up")
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