What is Apple TV? If you want to watch movies, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts, and photos from your computer on your TV? Apple TV brings iTunes movies and music to your widescreen.
$299
A video showing a plugin designed to bring YouTube videos to your Apple TV is online.
Can't find a link to the actual plugin and everything I read mentions that it will be posted soon.
In follow up to our story last week about Microsoft claiming Linux violates over 200 of it's patents
Changes to the next version of the GPL (Gnu Public License, what makes Linux free) along with Microsoft/Novell's Linux vouchers could grant immunity to all Linux users
The vouchers were put into place by a deal between Microsoft and Novell (makers of the SuSE Linux Desktop) to help bridge a gap and offer immunity to customers of Linux. Though the deal was heavily frowned upon by the Linux community, it could be what in fact be the biggest help with the patent arguments
Intellectual Property Indemnification - Some companies may not be aware that they are liable for "unauthorized" use of the intellectual property rights contained in software. To help protect organizations from the risk of litigation, Microsoft provides uncapped monetary intellectual property indemnification on server and client software. In contrast, Linux and other open-source software vendors provide limited, if any, indemnification coverage.
OpenOffice is a free office suite that can be downloaded at OpenOffice.org. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and even presentation program. All for free and open sourced.
Worm that attacks OpenOffice like the worms that hit Microsoft Office
Cross platform, so even Linux users are not safe
While the worm is simply a proof of concept, it is nice to know that someone is looking at the security of OpenOffice products. The more people find holes, the quicker those holes can be fixed.
I would not be surprised if the folks at OpenOffice have this hole patched soon.
Seems pricey, but that is for movies released in theaters, that day
You will be able to watch a movie just released in theaters in your home
Downside is the $50 price tag, but it is a good start. Though in the article the president of Comcast said studios were willing to go as low as $30, which makes this a MUCH better deal than going to the movies.
Meebo's core product is a browser-based IM platform, allowing people to use multiple IM accounts on the one webpage. Meebo has 2 million registered users and gets about 1 million sessions and 100 million messages per day. According to the press release, meebo rooms "are places where people can chat and view media live with IM buddies, both inside meebo.com and across the Web on their own pages." Meebo has partnered with a number of content providers - including blip.tv, Capitol Music Group, CNET Networks, NBC Universal, and others. They are launching with pre-assembled meebo rooms from the 14 initial partners, with more to come. Techcrunch has more info on the features,
Change 3 light bulbs that are on for more than 4 hours to compact fluorescent bulbs
Set your Water Heater temp to no higher than 120 degrees
Drive 10 miles less per week
Replace old TV with Energy Star TV
Unplug electronics when not using them
Insulate your water heater
Security & Privacy
Run as Non-Admin User in Windows
Running as a non-administrative user is what gives Linux and Mac OSX some of its security
In Windows you run as an Administrative user, pretty much all the time. In Windows XP, the first account you type in, is an admin on the box and has access to the entire OS and it's registry. As well as the files on the hard drive.
Windows Vista kind of handles this with something called User Access Controls (UAC) but what about Windows XP Users?
Koby has gone completely Linux in his House and as a result, he has been utilizing many resources to get some of the latest & greatest Linux software installed.
Stories linked to an HD-DVD decryption code were posted to Digg
Digg removed them upon receiving a "cease & desist" order
The Digg community claimed censorship and revolted, linking to multiple sites with the code and then ensuring they all got to the front page (image )
Kevin Rose (creator of Digg) eventually made a blog post, claiming "we hear you" and that they will not remove anymore stories related to the code, even if it means Digg getting shut down.
Ever gone to play a game, had your fun, then got back to your desktop only to realize that your game resized your desktop and moved all your icons around? You probably spent a lot of time getting those icons where you like them. Enter DIManager X.
Allows different icon profiles for multiple resolutions/users
Optional Automatic Icon restoration on resolution change
Self install, no entries to your Windows registry or hard disk (aside from you unzipping it)
People often laugh and Derek and I for being so security cautious, but being secure in your online activities is important
The good folks over at eWeek have a nice slide show that goes over 12 common things people do that are un-secure.
Let's go over some of these and we will also give you some quick tips on how to fix them.
"Equal Access" = Not logging out of a public computer properly allowing others to come along later and read your email, check your back account, or some other website you looked at
Fix this by making sure that you log out of websites throughly when accessing them from a public computer (internet kiosk or library computer)
"Don't Leave Home Without it" = Not encrypting the hard drive on your laptop that you carry around with you and contains all your personal data.
Download a hard drive encryption program like TrueCrypt or if your OS has it built in (Windows Vista Ultimate has BitLocker) use the built in option.
"Keep Close Attachments" = Clicking on attachments sent to you in emails from people you do NOT know
If you do not know the person who the email is from, you are better off not even opening it. If you think you might know the person then you might want to call them or email them back and verify their identity.
"My Password is 'Password'" = Having nonsecure passwords or having a secure password and leaving it written down somewhere by the computer.
Use a password locker like KeePass to create and store secure passwords for the different websites and accounts you log into.
Xbox game was beautiful, this just makes it more pretty
Hopefully this is a forerunner to a new Ninja Gaiden game
If you have the Xbox version there is nothing new here, just upgraded graphics.
Editorial ("Power Up")
DRM, DMCA, Censorship, and You Discussion
In reference to our story about Digg censoring stories we had at the beginning of the show we though we would discuss these issues
Definitions
DRM = Digital Rights Management
DMCA = Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DMCA makes it illegal to rip a DVD to your computer (even for back up purposes)
Also pulls into question the right to fair use (ripping your CD to an Mp3 player)
Makes reverse engineering of encryption technologies illegal
Should websites take down stuff that allows fair use?
What about if they are served with court documents saying they should?
Do you feel that if a site takes down stories or information like a code that allows you to decrypt your HD-DVDs effects the integrity of that site? Call us and let us know what you think. Do you have questions about this kind of stuff? Give us a call and we'll try to answer them.
A powerful alliance of politicians is arguing that out-of-state retailers must be required to charge sales taxes on purchases.
The political make-up of Congress, coupled with a recently invented sales tax concept, could tip the scales to make sales collection mandatory for out-of-state retailers.
Wikipedia says DNS stands for Domain Name System and stores many types of information with domain names. Most importantly it translates domain names (and computer hostnames) to IP Addresses.
Every web address has an IP Address, and DNS is used to tie that domain name to the ip address so when you type http://www.google.com it takes you to Google's IP address. Allowing us as humans to remember names and words rather than addresses like 208.69.32.230.
Must have an OpenDNS account. Account is free but requires email address for confirmation
Service is Called "Shortcuts"
This service allows you to create one word shortcuts to your favorite websites
These shortcuts allow you to type the shortcut into the address bar to access the site rather than a bookmark or full URL
Requires you be logged into your OpenDNS account via the web for the shortcuts to work
To get the most out of OpenDNS and Shortcuts You need to modify your DNS information for your network connection
Simple instructions for modifying DNS given after you confirm your account via email
Instructions for Linux, Windows, Mac, and even Routers are given in nice screenshot detail
Advantages to using OpenDNS
Phishing Protecting. OpenDNS blocks Phishing websites so when you goto a website that is for Phishing you get a nice little image that says the site is blocked via OpenDNS
Faster Name resolution.
When you type in http://www.google.com, your DNS server (usually your internet provider) has to resolve the ip address associated with the name
OpenDNS has a large cache of resolutions and keeps them updated
Last but certainly not least, Typo Correction.
For example if you type in www.gogle.com OpenDNS will correct it to www.google.com
In Conclusion, if you are comfortable with following directions to make some changes to your system, you can really benefit from OpenDNS.
On October 17, 1949, Frederic Chopin, one of the most influential composers for the piano, succumbed to sickness and died at the young age of 39. Three hours prior to that, in the world according to this RPG, Chopin saw a dream of a fairy-tale land populated by people with incurable diseases but also magical powers. Eternal Sonata takes place in this dream world. Chopin comes into contact with Polka, a young girl who resides with her mother in the village of Tenuto. Polka is near her death, and Chopin, Polka, and her young friend Allegretto as they look for some way to make use of Polka's great powers to help save her. It's a whimsical fantasy, but this RPG designed by developer tri-Crescendo also a complex and combo-based battle system of swords and magic weaponry. In keeping with inspiration, music and story play a big part in Eternal Sonata. Performing the piano numbers that Chopin left to the world is Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin, with musical composition by noted game composer Motoi Sakuraba.
DNA exonerates a man after serving 25 years for rape
A man who spent 25 years in prison for rape was exonerated Monday as a judge threw out his convictions because DNA evidence showed he couldn't have committed the attack. An advocacy group said it was the 200th such case.
Jerry Miller smiled and the courtroom erupted into cheers after Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane G. Cannon read the ruling that cleared him of all charges.
Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery even though he testified he was at home watching television at the time of the 1981 attack.
Mark Ertler, deputy supervisor of the Cook County state's attorney's office DNA review unit, told the Chicago Tribune that the case was "a good example of what the DNA unit was intended to do."
To See What Michael and I are blogging about: click on the links to our blogs at the Power of Information website
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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
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...
Downside is that not every application has an open source alternate that is available on all operating systems
Quick Note: AMD has cut prices on their Dual Core processors bringing the 3Ghz 6000+ processor under $250. Great time to build a new PC or upgrade an older one.
Security & Privacy
This past Tuesday was Microsoft's Monthly Patch Tuesday
Some major fixes to bugs that allowed unrestricted access to computers
Make sure you run your Windows updates.
Running your windows updates will help ensure that you keep your computer safe. While it will not fix everything it will help.
Created by the same people who brought us Skype and Kazza
Currently Invite Only, it's basically IPTV, but actually P2PTV. P2PTV uses BitTorrent to stream the shows
You upload as you download
If no "seeders" available, then you're grabbing from Joost's own servers
Viacom has already signed a content deal with Joost bringing shows from MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central to Joost. Currently lots of music videos
The interface is slick, this is what an IPTV application should look like.
Typical interface features, pause, play, fast forward, rewind
Can search for content
Ability to change channels and program on the fly
Channel Chats so you can chat with others watching the same channel as you
Majorly bandwidth intensive and CPU intensive at times. On my 2Ghz (non-64 bit) with 2GB or RAM I had the occasional application lag
Occasional Commercial before getting to actual selected program, short and to the point though
Why is Joost Important
Proves the IPTV concept. People are chomping at the bit to get Joost Invites
Gives content makers a viable over the internet solution to distribute content
With Joost proving that you can deliver video over the internet and have it generate revenue, others are sure to follow
Something like this was needed to handle the proof of concept. Joost is the forerunner in the game and first to market. Because of them we can bet that we will see more companies try to harness the power of internet video distribution
What Joost is not
Joost is not a replacement for television. While they have gotten content from Viacom, the selection is limited.
This distribution model is not going to work great with longer videos. Due to the P2PTV technology longer films will be harder to watch since you'll need to download a considerable amount of content before you can watch a movie smoothly
