Archives for May, 2007

Flickr: Serving 12,000 Photos Each Second

The other night I was in the middle of doing some work on my Flickr account when all of a sudden it went down for maintenance. I knew it was going to happen because they notified users in advance, but I had just forgotten.

May 31st, 2007
Flickr: Serving 12,000 Photos Each Second

Fedora 7 Now Available – New Interface and Live CD

Fedora 7 is another Linux distribution which is managed by the Red Hat team. Unlike Red Hat, Fedora doesn’t cost a dime to use, and is really making some nice strides in the graphics area.

May 31st, 2007
Fedora 7 Now Available – New Interface and Live CD

Is your Spam Box Lighter today? Here’s Why…

If your spam box feels a little lighter today, now you’ll know why.  One of the top spammers in the world was recently arrested.

May 31st, 2007
Is your Spam Box Lighter today? Here’s Why…

Palm Foleo: The Linux-Based Notebook

The mobility that laptops offer these days continues to decrease as users want a more powerful computer to take with them. It is almost becoming second nature to lug around a notebook computer that weighs 8, 9, or even 12 pounds! Would you be willing to compromise some flexibility for an extremely ultra-mobile computer?

May 31st, 2007
Palm Foleo: The Linux-Based Notebook

Gates and Jobs Together Again, Watch the Full Video

There are some big things going on at the D Conference, with the highlight being the meeting of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates for a chat conducted by Walt Mosberg and Kara Swisher. Before I get to talking about the main event, lets take a look at some of the other things that had been going on there.

May 31st, 2007
Gates and Jobs Together Again, Watch the Full Video

Catch your Favorite YouTube Videos on Apple TV

One of the largest complaints among Apple TV fans and critics alike is that there has been no way to access other video content on the web.  Only media from a users iTunes library is available.

May 31st, 2007
Catch your Favorite YouTube Videos on Apple TV

Google Kicks Offline Apps Into Gear

Google is taking applications offline with a new project called Gears. It’s an open source browser extension that’s available for Internet Explorer or Firefox that enables online applications to come offline. The first example of this is Google Reader. For Opera and Safari users, they’re workin’ on it, but it’s not quite ready yet.

May 31st, 2007
Google Kicks Offline Apps Into Gear

CyberNotes: How to Print a Password Protected PDF

When it comes to PDF documents I’m not really one that likes to read them online. If they’re only about 10 or 15 pages I’ll go ahead and print them out to read later on when I’m away from my computer. However, some people remove the ability to print a PDF when it is created.

May 31st, 2007
CyberNotes: How to Print a Password Protected PDF

Windows Live Writer Beta 2: New Inline Spell Checking & Tables

The Windows Live Writer team just posted the Beta 2 which is now available for you to download. It has a handsome list of new features, but nothing I hadn’t really seen in a blog editor before:

May 30th, 2007
Windows Live Writer Beta 2: New Inline Spell Checking & Tables

Extensions Increase Firefox’s Vulnerability

A new Firefox vulnerability has been discovered, and this time it is quite a doozy. It affects many different extensions including Google Toolbar, Google Browser Sync, Yahoo Toolbar, Del.icio.us Extension, Facebook Toolbar, AOL Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar, LinkedIn Browser Toolbar, Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar, and PhishTank SiteChecker.

May 30th, 2007
Extensions Increase Firefox’s Vulnerability

Pandora or Last.fm – Which do you Prefer?

The big news today for Last.fm is that CBS has acquired them for 280 million! In their statement, CBS said that Last.fm fits well with their plan to attract a younger crowd (as though this isn’t obvious) to help transform CBS from a “content company” to an “audience company.” CBS has been on a roll lately by fully immersing themselves in Web 2.0 and all it has to offer.

May 30th, 2007
Pandora or Last.fm – Which do you Prefer?

iTunes 7.2 “Plus” Offers DRM-Free Music and Vista Compatibility

Apple has finally stepped up to the plate by offering a small taste of the high-quality (256 kbps AAC encoding) DRM-free music that we had all been longing for.

May 30th, 2007
iTunes 7.2 “Plus” Offers DRM-Free Music and Vista Compatibility

A Look at Google’s New “Mapplets”

Yesterday at Where 2.0, Google made the announcement that they were takin’ maps to the streets with their new street view functionality.  This new feature seemed to take all the spotlight and hardly any attention was given to “Mapplets” which was also announced.

May 30th, 2007
A Look at Google’s New “Mapplets”

Firefox 2.0.0.4 and 1.5.0.12 Released (End-of-Life for 1.5.x)

Today is a big day for Mozilla because it marks the last version of Firefox 1.5 that will ship. Last month Mozilla kindly extended the "end-of-life" date from April 24, 2007 to today in order to get one final release in.

May 30th, 2007
Firefox 2.0.0.4 and 1.5.0.12 Released (End-of-Life for 1.5.x)

Microsoft’s Surface Computer Has the “Wow” Factor

Surface Computing is a project that’s been in the making over at Microsoft for several years now, and just last night Microsoft filled everybody in on all of the details regarding their Tabletop Computer (also code-named Play Table). The videos that are included at the bottom of this post do most of the talking, and after viewing them, I have to admit that this tabletop computer looks slick! It’s more intuitive than anything I’ve seen before, and I’d say without a doubt, surface computing definitely has the “wow” factor.

May 30th, 2007
Microsoft’s Surface Computer Has the “Wow” Factor

CyberNotes: Easily Configure Firefox’s “Hidden” Settings

At first glance it may seem like Firefox lacks a lot of configuration options, hoever, much of the fine tuning lies underneath. Most Firefox power users will know about the about:config window which can sometimes be a tedious tool ,but there are a lot of customizable options located there.

May 30th, 2007
CyberNotes: Easily Configure Firefox’s “Hidden” Settings

Heads Up: Termination Date in 2 Days for Vista Beta 2, RC Users

Ever since May 18th, users who were still running Vista Beta 2, RC1, or RC 2 started receiving warning notifications about the upcoming expiration.

May 29th, 2007
Heads Up: Termination Date in 2 Days for Vista Beta 2, RC Users

Microsoft Shows off their 3D Maps

Microsoft is refusing to be shown up by Google today with the Street View maps, so they too have launched a big addition to their Virtual Earth 3D mapping solution. Unlike Google Earth, Virtual Earth is not an entirely separate application. It is an addition to the Internet Explorer and Firefox Web browsers which adds 3D viewing capabilities for Windows Live Maps.

May 29th, 2007
Microsoft Shows off their 3D Maps

Free iPod Games are up for Grabs, sort of…

If you’re not the owner of a fifth generation iPod, you’re probably not aware that you can actually buy games from iTunes made especially for the iPod. If you do have a fifth generation iPod, you may have paid $4.99 for one of your favorite games like Tetris or 256 levels of Ms. Pac-Man.

May 29th, 2007
Free iPod Games are up for Grabs, sort of…

Google Takes it to the Street

Google has stepped outside (literally) with Google Maps by giving you a Street View of a few cities. It is actually pretty cool, and from the looks of it they must have mounted several cameras on top of a vehicle in a 360 degree fashion. Then as they drove along they snapped high-quality images to use with Google Maps. This is the result:

May 29th, 2007
Google Takes it to the Street