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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Friday, December 05, 2003Let it snowOh, we're getting snow.
Thunderbird 0.4 RC2 released Within 24 hours of RC1, we now have Thunderbird 0.4 RC2. For more information, please see this post about what's new in RC2 and check out the preliminary 0.4 release notes. Again, good stuff and highly recommended. [ Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink ]
Thursday, December 04, 2003New MSN for Mac OS XMicrosoft has updated MSN for Mac OS X to address incompatibility issues with Panther. MSN for Mac OS X version 2.0.1 resolves the following issues: The software crashes when attempting to dial in the sign-up wizard; the software crashes after adding a new dial-up location; and over time, performance degradation may occur when browsing the Web. [ Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink ] Photoshop was created for STAR WARS Thanks Keith. Adobe's wildly popular Photoshop application was originally developed as part of the special effects efforts for Star Wars. According to MacWorld, "Photoshop was developed by Thomas and John Knoll. Thomas was a programmer, while John was in charge of special effects for the first Star Wars film. Brown confirms: 'Photoshop is here today because of that movie.' Thomas developed software to add effects and painting tools to images at John's request. [ Posted at 10:42 AM | Permalink ] Yet another reason Xbox is superior to the PS2 Apparently, the Xbox is bullet-proof. [ Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink ] Mozilla Thunderbird 0.4 release candidate available The first release candidate for Mozilla Thunderbird 0.4 is now available for download, along with separate extensions for offline functionality and Palm address book synchronisation. There are a lot of new features in this build, for more info, check out this Mozillazine.org posting. UPDATE: This thing rocks: It's great looking, fast, and works well. Highly recommended. [ Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, December 03, 2003Today's kids meet the games I played as a kidSigh. I'm so old. Check out this transcript from an encounter with PONG: Kirk: What is this? [Picks up and twists the paddle controller] Am I controlling the volume? Andrew: This is a lot like that game. Um, whatchamacallit—air hockey. Sheldon: Except worse. Andrew: Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip. Becky: I don't even see the point of having sound on this. Tim: My line is so beating the heck out of your stupid line. Fear my pink line. You have no chance. I am the undisputed lord of virtual tennis. [Misses ball] Whoops. [ Posted at 11:49 AM | Permalink ] What Michael Jackson should look like today Disturbing. [ Posted at 11:24 AM | Permalink ] Internet mapping project Now this is cool. A project to create a comprehensive graphical representation of the internet in just one day and using only a single computer has already produced some eye-catching images. [ Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink ] A little fun at RealNetworks' expense LOL. Why is this company still in business again? [ Posted at 11:13 AM | Permalink ] Here comes Battlestar Galactica Thanks Keith. The Media Center PC is all cued up, the original series DVD set is ordered, and the geekiness factor is hitting an all-time high: On Monday, Sci-Fi Channel will debut the new Battlestar Galactica mini-series, a "reimagined" version of the original starring Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Tricia Helfer (Cylon Number 6), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), and Grace Park (Boomer). From boingboing: "Forget what you've heard about complaints from fans of the original series -- the new version is nothing short of breathtaking, and lives up to its producers' promise to turn the science fiction TV genre on its head. The two-part miniseries was co-produced by David Eick and Ron Moore (Moore also co-wrote the screenplay), and masterfully, sensitively directed by Michael Rymer -- who is destined to become 'untouchable in five minutes,' according to a pre-screening quip from Eick. He's right. This stuff is the real thing." It better be. [ Posted at 8:50 AM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, December 02, 2003Symantec to offer free Panther-compatible upgradesSymantec informed me today via email that it will release updates to Norton Utilities 8.0 for Macintosh, Norton AntiVirus 9.0 for Macintosh and Norton SystemWorks 3.0 for Macintosh on December 22 to make these products fully compatible with Apple's new Panther operating system. Current users of these products can download the updates via Symantec’s LiveUpdate at no cost. Product replacement CDs will also be available in mid-January. Users can request replacement CDs by completing this form. Symantec will release Panther compatibility updates for Norton Personal Firewall 3.0 for Macintosh and Norton Internet Security 3.0 for Macintosh at the end of January. [ Posted at 8:55 PM | Permalink ] Meet the man behind OS X Panther Greg Joswiak, the man at Apple behind Panther and Apple's other desktop operating systems, is interviewed by the BBC. In WMV format, of course. LOL. (The BBC site was running quite slowly when I posted this.) [ Posted at 1:11 PM | Permalink ] Solution: Use Windows Macintouch is a usually-excellent source of information for Mac users, and a site I visit regularly. One post today, however, really struck a chord with me, as the solution to all of these queries is, quite simply, just use Windows. It's sad to think how many Switchers will have issues like these, after thinking they made the right decision: Several readers are looking for help finding Mac products to fill specific requirements: [Dayton Wittke] I am looking for suggestions for a method for digitizing 8mm "home movies" (from as long ago as 1957) with the ultimate goal of editing and burning to DVD for sharing with family members. Any suggestions, warnings, encouragement, etc. will be appreciated. Solution: There are numerous cheap USB 2.0, Firewire, and PCI-based solutions like this for Windows. I'm literally using one right now to copy all my old VHS tapes over to WMA format. [Robert McElwee] Do you or any readers know of any eBay Auction software for OSX 10.3 that is stable and actually works? Solution: I do. It runs on Windows. [Scott Rothstein] I've been asking around the Mac groups on Usenet, trying to find a consumer level home design application for Mac OS X. Nothing like ArchiCAD or such high-end software, but similar to "Design Your Own Home" (though hopefully much more up to date). Someone suggested trying OmniGraffle, but it's not really suited for such. Nothing like this seems to exist for the Mac. Solution: There are numerous packages like this for Windows. When we moved into our new house two years ago, we purchased one at Costco for less than $30. [John Myers] There are several DVD-Audio players available on the Windows platform, but none seem to be available for Mac OS X. This seems a shame considering the high-quality optical out on my G5 would be perfect for the PCM data that the DVD-Audio format produces. Has anyone seen such software for the Mac? A Google search turns up nothing and I have not been able to learn anything from Apple's information either. Solution: As you note, there are several DVD-Audio players available on Windows. [ Posted at 1:04 PM | Permalink ] Eric Raymond is insane In a long and, yes, fascinating interview, Open Source poster boy Eric Raymond fools a fawning group of questioners into believing everything he says. But as is so often the case, upon closer examination, Raymond's often-insane beliefs are quite easily proven false. It's impossible to even know where to start, so I'll leave you with a very obvious example. Toward the end of the interview, Raymond uses a long-disproved example of a supposed NSA cryptographic key in Microsoft Office as proof that closed systems like those from Microsoft are insecure for government use (he also neatly skips over the fact that governments can freely view the source code for Windows, but anyway...), an allegation that is so wrong-headed, it's almost astonishing he would use it. "It was discovered that there were a couple of undocumented cryptographic keys in Microsoft Office Suite, one of which was actually labeled internally NSA," Raymond tells his audience. "And at the point when that came out, a lot of intelligence agencies all over the world said, wait a second, we can't afford to have Microsoft Window's software, office software in our sensitive applications, that's a Trojan horse right in the heart of what we're doing. And that is a hidden but very powerful motivator behind even friendly governments going to open-source software where they can audit everything that's going on." Hey, that sounds amazing. Too bad it isn't what happened. "Microsoft dismissed [the] charges as nonsense," a Wired story from 1999 reads. "The company said that the key was named after the spy agency merely to reflect the fact that it had passed a technical review that the agency requires of all security software intended for export. The _NSAKEY is one of two such keys buried deep in the cryptography source code of most Windows operating systems. In other reports, Microsoft said that the _NSAKEY is still a Microsoft-controlled key that will serve as a backup in the event that the first key is compromised." "The key is a Microsoft key -- it is not shared with any party including the NSA," said Windows NT security product manager Scott Culp. "We don't leave backdoors in any products." [ Posted at 12:42 PM | Permalink ]
Monday, December 01, 2003Jobs disses iPod rivalsIn an interview with the New York Times (part of a wider, excellent look at the iPod), Apple CEO Steve Jobs trashes the iPod's me-too competitors. "The Dells of the world don't spend money on design innovation. They don't think about these things." Yikes. This comment shows that Jobs himself doesn't get it: Dell, in fact, spends a lot of time and money on design innovation, actually. He goes on. "Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what a thing looks like. People think designers are handed a box and told, 'Make it look good.' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." This is true. But he's delusional if he thinks Apple is the only company doing this. On the other hand, the iPod is just done right (compare it to the complicated Creative Nomad Zen NX to see why). As designer Jonathan Ives says, "The iPod's design is about being very focused and not trying to do too much with the device, which would have been its complication and, therefore, its demise. The enabling features aren't obvious and evident, because the key was getting rid of stuff." [ Posted at 4:12 PM | Permalink ] PSX dumbed down to make holiday sales season According to a report in DIGIT, Sony has dramatically scaled back the feature set in its PSX game console/next generation consumer electronics product in order to release it by the end of the year. As the report reads, "The PSX is Sony's first attempt at tying the world of consumer electronics and games together and combines a hard disk drive video recorder, DVD recorder, music player, photo viewer, and PlayStation 2 games console in a single box ... Gone from the latest specifications is the ability to play back DVD+RW discs, data CD-R discs (although audio CDs recorded on CD-R discs are supported). The ability to display TIFF and GIF format images, and movies taken with Sony's Cybershot digital still cameras have been dropped, as well as the playback of MP3 files. Copying of video files from the PSX's hard disk drive to DVD discs has been slowed down, from 24x speed to 12x speed, and it cannot connect to the PlayStation BB online gaming service." Sony officials acknowledged the changes. We have changed the specification," said Taro Takamine, a spokesman for Sony in Tokyo. "Basically, as of October 7 we planned some features such as DVD+RW playback, CD-R playback, TIFF and GIF (image file) support and PlayStation BB but we decided to drop such features." These changes will make the device easier to use, he says, and couldn't be tested adequately in the amount of time required. Ah well. [ Posted at 4:06 PM | Permalink ] Getting the details all wrong: Mistaking the history of Apple Computer Christoph Dernbach writes a stirring history of Apple Computer for the E-Commerce Times. There's just one problem: It's riddled with innacuracies. Let's take a look. - "'If you stay at Pepsi, five years from now all you'll have accomplished is selling a lot more sugar water to kids. If you come to Apple you can change the world,' [Steve] Jobs is famously attributed as saying [to John Sculley, who finally agreed to join Apple]. According to Sculley himself, Jobs actually said, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?" ("Odyssey" by John Sculley, page 90). Get the quotes right, please. - "The scene is Santa Clara Valley, California, in 1976. Two Steves are busy at work in the garage. Their goal: the world's first personal computer." Actually, the "Two Steves" were in a garage in Santa Clara working on one of many personal computers that would arrive in the wake of the first personal computer, the Altair 8800. Like so many others, the "Two Steves" were influenced and excited by the actual first personal computer. The Altair, incidentally, was created in late 1974 and revealed to the world in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics (the cover even notes, "The World's First Microcomputer"). Other personal computers that appeared before the Apple I include the Wavemate Jupiter II, the Elektronika S5-01, the Sphere I, the DEC LSI-11 microcomputer (first 16-bit microcomputer), the IMSAI 8080, and the Processor Technology Sol. - The two young entrepreneurs saw revenues of 7.8 million dollars in 1978. Actually, it was Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and financier Mike Markkula's $91,000 investment (plus the $250,000 in loans he secured) in Apple that saw revenues of whatever in whatever year. The "Two Steves" couldn't have made it without that one Mike's money. And how any history of Apple could ignore Markkula's crucial role is beyond me. Apple was not started by the two Steves: It was started by the two Steves and Mike Markkula. And so on. Fortunately, there are a few facts in the article as well: - "The introduction of Windows 95 in August 1995 established Microsoft and its Windows system as being on par with MacIntosh (sic)." - "It would appear that, for now at least, the Apple will be forced to fill a niche market in the creative industries, for U.S. schools, and for users who are conscious of design and good taste." Overall, a pointless article. [ Posted at 3:37 PM | Permalink ] Apple admits to having problems with online store Apple has conceded that MacWorld's report about problems at store.apple.com are true, an that up to 39 percent of customers experienced shipping delays. "The crisis is now under control," said Apple Store Europe director Francois Duquesne. "We have fixed the broken parts, and have the capacity to respond. Now we only have problems with 10-15 percent of orders. I predict that in two weeks we will see a resolution of these issues." [ Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink ]
Sunday, November 30, 2003Playstation 3?Thanks Keith. Gizmodo has published a picture that allegedly shows the design of Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 game console. Cool! [ Posted at 8:40 PM | Permalink ] MSN and Outlook sync: Wrong again, Mary Jo Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft's MSN Connector for Outlook is "about to make its beta debut", but she's wrong: It's been in testing, as part of MSN 9, for a few months now. In fact, I'm running the beta on this very machine. [ Posted at 8:38 PM | Permalink ]
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