24th April 2008: Nim's Island, IP addresses are private says
US Court, Free London Wifi, Microsoft willing to go it alone without
Yahoo, Canadian man bursts into flames after taser attack, Asimo to
conduct orchestra, OLPC to run Windows, XP may be saved
So, last night I watched Nim's Island. The premise is that a girl
and her dad live on an island after her mother was eaten by a
whale. The story is pure Disney although not a Disney film.
And it's actually pretty well acted. Jodie Foster is good, if a
little overdone as a neurotic writer, and her fictional hero Alex Rover
is brilliantly acted by Gerard Butler. The film got a huge thumbs
up from me as I didn't want to miss a second of it by going for a
smoke, which is very rare for me. The only part of the film I
really didn't like was when Alex walked away from Alexandra.
Sorry, but, she was right, he was a figment of her imagination and he
couldn't walk away. Also, Nim was a little inconsistent towards
visitors. She hated the Buccaneers (good job in making them
truely horrible not just meh) but talked at length with the kid from
the ship, but then immediately hated Alexandra. Also, I didn't
like how Alex suddenly got scared of helicopters despite being fine in
the face of being held hostage in the middle of the desert and not
caring how he died, just wanting to know how. All in all it was a
good film, and I liked it.
A court in the US has declared that Internet use is so private that
even IP addresses should only be able to be obtained from the Supreme
Court. Personally I think that this is a great thing. For
far too long now the RIAA has been going "We think you have been
downloading some MP3s, so we got your IP address and now we're suing
you for $250,000 for 25 songs". It's nice to know that at least
somewhere some people have some good common sense and realise that IP
addresses should be as private as your address and phone number because
to be honest, in the virtual world, that's precisely what they are.
The underdog candidate for London Mayor has declared that despite free
public wifi not working in other trials, he will roll out free wifi for
public use in London. Some people have derided this because of
the affluence in London and the high number of public internet
cafes. The other downside of this scheme is that it will be
limited to 256kbps. Now, I have access to free public wifi at
work, due to a Meraki node just on the edge of where I work. It's
not fast, coverage is patchy due to it being a mesh network, and I love
it. I love that I can use the internet at work as well as at
home. So, as much as I am supporting Boris, this guy deserves
respect for this idea. Unfortunately, I know Boris, I know Red
Ken, and I have no idea what this guy's name is...
This next story made me laugh so much. Steve Ballmer has said
that because Yahoo has posted stronger than expected figures for the
past year, if they don't accept their bid and if a hostile takeover
isn't successful, they will go it alone without Yahoo. Ok then
Steve, whatever you say! Let's be real for a second. MSN
Live Search is nowhere. MSN gaming isn't anything you can't find
anywhere else. Hotmail is a joke compared to Gmail and Vista is
losing ground to Ubuntu slowly and steadily. And don't get me
started on Firefox vs IE. One analyst recently said that there is
no point in using IE these days when Firefox is faster, better, and
more secure. So go on Steve, go it alone...
A Canadian man was tasered, and has burst into flames. Don't
laugh. Yet. The man resisted arrest, so the Canadian police
tasered him. Unfortunately, he was hiding flamable material in
his UNDERPANTS and the high voltage detonated the material, causing his
underpants to catch fire. I think this is fantastic. Can
you imagine if you were in that subway station and saw a guy getting
tasered, then bursting into flame, but not just any old way, fire
coming from his pants! Please tell me someone has posted this on
Youtube...
This is a great story for me now. Asimo, Honda's robot is going
to conduct an orchestra. I've followed Asimo for years, and I
already know that you can hire it for £10,000 a week, and that
Asimo has worked at Honda's offices, doing chores like making tea and
coffee and delivering letters to people. I just hope that this
knowledge is going to be collected and distributed to all the Asimos
(there has to be more than one!) I would love to see this Asimo
concert, and I can't wait to see what Honda have got planned for the
future for Asimo.
And now for a story that saddens me. The OLPC project are going
to rejig the hardware so that it can run Windows XP. This annoys
me. Linux is getting a foothold now. Former Windows users
are getting used to Linux, and the eee PC has already shipped with
XP. I really hope they change their minds on this because to be
honest, the OLPC was a trailblazer for Linux along with Ubuntu.
And perhaps they should consider installing Ubuntu on this device
instead.
Lastly, something nice from Microsoft. Steve Ballmer has said
that if there is enough support from Windows XP users to keep
supporting and distributing XP, they will consider continuing to supply
XP. At the moment they are still sending it out with budget PCs
and Laptops, but they are planning to stop that this year.
Personally, before Linux I used to use XP and loved it. Then I
got Vista with my new laptop and decided I couldn't stand it, so
installed Puppy Linux. I think that Microsoft really need to stop
trying to wow people with flashy graphics and realise that a good OS
needs to just work, and be quick. I don't want to know that
people are trying to hack my PC or installing malware just stop it
quickly and silently. Linux does this, why can't Windows
Vista. XP did. Oh, and The Sims 1 not working on
Vista? Unacceptable.
22nd April 2008: The Relaunch, New Atom eee PC Announced, PS3
Home Delayed Again, M$ Linux Launched In China, Wii Is A Virus Claims
Game Boss, Crimebusting Satnav and Virtual Strip Searches
So, I have decided to relaunch this blog. There are several
reasons, but the biggest is that I missed blogging about
technology. Anyway, today's blog comes not from our offices, but
from the garden of our offices, as in the UK it is finally a nice,
warm-ish sunny day.
The new June launched UK Third Generation eee PC will run a 900mhz
processor as per the 900 which has been recently launched, but it will
feature the Intel Atom processor, which has been designed for small,
palmtop devices. Intel plan to release a laptop optimised version
of Atom in June. Execs at Asus say that with the new Atom
processor, the eee PC should have a better battery life and better CPU
performance due to the fact that the Atom can process two threads at
once, the Celeron can only process one. In my mind, I am not
entirely sure why anyone buying a new mini laptop would buy an eee
PC. The Jisus is a far better choice, comes with Ubuntu installed
(personally would go with Xubuntu) and has a better processor speed and
about the same battery life. Also, why are Asus going with the
Atom? It might be better for palmtops, but come on, why not give
it a few more months and give it the laptop optimised processor?
Laptops are already for sale with Celerons in them, so why not give
this new generation eee PC the new Intel laptop processor?
Sony have delayed the launch of the public beta of Home for the PS3 yet
AGAIN. The company claim that it needs “refinements” before it
goes into beta. This is a game that is more vapourware than Spore
could have ever hoped to achieve. They announced it in May last
year, and said that a beta would be available for the summer.
Then in September they announced it would be pushed back to spring
2008. Now we are months away from summer, they are pushing it
back AGAIN. They have said that open beta now won't be until
Autumn at the latest. Come on Sony, don't you get it? Home
is supposed to be online, a constantly evolving community! If you
have refinements to make, great, but make them online, as a patch or an
upgrade or whatever, just give us Home. This is the only reason I
am considering buying a PS3 (that and Linux) and you just keep pushing
it back and back and back. By the way Sony, the Wii says
thanks...and to watch out for Animal Crossing Wii this year...
Now this story makes me sick. I am a dedicated Linux user and
haven't booted up Vista in over a month. Last time I did it was
to play The Sims Life Stories. Novell and Microsoft have launched
a joint statement (that sounds so wrong) saying that they are going to
be pushing SuSe Linux in China. Microsoft being Microsoft, they
will buy support certificates from Novell and resell them to the
Chinese. You know what? Here is a better idea.
Download Xubuntu to one of your cool little Chinese mini laptops, then
sign up for the Ubuntu forums. Decent tech support for
free. Shouldn't annoy Steve Ballmer, as he claims that Red Hat
users effectively owe him money. Oh well. Use Ubuntu then...
The chairman of Epic Games has compared the Wii to a virus. He
claims that when you get it you are “infected” for a few weeks, and
during this “infection” you invite all your friends around to see your
new toy, which effectively infects them. He also claimed that few
titles really worked on the Wii and those that did would be better off
on another platform. Like what? Excite Truck? It's
fast, plays great, and feels realistic because I have a steering wheel
which cost £9. Or maybe you mean Wii Sports which because
the Wiimote is long and thin actually feels like a racquet handle or a
baseball bat handle? He also claimed that Wii users on
average have bought 3.5 titles compared to the seven of Xbox 360
owners. But then this is the same guy who said that Epic have
doubled their Xbox 360 sales and was found to be telling the
truth...but these sales were way behind Wii and PS3 sales. Also,
did anyone think that maybe the reason Wii owners buy few games is
because they are happy with what they have?
Honda have released a new SatNav system in Japan which tells drivers if
the area they are parking in is a good or bad area by downloading crime
figures into the GPS unit. As we know from Google Maps,
overlaying data onto maps is fairly easy technically. The service
will be launched today to the 660,000 members of the Honda Internavi
premium club. The data covers 13 regions and covers car break ins
and car thefts. The data will be provided by local police
departments. However, apparently the US are less enthusiastic
about this technology, believing that it will force drivers out of
areas inhabited by mostly ethnic minorities. Nothing like a
little mass generalisation to put a damper on a new technology!
Passengers are going to be a subject to a virtual electronic strip
search at LAX and JFK airports as of this Spring. The scanners
use millimeter wavelength technology to create a virtual electronic
image of the naked human body. Not exactly porn, but it does
allow people to see you naked, and see if you are carrying any
dangerous non metallic items. But this isn't the most worrying
thing. Backscatter devices are already used in US airports, and
are used for people who are already viewed as suspicious by security
services, or people who think they are viewed as suspicious by security
services (me, with my long beard then...) But this new device
won't always have that option. The JFK trial will work this way,
but the LAX trial will involve people being screened at random.
People who turn down the scan will be offered an “alternative” search,
though they haven't made it clear whether this means a pat down search
or a search with rubber gloves.
Ok, so, that is it for the first issue of the relaunched Minimalist
Blog. Expect to see new and exciting things coming from this
blog, because I have some huge ideas for this whole project.
15th April 2008: BT Home Hub Hacked, Penguin (Not THAT
Penguin) eBooks, New eee Rival, Guitar Hero 3 Goes Mobile, No Link
Between Labour And Downing Street, Tesco Sell MP3s, and iPhone For
£169 As Of Tomorrow!
So, it turns out that the BT Home Hub, the UK's most popular wireless
router (and the one my neighbours use!) is very hackable. And not
in the good, modifiable sense. You see, GNUCitizen has found that
the BT Home Hub can be hacked with an average of 80 guesses due to the
fact that it uses WEP Encryption, and weak WEP encryption at
that. But the thing is, this isn't the first time that this has
happened. No. GNUCitizen has in the past also found that
the BT Home Hub could be hacked to allow for VoIP Hijacking (fun) and
the ability to allow people to entirely bypass the password
protection. BT have even admitted
that the Home Hub comes complete with weak WEP protection and said that
they hoped that people would
change the default password. Come on. Most people aren't
even smart enough to realise that Windows isn't secure and Linux is,
and instead of moving over to Linux, stay with Windows and all it's
Malware and Viruses. Do you honestly think if they can't get to
grips with burning an ISO file onto a CD and playing with a LiveCD
Distro that they will be able to comprehend changing their WEP key to a
WPA key? I don't see it happening.
Now, I have some really stunning news. Pearson, the publisher who
owns Penguin Books will be digitising and selling all Penguin and
Dorling Kindersley books, along with other titles. The entire
back catalogue of Penguin Books are already being digitised, and will
be available for sale as of September. For those of you not
really old enough to remember Penguin books when they were in their
full swing (I remember them as a kid, vaugely) they included titles
such as Worzel Gummidge, Homer's Odysey and they were the first
publisher in the UK to publish Lady Chatterly's Lover (it was banned
before then). They also published Spycatcher and The Satanic
Verses. But the cool thing for me is that Penguin own Puffin (I
think) and Puffin, at least used to sell classic books for
£1. The digital version of the books will cost the same as
the paper versions of the books, and in my mind, I think Pearson should
consider creating a custom eBook reader along the lines of the Kindle,
but less ugly and looking more like a book.
Next up is something I have mixed feelings about. I am a proud
eee PC owner, although I am soon to become a Jisus owner, purely
because I feel the specs are better. Anyway, it seems like every
other week there is a new "eee PC Killer". Elonix had it with
their Elonix One, which the people in my Linux group believe is going
to be just horrible. And the OLPC outing, which I have actually
seen, and looks like a My First Laptop from Fisher Price. The
thing is, apart from the Jisus outing, everyone else seems to be
missing the point. It's not the smallness of the eee that makes
it great. It's not even that it runs Linux. What makes the
eee PC great is that it has decent specifications for a reasonable
price. Now, unfortunately, the makers of this new eee PC
"killer", Kohjinsha, have also gone for small, and style over substance:
But here is what made me
laugh. This thing is going to run Windows XP with a 500mhz AMD
Geode processor and 512mb memory. The place I work at has really
poor technology, and to be honest, it too probably runs on a 500mhz
processor with 512mb memory, and it is just plain horrible to
use. Nothing happens quickly. It will be interesting to
see, but it's not caught my attraction in the same way as the Jisus or
eee PC did.
Guitar Hero 3 is one of my favourite games on the Wii. I just
love thrashing out songs on that thing. Anyway, the developers
have brought out Guitar Hero 3 for the mobile phone. Basically,
the game is just the same on your mobile phone as it is on your PS3 or
Wii except you have three buttons for your notes. There are also
two different versions, one single download version, or you can
download a subscription version which will allow you to download three
new tracks every month. Personally, I am thinking of going for
the latter. Those interested can go here to find out
how to download this cool little game.
Now, the next story isn't really a massive story, just more of a quirky
story. The official Downing Street website used to have a link to
the front page of the Labour website. For those interested, The
Register have saved a copy of the original site here.
However, Downing Street have now removed this link to the Labour
website which really strikes me as odd. Why wouldn't they have a
link to the Labour website? The government is a Labour
government, the PM is a Labour Party Member, and it strikes me as wierd
they wouldn't link to their own party's site? Conspiricy
theorists, please add your own thoughts to the comment section!
Tesco are now selling MP3s. I've heard arguments for and against
this. The for argument goes something along the lines of Asda do
it, and Apple do it, and Tesco are the "favourite" supermarket of the
UK, so why wouldn't they want in too? The against argument is
that pay per file as a business model is dead. Purely because so
many other places are offering a subscription service like Napster, why
would you want to pay per file? The other against argument is
that why would you pay for music at all with all the torrent sites
around. My own personal view is neither. I buy a lot of
CDs, and I buy them from charity shops. That and work where I
bought some year old CDs for £2.75 each. The thing is, when
I get the CDs home, I convert them to MP3s. Just to give an
example, I went to a charity shop about 6 months ago and bought 11 CDs
for £22, including some classics like Massive Attack's
Mezzanine...
Lastly, O2 and The Carphone Warehouse have announced that as of
tomorrow, The 8gb iPhone will cost just £169 on a £35 per
month contract which includes 600 minutes and 500 text, and unlimited
Internet use during that period. The 16gb is still going to
retail at £329 however. At the moment it's unsure whether
Apple are behind this price cut, or whether it's something from O2 and
The Carphone Warehouse themselves. You can find the deal here
tomorrow. Probably!
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