Pages

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Hauppage DVR-250 for $90 After Rebate

Jumpin’ Frogs!!  That’s a good deal.  And I was *JUST* about to get another one. J 

pvr250_2.jpg imageCircuit City has the Hauppage WinTV Personal Video Recorder 250 add-in card for $150, which isn't that hot, but with two mail-in rebates it drops the price to just $90. The PVR-250 is one of the better cards to use when building your own home theater PC, mainly because of the built-in MPEG2 encoder.

Read - Catalog Page [CircuitCity via Slickdeals]
Read - $20 MIR [CircuitCity]
Read - $40 MIR [CircuitCity]
[Gizmodo]

Monday, August 30, 2004

Sweet, sweet RAM

Yep, I have to agree.  I added a Gig to my Dell and I *love* it!!!! 

I’m now sporting 1 gigabyte of memory in my Thinkpad. It was a lot cheaper than I expected; the last time I was shopping for laptop RAM it was mostly proprietary, super-expensive stuff. The gig I just bought only cost $220 before tax.

 [Kalsey Consulting Group]

Can't sleep again

Argh.  But at least there is a football game on. J

 

One of the advantages of having BeyondTV is that I can catch up on all the Latenight and Primetime in the AM stuff. J

If the game gets too boring, I could just watch the Nextel Cup race again…  I was glad to see Jr. win some races again. 

Command & Conquer laser weapons becoming reality

“speed-of-light”?  What does that mean? 

The US Army's Tactical High Energy Laser successfully shot down a series of mortar attacks using speed-of-light bursts to destroy the incoming targets.
[Ars Technica]

Friday, August 27, 2004

New holographic discs look like a DVD but hold a terabyte

Cool!!  This looks awesome! 

Optware Corp., the developer of Collinear Holographic* Data Storage System, announced today that it had achieved successfully world's first recording and play back of digital movies on a holographic recording disc with a reflective layer using Optware's revolutionary Collinear Holography. This is a major milestone for commercializing holographic data storage system.

The recorded movies were played back in a series of meetings from July eight through 12 with Optware's six existing investors as well as eight enterprises both domestic and overseas including leading manufacturers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use. Company names are not disclosed.

News source: Optware (full story)

Read full story...
[Neowin.net]

New holographic discs look like a DVD but hold a terabyte

Cool!!  This looks awesome! 

Optware Corp., the developer of Collinear Holographic* Data Storage System, announced today that it had achieved successfully world's first recording and play back of digital movies on a holographic recording disc with a reflective layer using Optware's revolutionary Collinear Holography. This is a major milestone for commercializing holographic data storage system.

The recorded movies were played back in a series of meetings from July eight through 12 with Optware's six existing investors as well as eight enterprises both domestic and overseas including leading manufacturers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use. Company names are not disclosed.

News source: Optware (full story)

Read full story...
[Neowin.net]

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Aluminum Beer Bottles

Hey this is cool.  I worked as a contractor for Alcoa for almost a year installing a new enterprise wide exchange server network.  Kind of neat! 

new_iron_city.jpg imageAlcoa has teamed up with Pittsburgh Brewing Company to produce and package Iron City beer in a new aluminum bottle. Their pushing it as "unbreakable," which is certainly true compared to glass, and harping on its ability to keep a beer cooled for up to an hour longer than traditional bottles - all for only about $1 more per case. In addition, the new bottles are resealable, so if you want to enjoy that flat beer in sips throughout the week, now you've got the technology.

Aluminum bottles aren't new, exactly - the Japanese have sold metal bottles of hot coffee, I'm told - but it is the first major regional brewery to make the transition. I wouldn't expect most beers to move to the new bottles, though, simply because the various colors and shapes of glass bottles are as much a part of the brands as the beer itself. But if Iron City sales go up markedly, I wouldn't be surprised to see BUD STEEL in the near future. (Thanks, Travis and Jeffrey!)

Read - Iron City Home Page [PittsburgBrewingCo]
Read - Press Release [Alcoa via Travis.Servebeer]]
Read - Beer in Aluminum Bottles on the Way [AP (Yahoo)]


[Gizmodo]

Motorola MPx 220 Reviewed

This is an awesome review of the new phone.  Be warned though.  It will make you want one bad. 

32538948.jpg imageHoward Forums' infamous Mark Morrow is at it again, this time dumping an insiders look at the Motorola MPx 220, the quad-band clamshell packing a dual-core processor running Windows Smartphone 2003 SE Operating System. And in typical form, it's phone pr0n at its finest, with lots of phone-on-phone action, set pieces, and even a little leather work. See how excited I am? I don't even like clamshells that much and now I'm a little hot and bothered.

Read - New MpX220 SmartPhone! 200mhz Dual Core Demon! [HowardForums]

Related
Motorola V3 RaZr Reviewed [Gizmodo]
Motorola MPx Engineering Sample: Wedding Night Photos Leaked [Gizmodo]
How'd He Get A K700? [Gizmodo]
[Gizmodo]

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Philips and Interbrew's PerfectDraft

OK, forget the pocketpc phone.  I want one of *these* for my birthday!!! 

PerfectDraft9.jpg imageIs this why we fought WWII? So the Amsterdammers can have superior home beer technology? Clearly, the introduction for Interbrew and Philips' new "PerfectDraft" system is cause to wage the bloodiest, hoppiest, deliciously frothiest war ever waged. The €200 (about $240) machine accepts 6-liter metal kegs which, once installed, stay fresh for up to four weeks (three weeks too long, likely) at a constant 3-degrees Celsius. The only bad part? The first beers provided are only so-so; well, at least the Stella Artois (no matter what the hipsters might grunt). I've never had the Jupiler. But I mean, come on, it's Belgium! I know they have better beers than that. I sampled at least a couple dozen last weekend in Cooperstown at Brewery Ommegang.

But still, I'd take even the Stella if Philips would release this here. (Thanks, Lars!)

Read - Press Release [Interbrew]
[Gizmodo]

Monday, August 23, 2004

pt Picks Up An iPAQ 6315

Man I want one of these SOOOOO bad.  Doesn’t someone want to get me one for my birthday?  It’s tomorrow but I won’t mind if it doesn’t get here till Fri. J 

Looks like most people have had success getting iPAQ 6315s from CompUSA. The inimitable pt picked one up and put up some very nice pictures over at Engadget, including shots of the thumbboard that you might want to check out. One picture of note:
Yup, it looks like the iPAQ 6315 has a yellow-tinted screen like some other recent units. I've played with a...


[Pocket PC Thoughts]

Future Fabulous Maycom M-Bird XT-21 Flash Player

This looks kind of neat.  I would get one but I already own like 4 different flash players.  And I always end up back on my iPaq anyway. 

xt21_front.jpg imageSome might call the M-bird XT-21 digital audio player ugly, and it a way they would be right - it certainly is anything but understated. But in a way, really, I think it's awesome; it sort of lets everything hang out in a way I appreciate. It's like Maycom said, "You know what, screw the new future. I want my cyberpunk back," then tried to figure out how to glom as many knobs and switches and weird curves into the flash memory player that it could. It even has built-in stereo speakers.

This looks exactly like the sort of thing I expected to plug my mirrorshades into.

Read - Product Page (Korean) [MBird via I4U]


[Gizmodo]

Olympians Banned From Blogging

This just makes me mad!


[Slashdot:]

NES Controller Hot Pants

Hehe. 

nintendo_hotpants.jpg imageNintendo Hotpants: Because It's Ever So Hard To Get a Nerd Into Bed. Available at your local Hot Topic, these hot pants are completely sold out online. Too bad Nintendo has never made a wireless controller that vibrates.

Read - Catalog Page [HotTopic via TheRawFeed]

Bonus, somehow appropriate link: Fake SMS Girlfriends
Read - Virtual Girlfriend on your Mobile Phone [Textually]


[Gizmodo]

Friday, August 20, 2004

XM Radio SKYBOX

Coolio!!!  

skybox_369.thm.jpg imageXM Satellite Radio has announced the Audiophase SKYBOX, and all-in-one boom box that includes the XM service (duh), AM/FM tuner, and CD/MP3 player. In addition to all the standard features, the SKYBOX will also come with a remote control and the usual two-line XM radio display.

There's no word if the SKYBOX has an audio out, although I would presume it has at least a headphone miniJack, if not a proper line-out. It should be available from Best Buy this fall for $200.

Read - Press Release [XMRadio via DailyGadget]

Related
Sirius Stream Jockey, Then A Sharp Turn Into a Delphi XM Roady 2 Review [Gizmodo]


[Gizmodo]

Sling Media SlingBox: Television Place Shifting

 This looks kind of interesting.

sling_media_logo.gif imageForbes has a short write-up about an interesting upcoming product from startup Sling Media, called the "SlingBox Personal Broadcaster." If it works as advertised, we'll probably be hearing a lot about it.

The idea is simple: hook up the little $200 box to your TiVo or your cable box and connect it to your home internet. Then, when you're out and about, just pull up the client software on your PDA or laptop. SlingBox's software will detect the quality and throughput of your connection and shoot you our a recompressed, digital stream of whatever analog signal you could be watching at home. It would even work on cellphones, they say, if the bandwidth were there (and it will be Real Soon Now).

The company plans to avoid a copyright-infringement suplex from the entertainment industry by limiting the remote viewing to a single stream at a time. We'll definitely keep an eye on this one - the term "place shifting" could become as widespread as "time shifting."

Read - Shifting Places [Forbes (Yahoo) via eHomeUpgrade]
Read - Company Home Page [SlingMedia]
[Gizmodo]

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Bear guzzles 36 beers, passes out at campground

 Check this out!

 

Just saw this on CNN’s website.  Hehe.

 

 

Ahhhh, no spam

 Well, I figured out that it takes about 4 levels of spam protection to not have any spam in your inbox.  I actually have resorted to sending test messages because I thought email was broke.  Turns out it was working, but I don’t get much spam.

 

First off, all inbound email gets run through spamassassin.  I have a .procmailrc file that takes everything with a 10 or more rating and routes to /dev/null. (Thanks Technodaddy)

After that, all remaining ham/possible spam gets routed through some hardware devices from work that are autolearning spam protection devices.  I get a report once a day that shows me all the blocked email and it does an awesome job.

From there Exchange 2003 has a new add-on that rips out UCE messages.

As a last result, I have SpamBayes, an Outlook plugin, configured to send possible spam to one folder while spam is moved to the Junk-Email folder.  I get *maybe* one or two messages every other day that show up in that folder.

 

Email is actually useful again.  Oh, and since Exchange 2003 is in the mix, RPC over HTTPS rocks!!!!

End Of The Line For Alpha

This makes me sad.  I still have an alpha workstation somewhere.  Intrasection used to live on it…  Oh well, life goes on. 


[Slashdot:]

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

iBoom

This looks neat… It would be better if I had an iPod.  You know, my birthday is right around the corner. J  No tequila this time please…  I still don’t remember all of my last birthday. 

iboom-4G_lo.jpg imageDigital Lifestyle Outfitters has announced the iBoom, a 20-watts per channel, four-speaker boombox designed to holster the iPod and iPod mini. Although it looks like most of the controls will still be handled on the iPod itself (although there are separate ones for the built-in FM radio), the iBoom offers yet another way to impose your impeccable music taste on everyone else.

No word on price, sadly, but it should be available in late September at Everything iPod.

Read - Retailer Page [EverythingIpod]
[Gizmodo]

My OS

Well, while on the meds, it might be true. :)

HP iPaq RW6100 Photos

Neat-O! 

kap3_rw6100.jpg imageWhoa, this is a crazy one. There apparently had been rumors floating about of a new HP iPaq Smartphone, called the RW6100, and pictures have surfaced on a Korean website of what looks to be that very thing. What's interesting to me, though, is that it appears to be a slider, although with just a keypad underneath instead of a keyboard. It has a marked resemblance, in fact, to the Samsung SGH-D410 we reviewed last week, although it looks a lot bigger. Could be a very nice compromise between capability and size if it all pans out.

I've had the HP iPaq h6315 - their newest, actually-released Smartphone - in here for the last few days, and while I'll probably give it a proper review here soon, it's cemented my notion that I'm not that impressed with Windows Smartphones in the larger slate form factor anymore. If you don't mind things being way too huge for pockets, though, it's got a lot to offer.

Read - SlashRumor: HP iPAQ RW6100? More Photos! [Slashphone]

Related
SGH-D410: Samsung and T-Mobile Slider Phone Review [Gizmodo]
HP Unveils Latest iPaqs Including h6315 Smartphone PDA Hybrid [Gizmodo]

[Gizmodo]

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

RIAs for election tracking

This looked kind of neat so here goes. 

We could have made it look nicer, but this dashboard:

dashboard-BushKerry.jpg

and this social network map:

imagenets.jpg

are example what we mean by putting things into context.

[via BackupBrain]
[Marc's Voice]

$600 Wal-Mart Notebook PC

This looks neat.  I kind of wish I had $600 to go buy one. 

walmartnotebook.jpg imageAs a back-to-school special, this $600 ECS-branded notebook from Wal-Mart isn't half bad - 14-inch screen, Athlon XP-M 1600+, Wi-Fi (b), and DVD-ROM. Add a little extra memory to boost up the 128MB stock setup and you've got yourself a pretty decent little machine for browsing porn and downloading term papers. Plus it comes with a legal copy of XP Home, so you'll only have to go to jail for five years when you blow that away and install XP Pro (don't quote me on the legal specifics).

Read - Walmart Notebook under $600 [I4U]


[Gizmodo]

Monday, August 16, 2004

1 Gmail invite left

Well, I have had it for a while.  Just didn’t know what to do with it.  If you still want a Gmail invite but have not gotten one yet, let me know. 

Sprint Gets BlackBerry

Classic Sprint….  Later this year and details to follow…  When are they going to have a friggin Bluetooth capable phone!!! 

Ooh, I can slide this one in short and sweet: Sprint is getting BlackBerry, later this year. Details to follow.

Read - BlackBerry Coming to Sprint [SlashPhone]


[Gizmodo]

Friday, August 13, 2004

Exchange 2003 OWA XBOX theme, anyone?

Supergreen!!!  Installed in a jiffy on our test box. 

Lee Derbyshirewrote an article over at msexchange.org - on how to create your custom Exchange 2003 OWA themes.

To make this more fun, we made the files needed for XBOX-inspired OWA theme available here.

A little preview of this eye-candy:

Happy XOWAing!

- Nino Bilic


[You Had Me At EHLO...]

dDrive: Bluetooth Tooth (Blue Optional)

Yeah, what he said.  A Bluetooth bone conducting headset in a tooth…  That would rock!

blue_tooth.jpg imageAll Book of Revelation and Book of Orwell and such aside, does anybody really want to install a bit of electronics in their jaw that only has 512MB of memory, Bluetooth-enabled or otherwise? The dDrive is a concept from industrial design firm Creganna that would be designed to store medical records, security clearances, etc., and while I don't have a huge problem with that in and of itself, I don't think I'll be giving up one of my teeth just for something that's going to be obsolete in a year. At least not just for storage - get a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone headset in there and we'll talk about it.

Read - A Blue Tooth Implant [Blueserker]


[Gizmodo]

Thursday, August 12, 2004

TiVo Rewards program launches.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Tivo and all, but…

 

Is it me or does this picture not disturb you?  Feels icky like a stalker leading someone off to be slain…. 

tivo-cardAbout four years late, TiVo has launched a new rewards program. So far TiVo has relied on users as evangelists, but it looks like they've finally taken a lesson from Amazon.com and instituted a program to encourage folks to insert affiliate codes for free prizes.

I just signed up and it appears they're doing everything they can to keep the program from becoming an affiliate marketing spam hell that many other programs are. There's no cash involved for prizes and they don't provide HTML snippets of code that could someday show up on zillions of link-farmed search engine spam sites. You simply plop someone's email (like mine, at matt@haughey.com) into the signup process, and I collect points.

Looks like a nice simple system, a lot like Vonage's, but hopefully without all the Vonage spam sites lingering behind every Google search for Vonage [thanks George].


[PVRblog]

Fatal Vision Beer Goggles

Too funny.  Not that I think I need them but I do know a few who might need to take a pair with them when they go to Gnomedex! 

fatal_vision.jpg imageIf you've been dying to experience the trippy visual distortion or the impaired driving ability of being drunk without the side effects people usually get drunk for, you're in luck. Fatal Vision, a company focused on impairment education, has created "beer goggles" and a vehicle which will do just that.

Four different levels of intoxication are simulated by an equal number of goggle types, ranging from a blood alcohol content level of less than .06 to greater than .2. SIDNE, the vehicle, has a delayed response to actions in order to simulate drunk driving. And at $8,495, its a bargain in comparison to downing a couple of margaritas!

Naturally, lengthy disclaimers on the site make it clear that these precise numbers are bunk. The goggles and car "demonstrate the concept of impairment and the dangers of impaired driving" -- but don't precisely simulate said effect.

At $149 a pop, the "beer goggles" are one expensive trip toy. But what I want to know is: will they make ugly people more attractive? Because if so, I know some married people who could use them.

Miriam Boon is a freelance science writer. She can be reached at miriamboon at nasw dut org

Read - Product Page [FatalVision]


[Gizmodo]

Sombrero-Wearing Webcam

I used to have my webcam looking through the eyehole of a hockey mask.  People found it intimidating when I put a ball cap backwards on the top and had a bush axe to the right of it… J 

mexicanusbcamera300_3.jpg imageGod, I really hope this is a trend. Not the part where O'Rite Technologies' Webcam 352 looks like Kenny from South Park - I couldn't care less about that - but the fact that the defining feature of the webcam is that it comes with little outfits to dress it up. Specifically, as reviewed by I4U, a little Mexican get-up complete with sombrero.

This is it, folks. We have seen the future, and it is tiny sombreros for consumer electronics. I could not be more proud of the electronics industry than I am today. I am seriously misting a little here.

Read - Sombrero Wearing USB Webcam 352 Review [I4U]
[Gizmodo]

OWA 2003 FBA Article

I post this as I am about to encounter a similar situation. J 

Exchange MVP Henrik Walther has released a new article called Outlook Web Access 2003 Forms-based Authentication and the default domain dilemma.

Summary:
Okay so you have enabled Forms-based Authentication (FBA) and your users can now logon to Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 either by typing domain\username or username@domain.com. But ever since you enabled FBA your users have found it annoying they can’t type username anymore, the other day even the CEO told you his opinion about it, and he definitely wasn’t satisfied so you better come up with a solution.
[MS Exchange Blog]

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

What the cable companies should do

In my opinion, I think the Cable companies (and whoever else charges for TV entertainment) should just record everything on every channel and agree to keep it available for 30-60 days.  If they made the cable set-top boxes more like an RSS video feed aggregator we could then just get the kinds of shows we like, download them to our set-top box and watch them.  I personally would buy this as it would remove the need for multiple tuners in my BeyondTV system.  If I had a box in every room, they could all have something different on them based on what the person who uses the TV likes to watch.  Granted, the Cable company would have to have quite a large amount of storage, but I think that it’s something that they could do to be PRO-active instead of trying to keep people from recording and sharing TV shows….

 

 

Just something I thought up today..  Maybe it’s the DayQuil. 

Is Downloading TV Shows Legal?

Gee, I seem to remember us talking about this…  

Salon is running a piece on how many people are sharing and downloading TV shows using tools like BitTorrent, some going a bit further than the original broadcatching concept to create applications, like Buttress designed specifically as an RSS aggregator for BitTorrented TV shows. The article delves into one interesting issue that not too many people have discussed: is downloading a publicly broadcasted TV show illegal? As the article notes, it would be very difficult to show any kind of "harm" from such a download. Obviously, sharing premium content shows is a different issue, but what if someone already subscribes to the premium station in question? The real issue is that the TV industry suddenly has less control. There is also the fact that with the way BitTorrent works, anyone downloading a show is also automatically uploading a show -- but, again, this is a situation where the entertainment industry appears to be shooting themselves in the foot. For years, they've tried to come up with systems for TV-on-demand, and here's a way that users have figured out how to do it for them. The people downloading TV shows via BitTorrent are watching more TV, which should be good for the industry. Unfortunately, the industry still only thinks in terms of how much they control, rather than how much they can serve the needs of their viewers. It's amazing that the industry is so good at missing every opportunity that seems to come its way. Unfortunately, the industry also seems to view intellectual property law as a way of protecting business models, rather than protecting content. That they can't see a new opportunity staring them in the face speaks volumes about the sorts of "business" minds running the entertainment industry.


[Techdirt]

Executable to Temporarily Block Delivery of Windows XP SP2 to a PC Through Automatic Updates and Windows Update

This might come in handy too for those who are not quite ready for SP2.  Which, by the way, I did finally get installed on both my laptop and desktop machines.  So far, so good! J 

This Microsoft signed executable creates the registry value and sets the associated value that temporarily blocks the delivery Windows XP SP2 to the system via Automatic Updates (AU) or Windows Update (WU). The key used is HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. The executable creates the key value name ‘DoNotAllowXPSP2’ and sets its value to ‘1’ Please note that the executable has been tested only as a command-line tool and not in conjunction with other systems management tools or remote execution mechanisms.
[ActiveWin.com Headlines]

Cox turns up the speed, slashes prices

I know some folks that will enjoy this!! 

At the moment, this puts Cox at the top of the outgoing bandwidth chart among major cable companies, but in the end it's not nearly as exciting as it should be because the cable companies barely compete.


[Ars Technica]

LAPD to Design Less Weapon-Like Flashlights

Just put a light on the end of their billy-sticks…  It didn’t work in Robocop (desensitizing) and I don’t think it will work in real life… 

lapd_flashlight.jpg imageLAPD officers will soon be carrying a new committee-designed flashlight that is "lightweight, bright and virtually incapable of causing serious injury." The standard-issue 2-pound metal flashlights - such as those used to beat suspected car-thief Stanley Miller - will likely be phased out in the next few months. Based on shortcomings of the current flashlights, it's likely the new custom torches will have long battery life, be wieldy enough for a single hand (gotta keep the gun hand unencumbered) and be able to plug into LAPD police cars for recharging. The current, club-like models use D-cell batteries. (Thanks, Susudio!)
Read - LAPD panel may design flashlights [DailyNews via Backspace]
[Gizmodo]

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

TiVo Saves Bomb Suspect

This is quite funny. J 

Just as TiVo is launching a huge new marketing effort (and cutting their prices drastically) in something of a hail mary pass to gain new customers before the cable companies suck up the entire market themselves, here's an amusing story that TiVo might want to incorporate in their advertising. Found over at Dave Farber's Interesting People list is a story about a musician who had a home-made microphone is his luggage, which freaked out security, shutting down five gates last week at Dallas Fort Worth-International Airport. That part isn't all that interesting. What is interesting is how he proved his innocence. Arriving back at his home in Alabama (sans luggage, which he assumed was just lost) he was quickly surrounded by all sorts of law enforcement types. He explained what the microphone was, and noted that he had just used it on the Craig Kilborn Show -- which he still had on his TiVo. So, with law enforcement officials huddled around his TV, he replayed his appearance on the show, so they could see that the microphone was, in fact, a microphone and not a bomb. The advertising campaign writes itself... "How TiVo proves you're not a terrorist..."

 [Techdirt]

Morfeo Couch with Eyestalk Lights

Now all you need to do is put a red blanket or pillow in the center and it will look like some strange alien frogtype couch. 

morf1.jpg imageThere's not a whole lot of detail available about this Morfeo couch with hide-away bed, but really, how much information do you need? It's a couch with two bendy lights at the corners to be easily positioned for reading and other couch-bound activities. No word on price or availability, or if there will be other version that don't look like slug heads.

Read - Morfeo [FunFurde]

[Gizmodo]

NASA To Get 10,240 Node Itanium 2 Linux Cluster

Yowzers!  That’s kind of cool!! 
[Slashdot:]

Sunday, August 8, 2004

Bad Date? Use Your Cell Excuse

Hehe.  This works for bad meetings or any situation where we long for some excuse to be somewhere else. J 

Two cell-phone providers offer fake rescue calls to help the mobilely connected wiggle out of an uncomfortable situation. One company calls the service a 'lifestyle accessory.'
[Wired News: Unwired News]

Friday, August 6, 2004

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Finally RTM

 Well, I would love to download it but the URL is reporting HTTP 500 errors.  Oh well.

In a letter just sent to testers, "Final testing is complete and at 10:08am this morning we signed off on build 2180 as Windows XP Service Pack 2, releasing it to manufacturing. The final build will be available to beta sites immediately at http://windowsbeta.microsoft.com/download/dl3.asp. You will find both English and German versions there, Japanese will follow early next week. Next week the service pack will be available on the Microsoft Download Center for general download. In the interim we're making the update available to you via the beta web site. If you are running RC2, or any other build released to beta sites, we invite you to turn on Automatic Updates, and starting on August 10th your system will automatically download the express version of Windows XP SP2. For typical home users this is about a 75 MB download; for those on RC2 it should be less than 30 MB. "
[ActiveWin.com Headlines]

Thursday, August 5, 2004

Files to exclude from Antivirus Scanning

 News to know if you are installing Exchange 2003!!!

823166 - Overview of Exchange Server 2003 and antivirus software:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;823166

Okay do those

822158 - Virus scanning recommendations on a Windows 2000 or on a Windows Server 2003 domain controller:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;822158

Hmmmm......Okay don't do those.  Okay looks like I'll be adding more files to the exclude section.  Thanks to Merv for the heads up on Ray's post in the newsgroup today.


[E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS "Diva"]

Spin: Persistence of Vision Keychain Watch

Ohh, I want one too!!  Looks neat. 

spinuser_ie.jpg image"Spin" is a persistence-of-vision keychain prototype that, when spun through the air like, say, a lasso, displays a clock face in the air. There are even three different display modes, including an 'analog' mode that displays a highlighted arc of the circle, with the leading edge indicating the current hour and the trailing edge indicating minutes.

There is talk of this design being picked up and mass produced by a couple of different companies; make that happen, boys, because I want it.

Read - Project Page [MLEIE via DailyGadget]

Related
Nokia's 3220 Airtexter [Gizmodo]
[Gizmodo]

Windows Installer Wrapper Wizard

Does anyone out there still know where to get this?  All of the links I google end up pointing back to sywan.nl which apparently doesn’t have the file anymore… L

 

For those that don’t know what it does;

It allows you to take any batch file/setup/script/whatever and call it from a .msi file.  This, if you use Group Policy Objects to deploy software in Active Directory, can come in quite handy.

 

Anywho, it seems I misplaced my old copy and now I can’t find the darn thing on the good ‘ole Internet!! 

Wednesday, August 4, 2004

TiVo Wins Nod for Users to Share Digital Show

This is a good thing.  The MPAA can go suck on it! 

TiVo Inc., maker of popular digital television recording devices, on Wednesday received approval for technology that would permit users to send copies of digital broadcast shows over the Internet to a limited number of friends.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to certify digital protections on TiVoToGo, which is not yet available but would enable a user to record and send a digital broadcast television show to up to nine others who have been registered on that person's service and has been given a key to see it. The approval came despite concerns by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Football League about the risks of unfettered distribution of copyrighted shows and airing regional games outside of their market.

"Each of these technologies has been exhaustively reviewed to ensure contention protection systems prevent the mass indiscriminate redistribution of digital television programming," said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. The FCC last year adopted rules to limit distribution of digital, over-the-air television programs over the Internet in an effort to prevent mass illegal copying and sharing, a problem plaguing the music industry.

News source: Reuters

Read full story...


[Neowin.net]

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Something to try if your laptop screen regularly goes black and won't turn on

Thank you thank you thank you!!  I have been struggling with this one for a loooong time.

I have been suffering with this problem on my Toshiba Tablet m200 for quite some time, and finally took the initiative to research the issue. At first I thought I was the only one dealing with this so I figured it was hardware specific, but when I asked around I found others with the same problem.

I didn't have an exact repro, but periodically when I closed the lid on my machine and left it alone for a few minutes and plugged in or took out the AC power, the screen would go black and there was no way to bring it back without hard booting the machine. I could tell that the machine was operating fine (the HD was spinning, the lights were on, you could hear the new mail notification in Outlook, etc) but the screen would not come back.

My machine was not set to go into standby when the lid was closed, but it was set to go into standby after 10 minutes. But often I was able to reproduce this in just a minute or two - I'd be using my laptop in a meeting, close the lid and walk back to my office, and couldn't get it back. Of course, this user scenario was also when I'd be changing to or from AC power.

I was pointed at the registry key mentioned in this KB, and after some testing this morning, it appears to have fixed the problem. I am told it is also fixed in XP SP2, although I haven't upgraded yet to verify that.


[KC on Exchange and Outlook]

Monday, August 2, 2004

Military readies directed-energy weapons

Hehe, I say if the folks from PETA object they should put THEM in the cage!

What could be cooler than zapping animals from a few dozens yards away? Apparently nothing overall important for Peter Anthony Schlesinger. While this experiment seems pretty odd it does have some uses according to the U.S. military. It could be used to paralyze attackers, disable missiles, and even disable vehicles. That is if PETA doesn't put an end to the chick experiment.

A few months from now, Peter Anthony Schlesinger hopes to zap a laser beam at a couple of chickens or other animals in a cage a few dozen yards away.

If all goes as planned, the chickens will be frozen in mid-cluck, their leg and wing muscles paralyzed by an electrical charge created by the beam, even as their heart and lungs function normally. Among those most interested in the outcome will be officials at the Pentagon, who helped fund Schlesinger's work and are looking at this type of device to do a lot more than just zap a chicken.

Devices like these, known as directed-energy weapons, could be used to fight wars in coming years. "When you can do things at the speed of light, all sorts of new capabilities are there," said Delores Etter, a former undersecretary of defense for science and technology and an advocate of directed-energy weapons. Directed energy could bring numerous advantages to the battlefield in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops have had to deal with hostile but unarmed crowds as well as dangerous insurgents.

News source: CNN

Read full story...

[Neowin.net]

Alienware Rebrands TekPanel as 'DHD'

Ooooh, I want one of these...  So I can load the BeyondTV network client on it!!!

 

Haha, DHD, they must be Stargate-SG1 fans.

alienware_dhd_system.jpg image

Alienware has a new line of Windows Media Center PCs that are integrated into flat-panel displays which they're calling "DHD" systems (You know, Digital Home, errr, uhm) but you may know as Hy-Tek's TekPanel of The Apprentice fame. So despite Alienware's claims of "innovation," there's not a whole lot new to see here; it's a PC stuffed into a 5-inch deep large-screen LCD TV. That's nice and all, but as eHomeUpgrade's Alexander Grundner rightfully asks, is it really worth paying eight grand and up for an all-in-one unit when the computer part of it will be obsoleted in a couple of years?

I guess if you're already shopping at Alienware, you're not really looking for value in the first place.

Read - Alienware Launches DHD Line - Hybrid Flat Panel TV/Media Center PC [eHomeUpgrade]
Read - Product Page [Alienware]


Related
'The Apprentice' Tek Panel PC [Gizmodo]


[Gizmodo]

Microsoft LimitLogin going public soon

This looks cool!  This way you can limit those generic accounts!  Yeah, I can hear you now, "we don't use generic accounts."  Well....  Yes you do... And I guarantee that more than one person knows the password.

Thanks <b>anon</b>...Limit Logon testers have just been notified that the beta test period is nearly over. A public release will be available soon.

"Thank you for participating in the Beta Test program for LimitLogin. We are pleased to announce LimitLogin will be available for download on Microsoft web site soon. Your bug reports and suggestions for improving LimitLogin have helped us to build a great product."

LimitLogin adds the ability to limit concurrent user logins in an Active Directory domain. This tool will be released as a resourcekit tool for Windows 2003, it requires IIS 6 and is not supported (as all resource kit tools). The tool is 3.55 MB. Read more for further information.

News source: In-House

Read full story...

[Neowin.net]

Shark Repellant That Just Might Work

Not that I would EVER get into deep water and have a need for it, but I thought if funny none the less.  I wonder what they pay their beta testers? :)

story.shark.repell.ap.jpg imageI'd always thought "shark repellant" was just sort of an ACMEesque joke product, but apparently there have been a variety of products available for just such a purpose as far back as World War II. The downside of these repellents, though - and this is a pretty big downside - is that they generally didn't work. Now a pair of researchers have developed a new goop that appears to be effective at chasing away at least four species of sharks for up to two hours with just four ounces in the water (tiny, defenseless handheld sharks judging by the picture).

The shark-scaring slime is actually (at least partially) extract from dead sharks, gathered from New Jersey fish markets. No word yet if sharks from other fish markets will create something so foul smelling or if New Jersey is an integral part of the formula.

Read - Shark repellent tested in Bahamas [CNN]


[Gizmodo]