Posts
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
It's time for me to post my 2 cents about the Obama Inauguration. People say "It was just AMAZING"..."History has been made". Well, let me start with "History has been made". Well yes, history has been made.........somewhat. History is always made when a new president comes, if they're a piece of crap or not. "It was just AMAZING": Yes it was good....but I wouldn't classify it as AMAZING. This part just confuses me: "...I would like to thank everyone for accepting me as the first black president of the United States of America...". Well, we didn't accept him. We VOTED him in people!!!!!!!!! I don't call that accepting, unless if our government just became an oligarchy or dictatorship. Next of all, who would want to stand in that cold just to watch something for a whole 15-30 minutes just to see a president sworn in? Also, you have to bring your OWN toilet paper for the bathroom? Come on people, imagine standing where Barack is going to be inaugurated at, holding a roll of toilet paper! It would look kind of weird.
Next, it's time for me to talk about this plan that he has during his second day in office. Did you hear about this? Well, either way, let me tell you. You know those restrictions that George W. Bush made for abortions, such as you can't have one after so many months, and so forth? Well, during Obama's second day in office, those laws are supposedly going to REVERSE! If they are successfully reversed, then teens who are pregnant can get an abortion WITHOUT telling their parents! Parents who are reading this, please talk to your kids about the serious matter that I won't talk about here; this isn't the right blog. And kids, if you are unsure about something important, please talk to their parents; that's what they're there for! Back to the parents, if you are uncomfortable about talking about this with your kids, think about it when (and if) your parents talked about it to you. They probably felt the same way. So help this world and talk to your kids about this serious subject.
Anyways, please comment! I will most likely respond.
If you have been wondering about the the UI in Asus' new tablet Eee PC's, wonder no more! Asus has painstakingly created a demonstration video explaning them for you, their loyal consumers, enjoy!
FastMac has some new shirts about Mac OS X in the Obama "Change" style like some of his posters. They are available today for only $4.44!
[FastMac Apparel]
This one modder on the MAKE blog has turned a grenade (inactive I hope!) into an mp3 player!
It looks like he took the guts of a Sansa 1 GB mp3 player and stuffed them into the mp3 player.
Looks like a pretty sweet mod, just hope he doesn't take it on public transport.
[via MAKE Blog]
Monday, January 19, 2009
I have compiled a little bit of information about the iPod Touch 2G. Here are some FAQs that I have come up with:
Q: What is different between the 1G and the 2G models?
A: $50
Besides that though, the 2G has a built in speaker, the chrome back like other iPods, and there are volume buttons on the side of the 2G model.
Q2: What size capacities are available?
A2: There are 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models.
Q3: Can I jailbreak the iPod Touch 2G? Are you going to jailbreak it?
A3: As of right now, the 2G jailbreak is not possible, but is almost ready. Since jailbreaking is perfectly legal, I AM going to jailbreak mine when it is known how. A post will be made on The Tecker when the jailbreak is available. And there may be an instructional tutorial placed on youtube on how to do it.
If you have any more question, please comment, and I will respond as soon as I can.
Friday, January 16, 2009
This is pretty old, but I just found it so I thought you might enjoy it. [How to Start Your Very Own Blog in 52 Steps]
Here is a list I compiled of my favorite web apps I use.
--Music--
--Video--
-Sharing and Watching--Editing-
--Photos--
-Sharing and Viewing-
-Editing-
--Productivity--
-Word Processing-
-Spreadsheets-
-Presentation-
-Blogging-
If you know of any other good sites please let me know!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Philips has just announced the first ultra widescreen LCD in 21:9 aspect ratio.
Yes, that is the cinema aspect ration.
The TV will be 56 inches diagonally, and incorporate Philips' Ambilight technology to create richer colors.
The reason Philips wanted to develop a 21:9 ratio TV was because they knew that many consumers do not want to see the black bars on the top an bottom of their TV's during movies, so they designed the TV in the proper ratio that would eliminate the need for the blank space.
[via GadgetVenue]
Monday, January 12, 2009
Well it's official, Sony has worked way too hard this CES.
They have released 70+ products.
Granted 18 of those are camcorders, but still, you wonder if Sony is trying to bring profits back by creating such a wide diversion of products...
[List of products on Gizmodo]
Sorry about the third post in a row...
But The Windows 7 Beta download limit has been extended to January 24, even if the downloads exceed 2.5 million. (Mainly because they already have)
So please try it out and tell us how you like it or don't.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Ok, now here it is people! The Windows 7 Beta release servers are up again but remember, the download is only available to the first 2.5 million people who download it. After that, the beta won't be able to be downloaded.
So ready, set, go get it! [Windows 7 Beta]
PS: please don't be stupid and rely on Windows 7 as your daily machine because it is in Beta still. Secondly, read the list of known problems so you know what problems you could face [Release Notes]. Finally, this Beta expires on August 1, 2009, so have another OS that you can use when this one expires.
Have fun and tell us what you think about Windows 7 in the comments!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Microsoft has released the Windows 7 beta to the general public after its mention at the CES. This means you do not have to download it via torrents because Microsoft released it on their site! [Windows 7 beta...]
Sorry, it would be there. Except the demand crashed Microsoft's servers. Oh well.
No, we'll post the link as soon as it comes back up!
Dell has been teasing all of us recently with posters and teasers about their new Adamo. It's a thin laptop built to compete with the Macbook Air, and so far it looks pretty good. EDIT: It looks amazing!
Now at CES though, they have unveiled it! [Video and Pictures at Engadget]
Asus has been very busy recently! They has at least three new interesting products in their Eee Pc line.
First of all is the new tablet Eee laptop. The Eee Pc T91 combines the guts and price of the Eee line-up with a swivel 9" touch-screen, a GPS receiver, a TV Tuner, and a FM Transmitter.
[via cnet]
Next is is the "keeeboard" (just a prototype name). This is actually a home theater PC crammed into a keyboard with a side touchscreen, a battery, and wireless HDMI capabilities for using a HDTV as a screen without any wires. The whole design reminds me of a really cool, modern Commodore. [via Gizmodo]
Finally we have the Asus Eee D200. It is a home NAS (network attached storage) media server with a touch screen embeded into the front of its case. The concept seems really interesting...
[via Engadget]
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Ever since Blackberry's and iPhone's have started dominating the smart phone industry (with Windows Mobile Devices trying to keep up) Palm has kind of been hiding in the background.
Palm has been recently trying to change that by creating a new operating system to replace their outdated one they currently use.
Ever since the CES, nobody had any clues as to what it was like or how it looked, but they just unveiled it, and it looks like it will be a real contender!
[via Gizmodo]
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
There seems to be a huge rise in hacks on popular websites recently.
Twitter has gotten hacked not once, not twice, but 33 times! It seems as though the group behind the attacks is called Digital Gangster. Check out the full story here. [Twitter gets hacked] [Digital Gangster is the culprit]
There is still uncertainty about who is behind the MacRumors site hacking though. [MacRumors hacking]
UPDATE: Now Cork'd, a wine finding site seems to be hacked to link to another not-so-family-appropriate site. [Cork'd gets uncorked]
Many people have posted videos on YouTube about the "iPod Touch 2G Jailbreak". What is a jailbreak anyways???? Well, "jailbreaking" your iPod Touch or iPhone is giving it more functionality, such as 3rd party applications. However, this is not supported by Apple, Inc. The main question is however, "Can you jailbreak the iPod Touch 2G???". Well, the answer is NO. Jailbreaking the iPod 2G is currently impossible, according to the iPhone Dev Team. They are working on one, but it's not in the near future. So don't waste your time trying to do it.
Note: If someone somehow get's it to work, please show us how!!!! Any proof will be great!
The proof: - notification of an iPod Touch 2G, not 1G (generation, not size)
- Jailbroken iPod Touch (run Cydia or something)
- Jailbreak the iPod AGAIN.
So, please comment!!!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The new DSi has already been on sale in Japan. However, it will be a while until it comes to the US (predicted in Q4). Is it worth the money? Is is just as good as the Lite or original? Well, the review of the DSi is right here in this article. This will be in an easy Pro-Con thing, with the final result at the bottom of the article (but please, don't go stratight down to the bottom!).
Pros (for you people who forgot, good sides):
- 12% thinner than DS Lite, the current DS on the market
- 2 digital cameras!! No more need for your current one! (unless you own one of those fancy-shmancy Nikons)
- The power switch has been replaced by a power button, like the 1st gen. DS (I could always see myself accidentally sliding it when trying to get stylus out...)
- SD card slot (put those photos you take on the digital camera onto the SD card)
- 5 brightness settings (4 on lite, on-off only on 1st gen.)
- Can play ACC audio files
- Upgradeable firmware (get ready hackers!)
Cons (for you people who forgot, bad sides):
- GBA slot taken away to make DS slimmer (Sorry Guitar Hero: On Tour people, can't use the new DS!)
- $192 price tag (comparable to ¥18,000 (yen)).
- Not coming for a while (Q4 in 2009. That's around Sept-Oct, right in time for the holidays)
GRAND TOTAL: Pros: 7 Cons: 3
MY REVIEW: Very good chance of getting this for myself! A good idea with the digital camera (but it's 0.3 megapixels).
Monday, January 5, 2009
Cannon is set to release 6 (six!) new standard definition camcorders at this year's CES. There are some ones with Flash storage, ones with DVD, and even MiniDV.
So have fun with your new camcorders after Ballmer bores the heck out of you!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
This year the Annual CES show will be a real snooze. Bill Gates won't even attend because last year was his last one, and so Steve Ballmer will have to try to rally up the crowd.
Problem is, everything has already been announced.
• Windows 7 will hit public beta (not the torrent version that's out)
• Windows Mobile will get Flash by March (before iPhone!!!!!111)
• Two Halo games for Xbox 360 (yum)
• Better home networking (heard that one before)
[via Gizmodo and TechCrunch]
Journalspace.com was a place for people to blog and share pictures, etc. However, their database was overwritten and they had no real backup, so their company is toast.
One might ask why they did not have a backup.
Well, they did, sorta. They relied on a RAID configuration to keep their data safe. So if one of the drives failed, they just swapped it out for it's backup drive. However, in Journalspace's case, the drive did not fail, it was overwritten which also means (because the drives are configured in a RAID format) the other one had the copy written over too!
The moral? Don't rely on any one technology to keep your data safe. In this case it was RAID, that didn't turn out the intended results. The technology didn't fail, it did its job by copying the one drive, it just had no way of knowing that it was not supposed too.
So remember people backup your data often on removable formats, and always have a backup kept off site too!
---Info for any Journalspace users---
- You can find out more information what happened. [Journalspace News]
- A blog post about how to attempt to recover your posts and pictures via Google's cache. [Andrew's Blog]
- Journalspace also has a twitter account set up so you can view the updates [jsupgrades@twitter]
- Also the company is planning to release the source code for the site to the open source community
Friday, January 2, 2009
Wikipedia has completed raising enough money to run through the fiscal year til June 30, 2009.
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder has written a thank you letter to the donors [Letter]
But remember, Wikipedia has extraordinary costs required to run it, so please continue to donate to this excellent knowledge resource. [Donate to Wikipedia]
Microsoft had submitted a patent for a "pay to use a part" scheme that allowed users to pay a fee and temporarily use more powerful resources via a cloud-like approach.
Basically, what this meant was that if you wanted to use a more powerful processor, all you had to do was click a button in this Microsoft program and it would charge you a fee and then allow you to use a more powerful processor from a server or something similar.
However, the patent office rejected it but saying that too many parts of the patent had already been patented, and that the patent was too vague to be granted.
Tell me what you think about it!
It has been found out that shouting at hard drives while they are reading or writing severely impacts performance. The shouting (which is air waves vibrating) vibrates the disk platter, and so when the disk is working, it has to slow down or repeat the read or write to make sure it completes it with out error. This in turn, of course, negatively impacts disk performance!
So, the moral? When your hard drive is running slow, don't yell at it! It only slows things down, and actually shortens the life of the drive by wearing out the bearing quicker!
[via Engadget]
It seems as if the Atom processor (developed by Intel) which was created as a low-power processor for netbooks will possibly be available for full-sized notebooks soon!
The talks were started by HP and they seem to be doing well in convincing Intel to open up the requirements!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
We here at The Tecker love to hear from you guys, so we really like contests!
This contest is going to run ALL through 2009 and the theme is FAILURES!
So basically, what this entitles you to do, is to post pics of error messages, printers exploding, or any just technology failing!
So good luck and I hope to see some good entries in the comments!
400,000 PCs infected with Fake "AntiVirus 2009" Microsoft Finds
0 comments Posted by bob27 at 3:00 PMMicrosoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool has found and removed the "AntiVirus 2009" virus from 400,000 computers so far.
[via Slashdot]
If you are like most people, you get a computer that comes with a mouse and keyboard and use those til' they bite the dust. Then you go out to the store and buy a cheap no-name replacement so you can get your work done.
However, you should know that keeping yourself comfortable is very important, and so Extreme Tech has compiled a list of the best keyboards and mice to use for any type of work you do.
[Best Keyboards on Extreme Tech]
[Best Mice on Extreme Tech]
Yellowsn0w has been released to unlock your 3G iPhones via the SIM card! For instructions on how to use it, visit The iPhone Dev Team.
