Techie :: Techno ::: January 2008 Archives
This is more of a reminder for myself than anything else ....
If you need to reboot a Windows XP machine from DOS prompt the command is:
shutdown -r
If you just use the command:
shutdown
without passing any other parameters to it you'll get the help screen with a variety of options.
Kind of useful if your PC (located remotely) is acting up and a reboot is required :)
If you need to reboot a Windows XP machine from DOS prompt the command is:
shutdown -r
If you just use the command:
shutdown
without passing any other parameters to it you'll get the help screen with a variety of options.
Kind of useful if your PC (located remotely) is acting up and a reboot is required :)
Apple users used to love mocking Windows users when it came to security issues, however the upsurge in the popularity of the Mac platform, combined with an ever expanding range of products is not without its downfalls.
Earlier this morning Secunia reported a serious issue that affected users of both the iPhone and the iPod touch.
The solution? Simply run an update.
But is it that simple?
Well it might not be if you are running a cracked Apple iPhone. Due to Apple's rather odd marketing / sales strategy, which favours the creation of monopolies, a lot of people have been buying Apple iPhones to use with their "normal" SIMs...
And there I was toying with the idea of picking up an iPhone this week ...
Maybe I'll just get some nice games for my Apple MacBook Pro :)
Age of Empires anyone?
Earlier this morning Secunia reported a serious issue that affected users of both the iPhone and the iPod touch.
The solution? Simply run an update.
But is it that simple?
Well it might not be if you are running a cracked Apple iPhone. Due to Apple's rather odd marketing / sales strategy, which favours the creation of monopolies, a lot of people have been buying Apple iPhones to use with their "normal" SIMs...
And there I was toying with the idea of picking up an iPhone this week ...
Maybe I'll just get some nice games for my Apple MacBook Pro :)
Age of Empires anyone?
I normally don't mention when sites or services are offline, as it's the kind of whining that I hate.
However in the case of Jaiku the 24 hours or so downtime is actually welcome.
If Jaiku can resolve some of their scalability issues by going offline for a couple of days, then I'm more than happy to do without my daily dose.
There's more information on their official blog, where they talk about database migrations etc., The blog post isn't that detailed, but it's there if you want to read it
However in the case of Jaiku the 24 hours or so downtime is actually welcome.
If Jaiku can resolve some of their scalability issues by going offline for a couple of days, then I'm more than happy to do without my daily dose.
There's more information on their official blog, where they talk about database migrations etc., The blog post isn't that detailed, but it's there if you want to read it
Couple of quick notes....
I've finally put some content on a subdomain off technology.ie. I've setup some forums there to take over from a now defunct forum I was running... Why? Well the old domain name wasn't particularly "strong" so using a more generic domain may work out better. Of course I could be completely wrong, but experiments like this are fun !
On a completely unrelated topic ...
The annual Blacknight sale hasn't been announced to the public yet but will be later today. To find out about the special reductions and possibly win a prize you'll need to be either a Blacknight client OR a subscriber to the Blacknight newsletter. More details and signup here
I've finally put some content on a subdomain off technology.ie. I've setup some forums there to take over from a now defunct forum I was running... Why? Well the old domain name wasn't particularly "strong" so using a more generic domain may work out better. Of course I could be completely wrong, but experiments like this are fun !
On a completely unrelated topic ...
The annual Blacknight sale hasn't been announced to the public yet but will be later today. To find out about the special reductions and possibly win a prize you'll need to be either a Blacknight client OR a subscriber to the Blacknight newsletter. More details and signup here
What are the current hot topics in technology and more specifically, the internet?
Web 2.0 was a hot topic. Is it still?
Social networking? That's been around for quite some time, as has blogging, so they're probably not that "hot" and newsworthy as they might have been 18 months ago.
What about micro-formats? All this talk of Jaiku (and how broken it's become since the takeover) and that awful Twitter thing. Is it even worth talking about?
I have a pretty good idea what's happening in the hosting / domain space, but there's a lot more to the internet industry than what I, as one person, see.
I'm probably missing out on something. Then again, maybe I'm not !
Web 2.0 was a hot topic. Is it still?
Social networking? That's been around for quite some time, as has blogging, so they're probably not that "hot" and newsworthy as they might have been 18 months ago.
What about micro-formats? All this talk of Jaiku (and how broken it's become since the takeover) and that awful Twitter thing. Is it even worth talking about?
I have a pretty good idea what's happening in the hosting / domain space, but there's a lot more to the internet industry than what I, as one person, see.
I'm probably missing out on something. Then again, maybe I'm not !
Since someone was talking about browser versions over on IWF I started digging into the stats for various sites.
Looking at the period covering January 2007 to January 2008, the traffic on here was pretty steady with two notable spikes.
The first one was back in August when I posted about getting a Mac:
Moving to the Darkside
The other one that caused a spike was when I made the frontpage of Digg with the Monster spam debacle. The main post was this one, but there were a few related ones as well.
The most popular entries that still attract traffic are still the same as before, which always amazes me.
They weren't even particularly long posts in some cases, such as the one about Ubuntu on a bootable USB
The thing that always interests me is browser usage.
As in the past the majority of visitors use Firefox, but Internet Explorer comes a close second. What's interesting is the number of mobile users. They may not be that numerous, or their devices maybe reporting under other UserAgent strings, but they are growing in numbers.
In terms of OS usage the split is clearly between Windows, Linux and Mac users.
All very interesting, but totally useless information!
Looking at the period covering January 2007 to January 2008, the traffic on here was pretty steady with two notable spikes.
The first one was back in August when I posted about getting a Mac:
Moving to the Darkside
The other one that caused a spike was when I made the frontpage of Digg with the Monster spam debacle. The main post was this one, but there were a few related ones as well.
The most popular entries that still attract traffic are still the same as before, which always amazes me.
They weren't even particularly long posts in some cases, such as the one about Ubuntu on a bootable USB
The thing that always interests me is browser usage.
As in the past the majority of visitors use Firefox, but Internet Explorer comes a close second. What's interesting is the number of mobile users. They may not be that numerous, or their devices maybe reporting under other UserAgent strings, but they are growing in numbers.
In terms of OS usage the split is clearly between Windows, Linux and Mac users.
All very interesting, but totally useless information!
Back in December I posted about my quest to find a multiregion capable HD DVD or Blu Ray player.
It was a very frustrating quest, but not nearly as frustrating as the entire HD DVD vs Blu Ray format war. As a consumer I felt like "piggy in the middle".
However, in the last couple of weeks the format war between HD DVD and Blu Ray seems to have almost drawn to a close, as Warner Brothers decided to drop HD DVD later this year.
So that means that investing in a HD DVD player now would probably be a really bad idea.
A couple of people suggested that I get a Sony Playstation 3 and "chip" it ie. open the "black box" and get "down and dirty" with a soldering iron.
Anyone who knows me personally would know that giving me a soldering iron probably isn't a good idea. While I used to dabble in electronics (and other things) when I was a teenager I am not to be trusted with such things in general.
So what are my options?
With my "normal" DVD player I was able to find a simple code hack that allowed me to render it region free very easily, but if such codes exist for Blu Ray players they aren't "in the wild", or at least I haven't been able to find them. And believe me, I have been looking!
Fortunately people more adept with soldering irons have come up with a couple of solutions.
A Swedish company is offering a couple of pre-hacked models, though their site is in Swedish! A quick conversion shows that you'd pay over 650 euro for the cheapest one exclusive of shipping costs.
Another solution lies with a company in Holland that has a number of models available 600 euro upwards.
The Sony BDP-S300 comes in at EUR599, while the Sony BDP-S500 is EUR899.
Checking out the two models (unhacked) on another site which has a comparison tool wasn't particularly illuminating.
Both machines seem to do exactly the same thing, or maybe I'm missing a subtle but significant difference?
I'm leaning towards the BDP-S300 simply because it is EUR300 cheaper.
Of course I could live without a HD movie player, but I'd really like to be able to take advantage of the higher definition and extra features on the discs.
Oh what to do??
