"It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility." - Chris Knight
Archive for October, 2007
Apple Updates iLife Suite For Leopard
October 26th, 2007 by iDunzo
Apple has rolled out a set of updates for its iLife suite. Some are intended to improve compatibility with today’s launch of the new OS X 10.5 Leopard, but others are aimed at Tiger users as well.
Apple’s release notes offer little hint of what’s changed beyond the usual vague statements about stability enhancements, compatibility improvements and “other minor issues.”
Suffice to say these are not major upgrades unless you’re moving to Leopard.
I can tell you that the GarageBand 3.0.5 is solely for Leopard and didn’t even show up in Software Update on my Tiger install.
iDVD 6.0.4, however, seems to be intended for all users and reportedly “improves overall stability” in addition to providing Leopard compatibility.
The iLife support app has also been updated for Leopard and “improves overall stability, addresses a number of other minor issues, and supports general compatibility issues.”
Of course Apple recommends this update for all iLife ’08 users.
Since I plan to do a clean install of Leopard this afternoon, I’ve skipped the iLife updates for the time being, but I haven’t seen any reports of problems from those who have upgraded.
As always, YMMV and make sure you have a backup before diving in.
Posted in Apple + Software + Technology | 
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CSI:NY Crosses Over Into Second Life Tonight
October 24th, 2007 by iDunzo
Set your TiVos–tonight’s episode of CSI: NY ventures into the world of Second Life.
CSI:NY will be maintaining a permanent presence in Second Life, allowing visitors to take a crack at solving a crime based on evidence found at in-game crime scenes.
Ok, that part actually sounds pretty cool.
The CSI:NY area will be geared more for CSI fans than Second Life enthusiast, and will apparently be far easier to use as a result.
Posted in Gaming + Geekery + Technology | Comments Off on CSI:NY Crosses Over Into Second Life Tonight
Comcast Traffic Filtering Could Lead To Legal Showdown
October 23rd, 2007 by iDunzo
Comcast continues its double speak and carefully crafted workings regarding the company’s policy of throttling BitTorrent traffic, but already the lawyers are beginning to circle and Comcast could face lawsuits in the very near future.
CNet’s Chris Soghoian reports that because Comcast’s filtering technique uses forged TCP reset packets to disrupt traffic it is essentially impersonating its customers.
The forged headers allow Comcast to say it doesn’t block traffic — it doesn’t, the traffic continues to flow, it just gets altered into forged packets that constantly reset the peer connections.
But forging headers is hardly the “cutting edge technology,” Comcast claims it is and it may well be illegal. Assuming your identity and forging packets is roughly the same thing your friendly Nigerian e-mail scammer does to infiltrate your e-mail inbox.
As Soghoian points out, were Comcast to do to e-mail traffic what they do to BitTorrent traffic, they would be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act and libel for fines and jail time.
So why can they get away with doing it to BitTorrent, Gnutella and Lotus traffic?
The answer is simply that no one has challenged them yet, perhaps they can get away with it, perhaps they can’t, but we won’t know until someone brings a suit against Comcast.
Many states have laws already on the books that make impersonating someone an crime, especially when the impersonation is intended to benefit the person doing the impersonating.
In this case, because Comcast stands to gain from filtering BitTorrent traffic — less strain on the network and BitTorrent is increasingly being used to deliver movies (legally), which makes it a Comcast competitor — the company may soon find itself a sitting duck for consumer lawsuits.
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Quarter Of A Million Apple iPhones Unlocked
October 23rd, 2007 by iDunzo
According to Apple’s quarterly results, fully 17% of all iPhones sold are unlocked and roaming on networks other than AT&T’s.
Apple’s recently reported third-quarter results were full of interesting figures.
Perhaps the most interesting is that of the 1.4 million iPhones sold, 250,000 (or 17%) of them have been unlocked.
They believe this because they’ve subtracted the number of iPhones activated on AT&T’s network from the total number of iPhones sold.
Um. That figure is pretty danged high.
Not only that, the iPhone Dev Team is reporting that there have been 500,000 downloads of its AnySIM 1.0 unlocker program.
That means more than one-third of everyone who bought an iPhone has decided that they might hack it.
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AT&T Adds Napster For Wireless Customers
October 22nd, 2007 by iDunzo
AT&T said this morning that it will soon make available a music service from Napster, allowing its wireless customers to download more than five million full-track songs on their mobile devices.
AT&T customers will have a choice of downloading five tracks a month for $7.49 with the Napster Mobile Five-Track Pack plan or purchasing songs for $2 each without the plan.
Napster Mobile will come with a feature that sends a music track to a mobile device wirelessly and at the same time makes a duplicate copy available for download to a PC.
AT&T claims it is the only wireless carrier in the United States that will let customers buy full-track songs wirelessly from both Napster, a mainstream nationwide provider of digital music, and eMusic, the largest retailer of independent music.
The carrier was the first to offer the iPhone, which has a built-in iPod for listening to music and watching video. iPhone customers can purchase music from Apple’s iTunes store.
As a comparison, songs on iTunes cost 99 cents each. Apple last week slashed prices on copy-protection-free songs from $1.29 to 99 cents.
Posted in Music + Software + Technology + Wireless | Comments Off on AT&T Adds Napster For Wireless Customers
Yabafo: Amusement Ride or World’s Fastest Elevator?
October 22nd, 2007 by iDunzo
It’s said that Japan has some of the fastest elevators in the world.
Apparently it has something to do with different cultures having differing comfort and tolerance levels.
Even so, the Yabafo might test the mettle of even the craziest of our Eastern speed loving friends.
Designed by Shin Takamatsu, the Yabafo is part of a new amusement complex in Osaka, called NamBa HIPS, and is the first freefall ride to be built into a building.
During the 74 meter (243 feet) drop, the six person casket will hit 22 meters per second (50 MPH).
The crazy part of this is that the world’s fastest real elevator isn’t far off this speed at 17 meters per second (38 MPH), and that’s on the way up.
The park is due to open in December 2007. If you visit, I suggest not eating beforehand.
Posted in Geekery + Technology + Travel | Comments Off on Yabafo: Amusement Ride or World’s Fastest Elevator?
