Because the guy can’t install the software due to an “error” muaahahahah.

Read

Read

(I taught the podcasting class <g>)

Here is a great hint from the Maccast: Read

Because the blog uses a horrible UI and makes finding links next to impossible, I’ve included the link to Apple: Apple Repair Program

I got a call from my colleague at the airport today. “Steven? Can you check the trash? I think I threw away my ipod”

Sure enough, an apple bag with a nike armband and inside that was the brand new red nano. Of course, it was all so light that it ended up tacked onto the other bag he was throwing away as he headed out the door.

Welcome to level 4 of iPod ownership!

A quick jaunt to the airport reunited the stray ipod with its caretaker.

Apple’s iPod turns 5 today. Amazing. 5 years ago Apple was slowly growing again, there were no legal ways to buy online music that were worth a damn and we had cruddy, large, horrible to use hardware to choose from.

Thank you, Apple!

Look at Microsoft’s software for interfacing with the Zune:

Look

Jeez, this company couldn’t even masturbate without having visited a Cupertino bathroom first.

Apple continues to prove that while it innovates, Microsoft does CMD-A CMD-C CMD-P.

I wrote that Talisman 1.2 is still broken with FIOS (after posting in June, and helping debug) and that I was “sad that Sveasoft auto charged me $20 and broke my firmware”

They deleted the post and sent this to me in private message:

“Future flamebait posts will result in immediate account closure wihout prior notice.” as it was “in violation of the FAQ”

I like their firmware but their customer service leaves something to be desired, especially since I am a two+ year customer who has helped them debug a number of issues.

Nice, eh?

A nice writeup on Bob’s presentation to the college:

Read

Amazon’s just released video service is already dead.

Can you hear the nails being pounded into the coffin? Let’s see what is inscribed on the heads of those nails:

1. Windows Only. No Mac support. No iPod Video support.
2. Nasty EULA
3. “PRE-RELEASE SOFTWARE. This software is a pre-release version. It may not work the way a final version of the software will. We may change it for the final, commercial version. We also may not release a commercial version.”
4. “SUPPORT SERVICES. Because this software is provided “as is,” we may not provide support services for it.”
5. Recommended Broadband internet connection capable of1.5+ mbps of sustained transfer speeds.
6. The Service allows you to (i) pay a fee to view Digital Content for a limited specified period of time (”Rental Digital Content”), and (ii) pay a fee to view Digital Content a repeated number of times (”Purchased Digital Content”). As used herein, (i) “Residence” shall mean a private, residential dwelling unit or a private individual office unit, but excluding hotel rooms, motel rooms, hospital patient rooms, restaurants, bars, prisons, barracks, drilling rigs and all other structures, institutions or places of transient or work-related residence as well as places, areas, structures, rooms or offices which are common areas or open to the public or to occupiers of separate Residences or for which an admission fee is charged;
7. Software Upgrades. The Software automatically checks for upgrades, but the Software will not automatically upgrade without your consent, except as provided herein. If you do not consent to an upgrade that we make subject to your consent, the Digital Content may no longer be viewed on your Authorized Device. You must keep the Software on your Authorized Device current in order to continue to use the Service. We may automatically upgrade the Software when we believe such upgrade is appropriate to comply with law, enforce this Agreement, or protect the rights, safety or property of Amazon, our content providers, users, or others.

I can hear iTunes chuckling.

(Thanks to John for the EULA excerpts)

Sophie got 5th place at the European Smalltalk Users Group for innovative applications. Considering we’re not shipping yet and nowhere near our desires for Sophie, I’m quite happy. Congrats to the team!

ESUG

No macs of course - This is why I stopped using myspace - they don’t check any of the content put on their site. If you use windows, be wary of myspace content. People can upload anything they want, including ads that take advantage of windows security flaws, as millions of windows users found out:

Read

while not a mac story, Ars has a story on how Microsoft is letting people test drive the new Office 2007 beta not by downloading it, but by running it over the Internet using Citrix, which allows you to log into a remote machine much like VPC, or Timbuktu. I find this quite novel actually, as this means people can try true betas out, no pirated copies, no betas to uninstall or muck up your computer.

Read

Here are two recent stories of laptop batteries catching fire. I think I’ll be turning my laptop off when I am not around, although I am not sure if that will actually prevent a battery from exploding.

• http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550
• http://wcco.com/consumer/local_story_148150249.html

More tests to http://nitro.ucsc.edu, running Talisman 1.2 RC1 on a Linksys WRT54GS 1.1:

10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 1.93Mb/s running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 14.97Mb/s

Yeah!

Over 802.11g via my Linksys WRT54GS 1.1 running Talisman/Basic 1.2.devsnap.RC1

http://http://nitro.ucsc.edu/ is the test suite.

TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.3.3d click START to begin Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 1.92Mb/s running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 8.11Mb/s The slowest link in the end-to-end path is a 10 Mbps Ethernet subnet

click START to re-test

Sigh. I hate iChat. Damn reliance on routers.

Anyway, had Vonage move to port 5061 (they said they were at 10,000? no, they are clueless, was probably 5060) and then changed router to use these settings:

We’ll see.

KGW (local news) and the Better Business Bureau made a fake “Office of Spam Control” and made a form, went down to PSU and offered people $5 to sign up for spam blocking. The form asked for email address, passowrd, SSN #, address, name. And it even said at the bottom “For the lure of a five dollar bill I have actually given a complete stranger my information so they can steal my identity”

The piece interviewed 4 people who gave up all of their information.

I am looking for Walter Moers’ “A wild ride through the night” in English. I found it on Amazon.de. Searching Amazon.com for 10 minutes and I find this edition but it is in German, I think. They don’t tell me but the title is.

Ok so I click “All Editions” and it gives me tons of other books? ok I press back and click on the link for “Walter Moers” and it shows me 9 books, which does not include the one I was just looking at?

So I went to powellsbooks.com, typed in Walter Moers, there it is, in trade paper. clikc that link and oh, in other formats too.

Amazon has become cluttered and hard to use, no, impossible it seems.

Worked on my G5! Not sure i really want it, nor what resources it is using. it is a fairly slow and poor computer interface to all of this media I have, but what the heck.

Instructions for the Geeky Minded

While not as scary as Windows, if you use some Sony/BMG cds on your Mac, according to this Macintouch report, it will ask for your admin password (hey at least the Mac asks!) and then it installs two kernel extensions.

A kernel extension lives behind the wall of protection, so any bugs in the kernel extension could crash your computer, or look at data it should not be, etc.

It really is time for us all to boycott these Sony/BMG products.