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12/13/07

Office 2008 for Mac available on for January 2008

omac2008

Microsoft has put up yet another preview of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, giving a glimpse of some improvements to Excel, but the main good news in accompanying press release is the phrase "on the eve of Release to Manufacturing (RTM)," which means that Office for Mac looks to be on schedule for its January 2008 release.

There’s still no demo version available, nor will there be. For now you’ll have to make do with the preview site, which today added a showcase demonstrating some new Excel features like Formula Builder, Formula AutoComplete and support for increased rows and columns.

office2008powerpoint

Of course if previews don’t do it for you a little bird tells us that copies of the private beta are floating around on BitTorrent sites if you’re into that sort of thing.

Still, despite the lack of a public beta, the announcement that Office for Mac is about to reach RTM status is good news for Mac users waiting on the Mac equivalent to Office 2007, which will be over a year old by the time the Mac version hits the shelves come January.

Of course, despite the efforts of the Mac for Office team it's hardly surprising that the majority of Microsoft seems to view Mac users as second class citizens. The software is, after all, an important part of a competitor's platform, and what better way to take a jab at your competitor?

 

{via blog wired}

Microsoft releases security updates for XP and Vista

Once in a month Microsoft releases their so called Security Bulletins in which they announce security updates for several of their operating systems and other products. The current Security Bulletin for December lists seven vulnerabilities that have been fixed including three critical and four important ones.

Every user should head out immediately and use either Windows Updates or browse the Microsoft website manually to download the security patches. I have added the download links to all security patches at the end of the article to make things easier for you.

A quick glance at the security vulnerabilities revealed that five patches have to be downloaded for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Take a look at the Microsoft Security Bulletin overview site if you are using a different operating system to find out what has been patched for it.

Windows Vista:

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-063 – Important (Vulnerability in SMBv2 Could Allow Remote Code Execution (942624))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-064 – Critical (Vulnerabilities in DirectX Could Allow Remote Code Execution (941568))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-066 – Important (Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (943078))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-068 - Critical (Vulnerability in Windows Media File Format Could Allow Remote Code Execution (941569 and 944275))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-069 - Critical (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (942615))

Windows XP:

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-064 – Critical (Vulnerabilities in DirectX Could Allow Remote Code Execution (941568))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-065 – Important (Vulnerability in Message Queuing Could Allow Remote Code Execution (937894))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-067 – Important (Vulnerability in Macrovision Driver Could Allow Local Elevation of Privilege (944653))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-068 - Critical (Vulnerability in Windows Media File Format Could Allow Remote Code Execution (941569 and 944275))

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-069 - Critical (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (942615))

{via ghacks}

12/11/07

Download ProcessScanner now

processscanner

Have you seen your PC's performance decline in the days since you bought it? Does your system take a long time to boot up and to load simple programs? Maybe it crashes more frequently, or stalls when loading Web pages? The problem could be that your PC is running unnecessary or even overtly malicious code, compromising all areas of your computer's performance, from speed and stability, through to security. But where do you find a list of all the processes that your PC is running? And even assuming that you find them, what programs are these processes associated with and are they harmful?

The Solution

processscan-screenshots

With ProcessScanner Uniblue takes the perspiration and guesswork out of researching the processes running on your PC. ProcessScanner not only generates a detailed list of the items already running on your PC, it then goes on to give you valuable information as to the programs these are associated with. Furthermore ProcessScanner will then supply you with valuable information about what each does and the level of risk, or threat, to your computer associated with that process. ProcessScanner is an invaluable tool to help remove the fog that obscures the inner workings of your computer and, what's more, it's free!

Web Site | Processscan

12/8/07

Windows Vista SP1 (RC) available next week

Next week the first Service Pack RC 1 for Vista will be available for download. Here are some features:

vista2_1

  • The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
  • The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
  • Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn't needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
  • Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
  • We've improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

Read more

12/7/07

Cafferty: White House Illegally Deleted Over TEN MILLION e-mails

Cafferty: A government watchdog group now says more than 10 million White House emails are missing. Citizens for the Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) described this massive hole in White House email records last April. At that time they thought the number was 5 million - Now they say it is more than 10 million emails. In one of the great understatements of this here Christmas season, the group says that this revised estimate - quote - highlights that this is a very serious and systematic problem at the White House - unquote. Both CREW and another private group called the National Security archive are suing the Bush administration to try to get information about all these missing emails. The White House email problems first came to light during special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity.

It’s worth noting what a critical time period these missing emails represent. Why it’s from March of 2003 to October 2005. That would include the start of the Iraq War right up through the aftermath of Katrina. As the director of one of these groups put it: It doesn’t get more historically valuable than that. Given the way the White House handled both the war and Katrina, it’s also quite convenient that suddenly this mountain of stuff is missing. By the way it’s against the law that these emails be destroyed or lost. They are supposed to be saved. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 mandates White House communications be preserved. Another law broken — Another example of nobody doing a damn thing about it.

{via crooksandliars}

12/6/07

Add System Monitoring to Your Desktop with CoolMon [Featured Windows Download

coolmon

Windows only: Freeware application CoolMon monitors your systems vitals with attractive desktop-embedded widgets. In very basic operation, CoolMon displays information like RAM usage, hard drive space, and CPU load, but with the right plugins you can embed just about anything on your desktop—like new email alerts, weather, the song you’re currently listening to, and so on. If all you’re looking for is more of a plain-text to-do list on your desktop, check out previously mentioned Samurize. Mac users should take a look at GeekTool. Setup for CoolMon is a little quirky, so check out Simplehelp’s post guide if you’re having trouble. CoolMon is freeware, Windows only.

CoolMon [via Simplehelp->techblogger]

12/5/07

Gmail with Colored Labels and Folders

colored labels inbox

Today, Gmail announce the next evolution of labels: the colored label. Until now the label has been a little inconspicuous creature, subtly suggesting categorical associations in its simple green coat.Oh, we've seen the colored label here and there, its precursors surfacing in various experiments and Greasemonkey scripts; but the label has never before been so brazen, so bold. How will it use its new colors? Will it disguise itself with the chameleon's camouflage or clamor for attention with the monarch butterfly's vivid contrast?

Read More

{via Gmailblog}

11/28/07

56 styles for Photoshop CS

photoshop-layer-styles

Jayhan says:

I had been working with Photoshop for more than a year and through out this year, I designed works by using this great tool, really can’t live without it. In Photoshop, the layer blending had been the most frequently used in most designs. By applying layer styles, the design won’t be flat and it looks good. I used a variety of style combination to achieve the desired result. And here, I decided to save all the styles that I created for backup purposes, as well as share out here!

You can view all the 56 layer styles bigger at the picture below. Most of the styles involving black, gray, and orange, because these are the colors I used the most. I also included the styles that I used for creating the gaming window tutorial too. So feel free to download and play around with it!

photoshop-layer-styles-big

Etology BAN All BitTorrent Sites From Their Ad Network

etology In the email sent by Etology to their BitTorrent site customers they write: “Due to the legal implications involved with sponsoring torrent sites, our management team has made the decision to remove from our network torrent sites that promote copyrighted content.”

They probably mean “promote sharing of copyrighted content”, but that’s a minor detail. According to Etology this move is needed in order to to minimize risk for their advertisers. It is not sure what the risk is, but apparently some of their bigger clients don’t what their ads to appear on BitTorrent sites. At this point it is not clear if only BitTorrent sites are affected, or also the huge list of warez sites in their ad network.

Most companies don’t want to be associated with sites that offer links to copyrighted material. Others see it as a great outlet to advertise their products, last year Wal-Mart placed targeted ads for DVDs of popular TV-shows such as “The Sopranos”, “Smallville”, “Desperate Housewives” on The Pirate Bay during the holiday season. The ads appeared on pages that linked to corresponding torrents.

Etology served ads for Demonoid, Torrent-Finder, TorrentReactor, TorrentPond, BTScene and several other sites. There are still some options for BitTorrent site owners to monetize their websites, with Adbrite as the leading ad provider. Other alternatives are CPX Interactive, AuctionAds, ShoppingAds and unfortunately plenty of adult and gambling related programs.

[via TorrentFreak]

Hai un blog? Prendi il tuo iPhone gratis da theapplelounge

apple

Hai un blog? Puoi vincere un iPhone! Come partecipare? Visita il sito The apple Lounge iPhone! . Maggiori informazioni le trovate direttamente su The Apple Lounge!

[English version]

11/27/07

MySpace plans Facebook-style news feeds

News Corp's popular online social network, MySpace, plans to launch Facebook-style "news feeds" in the next 30 to 45 days, Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn said on Monday.

News feeds, which alert a user to what their friends and colleagues are doing, have been one of the most popular features of MySpace rival Facebook.

"The concept of a news feed is something we are very focused on, and we'll be well down the path in the next 30 to 45 days," Levinsohn told the Reuters Media Summit.

He said his company also plans to let users express different versions of themselves by creating more than one profile, for example one for family, one for friends and another for work.

The new feature will let you "express yourself in all those different segments," Levinsohn said.

(http://blogs.reuters.com/category/themes/mediafile/ to see Reuters MediaFile blog)

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Kenneth Li; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

[via Reuters]

Zoho Office Goes Completely Offline with Google Gears

writedocumentsinairplaneoffline

Amajor downside with online Office programs (like Google Docs) is that they require an Internet connection – that means if you are on an airplane, a cab or some remote village that has no Internet, you may not be able to create/ edit or print your documents, spreadsheets and presentations that are stored online.

If this “always on” factor forcing you to stay away from any of these online office suites, some good news - the very impressive online word processor in Zoho Office suite is now available for both online and offline use through Google Gears.

To use Zoho Writer in offline mode, just install Google Gears and restart your web browser. Then login to your Zoho account and click the link at the top that says “Go Offline.”

Google Gears browser extension is available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

This will download all the recent documents from your Zoho online account to the hard drive. Now when you unplug the Internet cable and go offline, you will still be able to edit and save your documents inside the web browser just like you could do in online mode.

And the next time you connect to the Internet, all the changes made to documents locally will automatically be synchronized with the online copy so there are no discrepancies and you always have one version to work with.

The offline mode in Zoho Office will also prove useful in places where Wi-Fi is expensive like in the hotel rooms or the airport lounge – just connect to the internet, download the documents locally and then go offline to make those last-minute edits.

The offline feature is currently only available for Zoho Office but one can safely assume that the Google Docs team is also working on adding a similar feature to their product.

[via labnol.org]

11/24/07

View Wikipedia Offline Via Gearsmonkey

wiki-offline-greasemonkey-trans-thumb If you are a Wikipedia fan then you are going to love this amazing trick to read Wikipedia Offline. All you need is a bit of Gearsmonkey magic, ala a combination of Google Gears, Greasemonkey and Firefox. By using Gearsmonkey you can take your favorite website offline using Google Gears.. Well here is what the developer had to say :

Sites with a lot of static information — Wikipedia, any API documentation, web-based email — would be great to be able to use when no internet connection is available. But what if you’re a user that always has an internet connection? Then adding Gears to a site doesn’t do much, right? Wrong. Imagine your favorite website is now stored on your computer, and it syncs whenever there’s altered content. Whenever you look at the site, your browser is grabbing everything straight from your hard drive. Did you just make a search for your best friend on Facebook? Don’t wait 5 seconds the next time that search runs, have the results immediately! Meanwhile, save the webmasters’ precious bandwidth/server power!

Here’s the Greasemonkey script for Wikipedia (requires Firefox + Greasemonkey + Gears). For each Wikipedia article you want to save, click on “cache page” and the script will save the text and the images. It would be nice to make it work with any site.

Read More About the project on Google Code
[Via Ajaxian->dailyApps]

11/23/07

Porn Ads runs on Facebook

porn_facebook

A Mashable reader writes:

The attached screen capture shows a porn ad I noticed on facebook. I clicked around a bit and about 20-30 page views later it appeared again…This ad is a direct violation of facebook’s own rules.

Since some of you are spoilsports and don’t like boobies on the homepage, you’ll need to click on the image to see the ad in all its glory (NSFW). What an we infer from this? Probably not much, apart from the fact that Facebook lets its guard down a little on holidays. Frankly, MySpace’s dating banners are almost as revealing.

Zuckerberg, put that porn away!

[via Mashable]

Reveal your saved Passwords in Firefox

firefox

Many users save their passwords in Firefox so that they do not have to enter it again when visiting the website it was saved for again. Firefox remembers the password and enters it automatically if the user selected this option on his first visit. This is great for us lazy users but poses the problem that we sometimes can’t remember the password when we need it again.

A classic example would be a Gmail user who has been using the Gmail website so far now trying to get the POP3 access running. So, what is this user going to do ? He actually has several options to reveal the password in Firefox. The first that comes to my mind is the ability to go into the security tab of the options. You do find a show passwords button there that displays all passwords, usernames and site urls.

I have written about this before and want to concentrate on other possibilities. Please note that a master password has to be entered for all the following methods if one has been set.

1. Greasemonkey Scripts:

If you are using the excellent Greasemonkey extension you can choose from a wide variety of scripts that reveal the passwords:

Show Password on Click - displays the password if you click the password form.

Show Password onMouseOver - reveals the password if you hover the mouse over the password field.

Unpassword - changes the type of the password form to text which always displays the passwords as text.

2. Javascript Code

Paste the following line of code into the address bar and hit enter to reveal the password on this website.

javascript:(function(){var s,F,j,f,i; s = ""; F = document.forms; for(j=0; j<F.length; ++j) { f = F[j]; for (i=0; i<f.length; ++i) { if (f[i].type.toLowerCase() == "password") s += f[i].value + "\n"; } } if (s) alert("Passwords in forms on this page:\n\n" + s); else alert("There are no passwords in forms on this page.");})();

3. Firefox extension

Unhide Passwords - this extension does basically the same as the Unpassword Greasemonkey script.

[via gHacks]

Mogulus Announces Live Streaming Platform

mogulus

NY-based Mogulus has announced the launch today of it's new live streaming platform that enables anyone with a computer, a web-cam and a high speed connection to broadcast like a multi-million dollar television station. The announcement was made at the NewTeeVee event in San Francisco.

They are also streaming the NTV event live so you can watch it from anywhere. From what I have seen, this is the closest thing to an individual being able to create a real, live, actual TV station with badges, tickers, etc. And you can chat with your audience at the same time.

Mogulus also unveiled its Mogulus Grid at the NewTeeVee event. The Mogulus Grid allows you to watch 26 Mogulus Live channels and chat with all of the other viewers. You can also search and browse for channels using the program guide if the top 26 channel selections are not what you want.

I guess this is some competition for Ustream though Mogulus appears to be much larger in name recognition here in NYC.

[via CenterNetwork]

11/21/07

Guide on How to reduce the memory usage in Firefox?

Firefox 2.0 since its release had the niggling memory leak and no matter how many updates have been out to address this issue it still has that retard issue. A standard Firefox install without any extensions consumes around 80MB but soon after you add a few extensions you can see a noticeable drop in the performance. There are many guides out over the internet but i have made my own version that seems to work. It gono be a pretty comprehensive guide so you have a stick a little longer to learn the tricks.

First of all make sure you have the latest version of Firefox, presently 2.0.0.7. If you don’t have which i doubt. You can download using the link below, if you are kind enough grab my referral link.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

1. Extension and themes the main cause of memory leaks.

A standard install of Firefox doesn’t seems to show any memory leak issues. But after installing few extensions it seems to show the memory leak issues. Basically this issue occurs due to buggy, bloatware extensions. Also if you overloaded your Firefox with extensions, you can expect high memory usage. Same goes for themes, don’t install too many themes. To minimizes memory issues try testing each plugin one by one for few hours and check over their memory signature. As a result you can always find out the buggy ones and help yourself minimizing the high memory usage. You can even check this comprehensive list of buggy extensions and find out if one of your extension belongs here. Always keep your extensions updated this is another way to cope with the issue.

2) Start Firefox in Safe Mode

If one of your extensions is not in that list, boot Firefox into Safe Mode to disable all extensions and themes. You can do this by going to Start > Run, and entering:

firefox -safe-mode

A similiar looking box will appear .Now check Disable all add-ons
now click on Continue in Safe Mode. Now fire up your Windows task manager and compare the memory usage before and after disabling the extensions. Normally disabling extensions only drops of couples of MB of ram. But if you find some memory spikes this surely indicates some problems of either of the extensions or themes installed.

safe_mode_box

3) Plugins:

Another memory hogger are the plugins that are needed for open special media or application within Firefox, like Java chat, PDF reader, WMV, Quicktime etc. Here are some links from MozillaZine that offers some basic solutions to plugin related issues.

4) Clear your Download History

[via thinktechno]

(Read here the full guide)

11/14/07

51 Icones for your Rss Feed!

rss

Download Here

Generate Your Ribbon!

quckribon

QuickRibbon is a completely free Web2.0 tool, a website ribbon generator which lets you create a custom ribbon, insert a link in it and place it in the top right corner of your website. It will take you less than 5 minutes to generate your own website ribbon with this trendy widget and add a stylish Web2.0 look to your page – it's quick, easy and fun. We recommend using our QuickRibbon tool to attract your site's visitors attention to new features, announcements, sales, etc. Get rid of the boring banners and make your news stand out with a style.

11/13/07

Blogspot Template - Andreas02 Theme

andreas_blogger_templates

Title: Andreas02
Original design by Andreas Viklund
Booted by BlogCrowd

Platform: Blogger, Blogspot
Filetype: xml

Download Here

K2 Blogger Beta Template

kubrivk_2_k2_blogspot_template 

Title: K2 Blogger
Original design by Michael Heilemann, Chris J. Davis, Safirul Alredha
Booted by BlogCrowds

Platform: Blogger, Blogspot
Filetype: xml

Download Here

(open file with Wordpad and not Notepad)

Blogger Template - Take me to the sky

 sky

Title: Take me to the sky
Author: detonatedlove
Platform: Blogger, Blogspot
Filetype: xml

Download Here

Blogger Template- Kubrick

 kubrick_blogspot_template

Title: Kubrick Beta

Original design by Michael Heilemann
Booted by Kaie’s Blog
Platform: Blogger, Blogspot
Filetype: xml

Download Here

Blogger Template - 1024 px Theme

 blogger1

Title: 1024px Blogger
Author: Bloggero
Platform: Blogger, Blogspot
Filetype: xml

Download Here

Blogger Template - Chocolate Fudge

chokolate

Title: Chocolate Fudge
Author: carlgalloway
Platform: Blogger, Blogspot
Filetype: xml

Download Here

11/10/07

Mandriva Regains Nigeria Deal From Microsoft

A decision to wipe 11,000 machines of their shipped Mandriva Linux operating system and replace it with Windows XP for Nigerian schools received a reversal that should please Mandriva's CEO.

Someone break out the champagne for Francois Bancilhon, CEO of Mandriva. He had blogged his anger with Microsoft counterpart Steve Ballmer over what Bancilhon suggested were dirty tactics in gaining business with Nigeria.

Mandriva Regains Nigeria Deal From Microsoft

Bancilhon's Mandriva won the contract to place its OS on thousands of arriving Intel Classmate PCs. But a change took place that vexed Bancilhon: Nigeria would pay for the Mandriva licenses as agreed, but the OS would be wiped and replaced with Windows XP.

That change meant Mandriva would lose out on maintenance agreements, which would contribute an ongoing revenue stream to the company. Open Source companies like Red Hat and others have demonstrated this business model can make "free" software profitable.

Mandriva Regains Nigeria Deal From Microsoft

Now the winds of fortune have shifted in Bancihlon's favor. InfoWorld reported the company that planned to do the OS change before distributing the computers won't be doing so.

A government official from the agency funding the computer purchase said in the report, "we are sticking with (Mandriva)," but offered no other details.

The motivation for the original shift will have to remain a matter of speculation, despite Bancilhon's hinting of back-door shenanigans taking place.

[via webpronews]

11/3/07

Gmail gets IMAP

It appears that Google is working on integrating IMAP into Gmail. Download Squad reader eD! Thomas sent in a tip letting us know he came across the new IMAP setting while snooping around Gmail. However, it is only appearing in select few Gmail and Google Apps for domains accounts at the moment.

When we checked Gmail Help database this evening, Gmail had said that they support POP, but not IMAP. Then a few minutes later, that doc was gone, and a stack of IMAP related help docs were up. The new pages explain how to integrate the new mail feature. It's as easy as setting up POP, but with huge benefits.

Why is IMAP integration a good thing for Gmail? POP was a stepping stone, but IMAP pushes Gmails benefits over the top. With IMAP, users can now access their email via a desktop application like Outlook or Thunderbird, read emails, make changes, delete, and have the changes made across platforms. So if you now log into your Gmail account, the message which you read in Thunderbird, will now be marked accordingly. No more wasting time trying to sift through emails that had already been answered.

Take a peek under your Settings in Gmail, and click into your 'Forwarding and POP IMAP' tab to see if you are one of the lucky ones who got IMAP first.

UPDATE: Some users are reporting that if they log out and back into Gmail accounts, IMAP settings are showing up! There is hope!

UPDATE 2: Dont worry if you IMAP isn't appearing in your account, Google will be rolling it out to everyone over the next few days.

[via Squad]

10/12/07

Winamp 5.5: 10th Anniversary Edition Launches

2007-10-10

Packed with new features, the latest edition of Winamp is available now. Download Winamp 5.5: The 10th Anniversary Edition and take the all new leading multimedia player for a ride.

Here's a sampling of some of the great Winamp features:
  • A completely redesigned interface, including Album Art
  • Multiple device support, including Apple iPods
  • Access and Share your Music and Videos with Winamp Remote
  • Play and Playlist the Best Music on the Web with Media Monitor
  • Enjoy Dynamic Song Recommendations
  • Experience MP3 Surround Sound Support
  • Access to Thousands of Online Radio Stations, Videos and More!
  • 50 Free MP3 Music downloads compliments of eMusic's 2-week Trial
  • Auto-Tagger provides automatic updates to file information
  • Control Winamp from your browser with a the Winamp Toolbar

Download Winamp 5.5 and enjoy the ride.

- The Winamp Team
Read More >

OpenOffice.org 2.3: New features, extensions and the much anticipated charting tool

Unlike previous 2.x releases, OpenOffice.org 2.3 is a new and enhanced feature release rather than a bug fix. There are several smart changes, a whole new approach to adding new features and of course the much anticipated new charting tool. This is definitely a release to get to know.

I'll plunge right into what's new:

  • A bunch of new and enhanced features like restoring the user-defined movement path in Impress and applying better default print settings in Calc. Check the release notes for complete information from OpenOffice.org.
  • A significantly different chart tool.
  • New extensions provided by Sun and other vendors. You will need to run 2.3 for the extensions to work. Read more about the new extensions on the OpenOffice.org web site.

OpenOffice.org 2.3's new charting tool.

READ MORE

Firefox Coming To Your Phone

Get ready to throw out that WAP browser on your mobile phone (if you haven’t already). The iPhone, with its fully-functioning Safari browser, showed us that mobile browsing need not be a compromise. Now, the folks at Mozilla are working on a mobile version of Firefox.

A Firefox Web browser already exists for the Nokia N800, but this effort will expand Firefox’s mobile reach to many more handsets, especially as they come standard with more memory. (64 MB of DRAM seems to be the minimum that will be required). Mobile Firefox won’t be available until next year, at the earliest. But just as on the desktop, it will be an open platform on top of which anyone can build add-on applications. And that’s good news for mobile computing.

The decision to throw Firefox into the mobile ring is just one more piece of evidence for something that is becoming increasingly clear: The phone is the computer.

As a Mac laptop user, I used Safari for years, until I switched to Firefox. At a certain point, it just eclipsed what I could do on Safari (primarily because of all the add-on applications that became available and the greater flexibility of the core browser). I expect the same thing will happen eventually in the mobile space—if Steve Jobs allows Firefox on the iPhone, that is.

But my guess is that he will have to because it will be available on other phones, and the iPhone will never be able to afford to be seen as lagging in the mobile browsing arena. Of course, this assumes that Firefox quickly will get to the point where it can provide a better mobile browsing experience than the mobile version of Safari. But judging by history, I think it will.

[via Techcrunch]

10/9/07

Linux Day 2007: iniziato il conto alla rovescia


Sul sito del Linux Day 2007 si può assistere al conto alla rovescia in vista della manifestazione che si terrà, dopo il lancio il primo dicembre 2001, il prossimo 27 ottobre in tutta Italia? Ok, in tutta Italia, si chiederà qualcuno: ma nella mia città dove posso trovarlo? Fin dalla home page, è stata pubblicata una mappa che comprende tutte le località presso cui poter avere accesso a uno degli eventi locali. Nella seconda parte della pagina, inoltre, è stato pubblicato l'elenco dei LUG (Linux User Group) e delle associazioni che hanno aderito. Per maggiori informazioni, inoltre, è stata allestita una sezione con le FAQ mentre per chi vuole entrare in contatto con l'organizzazione può cliccare qui.

10/6/07

Festival della creatività 2007 - Firenze

festival della creatività 2007: 400 eventi dedicati alle arti, alla ricerca, all’innovazione, all’intelligenza
Firenze, Fortezza da Basso 25-28 ottobre 2007 giovedì 15.00-03.00 venerdì-domenica 10.00-03.00 ingresso libero

Appuntamento dal 25 al 28 ottobre alla Fortezza da Basso di Firenze per la seconda edizione del Festival della Creatività, promosso dalla Regione Toscana e organizzato dalla Fondazione Sistema Toscana. 40.000 mq di superficie espositiva, 400 eventi, oltre 1600 tra artisti e relatori provenienti da 42 paesi del mondo, un palinsesto ricco di incontri e dibattiti con grandi esponenti della cultura contemporanea, del mondo dell’arte e del design e della scena musicale italiana e internazionale.

Creatività e competitività: il sistema Italia e il mercato globale è il tema del convegno di apertura del festival con il presidente della Regione Toscana Claudio Martini, Enrico Letta, Roberto Colaninno, Tommaso Fanfani, Massimiliano Fuksas, Riccardo Varaldo, Elio Fiorucci. Energia creativa allo stato puro è quella che circolerà negli incontri Carta Bianca, un’ora a disposizione di grandi maestri della creatività contemporanea: Derrick De Kerckhove, guru indiscusso dei massa media, Joshua Davis, il designer newyorkese che ha rivoluzionato la grafica pubblicitaria degli ultimi anni e il grande Dario Fo, che ha preannunciato una conversazione spettacolo su Leonardo Da Vinci.

Paggina del evento http://www.festivaldellacreativita.it





Come arrivare?


Appuntamento a 25 ottobre

9/30/07

Contest: Salvatore Aranzulla e YouBuy.it ti regalano un mare di tecnologia

SA e YouBuy ti regalano una PSP Slim

No, non sono uscito pazzo! Hai capito benissimo. Leggendo il mio blog puoi vincere fantastici premi tecnologici. Prima di tutto puoi vincere una meravigliosa PSP Slim (PlayStation Portable).

Esatto, la nuova versione della console portatile della Sony, appena uscita in Italia. I premi non si fermano alla nuovissima PSP Slim (PlayStation Portable), ma vanno oltre!

Puoi infatti vincere un lettore DVD/DivX portatile PDVX-01 della 4GEEK o un lettore mp3/mp4 Melody della 4GEEK. Insomma, premi da veri appassionati di tecnologia!

Per vincere uno di questi tre premi, basta partecipare a questo contest da me organizzato con la collaborazione di YouBuy.it. YouBuy.it è uno dei maggiori negozi on-line di prodotti tecnologici che mi ha dato l’opportunità di organizzare questo contest e farvi vincere tutti questi fantastici premi.

Il primo premio: la fantastica PSP Slim (PlayStation Portable)

La PSP (PlayStation Portable) è la console di Sony, che ogni vero appassionato di videogiochi e di tecnologia vorrebbe avere. Nel contest è messa in palio la versione Slim della PSP, che è appena uscita nei negozi italiani e che costa ben 169 euro. E che invece io, con la collaborazione di YouBuy.it, vi regalo.

Con la PSP puoi giocare (ovviamente), ma anche ascoltare musica, vedere film e foto in piena mobilità. Per tutti i dettagli, ti rimando al sito ufficiale della Sony.

Il premi della 4GEEK: il lettore DVD/DivX portatile PDVX-01 e il lettore mp3/mp4 Melody

La 4GEEK è una nuova marca italiana che produce prodotti per gli appassionati di tecnologia. Nel contest sono messi in palio il lettore DVD/DIVX portatile PDVX-01, che ci permette di vedere i nostri film in piena mobilità (ad esempio durante un viaggio in treno o in macchina). Il costo di questo ottimo lettore DVD/DIVX è di ben 100 euro. Al solito, io ve lo regalo con la collaborazione di YouBuy.it!

E per concludere la YouBuy.it ha messo in palio il lettore mp3/mp4 Melody con ben 2GB di memoria in cui memorizzare le nostre canzoni e portarle sempre a spasso con noi.

Melody ci permette non solo di ascoltare la musica, ma anche di giocare e di registrare appunti vocali. O ancora ascoltare di la radio! Melody, che vi regalo, costa quasi 55 euro.

Come partecipare al contest

  • I premi del contest sono costituiti da una PSP Slim (PlayStation Portable) della Sony, da un lettore DVD/DivX portatile PDVX-01 e da un lettore mp3/mp4 Melody della 4GEEK. Tutti i prodotti sono gentilmente offerti da YouBuy.it. E’ compresa la spedizione gratuita dei premi ai fortunati vincitori.
  • Al contest potranno partecipare tutti i lettori di Salvatore Aranzulla che parleranno di questo contest con un articolo nel loro blog o nel loro sito Internet. L’articolo dovrà contenere la prima immagine di questa pagina, un link a questa pagina e a YouBuy.it
  • Dopo aver pubblicato l’articolo sul tuo blog o sito Internet, segnalamelo con un commento a questa pagina, indicandomi il link esatto del tuo articolo in cui si parla del contest, entro e non oltre le ore 24.00 di Domenica 21 Ottobre 2007.
  • I vincitori del contest saranno estratti a sorte in diretta on-line. Il primo estratto vincerà la PSP Slim, il secondo estratto il lettore DVD/DivX portatile PDVX-01, il terzo estratto il lettore mp3 Melody. Dove è possibile, i vincitori potranno scegliere il colore dei loro premi fra quelli disponibili.
Sito del contest: S.Aranzulla

9/17/07

Remove Metadata from Word. Stay protected

What is metadata?

Metadata is usually defined as “data about data” or “information about information”. Metadata describes how and when and by whom a particular set of data was collected, and how the data is formatted. Most people are unaware that Microsoft Word documents store metadata in all word documents. You must have noticed that when you select a word document, the preview panel (Common Task in Windows XP) shows some details about the document such as the "author". You must have also noticed that the author's name might not actually appear in the document, and yet it somehow shows the author's name and you can't even edit it. That's metadata. The following are some examples of metadata that may be stored in your documents:

• Your name
• Your initials
• Your company or organization name
• The name of your computer
• The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document
• Other file properties and summary information such as file size, date/time the file was created, modified and accessed and the location where the file is stored
• Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects
• Document revisions
• Document versions
• Template information
• Hidden text
• Comments

As you can see, a substantial amount of information is associated in every word documant. Obviously, you don't want to reveal these information to others for various reasons.


How can I remove metadata?

There are various ways of removing metadata, preventing metadata from generating or just minimizing it.

Automatically Remove Personal Information When You Save

You can set your Microsoft Word to automatically remove personal information from a Word document when you save it. To turn this option on, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Security tab, click to select the Remove personal information from file properties on save check box under Privacy options, and then click OK.

Microsoft word will now not save any personal information along with the document when you save it. But you probably have tons of other documents saved previously, that already has metadata stored along with it. So you will have to remove those data manually.

Manually Remove Your User Name from Your Documents

To view or change your user name, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the User Information tab.

The following edit boxes appear:

Name
Initials
Mailing Address

2. If you do not want any of this information to appear in your documents, enter non-identifying strings or spaces in the appropriate edit boxes, and then click OK to accept the changes.

How to Manually Remove Personal Summary Information

1. Open the document or template.
2. On the File menu, click Properties.
3. On the Summary tab, click to clear the Author, Manager, Company, and any other edit boxes that you do not want to distribute.
4. On the Custom tab, delete any properties that contain information that you do not want to distribute.
5. Click OK.

On the File menu, click Save, and then click Close.

These steps will remove most of the sensitive information from your documents. Alternately, you can use the Metadata Removal Tool from Microsoft.

9/8/07

Set CPU Affinity: Improve multitasking

What is CPU Affinity?

Simply stated, CPU affinity is the tendency for a process to run on a given CPU as long as possible without being moved to some other processor. When we run an application on a dual-core processor, usually both the cores get used depending on whether the application is multi threaded or not and how efficiently Windows distributes the threads between the 2 cores.

Its possible to take the control on your hands by assigning different applications to different cores so that they run only on the assigned core. By doing this you can assign one application to one core and another application to the other core, so that you can multitask and none of the 2 application interfere with each other. This comes handy when you want to say, rip a DVD and play a game at the same time. By assigning both the DVD ripping program and the game to seperate cores you can play your game with ease without having to worry about game lagging or low FPS.

Changing CPU affinity is easy.

1. First launch the program you want to change CPU affinity of.
2. Open Task Manager and then click on the Process tab.
3. Locate the application from the list and right-click, and then click Set Affinity
4. Now uncheck the corresponding box of whichever CPU you don't want the program to run on.

This method can be a bit difficult to assign CPU affinity to games because you have to run the game for the process to appear on the task manager's list, and once the game loads, the task manager disappears. There is workaround to this problem. For this download a small utilty called imagecfg.exe (24KB only)

1. First copy this tool to the game folder.
2. Now make a backup of the executable file of the game. Just copy it to some safe location. This is important.
3. Open command prompt and go to your game folder and type

imagecfg -a 0x1 game.exe (suppose the game file is game.exe)

Done. This will patch the game file so that it will run always on Core1. To assign it to core 2 type:

imagecfg -a 0x2 game.exe

The following image shows a DivX encoder running without assigning CPU. Watch both cores in action.





This time the same encoder running after assigning it to Core1. See Core2 lying idle.


How can people be so stupid?

During one of my internet browsing sessions I stumbled upon this forum thread which held a poll. I laughed when I saw the poll question. I laughed harder when I saw the results.


The results:



How can people be so stupid?

1 Gigabyte is Not Equal to 1024 Megabytes

If you pickup any computer book or a computer magazine and look up the term Gigabyte, chances are that you will find that 1 gigabyte is equal 1024 megabytes, which is equal to 1024 kilobytes, which again in turn is equal to 1024 bytes. That’s what we have been taught and that’s what everyone thinks it is. But that definition of gigabyte, megabyte and kilobyte has changed nearly 8 years ago.

Traditionally, one gigabyte has been defined as 10233 bytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes or 230 bytes. This is the definition commonly used for computer memory and file sizes. Then in December 1998 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the leading international organization for worldwide standardization in electrotechnology, introduced new symbols and prefixes for binary multiples and changed the earlier ones. According to the new definitions, one gigabyte no longer equals 10233 bytes but 10003 bytes and 10233 bytes is now represented by a new term called gibibyte. The new prefixes for measurement of bytes are shown in the table below.




That explains one important anomaly in size measurement that we notice everyday in our lives, that is, the size of the hard disk. You go out and buy a 160GB hard disk, but when you plug in to your computer and turn it on you find that your operating system reports that you have only 149GB. That's because hard disk manufacturers no longer use the old convention of measuring sizes but the brand new ones. When a hard disk is labeled 160GB it has a capacity of 160 x 10003 bytes and not 160 x 10243 bytes, because like I explained, 1GB is not equal 10243 bytes. So a 160GB hard disk has a capacity of 160 x 10003/10243 bytes or 149 GiB (gibibytes). The IEC binary naming convention however, is not widespread and most publications, computer manufacturers and software companies prefer to use the traditional units. For instance, the memory (RAM) manufacturers continue to use the old naming convention. So when you buy 1GB of memory you get 10243 bytes of RAM. There is however a good explanation for this discrepancy. Computer memory is addressed in base 2, due to its design, so memory size is always a power of two. It is thus convenient to work in binary units for RAM. Other computer measurements, like storage hardware size, data transfer rates, clock speeds, operations per second, etc., do not have an inherent base, and are usually presented in decimal units.

To add to the confusion, different softwares as well as hardware manufacturers use different unit of measurement. Examples of software that use IEC standard prefixes (along with standard SI prefixes) include the Linux kernel, GNU Core Utilities, Launchpad, GParted, ifconfig, Deluge (BitTorrent client), and BitTornado. Other programs like fdisk and apt-get use SI prefixes with their decimal meaning.

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Screenshots of Gnome Partition Editor, fdisk (Linux) and Windows Disk Management show how different software utilities use different measurement for hard disk capacities

Floppy disks uses the binary system of measurement. A 1.44MB floppy disk has a capacity of 144,000,000 bytes which is equal to 1.38 MiB (mebibytes); notice that the operating system reports this as 1.38MB.

CD capacities are always given in binary units. A "700 MB" (or "80 minute") CD has a nominal capacity of about 700 MiB (approx 730MB). But DVD capacities are given in decimal units. A "4.7 GB" DVD has a nominal capacity of about 4.38 GiB.

Network speeds use the binary units of measurement. A 1Mbps internet connection has a throughput of 1,000,000 bits (125 kB, approx 122 KiB) per second assuming an 8-bit byte, and no overhead.

All these ambiguity in measurements have led to consumer confusion and there actually have been two significant class action lawsuits against digital storage manufactures by consumers. One case involved flash memory and the other involved hard disk drives. Both were settled with the manufactures agreeing to clarify the storage capacity of their products on the consumer packaging. But most hard disk manufacturers still continue to use decimal prefixes to identify capacities, with no mention of capacities in terms of gibibytes.

Resources:
Prefixes for binary multiples
Wikipedia: Gigabyte
Wikipedia: Gibibyte

Install any Linux distro directly from hard disk without burning any DVD

After you download any Linux distro from the internet, you have to burn it to a DVD, CD or a number of CDs to install it. That CD or DVD is generally used only once after which it lies unused , and worse, almost every Linux distro comes up with a new release every 6 months. So if you are in the habit of upgrading to every new version, you must have dozens of CDs lying at the bottom of your drawer. What a wastage of CDs! But with a little trick you can install any Linux directly from the hard disk without burning a single CD or DVD. The prerequisite of this trick is to have an operating system already installed on your computer. This is obvious because unless you are able to boot into your machine, you can't install anything; and we are not going to boot from the Linux disk because we aren't burning any. Here I'm going to focus on Microsoft Windows as the pre installed operating system.

Almost all Linux installers uses two files to boot the computer: a Linux kernel, and an initial root file system containing a minimal set of directories that is mounted prior to when the real root file system is available. This initial root file system is also called Ram disk (initrd). We will use these two files to boot our PC. Now lets get to the actual procedure.

1. The first thing you will have to do is copy the ISO file(s) of the Linux to your hard disk (ofcourse, you already have it). Make sure that the partition is FAT32 unless the distro you are installing has native NTFS read/write support. Some distros require you to copy the ISO file(s) to the root of the partition. If you keep it inside a folder, the setup might not be able to detect it.

2. Use Winrar to open the ISO file (you need not need to extract it). Now you will have to extract the two files I talked about earlier. The files are usually found inside a directory called isolinux. Different distros might place the files in different location; you just have to search for it, but it isn't hard to locate. These two files are also named differently in different distros. The files that you will need to search and extract are: (the kernel file is shown in green and the Ram disk is shown in red)

Fedora: vmlinuz and initrd.img

Suse: linux and initrd

Mandriva: vmlinuz and all.rdz

Ubuntu: vmlinuz and initrd.gz

Gentoo: gentoo and gentoo.igz

Knoppix: vmlinuz and initrd.img

Slackware: bzImage and initrd.img

Debian: vmlinuz and initrd.gz

3. After you have extracted the two files, copy them to c:\boot (you will need to create the folder "boot")

4. Now download the file called grub4dos from here. Extract the folder "boot" and the file "grldr" from the downloaded zip file. Inside the folder "boot" is another folder called "grub"; copy the folder "grub" to c:\boot. Copy the file "grldr" to c:\

5. Open c:\boot\grub\menu.lst and add these following lines. (Notice that hd0 refers to the first hard drive. If you have more than one hard drive, they will be named hd1, hd2 etc. Replace hd0 with the proper hard drive number incase you have windows installed on another drive.) Replace Linux_kernel and Ram_disk with the appropriate file names below. (the ones you copied to c:\boot)


title Install Linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/Linux_kernel
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/Ram_disk


6. Now you have to add grub to your c:\boot.ini file. You can open boot.ini by clicking on Start>Run and typing c:\boot.ini. If Windows does not allow the file to be modified, then go to Control Panel>System and click on the Advanced tab. Now under Startup and Recovery click Settings and then under System Startup click Edit. Open boot.ini and add this line in the end.

C:\grldr=”Start GRUB”

7. You are now ready to install Linux. Restart your PC and from the boot screen select "Start GRUB". This will load GRUB. From the grub screen select "Install Linux". During the setup you will be asked the source of installation. Choose hard disk and then select the hard drive partition where you copied the ISO files. Sometimes you might have to type the whole path of the partition and the exact name of the ISO. So write it down before you begin.

I have personally tested this with Fedora, Suse and Mandriva and it works without problem. I have no doubt it will work for others too.

Update: dougfractal adds that this is possible from Linux too. The method as he describes is:

From the terminal enter these commands

sudo mkdir /distro
sudo chmod `whoami`:`whoami`
cp MYLINUX.iso /distro/distro.iso

Now extract Linux_kernel & Ram_disk to /distro#

Open /boot/grub/menu.lst

#ADD NEW ENTRY#
title Install Linux
root (hdX,X)
kernel /distro/Linux_kernel
initrd /distro/Ram_disk

Reboot and select "Install Linux" from grub.

This is how people spot UFOs

The other day I was on the roof snapping away pictures of the sunset. The sun was slowly leaning towards the west and the beautiful clouds were reflecting the golden rays of the setting sun. One of the pictures that I took was this.



Click on the picture if you want to download the original high resolution (2304x1728) image. The image is a bit grainy though, because I made the mistake of shooting it with ISO speed 400 to compensate for the low light. It later turned out to be unnecessary. Anyway, when I blew the picture to its full size, I saw a small object in front of the clouds. The following image is cropped from the original at 100% size.



I enlarged the picture to 200%



Further magnification to 300% shows this



It looked uncannily familiar. I logged into the Internet, did some search and finally found one pic from the movie Independence Day. Here is the picture.



That’s an alien spaceship!! Wow, what an amazing discovery! If I don’t tell you that there are lots of crows at my place you might be tempted to believe that I really saw something extra ordinary, if not extra terrestrial. That’s what usually happens. People hide, either intentionally or unintentionally, clues that would give away the truth. If I were to submit this picture to the UFO community they would certainly view it with curiosity and probably conclude that it is indeed an UFO. They might even congratulate me for finding yet another damning evidence that UFOs exist. Now I don’t want to argue whether UFOs exist or not; maybe they do, maybe they don’t. But just spotting some object in the sky doesn’t prove anything.

Now look at these UFO pictures I found on the Net.








See how similar those UFOs look, particularly the first two, to the object on my picture. Infact, my “UFO” looks more real with the spacecraft dramatically banking towards the left as if to take a turn. Now can you still say that those pictures above are really of UFOs and not crows?

I have seen many people getting excited on seeing moving lights or objects in the sky. But they might not always be what they appear. Curiosity is good, be curious. But any speck that you see in the sky not necessarily be a UFO. Often times it is just a bird, a plane, a satellite or anything with a perfectly logical explanation.

8/28/07

Racing with inflatable sex dolls


Some Russian men and women apparently have more than enough imagination to spare — 400 of them recently used inflatable sex dolls as flotation devices to raft down the wildwater Vuoksa river. The Fifth Bubble Baba Challenge (in Russian, baba stands for 'woman,' only unlike the other word for woman, zhenschina, conveys not a ounce of respect) took place outside the village of Losevo, about 110km from St Petersburg.The unusual sporting event was dreamed up by mastermind and organiser Dmitry Bulawinov. He said the idea of floating down the river in the embraces of a rubber woman was conceived as a joke at a party where the men got drunk and the women didn't show up.While considering the possible uses for a rubber woman on a camping trip, someone suggested that a sex doll would make a handy flotation device. Thus the 'Bubble Baba Challenge' was born.Although hugely outnumbered by enthusiastic males - thrilled to be floating down the river atop a rubber chick - women did compete in the contest, finding nothing strange about clinging to such an unusual 'lifesaver'.