Monthly Archive for August, 2005

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Google Moon – So the moon is made out of cheese…

Published on Saturday, August 13, 2005 in Random Stuff and Technology. Closed

I was looking around Google Moon, and looked at the lunar landing sites, and I found that if you zoom in really close (as in all the way), you will see that the moon is made out of cheese. This can be seen above, you c an try it yourself here or click on the image above for a larger image.
I think this is only meant as a joke on Google’s part, and I think its really cool that they did something like this. Reminds me of the OS X tribute Google did: “Roses are red, Violets are blue, OS X rocks, Homage to you”

See Website

IP Information and Location

Published on Tuesday, August 9, 2005 in Internet and Technology. Closed

InternetFrog.com have a tool on their main page which shows the physical location of your IP, in Longitude and Latitude. This doesn’t necessarily mean your house, as your IP is often somewhere else within the ISP’s range / distribution box. I think it is a pretty cool tool. They also have a link which allows you to view the Longitude and Latitude location from MapQuest.
However, I didn’t like their speed test as it gave me a 432Kbps download speed for our 2Mbps connection! Looks like it isn’t very reliable.

Half of Canadian students use pirated software

Published on Tuesday, August 9, 2005 in Technology. Closed

Nearly half of Canadian students admit to using pirated software, even though the bulk also agree that the practice is unethical, a new industry survey indicated Monday.
To be honest, I don’t think I’m that surprised. A lot of people use pirated software, because some software is really expensive and they need it for work (and other things). I’m not saying whether I have any or not as I don’t want the MPAA knocking on my door.

Half Life 2 Case Mod

Published on Monday, August 8, 2005 in Gaming, PC and Technology. Closed

Now I’m no Half Life 2 fan myself, nor have I ever played the game, but this mod is simply amazing. There is one picture above, but to see the rest click the link below.
The keyboard, mouse, everything has been turned to the same colour and texture. It looks really cool and undoubtedly everyone loves it (well maybe not everyone).

Daylight-Saving Switch May Cause Techincal Problems

Published on Monday, August 8, 2005 in Technology. Closed

“An energy bill President Bush is to sign Monday would start daylight time three weeks earlier and end it a week later as an energy-saving measure. This has technologists worried about software and gadgets that now compensate for daylight time based on a schedule unchanged since 1987.”
” ‘It is unfortunately going to add a little bit of complexity to consumers,’ said Reid Sullivan, vice president of the entertainment group at Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co. ‘In some cases, depending on the product, they may have to manually increase or decrease the time.’ ”

This even has me a little worried, but I think it only applies for the US, at least I hope so. This reminds me of the Y2K problems everyone was worried about. But if they actually go ahead with this, a lot of people maybe very confused. Imagine turning on the TV to find that the programme you wanted to watch has ended, waking up and realising that you were supposed to be at work more than an hour ago, arriving at the airport thinking your on time when the plane has just taken off. But these are only a few of the problems that could occur. I have no idea how this would be an “energy-saving measure“. It seems really stupid as well. I think we should stick to the schedule that was adopted in “1987“. It is the easiest and simplest way. If the US wants to save energy that bad, they should lower the CO2 emmisions and take part in the Kyoto Treaty. Bush really angers me…

The Truth About Windows Alternatives

Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 in Technology. Closed

From the September 2005 issue of PC World magazine:
“Can an annoyed Windows user find happiness in a multiplatform environment? Our editor tried the Mac and Linux–and came away impressed.”
This has got a lot of detailed information, and I think it really helps to tell people about what the facts are, and what people usually think.

Treo 670 running Windows Mobile 5.0

Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 in Microsoft, Technology and Wireless. Closed

Images have been showing up on the internet showing the new Treo 670 running not Palm OS, but Windows Mobile 5.0. Essentially, the Treo 670 is the same as the Treo 650 but runnind Windows Mobile 5.0. It is supposed to have EV-DO (for us living in the UK, EV-DO is high speed internet access for phones, sort of like GPRS and HSCSD), Bluetooth and a 1.3 Megapixel camera. People were speculating about this for a while and it looks like it is real, there are a couple of videos as well. I wonder when, if, it will be released.

Batman Begins

Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 in Movies. Closed

Rating: Star

As the weather had taken an unfortunate turn, with rain and lightning, I thought it would be a good idea to go to the movies and see something. I had the choice between a wide variety of films, but the two that interested me the most were ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The War of Worlds’. So yesterday I went to see Batman Begins as it had been recomened by the podcast ‘TWiT‘.
The plot of the movie is really interesting, and develops quickly (I hate movies that take ages to get to the meaning). It is well thought out and you could see that the creators put a lot of effort into making it. As for the action, that is fantastic. I thought this to be a childish movie, but after seeing it I now realise that it is not. The combat scenes between Batman and the ‘Evil guys’ are well done due to the special effects. But the special effects weren’t present that much, so it didn’t ruin the movie. I am not going say anything that happened in the movie, as to not give it away.
What was really clever, is that instead of putting the title of the movie at the beginning, they placed it at the end, so it told you that Batman had only started. This gives room for a sequel, which I think they should definitely do as it will make a great movie.

Windows Vista Screenshots

Published on Tuesday, August 2, 2005 in Microsoft and Technology. Closed

If you haven’t yet heard Microsoft have renamed thier new OS to “Vista”. This is having mixed reactions with the public, but I think overall most people think it is ~~shit~~ rubbish. I think that Longhorn was a better “Codename”. Either way it won’t matter to me because we, my family, won’t be buying ~~Longhorn~~ Vista because we have lost faith in Microsoft, not that we had any in the first place. Anyway, Microsoft havce released screenshots of their Beta 1 release of Vista, which is highly irregular as they have never done anything like this in the past. I am guessing Microsoft has done this to try and show to the public that they are going somewhere. But Windows XP is nearly 4 years old, and Vista is only ‘planned’ to be released at the end of 2006. That is a long way away, near to the time of the release of the PS3. By then, Apple will have release their next operating system OS X 10.5 “Leopard”. Looking at the screenshots, I have some below, it is an improvement to XP, and in some places you can see that Microsoft have taken ideas from Apples Mac OS X. While this being nasty, showing Microsoft can’t come up with anything on their own, shows that they know that Apple make good OS’s and they have features which users want in Windows. To conclude, Vista has improvements, but the scheduling is far too late and the improvements should have been in years ago like Apple had in their OS X. Take my advice, don’t wait for Windows Vista, go out and buy a Mac.

Click the images below to enlarge.

More screenshots | View Microsoft’s Press Announcement of Vista | Windows Vista Beta 1 fact sheet

Non-stopping lifts

Published on Tuesday, August 2, 2005 in Random Stuff. Closed

“The designers of some elevators include a hidden feature that is very handy if you’re in a hurry or it’s a busy time in the building (like check-out time in a hotel). While some elevators require a key, others can be put into “Express” mode by pressing the “Door Close” and “Floor” buttons at the same time. This sweeps the car to the floor of your choice and avoids stops at any other floor. Most elevators have the option for this to work, but on some of them the option is turned off by whoever runs them.”
This seems pretty cool, but I don’t know whether it works for any lifts here in the UK, I will try this next time though to see if it works.