Monthly Archive for March, 2006

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Revolution Rumor: It could be renamed!

Published on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 in Gaming and Technology. Closed

According to CVG, there’s “a strong whisper that the Revolution’s real name will finally be confirmed this week” at GDC. Satoru Iwata’s disruptive GDC keynote, scheduled for Thursday at 10:30 AM PT (1:30 PM ET) to 11:30 AM PT, would be the perfect opportunity to reveal the new name for Nintendo’s next console. [Joystiq]

Oooo, Interesting. I like the name Revolution and as everyone has been calling it that I have become acostomed to it. So if they do rename it, it will have to be something amazing, or it will be a bit of a let down. I don’t see why they don’t just call it that, it is a cool name and everyone knows it by that name. Nintendo is the only gaming company which keeps this much of a secret. We all knew the 360 would be called the ‘Xbox 360′ and the PS3 will be called ‘PlayStation 3′ so Nintendo is just trying to be different (and the controller design is helping that idea a lot).

Microsoft to give $12 to give New Yorkers to settle a suit!

Published on Sunday, March 19, 2006 in Microsoft, Noteworthy, Shorts and Technology. Closed

Millions of New Yorkers who bought personal computers could score $12 coupons or more, no questions asked, as part of a massive antitrust settlement from Microsoft, headed by Bill Gates. “Almost all of your readers could be eligible,” said David Stellings, a lawyer who helped negotiate the $350 million deal. “They are throwing away cash by not participating.“
Virtually anybody who bought a personal computer using most Microsoft software – basically any computer other than an Apple – between 1994 and 2004 is eligible to get a $12 coupon for each computer. No receipt or proof of purchase is necessary for individuals claiming purchases of five computers or less. Anyone who bought popular Microsoft software products like Word, Excel or Office during the same time frame is eligible for $5 vouchers. Consumers will be able to redeem the coupons toward any technology purchase at any store – not just computers and not just Microsoft products.

MagSafe power cord burns!

Published on Saturday, March 18, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy and Technology. 1 Comment

This was posted onto Flickr by a new MacBook Pro owner. This is what happened:

Left home@8am, macbook on the power cord. Came home@8pm, cable was disconnect (probably by our cats) and connector looked like this. The Macbook was loaded approx 33% so was connected for less than an hour in the morning I guess.
Apple support responded very well (thanks Klaas) and fast. Before I called our local Apple support line, the dutch engineers were already contacted by their US collegues (who saw the pics) to inquire if I already called in. I’m getting a new Macbook asap and I will return my current one. They could not tell me anything on the cause and I wonder if I’ll ever know. This leaves me with one-month newer macbook, some days of frustration, reinstalling some software and some rare macro shots.

There were some cats at home and he suspects that the cats tripped on the wire and pulled it out so the burning stopped. Very strange that this happened, and I think this will have an adverse effect on a lot of people. It would make them think that the MagSafe isn’t safe at all, when I think this was just an unfortunate accident, but how, we don’t know. If it is an Apple defect then it will be straightened out by Apple for sure. Interestingly, Apple told ‘rheauchyr’ (flickr name for the user who this happened to) to remove the images at least “until their engineers had a change to investigate this issue.” Then he went on to say that “Since Apple support has been very helpful and already is getting me a new Macbook asap, I’m happy to answer their request”. I have a good sized photos of the pictures, the main one above and two below. Click to enlarge.

PS3 is coming with a 60GB HDD

Published on Saturday, March 18, 2006 in Gaming, PC, Shorts and Technology. Closed

To clear any confusion, a Sony representative, speaking with Yahoo! Games, has confirmed that the PS3 will ship with a 60 GB HDD, with an option to upgrade. No PS3 bundles will be sold without a hard drive. However, it’s unclear if by upgrading, purchasers will have the option to buy the console with a larger hard drive, or if they’ll be forced take the 60 GB HDD and buy an additional, larger drive separately—we guess the latter (at least, at launch), but aren’t ruling out the possibility of two bundles with different sized hard drives (for example, 60 GB and 100 GB bundles). [Joystiq]

PS3 delayed for November – It’s official

Published on Saturday, March 18, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Shorts and Technology. Closed

So, not only did we get all those PSP goodies this morn from Sony’s Ken Kutaragi at a hastily called press conference, but we also received official confirmation that indeed, the PS3 will ship worldwide in November, delaying the Spring launch that we all expected. As recently as just a few weeks ago Sony had staunchly denied the delay, though, and is now laying the blame squarely at the feet of the “copyright protection” in Sony’s own Blu-ray Disc next-gen format, which is now expected to be finalized by next month. Whatevs, at this point we’ll just be happy to see ours land Stateside in time for the holidays. Mr. Kutagari also confirmed that at least some PS3s will feature an upgradeable 60GB disk supporting the Linux OS, support a variety of TVs, and have backward compatibility for PlayStation 1 and 2 games. [Engadget]

OS X on an Intel Box – My Story

Published on Saturday, March 18, 2006 in Apple, Internet, Noteworthy, PC, Software and Technology. 4 Comments

I have been playing around with various Bittorrent clients on my Mac mini and I just happened to cross an OS X x86 installation. So it completed the full download this morning as an ISO file. Since my mac mini doesn’t have a SuperDrive I couldn’t burn the iso directly. I tried to put it onto an external Firewire drive I had but that FAT32 formatted so it can’t accept the ISO (as the file is bigger than 2GB). So I used StuffIt to compress the ISO and break it into parts, which was then re-assembled in Windows. In Windows Nero was used to burn the ISO (took around 15 mins) onto a blank DVD-R. I used Partition Magic to clean the drive (separate drive than Windows, an old 10GB drive) that I wanted to install OS X onto. I then used the DVD to boot up, and partioned the drive for HFS+ (Journalised) so that OS X can be installed. It took roughly 40mins to install the whole OS with hacks. I was surprised at how fast it was.
After all the installation and configuring I started up OS X for the first time. It booted up without any problems, and I saw the desktop on an Intel machine for the very first time. There are minor problems/glitches. All the parts in the Sony PC that I tested it out on is recognised, apart from the D-Link PCI Wi-Fi card I have in it. This means that there is no internet! How annoying! I spent a long time trying to get it to work but nada. So I posted a topic on the OSX86.org forums and I hope someone could help me. The other ‘problem’ is a visual artefact on the screen, sometimes a part of the screen shows something that has moved or was there before. This can be fixed by moving a window or something over it, but it is annoying. Apparently it is a reported error that numerous people are having (I don’t think it’s my graphics card, an AGP ATI Radeon 9600XT as it is working fine) so I’m not sure. Anyway the whole system is pretty fast, all the universal apps and the dashboard start up nearly instantly. Read on for specs of the system and image(s).
Continue reading ‘OS X on an Intel Box – My Story’

Windows XP on an Intel iMac: The real deal

Published on Thursday, March 16, 2006 in Apple, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

Sorry about not keeping you guys upto speed with this, but, well I was being lazy! So the big news, it has been done. The first news we received was when narf2006 posted images of XP booting on his Intel iMac. Everyone was very suspicious of this, with the crap quality photos (all that blur) and that not much info had been released. After this a video (.mov) was made by narf showing the installation of XP and it booting. Again, with a real blur and shakiness of the camera we weren’t able to determine how valid it was. Everyone had their own opinions, either it was real or fake. But most people did say that why would anyone go to so much trouble to create a video when the will have to show how they did it if they wanted to win the money (now at around $13000). A thread was also started at the OSX86 forums and everyone was waiting for more info. Narf also said that he is looking for people to test out his solution on other systems. Then we got word that narf had sent his solution to Colin (the creator of the XP on Mac contest) and we all waited in silence for the results. Now they have been confirmed by Colin and the $13000 has been handed over to narf.

Contest has been won – updates to follow shortly. All further donations will go into an account to sustain the open source project that will be launched with the initial solution. Thanks to Journalspace for hosting this contest in our hour of need! [From the Website]

“narf2006″ and “blanka”, the two programmers who have managed to install XP onto the Intel iMac, wrote their own bootloader which allows you to select which OS you want to boot from (screenshots). The solutions have now been posted with a very detailed tutorial so that you can do it too (no hardware hacks at all!). You can download them here (.zip). It contains a bootloader CD image and a how-to for getting XP on any Intel Mac. It really is amazing how all that money could boost people to hack it even faster. I wish narf and blanka congratulations for being able to do this and I hope they do other cool stuff with their coding skills.

What DVD drive lives in your 360?

Published on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, PC and Technology. 10 Comments

Llamma has got some images of the two DVD drives that live inside the Xbox 360. On the left is the newer, and quieter, Samsung drive (model #TS-H943), “easily identified by its unique drive-tray and ninja-like stealth“. And on the right is the Hitachi (model #GDR-3120L), “easily identified by the notches on its drive tray, and the ear-splitting noise it produces when it really gets going“. Are the drives being replaced across the whole production line or is it just some units? I think microsoft had realised that they made a ‘mistake’ when choosing drives for the 360 and later during manufacturing they found out that it packs some noise. So they decided to replace them with the sleeker and quieter Samsung model.
My 360 contains the Hitachi, and seriously does make a blast when it is on. If I play on the Xbox Live Arcade games or things running from the hard drive, the 360 is actually whisper quiet, but as soon as I press the button to play the game, the drive whirrs up. It spins really fast and makes a lot of noise; that’s how I realised that I accidentally left my 360 in the night (I could hear it through my iPod headphones!

Microsoft opens Windows Live Messenger to the Public!

Published on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 in Internet, Microsoft, Shorts, Technology and Web 2.0. Closed

The new Windows Live^TM Messenger Beta is the next-generation MSN Messenger and, as always, it is free to download.
It has everything you already love about Messenger – your contact list, emoticons, and plenty of ways to access to your friends via text, voice and video – plus new ways to connect and share documents with magical ease.
Your online world gets better when everything works simply and effortlessly together. That’s the basic idea behind Windows Live. So the things you care about – your friends, the latest information, your e-mails, powerful search, your PC files, everything – comes together in one place. This is a brand new Internet experience designed to put you in control. And this is just the beginning – you’ll see many more new services in the coming months.

How movies are shown in the theatre

Published on Sunday, March 12, 2006 in Shorts, Technology and TV's. Closed

If you are into tech, like me, you are cursed [or blessed, depending on how you look at it] with wondering how everything works, sometimes you aren’t even able to enjoy things because you’re pondering what is going on behind the scenes. Well today I plan on answering one of your questions [if you didn’t already know] how movies are played in the movie theatre.
Being a Senior in high school I need to rack up some dough for college next year, because after all in a few months I’ll be a poor college student, so I decided to have one of the coolest jobs offered where I live, the projectionist at the movie theatre.