Monthly Archive for June, 2006

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Installing Windows Vista Beta 2 on a MacBook Pro

Published on Thursday, June 8, 2006 in Apple, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. 2 Comments

Microsoft has announced that Windows Vista Beta 2 is available for the public to download and test. The traffic was so overwhelming that Microsoft closed the download. It was only available for a number of hours. Hans Verbeeck managed to download his copy and he went to install it onto a MacBook Pro.
So how did he do? Well he succeded. At first he downloaded the x64 version of Vista, but then later realised this at an error screen. So he downloaded the right copy and things started to go smoothly. He installed Vista but an error screen came up saying that Vista had not installed correctly. However he said that this was not a problem and you just need to return to the install screen and us the ‘Repair’ link on the bottom left hand corner. That was the end, and he started to mess with the settings to get Vista looking good. Note: To get the Vista DVD working he had to go through a number of steps, which can be found on his blog.

Make your own band aid fuel cell

Published on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 in Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

This is an article that I found from the great guys at Make. It is a very cool project that just about anyone can do and not much equipment is needed. How it basically works is using an MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly) which turns Methanol into Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen without the need for any external action. They say that you can make your own, but it is very hard, and much easier to buy one from a site like fuelcellstore.com. A stainless steel flyscreen is also required, to make the connection points at the anode (postive) and the cathode (negative) electrode. The band aid is used to hold it all together and the cotton pad acts as a reservoir for the methanol. You then need to connect the electrodes to a multimeter and ta-da! They do say not to “expect big shakes first time round! DMFC fuel cells take time to “break in”.”
You won’t be able to power much with such a small voltage (and the small current made) but if you link a few in series you may be able to get a LED running. They also mention that they were able to squeeze more voltage out if you lighly press on the methanol reservoir at the sides because “the wire gauze makes better contact with the MEA“.

My long ass story with the school technicians…

Published on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 in Internet, Software and Technology. 12 Comments

I had really nothing else to blog about so I thought I’d share with you my own story with the tech guys at our school’s IT department. I won’t mention the school because, well I don’t think I should But here is the story.

I have been really fed up with our school’s crappy internet filtering. It was blocking websites like Feedburner.com and even BBC’s Radio FiveLive website. I actually needed to get on the BBC website as it had some news stories I need for my Geography coursework. And guess what? Yes it was blocked. I can’t think of how many countless things that are blocked, and I even sent an email to them to remove Feedburner because the internet filter classed it as “media/streaming music” or something of the sort. And about 2 weeks later nothing has happened. So by this time I was really pissed of and I decided, why don’t I make a proxy. So I downloaded a free proxy and configured it to work (I used my blog’s domain for quick access). I did this on a Sunday night and everything was working perfectly by Tuesday!

So being like I am I decided to give out the address as a friend of mine overlook what I was doing, I couldn’t really deny it as the word ‘Proxy’ was on the screen. So a month later and literally the whole year and people in the years belownew about it. I was quite happy about the way it went as nothing had been blocked by the technicians when one of our vice principals approached me and told me that he has heard of the “enterprise you’ve been running” and that even “teachers use it“. So I had to give the address of the site, which I blocked using .htaccess so only those with the passwords could access it. Thye still blocked it, and even though the technician said that he found a password, I really doubt that he did, otherwise he would see that the page redirects to HTTPS and would have blocked that too. Here’s the kicker: It still worked! Because I used .htaccess to redirect all calls to that page to a HTTPS version so the internet filter couldn’t sniff what I was looking at (I have a big deal with privacy issues like this). I managed to tell them that they shouldn’t block off the whole website as my blog is harmless (I access it at school sometimes if I am bored or I want to check IE compatibility). So I tried out the HTTPS version the next day and it worked. But after a few weeks they permanently blocked the whole website. That’s not all they did. And because all the computers in our school run Windows (except the G5′s in the video-editing suite) they disabled my Windows account to get my attention. So when I tried to log on it would say “Your account has been disabled, please see your network administrator”. How can they even do that, and why? They are purposefully stopping my education so I have to go see them. This is what I am most pissed of about. Why the hell don’t they get off their lazy asses and come and find me, not block my logging onto te computer. This is just going to cause more retalliation! So I went to see them and they said that they blocked the whole address of my blog because they were still getting people who were using it (I have no idea how they even know they’re using mine and not someone else’s proxy). So they unblocked my account, or so I thought. I went to see them again and he was like “So what do you mean your account is disabled”. Does he not even know how to do it? This time I was able to log-on. And to think they’ve done this to me like twice before. They are just wasting my time, it took me around 20 mins of my own studying (for my exams) for them to be able to do it! Furthermore they asked me if I was staying in the 6th form. I said yes, and they said that if I try to create another one, then they’ll permanently block my internet. Do they know that is just going to make me find other ways around the school’s filter, because no matter how you look at it, I need the internet in the future for research, coursework and classwork. I am really mad now!

In conclusion: I think that our technicians are stupid (well maybe not stupid but ignorant), obviously don’t know how to control the students and quite honestly they lack the courtesy needed when talking to students about things like this. I am really annoyed at them because of this, I think they have stepped to far this time

Apple admits to MacBook vent blocking

Published on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

I don’t think I talked about this, but one blogger had noticed that their was a small plastic sheet covering the heat vents of the MacBook. A few other people began to notice this as well, but it didn’t happen to everyone. Now Apple have come clean and made a KnowledgeBase article on it saying that some MacBooks “may have left the factory with a thin piece of clear plastic covering the rear vent“. This is in relation to the MacBook running a bit hot, with the fans on a lot. Interestingly it points to another article if you say that your MacBook is still running ‘warm’ and you have no piece of plastic in your MacBook. But the reason this is interesting is because the article it links to explains that the MacBooks aren’t hot, that’s just their normal operating temperature!

20 Things You Wouldn’t Like About Windows Vista

Published on Monday, June 5, 2006 in Microsoft, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

vista logo

I hope you don’t think I’m bashing Vista, because I haven’t tried it out. It seems quite cool, honestly, but I think it’s coming a bit too late. Windows Vista is what XP should have been. Anyhoo, I saw this article over at ComputerWorld where they list their 20 most annoying things that you probably wouldn’t like in Windows Vista. Granted this is from the Beta previews, so it can (and let’s hope it does) change. It’s a really long, 12-page, article so I won’t bother to really go into it. But they cover various areas such as Microsoft copying from other companies, and that it’s not the copying that annoys them, but the fact that they make it worse and not better. Other topics like graphics for Areo, Price, all the SKU’s (honestly it’s like 6+ versions!) and faulty assumptions on the start menu. It’s a really good and detailed article and I’d recommend it, no matter what your opinion is on the subject.

Ughh, Exams!

Published on Monday, June 5, 2006 in General. 3 Comments

We started our exam period this week. I have a further 13 exams to take as a part of my GCSE’s in year 11 (Roughly I think I would be in High School in the US, but I have no idea how their Education System works; I am 16 in August). This means I have to do a lot of studying throughout the next couple of weeks, so the blog might be a little light on posts. This is really what makes or breaks my career, so I definitely need to stay away from the computer (great job, eh?) for at least 5 hours until I am sure I am ready for the exam I have the next day. I am doing 6 this week, the first of which was today. The first exam was Maths which went surprisingly well.

The Internet Piracy Pyramid

Published on Saturday, June 3, 2006 in Internet, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. 11 Comments

Click on the image for a bigger version

Seeing as how it is a slow news day, (normally is on the weekends) and I thought this was an interesting bit of emm pdf I thought it would be worthwhile mentioning it.
So this image basically shows the pyramid of numbers of the pirating ‘industry’. It shows how the pirating starts of in the back seat of the cinema, and ends up being distributed as DVD’s and downloaded over the interweb. For those who can’t see the image, or who are browsing from a small device I’ll transcribe what is written below.

At the top are the suppliers. The primary source of newly released pirated movies come from thieves who camcord films in theatres. Illegally recorded movies are then sold to ‘Replicators’ who rapidly produce millions of pirated DVDs and to ‘Release Groups’ who distribute them around the world through computer servers known as ‘Topsites’. There are less than a hundred of these people.
Then there are the ‘Release Groups’ or ‘Topsites’. ‘Release Groups’ are individuals who obtain pirated conent from suppliers and are the first source of piracy on the internet. Release groups put pirated movies onto clusters of high speed computers known as ‘Topsites’. The extraordinary speed and power of a Topsite triggers the avalanche that is global internet piracy. These are in hundreds.
Next come the facilirators. Facilitators act as Internet directories, or search engines, to co-ordinate the mass download and exchange of pirated content between downloaders. These are like BitTorrent sites like ThePirateBay.org and are in thousands.
Finally are the file sharers and downloaders. A downloader transfers illegal copies of movies from the internet to his or her computer. The peer-to-peer (P2P) software commonly used by downloaders enables them to instantly share their content with other downloaders which greatly accelerates the global spread of pirated movies. There are more than ten million of these people.

So there you have it. For the original and higher quality version you can find the PDF here.

Note: I have been receiving a lot of comments that I tried to pass this off as my own work. Now I don’t know what it sounds like from another person’s point of view, but I certainly did not try to ‘steal’ this PDF from the MPAA. I downloaded this from a digg article because I thought it was interesting. I later viewed the PDF and blogged about it, but I couldn’t remember the link to the digg article, and so to save myself some time I just uploaded it to the server. I wasn’t even aware that it was from the MPAA (shows how much I look at the link, eh?) So I’m sorry if it I made it too ambiguous; but I when I’m blogging about stuff I would mention it if it was my own, as I wouldn’t want it being stolen.

Apple named “Harware Company of the Year”

Published on Saturday, June 3, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, PC, Software and Technology. Closed

PC World has released it’s top list of 100 products in 2006, and also their 4 awards to various companies. Apple has won the ‘Best Hardware Company of the Year’ for introducing “products that made everyone else look bad. iPods (#36) that play video have created a new market for reruns, Core Duo-based Macs (#35) have expanded the market for Intel chips, and Boot Camp software (#10) has opened the door to running Windows on the Mac hardware.” Apple had five of its products in the list; the iPod nano (#4), Boot Camp (#10), the Mac mini (#35), the iPod (#36), and iTunes (#43).

The number one product was Intel’s Core Duo processor chip which is now being utilised in the new Mac Minis, MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Intel iMac. They are also being introduced into other laptops and desktops by other companies such as Dell, however they aren’t as widely publicised and talked about as Apple’s products. AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor came in second; Craigslist, Segate’s 160GB portable hard drive, Google Earth, Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0, Canon’s EOS 30D digital SLR camera, and YouTube.com finished in the top ten.

Yahoo earned the ‘Web Company of the Year’ for their ability to move “far beyond being a mere search engine” and even though “Google may get a lot more attention, but Yahoo has been getting more things accomplished” the editors said.
Adobe was Software Company of the Year, for their ability to ship “stellar US$100 apps that regular folks can use,” such as its Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements which bring cheap photo and video editing to consumers for a fraction of the cost of the pro level apps.
Finally, Sony merited Worst Company of the Year. “We get the feeling that Sony doesn’t trust people,” the editors wrote, mentioning the rootkit fiasco on their music CD’s as well as the PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray delays “due to difficulties implementing a second copy protection scheme … All this from the company that virtually pioneered copying with the Betamax.”

I think they produced a very fair list, with the awards being given to the companies that really did stand out. Click on the link to see the whole list, with links to PC World reviews of the products.

Deleting Shorcuts in Windows Vista: Not Easy!

Published on Thursday, June 1, 2006 in Microsoft, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

I know that Windows Vista is still in Beta — more than half a year till it arrives — but it is worth while mentioning how stupidly hard it is to delete a shortcut icon! No this isn’t an application, DLL or something important, but a bloody shorcut icon that merely points to a file. If you think the dialog box above is the only one, well you’re mistaken. Nicolai had to go through five dialog boxes before she could finally delete the icon from her desktop. You can see the steps she had to take at a Flickr posting.
Though this may only be a ‘bug’, if you could class it as that, Microsoft needs to understand the limits. It is good that Vista is asking us for permission for these sorts of things, but it is here when it goes overboard. They tried to over-do the idea from OS X, where to access a system file, or to delete a system file – not an alias though (like shortcuts), OS X asked you for verification once and after that it left you alone. I’ll say again that I know that Vista is still in Beta, but you can see from Microsoft’s ideas, that they are overstepping the boundaries of security. They tried to fix the flaws in XP by asking you for permission, but soon it will be ‘Are you sure you would like to open Firefox.exe, Firefox.exe is an application that has not been trusted by Microsoft and it may contain malware. OK are you really sure?‘ Listen to the community Microsoft, and get this fixed!