Monthly Archive for October, 2006

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Contest!

Published on Sunday, October 8, 2006 in General and Noteworthy. 9 Comments

I originally had a small blog on blogger just as a hobby, but over the past 1 and a half years it has really progressed. I’m getting much more readers now, and people are actually commenting on my posts. The domain theminiblog.co.uk was bought around mid-September of last year, and I wanted to do a contest to celebrate, but I forgot about it. So here is the contest, albeit a bit late.

The winner receives either a £15 iTunes Music Store Certificate (UK only!), or a £10 via PayPal. It may not be much, but as a 16 year old student, it’s the best I can do. To apply, all you have to do is leave a comment in the comments of this post, with your thoughts about the blog. You don’t need to write much at all, but make sure you use a real email in the form (will not be displayed) and tell me where you are from, so that if you win I can contact you appropriately. The rules are:

Only one entry per person; a person found to have multiple entries will be banned from this contest and all future contests.
Contest is open to international participants as well, but those outside of the UK will have to opt for the £10 by paypal.
The winner will be randomly drawn on December 2nd, so you have more than a month to apply.
This contest excludes familial relatives to me (Balazs) and those who know me personally. Sorry!

If you don’t have a paypal account, and would like the £10, don’t worry, it is very easy to set up an account, and very safe! That’s about it, and good luck to all.

Microsoft to offer discounted versions of Vista

Published on Sunday, October 8, 2006 in Microsoft, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

windows vista screencap

Microsoft may be making an ingenious move by offering Vista for free or at a discounted price to those who buy a new PC with Windows XP after October 28th. Those who buy a new computer with either Windows XP Pro, XP Tablet Edition or the 64-bit version of Windows XP will be eigible for a free upgrade to Windows Vista (presumed to be the premium edition).
For those with Windows XP Home, will be able to upgrade for $49 to the Basic Edition and $79 to the premium edition. This seems like a very good move, which will allow customers to effectively dodge paying for Windows Vista, and most people will have to upgrade their computers anyway if they wish to be able to run Vista on it. So far Microsoft are keeping a tight lid on things and are only saying that they are “working with partners”.

Windows Vista RC2 not working on Macs via Boot Camp

Published on Sunday, October 8, 2006 in Apple, Microsoft, Software and Technology. Closed

vista logo

David Chartier from TUAW has found that on his iMac, he has had no success of installing Release Candidate 2 of Windows Vista. Even with the new Boot Camp 1.1.1 update, which was supposed to offer compatibility with the new iMacs, the installation fails. Windows Vista reports that it doesn’t like the drive Boot Camp creates, thus it doesn’t even format it. Other users have also reported this, but some say it works fine for them.

“Judging by what’s being said I would say that despite the updates, Vista will not work on Core 2 Duos, perhaps cause they’re 64bit?” – TUAW Commenter AeronPrometheus

David said that he downloaded the 64-bit version, which doesn’t work. However others suggest that using the 32-bit version may work. We’ll have to see if Apple says anything about it.

Nintendo Marketing Strategy: Wii Goodies

Published on Sunday, October 8, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

Nintendo’s PR department have been busy making lots of accessories to sell along with the Wii. These will have their own dedicated stands, and will include things like rubberised controller ‘gloves’ (for sweaty hands?), game cases, as well as dog tags and lapel pins. The glove idea may not be too bad, but I don’t think I can see anyone walking around with Wii dog tags. These pictures were taken by an anonymous Engadget tipster who took the photos in a Target warehouse, and along with it have the prices that Target will sell the various Wii games and accessories for.

Microsoft updates firmware of Xbox 360 DVD Drive

Published on Thursday, October 5, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

As a counter measure by Microsoft to stop people from using the Xbox 360′s DVD drive to copy Xbox 360 games, they have updated the firmware of the Hitachi/LG drive. As seen in the picture above, they have also put a lot of plack glue over the chip, as if to stop hackers from physically gaining access to the chip, and flashing it that way. This does now mean, however, that the Team-X kit which was used to allow gamers to ‘back-up’ their 360 games using their computer is now rendered useless.
It was a long and arduous process of taking apart the 360, removing the drive, connecting it to your PC and flashing its ROM, but it got the job done. For those who are interested a new episode of IPTV show the broken shows you how to back up your 360 games. For the meanwhile, sit tight, as I don’t think it will take long for the Xbox-scene crew to work out how to hack it again. Read on for the full technical details.

HOW-TO: Rechargeable LED Flashlight

Published on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 in Random Stuff and Technology. 1 Comment

I thought I’d mention this because it is really cool! An LED flashlight was built using an old tic-tac box and a few other components. You basically shake the tic-tac for 60 seconds which is enough to power the LED. As you shake the tic-tac, the rare earth magnet inside the coil (the red thing) moves up and down and cuts the coils of the wire. This creates an AC current. However the LED needs a DC current, so a simple rectifier is built using 4 Diodes. This will ‘convert’ the AC current to a DC current which will then charge the rechargeable battery. The switch can then be used to turn on the LED. You can try it yourself, the instructables article gives you all the details, and a simple schematic for the rectifier can be found here. There isn’t anything that you couldn’t find in your local electronics shop (or RadioShack for you Americans)
read more

Links for 03/10/2006

Published on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Shorts, Technology and Wireless. Closed

The shorts for Tuesday 3rd October 2006 are:

PSM3 Magazine get their hands on the PS3 – Fast, quiet, heavy and a dust magnet (above) [link] [video]
Zune Wireless basically worthless – You can’t connect to the internet via it’s WiFi or sync to your computer via its WiFi [link]
Microsoft Unbox Zune for CBS’ camera with blatant marketing speak – “brown is the new black is the new white” [link]
DVD Jon has reverse engineered Apple’s FairPlay technology and is licensing it to companies [link]

Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update Released

Published on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. Closed

The latest version of OS X has been deployed by Apple. Mac OS X 10.4.8 is available for download via software update as well as disk img (.dmg). It fixes the following things:

Connecting to wireless networks using the EAP-FAST protocol
Apple USB modem reliability
using OpenType fonts in Microsoft Word
compatibility with 3rd party USB hubs
scanner performance
RAW camera support
printing documents with Asian language names
performance of the Translation widget
broadband network performance
security updates

Battery recalls continue to wreak havoc…

Published on Sunday, October 1, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, PC and Technology. 1 Comment

Sony are deep in the mud this time After Dell and Toshiba issued a battery recall for some (not all) of their laptop batteries, Lenovo (formely IBM’s PC Division) and Sony themselves have issued battery recalls for their laptops. The affected laptop batteries are made by Sony, and after recent incidents where a Dell exploded in Yahoo’s building, and a Lenovo ThinkPad exploded at LA’s International Airport, Sony have taken some action. Other manufacturers which use Sony’s batteries are Apple and Panasonic.

he Tokyo-based electronics manufacturer says that the recall is to address concerns regarding “recent overheating incidents,” and that they are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to formulate a plan for the recall. They cite microscopic metal particles that enter the battery during the manufacturing process as the reason for the battery failures. The particles, they say, come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, causing the battery to short-circuit. Sony claims that these batteries would normally just power off, but in “rare cases” may overheat and cause flames. [ArsTechnica]

Lenovo are recalling around 526,000 of their batteries (image above), Dell around 4.1 Million and Apple 1.8 Million. Sony is a very large producer of Lithium-ion cells, and supply various third-party manufacturers so if you think you are affacted, make sure you keep an eye on your laptop manufacturer because they soon could be added to the list.

Nintendo and Wii News Roundup

Published on Sunday, October 1, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software, Technology and Wireless. Closed

A lot has happened over the past week, and I’m sorry I couldn’t post, but I have had a lot of work at school, and the server was down for a while. Posting on week-days will probably continue to be sparse, but I will try and post as often as possible.
Getting to the topic, there have been various developments in Wii news So I thought I’d do a roundup.

Wal-Mart in the US could be passing Wii demo units because they are thought to be unsafe to use. They think that the game could cause bodily harm because of the akwardness of the Wii-mote. [link]
The Opera browser for the Wii will be free to download until July 2007. Users of Nintendo Wii systems will be able to download Opera for free as a promotion until July 2007 through the Wii Shop channel. As of July 2007, Opera for the Wii will be downloadable for a yet undetermined number of Wii points. The browser supports flash, AJAX, Wii-mote navigation and Web 2.0 graphics. [link]
Nintendo could be facing plastic shortages so games for the DS could come in cardboard boxes. Customers in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg are affected by this, but it may stretch to other parts of Europe, and the US or Japan.
The new cases will be the same size as the plastic DS cases. They’ll also have a small explanation saying that only the case is different and that everything else is the same. Those who desperately want a plastic one can call customer service and get it in late December.
The following games will come in cardboard boxes; Super Mario 64 DS, Nintendogs Chihuahua & Friends, Nintendogs Dachshund & Friends, Nintendogs Labrador & Friends, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Tetris DS, Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends, New Super Mario Bros. [link]
(Above) A Flickr user has found a picture of what seems to be a press shot of the Wii-mote with what looks to be card/plastic packaging. This may be the final packaging of the Wii-mote, but as other users have pointed out, it looks exactly like dummy units given out at Nintendo’s Japanese Wii Conference. [link]