Apple Mac Tablet

After a couple of  Microsoft posts, a new Apple related post. According to MacRumors, we may get a Tablet Mac in 2007. Rumors or not, this would be very nice to have. That, and a Mac Pro, Mac Mini, etc. :). Well, I guess that my tax refunds for 2006 are already spoken for :). It's could become an expensive Apple year for me. iMac or a Mac Pro as the substitute for my Windows PC. Replacing my Windows based server for a Mac Mini, new iPod with touchscreen and bigger display (rumor), a Apple iPhone (rumor), and now a Apple Mac Tablet (another rumor). I almost forgot the new announced iTV thing that they showed a couple of weeks ago...... Oh man, so many new Apple wannahaves, and so 'little' money.

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iPod-killer hacked

The latest iPod killer from Microsoft (the Zune), has been 'hacked'. A pretty simple registry hack (on your PC) is all it takes to access the device as a mass storage device and copy stuff form it. Also, just rename any file extension to .jpg (image file extension) and 'share' them among other Zune users. A firmware upgrade will probably disable these features in the future. Another (unconfirmed) hack is to enable special features on the Zune, so that it can be used as a paper-weight :). I wonder if this really works, because I could use a good paper-weight.

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Gears of War

Never had the urge of buying a console. No Playstations, Xboxes or whatever for me. Always enjoyed playing games behind my desk on my 1337 gaming PC.... untill now. There's a new game available for the XBox-360. It's called Gears of War, and it looks awesome. Perhaps I need to adjust my opinion on gaming consoles. The official trailer can be viewed here.

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New Security Requirements for DigiD

Just spotted an article about the new security requirements for a DigiD. A DigiD is an online username password for (secure (??)) communication with the government. The ID is also used for filling in your taxforms and submitting them online. I was, and still am, not in favor of a username and password for communication with the government. Username and password is a very weak form of authenticating people. Especially when those usernames and passwords can be used for identity theft. Now there are additional security requirements for having a DigiD. It seems that they require a unique phone number (a cellphone) for non basic services. At this moment there are multiple entries in their database which share the same phone number..... What's wrong with that? I don't own a cell phone. The cell phone I have is owned by my boss. I'm not using this phone number for this ID, because this phone can be used by my colleagues. Same for my wife. That leaves us with the phone number from my good-old analog (non SMS enabled) phone. That's one phone number for two people.... I guess that means that I'll be doing my tax returns the old-fashioned way.. by paper.

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PeopleSoft and Browser Bugs

A couple of days ago, I upgraded Internet Explorer on the laptop from my work. Initially, everything seemed fine... Until I wanted to access our web-based HR system (PeopleSoft). In the good-old-days, this website worked (not good, and not bad). Since IE7, the login page remains blank, while the sourcecode of the page is fully loaded. So no way of logging to my personal HR page. I have no idea what's causing this (PeopleSoft or IE7). I do know that the (simple) login page holds a gazillion lines of Javascript.... Why? It's just a login page. A temporary work-around is using FireFox 2.0. Version 2.0 seemed to have solved some of the bugs I got with FireFox 1.5.x in PeopleSoft. Problem is that I need to change proxy settings for FireFox. I use IE for intranet browsing, because the developpers are MS-fans, and FireFox for global Internet browsing. Mind you that you have to disable the NoScript extension for FireFox (when installed). Just allowing all scripts for the PeopleSoft website gives erratic behavior, and lot's of errors on the pages. Only disabling the extension seems to work (which requires a reboot :( ). Anyway, somebody has to do some work to improve things.

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Ngorongoro Sunset

Two more pictures from our trip to Africa. The beautiful african sunset at the Ngorongoro crater. Taken from the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge.

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Windows Vista and Virtual Machines

Microsoft released the MSDN versions of Windows Vista, and Office 2007. Since I have (legitimate) access to the MSDN downloads, I downloaded both ISO files. Unfortunately, I don't have any spare hardware available for testing Windows Vista, so I decided to install it in a Virtual Machine. First I installed it in Parallels on my Mac Book Pro (see earlier post), but I needed something more portable for work, so I installed it in VMWare Workstation. The installation was a piece of cake, but the VMWare Tools seem to be as buggy as the Parallel tools. You install these tools to enhance the user performance (seamless mouse), and add drivers for network adapter, etc. Both virtualisation software packages fail to shutdown the Vista OS properly. Probably has something to do with the ACPI drivers included in the tools. Anyway, that will most likely be solved with an update for both pieces of software in the next weeks. For now, I've got a proper Virtual Machine running Windows Vista Ultimate with Office 2007 Professional. Let the evaluation begin. B.t.w. I just hate the shutdown button on Vista. There's no confirmation on if you actually want to shut the system down. The old XP interface was better, but perhaps it's behavior is configurable.

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Great Service in Africa

When we were in Africa, we had some money problems. Even though they accept credit cards in most of the hotels, it's hard to withdraw cash from ATM's. During our stay there were a gazillion number of public holidays in Kenya, and Tanzania, and during those holidays, the banks are closed. So getting some serious cash was a problem. Especially when you're on safari (not that many ATM's on the Serengeti). When we entered Tanzania, we needed cash, because we needed to pay some fees (in cash). We were taken to the Impala Hotel in Arusha. Here we could charge our credit card for cash (Tanzanian Shillings, and US Dollars). I seperated the 300 USD, because we needed to pay exit-tax when we fly home again from Zanzibar. At the end of our vacation, we needed to pay the exit-tax (or departure tax) to get form Zanzibar to Nairobi. The official in charge of collecting the departure money told us that most of our money was fake...... Well, that's just great. The only place where we could have gotten the fake dollars was in the Impala Hotel. 'Damn those bastards....' Back home, I contacted the Impala Hotel by e-mail, and explained the situation. Fortunatelly, they remembered the transaction and suggested to correct the problem. They were very cooperative on solving this issue. A few e-mails later, I got the details of a Western Union Money Transfer. They had sent me the complete amount of 160 USD. There is only one thing I can say about this: Awesome service. Keep up the good work.

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chacha.com

There's a new (beta) search engine on the Internet. It's called chacha.com. The new thing about chacha.com is that it offers an alternative search method. Normally you enter the thing you search for and press submit (or whatever). This engine has the impossibility to search with a guide. What happens is that you get contacted by an actual person (a chat interface like thingy) and he/she does the search for you, and returns the thing you actually needed. No more thousands of pages to dig through. Note that there are some rules you need to follow. As mentioned by Leo Laporte in the Net@Night podcast, it's a girly-search-engine.... Guys don't (or won't) ask for 'directions'.

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Zune and Windows Vista incompatible

First the Music bought online (DRM protected) won't play on the Zune, and now it seems that the Zune doesn't work with the new OS Windows Vista (at this moment). Well, that's just great. :D

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