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Entries by Willem (532)

Thursday
Mar082007

Everything you need to know about IPv6

A great article on Ars Technica about the history of IP, and about its successor... IPv6

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Wednesday
Mar072007

Explicit Mac Podcast

The Macbreak Weekly podcast is a great podcast to listen to. Up till now they have been listed as a 'clean' podcast. This means that there's no foul / explicit language... Up till now :-) I guess that the ratholes are catching up.

Mac Break Weekly… EXPLICIT

UPDATE: Well, it seems that the explicit rating is gone this week.

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Saturday
Feb242007

Sony Limits PS2 Compatibility on PS3

The great thing about the current game consoles is that people who have (owned) an older version still can play their games. most XBox games run on the XBox 360. Nintendo also offers great backwards compatibility on their Wii. Sony has to be the one company who differs. The current PS3 (sold in the US and Japan) offer backwards compatibility with PS2 games (to some extend). The PS3 which will be available in Europe will have a different 'engine'. This means that backwards compatibility is much less. Way to go Sony. This means that the current PS2 owners have to keep their PS2 as well.... I'm stil in the orientation phase in deciding which console (Xbox360, Nintendo Wii or the PS3) I should buy, when I get my new HD-TV. I guess that PS3 is dropping a few places with this strategy, cause older games come cheap and can still offer lot's of fun.

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Wednesday
Feb212007

Upgrading Core Duo MacBooks with Apple 802.11n hardware

AppleInsider reports that it seems possible to upgrade the older Apple Intel MacBooks (Pro). This is good news, because my MacBook Pro doesn't have the 802.11n adapter. The only problem is that I need to get the WiFi module from a Mac Pro system. I hope that these modules will become available for the older MacBooks (Pro). Cause this is the only thing keeping me from upgrading to the new Apple Airport Extreme. I have the 'manual', now I need the hardware to replace it....

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Friday
Feb162007

Macrovision Responds to Steve Jobs' Open Letter

A couple of days ago, Steve Jobs posted an open letter regarding DRM. Since then several others have responded to the letter. Some against it (RIAA of course :neutral: ), others in favor of it. Today, I ran into an open letter by MacroVision. These are the guys that made it impossible (euh.. well... a bit harder actually) to copy the old VHS tapes. They can't agree with Steve, cause that would put them out of business. So they came up with some bery intelligent (NOT) reasons why DRM is good for the consumer: DRM is broader than music Sure, for them. Just put the bloody stuff on everything. Music, Video, Software. If they have the chance they'll probably put it on a sandwich. DRM increases not decreases consumer value With DRM, I can't put my purchase music or movies on another player or play it under Linux. If I want to do that, I have to BUY it several times. And that puts more money into their pockets. The funniest line in that paragraph is probably: "Abandoning DRM now will unnecessarily doom all consumers to a "one size fits all" situation that will increase costs for many of them." [sarcasm]Indeed going for plain-old mp3's, or mpg's/avi's cripples me to hell and back. Can't play it on anything these days.[/sarcasm] DRM will increase electronic distribution I don't get this one. It is well known that people don't want protected stuff. They want to play the things they bought on players they choose, and not just the players the RIAA and others decide. So removing DRM would mean that more people are able to play the content on their devices of choice. It would also open the entire Linux market (they are left out with all the DRM protected stuff). More prospect customers means more transactions, or at least the number of customers / transactions would be the same. But if they stay the same, you get a bigger margin on sales, because you don't have to pay for the DRM licensing. DRM needs to be interoperable and open Can't argue with this one, but it means that they have to open the sourcecode, so that the Linux communitie can also use the technology. And we all know what that means... It means that all DRM will be cracked/circumvented within days, so that's not gonna happen ever.

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Friday
Feb162007

Google SketchUp

In time, my good old Sony Wega CRT TV will be replaced by a state-of-the-art flat screen. When this happens, I need a new (television) cupboard in my living room. The current one isn't large enough to host a mega TFT panel. Since these things don't come cheap, and are never right (cause it also needs to hold the receiver/amplifier and stuff), I decided to 'draw' one myself. Drawing on a piece of paper is for those who can't use computer, and the computer has this great option called UNDO :smile: . Next thing on the agenda was to find an easy to use 3D drawing program. Well Google SketchUp is just perfectly suited for these things. It's a bit getting used to the controls and functions (took me about an hour), but after that... the sky is the limit (or so they say). Anyway, I (kinda) finished my new cupboard. All I need now is someone who wants to put it together :cry: .

Second Version

I'm a bit hesitative about the width of the middle section. Don't know if I should make it wider to support future ultra wide TFT (or plasma) screens.......

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Saturday
Feb102007

Muchas Pixels Rule

It has been a couple of days since I received my new Dell 24" widescreen TFT monitor. I must say that this is probably one of my best purchases in the last couple of weeks :-) . The desktop is huge. Lots of windows, and still there's space to put more stuff on it. Besides the large screen (1920*1200), it has USB, 7-1 cardreader and 5 or 6 video inputs (I lost track counting :-) ). There is only one regret..... I should have bought two

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Saturday
Feb102007

Leopard and everything '07

Rumors are that Apple OSX Leopard might be shipping as early as March this year. The same goes for the new iLife '07, and iWork '07. I can't wait to get my hands on Leopard, and iWork '07. iWorkr is rumored to have a spreadsheet-like program called Numbers. Finally an 'alternative' for Microsoft Excel. iWork's Numbers will probably still be overkill, but it beats the rosetta version of Microsoft with the gazillion features and tools I never seem to use. No idea what iLife '07 will bring (haven't had the urge to find out, since '06 still works fine). I guess I'll download a trail ;-) , and decide then if I really need it. Leopard and iWork will definitely be purchased by me (if it has the spreadsheet program).

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Thursday
Feb082007

iStat nano

I'm not that much into widgets and all that stuff. But today I found one which is realy cool. it's called iStat nano. It displays the following things on your Dashboard:

  • Fan speed
  • CPU, Chasis, GPU and ambient temperature
  • Network connection (throughput, bytes sent and received)
  • Memory overview
  • Current processes
  • etc.
The developper has several other nice widgets and programs which are all system related.

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Thursday
Feb082007

First KP, Now AllofMP3

Yesterday I wrote that ISP's in the Netherlands are thinking about blocking website which are known to contain child pornography. In that post, I also asked myself; "What's next??"..... Well, it isn't going to be the blocking of gay sites, or satanism.. No, it's gonna be AllofMP3.com (according to nu.nl). Well, if the dutch RIAA (Brein) gets what they want :-( .

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