...more recent posts
Possibly insane use for PHP: Dynamic text replacement. I thought Mark, at least, would be interested in this.
Another shot at a richer web:
In response to demand by users, plugin vendors and web developers for web browser support for an open, secure and scriptable plugin model, the Mozilla Foundation, in collaboration with Apple, Macromedia, Opera, and Sun Microsystems are working to extend the Netscape Plugin Application Program Interface (NPAPI) in a manner that allows greater interactivity with plugins such as Flash, Shockwave, QuickTime and Java, resulting in a richer, more interactive web.
T-Mobile launches a combo WiFi / GSM PDA in Germany.
The Steve Jobs WWDC (world wide developers conference) keynote is set to kick off in 15 minutes. No quicktime stream nor satellite broadcast this year. I'm on the macintouch IRC channel though (which is already full,) so I should get any news pretty fast.
New displays seem like a sure thing. Maybe new iMacs. Definitely a Tiger (OS X 10.4) preview. Might not be much more interesting than that though. I'll post anything major in the comments.
Wow. Meshcube. A tiny (!) wireless router containing open source mesh networking software. This (or something like it) is the building block of the utopian wireless future. I am no longer very sure we will get there (where "there" is a totally decentralized network,) but at least the technology is becoming available.
I guess the first large scale tests will probably come in disaster areas. Just drop a few dozen (or hundreds) of these over an area for immediate ad hoc communications infrastructure. Very cool.
Oxford Semiconductor has a new firewire chip that incorporates high end (including 7.1) audio. I can't see why all next generation Macs won't get this chip. Cool. Audio out (especially dolby surround sound) has been a weak point (not counting the new G5 towers which have the nice optical out - but this should be cheaper and easier than that.)
Making a model of NYC (click the right arrow in the bottom right corner to go to the next page.)
I guess it is for this exhibit but I'm afraid I can't tell you much more.
There really is a guy who has been trapped in an airport since 1988. Snopes agrees.
Did you know there is a $20,000 cell phone?
Treocentral has collected over $3500 from it's readers to offer as a reward to the first person who writes a driver to make a bluetooth SD card work on the Treo 600.
This is interesting. I can't imagine that it is possible, or someone would have done it already. But at the same time, I can't imagine how it could be impossible. Truly a mystery. But if anything can get to the bottom of it, it's cash money.
New cryptogram is out. Bruce Schneier tackles the issue of breaking Iranian codes as well as several other topics. Very worth it as usual.
If you are running OS X you need to update your software. There aren't any reports of this exploit in the wild, but a rather severe security hole has been discovered that leaves you vulnerable to very bad things from a maliciously crafted link on the web (like: click on the evil link and have all your data erased bad!) It has already been patched by Apple, but you need to update your OS to the most recent version and apply all security patches (in 'software update' in your system preferences.) For Jaguar that is 10.2.8 and for Panther that means 10.3.4.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems.
New PowerMac towers from Apple. Slightly faster with no other major changes. Underwhelming to people who care too much about such things (who you lookin' at?) but in reality a perfectly fine incremental update.
Jobs had promised 3 Ghz within a year when the G5 was introduced last year, and now it's pretty clear that is not going to happen (this update tops out at 2.5 Ghz.) So of course there is much gnashing of teeth over the broken promise. Still, compared to where things were before, with Motorolla and the 167 mhz front side bus (Bwahahahaha!), IBM is doing a bang up job. Aside from bragging rights, I don't think it matters too much whether they are at 2.5 or 3.0.
But I wish they would have done something on the storage side. Why no dual optical drive option? Why only room for two internal hard drives? Why no option for hardware RAID? These are changes they could have implemented that would have placated the geeks. But maybe the geeks don't really matter that much. For almost all real world uses, these machines are fine.
Apple just released a new wireless networking device called AirPort Express. Plug it into an AC outlet and it provides an audio out port for connecting to a stereo as well as an 802.11g router. Now open iTunes on a computer with wireless networking and you can redirect output to any AirPort Express connected stereo within range. Tiny. No hassles. $129. Winner.
Also, it functions as a network extender (bridge) in an existing AirPort Extreme network - just plug it in and it sets itself up.
Finally:
Simeda, based in Bucharest, has ported Rendezvous to the Pocket PC platform and bundled it with a web server. The software automatically discovers other devices on a WiFi network and allows people to stream or share music with just a couple of clicks.