I would recommend his series because he's Aussie, he's funny and he can explain stuff so that it's very easy to understand.
Enjoy.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Potholer54 Made Easy
This guy makes videos explaining what science has learned about life, the universe and everything. He has a bit of a poke at religion throughout his series with a very dry sarcastic wit. I like it.
I would recommend his series because he's Aussie, he's funny and he can explain stuff so that it's very easy to understand.
Enjoy.
I would recommend his series because he's Aussie, he's funny and he can explain stuff so that it's very easy to understand.
Enjoy.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tech News
Couple of noteworthy tech news items...
Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft. Love him or hate him, one cannot deny the impact he has had on our lives. I have spent many years buying, using, fixing, playing with and even selling Microsoft operating systems and software. Although he is generally considered a lousy programmer, he was a great business man and in these later years he has improved his personal image dramatically through his philanthropy with his fortunes.
The Internet is about to open up to an unlimited number of top-level domain names. For a long time we've been pretty much stuck with .com, .org, .gov, or .country (.au, .uk, .jp). but now - if you can afford it you can have whatever top level domain you like. Expect to see .city (.sydney, .london, .tokyo, .nyc) and .company (.ford, .google, .microsoft, .bhp). Buying and setting one up will cost in the tens of thousands of dollars range so don't expect a .dgar anytime soon! :)
OS X is starting to become noticed by malware writers. Two new trojans have been discovered that can compromise the security of Mac computers. I've had antivirus software running on our Mac since we got it. ClamX is free antivirus software for OS X and has regular updates. Firewall is built in and on by default in Leopard but Safari seems to get some nasty security holes in it like Internet Explorer does! Perhaps the big companies should give up on trying to build Internet browsers and let the entire world create, build and use Firefox3.
Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft. Love him or hate him, one cannot deny the impact he has had on our lives. I have spent many years buying, using, fixing, playing with and even selling Microsoft operating systems and software. Although he is generally considered a lousy programmer, he was a great business man and in these later years he has improved his personal image dramatically through his philanthropy with his fortunes.
The Internet is about to open up to an unlimited number of top-level domain names. For a long time we've been pretty much stuck with .com, .org, .gov, or .country (.au, .uk, .jp). but now - if you can afford it you can have whatever top level domain you like. Expect to see .city (.sydney, .london, .tokyo, .nyc) and .company (.ford, .google, .microsoft, .bhp). Buying and setting one up will cost in the tens of thousands of dollars range so don't expect a .dgar anytime soon! :)
OS X is starting to become noticed by malware writers. Two new trojans have been discovered that can compromise the security of Mac computers. I've had antivirus software running on our Mac since we got it. ClamX is free antivirus software for OS X and has regular updates. Firewall is built in and on by default in Leopard but Safari seems to get some nasty security holes in it like Internet Explorer does! Perhaps the big companies should give up on trying to build Internet browsers and let the entire world create, build and use Firefox3.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Guild Wars in a bottle.
Well I'm impressed. I've installed the trial of Crossover Games by Codeweavers onto our Mac Mini and loaded Guild Wars into it. And so far it has progressed flawlessly! The trial is only for seven days so I've only have a week to try it out... and I've picked a week when my bandwidth is capped so I'm pretty much playing a brand new install of Guild Wars on Internet speeds comparable to dial-up and having to download each new area I walk into. It's slow... but it works!
For those Mac owners that want to play Guild Wars, here's my specs.
Mac OS X 10.5.3
Intel Core2 Duo 2.0 GHz
2GB RAM
Intel GMA950
So that would mean that pretty much anyone with a Intel Mac, MacBook or iMac can now play Guild Wars without installing or even needing to own a copy of Windows!
That's cool.
It works on Linux too.
Okay... settle down...
For those Mac owners that want to play Guild Wars, here's my specs.
Mac OS X 10.5.3
Intel Core2 Duo 2.0 GHz
2GB RAM
Intel GMA950
So that would mean that pretty much anyone with a Intel Mac, MacBook or iMac can now play Guild Wars without installing or even needing to own a copy of Windows!
That's cool.
It works on Linux too.
iPhone and WWDC
The 9th of June marked the opening of the WWDC '08, Apple's World Wide Developers Conference where they've just announced the new and updated iPhone 3G. And that's about it. They talked about the iPhone. And not much else. No Apple TV, no new touch interfaces, no iMac overhaul, no games console, a little about the next version of OS X, but pretty much it was all about iPhone 3G and the stuff they're making to support it.
So lets go over it a little bit shall we?
iPhone 3G is to be released in Australia on July 11th. Don't actually expect to get one on that day as demand is expected to outstrip supply on a scale that rivals the Wii.
Telstra don't look to have it. They made some snide comments about how Apple should stick to making computers and keep out of the mobile phone market about a year ago. Apple may be feeding Telstra some humble-pie for their arrogance.
Optus and Vodafone do appear to have it - although neither have released pricing details yet. There has been mention of a pre-paid option suggesting you could buy the phone without a contract which appeals to me - I use a telstra pre-paid phone at the moment.
The thing is with Optus and Vodafone is that their 3G networks are pretty much exclusive to the capital cities. Outside of these areas they're coverage is minimal with a 900MHz 3G which is incompatible with the 3G iPhone, so when you're in these areas your iPhone will have to switch to the much slower 2.5G (EDGE) network. Telstra have rolled out an extensive 3G network that runs at 850MHz which the iPhone 3G can run on, but so far it doesn't look like you can get a iPhone through Telstra. That means that if I were to buy an iPhone 3G to use where I live in regional Queensland, my iPhone 3G won't actually connect to a 3G network... unless I jailbreak it to work on the Telstra network. But if it's pre-paid, it shouldn't be locked to a network provider should it? I've never been good with mobile phones...
Anyhoo.... iPhone 3G has Google Maps with built in GPS - cool. It's got Wi-Fi Internet browsing and it's capable of playing games. A 2 MP camera is on the back and it comes in 8GB and 16GB varieties. The 8GB looks pretty much like the old iPhone except a bit thinner and has a black back instead of the aluminium back. the 16GB gives you the choice of a black back or a white back. I'd still choose black.
They mentioned something about the next Mac OS at WWDC too which apparently will be called Snow Leopard. Meh.
Games are coming out for Mac. People are pushing for development. I'm going to try out this trial of CrossOver Games by Codeweavers which will apparently let me play Guild Wars on the mac without loading Windows on it at all. More on that when I try it out.
The Mick Thackray Experience has been moved to Blogger. Please create or update your bookmarks.
So lets go over it a little bit shall we?
iPhone 3G is to be released in Australia on July 11th. Don't actually expect to get one on that day as demand is expected to outstrip supply on a scale that rivals the Wii.
Telstra don't look to have it. They made some snide comments about how Apple should stick to making computers and keep out of the mobile phone market about a year ago. Apple may be feeding Telstra some humble-pie for their arrogance.
Optus and Vodafone do appear to have it - although neither have released pricing details yet. There has been mention of a pre-paid option suggesting you could buy the phone without a contract which appeals to me - I use a telstra pre-paid phone at the moment.
The thing is with Optus and Vodafone is that their 3G networks are pretty much exclusive to the capital cities. Outside of these areas they're coverage is minimal with a 900MHz 3G which is incompatible with the 3G iPhone, so when you're in these areas your iPhone will have to switch to the much slower 2.5G (EDGE) network. Telstra have rolled out an extensive 3G network that runs at 850MHz which the iPhone 3G can run on, but so far it doesn't look like you can get a iPhone through Telstra. That means that if I were to buy an iPhone 3G to use where I live in regional Queensland, my iPhone 3G won't actually connect to a 3G network... unless I jailbreak it to work on the Telstra network. But if it's pre-paid, it shouldn't be locked to a network provider should it? I've never been good with mobile phones...
Anyhoo.... iPhone 3G has Google Maps with built in GPS - cool. It's got Wi-Fi Internet browsing and it's capable of playing games. A 2 MP camera is on the back and it comes in 8GB and 16GB varieties. The 8GB looks pretty much like the old iPhone except a bit thinner and has a black back instead of the aluminium back. the 16GB gives you the choice of a black back or a white back. I'd still choose black.
They mentioned something about the next Mac OS at WWDC too which apparently will be called Snow Leopard. Meh.
Games are coming out for Mac. People are pushing for development. I'm going to try out this trial of CrossOver Games by Codeweavers which will apparently let me play Guild Wars on the mac without loading Windows on it at all. More on that when I try it out.
The Mick Thackray Experience has been moved to Blogger. Please create or update your bookmarks.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Waiting for games
There are a couple of games I am eagerly awaiting the release of. Top of the list is Spore. Mum, take a look at this one, it looks like a lot of fun and it is to be released on the Mac!
Operation Flashpoint 2:Rising Dragon is next on the list of not-yet-released games that we're hanging for.
Operation Flashpoint 2:Rising Dragon is next on the list of not-yet-released games that we're hanging for.
OperationFlashpoint2
Grand Theft Auto 4. The GTA series was born on the PC and is always best on the PC. They're working on it... I'm sure of it... aren't they?
Can't think of any to-be-released games that I'm waiting on. Is anyone still holding out hope for Duke Nukem Forever?
Grand Theft Auto 4. The GTA series was born on the PC and is always best on the PC. They're working on it... I'm sure of it... aren't they?
Can't think of any to-be-released games that I'm waiting on. Is anyone still holding out hope for Duke Nukem Forever?
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