PooPsTech Web-Logs

I just updated to 2.7.1. of the Word Press and I am not sure if this upate would work with BLOGO! This is a Great Application for Blogging form the Mac and I hope I don’t loose the use of it - just because I updated the 2.7.1. I wonder if you can go back to the old version!

For some strange reason, Godaddy has changed the name of the Databases that all the customers have made in the past!  Question is why.  In their email, they don’t bother to explain the reason behind this modification!  We have to wait and see if it actually works!

I have been thinking about buying another Mac MINI and set it up as my ‘Media Center” in my Home office and I was waiting for the release of the ‘new’ Mac MINI. As soon I decided to get the machine, new rumors surfaced that Apple is about to discontinue Mac MINI (and shoot itself in the foot). This could be a grave mistake on the Apple’s part! Why? Well, Mac MINI has been single handedly responsible for the renewed interest in the Macintosh line of computers in general and specifically the sales of all in one iMac. It all started with release of Apple iPod, of course, and then came Mac MINI - the first Apple low priced Mac ever. A large percentage of iPod owners decided they will have the low priced Mac as the perfect companion to their iPod. Most of these Mac MINI Owners have gone to upgrade their systems to iMac and or completely switched to Apple systems. So, in my judgement, discontinuing the Mac MINI will be a gargantuan mistake and Apple will suffer the consequences of it very quickly. Unless Apple has a replacement for MINI in the similar price bracket, otherwise they should keep MINI around. I guess I will wait for another week or two and then buy the existing one. Will let you know again. What do you know about this? Do you own a MINI? Did you switching to iMac because if your MINI?

Google - MSFT - Yahoo have brought down their new “Code of Conduct Commandments” from the Mountain (Written on stone, no doubt) for operating in China! Is this not too little - damn too late?  After all the cooperation that they all have offered to the RED COMMUNIST CHINESE government to track down normal people and collect information on them!  Here they are - all three of them - talking about Code of Conduct for operating in China?  Damn too late in my book.  Do no Evil? Yea - right!

Hey all!  Well, at last, I got around to setting up my WordPress Site on GoDaddy!  It is not totally finished.  I am planning to add a few more interesting Plug-ins and also may be build my own Theme, by modifying an existing theme (much less work that way).    I have to admit, setting up one of these babies are not as easy that the WordPress Site leads you to believe.  Once you finished installing the base, you have a lot of tweaking ahead of you.  But it is doable, so fear not.  With a littkle reading you can do it too.  Given the time I will write a small

MSFT released security update for Office 2008 & 2004. So if you use any, then update. 2008 version weights at 154MB opening to 450MB! Why MSFT released Office:mac 2008 update of 12.1.13 (154MB) for manual update? If you check for updates thru Apps, you get no updates! This sounds very suspicious to me! Why would Microsoft do that? Why not make it available thru the normal update system? Does any of you know anything about this? Please let me know.

It is confirmed now! Apple is sending invitation for a “town hall meeting” in SF on 14 Oct for the release of the new Macbook and MacBook Pro notebooks! Looking at how long ago the MacBook and MacBook Pro were introduced, its about time! This will boost Apple’s over sales high. Talk about waiting for the last min! Now what do we do? Buy a new set of MacBook Pros? hmmm! LOL! I guess so! How about you? Are you going to get a brand new MacBook or even a Pro? Are you due for an upgrade? Sound off!

Historically speaking, Apple Mail.app hasn’t been able to handle long URL address that are directly paste in to the email body. If you are using Mail.app on a Mac and you want to paste a long URL address to an email, then don’t paste it directly to the email body. Follow these steps:

1.) Go to EDIT Menu–>Link–>Add (a text box opens up)
2.) Paste your long URL in the text box and click OK

You will see that the URL is inserted as a clickable link in your email and the link is not broken in multiple lines. Yes, this is a workaround, but it seems that Apple has no plans (even after 5 years) to fix this problem! Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

After finding out about the huge hole in TCP that can sink any server with a rather low bandwidth with no need for Bot Fleets, now we hear about ClickJacking! A new attack that ‘ALL’ Browsers are vulnerable to! So, it makes absolutely no difference, which browser you are using. If yo get hit by ClickJacking - you won’t survive, regardless of what server you were using at the time!

Simply put, ClickJacking is: “The basic description of the attack is that it allows the attack to trick the user into clicking on something other than what they thought they were clicking on. The two researchers who discovered the technique say that it “…gives an attacker the ability to trick a user into clicking on something only barely or momentarily noticeable.” This click could be the gateway to many other kinds of exploits on your system.” When you hear all this about the web, don’t you feel sick? Don’t you want to stop surfing? May be this is the ultimate goal of these people! To stop you being on the net - learn and fin out about the things that ‘they’ cannot hide for you anymore! Could this be the ultimate goal? Web certainly creates a lot of headaches for those that run the whole show behind the closed doors - faceless - nationless people that run our lives for us. Now we have tools that we can track them and find out instantly what they are up to and this by no means is acceptable to them! May be they want to corrupt the well and stop us all from come to web and find out what they are up to! The thought is plausible! Think about it! What do you think? Plausible or Conspiracy Theory?

Got an Apple iPod Touch 2.0 yesterday. Got 32GB version & it is nice! Not just an iPod-a net device! Sync nicely with my MobileME. Email and everything that you can think that you need on the net! The interface is well thought of - intuitive and fast! Apple’s Man-Machine-Interface always has been great and they have maintained that tradition in iPod Touch as well. Now it’s time to move some music in to this apparatus and find out how much better it is than my version 5.5 iPod 80GB. How do you like the audio quality of the new Version 2.0 as oppose to the previous one? Are they the same? Your comments, please.

Well NebuAd mess is really hitting the fan now. To the point that the ISPs are calling “opt-in” Targeting Ad! When will they learn? I am really - when will they learn that they cannot force consumers to watch ads and worse than that, if they are able to force us, who would really appreciate what they are trying to sell us - much less than buying it! Why are the marketing and advertising companies that work on the net so dumb! Most of us are sophisticated enough to know if we are being ad-fed (what NebuAd tried to do in UK) and if it is forced upon us, then it is guaranteed that we won’t buy, even tho the product might have been good! DuH! This the same stupid disease that the Spammer are suffering from! Change your ways guys - Forget about Ad-feeding us and definitely stop forcing the spam and ads on us! You might even be able to make money the right way! Do you feel the same way? Would you buy the product that <b><u>they forced its advertising</u></b> on you?

Been having problems with your broadband router rebooting unexpectedly? Windows XP SP3 has been named as the culprit?

Broadband modem/router maker Billion says XP SP3 has been causing its BiPAC 5200-series routers to go into a constant crash and reboot cycle.

The company has produced firmware upgrades that solve the problem. Although Windows XP SP3 has been available for manual download from Microsoft since May 6, it has just hit Windows Update as an automatic upgrade, which will cause unexpected problems for owners of “unpatched” Billion BiPAC 5200 routers, and possibly other brands or models of router. No this is a load of crap if I have ever heard one! How the hell SP3 of the XP causes the crash of a Router! This is the best example of: “BLAME IT ON MICROSOFT! This is really going overboard! Billion clean up your act and stop blaming your tech problems! the best part is: Billion doesn’t even bother to explain how they have come to this conclusion as to why SP-3 has caused the problem or show any proof! Not bad, just point Microsoft and scream!

It may be not be the only bot on the block for long but, for now at least, the Canadian-built Dextre robot has the spotlight to itself, with it set to blast off Tuesday on board the shuttle Endeavor for delivery to its new home on the International Space Station. What is mrnoe important is the fact that it is THE first one - just Like Canada Arm was. Go Canada Go!

Well I have been away much too long and been neglecting my Web-log - but with good reason! We are going through integration of our software system and I - unfortunately - been responsible as the integration specialist! We are nearly done, so I will be back to full Web-Logging soon!

Remembering an Old
Computer

Office for Mac 2008 offers a security headache for many users, Microsoft has confirmed.

Office for Mac 2008 incorrectly assigns ownership of some files, Microsoft has confirmed, creating a potential security problem for businesses installing the new application suite.
[Microsoft] moved to Apple’s Package Maker (.pkg) installer files, good news for the enterprise, [but] unfortunately they’ve created all the packages to install nearly all the files with the owner set to 502.” Office 2008’s ownership assignment means that a user who wasn’t supposed to have complete control over those files actually does. In other words, whoever is assigned user ID 502 has full read/write access to Office’s files.

Well this is an installation problem and your ID 502 will not kill the system just because it is has access to some files! LOL! Not to worry to much!

Macworld
Conference & Expo

After 3 years absence from the Apple’s Macworld & Expo, this year I had the opportunity to be there and see the whole thing first hand for myself. It was a huge gathering much larger than the years past and it was extremely vibrant! You could feel the electricity in the ‘Air’. Expectations were high and every one was looking forward to the fact that their prediction and or wishes might come true.
At the end of the Keynote event, I must admit that not everyone was satisfied, which is the normal thing. Seems that people expect a Product of the caliber of iPod – iPhone or migration to INTEL, every time that Steve jobs takes the podium! Well no one can do that – not even Steve “the magician” Jobs! So it’s time for a reality check. Products like iPod and iPhone comes once in a career and Steve jobs has had many of them – but we can not expect a new and better one every time that he takes the podium!

Having said that, here is my assessment of the Apple’s Macworld Expo:

Here is a list of new stuff that was announced at the Expo:

• iPhone / iPod touch Software
• Microsoft Office 2008 Universal
• Time Capsule / Airport Extreme 802.1N
• iTunes Movie Rentals
• MacBook Air

1. iPhone / Pod software upgrades:
• iPhone is one step close to the version 2.0. when it will truly ready for “human consumption”. Home screen now can be customized and show what you really use every day and not what Apple thinks that you will be using. Come to think of it, we had this option released with Motorola’s revolutionary T720 nearly 6 years ago which you could customize the menus and screens and from there on, you could find this functionality on just about every phone. Other improvement and bug fixes were also made to the iPhone software. Steve Jobs did mention that the SDK for iPhone will be released very soon – so we can all rest that Jobs Demons are not at work anymore – if they were we would never get an SDK to develop any type of applications for iPhone.
• iPod Touch software upgrade was every more significant, adding 4 new Apps to it’s general functionality. Mail.app was a great new addition to the iPod Touch, especially for those that use WiFi function of the iPod. I feel that is a better idea than owing an iPhone and use it as PDA / iPod and endanger loss of communication due to lack of power, since we know that we can not change the battery. So it would be great if you have your phone and an iPod Touch 16GB. A good enough PDA - a great iPod and in worse case scenario if it runs out of your battery, your phone is there safe and functioning. I am using a Nokia N95-8G and I am planning to add an iPod-Touch to my arsenal. Like this; I have a PDA - iPod and my Smartphone. A thought that might benefit many of you out there.
• The new software for both iPhone and iPod-Touch will be released with every new iPhone and iPod that is sold from today. The fortunate thing is this the update for the existing iPhones are available free of charge. The owners of the iPod-Touch can download all the updates and the new Apps from Apple for $20.
• Recommended (especially for the iPod-Touch, since the iPhone update will be Automatic)

2. Microsoft Office 2008:
• Microsoft Released Office 2008 with no fanfare and that we very surprising for me. I was really looking forward from some remarks from Mac-BU of MS. Bit no one was there. I have ordered a copy of the Office at the show and I received it this morning and I just installed and it looks good. Same components of the 2004 (I think Microsoft will never port the Access Database to OS-x), but the most important thing is the fact that the entire office now runs in Universal mode and no more Rosetta emulation to run on my MacBook Pro! I am planning to install it on an old PowerBook Titanium and see how it works there. One thing is for sure: It runs much faster now that is running x86 native code on my machine. I think the Standard Edition will be enough for most of us and the Students / Teachers have the opportunity to enjoy their traditional discount. The top package is about $100 more expensive and facilitates Media environments. The update is $299.
• It still remain a mystery as to why Microsoft Mac-BU VP was not present at the MacWorld Expo for the kick off of such an important product.
• Recommended (if you have to use it because of your work, it is a worth update)

3. Time Capsule / Airport Extreme 802.1N:
• Time capsule is basically an update to the software only TimeMachine that was introduced with the release of Leopard (OS X 10.5). Time Capsule makes sense because of a few reasons:
o Set it and forget it back up
o Wireless and now computer necessary to handle the backups
o An upgrade to your existing 802.1 B-A-G.
o Large hard drive backing up DATA only from all your systems
• I certainly am considering one for my home system, as soon as it will be clear if it can back up PCs as well as Macs, since I am using both and a backup solution must cover both.
• Recommended

4. iTune Movie Rentals:
• Well this has been in the pipes for a long time now and Apple tried to get all the partners on-board, before announcing it. Well it seems they have been successful and it is a great idea on the part of Apple. Now if Apple could do what they did with music with movies then they stand to make a lot of money.
• But there is pricing problem. Apple announced the following prices:
o $2.99 for Library titles
o $3.99 for New Titles
o $4.99 for HD
• I’d say this steep and Apple might not sell as much as they think. I suggest that prices should have been:
o $1.99 for Library titles
o $2.99 for New Titles
o $3.99 for HD
• There is also a timeline problem. You have 30 days to start watching the movie that you downloaded – which is great. But when you start watching the movie, you have 24 hours to finish it and after that, just like Mission Impossible, the movie will self destruct. Of course this is the same as Dish Network and Bell Express view as well as old DVD / VHS rentals. But if Apple would have priced it lower and instead of 1 day they would have giver their clients a maximum of 3 days, they it would have brought them much more business than the present setup. I know that most of this has been dictated to Apple by the RIAA and Movie companies. But still…

MacBook Air:
• Well it is “impossibly thin and light”, yet it has a full size screen and Keyboard! It is a huge achievement on part of Apple Computer Inc. No other company have achieved this – at least up to now. Amazing screen – Good speed. But IT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE! The biggest problems that I see with it are as follows:
o No Ethernet connection. So if you are stuck in an environment that has not Wireless connection, then you have no connection. Of course, Apple will sell you a $30 Dongle thaqt gives you Ethernet capabilities via USB. But as we know, USB take 5%-15% of the CPU time and that in a small Laptop like is indeed a lot. But at least it can prove to be a life saver.
o No Replaceable Batteries. So if you use your laptop a lot, and on the battery, then this is not the laptop for you. The battery is internal and can not be swapped. It reminds you of iPhone / iPod. Foot prints of Mr. Jobs of closed is better mentality all over this machine.
o No Internal Optical Drive. So if you are not close to home base, so you can share their optical drive to Wirelessly installing software from it, then you are up a creek-without-a-paddle! So install ‘everything-that-you-ever-need’ on this machine before leaving your home base. But you have the option to buy an external Optical drive for it (I am not sure if it actually burns CD/DVD) but certainly reads both formats and it’s a USB Device that you can use on a one and only USB port that this machine comes with! Not that great. If you plan to use an external Mouse and Keyboard, make sure that you get them with Bluetooth option, so you can leave this single USB port alone. If not, then think of investing in a Powered USB Hub (4-Port, at least).
• Having said all that – I can also add that the machine is amazingly sexy and unique. Of course, on the first glance, it reminds you of executive machines. But consider this idea: if you are a college student that you run around your campus and need to have a small machine to carry around for your notes and references and class materials, then the small size of this laptop will be a blessing to you. Also Perfect for executives and people that do a lot of presentations.
• All in All a very impressive package that you need to improve with a few essential / optional additions:
o Get a small, but powered USB Dongle (essential)
o Get an USB -> Ethernet dongle (essential)
o Get an Apple USB Modem for Dialup internet and FAX (Optional)
o Get the Apple External SuperDrive that for $99 is a great bargain. Cheapest External DVD burner could be as much as $149. (Essential)
o More to say about the performance of the Air, as soon as we get one in the office. I am sure it will be soon. People want to test the software that we produced on such system too.  Wink wink!

In late 2006, Microsoft released its first generation Zune, a digital media platform comprised of a portable digital media player, Windows-based software, and an online service. But at least the company had a reason for this inactivity: It was prepping a revolutionary Zune 2.0 release comprised of new players, new software, new online services, and new capabilities all around.

I see it this way: No matter what MS might or might not do about Zune, until this Social thing is there Zune is a dead product! Get rid of the stupid “Social” (as Microsoft should get rid of WOW in Vista) and then allow people to put anything in their Zune - MP3 - AAC, etc. and then may be something would come off of this prodcut! Until then NADA!

Hitachi had to hack it to produce a 500GB 2.5-inch laptop drive, adding another platter (and a few millimeters thickness) that make their new 5K500 impossible to install in most standard laptops and enclosures — but not Samsung. The Spinpoint M6 500GB drive brings a half terabyte at the standard 9.5mm height, and should land some time in March, meaning your current laptop — and not just those new Asus machines — should be able to accommodate one or two of these massive mothers.
This is amazing! 500GB in a 2.5″ laptop drive! Are these new advancement in memory and hard drive leaving the desktop in the dust? Is it time to buy Laptops only? The jury is still out on that one. But you can use another 500GB external drive with your laptop and have a cool Tera Byte carrying it in your laptop case. Is anyone thinking about how these huge storage devices has to be backed up? If I owned a hard drive company, I would assign 30% of my workforce to work on the backup devices. Like this, the hard drives are sold and everyone would also buy my backup devices. Does not make sense? If it does - why we don’t hear of such devices being developed in conjunction with large hard drives.

The corporate lie detector!!!!
Judging from a recent patent application, Microsoft hopes to build some sort of “activity monitoring system” that keeps an eye on worker productivity using various “physiological or environmental sensors.” These sensors would track everything from heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, facial expressions, and blood pressure to brain signals and galvanic skin response.Redmond sees this system as a way for companies and, um, governments to monitor “group activities.” “In particular, the system can monitor user activity, detect when users need assistance with their specific activities, and identify at least one other user that can assist them,” the patent application reads, in classic patent speak. “Assistance can be in the form of answering questions, providing guidance to the user as the user completes the activity, or completing the activity such as in the case of taking on an assigned activity.”

Microsoft - all the Billions that you make, is not enough and now you have to get on screwing the masses? Stop already! This is another tool that you are providing the Corps to get enough excuses and outsource more and more of their work with the pretense of low productivity and high salaries! NOW YOU REALLY are showing your colors! You are already the most hated Corp out there an now you are getting in worse situation with the Hal-9000?

In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.
A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery’s first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.
The treatment is “a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign,” said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. “It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess.”
Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a “sleep replacement” drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.

The SCO Group has been removed from the Nasdaq Stock Market because the company declared bankruptcy in September. The stock market delisted SCO and suspended trading of its shares (SCOX) at the beginning of trading on Thursday, SCO said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Nasdaq had told the company in September that it would be delisted, and SCO’s subsequent appeal of that determination was turned down.
WOW! The have been out since Sept 2007 and it took the Commission nearly 4 month to bump the off of the stock market? Talk about red tape! They should have thrown this evil company with all these wrong doing a long time ago! SCO is a complete ‘fail’ and not it is dead! Whoohooo!

If you figure that preliminary design is all about object discovery, then detailed design is, by contrast, about behavior allocation - that is, allocating the software functions you’ve identified into the set of classes you discovered during preliminary design.
When you draw sequence diagrams, you’re taking another sweep through the preliminary design, adding in detail. You use sequence diagrams to drive the detailed design. We advocate drawing your sequence diagrams in a minimal style.

Case Driven Object Modeling - This is what I have beens saying for the past 5 years to my Colleagues and co-working Engineers: ‘Visually define Behavior and Allocation of your Objects and Classes so the next person who looks at your Design / Procedures and Code can easily and quickly understand what you are trying to do and what were “your” state of mind when you designed what you did.’ But I guess, at least most of us, are either too lazy to add this one extra step to our software cycle or we are looking for job security. The harder the code is to understand the more job security we have with the company that we work for.

December 20, 2007 (Computerworld) — IBM rolled out new search software from its research labs today that’s aimed at allowing users to find information that may be buried in the vast amount of e-mail many people now store on the desktop.
The new IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES), which can be downloaded for free, is a semantic search tool aimed at bringing the search mechanisms made famous on the Web by Google Inc. to the desktop, said Douglass Wilson, distinguished engineer and chief technology officer of IBM’s Lotus Development Corp. unit.

Call me old fashioned, but I still think that IBM, quietly, is the king of the computer world! Is there an aspect of computers that I BM is not involved in? FYI, IBM is the largest Software Vendor! I bet you thought that title belong to Microsoft, right? Seriously…Am I right?

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pressured by a lawsuit, Internet social network Facebook Inc. will adopt new measures to prevent its 58 million members from sending text messages to recycled cell phone numbers. The settlement was announced Tuesday by attorneys for an Indiana woman who claimed Palo Alto-based Facebook had been profiting from text messages sent by its members after the intended recipients had given up the phone numbers. The lawsuit filed by Lindsey Abrams of Patriot, Ind., said she received text messages with explicit comments and other upsetting content — and had to pay 10 cents each time. Facebook received a share of the fee, according to the complaint.

Well that was quick - too quick for comfort, if you’d ask me! Does this mean that Facebook was profiting from this scheme somehow - hence the quick turn around? Nothing is proven of course, but isn’t this a very quick about face for FaceBook (no pun intended)?

Google has launched Sitemaps for Video, an extension of their webmaster sitemaps program that will assist webmasters in having their videos indexed by Google.
To be indexed, webmasters must create a sitemap page that provides a list of videos on each site that is compliant with Googles sitemaps protocol, which since November 2006 is standardized with Yahoo and Microsoft as well. Webmasters then simply submit the URL of their video sitemap to Google for indexing.

“Do no Evil”! hmmmm! Is this not the motto of Google? But it seems that google has it’s hands in everything that we are doing. Google is now in the Alternative Fuel - and now they want to get their little grubby hands on the videos that you have ‘IN YOUR COMPUTER’! Question is: Why? Why does that interest Google and what is the long term profit that Google sees in it? Google is turning to a multi-tentecles monster, connected to more and more aspect of our lives! Is this not Evil in itself? I guess we have no choice, expect to wait and see! One thing is for sure: “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolytely!”

Apple has released updates for two widely distributed products that harbored a raft of security vulnerabilities, some of which were actively being exploited by miscreants. Unbelievably, the company isn’t presenting either as a security fix to mainstream users despite the risk the bugs pose for its millions of users.

That statement in it self was hard to digest! Apple had the fixes for the holes that were being actively exploited, but did not distribute them? Is that what they are saying? i have a hard time believing this! Why would Apple - and for that matter - any company do that? Let’s make some sense!

Well it seems that the mini phone are out! Brick large phones are in. Seems everyone want to consolidate music - PDA - Phone functionality in to one. But that is a hard task that most companies are failing to deliver. It seems that Phones are taking the 8GB as their adopted memory configuration, except Apple iPhone that is configured to 16GB. PDA functionality is paramount and the ability to read Microsoft Office Documents are a must. But what every company building smart phones are suffering from is - yes you guessed it - is battery life. All these functionality and all on such a small battery! Apple, prior to the release of iPhone, was toying with the idea of having two batteries in the phone. One powering the Phone and PDA functionality and the second will be used solely for the iPod build in to the phone. The Sheer excess weight of a second battery and longer charge time changed their mind. So this is universal - Batteries are not good as we know them, at least they are not good enough for these complex and multifunctional Smartphones that they are building today. May be it is high time to call on the battery companies like copper top (:)) to start working on this problem. Even the silly Rabbit that never stops can join in too!

Microsoft has resisted the temptation to sip from the Web 2.0 Kool Aid with confirmation that the next version of its browser will be called IE 8.
The choice of moniker comes after the angst-ridden rejection of alternative titles including iIE and IE for Web 2.0. Confirmation that Microsoft has resisted the siren call in favour of the tried and tested comes in a posting on Microsoft official IE blog by Dean Hachamovitch, general manager.

Microsoft has rejected the idea of Web 2.0 for IE 7 and now for IE 8! Why should we be surprised? Nothing new about that!

Although the media and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have pushed the iPhone as a consumer device, apparently some business users are finding out that they like it too. Staunch business customers who are tech-savvy, complain about the lack of email flexibility that the iPhone provides, citing Microsoft Exchange and RIM BlackBerry Server functionality being absent. To some business customers who need mobility in the first place, though, the device is still easier to use than a Windows Mobile device or a BlackBerry.

Question is: Can an iPhone with it’s present format can be useful in business? I Think not! Application written for business have to be ported to iphone and in it’s present form, that can not be done. But if Apple is right and iPhone truly contains the actual sunset of OS X, then imagine how many Apps you can run on that little machine. I guess we have to wait till iPhone 2.0 before we can make a determination if Apple iPhone is suitable for Business world! I guess it all comes down to what biz will adopt! Remember Blackberry? Everyone laughed and the little Canadian company went right ahead and crated “CrackBerry” that no one can stay away from! Oh yea! Can iPhone make it that way? Yes, but Apple has to stop taking all the orders from AT&T and insert some of it’s own and come up with better versions of iPhone that people can develop and test for and create all the tools for it and then introduce it to the Dev world as a plug in for XCode 3.x. Now that would take iPhone one step closer to become a legit option as a business tool. I am sure Apple knows that…

The energy-efficient chip that Advanced Micro Devices was counting to win customers away from Intel has been delayed again, the company said yesterday.

The company confirmed that a technical irregularity has delayed widespread availability of its Barcelona chip for servers until early next year. The company had announced in September that it was beginning to ship it to customers
Don’t you get the feeling that AMD is totally incapable of building efficient chips? that always have the hottest (consequently the lest efficient chips) and they keep promising better efficiency? Well - don’t get me wrong - it is directly because of the existence of AMD that INTEL is treating us so nicely and dropping the prices left and right. If AMD was not there, INTEL would go back to being the Evil Monster that it really is. So, yes, I am grateful to AMD. Please lets make since really good chips with much better efficiency and lets do it NOW! Shall we, AMD?

The agency, known as MI5, recently sent letters to some 300 banks and accounting and legal firms warning that “state organizations” of China were plying their networks for information, according to the Times of London on Monday.

The U.K. government refused to confirm the letters. However, the reported correspondence comes just a month after the U.K.’s top domestic intelligence officer warned of “high levels” of covert activity by at least 20 foreign intelligence agencies, with those of Russia and China the most active.

This amazes me! Nothing is enough for the RED Chinese Communists! They do want more and more and nothing is enough for them! We should stop trading with them! Just for 2 years and then then they will act like normal and civilized! Their Spies are the most active ones in the world! They work Anything and Everything and Anyone. They work Defense and they work even technology and Business! If this is not stopped, in 5 years we will be speaking Chinese! Worse than German.

Seems like a wired thing to say, knowing that Office 2007 has by far the best GUI than any other App made by MS. I guess we are all so used to the old and ugly way of doing things, that any changes and improvements will bring screams of pain! Strange cyber world we live in!

Ignoring dead documents, wrestling with templates, and other changeover joys!

Now that is a contradiction in term! Dead Docs? What is that? If someone created that - better said got paid for creating that - then how could it be dead? I also sure that the Doc that they called dead, would be needed by someone in the enterprise at sometime. So - NO -

Current iPhones connect to AT&T’s EDGE-based network for intensive data-transmission chores such as Web browsing and e-mail. EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) advertises in-the-field download speeds in the 70Kbit-to-135Kbit/sec. range, although its technical top end is 384Kbit/sec. AT&T’s 3G (third-generation) network, deployed only in major metro areas at this point, uses HSDPA/UMTS technology (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System) and boasts download speeds between 600Kbit/sec. and 1.4Mbit/sec., according to past AT&T statements.

The iPhone’s reliance on the much slower EDGE technology was roundly criticized before the smart phone was launched in June, and the issue has come up again as Apple released the iPhone in Europe, where 3G-based cellular networks are much more widespread than in the U.S. But in September, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it plain that the iPhone would stick with EDGE for now because of power and battery issues.

“The 3G chip sets are real power hogs,” Jobs said at the U.K. rollout of the iPhone two months ago. “Our phone has a talk time of eight hours, and that’s really important when you want to use [it] for Internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to five-plus hours, something we think we’ll see later next year.”

Doesn’t that give you the feeling of total orchestration? Nothing left to chance. Nothing spontaneous about it! They knew 3 years ago what the storyline was going to be. May be even more. Does that not leave a bad taste in your mouth? No Really - does it not?

Microsoft said yesterday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Siberian government which could see the software giant park its latest data centre on a remote, sub-arctic part of Russia. The city of Irkutsk has been pinpointed as a possible location for Microsoft’s latest data-pumping farm. Perhaps the firm has been eyeing up the Siberian city as a possible location from which it can spit out web-based apps to the masses because of its favourable weather conditions, which could provide natural cooling to the data centre.
Here id what comes to mind: Why is MS diverting like this? What is it up to? Is this the final push to total Web based MS Applications? Is this the last weapon ion Microsoft’s toolbox to deal with Software piracy?  MS is so rich that if they gave away all their software to all their clients for free, they can continue for decades!  Why are they so preoccupied with deal with piracy (Must be Gates paranoia), but they do not have the same attitude about fixing Security holes and Bugs that are rampant in their ’selling’ software?  Windows XP, after seven years, still has security holes the size Mr. Gates Estate in Seattle.  I am not even going to talk about Vista and all the problems that comes with.  Problems that could have been solved before it’s release.  They prefer to work on those unnecessary / or at least low priority tasks, but not allocate their time to the ‘real’ problems at hand.  Way to go Microsoft.  You are in a downward Spiral - and you can’t even feel it.  Granted, it is a slow one.  But definitely a downward move.

T-Mobile will sell an unlocked version of Apple’s popular iPhone in Germany while it fights a legal challenge from rival Vodafone, the company said last week.

The move comes shortly after a court granted an injunction requested by Vodafone mandating that T-Mobile either sell an unlocked version of the iPhone or withdraw the product from the market.

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/home.asp Six Canadian undergrad students from the University of Alberta did themselves — and their country — proud, winning the first ever “Cluster Challenge” event at the international Supercomputing 07 conference held in Reno, NV, last Friday.

Team Canada snagged the top spot in a contest intended to demonstrate the power of modern cluster technology, beating five other teams — from the universities of Colorado and Indiana, Purdue University, Stony Brook University and the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.

Go Canada Go!