Technology
My Electronics are Green
Nov 28th
I was checking Greenpeace’s “Guide to greener electronics” and apparently the stuff I own are made by a bunch of green companies. My cell phone is a Sony Ericsson with 7.7/10, my laptop is a Toshiba with a 7/10 and the DVD player and surround system in my room are from LG with a 7/10 too. The other electronics in the house are mostly from green companies too so I am glad I have little negative on the environment!
Via Engadget
Microsoft Surface postponed
Nov 9th
You might have heard of Microsoft Surface last year, it’s a touch screen table that can simplify many of you daily task, from transferring photos from your camera to your PC or ordering a drink at a pub. Engadget is reporting today that the official launch of the Surface was postponed by Microsoft because they have to write a lot of applications for it depending on the customers needs.
In case you haven’t seen the table in action before here is a short clip about it, you can also search YouTube for more detailed previews of the Surface.
The Future?
Nov 8th
I just watched this weird Flash presentation predicting the future of computers, the internet and its user. The presentation is a mix of history and fiction starting in the 90s and ending in 2014 (I think fiction starts in 2004). What’s really weird is that this is actually currently happening and we are all helping turning this fiction into a reality.
The New Ipod Touch
Sep 5th
Steve Jobs introduced today the new Ipod Touch.
The speculation preceding the launch were true (kind of) the new Ipod is an Iphone minus the phone (Wifi, touch screen interface…) but they didn’t replacee the Ipod with it, they just added it to the collection, a good move in my opinion.
That’s not it, the whole Ipod lineup was updated with new features and designs and you can now (finally) buy music directly from your Ipod Touch or Iphone.
For more info about the new products check out Macworld.
Israel produces 1TB discs
Aug 28th
While we were busy fighting over who gets more seats in the government and making every person with some brains leave this country, Israeli scientist managed to create a 1TB disc that has the same size of a regular DVD but that stores data on 200 layers of 5GB, to read those disc you need a red laser (BlueRay and HDDVD both use blue lasers) so the technology shouldn’t be very expensive but:
-Do we need a disc that can store 1000GB of data?!
-Will those discs ever get to Lebanon? (I think they will, just like the laser keyboard made in Israel and the new Intel chips made in Israel)
Year 2038 problem
Aug 26th
I just found this Wikipedia article describing a problem that will happen in 31 years to the dates in most of the 32-bits computer systems around the world, what will happen is that on the 19th of January 2038 the dates will “wrap around” and the date will become Friday, December 13, 1901.
Here’s a more technical explanation from Wikipedia:
The year 2038 problem may cause some computer software to fail before or in the year 2038. The problem affects programs that use the POSIX time representation, which represents system time as the number of seconds (ignoring leap seconds) since January 1, 1970. This representation is standard in Unix-like operating systems and also affects software written for most other operating systems because of the broad deployment of C. On most 32-bit systems, the time_t data type used to store this second count is a signed 32-bit integer. The latest time that can be represented in this format, following the POSIX standard, is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, January 19, 2038. Times beyond this moment will “wrap around” and be represented internally as a negative number, and cause programs to fail, since they will see these times not as being in 2038 but rather in 1901. Erroneous calculations and decisions may therefore result.
Sony Ericsson W960
Aug 24th
I currently own a Sony Ericsson K750i, the phone is great, when I bought it it contained everything I needed. The K750 is now 2 years old and I want to change it, my minimum requirements are:
- Wi-Fi
- 3.2 MP Camera
- 2GB of memory
- Other features are now standards (Bluetooth, MP3…)
I found everything I needed in the SE W960 that is coming out later this year, it has Wi-Fi, a 3.2 MP Camera, 8GB of Memory, a touch screen and many more great features, the package also comes with a bluetooth headset and a normal one.
Here’s the full phone specifications from the GMS Arena.
Connecting to the internet via an unsecured wireless connection
Aug 24th
The BBC has a very interesting article on connecting to the Internet via an unsecured wireless connection, is it wrong to do that? The person is the one offering the connection for free, but taking the internet from him might slow down his connection!
I have a wireless connection at home, it is a secured one but I always check the logs of the router and check the connected computers, I also turn off the router when I am not using the internet, I do that because I know that my connection is secure and connecting through it involves hacking and this would be stealing and I would make the person stealing my connection pay for this (info on how to do that later).
But what if I left my connection unsecured? Connecting through it would be very simple, the person doing it would be taking something that he isn’t paying for but this connection is available for him!
I never found an unsecured connection so I never had the chance to connect to one, but I am pretty sure that if I ever found one I would at least test it’s speed but would never check my mail on it, maybe a person is offering this connection for free and monitoring the traffic to take info! I think that everyone is responsible for his connection and if you leave a door open you can’t blame someone for taking a peak inside!
Acers preloaded with Linux
Aug 20th
Yesterday I received two PC fliers at home, one of them was from the multimedia megastore and the other one from acer. I noticed that all acer PCs and Notebooks are preloaded with Linux (except the Ferrari-Acer ones that come preloaded with Vista Ultimate) but they didn’t mention which Linux Distro they are using so I decided to send them an e-mail asking.
I also had a few other questions:
Most people I know do not even know what an OS is, they think all PCs come with windows so I also asked in the mail if acer explains to people what they are really getting? Do they offer windows for those people? And if someone chooses to keep Linux, do they provide support for it?
The General Manager of Techno-mania (Acer’s dealers in Lebanon) replied to my E-mail quickly answering every question in it, so here’s the list of questions I asked and the answers I got:
Q1: What is the Linux Distribution you are using? and why?
A1: ACER PC’s ship preloaded with Linpus Linux (the version may vary according to the ship date of the products)
Q2. Do you provide support for Linux?
A2: As an Authorized ACER Service Center we support all ACER products long with their original preloaded O/S (Linux / Windows)
Q3. Most of the people in Lebanon do not know what an OS is and think that when they get a PC they get it with windows and that’s the only option out there, so do you (and the resellers) explain to those people what are they exactly getting?
A3. We state very clearly in our marketing campaigns and our price lists the O/S for each PC, and all our resellers are aware of that. In addition, we do our best to relay this message to the end-user. However, since we do not sell directly, most of the interaction is between the end-user and the reseller which bares the responsibility of clarifying any questions related to the O/S.
Q4: Do you install Windows if the customer asks for it?
A4: Only If they have a licensed Windows Operation System, we can install it at our service center.
In addition, it worth mentioning, that you will find ACER PC’s with preloaded Windows O/S specially with the new Aspire Gemstone notebooks introduced in the market at the beginning of August.
In the reply, Mr Joseph Haddad said that my questions were also forwarded to the sale team, so if I get another reply from them I’ll update you.
Personally I like the fact that you are getting Linux with the PCs, I compared the prices of acer laptops with similar laptop from other manufacturers and the acers are cheaper by about 150$, Windows Vista Home premium costs 132$ in Lebanon, so you can switch to Windows if you want without paying more then you would pay by getting a PC from another manufacturer.
Now the only question remaining is can people move to Linux this fast! I’ve been trying Linux Boot CDs for 2 years and I recently installed Ubuntu on a Virtual PC, I won’t move completely to Linux anytime soon because of some softwares I use that will only work on Windows (Microsoft Visual Studio), now imagine a guy that bought his PC for the Bluetooth and the Integrated webcam in it (some people actually do that!), how will this guy adapt to Linux? Will he even know what kind of step he is taking? Will he understand that he has to get windows to get his “normal” PC? I hope resellers explain to people what Linux is, and get people to move to Linux, not force Linux on them. A lot of resellers are honest people but I am sure some only want to sell not caring about the customer needs so to avoid all that, in my opinion Acer should sell the PCs with Linux and offer an optional ?downgrade? to windows for a little more money, this way the customer will get what he needs and people wanting a PC with windows will not choose another PC manufacturer because they don’t want to have to get a separate copy of windows and get it installed.
Sonos BU130 Digital Music System Bundle
Aug 18th
I was reading some news when I saw the ad of a system that can stream music to all the room of my house, that’s not the first time I see an ad of a similar product but this time I decided to check it out and take the tour that’s on the Sonos site, and I like it!!
The system comes in a package containing the main elements: a Remote, and 2 players.
For it to work you must connect one of the players to your router using an Ethernet port and install a software on your PC, after that you can add as much players as you want in all the rooms of your house, and you control all this by the remote, so you can choose the songs you want to play in every room from it, you can even connect to internet radios and music services from the remote and select a song for each player to play or play the same songs everywhere.
There are 2 kinds of players, one with an amplifier that needs speakers, and one you can connect to an existing home theater, and all the players connect with each others wirelessly so you don’t have to worry about running cables in your house.
I really liked this System, it’s for 999$ but that’s not a very high price when you think about what you are getting so I would definitely recommend it specially when the reviews about it I read on the net are all good!
