Wish we had this bit of news to report when we recorded Episode 9 earlier in the day.
It seems that Microsoft has extended the downgrade period for Windows XP. Odd thing is its for select versions of Windows 7. Only users of Windows 7 Ultimate and Professional OEM versions are allowed the downgrade.
Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc summed up the policy change by stateing, "Our business customers have told us that the removing end-user downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional could be confusing,"
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179109/Microsoft_extends_Windows_XP_downgrade_rights_until_2020?taxonomyId=125&pageNumber=2
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Lucas Sues over real Lightsaber
Shanghai-based Wicked Lasers Created the Spyder III Pro Arctic Laser. A high powered laser, priced at $199, that is 4000% stronger then a standard laser. Its housed is a case that resembles a lightsaber and has been dubbed "a real-life lightsaber" in the blog-o-sphere.
CNN obtained a copy of a cease-and-desist letter sent to Wicked Lasers from Lucasfilms. The CAD, dated last month, says "It is apparent from the design of the Pro Arctic Laser that it was intended to resemble the hilts of our lightsaber swords, which are protected by copyright ..." The letter also refers to many media reports and blog posts that call the laser a lightsaber.
Steve Liu, CEO of Wicked Lasers, has never compared the Pro Arctic Laser to a the Jedi weapon wielded by Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and others in the "Star Wars" franchise. But Liu did point out to CNN that his company has been selling similar lasers for years. He also mentioned the product is aimed at industrial, military and research customers.
Lucasfilms believes the reports and blog posts that tout the laser as a real lightsaber "make it clear that the public is being led to believe that the Pro Arctic Laser is an official lightsaber device and/or copied from our design,".
This isn't the first time the company has done this sort of thing over perceived copy right threats. Hover this does appear to be one of the more frivolous ones they have chased after. While the laser does resemble the lightsaber it is not referred to one by the company. Since no copyright has actually been violated here and no "Star Wars" branding has been used, Lusacfilms can't do anything more then the CAD letter.
If further legal action is taken i don't think Wicked Laser will have any problem fighting it off. I don't see this laser going anywhere. At worst the company may change the housing of the laser. Personally i think that would be a mistake.
Producer Mike
CNN obtained a copy of a cease-and-desist letter sent to Wicked Lasers from Lucasfilms. The CAD, dated last month, says "It is apparent from the design of the Pro Arctic Laser that it was intended to resemble the hilts of our lightsaber swords, which are protected by copyright ..." The letter also refers to many media reports and blog posts that call the laser a lightsaber.
Steve Liu, CEO of Wicked Lasers, has never compared the Pro Arctic Laser to a the Jedi weapon wielded by Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and others in the "Star Wars" franchise. But Liu did point out to CNN that his company has been selling similar lasers for years. He also mentioned the product is aimed at industrial, military and research customers.
Lucasfilms believes the reports and blog posts that tout the laser as a real lightsaber "make it clear that the public is being led to believe that the Pro Arctic Laser is an official lightsaber device and/or copied from our design,".
This isn't the first time the company has done this sort of thing over perceived copy right threats. Hover this does appear to be one of the more frivolous ones they have chased after. While the laser does resemble the lightsaber it is not referred to one by the company. Since no copyright has actually been violated here and no "Star Wars" branding has been used, Lusacfilms can't do anything more then the CAD letter.
If further legal action is taken i don't think Wicked Laser will have any problem fighting it off. I don't see this laser going anywhere. At worst the company may change the housing of the laser. Personally i think that would be a mistake.
Producer Mike
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Show Notes, Episode 8: Zach wants his flying train.
In this Episode Mike's sister Kristen joins the show to give her view of this weeks tech topics.
First the Trio covers HP's layoff of Palm Employees and move on to discuss Microsoft's layoffs. Which are expected to fall on those who worked on there now canceled Kin Phones.
They move on to talk about Flash 10.1 running on Motorola's Droid X.
Zach then covers Verizon's program to substitute HTC Incredible back orders with the Motorola's Droid X. All with no penalty.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/29/verizon-letting-customers-change-orders-of-incredible-to-droid-x-with-no-fee/
Next they cover iTunes accounts being hacked and More iPhone Rumors. They also talk about iTunes going into the cloud. This leads them into talking about cloud storage and backing up your data.
They then go into there Random Story of The Week.
iPhone 4 with 80’s style antenna
They move on to talk about Flash 10.1 running on Motorola's Droid X.
Zach then covers Verizon's program to substitute HTC Incredible back orders with the Motorola's Droid X. All with no penalty.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/29/verizon-letting-customers-change-orders-of-incredible-to-droid-x-with-no-fee/
Next they cover iTunes accounts being hacked and More iPhone Rumors. They also talk about iTunes going into the cloud. This leads them into talking about cloud storage and backing up your data.
They then go into there Random Story of The Week.
iPhone 4 with 80’s style antenna
Monday was an interesting day for fans of Back To the Future. In the movie when doc was first sitting in the Delorean showing Martie how the time controls worked. He demonstrated how you can travel into the future by typing in a date 25 years in the future. Monday was that day.
Zack want's his flying train and Mike talks about the Flux capacitor at Think Geek which is no longer available. But you can get your own Delorean.
For next week Mike will be on vacation so Zach will either post an interview show or a solo show.
Friday, July 2, 2010
FireFox and plugin-container.exe
In a past update to FireFox (3.6.4), Mozilla added a program to help isolate Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, and Microsoft Silverlight from the main browser in XP and Linux. The program is called plugin-container.exe. Problem is, it has a habit of eating up system resources.
Until recently, this hasn't been the case on my XP system. I am currently on FireFox 3.6.6 and its only now becoming a problem. Whats even worst is it wasn't a issue the night before. Which is causing a major problem when I'm trying to watch Netflix. Once Netflix starts up the program launches and then the system slows to a crawl. To get it back to normal I have to close out FireFox and then go into the system process to close out plugin-container.exe.
Thank you Mozilla for giving me a good reason to switch to Chrome.
Producer Mike
Addition:
Trying other XP PCs using FireFox I am running into other problems. Namely in Netflix, where I can't pause the movie and then start playing it again without Silverlight crashing. This isn't happening when I do it in IE on the same system. So I know its a FireFox issue not Silverlight.
There was also an issue when playing Flash based games. I've had another XP system that FireFox locked up while trying to transition from one Flash game to another or out of a Flash game. So much for the added program isolating these crashes from the browser. Granted the Browser stays open but its locked up forcing me to close it out.
Until recently, this hasn't been the case on my XP system. I am currently on FireFox 3.6.6 and its only now becoming a problem. Whats even worst is it wasn't a issue the night before. Which is causing a major problem when I'm trying to watch Netflix. Once Netflix starts up the program launches and then the system slows to a crawl. To get it back to normal I have to close out FireFox and then go into the system process to close out plugin-container.exe.
Thank you Mozilla for giving me a good reason to switch to Chrome.
Producer Mike
Addition:
Trying other XP PCs using FireFox I am running into other problems. Namely in Netflix, where I can't pause the movie and then start playing it again without Silverlight crashing. This isn't happening when I do it in IE on the same system. So I know its a FireFox issue not Silverlight.
There was also an issue when playing Flash based games. I've had another XP system that FireFox locked up while trying to transition from one Flash game to another or out of a Flash game. So much for the added program isolating these crashes from the browser. Granted the Browser stays open but its locked up forcing me to close it out.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Kin Sees Early Demise
Not even 2 months after the initial release of the Kin phone, Microsoft announced Wednesday that they will be dropping it to focus fully on Windows Phone 7. No reasoning was given for why they are dropping the kin so early. Nor have any sales figures for the phone been released. But anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal that employees who developed the kin "will be folded into a team working on a forthcoming operating system for cellphones".
Analyst have said that Microsoft has had a tough time selling the Kin phones. The Kin was focused on the younger audience. It focused on text messaging, email and social networking to attract teenage customers. Problem is teenagers usually don't have their own money to be buying a smart phone. Not to mention the fact that they are too young to enter into a contract with a carrier.
It's often a hard sell when your target audience isn't the one who will be paying for the phone. Sure you can convince them that they've gotta have it. But then they have to go and convince their parents how much they need it. In my opinion, Microsoft fell a bit short on their ad campaign. It just didn't seem like the kind of campaign that could attract the teen audience.
Producer Mike
Analyst have said that Microsoft has had a tough time selling the Kin phones. The Kin was focused on the younger audience. It focused on text messaging, email and social networking to attract teenage customers. Problem is teenagers usually don't have their own money to be buying a smart phone. Not to mention the fact that they are too young to enter into a contract with a carrier.
It's often a hard sell when your target audience isn't the one who will be paying for the phone. Sure you can convince them that they've gotta have it. But then they have to go and convince their parents how much they need it. In my opinion, Microsoft fell a bit short on their ad campaign. It just didn't seem like the kind of campaign that could attract the teen audience.
Producer Mike
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
!!!IT LIVES!!! Verizon iPhone Rumors.
Once again, we get a report saying that Verizon Wireless will be receiving the iPhone. This time around its coming from USA Today. They claim that two people familiar with the plan gave them this information but declined to be named. They did mention that reps from both Apple and Verizon declined to comment; so the rumor is still just a rumor.
These rumors continue to swirl and have been since day one of the original iPhone. But its stories like this, and people like us, who relay the stories that help keep these rumors alive. It seams people want to keep these rumors alive in hopes that Apple will come to their senses and open the iPhone up to other US carriers. At least that is the hope of this author.
Time will tell. But lets keep pushing for an iPhone on Verizon in the next 12 months.
Producer Mike
These rumors continue to swirl and have been since day one of the original iPhone. But its stories like this, and people like us, who relay the stories that help keep these rumors alive. It seams people want to keep these rumors alive in hopes that Apple will come to their senses and open the iPhone up to other US carriers. At least that is the hope of this author.
Time will tell. But lets keep pushing for an iPhone on Verizon in the next 12 months.
Producer Mike
Show Notes, Episode: 007, Let's get ready to Rumblefish!
In this Episode Zach and Mike cover Google's effort to renew it's license by ceasing to redirect China's search traffic to Hong Kong.
They go on to discuss rumors of Google creating there own social network called Google Me. It seems that Google wants to take on FaceZBook.
The topic of Windows 8 rumors comes up next. Leaked documents from Microsoft reveal some prospective feature the nex OS might bring.
They also discuss the recent article on the Ntech Duo Blog which talks about an older Windows 8 rumor that predicts it will be a 128-bit OS.
This leads them into the topic for which this episode is named... Rumblefish, a site that offers limited rights to music for use in YouTube videos.
Some long awaited news. Kindle available on Android
Zack then talks about his search into the new PS3 Plus service and what value if any it may have to offer at this time.
For the Random topic of the week they talk about the passing of Nicolas Hayek, CEO of Swatch Group. The creator of the very famus and highly collected Swatch Watches.
During the show a commercial was mentioned where the camera it was advertising was the smae one used to shoot the commercial. Mike could not remember the brand or model of said camera. It was the Olympus PEN E-PL1 camera.
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/olympus-tv-commercial-about-the-pen-camera-was-shot-with-a-pen-20100510/
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