233500.org

Before you rush out and try to duplicate the image, you should know that you’ve got to have perfect conditions and fairly expensive gear. Still, it’s incredible that a 2-megapixel, fixed-focus camera can see more than 500 million miles.

It was aimed through a telescope to create a 267x magnification. He then cleaned it up in aperture on a
Mac and posted it to Mac Observer.

(Credit:
Mike Weasner and Mac Observer)

The fact that an amateur astronomer named Mike Weasner was able to take a photograph of Jupiter and its moons is hardly something worth a mention on Crave, but the fact that he did it with his
iPhone camera is rather remarkable.

It’s not what you would expect from the Chinese company that acquired IBM’s PC business, but it works. The ad is getting passed around like candy, and it is really funny and points out the weakness of the Macbook Air. (It lacks some ports and an optical drive.) Expect the Macbook Air crowd to strike back with a parody of its own.

Lenovo has taken a page straight from Apple’s playbook. The parody of the Macbook Air commercial promoting the ThinkPad X300 ultramobile PC has an effect similar to Apple’s series of ads with John Hodgman and Justin Long that put down Windows.

Check out our reviews of the pricey X300 and the sleek Macbook Air.

The partnership teams Sony with IGA Worldwide, one of the largest in-game ad providers in the world.

This was probably a necessary move for Sony, since it doesn’t have its own in-game ad network and its chief games competitor, Microsoft, does, having bought Massive to stake out its place in the growing market.

Every time I think of that I have to heave a big sigh of resignation, since I find it depressing that realism based on ads is seen by some as a good thing.

Studies have shown that many gamers actually like to see ads when they’re playing their favorite first-person shooter or side-scroller. Hard as that may be to believe, the studies reveal that gamers find the ads make their experience more realistic.

But if you’re one of the people whose opinion is reflected in those studies, you may be excited about a partnership announced Wednesday in which Sony Computer Entertainment of America and its European counterpart have struck a deal to incorporate dynamic in-game ads on the
PlayStation 3.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I’ll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South’s most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I’m doing on Twitter.

The idea is that advertisers will be able to team up with game publishers to insert ads into PS3 games, seeking to leverage what the Yankee Group has estimated could be a $971 million market by 2011.

Just yesterday, my
iPhone started acting up: the screen would freeze, and phone calls wouldn’t hang up, among other symptoms. Once I connected the device to a PC and downloaded the most recent release of the iPhone software, the glitches disappeared.

On my year-old notebook, there are six different Java versions, each using about 136MB of disk space. To play it safe, keep at least the last two Java releases installed.

If only all PC problems could be solved simply by reinstalling the software. It may be the shotgun approach to hardware and software troubleshooting, but sometimes a software refresh will clear out whatever cobwebs were futzing up the works.

Secunia’s online scanner gives you the option of checking “Enable thorough system inspection” to have the scanner look for applications in nondefault locations. Using this option can add several minutes to the scan–with the option unchecked, the scan usually takes only a few seconds to complete.

You don’t have to wait until your devices or applications start to act up to update them, however. Scanning your system for out-of-date programs can help you avoid trouble by pointing out the unpatched security holes on your PC.

In the past, I have recommended Secunia’s online software scan and the PC-based version, the free Personal Software Inspector. I use Secunia’s online scanner to get a snapshot of my software’s update status. But rather than applying any necessary patches via Secunia’s service, I go to the vendor’s site to download the latest version.

I also visited Adobe’s site to get the latest release of the Flash player and Sun’s site for a Java update, but Secunia’s scanner still identified these programs as vulnerable. It turns out, the old versions of Flash and Java aren’t uninstalled when the new versions are added.

Secunia's online software scanner will identify old, vulnerable versions of the applications installed on your PC.

The Java site claims that you should retain old versions of the Java Runtime Environment because some older apps may be incompatible with more recent releases. Still, if you’re running out of disk space, you can remove old Java versions via Windows’ Add or Remove Programs Control Panel applet (or Vista’s Programs and Features).

A couple of weeks ago, my notebook lost its ability to connect to AT&T’s 3G data network. Downloading and installing the latest version of the company’s communications management application restored the network link. (I had to use the notebook’s built-in Wi-Fi adapter to download the program, of course.)

You can remove old versions of the Flash player by downloading and running Adobe’s Flash Player Uninstaller (scroll to the bottom of the page to find the uninstaller download).

The in-depth scan did uncover a handful of outdated applications on my PC that the online scanner missed, though none posed the same security threat as the old versions of the iTunes/QuickTime and Flash player did. Still, the patches are free, so why not?

(Credit:
Secunia)

For example, my most recent Secunia scan indicated that Apple’s iTunes and QuickTime, Adobe Systems’ Flash player, and Sun Microsystems’ Java Platform were out-of-date. I opened the Apple Software Update app to get the latest versions of iTunes, QuickTime, and the
Safari browser (which Secunia did not identify as out-of-date).

DirecTV will release a new TiVo-powered high-def DVR in the second half of 2009, the company has announced. Unlike the last “DirecTiVo” model that was released in 2004, the new model will be able to receive DirecTV’s entire lineup of digital and high-def channels.

DirecTV’s original TiVo-powered DVRs were among the first satellite receivers with digital video recorders built in (rather than tethered external units). The HR10-250, in fact, was the first high-def DVR available anywhere. Unfortunately, two things happened that put that model on the fast track to obsolescence. DirecTV began utilizing MPEG-4 broadcasts for most of its HD channels–a format that wasn’t compatible with the TiVo units. And secondly, the company introduced its own line of non-TiVo DVRs.

(Credit:
CEA)

If you’re a DirecTV subscriber, what do you think: Is the announcement of a second-gen DirecTiVo cause for celebration? Or is the HR20/HR21 good enough?

Those second wave of DVRs were based on technology from a British company called NDS. The NDS-powered models–such as the HR20 and HR21–were shoehorned into DirecTV’s lineup soon after the satellite company was purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. because NDS was a sister company in the Murdoch empire. But News Corp. sold off its DirecTV stake just three years later, in November 2006. With no more familial corporate obligation to NDS, presumably, the door was reopened to pairing with TiVo.

The original DirecTV HD TiVo (above) is getting a long overdue sequel.

Beyond specifying that the new HD TiVo DVR would “support the latest TiVo and DirecTV features and services, including TiVo’s Universal Swivel Search and TiVo KidZone,” the press release provided few details about the new hardware. As far as our wish list is concerned, we’d like to see a faster, more responsive user interface (the HR10-250 was notoriously pokey, even by TiVo’s less-than-jackrabbit speed standards) and the enabling of full TiVo network features (streaming media support, Amazon Unbox, Rhapsody, etc.). But given the decidedly mixed response that viewers have given the HR20/HR21 DVRs, even having the possibility of an alternative will likely excite many DirecTV subscribers.

commentary

Still, if we must have DRM, an open-source system seems best. Marlin isn’t the first time open-source DRM has hit the market. Back in 2006, Sun Microsystems was talking up its own open-source DRM approach. Unfortunately, it never caught on. Nor did SideSpace’s open-source DRM back in 2003.

Will Marlin be different? Maybe. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

I had to suppress a smirk last week when I saw a kinder, gentler DRM (digital rights management) rear its ugly head over on Slashdot. The open-source world has long hated DRM, but perhaps open-source DRM is somehow blessed?

“Far less oppressive.” Boy, that inspires confidence! It’s not nearly as terrible as DRM normally is.

The co-chairman of the Marlin Developer Community claims the open-source system is far less oppressive than those from rivals such as Apple and Microsoft, allowing users to share content between any Marlin-enabled device in the home rather than on specific machines. “It works in a way that doesn’t hold consumers hostage,” Talal Shamoon told PC Pro. “It allows you to protect and share content in the home, in a way that people own the content, not the devices.”

Marlin, a new open-source DRM scheme, is alleged to be different, as noted in PC Pro:

I personally don’t mind DRM if it’s the cost of enabling business on the Web. Some argue that DRM is a slippery slope, and they may be right. But I think there’s enough value in free distribution that DRM is unlikely to hold up the Web for long.

See also: Find stuff faster on Craigslist–if you dare

To help in the hunt, there’s a new tool called Search All Craig’s Lists that does the dirty work for you–scouring all the cities and countries with local Craigslists and compiling them into one index that can be searched extensively, and with ease.

It uses Google custom search, which is fast but not as precise as using Craigslist’s own search tool. You can narrow down what area of the country you’re in, but that’s only so helpful. In my search for the video game Call of Duty 4, I got results from Seattle all the way to Reno. Knowing Google search parameters helps narrow it down even further, but it’s not nearly as simple Craigslist’s, which let you narrow it down by neighborhood.

Another service that does this is Crazedlist, which keeps you inside the confines of Craigslist’s search engine, and shows all of the results from all of the various cities in the same window. However the “hack” Crazedlist uses requires toggling a certain setting on your browser, which many folks may not be comfortable with.

There will never be enough ways to search through Craigslist.

[via Lifehacker]

Search All Craig's Lists lets you search through every single Craigslist all around the globe using Google custom search.

Where sites like this come in handy is when it comes time to find obscure items. Something like a stamp or coin collection might be something somebody is willing to ship, whereas most goods on the service are for in-person pickups only. They can also be helpful in case you’re trying to track down stolen items, especially where you’re not sure how far the thief has taken your goods, which in my own personal experience was not that far. A service like this would have helped me dig through the results that much faster.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Microsoft’s most recent update for Windows caused many people using Check Point’s ZoneAlarm firewall to lose their Internet connection. The patch fixes a potential DNS-related security breach that affects servers and clients alike, so I’m sure Microsoft was compelled to release it as quickly as possible.

In Windows XP, click Start > Run, type sysdm.cpl, and press Enter. Click the Automatic Updates tab and choose either “Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them,” or “Notify me but don’t automatically download or install them.” You can also choose “Turn off automatic updates,” but I recommend either of the semi-automatic methods. When you’re done, click OK.

To change your Windows Update settings in Vista, press the Windows key, type windows update, and press Enter. Click Change settings in the left pane, and choose either “Download updates but let me choose whether to install them” or “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download or install them.” As with XP, I caution against selecting “Never check for updates (Not recommended).” This is one of the few points on which Microsoft and I agree.

Now get into the habit of watching the tech news wires each Wednesday after Microsoft’s Patch Tuesdays to determine whether an update is going smoothly before applying it manually. Sometimes being first isn’t such a good idea.

Choose either option that prevents Windows updates from being installed automatically.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

That’s little consolation for the many ZoneAlarm users who struggled to regain their network connection. Read more about the problem, and find a link to Check Point’s solution, at Robert Vamosi’s Defense in Depth blog.

The fact is, even with potentially serious security holes such as this appears to be, you can usually wait a day or two before installing the update to make sure the fix doesn’t cause some problems of its own. Simply set Windows Update to download updates automatically but prompt you before installing them, or to alert you when an update is available for download so you can decide when to fetch it and implement it.

(Credit:
Pioneer)

Blu-ray comes in single layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) flavors. Pioneer does say that because the lens specification for reading the discs is similar to Blu-ray, “it is possible to maintain compatibility” between its disc and Blu-ray discs. That’s not saying it will be compatible, but it would make sense since Pioneer is one of the original Blu-ray Disc Association members.

Got a big archiving project you’ve been itching to do? Pioneer’s latest development could help you keep all your data in one nice, little circular package.

The Japanese electronics maker has been working on an optical disc, which, like Blu-ray, can store 25GB of data in a single layer. But Pioneer says it’s one-upped the high-definition format to the sixteenth degree. The company announced today that it has a single disc that contains 16 layers of storage, at 25GB each. That adds up to 400GB of data capable of being stored on a single disc.

Pioneer says it can store 25GB of data per layer, on 16 layers on a singled disc.

However, plans for that archiving project will have to be put on pause if you want to use this technology. Pioneer is going to demonstrate it at an industry conference next week, but for now the disc is read-only. Eventually, they’ll add write capability as well.

commentary

Still, given Zenoss’ traction with large companies and its triple-digit percentage revenue growth quarter-over-quarter, it’s perhaps not very surprising, therefore, that Forrester Research recently suggested, “Zenoss looks like a strong competitor for large frameworks.”

Zenoss recently announced an expansion to its open-source systems and network management product, creating Zenoss Professional Edition to focus on medium-size enterprises. It’s a smart move, but in talking with Zenoss CEO Bill Karpovich this past week, Zenoss is actually doing exceptionally well with large enterprises.

Which isn’t, of course, to say that Zenoss shouldn’t sell to medium-size enterprises. Rather, it’s just that, like other open-source companies before it, big companies may end up consuming Zenoss’ time and attention. That’s not a bad thing.

Tyco Enterprises, Johns Hopkins, VMware, and others are public references for Zenoss, but these aren’t even the ones I find the most interesting. Unfortunately, the others can’t publicly be named….