I’ve just been reading something that seemed a bit odd. Apparently Microsoft has put several ISPs and any Apple’s Mail program on a blacklist for hotmail because of spammers sending from these ISPs and faking the Apple Mail headers to get round spam filters. All this to me sounds a bit harsh.

Microsoft are punishing people because of spammers taking over Windows computers and sending out lots of emails. Why should people be blocked from sending email to hotmail accounts because of security flaws in Microsoft products?

In other news, I’m sick of seeing the Windows 98 setup. My dad brought an old (circa 1999) Sony Vaio laptop home from work that randomly shut down after Windows had loaded. It never did it in Safe Mode, nor during any set up. I found this website saying that it was due to some capacitors around the processor having failed resulting in an unstable voltage to the CPU. Windows then detected this and shut down.

Apparently you can turn this off in Windows 98 and I followed the instructions to do so… No luck. It still randomly shuts down. So if anyone has any ideas for fixing a 6 year old Sony laptop which shuts down at random intervals after Windows has finished loading please leave your comments below.

The Apple “Detroit” spot.

A New York Times article today reports that Jack Schwartz Shoes, owners of the urban boot brand Lugz, may be seeking legal remedies against Apple, citing similarities between Apple’s most recent iPod ad featuring Eminem, and an ad Lugz aired three years ago.

Both ads feature silhouetted characters rapping and dancing to heavily-stylized urban backdrops rendered in dark yellow, orange, red and black.

“It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in most cases I would agree,” Frank Ginsberg, chairman and chief executive of Avrett Free in New York, wrote in his letter, a copy of which was shared with reporters. “But sometimes, imitation crosses the line.” Avrett Free, which handled the Lugz account until late last year, is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

The Lugz “Arrow” spot.

ABWA/Chiat/Day, who created the Eminem iPod for Apple, contends that the ad created based on the ‘Silhouette’ ads it had previously produced to promote Apple’s earlier iPods.

In its statement, TBWA/Chiat/Day said, “We can assure you that the ‘Detroit’ spot was created without any reference by TBWA/Chiat/Day to the ‘Arrow’ spot.”

Jack Scwartz Shoes has yet to pursue any action,…
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Introduction

I apologize for any factual errors in this. I am only writing this feature from my own knowledge, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. A really large grain.

Open Source Software is rapidly becoming a viable alternative to closed-source, proprietary software. This is due to OSS coders’ goals of making the software easy to use for the general consumer, as well as being as feature rich, yet streamlined as proprietary software, which dominated the market until only recently. OSS developers are targeting big name software vendors, such as Microsoft and Adobe, among others. You most likely have heard about Firefox, right? That’s showing just how much OSS has made inroads into markets dominated by vendors.

However, there’s more to open source than software. Most techies have heard of Linux, which has earned itself a bad connotation as ‘the hacker’s OS”, only fit for people who like spending weeks compiling everything through the command line. More and more, these developers have decided to shed this connotation by making their distribution much easier to use. Spearheading this attempt is a distribution called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘humanity to others”. They believe that software should be free no matter where you use it, that it should be available in any language, and that anyone who wants to make improvements, can. Ubuntu comes in two flavors. Ubuntu, which uses the window manager Gnome, and Kubuntu, which uses the window manager KDE. This review will only cover Gnome,…
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So for the past 2 years I’ve been on a family plan with AT&T Wireless with my mom and sister.  Originally, this was so my mom could get in touch with me when she needed to; however, that sort of hasn’t worked very well recently, so that (among other things) is why I got my own wireless plan with Cingular.  And since I couldn’t keep my old, tired Panasonic GU-87 (an excellent phone, I would highly recommend if it weren’t a discontinued product), I decided to get the ultimate cool phone:

The Motorola Razr V3.

Oh my God.  This phone is awesome.  It is incredibly thin, and has one of the largest screens on the market, with incredible resolution and detail.  There are so many ways I can customize it, from the look to the function of the buttons on the main page.  It is actually pretty easy to use the predictive text input method Motorola incorporated, and it remembers some of the things I’ve entered previously (I think… haven’t played with it a lot yet).  It can also log into AIM, which is when the predictive text comes in handy.

The casing is made of the same anodized aluminum as the Powerbooks, though it stays a lot cooler. The phone also features Bluetooth, so I can (potentially) sync it wirelessly with my computer or use a wireless earpiece.  And there’s a camera to play with, as well.

Of course, no device is perfect, and this phone is no exception, of…
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New PowerMacs:

Refreshed to DDR2 systems.
The PowerMacs now feature Dual-Core G5 processors, with the top end sporting Dual-DualCore CPUs (Quad Processor Cores), with 3 PCIe expansion slots, DDR2, and Double-Layer SuperDrives.

The low end has a GeForce 6600 LE w/128MB GDDR SDRAM and 160 GB SATA Drive, while the mid and top end PowerMacs have NVidia 6600 graphics cards with 256 MB GDDR SDRAM and 250 GB SATA drives.

Starting at $1,999 for the 2Ghz Dual-Core low end, $2,499 for the 2.3 Ghz Dual-Core and $3,299 for the Quad 2.5 Ghz.

New PowerBooks (not 12"):

Better quality and brighter displays on 15” and 17” monitors with 1680 x 1050 on the 17” and 1440 x 960 on the 15”.

Both sporting backlit keyboards, 1.67 Ghz G4 Processors, Dual-Layer Super Drives, 512 MBs of DDR2 RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 w/128 MB DDR Memory,
$1,999 for the 15” and $2,499 for the 17”

Apple Cinema Display Price Drops

Displays also got a price drop, 23” for $1299 - down from $1,499, and the 30” for $2499 - down from $2,999

Thanks to SogniX for the news story