Tech Talk

CubeDesktop imitates Compiz Fusion even more closely, costs money

Yaser — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:49:52 +0000

Remember Compiz Fusion, the special effects plugin system from the world of GNU/Linux that brought heaps of cool shiz like cube workspaces, wobbly window movements, and raindrops? I’ve probably mentioned it somewhere before. Well thanks to the publicity Compiz Fusion gets, envious Windows users go around creating look-a-likes.

CubeDesktop seems to be the most recent addition to this plethora of clones. The website doesn’t mention it, but it imitates Compiz Fusion disturbingly closely – down to the control panel itself, with 32×32 icons found on a grid with labels on the side. It has the standard cube, as well as a Mac OS X Leopard-like workspaces display which is found in Compiz Fusion as the “expo” plugin. It also has a whole bunch of flipping and rotating workspace views, which are pretty similar to the cube apart from the fact that they look slightly different.

The software also has a “Window Exposer”, much like the one found on Compiz Fusion, except it failed to work on my computer so I will not comment further on it.

The speed is alright, although it definitely can’t compare to Compiz Fusion – yet. I had to switch off a few effects (well, actually, a lot) to make the thing run at a decent pace – and even then it would cause iTunes to momentarily freeze whenever activated. Not good.

And why am I giving free publicity to these expensive pieces of software? Because they are essentially proof-of-concepts. I mean, the creators can advertise all they want about how they “boost your productivity”, but realistically, they probably reduce your productivity. The important thing is that they prove that these effects can actually be achieved on Windows, and hopefully, after a few more release cycles, these clones will be useful enough to actually, as aforementioned, “boost your productivity”.

Annoyingly, CubeDesktop costs money – 9.95 euros, which, at the current exchange rate, is 16.8667851 Australian dollars – cheaper than DeskSpace, another cube thing, but hey, there’s always Yod’m, and then again Compiz Fusion gives it to you for free. After the jump for screenshots.

The Desktop Cube works as advertised. I’ve turned off the reflection among other things to speed it up. Notice how the bottom and top have workspaces as well – something not found in Compiz Fusion as far as I know.

The “desktop roll” reminds one of the insides of a washing machine. It has to distort things a lot more, and hence is incredibly slow – yes, even more so than the cube.

The “Carousel” is essentially an exploded cube with the top and bottom faces shoved on the side.

“Desktop flip” is yet another workspaces viewer – this time, it imitates the flip effects found in Mac OS X and Windows Vista.

And finally, the “Desktop Explorer”. Very similar to the expo plugin from Compiz Fusion; displays workspaces in a plain grid. Simple yet efficient – just the way I like them.

Flickr Adds Video Sharing for ‘Pro’ Members

Yaser — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:31:51 +0000

Yahoo’s popular photo-sharing site is making the leap into video sharing, the company has announced.

Starting late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Flickr “Pro” users will be able to upload video clips to the Flickr website. Videos will appear in the users’ photostreams alongside their still photos, and users will be able to tag them, organize them into sets and share them with all of the same privacy and licensing options available for still photos. There will also be an embedable player so users can place publicly-shared videos, YouTube-style, on blogs.

This move into video has been rumored for some time, but the service that emerged is a bit different than some were anticipating.

There’s a 90-second limit for videos on Flickr. Also, while anybody will be able to watch videos posted publicly on the site, the ability to upload videos will be limited, for the time being at least, to users with a ~~$30~~$ 25-per-year Flickr “Pro” account.

Given those last two points, it’s obvious that Flickr isn’t gearing up to compete with YouTube. By imposing the 90-second time limit (and 150MB file size limit) on videos, Flickr is encouraging users to keep the emphasis more on personal, “slice of life” video snapshots than the longer vlogs, lip sync videos, viral clips, re-posted television clips and other content typically found on YouTube. Yahoo also already has a sharing site for viral videos and more serious personal publishers at video.yahoo.com.

A minute and a half is also about the length of video one would typically capture with a cheap point-and-shoot camera or a camera phone. That’s really the point of the limitations — to highlight those sorts of short, emotional moments shot on the fly while on vacation, on a stroll or on the morning commute.

As a Yahoo representative told Wired.com, the Flickr team’s intention was to simply add to the way its core users are already using the site to tell stories about themselves. In its announcement, Flickr is even referring to these short clips as “long photos.” Quaint for sure, but also very smart. It seems like a natural extension for a site like Flickr, which attracts a uniquely artistic community that gives the site its distinctly precious flavor.

The upload option will only be made available to paid Pro members for now. Since those users represent the site’s core audience, Flickr is hoping they will help shape exactly which direction the video sharing services goes. There’s no official schedule for a wider rollout of upload ability according to the Yahoo representative. Certainly, though, it must be in the cards.

Look for the site to update its import tools to begin accepting raw files directly from digital cameras and camera phones soon.

Facebook To Settle With ConnectU

Yaser — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:16:15 +0000

Facebook is said to be finalizing a settlement with founders of ConnectU, according to sources quoted by the NY Times .

For those unfamiliar with the case , a lawsuit before the US Federal Court alleged that Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the original code for Facebook. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra (ConnectU) accused Zuckerberg of stealing the source code, design, and business plan for Facebook in 2003 when he worked in the Harvard dorms as a programmer for their own tertiary education focused social-networking site HarvardConnect.com, now known as ConnectU.

News of a settlement comes as a surprise given the case to date hadn’t been going well for ConnectU. The press conference ConnectU held in July 2007 was farcical, and the company was given two weeks to revise their complaint or have it thrown out. The next court appearance for the company was at Facebook’s counter case that claimed that ConnectU illegally hacked into Facebook in 2004, stole email addresses then used those addresses to attempt to entice Facebook users to sign up to ConnectU.

According to the NY Times, terms of the settlement have not been disclosed but in the meantime all motions in the case against ConnectU have been terminated.

steve jobs sends pointed email to macbook pro owner, poor customer service

Yaser — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:23:09 +0000

Recently the owner of a MacBook Pro that had suffered water damage contacted Apple to find about repair costs. When they were informed that it would cost $300 just to have his MBP looked at with no guarantee of whether or not it could even be repaired that wasn’t quite what they wanted to hear.

This [so far] nameless customer decided to email Steve jobs at sjobs@apple.com and said this:

Dear Steve Jobs,

I wanted to write and express my concern about some recent problems that I have had with Apple Care. This week, my MacBook Pro unfortunately sustained water damage. I understand this is entirely my fault but it is still something I would like to get fixed. After three or four calls I was finally able to get a straight answer. While I was happy to get a straight answer, I was not at all happy with the answer. It is very worrisome to me that the only way to get my computer fixed is to pay almost $300.00 up front with no guarantee that this will fix the problem. I was horrified to learn that their is no system to assess the problem and bill once all damage is known. I am reluctant to put money into a problem that could easily grow. I have had three Apple computers in a row. I love using them but I am not sure if my replacement will be one. I feel powerless in the situation and the whole experience has turned me off of the Apple company.

Sounds like a pretty reasonable email…nice tone of voice, the customer wasn’t blaming Apple for not making their laptops water-proof–nothing like that.

The response that this customer claims to have received was as follows:

This is what happens when your MacBook Pro sustains water damage.They are pro machines and they don’t like water. It sounds like you’re just looking for someone to get mad at other than yourself.

Steve

Is it real? As far as I know, yes it is. Poor customer service? Yes, that too.

If it is legit and is in fact from Steve, is anyone really surprised? Its not like he hasn’t acted like an ass/jerk/whatever word you’d prefer in the past and he’ll certainly do it again.

[Via CrunchGear]

Blu-Ray cracked by Slysoft, rips pouring from air

Yaser — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:48:59 +0000

The recent massive increase in amount of Blu-Ray rips has an obvious reason: cracked protection BD+. A Caribbean firm called SlySoft claims to have broken the copy protection technology used on some Blu-ray discs designed to prevent video content from being copied and pirated. SlySoft has long sold a product called AnyDVD which is a utility that disables a DVD’s Content Scramble System (CSS) copy protection technology. Once a DVD’s copy protection is disabled, you can copy its content using one of several third-party programs. Now the company SlySoft is upping the DRM-busting ante with a new version of AnyDVD HD 6.4.0.0 ($47) that promises to crack Blu-ray disc copy protection.

The copy protection cracked by SlySoft is called BD+. According Macrovision, the company that owns the rights to the BD+ technology, the copy protection has been adopted by “more than 20 companies including major CE manufactures, motion picture studios, as well as The Blu-ray Disc Association.” It’s likely that Macrovision and the Blu-ray Disc Association will knock heads and thwart SlySoft’s crack of BD+. In fact SlySoft representatives have publicly stated the it’s not only likely but probable that the BD+ copy protection technology could be tweaked to prevent Blu-ray discs from being cracked. DRM-cracking technology has long been a thorn in the side of Hollywood anti-piracy fighters. Despite the Motion Picture Association of America’s efforts to crack down on DVD-ripping and despite U.S. copyright laws that make it illegal, sales of software that bypass DVD copy protection continue online and at retail stores. While this may be a sad day for MPAA, it’s a much welcomed breakthrough for the scene.

Source: Pc World

Digital downloads will be Blu-ray’s downfall

Yaser — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:44:08 +0000

With the fall of HD DVD, Blu-ray has assumed the throne as the next format of choice, but its reign will be short-lived.

Blu-ray won’t enjoy the same decade-long dominance DVD did after it succeeded VHS. But that’s not because there will be other challenger physical disc formats. Rather, instead of buying discs from Amazon, Best Buy or Wal-Mart, people will begin getting their entertainment in the form of digital downloads in larger volumes.

The studios backing Blu-ray already know this. At an HDTV confab last fall, Warner Bros.’ vice president of high-definition media development likened HD packaged media to a set of training wheels for digital downloads.

“We can use HD discs to train consumers to move into digital, but it’s a transition,” said Warner Bros.’ Dan Silverberg. “Downloaded content will come, but the consumer will get quicker tutorial into video-on-demand, etc., by owning a Blu-ray player or HD DVD.”

It’ll happen sooner than they think. With a growing number of alternatives to packaged media, combined with the relatively high prices of Blu-ray players and discs vs. inexpensive, so-called upconverting DVD players, Blu-ray will likely be the last major disc format you’ll ever buy.

Netflix, a purveyor of rental discs, obviously saw the writing on the wall, instituting its Watch It Now feature last year. Amazon.com, which sells plenty of packaged media, has its own Unbox video download service.

The likely reason? Overall consumer spending on DVDs and high-definition discs (HD DVD and Blu-ray), both purchase and rental, has been steadily decreasing since its peak at $24.5 billion in 2004. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade group that represents all disc makers, spending last year amounted to $23.7 billion.

To the chagrin of disc patent holders, discs are not the only way to consumer high-definition media now. There are so many other ways to get content: Set-top boxes are getting far more sophisticated and will continue to do so in the next few years. Vudu, for instance, stepped up the video on demand option by adding more content than any of its predecessors, including the option for HD purchases and rentals. Apple recently upgraded Apple TV to include rentals–standard definition and HD–and a way to bypass the need for a PC to watch films on a living room TV. Even Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console has a download service for movies.

TiVo and other DVR makers that support cable giants like Comcast have traditional VOD options, and hard drive space will continue to expand. Netflix has its rentals available to watch right from its Web site, and watching TV shows online and for free at sites like ComedyCentral.com, Hulu.com, Joost, means you don’t have to buy whole seasons of TV shows on physical discs anymore. If watching TV on a PC isn’t your thing, technologies like Sony’s Bravia Internet Link and Sling Media’s SlingProjector bring Web video directly to the TV.

Perhaps most importantly, consumers will continue to get more and more comfortable with the idea of their library being digital. We’re already there with music, and it’s a relatively easy transition to make to one’s movie collection. But it’s also true of other things like Fandango’s digital movie tickets, or even airline tickets and gift cards. We live in a world where oftentimes the value is not in the object itself, but in the digital information stored on a computer somewhere. (It’s an attitude that’s anathema to the likes of Disney and its studio cohorts who have always pushed the concept of personal movie collections, hence the push to upgrade to the “special edition” of older films.)

“The challenge for studios is really about convincing consumers to upgrade their libraries, (and) upconverting to 1080p (the highest resolution currently available) doesn’t necessitate buying a whole new format,” said Josh Martin, HD and video analyst for The Yankee Group.

People will get tired of replacing their favorite films to the trendy format of the moment. The price of the software ranging from $20 to $30 for Blu-ray discs right now will eventually drop. But digital copies costing less than $5 a pop, it’s an easy decision for many.

The biggest roadblock is of course bandwidth, which causes the process to be long, painful, and ultimately not worth it for many. But that will change. Consider, for example, this scenario:

Using Fios from Verizon, it’s possible to currently download several episodes of a TV show at approximately 5 megabits per second, or 625 kilobytes per second.

A 44-minute 640×360 (not high-definition) episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that my colleague Declan McCullagh downloaded via iTunes is 510MB.

“It requires 193 kilobytes per second to watch live, which is easily doable on Fios barring network congestion,” McCullagh points out. (Levels of compression or a change from the H.264 video codec will have different results, of course.)

Comcast customers–and there are far more of them than Fios customers–have speeds today that vary widely, but 187 kilobytes per second in real-world tests is a good estimate. Assuming a one-hour high-definition TV show (with commercials) is around 5GB, that requires 1,388,888 kilobytes per second or 1.38 megabytes per second to watch.

So Fios is about halfway there about at best, and Comcast’s 100 megabit per second connection, which it promised at CES would be a reality by 2009, could pull it off.

Source: C|net news

Blu-Ray prices significantly increase, no competition

Yaser — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:30:59 +0000

Blu-ray Disc players from Samsung, Sony and Sharp are now the most expensive they have been all year, presumably because HD DVD’s exit from the high-def disc arena has removed some of Blu-ray’s pricing pressure. Although HD DVD was always seen as a distant second in the HD format war, it constantly received attention because of the lower cost of its players. Because of this, standalone Blu-ray players were not moving off store shelves very steadily. The majority of Blu-ray Disc movie purchases have to date been for consumers who own a Playstation 3, which has BD playback capabilities.In a move to expedite HD DVD’s downfall, Blu-ray manufacturers and retailers aggressively cut prices earlier this year, to the point where it was possible to buy a standalone BD player for less than $300. Now, however, according to Pricegrabber.com’s most recent information, the average price for Blu-ray hardware is around $400, which is right around where it was last year. The players from Samsung, Sony, Sharp and Panasonic included here are the least expensive on the market and also the most widely available. LG’s BH200 is a dual format player with support for Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Within just the last two weeks, te average prices for LG’s BH200 player and Sharp’s BD-HP20U have climbed significantly. Every standlone Blu-ray-specific player in the chart above is now more expensive than it was at the beginning of the year. Ironically, although Blu-ray has been declared the winner, it is right now about the worst time to invest in a standalone Blu-ray player.

Source: Tom’s hardware

TeraDisk to have 1TB Capacity

Yaser — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:15:27 +0000

It is called the TeraDisk and it is really small, like a ordinary CD/DVD. But it’s really huge in terms of space. 1 TB (1000 GB). How can this be done? The process is easy (or not). All existing optical media record data on semitransparent layers. A regular CD has 1 layer and a Blu-Ray disk has up to 8. The reason nobody can add more layers on a regular CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk is because when the light passes through these layers it becomes distorted and by the time it reaches the final layers it becomes almost impossible to read/write on the disk.TeraDisk achieved the 1TB limit by using 200 layers, each storing 5GB of data. So basically the data support stay the same (TeraDisk will be made out of the same plexiglas like material used in other disks) but the write/read laser technology is completely new. They say it’s going to be cheap and it will be available for the public in 2010.

For more info on how this is done visit here or here.

Source: The Tech Don

Google Maps banned for military pictures

Yaser — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:41:04 +0000

Pentagon bans Google from taking images and video of military installations. Services like Google Earth are viewed by many to be nothing more than an interesting curiosity. However, for the U.S. military and other world governments the satellite images and other footage Google offers on its Earth service represents a big security risk. BBC News reports that the Pentagon has banned Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of U.S. military bases. The ban comes after detailed footage from inside and outside of the U.S. military base at Fort Sam Houston in Texas turned on up Google Earth’s Street View service. Street View is a service of Google Earth that allows users of the application to travel down streets from the perspective of a car driver.

The problem the Pentagon had with these images was that they were shot with great detail and were found to represent a significant security risk. The defense department said in a statement quoted by BBC News, “Images include 360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas.” The fear is that terrorists could use the detailed images to develop plans to attack the base. The U.S. military isn’t the only military force that has had problem with images shown on Google Earth. In July of 2007 that satellite imagery form Google Earth had shown a new Chinese ballistic missile sub in dock. Indian officials became irate when images of its new Sukhoi 30 MK1 aircraft turned up on Google Earth as well.

Source: Dailytech, BBC

13 Email Addresses That Can Be Useful

Yaser — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:00:06 +0000

12. wav@koolwire.com – attach wav to get a mp3

11. mp3@koolwire.com – attach mp3 to get a wav

10. pdf@koolwire.com – You have an Office document or a picture on your computer or mobile phone that you wish to convert into a PDF file. Just email that file an email attachment to the above address and it will soon return to your Inbox as a PDF file. [koolwire review]

9. ..@photos.flickr.com – Flickr provides a unique email upload address here – you can send your photographs to this email address as attachments and they’ll show up in Flick Photo gallery almost instantly. The subject line of email becomes the photo’s title while the body of the email becomes the photo’s description.

8. e@xpenser.com – This is like filling data in a travel spreadsheet through email. You can use this address to gather and record your travel expenses while on the road.

7. go@blogger.com – You can use this address to post pictures on any Blogger hosted blog. Any picture that you send to this email address will appear as a new blog post in your mobile blog. You can also use this service to post regular text entries to your Blogspot blog. In that case, the “Send to Blogger” email address is available under Blogger Dashboard.

6. upload@upload.slideshare.net – If you have (one or more) PowerPoint Presentations and PDF documents that you quickly want to share with friends, just email the files to Slideshare and they’ll instantly turn them into a web slideshow.

5. …@mms.youtube.com – YouTube member can create an MMS profile here – if you have a video clip on your mobile phone or comptuer but no access to YouTube website, you can easily upload that video file to YouTube through that email address. [Details on Youtube Email upload]

4. pdf2txt@adobe.com – Send a PDF document to this email address as an attachment and it will come back as a plain text file. Handy when your don’t have a PDF viewer to open the PDF document. Alternatively, you can send the PDF file to pdf2html@adobe.com for conversion to HTML format. [Extract Text from PDF]

3. ..@prod.writely.com – Google Docs provides a unique email address here – you can upload your documents, spreadsheets and presentations to Google Docs through this address and read them on your mobile phone using the just launched Google Docs mobile at docs.google.com/m. [Google Docs Upload]

2. …@rmilk.com – When you signup for Remember The Milk, you are assigned a unique email address. Emails sent to this special address are automatically converted into tasks and appear in your Inbox. Click on Settings -> Info -> Inbox Email Address. Very handy for keeping a track of your unfinished tasks and getting things done while on the move.

1. wsmith@wordsmith.org – Get the dictionary definition and synonyms of any word by sending a blank email to this email address. Make the subject line as: define myword

And now the most useful email address that will help you read webpages through email without requiring a web connection:

0. www@web2mail.com – Send an email with the URL of the web page in the Subject field (e.g. www.cnn.com) and you’ll soon find a copy of that web page in your Inbox. A perfect option when there’s no Internet access in the area or access is restricted (for instance, you want to read the BBC homepage in China).