I understand. Weekends can be fun but long. Usually I don’t mind because, well, I’m not at work. But even then, sometimes you just want the weekend to pick up the pace and be entertaining. Is that too much to ask?
If entertainment isn’t easily coming your way, take charge and grab the weekend by the horns — so to speak. The 500-LED mod above is easily the coolest illumination project I can think of in recent memory. Besides being massive (in coolness and physical size), this gargantuan beast is bright with a capital “B”. Even though there are 500 LED’s suckin’ down power, requiring what is sure to be one big battery, just remember that it could be worse. Can you imagine a 500 incandescent based flashlight? Ya, that would suck down some real power. So who’s going to try this one next weekend?
Update: PS3/Linux installers, the mastermind behind the whole crumbling of the PS3, Geohot himself has some brief, yet hopefully reassuring words: DO NOT UPDATE! Captain obvious, is that you. To be fair, he is working on a work around to “safely” upgrade to the new 3.21 bag of hurt Sony is set to unleash in the not too distant future. And if Geohot’s words are any indication of his determination, his battle with Sony is going to be quite the long, drawn out bloody type we’re going to be hearing about for a while. Hoooah Geohot. Godspeed.
I’m simply amazed at how asinine, anti-consumer, and downright stupid major companies are getting these days in regards to money hoarding/cash grabbing policies. The latest news of kick-in-the-pants fury is brought to us by none other than Sony. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they know exactly how to piss someone off. Whether it be draconian DRM, lackluster support, or just a poor overall user experience, Sony has at least tried a little bit of everything. Their newest decision however takes them to a new low.
In the latest upcoming 3.21 update for the PS3, the niche option (though insanely useful in my book) to install another OS — in many cases Linux — is being removed. “Don’t worry” says Sony, the upgrade is “optional”. Of course, “optional” in Sony’s world carries a slightly different meaning. In their world, optional means that if you don’t upgrade, you will lose the ability to sign into the Playstation Network and play any content requiring firmware 3.21 or later. Ya, essentially Sony is forcing you to upgrade by making you choose: Linux/custom OS or actually using your PS3 for things other than a paper weight.
The real sting however is that back when the PS3 Slim was announced/released and shown to not support the optional OS feature, Sony promised — promised! — to not remove said functionality from the older machines via software updates even though going forward, new machines would lack the feature. Apparently Sony either has terrible short term memory problems or they just blatantly don’t give a fuck. Fair enough. I won’t give a fuck about them.
Kinda makes me glad I never got a PS3. And judging by Sony’s nice little kick in the pants, any lingering wants are now dead on the spot. Thanks Sony, you just lost a sale. And PS3′s eBay presence skyrockets in 3..2..
**I’ve contacted Sony for clarification, but let’s be real, they’re not going to reply.
If you thought AT&T’s shenanigans regarding the ridiculous restrictions on the BackFlip were bad, I have some even more depressing news folks — the recently announced and actually slick looking Dell Aero will be as locked down as the BackFlip. Apparently, AT&T wants Android to fail, and epicly at that. There is no reason why Android should be locked down like AT&T is doing. Same as the BackFlip before it, the Aero will not allow apps installed from sources other than the Android Market and will come featuring Yahoo as the default search/crap app bundle provider.
Naturally, Android is all about being open and complete customization by the user. AT&T’s stance is exactly the opposite of everything Android stands for. Hence, the reason why I now avoid the death star carrier at all costs. I’m sure AT&T Android hopefuls are feeling even more depressed with the now second, completely ruined Android debut on Big Blue.
I for one am ashamed that Dell let AT&T walk all over them. Google looks to be that way too as “Google Experience” won’t be found anywhere on the Aero. It’s for a good reason though. Android devices on AT&T are garbage plain and simple — not even worth plastic toilet paper. Sadly, with the second AT&T Android device now ruled as crap, it looks like it will be a blanket policy on all AT&T Android devices — locked down, no 3rd party apps outside of Android market, and utter bullshit-esque strings attached. Awesome job AT&T.
Looks like the only real solution is to either bring in unlocked Android devices (not cheap) or pick up and leave dodge. Android/AT&T users: What are you going to do?
Most who are in the computer mindset know that there is a small disconnect between computer file units and how we humans count the same thing. For us, base-10 is how we live and get around day to day. For computers, it’s all base-2 baby. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re talking about multi-terabyte drives, the size differences can actually be surprising. But we’ll stay small for the sake of an early Sunday morning and still asleep minds.
Take for example 1MB in base-2 terms: 1024kB — base-10: 1000kB. See the difference? Again, these are small differences that will grow as storage space grows. If you think about it too hard, you may begin to wonder why it’s that big of a deal at all. In reality, it’s not. Unless of course you’re one of the more geeky type of following that generally have an affinity to Linux.
Apple made the same move with 10.6 Snow Leopard. But OS X is a much more mass consumer oriented OS. Ubuntu try as they might, is still a nerds OS. Even with Ubuntu’s more “mainstream” base-10 approach, there are still plenty of inconsistencies in the computer world in regards to file sizes and names varying between kB, MB, MiB, GB and so on. Will changing the way the OS represents file size units from base-2 to base-10 put off any of those more tech literate users?
The latest in an almost juvenile yet entertaining (and I’ll admit it, liberating) move by Google has them yet again, sticking it to the red man. We’ve already seen Google close up shop with their .cn search page, choosing to redirect it to google.hk — Hong Kong’s freer flowing version. China responded by filtering results. So Google countered again with another “catch me if you can” by implementing the now common accompanying Twitter feed essentially killing two censored birds with one stone. First off, the Twitter feeds included in search results are not censored, including plenty of highly controversial topics involving China. Second, Twitter itself has been more or less banned in China for obvious reasons. Awesome, a twofer!
So now we all just sit back and wait for China to make their next move and then see how Google responds. It’s fun for me and I’m sure it’s fun for a lot of you out there. Nothing like a little playground justice, huh?
Have your own case of the “Berry Thumb” and happen to also fall under Uncle Sam’s umbrella of employment? Some bad news is headed your way — The Air Force is take large steps to increase cybersecurity starting with BlackBerry phones. Up until now, using the devices has been pretty much the same as civilian users. That’s all changing however under a new policy which will see Bluetooth disabled for all but special card readers for employees’ Common Access Cards and text/mms messages blocked indefinitely. It may not seem like those two things in themselves are that important. But to a BlackBerry/power user on the go, a crippled Bluetooth stack and no ability to send quick messages is a real sore point.
The bigger picture in this scheme isn’t merely “just because”. No, in this instance there is some actual common sense reasoning going into the move, with the goal of mobile devices being transitioned into ” Public Key Infrastructure” devices. These devices will then be secure enough to send and receive secret, encrypted information that before was too risky to send to a device with so many options to send it back out to unauthorized sources.
Generally the lock down of any gadget is a bad thing. But this is one of those few times I can see it being a necessity. God knows we don’t want some deep country secrets being leaked because some Berry toting government employee was a little loose with his text messages after bar crawling one night.
If it’s all really that much of a bother, government officials can always go and pay for their own phone. Novel concept.
Remember the Segway? It was supposed to be “the” gadget of the modern digital age. The creators voiced their personal accounts of the future in which each man, woman, and child would one day ride Segways everywhere. Well, that future just hasn’t materialized yet. Far from it in fact. You could say the Segway was an epic failure. I instead choose to see it as ahead of it’s time. Sad, but true.
Nevertheless, one companies failure is another companies success — or so Taurus would like us to believe. Hoping we’ve forgotten the pretty useless (for the masses anyway) traits of the Segway, Taurus is eying to wow us with their “Taurus Concept Vehicle”. Now, I’m a geek, so I think this is pretty sweet. Bring common sense and reality into the picture however, and all that “coolness” suddenly wears off.
In a day and age where the Segway failed, if this concept vehicle follows anywhere closely behind, failure is a sure bet as well. For us nerds, we can at least gaze on over these concept images and imagine what the world will be like decades from now, because that’s as close as the Taurus Concept Vehicle will ever come to us.
Anyone feeling a little gloomy that the human race is seemingly crawling along when technology is concerned?
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