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January 31, 2005

The Daughters of Freya

Daughters of Freya
About a week ago, Cory Doctorow recommended The Daughters of Freya. I took one look at the site and immediately bought the story.

The mystery is told through emails exchanged between journalist Samantha Dempsey and the other characters. But instead of reading these emails in a book, they'll be delivered straight to your inbox, just as if the characters have copied you on the emails they're sending to each other.


Shaun, of the 247 sites, was lucky enough to interview Michael Betcherman, one of the authors of The Daughters of Freya.

Countermoves

I've just discovered Countermoves thanks to boingboing.

Countermoves is a multifaceted project that seeks to bring together game developers and game players to interact and share in both the creating and playing of games.


Eric, if you're reading this, you might want to check out the Countermoves site. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

iTheater

Bob, over at digitalductape.net, has emailed us at BYODKM.net about the iTheater project:

iTheater is an open source project that will be a media center application for OSX, not just the Mac Mini. We are currently starting to program this application, so check back often to see our progress! We are in need of programmers and graphic designers, so please join if you know anyone who can contribute. Any help is greatly appreciated, so please feel free to join and volunteer!


Good luck and more power to the dev team!

Adium 0.76

Adium icon
Adium has been updated too!

Version 0.76:

* Fixed a crash on load in OS X 10.2.0 through 10.2.6 without Safari
* Fixed a crash on quit in OS X 10.2.x
* Fixed a crash in the Emoticons preferences
* Fixed a crash when loading the Messages preferences in certain situations
* Fixed a crash related to corrupt font files
* Improved Novell GroupWise connection handling to handle invalid password and 'logged on from another workstation' errors

ecto updates

ecto2 has just been updated. Here's a list of what's new so far...

Fixed serious bug when pasting text in HTML mode. Apologies for that!
List of timezone abbreviations replaced by elaborated list of timezone names for clarity and to reduce confusion.
Changes in 2.2.1:

Fixed metal interface glitch.
Added "permalink" script variable.
Tab key activates date field in Custom Date sheet.
Saving an old entry would reset the date. Fixed.
Publishing a draft uses either the custom date or the date of the last save.
iPhoto sheet remembers window size.
Added "x days left" field for trial version.
Fixes with attachments.
Changes in 2.2:
Scripts menu (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001241.php).
Improved draft layout (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001264.php).
Fixed bug where '#' in urls were unnecessarily escaped.
Minor fix in XMLRPC.
classical music in Amazon search.
Custom clipboard contextual menu items moved below spelling items.
Better HTTP AUTH support.
Trackback detection via bookmarklet.
Buttons in upload window were disabled after second usage. Fixed.
Double escape of url fixed.
Incorrect links in help book fixed.
Modified date not being posted has been fixed.
Resizable iPhoto import sheet
Markdown script upgraded to latest version.
Support for rel, id, class in href.
macro %* for selection in custom tags.
Added script routine
tell application "ecto"
set blist to get blog list
end tell
Extended field can be hidden.

January 30, 2005

Camino nightlies

Camino
Some sites at work are sadly not compatible with Opera so I went back to testing my two other backup browsers namely Firefox and Safari. Then I remembered Camino.

Camino™ (formerly known as Chimera) is a web browser for Mac OS X that has a Cocoa user interface, and embeds the Gecko layout engine. It is intended to be a simple, small and fast browser for Mac OS X.

Not really the "public release" kind of guy, I installed the latest nightly build and later, a build optimized for the G4. Camino really is fast. Besides that, it can handle the pages I'm having problems with in Opera. I think I'll be using Camino for a while.

Camino is "just" a browser. So I'm back to using Mail for email and PulpFiction for RSS feeds.

January 29, 2005

iSkin eVo2 Wildsides

iskin_evo.jpg image

All the iPods were purposely designed to look neat and simple. I wouldn't slap one of these iSkins on my iPods -- it would be like defacing an artwork! Come to think of it, was this design issued a Made for iPod seal of approval?

Sony to Launch Music Download Service for PSP

Gizmodo thinks that the PSP could be the machine that could challenge the iPod.

I agree.

Sony to Launch Music Download Service for PSP:

pspupdater.jpg image
The Register is reporting that Sony will be launching a new music service specifically for its PSP portable gaming system. The new download service is supposed to be in place by March here to coincide with the launch of Sony's player. Tony Smith speculates that the service, once in place, could just as easily be used to push video content down to the device, which doesn't have a hard drive, but can accept flash MemoryStick in 1-2GB sizes -- plenty big for a couple of movies.

I think if Sony's got a shot at the iPod, the PSP is it -- it can do almost everything you'd want to do while on the road, including productivity stuff (if they release a keyboard).

Sony preps PlayStation 'music download service' [TheRegister]

NewsFire no longer free

Whoa! $19.99. Not only was the news a surprise but the price is quite insulting for me... why not offer it straight as $20? Would a $.01 cent price difference make me decide to buy it right off the bat?

In any case, 0.61 is perfect as it is. I've just turned off the new version alert feature and hope that this free version does not time out. That is, if I continue using it.

January 28, 2005

Skype - 0.15.0.4

Skype logo
Skype - 0.15.0.4 is a p2p client for conference calls, telephony: call regular phones. This new version features:

  • feature: SkypeOut contacts in the start conference call dialog
  • feature: watermark in My Skype tab
  • feature: handling of pending auth requests
  • feature: added button to Edit Profile window to change avatar
  • change: welcome dialog and EULA are shown when running a new version of Skype for the first time
  • change: Edit Profile window is shown when running a new version of Skype for the first time and after each successful login, when not using auto-login
  • change: some small changes in preferences
  • bugfix: fixed some pending authentication related bugs
  • bugfix: crash on machines without Lucida Grande font

Skype is actually working great in OS X. The sound quality is fantastic especially if you're on broadband. It's like the person you're talking to is just beside you!

You have to use earphones with a Powerbook, otherwise echoes would result.

Powerbook G5 html string

This line of code was found at Apple's Powerbook site by a reader and sent to Engadget:

<img height=”1” width=”1” alt=”” src=”http://switch.atdmt.com/action/apple_g5_powerbook”>

The rumor mill has begun. I think I'm now reading Powerbook G5 rumors once a day.

January 27, 2005

Updates

digital rebel

I'm slowly putting in pictures of my trip to the US. I was tempted to just change the dates to when they actually happened but I feel it's cheating. Anyway, it's nice to go through the pictures and relive everything... it'll be fun to especially see the MacWorld pictures again!

Of course, in between the posts will still be the Mac-related news I find interesting.

We continued our drive

Xmas tree farm
We continued our drive from West Virginia to New York. Along the way was this Christmas Tree farm. It's pretty much bare except for some shunned firs. Peeking out from the ground are the latest batch of trees -- getting ready for the next Christmas harvest.

Rest Area

Rest Area

Just outside Maryland, this Rest Area's picnic ground does not get visitors during winter. Only the brave would take a Coke with the some fries, sit in a bench, and smile with the 40ºF breeze.

MacTheRipper

 MacTheRipper

MacTheRipper has been updated yet again. This made me smile: "What's new in this version: This time it really fixes the bug in the new UOPs disabling code."

MacTheRipper along with Roxio Popcorn are my DVD backup tools. These two always result into a pristine original, only handled once.

January 26, 2005

Apple Security Update

Security Update 2005-001 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components:

at commands
ColorSync
libxml2
Mail
PHP
Safari

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798

Quicksilver update

Quicksilver Install
β35 Mutt (1C38) is the latest version. I love the way Blacktree packages Quicksilver -- from the install window to the About box... all are well thought of and designed!

Quicksilver is yet another program that makes OS X shine.

January 25, 2005

Snow at Narita

Narita

Anxious and with no one to talk to, I was cheered up when I saw snow falling outside the airport terminal.

January 12, 2005

MacWorld Keynote show notes

9:14 am
9:15 am HD projection
9:15 am 101 Apple Retail stores
1M visitors a week
9:17 am about the iMac
1Q most popular
9:19 am about OSX
Tiger-1st half of 05
9:21 am Spotlight
9:23 am Spotlight demo
9:26 am
9:29 am Mail
slideshow in Mail
add attached pics to iPhoto
9:32 am Quicktime 7
H.264 - new codec
9:35 am Dashboard
9:37 am demo
9:42 am iChat
9:45 am HD
Final Cut Express HD
9:47 am iLife 05
iPhoto - mpeg4, RAW
editing dashboard - features Straighten
making books
10:01 am iMovie
HD support
10:05 am Sony HDV
Kunitake Ando, President, Sony
10:12 am iDVD
supports all DVD media formats
10:16 am Garage Band
Jam Pack 4
John Mayer
music notation
4 track recording
$79 Jan 22
10:24 am iWork 05
Keynote 2
Pages
10:30 am Pages demo by Phil Schiller
$79 Jan 22
10:35 am Mac mini
Panther iLife 05
$499
$599
10:40 am iTunes 230 million
10:42 am iPod
4.5 million 04 Holiday
10 million iPods
10:45 am Cars featuring iPod support
BMW Benz Nissan Volvo Scion
Alfa Romeo Ferrari
10:47 am Motorola
10:48 am one more thing
10:50 am intro
10:52 am
10:52 am iPod shuffle
USB2
10:55 am autofill
disk use
512MB-$99
1GB-$149
John Mayer performs

January 08, 2005

Opera 8.0

Opera 8.0 is now available. This has been my default browser, email, and rss reader for a while now.

If you're a Mac user, I encourage you to try this out -- not just for a few minutes... Opera is best experienced after hours or even days of use.

More details about Opera 8.0