Again from my other blog…

I couldn’t think of anything to write on my other blog lately either, so instead i decided to reuse my revised version of it.

Its been a while since i have written anything. So i decided to make it informative.

Computer news: (about a years worth, from the top of my head)

Ready, set, read:

Ati created the fasted graphics card in the world, nVidia created the fastest single card in the world.

nVidia’s CUDA system was used to render the film ‘Avatar’.

Intel announced 6 core processors, AMD sent some of its own for trial with some of its partners.

Both released these six core monsters with a “turbo’ function for less threaded apps.

Intel priced at well over a thousand dollars for the processor alone, AMD priced around $240 and 320$ (AUD).

SSD’s are way cheaper then they used to be, versions with terrabytes of memory expected by years end.

Steam content delivery system available on Mac, Linux coming later.

(adobe) Flash getting thrashed by everyone but Google, Everyone placing bets on HTML5 takeover dates.

iPad not microwaveable, but blend-able.

Man fined $25, 000 for pirating Assassins creed.

Ati got lazy made a graphics card that serves over a LAN.

Everyone jumping on the Slate form computer thanks to Apples success, about a billion other companies wondering why theirs didn’t take off.

Google builds itself some wind towers.

Apple might get sued for its “closed” ecosystem of apps.

New Fallout game, looks awesome.

US treasury site hacked, giving out free malware.

US now archiving twitter posts, not just newspaper clippings and online videos.

New platforms released by AMD and Intel, nVidia finding that market hard.

nVidia developed a “perfect” net-book GPU.

Microsoft made the dumb smartphone, the “Kin”.

iPhone 4 unveiled, looks “awesome”.

Nokia developing a variation of Linux for new high end phones, mid/low range phones still to use Symbian.

Someone made a blanket to absorb farts.

nVidia making a laptop that can grill soon.

Internet explorer resting on version 9, market share decreasing monthly.

Chrome found to be the fastest browser in the world “still”.

Card released that can control 12 screens by itself. Windows phone 7 to join Apple in the “one task at a time” corner of the phone market.

Android receives incredibly positive reviews for new 2.1+ versions.

Apple sues HTC for petty GUI claims.

Sony Intel and Google making a T.V.

Microsoft scraps its dual screen “courier”.

USA announced ”#1 spammer!”.

Avatar broke DVD, Blue-ray and pirating records.

HP bought Palm.

Dell made some pretty pictures of its new smartphone line.

Mechwarrior 4 now free, Microsoft making another!

Apple bought a guy that knows how to make awesome processors.

Microsoft made a website devoted to the any-key.

Sony to stop making floppy disk in 2011.

Windows 7 “touch” pack released.

Android gets auto over air update’s.

Windows 7 saving Microsoft.

Steam gets new UI.

Australian develops software that can render “unlimited detail”.

Starcraft 2 announced, tested, and going on sale.

Chrome to not show “http://” in a soon to be released version.

AMD sampling “fusion” chips to some 3rd partners.

Crysis 2 could be “amazingly awesome”.

AMD back in the money, getting the debts sorted.

Hacker: Microsoft, most secure OS.

2010, Intel reported best first quarter ever.

XCOM back as a FPS.

3D becoming the new 3D for games.

Windows 95 runs horribly on the iPad.

Everyone jumps on the “Cloud computing” train.

Linux at over 12 million users and rising.

Dell: you need a quad core to check your emails and play solitaire at the same time.

HP labs working on computers that can understand just like a human brain.

No more I’m a Mac/ I’m a PC ad’s.

Intel laughs at 6, makes 8 cores.

David Letterman licked an iPad.

Graphics cards coming in gun cases.

Next Half-Life game to be “scary”.

PS3 loses Linux support.

AMD released 8 and 12 core CPU’s.

DRM stinging legit users more then pirates.

World advocates want to change the word “piracy”, its too “cool”.

DNS problem brought the world a taste of “The great firewall of China”.

iPhone and iPad take 20 seconds to crack with nothing but a laptop.

Quantum computer’s becoming a solid state reality.

Google leaves China, Dell may be next.

A counter strike player at a internet cafe got knifed to the head in real life, survived.

Apple Vs. Google war.

nVidia Vs. Intel takes to the court room, again.

iPad “designed” to be thrown away when the battery stops charging.

Deus Ex 3 to be released soon.

Bill Gates gave too much, no longer richest man.

Windows 8 in the pipelines already.

Apple wants to sue everyone, takes a swing at SUN.

Samsung super AMOLED best screen you can buy.

IE6 died, had a funeral, Microsoft sent flowers.

Portal 2 ready for the holiday season.

Bluetooth 4 coming this year, even better power saving modes.

Google says desktops will be irrelevant for the average user in 3 years.

90 Million copies of windows 7 sold.

Some big names in the early computer world died this year, R.I.P.

Apple employed minors in its factories, “Not our fault”.

Steam runs webkit.

Schools spying over your webcam.

A couple got married at an apple store.

Android doing some netbooking.

IBM makes a replacement for silicon, runs at just 100GHZ, later at 500GHZ.

China makes a train that doesn’t stop to pick up passengers, they get accelerated tot he speed of the train to get on.

Microsoft: Everything is huge and awesome.

Samsung’s screens can be transparent, if you want.

Office 2010 released, nothing new.

Ubuntu reaches 10.04 with a very social release.

iPad, just over 200 dollars in parts.

Steve Jobs: Adobe is lazy and Google is evil.

Army spy planes more common then you think, Caught times square bomber.

List of most used password’s blacklisted by many systems.

Project B, Data interpretation and representation.

Are we there yet?? its nearing the end of semester one, and that means assessments!!

For Project B i decided on a rather different representation… i decided to do multiple representations. You see one of my many passions is computers and furthermore the internet, however there is no one graph that can summarise the web’s 2.0 world. So instead of settling on one i decided to roll out multiple graphs. The graphs are all built using different technologies by various websites, please note that all of these techniques are in themselves a new way of seeing data. The data visualizations computers are building today are what movies of the past tried to foresee.

Some of my all time favorite data visualisations have come from Hollywood. Some recent ones being “Eagle Eye” and “Terminator: Salvation” films. However even famous films such as “The Matrix” even used data visualisation known as nMap which runs on windows during a scene where the power plant is hacked by Trinity, one of the films characters.

However this is just some of the obvious uses. Less obviously you have massive corporations who use tools to monitor data, power usage, workflow and results. And all of these things must be presented appropriately for the use of the business. Sadly i cant really include images from these films, well i guess i could for educational purposes but i just hope you have seen at least one of these films and understand what i mean. Especially in “Terminator: Salvation” when the prototype terminator returns to the room at the terminator city and talks to “sky-net”.

Loving multimedia. :)

Got some mad ideas for some final attempts for intro to multimedia design. Should be good 🙂 might even put it up here for people to view. However, not many people have been viewing this blog. Which doesnt really bother me. The only traffic i get is randoms from google and people who signed onto the rss feed.

Ugh.. not again.

I feel like I have been coming down with something over the last few days. I’m not sure what it is but I have been warned that if my old sickness was glandular fever it can come back whenever it wants. So I have been notably cautious around people who have been displaying signs of illness. And tried to stay away from babies etc.

Ah well thats all for today. Oh and my assessment is coming along nicely.

Don’t know what to do this week… Time to say nothing.

Hello everyone, another boring week here, except I got my exhaust on my Ute fixed!!! so I’ve been driving round having some fun with some fellow peoples. And before you say anything, I care about my Ute more then I care about most people I have or will ever meet.

News of the day.

Nothing. So instead i decided to post something i wrote elsewhere and am publishing soon:

If only you could see the way… Nokia is suing Apple.

Oh wait, you can. Karma has been in the past and will be in the future, a bitch to certain types of people. Apple is one of these types. Nokia will soon be humping them into submission, and i speculate HP wont be far behind.

Apple has shown it thinks it has more power then it really does, trying to sue HTC because android has a touch screen and nice big buttons. And Suing a few years ago a Canadian school for having a logo “similar” to their own. Thats right, the logo was an apple, well known for historically being associated with education.

Let me explain, this is not a normal article. But it is more then a rant and more then news. You see since the very beginning Apple has stolen every piece of technology they have used. Granted they have actually improved maybe 1% of what they have stolen. But after improving it they have slapped patent’s on the ideas to protect their own work, which would be perfectly fine. If they didn’t attack any rival that thought of something even just “similar” to their device even if it works completely differently.

You see since the beginning every company has stolen from not just each other, but also individual’s. Some of the greatest achievements in the history of computers have been made by individuals working in their spare time. These then get gobbled up by every company or sometimes simply bought. When its bought, fine enjoy your new software or hardware. But when you blatantly steal an idea which is released outlined or sourced openly you cant claim it was your idea. Yet Apple do everyday. And feel free to say “so does Microsoft with its windows operating system”. But you know what the difference is? Microsoft gives you a choice. Microsoft provides every tool and piece of documentation openly available for you the second you buy a windows product. Even their phones. But thats not the best part, the best part is every idea Microsoft gets it unleashes on the public, opening it to ideas, scrutiny and improvement. Improvement by anyone that knows how.

Apple on the other hand, locks you into their own system where everything you do is “optional” and you are an individual, just like everyone else that believes Apple products are better in ANY way. I liken it to the Emo trend of yesteryear except this time its a white hole sucking everyone into its vortex of self loving and checking yourself out in the mirror, because you know, you are just that good. If you think otherwise Google one word, ‘BSD’. You will soon find that MacOS is heavily based on BSD, a derivative of UNIX. An operating system that’s foundations were as free as a survivor after an apocalyptically scaled event, you can do what you want, have what you want, with what you want. Just like this nothing was stopping Apple from taking what they wanted, calling it their own, then locking it down and advertising the pants off it.

Examples:

• iPod: created years and years before apple jumped on in something called a personal media player.
• iMac: this name doesn’t even make sense. But I’m sorry to tell you its just a AIO PC. Nothing special. This time, invented and produced before apple even existed by the fathers of the PC, including Bill Gates’ mentor. Obviously their laptops are just laptops. Again nothing special.
• iPad: ugh… again. Like every other idea Apple will probably ever have. Made first on paper near the beginning of computer’s by people who will never be attributed to its design, only because technology of the day held them back. Later many many companies attempted making devices identical to the iPad, they however were restricted by current hardware and terrible marketing campaigns, such as Microsoft for Windows XP on tablet pc’s. Oh tablet PC’s? did i let that slip? thats right tablet PC’s have been around since the invention of large, light touch screens based on LCD technology. Thats late 90’s for those less well read. The iPad is as new as last year, their marketing fooled you though didn’t it, you honestly thought it was something new. See, they are good at that.

The average person thinks apple invent’s things. They don’t. Researcher’s all over the world invent things, Apple takes all these already made part’s and puts them together behind a wall of advertising and bull-shit to make you think they are superior. HP invents things, Google invents things, scientists invent things, Samsung, Intel and AMD invent things, hell every FOSS user helps invent things.

To close. I hate Apple. I wish they would put their effort into inventing ANYTHING new. I HATE everything apple stands for, i hate apple products, ideals and some Apple users. iHate, the only thing Apple has ever given anyone for free

Well well well.

The world has been on fire lately about the news of piracy killing the Pc gaming communities of the world. As game designers turn more to making products for consoles and leave us Pc gamers in the dust. You see this is really really annoying me, i love Pc Gaming. Pc gaming is the only type of gaming that is unrestricted. Any controller you want to use, customise your game to your hearts content. Build your own machine, being an enthusiast.  There is so much more to it then console gaming. Pc gaming is a culture, and Epic recently hinted it is leaving the Pc industry to focus just on consoles. Meanwhile consoles are using (at least) 5 year old hardware and so games are dumbed down.

Its a sad sad time for the Pc 😦

One a week…

Hello again all. Since we must do one a week i decided to wait and just throw everything into one blog post. This week i have been playing with a modified Ubuntu distro known as Ubuntu Studio. I installed it over 9.10 and cant tell many differences so far, although i understand what is different under the hood it keeps its easy to use and helpful customisable interface. Which i must say is a nice change to what i am used to when you play with something new. The performance improvements don’t seem to be that obvious so far, but again i have played with ASIO or anything yet and seen latency so i will have a play soon.

I have been working all day on my Triptych assessment for introduction to media and feel like i am not spending enough time on my networked media, however that said i have changed what i am doing somewhat by using a edited version of my existing blogging platform (self hosted, all the way from Glenninnes, customised WordPress) to be the platform for my website. I think it should work well. At least i hope so.

So what am i doing and why am i doing it?

http://yay101.org/networked/

That is the url of the website i am describing here.

The modern world is driven by media in all its forms. Since the beginning of recorded history entertainment has been one of the largest selling consumer products. Humans as a species love to be lazy in any way, while being entertained in as many forms as possible. This means modern media has grown to fill the gap that grew not that long ago, as entertainment changed from live shows acted right in front of you, or music performances played to thousands of people.

You see today media needs to be portable, accessible, cheap and most of all modern. For project A I decided to do a “round-up” so to speak of all the changes which are going to allow media to take new, exciting forms in even the very near future.

Creation: I was once very well schooled in HTML and CSS as they were my main sources of income. That however was years ago, and coding for web-pages lost its shine for me. Perhaps that is because most pages that I was asked to create back then were basic, shells of what they could be, I always wanted to create more. Websites today are feature rich, everything interfaces with everything, every second, petabytes of data are processed for online use. This is quiet a feat, considering just years ago when the Internet was born an email consisting of mere kilobytes could literally take minutes to transfer, with huge data losses. Today my phone can download at 400kb’s per second and display in page flash animations such as Youtube videos without loading anything extra.

However with the downfall of my passion for HTML so did my skills, leaving me with only the basics to this day. With the new world of technology however many clever ways have been developed to get information to as many people as possible or in some cases, just to allow as much data as possible to be created and stored. The need for a new system of webpage creation has been sought after since the beginnings of HTML and modern transfer protocols like TCP and even UDP supported this need with a stable form of communication all around the world.

One such way this problem was remedied was by using databases and learning how to add data, and retrieve data from the database using code which required no user input apart from knowing what you are after, this made it not only a powerful method, but also easy to maintain and easy to change.

The above mentioned technology is what WordPress uses as the basis to its incredibly powerful engine. And WordPress is what I decided to use as the basis for my exhibition of technology. I thought this was a very fitting junction for me to find myself at, choosing to use one of the most full featured and interchangeable platforms available today to present the technology of tomorrow. You see to present what I originally had planned I would have required a HTML file which would have been huge to hold the text, and to set up all the images I wished to use. At this stage of planning I was thinking about using one of the many plugins for WordPress that turn any page into a gallery with tag support among other bonus’s.

That however requires downloading all the images I wished to use, let alone finding ones without legal copyright choices attached that would have prevented me from being able to present them at all. Luckily in the world of computing, at least the bleeding edge computing resources and information is readily shared with teams tipping each other off with information that they might be interested in. They also share images as often the owner (at least of the first batch of images) is the company that creates the product being discussed, and as far as they are concerned the more you plaster a product image or brand symbol around the better. Some images however I chose not to use as they were actually owned by other news groups, and I don’t want to tread on any toes let alone do the wrong thing for my assessment.

As far as conventions go WordPress uses a very nicely organised PHP code-base and is made beautiful by multiple CSS sheets describing each part of a page. The whole thing is commented to explain what each function does, making it a great way to learn some very powerful and very involved tricks. WordPress, while not strictly made for websites (in the sense a hardcoded html is strictly for websites), (WordPress) is used far more widely as a website then I ever thought it could be. However realistically WordPress is just an interface to add and retrieve data from a database and style it. Someone good with CSS could make a theme that would never be associated with a blogging platform by a normal user. Then again, someone good at PHP could code their own front-end to retrieve information also.

The theme I am using for my website is a modified version of the K2 theme released under GPL licence, allowing me to modify it to my hearts content in any way I see fit, as long as i don’t mind sharing it myself if someone requested part of it. That is software freedom. That is the future of software. But now for the future of hardware. I hope you enjoy and maybe learn a thing or two. (926 words)

“Yeah! and she turned me into a Newt!”

I got better.

(reference to “The Holy Grail”)

Thats right I’m back!!! I’m back to 90% health and have been enjoying being alive again, instead of thinking how great a sleeping pill would have been with breakfast. Anyway. At least i did get something achieved whilst i was ill, i “mostly” completed my website for Networked media complete with css scripted events on mouse-over and clicking the pages images and a gallery of images for each item. Apart from this i collated many sources of information i will be using for my assignment which should allow me to complete it very soon now with minimum effort except for making sure my writing is up to scratch. I think i should be capable with my understanding to explain what i will be writing about with limited confusion for people whom the terms are new to.

Anyway, Hello again world!