Welcome to TheTechBlog.com - Here you'll find the latest Tech News, new gadgets and commentary! This site is moderated by Sam and Chase - Hosts of Tech Check on Fox6, and longtime high tech/computer radio broadcasters.
| Thursday, March 31, 2005 |
| Think it so, and it shall be so? |
BBC NEWS Health Brain chip reads man's thoughts
I'm not even sure what to say about this one, but maybe.... wow.....or ...... whoa! I mean the technology for this is mind blowing (pardon the pun ;) ). This means we could hack into someone's brain, and gain information. That's the wow part. The whoa part is what are the God implications of this: spiritually, emotionally, ethically, physically? Anyway read the article for sure!
Sam Knowles |
posted by The Knowles Family @ 2:06 PM   |
|
|
|
| Monday, March 28, 2005 |
| Only a matter of time for Reality Shows... |
to reach into the tech arena. I know if I've heard of the show "Pimp My Ride," then most people have. Well now, in reality t.v. format, we have "Extreme PC Garage." That's right, a show that will take your old lame computer and jazz it with the most cutting edge gaming components as well as customize your case. Okay, I'll probably watch it, but I have to confess, I am so ready for something other than reality shows..... am I alone? I'm sure this show will be informative as well as entertaining which is a good way to let people know what is latest and greatest on the gaming frontier. If you want to check out the trailer for it, click here.
We'll see how it goes!
Grace,
Sam Knowles |
| posted by The Knowles Family @ 8:16 AM |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, March 23, 2005 |
| Desktop Search Rivalry |
by tollie
Looking for a file, but you can't remember its name? Do you just remember what the file contains? Don't count on Windows "Find Files" to help out. What you can count on is a continuing competition between the search engine rivals - Yahoo, MSN, and the current top dog- Google.
Yahoo has a plethora of free and paid services, like Yahoo Mail, My Yahoo, Yahoo News, Yahoo Photos, Yahoo Maps, Yahoo Local, Yahoo Messenger, and announced this week: Flickr - a easy to use photo posting and sharing service that put Yahoo Photos underdeveloped features to shame.
Google has a better search rank method, Blogger, GMail, a now customizable Google News, Google Maps, Google Local, and Froogle.
Microsoft has a monopoly on default homepages with an inferior bundled browser.
And they all have a new desktop search offering. Who will be best? Truthfully, it's too early to tell.
What made Google's Search stand out and be so good on the internet doesn't apply when it comes to the computer, where files are not tied together by hyper-links, and Google's Desktop Search interface is sadly bland. Microsoft has a good looking interface, but why don't they just fix the lacking Windows' "Find Files" instead? -- because they want to make more money by directing you to and through MSN, which is the worst of the three. And Yahoo is just getting started, and already appears to have a cluttered interface.
Currently, none of these are offered to anything but Windows, but Mac users will soon have (expected in April) the best desktop search anyways, built into their operating system, OS X, called Spotlight.
Give one a try, if you want, and then vote in our forums to tell us which one you like.
|
| posted by Tollie Williams @ 2:06 PM |
|
|
|
| Tuesday, March 22, 2005 |
| Pinball term has new meaning for Powerbook |
Wired News: Hackers Tilt PowerBook for Tricks
Back in the day, when a machine went tilt, it was pinball gameover. But some hackers have given tilt a whole new meaning for Powerbook users. Now Apple has never utilized the full potential of the mouse, (How can anyone use just one mouse button efficiently?). But now hackers may make mice obsolete. Imagine if you will advancing to the next song by rocking your Powerbook forward..... it could happen.
Interesting what all motion sensing tricks may be coming down the pike.
Sam Knowles |
| posted by The Knowles Family @ 9:18 PM |
|
|
|
| Monday, March 21, 2005 |
| Cut the Cord |
My family recently cut the cord, so to say. Previously, we owned two cell phones - one for me, one for my parents - and a home telephone "land line" with ADSL (broadband internet). When we decided it would be cheaper for us to get rid of the land line and add another cell phone, I was disappointed to find out the Bell South, at least here in Alabama, requires you order home phone service if you want their ADSL service.
Well, perhaps Bell South was then disappointed when we got rid of both our home phone service and our ADSL service, and switched to DSL's rival: the cable modem.
To no one's surprise, the phone companies who typically have a monopoly over the home phone service, and who see cell phones as a legitimate threat to their business, want to force users of their competitive broadband offerings into their much higher profit margin home phone service as well.
Cable internet and DSL internet are priced reasonably because they're in competition. Competition is good.
Home phone, "land line" service is generally not in competition and it's priced with a large profit margin. Monopolies are bad.
So here is the Bells' wager: They are counting on customers who want broadband internet staying locked into their home phone service, so they can keep advertising DSL cheaply enough to attract new customers, but continuing to charge their high prices to a slowly but definitely shrinking market of land line phones. They're hoping that happens, and not the opposite - as cable modem service continues to expand, more customers choose the cable internet and also eventually migrate away from their Bell-owned land lines altogether.
And that's what we did, and it was much cheaper. We added a cell phone for $10 more a month, dropped our much more expensive land line and kept the old land line number by assigning it to the new cell phone (something anyone can do). We changed from BellSouth DSL internet to the similarly priced Charter Cable internet and even in the process got some extra digital cable features as a 'thank you' from Charter.
So, in sum: we now each have our own cell phone, and we have more cable channels, and oh yeah - it's cheaper than when we had BellSouth coming into our house.
I'm writing about this, because the FCC is trying to undo the laws of a few states that had wisely forced their tel-co's to separate their DSL from their home phone access. The FCC is not being good here.
- tollie |
| posted by Tollie Williams @ 12:26 PM |
|
|
|
| Sunday, March 20, 2005 |
| Intel and 802.11n....Hmmm |
Well, Intel's version of 802.11n the new higher speed, broader reaching wireless connection seems to be the favorite of the IEEE, but they have to grab 75 percent of the votes in May. Only time will tell, or only IN will TEL..... he he he I couldn't resist.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21944 |
| posted by The Knowles Family @ 7:01 AM |
|
|
|
| Saturday, March 19, 2005 |
| Negative ion mouse cleans the air-Squeek |
Aopen has created a negative ion computer mouse that will create a bubble around the user that will be somewhat cleaned of viruses, smoke particles, dust, etc. The downside? You'll probably have to clean the mouse more and I kinda doubt it will work too well. Opinions to the contrary welcome.
/Chase
Aopen creates negative ion mouse
____________________________________________________________________________ |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 9:30 AM |
|
|
|
|
| Firefox gains more on IE |
Geekdom rejoice - Firefox continues to chip away at Internet Explorer, and has gone to six percent penetration - not bad. For those who haven't made the switch yet - why haven't you? It's more secure (but not bulletproof as some would have you believe, I've seen systems infected using Firefox), offers tabbed browsing, and doesn't consume as much system resources in my informal testing. Go to our site, scroll to the bottom and click on the Get Firefox button to join the revolution.
/Chase //Check out our new Podcast!
Firefox gaining on IE | News.blog | CNET News.com
_________________________________________________________________________ |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 7:30 AM |
|
|
|
| Tuesday, March 15, 2005 |
| Hold the Phone? |
 Coming soon to a phone near you: iTunes.
Well, kinda. Apple has long been in talks with Motorola over a new phone compatible with Apple's iTunes. Presumably, it will synchronize using iTunes easy iPod sync. method, and probably be allowed to play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store (which is currently limited to iPods).
However, there's a number of "buts" in this story. First, and most frustrating is that the wireless carriers - ever thinking of their bottom line and not their customers - are fighting over who gets what features.
Just like Verizon crippled another Motorola phone's bluetooth capabilities so they could force their users to pay the 25ยข/picture fee (which they recently added their own advertising to, on top of the fee), now wireless carriers are fighting over which provider gets which features, so they can force customers to choose between providers based on which features are offered and who has the better rates.
In other words, the wireless carriers are chopping up the functionality that Motorola and Apple are trying to offer, instead of sharing it all. That's why I'm growing more and more frustrated at the business models of wireless carries, and that's why this phone is delayed.
The other "but" to this story is it doesn't actually look like that concept design. It looks rather like most Motorola phones do, although only this one picture has surfaced.
While I wouldn't want this phone, I do believe as soon as battery-life and heat issues catches up to the smaller circuitry being delivered today, we'll see cell phone + PDA + Music + Camera devices emerge that truly do it right, with sizes and comfort that are far better than today's "all in one" devices.
- tollie
|
| posted by Tollie Williams @ 12:26 PM |
|
|
|
|
| The Top 5 online scams |
Here's a good listing of the top five internet scams that are currently bilking people out of money. I particularly like the questions to ask yourself at the end of each scam listing. On Another note, you guys may remember that my Uncle Fuad was the treasurer of Nabudi until the recent violent coup that deposed King Well, it turns out that my uncle was the only one who escaped, and he has 30 million dollars that was in the vault at the time. He's looking for an American who's willing to allow their bank account to be used to hold the 30 million in return for a 30 percent cut of the action. He can't use my account, because it has a 3 million dollar limit on it, and I'm pretty close to that right now. To give him your information, simply click here! WARNING: THIS IS A SCAM!
/Chase //Check out our new Tech Talk podcasts at ChaseandSam.com! |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 11:36 AM |
|
|
|
| Saturday, March 12, 2005 |
| FTC takes down naughty spyware company |
This Friday, the FTC took down the makers of SpywareAssassin, a
fraudulent and worthless anti-spyware company. That's great news,
and I hope the other shady anti-spyware companies are shaking in
collective boots! We've been saying over and over again on our radio show, Tech Talk that there are really only a few anti-spyware apps worth messing with, and it's good to start with the free ones that are available. With a couple of possible exceptions (Spy Sweeper and Pest Patrol, perhaps) Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3 and CWShredder are as good as any product that you'd have to pay for.
Today @ PC World - FTC Takes Down Fraudulent Anti-Spyware Company
___________________________________________________________________ |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 11:22 PM |
|
|
|
|
| Tech Eccentrics Expo?..... |
My Way News
Well, I guess techies have to style and profile too right? Call me crazy but a twelve diamond mp3 player seems a bit much.
Of course, that's not all CeBit, the world's largest gizmo expo, is about. All the major tech players show off their latest, greatest items. One very useful product is a GPS for motorcycles with a touch screen that works with leather gloves (of course).
__________________________________________________________ |
| posted by The Knowles Family @ 7:10 AM |
|
|
|
| Friday, March 11, 2005 |
| Hey, isn't that ... ? Nah, couldn't be. |
Hey, is this the new iPod Shuffle from Apple?
Nope, it's not. It's a Taiwon-based company's rip-off of the Shuffle, called (get this) The Super Shuffle.
On the plus side: it has more features, including a voice-recorder and an FM radio, and it's cheaper.
On the negative side: there's still no screen, so at the least the radio feature would be ackward, and it's obviously a rip-off of the Apple (US-based) product, and no one knows yet about the quality of the manufacturing.
They're even marketting it with the Apple-style silhouette ads.
- tollie |
| posted by Tollie Williams @ 11:49 PM |
|
|
|
| Thursday, March 10, 2005 |
| Dark reach of Spyware weakening.... |
Wired News: Revised Spyware Bill Moves Ahead
 Bono has done it again. No, not the lead singer of U2... Republican Senator Mary Bono, has sponsored a SPY ACT.... (catchy acronym that means Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass) that is believed to pass with flying colors this year. But not without lobbiest getting their hands on it to protect "legitimate" spyware like programs used by major software companies.
Well, the bill mainly focuses on stopping homepage hijackers, keystroke loggers, and requiring spyware to be easily identified and removed. Failure of these specs brings a heavy fine, up to $3 million dollars (I spelled so you'd know I didn't accidentally add zeros ;) per violation.
Well, say what you say about gov't intervention, but I really see this as our best option for the time being. The fact that this spying happens in cyber land doesn't make it any less dangerous or annoying than if people were looking in your windows and looking over your shoulder.
Sam Knowles |
| posted by The Knowles Family @ 9:50 PM |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, March 09, 2005 |
| Bit Torrent 4.0 releases. |
The Bane of Hollywood and RIAA, Bit Torrent, has upgraded to version 4.0 with the following new updates:
2005-03-07: 4.0.0 is now available.
Changes since the last stable release:
All new queue-based user interface
Many options are now modifiable from the interface, including upload rate
Lots of other interface improvements
Extra stats are visible, for those who like it
Remembers what it was doing across restarts
New .torrent maker "btmaketorrentgui" replaces "btcompletedir"
Better performance, as always
License has changed to the BitTorrent Open Source License
Torrent fields are correctly created and interpreted as utf8
Too many little things to list
A few technical notes, for those interested:
Single port: launchmany can seed and client can download many files from a single port and thread
Interface now uses GTK instead of wxWidgets
BitTorrent packets are marked as bulk data to make traffic shaping easier
/Chase //Tech Talk Radio homepage: Check out our new online e-filing Guide!
The Official BitTorrent Home Page
_________________________________________________________ |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 9:37 AM |
|
|
|
| Monday, March 07, 2005 |
| Allofmp3.com let off the hook....for now! |
Well it looks like the RIAA has an uphill climb to get rid of allofmp3.com's sale... and heavy on the sale of tons of mp3's. I almost feel sorry for the RIAA. They're making me see them as a bully in the school yard that has been stripped of his bully status and now the whole schoolyard is taking a shot at it. Well, I realized as I typed that, that I don't see it that way at all. I must reiterate that I am not for piracy or taking money out of the artists mouths, but I am hopeful that losses like this will make the RIAA re-think how it does business. However, if you haven't purchased all the songs you want off of this site, I suggest you take this window of opportunity to do so. Who knows how long it will remain open.
Sam Knowles
Allofmp3.com let off the hook |
| posted by The Knowles Family @ 6:32 PM |
|
|
|
|
| Block popups - again |
Have you noticed that more and more popups keep sneaking past your popup blockers? No better example is there than the infamous DrudgeReport's website.
What's the deal? Well, there's more than one way to open a browser window and now that those cruddy advertisers are realizing that their current method is getting the reject, they're starting to employ more drastic measures.
Namely, advertisers now use flash and other plugins to open popup (and pop-under) windows.
Yet, fear not - the programmers over at Mozilla are on top of the situation. Come on, you knew I was going to bring up Firefox.
Already implemented in Firefox is the ability to kick its popup blocker into a higher gear, taking a more liberal approach to killing windows. They haven't yet made it visible in their preferences menu, because there's not an epidemic yet, but the ability is already there now
If you want to be intrepid and ahead of the game, you can test this newer, stronger popup blocking by going to the firefox "tweak page" about:config, and adding the integer privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins=2.
There are details at 'uneasysilence' here.
The only caveat is, some legitimate popups might get killed in the process, so - tell the websites you visit to stop using those cruddy ads (because I like the DrudgeReport too).
- tollie |
| posted by Tollie Williams @ 12:50 PM |
|
|
|
|
| WinFS to be on Windows XP |
This is a bit of a switch for Microsoft - instead of abandoning it's XP OS when Longhorn comes out, it's going to backport the new WinFS file system. This will surely increase the life of XP, and it's an odd business decision in that light. What have they got up their sleave?? I'd love to read your comments...
/Chase
WinFS To Be Available on Windows XP
_______________________________________________________________ |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 12:28 PM |
|
|
|
| Saturday, March 05, 2005 |
| How Google works. |
This is a pretty enlightening view into the innards of Google. It's much more palatable than your typical view into innards if I do say so myself! Interesting that Google runs off of the Red Hat distro of Linux, and that it's common for several of the servers to break every day. 10 Billion web pages indexed and Terabytes of data spread over hundreds of servers...it kind of makes your head spin.
/Chase
Peeking Into Google: "BURLINGAME, Calif. -- The key to the speed and reliability of Google (Quote, Chart) search is cutting up data into chunks, its top engineer said. "
_____________________________________________________________________ |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 7:21 PM |
|
|
|
|
| download: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta Download |
The Open Office 2.0 Beta release candidate is out! For those who don't know, Open Office is an open source office suite similar to Microsoft Office, but free. It is XML compliant, and features a very good Word Processor, a spreadsheet, presentation tool, database features and P.D.F. creation ability. It's an excellent package, is spyware/adware free and doesn't cost a penny. Highly recommended (the link leads to the free download, but be sure you check out the new features page as well)
/Chase
download: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta Download |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 1:34 AM |
|
|
|
|
| Israel's Army goes Dick Tracy |
Wow! Wrist video surveilance for ground troops that is broadcast from an unmanned aircraft. The code name is V-Rambo (Velcro Rambo) catchy isn't it?!
Well, once again Israel proves they are a force not to be taken lightly with Technological advancement. It has taken communication to id and strike a target from 10-12 minutes down to seconds.
Sam
My Way News |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 1:01 AM |
|
|
|
| Friday, March 04, 2005 |
| Netscape 8 Beta Goes Public |
They've now released the Netscape 8 Beta, which allows you to toggle between Mozilla's browser and Microsoft's (less-safe) browser, to the public.
How does it work? Since all code for the Mozilla project is free for anyone to take and use and modify, the entire Mozilla code is contained within the AOL/Netscape (bulk?) shell.
On the other hand, since Internet Explorer's code is proprietary and supposedly secret to Microsoft, it uses the same hooks into the browser that AOL, Outlook Express, and many other programs have used since Microsoft decided to try and intergrate IE into the operating system. Because of this, it's for Windows only, unlike Firefox which works on any operating system.
Is it the IE killer? Probably not. It's unlikely that a program that includes IE will ever be an IE killer.
Will it be the Firefox killer? Certainly not. Firefox is still half the download size, faster, and less "feature bloated" - lacking all the AOL junk that Netscape includes.
So it's not really the "obvious choice" as the Netscape site claims, but this type of hybrid browser does have its audience. For those that want to keep their IE-blankie close at hand, it's the browser of choice. I'll try it out whenever I'm on a Windows PC again, but for now, I continue my push for Firefox - a truly safer browser.
- tollie |
| posted by Tollie Williams @ 9:56 PM |
|
|
|
|
| 802.11s on the way |
802.11n isn't out yet, and already 802.11s is on the way. 2008 is a long way in the future, but I'm betting that wireless will be commonplace by then. Has anybody tried out any of Belkin's pre N wireless products? They claim an 800 foot signal radius - that's remarkable!
/Chase
Geek.com Geek News - Intel unveils 802.11s |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 8:17 PM |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, March 02, 2005 |
| Welcome to the Tech Blog! |
The Tech Blog will be updated daily with great links and commentary on all things technical. You'll find breaking news here, excellent downloads that are spyware free, timely product reviews, and much more. The site is edited by Chase and Sam, hosts of the Southeasts largest computer/tech radio show, and also Apple/Linux expert Tollie Williams of Tollie.org. The Tech Blog makes a great homepage, not only because of all the content, but because you have a built in Google search at the top of the page! Thanks for visiting, and let us know any ideas you might have for the site. /CT
 |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 3:27 PM |
|
|
|
|
| This is a test |
| this is only a test! |
| posted by Chase Thompson @ 1:21 PM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Tech Blog
