scattered technology news

And Thats 50,000 People 0

As of 06.30.05 there have been over 50,000 people (unique vistors) that have viewed pages on www.sahaskatta.com. This month, June, was had the highest amount of vistors, bringing in about 20k. Over 90% of the vistors were using a Windows based operating system (almost 90% of that was some version of WinXP). The last 10% of vistors consisted of mainly of MacOS users (using Safari). On the overall chart Microsoft Internet Explorer accounted for about 48%, and Mozilla Firefox was about 44% of the total vistors. (the remaning 8% was either Safari, Opera, or Netscape.) The current daily traffic is about 800-900 hits, using up about 800 MB of bandwidth per day. Here is a list of some of my current sites: www.sahaskatta.com | blogger.sahaskatta.com | torrent.sahaskatta.com | mobile.sahaskatta.com | (and finally www.skattertech.com comming soon)

Carnival Cruises Now Have WiFi 0

Carnival Cruises will start to provide WiFi access through out the entire ship very soon. In the past wired internet access was avaliable, but only to some confined rooms. (which also had limits on the max computers connected at a time) But now, WiFi will be accessable from “bow to stern, in all cabins and decks”. There are no specific details on speeds or even pricing (or whether it might be included w/ ticket cost), but will be announced soon.
Many convention sponsorers are planning on hosting major events on these cruise lines, because internet is the only thing required to communicate with the ouside world. Generally when cruise ships get far away from shore, cell phone signals are lost and making calls from wired phones are expensive. But with WiFi everywhere, anyone can make VOIP calls using clients such as Skype. (or just chat..)

Update: (07/01/05) New details have been revealed which states that the Carnival Valor has installed over 200 access points throughout the ship. Also no offical price announcements, but some sites are stating that a minute of usage will cost about $0.25!

Link: eWeek | NetStumbler

Software Up-Dates (2) 0

1) Skype v1.3.0.51 Released (06/22/05) – Free VoIP Client- Modifications of the program theme and fixed the problem so that contacts do not appear online when they aren’t. Major improvements in the look of the program and they have re-arranged many buttons and icons. Recent fixes: startup time shortened, voicemail plugin 4 non-subscribers, many new languages, contact importer, improved chat logs, and many more!
Link: Skype Home | Download Skype | Full ChangeLog

2) Azureus v2.3.0.4 is Out (06/27/05) – OpenSource JavaBased BitTorrent Client- The update consists of many minor bugfixes. Some fixes include: categories, average swarm speed, local tracker url, many DHT fixes, and more! See the full changelog for more details. Has many improvements so everyone should update!
Link: Azureus Home | Download Azureus | Full Changelog
Related: My Torrent Tracker

3) phpBB v2.0.16 is Here (06/27/05) – PHP based Message Board / Fourm – The update is made up of a few bugfixes and some major security updates. Update as soon as possible. Follow the link for full installation details and a full changelog.
Link: phpBB Home | Download phpBB | Full Changelog

4) VLC Media Player v0.8.2 Avaliable (06/26/05) – OpenSource media player, can play almost any format of media – Even though they are in the risk of being shut down due to patent violations, they still updated their program. This update includes: IE activeX fix, Pocket PC stream support, raw AAC, UDP->TCP rollover, TiVo support, motion filters, interface fixes, Mozilla plugin, and more. Everyone should update to the the latest version.
Link: VideoLan Home | Download VLC | Full ChangeLog

5) iTunes v4.9 is Finally Here (06/28/05) – Apple’s music jukebox – The main reason to update to v4.9 is because of the ability you will have to subscribe to PodCasts using RSS/Atom feeds directly from iTunes. the Podcasts will automatically be downloaded and transfered to your iPod as soon as they become available.
Link: iTunes Home | Download iTunes
Related: Quicktime 7.0 (Windows version comming soon)

6) (a) Google launched Google Video Viewer on Monday. They finally have started to allow people to search for and download videos that phave been uploaded by users. It can only be uploaded with the Video Uploader and can only be viewed with the Video Viewer. (b) Google launched Google Earth BETA on 06/28/05 it is based of the satellite imagery company Keyhole, which they bought out a while ago.
Link: Google Video Search | Video Upload | Video Download
More: Google Earth (BETA) | Google Maps | Keyhole

NeWs Up^2-DaTe (19) 0

Google Maps | Wi-Fi Tracking | Skype | Blogger | digg | Other

1) Google Maps now has plenty of High Resolution Satellite images from all around the world. Google recently also added in maps for the entire world, but currently only consists of country names.
Link: Google Maps | Google SightSeeing

2) Skyhook Wireless is using Wi-Fi to find lost laptops, smart phones, and all other Wi-Fi enabled devices. It can pin point any device and map it. It will work through out most major cities where they have setup plenty of WiFi access points.
Link: Information Week
Related: NetStumbler | PSP WiFi

3) Skype v1.3.0.51 is out. They have made many improvements to the program, mainly re-arranging the menus and buttons. They also modified the theme of the program. They also fixed the always “online” problem they had with many users.
Link: Skype (new website theme) | Download Skype | ChangeLog

4) Google’s Blogger service upgrades! Blogger has added in a new interface to allow uploading photos from your computer as well as the web. They have also allocated 300MB of space to store photos on your blogs.
Link: digg | +digg | GoogleBlog | Update Info 1/2/3

5) Digg 2.0 will be out soon, but digg has put out a beta version of how their site will be after they move to new servers and make some final changes. Just by looking at the interface it is easy to say that this might just become a “slashdot killer”.
Link: Digg Beta (un & pw: betatest) | Digg (Current Site)

Others:
iTunes songs are $1.05 instead of $.99 because of some new tax rules in some states. Not only applies to iTunes, but any type of paid downloadable service – link

Sony’s UMD Disc format was offically approved as a standard media format by the Ecma. A UMDs holds 1.8GB and are read by PSPs. Sony has sold 2.9 million units since March. – link

Yahoo! closes all user created public chat rooms due to large amounts of inappropriate discussions. Still allowed to create and invite users to your own rooms. – link

TV Tuner 4 The PSP? 12

Sony has been demo/test-ing a Memory Stick TV tuner adaptor for a few years now. It was originaly meant for the Sony CLIE (Palm-based handheld), which was soon discontinued. The tuner card in the picture is for the standard memory stick card. This will not work with the duo cards that the PSP uses, but this shows that Sony is very close and is possible. Will most likley be better on the Memory Stick Duo because it supports much higher data transfer speeds. The card will be an off air tuner which will be controlled by a little app running on the device using it. But for now, a 1GB card is the best way to get media onto your PSP for most people. (can listen to music, watch movies, look at pictures, play games, and more… just by using memory sticks!)

Other related news: Sony will be launching the PSP in Europe on September 1st and they are planning to launch 20 Games and 10 UMD Movies. (No estimates on when Sony will start to re-stock the U.S.)

Update: Thanx 4 the links digg! Also check out PSP Hacker (they currently host the PSP swaploit memory stick hack) they seem to have posted a link to the same thing.

Update: (10/01/05) This image is for real, but is a 100% concept model. Sony for now has actually planned on looking towards distrubuting free and paid media through a webportal that the PSP v2.0s can access through their browsers via WiFi. These will include movie trailers, movies, music videos, podcasts, paid music, music, and plenty of other audio/video products.

Link: Kotaku | BargainPDA
Related: Memory Stick Duo Deals | PSP Multi-Player Hack

Weakly-Deals (1) 0

1) Free LiveStrong Bracelet From Comcast – link
Need email/address, (no account # required), say YES 2 Comcast emails.

2) Free 32MB Flash Drive from IBM – link
You will need 2 register and then go back and click on “memory key”

3) Free StarBucks Ice Cream on the 29th @ any StarBucks – link
Don’t expect an entire box, they mention about 4oz.

4) Harry Potter – Book 6 – 10% Off = $15.99 – link
Will start shipping after 7/16! Also pay $1.04 for shipping.

5) Linspire 5.0 (Downloadable) – $49.95 value – link
Download & burn if you don’t want it. Code: LycorisWelcome

6) 100 pack DVD-R or DVD+R from Amazon 4 $29.99
Verbatim 8x 4.7GB – Quality Rating: Good ~$0.30/disc

7) 1 Year Subscription 2 PC MAG (Digital) via Zinio – link
Just register & follow directions! Aut0 downloads of mags.

Note: Will be 1 “Weekly-Deals” post every Wednesday!

AdSense in Blogger Posts 2

Google AdSense, currently, can not be placed into ATOM feeds using Blogger. The project is under development and is only available to chosen members at the moment. But with a little “hack,” you will be able to place adds onto the posts in your blog, but will not show up in the ATOM feed. By doing the following you will be adding an ad to the bottom of each post (post pages), and to the bottom of the first post if there are multiple posts on that page (archives & main page). The instructions are in a .txt file because the post would not appear properly with these codes on the page.

AdSense in Blogger Posts.txt

The ads should work properly and should appear as they do on this blog. If you need more help, have any questions, or want to fix something just make a comment!

NeWs Up^2-DaTe (18) 0

AdSense | Deals | CD Protection | TiVo (2) | Others

1) Google has created 4 new ad link formats. All are in the formation of a line and have either 4 or 5 related ads. Google RSS/Atom ads should be open to all users very soon, currently only available to chosen users.
Link: AdSense Samples | +digg | digg

2) Here are some great sites to find deals, coupon codes, and freebies: CurrentCodes, FatWallet, TechBargains, ResellerRatings, DealCatcher, XpBargains, SlickDeals, and SaleCircular.

3) Sony BGM has sold ~2 million CDs with their new copyright protection. First, to copy the CD onto your WINDOWS computer you will need to install a little app to listen to the music, otherwise the CD will eject itself. Second, if you do install it you will only be able to copy the music in Microsoft DRM formats. (Microsoft WMA & Sony ATRAC) They will also limit the max burns to CDs to 3 times per song and a max of 3 transfers out to DRM enabled portable players. Apple computers will not be able to copy or even listen to the music because Apple declined to use DRM in their computers. This also means Apple’s iPod line of products won’t be able to play the music even if it is transferred from a Windows computer. BGM’s goal was to place locks/limits to prevent people from sharing their copied music on P2P and BitTorrent networks. Their CDs are also enraging many unaware customers, who have not been able to copy their music or even play them in their standard CD players or home/car stereos.
Link: MercuryNews | Reuters

4) TiVo – DirecTV has disabled the serial port channel-changing feature on their D10 units so that standalone TiVo boxes will not be able to record shows automatically. No word yet whether it was done purposely or was a bug. – TiVo Demos downloadable movie service (Netflix?) via Broadband. Service most likely allows downloading of movies (payperview) and probably has a 30-day store limit and a 24-hour limit once the movie is played.
Link: Wired (DirecTV) | PVR Blog (Downloads)

5) Others:
DivX 6.0 is out – allows creation of menus and chapters, similar 2 DVDs.
vSkype – add video to your VoIP conversations.
PSP Homebrew 9 – from the creators of PSPVideo9
Google Maps + Census Data

Sony Ericsson & Napster Team Up 0

With downloadable music getting so popular, Napster & Ericsson have decided to team up. Sony’s new phones will allow customers to transfer their music download through Napster from their PC to their cell phones. This was announced just a few months after Motorola and Apple made some agreements to allow users to transfer music through iTunes to their Moto phones.
There are no specific details on pricing or transfer method for either the Napster/Ericsson or iTunes/Motorola, but most details should be announced by the end of this summer. Nokia, another major phone maker, is planning to make deals with MSN (Microsoft) to allow transfer from the MSN Music Store (via WMP).
Napster & Ericsson are also working on another method of transfer, which would allow users to download music directly into their phone without the need of a computer. This is very similar to Samsung’s new WiFi line of Mp3 player’s which will be doing the same. All of these are aimed towards the U.S. so get ready to start seeing this by the end of this summer.

Link: Google News | Engadget | Reuters | PCWorld

NeWs Up^2-DaTe (17) 0

1) Gaim v1.3.1 is out. Gaim is once again a All-In-One open-source messenger client. 100% free no ads or spyware. They have managed to fix 2 security holes that involved MSN Remote DoS and Yahoo Remote Crash. Everyone should upgrade to be safe.
Link: Gaim | Security Fixes
Related: Trillian (another client)

2) Samsung Stuff
a) WiFi enabled Mp3 players are closer than ever. These new WiFi Mp3 players will allow anyone to purchase (and download) music directly from their Mp3 player without the need of a computer. (will probably need to register and setup account first time) They will allow users to connect to multiple music stores, as well as downloading podcasts, streaming radio, and music previews.
b) i730 for Verizon Wireless to be launched June 23rd! It runs Windows Mobile 2003 SE, EV-DO, QWERTY Keyboard, 64MB RAM, 802.11b, and Bluetooth. Probably the best phone Verizon has ever had.
Link: Engadget Mp3 Player | i730

3) Tech Shows
a) Systm 2 – MythTV is here
b) This Week In Tech (TWIT) – 8 is here.

4) Internet Explorer Tabbed Browsing available. It is not yet IE v7.0, but is an addon provided by Microsoft through the latest version of MSN Toolbar. The download also includes MSN Desktop Search. This is no where as good as Firefox’s features, but is a good start.
Link: MSN Toolbar | Firefox

5) Others:
a) QuickTime 7.0 Windows Preview available.
b) PS3 to have Linux on Hard Drive
c) Aim Exploit / Crasher

Note: Sorry for late posts, I was studying for finals. I’m working hard on my website full time now so expect to see a lot more posts and a lot more great hacks/tricks. Also, so everyone knows, all content shown on this site is meant only for personal purposes. None should be used to damage anything in anyway or cause harm to others.