Sony is making an aggressive attempt to go after anyone who has posted or is ?distributing? the first ever jailbreak code for the Playstation 3 console. The company is not just going after these people but they are going as far as demanding Google give the IP addresses and any other information they may have of people who have either viewed or commented on the jailbreak video that is on a private youtube page.
This aggression stems from a lawsuit against George Hotz, 21 years old from New Jersey. He published a video about a month ago showing code that would make the PS3 able to play pirated games. Currently the video has been taken off the site as a U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered it to be removed. It does seem Hotz has breached the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
So DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has been created for a civil or criminal offense to traffic in wares meant to circumvent devices protecting copyrighted works. However, one of the more interesting things about the DMCA is not what is in the act but what is not. If you were to perform the same type of hack to a mobile phone it would be completely legal. It seems that over the summer the U.S. Copyright Office exempted cell phone jailbreaking from being covered by the DMCA (somebody must have gotten slammed with overages). So if you have a mobile phone you can run the apps of your choice on a mobile phone without fear of being criminally or civilly liable for a breach of the DMCA. It does make you wonder why the government would let you jailbreak a phone but not other types of digital devices. One has to wonder the logic behind letting mobile phones be jailbroken but keeping a strong hold on devices like the Playstation and XBOX. Maybe the government doesn?t like their cell phone plans and just wants to torture the mobile phone providers?
We all know about heroin, cocain, alcohol, reefer and how addictive they are, but what about computers? Does not the big glowing screen give the user a sort of euphoric feeling in a?hypnotized state? Look around you on the subway, or at work, or in homes(it’s okay to peep a little) and notice the screens effect on people.
The eyes are wide open and glossy, transfixed on moving images and lights that create a special feeling, one of escape. For is that not what today’s world consists of? The hopeless reality of life seems too depressing so we turn to distractions like sex, drugs, T.V. and computers to forget about your nagging girlfriend or crazy parents and just sit there.
There is a new term out that?characterizes such a state. It is called computer stoned, and it is the result of too much computer. The Webopedia definition is: “A?slang term used to describe a person who has spent too many hours in front of a?computer resulting in a drug-like induced state of being. Symptoms of being computer stoned includes fatigue, headache, sore eyes, bloodshot eyes or a lack of energy.” Funny, and I mean funny like peculiar.
It is peculiar because I am stoned right now. I have been staring at this computer screen for two hours straight, the symptoms are starting to show, and this is not right. Looking at myself through someone else’s eyes, I am basically wasting time sitting and staring when I could have been doing something outside or more productive and active.
That is the way the world is now: online, plugged in, and booted up. It is not heroin I am booting up, no, I am booting up the CPU and getting high off the new features, the constant updates, the feeds that never end. So what are some ways to get myself out of this potential?hazardous?to health problem?
Well, that is common sense: get away from the computer. Take a break, go for a walk or work out, or just close the eyes and meditate for a little while. If you do not believe in relaxation, then read a book or perform some other task that does not involve staring at a screen. Right now I need to take a break, my eyes are watering and my neck and back is cramped from being in the same position for two hours. I mean, it cannot be good for my body and mind to sit on my bum, not blink for hours on end, all the while wondering why I have a headache all of a sudden, or why people think I just smoked a doobie because my eyes are shot.
It is important to take care of yourself while you are working or just using the computer. It may not seem like a big problem, but it is all about how you want to live your life and if you care about your body. Wake up from the zombie living dead status on your Facebook page! There is nothing worse than a computer addict trying to tell his story about recovery in a meeting, no one really considers the computer a drug. It is a drug, because it changes how someone feels.
To conclude this message from the D.A.R.E. program, don’t do drugs, drink your milk, and stay away from too much computer activity.
A new internet browser has hit the scene of an already crowded stage. It goes by the name of Rockmelt, and it is a change from the regular browser scheme. What Rockmelt does is use your Facebook ID to log onto the browser, anywhere in the world, and allow you to surf the net faster and easier. Behind the stage of internet browsers is the maker of Netscape. Has everyone forgot about this guy? Well he is back, and it sounds like better than ever.
The future is here. Rockmelt is here to reinvent the web. The primary purpose of Rockmelt is making the browser able to keep up with your friends, consume information, and search faster. It works on Windows and Mac’s right now for desktops and laptops. A Beta version is being released today, you can download it at rockmelt.com. If you go to the site, you will see an icon asking if you would like to be ‘Invited’ to use Rockmelt. Wow, it looks like this new browser is V.I.P. status, and you get on the list until they are? ready to let you in.
What is cool is that the CEO of Netscape, Marc Andreeson who helped start the Netscape Communications Corp., is fighting back against the same web browsers that put him out of business. He is doing that by funding these two men who founded Rockmelt, Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, and they are looking to change the way we use the internet.
In an interview with them on YouTube, they gave a sneak peak at the features of Rockmelt and what the catalyst is for the change. Instead of just an ordinary web browser like Chrome or Firefox where you click on a search link, wait for it to load, and then go back to the search page, Rockmelt turns the internet into a magazine enabling you to ‘turn the page’ so to speak. This sounds like a new era in the Internet age. Everything is on the internet, and it seems like everyone is on Facebook, so by integrating these two into one browser, Rockmelt can open the door to new ways to game, commerce, or just socialize.
The test of the browser was actually performed through Google’s web browser Chromium, but it can be used through Firefox or Internet Explorer. One requirement to be able to use the features of Rockmelt is having a Facebook account. If you have an account, and you get invited, then you are able to look at your friends to see who is doing what on a side-panel. On the other side-panel to the right is your favorite sites that you visit the most, and in between is the ‘magazine’ style search engine and a faster way to surf.
Netscape is back in action by sneaking in the back door with a whole new way to browse the web. Do not be surprised to see this type of browser become the main stream of using the internet.? Be sure to check out YouTube’s video of Rockmelt, as well as sign up to get into this new and exciting way to use the internet.
By now you are probably starting to see people carrying these big pieces of plastic that have a shining light coming out of it, transfixing the owner into a world you wish you could enter. That piece of plastic is probably called an iPad, released last April as a new tool to access email, internet, play games, read books and periodicals, as well as listen to music. But now there is an increasing trend that has started to pick up speed as companies try to catch up to Apple once again.
Perhaps the most impressive alternative as well as the most unknown, is the Toshiba Libretto which sold out 48 hours after it was put on the market. People who were lucky enough got their hands on a Libretto from Amazon for a price of $1,100. The cool and innovative feature of the Libretto is in its Dual Screens, a multi-touch screen which enables you to use an entirely virtual keyboard on one screen while working on the other. You can still find them available on Conics.com.
Blackberry is trying to put its stamp on the tablet industry by coming out with the Playbook. Not expected to be released until early 2011, the Playbook offers front and backwards facing HD camera’s, allowing you to view images simultaneously. With 1 GB of RAM and 1 GHZ of dual core CPU, the Blackberry could very well take over the tablet market.
Another contender is called the Fusion Garage JooJoo. With a name like that what can go wrong? It is a custom built OS that is a low-costing tablet that will enable you to browse the web but also participate in video calls and multi-tasking.
The world of tablets is growing.
Ever since Apple came out with the iPad, the market has been on fire with these portable personal computers, and I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot more of these things walking around. Just like how the iPod came out and destroyed any other portable music device, starting a trend of mp3 players that tried to beat out the trend-setter Apple, the iPad will soon be the normal device attached to people as they move through life replacing laptops and other portable devices.
Should you sign up for this trend and become another user of the tablet? It depends on how cool you want to be, and what you want to get done. First, everyone will take a second look at you, not at your new shoes or nice hair cut, but at the new device that they want for themselves. Second, having a tablet which is smaller than a laptop yet powerful enough to make up for the lack of size, is important. All the things that you can do on a little tiny phone with all those little apps you can do on a tablet, as well as on some make video calls. This is perfect if you are a traveling business man who always needs to be in a conference or a consultant who in order to be ahead of his competitors needs fast and easy ways to access information.
What happened to that blue lower case ‘e’ that we all relied on to access the internet?
A beta test of Internet Explorer 9 came out to turn the heads of people who have looked the other way at other browsers like Mozilla and Google Chrome. But what more can a browser do that has not already been done? One questions the advancing technologies of today and how much is left out there that is original, fresh, and innovative enough to keep us entertained. Not much. If you want to compete you have to be the biggest, baddest, and fastest one out there. This is law in the internet world, and Internet Explorer broke it resulting in losing half of its users, in other words it died. Can IE come back?
In the Beginning…
IE 9 was released back in San Francisco on September 15, 2010. It has been over a month and what has changed? Nothing. People have completely lost faith in the browser that used to be on top of the internet, the standard mode of surfing the web, but how come? What happened to make people lose confidence in its ability to allow us to use the internet with ease and comfort that they find so readily available in Firefox or Chrome.
IE was born in 1995 when it was a part of the Plus! for Windows 95 package. It was the most widely used browser, reaching a peak of 95% of users in the world using Internet Explorer, but something happened. What goes up eventually comes down. While Microsoft keeps throwing money at it, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on improving the browser, it has been on the decline due to the competition of Firefox and recently, Chrome.
The answer to what happened is simple: Internet Explorer got slower and other browsers got faster. No one wants to wait for the page to load, they want it FAST and NOW. In the world today everything is coming at us with incredible speeds, and we need a good browser to make sure we get to see what is coming at us and enjoy it. Back in 2003 people became fed up with how slow IE was getting and how clunky it was making the computer. Word of mouth was a lot faster than the speed of download, blogs were everywhere voicing opinions on this issue, and the original king pin of internet browsers was dead.
Back From the Dead?
There was no funeral, everyone moved on to bigger and better browsers, but it seems that the old bugger is trying to make a come back. Internet Explorer 9 had big plans with all sorts of fun features that sounded innovative and exciting, perhaps this would be the day that everyone would realize they were wrong, delete Firefox, and go back to their old buddy IE.
It has been over a month since the release of the beta. The changes other than the appearance of the browser, a feature that allows you to pin your favorites on the taskbar, and the improved speed, are not much. Not enough I should say, to break out and scream to everyone that this is the one browser. Too late, that ship has sailed and sunk. Chrome is the fastest, Firefox is close to IE 9 in speed, but that does not matter anymore. What matters is the fact that there is nothing much more a browser can do, there is nothing left to explore, that kind of kills the whole idea of Internet Explorer.
It?s 2010 and the Winter Olympics have arrived, giving spectators an opportunity to watch countries compete in a wide range of winter-based events, from cross country skiing to bobsledding.
Not all of us are able to catch the events from the comfort of our couches, leaving some of us to make do with the streaming services available on the internet. For those of you looking to catch specific events on the internet, there are a number of options giving you the opportunity to stay on top of the festivities.
Before deciding which service you?ll use to track the events, you?ll want to settle on those competitions you?re looking to watch. A variety of events are occurring concurrently throughout each day of the Olympics.?? For a schedule listing the start times of those events you?re looking to follow, visit the official website, where you?ll also find the results as they filter in.
After determining those events you want to watch, your next order of business is deciding on the service that?ll stream it to you. Most of the events are streamed right on the same site on which you reviewed the schedule. From there, you?re directed to televised broadcasts streaming from a number of countries.
If your sole interest is participation in these games by American athletes, NBC has a great resource that provides not only live streaming but a listing of all local stations that deliver coverage of the events. Entering your zipcode and the name of your cable/satellite provider will result in a list of local stations televising the games. Looking at the list of television stations, you can also check on those that are offering live streams on the internet.
While those are the official sites from which to get your Winter Olympics fix, you can also take a look at the two options below, both of which compiling an assortment of sites that are covering the events.
There are other resources available, which a quick Google inquiry will point you towards, but these are the best ones I?ve been able to unearth.? No matter who you?re rooting for, enjoy the games and celebrate the spirit of friendly competition!
