Geek & Technophile

I'm an IT Professional, geek and technology 'edge case'. I enjoy keeping up with the latest devices, technologies and news in the IT world. On this site I post some of those things I find most interesting. I hope you find them interesting as well.


Twitter: "Latest post: Quick Links for Jan 5th http://bit.ly/fMnUX"

December 31 2008

Windows 7 Beta 1 & The Great Aussie Firewall

Here are some interesting links from today:

  • Windows 7 Build 7000 First Look
    The last few days have been spent tinkering with the latest build of Windows 7. With a build number of 7000, this is meant to be the public release version that is due to be given out early January 2009 as Beta 1. This gives a good indication of the progress that Microsoft is making with the development of their next-gen operating system.
  • Uproar in Australia Over Plan to Block Web Sites
    A proposed Internet filter dubbed the ”Great Aussie Firewall” is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.

December 30 2008

Christmas Winners: App Store’s iFart & Nintendo Wii

Here are some interesting links from today:

  • Massive Christmas iPod Touch Sales Boost App Store Downloads
    Apple's new iPod Touch appears to have been a huge hit this holiday season with evidence that the high end iPod has seen massive gains in marketshare.

    The first impact was seen in early sales numbers for App Store applications on Christmas day. The #1 ranked App Store application (iFart Mobile) saw a tripling of sales from 13,000 units a day to almost 39,000 units on Christmas day. This growth in sales, however, was not just isolated to the #1 spot and was seen across the entire App Store. Several game developers on TouchArcade.com reported sales boosts of 3x-4x across all titles, even for titles not in the top 100 listings.

  • PS3 unable to hold its own against Wii, Xbox 360 this holiday season
    Considering the way that the Wii flew off shelves last month, this next item probably won't come as a shock to anyone. According to the Wall Street Journal, both Nintendo's console and the Xbox 360 trounced the PS3 in holiday sales, with U.S. sales falling nine percent from this month last year. During this same period, sales doubled for the Wii and rose eight percent for the Xbox 360.

December 29 2008

Windows 7 Beta Leaked, Device Stage Intro, How To

Here are some interesting links from today:

  • Everything You Need to Know How to Do in Windows
    While Mac and Linux users may be the most vocal (ahem), the overwhelming majority of Lifehacker readers get here using some version of Windows. Let's review the most popular Windows tutorials we've ever published.
  • Windows 7 Device Stage
    New Windows 7 feature demo. Hopefully this will help with device management.
  • Windows 7 beta ISO leaked to internet, world
    In case you hadn't heard: delicious, beautiful, mind-bending Windows 7 — apparently slated for a beta release in January — has leaked and is now available. That is, if you're willing to, you know, break the law and download the ISO that's floating around on BitTorrent trackers all over the place. The good news here is that the leak is apparently a quite stable, newer beta version (build 7000) than previously spied (6801).

December 21 2008

First Blu-Ray DVD Hybrid Disc

Recent tech news:

  • First Blu-ray Disc / DVD hybrid announced
    It sure took long enough to happen, but one of HD DVD's biggest benefits has finally made it over to the Blu-ray side. Yep, we're talking about a Blu-ray / DVD hybrid disc, with a single-layer of Blu on one side and a standard DVD on the other. Not surprisingly, the action's going down first in Japan, with Code Blue emergency helicopter doctor Blu-ray BOX (yes, seriously) as the first hybrid title. There's no word on when (or if) this technology will make it to US soil, but the sooner the better

December 19 2008

YouTube in HD, Firefox Tops Security Risk List

    Here are some interesting links from today:

  • Firefox Tops Business Security Risk List
    The list this year expanded to include 12 applications, up from 10 last year, due to the increase in vulnerabilities and the popularity of applications such as Skype and Yahoo! Assistant that are often used by employees within an enterprise.

    Five of the top 12 applications with known vulnerabilities include:

    - Mozilla Firefox, versions 2.x and 3.x
    - Adobe Acrobat, versions 8.1.2 and 8.1.1
    - Microsoft Windows Live (MSN) Messenger, versions 4.7 and 5.1
    - Apple iTunes, versions 3.2 and 3.1.2
    - Skype, version 3.5.0.248

  • YouTube Finally Embraces HD
    YouTube has just launched a new portion of its site dedicated to HD content, allowing users to easily browse through what is now the largest archive of high definition content on the web. The move has been a long time coming – in the last few weeks the site has been gradually building up to a large scale HD launch with the introduction of a 16:9 video player and the ability to watch HD on selected videos, but until this point it has been difficult to separate the HD content from videos encoded at YouTube’s normal resolution.