Sunday 9 May 2010

EPIC FAIL.

No other words needed :)

Saturday 8 May 2010

YoWindow

A short post today, about a program I discovered recently called YoWindow. It is a weather program that simulates the weather where you are onto an animated landscape, just like looking out of the window. Its a really good looking program and what is great is that you can set it as a screensaver, which will display live animated weather. You can also display the weather in a YoWindow widget; see below; which also looks great.
My simple advice is DOWNLOAD IT!

Weather widget requires the free Adoble Flash Player which you can download here.

Saturday 1 May 2010

PS3....D?

I recently learnt that Sony were releasing a new BRAVIA model around June, which runs TV at 200Hz, so is 3D capabale. As a BRAVA owner myself, allbeit a 28" not-so-great one, I was happy. Then I heard that Sony were releasing a firmware update for PS3 so that it could play 3D games. As a PS3 owner myself, I was happy. But there are many questions that need to be answered. Will it be what I call "Depth 3D" or "Real 3D". Depth 3D is being used very frequently now. It is where the 3D-ness simpply adds extra depth to what you see. What I call "Real 3D" is where stuff actually appears to stick out of the screen. If BRAVIA TVs along with the PS3 update will be able to run games where stuff sticks out of the TV, then I am well and truly exited. I can imagine Metal Gear Solid 4 where you're stealthily hidden round a corner and the barrel of a guard's AK47 sticks out of the screen as they walk around the corner, or a crash on Burnout Paradise where debris comes flying out of the screen at your face. It will be EPIC. If it's just "Depth 3D", then its not so amazing. Where I say "just", I'm not disregarding how difficult it must be to get even Depth 3D onto a home TV and then to be there on every frame of an ever-changing game, just that it will be TOTALLY EPIC if it is what I call "Real 3D".

Also, on a totally unrelated note, am I the only one who thinks that sneezing really powerfully on a chessboard during a chess match is like using a tactical nuke on COD, in that they both destroy all units in the area?

Thursday 29 April 2010

Honorable Mention #1

So here is a new feature, where, every now and then, someone gets an honorable mention for something. It could be anyone in the whole world. But this time, it's one of my readers. Well, that's just narrowed it down from 6.4 billion to about 4. Anyway, this person, whose initials are JR, but whose full name I won't mention in case they don't want me to, introduced me to Mount Eden Dubstep this week, which is fast becoming one of my favourite artists. Dubstep is a genre that I haven't seen (or rather heard) so much of, but Mount Eden are definitely the best of what I've heard. So, why does pointing out one pretty good artist diserve an honorable mention? What makes Mount Eden so amazing? See for yourself below.

Saturday 24 April 2010

The day of reckoning :)


Apple has surpassed Microsoft’s market capitalization on Standard & Poor’s S&P 500 index, a move that makes Apple the second-largest company on that index behind only energy giant Exxon Mobil—or so claims an article published today on the Marketwatch.com Website. According to MarketWatch, Apple’s market capitalization as calculated by S&P rose today to  $241.5 billion, thus topping Microsoft’s, which stood at $239.5 billion.

From Yahoo News:

Macifying my Vista: Update

Sorry for no post for a couple of days, been busy and stuffs. Anway, the more Mac-y of you would have notived that pretty much the only thing holding back my Macified Vista was the right-sided buttons. After struggling through the registry to find the DLL file for where the close buttons are positioned (and failing), I found a program that does it for you. Leftsider, a very small but clever program, simply swaps the window name and the close buttons. So, here's what it looks like:
So, that's the last problem solved. Any Mac users who notice anything else I could improve, please do e-mail me.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

I'm a PC, but I can at least try to be a Mac :)

I love Macs, there's no denying it. I don't care about the minuscule linux-like market share that they have compared to Windows. The hardware is all manufactured and assembled by Apple, so they rarely break down. But its not just the quality. They are beautiful :). There is no denying that only the most expensive Sony VAIO Windows laptop can get close to a Mac in a beauty contest, then lose to the Macbook. Most of all, however, I love the Mac OS. It has incredible usability, power, beauty and security. What more do you want from an OS?
Only problem is... I don't have one. They are too expensive :(. A survey of Windows users showed that 70% would switch to Mac if they were cheaper. It is true that every movie, TV show, or program that anyone cares about almost cretainly was made on a Mac, either programmed or edited on a Mac. Even Windows 7 was coded on a Mac Pro because Vista couldn't handle it! Also, whenever you see a computer in a movie or TV show, its always a Mac. I counted 17 separate Macs in the recent movie Kick Ass, which is a great movie by the way. So, since I can't afford one, I decided see how hard it was to install Snow Leopard on a non-Mac. The answer is: Very Hard! It goes against Apple's EULA, so they've made it as difficult as possible. So I went for the next best thing; making my Windows Vista look as much like a Mac as possible. Here are the results:
 The desktop. Yes this is a PC. Pretty good job I did huh?

 The fully functioning dock.

 The fully functioning spotlight search.

 The fully functioning Finder bar.

Yes... an ABOUT THIS MAC window... on a PC.

 Start Menu

A Firefox window.

My Computer window.

So, what do you think. Not bad for a day's work. Hopefully Apple see my handywork and give me a free Mac. I can keep hoping!

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Apple iPhone OS 4

As a follower of all matters technological, as well as an owner of two iPods and Mac fan, I was overjoyed when Apple released OS4 for iPhone and iPod touch. But, as with everything else Apple have ever made, there's a catch... OS4 only runs all its features on iPhone 3GS and the newest generation of iTouches. Not much of a problem for me since I have a 32GB 3rd gen iTouch, but a deffinite put-off for some. Some older devices can run it, but without some key features.
Despite the great range of features that they have added in this, the newest iPhone OS, I can't help feeling that some of this stuff should have been there from the start. Things like custom wallpapers, something easy to implement yet functional and fun, or the App Icon Folders that help anyone who, like me has around 200 apps on at any one time, organise them. These things are great additions to iPhone OS's many features, but it really feels that they are simple enough for Apple to have been able to incorporate them into OS 1. That said, OS4 promises some great new features like Game Center, like XBox Live, with achievements and the like, but most importantly, Multitasking! As a PS3 fan, I'd have rather they based the social gaming network feature (Game Center) on the PSN, but with the iPhone's somewhat limited features compared to XBox 360 and PS3, it will be pretty similar to both... But by far the most important update is Multitasking, which propel both the iTouch and the iPhone into their own league of pocket computing. Something that the iPad should have had from the start but will have to wait till Autumn for, Multitasking is the last thing that devices running iPhone OS needed to become computing ledgends.
And all I can say is... I CAN'T WAIT!
iPhone OS4 is released in Summer for iPhone and iTouch and Autumn for iPad. Head over to the Apple website to watch Steve Jobs' keynote speech.