Brad buys Windows XP Pro? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

I'm not entirely sure why, but Brad just bought a copy of Microsoft Windows XP Pro. However I'm sure with the proper counselling he can be reformed, and returned to become once again a productive member of society...


The evidence...
Update: Brad tries to justify the purchase, but really, there is no justification for Windows...

Google Earth Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Last week I posted about the extension of the satellite coverage in Google Maps. Well it now appears that with the launch of Google Earth they're well on the way to integrating other technologies they acquired when they bought Keyhole last year into their main stream product, and in the process beating Microsoft to market yet again.

The Register and Slashdot have more coverage, and it looks like the new services will be integrated into Google Sightseeing real soon now, but for a real in-depth look at the new offering Inside Google has the best analysis I've seen so far...

Of course on the down side is that the new Google Earth service is, like a lot of Google's new toys, only available for Microsoft Windows. For a web services company they sure don't seem to understand the problems with vendor lock-in very well. Perhaps their new company motto should be, "Google, only slightly evil".

Update: For those of us interesting in adding data to Google Earth, there is now some documentation and a tutorial about the KML file format it uses to help us do it...

An "official" Google Maps API Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

The developer community immediately seized on Google Maps and reverse engineered the API with astonishing speed. The service was, almost over night, integrated into a huge range of web and mobile phone aplications.

Today however Google released an official API for the Maps web service, and people have pointed out never has the community been so far ahead of Google and made me think. Did Google release the API because they always meant to anyway, or did they release the API because otherwise they were going to be left behind in exploiting their own service?

Update: Interestingly Yahoo! also released the API for their maps service today. Although as Nat Torkington has pointed out, they're approaching things from entirely a different direction.

PalmOne LifeDrive Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

As I mentioned a few days ago Tim recently ordered a Palm Lifedrive from Amazon. After holding onto it for an extra day, despite it having arrived in Hilo at 6:00am on Monday, FedEx delivered it this afternoon...

The Palm Lifedrive ($499.99 or £298.99)
My first impression is that it's slightly heavier and more bulky than a normal PDA, but since there is a 4GB hard drive at the heart of the Lifedrive this is probably only to be expected.

Despite good wireless signal strength, download speed seemed slow, and the two minute time out on the DHCP lease when the connection was idle became somewhat irritating after only a short period of time. There is also a slight, but noticeable lag when switching applications, although Palm OS has always suffered from this to some extent.

On the other hand Blazer, the bundled web browser, did perform exceptionally well reformatting the layout of an admittedly somewhat unscientifically chosen sample of web pages the device's form factor.

Input is either using handwriting recognition or by a soft keyboard. Unfortunately, like all recent Palm devices, the recognition system uses Graffiti 2 which I think is much inferior to the original Graffiti. Of course not everyone will agree with me here...

The killer application of a PDA for me is the calendar, and the version shipping with the LifeDrive looks to be much improved over the one I'm using on my Treo 180, although it still doesn't seem to come up to the gold standard set by Apple's iCal.

However, the main problem with the LifeDrive appears to be the battery life, after playing with it for only a couple of hours Tim had managed to drain about 1/4 of the battery life. It doesn't look like it'll survive a full transatlantic flight. Despite this, as always, your milage may vary...

Despite these small niggles I like the new Palm LifeDrive. The specifications look good, and it feels solid. Will it be enough to save Palm's fading market share? Only time will tell...

iTunes 4.9 released Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Apple have just released the long awaited iTunes 4.9 update with podcast support. I've just downloaded and installed it, and it looks like they're playing fair, it works fine with my trailing edge installation of Mac OS X.


iTunes 4.9, now with podcast support...
Update: Apple Insider is reporting that the new version of iTunes riddled with references to the soon to be released iTunes phone, which may appear as early as next week...

Update: Engadget is reporting that there is also references to something called an iPod phone. Is this a reference to the know collaboration with Motorola, or is it perhaps the first appearance of real evidence for the fabled iPhone?

Update: Russell Beattie has more...

Update: The Unofficial Apple Weblog has details of how to publish your podcast to the iTunes music store. They also have an article which takes a closer look at the podcast support in the iTunes. Surprisingly it looks like it may support video blogs directly out of the box...

Update: If you're having problems subscribing to podcasts, the Unofficial Apple Weblog has the work around...

The MIT Weblog Survey Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Like Brad, I took the MIT Weblog Survey. The survey is a general social study being conducted by MIT in an attempt to understand how the emergence of blogging is affecting the way we communicate.

The Sony PSP Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

So today Tim ordered a Palm Lifedrive, and Frossie picked up a Sony PSP at the mall. While I'm not really in the market for a Lifedrive, I'm more interested in picking up a HTC Universal when it's released later in the year, I'd love to get my hands on a Sony PSP.

The Sony PSP, looking good...
The Sony PSP is released in the UK on the 1st of September, but as usual it's going to cost a lot more than it does in US...

For comparison the PalmOne Lifedrive is sold on Amazon.com for $499.99, while the same product sold on Amazon.co.uk at £299.89. At todays exchange rate, of £1.00 to $1.82, that means that the Lifedrive is selling for $545.80 in the UK a whole $45.81 (or £25) more. This isn't too bad, you could probably account for the £25 by waving your hands about higher tax rates.

However looking at the Sony PSP we see that while it's $249.99 on Amazon.com the same unit is £178.99 on the UK site, and at todays exchange rate that means it's an amazing $75.77 (or £41.63) more in the UK. That means the Sony PSP costs an extra 23% in the UK, and that can't be explained by the higher tax rate...

Now this isn't just Amazon, if anything they're cheaper than the high street stores. This is industry wide, and these are fairly mild examples of the problem, I've seen many products where the exchange rate seems to have been set to be $1 to £1. Considering the rates these days, you have to wonder how stupid the industry thinks we are?

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the PSP is €249.00 on the French and German sites which with todays exchange rate means that the European sites are selling the PSP at £164.34 (or $301.29), so that's more expensive than the US, but less expensive than the UK. Now this certainly can't be explained by different tax rates.

Does this make sense to anyone? I know it doesn't make sense to me...

Update: Presumably in an attempt to try and protect their markup on the product, Sony is moving to stop grey imports of the PSP into the UK. If they didn't want grey imports, they probably should have released it into the UK during March as they initially promised...

Update: Looks like Sony is preparing to take further action against grey importers in the UK.

Update: I ended up getting an HTC Universal...

It's not over till it's over... Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

The Planetary Society's Cosmos-1 team is still looking at the data that was received at the three ground stations on launch day in hopes of finding out what happened to their spacecraft. However with Makeev reporting that that the rocket's stages never separated, it seems too optimistic to hope that the spacecraft achieved even a low, non-nominal, orbit and it is far more likely that the craft was destroyed along with its malfunctioning launch vehicle.

BBS: The Documentary Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

When Frossie came into the office where I'm camped out while I'm at the JAC, waving a DVD around madly and with some evidence of enthusiasm, I only vaguely remembered the Slashdot story about BBS: The Documentary...


BBS: The Documentary, a little piece of history...
But while her mention of a Slashdot article prompted my memory, it turned out that I'd missed the most recent article in May that the documentary was finally shipping. When I finally got round to Googling for the story I recalled about Jason Scott soliciting for people to interview, the vaguely remembered Slashdot story turned out to be from 2001, not late last year like I originally thought. Perhaps this means I'm spending less time on Slashdot than I used to now I'm reading news via RSS feed...

For those of us who grew up before the Internet, and can remember Bulletin Board Systems, and whose first taste of electronic mail was via the torturous intricacies of a Fidonet echo, this privately produced and distributed, 3 DVD, 8 episode, documentary is a piece of history carefully enshrined with love and great attention to detail.

Tim, Frossie and myself sat down tonight and we watched the first two episodes and the bonus features from disc one. We probably would have watched more but we had to keep pausing the episodes to exchange reminiscences about the good old days...

The camera work is good, production quality is high, higher than I've seen on some "professional" productions, and the meat and bones are of the subject are there, covered in detail. BBS: The Documentary is an excellent piece of work and I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in this period of computing. Buy it, you won't regret it...

Cosmos-1 not in orbit? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

After a night to reflect on the data, the Russian Space Agency (RKA) is now reporting that is that the launch vehicle failed 83 seconds into liftoff, and that the second stage of the rocket didn't separate.

This seems to contradict the data obtained from the tacking stations so it is still unclear as to the fate of Cosmos-1. If the spacecraft did achieve orbit it is possible that in four days the autonomous onboard systems will, since they have not had any contact with the ground, proceed to unfurl the sails. Since this will make Cosmos-1 a naked eye object from the ground it will vastly improve the chances of reacquiring contact with the satellite. However this is a low probability event, and it is now more likely that the spacecraft has been lost. The Planetary Society team is still hopeful, but as time passes that hope has to be rapidly diminishing.

Update: Hopefully Slashdot is being a bit quick off the mark in announcing the failure of the mission. But only time will tell...

Update: CNN has video of the launch along with the background story...

CREDIT: CNN

Captures from the CNN coverage of Cosmos-1 launch
Update: According to Engadget the Russian Navy are reportedly retrieving debris from the launch. If true, what on Earth is going on with the tracking data from Kamchatka, Majuro and Panska Ves?

Update: The Times seems to confirm that the Russians, at least, now believe the spacecraft to be lost...

Cosmos-1 in orbit? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

It now looks like Cosmos-1 has obtained orbit, although probably not the one which was intended...

Initial reports from Majuro suggested that no signal was received, however it is now thought that around 10 seconds of data was obtained during the pass, this appears to be consistent with the earlier partial Doppler data taken from Kamchatka during the boost phase. Additionally it appears that the Panska Ves ground station may now also be reporting a similar partial contact.

CREDIT: The Planetary Society

This map shows the nominal track of Cosmos-1, and its location at 20:10:34 UT on the 21 June where it should have been visible from both Petropavlovsk and Majuro.

So while the mission team still aren't in contact with the spacecraft, the sightings from Majuro and Panska Ves earlier today may mean that the spacecraft is alive and in orbit, and things are in a much better state than they seemed earlier in the day.

More information can be found via the official update page, the Planetary Society Solar Sail Weblog, or via their RSS feed. No more news is expected until 08:00 PDT / 15:00 UT today.

Update: Despite news from the tracking stations, it now looks like this might have been false hope, and that Cosmos-1 did not achieve orbit at all...

Launch for Cosmos-1 Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Despite some reports to the contrary, and although also carrying a satellite called Cosmos, the reported explosion of a Molniya-M rocket in Siberia was not connected to the launch of Cosmos-1.

CREDIT: The Planetary Society

The Project Operations Pasadena (POP) room, the attic of the carriage house behind The Planetary Society. From left to right: Greg Delory, Sam Dallas, Emily Lakdawalla , and Paul Fieseler.

CREDIT: The Planetary Society

A few of of the ground stations tracking Cosmos-1.
Update (T + 2 min): Cosmos-1 appears to have had a nominal launch with successful first stage separation.

Update (T + 8 min): Hopefully the craft should have faring separation and be spinning up, first possible contact will not occur until T + 10 minutes when Cosmos-1 rises over the horizon at Petropavlovsk.

Update (T + 16 min): No communications from Russia as yet, but according to the timeline the kick motor should be firing at this time. The first reports of the launch are starting to appear on the wire services, although there are no details as yet.

The first possible in-orbit contact is at T + 24 minutes when Cosmos-1 rises over horizon at Majuro in the Pacfic Ocean where a temporary ground station has been established. If established this contact will last only 10 minutes.

Update (T + 25 min): The report coming in from Kamchatka is that they did not detect the spacecraft. This isn't unexpected and shouldn't yet be a cause for concern. The first contact from a permanent ground station is not until T + 1 hour 35 minutes when it passes over Panska Ves in the Czech Republic.

Update (T+ 31 min): Majuro reports reports no contact at this time...

Update (T + 32 min): Petropavlovsk now reports that some Doppler signal was received, but then then was lost. This might be connected with the fact that the motor burn was happening at that time.

Update (T + 35 min): More stories are starting to appear on the wire services, including a good summary from Associated Press. Majuro still reports no contact at this time...

Update (T + 46 min): Majuro has now reported that they did not receive a signal during their window. Again, this is not unexpected, however the next chance for contact with the spacecraft is not for another hour when it passes over the first permanent ground station in Panska Ves in the Czech Republic.

Update (T + 56 min): Analysis of partial Doppler data taken from Petropavlovsk indicates that the duration of the kick motor firing was approximately correct. However despite some people declaring a successful launch, without any direct telemetry signal from the spacecraft this isn't yet clear.

Update (T + 1 h 17 min): An update from Lou Friedman directly from the Moscow Operations centre,

Here's what we know and don't know. Indications are that orbit burn was received over Kamchatka. That data cuts off. This could be normal, related to the rocket firing; or it could indicate an anomaly. This is unknown. We also know that no signal was received at Kamchatka, and we also know that no signal was recieved at Majuro. From here on in, there's no communication at all wth the spacecraft until it goes over Panska Ves in the Czech Republic. A contingency plan for this is now being put into effect. The Panska Ves, Tarusa, and Bear Lakes stations will send commands to the spacecraft to try to turn it on. So in sum we have some precious data and a lot of silence. We have to wait at least 30 minutes before any possible contact, and possibly longer. It looks like it may be a long night here in Moscow and a long day in Pasadena.

Update ( T + 1 h 42 min): No contact from Panska Ves, Tarusa or Bear Lakes at this time. The next best contact opportunities are on the 5th and 6th orbits, several hours into the mission when the first pancam images are expected. However the ongoing lack of direct telemetry signal, and the interrupted Doppler data taken from Petropavlovsk may suggest that the spacecraft has been lost.

Update (T + 2 h 1 min): No contact...

Update (T + 2 h 20 min): Reporting from the Russian Strategic Command, which has been tracking the spacecraft, indicate that neither the Shemya or Kwajunlon ground stations have not seen anything.

Update (T + 2h 28 min): At this point it time it looks like there are two possibilities. Either the orbit is not the nominal one, in other words the spacecraft is not in the right place, or it didn't go into orbit at all. Spaceflight Now has the story...

Update (T + 2h 57min): Further analysis of the Doppler data suggests that at least initially the launch was nominal, however there is a lot of noise in the later data which is hard to interpret.

Update (T + 3h 6min): Looks like the people at the Planetary Society are starting to give up hope. All horribly reminiscent of Beagle-2, each failed attempt to contact the spacecraft make it look more likely that it was lost.

Update (T +3 h 29 min): Moscow has now switched from normal operations mode to one where they are searching for the spacecraft, but the next contact opportunity is not until 02:39:54 UT.

However the real problem is that, since there has been no contact with the spacecraft since it passed over Petropavlovsk, its location is not known and therefore pointing the radio antennas becomes very difficult. No news is expected for some hours now, and it is possible that the spacecraft will not be found for some weeks, if at all...

Update: It now appears that Cosmos-1 may be alive and in orbit?

Update: Or perhaps not...

Google Volcanos Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

I am out in Hawaii, so I've been thinking about submitting the Big Island's volcanos to Google Siteseeing. But it looks like someone has beaten me too it...

CREDIT: Google Maps

Kilauea, perhaps the most active volcano in the world has been erupting continually since 1983. It's 27 miles away from where I'm sitting at the moment, which is pretty close when you think about it...

The remnants of British Rail Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Apparently the UK train operators are proposing closures to deal with increased crowding on the network. You know, sometimes I think that people just don't learn from history. Because closing stations and cutting services has been tried before...

During the 1960 huge chunks of the British rail system were closed as a result of the Beeching report. However by the end of the decade it was clear that the extensive rail closures only produced very marginal savings, and hadn't help the network. Closing stations and cutting routes isn't the answer to the current problems with the British rail system. More money invested into infrastructure and rolling stock, and opening more routes, is the only possible solution to the problems faced by the industry.

T - 1 days to launch Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

With less than a day to go before the launch of Cosmos-1, using a converted ex-Soviet Volna rocket from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, news of the mission is starting to turn up in the mainstream media. Fingers crossed for a successful launch...

Update: Apparently the submarine that will be launching Cosmos-1 is the Borisoglebsk, the same Delta III nuclear submarine that launched the sub-orbital flight in July 2001.

Update: RIA Novosti have more information about the launch.

Update: Cosmos-1 was launched on schedule on the 21st of June.

.Mac dropping Virex Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

With Apple dropping Virex from its .Mac offering what is there apart from the cachet of having a @mac.com email address that is keeping me renewing my account? Err, no, I don't know either...

Update: Apple Matters has a good summary of what is wrong with Apple's .Mac service, and how they think Apple should go about fixing it. I don't actually agree with some of their suggestions, but anything has to be better than the status quo.

Update: The Unofficial Apple Weblog has more...

Google owns the world Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Woke up to my morning dose of Slashdot to find that Google have done something interesting again. Looks like Google Maps has gone worldwide!

On the down side the satellite imagery for the "rest of the world" is still fairly low resolution, and the map data is only at the country level outside of the US and the UK (as yet?). They also don't seem to have integrated new satellite data and maps with the UK based site, although if they can't solve the problems they're having with georectifying UK postcode data it isn't really going to be that relevant anyway...

Update: Apparently Google has quietly updated its map service to extend the coverage of the high-resolution satellite and aerial photography outside of the US. Although we still don't have a virtual planet, this is a definite improvement.

Another Python for Series 60 release Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Quickly following on from the release of version 1.1.0, Eric Smart today announced the release of version 1.1.3. Looks like the documentation might be a bit on the sparse side as yet, but there appears to be a heap load of new features along with some example code that shows us how to use them...

I'd pretty much kill, or at least extensively maim, for an application framework as extensive as the Python port to go along with the initial release of Perl for Series 60. Does anyone know if there is any progress on Perl?

Nokia & Apple Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Or Apple & Nokia? Russell Beattie has perhaps the most interesting take I've seen on the recent announcement from Nokia that they're working with Apple to build a new web browser for their Series 60 phones based on Apple's WebCore...

Update: I'm not the only one to pick up on Russell's post, more discussion of the long rumoured iPhone will no doubt ensue...

Joel Spolsky vs. Robert Scoble Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Yesterday Joel Spolsky had some things to say about recruitment and Microsoft, and it looks like it his post might have upset Robert Scoble just a little bit as he responded quite robustly this morning. This in turn got a response from the assembled masses on Joel's discussion forums...

But I'm waiting for Joel's response, both of them are A-List bloggers, so if it turns into a shin kicking fight it could get interesting!

Update: Joel Spolsky responds...

Cosmos-1 Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

While NASA struggles to return to flight the really interesting stuff is happening in the private sector. The Planetary Society is, after many delays, scheduled to launch Cosmos-1, the world's first solar sail, on the 21st of June.

The society is a privately funded not for profit, and this will be the first in-orbit test of a free flying sail. Although both ISAS and the Russians have test deployed sails before, none have been free flying and under control. In fact the Japanese, despite the Wikipedia entry to the contrary, did so using a rocket on a sub-orbital trajectory. NASA is also working on solar sails, but have not yet got beyond laboratory test deployments.

Wired has picked up the story as the many times revised launch date draws near, but I've talked about Cosmos-1 before. One of the problems with doing things on a shoe string budget is that deadline slip. Cosmos-1 was originally scheduled for launch back in 2001.

Around the time of the Znamya test flights I wrote an introductory article on solar sailing, and it's still pretty relevant if you want to get an idea about the basic technologies that are being used, and you can follow the launch of Cosmos-1 on the Planetary Society's blog or via their RSS feed.

Update: Slashdot has picked up the story...

Update Cosmos-1 launched on schedule on the 21st of June.

Solar Sailing: Technology, Dynamics and Mission Applications by Dr. Colin R. McInnes, ISBN 185233102X, 350 pages, £45.00

An introductory text and technical reference on solar sailing. The author assesses the benefits and limitations of solar sailing and comes to the conclusion that it really does offer the possibility of low-cost space missions, impossible for any other type of conventional spacecraft. While this isn't the only text book on solar sailing McInnes' book is certainly the place to go if you want an in-depth look, a definite must buy for any space enthusiast.

Return to flight Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

After being rolled out to its launch pad at Kennedy at the beginning of the month, Discovery was ignominiously rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the beginning of last week to have its external tank swapped with the one intended for the next Atlantis flight. However NASA continues their painfully slow progress towards return to flight as today the shuttle was returned to the pad. NASA now expects to launch Discovery between the 13th and 31st of July...

CREDIT: NASA/KSC

The work to secure Space Shuttle Discovery is under way at Launch Pad 39B following its move from the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Update: The BBC has more about NASA's return to flight...

Update: The International Herald Tribune has a piece that pretty much sums up everything that is going wrong for NASA and the Space Shuttle, and right for people like Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne.

No Tsunami... Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Just to try and stop the email I'm getting, although it's nice to know you all care... While a Tsunami advisory was issued for Hawaii after the Californian earthquake yesterday, as of the 5pm HST last night we had the all clear.

Via Blather

A major earthquake occurred at 02:50:54 (UTC) on Wednesday, June 15, 2005. The magnitude 7.2 event has been located off the coast of Northern California.

It looks like Brad's inbox might look a lot like mine this morning...

The Osborne effect Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Back in the 80's a company called Osbourne Computers pre-announced the next generation of their machines long before they'd actually started laying down the silicon to produce them. As a result their current generation of machines stopped selling, and the company went bankrupt in very short order. In the industry it became known as the Osborne effect, and people are starting to wonder whether Apple might be facing a similar situation as a result of the recent announcement that they're moving to Intel processors by the end of 2007.

Anyone thinking about buying a new Mac must be having serious second thoughts right about now, and it has been one of the main topics of conversation at lunch out here at the JAC since the announcement by Steve Jobs at WWDC 2005 last Monday.

Happy with our shiny Powerbooks, and Mac OS X, a lot of people I know have been thinking about moving to Apple desktop systems as well. At OSCON last year almost everyone that was anyone had a Powerbook, and especially with the introduction of the Mac mini earlier in the year, I'd be unsurprised to learn that they were thinking about buying Apple desktops as well. I know I was thinking seriously about buying a dual G5, with a couple of 23" displays, when my current system was up for replacement early in 2006. The very snowball effect Apple must have always wanted was happening. The early adopters, the people that influence IT purchasing, were moving to Macs...

But early adopters aren't the sort of people who are willing to settle, they won't like the thought of buying technology they know is "end of life". What will happen now? It's difficult to say, but it's hard to see Apple making it through the next couple of years without loosing significant market share, just at a time when their share of the market was growing they seem to have done something entirely crazy and shot themselves in the foot.

However Steve Jobs is a smart man, and it's unlikely he'd make the same mistakes with Apple that he did at NeXT. So the question has to be, what does he know that all of us spinning our wheels out here in the blogosphere don't?

Update: According to the Register, the Osborne effect is a myth. Quoting sources who were around the industry at the time, the Register have just published an article debunking the effect. I wonder how long till the Wikipedia entry gets updated to reflect this?

Astro::Catalog Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

In preparation for the release of version 4 of the Astro::Catalog module, which will probably break backwards compatibility, I've dropped the latest version 3.x release onto CPAN. I've been a busy, and there hasn't been a release in some time, so there are a lot of changes and much added goodness. There is also a new release of Astro::SIMBAD which incorporates some patches submitted by Mark Echeverri...

Mac OS X 10.4.2 coming soon? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Only a few weeks after the release of 10.4.1 the rumours about 10.4.2 have already started. It looks like the next update may fix some of the reported problems with Dashboard, and hopefully address the security concerns associated with Dashboard widgets.

It might almost be time to start thinking about upgrading to Tiger...

United Airlines to offer wireless Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

At long last someone other than Lufthansa, at least someone that actually goes places I need to go, is going to offer in-flight wireless access. But why is it going to be available only in US airspace?

Update: Slashdot has picked up the story...

Apple to move to Intel... Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

As reported just about everywhere Apple has announced plans to move to Intel processors by the end of 2007. In other news, hell freezes over...


Watch Steve Jobs' keynote speech at WWDC'05.
I can't believe the they think this is a good move, they've just put themselves into direct competition with Microsoft and Dell.

Update: The Register has more, and of course Slashdot has the story...

Update: Damien Barrett looks to be the first to press with a comparison of Mac OS X running on PowerPC and Intel hardware. The results don't look good, I think we have to cross our fingers for some optimisation somewhere down the line before Mac OS X on Intel gets released into the wild...

Update: The numbers seem to have disappeared from Damien's site. I guess either he figured out they were way off base, got cold feet about publishing, or someone put pressure on him to remove them?

Update: More recent reports seem to indicate that Mac OS X may actually runs faster on the Intel boxes than on equivalent Power PC hardware. Perhaps the initial reports were from non-optimised installations?

Bluetooth hacked Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

After many scare stories about Bluetooth security flaws, it looks like a real one has been found at long last. Engadget has more...

New release of Python for Series 60 Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Eric Smart, the Product Manager at Nokia responsible for the Python port, announced today a pre-alpha release of the next version of Python for Series 60. This looks to be a major update and includes API hooks for the contacts and calendar, the camera, access to system information, and crucially to my mind, a new 2D graphics API for direct-screen drawing.

 
The new version of Python includes a 2D graphics API, used in the above game of Snake which ships as one of the example scripts...
Update: Version 1.1.3 has now been released...

Apple to move to Intel chips? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Apple related rumours are flying again ahead of WWDC 2005. This time that Steve Jobs will announce that Apple is switching to Intel based processors...

This is so unlikely I don't understand why everyone is talking about it, I don't even understand why I'm talking about it. But if true, the implications for the industry would be so far ranging it's almost impossible to figure out consequences. One thing is sure though, such a move would position Apple as a direct competitor to Microsoft, and we all know what that means.

Update: Slashdot has picked up the story...

Update: People seem to be taking this seriously. I guess I'm still sceptical, but obviously lots of other people believe it...

Update: Well at least I'm not the only one still sceptical...

Update: I was wrong, hell has frozen over...

One week in... Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

So I've been awfully quite since I got out to Hawaii, a lot of this is due to the fact that I'm currently in a hotel without in-room network access, but mostly because I've got way too much to do at work to spend my time blogging.

When people fly you three quarters of the way around the world to do something, you feel somewhat honour bound to give it your best efforts...