Category: General
Google has had a dedicated Mac Blog for the past five years run by Scott Knaster, a programmer and writer since 1980. While many places are ramping up their Mac based offerings, Google seems to be stepping off the platform in favor of pushing their own Chrome platform. Scott announced the end of life for the Google Mac Blog in the latest posting to the blog. Scott’s final post on the Google Mac Blog states that “Our Mac and iOS…
For those users who use Microsoft products on their Macs, you need to be aware that there is a new version of the Backdoor Trojan embedded in a word document related to the Tibetan situation. According to this article, it is possibly related to the Chinese effort to keep an eye on Tibetan sympathizers and any group banned by the Chinese goverment: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/03/30/mac-malware-backdoor/ Make sure that you update all of your Microsoft products to the latest version set by the…
This is of concern to people running Intel Macs, PCs, or Virtual Machines. As of May 23, 2012 the official version of Mint 13 is available from http://linuxmint.com. If anyone has the RC version, it seems to have updated successfully to the official version. The release comes on a single layer 800MB DVD. There are two versions at the moment. Cinnamon (a Gnome 3 fork) and MATE (a Gnome 2 fork). I have installed the 64 bit RC of Cinnamon…
KANSAS CITY, MO — March 7, 2012 — KansasFest, the 23rd annual convention dedicated to the Apple II computer, is now open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, July 17, through Sunday, July 22, for six days and five nights of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie. The week kicks off with a keynote speech John Romero, co-founder of id Software and creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous…
An 8-bit exhibition is scheduled to be put on by two Universita Degli Studi Di Trento professors from 18 April to 19 May in Trento Italy. Professor Damiano Cavicchio and Professor Ugo Mase are the curators of the exhibition. The exhibition will cover the entire history of the 8-bit computer, including the machines, the documentation, the advertisements and other related paraphernalia. The exhibition will be held at the Biblioteca Universitaria del Polo Scientifico “Fabio Ferrari” in Trento and will run…
A photo on the Daily, a news site covering a variety of topics, claims to be the next generation Microsoft Office Suite for the iPad. While not all that far fetched since One Note was released for the iPad, the fact that Microsoft would want to go beyond the On Live concept with their iPad based application seems a bit preposterous. With On Live, the control is all in the network, however, with an actual App, Microsoft loses all control…
Mozilla has released an update to the Firefox Browser that they have classified as a critical update. The update, Version 10.0.1, fixes a security flaw in version 10.0 as well as a Java freezing problem that was in previous versions of the browser. New items in the update include Most add-ons are now compatible with new versions of Firefox by default The forward button is now hidden until you navigate back Anti-Aliasing for WebGL is now implemented CSS3 3D-Transforms are…
Payton Byrd has announced a new Spring Time Retro Computer Convention for Clarksville, Tennessee in lieu of this years C4 convention. The announement in CSA2 placed the convention at the Riverview Inn (http://www.theriverviewinn.com/rvstie/ ]) in Clarksville. According to the announcement by Payton, “It would be the last weekend of May, (25-27) and we’d have the room for 48 hours. It’s a very nice facility in a great location near the Cumberland River and just minutes from shopping, dining and recreation…
In this day and age where iPhones and iPads can be tracked using the Where’s my iPhone App, you would think that thieves would take a bit of a more cautious approach. This time, the perpetrator robbed a woman in a handbag store at gun point. He took the woman’s purse and her iPhone, sticking the later item in his boot. When Police Office Robert Garland got on the job, he simply used the App to track the iPhone using…
The latest version of the Google Chrome browser has been released. Version 16.0.912.77 if primarily a maintenance release, fixing a number of bugs. You can download the latest version from the Google Chrome website at: https://www.google.com/chrome
Filemaker is offering 50% or $150 off the price of FileMaker Pro with the purchase of FileMaker Go for the iPhone or the iPad. The pricing for the iPhone version is $19.99 and $39.99 for the iPad Version. The deal is outlined on the FileMaker Special Page and is limited to end users of the product. The offer is good until 22 March, 2012. More information is available on the FileMaker website at: http://info.filemaker.com/fmgo_promo2012.html
An online study by Adobe Systems Inc shows that tablet users tended to spend about 21 percent more per purchase than other users. This study shows that they spent even more when compared to smart phone users, by a whopping 54 percent. This analysis may be the result of many companies tailoring their services for tablet devices in current updates. However, with the current trend in tablet computing the ease with which purchases are performed on the devices could be…
The SOPA Bill which was initially intended as an anti piracy bill, is now looking like it is becoming less of a threat to become Law. The White House and President Obama spoke out against the bill this past weekend and congress has now officially dropped the bill. This does not mean that there will not be some type of legislation forthcoming, as the PIPA bill is still being actively pursued in the Senate, in spite of seven senators coming…
According to a survey run by IDG recently, iPad use by professionals in the work place is at a very high level. This phenomena is not just a U.S. trend, it is a major global trend. The lowest rate of usage of the iPad for communications is in Europe where only 80% of professionals use it. However, in the US, this rate is 93% and in Asia and the middle east, that number reaches more than 97%. According to one…
Adobe announced this morning that they are releasing their Photoshop Lightroom 4 Beta and that it will be free for users to download. This latest update to the Lightroom application includes some new features specifically targeting the latest DSLR capabilities as well as the ability to create better quality photo books. To download your own copy of the latest Lightroom 4 beta, go to: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/
PIPA, the senate version of SOPA is now officially on the rocks. Seven members of the Senate who are co-sponsors of the bill are now asking Majority Leader, Harry Reid, not to hold a vote on PIPA. Apparently, they have been feeling the heat from their constituents and are finally agreeing that there are just too many issues with the bill as written that would severely censor the internet, cause litigation and impede on the 1st Amendment rights of Americans….
Lamar Smith (Texas) apparently doesnt even abide by what he is sponsoring. His campaign website used a photograph which was created by DJ Schulte. The Photograph was released under Creative Commons which requires credit for the photograph to be given somewhere within the website. However, on Smith’s website, no such credit was given and Schulte is actually a bit upset about it, saying on Facebook “So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court…
Vintage Computer festival East (VCF East) keynote speakers have been announced on the VCF website. VCF East is scheduled to happen May 5th and May 6th at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall New Jersey. Considered the smorgasbord of vintage computing, VCF covers the gamut of vintage computing platforms. It also is the only remaining event of the VCF Festivals after the downturn in the economy. The Saturday session will be headlined by the creator of the BASIC programming language,…
Google has released an update to their Google Currents application just a week after the introduction of the package. Version 1.0.1 is intended to resolve some of the stability issues with the Application as well as to fix scrolling issues on older versions of iOS 4. There are also some library issues that have been resolved. While this upgrade will work for some folks, several users are complaining about their feeds disappearing from their library. Also errors in the interface…
Apple has purchased the Israeli Flash Chip manufacturere, Anobit, according to a report in the Hebrew daily, Calcalist(http://www.calcalist.co.il ). The purchase, falling in line with Apple’s current path of owning as much of the manufacturing as possible, was accomplished with a price tag of $500 Million USD. Anobit manufacturers a chip which speeds up flash memory and is already in most of Apple’s mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad. If rumors about the potential of this purchase are true,…
