Archive for November, 2005
November 24, 2005 at 6:42 pm · Categorised under Blog
Not sure if this has been enabled for a long time now…but if you try and access gmail using a standard http unsecure connection it doesn’t redirect you to the SSL connection. I just noticed it today…when I saw no padlock in the corner. When you first log in it still takes you to the secure one…but if you just type in www.gmail.com then it will take you to the http **non-secure** version (at least in Firefox).
My thoughts are that Google are trying to cut down on the number of secure services that they release. Since the https header requires a huge amount of bandwidth more than http…and Google’s slower servers are the https ones then I’m guessing that to get stability with all the new services they are going to move some of them over to the simple http protocol. For email however, I think https make more sense…I mean for Google Feed Reader or something like that it doesn’t actually matter but for most people Gmail needs to allow for a secure connection.
· Posted by Utills
November 24, 2005 at 6:41 pm · Categorised under Blog
According to a forum on Gamespot suspending your power supply in the air seems to fix the problem of the new Xbox crashing. If its just the power supply again then its another worry for Micrsoft although tis probably more of a relief at this moment in time since they would be more than happy to replace a power supply than an Xbox. The original Xbox power supply caused fires due to a faulty cable or something which initiated a complete recall of all power supplies by MS to be on the safe side. It might have to do the same thing here.
· Posted by Utills
November 23, 2005 at 5:45 pm · Categorised under Blog
My PSP arrived this morning. It said it would arrive by Friday…so I was quite surprised when it arrived so soon. I mean I only ordered it on Monday. Anywayz…my thoughts. It exudes quality as do most Sony products. Even taking the memory card out of the small pouch makes you think that they have spent extra money on a throw away pouch. The shiny surface gets smudged very easily but I guess that comes with the territory. What I would have really liked would have been a really really dull looking black titanium style black. You know like the brushed metal approach of the previous iTunes…but in black. That would have looked much cooler than shiny smudgy black. Oh well! I was going to go for the white one…but then I decided against it since I think the black version looks better.
If any of you has a PSP…and have used software on it (not homebrew)..like the PSP web browser let me know what it supports…Can I for example download by RSS a list of news stories and emails…as well as podcasts or videos in the morning before I commute. Is it easy to do…or do I have to manually copy and paste files into strange folders to put my own content on it? Does the music playing feature allow for custom playlists? Can I sync a playlist from my computer to the PSP…so any changes made on my computer are automatically changed onto my PSP?
As I dont have any games at the moment (GTA and Pro Evo 5 are in the post - well Pro Evo 5 will eb in the post from tomorrow) I can’t test the game playing aspect for the time being. The firmware on the PSP says 1.51 so I’m not sure if that means I can play homebrew games on it but I dont wanna touch any of that till I get used to the console. I will be getting a 1gb card soon for it so that I can transfer some music and vids onto it to consume on the way to uni. That shall mean I need to learn how to use PSP Video 9 and possibly the PSP Media Manager.
I will post more info once I start playing a few games on it. The only design flaw which came in front of me today was entering text on the PSP…they’ve got this stupid txt msg style keyboard which means u have to click a few time to get a char to come up. It suck in all respects of HCI that I wont even bother talking about it.
Some interesting titles coming out…I think GTA and Pro Evolution Soccer 5 will do me for now…well for at least the next few months. The multi-player aspect of these two games is for me the most exciting thing. Most of the people online dont seem to have any friends or something…cos I haven’t read even one review which goes into detail into the multi-player aspect of these games. They talk about it from a very theoretical point of view..but then again the chance of getting two+ people in the same room for a long period of time with the same game is prob quite limited.
Oh well…I’ll have to write the multi-player review when I get my pro evo game.
· Posted by Utills
November 23, 2005 at 4:54 pm · Categorised under Blog
Pretty cool idea…but not something that would take off except for perhaps older people. For a limited amount of companies this may be useful but I dont see it taking off for the average Google Adwords Advertiser. One of the big ideas behind this is the anonymous calling that happens. When you call…you actually call Google..who then call the company involved. They dont see your number but you can see the companies number.
Google of course takes your privacy very seriously and deletes the number after a “short period” of time….like 4 months…wait for the but…..4 months “after the last time you used the service”. Which basically means that regular user’s numbers are stored on Google for like forever (2038 - I think thats the expiry date of the whole internet…like the y2k bug but delayed by 38 years).
· Posted by Utills
November 23, 2005 at 2:52 pm · Categorised under Blog
Zawodny talks about storage solutions moving online and InsideGoogle speculates on conspiracies that Google is investing in boxes that allow petabytes (3.5) to be stored in a 20-40 foot box…with about 5000 Opteron processors inside…
This could lean towards Google capturing the market seeming as they have the technology in place (Google FS) to store data redundantly so that data loss does not occur when systems/hdd/racks crash. Google Base is the start of this in my opinion of getting businesses to store backups and other data online. Imagine at the end of each day you can just send Google a RSS feed of all new transactions and Google would do all the hard work of keeping the data neat and tidy and easily accessible.
Conspiracy Theorists can come out now and play…
· Posted by Utills
November 23, 2005 at 2:38 pm · Categorised under Blog
Looks like the Microsoft name is to be dragged through the dodgy release mud again. True to most PC software releases there is a philosophy of releasing early and fixing bugs later. Unfortunately (for them) this does really work in the console market where they can’t really fix problems easily. (Or can they? Does Xbox Live have some sort of fix bugs feature?).
Some pics that have turned up online. A vid is also available!
Thats why its better to wait till all the faults are ironed out. (Xbox 360 generation #5 anyone?)
Update: Best slashdot comment :
Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before finishing the first lap
Sounds like someone needs to improve their driving skills and stop blaming the system.
· Posted by Utills
November 23, 2005 at 2:27 pm · Categorised under Blog
Does anyone else get a pop-up in firefox (version 1.5) when they go to the following link: -
http://www.methodshop.com/psp/support/firmware/index.shtml
Strange…its the first pop-up i’ve seen in a long time!
· Posted by Utills
November 23, 2005 at 10:27 am · Categorised under Blog
This time though they may capture a greater market share cos they are at least 6 months earlier than Sony. If you think about the original price of the PS2 in the UK…over £400…then the Xbox 360 pricing strategy is clearly a market penetration policy where in the long run they will make more money if there are a greater number of users.
Just speculating here but I think the Xbox 360 is low in price on purpose but not due to gamers but to try and capture what I call the “Tivo” market. What I mean by that is people wanting to buy a DVD player/recorder or media center may click on that actually the Xbox allows streaming from a PC as well as a lot of other cool Media Center functions. If they get the Xbox for this reason (a bit like people buying the PSP for video and music) then this could in the long run boost Microsoft’s position in the home market for Media Center devices and perhaps allow them to do what they do best (or have done in past) and give the consumer what they want instead of bowing to tv networks like Tivo is doing.
[via Joystiq]
· Posted by Utills
November 21, 2005 at 11:42 pm · Categorised under Blog
I came across this wonderful cartoon on the web….check it out…
By the way, the article from which it comes from is extremely interesting…so give it a read if you have time. Thats my saying thank you for stealing your cartoon…nice one!
· Posted by Utills
November 21, 2005 at 10:42 pm · Categorised under Blog
Google are backing Firefox, so much so that they are even giving away $1 per referral to each adsense publisher. My thoughts are that most of the people I know…download extensions to Firefox such as Adblock as soon as they install Firefox. This is one of the selling points of Firefox that no longer do we have to see big flashy annoying ads, which gives us as the user the control to see what we want.
In the long run if more and more users take up Adblock they would be denying Google a large chunk of their revenue since their stream of revenue comes from context based advertising. Since Adblock blocks the javascript ads from Google it means that Firefox users with Adblock are less likely to be earning money for Google. I’m sure it would be trivial for Google to compute…but it would be very interesting to see stats for the click through rate dependant on browser type. I guess a popular site could compute the same figures which may be common across many sites to see who exactly (the type of user) that generates the most amount of money.
· Posted by Utills
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