Archive for July, 2007

Windows Vista, Vienna’s Windows ME !

Right, Windows ME was an acronym in the computer industry for “Many Errors” and was rumored to be some sort of weird messed up release of windows that somehow got onto the market in between windows 98 (I miss the days of re-installing every 30 days) and Windows XP (not counting Win 2000, was a business OS at the time). It crashed a lot, supported less than Win 98 and generally made people who had it installed feel inadequate about their lives !

Well, is it possible we have another contender for the ‘Many Errors’ award, Vista was, in initial reports going to be the crown jewel of Microsoft’s operating systems, a bee-all and end-all to their years of development, with amazing graphical user interfaces, new hard disk management and file system support, completly 64-bit powered and, lets not forget ‘a wow experience’.

Well, the outcome of this is somewhat different, i remember several months before Vista’s release seeing a video on on YouTube from Microsoft, showing a conceptual representation of the Vista GUI… Well, all i could think was WOW, was amazing… Alas the actual release of Vista was lacking a few dozen of the features people were pining over, and their WOW campaign (based on the initial impressions of peoples reaction to using Vista) should of been extended to include the following 3 words “WOW, this is rubbish”. But this being said, the O/S has its good points (of course im not refereing to the dozen versions or the widgets which chew processor power all the time)…

Heres the revelation, though kept quite secret atm, Microsoft have another baby in the bag (good old Bill, Punching em out like a trooper), Say hello to Windows Vienna ! this is the new development being pushed forward for release in late 2009, meaning vista’s life is going to be short lived at best (in fact, i cant see SP2 ever hitting the market), This as you might imagine is rumoured to have many of the features which ‘Longhorn’ had in development, can u see where this is going !

Sounds like Microsoft big bosses needed a release, much like XP’s initial release, rushed and crappy… except this time, Service Packs are only half the solution to the disappointment’s, their actually being busy bee’s getting the next release ready for all of us happy people to rush out and pay for (makes ya wanna support BitTorrent a little more dont it lol).

Well, cant say im really a Vista supporter, iv got it installed and look at it every now and then when i come across a piece of software which wont work on my MAC, but for the most part im looking forward to hearing news about this new Windows XP, i mean Windows ME, Sorry i mean Windows Vienna !

IPod Security - The Next Level

Apple in a recent announcment have laid down a new patent regarding their next generation IPods, a new technology which is to implemeted will detect when a users IPod is being connected to a machine other than its owners and refuse to charge, Its uncertain if the unit will still be able to sync or exchange files with the host machine, or how it will deal with a stand alone charger (lets say the potential thief likes your music, he wont nessararily need to plug it into his comp) but it effectivly renders the unit useless to the new owner, especially if he takes a liking to the new Killers album !
Awsom idea on apples behalf, but i get the feeling that much like many of apples recent revelations, someone else had already made this and apple tagged it as a good idea. Much like Spaces (aka VirtueDesktop) & new versions of spotlight (AKA Quicksilver), but lets face facts and say that although apple to seem to be running a collection agency for other peoples apple ideas at the moment, they are making a dam good job of improving them and seemlessly intergrating them into the new Operating system.

Lets chalk this new security feature up as a Wait-and-See idea, i can somehow see a few people thinking its gonna be more of a pain in the ass.

Windows Home Server (2003 with its Nuts cut off)

Heya everyone, i like many of you have probably been keeping an eye on the progress of the Windows Home Server operating system, the apparent perfect installation for all thos home media buff who keep Gig’s and Gigs of media stored on their HDD’s (most of it probably illegal, or in true terms, porn !)

Well, finally a release candidate appeared on the web a little while back for us to all have a play with, gotta say, its interesting ! The main aims of WHS (Windows Home Server) is to satrisfy the gap in the home entertainmen market and provide a back end to streaming media onto Windows Media Centers (2005 or Vista) and also their XBOX consoles. The O/S is built onto Windows 2003 Server, taking advantage of its reliability and robust secure environment but also adding several consumer friendly features:

  • Software RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) with the ability to turn on and off folder replication.
  • Simplified user setup.
  • Remote administration interface run from a PC connected to the network.
  • Internet access to shared folders and user folders on the Server.
  • Access to PCs on the network from anywhere.
  • Automated health check for the server, disks and networked computers.
  • Automated backup of networked PCs.
  • DNLA compliant for streaming video, music and pictures to any DNLA compliant device such as XBox360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Broadband Media Receivers (BMR)

Its gotta be said that its kinda picky about what systems it can be intalled upon, making sure that the primary windows HDD is above 70GB for instance (Obviously not really a problem considering ya cant buy anything less than 80 Now-a-days).

The management of the system once installed is a simple and very easy to get around, Microsoft has made a good job of making this idiot proof, shares and permissions, even adding and removing users is very simple to achieve (very quickly). A choice of management platforms is available, either from direct access to the machine and the Home Server Management console, or by enabling it, a web based interface, which looks almost identical !

A selection of Advanced settings allow for a little more control over the server, with things such as backup schedules and password strength configuration. The configuration of Remote access to the server even allows for the usage of UPNP to auto configure your home router for access, although not completly successful all the time !

Manual configuration using Ports 435, 4125, 443 & 80.

Overall, I can see the benefits of this for people who wanna save a couple of quid, but personally, my gods to honest opinion ‘I HATE DYNAMIC DISK RAID ARRAYS’ its just a bad concept (great theory, but shit in reality). I would never trust the management of a set of Hard disks running RAID5 Parity of a 2TB array to Microsoft Windows, its already got enough to worry about trying not to crash every 10 mins, but adding the extra workload of RAID into the mix makes me wanna cry.

Iv actually got a friend who runs a software raid inside windows XP professional, and every time it hiccups and has to re-build i can hear him crying from my house… The Home Server is, again, a nice concept, another jewel in Microsofts big-ass crown, but im not sure where the benefits of this truly lye other than simplicity for idiots who cant be assed to buy “Server 2003 for Idiots”… it doesnt really add much extra to what you would get from doing a standard install of Windows Server 2003 and setting up some users and shares (or even starting your own domain with ‘dcpromo’), but Home Server does take a away a lot of features from 2003 (or at least hides them, go hunting and im sure their shortcuts have just been removed from the start menu lol)

Final Opinion - Nah, just get a copy of 2003 and do it yourself with a nice Hardware RAID card !

Dashalytics 3.0 Widget

Okay then people, the day is here, for those of you who havent come across Google analytics, get your ass over to google now and set up your account… Very powerful and very simple site analysis tool run ‘free’ by the nice people at google.

By only adding a single piece of code to the pages you wish to track (or the inc_footer.php file many people use for simplicity) you can successfully track everything, from site hits per page to the time they stay all the way down to what browser and O/S their using… well just when things couldnt look any better for this marvel of modern technology, a widget has now appeared onto the market which is again free to download and install onto your Mac OS X machine which gives a brief summery of the site you are tracking, personally i think this is absolutely awsom and kinda surprised it aint hit the web a little before now, but check it out over at http://dashalytics.rovingrob.com quick and easy download !

My mistake, im happy to be educated that its been around a while and im just ignorant of the wkd gadgets available (blaming it on the fact im new to mac lol, only been a child of the apple for about 5 months, but happy to be here !)