Tag Archives: Weltherrschaft

What-if episode, but without science fiction

Posted on by
Reply

You remember when Apple overtook MS in terms of market value, a few weeks ago? While I was dumb struck reading something like that at the time, it kept me wondering what could be the possible outcomes if a development like this continues. So here’s our little list, futureproof and all -

  1. Nothing really happens. Too often one fails to set the variables right, and the utmost part of speculation remains just that. But it might just give you an opportunity to be funny.
  2. The IT world as a whole continues to shift, and up to a third of all things digital could be done on smartphones and all sort of handsets, where we would be seeing Android (160 000 new activations A DAY? Still can’t believe it) and Apple as market leaders.
  3. Microsoft discontinues Windows. That would make Mac OS n the dominant “you’ll have to pay for that, my son”-OS out there. Every other manufacturer would need to adapt by either making Mac OS its native system like this

or, go ahead and try to delevop its own operating system, which is quite hard and costly. So why not take a long established standard, that costs nothing, while you may even claim money for it? Case in point, a little CD from South Africa? That would also mean the end of dual booting…like this.

_

On the shoulders of giants

Cupcake by Adam Powell on the Android Developer’s Blog.

Mac OS on a tiny VAIO by daharder via boingboing.

Fused logo by dedoimedo.com.

Why I live inside my chrome browser

Posted on by
1

And I have for several months now, and happily, I might add.

So, let’s talk a little bit about my portal to happiness, my stairway to heaven, although, I am sorry, I forgot – no stairway. Chrome from Google. Available on all big operating systems, I’ve been using it for hundreds of hours now on ubuntu. You simply have to hit the official site, and get the appropiate software package, which the site automatically chooses and offers to you. As a slightly confusing sidenote, you have to pay attention to the two versions that are available in the wild: The one we are talking about here, and the other one without the branding, the name and logo, called chromium, which runs under the BSD license, but for me just created many problems unknown to me before, like freezing the screen and refusing to play video on the web.

With Chrome proper however, you get a browser that is fast. Really fast. That takes up only half of standard Firefox’ primary memory consumption, which makes it even faster. And lighter. That ist stable, unlike anything I’ve seen before, and that’s saying a lot seeing I use ubuntu. And apparently, very secure. Can’t really talk about that, since I am still waiting for a proper virus under the ‘Nux family, and all I ever got offered online was some stale “download this *.exe and be happy instantly” – come on guys, you should be able to see the IP, ISP, browser and of course, operating system of most of your forced-upon visitors – and I didn’t even modify the user-agent.

This shouldn't happen on this blog. After all, it's wordpress.

So, let’s get to the shortcomings, as there still are a few, as of me running version 5.0.375.70.

First off, sometimes chrome hides, or “blacks out” the tabs. You have to point over them quickly in order to be able to see your tabs again. No biggie. But peculiar. Next, when trying to automatically add a RSS-feed to Google Reader, which usually takes like, one click, chrome just displays the text of the last few entries of that particular feed, but not the usual little site letting you choose between “iGoogle” and “Reader”. Minor inconvenience this. Moving on, certain sites display a big red warning saying that the site’s security certificate has run out or isn’t valid. Like this -

And you could be unlucky and have this without the left button letting you proceed all the same, effectively shutting you out without any real security reason. This problem usually has its reason in out-of-sync time settings, and it seems to be popping up again over time passing. So, no Gears of War stats for this browser, sometimes.

The only real big issue is, of all things, GMail. Google Mail under chrome doesn’t let you put in the recipient’s email address, you have to always type the first few letters of the email address, and hope that GMail does its autocomplete. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Also, the attachments: 75% of times you like to attach something, and click the “attach” button, the button vanishes, and that’s it. So, no attachments for this baby. Gotta hit pidgin and try to move the stuff over there.

So there you go, my pros and cons of Google’s magical chrome browser. Besides the mentioned minor annoyances, I truly never have looked back. Also, it has Feedsquares.

_

On the shoulders of giants -

Get the browser for free here – http://www.google.com/chrome/?hl=en-GB&brand=

After some time, you’ll need these shortcuts – http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95743

And for a little insight of how chrome’s separate tabs work, look at the official chrome comic book -http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

Look up to the sky…you might see SKYNET all over your head.

Posted on by
Reply
A few years ago, somebody wrote about his slightly eerie feelings when he heard about a japanese robotics and cybernetics company giving itself the name Cyberdyne Inc.
...this could have been an image, but now, all there is is a broken link. Somehow sad, somehow adagio....this could have been a really nice and fitting and utterly clever pic, but now, all there is, is a broken link to nowhere. Sad thing, and somehow adagio.
At that time, at first I had to smile to myself, second it was “yeay, just another well thought-of popcultural reference in a company name”, but after thinking about it, the strange feelings started to creep in. Here’s why.
The real-world Cyberdyne Inc. is the business extension of one Prof. Yoshiyuki Sankai and his research and development work at the University of Tsukuba. Its headquarters reside in Ibaraki and it is specialized in R&D and manufacturing a robotic suit that is designed to assist humans increasing their strength. So, it really is in line with Cyberdyne Systems. Now, with their head of development being inspired by Isaac Asimov’s “I, robot” and cyberpunk anime, it was just a small step to actually make it happen and seize this name for his newly founded company. But, and that’s the eerie part of the story mentioned before, for each individual that either was at the movies in 1984 to watch the original “Terminator”, or watched it on videotape a few years later on, the first part of this movie’s mythology has become real. If you watched this movie, you probably never were able to shake off the bleak and utterly pessimistic point of view of the film’s story and environments. That’s what made the movie one of the best of all times, but it’s also what’ll probably make you wanna wear sun protection factor 2 million in the near future in a few years from now.
_
On the shoulders of giants:
Corporate site of Cyberdyne Inc. – http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/index.html, where we got our first picture from.
And for the real life Cyberdyne Systems – http://www.skynetdivision.net/ – we’re one step into the future.
The Terminator was once property of Carolco flicks, which has long been defunct, and has then been picked up by some well-meaning, but utterly trashy company nobody cares about.