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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Apple G4 PowerBook and iBook Battery Recall
Apple G4 PowerBook and G4 iBook Battery Recall (Coral Cache Mirror) - Check your model now. Some will catch on fire!
I just checked my G4 AlBook, it's not affected. And Brandy's iBook is a G3 iBook, not a G4. So we're in the clear! :)
I just checked my G4 AlBook, it's not affected. And Brandy's iBook is a G3 iBook, not a G4. So we're in the clear! :)
Apple Announces Recall of Batteries Used in Previous iBook and PowerBook Computers Due To Fire Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announces the following recall in voluntary cooperation with the firm below. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries with cells manufactured by Sony for certain previous iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 notebook computers only.
Units: About 1.1 million battery packs (an additional 700,000 battery packs were sold outside the U.S.)
Battery Cell Manufacturer: Sony Energy Devices Corp., of Japan
Computer Manufacturer: Apple Computer Inc., of Cupertino, Calif.
Hazard: These lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers.
Incidents/Injuries: Apple has received nine reports of batteries overheating, including two reports of minor burns from handling overheated computers and other reports of minor property damage. No serious injuries were reported.
Description: The recalled lithium-ion batteries were used with the following computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4. Consumers should remove the battery from the computer to view the model and serial numbers labeled on the bottom of the unit.
Computer model name Battery model number Battery serial numbers 12-inch iBook G4 A1061 ZZ338 through ZZ427 | 3K429 through 3K611 | 6C510 through 6C626 12-inch PowerBook G4 A1079 ZZ411 through ZZ427 | 3K428 through 3K611 15-inch PowerBook G4 A1078 and A1148 3K425 through 3K601 | 6N530 through 6N551 | 6N601
No other Apple notebook computers are involved in this recall.
Sold Through: Apple’s online store, Apple retail stores nationwide, and Apple Authorized Resellers from October 2003 through August 2006 for between $900 and $2300. The batteries also were sold separately for about $130.
Assembled in: Japan, Taiwan and China
Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled batteries immediately and contact Apple to arrange for a replacement battery, free of charge. After removing the recalled battery from their iBook or PowerBook, consumers should plug in the AC adapter to power the computer until a replacement battery arrives.
Consumer Contact: : Contact Apple at (800) 275-2273 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. CT Monday through Sunday or log on to Apple’s Web site at http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram to check the battery’s serial number and request a replacement battery.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
MacBook Wireless Vulnerability
James McMurry is trying to figure out what the heck is going on with the MacBook Wireless Vulnerability. Anybody cares to chime-in?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Skimmer Kid, Hermosa Beach, CA
Skimmer Kid, Hermosa Beach, CA
Originally uploaded by chrisholland.
I took this pic 2 years ago exactly.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Traffic Shaping in Mac OS X Tiger
"Tiger finally has dummynet support in the kernel. What this means to you is that now you can do traffic shaping with no additional software."
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Introducing SIPCasting - Broadcasting for the Masses
What is it?
It's peer-powered broadcasting leveraging the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and a few SIP-enabled tools and services to relay streamed data across multiple peers. It's currently not a "software package". It's a methodology, that might one day motivate the community to define key protocols, perhaps one day leading to the development of software packages dedicated to broadcasting over SIP. Until then, we'll explore what can be done today using freely available SIP software and services and start pinpointing limitations to be addressed.
Why not just use PeerCast and other dedicated P2P Broadcasting technologies for streaming media?
I can't think of a reason! They're worth trying out, and if this post does nothing but bring them publicity, we'll be off to a strong start. Check out projects similar to PeerCast.
Why Peer-to-Peer for Broadcasting?
While the vast majority of "content" can be consumed asynchronously, such as with podcasting, certain timely events and massively shared experiences warrant more "real-time" coverage.
P2P's already actively being used for digital asset delivery: thanks to pioneering peer-powered digital asset distribution frameworks such as BitTorrent, RedSwoosh, and Dijjer, it's becoming easier to leverage aggregate "visitor" bandwidth to more effectively deliver content.
Broadcasting in real-time to large audiences needs more P2P-love, as it remains today too onerous for independent authors to broadcast in real-time to masses. Leveraging peer-to-peer technologies for broadcasting is a fascinating human evolution in further freeing ourselves from our dependency on Big Media.
Phone, Cable, Media companies, are working around the clock lobbying legislators to keep a choke-hold on distribution of content, and the way we use broadband. Smart, legal, exciting applications of peer-to-peer technologies can further help legislators understand the importance of unfettered broadband connectivity.
When was SIPCasting first more or less successfully used? And how?
Well, in theory as early as the first time a group of people connected together in a SIP audio conference. The SIP RFC is dated circa 1995 so there had to be some geeks back then trying some cool stuff on local networks. But most recently, during the Apple WWDC 2006 Keynote, by a few TheAppleBlog readers, eager to listen to live spoken updates from a field correspondent, as a complement to textual coverage performed elsewhere. Here's an outline of the logistics of setting-up a basic SIPCast.
How is SIPCasting different? What does SIP give us?
SIP enables slightly different use cases: When two peers have established contact via SIP/STUN, both peers can exchange data in real-time over UDP. Data can go both ways. This enables SIP to power many forms of real-time communications. Traditional "broadcasting" is very-much a one-way process: Data flows from one source, to be passively received and consumed. SIP provides a strong framework for content consumers to also send data back to the "broadcaster". In essence, in a basic SIP session, there is no real such thing as a "broadcaster" and "consumer", but rather a tacit agreement between two peers, designating who "talks" and who "listens". In the specific use case of a live audio broadcast, a "listener" might choose to "speak up", in a more interactive framework. This may often not be desirable, and dedicated software would seek to provide a measure of control over available interactivity.
SIP provides a standard framework to execute the dirty work: SIP, STUN, SDP already define the low-level mechanisms for peers to find each-other, agree on the logistics of the session, and exchange media RTP packets over UDP, even through the vast majority of NAT configurations. Many peer-to-peer frameworks keep reinventing their own protocols to solve these problems.
SIP is versatile: SIP enables a slew of peer-to-peer applications based on mature, open standards. A while back, EarthLink R&D released a proof of concept SIP-powered peer-to-peer file sharing application written in Java: SIPShare.
SIP is highly interoperable: If something speaks SIP, chances are just about anything can conceivably connect to it. You've got a SIP-based radio broadcast? A Zyxel wifi phone user just might give you a ring from an airport Boingo hotspot. Perhaps a MindSpring, GizmoProject, or Free World Dialup user might plug your SIPCast address into their phone. Heck, if you mapped an ipkall.com 360 area code phone number to your SIP address, anybody with a plain old cell phone would be likely to dial you up and listen-in.
SIP addressing is powerful ... and convenient: Consider one of many possible forms of SIP addresses: sip:theappleblog@earthlink.net. Looks familiar? Just like an e-mail address. SIP also supports "session forwarding". I can arbitrarily decide to forward calls to my SIP address to another SIP address. Domain name registrars need to capitalize on this today, and add this as a feature alongside wild-card mail forwarding @somedomain.bleh. This is achievable by declaring your SIP proxy host as a handler of SIP traffic via DNS SRV records.
What Now?
We need to attempt more practice-runs of larger-scale audio SIPCasts using SJPhone, and/or perhaps even asterisk.
We need to document the many obvious and not-so-obvious limitations of this ad-hoc setup.
We need to define some use cases for SIPCast software that allows control over interactivity levels, and streamlines the peer discovery and media relay processes.
It's peer-powered broadcasting leveraging the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and a few SIP-enabled tools and services to relay streamed data across multiple peers. It's currently not a "software package". It's a methodology, that might one day motivate the community to define key protocols, perhaps one day leading to the development of software packages dedicated to broadcasting over SIP. Until then, we'll explore what can be done today using freely available SIP software and services and start pinpointing limitations to be addressed.
Why not just use PeerCast and other dedicated P2P Broadcasting technologies for streaming media?
I can't think of a reason! They're worth trying out, and if this post does nothing but bring them publicity, we'll be off to a strong start. Check out projects similar to PeerCast.
Why Peer-to-Peer for Broadcasting?
While the vast majority of "content" can be consumed asynchronously, such as with podcasting, certain timely events and massively shared experiences warrant more "real-time" coverage.
P2P's already actively being used for digital asset delivery: thanks to pioneering peer-powered digital asset distribution frameworks such as BitTorrent, RedSwoosh, and Dijjer, it's becoming easier to leverage aggregate "visitor" bandwidth to more effectively deliver content.
Broadcasting in real-time to large audiences needs more P2P-love, as it remains today too onerous for independent authors to broadcast in real-time to masses. Leveraging peer-to-peer technologies for broadcasting is a fascinating human evolution in further freeing ourselves from our dependency on Big Media.
Phone, Cable, Media companies, are working around the clock lobbying legislators to keep a choke-hold on distribution of content, and the way we use broadband. Smart, legal, exciting applications of peer-to-peer technologies can further help legislators understand the importance of unfettered broadband connectivity.
When was SIPCasting first more or less successfully used? And how?
Well, in theory as early as the first time a group of people connected together in a SIP audio conference. The SIP RFC is dated circa 1995 so there had to be some geeks back then trying some cool stuff on local networks. But most recently, during the Apple WWDC 2006 Keynote, by a few TheAppleBlog readers, eager to listen to live spoken updates from a field correspondent, as a complement to textual coverage performed elsewhere. Here's an outline of the logistics of setting-up a basic SIPCast.
How is SIPCasting different? What does SIP give us?
SIP enables slightly different use cases: When two peers have established contact via SIP/STUN, both peers can exchange data in real-time over UDP. Data can go both ways. This enables SIP to power many forms of real-time communications. Traditional "broadcasting" is very-much a one-way process: Data flows from one source, to be passively received and consumed. SIP provides a strong framework for content consumers to also send data back to the "broadcaster". In essence, in a basic SIP session, there is no real such thing as a "broadcaster" and "consumer", but rather a tacit agreement between two peers, designating who "talks" and who "listens". In the specific use case of a live audio broadcast, a "listener" might choose to "speak up", in a more interactive framework. This may often not be desirable, and dedicated software would seek to provide a measure of control over available interactivity.
SIP provides a standard framework to execute the dirty work: SIP, STUN, SDP already define the low-level mechanisms for peers to find each-other, agree on the logistics of the session, and exchange media RTP packets over UDP, even through the vast majority of NAT configurations. Many peer-to-peer frameworks keep reinventing their own protocols to solve these problems.
SIP is versatile: SIP enables a slew of peer-to-peer applications based on mature, open standards. A while back, EarthLink R&D released a proof of concept SIP-powered peer-to-peer file sharing application written in Java: SIPShare.
SIP is highly interoperable: If something speaks SIP, chances are just about anything can conceivably connect to it. You've got a SIP-based radio broadcast? A Zyxel wifi phone user just might give you a ring from an airport Boingo hotspot. Perhaps a MindSpring, GizmoProject, or Free World Dialup user might plug your SIPCast address into their phone. Heck, if you mapped an ipkall.com 360 area code phone number to your SIP address, anybody with a plain old cell phone would be likely to dial you up and listen-in.
SIP addressing is powerful ... and convenient: Consider one of many possible forms of SIP addresses: sip:theappleblog@earthlink.net. Looks familiar? Just like an e-mail address. SIP also supports "session forwarding". I can arbitrarily decide to forward calls to my SIP address to another SIP address. Domain name registrars need to capitalize on this today, and add this as a feature alongside wild-card mail forwarding @somedomain.bleh. This is achievable by declaring your SIP proxy host as a handler of SIP traffic via DNS SRV records.
What Now?
We need to attempt more practice-runs of larger-scale audio SIPCasts using SJPhone, and/or perhaps even asterisk.
We need to document the many obvious and not-so-obvious limitations of this ad-hoc setup.
We need to define some use cases for SIPCast software that allows control over interactivity levels, and streamlines the peer discovery and media relay processes.
Monday, August 07, 2006
TAB Audio Party Line Relays
This is a follow-up to this post.
For those interested in being an audio party-line relay:
We're still looking for more standby relayers for the audio partyline.
1) Configure SJPhone with a SIP account following these directions
2) in the Preferences menu, "Call options" tab, check [x] automatically accept incoming calls.
3) Make sure the conference button is clicked,
4) e-mail your SIP address to frenchy@gmail.com. In the e-mail, also tell me what your upstream/downstream speed is on your broadband connectivity ... if you know it.
For everybody else interested in audio party-line:
1) Install MindSpring (PC Users), or GizmoProject (Mac, PC, Linux) or run any other SIP-capable program.
2) plug the following sip address in your SIP program: sip:theappleblog@earthlink.net
3)Find the mute button and keep it pressed unless you need to speak-up :)
If all you have is a phone, try this:
(360) 526-6161
For those interested in a text chat with live keynote updates:
Head here! Go to AIM Chat Room: TheAppleBlog
For those interested in being an audio party-line relay:
We're still looking for more standby relayers for the audio partyline.
1) Configure SJPhone with a SIP account following these directions
2) in the Preferences menu, "Call options" tab, check [x] automatically accept incoming calls.
3) Make sure the conference button is clicked,
4) e-mail your SIP address to frenchy@gmail.com. In the e-mail, also tell me what your upstream/downstream speed is on your broadband connectivity ... if you know it.
For everybody else interested in audio party-line:
1) Install MindSpring (PC Users), or GizmoProject (Mac, PC, Linux) or run any other SIP-capable program.
2) plug the following sip address in your SIP program: sip:theappleblog@earthlink.net
3)Find the mute button and keep it pressed unless you need to speak-up :)
If all you have is a phone, try this:
(360) 526-6161
For those interested in a text chat with live keynote updates:
Sunday, August 06, 2006
WWDC 2006 Live Keynote Coverage/Chat
Chat with hundreds (if not thousands) of other mac users during The Apple Blog's live keynote coverage and chat.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Friday, August 04, 2006
FCC Supports Broadband over Power Lines
"The Federal Communications Commission decided Aug. 3 to reaffirm its stance on the deployment of broadband-over-power-line technology." "By adpting this order, the FCC rejected requests by several groups, including the amateur radio community, the aviation industry and broadcasters, to either limit the service or to disallow it completely. "
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Apple may restate profits amid accounting scandal
The accounting scandal engulfing Apple deepened today as the computer company warned Wall Street that its earnings figures over the past four years "should not be relied upon," sending its shares tumbling.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Del.icio.us Traffic Plummets
Unique visitors have dropped by 22%, and page views
have dropped by a whopping 75%, erasing all gains in traffic this
year. Del.icio.us is effectively at the same traffic levels as they
were when it was acquired in December 2005
read more | digg story
have dropped by a whopping 75%, erasing all gains in traffic this
year. Del.icio.us is effectively at the same traffic levels as they
were when it was acquired in December 2005
read more | digg story
Chad Vader - Episode 2
awesome! :)
"Strike me down with your hatred, and claim your refund".
"Chad, vomit clean-up aisle 5".
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Beyond AdSense: A Business Model Checklist
Brian Oberkirch of Like It Matters offers a useful list of "the various business models available to developers of live Web apps & services."
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Dodgers vs Padres
dodgers lunch
Originally uploaded by chrisholland.
Padres won, i think ... we didn't stay 'till the end. It was fun hanging out with the crew for a couple of hours. Back at the office now :o
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Inconvenient Truth: Go See It
It hasn't shaken me to the same dramatic extent it has shaken my sister Alex, whose sole mission in life since her early teens has been to save the planet, but I believe it's a movie very well worth seeing. It clearly lays out the science behind global warning, with very precise claims that can be easily verified by even the most skeptics, all leading to the very logical conclusions overwhelmingly adopted as fact by the scientific community.
If you haven't already, find a local showing of Inconvenient Truth. And head over to climatecrisis.net.
If you haven't already, find a local showing of Inconvenient Truth. And head over to climatecrisis.net.
TrackThePack -- fast, easy and stylish all-in-one package tracking
Package tracking has long been given the cold shoulder when it comes to cool tools to help organize your life. TrackThePack is a simple, but extremely useful web application. Check it out!
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Prodigem Becomes MoveDigital
Gary Lerhaupt, the guy behind Prodigem.com just sent this e-mail:
Following Prodigem's acquisition back in March, I've been hard at work working with a great group of folks to retool Prodigem for rerelease as a new service. I'm happy to report that today that new service launches, and the web service formerly known as Prodigem is now known
as MoveDigital. http://www.movedigital.com
The focus of the service is centered on moving your digital data (hence the name). So beyond just publishing BitTorrents, the service also does direct download publishing as well as mobile phone video and audio publishing (just like our publishing of torrents, we convert your video and audio to mobile phone format for you, and then also take care of the streaming to your 3G cell phone).
So do stop on over and check it out. All Prodigem user accounts and content have been transferred over. Your usernames are still the same, and all Prodigem users also get a free 1 year membership. We're pleased also to announce that Senator John Edwards is our first official customer, not only using MoveDigital to distribute his videos for the mobile phone, but also to be distributed for the first time via BitTorrent.
There's a lot more too. We've created this very cool web widget that makes it very simple to reblog your MoveDigital links. And included with this web widget, via its 'Share' button, is a notion we're calling 'social bandwidth sharing' which allows other users to directly add bandwidth into your account from wherever you may have placed your widget. Moreover, MoveDigital bandwidth is different than what you'll find anywhere else. For direct downloads, we only deduct bandwidth from your account for completely delivered files. You don't get penalized if someone stops downloading half way through. As well, your bandwidth always rolls over to your next membership period, so it's always there for you.
Look forward to seeing you at MoveDigital,
Gary Lerhaupt
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Thursday, July 13, 2006
RSS Reader and Social Bookmarking: EarthLink Going Web 2.0
Uh-Oh!
It looks like Steve's found out what these guys, among many others, have been obsessively slaving at for the past few months :)
Mega kudos to them and everybody else involved, they're very passionate about building insanely useful applications, and it's very gratifying to see them deliver on their vision. It's a labor of love, and i for one argue it shows.
Mad shouts to Scott Frost too, you know why. \m/
Both those products are available to the general public. You do not have to be a paying EarthLink subscriber to start using the Reader and Favorites applications.
Stay tuned to blogs.earthlink.net for more coverage from Dave, including some subscribe/save tools for web site and blog authors.
It looks like Steve's found out what these guys, among many others, have been obsessively slaving at for the past few months :)
Mega kudos to them and everybody else involved, they're very passionate about building insanely useful applications, and it's very gratifying to see them deliver on their vision. It's a labor of love, and i for one argue it shows.
Mad shouts to Scott Frost too, you know why. \m/
Both those products are available to the general public. You do not have to be a paying EarthLink subscriber to start using the Reader and Favorites applications.
Stay tuned to blogs.earthlink.net for more coverage from Dave, including some subscribe/save tools for web site and blog authors.
Technorati Tags: AJAX, del.icio.us, EarthLink
Amazon's S3 storage
Great information on the trend towards web based storage and falling costs of web site development.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Zidane Kombat
Zidane Kombat
Originally uploaded by chrisholland.
Found here, where the poster mentions "Stolen from Coys".
Also, check out this fun Flash game.
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