Nintendo DS Lite

Welcome to my 98th post on this blog! Two more and I hit 100 posts (master of the obvious)
One particular console i'd like to add my generous collection of systems is the Nintendo DS, and thankfully, Nintendo have officially confirmed their Nintendo DS Lite. Check out pics here. Also, while you're at it, you might want to read up 10 things you didn't know about a Nintendo DS Wi-Fi connection here. Compared to the Sony PSP, you can say that the DS does not quite match the PSP's graphical and homebrew-able capabilities, but one thing's for sure, Nintendo certainly won over gamers by making their latest addition to the console family different. What did they do that Sony didn't? They actually made it 'fun to play with'. Some features such as Pictochat, in my opinion, is awesome.
Also, the DS utilises its Wi-Fi connection extensively and Nintendo clearly made their online connectivity flexible (for example, if you don't have a Wi-Fi hotspot near you, connect your DS through a USB connector to play online through your existing internet connection on your PC). No doubt the PSP is cool, but the sales figures speak for themselves - 800,000-odd PSPs since 12 December 2004 debut versus 2.84m DS units since late November launch. Also, while i'm on the topic of portable consoles, rumour has it (the movie sucked) that Microsoft is developing a portable console/iPod rival product. More info here. Enough of DS-ranting, recently i jumped onto the Lost series bandwagon. It's an amazing series, so far i'm on the 6th episode and i'm dying to find out what happens.
Also, since I got subdomain hosting not far back I've been installing open source CMS's (to no avail) - which eventually means i'll have to stick with either Wordpress, Pivot (IMO, better than Nucleus only if it would INSTALL!!) or Nucleus. If you're unhappy with the CMS you're using, read this article to get a better sense of direction.

Featured link - Big(and i mean BIG) Beer Ad | Fastr - A Flickr tag guessing game |

Internet Explorer 7

It has been just under 2 years since the release of Mozilla Firefox 0.8 in February 2004. The project which became Firefox started as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite. When sufficiently developed, binaries for public testing appeared 2002 under the name Phoenix.
Firefox has developed considerably since its first release as Phoenix on September 23, 2002. The browser is lauded by fans for its download speed and a superior user interface, and users say that its pop-up blocker is one of the best out there. It offers tabbed browsing, which means that users can jump back and forth between different sites with only one window open, and live bookmarks, which show users the most recent headlines on their favorite sites and lets them go directly to those articles. Firefox 2 development is well underway, with an Alpha 1 release set to come out on February 10. For more info on Firefox 2 "Bon echo" features, click here.
If you're one of the few people who are not so sure about the Firefox hype, download it here, to change your browsing experience. Here's some information about IE7 :

1. IE 7 was originally scheduled only for inclusion in Windows Vista (codenamed Longhorn)
2. IE 7 will be focused on security
3. IE 7 will include tabbed browsing
4. IE 7 will not include a new Outlook Express version
5. IE 7 will be free
6. IE 7 will ship for XP SP2, XP x64
7. The version of IE in Windows Vista (codenamed Longhorn) will be quite different from standalone IE
8. IE 7 will include major changes for Web devs.
9. IE 7 will not include ad blocking

Click here to view the IE7 screenshots gallery.

Featured link - James Bond : Casino Royale info |Nanotubes in the near future | US Army super gun | My WoW Mage sketch
I'm currently working on a website called Greyform.

Lifehacker software

ABC's Googleplex visit was quite interesting as the Google park or campus as it's better known, reflects the companies goals and ethics (which have come under fire recently) . Bob Woodruff, the ABC anchor takes a tour of the complex and it is quite obvious that Google is very concerned about the wellbeing of its employees. Just imagine working for a company where food, haircuts, trips and many other stuff is 100% free. Not only is food free, but employees are given things such as exercise equipment which are scattered around the hallways. If you ask me, Google is the #1 company to work for, even though employees there may be a little wierd, Google employs the smartest.
If you want to check out the video tour - click here. Oh and if you didn't know, Google has seen a 400,000 % growth in revenues over the past 5 years. Thats my 0.2 $ on Google.

Lifehacker software
software that you should have

• 7Zip - When WinZip started refusing to open certain necessary file formats, I switched to 7-Zip and never looked back. ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB, oh my
• FoxIt PDF Reader (Firefox Extension) - In the time it takes for Adobe Acrobat Reader to launch and then load up that PDF, you could download, install and open it with FoxIt with time to spare. Ditch Adobe for FoxIt’s leaner, meaner PDF browsing.
• Audacity - Wanna record a song being played on an Internet radio station? How about clip a tune down to 20 seconds to make it your cell phone’s ringtone? Audacity will do ya right.
• Picasa 2 - If you have a family member that has recently purchased a digital camera, this is a must have program. Manages all your pictures. Want a reason to download it? It's a Google owned company :P
  
• VLC Media Player - If you had a file that WMP or any other media player whined about failing to open, this is what you need. In my opinion, the best media player out there.
  
• Free Download Manager - Normally you'd think this containd spyware and adware. This is not the case. Use Free Download Manager in the place of Mozilla's Download tool (since it times out so often) This software downloads files at blazing speeds and it will not fail you.
  
• Skype 2.0 - Get a headset. Get Skype 2.0, now you're connected to anyone else that has a headset and the program. Superb audio quality, VoIP at its best.
  
• OpenOffice.org - Stop using MS Office! Start using OpenOffice.org! Contains all software that do the same functions as the MSOffice package.
  
• Miranda - A reason to get stop using MSN Messenger. Miranda contains all IM clients and what's best is - you can skin it all you like.

Featured link - IE 7 screens | The 1 Gigapixel Photo | How to eat Sushi | The Slanket | The longest page on the internet | X-Men 3 Screens |
btw - this post was written at around about the same time Liverpool lost to Manchester United - damn.

Found In Translation

Its been around 1 week since I last posted here! This was because I was busy with some work and took some time to design my personal website, which, if you would like to see is here - http://nouhad.technat.org/mysite. Feel free to check it out and if you would like, comment on this post so that I can get some feedback on how it looks.
Here are some stuff i've been checking out these past couple of days :

• The most expensive resort in the world
• Underwater Hotel!
• Funny photoshops
• Crazy Mac desktop setup
• Want to instal Mac OSX 10.4.3 alongside XP? Here's how
• MS Paint artwork
• Best of Google video
  

Featured app - Miranda IM 0.4.0.2

Boinc Boinc

Thanks to Beastage on neowin IRC, I discovered Boinc! Boinc stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. What Boinc basically does once you download and install the software is donate your PC's computing power to scientific research projects such as: SETI@Home and Einstein@Home. In other words; this means that during your computer's idle time, you and many others who have Boinc, are actualy helping out either in the search for extraterrestial lifeforms or gravitational signals emitted by pulsars. This means that instead of institutes having only one super computer doing all the searching, people can actively choose to help increase the overall computing power in researching various projects. Other projects are :

• Climateprediction.net: study climate change
• Einstein@home: search for gravitational signals emitted by pulsars
• LHC@home: improve the design of the CERN LHC particle accelerator
• Predictor@home: investigate protein-related diseases
• Rosetta@home: help researchers develop cures for human diseases
• SETI@home: Look for radio evidence of extraterrestrial life
• Cell Computing biomedical research (Japanese; requires nonstandard client software)
• World Community Grid: advance our knowledge of human disease.

You probably think that it would take up a whole lot of space and consume alot of resources on your PC while it runs. This is not the case, as you can choose when and how the software runs, if you want to - you can tell the program to run only when your PC is idle. I myself am running SETI@Home and Einstein@Home, after all why not help out humanity while your PC idles.

Featured Link - Satellite detects massive extrasolar Earth | Video of cool 'origami' retractable car hood | Old lady vs. Mercedes Benz | Reality photos and PGR3 in-game scenery |
MacWorld - Inside the Core Duo found in Macbooks

Audio so real, it's scary

Till I find something to blog on or write about, here are some interesting finds.
Here's something I came across on Digg.com. This three dimensional audio clip is so real, you can actually judge where its coming from. Check it out here. For info on Holophonia, click here.
Also, a video clip from Nintendo's E3 2005 booth that shows off its amazing floor screen technology. You have to see it to believe it, its amazing stuff.

A new audiocast has been released that targets hackers, geeks, and the security paranoid. SploitCast will discuss a wide variety of topics; these include, but are not limited to, new vulnerabilities, exploit code, security and tech news.


Featured Link - Search Flickr by sketching an image | Most anticipated games of 2006 (Courtesy IGN)
Featured App - HOT AllPeers. A free extension which combines the strength of Firefox and the efficiency of BitTorrent to transform your favorite browser into a media sharing powerhouse. To view screens, click here. HOT

Note - Stay tuned for a hands-on preview of Windows Vista, im awaiting my legal copy.
BTW - Be sure to comment on posts as I have resorted to a new commenting system.

Optimus Keyboard

All I can say is - WOW! This is the best keyboard i've seen and since its keys are customizable LED's its even better. Check out the screens and the website. Rumoured to cost around 399$ !

CES update

Updates from CES 2006.

• Bill Gates' keynote (Windows Vista, Digital Lifestyle, Xbox 360 and more MS ventures)
• Google keynote (Google Pack New!, 100 $ Laptop, Stanford robot SUV)
• Lego Mindstorms NXT (Video Programmable Lego processor)Dell XPS 600 Renegade
  
• Michael Dell Keynote, XPS 600 Renegade and 30 " UltraSharp 3007FP
  

Windows Live Messenger 8.0

edit : I have 10 invites remaining. Comment on this post if you want an invite.

I got invited to the much overhyped and hard-to-get WLM 8.0 Beta, Microsoft's new version of MSN Messenger that incorporates Live features.
Here are some screens.

Tech stuff

CES is back this year and it brings together more than 100,000 people and 300 companies for four days in the middle of the desert. The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off in Las Vegas on January 5, and there's much hype about the products and new tech innovations that would be shown there. Here, at the PCWorld website, you can see some of the gadgets shown off during the first 24 hours of the exhibition.

Some of the most eagerly awaited news from the show will be updates on the launch plans for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc optical disc formats. The Blu-ray Disc has not yet confirmed a launch date. Sony's upcoming next-gen gaming console the PlayStation 3 is said to use the Blu-ray disc format, since Blu-ray hasn't been confirmed, and with the PS3 set to launch in the first half of this year, they seem to be running short of time.

Also, Intel, with its new look, is to formally unveil its next breed of processors, the Intel Viiv (pronounced 'Vive') at CES. The Viiv is to home multimedia PC's as the Centrino processor was to notebooks, some features it is said to have are: Quick-boot technology that allows users to instantly start their PC at the push of a button and dual-core Intel processors.

Featured Link - First discovery of the Sony DRM Rootkit by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals.com | Image-to-text |

Predictions and things to come in 2006

2006 is here! let's hope this year is much more exciting and better than the last. Happy New year to you all! Before I begin with whats to look forward to this year, here's a final look back at some of 2005's greatest web moments and gadgets. Some highlights - The Numa-Numa guy, The boy who hacked MySpace.com and AOL's acquisition of Google.

Some stuff in brief - Time magazine recently announced its Persons of the Year - Bill and Melinda Gates and U2 rocker Bono. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, and his wife Melinda, along with Irish rocker Bono, were chosen for making a difference in different ways. The Managing Editor of Time said the three had been chosen as the people most effective at finding ways to eradicate such calamities as malaria in Africa, HIV and AIDS and the grinding poverty that kills 8 million people a year. Gates, who topped Forbes magazine's list of richest people again this year, were named for their work in the Gates Foundation.
The charity is one of the world's biggest with $29 billion in funding allocations. The organization funds hundreds of projects around the world primarily focused on public health, from vaccinating children to developing new drugs. Bono and fellow musician Bob Geldof spearheaded a popular campaign to tackle poverty in Africa through canceling the debts, Bono was described as the “rocker who has made debt reduction sexy.”

for more, click here

Predictions and stuff to look forward to in 2006

• Rise of video-enabled devices
• Microsoft Vista more on this..
  
• Robotic toys more on this..
  
• RSS-ing everything
• Playstation 3 at E3 more on this..
  
• HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? more on this..
  
• What's in store for Apple?
• Broadband TV more on this..
  
• New wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth)
• DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD more on this..
• Fuel cells more on this..
• Multiple cores, multiple choices in processors more on this here and here
• Movies - Superman, DaVinci code, Spiderman 3, X-Men 3
• Take 2 on 1080p and HD-TV more on this here and here
• Will I go .com ?
  

Feel free to contribute to this list by commenting on this post.

100 things we didn't know this time last year

You can learn alot of things in 365 days, thankfully, the BBC has compiled a list of the things we didn't know this time last year.
A sneak peek :

14. It's possible for a human to blow up balloons via the ear. A 55-year-old factory worker from China reportedly discovered 20 years ago that air leaked from his ears, and he can now inflate balloons and blow out candles.

18. If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth's equator.

22. The length of a man's fingers can reveal how physically aggressive he is, scientists say.

29. When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs, scientists discovered.

Flexible Keyboard

Here are photos of a flexible silicon keyboard my uncle sent me. Pretty cool.

Oh yeah, the PSP

I've not written much at all about my PSP ever since I bought it, mainly because I didn't know what to write about or didn't have time. The PSP is high-ranked in almost all decent Top Ten gadget lists all over the web, and could possibly be the most revolutionary handheld device ever made. The first time you pick up the device it will be hard for you to keep your eyes of the TFT screen, the PSPs most noticeable element. The screen is 110 mm/4.3" (diagonal) 16:9 ratio TFT LCD, sporting a 480 x 272 pixel resolution capable of 16.77 million colours. In other words; the best screen ever put on a portable device.
The PSP has tonnes of games at the moment, but the device is being bought mainly to exploit it and run homebrew apps and games. Picture yourselves as Sony, its kind of scary when your Unit sales exceed your game sales by a huge margin. A few months after the consoles` original release somewhere in December 2004, the firmware was cracked by a group of spanish coders. Since then, Sony have released 5 critical updates, 4 of whom which (to my knowledge) have been cracked.
If you're into portable entertainment, you must have a PSP. The amount of music, videos, games and/or apps you want is limited only to the size of your memory stick, not forgetting Wi-Fi internet access. Be it podcasts, DVD movies, UMD movies, magazines or music, the PSP can store it all. But above all, the PSP is worth every dollar thanks to its 1001 multifunctional uses.

Podcasting 101

Ever since I got my PSP, I've been doing everything an iPod can't (except the iPod Video.. lets not go there) Since podcasting is so popular nowadays I thought of looking around places and selecting some of the best that are worth downloading. Podcasting started becoming popular around 2004, it is the term used when RSS Syndication is used to keep track of, distribute and download media for mobile devices (originally the iPod; hence 'pod'casting) If you're a proud owner of an iPod or any other mobile device, you might want to put your memory stick to good use by having a look at some of the casts/content below. Podcasts are really handy when you're too busy to read the latest news and/or happenings, just a quick download and you're good to go.

Diggnation with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht

“Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories.”

Gamespot presents The HotSpot

"GameSpot editors recap the hottest news and trend in the gaming industry from the past week!”

Extremetech.com Podcast
“News, reviews and technology updates from ExtremeTech.com.”

Boagworld.com Podcast
“This podcast covers all things relating to web design. Whether you are a website owner, designer or developer hopefully this show has something for everybody. Each episode includes news, review and hints and tips.”

PC Gamer podcast GamersDaily
“The official podcast of PC Gamer Magazine”

TWiT (This Week in Tech) Podcast
“Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, John C. Dvorak, and other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in digital technology. Winner of the 2005 People’s Choice Podcast Award for best overall podcast and Best Technology Podcast. Released every Sunday at midnight Pacific.”

The Mac Cast
"A Macintosh show for Mac geeks by a Mac geek. News, reviews, opinions and commentary about all things Macintosh. The MacCast also offers Mac help via email and a call in Hotline.”

MuggleNet Podcast
"MuggleNet.com's new podcast, appropriately titled "MuggleCast", is an informative weekly talk show dedicated to everything Harry Potter."

Post-Christmas Post

Merry Christmas to all of you, and thanks for reading the blog every once in a while. I've actually got 4 readers on Feedburner (Yayy haha). If you look to the right, there's a movie poll, if you have time, vote :)

Featured Link - If you have an iPod here are stuff you can do with it | A How-to Wiki on how to do lot's of things
Featured Software - Pando A 3mb 'small' program used to transfer huge files between PC's.

Ha ha, look at this idiot..

Merry Christmas .. from Uttorent

Look what popped up while I was using Utorrent :

Dugg

Stuff that you should see / should be knowing :
Google Zeitgeit / Microsoft buys Opera /Clearest image of our Milky Way obtained by Astronomers /Halo 3 on sale? /Cracking Wi-Fi protected access / iPod Nano. Playing video! / Volkswagen Transparent factory in Dresden /Minimize Firefox to tray /Xbox 360 on a 35ft theater screen. Close to life size while playing /

Peter Jackson's King Kong

This year will be looked back at and remembered with many events and happenings that occured during the course of this year. King Kong is one such event. 72 years since the original King Kong released in theaters, the all new Peter Jackson-directed King Kong was released this month. The movie itself has a runtime of 187 minutes - thats quite long for a movie, and some may say that a three hour movie would be boring and too long to watch. King Kong is everything but boring. Peter Jackson was given 200$ million to play around with to make the new King Kong movie, and after watching it, I can say that every single dollar put into it was worth it. Up till today, King Kong has grossed 66.18$ million in the box office.
With a cast consisting of actors such as Jack Black, Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody, Peter Jackson is able to make the movie even more exciting. The CGI sequences are so realistically done, and the CGI characters garner such emotion that its hard to believe they were computer-generated. Every other minute of the movie is pure CGI (hard to tell) and adds to all the excitement and confusion that occurs during the intro of the movie. This review itself does not convey what all the fuss is about; you'll just have to go see it to experience another one of Peter Jackson's pieces of art.

UT 2007 Media

Screenshots.
Gameplay footage.