May 2010 archive

Timeshifting Television – Intelligent Media Consumption

A little while back, the missus and I decided to get the Foxtel IQ2 as we had bought a full high-definition television and wanted to make full use of it. Also, with the demands of work and the incredible timing of phone calls at home when watching live, it proved difficult at times to catch …

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IMAP vs POP3 – My Conclusions

Well, it’s been three months since I bit the bullet and stopped using POP3 in favour of using IMAP instead. If you want to read about my plans, you can check out IMAP > POP3 – Moving to the Cloud. In a nutshell, I wanted to have all of my mail available wherever I went …

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Download Device Drivers, Don’t Use the Disc

At some point, most of us will go out and buy a new peripheral for our computers most of which may require drivers or additional software to enable enhanced functionality. Of course, the device manufacturer will usually be generous enough to include both drivers and software on a disc in the box for you. What …

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Facebook Privacy Scanner – What Information Are You Sharing?

Facebook Privacy Scanner

One of my friends brought this to my attention today (ironically through Facebook, thanks DJC!) and I thought that this would be a worthwhile piece of information to share. Facebook have had a recent habit of tweaking privacy options under the guise of allowing users finer control over their personal information whilst the default settings …

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Portal – Mentally Challenging Physics Gaming for Free!

If you have been looking for a thought provoking game but have been reluctant to shell out your hard-earned cash, you might be in luck. Portal, is a game that will challenge your spatial reasoning and get you to think outside of the square when it comes to physics. The basic premise of the game …

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Skype Beta – Five-Way Video Calling Released

A little while back, I wrote about Skype and how it is great for free, high quality voice and video calls to other people that also use the Skype service. This week, Skype released a beta version of Skype into the wild that is capable of five-way video calling which is up from the usual …

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Google Caught Short on Wi-Fi Network Privacy

A couple of articles  have surfaced over the last few days concerning Google and its collection of WiFi network information when conducting its Street View activities. One such article detailing Google’s response and admission of its actions has me scratching my head. Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at Google, was quoted as having said: …

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Obama: iPods, iPads, Xboxes, PlayStations Make Information a Distraction

The New York Post ran an article a few days ago quoting US President, Barrack Obama, as having said: “With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than …

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eBay Backs Down on PayPal Exclusivity

For those of you that use eBay either to buy or sell items, you would have been aware of plans to set PayPal as very much the sole payment method for  auctions. A significant amount of noise was made here in Australia by both companies and individuals alike about restriction to consumer choice if the …

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Handy Tip – No Dataflow and Pings Respond with “oy”

Bit of a strange one today (perhaps a bit dry) but I was out fixing a problem with a computer at For Dogs’ Sake this evening fixing a computer that had been infected with some malware. The computer had no dataflow through a web browser (which would promptly crash) but ping tests would work albeit …

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