total.pardo

nice.

would have been cheaper than my mbp.

TUAWFlickr Find: Close, but not quite originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:20:00 EST

Apple has released iPhone 2.2 Software Update which contains many bug fixes…

Apple releases iPhone 2.2 Software Update

yeah, more google in your iphone.  great for your privacy.

FornaxChemica writes "In a surprise move, Google announced today, both on-site and in its blog, that it will permanently shut down its 3D virtual world, Lively, by the end of the year. This makes Lively one of Google’s few scrapped products, and one of the most short-lived, too, barely lasting 6 months. No official reason was given, only that Google wants to ‘prioritize [its] resources and focus more on [its] core search, ads and apps business.’ Lively might have taken too much and given back too little, even by Google’s standards."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

bye.

so far so good – the folks at zenbe.com are on to something here…from about.com:

Zenbe organizes your emails and attachments (from Zenbe and existing POP accounts) with labels and search — and integrates calendar, to-do list, twitter and Facebook updates, too.

With a focus on elegant simplicity, Zenbe provides many sweet shortcuts but also shows quirks and omissions in others. The spam filter is good, but it would be great if IMAP access was possible for all folders (not just the inbox).

Pros

• Zenbe lets you organize mail and attachments flexibly using labels and search
• ZenPages make it easy to share and collaborate on the information contained in emails
• Zenbe filters spam solidly, lets you use existing accounts and can be accessed using POP/IMAP

Cons

• Zenbe IMAP access provides access only to the inbox
• You cannot save searches and Zenbe cannot learn (say, what labels to apply) from your actions
• Zenbe does not thread messages, and does not prevent remote images from loading automatically

if you are still foolish enough to be using gmail – they have added themes to their mail site.

above is a sample of what they added.

use at your own risk…lipstick on a ninja still makes it a ninja.

fta @  http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/11/19/top-10-things-to-do-when-you-get-the-new-xbox-experience.aspx

The New Xbox Experience is in the process of being deployed to all Xbox LIVE members, but it will take a few hours for everyone to get the prompt to update to NXE….be patient! In the meantime I thought I would give my Top 10 list of things to do with NXE when you get it later today:

1) Create (or Customize) your Avatar – You can spend as much (or as little) time as you want in the Avatar Editor to personalize your little guy/girl

Bonus: When you are done with #1, be sure to take a Gamer Picture of your Avatar. In the Avatar editor, choose Gamer Picture. You can use the controls to move your avatar around, zoom in and out or even change the background color (press Y)

2) Explore the all new dashboard. (hint: use the trigger and bumpers to quickly scroll up and down or left and right)

3) PAR-TAY! Check out Xbox LIVE Parties and chat with up to seven of your friends. Go to the Friends channel…choose a friend who is online and press Y to get the party started. You can also hit the Xbox 360 Guide button > Party >Start a Party. Once you do that, send off invites to your party (since one does not make a very good party…does it?)

4) Themes. While any themes you work will NXE, check out some of the new themes via My Xbox and select your profile (second slot) and then change theme. Xbox 360, Spectrum, Day and Night are new themes that available as part of your NXE upgrade…check them out.

5) Marketplace on Xbox.com. This new feature lets you search, browse, and purchase games and videos while you are away from your console. You can also perform account management functions like changing your billing information, viewing your purchase history, and downloading items you already own.

6) Netflix – Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you have Netflix? If you are in the US you can stream thousands of videos (some in HD) directly from Netflix to your Xbox 360. Not a member? Sign up for a free trial at Xbox.com/netflix

7) Install to / Play from Hard Drive. With the game in the tray, return to your dashboard. (pressing the guide button then Y works as always) then go to My Xbox. From here press Y, which will bring up a new menu which will allow, among other things the ability to install a game to your hard drive.

Hint: You can still use the Xbox 360 guide while installing a game to keep in touch with your friends or start a Party.
Bonus: Before you do #7, be sure to set up what happens when you turn on your Xbox 360.  My Xbox->System Settings>Console settings. Then choose Start up to to choose Disc, Xbox Dashboard or Windows Media Center. Once you are done there…check the option right below it: Autostart. This tell your Xbox 360 what to do when you insert a game. The choices are enable or disable. I have mine set to disable so I can easily use install to hard drive.

Delete Zero Gamerscore games. You can remove any games from your games played list that you have earned no achievements or gamerscore. Press the Xbox 360– guide button, navigate left to the games section and choose Achievements. From here choose the game with zero gamerscore you want to remove and press X (Delete Game History.)

9) Press the Xbox 360 button on your controller to see the all new Guide. The team has added more functionality than the old guide, while making it more responsive. It’s a quick way to check your messages, see who is online or start a party.

10) Take a look at Community Games in the Games Marketplace. For the first time in the history of console gaming, thousands of games developed by the creative community will be available to the public.

Netflix says that "a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox 360," but the truth is Sony may have decided not to allow films from its Hollywood subsidiaries to be offered on Microsoft’s platform.

Sony Blocks Films from Xbox 360Based Netflix Service

of course they did.  why wouldn’t they?

Celestia is a free and open source space simulator that allows you to explore space right from your computer.  Celestia is available for download on Windows, Mac OS X, and even Linux.  Celestia has many very cool features, including an eclipse finder.

Not only does the eclipse finder allow you to find solar and lunar eclipses on Earth, but you can seek eclipses on other planets as well.  I found out something really cool when checking out eclipses on Jupiter - because Jupiter is very large and has many moons, solar eclipses are very common.

There are even days when multiple solar eclipses take place on the same day on Jupiter.  I found an article about a triple lunar eclipse on Jupiter that Hubble captured back in 2004.  I used the eclipse finder to find the day it happened (March 28, 2004) and was able to simulate it.

WIth Celestia you can view celestial events that have taken place in the past or will take place in the future. Events can be viewed as they would have occurred in real-time, or time can be sped up. You can also run slower than real-time, but I don’t find that feature all that useful since most celestial events take place over several hours or years.

There are numerous add-ons and textures available at the Celestia Motherlode.  The add-ons provide additional celestial bodies and spacecraft not included by default.  The textures provide more detail for planet surfaces, stars, and star systems as well.

If you are viewing the earth, you can enter specific coordinates you want to visit and use the surface view (CTRL-G in windows) to see the night sky as you would from your backyard.

This is a great way to learn where the constellations are and which ones you can see during what time of the year. Celestia is like having a planeterium right on your desktop!

Explore Space Right From Your Computer With Celestia
Jorge Sierra
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:01:41 GMT

fairly cool – runs well on osx.  what do you want for free?

i am fascinated by these programs and can’t get enough of listening to them. to think these were still on whilst i was born - its the same fascination i feel when i listen to cbs radio mystery theater.

NBC Monitor was a weekend radio program broadcast which ran from June 12, 1955 until January 26, 1975. Airing live and nationwide on NBC Radio, originally beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until midnight on Sunday, it offered a magazine-of-the-air mix of news, sports, comedy, variety, music, celebrity interviews and other short segments. Its length and eclectic format were radical departures from the traditional radio programming structure of 30- and 60-minute programs and represented an ambitious attempt to respond to the rise of television as America’s major home entertainment medium.

[From Monitor (NBC Radio) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

especially interesting is the embedded news flashes or programs - its a great look into the times and gives a unique perspective on the era the broadcast occurred.

a nice find by jeff - @ http://ke9v.net/2008/11/google-and-your-privacy/

jeff wrote me to say he found the video here:

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-11-17-n90.html

i never thought about when i email someone who has a gmail account that i would also lose my privacy since google now owns the email i sent.

bollocks…

time to stop emailing people who use gmail.

the irony is - youtube, the place where this video is hosted, is owned by google.

more here:

http://www.totalpardo.net/2008/11/06/googleyoutube/

photo posted from my iPhone

a particularly good round on the castle map on headquarters game mode in cod5:w@w.

47/11/14 is probably the best i have ever done in hq ever - cod4 or 5.

nice.

iman.

ever need to kill a rdc by session?

>query session /SERVER:myserver.myco.com
 SESSIONNAME       USERNAME                 ID  STATE   TYPE
 console                                     0  Conn    wdcon
 rdp-tcp                                 65536  Listen  rdpwd
 rdp-tcp#11        Administrator             1  Active  rdpwd
 rdp-tcp#4         Administrator             2  Active  rdpwd

The above show 2 connections to "myserver".
You can kill the sessions with ID 1, 2, 3, so on.

tsdiscon 1 /SERVER:myserver.myco.com

works like a charm.

not like i did not know this before, but it is time to go lossless for my audio collection. what a world of difference in sound.

fta @ http://www.obsessable.com/feature/mp3-vs-flac-vs-wav-audio-formats-primer/

FLAC

Another lossless audio codec is the Free Lossless Audio Codec, commonly referred to as FLAC. FLAC is popular with the audio enthusiast scene, as the files created are smaller than WAV files, though the files still maintain all the audio fidelity of a WAV file. FLAC files can also be paired with “cue sheets” that define individual tracks inside of one larger FLAC file. FLAC files cannot be played back with most portable audio hardware, requiring either modified iPod firmware or custom portable players, but several notable players support it such as several in the Cowon line (including the Cowon A3, and iAUDIO 7) as well as the iriver SPINN, the SanDisk Sansa slotMusic player, and a number of Samsung PMPs including the YP-S2. FLAC’s other primary advantage is that it is free, and any device manufacturer can implement FLAC at no charge. If you’re looking for components to handle your FLAC collection, an updated list of many of the devices that support FLAC is kept at Sourceforge.

ALAC

One lossless format implemented on the most popular portable media player, the iPod, is the Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). ALAC allows users to take audio straight from CDs, convert it in iTunes to ALAC, and play it back in full fidelity on an iPod. ALAC files can only be played in Apple’s music ecosystem (iTunes, Quicktime and iPod) and therefore the format is mainly suitable for audiophiles who enjoy listening to lossless music on an iPod exclusively.

since i am almost all mac at home, i am tempted to go ALAC for my collection.  but FLAC is more open.  wish i never sold the old CDs.

• fallout 3 time #
• nine years later - this game moves fast… #
• call of duty 5 - playing now…. #
• Currently Browsing: http://tinyurl.com/5lnmtf/s=battlecareer/ #
• Currently Browsing: http://tinyurl.com/5w9hd7 #
• amazon mp3 or itunes? which is better? #
• it comes down to one word - management #
• wish there was a better way than emailing your @me account a PDF file to view it on the iphone. #

photo posted from my iPhone