Oct 23

AOL Forces Gaim to Change Name…Now Called Pidgin?

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

PidginGaim has become a widely known instant messenger because it is not only cross-platform (meaning it works on multiple operating systems) but it is also cross-network. Using only this application you can connect with friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber (or Google Talk), and ICQ without needing separate messenger clients for each one.

AOL, however, had a little fit because of the similarities in the name “Gaim” when compared to their already trademarked “AIM”. AOL must have realized that Gaim could become the messenger of choice for users since Gaim has already become pretty popular as a no-cost instant messenger alternative.

AOL and Gaim finally settled on a name change to Pidgin, which will definitely take some getting used to on my part. The good news is that the development team had been holding back releasing a new version of the messenger until all of their legal woes cleared. Now that it has passed they say that 2.0.0 should be available late this week or early next week.

Here is what the team had to say about the situation:

Getting a settlement with AOL has taken FAR FAR longer than we would have ever guessed. On legal advice, we have refrained from any non-beta release during this process as a show of good faith, and to keep AOL from giving up on it. Again, on legal advice, we have also kept this information closely controlled.

At long last, I am pleased to announce that we have a signed settlement and can release our new version. There is one catch however: we have had to change the project’s name.

I’m still a little in shock that this even had to happen, but I guess that is how the legal world works. If someone is jeopardizing the success of your own software (and advertising) then do what you can to remove them from the picture. Maybe I’m wrong about AOL’s reasoning for having to do this, but I think they saw a genuine competitor for their own instant messenger client which makes AOL a lot of money for displaying embedded ads.

The new homepage for the messenger is Pidgin.im, but it still looks like they have some rebranding to go through because most of the site still refers to Gaim and not Pidgin.

Source: Slashdot

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 23

MyFive: Best Vacations for Geeks

Posted in: Today's Chili, wii

This article was written on September 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

ncl wii What makes a vacation great for a geek probably includes high-speed Internet, but it doesn’t have to end there. Here’s my list of the best vacation destinations for Geeks!

–Best Vacations for Geeks–

  1. Norwegian Cruise Line! If leaving your Wii behind while you go on vacation is just too hard to think about, Norwegian Cruise Line has got you covered.  Nintendo Wii systems are offered on their entire fleet of cruise ships. Now there’s no need to fill your time on the ship by gambling or entering the belly-flop contest. Games include Wii Sports, Wii Play, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and Excite Truck. *Pictured – Wii Sports Boxing
  2. Computer History Museum – Take a visit to Mountain View California where "Computing History Lives" at the Computer History Museum. It’s the world’s largest and "most significant history museum for preserving and presenting the computing revolution and its impact on the human experience."
  3. NASA – Kennedy Space Center – Pay a visit to Kennedy Space Center to tour their center and watch Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space on October 23, 2007.  If watching a shuttle launch just isn’t enough, sign up for Space Camp in Huntsillve, Alabama. This one isn’t just for kids either, they’ve got adult space and aviation programs.
  4. Star Trek Experience at Las Vegas Hilton – For an interactive adventure based upon Star Trek, you’ll want to visit the Las Vegas Hilton for the Star Trek Experience.  There you can see "BORG Invasion 4D and Klingon Encounter" and immerse yourself in a futuristic world.  You can also visit Quark’s Bar and Restaurant to fill up on Trekky food and drinks. To complete the experience, walk through The History of the Future Museum.
  5. Geekcruises.com – I had a hard time believing that Geek Cruises really exists, but it does. Their themed cruises in the past have included "Perl Whirl," "Java Jam," "Linux Lunacy," ".Net Nirvana," "MacMania," "PC Paradise," and "Photoshop Fling." So not only can you relax out in the sun on your vacation, you can learn a little something and meet people who share your interests too!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 23

Engadget Mobile Podcast 109 – 10.23.2011

Posted in: mobilepostmini, podcast, Today's Chili

We get excited. More specifically, we get excited about phones. Most specifically, we get excited about dead mobile phone platforms and the hardware they inhabit. Does that make us weird? We would say yes, but combine that with the fact that we also get excited about very alive, very dessert-influenced mobile platforms and you’ll have us giving ourselves a “5” on the scale of totally weird to not weird at all. As usual, we’re a 10 on the exciting/excitement scale, so check it out: the 109th edition of the Engadget Mobile Podcast.

Host: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Daestro – Light Powered (Ghostly International)

00:01:30 – Nokia N9 review
00:09:45 – Galaxy Nexus, Ice Cream Sandwich roundup: specs, details and insight, oh my!
00:18:20 – Samsung Galaxy Nexus camera and 1080p video samples
00:28:25 – Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich now official, includes revamped design, enhancements galore
00:33:24 – HTC: We’re reviewing Ice Cream Sandwich and determining our plans
00:48:42 – Motorola Droid RAZR unveiled: LTE, 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, available November for $299
00:50:00 – Motorola RAZR to get updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012
01:00:30 – RIM announces PlayBook 2.0 Developer Beta and Runtime, marries Android to BlackBerry
01:04:45 – Research in Motion announces BBX, ‘combines the best of BlackBerry and QNX’
01:07:05 – iPhone 4S review
01:08:30 – HTC Titan review
01:10:05 – HTC Amaze 4G review
01:14:15 – HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio review
01:19:10 – Is C-Spire getting the iPhone 4S? Its website says so (Update: confirmed)
01:22:34 – LG DoublePlay makes its official intro on T-Mobile, offers dual-screens and split keyboard
01:29:30 – Motorola Admiral to directly connect with Sprint on October 23rd for $100
01:31:03 – Sprint unleashes the HTC EVO Design 4G, available October 23rd for $100
01:34:25 – Microsoft doles out the dough to Nokia and Samsung, plans Mango marketing bonanza for year’s end
01:35:15 – Microsoft’s Andy Lees shows off Titan, Focus S, and Focus Flash

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 109 – 10.23.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 23

Nikon D300s travels to the edge of space, survives to share the results

Posted in: diy, dslr, nikon, space, Today's Chili, video

If you’re going to go to the trouble of sending a camera to the edge of space, you might as well send one capable of doing the trip justice, right? That hasn’t always been the case with similar DIY attempts (for obvious reasons), but the team behind the so-called Cygnus “spacecraft” decided to go all out when they sent their weather balloon / beer cooler contraption aloft this month to photograph the curvature of the Earth. In this case, going all out meant sending a Nikon D300s DSLR equipped with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, which managed to capture some stunning pictures like the one you see above — although some got a bit obscured by ice build-up. There’s more where that came from at the Flickr link below, and you can check out a video of the launch after the break.

[Thanks, Udi]

Continue reading Nikon D300s travels to the edge of space, survives to share the results

Nikon D300s travels to the edge of space, survives to share the results originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink DIY Photography  |  sourceErich Leeth (Flickr)  | Email this | Comments

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Oct 23

The iPod turns 10, celebrates a decade of destroying physical media

Posted in: Apple, ipod, iPod Nano, ipod touch, IpodTouch, PMP, Today's Chili
Evolution of the iPod

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been exactly ten years since the iPod was first unveiled, ultimately changing the music industry forever. The iPod wasn’t the first, it wasn’t the smallest, it didn’t have the largest hard drive, but it did have an iconic style and simple to use interface that led march away from CDs. When the history of Apple is written the iPod (perhaps more than the iMac, OS X or the iPhone) will be credited with helping spearhead the company’s second coming. Over the years the music player has seen countless iterations and redesigns, and an expansion of the product line to include smaller devices and touch screens — but for most it’s the scroll wheel and white earbuds that define the iPod. Sure, what is now called the iPod classic hasn’t seen a serious update since about 2007, but it still holds a special place in our hearts, especially for those of us who don’t measure their music collection in a few dozen iTunes downloads.

The iPod turns 10, celebrates a decade of destroying physical media originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 23

Details On Office 2007 For Mac Emerge

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on September 17, 2006 by CyberNet.

Office 2007 Mac Office 2007 for Windows is due in late January 2007 and the Mac versions should be released 6-8 months after it. Should Mac users expect the same kind of drastic interface change that Windows users will receive? It sounds like there will be some UI changes but they may hold back on using the Ribbon:

We will be doing a UI refresh but it won’t be exactly like you see in Office 2007. It just wouldn’t make sense. Apple has got their own very specific set of user interface guidelines and we try to first and foremost to follow those guidelines. If we can innovate on top of that and do some interesting things to make sure that the interface is really discoverable for the Mac user, then we’ll look at doing that. We can get some ideas (from the ribbon) but it still has to fit within Apple’s UI guideline, that’s what a Mac user wants to see.

…

We had what we thought was going to be this perfect UI solution, and the first time we put it in the labs, no-one understood it! It was so different they were completely confused! We just finished up another round of usability testing on the new UI yesterday, and the program manager said the difference is like night and day.

I thought it was funny how they reference testing out a new user interface but no one understood it. I know plenty of people who are going to feel the same way when they sit down to use Office 2007 for Windows. I don’t think these releases are going to be for the impatient. :D

News Source: APC Magazine

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 23

Google Feed Stats Stagnant for Last 10 Days

Posted in: Google, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on November 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

Many of you have probably heard of the Google Feedfetcher before if you’re a FeedBurner publisher. It is what Google uses to go and crawl RSS feeds for people subscribed to them using Google IG, Google Reader, and any other place Google displays feeds. Each time Google goes to fetch a feed it supplies the number of subscribers so that publishers know how many of their feed readers are using Google’s services.

The Google Feedfetcher appears to be having some major problems over the last week and a half correctly reporting the feed subscriber stats. On November 3rd Google didn’t report any of the reader stats, which caused some sites to have an alarmingly low number of feed subscribers. The same thing happened again on November 9th.

What’s even more interesting is that since November 4th the Google Feedfetcher has been reporting the same number of subscribers everyday. That essentially says that over the last 10 days we have not lost or gained any readers on Google, even on the weekends where our reader count heavily fluctuates:

Google Feed Stats Stagnant

Why is this significant? I’m not quite sure what this could mean, but Google is obviously tinkering with something that is screwing up the reporting functionality. Maybe it means that updates are coming to Google Reader, or maybe some of the FeedBurner stats will finally get integrated into Google Analytics?

For all of the publishers out there don’t be worried if you haven’t been gaining new readers. I’m sure there will be some sudden jumps when Google gets the kinks worked out.

Thanks to the How-To Geek for tipping me off on this!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 23

MyFive: Online Bargain Shopping

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Claw Machine / Crane Sometimes finding a great deal online is like trying to win something out of a claw machine. The key is knowing how to beat the claw machines, and there are some techniques that can let you walk away a winner (watch the video at the end of this post).

Just like the claw machine you can also save a lot of money if you know where to look, and I’ve come up with a list of my favorite five places that I watch for great deals:

  • Slickdeals.net [RSS] – This is my favorite place to hunt down a deal because it has a huge community backing it up. If you want to find the deals before they hit the front page just watch the Hot Deals forum area [RSS]. If you create an account with them you can also setup keyword notifications for things such as “computers.” That way you’ll get emailed whenever a forum post matches your query.
  • FatWallet [RSS] – A site that is similar to SlickDeals. It has a very strong forum that receives hundreds of posts every day. Just like with SlickDeals you can get email alerts for keywords that you designate. Generally speaking the same things show up on here that show up on SlickDeals, but that’s because forum members from both sites copy off of each other.
  • DealsPlus [RSS] – I really like this site because it has an uncluttered interface, and an easy voting mechanism. The deals you’ll find here aren’t quite as amazing as those from FatWallet and SlickDeals, but it’s worth subscribing to the feed in my opinion.
  • Woot [RSS] – This is a pretty unique site in that sells one item per day at a significantly reduced price, and once it’s gone…it’s gone. I’ve actually found some great deals on their, such as a pocket hard drive, and you should checkout Ashley’s review of Woot for a more complete understanding of how it works.
  • DealCatcher [RSS] – This is my favorite place to search for coupons, and I always check for “promo” codes here before making a purchase at most online stores. If you’ve got some money burning a hole in your pocket hop on over to their page with the 50 most popular coupons.

I have a few other sites that I’ll check here and there, but I give the ones above the highest priority. You’ll notice that I included links to each of their RSS feeds as well, and that’s because it’s the easiest way to keep up with them. Let us know some of your favorite sites for saving money by dropping a comment below.

And finally let’s wrap things up with a video explanation on how to beat the claw machine:

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 23

Amazon (Alexa) vs. Statsaholic

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

StatsaholicYou’ve probably heard of Statsaholic by now.  It was formerly named Alexaholic, and the service allowed you to enter up to five different domains and compare their Alexa traffic statistics. They called it traffic comparisons on steroids, and it did everything that Alexa probably should have done from the start. It was a better product.

When Statsaholic first emerged, it turned out to be better than Alexa itself.  But the irony was, Alexa (Amazon) didn’t put up a fuss over this. Instead, they turned and complimented them for such a great service. This friendly side didn’t last though, because once more people learned of Alexaholic and they started using it instead of Alexa, the situation turned ugly.

Alexa decided they wanted ownership of the Alexaholic domain because of trademark issues. No problem. The owner of the site, Ron Horbaker went on to change the name to Statsaholic, and he said this change suited the site well for the upcoming changes he had in store.

After this change occurred without a glitch, Amazon decided they weren’t done yet. Recently they filed a lawsuit against Ron Horbaker, and according to ZDNet, they’re “suing him into oblivion.”

Now when you go to Statsaholic and enter in domain names to compare, it only returns a graph for one of the sites which makes the service pretty useless. Amazon is doing everything they can to keep Statsaholic from taking any of their users away, and on top of it, Alexa has essentially stolen their ideas.

Mashable has the 43 page filing, and the blogosphere is calling for a boycott of Amazon. While we really haven’t heard Amazon’s side of the story, it sounds to me like they’re bullying. It also sounds like it’s something that could have been settled without this big hoopla. It’s the big guy versus the little guy, and a lose-lose situation.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 23

Sony’s 3D HMD goes exclusive for Harrods, leaves America waiting

Posted in: 720p, exclusive, hdpostcross, OLED, sony, Today's Chili, uk, video

Sony’s Personal 3D Viewer’s finally found its way off the showroom floor and on to the shelves of Harrods? That’s right, the dual screen 1280 x 720 0.7-inch OLED sporting headset’ll initially be a limited exclusive to the well-heeled UK retailer, with a general country-wide release set for later this month. US gamers will have to hold out just a few more days until its end of October launch, but if you’re super impatient, there’s always that import option. Think you can shell out for the £800 (about $1,276) price tag? Then plan to pick one up the next time you’re in town to see the Queen.

Sony’s 3D HMD goes exclusive for Harrods, leaves America waiting originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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