Best Of Internet April Fools 2009
Keep warm using intestines and The Force.
As has become tradition, Internet-based companies and web celebrities (webbrities?) answered Halloween's treat with April Fools tricks. Some favorites from 2009...
ISP Transparency Finally In The Works
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Thank You Google.
Says mashable:
Google today introduced Measurement Lab, a set of tools (some already working, some upcoming) for network diagnostics. . . . These tools include the Network Diagnostic Tool, which tests your connection speed and gives you a diagnosis on speed issues; Glasnost, which tests whether your ISP is blocking or throttling BitTorrent connections, and Network Path and Application Diagnosis, which helps you find problems that usually plague last-mile broadband networks.[W]hat’s important is the fact that Google is taking a stand, saying: we’re going to help you fight for net neutrality even if the ISPs don’t like it. . . . It wasn’t an easy decision to make, even for a giant like Google. If these tools were coming from another source, the ISPs would probably simply employ measures that render them useless. However, it’s much harder to block a service if Google stands behind it. On the other hand, even Google doesn’t want to anger every ISP that’s throttling network traffic in some way - and many of them are doing it. Net neutrality has just received a huge push; probably one that will ultimately turn the tide to its favor.
MacBook Air Autopsy (Graphic)
Apparently MacBook Air's don't like coffee.
My friend Chris sent me a simple email on Monday.
Subject: you'll never guess
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=6963091&posted=1#post6963091
So. Sad.
Long story short - it's been a long weekend. Girlfriend spilled wine on her new MBA. What can you do, s*** happens. Immediately powered it off, turned it over. Wasn't a lot of wine but, well, enough to do some damage.She made a couple of trips to 2 genius bars this weekend, and then we made another today. The first guy took it to the back room, came back 5 minutes later and said - there's a lot of liquid in there, coffee stains on the logic board. Guy said they could do a complete rebuild for $1300.
So I convinced her to let me take it apart. She's a student, so buying another has to wait. And I like taking stuff apart.
Still, Chris and his better half are making the best of it. They've used this as an opportunity to play around, taking the Air apart and doing what they can to see if it can be salvaged. I think it's gone Humpty Dumpty, but maybe they can make like Dr. Frankenstein and bring the poor Air back to life.
If anyone wants to help, please post in the forum thread.
The Better Way To Add Naughty Words To Your iPhone
The iPhone, a draconian censor.
A while ago, iPhone users figured out a couple of little hacks to add words that would get you fined by the FCC to the iPhone's auto-correct dictionary.
Unhappy that she had to put in so much work to get their iPhone to speak like a Senator, Erica Sadun at ars technica did a little poking around and has discovered a much better training method for the little phucker.
Lifehacker summarizes thusly:
The iPhone's custom auto-correct dictionary (located at /private/var/mobile/Library/Keyboard/dynamic-text.dat) doesn't update itself when you're using, say, Notes. Using Mobile Safari's Google search box, however, seems to instantly refresh the file.
Erica explains...
Well, clearly, not every iPhone application can "learn" words. Notes seems to be brain-dead in that regard. At the same time, using Safari's Google text entry field worked every time, expanding the database and adding new items to my keyboard dictionary.
This isn't the way you'd expect the iPhone to work. You'd imagine that the keyboard learning algorithm would apply to all text no matter where you enter it, but apparently not. Hopefully this little trick will help you out when you want to add words that you don't want autocorrected.
I'm so relieved. Britney Spears can be more direct when texting ideas for future song titles, and Kevin Garnett can finally use the iPhone as he's always wanted. No more ABC censor -- the iPhone has upgraded to HBO!
For more discussion and even a video explanation, visit iPhone Hacks.
[Photo swiped from the ars technica article.]
MSI Wind Review: The Month Of Joy
The MSI Wind U100.
I bought an MSI Wind U100 exactly one month ago. I paid $350 at Best Buy for the following configuration:
- 120 GB hard drive
- 10" screen
- 3-cell battery
- 1 GB of RAM
- 1.3 megapixel video camera (above screen)
- Ports: (Left of keyboard) 2 USB 2.0 ports. (Right of keyboard) ethernet port, VGA port, headphone and mic ports, SD card slot, 1 USB 2.0 port. No BlueTooth.
- Operating System = Windows XP Home
The short review? I LOVE my Wind.
Mac Notebooks* Over The Years
The 15-inch MacBook Pro
On the eve of Apple's launch of their next generation of MacBooks, Fortune has posted a collection of photos detailing the evolution of Apple notebooks, from 1989 to the present. Mac Rumors is the site to visit for the latest pre-release speculation.
Likely changes to the product lines include:
- Single-cut aluminum cases for both MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
- A starting price of ~$800 for low-end MacBooks.
- Enhanced graphics via migration to NVIDIA chips.
- Blu-ray support.
- Release of a networked HDTV (unlikely).
* The change in nomenclature from "laptop" to "notebook" was prompted by early efforts to increase processor speeds and allow portable computers to act as desktop replacements. While this change allowed consumers to forgo the purchase of a desktop computer and set aside more money for their laptops, (formerly a secondary luxury for the traveling business person or software professional), a key side-effect was increased heat generated by the faster, more powerful processors. Powerbooks, and then early MacBook Pros, got so hot that customers complained of burning and blisters on their legs when they used their portable computers on their laps for extended periods.
To minimize the risk of lawsuits and to discourage people using these computers on their laps, the industry as a whole changed the nomenclature used when describing these products. Instead of "laptops," portable computers are now exclusively referred to as "notebooks." Different name, same thing.
("Netbooks," is an even younger term denoting a subset of portable computer that weighs in at around two pounds, has a max screen size of ten inches, a weaker, more energy efficient processor, no built-in media drive (CD/DVD), and is meant to be extremely portable, inexpensive, and primarily used for accessing the Internet while on the road. The Asus Eee PC 4G was the first netbook to make a splash, but they have been so successful that nearly all major notebook manufacturers will be offering their own netbook by the end of 2008).
Keyboard Nerdery
Apple's Bluetooth Keyboard
While writing a pair of long papers a couple years ago, I tired of my (beloved) 12" Powerbook's tiny keyboard and decided to buy an external keyboard. (Of course, this may have doubled as a perfect way to procrastinate on writing said papers... but you can't prove nothin'.) Anywho, I started doing some research and was quickly, amazingly, disappointed.
I wanted an inexpensive, simple, full-size keyboard, preferably Bluetooth or at least wireless, that had a fairly small footprint and that worked as an Apple keyboard by default (without needing to switch keys around to match the Command key in place of the Windows key, or any other silliness). I didn't like the keyboards Apple was selling at the time, and most of the "made for Macs" keyboards manufactured by third parties received poor reviews. Looking at the Windows side, most of the keyboards were huge, bloated monstrosities with all sorts of extra buttons for controlling volume and video games and hitting fast-forward in music players and other junk that I didn't want and that, in addition, made things worse by greatly increasing the size of the keyboard.
It was as though no one was interested in just making a solid, clean, simple keyboard and selling it at a reasonable price. Sure, some companies sold updated versions of the beloved, clicky IBM keyboards, and others sold tiny "hacker" keyboards or expensive tweakable keyboards, but none of them were available for under $60 (and as for a ceiling, the sky's the limit). My solution? I went to Office Max and bought the most basic keyboard I could find. $15, and it's been great - especially for the price. Not exactly what I wanted... still it gets the job done.
But then Apple redeisgned their keyboards. Such hope! Sure, the chiclet-esque keyboards looked a little strange, but wow, the Bluetooth model is purty. Still, something wasn't quite right. The wired (and less expensive) model is just too big, and the Bluetooth model, though nice and small, is pricey and is just missing too many keys that I want in a keyboard.
Today John Gruber linked to an article that hit the nail on the head. Apple, make this happen:
The smaller one (really a lot smaller) squeezes tiny arrow keys into a corner, has an ultra-miniature “control” key, gives “fn” the prized bottom-left-corner position, and entirely omits those other useful keys.
There are several design flaws here. First, people who need an extra numeric keypad really need it, but there’s a huge number of us for whom they’re a waste of precious desktop space. Second, the idea that whether or not you need certain keys is related to whether you want to connect with a wire or not seems spurious. Third, the notion that any outboard keyboard should omit page up/down, home/end, delete, and so on, is just wrong.
So, I want keyboards that can be ordered in either USB and Bluetooth, and either with or without the numeric cluster, but always have the first outboard cluster.
More Air incentive
A friend was taking a look at the MacBook Air this morning in my early class. Such pretty machines. But they're sorta pricey for my tastes. The student discount only pulls $100 off of the price. Better than nothing, but not enough to make it a no brainer. But again, the Air is just a beautiful machine. Reports like the following do more than the $100 discount to push me closer, ever closer, to the Air...From Sports Illustrated's Peter King:
Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week
'I've heard that question, or some derivative of it, a dozen times in the past month, when I've traveled with my feather-light MacBook Air. The other day, on my flight to Fort Lauderdale, a women holding a 5-month-old baby in her left arm, gently bouncing her up and down, admired the little laptop and I said, "Here --you can even hold it while holding the baby.'' The woman took it with her right hand and held it like it was the new Grisham book, shaking her head in amazement. It's almost that light.
Four times at The Breakers on Sunday, people asked to hold my computer, including Niners coach Mike Nolan. I could do a commercial for this thing. Except for the fact that my wireless DSL card doesn't work with it (there's no CD drive or DSL port), it's pretty much the perfect laptop.
(Via Daring Fireball.)
