Tech Blog

[#1]

Cheap used Xbox 360s being sold in vast quantities and it's not a good thing
If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Those cheap Xbox 360s have likely been banned from Xbox live (preventing online gameplay and updates):

The systems haven't been "bricked," in other words, meaning they'll still turn on and players can still use them to play pirated games offline, but their ability to connect online--even employing an unbanned Xbox LIVE account--has been permanently compromised.

Dolly Parton (??!) promoting IE8 Webslices?
Muh brain, it boggles.

It's an awfully charming video by one of the greatest musicians of all time. This 63-year old mega-millionaire is downright folksy when talking about web browsers.

Jailbroken iPhones hit by hackers in two incidents

• Hacker Rickrolls Jailbroken iPhones -- change your default SSH password, if you have SSH installed.
• Silent but deadly
  Ars Technica is reporting about a software application that can gather personal data from your Jailbroken iPhone, again, if you've installed SSH and not changed the default password:
  
  Unlike the previous versions, which merely replaced the wallpaper image to alert users that they have been cracked, the new version silently copies personal data—"e-mail, contacts, SMSs, calendars, photos, music files, videos, as well as any data recorded by any iPhone app." It then sends the data back to the machine running the software.

iTunes store approval process has Rogue Amoeba running
Developers have had a love-hate relationship with Apple's iTunes store approval process: little feedback, unknown approval time thresholds, it seems like a black hole, stuff goes in, nothing comes out:

The company introduced its Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0 app for the iPhone months ago, became aware of some issues (with audio sync that could be heard when audio was playing to multiple outputs) in the app and sent in an update. An update which took Apple three and a half months to approve...

Steve Jobs lead 'inventor' of odd Apple enforced advertising patent?
The NY Times had this little gem on an process design patent application submitted by Apple:

The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.

Google Wave gets a following
Which should help clean out the overflowing inboxes when you view or contribute to public waves:

When someone adds you directly to a wave, or if you contribute to a wave, you will automatically be following that wave. When you see a public wave that you would like to get updates on, you can chose to follow it by hitting the follow button in the wave panel toolbar. You can remove these waves from your inbox by hitting the "archive" button, but when there is an update they will pop back in. You can switch between following and unfollowing a wave as much and as often as you like.

I just saw them a moment ago
Twitter rolled out, then recalled the ReTweet function...seems there were issues:

We’ve been contending with an elevated number of errors since late last night. We’ve ruled out a number of causes of this problem but are still working to reduce the number of errors on the site.

Twitter hooks up with LinkedIn
Interesting concept lets you selectively (or not) send tweets to your LinkedIn status:

The idea is simple: When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool.

Google launches new programming language
Google Go, a new C-like programming language from Google has developerati all a twitter as they ponder the implications. According to Google, Go is:

… fast
Go compilers produce fast code fast. Typical builds take a fraction of a second yet the resulting programs run nearly as quickly as comparable C or C++ code.

… safe
Go is type safe and memory safe. Go has pointers but no pointer arithmetic. For random access, use slices, which know their limits.

… concurrent
Go promotes writing systems and servers as sets of lightweight communicating processes, called goroutines, with strong support from the language. Run thousands of goroutines if you want—and say good-bye to stack overflows.

… fun
Go has fast builds, clean syntax, garbage collection, methods for any type, and run-time reflection. It feels like a dynamic language but has the speed and safety of a static language. It's a joy to use.

… open source
Go for it

I'll pass, I'm still trying to figure out Objective C

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Your Turn
So, did I miss anything? What online story really got you going this week? Link to it in the comments!

Message Edited by bgrier on 11-14-2009 10:21 PM

[#2]

I need help. I have a teenager that wants an I Pod touch for Christmas. I went shopping the other day and realized there are diff sizes. I am not computer savy, and am probably blogging on the wrong site.

I just really need to know what size do I really need for a 14yr old that is quite savy with electronics, but is only so so into music, very much a gamer, and has his own laptop.

[#3]

@2canwidow,

Hmm, not sure where the 'right' section would be, but I'll give it a shot

I've got an 8GB iPod Touch myself, and for me 8GB is enough. I don't carry my entire music library around with me, nor do I download every new app, but I'm not frugal either. iPod games aren't really that large, so you can fit quite a few on the smallest iPod Touch, and it is possible to cycle apps and music from the laptop to the iPod using iTunes.

It really depends on what you *think* the needs of the system will be, similar to a computer purchase.

My rule of thumb is always get more storage than you think you need, somehow I always grow into the extra space, and am never running out.