automating the world, one script at a time
Archive for August, 2009
Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken
Aug 21st
Underground App Store Courts the JailbrokenUnderground App Store Courts the Jailbroken: “PainMeds writes ‘Apple’s stepped-up and controversial rejections are helping to foster competition in the app store marketplace. According to an article by Wired, developers aren’t taking AppStore rejection lying down, but are turning to the hacking community’s repository system for the iPhone to launch an app store of their own. The 4-month-old Cydia store is yielding notably higher sales for a few application developers than Apple’s AppStore, and is reportedly running on over 4 million Apple iPhone devices, with perhaps 350,000 connected at any one time. In this store, developers are distributing applications they’ve written that push the limits of Apple’s normal AppStore policies, with software to add file downloads to Safari, trick applications into thinking they’re on Wi-Fi (for VoIP), and enhance other types functionality. You’ll also find the popular Google Voice application, which was recently rejected by Apple. Third party application development has been around since 2007, when the iPhone was originally introduced, and became so popular that O’Reilly Media published a book geared toward writing applications before an SDK was available. The Cydia store acts as both a free package repository and commercial storefront to third-party developers.’
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Pi Calculated To Record 2.5 Trillion Digits
Aug 20th
All I ask is why ? Just because they can ? Surely they could do something more useful with the 47th most powerful super-computer in the world ?
Pi Calculated To Record 2.5 Trillion Digits: “Joshua writes ‘Researchers from Japan have calculated Pi to over 2.5 trillion decimals using the T2K Open Supercomputer (which is currently ranked 47th in the world according to a June, 2009 report from Top500.org). This new number more than doubles the previous record of about 1.2 trillion decimals set in 2002 by another Japanese research team. Unfortunately, there still seems to be no pattern.’
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
There is nothing more addictive
Aug 20th
(8/10)
You have got to play Trials HD on Xbox 360. It is available for a heft 1200 points as an arcade download on Xbox Live.
I’m not even sure what it is about the game that I can’t stop playing it.
There is nothing deep about it at all. Finish the track as quickly as possible whilst making as few mistakes as possible.
If you mess it up try again. And again. And again. When you finally get it right you see the times that your friends have achieved for the track, so it’s back to the drawing board. You try using a faster bike, but it clearly has too much power the track, so you go back to a slower bike and try everything to shave another two seconds off your time so that you aren’t the loser at the bottom of your friends list.
If you haven’t already sworn enough at your controller and your TV, give the tournaments a try. You generally need to complete 4 tracks in succession with your time and faults accumulating along the way. 10m away from the finish on the last of the four tracks you wipe out. @#$@%!@#%$. You start again from track one as you made too many faults. Awesome.
Download it !
There is nothing more addictiveMy ISP is not my Big Brother
Aug 19th
Today I was involved in some heated debate around whether or not your ISP should be threatening you with service termination on receiving one or even multiple complaints from various “watchdog” organisations out there.
Are you kidding ?
ISP’s are not the information super-highway police. Never have been and never should be ! Law enforcement should be left to the relevant law enforcement agencies.
I’m not agreeing with the act of piracy, I’m merely of the opinion that ISP’s are the wrong place for them to turn to for assistance.
If an ISP receives a court order asking them to provide personal information so that they can prosecute an offender, by all means the ISP should assist as far as possible, but they should not act on a threat request from a watchdog to cease and desist.
By all means, pass the C&D request onto the user, but leave the enforcement to someone else. If the watchdog decides it is worth the time and effort to pursue the offender, by all means let them engage with the local law enforcement to attempt to prosecute.
Next we’ll be getting all our traffic offences checked when we pull up to a toll gate !
Even AT&T and Comcast has shown these watchdog’s the finger in the past (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10204514-93.html).
Viva le resistance !
My ISP is not my Big Brother
Vodacom will screw you.
Aug 18th
I just don’t understand it. The iPhone 3GS has been available for weeks from Vodacom, but it seems that other operators still “have no stock”. My contract is with Nashua Mobile and they are telling me that Vodacom are wanting to keep the phone exclusively for their customers at first before they release them to the other service providers.
Apple iPhone 3GS
Can they be any more obtuse ?!? Vodacom will still get the business at the end of the day, so why are they withholding stock ?
Come on Vodacom pull up your socks ! Are you getting nervous about interconnection rates being slashed and your years of taking us for a ride coming to and end ?
Vodacom will screw you.
