1. You can now try windows 7.

    January 13, 2009 by Stone

    Just go here

    I might try this. I’m not 100% sure yet. I’ll let you all know if I do.

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  2. 3d models are going to take over the world!

    January 12, 2009 by Stone

    I’ll just leave this here.

    I’m busy today, but I’ll talk about this article his evening.  Check it out.

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  3. 3G Routers, Wristband Phones, and Windows 7, Oh My!

    January 9, 2009 by Stone

    I have been going to CES for a few years now.  About 5 years ago I worked closely with Diversions Entertainment at the One Must Fall: Battlegrounds booth, while also watching the CounterStrike tournament.  My interests have changed a bit from video games since then, but I havne’t lost my love of technology, and the companies that produce it.  This is why I go to CES each and every year.  2009 is no exception.

    This year it seemed to have a larger crowd than 2008, but it isn’t quite where it was the first year it went.  Maybe it was the lack of a video game tournament (or i missed it if there was one).  Dispite the numbers of visitors lacking, the number of companies was higher, and the entire production sprawled across three showrooms.   Among the crowsd, Press conferences were held, announcements made, and the groundwork laid for lots of money to change hands.   Products ranged from the world’s thinnest plasma TV (a third of an inch thick, and amazing quality image), to Wristband communicators which were actually capable of sending text messages.  One other important thing I saw: Windows 7.

    I recently made some remarks on Windows 7, and I was excited to get to see it for myself.  The departure from Vista may be a good move for Microsoft.  7 has the visual flare that can be expected with any new version of windows, (and I was right about the docking feature being a duplication of Ubuntu’s), but this time it seems to be done with extra care for efficiency.  The machine they demonstrated on ran smoothly, and didn’t appear to be have any major high-end parts.  The same can not be said for my dad’s 2GB vista machine, nor any vista machine I have come across with less than 4, which all run terribly without being tweaked to turn off the extra visuals.

    Keep your eyes on my blog, I’m going to give my review of the flexible wristband phone (and a rant on cell phones in general), sometime this weekend.

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  4. CES

    January 8, 2009 by Stone

    I am going to CES.  More info later today.

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  5. Apple cuts back on their DRM, and prices

    January 7, 2009 by Stone

    Just read this this morning on Yahoo! Tech news (link).

    While removing the copy protection is a huge step foreword for them, I have to say that I hope they maintained some way of tracking these files, or preventing illegal sharing of them. Lowering the price will do no good if people feel they can get them for free.

    I have never been a huge fan of DRM in it’s current state. I do support DRM, and I imagine it would be frustrating to see people just kind of stealing and using your work as thought they were entitled to it, however the way it works now is just not working. My issues here are twofold: One, I really hate being treated like a criminal when I am not. Programs like Starforce, or the policy that EA was going to implement into Mass Effect basically are ways of telling us that we are guilty unless we can prove our innocence. Accusing us of theft, by having to track us is not the way to keep the customers happy.

    Second, and more importantly is that DRM does not work! A quick check at the pirate bay, or any other bit torrent site will tell you that it is as easy as ever to get around copy protection.  In the example above with Apple, to get your music onto another computer, all you had to do was put it on a CD, and take it off of it again.  Many free programs can rip files as MP3s and even strip tag information.  With Mass Effect, I found that it didn’t run on my computer, but when a friend suggested a cracked executable that bypassed Starforce, the game ran smoothly!

    I am not really looking foreword to the day when my computer has to check the validity of every file before it can be opened, but I do think that the developers  will make it happen if piracy remains unchecked.

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