AMCP Tech Blog

Ok, this is weird. Why would Disney, a animation/movie making sorta' business make Mp3 players? Don't you think we have enough!? Their new "pre-teen" mp3 players are called Disney Mix Sticks and play WMA/Mp3 files as well as memory cards, called Mix Clips, that feature prerecorded music from Walt Disney Records. CNET News Reports:

Disney Mix Sticks have a storage capacity of 128MB, enough for about 60 songs, and work with a USB 2.0 connector. The MP3 players also feature an SD/MMC card slot for as much as 1GB of storage, or approximately 500 songs. The MP3 players are scheduled to ship in mid-October to major retailers and are expected to sell for about $49. The Mix Clips will be offered separately in the same price range as CDs.

So, from what I've heard is that they suck. 128MB? That's all? That deserves a WTF. But hey, the sell for $50 so it isn't that bad compared to other brandname Mp3 player makers. They charge anywhere from $50-120 for a 128MB Mp3 player.

*Sorry guys, I spelled Disney wrong. I put Disnet. Hey, the "t" is close to the "y"!

I just got back from the CNET Party that took place on Sunday. I kinda' got a bit lost getting there (I thought that it was in the mall area in Boston, but it was another exit down the highway!). They had a yellow tent setup with Molly Wood on the microphone. There were a few of the editors there that I talked to. I told them CNET was like a religion for me. I got two t-shirts (one for me and one for my dad, another CNET techie). They had a little question-answering (you win a t-shirt if you got it right). They asked, "What was the first all-computer animated movie". I answered, "Toy Story." I was right. Another t-shirt, that's three. They also had a drawing for a LogiTech Headset with a microphone addon. I entered (there were about 15-20 people who had already entered) and I won! So now you guys can IM me on Google Talk (AlexMorganis(at)gmail(dot)(com) or Yahoo Messenger (Morganis101) and we can talk! It went really well. I talked to all the editors there about current technology news and more. You can see some pics I took there on my Flickr Page.

I found this pretty interesting. AOL has released an antispyware tool that (starting today) will be added to all subscribers. The reason: They switched from their previous provider: Aluria Software with software from Computer Associates, a company representative said. Dang, everyone's using Pest Control (the antispyware tool in the Yahoo Toolbar is based on that.) The change comes after rival Earthlink acquired Aluria Software. The software's name is: AOL Spyware Protection 2.0 and it scans for more than 28,000 known types of spyware, adware, keystroke loggers and Trojan horses, AOL said. The software will be updated this year and will include realtime protection. AOL Spyware Protection 2.0 will download automatically for users on AOL 9.0 and those who have installed the earlier version, AOL said. Others can download it from the AOL Web site.

Hi everyone. I have been lapsing with my posting again . . . Alex has really accelerated this blog in the past week or so! Here's the scoop:

Google has, in the past few months, aroused much speculation by its purchase of large stakes in several broadband companies, among them "Current Inc." (a company that runs broadband internet next to power lines). Most people thought that Google was buying up this broadband (which it got at the relatively cheap cost of about 100 million dollars US) for bandwidth. However, some brand new evidence just popped up that Google was planning to create a massive WiFi network.

http://wifi.google/com/download.html
http://wifi.google/com/faq.html
http://wifi.google/com/privacy.html

I downloaded, installed, and ran the program, called Google Secure Access. Not at all suprisingly, this little gem secures a WiFi connection by routing traffic through the Google servers, creating a proxy. It runs as a little green icon in the taskbar, and "connects" automatically on startup. Sometimes it asks for a username and password when it connects automatically (it provides a string of numbers automatically as the username; my Google account did not work), but it never does when you connect to the Google VPN manually by right-clicking the taskbar icon and selecting "Connect Now". While playing around with the program and the web pages, I found two things worth noting. First, the web page makes very clear references to "Google WiFi"; we can expect Google WiFi very soon. Keep refreshing Google Labs and the Google Blog. This is big. Secondly, I found, when clicking "about" from the context menu of the taskbar icon, a little bit of Latin, which translated to something like, "It is your concern when your neighbor's house is on fire". Well, I'll be darned.

Well Opera Software has announced that Opera 8.5 is now for free- that's right: no more ads, banners or the Google Adsense crap. They said that this was because of the huge response to Opera's 10th B-Day. "Today we invite the entire Internet community to use Opera and experience Web browsing as it should be," said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser." Before, Opera was free, but it had the banner. "Opera fans around the globe made this day possible," said von Tetzchner. "As we grow our userbase, our mission and our promise remain steadfast: we will always offer the best Internet experience to our users - on any device. Today this mission gains new ground." I think that this might be enough to move some browser market share. The second browser battle has begun. What do you think? Are you gonna' download it? I might...

Computers 24/7 is alive folks. Go visit, it has a brand new design, and it looks great. I have touched that thing is months because I've been sooo busy with this blog and Spyware Informer.

New security flaws in Firefox 1.0.6 have left users open to attack. Mozilla is said to be preparing Firefox 1.0.7 for public use. If you want, you can test the current builds of Firefox 1.0.7 over at the Mozilla QA Blog. Things you should test is to see if all toolbars work (Google, Yahoo, ect.) and that you have no problems logging into Gmail, Yahoo Mail and other webbased Email services.

You maybe saying, "Hmm, the same black on black, the same alien green logo. What's changed?" What did? Well we've gotten back into the grove. Recently you may have noticed that posting was slowing. Sometimes the blog wasn't updated for a few days. Or the admin didn't get back to your Email. Yah, we are back in the grove. Tech is coming back to life in this subdomain. I have a great friend who goes by the name Illumen, he's been a great help. With posting, advice, everything. He's the guy who wrote that great Linux writeup including screenshots. Thanks for all your help, keep it up.

As Webmaster and founder of AMCP, I've put the most hours and sweat into this blog. This blog went from 200 visitors a month to 5,000+ a month. The page rank went sky high. Visitors were at their peak in months. Ads were bringing in more than a few pennies. Life was good. And it's going to stay that way. Thanks everyone who's been with me from the start, it means a lot to me. I may not have a big role like I did before (I'm still Editor-in-Chief), but I'm here to help you get the latest technology news. We're back, in black.
-Alex Morganis

As many of you might already know, Google just revealed their new Blog Search tool, and frankly it sucks. I'm not just the only one saying this. Many of the results include spam blogs, another reason where Blogger is lacking: AntiSpam protection in blogs. Many of these "sblogs" are made for pure marketing purposes, and to attempt to raise page rank. I'd much rather use something like Technorati. A simple search for my name brings up my Flickr Page, a website I help out with, my Spyware Informer blog, and MSN Space. Tsk, Tsk. No wonder it's in Beta.

Well, now that Mozilla has released Firefox 1.5 Beta, I've downloaded it and installed it. Great job Mozilla, works well. Here's some problems I had though:

1. 1. Toolbars: All of the toolbars that were installed on Firefox 1.0.6 were gone upon installing Firefox 1.5. It's not that big of a problem, but it's a pain.
2. 2. Loading: Firefox sometimes freezes on me and even crashes. This is a biggy. Really a pain the @*Q#* when you're working on something or updating a blog for example.

New Features: Firefox 1.5 comes with a lot of new features, you just need to know where to look. One of my personal favorites is the new "Tabs" button in the Settings. I can control how windows open up. For example, if a window is coded to open up in a new window, I can adjust Firefox to make that window open in a new tab. This is a great feature for true browers of the Web. For now, I've found no security holes or threats to Firefox 1.5 (unless it affected by other holes that weren't patched in Firefox 1.0.6, any ideas?).

Remember guys, Firefox 1.5 is Firefox 1.1. Mozilla thought it was best to drop Firefox 1.1 as the name of the next generation browser so it would be a bigger deal to upgrade. Deer Park Alpha 1 is also Firefox 1.1 which is Firefox 1.5. I know a bit confusing, but all the same. Deer Park was the codename for Firefox 1.1.

I've been playing around with Yahoo's new Email interface. I love, how can't you love it? It has that kinda' program feeling. Almost like Microsoft OutLook. It sorta' reminds me of screenshots of the new Hotmail (I know, sorry to say that!). It works great with Firefox and even has tabs (YES!). I have to give credit to the guys who pulled this off. The coding must of taken weeks! PHP, HTML, JavaScript, it's all there. Google's Gmail isn't looking to good. Before the update Gmail was the best bet, but Yahoo beat Google on design/interface on this one! Now all we need is Yahoo to bump their mail storage up to 2GB, then people would be switching (can't be 2.5 GB, for free!). Have any of you guys tried it out yet? If so leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Update: Actually, you don't need to be invited! Just go to Yahoo Mail and you can change your account to the new beta. If you don't like the beta, you can easily change back on the top of the page. So to confirm: No invite needed!

Update 2: Sorry, but you can't be invited or sign up. You must be invited by Yahoo! to go and use Mail Beta.

Hi everyone, I thought I'd post two cool links I found today:

http://blogga.ru/2005/09/12/wooden_comp_photos/

and

http://www.projetobms.net/GTPlug.php?pagina=sc&lang=en

. . . the first one is kind of silly (it's a wooden computer), but the second one is definitely cool. It's the first plugin for Google Talk that I've seen. Check it out!

Microsoft has just released a free AntiPhishing add-on to Internet Explorer (requires MSN Toolbar). Before, you could only get antiphishing in Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta1. This tool will allow users to report new sites. Here's some more information in MSN's own words:

"The Phishing Add-in uses a combination of website heuristics (domain, IP, etc.) and aggregated customer-reported data to protect you from phishing attacks. As you browse the web you can use it to report phishing sites that you discover, as well as to report to Microsoft sites that are being misidentified as phishing sites."

For me, MSN sucks. Yah, it sucks. For me, it's Yahoo, all the way. I can listen to my own radio station with Yahoo Messenger with Voice, blog with the best social networking tool there is, and listen to tunes stored on my computer with the Yahoo Music Engine. I'll try it out sometime on my test PC, it's not worthy enough to be installed on my normal computer. Have any of you guys tried it out yet? If so, leave a comment, some incite; convince me to try this thing.

Well, good old fashioned Slashdot-which used to be powered solely by plain 'ole HTML-is redesigning with CSS. Their hip new look can be found here. The CSS version of the site is open to beta testers now, and will soon be released to the general public.

Google has released two new pieces of software recently. One is a the upgrade to the popular Google Desktop Search and the other is the new IM client Google Talk. I'm not going to go into a review of the merits of both programs as that has been done to death over the last few days by every other blogger and technology columnist out there. What I want to look at is the stark contrast between the two pieces of software.

Having spent time with Google DTS 2 (Beta) I was left confused. Between the "news", "web clips" and "whats hot" it soon becomes difficult to track what's actually going on, and to track what you actually want to track. Out of the box the software automatically adds feeds from visited sites, which, if you surf a lot of irrelevant sites in search of material or whatever, quickly makes the web clips box a mess of stuff you have no interest in. You can fix this in the options, but it's not the default.

The design of the sidebar in DTS 2 is good. The interface is smooth and clean, and it's relatively easy to manipulate the information and view the information once you've set it up properly. Unfortunately, the team behind the program seem to lack focus, or vision or at least some sort of clear goal as to where this piece of software is going. They've bundled in module upon useless module, many of which are redundant in what appears to be the hopes of appeasing everybody.

I've always seen Google as a company with a clear vision, and it's generally accepted that that vision is one of making all the information of the internet available to the consumer through a seamless Google experience. The team behind DTS 2 have lost sight of this! Maybe they should go hang out with the guys that banged out Google Talk, because that rocks.

Google DTS is THE benchmark for IM clients as it things stand! Okay, I know it's feature weak at the moment, simply providing IM and PC to PC only VoIP, but just look at that design. It's clean, crisp, simple, and not bloated with advertising. It's a measly 900k download, perfect for those still afflicted with Dial Up syndrome, and thanks to the use of Jabber as it's protocol anybody on any computer can chat on the Google Talk IM network without using the windows client. The choice of Jabber was pure genius here, as Google have only had to release one piece of software, and won't be under immediate pressure to get Mac and Linux clients out. If your like me, you've already set up your GAIM IM client to use multiple Google Talk accounts.

So where is the consistancy? How in one week can Google release two pieces of software, DTS which is awkward enough to confuse not only me, but the likes of Molly Wood of Cnet.coms Daily Buzz, and also such a simplistic, clean, crisp and focused IM client like Google talk? Where is the quality control? I know both products are in beta, but doesn't quality control also deal with things like consistancy and vision? Is this a sign that things are getting a little sloppy over there, now that all the moneys come in, or is it just a little bump in the road?

NB: This article is a repost from Bits, Bytes and Babes.

Recently there has been much speculation that Apple Computer and Motorola will launch the first ever iTunes cellphone at a technology event on Septwember seventh. Apple has been on a roll lately, fueled with cash from their highly successful iPod portable digital music player series. What beats me, though, is why they would choose Motorola to release their phones with? It seems to me that many other cell phone makers would be much better for the job, but I must not forget the Razr.

Recently, and unfortunately, Rio Audio exited an industry it helped create: the digital audio industry. Rio's demise is blamed primarily on the rise of the iPod shuffle, as Rio made only flash players when Apple first came out with the iPod, and was thus barely affected by its new competitor. However, when the iPod Shuffle came out, with 512 mb of flash memory, Rio was hit hard, along with several other major players in the digital audio industry (notably Creative). Very recently Rio's parent company, D & M Holdings (which also owns many other brands), announced that it would kill Rio before September 30. Will Creative be next?