Java, New version of IE

Well, It's been awhile since I last had a chance to post here, sorry about that. I have been taking a mediocre programming class at school lately, and we are switching from Visual Basic 6 (old) to java using the current sun compiler. We had an easy assignment, with some simple math and the usual "hello world!" program, to start off, but me, not wanting to add consecutive integers by typing them individually went hunting for a good reference. I found this reference (pdf) which was more than enough to get me started with the language (at least for simple stuff). Knowing that some of the other students read this page, I thought  I would post the link.

In other news, for Windows users, Microsoft has released a beta of IE7 to the public here. Check out the tour and PCMAG review (thanks slashdot).

Google has also been busy, with a new version of their tool bar (for some operating systems/browsers only, I guess). Normally I don't like tool bars, as many of them spy on you or supply pop-ups but I do like google's spell checker, so I can put up with the minor privacy issues. More info on the new features here.

Happy (slightly belated) Lunar New Year!

Free Windows IT Pro Subscription

I'm not going to be home for a few days, but meanwhile, I have another link for you, which one of my parents sent to me and was also on techbargains to a free subscription of Windows IT  Pro.

Enjoy the Weekend

A few quick Links

Well, I have been pretty busy, with testing, but I found a few cool links for you.

First off, pointed out by GVOD is a clip on google video about the bad side of macs. Anyone has used an os9 or earlier mac (some of this applies to osX as well) should get a good laugh, though there is a little bad language.



In other news, a new gaim beta is out (haven't tried it yet). Still no video/audio support yet (unless you try this version)

If you want to get away from your computer for awhile, lifehacker is linking walkjogrun.net which offers a route planner for running based on google maps.

Speaking of google maps, google has added more levels of zoom to google local, as well as some new imagery (particularly in the UK) The google blog post has some interesting spots linked.

Reading my comments this afternoon, I noticed that someone was looking for info on Wireless networking. This has been added to my "todo" list of posts, but for now let me suggest that you enable some kind of encryption, even though it is a bit more work. Even though wep can be cracked (hackingdefined.com) in a couple of minutes it still keeps casual wardrivers out.

Mouseless Web Browsing

Well, I went and got sick again, so while I'm sitting in front of my computer trying not to puke, I noticed that Lifehacker has this great article on running Firefox with out a mouse. They also mention an extension which makes it easier.  This is a great way to confuse friends who are not as "computer literate" as some of us when you are bored in front of a computer, in a lab or office.

BitTorrent

I have been meaning to comment on Bittorrent for quite awhile (and I will still probably write a bit more on the subject later), but I have been motivated for a quick comment by a Slashdot post on a PCMag article. The PCMag article is a review of a couple clients (I usually use Azureus), once you get past the introduction. I just wan't to comment that Bittorrent is NOT illegal. It is simply a piece of software which connects peoples computers for distributed file sharing without a lot of work, and server load. The trouble is, that people use it to do illegal/bad things (like the screenshot provided by the article).  Because it is easy on the central server, bittorrent is actually a good way to obtain software, especially if you upload what you download. Large downloads, like Linux distributions and online (free/legal) tv shows often use bittorrent to cheaply distribute their content.

Some examples:
http://linuxtracker.org/
http://revision3.com (See my post a couple days ago)
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/

Often, bittorrent is faster than a normal download on popular things (the download speed is effected by the number of people uploading and the amount you are uploading), combine this with the advantages for the content distributors and you have good reason to give it a try, just be sure to forward the necessary ports on your router/firewall (6881-6999 by default, if I remember correctly). I will try and post some more info later, but the article listed above should get you started. If you are using a uPnP compliant router, many clients will take care of setup for you.

Sorry for the minor rant and enjoy your evening ;-)

Free Programming (E)Books

Apress has a bunch of programming text books for free if you give them your email address (seems like a good deal to me). Check them out here. They are all PDFs, a couple include code examples. Some will open in acrobat/acrobat reader if you have it installed, you can download these by right clicking their links and using "save target as" or using the floppy icon in the acrobat plugin's toolbar.

"Whonu" Search

Whonu  is a new search engine which uses the indexes of some of the other major search sites. It seems to have some interesting features, such as giving you an rss feed of your search. I haven't had a chance to do too much testing, but it seems at least worth a try.

Similarly, Profusion is another engine which searches a bunch of sites at once. Profusion has been around quite awhile and is good for finding things that your favorite engine can't find. Searches with profusion can take some time, but, like I said, you get a lot of hits.

30 Gigabytes of Webmail Storage!

30gigs.com which offers free webmail with 30 gigabytes of storage is accepting new people until the end of the month (usually its by invite only). The interface is  slow, and doesn't even come close to comparing to gmail's  but if you need a huge  mailbox, its worth a look.   If anyone wants a gmail invite, feel free to contact me.

Google Opens Google Talk Communications With Other Jabber Servers, Skype Video

Google has been more supportive of opensource and open standards than a lot of other companies lately. Their instant messenger, Google Talk, is jabber based, but up until now they weren't allowing communication between servers. Today they added this feature, which allows people using google talk to communicate with other jabber users on servers with this feature. I'm having some trouble wording this well, so as an example, I could use my Talk account to instant message my friend's account on jabber.org (I have tested this). 

If your not familiar with the jabber protocol (its not too well known), "screen names" are formatted like email addresses ( user@server). This identification can optionally have another handle added to the end with a slash, which indicates which "instance" of the other person you want to contact. For example, I could be logged into the same jabber account on my desktop and my pocket pc. I might be mben12@gmail.com/Gaim on my desktop pc and mben12@gmail.com/im+ on my Pocket Pc and someone who wanted to communicate with me would have the choice of sending a message to either or both clients. A few jabber servers can also communicate with some of the other more popular services (AIM/MSN/etc). If I'm making any sense, then Great! and go try it out. If not, check out the jabber website, or the google blog entry for more info.

In other news, Skype has (for Windows) released version 2.0 which adds video conferencing. For those who don't know, Skype is a VoIP program which works in a P2P (peer to peer) fashion, for free. It also offers connections to landline phones for a fee. I have found it troublesome but many people have had good luck with it. Personally I prefer sip based programs (see my previous post on the subject). Note that depending on the client you use, you can do video conferencing over just about any of the sip services, though several offer it by default. In addition to those I mentioned before, a new company, Ineen is offering sip based video conferencing for free using a skinned version of eyebeam.

"Systm"

I don't know how I missed this when it came out, but Kevin Rose and friends have released a new episode of "Systm"

For those who don't know, "Systm" is put out by Kevin Rose and some other former TechTV (from before G4 spoiled it) personalities. Each episode of "Systm" has been about one or two things you can do with computers, kind of video HOWTOs. This episode is about asterisk (haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet). Before systm, Kevin also had (has?) a show called "thebroken" which was about the more "shady" parts of computing. Both series are informative and well put together, though I personally prefer 'thebroken" in most respects. Kevin's new site, revision3, also has a couple podcasts.

Enjoy the show(s)