Atlas's blog - the Ultimate Reading Experience

Pesky neighbours?

Atlas — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:56:00 GMT

If you got neighbours stealing your wi-fi internet access, try giving this a go.

Apple iPhone

Atlas — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:35:00 GMT

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Just announced at MacWorld. Steve Jobs describes the iPhone as “having your life in your pocket”. The phone will be available in two models, 4GB and 8GB priced at $499 and $599 respectively, and will ship to the US in June of this year. Europe will get the phone in the fourth quarter, while Asia will wait till 2008.

Over 200 patents were filed for the inventions in the iPhone, which they intend to vigorously protect. The phone hopes to be a smartphone, music player, camera and video player all in one. The screen will have 160 pixels per inch, the phone will run OSX, and only has one button. The rest of the navigation is controlled by the touch screen display.

The phone also features a 2 megapixel camera, and is only 11.6mm thick. It can differentiate between the user holding it landscape or portrait, and has an ambient light sensor adjusting its brightness dependent on what environment you are in. Google and Yahoo are on board offering mapping and mail services too.

Having viewed the demos on the above website, it looks nice but I'm not entirely convinced about this touch-screen interface. Whilst it would be fantastic for navigation, it looks like inputting SMS and numbers would be a royal pain in the butt. I've had a touchscreen phone before (granted it was a Motorola) and that sucked big time. So clumsy. The other related issue would be the lack of ability to feel keys, which means you have to look at the screen to input everything. Thus, you can't sms or dial something whilst on the move without having to shift your focus to the phone.

But having said that, plenty of people seem happy with their O2 touch-screen PDA-phone devices. The iPhone looks to be the Apple's take on a simplistic PDA-phone.

24 Season 6!

Atlas — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:23:00 GMT

Season 6 of 24 has started... first 4 episodes have already aired. If you're a fan then you should know where to find them =)

Gran Turismo HD and Transformers trailers

Atlas — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 02:59:00 GMT

GT HD trailer: http://www.gtplanet.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=142&pos=9

Transformers trailer: http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/5029_paramount/en/web/index.html

Enjoy!

Microsoft Releases Xna Game Studio Express

Atlas — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 02:44:00 GMT

XNA Game Studio Express has finally hit 1.0. What does this mean? The first final release is available: everyone who wants can now put in the time needed to make their own Xbox 360 game. The download is only available for XP but is coming for Vista later. The software is a free download as it is a cut-down version of Microsoft's XNA game development platform. To get the most out of the download, however, a fee of $49 (for 4 months) or $99 (for a year) is necessary to join the XNA Creators Club at Xbox Live Marketplace. So what exactly are you dishing out that cash for? In addition to being able to play user-created games on your Xbox 360, you will have access to a library of game assets, sample products, white papers and of course good old tech support. To add some hype, Microsoft is offering "fantastic prizes" and "global envy" if you win the "Dream-Build-Play" game design competition.

View: Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 | Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 1.0

Source: Neowin

The mystery of the disappearing system tray icons

Atlas — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:14:00 GMT

For the longest while now, I have been living with my laptop deciding to hide some of my Systray icons (the ones on the right of your Start/Task bar). The only way that I knew of to get them back was to kill explorer.exe and then re-enable it via Task Manager.

Today I did a bit of a Google and discovered that this issue actually plagues many users! It seems that almost always there is a link to UPnP services.

For a vast array of possible fixes and workarounds, check this page - Systray Icons Missing

For an alternative, slightly easier but substantially less comphrensive page, check here.

For me, the solution was the 'Otumi Workaround'. Basically, this involves going to 'My Network Places' and clicking the option 'Hide UPnP Icons' (or something similar). One restart later and the missing icons returned!

Spam... on my blog??

Atlas — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:11:00 GMT

You know spam is a problem when it starts reaching the comments section on your blog! Well not specifically my blog, but my photo album here at the Spoke. I've had to enforce the 'moderate comments' function! *sigh*

Outlook 2007 and Windows Media Player 11

Atlas — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:00:00 GMT

You may be wondering what these two apps have in common. Well from what I can see not much, but there is one thing - incessant hard disk activity.

For the past week or two I've been running Office 2007 and Windows Media Player 11 on my laptop, a 1.7Ghz Centrino with 1gb RAM. Ever since installing these two apps, my machine has been brought to it's knees, making my email client everything but usable. After a bit of Live searching (yes i've been using Live search too), it seems that the 'instant search' tool that Outlook asks you to install was the cause of the problem.

So I thought about how much I use the search feature in Outlook, and came to the conclusion that I hadn't used it once since install. So out the window it went, and with it some of the file swapping hard disk activity.

But all was not quite right, as even when my computer was idle I could see my HD light flickering away. So I called up Task Manager to see where my processing power was going, and low and behold it was WMP11. Note that at the time, WMP11 was not even running; it was in fact the WMP11 Network service. At the same time as installing Office 2007, I had installed Vista on my desktop which naturally comes with WMP11. I subsequently found out there is some fancy feature which allows you to play MP3s from another computer's media library, automatically sharing across a network. My laptop had found the stream coming from the desktop, and was conversely sharing it's own library back to the desktop. Thus the HD activity.

So now I've disabled the WMP networking feature and all is quiet once again. Outlook 2007 is finally just as usable as 2003 =)

@live.com email addresses safe

Atlas — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:58:00 GMT

Just a little post for those of you that managed to obtain an @live.com email address. In short, the live.com team is happy to allow people to keep their @live.com email addresses although they will not be allowing anymore signups.

http://liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2006/11/16/live-addresses-are-safe-whew.aspx

Christmas comes early for my laptop

Atlas — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:58:00 GMT

Well the corporate machine that is Microsoft has certainly been working hard lately, with all divisions seemingly under the pump to get products out the door. This means new software and updates for my main work machine, a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop. Allow me to try and recap what has been installed in the last month:

Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft Office 2007
Onenote 2007
MS Zune Theme (great funky new look to my Windows desktop)
Windows Desktop Instant Search
Windows Live Messenger (v8 something)
And a spanking brand new @live.com email/passport

Although I've been playing with the Office 2007 beta, I never actually installed it on my work machine. I'm loving all the new productivity improvements and slick new interface, but what really got me is that it seemed to fix a bug with my Windows Task Bar icons. Pre-Office2007, only a few random icons would appear in my Taskbar. The other programs would still run but not appear. The only way to make them show was to force a restart of Explorer via Task Manager. But now after installing Office2007, they're all back! Impressive stuff =)

Also, for those of you who recall the hissy fit that Adobe threw about native save-to-PDF support in Office 2007, you can find the required add-ins here.

Looking forward to installing Vista on this machine once my post-grad exams are all over!

ATO Grad program FTW!

Atlas — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:18:00 GMT

Finally some news of substance to share with my avid readers.

First up - graduated last Thursday, having successfully completed my Bachelor of Business Systems / Bachelor of Laws without failing anything. Thanks to my grandma and cousin for making the trip down from Malaysia to attend!

Second - received and accepted an offer to join the ATO Grad Program next Feb. Success... finally! I shall be making sure that all those law firms that denied me articles are submitting their tax returns!!

I shall post up some photos of the ridiculous looking hat from the graduation ceremony later.

Blue jean dye kills cancer cells

Atlas — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:25:00 GMT

Shamelessly stolen from the BBC:

"The dye in your blue jeans could soon be used to kill cancer cells, say scientists.

UK researchers are employing tiny gold "nanoparticles", 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, to deliver the chemical compound directly into cancer cells, tearing them apart instantly.

The common dye found in blue jeans and ballpoint pens is called phthalocyanine and is a light-activated, or photosensitive, agent with cell-destroying properties.

This has been known for at least 15 years but, until now, scientists have not been able to successfully deliver it into cells; hence there's no harm in wearing blue jeans.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) team used the gold particles as "trojan horses". Their small size enables them to easily enter cells, and the phthalocyanine is taken up along with them.

When pulsed with laser light, the compound produces a highly reactive form of oxygen which causes the cancer cells to commit suicide.

Cancer cells are too greedy for their own good UEA's Dr David Russell explained: "Because this compound does not dissolve in water, it is difficult to get it into cells. But this 'fat soluble' property is precisely what makes it a great potential therapy.

"We have shown using nanotechnology that we can get phthalocyanine into the cancer cells where it binds and, on activation, causes substantial cell death," he told the British Association's Science Festival.

Red 'trigger'

Healthy cells will also internalise the drug-coated nanoparticles, but unlike cancer cells they will excrete the phthalocyanine.

"Cancer cells are too greedy for their own good," said Dr Russell. "They are growing so fast that they take in and retain everything - not just nutrients needed for growth."

The use of so called photodynamic therapy is not new; the first of the four compounds that are currently in clinical use was approved in 1995.

Of these all are water soluble and are used largely to treat skin cancer as they naturally accumulate in the surface of the skin where they are more easily activated by light.

For some reason, phthalocyanine does not get into the skin - making it more suitable for treating solid tumours within the body. "Best of all," added Dr Russell, "this compound is optimised for activation by red light and produces far more of the deadly oxygen than the currently available photodynamic therapies.

"In addition, because it doesn't go into the skin there is no need for the patient to stay out of the sun which can trigger side-effects with the other drugs."

No escape

Traditional cancer chemotherapies rely on the patient being able to process the drug. In some people, their genetic differences mean this does not happen and for others, their cells become resistant to the effects of the drug.

Photodynamic therapy bypasses this issue because it does not rely on the body to activate the drug - rather a pulse of, rather ordinary, red light.

Dr Mark Wainwright, a senior lecturer in medicinal chemistry at the Liverpool John Moores University says that an improved drug design such as this should have significant advantages over the currently available photosensitive agents.

He adds: "Red light can only travel through 5-6mm tissue, but activating the nanoparticles in tumours inside the body, such as in the gut, could be done by using a fibre optic cable to shine the laser on the cancer target."

So far, Dr Russell's research, recently published in Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, has only been conducted on human cervical cells in the laboratory.

But his team's collaborators in Italy have just begun testing the approach in animal models of cancer.

If all goes to plan, phthalocyanine nanoparticles could be available for human trials within five years and will be administered either by injection into the bloodstream or directly into a tumour."

Logitech G5 - got laser?

Atlas — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:27:00 GMT

Well whilst I'm studying I thought i'd reward myself with some new hardware. I figured my 3-year old Logitech dual-optical mouse was due for a replacement, so I went searching hardware sites for the latest and greatest in mouse tech. Seems that the Logitech G5 is the mouse of choice for most people, despite it being on the market for almost a year now.

I let my fingers do the walking and found that Landmark Computers, a relatively decent shop, was selling it for $99 AUD. There were a few online sites selling for about $80 but they didn't quite establish my trust. I also wanted it asap and didn't fancy waiting the 3-4 days for shipping, not to mention it was the weekend!

However it turned out that Landmark didn't have any stock. So i rang around only to find out that most places didn't stock the G5, probably due to the price. Eventually found out that Harvey Norman stocked it, would price match the Landmark price, and were open till 5pm. Sweetness! Whilst I was there, I also picked up a supposedly 'flat and quiet Logitech' keyboard for $40 bux. A regretful purchase which I may return, as the tactility of the keys is lacking.

Anyhoo, I got home and unpacked the mouse. This is the back of the box, which pretty much summarises the main features:

It's safe to say that this is the fanciest mouse I've ever owned. The mouse is capable of a maximum 2000dpi resolution, thanks to it's new laser technology (as opposed to optical LED). This is the main reason for my purchase, as I am forever battling the inferior tracking ability of optical mice. My old mouse would just randomly move to the corner or some other random place on the screen, and was just plain annoying. Interestingly, it does away with the red beam of optical mice as well.

Now 2000 DPI is a lot by anyone's standard. Well-informed geeks out there will know that the more DPI you have, the less you have to move the mouse. This translates to insane sensitivity. So now Logitech gives the user the ability to switch the sensitivity on-the-fly from 400 to 800 to 2000dpi, all without any driver software installation. That's where the two buttons below the scroll wheel and the little running man display come into play. Plug-in and go!

The other bragging-rights feature is the adjustable weight cartridge. Basically, they give you this orange plastic cartridge which can hold 8 different weights, thus allowing a plethora of adjustability. You then insert this cartridge into the base of the mouse to give a totally different feel.

The other handy feature is the scroll wheel. In addition to the normal back and forth scrolling, this one can also scroll sideways (left-right). This is where my main gripe with the mouse is - the scroll wheel also acts as the 'middle-button' click by pressing 'down' on the wheel. This is very hard to press accurately, and often results in side-scrolling instead.

The solution? Bind the left and right scroll functions to middle-click as well. It actually makes middle-clicking infinitely easier, especially when opening multiple-tabs in Firefox or IE7. The relative in-frequent use of the side-scroll function makes this a worthwhile trade-off.

All-in-all, if you've got $90 odd dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you can't go wrong with the G5 =)

Now can anyone recommend a decent but quiet keyboard???

Ferrari anyone?

Atlas — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 15:52:00 GMT

Check out my weekend activities here.

An Aussie, Italian and a German.

Atlas — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:10:00 GMT

An Italian, a German and an Australian football fan were arrested in an small Arabian state when they were caught pissing on a religious building after an all night drinking binge.

The trio have to face up to the local sultan and are dished out the typical punishment for religious desecration - 20 lashes of the whip to the back.

But the Sultan was a big football fan so he kindly granted them two wishes each - but they were not allowed to change the number of lashes or the type of punishment.

The Italian says " Well we are the World Champions so I go first. I want the pleasure a beer and a pillow.". The Sultan grants his wishes. With a wide grin the Italian drinks his beer and binds the pillow to his naked back. But after 10 lashes the pillow falls apart and he has to painfully endure the remaining 10 lashes which leave deep welt marks on his back.

The German saw all this and spends a few minutes thinking before smiling. "I would like to have two pillows for my back". The Sultan thinks about the uniqueness of the wishes but decides to grant it given he has used up his two wishes in one go. However after 15 lashes of the whip both pillows have fallen apart and the German has to painfully endure the remaining 5 lashes which leave deep welt marks on his back.

The Australian is grinning from ear to ear and mutters something under his breath about a bullshit penalty. "Ok my first wish is to double the number of lashes to 40." There is stunned silence in the hall. The Italian, German and Sultan are a little surprised at the first wish but then remember the strong fighting performance the Aussies put up during the World Cup in Germany 2006. The Italian and German look at each other and nod in admiration - obviously this Aussie wants to show how tough he is.

The Sultan ask the Aussie for his second wish.

"Tie the Italian to my back" he replies.