by Tyler on July 25, 2010
The Australian government has decided that it’s actually a good idea for them to govern what websites we got to, but in a more recent addition to their “internet security” laws, they also want to introduce data retention laws (meaning that your ISP has to record everything you do online). When media outlets attempted to get these proposed laws under the freedom of information act, they were given a document that was actually censored. 90% of the document was actually censored by scribbling over it with a black pen, and therefor, we actually have no idea what is really happening with the data retention act. It scares me that a lot of people want to put their trust into such a shit government, that is already censoring information that they should not, with governing and monitoring their internet activities. Seriously, have we come to a time in our life where we are willing to give up our freedom, our right to choose what information we can read and support?
Apparently the government believes that the snooping of our internet activities is none of our business
Read more details about the mess here http://tiny.cc/bb9fo
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by Tyler on July 22, 2010
I have always been fascinated by the idea of free open source software. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm to contribute to open source software is far greater than my programming ability, so I have spent the last ten years using the great software without being able to “give back”. I have always been a fan of the Mozilla Firefox web browser. In my opinion, it has made “alternative” browsing popular (or raised awareness that there are other browsers out there apart from the horrible Internet Explorer). I have been using Firefox all the way before it was version 1, and in those days it was also called Firebird (before they renamed it to Firefox to stop a naming clash with another piece of prominent open source software, the Firebird database). Back in those days, Firefox provided the fastest and most reliable browsing experience, and it really awakened the competition that exists today (Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and even the mighty Microsoft Internet Explorer) to actually join the browser wars, and improve their software. Now that we are at version 3.6 (at the time of writing), Firefox is no longer the fastest browser around, but it will always have a special place in my computers heart. This is where I introduce to you Firefox 4 beta 1.
Firefox Beat 1 is the current Beta release of Firefox, and it shows us a glimpse of that original innovative spirit of the Mozilla foundation. A massive UI overhaul, numerous improvements in rendering speed, better add-on management, and better operating system integration are just a few features that have been brought to the table by this latest release of the browser. Is it faster than Chrome, Opera and Safari? Well, currently it isn’t (according to all of the benchmarks on websites that I read), but it certainly is more than “just speeding up rendering”. This version of Firefox has given me, and you, a chance to give back to the open source community and become a part of the effort to restore Mozilla to it’s rightful position of number one in the browser wars. I am talking about downloading the latest beta, using it for everyday web browsing, and making comments to the developers using the feedback button on the browser (located in the upper right of the browser). Your involvement in the project will allow the developers to fix bugs, make improvements, and even implement features that you have always wanted in a browser. I currently use Firefox 4 B1 for all of my browsing activities and report any errors that I get. So far, it seems extremely stable for a first beta, and I have not had the browser crash at all during my experiences. I implore you to follow my lead and do the same, download the Beta and start… well.. just do what you normally do on the internet, just use the beta Firefox client to do it! Binaries exist for Windows, Linux and Mac!
Download Link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html
Update: I submitted a bug report today and a developer told me that they are expecting to release Beta 2 by the end of this week!
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by Tyler on July 14, 2010
I have been setting up a file server for my home and I decided to use Windows Server 2003 as the operating system for the machine. I would have preferred Linux, but I decided to use Windows Server 2003 because I need SOME Windows server experience for my job when I finish Uni (what better to get familiar with a server then running it at home?). It installed quite well, and after disabling an NIC and reinstalling drivers for another after first boot, I got a functional server installation (as best as a Windows environment can provide anyways). In typical Windows fashion, when trying to access the hard drive shares I made with Windows 7 Home Premium, I was unable to connect as Windows 7 was always trying to connect to the server using the domain WIN7 (which my home server is clearly not running). After a lot of fiddling, I managed to get it working with a registry entry. On the Windows 7 machine, I opened regedit and did:
1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
2. Create a new DWORD entry called LmCompatibilityLevel
3. Modify the entry and set the value to 1
That should do it! My machine can now access the network shares. If you have any other issues, just reboot your Windows 7 machine, and it should be OK on the next boot.
My next issue was getting anti-virus installed on the server machine, but I noticed that all of the anti-virus programs do not work on server versions of Windows. I managed to track down PCTOOLS Anti-virus and it installs and functions just fine!
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by Tyler on July 14, 2010
Microsoft points don’t go as far as they used to (or so it seems). With pathetic DLC, such as the Modern Warfare 2 maps, costing upwards of 1200 points, I thought I would take a little time to talk about the arcade games that are actually worthwhile (based on my experience with them). Here is part one!
Castle Crashers – 1200 Points
Get it! Awesome new age/old school beat-em-up/RPG. Great graphics, multi-player (with co-op), huge single player story, and tons of replayability.
Link: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/c/castlecrashersxboxlivearcade/
Toy Soldiers – 1200 Points
A rather new game, but a fantastic mixture of tower defense mixed with action and first person shooting. Basically you protect your toy box with machine gun nests, artillery, planes, tanks, whatever you can get your hands on! At the same time, you need to destroy the enemy base to fulfill particular objectives. Great multi-player, and a real time sucker!
Link: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/t/toysoldiersxbla/
Perfect Dark Remake – 800 Points
A complete port of the original Perfect Dark from the N64 to the XBOX 360, but with higher res textures, 60fps, additional polygons, and the inclusion of XBOX Live for the multi-player features. If you loved and played the original, there is no reason not to get this game and to get re-addicted! 800 points is cheap for such a great quality game (and the N64 original sells for a bit now, so it’s actually cheaper to get it on XBOX Live).
Link: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/p/perfectdarkxboxlivearcade/
Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie – 1200 Points Each
Another remake of classic Rare games from the N64… nothing new here but higher resolution textures and a smoother frame-rate. These games are a steal at 1200 points each, and will easily give you dozens of hours each before you finish them!
Link: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/banjotooiexboxlivearcade/ and http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/banjokazooiexboxlivearcade/
Duke Nukem 3D – 800 Points
A remake of the PC classic, this version comes with improved graphics, added multi-player features (such as 8 player co-op and death match) and the fact that you can earn gamerscore just by playing a decent ass game (oh and it actually exists unlike Duke Nukem Forever). Crazy good value for 800 points!
Link: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/d/dukenukem3dxboxlivearcade/
Battlefield 1943 – 1200 Points
Multi-player only FPS that allows you to take on either the US or the Japanese armies from WW2. Tanks, planes, and infantry are some of the playable classes available in this game. My only complaint? WTF are all the maps? Now when are we getting that promised PC version…
Link: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/battlefield1943xboxlivearcade/
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DING! Over 100 Spam Comments Blocked!
by Tyler July 14, 2010 My LifeI don’t know whether to be happy, or sad, but this website has just managed to block 100 spam comments from appearing on the website. What are spam comments? Well, they are comments left on my articles by bots that usually do advertising for all sorts of things (similar to the ads you find in [...]