internet kaspersky security: Cardboard ideas: Part I (a.k.a. This is as close to an Apple iPod dock I could ever be...)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Cardboard ideas: Part I (a.k.a. This is as close to an Apple iPod dock I could ever be...)

I don't want to spend $75 on an iPod dock out there... and I only need USB connectivity to sync and charge. So who cares about spending money on a dock, when you only need cardboard?

Materials:

Cardboard from a cardboard box
Some tape
Your iPod dock connector adapter (usually supplied with many iPods out there)
Your iPod USB 30-pin dock connector

Unfortunately, because of the lightweight cardboard, you will also need a weight, or Blu-Tac (you can see some of it up there) to hold it firm onto the table (otherwise, you'll find your iPod smashing it's head out hard!)

I'm not for aesthetics - only for practicability, not that beautiful Apple products should come with good looking accessories.

Read More

Significant competitive move from VMware to counter the threat of Microsoft Hyper-V . . . not that 3i was expensive before, but this price is certainly better :) This is part of a new strategy kicking in after co-founder Diane Greene's departure. ex-Microsoft exec Paul Maritz is running the show now.

Read more in this article at Redmond Channel mag.

Read More

As I promised my faithful reader, I have obtained at great risk to my life and well - being, photographic evidence of the conspiracy!

behold!

See the difference in the packaging? subtle very subtle...

Again! further subtley, notice the difference in sizes between the matches! they are reducing the capacity of fire!

you cannot claim you weren't warned! its going to happen!

Bandwidth issue 2008-07-25 11:32:57

Some customers may notice that their bandwidth for the 24th and 25th of July is higher than usual.

We are currently investigating this issue with our Engineers and we hope to resolve this as soon as possible

Thank you for your patience

So I went along to My Vodafone to check.

While the meter in the picture below only accounts for my PC only (out of two), I am the biggest user of this household, so you could multiply the figures in my meter report by around 1.5.

Do note that my meter report may have slightly higher usage than the actual one as some packets may not be going to the Internet.

It sometimes fluctuates below my own PC's usage... and the 24th has a sudden peak spike (but the days before it were pretty unaccounted for)

Also, the 22nd of July is missing! Where did that go?

Some dates also seem to have huge delay in processing the usage (so sometimes the usage on one day goes on the next day).

I've seen problems with ihug's/Vodafone's usage checker a few times before. I haven't seen many occurrences of other ISPs having similar problems...

This also reduces the trust laid upon Vodafone's systems. I definitely know that I'll need to use my meter to check for usage rather than My Vodafone. Could this mean that we could be paying more for our data? (as if there is substantially more data usage than the actual one, then Vodafone have actually been taking away the value of the plan)

Vodafone's engineers better rectify this problem soon!

Read More

So, I'm sitting here in the Qantas business launge of the Sydney airport, waiting for my flight back to Auckland. A few tables across from me someone has just powered up his laptop. I know it's a business traveler, because his laptop has a business c... (more in the full post)

Read More

From the press release from earlier this month:

"Microsoft Equipt offers consumers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare, the all-in-one security and PC management service; Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with people they care about most; and Office Live Workspace, a new service from Microsoft that makes it easy to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share them with friends and classmates. Anytime a new version of Office or Windows Live OneCare is released, Microsoft Equipt customers will get the version upgrades as part of their subscriptions."

Cost is $US70 per year for up to 3 PCs. Pretty reasonable I think and improves the home user proposition versus Open Office and Google online services . . .