Category Pointers

Vodafone is currently trialling Wimax in Greece and Malta

Έχει ακούσει κανείς κάτι; Η μόνη περίπτωση δοκιμών με WiMax την οποία γνωρίζω είναι αυτή του ΟΤΕ στο Όρος Άθως. Είναι ειρωνικό αλλά η Ελλάδα, παρά τη διείσδυση της κινητής τηλεφωνίας, παραμένει πανάκριβη σε ό,τι αφορά τη πρόσβαση στο διαδίκτυο μέσω κινητού (γύρω στα 30€/μηνιαίως για 5GB σε ταχύτητες 3.5G/HSDPA) αλλά έχει επιλεχθεί ως πιλότος του WiMax και δη χωρίς να ενημερωθεί κανείς; Ας σημειωθεί πως η Vodafone έχει ήδη αγοράσει άδεια για το φάσμα του WiMax στην Ελλάδα από πέρυσι και υπάρχει περίπτωση το BBC απλώς να σφάλλει, μπερδεύωντας τη περίπτωση της χώρας μας με αυτή της Μάλτας. Αν κάποιος γνωρίζει περισσότερα ας αφήσει ένα σχόλιο.

It's been really exhausting porting stuff to OS X

Justin Frankel lists a few reasons why Apple's developer resources suck. While OS X has some of the most modern, most powerful APIs around, much of their functionality is undocumented, forcing developers to spend countless hours reading header files or even reverse engineering while getting to know how to use them.

Google Earth Browser Plugin

Sure, AJAX, when viewed through the prism of the still world of HTML and CSS, can be beautifully dynamic. But, let's face it, Google Earth --- despite its resource-laden design and slow response on slower systems --- is a much more natural, a friendlier way to view geographic data. With Microsoft trying hard to reclaim the (tech) lead on mapping (see Virtual Earth, WorldWide Telescope), it's up to Google to stop the surge. Enter the Google Earth API and browser plugin --- software that opens up Google Earth for use within browsers and accessible by web developers. Sadly, it's only available for Windows right now --- I bet this will change soon.

Steamrollin'

Early last week a report was published online according to which Apple's share of the retail computer market for the first quarter of 2008 was 13.8%, a figure about four times higher than the company's market share in 2004 and six times higher than its share two years earlier. But the most impressive part of the report wasn't this figure. It was the fact that Apple owned 66% (!) of the $1000+ market. From the relevant Computerworld article:
And Apple essentially owns the $1,000-and-up market, according to NPD's data. Overall, Macs accounted for 66% of all personal computers in that price category sold at retail during 2008's first quarter, taking 70% of desktop sales and a 64% share of notebook sales.
This is an astounding percentage for a single company going against the whole industry, but it's also somewhat concerning given the weakness of Microsoft and lack of alternatives. Yes, Apple is a very US-centric company that seems to not-give-a-damn about the rest of the world for the most part, and it's certainly too early to start sounding the warning sirens ("Ahoy, new monopoly in sight! Not exactly incompetent like that last one, captain"), but if this report holds any water I'm pretty certain that it'd be no surprise if Apple became the No. 1 personal computer manufacturer in the next five years. As Steve Jobs told the Panic people when they refused to 'sell' Audion to Apple: "We're a giant steam engine about to run you down." Somehow this frightens me.

VMWare Workstation 6.5β

VMWare has a beta testing programme for its venerable virtualisation software VMWare Workstation. Version 6.5 is going to add a number of very impressive and long-awaited features such as the Unity feature (pioneered in VMWare Fusion on the Mac), proper 3D acceleration support for Windows machines (yes, this means Direct X 9.0c and most probably, yes this means games and a whole slew of applications previously impossible to run under VMWare). I'll be giving Beta 1 a try in the next few weeks and I'll report here if anything worth mentioning comes up. I'd be very much interested to find what the pricing of this upgrade will be for owners of Workstation 6.0.

'Indie' Rock Συναυλίες αυτό το Σαββατοκύριακο

Αυτό το σαββατοκύριακο τέσσερα ελληνικά συγκροτήματα θα ανοίξουν τις δύο συναυλίες των Iron Butterfly στο Κύτταρο. Συγκεκριμένα, το Σάββατο τη συναυλία θα ανοίξουν οι Cube και οι Birthmark, ενώ τη Κυριακή οι Semen of the Sun και οι Low Gravity. Τη περασμένη εβδομάδα ετοίμασα ένα ακόμη βιντεάκι από τη προηγούμενη εμφάνιση των Cube στο Κύτταρο ως support στους Earthbound στο τέλος του περασμένου Φεβρουαρίου. Αυτή τη φορά παίζουν το Seven Steps (το οποίο μπορείτε να κατεβάσετε από τη πρώτη συλλογή In The Junkyard εδώ) με εισαγωγή του instrumental κομματιού 'Route'. Ακολουθεί το βίντεο. Δείτε επίσης το παλαιότερο βίντεο με την εκτέλεση του κομματιού Oblique
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Phun

If anything is certain is that this is fun. Lots of fun. An excellent piece of software and a great educational companion.

Dissecting OLPC Politics.

This is an excellent article on some of the (somewhat obvious) political issues surrounding the OLPC --- some of which I have alluded to in previous articles on this site. At the same time, it gives an insight on the many of the policy and technology mistakes the OLPC project seems to have made over the past few years; from academic short-sightedness (call it arrogance if you will) to the abuse of free software ideology as a vehicle aiming to convince of the device's value. Absolutely worth a read.