Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Trance mix by the Blue Room Project

Published on March 30, 2010 in Music. 0 Comments Tags: , .

[East Africa]
I WAS SO THRILLED to find what is perhaps my favourite Trance mix of all time — courtesy of the Blue Room Project. Peek what I wrote over at YouTube:

Wow!!! I have this track!! I got it of the Net around 2002 but it probably came out around 2000 or 2001. This is what I like to call Classic Trance. It’s soooooo peaceful, and full of energy & pure karma.

I’d say this has got to be one of the greatest Trance sets — ever. My hats off to the Blue Room Project. Does any1 know what the name of the mix is exactly??

I’d be nice to get the track listing too…some really great TRACKS here. lol! I’m more of a Houser but I like this style of Trance.

All I can say is that this mix — with a “progressive trance house” sound — will be part of music collection until the day I depart this earth for greener psychedelic pastures in the cosmos. I never tire of listening to it. This is why I LOVE the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scene.

Heck, can you imagine if I didn’t meet those kool girls in that clothing store on Yonge Street (near Bloor) in downtown Toronto back in 2000 who invited me to Turbo? As they say, “the rest is history.” Afterwards, I discovered Life, The Comfort Zone, The Guvernment, Benson & Hedges Gold Club Series music events, Smirnoff music events, iDance and a ton of other EDM activities.

Talk about being at the right place at the right time. I’d probably still be going to Hip-Hop and Gino clubs where everyone has a bloody attitude and lots of alcoholic fights galore.

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Apple vs HTC over iPhone patents

Published on March 10, 2010 in Opinions and Technology. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

[East Africa]
I DON’T KNOW ABOUT you, but if a $200 billion company like Apple — which has about $40 BILLION stashed away in the bank — is threatening to sue you, I’d be a little skeerd. Folks, this story just isn’t going away.

Will Apple be the next SCO or the next Microsoft?

Once again, the ugly realm of patents rears its ugly head, threatening to stiffle or slow down competition…and innovation too. Is Apple right to sue HTC? Take a peek at this hotly commented ZD Net blog post and try to determine who’s in the wrong.iPhone 3G vs HTC Diamond - front

Here’s my take. I actually left the following comment over there:

If it’s true that no one else had these new iPhone-like ideas before it hit the market, then Apple should have the right to defend its patents. Did HTC coincidentally have the same idea for the touch screen? We’ll never know.
How does HTC prove this in a court of law. Very tricky. But what makes Apple “think” that a company like HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Google, Sony et al would not have invented the idea for a touch screen — sooner rather later? Again, very tricky stuff.
Patents suck in the scenario where 2 companies are developing similar technologies but 1 company applies for the patent before the other. That would be a bitter pill to swallow for the other company out in the cold. Wouldn’t it? {source}

Speaking of Microsoft, lawsuits like this reminds me of Microsoft’s legal department insinuating that the free open source Linux operating system has infringed on its numerous intellectual patents. In this situation, I think they’re just worried about free viable alternatives (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva, Linux Mint, Fedora et al) eating away at their Windows monopoly and putting the brakes on their multi-billion dollar profiteering.

Heck, I ditched Windows last year — for Linux — so maybe they have reason to be skeered too. :-)

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Who cares about 64-bit Office 2010?

Published on March 9, 2010 in Info Tech, Opinions and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , .

[East Africa]AMD Opteron 64-bit processor
I’VE SAID IT BEFORE and I’ll say it again, “who cares about 64-bit desktop app when the average system RAM is around 1 to 2Gb?” Heck, I’m more interested in server apps that are compiled to take advantage of 64-bit processors. Mind you, 64-bit  apps in gaming and virtual reality are 2 areas that can immediately benefit  desktop users. But no one’s writing them, or they’re too few of em.

So I was peeking this ZDNet blog post on the prospect of a 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010. I’m like, “who cares?” Everyone’s running to install 64-bit versions of Vista or Windows 7 simply because they have Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD x86-64 chips. But, are they really getting any benefits if they’re still running 32-bit applications like Office 2007, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Photoshop, Windows Media Player, iTunes et al? Hell no!

Actually, it’s hardware vendors that are “pushing” these 64-bit chips to home users — just like your medical doctor and Big Pharma pushing Chemotheraphy “treatment”  on poor hapless souls with cancer (especially now that we all know that pure Hemp Oil is a cure) because it’s a multi-billion dollar cash cow. Why? Profits, of course…and I understand that.

Show me the server goods…
Now, when it comes to server-based computing (mail/database/file servers, etc.), gimme 64-bits any day of the week. Anyhow, here’s my reply to the above blog post:

I’m more interested in 64-bit versions of MySQL, PostgreSQL, FirebirdSQL, SQLlite, etc. because this is the main area where you’ll see immediate benefits. Why? Because databases rule the world so if you are a company that has large data sets, then 64-bit RDBMS apps are the keys to your speedy success. I can also see 64-bits being advantageous in video/audio processing apps as well as large, complex information systems such as an Enterprise ERP app running on a server.
But Office 2010, Flash, and other desktop apps being 64-bits?? Not really important right now. {source}

Can you imagine running free 64-bit versions of Ubuntu Server Edition, FreeBSD, NetBSD, CentOS, OpenSolaris with free, powerful 64-bit apps like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Exim, Postfix, qmail, OpenERP, etc — and taking advantage of virtualization? Now, imagine if your system was decked out with an AMD Opteron 64-bit chip, 6 Gb RAM, and a RAID setup. Now here’s where some 64-bit “magic” will appear — right in front of your very eyes.

Happy 64-bit computing!

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Solution to Annoying UAC message in Windows 7

Published on March 8, 2010 in Info Tech and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: .

[East Africa]
IF YOU EVER TRY to run a program from a software publisher that you know is legit, yet Windows 7 gives you that annoying UAC (User Account Control) nag message, then try installing the program somewhere else instead of  C:\Program Files.Giraffes in Samburu National Park - Kenya

I got that tip over here. BTW, here’s that annoying message:

“Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to your computer?

Duh, I said yes the last 20 times!! At least remember my selection for this particular program file. In this case, QuickBooks 2003 (file: qbw32.exe). Other than this, Windows 7 rocks!! Really. Yo Micro$oft, what took you so long? Congrats on a fabulous product.

OTOH, I’m still a 100% happy Linux Mint user. This Windows 7 was loaded on my pal’s sexy iMac 24″ system. I’ve simply had enough of Windows’ penchant for nasty “ware” ( trojans, worms, viruses, malware et al). I soon plan on taking PCBSD 8.0 for a spin. I can’t wait to get the full power of Unix — courtesy of the FreeBSD Project — on my desktop in a sleek KDE setup.

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