The world as frankps sees it!
Posts tagged Windows
Airfoil with Apple TV support
1
I am home with the flue, relaxing on the couch and browsing web pages. I ended up buying two software licenses Airfoil and Go Between for Lotus Notes (I will probably be writing a few lines about the last application another day).
Airfoil was originally only for MacOS X, but there now also exists a version for Windows XP/Vista. It has always been an application that I have followed as I have an Airport Express. I used to have it connected to my homecinema system, but I these days use Apple TV instead. And that is why the latest version of Airfoil got interesting again. Version 3.1 introduces support for streaming of audio from various applications to Apple TV. That had to be tried. A few moments later the Last.fm client was streaming one of my friends’Radio Station and Apple TV was showing my MacBook Pro with the wallpaper that I am using. I am impressed, but there is some functionality that I would like to have added: Elapsed time on the song played and to the radio station I am listening to, and of course Love and Ban buttons.
You can other wise use Airfoil to play audio from media players like RealPlayer or QuickTime. God forbid me from ever use RealPlayer, but it is supported! Airfoil can also be used with hardware audio devices like Griffin’s AM/FM RadioShark, or any other input.
Airfoil is a must for all Apple TV owners, and it is nicely priced.
Building a PC is not for everyone!
0As I mentioned the other day, I just bought a new PC in parts. I have always preferred to build them myself to better understand how they are built up. This time I wasn’t to lucky.I ran in to two problems:
- Defect cabinet. Now how is that possible? Well, turns out that the power-button isn’t working. And how did I find out, I bought a Foxconn motherboard with power and reset button on the motherboard!
- Memory error. Now that is also not something for the common enduser. And my lesson to learn here is not to always blame Vista for every possible error that could appear. My machine was amazingly unstable, crashing as soon as I did something with it, within 5-10 minutes I would have a complete freeze of the system. Today I brought the machine with me to work and tried to install XP with no particular better luck. It kept freezing no matter what. Unpacked two new HP machines and grabbed their memory, and I have now been running the machine without a crash for 2,5 hours.
This brings me over to something else, Windows Vista comes with 30 days testing before you have to register the product. Use the 30 days, check your hardware in every possible way. If all works and you are satisfied with the machine, then register.
Opera Files Antitrust Complaint with the EU Against Microsoft – A Shot in the Dark!
0Opera Software recently filed a complaint with the European Commission that was to aim at giving consumers a genuine choice of Web browsers. So far so good. The complaint describes how Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by tying its browser, Internet Explorer, to the Windows operating system and by hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards. Opera has requested the Commission to take the necessary actions to compel Microsoft to give consumers a real choice and to support open Web standards in Internet Explorer.Microsoft of course defended themselves with the fact that alternative browsers could not only be installed on Windows, but also be set as default, but this seems not to be enough for Opera Software, as they want EU to force Microsoft to remove Internet Explorer as part of Windows (the OS). Funny how Opera hasn’t learned the lesson from the highly successful Windows XP N and Windows Vista N Editions. Not a single PC manufacturer has delivered a single PC with these editions, and in fact most EU citizens will have problems getting their hands on them as the demands are so low that shops don’t have them on their shelves.
When it comes to the tying the browser in to the OS, Opera is completely right. Internet Explorer has been integrated in to Vista in a way we have never seen any browser in to another operating system. And it has been successful, I dare say that Internet Explorer 7 on Vista is the most secure browser on the market today. When users have not turned off UAC (which they have been told to do by so many IT Professionals), Internet Explorer 7 will run with less privileges then a normal user. This is a Protected Mode that provides the safety of a robust Internet browsing experience while helping to keep hackers from taking over your browser, damaging your system and installing software. Internet Explorer Protected Mode protects users and their systems from malicious downloads by restricting where files can be saved without the users consent, and further Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista cannot modify user or system files and settings without user consent. Protected Mode requires the user to confirm any activity that tries to put something on your machine or start another program. By ensuring the user consents to these kinds of actions, the likelihood of automated and/or unwanted software installation is reduced. This feature also makes you aware of what a website is trying to do, giving you a chance to stop it and take time to double check the trustworthiness of the website.
Now this is not bad from an enduser’s perspective and should not let Opera Software demand Internet Explorer to be removed from Windows. What Opera Software should be heard with is the possibility to do the same with their browser as Microsoft has done with theirs, and for that Microsoft needs to corporate with other browser vendors.In my eyes Opera Software did another mistake, as they through interviews (Wium Lie) have been focusing more on forcing Microsoft to support all major web standards that are commonly accepted within development communities. Internet Explorer 7 was a little bit better then 6, and Microsoft had already announced that version 8 would be released in not a to distant future. Well, yesterday Microsoft showed that IE 8 was passing the ACID2 test.
I’m asking myself what Opera Software have achieved with their PR stunt, and what do they think that they now will achieve with an EU trial? Even though I have never liked the bloated Firefox, Mozilla Foundation has shown that they are capable of competing with Microsoft on the desktop. A free advise for Opera Software, if you want to have any chance of competing with Internet Explorer and now Firefox, enable sysadmins to set settings through group policies with .admx files. For me group policy settings are far more important then voice, online storage of bookmarks and Ogg Theora support. They are all great features, but not something for the enterprise users. I don’t let my users get the option to use Opera, and with the latest security problems for Firefox, I have started to remove as many Firefox installations as possible. Safari is so far not an option. So in the end Internet Explorer will be the only browser that I let my Windows users have.I guess it is just a matter of time before Opera Software will find that they are only a small browser vendor in also the embedded market. Apple and Nokia seem to have great success with their webkit browsers. More and more companies get in to problems competing with open source projects.
Upgrading to Leo?
04 years ago
I have the last days gotten a lot of questions about what I think about MacOS X 10.5. I sadly cannot tell you yet, but I will be getting a copy of Leopard from the central computer department at work on Monday or Thuesday. I hope to be able to install it on a test machine the very same day.
I am eager to try many of the new features, but there are also features that we will not be getting full benefit from, as for instance Time Machine. If I have understood it correctly, you will not be able to sync with Time Machine to Samba shares. We also don’t have any MacOS X 10.5 server at work, so any new features on the client OS that is titly integrated with the server OS will not work for us. I personally don’t have an .Mac account any more either, so these features are excluded as well.
There are, as far as I can see, three other real “show stopers” that I will run in to with MacOS X 10.5, two at work and one at home. The Mac guys at the central computer department have, as so many others, not been able to bind the MacOS X 10.5 clients to Active Directory. So what does that mean? We have no working centralized login (network authentification), and that also leads me to the second problem, as we are using Windows servers (kerberos) for printing, we also don’t have any working print service for MacOS X 10.5. Having said this, I should end with saying a few things about the many reviews I have been reading lately: Many of them pisses me off. Why? They compare Vista with Leo. One of the biggest things with Vista is the enhanced use of Active Directory and Group Policies, in other words getting it easier to administrate big networks with Windows machines from one place. Apple also have these tools for clean MacOS networks. But when the magazines write that MacOS X 10.5 is so much better then Vista, and that it should be considered as an option, then please also consider the costs of mantaining a few Macs in an Windows environment! Administrators will find themselves setting most of the configurations manually on each machine. For home users MacOS X might be a great option, especially if you have some friends around that can help you the few times you get stuck on something. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Macs (MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, Cube, Apple TV and iPod Touch).
The third problem I will mostly meet at home, and that is to get Leopard to see Windows file shares on your home network. I have a Vista machine with a bigger hard drive than on the Mac, so I guess that Vista will be used as “server” once in a while.
These are the negative parts, hopefully some of them will be fixed in the nearby future. I have never been the biggest fan of Exposé, so I am really excited about Apple finally integrating virtual desktops in to the OS. Some third party solutions have been around, but not met my needs. I loved BeOS and it’s Workspaces, and by the little I have seen of MacOS X 10.5, I can say that Spaces is the closest I have seen to Workspaces. I will now be a happy “BeOS-user” on my Mac! I am looking forward to try the small integrated applications, like iCal, Mail and iChat. With iCal, what are the new features and can I get them on my iPod Touch? We don’t use Mail at work, but Thunderbird, but I would love to try out the html-templates that comes with Mail, even though I prefer getting mails as simple text! And iChat, wow, finally an easy way to take over the screen and help my scientific staff and now the possibility to work on presentations, spreadsheets and documents together online. Taking over somebody’s screen has also been possible before, but then through Apple Remote Desktop or Timbuktu.
Finally, will all the shareware, freeware and other software that I am using be working? The next following days are gonna be fun.