Mediocre music and the mainstream market
The music you've come to love has been sabotaged.
Not many people realise the degree of degradation music quality has experienced over the years. It has got to the point where the old vinyl records of yesteryear, the same ones that were popular some 100 years ago, provide higher quality dynamic range and clarity than today's CD audio. Remasters of old classics are sounding worse than the originals, and new music is sub-standard from the get go. It begs the question; surely technology has improved since vinyl?
10 browser extensions that rock
Enhancing the Internet, one add-on at a time.
The humble web browser has become an integral part of peoples lives. It gives us access to the biggest pool of information available - the Internet - whilst providing the tools to navigate its unimaginably large scope with ease. It's for this reason that extensions/add-ons, additional software which adds extra functionality to the browser, have become very popular in recent years. People want software customised to facilitate their needs and wants, not what a team of developers think is best.
Did Apple miss the boat with the iPad?
A neat little device, but has Apple lost their opportunity?
So, the long hyped Apple tablet has finally been announced. As expected, it very much resembles a larger iPod Touch. A single hardware button, minimal ports, and a screen which consumes most of the device's top surface. It's touted as a new platform, somewhere between the smartphone and the netbook, which is interesting. Of course, it's not exactly a new platform; Apple is essentially entering an existing one with their own offering. Android based tablets have been around for a while, and haven't really taken off. Regardless, there's been much excitement over this particular device for a couple of reasons. It was a long rumoured product, and it's from Apple. But will the hype pay off? Is the device compelling enough to warrant purchase? Let's find out.
Build the Ultimate PC – Q1 2010
Get the power of a custom PC build, without spending a fortune.
Another quarter, another list of parts. I've created five builds ranging from $1000 to $3000, each with high quality components and a strong focus on raw performance. Looking at gaming? No problem. Video editing and graphic design? There's a PC for you.
The online computer store PC Case Gear has been used to produce the price lists. For comparison, prices in brackets were found using an average of the top 5 StaticICE results (minus outliers). Although StaticICE results tend to be marginally cheaper, keep in mind that the cost of delivery from multiple stores may increase the total considerably. Each PC consists of the tower without external peripherals or operating system (OS).
YouTube Disco – music for all!
Music discovery, with added awesome.
Ever used YouTube to listen to or discover music? Well now you can do it in a much more intuitive way! YouTube Disco (short for YouTube Discovery) is a new service which consolidates music clips from your favourite artists into a functional playlist-esque UI. In addition to watching artists of your choosing, you're able to select 'mix tapes' to list tracks from artists with similar styles. Expanding from this is the 'Related Artists' tab which displays similar artists bar tracks.
PS3 Hypervisor Hacked
The seemingly uncrackable has been sliced, diced and dissected.
According to George "Geohot" Hoz, the man responsible for jailbreaking the iPhone, the infamous Playstation 3 Hypervisor is no longer an obstacle. His blog entitled On the PlayStation 3 suggests that his attempts at hacking the PS3 were very fruitful.
The search for sanity
*pokes Google, twitches at Bing*
It's not often that you search for software on the Internet, and discover that there's nothing that does what you want. With the vast amount of free and open source software up for grabs, it almost feels as if all bases have been covered. Sometimes, however, you find yourself trawling though the dark depths of search engine results, until the page numbers became mere blurs, and hitting the 'next' link becomes an autonomous reflex. Along the way, many promising results prove to be nothing more than shareware sites attempting to entice you with irrelevant software. Others, which show some glimmer of hope, have UIs that you can only imagine being designed by the local primary school kindergarten class during pastel fun time.
Surprise! A forum!
So the blog was hit with a nasty attack recently which caused some disruption. But that's all sorted now, and as a little surprise, I've created a forum! You can access it by hitting the 'Forum' button below the header logo. You may notice that there's already some posts in it. I've migrated my existing forum into the new one, so there's some content and members to mingle with. If you haven't already, sign up and get into it! I'll be on there regularly, so if you need any advice in regards to tech, don't hesitate to start a thread.
I hope to see you there!
- Vito Cassisi
Sorry for the downtime!
It has come to my attention that the blog has been down since approximately 19:08 AEDST. Upon investigation, it would appear that someone with access to the server removed the directories corresponding to this blog, and another forum of mine. Fortunately the database was not accessed or modified in any way.
I don't have details on who is responsible, or why these directories were removed, however I am investigating if it was a malicious attack.
Sorry for any inconvenience guys,
Vito Cassisi
UPDATE (0:40 - 17/01/09):
It turns out that spammers have hijacked my hosting service, possibly via an insecure forum/WordPress script. The hosting provider is currently working on tracking down the source of the problem. It saddens me that they're relaying spam via my domain. Hopefully all this will be sorted soon.
UPDATE (03:00 - 17/01/09):
Passwords have been changed and everything seems to be fine. Will keep a lookout for any suspicious activity.
Q&A – January 2010
It's time to answer some questions!
This is the first Q&A to feature the new 'passive contribution' concept I wrote about not too long ago. I've collected five of the best keywords (or rather, search strings) and made them into questions. So without further delay, I present to you the January edition of Q&A!
5 things that’d make Project Natal a worthy technology
What does Natal need to succeed?
Microsoft's Project Natal has been getting mixed responses lately. Some critics liken it to an elaborate Sony EyeToy, whilst others see it as a Wii-like motion control gimmick. Those who like it tend to brush it off as a child's toy. So is there any hope of making Natal an interesting method of control for gaming enthusiasts? I've created a list of the things I'd like developers to implement in their upcoming titles, bar the cliché EyeToy-like functionality.
Windows 7 ‘GodMode’
It would appear that a developer at Microsoft is also an avid gamer.
God mode is the close friend of gamers who want ultimate control over their virtual enviroment. Infinite health, inventory, and perspective - everyone at your mercy. Such exploits are often refered to as hacks, or 'HAX' to the initiated. So it comes as a surprise to see such a feature in Microsoft's latest desktop OS Windows 7.
Q&A: The game has changed!
Passive participation = perfect!
I'll get straight to the point. Q&A never took off. At all. So whilst browsing the visitor statistics I came up with a better idea. Passive Q&A! What is passive Q&A, you ask? Passive Q&A is where I check out the keywords used by visitors to access this blog. Sometimes these keywords are in the form of a question, which is perfect! Otherwise I shall do my best to form the keywords into appropriate questions. Then, as the 'A' in Q&A suggests, I shall answer them!
Of course, the old method of asking questions will still be available. So if you want something answered, chuck them my way at qna@vitocassisi.com
Thanks for your time guys. :)
Tips for writing a good guide
There's tutorials to be written! Get into it!
Writing a good tutorial/guide takes more than a list of instructions on a page. There are many factors which must be considered before and during the process of writing to ensure that the end product is suitable. I've decided to write a series of tips to assist contributors in a group project on the Atomic forum. This project involves writing a collaborative overclocking guide. You could say that this is a guide for writing guides!
Awesome ways to backup your data
Yes, I just used 'awesome' and 'backup' in the same sentence. And lived.
Data backup is one of the most critical aspects to computing. There's always a risk of losing data when using our PCs, whether this is due to a hardware, software or user fault. It's for this reason that backup routines must be performed regularly to ensure irreplaceable data can be restored in the case of unfortunate events. But what's the best way to do this? I've collected five of my favourite methods to help spread the word about the importance of data redundancy.