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Tech news:
Only 244 copies of Genuine Windows Vista sold in China. Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS ‘Windows Vista’ in China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the country and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers were reported by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.
Last-Minute Payers Swamp Tax Servers. Intuit’s TurboTax software hit a roadblock yesterday as their servers were so overloaded, people could not file their taxes. Some people were sitting for hours, waiting for a confirmation after hitting submit. Intuit has contacted the IRS but there’s been no official word whether people unable to submit their taxes by the midnight deadline will get an extension. The Washington Post reports further that as the midnight filing deadline approached, the problem got worse. During times of peak demand, Intuit was processing 50 to 60 returns per second.
BlackBerry e-mail outage. Research In Motion is grappling with a widespread system failure that left the network for its BlackBerry devices unable to handle e-mails. “A service interruption occurred Tuesday night that affected BlackBerry in North America,” according to a statement from RIM. “E-mail delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service on BlackBerry handsets was unaffected.” This is likely due to a backlog of e-mails stemming from the service outage, which was first reported around 5 PM on Tuesday. Because the problem concerns the BlackBerry network, all cellular carriers that support BlackBerry devices have been affected, though it is believed that they were still able to make regular cellular calls through their carriers.
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Test a geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.
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How To: Speed up Safari
Being the default browser installed with an operating system has its advantages; just ask Internet Explorer. Today, Apple’s browser of choice is Safari, based in part on the open source KHTML codebase and enhanced regularly through Apple’s WebKit project. It’s a fast browser but sometimes, Safari can slow to a crawl depending on a variety of factors.
Here are some ways you can speed up Safari and take it’s speed to the next level:
Remove cached files in ~/Library/Safari, particularly the cached favicon data files.
Remove the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist preference file (implicated in slow launch times).
Turn off AutoFill to improve browsing speed on pages with many text forms.
You can shorten the names of bookmarks to improve bookmark loading.
The original article from MacFixIt.com has many more tips including using the Activity Window (available under the Window menu or via Command-Option-A) to monitor individual page elements as they load and enabling Safari’s Debug menu to reveal an option for examining some of Safari’s internal caches, including its JavaScript cache.
To read the entire article and speed up Safari even further, check out the full text at
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070416000657464
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Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.
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Hack: Boost your wifi signal with an asian strainer
When working on your computer and borrowing open wifi, you may need to boost your computer’s ability to pick up signals so you can get your things done. You can make a common WiFi Thumbdrive into a beefy wifi extender with little work and it’s an easy setup. Currently one of the better ways to make a parabolic antenna is with an asian cooking strainer. People have reported 20% better wifi with this little hack.
Items you need:
a) Cooking strainer from Asian food market. The strainer must be parabolic and have a tight mesh. A wooden handle on it will help with mounting.
b) USB Wireless Thumb Drive (g or b/g)
c) USB extension wire
Building the unit:
1. Using cutters or snips, cut out a hole JUST big enough for the USB extension cord in the middle of the strainer.
2. Squeeze the tip of the USB cord through hole.
3. Adjust everything so the thumbdrive is at the FOCAL POINT of the parabola.
4. Fasten the USB cord in to place.
Testing the Signal Strainer:
1) Find your favorite access point.
2) Get as far away as possible while keeping line-of-sight.
3) Use software like NetStumbler to see the signal strength.
4) Adjust your Signal Strainer where necessary.
Overall you should get better signal strength and see the difference in NetStumbler. You also may pick up access points you never knew were around!
Check out the entire how-to along with pictures at http://www.instructables.com/id/EC0S9C3F0HPZCGN/?ALLSTEPS
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The geek’s view: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.
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