0
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB)
Contact info: Voicemail Line: 206-350-5000 – GeekcastOnline.com – geekcast@gmail.com – Twitter.com/TheGeekcast – Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Geekcast/59648951847 – Show notes subscription: send blank e-mail to geekcastpodcast-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
The Geekcast is sponsored by GoToMyPC. Try it free for 30 days at http://www.GotoMyPC.com/podcast
**************
Items of Note:
I’ve posted a poll on the Facebook Fan Page asking about the future of the show. Do you prefer the shorter “Geek Outs” or woul you rather we produced a second full-episode each week? Please check out the poll and vote or send your feedback over to us via e-mail or voicemail.
Allen and Mark have returned to help co-host the show once again!
Enjoy a promo for The Dollhouse Podcast.
Listener Feedback: There is currently no user feedback.
**************
Geek This Week:
Aaron: Xbox RROD yet again. Lasted only 12 days. Already back at Best Buy and I’m waiting on a replacement.
Mark: Batman on Xbox
Allen: Snow Leopard
**************
Tech and Gaming News:
Apple to ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard Aug. 28
Apple will ship its newest operating system to customers a little earlier than expected. The company said Monday that Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be available this Friday, August 28. Apple made it clear from the beginning that Snow Leopardwas not as much about adding new features as it was about refining the code in the operating system. For instance, according to Apple, 90 percent of the Mac OS X code has been worked on for the Snow Leopard release. This isn’t just application code, it also includes working on the Finder, making it more responsive.
Apple says that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous operating system and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. No doubt this has to do with the refinements in the operating system, but Snow Leopard also only supports Macs with an Intel-based processors, not the older PowerPC processors. As for speed increases in Snow Leopard, Apple said that its Mail application loads messages twice as fast, Time Machine does its initial backup 80 percent faster, and the included 64-bit version of Safari is up to 50 percent faster.
Snow Leopard also supports Exchange Server 2007. This means that you can use Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal out of the box with Exchange.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard will cost $29 as an upgrade for Leopard users. For Mac OS X Tiger users, the Mac Box Set, which includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09, will cost $169.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10315866-37.html?tag=mncol
Sony to link readers with libraries, allow e-book borrowing
At a press event at the New York Public Library, Sony announced that its Reader hardware will soon be able to read digital books “borrowed” from local libraries, with a 21-day expiration date. By the holidays, the Reader lineup will be joined by a 3G-enabled wireless reader with a seven-inch screen.
At a press event hosted by the New York Public Library, Sony put their recently announced Reader hardware on display and provided an overview of its recent announcements. But the event was more than simply a recap of past announcements. The library location provided context for a program, which will be run through Sony’s e-book store, which will allow users to identify their local public library borrow books through its site. There was also new hardware: by the holidays, Sony plans on having a 3G-enabled Reader with a tall seven-inch screen.
The upcoming hardware was called the Reader Daily Edition, which implies partnerships with news outlets. However, aside from the price and 3G capabilities, almost nothing was mentioned about the device. The Sony executive that ran his company’s portion of the program (Steve Haber, president of it’s Digital Reading Business Division) did little more than wave the hardware in front of the audience; it wasn’t even clear if it could actually be turned on. Still, it’s clear that Sony’s gearing up for a long-term battle with not only the Kindle, but the upcoming device (devices?) from Plastic Logic.
For now, however, Sony’s attempting to leverage content as its competitive edge. The company had already announced that it was adopting the EPUB format, which is an XML-based standard for storing text that can be reflowed for different screen formats. As a result of that decision, the Sony library management software would be able to handle books from other resellers; Sony announced that over 200 members of the American Bookseller’s Association would be selling compatible books that use Adobe’s DRM service.
Opera 10 RC is Here, Final Version Coming September 1st
Opera has just released a release candidate for the next major version of its web browser, Opera 10. This time, however, we suggest you wait; the list of new features isn’t all that different from those in the last iteration, Opera 10 beta. More importantly, according to Opera, the final version should come in a couple of days, on September 1st.
Of course, Opera wouldn’t mention a date for the final version if they weren’t quite sure that the version they currently have is polished enough for mass consumption. Here’s a quick rundown of the new features:
- fresh look and feel
- enhanced speed and performance, especially when it comes to resource intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook
- Opera Turbo, bandwidth booster for folks with slow internet connections
- an improved Opera Mail
- resizable, thumbnail tabs
- inline spelling checker
- auto updating
- a new, personalized Speed Dial
http://mashable.com/2009/08/25/opera-10-rc/
**************
Test a Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
**************
How To: Make Firefox Faster by Vacuuming Your Database
Firefox 3.0’s Awesome Bar added all kinds of features to the ‘fox, but unfortunately it’s also created some performance issues—for example, by upping the default history time, leading to larger, fragmented databases. This quick hack speeds things up.
All-things-Firefox weblog Mozilla Links previously detailed how to defragment SQLite databases with a vacuum command, but the whole process was a bit clumsy,and it required a restart. Now they’ve updated the technique with a simple bit of code you can run inside Firefox’s Error Console that requires no restart.
Open the Error Console: Tools menu/Error Console
In the Code text box paste this (it’s a single line):Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(“VACUUM”);
Press Evaluate. All the UI will freeze for a few seconds while databases are VACUUMed
http://lifehacker.com/5344418/make-firefox-faster-by-vacuuming-your-database
**************
Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
**************
Open Source Software: Virtual Box
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See “About VirtualBox” for an introduction.
Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.
VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while Sun ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.
**************
Hack: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
**************
The Geek’s View: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
**************
Related Episodes:
E-mail
Voicemail
