In the epic battle between developers, publishers and the folks who pirate their products, a massive win was scored for the good guys this week. In China of all places. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security, in partnership with the US FBI this week executed Operation Summer Solstice, a massive anti-piracy bust that's been months in the making. The result was 25 arrests, and seizure of more than $500 million in pirated software. The real kicker though? It's all in pa...
For anyone who has a home network, with a mixture of wireless and wired connections, I'm sure you've been frustrated with speed issues when transferring between local systems. Most of us who have a network at home also tend to just have a wireless router that we plug a few wired devices into, and connect the rest wirelessly. The downside to that is most wireless routers are limited to 100Mbit/sec speed for the wired systems. Not a problem for connecting to the Internet, but wh...
Last week, Merlin Mann gave a talk to Google employees on how to most effectively manage their inboxes, to overcome the flood of email that seems to suck away more and more precious time every day. For some of us, e-mail hell is more of a problem than for others, but if you get even a dozen messages a day, these tips are very valuable. Merlin Mann runs the site 43folders.com, a site about productivity improvements for everyday tasks, and the art of "Getting Things Done". Below is ...
Apple computers and gadgets are pretty well-known for their determination to present a minimalist interface. The mouse has one button, the iPod has a click wheel, MacOS has always strived to require as few clicks as possible for the majority of user tasks. Aesthetics take top-seat when it comes to device design. Look at the iMac, the PowerBook/MacBook, iPod and now the iPhone. Almost no seams, and more importantly, almost no buttons. Turns out that Steve Jobs has a th...
Today we're kicking off a new feature on WinCustomize; The Developer Interview Series. We spend a lot of time talking to and about skinners, but not so much about the folks that really make the hobby (or profession for some) actually possible. To kick things off, our first interview is with the lead developer behind the Xion skinnable media player application, Cliff Cawley. Xion is our most recent gallery addition here at WinCustomize, and one of our most quickly growing! X...
Facebook is a big name in tech circles these past few months. The social networking site that took college campuses by storm, and is now rapidly spreading throughout the professional world may be in for a bit of an upset if rival site, ConnectU gets its way. Turns out that while at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) worked with three fellow students to create the college network site, ConnectU. Well, Mark took his leave of Harvard and the site to start his own network.&n...
Here at WinCustomize we talk a lot about skinning in general, be it how to best skin some UI element, what the best skinnable web browser is, or to chat about the fantastic work done by many of the artists in our community. One thing that we don't talk a lot about are the names and faces behind the tools and applications we use. To that end, we're kicking off a new feature today, the Developer Interview Series. The idea is to sit down with the main developers behind some of the m...
WHS is a product that actually has some tech enthusiasts excited. Many have said that Microsoft did just about everything right with the development and upcoming release of WHS whereas they did just about everything wrong with Vista. With the recent announcement that WHS had gone to manufacturing and that we could expect to see it available this fall, the press ramp-up is beginning, and sites are working feverishly on reviews and previews to give readers an idea of what exactly to e...
For anyone who used computers in the 70s and 80s, there's a chance you were exposed to the Logo programming language at some point in your studies. It was designed to teach the fundamentals of programming and to illustrate how a computer handled user instructions. The basic idea was you had a small turtle that would accept simple movement commands to make it draw simple shapes (or complex ones if you were really good). Logo was a cornerstone of programs designed to teach small ...
Last week I took a quick poll on how people were using the new WC Wiki (if at all). I was looking for an approximate breakdown of readers vs contributors and was pleasantly surprised by how many people say they're contributing content. Here are the numbers and a nice graph. As you can see, over half of the respondents are actually using the Wiki, which is impressive for such a new site. Yes, and I've even been contributing 12.12% Yes, though only to re...
Microsoft sleuth, Mary Jo Foley, has the word straight from Microsoft on when we can expect the next version of Windows... 2010. The news comes from Microsoft's Global Exchange annual event in Orlando, FL last week. Very few hard details were released on Windows Seven, but we do know that it will be 32 and 64 bit, and target business and regular customers. One interesting tidbit was that Microsoft is mulling over the idea of extending Windows Seven functionality through subscr...
Epic, the current king of 3D game engine technology, has had a great deal of success licensing its Unreal Engine platform to a multitude of game developers over the years. Unreal Engine 3, the latest version, powers blockbuster titles such as Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Las Vegas, and will be the muscle behind upcoming titles like Bioshock and Unreal Tournament 3. In general, licensing the technology while also using it to develop its own games has gone extremely well for Epic.&nb...
If you're not interested in what's going on with Facebook right now ( news that is absolutely dominating every corner of the tech world at the moment ), it's been a pretty slow week. However, just because the news has been slow doesn't mean I don't have immensely interesting links for you to check out while you really should be working to finish that report that's due on your boss's desk by 5pm today. I mean, come on, it's Friday! Who does work on Fridays? I read a lot of ne...
In the world of computer security research, it really doesn't get any more dramatic than this. This weekend, a security researcher hiding behind the pseudonym "Infosec Sellout" posted to the BugTraq mailing list that he had discovered a vulnerability in a component of Apple's Bonjour automatic network service, and that he had developed a proof-of-concept worm that exploits the hole. However he says he won't release it. The response? Death threats. However, that'...
When it comes to social networking sites, Facebook is at the top of the list lately with it's powerful application platform and robust user pages. Unfortunately one of its most promising features, Groups, seems to have been left in the dust. A lot of talk and attention has been directed towards Facebook lately, especially since the opening of the application platform so any user with a PC and an itch to code can add more or less any function they desire to the wildly popular social net...