I recently was in need of building a program and wanted it to be windows based, and decided to get back in to visual basic. After realising that I couldn’t find my Visual Basic 6 CD, definitely lost somewhere over the years of it being forgotten, I decided to check out what they were up to online and see if I could grab a copy of the latest  Visual Basic, heading to the Microsoft site, I was amazed to see that they had finally pulled their finger out and made a free version of their visual studio. At only a gigabyte to download, I quite contently downloaded it and was ready to go. Read more

Just to let everyone know, Gmail has just gone over the five gig limit. Finally, I have heaps of space again! Read more

Just to let you know, yesterday Microsoft purchased a $240 Million stake in Facebook. How much was that stake you ask? Actually only a mere 1.6%. This has brought up Facebook’s believed value to 15 Billion. Bet they’re glad now they rejected the $1 billion offer from yahoo at the start of the year. I was actually left dumbfounded when I heard they had spent so little on such a small share, but there is many theories flying around. One thing I noticed is that they seem to now have their nose in the largest social networks online, i.e.. Myspace, Microsoft LiveSpaces and now Facebook. Most curious of questions going around is how did they beat google?

There’s quite a few good articles that delve further in depth into the matter, like the associated press article which I quite liked, and the wired article, which I also liked, and found quite informative.

Now I realise many of my readers have more than one place that they check their emails. I personally have two that I use frequently, and one that I use not as frequently, but still does occur. Now as most people would realise, you download it in one place, you don’t get it on the other. That is due to the nature of POP mail. There is one alternative that many people are unaware of. This is called IMAP.

IMAP works off a different system, one that gmail can utilise because of it’s large server space, (4.3 gig the last time I checked, and still growing), because it works off keeping a copy of your mail on the server. The IMAP service allows the user to download only the message headers and decide if they want to actually download the rest of the message and the attachments. IMAP was designed to overcome some of the issues that POP had. It allows a user to download the message headers and allows the user to decide whether or not to download the rest of the message, so therefore messages are kept on a server, and are only downloaded when a user requests them, and this is great for people who are constantly mobile.

Some advantages of IMAP over POP are: Read more

HP has announced that it is joining with Sprint and will start including it’s wireless broadband capabilities into several of it’s business notebooks. This is such a great step I believe in moving forward, as it will allow true wireless freedom without requiring to purchase extra dongles. Sprint is currently the leader in wireless internet technology in the US, having the largest coverage and fastest speeds. Hopefully from these steps we’ll be able to hope we eventually get to a standard, where all carriers and notebooks are able to work together.

For more information check out the HP press release.

I ran into this article on smarthouse and thought it was quite interesting:

“Microsoft, according to insiders at Toshiba owner of the HD DVD patents, claim that Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software that is a spin off from its struggling media centre offering.“

Now that sounds attractive. Now everyone knows that the PS3 has killed the Xbox in terms of sales. Microsoft has now realised they need to be giving people something that will entice them further and if this “insider” tip from Toshiba turns out to be true, it could be very beneficial for a lot of people.

Some of the features that this new console is meant to have are:

• Gaming (obviously)
• Wireless Networking
• 1080p playback
• *Possibly* HDTV tuner
• *Possibly* EPG capability
• *Possibly* a docking port for an mp3 player

Now these features are quite attractive. The article further goes on and talk about how it will have an open chassis system that will allow for the xbox to be slotted in to a HDTV screen over 40inch and also allow, now pause and be ready to be warmed by knowing that they actually considered this in a console, allow users to upgrade hard drives like users can on a pc. It will be a Christmas miracle if they do that.

Now as with everything cool, it’s not coming out yet, but it is projected to come out in late 2008, are at the latest 2009. Hopefully that is enough time to release this, I honestly believe it will make or break whether the Xbox will ever be successful, and if all these features come with it, I will be over the moon.

The full article can be read here.

Hitachi has announced that they have developed the world’s smallest read-head technology for hard disk drives, which is expected to quadruple current storage capacity limits to four terabytes on a desktop hard drive and one terabyte on a notebook hard drive.

The revolutionary new technology has been made possible by Hitachi developing the worlds smallest reading heads, which are about half the size of the current hard drives. However as with the previous post on the Western Digital drives reaching 3 terabytes, it will be a while before they are released commerically. Current projections are for 2011.

For a more detailed report, read the press release on the Hitachi site.

You know I had to actually see the words I just wrote to see the irony behind it. Now, I will not say ALL hackers are pirates, but I will say that a substantial amount are… Anyway it’s beside the point.

The MPAA hired Robert Anderson to help them bring down piracy. Now firstly, I will say, having worked in the DVD industry before, it is quite obvious the devastating effect that piracy has had on movies. They have lost a lot of money with the coming of the internet age. (however I still strongly believe that cable TV has also made a substantial impact on it, more specifically from my personal experience, but I would also believe that it would be a considerable factor in the rest of the world). Now to see the extent as to which these people have gone. They had a “hired gun” Read more

My God, I have been waiting years for this. A force feedback vest that lets you know where you have been shot. This could be so useful in first person shooters, you’ll always know where people are shooting from. Here is the websites description:

Video game characters live in a three-dimensional world, but gamers have only been able to experience two dimensions… until now. The 3rdSpace® Vest from TN Games takes gameplay beyond sight and sound, creating spatial awareness of the world your characters inhabit. Unlike traditional force feedback devices that rumble or buzz, the 3rdSpace Vest gives you precise impact where it happens, as it happens. Get pounded with body slams, crushed with G-forces, and blasted with bullet fire.

Buying the vest online includes FPS Gaming Vest, air compressor, USB cable, power supply and 3rd Space Incursion game disc. They come in two sizes and also come in two colours, camo and black. They are currently shipping for US$169 and is only available on pre-order. The current expected shipping date is November 2007. Read more

The Australian and New Zealand governments have reported that China has been trying to infiltrate their classified records in order to gather military secrets.

The Howard government would neither confirm or deny that China has tried to steal the classified information. ” However, a senior government source told The Australian that there had been several attempts to steal confidential information.”

I personally have always felt that there are agendas behind most of the news today, so personally I don’t know what to think about the information given. A more informative article can be found on the ninemsn news site. It is interesting to see espionage in the media though.