Illusional Reality

Most everyone has heard now about the iPhone 4's antenna issue, touching the bottom left corner of the phone will result in a dramatic loss of signal. To this Apple's first response was "hold it a different way" which is a nice slap in the face for our left handed friends, then it was actually a software problem "no no, all the time the phones were showing more signal than they actually had.." and now finally they're going to give users a free rubber case, I mean come on, really?

Lets put this in a different scenario to see how futile it is, lets do a little role-play...

Man: "Hey Doctor, every time I try put weight on my left foot to walk it hurts incredibly and I fall."
Doc: "Just walk a different way!"
Man: "I can't!, look this is really bad I don't exactly have another way to walk and the pain is too much"
Doc: "Your brain is lying to you and telling you you're in much more pain than you actually are"
Man: "What!?, This is ridiculous you have to do something"
Doc: "Fine, here take this crutch, you'll be able to walk fine as long as you rely completely on this."
Man: "But my leg is still broken!, you've not addressed the problem at all, it's just temporary fix!"
Doc: "I don't see the problem..."

Medical care by Apple, you wouldn't go see this doctor again would you?

It's no secret I was looking forward to getting a new iPhone, held off for months because i new of the iPhone 4's impending release but I'm not so much of an apple fan boy that I'll over look this, I think the HTC Evo4 is calling or I'll hold off till Apple "readdress" the situation on September when the free case offer expires.

I've been eagerly awaiting the release of Windows 7 for a while now, unlike any previous version of Windows I actually feel interested in this one.

Up until recently Microsoft had planned to release a unique version of the browser in Europe dubbed "Windows 7 E", this version was meant to come without Internet Explorer hard coded into the OS but now that plan has been changed again. The new plan is to release the same version of 7 here and the rest of the world but we will recieve a ballot screen offering a choice of browsers.

While personally I don't really care which browser comes preinstalled as the first thing i'll be doing is adding in every other browser but its a real show of how Microsoft are trying to get around European competition laws.

So now all I can do is wait for the first ship dates.

Today is D-Day for me to see if I can finally get my hands on www.illusionalreality.com, for over 2 years its been squatted on and now in about 5 or 6 hours it expires and I'm waiting, somewhat patiently, to see if my registrar can grab it for me. It may not seen like a huge deal but when there's a hyphen in the domain name you'd be amazed at how many people omit it when typing the address.

If the name was taken by a reputable company, or even an individual with a good claim to the name I'd not have an issue but these squatters really get on my nerves, they just hope to profit off direct type ins or should they be lucky enough and be approached to sell the name to an interested party you can be sure they'll ask for a little bit more than the annual registration fee.

All I can do for now is wait, and hope for the best.

********Update********

Well they've decided to squat for another year, **mumbles profanities**, I've bitten the proverbial bullet and submitted an offer for the name, no doubt of course my offer will be far too low and they'll be wanting a pound of flesh but I'll have to wait and see.


********Further Update********
Well it's been about 10 days now since i put in an offer on the domain name and I've not had any contact, no great surprise there. It may be best to just call it quits on this one and look at some other options, I've a few more tricks up my sleeve.

********3rd and Final Update********

Well I finally got a reply in regards to an appropriate bid...

Hey David,

Thanks for getting back to me. The domain owner has listed the asking price at $3,500
To move forward with presenting another offer, simply reply to this email with your new bid. If your offer is in the seller’s range, we will present it to the seller.

Lenny | AcquireThisName.com


Really, $3,500 for the name!? I'd ask how they sleep at night but its clearly on a bed of money...

Its been speculated for a while but Google have finally announce that they're stepping into the OS market.

Google making new operating system

Internet giant Google has announced it is developing a new operating system for laptop computers in a move seen as a strong challenge to Microsoft's dominance.

The new technology is being designed for those that "live on the web" and is initially aimed at netbooks, although it will eventually be used to power full sized desktops as well.

Google said the new operating system (OS) will run through its nine-month-old web browser, Chrome, and the company said it was going "back to basics" with the technology.

The Chrome browser could threaten Microsoft's Windows system, which has been running most personal computers for the past two decades.

Google said the new OS was a "natural extension" of Chrome and was "our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be".

It plans to introduce the Chrome OS during the second half of 2010 for netbooks - cheaper, less powerful laptops that appeal to people whose main motivation for having a computer is to surf the web.

A post on Google's website by Sundar Pichai, vice-president Product Management, and Linus Upson, engineering director said: "We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web - searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends.

"However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web."

The firm said it was "completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates".

"It should just work," it added.

It seems like Google are really determined to oust any trace of Microsoft dominance in the world, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Its early days yet but with the power and ability that Google possesses this is going to be an interesting one to watch, I know my netbook could benefit greatly from a nice lightweight OS.

With the launch of IE8 and IE's nasty habit of over writing its older brothers I thought it may be useful to show how you can run older versions of IE on your PC or laptop.

If you're lucky enough to be running XP you can simply download and install MultipleIE but for those of us on Vista there is a more complicated solution.

The easiest way to go through this is in a step by step manner,

1. Download and install Virtual PC 2007 (roughly 31 MB)
2. Download IE6 VPC Image. You'll want IE6-XPSP3_VPC.EXE.
3. When the file is down unpack the installer to a folder of your choice.
4. Run Virtual PC 2007 and click new to setup a new virtual machine.
5. A setup wizard that will walk you through the process, you'll need to fill in.

- Select "create a virtual machine" when you are asked for an option
- Name and location: Rename it if you plan to have several virtualisation (i.e. running Linux at the same time)
- Select Windows XP as an operating system
- Go with 128 MB, you can upgrade it later if you wish
- Select Windows XP as the operating system
- Virtual Hard Disk Options: choose "an existing virtual hard disk"
- Find IE6 image by browsing the directory where you unpack IE6 VPC Image in step 3

You should now be able to boot into Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6 installed.

If you want to get online with your new IE6 you'll just need to complete a tiny bit more.

1. Go to Virtual PC console and click on settings > Networking and select "Adapter 1" dropdown menu on the right, select "Shared Networking (NAT)" and click OK.
2. Go to Tools > Internet Options > Connections and click on "setup" in Internet Explorer 6. Make sure to do the following

- Network Connection Type: Connect to the Internet
- Choose Set up my connection manually
- Internet Connection: choose Connect using a broadband connection that is always on
- Click on "Finish".

2. Without exiting the "Internet Option", select "Local Are Network (LAN) Settings" and tick "Automatically Detect Settings" and click OK.
3. Restart Internet Explorer 6 and you should be able to online by now.

Now go browse the interweb in all its IE6 glory.