Category: Technology

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Sparkletack Returns!

Yeah! Sparkletack has returned to the podcast world.
For those of you who have never listened to Sparkletack, it is a podcast that discusses and shares stories of the city of San Francisco.

It is a great podcast that has taken a long break. I always enjoyed listening to this podcast of one of the worlds greatest cities. Even though I live in Denver, I always enjoy San Francisco. I grew up about an hour away and since my parents were from the Bay Area, we always spent a lot of time in the City.

If you like listening to great stories and enjoy San Francisco, you should listen to this podcast. I highly recommend it.

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Upgrade Your WordPress

Someone gained server level access on to one of the servers that powers WordPress and put some code in a couple of files that could cause them to run some remote PHP execution.  You can read more about this on the download site for version 2.1.2.
They WordPress team has reset the files.  But if you downloaded verstion 2.1.1 in the last couple days, you need to update immediately.

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OS X Leopard Looking Good

Well I am beginning to look for a new computer and have pretty much settled on going with an Apple.  I have PC’s for work and want something new for home.  The Apple software is much more friendly for doing home videos, slideshows, videos, and other home applications.
One of the things that I am interested in is the new Leopard operating system.  It will be coming out late this spring or summer (hopefully) and it adds a lot of good things.

The good thing for people and me is the Time Machine.  This allows you to back up your hard drive and then go back and retrieve it at anytime.  All you have to do is connect an external hard drive and it takes care of everything else.

The other cool thing that improves on the current operating system is in iChat.  The new function allows you to share displays.  So now when my parents are having problems with their Apple Macbook Pro, we can login into iChat and fix the issue.  That may be a good thing or a curse.  Who knows.

Overall, Leopard looks like a good upgrade to Tiger and will sway me to purchase a Macbook.

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Stikkit has a Learning Curve

Well after fruitless attempts to get my original opportunity to login to Stikkit, I used a different username and email to finally get logged in.
What I am finding out is that it has a learning curve and that you need to be connected 24 x 7 to work in it alot. They do have an option to email stikkit’s, but there is no desktop version.

I will try it for a little bit and see what happens. What I went through, I have to give it a chance.

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Stikkit, Would Like to Try, but NO Confirmation Email

I would like to try Stikkit, but I have received no confirmation email.
It seems like this would be an easy thing to do, but they didn’t send me one and there is no way to send another one.

This looks like a pretty powerful web application and I would like to use it, but I need them to send me another confirmation for my email. I have tried to send a note to help, but they never wrote back. I have sent them another one, but nothing yet.

If you would like to check out what it does, check out this post in 43 Folders by Merlin Mann, Stikkit: Magic words, functional emails, and a handy cheat sheet.

Stikkit, please answer my help request and send me my confirmation email. Or at least create a way to resend it.

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Jobs Calls for DRM Free Music

In a great move, and one that is needed, Steve Jobs released his thoughts on music on the Apple Website today. In this letter, he makes a pretty good case for making all music DRM free. I thinked he summed it up in one paragraph.

“Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.”

DRM hasn’t worked and needs to be abolished. DRM does not hurt the the people are distributing it illegally. It only hurts the people who want to legitimally listen and use the music.

Let’s see what comes from the four music labels and see how they can hold on to their DRM dreams. Many pundits said that this year we would begin to see the end of DRM. I am beginning to believe them. The tidal wave is growing and it will only be a litte bit until it comes crashing down on the four big music labels.

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Zune Executive Leaving Microsoft

The Zune is probably heading in the direction of many other tech flops after the executive in charge on the Zune launch will be leaving the company.
The Zune has been plauged by problems including music companies not allowing owners of Zune to squirt some of their songs to other Zune players like is allowed.

Byron Lee will be leaving to pursue person interests.

You can read more about this at CNET.com or on the Wall Street Journal.

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WordPress 2.1 Working Well

Well I just updated to WordPress 2.1 and everything seems to be working well.
The only problem that I had was that I had to upload a couple files again to get it to work properly.

But it is worth it and will be interesting to see how this new version works.

It has some pretty cool features but the favorite one of mine is the autosave on drafts.  Too many times I hit the wrong button and poof, my long post is gone.

Online media beat seems to think the same, WordPress 2.1 is here.