Archive for June, 2008

Should eBay be held responsible because the crap people sell on the site? Should we really expect them to examine each item that is put up for sale and guarantee the authenticity of that sale? Well, apparently a French court does.

A French commercial court Monday ordered eBay Inc. to pay more than $59 million to a high-end fashion company because counterfeit goods were sold on the auction site.

Maybe we should all get together and file a class action suit and demand our money back for all the items we bought that were clearly marked “in excellent condition” that ended up being just mediocre in quality.

Would I be mad if people were counterfeiting my products? Sure I would. I would also work with eBay to get those items removed, you know, like eBay already does.

I have purchased dozens of items off of eBay and have received “substandard” or non-brand parts and items from time to time. Not once did I think it was eBay’s fault and took appropriate action each time.

There was even a time when I ordered a micro sd card and received a much better quality product than I thought I would. Was that eBay’s fault too?

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I never thought I would see this day coming.

Today is Bill Gates’ last day in the office as a regular employee of the company he co-founded in 1975. But as non-executive chairman and someone who is deeply married to Microsoft, Gates is not disappearing from the company.

I wonder if they staff at Microsoft bought him anything for his “retirement”. What do you buy the guy that has just about everything? Fancy Sector watches? A new car? I know. A paperweight.

Then again, maybe it’s the day we’ve all been waiting for? Microsoft without Bill Gates? Not gunna happen. It’s nice to see he is going to focus most of his energy on solving all of the world’s problems though.

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Whoa. $10 bucks a month, on top of the service I am already paying for. Woooooo. Hold me back. This is obviously a deal for anyone with a cable modem, yes? For me, with AT&T, formerly Bellsouth, DSL, it ain’t such a great idea.

Cell phone company T-Mobile USA is set to launch a nationwide service that lets customers place unlimited domestic calls with their landline phones over a broadband connection.

The service, called T-Mobile AtHome, will cost $10 per month when it rolls out on July 2.

The thing is, even if I had a cable modem, I wouldn’t sign up for it, because I will be an AT&T wireless using the new iPhone 3G on July 11th.

I just find it odd that they are “re-inventing” the wheel. It’s kind of like re-inventing light bulbs or Electrolux vacuums. Why bother?

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I need to take a moment and talk about a new application I have been using for the past couple weeks, that I think you might like. The application is called Digsby.

For years I have used Trillian for all my instant messaging needs. In fact, I paid for the “pro” version within days of first using it. It worked flawlessly for me. I heard rumors from others that it did not work on their systems, it crashed all the time, and they stopped using it. Not me. I had no issues with it, and it worked well for me. Well, it did, until about a month ago.

For some reason it started crashing on me. I know, I know, that’s what everyone kept telling me for years. One day it would crash, and some days I wouldn’t get a message from anyone on my list, and they wouldn’t receive any of my messages. It was time to look elsewhere for instant messaging.

I tried Pidgin. I had a couple issues with it. I didn’t like the interface, and sometimes it wouldn’t connect.

I tried Miranda. I really liked Miranda, except it told everyone I was away or offline no matter what I tried to change on my end.

Then I found Digsby via a tweet from @ponzarelli on Twitter. What makes Digsby different from all the others? Well, let’s see. I will count the ways.

#1 – It connects.
#2 – It shows me I am connected.
#3 – It shows others that I am connected.
#4 – It allows me to change statuses, and lets others see those statuses.
#5 – It does not crash midway through my day.
#6 – It delivers instant messages from me to people on my list.
#7 – It delivers instant messages from other people on my list to me.
#8 – It’s interface is customizable. I can make it look the way *I* want.
#9 – It just doesn’t suck.

and last but not least

#10 – They have a support staff that is second to none. They monitor Twitter and answer every question posed to them. When you have an issue, they work with you to solve that issue, get this, until it is solved.

Oh, and Digsby does more than just instant messaging too. You can monitor your email and social networking sites too. It works reliably, and it’s shiny and new.

When Trillian started acting up and I could not get Pidgin or Miranda working the way I wanted them too, I was really frustrated. I am very picky about the way things work when it comes to instant messaging. The buddy list has to look the way I want, the messages must be formatted the way I want, and most of all, the application has to work as I expect it too.

Digsby meets, and exceeds, all of my expectations.

If you are looking for a good instant messaging client (which allows you to watch your mail and monitor your social networking connections), that works in Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux, then Digsby is the application you should be checking out.

Of course, now I want to find an application that can be installed on an SD card, so I can take different applications with me, depending on what I need that day.

Crossposted at Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff.

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Brand new off the shelf and it already needs repairing. Welcome to the big time, Firefox.

The same day Firefox 3 was shipping, Tipping Point, a research organization for vulnerability analysis and discovery, released an upcoming advisory (ZDI-CAN-349) about a new security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, affecting Firefox 2 and 3 in their Zero Day Initiative site.

Following their own policies, Tipping Point has not disclosed any details about the vulnerability besides it would require user interaction, while Mozilla works on a patch. Mozilla Security reports that there is no known public exploit for this bug at this time.

Over 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3 on “download day”. Now, 8 million people will be anxiously awaiting Firefox 3.01. They’ll truly hit the big time if they need to send us security updates once a month like you know who.

After a rough week of Firefox crashes, I myself am looking for some massage therapy schools close by. I am sure there is someone out there willing to give me a full body massage at a nice low price.

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As far as days go, I was quite let down today. Mozilla let me down.

Mozilla’s big plan on Tuesday to set a world record for downloads with the Firefox 3 browser hit a snag when its Web site would not work properly.

Though the big “Download Day” was set to begin at 1 p.m. ET, Mozilla’s Web site was down or working sporadically all morning on the East Coast, and users still could not download Firefox 3 from the site more than an hour later.

Was it because of their “downtime”? No. Was it because Firefox 3 is no good? Of course not. What was it then?

As of 5pm I was still trying to download a “new” copy of Firefox. You see, I have been downloading the betas and release candidates, so it’s not like I have been “out of the loop”, but I was quite disappointed when I downloaded Firefox the first time today.

Before I started, I wrote down the information on the about screen, and then after the new install had downloaded, I installed it, of course. The first thing I noticed was the end-user license was dated “May 2008″. An easy mistake yes?

After installation, I checked the about screen. Same exact thing. Nothing changed. Here is my post on Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff, with the screenshots of the firefox website and installation.

Were there no changes between release candidate 3 and the final release? If not, why the hype today to set a record? Why bother with a “final” release if nothing changed? I just don’t get it.

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As you know, the new iPhone 3G comes out on July 11th. I am one of the people who will be waiting in line to get one. Why? Because. I watched Steve Jobs’ keynote and the iPhone has some really cool features that I want and more that I need.

In the meantime, while we all wait for the release, other companies are coming out with their “iPhone killers”. Don’t bank on it.

Sprint’s Samsung Instinct: The closest thing “so far”. Heh.

Amid the buzz surrounding Apple Inc.’s new iPhone model, coming out July 11, it’s been easy to miss the news that Sprint Nextel Corp. is bringing out a phone on June 20 that is the closest thing so far to an iPhone made by someone else.

Verizon’s Palm Centro. Hah. You can’t rain on someone’s parade when your cloud isn’t even in the same galaxy.

Verizon Wireless and handset maker Palm are raining on Apple’s iPhone 3G parade this week. The companies announced the Palm Centro smartphone will go on sale through Verizon on Friday — for $99.

Dressed in a crisp cobalt blue, the Centro provides customers with a wireless tool to manage busy lives with voice, text messaging, e-mail and the Web.

I keep hearing experts talk about iPhone killers and how the company that learns how to build muscle quicker, will win. Needless to say, it’s going to be an interesting month, watching all these companies roll out their iPhone killers, only to be swept away in the tide of useless devices after July 11th.

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Oh… Suhweet! MySpace is redesigning their site! MySpace is redesigning their site! MySpace is redesigning their site!

News Corp’s MySpace plans a global redesign next week in an attempt to widen its demographics and boost user engagement on the site, the social networking site said on Friday.

In what it said would be the largest scale relaunch of a website of its size, MySpace will change its home page, navigation, profile editing, search, and MySpaceTV player facilities. Other changes will come during the summer.

“This is more than a face-lift; we’re changing the way people interact with the site and with brands,” MySpace said, adding that a major advertiser was signed for the U.S. MySpace home page on the first day of the relaunch.

Oh wait. Yeah. Still don’t care. No matter how much lighting you throw on an ugly subject, it’s still quite ugly when you look at it. Yawn.

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When the iPhone first launched, I thought about getting one. There were things I didn’t like about it though. The price. The way it seemed so locked down. The EDGE network.

Apple Monday unveiled a new version of its popular iPhone built for high-speed wireless networks with faster Internet access and more features for business users.

“It’s incredibly zippy,” chief executive Steve Jobs said as he demonstrated the new mobile device at the opening of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

“We’ve learned so much with the first iPhone. We’ve taken what we’ve learned and more and created the iPhone 3G; and it’s beautiful.”

It seems the new iPhone has solved those issues for me. Now i just have to decide one thing. Is getting an iPhone worth switching to AT&T and signing a contract. I have to admit, it’s been nice not being in a cellphone contract for the past few years, and I’m not sure I want to do that again, yet.

Sidenote: As a developer, I am a bit “let down” that I wasn’t given the hope of any new toys (think Mac Fusion) this year.

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It seems there is a rumor that Apple will announce the new Mac Fusion today at WWDC. Better yet, those rumors say it’s aimed at the developer crowd.

I don’t care if it’s just a rumor. I WANT. I haven’t wanted anything this bad, since I was watching my weight last year, contemplating taking diet pills, and staring a warm chocolate brownie in the eye.

On WWDC Eve, we at TUAW are hard at work keeping an eye out for the unknown and unexpected. We just received a tip showing what appears to be the Mac Nano computer that we’ve all wanted — and it looks to be aimed towards the developer crowd.

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