Is Microsoft about to release a Windows ‘kill’ switch?
Ed Bott from ZDNet believes that Microsoft may release a Windows ‘kill’ switch in September if Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage update has not been installed on computers running Microsoft operating systems. He goes into great detail about a situation that could potentially cause complete chaos.
read more | digg story
Would Google Compete with Digg?
From the article: “Could Google launch a service like Digg? It would seem the search and advertising giant has all the right components: a huge and often devoted user base; a news search algorithm; and plenty of intelligence on its users’ search habits and preferences to know what the most popular stories are online at any given time.”
read more | digg story
Since moving to my new domain name, I have not had the chance to get my gallery working. I need to change some configuration options before everything will work again - hopefully I will get the time to do that later today.
On Thursday, the legendary Quake franchise celebrated its 10th birthday.
Carmack’s baby pushed the boundaries of PC gaming back in 1996 with features that had never been seen before. The style was a major departure from other 3D shooters of the time, with a blend of horror and fantasy that kept gamers on edge. The engine itself included complex textured 3D environments and polygon-modelled enemies with intelligence - graphical features that paved the way for today’s games.
It was a game that lead to massive demand for Intel’s first-generation Pentium processors and it was a game that created demand for 3D graphics accelerators, or video cards. Video cards have become an important part of any computer, and they’re going to become even more important when Windows Vista arrives early next year. I’ve got the Beta on DVD here, but I’ve yet to find the time to sit down and install it on my home computer.
Sadly though, they don’t make games like Quake anymore - it’s too risky to try something new or radical these days…
Dvorak: the Golden Age of the Internet, enjoy it while you can
This is a great article to pass on to non-techie friends about why stuff like net neutrality matter.
From the article: “How many people realize that we’re living in a golden age, the Golden Age of the Internet? It won’t last; golden ages never do. Some of it will remain, but there’s evidence that much of it is headed for the trash heap of history.”
read more | digg story
Over the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of time moving around in one way or another. This has meant that I’ve had no time to post much in terms of content on here.
One reason is the massive increase in work load on bit-tech. At the end of January, we moved from working from home to working in an office environment with our sister publication, TrustedReviews. So far, this has been awesome, despite some initial worries. In the past, I’ve always worked better in my own company, but the office environment has helped to improve my productivity as well as adding another dimension to work too.
The work/home divide is working out reasonably well - when I get home, I’m almost free to do what I want. However, due to the increased work loads, I’ve been going home later and later. In recent months, going home before 8pm at night has been a rare occurance, and there have been months were I haven’t managed to get more than a couple of days (including weekends) off. I worked out that I’d got over three months of work to do even if I didn’t take any more products on board.
Obviously, the move to an office meant that I had to move house. I moved from Loughborough down to Camberley the week before we started working from the office. I moved in with Geoff, who also works on bit-tech and we’re sharing a pretty big 2-bedroom flat. Everything else that we looked at had a double and a single bedroom - this was the only one with two double bedrooms. It’s on the 3rd floor and there is no lift - that has its benefits, but it’s a long way to walk up and down if you leave something in the car. On the plus side, it’s helping to keep me fit and we’re not far from work, the motorway and the train station.
Finally, you may have noticed that I’ve moved my corner of the web from Suxeh.net to TSmalley.com - since the site is mainly about me, I felt that getting a proper domain name would help to define it a little better.
Over the next few months, I’m going to try and find the time to update this a little more often - the time between this and the last update was an absolute eternity and I don’t intend to let it slip like that again.