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Category Archives: computer news
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This seems like something that will really spark discussion around the blogosphere and hopefully it’ll prevent some spammers from spamming, although I doubt it: what the hell do they care about the PR of a link that spammed into my blog? It’s either hard to even get something through (multi-layer antispam) and even if something slips through it’s just a matter of time until it’s deleted – I don’t think that the PR update will even recognize this?! And what about people posting interesting stuff in comments – doesn’t such a link have any value?
I’ll abstain from installing it atm though as I value links in comments, as long as they aren’t from some spam-bot, which should hopefully be caught anyway.
On another note: this might as well prove itself useful for linking to people without giving them credit, which was impossible so far.
More can be read at Google’s info page
The WP Plugin.
Crypto Game
There’s a new Crypto game online…try your luck/ability to decipher stuff here.
…Crack me if you can…
Google Zeitgeist 2004
Google has released it’s annual list of the most popular search terms Zeitgeist 2004.
Sidenote: Weird to see the (german) word “Zeitgeist” in an english site.
Via Platinum Central
One search. all jobs
Nice job search engine indeed.com, I wonder when someone will implement something like this for my country (germany).
Via jeffcroft.com.
Wide gravatars are go
Tom Werner just wrote about it: the distribute gravatar proxy system is ready (read more about it here). This way the main gravatar server will be relieved a little bit and even if there’s a problem with the mainserver the gravatars will still show up just fine.
All you need to do is edit the gravatars plugin (change the url to wide.gravatar.com* where * is the query string which doesn’t need to be edited) :tup:
via Neil’s World.
iPod -> iPod Shuffle?
Mac Mini
So the rumours were true after all! There will be a super sweet Mac Mini available at your Apple store soonish (January 29th over here in germany). This might be my first Mac – just need to get some money first, as the base price of 499 Euro can easily be raised to near 1000 Euro if you add some extras (dvd-burner, memory upgrade, mouse + keyboard, bluetooth + wireless lan) :neutral:
Maybe this isn’t my first Mac after all – the iBook seems to be the better deal, at least for me…
Nerd score / Digital IQ
Need hosting?
If you’re on the lookout for a new hosting package, I think you should have a look at the newest crazy domain packages over at Dreamhost. Not only did they recently triple the bandwith, but they tripled the space now, too. The smallest package (Crazy Domain Insane) was: 800MB space and 40GB bandwith – this is now 2.400MB space and 120GB bandwith!
I guess it’s time to move over Ingoal.info over, too – I’ve already got an account with them hosting two of my other domains… :rolleyes:
If you’re interested in signing up with them: do me a favor and use the link above or the following pic, you will get the hosting and I will get a little bit of commision :mrgreen:
New phonelines + dsl provider
“Konkurrenz belebt das Geschaeft” is an old german saying (roughly translates to: competition is good for trade), which seems to be so true in the current online- and phone-market. We’ve had our phonelines and dsl-setup from the biggest german provider (Telekom (T-Com + T-Online)) forever, but it seems it’s time to move on. We were paying a nifty amount of 74,19€ basic charge for a ISDN-connection (two digital lines), dsl-setup with 768kbit down, 128kbit up and a flatrate. As they’re changing their port-setup you’re forced to upgrade to 1MBit down, 128kbit up on January 1st 2005 – as this is an auto-upgrade there’s nothing you can do about it, apart from moving on or paying 4 €/month more for this “speed increase”. This would bring up our basic charge to 78,19€ which equals 106,10$. :brickwall:
As I think this is ridiculously high for the provided service I told my folks that we should look around for alternatives. As I’m the geek of the family I did the checking and came up with different solutions.
- Leave ISDN-connection with Telekom and switch online stuff to cable. This would have cut the online-costs to 39€/month (Telekom: 16,99€ + 29,99€ flat = 46,98€) – an improvement, but not quite the cut I had hoped for. :tdown:
- Switch complete connection (ISDN + DSL) to the competition. In this case to the second largest phone provider (Arcor)…and bingo. Just made the switch (just waiting for the paper work being sent our way and we’re gone – see more details below) :tup:
The Arcor deal is quite sweet:
- ISDN just like with Telekom. They’re handling all the switches and legal stuff (canceling the old commitment to Telekom, switching over all our MSNs, etc)
- They’re offering both a DSL-flat and a phone-flat (all calls are free, except for calls to mobile phones).
- The DSL basic charge and the flatrate are way cheaper.
Cost factor:
- ISDN basic charge: 19,95€
- DSL basic charge: 10€
- DSL-flat: 9,95€
- phone-flat: 19,95€
- upgrade DSL to 2MBit (2MBit down, 192kbit up): 5€
- Grand total: 64,85€ (equals 88$)
Now that looks more like it. We’re saving around 14€/month, but wait, that’s the absolute minimum as we’ve got a phone-flat now, which we didn’t have with Telekom, so it’s gonna be even more, month after month after month (we had one invoice of less than 100€ in the whole year 2004) – and I’ve got double bandwith as soon as the switch is made :mrgreen:
Recent browsing…a is for…
Inspired by Aaron‘s and Jeremy‘s posts:
A is for Arlt.com – computer store
B is for Bloglines
C is for Coresite
D is for Dict.leo.org
E is for ebay.de
F is for fcm2.info
G is for Gmail
H is for heise.de
I is for Ingoal.info (hehe)
J is for tragically null
K is for Kundenbetreuung – eplus (customer service of my mobile phone provider)
L is for Landkreis Coburg (went there during research for wikifun.de)
M is for My Ebay
N is for NBA.com
O is for Osthoff innovations
P is for Paypal.de
Q is for nothing
R is for ranking.com
S is for sitepoint.com/forums
T is for t-com.de (checking around for a new phone contract)
U is for Brian’s blog
V is for vr networld ebanking
W is for Wikifun.de Homepage
X is for nothing
Y is for nothing
Z is for zdf.de
Almost everything filled I guess – it seems I’m browsing the web a little bit too much these days :smile:
Sad milestone
Since installing Kitten’s Spaminator on December 4th it has blocked over 500 spam post (the 500th occuring tonight)…sad times :tdown:
New Gmail invites
Update:It seems like GMail could go public soonish. After reading about people having 50+ invites I’m in that club now, too. So if you want an account, just post a comment, atm I’ve got 50 invites sitting here…
Update: The request are flowing in as are the new invites…the number below is still accurate, so if you’re still in need of an invite, just post a comment here (ideal would be a post with full name)…
Update: It seems that my account is auto-refilling itself…I was done to two numerous times now and it seems as soon as my account hits 2 it is refilled to 4 invites, let’s see how long this will go on…
After a really long time there are some new gmail invites waiting in my account. So, in the spirit of sharing the good stuff: anyone who wants an account, just post a comment to this post with your email-address and you shall receive an invite. (Offer valid while stocks last ;-) ).
Current status: 6 30 available