Category: Tech

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Tech

iPhone finally comes to 3

If you had asked me which Australian carrier totally missed the iPhone bandwagon, it was Hutchinson’s 3 brand. They were one of the earlier players in high-speed mobile data, and I would have thought that the iPhone was right up their alley as the killer app to push mobile broadband into the consumer space.

So imagine my disappointment as a loyal 3 subscriber when the iPhone 3G originally hit Australian shores and only with the big players. I’ve been impressed with my Nokia 6110 Navigator, but my time with a 2nd-gen iPod touch has impressed me sufficiently to make me want to move into the big leagues.

And finally it’s time. Today, 3 has announced that they will be selling the iPhone 3G S. I’m due for contract renewal, so this will save me from churning away, and allow me to keep my on-net minutes. Hopefully the plans will be competitive.

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Tech

Microsoft makes an announcement about spam

Today, Microsoft unveiled a new Department of the Bleeding Obvious in its public relations division. To mark this occasion, they released a report that told us what we already knew:

… 97 per cent of all emails sent in the world are unwanted spam.

Now, maybe you did you didn’t know the exact number, but surely you had an inkling that it was a big problem?

Next up, sightings of rain falling from clouds.

Source: ABC News.

Categories
Misc Tech

Jumping on the bandwagon after all

Just quickly. In an effort to stay “hip” and “with it” (despite turning 29 today), I have joined the Twitter crowd.

It’s a nifty little thing that, on the surface, seems to be nothing more than a very limited self-promotion platform. “Microblogging”, it’s called; posting every little minutiae about your life. It’s the Facebook status update, without the Facebook.

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Tech

Font fun with Fondu

I had actually thought that with the advent of MacOS X, Apple had done away with font incompatibilities. It installs Windows and Linux fonts with no problem, so there’s no need to have your own font file format, right?

My wife discovered the .dfont file this morning at work. As of this writing, the Wikipedia entry on the format is just a stub.

Datafork TrueType is a font wrapper used on Apple Macintosh computers running Mac OS X. It is a TrueType suitcase with the resource map in the data fork, rather than the resource fork as had been the case in Mac OS 9. It uses the file extension .dfont.

In plain English, it’s got all your regular TTF information in a different part of the file. Kind of like a .ZIP file for fonts. Useful, except only Macs read it. Fortunately, we have fondu. It’s available for all Unix systems (including Mac OS X) and provides a suite of utilities to convert different formats of TrueType fonts.

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Tech

A different kind of resolution

Yesterday, I had an epiphany. Having returned to work after a very comfortable holiday at the beach, I decided I would take advantage of living in one of the best summer cities in the world and eat my lunch outside. The sky was blue, the sun was warm, and I browsed the net effortlessly on my iPod while I ate my satay sticks. And I realised: just because I’m outside, doesn’t mean I have to ditch my favourite toys.

For most of my life, I’ve been a technophile stuck indoors. That’s where computers and their users usually hang out. But the more I hang around the things, the more I realise that the really fun stuff happens outside. It’s like some of Intel’s original Centrino ads where the office worker spends the day  in the park. Fantastic stuff! I want to be that guy.

I have so many toys that let me move outside: the laptop, the iPod, the camera, the mobile. And there’s wireless and mobile internet pretty much ubiquitous in Sydney. So why aren’t I doing more with it all? It all just sits at home doing nothing when I’m not indoors.

So, along with all the usual self-improvement soul searching that happens in early January, I want to make this resolution: I will spend more time outside this year, and instead of using the “my toys are all for inside play” excuse, use them to enable me to go out.