News – Page 5 – Vinko’s Thoughts On…

October 31, 2006

Hubble Space Telescope

It is hard to believe that the Hubble Space Telescope, a history making astronomy tool, has already been in space for 16+ years (first launch in April 24, 1990).

Although due to the initial optics problem it was not really functional until the NASA space shuttle corrected its lenses on a mission in 1993.

It has served the astronomy community with amazing finds that advanced our knowledge of the universe around us, including the planets in our own solar system.

Due to various problems with on board batteries and gyroscopes the Space Telescope has not been in service since 2003, after the NASA space shuttle Columbia disaster. When all space shuttles are grounded and NASA decided that a manned mission to the space telescope is too dangerous.

Today NASA has decided to pencil in a mission to service the Space Telescope with a Space Shuttle mission in 2008. This should extend the service life of the Space Telescope to 2013, without the mission it will crash into the sea sometime after 2010.

Sometimes it is very hard to believe that within my life time so much technology advances had transpired. Making me think what will another 16 years bring.

August 22, 2006

An easy to use Flash based map of the world down to street levels

This is a cool little tool for anyone who may be visiting a foreign city or just want to know approximately where an address is.

Do You See Double?

A senior Japanese researcher at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories outside Kyoto, has created a machine in his own image. A perfect thing for times when you need to go see a chic flick with your wife or girlfriend. Of course this also applies for the women who have to suffer through the ball games or action movies.

What SUN is up to

The attached video shows what SUN OS R&D is thinking about.

Please note that this is not about OS war or comparing how great one OS over the other. Or whether one OS copied another.

Do note that this SUN OS experiment was done well before Mac OS X had its public beta and long before Microsoft “Longhorn” (aka. Windows Vista) was even a project.

My personal preference and computing tool of choice is Mac OS and had been for the past 21.5 years.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXv8VlpoK_g]

May 16, 2006

Apple’s New MacBook

Apple finally released the highly anticipated iBook replacement, the MacBook.

With this new (comparatively) lower end series of the MacBook line Apple has completed its Intel transition for the entire Macintosh portable line up. The only series left is the PowerMac G5 towers and the XServers.

The introduction of this new models has also see the elimination of the MacBook Pro 1.83GHz model. Apple also lowered the prices of the remaining MacBook Pro after the introduction of the MacBook Pro 17″, plus made the 2.16GHz version of the MacBook Pro a standard model, that used to be a Made-to-Order-Model.

This new MacBook also comes in a Black version that we are now accustom to with the introduction of the iPod nanos and 5G iPods last year.

There was one more rumor that we have yet to see a conclusion for, and that is the rumor of a “red MacBook” and “red iPod”. This red dual is suppose to be in support of U2’s Bono’s Product Red charity, benefiting African AIDS victims. There is one more press event this coming Thursday (Eastern Standard Time) when Apple introduces its new flag ship store in the GM Tower, 767 Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, New York City. So I guess we will have to see.

May 16, 2006

Apple’s New MacBook

Apple finally released the highly anticipated iBook replacement, the MacBook.

This new MacBook also comes in a Black version that we are now accustom to with the introduction of the iPod nanos and 5G iPods last year.

April 24, 2006

Brand New Apple MacBook Pro 17″

Apple today released the brand new MacBook Pro 17″.

This new version of the Intel® based Macintosh notebook has again surprised the analysts who did not think Apple would be able to release a new MacBook Pro that is the same thickness as the current MacBook Pro 15″, while bringing back the old 8x SuperDrive with DVD-DL write capability.

Also another surprise to the analysts is Apple’s decision to bring back the long depended on professional FireWire 800 port to the new MacBook 17″.

To make it even more attractive, Apple have released this new Mac at the same price as the current MacBook Pro 15″ 2.16GHz, so with the extra screen size, FireWire 800 and DVD-DL writable SuperDrive, other than buyer who really do not want the extra screen space will definitely purchase the MacBook Pro 17″.

I personally hope that this aggressive pricing of Apple is a sign that Apple will lower the price of the MacBook Pro 15″ and/or bring back the 8x SuperDrive writable DVD-DL to the MacBook Pro 15″.

Ferrari 275 GTB in Paris, 1978

Totally incredible… take a look at the following video and you will understand what I mean. It really shows how crazy a Formula 1 driver can be and how precise their driving are. Given that it is a multi dollar Ferrari makes it that much more exciting.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RH7Ca4gUp4]

But in actual fact it was done by the director in his Mercedes and the F1 engine sound effect was overlaid post production.

April 20, 2006

Attack of Air Force One

Amazing footage of an attack of vandalism on the President of the United States of America’s airplane, “Air Force One”.

… Or is it a perfect marketing ploy.

April 5, 2006

Apple Boot Camp Public Beta Available

Finally the official method of allowing a Macintel to run Microsoft’s Windows XP has been made public by Apple Computer. The software is called “Boot Camp” for the time being.

On March 13 I wrote in my My Weblog about “Running Windows XP on an Intel Macintosh (aka. “Macintel”)“. Where that method by two individuals from an open contest was a hack, today’s announcement, from Apple, demonstrates Apple’s elegance method of doing the same thing. It also explains why Apple never commented on the hack solution when it was made public back in March.

Please be aware that this is a “beta” class software from Apple, introducing functionalities that will be part of Apple’s Mac OS 10.5 software update to be available later this year.

With any beta class software, users must keep in mind the standard warning of backing up all data before trying, and because of its “beta” class it is not recommended for use on mission critical systems.