Dan Price’s blog
Weblog of a cyber-geek

First of all, I apologise for neglecting my blog recently. College has been particularly busy recently; I’ve been trying to get fitter (weight lifting, walking etc.) and I’ve been working on several projects recently too. Consequently, I haven’t been able to post very much on here at all or surf the forums as much as I’d like to - hopefully, I’ll be able to find a bit more time soon to start again.

On to the main topic of the post - the 1-laptop-per-child project has announced that it will be running Windows XP on it’s laptops side-by-side with Linux. The project was set up to give children in developing countries the chance to learn I.T. and enhance their skills and knowledge. Previously, a special light weight version of Linux was planned to be the only OS (Operating System) as it is free and open source, making it ideal for educational purposes on a budget laptop. (more…)

A friend recently introduced me to MacHeist, a bundle of shareware that is released every year for Mac users. The bundles dramatically cut the cost of purchasing each application individually and the several of the applications are second to none.

This year it’s cost just $49 (approximately £25) which is a bargain compared to over $300 that might be spent if you purchased all of the software on it’s own. I highly recommend this to other Mac users!

Note that it’s only available for up to 5000 bundle downloads and afterwards it closes - don’t miss the deadline!

If you aren’t using Firefox, a free open source browser, you should be! Why? I’ll explain below:

1) Customizability. Firefox, unlike Internet Explorer, has a bewildering number of addons and plugins that are available to customize the browsing experience - from themes to security additions to media enhancements, it has it all. On my Windows PC, I’ve got add ons including FasterFox; designed to speed up the browser (even more than usual), Greasemonkey; allowing even further customization by enabling script installs for the browser and Flashblock; which as the name suggests blocks flash on web pages, only being enabled when you click to enable it. I’ve got several more, but these 3 are some of the best.

2) Security. You might think that an open source browser would be more susceptible to hacking since everyone can see exactly how it runs, but this strictly isn’t true. Firefox may or may not be a more secure browser if it had the same market share as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but at the moment, it doesn’t so is generally far less targeted by hackers. When Firefox vulnerabilities are found, they are usually patched quite quickly, denying hackers the chance to exploit these. (more…)

That’s the claim by Steven Frank in his article on the subject. OK so he’s even more of a Mac-addict than myself and he’s completely biased on the subject - this quote says it all:

“It’s important for me as a Mac developer to use Windows once in a while, because it’s a fantastic lesson on how do absolutely everything wrong when designing software.”

Despite this, the article is worth a read, for both Mac and Windows fans - Mac fans to nod “I agree” at the end of every line of the rant, Windows fans to desperately disagree with every dig he makes against their beloved virus-infested, crash-prone pile of junk. Anyway…. (more…)

I was once a staunch supporter of Windows - I stood up for the brand against the better Apple Mac computers and the much cheaper Linux experience. More recently, my loyalties changed as I bought a Macbook and every use of my PC after that seemed slow, cumbersome and boring. After yesterday, I’ve had enough of Windows altogether!

I was part way through a game (for those of you who MUST know, it was Age of Empires 2 - not exactly a great game, but I don’t claim to be a gamer). Suddenly, the screen froze and before I knew it, the blue screen of death had flashed before my eyes, and then the PC restarted. This is was really random, but it has randomly restarted before a few times, so I just thought I’d have to wait the extremely slow 5 minutes for the computer to start up, and then restart the game. (more…)