Isn't it always the way? The moment I turn in a column, Apple makes a stunning announcement, that they will indeed release a true Software Development Kit for the iPhone, and will also support the iPod Touch with it, which is equally excellent news. Of course we do not yet know what form it will take, or what restrictions Apple may place on the licensing of that SDK. For example, Apple may forbid developers from creating or at least releasing VoIP applications. I can imagine that Apple would be less than friendly to Voice over IP applications, although it would seem to me that Apple shouldn't much care if its AT&T customers use VOIP or not -- Apple will still be getting its share of monthly revenue from AT&T iPhone accounts. Apple would be worried, I suspect, if people unlock their iPhones and then just use VOIP over wi-fi. Apple could also require payments for use of the SDK, or could require software distribution through iTunes only, or require its own legal department (and possibly engineering and software quality assurance departments) to go over the software before giving it the Seal of Approval. I would rather like those as options, but I personally do not want Apple exercising control over iPhone third-party software.
Free City-wide Wi-Fi? Say again?
San Francisco, in its infinite wisdom, placed a ballot initiative before the voters asking us to fund a city-wide "free" wi-fi network. It said this: "Shall it be City policy that the City should, through an agreement with a private provider, offer free wireless high-speed Internet access as quickly as possible on an equal basis to all part of San Francisco? Unfortunately, this silly city voted 62% to 38% in favor of this measure. Free? That's utter nonsense. It has to be paid for somehow. High-speed? What does that mean, in concrete terms? To all parts of San Francisco, even those with very low densities of computers and/
No Ethernet makes me unhappy
For some peculiar reason, my Windows 2000 PC lost all communication over Ethernet. I could not ping, could do nothing that required communication over the network. I reinstalled the TCP/
But what to put on it? It is probably time to move off Windows 2000, so I discovered a technique to create a Windows bootable CD and put Windows XP on it from my copy of Virtual PC. I don't think I will ever run Virtual PC, but the XP Pro license it came with with is now very valuable to me. I found a thread on macosxhints.
Following the directions on that page under the "Bootable Windows XP installation CD-Rom (with SP2)" section, I downloaded some files, copied the I386 folder off one of the CDs that came with my VirtualPC package, and created an ISO image. The problem is, you need to use a PC to do all this, but you can use Windows 2000 running on Parallels if you have it. I burned the ISO and will install XP on a new drive.
The Internet is full of terrific information, but, like all electrons, it is transitory. I am very grateful to the Internet Archive (http://
nVidia 8800GT - Heaven Sent
I recently upgraded my video to an nVidia 7800GS, one of the last of the AGP cards, and I am satisfied with it, but there's a new card that is really appealing to a budget-minded yet enthusiastic gamer like me: the 8800GT. It actually beats the 8800GTS 640MB according to early benchmarks, and is supposed to be priced between US$200 and US$250 for 256 and 512MB versions. World of Warcraft runs fine for me now, but someday, especially now that I will be moving up to XP, I'll want to try some of the latest 3D technology like Crysis, Hellgate London, BioShock, Supreme Commander, and others.