New York Daily News – Business – Old cracks found in new Windows

New York Daily News – Business – Old cracks found in new Windows

Old cracks found in new Windows

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Redmond, we have a problem. The brand spanking-new Windows operating system called Vista – billed as “the most secure version of Windows yet” on the Microsoft Web site – has proven a pushover for Internet hackers. Microsoft has acknowledged Vista has a flaw that could allow users to increase their access level to administrator, a problem first posted by a Russian hacker. A flaw was also found in Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 that could download viruses from a booby-trapped Web page. That flaw and five others were reported by Determina, a Silicon Valley computer security company. “We are closely monitoring developments,” said Microsoft’s Mike Reavey, operations manager for the Redmond, Wash. company’s emergency response team. “Currently we have not observed any public exploitation or attack activity regarding this issue,” he wrote. And, he insisted, “I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date.” But news of the IE7 flaw and the hacker postings is a black eye for Bill Gates and Microsoft – and for the thousands of PC makers who will begin selling their computers next month with Vista. Thousands of consumers put off buying computers this Christmas season waiting for the release at the end of January of the new upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista. One online tech expert, Jay Dougherty, wrote for the German Press Agency that Vista may prove a tough sell for folks already happy with their home computers, especially because the current XP system has proven to be relatively stable. “People are tired of upgrading – especially when the benefits of doing so are difficult to articulate or uninspiring. That’s the problem with Microsoft’s Vista operating system in a nutshell,” he wrote. Vista’s big selling points, besides it supposed safety and security, are its stunning 3D graphics that many critics argue is simply an attempt – and a bad one at that – to match what Apple has had for years on the Macintosh. Originally published on December 26, 2006

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A Windows expert opts for a Mac life, Part 1 and 2 summary

A Windows expert tries out a Mac for his daily work part 2.

This maybe of interest for quite a few curious Windows users or if you are seriously thinking of trying an Apple Mac cumpter system out.
I have summarised part 1 and part 2 and he is about 1 month into his trial. Check the link above to access the full article and the first part but here is the main guts of how things are going for him up to now.
Once over the initial hump, his Mac experience has been superb.

I have done part 2 first so you can get a feel straight away for how things are going now and then read on for the details of his initial feelings and problems.

Scot Finnie  CommunicationsDecember 06, 2006 (Computerworld)

Part 2 Summary

Last month, I initiated a three-month trial of the Macintosh as a total replacement for my primary Windows machine. That computer is asked to pull double duty as a work and personal machine. It’s also the only computer I run e-mail on. And it’s the one machine (other than backup) that contains all my data files. In other words, it’s got to work flawlessly.I’ve had serious pain switching to the Mac (we’ll get to that in a moment), but I’ve also had great success and no second thoughts about my experiment.
Enter a brand-new, 2.33-GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro 17 with a 160GB hard drive and glossy screen. I love this new 17-in. MacBook Pro. The screen is glorious. The performance is top-notch. It became my primary computer about 10 seconds after it first booted.If I decide to go back to Windows when this Mac trial is over, returning to my ThinkPad T60 Core Duo may be a very difficult move. I’ve settled into the MacBook Pro 17 and Mac OS X 10.4.8 as if I was born to them. If the Mac OS doesn’t mesmerize me to the point that I lose all interest in Windows, this piece of hardware might just do that all on its own. My only complaint is that the spacebar squeaks whenever I press it. Whoop-de-doo. I’ll head to the nearest Genius Bar and see if I can get Apple Computer to replace it free of charge.Why can’t Dell, Hewlett-Packard or even Lenovo build notebook hardware this good?

Now back to part 1 and how he initially started and felt.

Macintosh trial run

So, about a month ago I decided it was high time to do my homework on other systems in the only way I know that works: total immersion.

Beginning this week, for at least one month — maybe three — I’m making an Apple MacBook Pro my main work and personal computer. I’ve been slowly building up the software and systems I need to do this (with the excellent help of Computerworld‘s IT department), including Lotus Notes for Macintosh and the migration of my 13-year-old Eudora for Windows installation. I may rely to some extent on Parallels for the Mac to run some things in an XP virtual machine, especially in the beginning. But the goal, as I said, is to find Macintosh tools for everything I do in Windows.

To those of you who’ve been reading me for years because of my Windows expertise and insights, I’m not letting go of Windows! I will be echoing my experience on my current Windows production machine — a dual-core ThinkPad T60 — by upgrading to Windows Vista. I have access to four Macs, three of which are Intel-based. There are more than 15 Windows machines that I use and test with. It’s a Windows world, and I’m not dropping out.

But I’m committed to giving the Mac a fair chance.

Lotus Notes. IBM is promising better support for the Mac in the Notes 7.x time frame. We’re using Notes 6.5.x and other than the pathetic Mac support, it’s working just fine. (I may test the Notes 7.02 client in the near future though.) These are the problems that Mac users face the most — integrating with IT systems in the corporate world. Sometimes there is no support at all for certain applications. Microsoft, for example, withdrew support for Internet Explorer on the Mac several years ago — not that it really offered compatibility with enterprise Web-based applications anyway.

There’s hope, though, with the growing popularity of Firefox, which is platform-independent and works more or less the same way on the Mac and Linux as it does on the PC. (This is especially true of Firefox 2.0.)

For reasons I’m still figuring out, Notes has been troublesome on my Mac. During the first several days, I experienced frequent crashes of the Notes client. Working with my IT department, we weren’t sure whether the problem was the result of issues with the MacBook Pro itself or whether it was my Notes installation. We reinstalled the Mac OS X 10.4 operating system from the ground up and then reinstalled Notes and my other corporate applications. The frequency of the Notes crashes diminished, but any crashing isn’t acceptable. So we installed the Notes client on a second MacBook Pro 15 and found the problems were evident there, too. More than likely, there’s something amiss in my Notes mail database or the client configuration. I figured out a work-around that keeps the client from crashing, and I suspect that it will lead us to the proper solution. But there’s no joy yet.

Once the Notes problem is fixed, I will go through the wild and crazy steps required to migrate Windows Eudora to Mac Eudora, and move into the Mac. I’ve also ordered a 17-in. Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, which is due in a week or so.

About other aspects of the Mac: I’m having little trouble adapting to the differences between Windows and the Mac. I was a Mac user from 1987 to 1990 and a Windows and Mac user from 1994 to 1995. Mac OS X is a different operating system from the old Mac OS software. But my Linux experience, though not considerable, has helped me log in and out of root to change system settings on the Mac with relative ease (once I knew where to initiate the authentication). Exploring the way the Mac works is actually fun. I wouldn’t call the more esoteric settings intuitive, but they’re not difficult to find if you keep at it.

If learning Linux esoterica is comparable to doing The New York Times crossword puzzle, the Mac is tantamount to whipping through the crossword puzzle in your local-yokel newspaper. And Windows is somewhere in between.

Progress on the temporary-Mac front will be reported in future updates. And I expect to wrap up with a final assessment of whether the Mac is a viable alternative for real people with real jobs. You can also expect a long-term wrap-up on Windows Vista once it’s officially out.

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Crikey it’s about time mate.

New law makes iPod use legal – Breaking News – National – Breaking News

New Law Makes It Legal To Use Your iPod Finally! 

December 5, 2006 – 6:41PM

 

Thousands of Australians who use iPods and other digital music players will no longer be acting illegally after a major overhaul of copyright laws passed parliament.

The government reviewed copyright laws in response to the rise in digital technology and following the signing of a free trade agreement with the United States.

Copying of compact discs is widespread but technically an offence under the old laws.

Major changes under the new laws make it legal for people to transfer their CD collections to computers or iPods, but toughen penalties for pirates.

Attorney General Philip Ruddock said the reforms would also make it legal for people to record and play back television and radio programs at home, and provide new exceptions for cultural institutions such as schools and libraries to use copyright material for non-commercial purposes.

The Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 would also facilitate the availability of new films, music and software on line, he said, and introduce new enforcement measures such as on-the-spot fines and proceeds of crime remedies to tackle copyright piracy.

“It will legalise format shifting of materials such as music, newspapers, books, meaning that people can put their CD collection onto iPods or mp3 players,” Mr Ruddock said.

Labor supported the legislation after the government backed down on several key provisions including one that would have allowed iPod owners who kept spare copies of songs on their personal computer to be prosecuted.

Mr Ruddock said amendments introduced in the Senate, which the House of Representatives agreed to on Tuesday, demonstrated the government had listened to stakeholders and the Senate committee charged with reviewing the legislation.

In particular, the amendments make the ordinary use of digital music players legal and target enforcement measures to acclivities that commercially harm copyright owners.

Labor’s legal affairs spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said she was delighted the government had made the significant changes recommended in the senate committee report and endorsed by Labor.

“We were particularly worried about the strict liability provisions and I think the regime that is now in place will be a more sensible one,” she said.

“We do have some reservations about the overall approach taken but we agree… the difficulty in copyright is always the balancing act,” she said.

Ms Roxon said it was important to make sure creative industries were supported and consumers were protected.

The changes will come into affect after the bill receives royal ascent, which is expected to occur before Christmas.

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Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3036 Beta I am Gob Smacked ! Incredible.

Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3036 Beta

Download links:

Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036 – http://download.parallels.com/beta/P…20Mac%20en.dmg

I am complelty gob smacked at what they have done with this new beta of Parallels Desktop which allows you to run Windows from OSX Tiger. I will give you a list of features later but the Coherency mode which looks like this

Now look closely thats actually Office 2007′s Excel for Windows XP AND OSX apps iCal and the Finder The Windows app and taskbar are running as if they where native OSX apps. This is from your OSX screen NOT from Windows. The taskbar for Windows is at the bottom but it can be made to go away or anywhere else you want . You’ll see i have OSX’s Dock on the right side of the screen and you can see the OSX menu bar across the top of the screen.

Now you can also drag and drop your files which are in Windows to and from the OSX screen . No more nvigating through your file manager and then accessing files that way. It is as if the 2 OS’s have merged into one! You can even use your bootcamp partitionas if it was a Parallels VM.Here’s a short overview of the new features and enhancements introduced by this Beta:

* New Look and Feel and Improved Usability. Completely redesigned windows and dialogues to make them even easier and smooth. Too many changes to describe – just check them out yourselves

* Virtual Machines Catalogue. A very useful feature for those having more than one VM – now all of them are available through centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance start in case you have more than one VM

* One-click Virtual Machine Aliases:
* Automatically created by OS installation assistant or by drag-and-drop from title bar pressing Command-Option keys combination
* Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine
* Shutting down the VM automatically closes Parallels Desktop for Mac application

* Resizable Main Window. Resize Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application

* Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution. Your Windows auto-adjusts the screen resolution to the actual Main Window size.

* Drag and Drop files and folders between Windows and Mac. A long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa.

* Read/Write BootCamp partition. Since this build, an Apple Boot Camp partition with Windows XP installed could be used as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac.

* Boot from BootCamp partition. Another long awaited feature that lets you boot your 32-bit Windows XP residing on Boot Camp partition directly in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
IMPRORTANT! You need to boot in your Windows XP natively through Boot Camp and install Parallels Tools for Boot Camp package in it before your first boot in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
NOTE! It is not possible to suspend Virtual Machine connected to Boot Camp for integrity reasons.
NOTE! Running Boot Camp in Virtual Machine will need to reactivate your Windows XP installation.

* Parallels Transporter Beta bundled. Migrate your Windows PC, VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines. Please visit Parallels Transporter forum for details.

* Coherency. Shows Windows applications as if they were Mac ones. Try it and enjoy best of both worlds truly at the same time. No more switching between Windows to Mac OS.

* Improved graphic performance. Up to 50% on different applications.

* Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved. No more “wait 5-10 seconds” message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

* Up to 5 Virtual NICs. Now Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces.

* Enhanced Shared Networking Mode. Run Cisco VPN and many other complicated networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode.

* Switch between networking modes on-the-fly. Switch networking modes while the virtual machine is running.

* Transparent mapping of Command-AZXCV key combinations. Now you can also use Mac copy/paste key combinations in Windows.

* Power On/Power Off/Suspend/Resume/Pause animation. Just try and see. We’re very interested in your feedback about the feature.

* Shared folders configuration on-the-fly. Add/remove/configure shared folders on-the-fly via menu or Status Bar icon without the need to stop your Virtual Machine.

* Drag and Drop CD/FDD images and folders to the Parallels Desktop statusbar. Just drag and drop CD or floppy image you want to connect or Mac folder you want to share onto a respective statusbar icon.

* And dozens of other not that evident enhancements.

Just download Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036 to have them all available on your Mac! It will be a FREE update once it becomes Generally Available.
IMPORTANT! Resume and shut down all suspended Virtual Machines prior to upgrade.

Please remember that this is beta software, and like any other beta software you should treat it very carefully. Do not install this Beta into the production environment yet. Do backup your virtual machines before starting them.

If, for any reason, you would like to downgrade to previous stable build, use this link to get it.
IMPORTANT! Uninstall Parallels Tools from the guest OS prior to downgrading and install them again after finishing the downgrade procedure.

As usual, any feedback is extremely appreciated at beta@parallels.com mailbox.

Best regards,
Tim and Parallels Team

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Vista vulnerable to malware from 2004: ZDNet Australia: News: Security

Vista vulnerable to malware from 2004: ZDNet Australia: News: Security

Microsoft’s Vista may be vulnerable to at least three pieces of widespread malware, two of which date back to 2004 , according to security vendor Sophos.

At least three well-known Internet worms — labelled Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom-O by Sophos — are able to execute on the OS, according Sophos.

These worms comprise 39.7 percent of all malware currently in circulation, according to the security vendor. The MyDoom and Netsky variants were first detected back in 2004.

Systems running Vista are vulnerable to the malware when running third-party e-mail clients, according to Sophos. Windows Mail Client — the Vista replacement to Outlook — will block the worms, but businesses running third-party e-mail clients such as Lotus Notes, or that permit Web-based mail such as Yahoo or Gmail, could be vulnerable.

Sophos decided to test Vista for resistance to common strains of malware after Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin made a comment that he would be happy for his seven-year-old son to use a locked-down version without antivirus.

“The comment about his seven-year-old spurred our idea — let’s see if malware runs on Vista,” said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. “It does.”

“I’m certainly not going to run Vista without antivirus,” Theriault added. “And I wouldn’t take the risk with my business. Who knows how many more pieces of malware run on it?”

Windows Mail Client will block these mass-mailers, as it detects double extensions. Some mass mailers try to hide their executable payloads behind another extension — for example a text file. Mail Client will notice both the executable and the text file, and prevent the executable from running, in its default setting. However, Mail Client security features do not apply to third-party e-mail clients, which may not block malware adequately.

Although Sophos is recommending that businesses running XP eventually shift to Vista, as XP is less secure, Theriault said that for the time being businesses considering running Vista will still need to take security precautions.

“Vista is excellent, but it hasn’t really changed the security landscape,” said Theriault. “You still need antivirus, firewalls and patches at least.”

Theriault said it was too early to predict the speed and scale of Vista uptake.

“People will listen to what’s going on, and make a decision depending on what suits their environment best. It’s too early to say,” said Theriault.

These are among the first flaws found in the finalised version of Vista. The Vista kernel was hacked by a Polish security researcher at the Black Hat security conference this year, using virtualisation technologies. Security company Symantec also reported flaws in the Vista kernel in August.

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Bob Zabek .. great 2 handed finger tap, guitar player

Got given a link to Bob Zabek on google video then found his site has a few Videos and Mp3′s of him playing and I was impressed.

Very nice style

check him out!

technorati tags:Christain, Guitar, BobZabek, Zabek

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Vista.. some interesting things to highlight and things to watch out for ..

I found this FAQ list and have taken only a small part of it but the things that most people wont know and some things that make you go wow thats great and ouch I better be careful here cause it might not work.

Q. (Networking) Are there any problems with mixing PCs that run older versions of Windows with ones that run Vista?

A. Unfortunately, yes. Windows Vista uses a new protocol, Link Layer
Topology Discovery (LLTD), for networking. LLTD speeds up the process
of connecting to other devices, and it allows Vista to grab information
about each device and display it in the Network Map. But earlier
versions of Windows lack LLTD, so PCs running older versions of Windows
may not show up on the Network Map at all, or they may appear
sporadically, or they may show up only after a long delay. Microsoft
says that it intends to release a patch for XP that should solve the
problem; but as yet it has no similar plans for earlier versions of the
OS.

Q. What about product activation–any changes from the version that XP uses?

A. Microsoft’s product activation–software that profiles your
system’s hardware and uploads a fingerprint-like profile to a database
maintained by the company–is alive and well, and in Vista it isn’t
optional. Microsoft can change the stringency of its product activation
system, but rest assured that the company will be checking to make sure
that you don’t install your copy of Windows Vista on more than one PC
at a time…. So if you have 2 home PC’s get ready to be poor and have to buy 2 copies of Vista!

Q. If Explorer’s Search is so great, why couldn’t it find the Word file I created yesterday afternoon?

A. You’ve discovered one of Search’s dirty little secrets: By
default, it restricts its searches to a limited set of folders on your
hard disk. Search uses an index to speed up its searches; but Vista
indexes only a few folders, such as your own personal user folder. If
you create folders outside that area, the OS won’t index them, and
Search won’t find them or their contents. There is a workaround: If you
do an Advanced Search (select Start, Search, and click the Advanced
Search down arrow), you can instruct the tool to look in nonindexed
areas; just check the box next to Include non-indexed, hidden and
system files (might be slow). This unfortunatley is not a patch on the current OS X Tiger spotlight search which does every file on your system in the blink of an eye and this will be improved again in the upcoming “Leopard OS X out early next year

Q. Do I have to buy a different disc for the 64-bit version? (or any other version)

A. Each retail version of Windows Vista will contain 32- and 64-bit forms of the OS.

I have heard this means all version of Vista are on the one DVD they just arnt unlocked unless you have the right key and use the new very stringent validation process.

Q. If I get one version, can I upgrade to a different one later?

A. Yes. Microsoft plans to add a Control Panel applet that will let
you upgrade to a more feature-rich edition of Windows Vista, presumably
by using a credit card. Pricing and other details have not been
determined (or revealed to the public) as yet.

Q. Can I run Windows Vista on a Mac?

Yep. The two major options for running Windows on a Macintosh system–Parallels and Apple’s Boot Camp–both support it.

Q. Can I make Vista look like an older version of Windows?

A. Yes indeed. Right-click the Start button, select Properties, and
choose Classic Start Menu to get a Start menu that’s composed primarily
of cascading menus that lead to programs. Right-click the desktop,
select Personalize, and double-click Theme to choose the Windows
Classic theme, which does away with much of Vista’s slickness (and
gives you a Start button labeled “Start”). Take both of these steps,
and Vista will have a decidedly old-school, Windows 2000-like flavor.

What Vista doesn’t seem to have is a way to make its Start menu
behavior and other aspects of the OS behave more the way they do in
Windows XP.

Q. I heard that Windows Vista itself will sometimes decide to disable Aero. What’s up with that?

A. In general, Vista will disable Aero if it determines that it
needs to improve performance, recover from a technical issue, or (in
the case of laptops in power-saving mode) reduce demands on your
battery. According to Microsoft, Java apps are the most common trigger
for disabling Aero. Remotely viewing or sharing another machine’s
desktop can cause Vista to disable Aero, too, and Vista disables Aero
when presenting a User Account Control (UAC) elevation prompt.

Q. What’s this 3D task-switching thing?

A. Now you’re talking about some serious eye candy. Windows Flip 3D
(Windows-Tab) is Windows Flip with a membership in the Flying Walendas.
It stacks your windows in three dimensions, and lets you scroll through
them with your mouse or click one to select it. It adds up to sort of a
poor man’s Expose (from Mac OS X Tiger).

Q. Will my existing antivirus software work on Windows Vista?

A. Probably not. Vista is different enough from previous versions of
Windows that antivirus software written for older versions of the OS
won’t work on it. You’ll need a version written or rewritten
specifically for Vista. Symantec and other makers of major antivirus
software have announced Vista versions of their programs.

Q. IE 7 is it OK?

A. IE 7 is a major step up from its predecessor, but Firefox
is safer, has more features, and is far more customizable with add-ons
and themes. IE 7 remains a valuable option when you encounter one of
those clueless, IE-only Web sites. (Note that IE Tab or IE View will
still let you launch IE from within Firefox.)

Q. What’s this I hear about thumb drives speeding performance?

A. Instead of shelling out for extra RAM, you may be able to give
your Vista machine a bit of a boost by using a USB thumb drive. A
Windows feature called ReadyBoost lets your PC use free memory on a USB
flash drive to augment RAM. You’ll need, at a minimum, a drive that has
256MB of free space and can read data at 2.5 megabits per second and
write data at 1.5 mbps; to qualify for a Windows Vista logo, the drive
must have 500MB of space and read/write speeds of 5 mbps/3 mbps.

You’ll soon start to see flash memory boosting speed in other ways,
too, thanks to the ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive technologies built into
Vista.

Q. What do ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive, and SuperFetch do?

A. SuperFetch, a new memory manager for Windows, uses available
memory to proactively cache data that you’re likely to need.
Eventually, it learns which applications and data you (and any other
users who log in to your machine) habitually use and when you use them,
and it does so on a per-user basis.

ReadyBoost makes more memory available to SuperFetch by creating new
memory pages on USB flash drives and using the flash memory in hybrid
hard disks.

ReadyDrive uses the Non-Volatile RAM cache on a hybrid drive to
store critical data during state transitions such as when booting your
PC or resuming from standby. Before shutting down, Vista transfers the
critical data your PC will use for booting or resuming into that NVRAM
cache. As a result, the PC doesn’t have to wait for a hard disk to spin
up before it can start loading data.

Q. Because of Digital Rights Management for
prerecorded high-definition media, will I need to buy a new monitor to
play premium high-def content?

A. You might, regardless of whether you’re running Vista or Windows
XP. For a PC to send next-generation video content to a display, the
display must support HDCP–and while most HDTVs do support this
copy-protection technology, many older monitors that support high-def
resolutions do not.

Heres the original list be warned it is HUGE !

http://www.techworld.nl/idgns/1651/windows-vista-faq.html

technorati tags:VISTA, Apple, OSX, Microsoft

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Apple proposes ‘blank’ iPod/phone/MacBook just add buttons

hrmpf on November 16th, 2006

The Ultimate Customisable iPod/MacBook/Tablet- add the controls and software and make it a phone or what ever you want.

Apple has just filed a new patent application for the adding of
physical controls (like buttons or sliders etc) to the touch sensitive
surfaces of electronic devices. Apple seems to propose that you take a
‘blank’ iPod and add a wheel for a standard iPod, add a keypad to make
it a phone – add a joystick to make it a game machine. The overlays are
identified by the computer/device and it reacts accordingly. Imagine
adding a nice volume control to your iPod. The ‘blank’ iPod can be made into a PDA, cell phone, game machine, handtop or remote control.

Add a joystick to your MacBook? How about a mixing desk?

Presumably, this would allow third-party vendors to design their on
interfaces for the iPod/MacBook- this would make an extremely versatile
machine. Examples mention by Apple include surfaces to make your
MacBook a music/video editing machine or even overlays allowing you to
add two buttons to your MacBooks touchpad.

 

From the Application:

There exist today many styles of input devices for performing
operations in an electronic system. By way of example, the input
devices may include rudimentary mechanical controls such as buttons,
keys, dials, sliders, navigation pads, joy sticks, that are
mechanically actuated and electrically controlled via tact switches,
encoders, and the like, or more advanced touch controls such as touch
pads and touch screens that allow a user to make selections and move a
cursor by simply touching the touch surface via a finger or stylus.

Unfortunately, these conventional approaches do not fully satisfy user
needs. For example, the rudimentary mechanical controls tend to be
fixed and inflexible (not easily adjusted or configured for a new
task). Further, each one includes electronic hardware that increases
the cost of the device. In large control panels, which include a vast
number of mechanical controls, the costs can be exorbitantly high.

Moreover, while the rudimentary mechanical controls typically
provide tactile cues (clicks), the more advanced touch sensing devices
do not. As such, the user does not know when the device has produced a
touch input. In some cases, a simple decal is provided over the touch
pad to indicate the location of dedicated touch controls. This however,
requires the user to look carefully at the surface while the touch pad
is being used thereby slowing down productivity. Furthermore, it
provides no indication of whether something has been selected.

technorati tags:Apple, iPod

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Music sites let you create, share and remix other’s songs inside a web browser.

Budding Musicians who want to have ago at song writing, remixing or even music video creation but don’t have the software to do it or maybe the skills well now alls you need is a web browser and some imagination , but maybe not alot, when using these websites. In fact, to get started, you often don’t even need to know how to play an instrument let alone any music theory.

Community sites like Jamglue, Splice and SingShot are combining
social networking with innovative tools that let users create, share
and remix each other’s songs inside a web browser.

They use Interactive software like Flash and Ajax that give’s the web’s artistic amateurs a stage on which play about and hone there skills.

The user experience at a social networking site for amateur sound artists, is centered arounda simple audio mixer that can be used to build full songs from basic components. Users within the Jamglue community provide the raw
materials — drum loops, vocal snippets, piano arpeggios, bass riffs
and atmospheric textures are uploaded to the site and stored in a
shared library.

It’s usually the more musically-inclined users who take it upon
themselves to upload the basic sonic elements for everyone to use.
However, Jamglue’s Flash-powered mixer is so simple and easy to control
that even the least musical of souls can cull together loops and sounds
from the site’s database and build something resembling a song.

In less than 20 minutes you can put a song together. The
site’s mixing interface is reminiscent of Apple’s GarageBand or
ProTools Lite, which are both designed for beginners. Jamglue is
slimmed down even more. When finished, you click on Save, and
Jamglue generates an MP3 for to download, share, post on your website
or take anywhere you want.

Jamglue offers several Creative Commons licenses for songs, sounds
and remixes created on the site. Once songs or remixes are complete,
other members can tag them, download them or re-arrange the basic
elements and add new sounds to make a whole new mix. That mix can then be shared and remixed ad infinitum.

Is another remix site offers a similar experienc

But with a few more feature, Splice’s mixer automatically syncs up loops for you, stretching or smooshing audio clips so the kick drums and bass grooves stay in timewith each other which Jamglues site doesn’t do for you.

These sites help release your creative side, but heres another one that you may find bit more intrusive to your ego.

The site, which is more a karaoke machine crossed with YouTube
set, allows users to record themselves singing along to popular tunes. .

SingShot has licensed more than 2,500 songs, including numbers from
the Beatles, Hank Williams and Kelly Clarkson. Members can rate each
other’s vocal performances and even respond with their own renditions.
Unlike Jamglue and Splice, which are free services, SingShot charges a
$10 monthly subscription fee

.

Get similar services for video artists try

This site encourages its members to remix each other’s videos using a Flash-based video editor.

Eyespot, another video publishing startup, lets users edit together photos,
video clips and audio MP3s to create their own movies or music videos.

Go try these sites out and have some creative fun!

technorati tags:music, web2.0

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Macloops – Free Loops Optimised for Garageband and Logic

Free garageband Loops .. Free as in really Free.

I found this site and wanted to let other audio people know about it.

Macloops is a totally free online resource for apple loops and samples. They have over 200 free AIF format apple loops ranging from drum loops, bass loops and synth loops to guitar loops, orchestral and more.

So if you are into audio loops check it out. You can’t beat FREE!

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