Penguin Central Podcast

IT Guy vs Dumb Employees

penguincentral — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:04:57 -0500

This hilarious video shows an IT guy try to help a dumb employee get the website back up while playing Halo.

http://digg.com/people/A_Day_In_Life_Of_An_IT_Guy

Another Australian Telco Confirmed to carry the iPhone

penguincentral — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:30:46 -0500

Telstra, the largest telecommunications company in Australia, has confirmed that they will release the iPhone on July 11.

The 8GB version will be sold for 280 AUD (268 USD) upfront on their 30 AUD plan, or it will be free on their 80 AUD plan.

The 16GB version will be sold for 399 AUD (382 USD) upfront on their 30 AUD plan, and it will be free on their 80 AUD plan.

MSI Wind Running Mac OS X Also Thinks It's a Mac Pro

penguincentral — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:43:22 -0500

For those of you who don't know, the MSI Wind is a mini-notebook that is about to be released by MSI. People have hacked this 400 USD laptop to run OS X on it. The strange thing is that in the System Profiler it believes that the machine is a Mac Pro.

[Gizmodo]

We're baaaaack!

penguincentral — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:49:12 -0500

Well, after about a week of downtime, Penguin Central is finally back up!

Due to some issues with the unixpod server, and mysql; we were down for about a week, but all is good (Stupid username cutoff thing...)

I'd like to thank my site admins, James Savage and Justin Gerace for their help with the operation of the site. Without their hard work this wouldn't have been possible.

Don't forget we have an IRC channel on freenode at #penguincentral for discussion as well.

I look forward to many many more blog posts :)

Firefox 3 is officially out!

penguincentral — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:20:21 -0500

It's finally here! Firefox 3 is officially out! And it's been a smash hit with users as official download counters crash as this release is tied into a Guiness World Book of Records attempt.

Head over to getfirefox.com to grab a copy, it's going to be great.

If you are waiting for an upgrade path from version 2 to 3, you will have to wait a month as the Mozilla Foundation wants to take the pressure off their servers before putting more pressure on them. It sounds like they should've released it on BitTorrent as well!

AT&T offers plethora of iPhone 3G details

penguincentral — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:48:06 -0500

An email was leaked a couple of days ago which detailed some information about the release of the iPhone 3G in the US. Some of the things leaked included:

* An 'unbricking' procedure from Apple/AT&T at first purchase
* Higher data prices

AT&T appears to have made some concessions to customers, but quietly raised prices behind the scenes. AT&T has extended the return period on the new iPhone to 30 days (from 14 days on the current iPhone), but as noted previously, has increased new iPhone 3G data plan to $30/month, which includes unlimited data and visual voicemail.

Foxtel HD First Thoughts

penguincentral — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:12:48 -0500

So Foxtel HD is a month away. If you have been hiding under a rock for the last couple of weeks, Foxtel has been quietly setting up their HD service. I am a Foxtel Digital subscriber and you can now see the HD channels in the EPG.

WoW: How I kicked the habit

penguincentral — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:46:59 -0500

"Marty Toohey is giving up World of Warcraft - while he still can.

WORLD of Warcraft (WoW) terrifies me. A picture of me, or someone a lot like me, was surely in the minds of marketers when the game, a virtual online world of swords and sorcery, was released in 2004. I am a lover of many things fantasy; I have some disposable income and leisure time; my childhood was dominated by video games; I am a touch obsessive-compulsive."

You can check it and digg it up at http://digg.com/gaming_news/WoW_How_I_kicked_the_habit

Podcast is on hiatus... Again

penguincentral — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:31:04 -0500

Hello. It is with my deepest regret that I am ending the podcasts indefinitely. This means that there won't be any Full Circle Podcasts or Penguin Central Podcasts for a while yet as I set myself to deal with real-life stuff (as Ron adequately put it on the FCM site). You can still read my thoughts on the blog section on the site.

Thanks to those who have supported the podcasts in the last year, notably E-Camm who donated a licence of their Skype Call Recorder for the show, and both shows many panelists which include:

Robert McCurdy
Dean Jansen
Justin Gerace
Alan Pope

Sibelius 5 Demo for Mac

penguincentral — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:25:01 -0500

I am a music student, and hand writing music is one of my hates (the other ones are loops and tablature). There have been many a notation program to fall in my hands, but none of them have been any good (notably Finale Notepad, Denemo). With the high praises that my muso friends gave of the new Sibelius 5, I thought it was time that I gave it a shot.

Some of the features that interest me are Panorama mode (where you can view your sheet music horizontally without page layouts (a bit like Google Docs), and a mode where you can write music that is set to video.