April | 2006 | Procrastinating in the Heat

Intel Mac Mini

I got an Intel Duo Core mac mini for myself last week. After months of agonizing on what computer to buy, I finally decided to get the mac mini.

It comes with Front Row, a nifty program from Apple which allows the user to control and access movies, music, podcasts, DVDs using a remote control.

I got a stock mac mini just days after Apple released a beta version of Boot Camp. What it simply does is that it allows the user to install Windows XP on the mini. No mirroring, no virtualization, you can boot it up like a regular windows box. But since you can boot it up llike a regular windows box, it is now open to all the attacks that windows users are exposed to.
I went in and installed Boot Camp and Windows XP without a hitch. I then went on to download and install anti-spyware and virus protection software. In went iTunes, AIM, Yahoo, Google Earth, the few PC software that I regularly need. There’s Firefox and an updated IE and Window Media Player.

Please be aware that it is beta software, so not everything is guaranteed to work. But if you’re just surfing and chatting and stuff, there shouldn’t be a problem. I just get so paranoid running it that I switch back to Mac OSX after a while. I can’t stand the pop ups telling me of applications trying to access the web.

On the Intel side, it feels like a regular mac, no one would be able to tell the difference between the PPC powered OS or the Intel. Universal Binary Applications run fast on the mini. I almost can’t tell that I’m using a mini. The only sad part about it is the video card. Only a meager 64MB. Not bad for just ordinary stuff, but a real pain for games.

Applications that run on Rosetta, a hidden translator that would allow applications built for PPC to run on Intel runs a bit sluggish. Surfing is a bit troublesome at times when it processes the sites. The result is the same whether it’s on Safari or Firefox. iTunes runs without a hitch. I still have to try Garageband and try to make my very own podcast.

Front row is great with the exception of the movie trailers. A bug that annoys a number of users now. More to come.

2006: 04/20
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: apple
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Lawless Web

I just came from iBlog2, a conference of Philippine bloggers. The keynote speaker, Rebecca Mckinnon, formerly of CNN, now with Harvard raised some very interesting points about the whole blogging revolution happening online.

It is no secret that blogging has liberated the flow of information on the web. However there are no laws to protect the content that is posted on the web or any intellectual property or copyright laws that would protect anything created. Blogs can then be harassed, ideas be plagiarized and allow for internet piracy go on.

Blogs are not the only thing affected by the lack of proper laws protecting the internet. Porn, illegal file sharing and malicious attacks go on in the country. Even if they are only caught by authorities, since there is no law against this they are let go only with a few days of jail term and a small fine despite how grave the damage done on businesses and internet.

Our lawmakers apparently have more time getting rid of the president than passing laws that benefit us. One lawmaker stated why there is no intellectual copywright law saying “walang pera diyan” translated in English, “there’s no money in it”.

We are definitely a democratic country, majority of Filipinos do no have access to the internet, yet it is this very infrastructure that affects their daily lives. Its just that they don’t care.

Get off your fat asses and pass a bill that will protect us and our ideas.