pb30.com

iPhone 3GS Tech Demo: 40 Cars on Screen

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:23:33 -0500

iPhone 3GS Tech Demo: 40 Cars on Screen:

Real Racing has up to six cars on the track at any one time. Since the game uses a high fidelity physics engine, adding cars is a good test for pushing the hardware. We started our tech demo with 8 cars on the track, then 10, 12, 16 and 20, and the 3GS still didn’t break a sweat. We finally stopped when we got to 40 cars on the track at the same time, still with no perceptible drop in frame rate. We think the results are mind blowing.

Pingdom Adds Free Website Monitoring

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:52:00 -0500

Pingdom Adds Free Website Monitoring:

Now, for the first time ever, you can use Pingdom for free. We’re not talking about a free trial, but a completely free account that you can use for as long as you like, no strings attached. In other words, you are getting a professional uptime monitoring service for free. With the Pingdom service, you’ll be the first to know when your site goes down.

You can sign up here. Just signed up for email/SMS alerts.

Windshield Defroster (via There, I Fixed It)

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:52:00 -0500

Windshield Defroster (via There, I Fixed It)

Readable Feeds

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:34:58 -0500

Readable Feeds:

Readable Feeds can filter out ads and other junk from your feeds so that you can concentrate on the content. It can even repair crippled feeds that only show small excerpts instead of the full content, saving you the time and hassle of leaving your feed reader.

Interesting app, although some publishers probably wouldn’t like it.

Normalize MP3's On OSX

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:36:00 -0500

Normalize MP3's On OSX:

MacMP3Gain is an AppleScript Studio application which brings an Aqua GUI to the command line version of mp3gain, a utility that performs statistical analysis to determine how loud the MP3 file actually sounds to the human ear and performs lossless volume adjustments. MacMP3Gain is free and open source.

YouTube Mobile Uploads Up 400% Since 3GS Launch

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:32:20 -0500

YouTube Mobile Uploads Up 400% Since 3GS Launch:

In the last six months, we’ve seen uploads from mobile phones to YouTube jump 1700%; just since last Friday, when the iPhone 3GS came out, uploads increased by 400% a day.

Looks like Apple is on the way to dominate YouTube, just like they do with Flickr

GameBone Pro - The First iPhone 3.0 Gaming Accessory?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:22:13 -0500

GameBone Pro - The First iPhone 3.0 Gaming Accessory?:

Australian company 22Moo announced today the development of “the world’s first” iPhone OS 3.0 compatible game controller which will feature an 8-way D-pad with 6 buttons, incorporate a 2000mAh battery and support both Bluetooth and 30-pin dock connector connectivity.

Over 1 Million iPhone 3GS Devices Sold

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:39:03 -0500

Over 1 Million iPhone 3GS Devices Sold:

In a news release, however, Apple claims … that sales actually exceeded 1 million units. In addition, the company says six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.

herebeforeoprah.com: Find Twitter User’s Who Join In The...

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:06:00 -0500

herebeforeoprah.com: Find Twitter User’s Who Join In The Good Old Days

Short URL Auto-Discovery

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:07:00 -0500

Short URL Auto-Discovery:

Some websites already have the functionality to shorten their URLs. For example on snaplog.com a URL can be accessed 2 ways. Content html pages would programatically describe the shortened URL by embeding a attribute in the page.

Interesting idea. Rather than forcing users to use external shortening services, websites should provide their own short URL’s and provide a way for services like Twitter to find the proper short URL for a page.

Give Up and Use Tables

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:11:31 -0600

Give Up and Use Tables:

We’ve scientifically determined the maximum amount of time that you should need to make a layout work in CSS: it’s 47 minutes. When your time is up, we’ll even give you the table code you need. Take three minutes to build a table. And ten minutes to get a donut. Bill the client for an hour. Done.

Eight oddball Twitter utilities

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:40:53 -0600

Eight oddball Twitter utilities

Sandbox Your Apps With Sandboxie

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:37:12 -0600

I recently found Sandboxie, a Windows app that creates a sandbox where programs can run without touching your actual OS. When the apps try to write data to your harddrive, it is written to a cache and kept seperate from your real data. This prevents any malware from being installed in your Windows directory, or hijacking any other files. When you’re done using the sandbox, you can choose to recover some files (move them back to your real harddrive) or erase them. It has a lot of powerful configuration options that allow you to do things like:

Set a whitelist so only specified programs can be launched or access the Internet
Block any access to sensitive folders (like your taxes)
Use a secure erasing program to completely delete any left over data
Set Sandboxie to delete any leftover data after you close all programs.
Keep your Sandboxie data in a TrueCrypt volume, which ensures any data in the sandbox is encrypted

For example, you could create a sandbox that only allowed FireFox.exe to be started, and only allowed FireFox.exe access to the Internet. If you downloaded any malware, it couldn’t even be started. And once you closed Firefox, the malware would be securely erased (along with your history, cookies, and temp files if you desired).

All of this is done with a fairly low performance hit (unlike running a virtual OS in something like VMware). Sandboxie is free to try, and costs around $30.

TechCrunch Tablet Update: Prototype B

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:15:41 -0600

TechCrunch Tablet Update: Prototype B :

The idea is to get a new type of device into people’s hands for as cheap as possible (we were aiming for $200, it looks like $299 is more realistic). It fits perfectly on your lap while you are sitting in front of the TV, so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf. It plays Flash video flawlessly so you can watch movies and TV shows on Hulu or Joost or wherever. Or listen to music on MySpace Music. Or use TokBox to have a video chat with your parents. Then check email and call it a day

I’d love one of these. I’d probably sell my Aspire One netbook for one.

Turn Your Domain Into An OpenID

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:14:51 -0600

If you’re using OpenID, there’s an easy way to use your domain as your OpenID without running any extra scripts/software. With a couple of lines of code you can set your personal domain to redirect to your OpenID (known as OpenID delegation). Then instead of logging in with you.myopenid.com you can use yourdomain.com. According to MyOpenID.com add the following in your tags (after changing yourusername).

If you’re using another provider check their docs for the proper server and XRDS URL’s (which isn’t used by all providers). Here are some popular server URLs:

LiveJournal: http://www.livejournal.com/openid/server.bml
Vox: http://www.vox.com/services/openid/server
VeriSign: https://pip.verisignlabs.com/server
MyOpenID: http://www.myopenid.com/server
WordPress.com: http://yourblog.wordpress.com/?openidserver=1
Yahoo: https://open.login.yahooapis.com/openid/op/auth
Blogger: http://draft.blogger.com/openid-server.g
AOL: https://api.screenname.aol.com/auth/openidServer

Another advantage of OpenID delegation is that if your OpenID provider goes out of business, you can just change the tags above and your domain will point to the new OpenID.

Weak Password Brings 'Happiness' to Twitter Hacker

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:39:00 -0600

Weak Password Brings 'Happiness' to Twitter Hacker:

The hacker, who goes by the handle GMZ, told Threat Level on Tuesday he gained entry to Twitter’s administrative control panel by pointing an automated password-guesser at a popular user’s account. The user turned out to be a member of Twitter’s support staff, who’d chosen the weak password “happiness.”

Track Twitter Replies in Your Email Without Giving Your Password To Spammers

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:29:00 -0600

Twply.com has been spreading over Twitter the past couple days as a simple service to email you @replies from Twitter. The service has come under fire for forcing users to send a tweet when they sign up, but to me there’s a more important issue. In order to use the service you must give them your Twitter username and password, and they must store it unencrypted. The site was recently sold for $1,200, passwords and all. Everyone should know to not give out their passwords, and sites like this encourage people to break that rule (a rule I made sure to enforce when developing TrackThis).

There is a fairly simple way to track these messages without giving up your password. You can easily subscribe to @replies or mentions of you on Twitter using the official Twitter Search. Just search for:

pb30 -from:pb30

Replace pb30 with your name of course. You can subscribe to the feed on the right in your RSS reader or by email using a service like RSSFwd.com or Simply Headlines. There is one issue with this approach, replies from people who protect their updates will not be visible.

I previously used TweetBeep.com to track mentions of me or my projects, but they are apparently having some recent server trouble.

"In software development, a software project’s bus factor is an irreverent measurement of..."

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:31:00 -0600

“In software development, a software project’s bus factor is an irreverent measurement of concentration of information in a single person, or very few people. The bus factor is the total number of key developers who would if incapacitated, as by getting hit by a bus, send the project into such disarray that it would not be able to proceed”

- Bus factor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ambient News Brings RSS to You, No Subscription Required

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:32:08 -0600

Ambient News Brings RSS to You, No Subscription Required:

Ambient News, brings RSS feeds into your browser without requiring you to click on a single subscription link or visit a special website. You don’t even have to know or care what RSS is for it to be useful. Ambient News, which is written by Mozilla developer Atul Varma and currently available as an alpha release, tracks your browsing habits and learns which sites you visit most frequently. The add-on then pulls headlines from those sites and displays them for you — in a vertical list that gently fades in — every time you open a blank tab.

Interesting way to overcome the usability and learning curve of RSS. Might recommend it to some people who love news, but don’t know what RSS is.

Downloading your games? Get ready for extra fees

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:51:29 -0600

Downloading your games? Get ready for extra fees:

I saw something extra sitting in my shopping cart: the “extended download service,” which cost an extra $6.99, had automatically been added to my cart. Digital River only lets a customer re-download purchased software for a certain amount of time before it’s gone. Exactly how long time frame is seems to vary, but the longest free period appears to be six months. If we want to retain the option for two years (not even indefinitely), we have to pay an extra fee.

I ran into this when buying MS Office through them and it seems like quite the scam.