So, now RIM is willing to work with the Arab Countries that want to spy on users. I really did not expect this from a western company, but hey they are chasing the dollar dollar bills y’all.
U.A.E bans Blackberry service
Just a few hours ago Etisalat, was said to have disabled the blackberry service until Rim can provide anyway for them to regulate the service. As of now that is not possible so no BBM for you! More details here http://www.ahlanlive.com/23910-uae-bans-blackberry-services
Bixi, One year later
Montreal has had the Bixi bike for a little over a year now, and as a member I find it a great way of getting around the city or even just for a joy ride. Today my one year membership comes to an end (until I renew it), and these are the stats that are in my online account. Although recently I have been angered by the availability of the bikes at night, I still love Bixi. Over this year, I have made 297 trips, totaling a cool 47 hours, and traveling 565 kilometers or 351 miles for you imperial folk. The mileage though is approximate, because it does not actually measure how much you bike, but the time spent biking at an average of 5 kilometers per hour, I figure that I bike faster than that though. Finally we have greenhouse emissions, I would have used 142 kilograms of carbon emissions if i was using a car, and 40 liters of gasoline. Overall I really like using the Bixi bikes, and love the online statistics and thought I should share!
Photo of the day – DIY trailer
Today I was bixing to my friend’s house when I saw this along the way. It was a car that had a DIY (Do it yourself) trailer attached. The trailer is actually half a car that has been closed off in the front with sheet metal. It’s really funny and quirky, but I guess its street legal. Sorry for the crappy picture, click on the image for the full size!
Arbitrary happy work day!
Tonight my friend wanted to surprise our other friend when he woke up to go to work. We made it an arbitrary celebration in his bathroom with balloons and multiple signs. I hope it makes his day, and makes him laugh. I love stuff that makes you laugh because it has no purpose or does not make sense. While every culture has their own funny arbitrary shenanigans, I assure you that Americans trump any other country. That is one of the reasons I love Americans. If you are wondering, yes this arbitrary celebration was planned and executed by an American!
Check out the pictures from our celebration! (click on the images for Full Size)
One Planet Version 3 by harajukumatt
While everyone enjoys art, not many people agree on what is beautiful, or good art. Today I found a really great piece of art that everyone can probably agree is great art. This piece is called One Planet Version 3 and is a creation by harajukumatt on deviantart. It is available in white and black. He has given the OK to share and distribute it, but remember give credit when doing so. On the the deviation page, it says it was even featured on an Australian TV show too!
One Planet Version 3 on Deviantart
BP Oil spill finally stopped
In a test today, BP finally was able to stop the oil spill for the first time in almost 3 months in a test. For more info check out the ABC News page, which includes a video of the said test.
iPhone 4.0.1 and iPad 3.2.1 updates now live
As usual thanks to Engadget I am now aware that the iPhone 4.0.1 and the iPad 3.2.1 updates are available through iTunes. These updates don’t do much, just fix the formulas for displaying signal level, however a lot of my friends have been having problems with 4.0 so maybe this will fix things. If you haven’t upgraded already connect your iPhone/iPad to iTunes and click on the Check for update button. I guess they released this just in time for tomorrow’s press conference!
iPhone 4 Press Conference Friday July 16th, 2010
I was just reading the front page of Engadget when I saw they posted that Apple will be hosting a Press Conference on this Friday. Without even reading the article, this comes to mind, It’s clearly regarding the antenna problems, and secondly I think their might an apology and a recall.
Maybe it was Jeremy Clarkson’s statement that forced them to hold this conference!
Firefox 4 first impressions
So I have been using Firefox 4 Beta 1 on my friend’s laptop (Macbook pro running OS X), and I can say it’s a move in the right direction! The first thing I noticed was it launches faster than before, this might be because he doesn’t have so many extensions. The next thing I noticed was the Site Identity button and fav icon have become part of the address bar, which makes things aesthetically nicer. Also aesthetically it looks more boxy, which makes me feel its leaner and faster. Finally on the aesthetics, the addons now open in a tab instead of a window, which I find neat (you can access it by typing in about:addons in the address bar). Next they added a progress indicator that loads a pie chart on each tab that is still loading, this allows you to see how much of the page is left to load. Finally it loads pages faster, more like chrome. Below are comparison shots of the site identity buttons from Firefox 3 and 4, and a snapshot of the pie chart progress indicator.
To conclude the 1st beta of Firefox 4 shows a real step forward and has been really stable with no crashes in the couple of days that I have used it. If you haven’t downloaded it yet you can get it for all three major Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) here.
Firefox 3
Firefox 4
Progress Pie Chart
