I say good on them. I guess they had to after IE6 users were getting all sorts of messages from Google on YouTube telling them that their browser wouldn’t be supported after a certain date for watching videos.

Here’s what the upgrade info page looks like.

And here’s Microsoft’s top 8 list of reasons to upgrade, presented here in reverse order:

8. Browse with more confidence. (security updates)
7. Make it yours. (customization)
6. Find what you want in fewer clicks. (accelerators)
5. Recover from crashes quickly. (tab isolation)
4. Browse more privately. (private browsing mode)
3. Avoid phishing scams and malware. (SmartScreen Filter)
2. Use a browser that respects your privacy. (separate address and search boxes)
1. Keep the web familiar. (use us because we’re us)

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Go ahead and try it, you’ll end up at Google.

If the IP address is a “telephone number”, then the name (like the name you enter for a number in your cell phone) is called a host name. “Host” is just another word for server or computer.

Anyway, normally all of this works automagically, and you don’t even notice it. Once in a while it may not, for example, in a home network, thus forcing you to type in numbers instead of names.

There’s a way to set hostnames to IP addresses manually.

The hosts file

It’s called a “hosts” file, and it works generally the same on Windows, Linux/Unix, and Mac OS/X.

The hosts file is a list of IP addresses followed by hostnames, separated by a space, like this:

64.233.181.104 www.google.com
192.168.0.4 myhomecomputer

By the way, there’s a neat little trick you can use to block ads by setting the address of adservers, like Double Click’s, to your local computer:

127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net

Note: 127.0.0.1 is a special address that always refers to your own computer.

The hosts file’s location differs from system to system:

Setting hosts/IP address on Windows

On Windows 95, 98, and ME, the host file is at c:\windows\hosts .

On Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7, it’s at C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts .

View your hosts file

You can modify it with Notepad (Accessories menu).

Setting hosts/IP address on Mac OS/X

In Mac OS X 10.2 or later, hosts is at /private/etc/hosts

To edit it, type this into a terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)

sudo nano

Enter your own password if prompted, add a hostname entry, then press Ctrl+x to exit the editor, and save the modified file by pressing “y”.

You have to then flush the DNS cache (OS/X doesn’t do that automatically):

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

More info: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27291
http://www.leftcolumn.net/2009/07/04/adding-an-entry-to-etchosts-on-os-x/

Setting hosts/IP address on Linux/Ubuntu/Unix

On Linux and all other Unixes, hosts is at
/etc/hosts .

View your hosts file

You have to have either sudo or root privileges to edit it.

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For one, I use something called Zim. It’s a desktop wiki program.

A wiki is a user-editable, interlinked set of information, like Wikipedia, or the Portland Pattern Repository, the first and original wiki.

While there are a bunch of free wiki packages, they mostly require a webserver. Zim, by contrast, runs on your computer like a normal program.

The reason it’s handier than web-based wikis is:

• You don’t have to install a bunch of stuff
• Your files are immediately available to you (it doesn’t require a database)
• You don’t have to press “Edit” to start writing. You just click whereever you want and start typing.
• To make a new page, you just right click an existing page and select “New Sub Page”

Here’s just a few of the features:

• As stated above, to take notes, you just start typing. When you have enough that it needs to be more organized, just press Ctrl + a number from 1 to 5 to make the current line into a heading from level 1 to 5.
• You can make text bold, italic, underlined, and preformatted, as well.
• Once you have more text than comfortably fits on a page, just create a new page (Ctrl+N). You can drag and drop your pages to form a hierarchy.
• An clickable index of pages is displayed on the left side of the Zim window. All of the notes you see at one time make up a “notebook“. You can create multiple notebooks.
• You can search your notebooks, and there’s a task list feature as well (a subject for a future blog post).
• Zim saves your notes in plain wiki markup format. You can take the content of your notes files and paste them into a web-based wiki, depending upon the syntax your wiki uses. DokuWiki, for one, is mostly compatible with Zim.

Zim is a work in progress, so keep backups and don’t have your own source of information be your Zim notes. That said, Zim’s a really handy method of organization a lot of information.

Installing Zim

Install Zim on Ubuntu/Linux

Zim is available in the Ubuntu software repositories (make sure they’re all enabled). You can install Zim from the Software Center or click here from Firefox to install it. Otherwise enter the following from a terminal:

sudo apt-get install zim

Install Zim on Windows

A version of Zim for Windows is available here.

The automated installer is at version 0.28. A more current version (0.42) is avaible, but you have to install requirements yourself.

Install Zim on Apple Mac OS/X

First, install Darwin Ports for OS/X.

Then type this in a Terminal to install Zim:

%  cd /opt/local/bin/portslocation/dports/zim
%  sudo port install zim

More information on the Mac port of Zim is here.

Currently it’s at version 0.28.

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No long-winded strategy, no enemy aliens, no unwieldy artillery targeting. Just shooting marbles mindlessly.

Playing Frozen Bubble

After you open up Frozen Bubble

Click on “Start 1P Game” (one player game), you’re presented with this:

One player game

You basically have a bunch of marbles (“frozen bubbles”) stuck like icicles at the top of the playing area. Your job is to get them to fall down.

You do that by aiming the shot marble you’re given at the bottom of the display upwards. Marbles of a given color dislodge all continuously touching marbles of that same color. So aim red for red, green for green. The marble beneath your shot marble tells you the color of the next one (for planning purposes).

Left and right arrow keys move the aimer, and up arrow key launches the marble.

Two player game

You can also play a two player game (choose “Start 2P Game” from the main menu):

In this case, there are two sets of key combinations:

For one player, left and right arrow keys move the aimer, and up arrow key launches the marble.

For the other player, X and V arrow keys move the aimer left and right, and the C key launches the marble. Sounds kind of strange, but it’s handy because the XCV keys are all in a row on normal keyboards.

Network play

Version 2 of Frozen Bubble supports playing over networks (both the Internet and local area networks). However, version 2 is not available on Windows at this time.

Installing Frozen Bubble

Frozen Bubble on Ubuntu/Linux

Frozen Bubble originated on Linux, and that’s where the latest version is currently available.

In Ubuntu and Debian, click here in Firefox to install. Or type this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install frozen-bubble

For other Linux distributions, check this page.

Frozen Bubble on Windows

There are two ports of Frozen Bubble to Windows. Frozen Bubble Enhanced is the one you want to get. This is a direct link to the installer for Windows.

Frozen Bubble on Mac

Frozen Bubble is available on the Macintosh through Darwin Ports.

If Darwin Ports is already installed, type the following into a Terminal:

cd /opt/local/bin/portslocation/dports/frozenbubble2
sudo port install frozenbubble2

Frozen Bubble on Mobile Phones

You can even get Frozen Bubble on your cell phone. Check here for Android, iPhone, Java, and Symbian S60 (Nokia) versions.

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But in Windows, you go to 10 different websites, download and save their installers, run the setup programs, and click through the steps. Annoying like crazy.

Ninite is a website that lets you download a combined installer for some of the most popular free Windows programs.

How Ninite works

Go to ninite.com . The homepage shows you popular, free Windows applications, including Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Thunderbird, VLC, Skype, iTunes, Hulu, Winamp, GIMP, IrfanView, Microsoft Office Trial, OpenOffice, Adobe Flash, anti-viruses, BitTorrent downloaders, Google Earth, VNC, 7-Zip, FileZilla (for FTP), Java, Eclipse, and Python.

Check the software you want to install and click Get Installer.

Download and run the installer.

This is actually just a small 214KB file which then downloads the individual installers for each of the programs you selected. Ninite downloads and installs each app in turn, showing a progress screen.

Ninite also offers a “pro” version that installs programs without showing the progress screen. That’d be good for an administrator installing a lot of programs on multiple computers without the users having to do or know anything about what’s happening.

Note: Ninite gives you a permalink for a given software app combination. For example, the URL for a combination of Chrome and Firefox is here.

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But Quantcast has a new survey out that says 11% of online users are using Macintoshes.

The reason for the difference lies in what’s being measured.

Market share means what percent of all the computers (or operating systems) sold in a given year are a particular OS. Quantcast is measuring the installed base, though. Since it’s thought that Macs are higher quality than most PCs, it’s possible they last longer, and people don’t need to buy so often. Since they’re not buying replacements every year, the market share for Macs might be smaller.

Interestingly, Apple has a higher share in North America: 10.9%. (That’s where the 11% is coming from.) It’s installed base in Asia is 2.5%, and even lower in Africa and Latin America.

The fall of Windows

Microsoft Windows is still the biggest OS, but it’s come down over the past few years under 90% to 86% now.

With Windows going down, and at one out of every 8 customers being on a non-Windows platform, it’s going to get increasingly more difficult for Microsoft to lock down the web and the computing world into a Microsoft-only scene. After all, why would you voluntarily give up one of every eight paying customers?

Most businesses don’t have the margins to ignore that number of clients, so I think, going forward, we’ll see more and more cross-platform software applications. Since most cross-platform programming environments (like Java, Python, and Qt) support Windows, Linux, and Mac, we’ll probably see an increase in applications available for Linux/Ubuntu.

I think that’s a good thing regardless of which OS you like to use because, anymore, people are going to demand that their data not be locked up into any one OS or application data format.

Resources

Ars Digita: Mac OS X North American installed base almost 11%

Quantcast Blog: Operating System Share

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Java is offered free from Oracle Sun.

Java is usually included with Macintosh OS X. On Linux it’s usually easy to install from the application repository (as in Ubuntu). For Windows, here’s an walkthrough of how to install Java.

Installing Java

Java is about a 10MB download (less if you don’t choose to install optional components like Google Toolbar). The program you download initially is just 1MB. It then starts to download the rest of Java, and handles broken Internet connections and so forth.

First, go to Java.com:

After clicking on Free Java Download, website automatically detects your operating system and offers that version of Java for you to install. Confirm by clicking the download button or choose a version manually:

Java setup starts downloading. If you use Internet Explorer, you may get a security warning. You can just click on Run:

The setup program downloads:

Internet Explorer shows another warning. Click Run again:

The Java Setup program starts with its Welcome Screen:

Another installer is downloaded:

You’re offered to install the Google Toolbar:

If you don’t want it, uncheck the toolbar box:

Java starts to install:

To finish installation, Java restarts your browser:

After the web browser restarts, a page on Java.com verifies the installation:

To modify your Java settings, go to the Windows Control Panel and click on “Java”. If necessary, turn off category view:

You can modify settings in the Java Control Panel:

Note: Java downloads Java updates when they become available by default. You can change this in the settings.

Resources

Java.com

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Anatoly Zenkov, a Russian software and website developer, released the MousePath program just for fun. It keeps track of your mouse as you move it around the screen, and creates a line drawing of the result.

Download MousePath

The program is written in Java, so it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Windows

The Windows version is a Windows executable. Download, unzip, and run the executable.

Ubuntu/Linux

Download the Java version and run it. It’s a JAR (Java Archive), so, for example, in Ubuntu Linux, right click on the file in Nautilus File Manager, and choose “Open with Sun Java 6 Runtime”.

Macintosh

Download the Java version and run the JAR.

Running MousePath

When you open the program, it shows a blank window. Just switch to your other windows, and carry on clicking or doing whatever you normally do.

When you think you have enough mouse movements recorded, come back to the MousePath program and press “s” to save your mouse movements. Or you can just save a screenshot of the MousePath window like I did:

Dots record where you pause, not where you click.

Interpreting MousePath

Anatoly has a Flickr page with screenshots of his mouse movements. Not everything has to have a grand purpose, and this is just sort of neat and interesting.

This could possibly be useful for user interface research, though. For example, looking at the following picture of Anatoly using the Java development environment Eclipse shows pretty clearly where the major mouse-based interaction is:

Resources

New York Times Bits blog article
Anatoly Zenkov
MousePath (Windows)
MousePath (Java)

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More information on the problem

According to a post on the Microsoft Answers forum, this is what is being displayed when you reboot after applying the latest Windows XP patch:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer. 
 
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
 
Technical Information:
 
STOP: 0x00000050 (0x80097004, 0x00000001, 0x80515103, 0x00000000).

It seems that the cause of the problem was a virus or rootkit, but the exact one is unclear at this time.

Uninstalling the patch

The Windows Forum at Microsoft Answers has this post:

1. Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console (see this Microsoft article for help with this step)

Once you are in the Repair Screen:

2. Type this command:

CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165$\spuninst

3. Type this command:

BATCH spuninst.txt

4. When complete, type this command:

exit

Protecting yourself after uninstalling the patch

After you uninstall the patch, your computer is vulnerable to the reason the patch was installed in the first place. See this article on how to protect yourself:

Accessing your files with Ubuntu Linux

If you don’t want to mess around with installing or uninstalling patches, and you just need to get some files off your computer, you can do so with Ubuntu, a friendly version of Linux.

Just download the latest version of Ubuntu here, burn the download as a CD on a friend’s computer, and boot from it on your computer. You may need to set your computer to boot from the CD-ROM drive.

Ubuntu is able to read NTFS-format hard drives used by Windows XP. You don’t need to do anything special. Just select your hard drive from the Places menu on the top taskbar.

Copy your files to a USB thumbdrive, and you can worry about your Windows installation later.

Resources

Slashdot discussion

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Here’s a run-through of the installation process for Windows so you know what to expect before you start.

Go to the Miro download site at http://www.getmiro.com/download .

The website detects your operating system and shows you the download appropriate for your computer. Click on the download button:

In a default installation of Windows, Internet Explorer will pop up an “Information Bar” and also a dialog box telling you about it. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box:

The information bar tells you that Internet Explorer blocked the download for your security:

Choose “Download File”:

Click on the information bar to show options:

Internet Explorer shows a “File Download – Security Warning” dialog box. Click on Save:

Windows shows a file dialog to allow you to choose where to save the file. Just choosing the default (the Desktop) should be OK:

The installer starts downloading:

Once the Miro installer is downloaded, click on Run:

Internet Explorer shows a “Security Warning” dialog box. Click on Run again:

The “Welcome to the Miro Setup Wizard” dialog is shown. Click on Next:

Miro Setup asks you what kind of installation you want to do: quick or custom. Quick installation also installs an Ask.com bar into Internet Explorer as well as setting your homepage to mirostart.com, which shows results from Bing.

If you don’t want the Ask.com bar or to have your homepage reset, select Custom Installation above, and deselect “MiroStart” and “Ask.com”.

The installer then downloads the rest of the installation files (26MB):

Once it’s done, and setup is complete, it asks you if you want to run Miro. Click on Finish to do so:

Once you run Miro, it asks you if you want to run Miro every time you start your computer. Either select Yes, or you can start Miro manually every time from the Windows Start Menu.

Miro then asks you if you want it to find and organize your collection of media files. I view Miro as a good podcast downloader and viewer, but not so well as a general media center. I would select No:

Note that when Miro starts running, you may get a Security Alert from Windows Firewall. This is because Miro has to access the Internet to do its work. Click on Unblock:

If you don’t already have Adobe Flash installed (necessary to view YouTube videos), Miro may ask you if you want to install it:

To start Miro after installing it, just go the Windows Start Menu, then Programs, then Miro, and Miro again:

And here’s the main window:

Just browse to the podcast you want to subscribe to and click on “Add Feed to Miro”. I’ll have more on working with Miro later.

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