Under The Wire

How do we make money blogging?

2008-07-26T10:34:00.001+02:00

Should we try this new method?

Microsoft tells us to become pirates!

2008-07-24T15:38:00.001+02:00

No, I’m not joking. I’m just watching the banners of the new Microsoft advertising campaign.

I hope that at Redmond nobody is thinking that the only way to have Vista installed on more computers is allowing users to crack it. I think that this isn’t the clue of this banner, but I’m sure that not telling that being a pirate is still cool would have been a better choice.

I’m not a pirate, and I think that Vista is good, so for me the Earth isn’t flat anymore! I’m also writing about new Vista’s banner, so maybe at Microsoft someone wanted us to talk about this banner just to get some viral marketing effect. Am I right?

Thanks to Thomas Hawk

Top 6 (and more) search on Google that linked our blog

2008-07-19T23:58:00.000+02:00

Before starting writing a new real post I’d like to share what our reader that comes form Google were searching in the last month.

Leopard vs Vista: are we attracting trolls, or just wannabe switcher? Nobody left a comment, so we will never know.
FIFA 2008/FIFA 2008 free: sit down, take a deep breath and listen my words. We are NOT a damn video-game site. The mistake I did was this post. The mistake are doing Google searchers is looking for FIFA 2008: stop playing video-games and have a life!
Live Mesh invitation/Live Mesh invite: I knew this should be one of the most searched entry, geeks are always looking for an invitation to something. Unfortunately I got only few invites and I can’t send invitation to readers were asking for. On the other side we’ve collected some mail address, if I was a spammer I’d pass half my days writing post about invitation and the other half sending chain mails. You're lucky I'm not a spammer, although somebody says I am.
CSS edit under Windows: a lot of people are searching for that, maybe at macRabbit somebody should take note and start writing a porting.
utvv e-mule: I think I know who made this query. I’m glad to see that someone finds our articles useful.
Leopard on a pc: please, stop searching for that… I don't want to be kidnapped by Apple's lawyers.

After the top six (Who said that I must write a top 10 or a top five? I wanted to write a top six!) I'm going to tell you the best queries. Are you ready to laugh?

Somebody was looking for information about how to fix a wire. Actually I think we never wrote a post about this, but you're a very lucky person: since sirus is an electrician we have the right person you're looking for. Just write a comment and we will send sirus at your home to fix all the wires you need. Maybe sirus can help also the guy who wants to wire macbook air to time capsule.

But the real genius is another searcher, somebody that I'd like to meet. His query was an easy-to-give-out Windows Seven invitation. Slow down, our marketing office is at work and when we are going to share invitation of the next windows release you're the first person we're serving. I'm going to invite you also before tcid, I promise that. Just leave your name -and a mail address- on the comments to this rant.

Another friend of us was asking Google if can we use cds on macbook. Well, you shouldn't use cds because they're old.

I think that when someone tells you ask Google he is not meaning that there is somebody called Google you can talk to. So if you write I want my capital G icon back for ie7, you're not talking to Mr Google. And just in case you're thinking to ask Santa Claus, neither he does exists.

Thanks to who was searching for Leopard sucks, you know the truth, but I can't understand what you were looking for. Are you a troll?

Can somebody tell me what is the link between sirus and iPhone? I think I'm missing something. I'd also like to know what was searching who typed whisher and iphone. Thanks god the first link is my old page on WinAddict, so the poor guy found a great post to read.

Just to grab some visit I'm now going to write some dull phrases picking words form this list. I'll let you know what kind of queries will came out this month.

fat albert hole: what girls learn on the mormon beefcacke calendar is a bite of seattle. Red bull flugtag and hot lap dance club. I must stop here before I get crazy.

See you.

We are still alive

2008-07-12T12:21:00.001+02:00

I’d like to tell our reader that we didn’t run away with the ad-sense cash, we just have to pass a lot of exam and prepare the defense of our thesis. Actually we have still to finish our thesis, but this is a little detail… I have to write code, write documentation and write presentation, poor my fingers and poor my keyboard. My mind is gone, but I still hope I can do it!

Before coming back to my thesis I suggest you to post a comment on what you’d like to read on utvv. If we survive, after the holidays, we will come back with our fantastic posts.

Stay hungry, stay foolish and stay tuned ;-)

Photo of the Week #3

2008-06-22T12:31:00.001+02:00

By courambel. Fantastic.

The wow is still now!

2008-06-13T21:30:00.001+02:00

Thanks to Windows-Now

Apple is still using Internet Explorer 5

2008-06-12T15:15:00.005+02:00

Today I was surfing through Apple's web site to get some information about the new products shown at the WWDC 2008. Reading about MobileMe (a wonderful piece of software) I noticed they have started using Windows Vista. In fact, till the WWDC 2008, Apple web site used to show Windows XP's screens instead of Windows Vista's screens. In my mind I said "That's a great piece of news! After one year and a half they have finally discovered Vista (WOW!)".

Although Apple engineers have started using Windows Vista instead of Windows XP it's unclear the cause they are still using an "old hag" like Firefox 2 to surf the web instead of Internet Explorer 7 which is more secure (under Windows Vista thanks to the Protected Mode) or Safari 3 for Windows which is certainly faster and in addition to this it's also one of theirs products (they say "The World's best browser").

If these are the facts I've finally understood why Internet Explorer is always the worse browser or even not considered in Apple's comparatives. Although Apple engineers have discovered Windows Vista, it's clear Apple hasn't discovered Internet Explorer 7 yet. They are probably still using Internet Explorer 5 (the last version for Mac OS X) or even a previous version if it's possible. That's the truth!

See you...

News of the day: Opera 9.5 has just been released, few days before Firefox 3. Opera's guys have won the race!

Apple reinvents Windows Me

2008-06-12T14:19:00.002+02:00

Looking at the picture seems that at Cupertino the photocopier has been started again :-)

My friends are saying that mobile me is a great thing, with such a brother I can’t tell them they’re wrong!

Thanks to Paul Thurrott

Snow Leopard details

2008-06-11T17:51:00.004+02:00

One of the most incredible rumor for Apple's WWDC 2008 was a new version of Mac OS X called "Snow Leopard".

Such rumor has been confirmed by Steve Jobs on stage and by a press release yesterday.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will not bring any new end-user feature but it will focus on performance and lay the foundations for the next releases.

...What does it mean in practice? We' have gathered all the information appeared on various websites:

New Quicktime ("Quicktime X"): this is one of the oldest pieces of Mac OS X; even if you have never opened Quicktime a part of Quicktime is loaded, for example, in Safari whenever you watch movies. Quicktime has been the source for various security holes and hopefully Apple is going to rewrite it from scratch. Quicktime X is going to deliver better performance and support to the latest codecs.
Hard drive space used by Mac OS X: dramatically reduced; this is a very good news: every major OS update has stolen hundreds MBs of my hard drive space.
Out-of-the-box Microsoft Exchange support: just like the iPhone now also your Mac will be able to talk to Exchange servers.
Extended 64-bit support: Leopard support for 64-bit processors will be extended to more layers of the OS. Maximum RAM allowed will be 16 TB (16384 GB)
Multicore support made much easier for developers: thanks to a new technology called "Grand Central" developers will be able to easily build applications that take advantage of all the power of the multicore technology; tasks will be allocated to different cores (and different processor) automatically, optimizing the processing power.
Safari 4: one of the applications that Mac users use the most and, at the same time, one of the most hated. Safari 4 will bring better JavaScript support with an amazingly fast engine (called SquirrelFish)
You probably know that Mac OS X already optimizes your Mac's resources dividing the load between the processor (CPU) and the GPU (used for all the graphical rendering); with Snow Leopard developers will be able to exploit GPU (that are rapidly becoming as fast as processors) power for general-purpose computing. OpenCL (Open Computing Language) makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit (GPU).
PowerPC support dropped. I think that Apple is going to make Mac OS X much faster; dropping PowerPC support would make it easier (less work). Moreover the Snow Leopard beta handed to developers at WWDC is Intel-only.

Snow Leopard is scheduled to ship in a year from now: hopefully we will get a deeper insight in January 2009 (at MacWorld) and have it installed on our Macs in summer 2009.

Finally: iPhone 3G official photos

2008-06-09T20:15:00.016+02:00

After weeks, months of rumors Apple has finally released the new iPhone with 3G capabilities.

First pictures are offered by UTVV.

Most of the countries where the iPhone will be available:

Most of South America... Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Czech, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and others.

Complete list:

First pictures of WWDC 2008 [updated every 10 minutes]

2008-06-09T18:04:00.006+02:00

New iPhone to be sold at 99€ in Spain

2008-06-09T00:06:00.003+02:00

The keynote is coming and many European carriers are announcing their partnership with Apple to bring the iPhone to their country.

While many are waiting for tomorrow's keynote, some, such as Telefònica (Spain), have already made their announcement: what makes it relevant is the new price policy adopted by Apple.

It seems in fact that carriers will be able to sell the iPhone at a special price if the customer sign a two-year contract: in Spain it seems that the new iPhone will be sold at 99 € (156 USD circa).

[Source - original article]

iChat coming to the iPhone?

2008-06-07T12:27:00.007+02:00

As already written in our rumor roundup iPhone may come in colors.

This picture seems to be a great evidence of it.

Video conferencing seems to be on its way, too.

iChat for the iPhone would be a big surprise! ...It would push 3G a lot.

Keep yourself updated on the latest rumors following UTVV on Twitter and on Plurk!

New theme for UTVV

2008-06-07T10:48:00.000+02:00

Enjoy the new theme!

GMail labs adds (pretty useless) function to GMail

2008-06-07T10:14:00.001+02:00

I just looked at the new GMail-labs settings, hoping to find the next-big-thing for my web based mail account.

I admit it, I was a bit curious about the feature developed in the 20% free time that Google left to its employees, and I was expecting to find something great.

Seems that this time the 20% free time had been a little wasted since none of the experimental feature did worth a try. Here is the list of the feature users should test (with my opinions):

Quick Links if it’s bookmarkable and does worth a bookmark it’s yet on my favorites.
Superstars please stop them or GMail will become a Christmas tree.
Pictures in chat and Muzzle is there anyone using web-chat? Crazy!
Fixed width font why should I loose the right layout of the mail?
Custom keyboard shortcuts and Mouse gestures maybe it’s not so useless, but I don’t think a AJAX application is the right place for shortcut.
Signature tweaks wow, we can sign a message before the quoted text :-(
Random signature maybe it’s cool, but do we need it?
Custom date formats it must be a system setting not an application setting!
Old Snakey ladies and gentlemen Google-OS is here, and you can also play games on it!
Email Addict hitting the X that closes the tab is too easy?
Hide Unread Counts why?

If you choose to become a useless-function tester remember that big-G could remove what you’re testing without saying nothing to you. The function will just disappear.

p.s.

If you’re looking for a real big thing, have a look at the new version of Windows Live Writer

OS X Leopard coming to every PC?

2008-06-06T10:14:00.004+02:00

We already posted about this subject a few months ago, but now that WWDC banners have dropped "Mac OS X Leopard" in favour of "OS X Leopard", rumors of Cupertino's OS coming to every PC is becoming a little bit more consistent.

WWDC 2008 rumors roundup [UPDATED x2]

2008-06-04T10:32:00.009+02:00

So, what should you expect from Apple's World Wide Developers Conference 2008?

No one ever really knows everything that will be shown on stage but we can be pretty sure about some of the products that will be introduced.

iPhone

[sure] Firmware version 2.0 available to all iPhone (and iPod touch) customers
[sure] AppStore will deliver free and commercial applications; iPhone will eventually become a open platform
[probable] Games for the iPhone demoed on stage
[sure] iPhone finally gains 3G capabilities
[uncertain] iPhone might also get GPS capabilities
[probable] iPhone changes form factor: thinner?
[uncertain] iPhone retains the same form factor but a new model is introduced: iPhone nano? iPhone Air?
[uncertain] lower prices: $200 low-end iPhone?
[uncertain] iPhone in colors: white, black and red?
[uncertain] iPhone abandons aluminium and glass in favour of plastic
[probable] improved battery life
[probable] video recording capabilities
[probable] conferencing capabilities
[uncertain] new commercial
[sure] iPhone finally coming to Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain, etc...

Macs

[uncertain] new MacBook Pros
[uncertain] new MacBooks in aluminium
[uncertain] new touch device?

.Mac, Mobile Me, Me

[sure] new name: "Mobile Me" or "Me"
[sure] completely renewed service, more iPhone integration

Mac OS X

[uncertain] 10.6 developers preview
[uncertain] Pure Cocoa
[probable] Intel-only
[probable] ships spring 2009

Stay tuned for the latest news!

And don't forget to follow WWDC 2008 on Twitter!

...UTVV is now on Plurk too!

Follow WWDC 2008 with UTVV!

2008-06-04T09:48:00.006+02:00

If you are looking forward to finding out what Steve Jobs will deliver at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference 2008 you shoul stay tuned on UTVV!

We have opened a Twitter from which to follow WWDC 2008 live.
If you like Plurk this is our account with live coverage of WWDC

That's a unique opportunity for you readers!

Brand new Google icon, trouble coming?

2008-05-30T19:26:00.003+02:00

Today while I was doing a Google search I noticed that something strange was going on, but at first I didn't realized what looked unusual.

Some search after, looking at my tabs I discovered what my eyes noticed what was changed: instead of the capital G the favicon of Google is now a little blue g.

Probably at Mountain View they are tired to be called the big G and decided to change their nickname in the most subliminal and easiest way they can go on: just changing they brand.

Do you like this new icon? I hope that the big G is coming back, the little g doesn't represent Google in my mind and makes too confusing to look at my tabs.

Spotlight on Windows 7

2008-05-30T12:28:00.002+02:00

This week Microsoft unveiled multi-touch capability of Windows 7.

Looking at the video we can see a well-working multi-touch demo, but nothing on how that technology would be used in every-day works. So far looks like more an advanced mouse replacement than a brand-new way to use pc. I hope that other interface changes, that should enable users to enjoy multi-touch even when working and not only when looking at photos, are Top-Secret classified information and Microsoft choose to perform that demo just to show something to who is asking an early release of Windows 7.

In the last days Steven Sinofsky said that Windows 7 kernel would be an evolution of Vista's one. This is a bad news for the I-will-jump-to-Windows-7 boys that have to update their claim in I-will-jump-to-Windows-8 (or somewhere else). Vista users should be happy of this because of the total compatibility between the 2 OS drivers and software since nothing, especially the driver model, will change.

I was dreaming Windows 7 as a fully .Net based OS, with the old Win32 system virtualized just for old applications support so I feel a bit disappointed. On the other side Vista kernel is already a very good piece of software with the only problem that users aren't feeling this. Hopefully Windows 7 would allow the user have a better configuration on what system loads as already happens in Windows Server 2008, a OS that shares huge part of code with Vista, but surprisingly is not considered as bad. Maybe it's because Apple never choose a character for the server in their stupid advertisements.

The last thing I want to show you is this useful Mary-Jo Fooley post where she wrote what we know about Windows 7. But be careful, don't believe everything you're seeing about Windows 7.

p.s. In the title Spotlight meaning is this, not this.

Photo of the week #02

2008-05-29T17:43:00.003+02:00

Here comes another great picture from a spanish photographer, Victor Espinoza.

How to fix CPU-hog Quicksilver

2008-05-26T16:45:00.009+02:00

There's one application I particularly love: it's Quicksilver (for Mac).
This week, unfortunately, it started to behave oddly: my PowerBook was continously hot and I quickly found (through Activity Monitor) out that it was Quicksilver's flaw, which was eating 20-90% of my CPU.
I tried to quit and reopen the application, delete the preferences file and to rescan manually my catalog: nothing seemed to work.
After wandering around my Mac's folder for a bit I found the folder containing the indexes used by Quicksilver:
/Library/Caches/Quicksilver/Indexes/
I quit Quickilsilver, moved the folder to the trash and reopened Quicksilver... it worked!
Everything is now back to normal.

A quick explanation Quicksilver builds indexes that make it really fast when searching: they are what makes Quicksilver a pleasure to use.
Considering that I've been using Quicksilver for years, those files might have become corrupted and that was making Quicksilver consuming 20-90% of my CPU.
Clearly the problem was not in the application itself (in fact downloading and reinstalling Quicksilver wouldn't have worked), but it was in some of the files it was using.

One of the most used file is the preferences file ( /Library/Preferences/com.blacktree.Quicksilver.plist ), but deleting it didn't help.
Other files used by Quicksilver stand in /Library/Application\ Support/Quicksilver; but there's another folder used by the application: /Library/Caches/Quicksilver.
You might be wondering "Why isn't the cache in the "Application Support" folder?". It's because cache is something that make the program faster and can exist or not; deleting it might make the application slower but it mustn't affect program settings.
The "Application Support" folder, on the other hand, is used to store customizations of the program, such as plugins, etc...: deleting it would definitely make lose what has been set.

Check if a site is down just for you

2008-05-24T17:43:00.001+02:00

Have you ever get stuck looking to a page that doesn't load?

With this simple web application you can easily check if the page is really down or if you have to double check something in your configuration.

You can save a lot of time you would have spent waiting for a never loading page knowing if the page is down for the whole Internet.

Do you know any other good simple web application?

IE7 Pro 2.3 is out, browser war goes on

2008-05-23T22:50:00.001+02:00

Waiting for a stable version of IE8, I'm installing the latest version of IE7Pro, the definitive IE7 Plug-in.

Of course with Firefox Extension you can get a better customization, but I think that for a IE user this is a must have. It adds features and just works without any issue.

Personally I appreciate most the possibility to change the proxy settings with two click, have a real download manager plus a whole set of useful customizations.

On the other side you should try Firefox 3 or Opera 9.27. I discourage to install a browser designed with security in mind.

What is your favorite browser?

27% of Vista PCs compromised by malware

2008-05-20T14:38:00.005+02:00

A new research published by PC Tools shows that efforts made by Microsoft to improve Windows security might have been in vain.

While the new OS is disliked by many users, it certainly has had -so far- a good reputation concerning security.

But things might change soon: PC Tools has shown that one out of three Vista machine has been infected by at least a malware.

58,000 PCs running Vista were compromised by at least one piece of malware over the six months to May 2008, equivalent to 27 percent of all Vista machines probed.

It's important to notice that Windows XP is doing much worse and that there are very few reasons to stick with the old OS.

Although Vista has resisted many attacks over the months it looks like malware writers are mastering the OS and are becoming a serious threat for Vista.

Microsoft still has not responded to PC Tools' allegations; in the meantime, have you installed any anti-malware software on your Vista PC?

Source: PC Tools and Computer World