Geek news, reviews & more

Jul 31, 2009

Music,

Videos

Ben, Ian, Jon and Aaron are, like most popular bands, getting older and trying to get back to their roots. Billy talent (formerly known asPezz)is aCanadian band formed in 1993 inStreetsville, Ontario.The members met and played in high school under the name Pezz and remained underground inToronto's indie music scene until 2001.

The band renamed itself Billy Talent after running into legal trouble with the old name. It was then that Kowalewicz's connection with a worker in Warner Music Canada's A&R landed the band a record deal and launched them into mainstream success. Since then, Billy Talent has made two multi-platinum records in Canada, and continues to expand their success overseas, this included touring for 20 months supporting their second album.

My take on Billy Talent III

The reasons why I love Billy Talent are not the reasons I love this album. See, the thing is in Billy Talent 3 you can easily tell the inspiration was from mid 70's and 90's rock. That feeling was not present in the past 2 albums.

Gone is the Young Punk attitude and coming is a more grown up, solid sound with more body and less screaming. Billy Talent is no longer a punk band and more of a group of entertainers with great, fast-paced Rock music with a deeper sound with Soaring vocals and a much nicer sound overall. The production quality is beyond stellar and meets that of Nickleback and Madona.

Billy Talent was smart to keep the origional sound, Deep bass with a touch of mid and a range of high frequencies. Their sound is unique because you can hear all the instuments at once. I can tell that Ben has worked hard on the stability of his unique vocals and the Live concert of rusted from the rain says just that:

So overall Billy Talent III is a must buy. Must Must MUST!!! Every song is amaizing and worth listening to over and over again!

Jul 31, 2009

Music,

Videos

Friday

Jul312009

Windows 7 beta testers Get Win 7 Free on August 6

Jul 31, 2009

News

It's about time good ol' Microsoft woke up and smelled the coffee! All windows Fan-boys got a bit of a nerd-gasm when microsoft announced that All Windows 7 Beta testers are eligable for "a full (non-upgrade) copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition for your own personal use, not to be resold" That means that we get windows for free!?!? Yes you do my friends.

For more information on how to take advantage of this, refer to Paul's post in the .Beta_Program newsgroup for details." The date in question is August 6, the same day MSDN and TechNet subscribers get the RTM build.

It should be emphasized that this offer isn't available to those who tested the beta and RC build when they were released to the public. This offer is only for testers that were invited into the beta program.

Here is the message on the newsgroup:

Thank you for doing your part in making Windows 7 great! As a member of the technical beta program you took the time to download, install and give us your feedback on Windows 7 during development. Over the last 7 months you have participated in chats, live meetings and newsgroups as well as reported bugs to help us find and fix many issues. To recognize your outstanding contribution to the product we are pleased to offer you a complimentary copy of Windows 7 for your personal use.

Details:

All current members of our English technical and international mini-beta programs are eligible.

We are offering you a full (non-upgrade) copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition for your own personal use, not to be resold.

You will be able to get access to your copy one of two ways:

A) To get up and running quickly you will be able to download your copy and get your product key via Microsoft Connect. English downloads will be available August 6th and other languages will follow as they become available.

B) Members of our English beta program have an alternative. We have reserved a limited amount of boxed retail copies that you can choose to receive instead. These are 'first come, first served'. If you opt to have us ship you the boxed copy you should be aware that it will take much longer until you will be up and running on the final version. We will need time to manufacture and ship the copies to you. This means that you may not receive them until they are available on shelves October 22nd or later. Also, for people outside the United States you may be required to pay duties or other local taxes upon receipt.

Instructions and forms for choosing one of the above options will be available on Microsoft Connect on Monday August 3rd.

On behalf of the entire Windows product team, THANK YOU!

Paul

Jul 31, 2009

News

Thursday

Jul302009

Most satisfying costume at any Comic Con | "Grilled Jar-Jar"

Jul 30, 2009

Humor

Here we see a little "Grilled Jar-Jar" served fresh by your's truely. Whoever is wearing this costume is a legend!

Jul 30, 2009

Humor

Thursday

Jul302009

Apple worker commits suicide because of missing prototype iPhone

Jul 30, 2009

Apple,

News,

iPhone

Apple Inc said it was awaiting results from an investigation into the death of a worker in China, after media reports said the man killed himself on learning he was suspected of leaking company secrets.
The case puts the spotlight on Apple, whose public face as maker of the wildly successful iPhone contrasts with its reputation for a highly secretive corporate culture.

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of a young employee and we are awaiting the results of the investigation into his death," Apple said in a statement released in the United States on Tuesday, declining further comment.

"We require that our suppliers treat all workers with dignity and respect," it added.

Apple's iPhones are made in south China by its contract manufacturing partner Foxconn International, a unit of Taiwan electronics giant Hon Hai.

Foxconn said in a statement that a worker named Sun Danyong, who had joined the company in 2008, had committed suicide and expressed its condolences to his family.

"The company has noticed there has been much detailed discussion on the Internet and welcomes public discussion on how to help Foxconn's management where it is lacking," Foxconn said in a statement. "We will scrutinize those places ... and strengthen our assistance to young employees," it added
Foxconn did not go into the details surrounding Sun's death.

But according to a report in the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily, Sun, a 25-year-old product manager, became frantic after discovering that one of 16 prototypes of Apple's fourth-generation N90 iPhone had gone missing. The iPhone is Apple's hottest-selling device and the latest version is a well-kept secret.

Sun vented his growing frustration in text messages to his girlfriend and a former classmate, and tried to find the missing device, the Nanfang Daily said. But company officials from Foxconn's security division apparently got suspicious and raided his home.

The Yunnan native jumped from his 12th floor apartment the day after, according to the report.
The incident, which triggered an investigation from local police and within Foxconn itself, sparked a Web firestorm in China and has provoked criticism of Apple's intensely guarded corporate culture.
The company has previously threatened lawsuits against media and bloggers that try to publish information about its upcoming products, often arguing they obtained the information from employees who violated confidentiality agreements.

Jul 30, 2009

Apple,

News,

iPhone

Thursday

Jul302009

Windows 7 Ultimate activation cracked with OEM master key | Torrent

Jul 30, 2009

Humor,

News

Windows 7 Ultimate has been cracked. The pirate milestone, reached almost three months before Windows 7 is set to hit General Availability on October 22, 2009, was achieved via OEM instant offline activation that passes Windows Genuine Advantagevalidation and keeps the operating system permanently activated. Previous cracks weren't as solid: while they may be working now, they can easily be disabled by Microsoft. This one won't be so easy.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate can now easily be activated, according to My Digital Life. For Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Home Basic, and Windows 7 Starter, the OEM-System-Locked Preinstallation (SLP) keys haven't been leaked, so they cannot be OEM-activated yet. It won't be long before easy-to-use Windows 7 activation toolkits start appearing in the wild.

The story begins with a Windows 7 Ultimate OEM DVD ISO from Lenovo leaking to a Chinese forum. The boot.wim file was then used to retrieve the OEM-SLP product key and OEM certificate for Windows 7 Ultimate. The SLP is a procedure used by Microsoft to preactivate the Windows operating system for mass distribution by major OEMs. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 use SLP version 2.1, which is backwards-compatible with version 2.0, the version Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 use. As such, after the OEM certificate and OEM product key were extracted, it was discovered that Windows 7 uses the same digitally signed OEM certificate, which has an .xrm-ms extension, that Vista uses.

The extracted Windows 7 Ultimate OEM-SLP product key can be used to activate an installed Windows 7 Ultimate system, and since the product key appears to be a master OEM-SLP product key for Windows 7 Ultimate, it can activate Windows 7 Ultimate from any OEM. Furthermore, even if the user already has a retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate installed, it can be converted to an OEM version with two simple commands, and then activated.

This is a major breakthrough for the Windows piracy world and a huge blow to Microsoft. Even if it was imminent, the fact that it has occurred so soon means pirates will have activated copies of Windows 7 a good week before even MSDN and TechNet subscribers get their hands on the RTM build on August 6, not to mention all the other groupsMicrosoft plans to give the build to. The Windows 7 RTM and Windows Server 2008 RTM build was compiled on July 13, 2009 and the official announcement was made on July 22, 2009.

Jul 30, 2009

Humor,

News

Thursday

Jul302009

Rock Band: Beatles | E3 2009 Trailer | What do you think?

Jul 30, 2009

Gaming,

News

Although there is no need for me to go in depth about who the beatles are and the fact that they frikin rocked the world from the 60's and beyond! I have no doubt, in every world-wide house hold, somebody (if not the whole family) knows who the beatles are and how much they have changed the face of music forever.

The point is that almost 50 years later they have one of the most succesfull game chains wanting to make a game about them. 50 YEARS! So that means that we have to do some simple math:

As of July 30th 2009, this trailer has recieved 600,000 video views on youtube. Now, who is watching videogame trailers on youtube... 15 year old kids thats who!

Now alot of you are thinking "well that doesent mean 60% of the views are from kids". Well think about it. Most people who are old enough to remember the Beatles are not very interested in spending $300 on a gaming system, then another $200 on Rockband, then, wait for this game to come out. The majority of people that are going to get this game is 10 - 25 Year-olds.

Judging by the fact that this trailer is mostly game footage, there is no more left to say then you must buy this game when it comes out.

now..

Leave your opinion in the comments and maybe give us some more insight.

Jul 30, 2009

Gaming,

News

Wednesday

Jul292009

iPhone Worldwide SMS Hack Coming Thursday | 30th Jul 09