MayADS

I have a Windows XP running in a virtual machine and lately I saw this machine running on 100 percent usage while browsing the web with firefox 3.6.12. I looked in the task manager and found a process named plugin-container.exe slowing down my system with nearly 65 percent system usage. Thats not nice to browse with. But I managed to get rid of it.

This process comes from firefox and is there to prevent the browser hang up, if any plugin is crashing. So you should not deactivate it unless you have a good reason for it, like me.

So here is, how I managed to deactivate it in firefox.

• Open a new tab and go to about:config
• in the filter bar type „dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll“
• double click the entry to change it from true to false
• restart firefox and be happy

About two month ago I bought the MacHeist Nano Bundle 2. I noticed the included RapidWeaver, but it was not the reason I bought that bundle, so I left it aside.

Meanwhile I develop an iPhone game and wanted to setup a website for it. At this point I stumbled upon RapidWeaver and I must say, I love it. There are so much possibilities and tons of themes and plugins. And it’s so easy to create great looking sites for the web. Thats much better then hacking your code for a website in a simple editor or even eclipse.

A couple of months ago, Google launched Tasks in the Google Mail Lab. Unfortunately, you couldn’t take those tasks with you and check them from your mobile phone. Well, now it’s possible and Google also added something special for iPhone and Android users. Those users get the ability to add, edit and delete items from within the mobile device.

All you need is mentioned in a requirements list.

You have to do is enable Tasks  in Google Mail Labs. If you do, you can view tasks, add new tasks, and also check them off as all taken care of. Any changes to Tasks you make via your mobile phone are reflected in your Google Mail account.

You can watch a little Tutorial for the iPhone from googles youtube channel.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbiMbmq3JG4

The tech blog Gizmodo got a huge views today by publishing a story that shows purported images of the next Android phone from G1 maker HTC. The possible G2  is thinner and has no QWERTY keyboard.

The lack of new Android phones being announced, such suggestion come all way long. With barely a rumor to sate our thirst for Android exclusives, CES was a bitter disappointment. No new phones were announced during the biggest gadget trade show in North America.

But now we have some juicy spy shots to look at. The images show a phone  that looks very similar to the HTC G1, but has major differences.

The phone is much thinner than the G1, because the slide-out QWERTY keyboard is gone. This is definitely a good thing. It keeps the track ball below the touch display, but re-arranges the buttons a bit. The back is smooth, and shows a 3.2 megapixel camera. The image that shows a screen shot reveals a home screen that is nearly identical to that of the G1.

The pictures look like they could be legit, but you never know. You can see the pictures four yourself.

Maybe we can see it in about 4 month, this is the suggested arrival for this device.

If you are a music fan, the internet gives you so many possibilities to listen to great music. Beside last.fm and jango.com and pandora.com I found another insteresting site to listen to music. It’s called musicovery.com and it has nice feartures like playing music from defined decades, genres and mood.

Give it a try.

A leaked Windows 7 build that’s around the Internet gives some hints to the upcoming ( new ) windows operating version. No one actually knows,  whether this code is the same as the beta due to be officially released in early January, but it looks like a real thing.

Not just testing the Windows 7 version is interesting, the included license agreement also should get some attetion. Here are some special points I found.

• You can install as many copies as you want. The agreement specifically waives any restriction on the number of copies you can install:
  

  You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your premises to design, develop and test your programs for use with the software.

  As good as this sounds, I think this will change in the next official releases.

• Don’t use it in a production environment. I expected that in a beta release and it’s a good advice for any product with a beta label on it.
  

  You may not use the software in a live operating environment unless Microsoft permits you to do so under another agreement.

• The software expires on August 1, 2009. Their are other date mentioned on the internet t0o,but I had a copy with that date. The “Time-Sensitive Software” clause that reads in part:

The software will stop running on August 1, 2009. You may not receive any other notice.”

That timeout date adds further credence to the notion that the final release will be ready in May or June.

• Installation in a virtual machine is posssible. The license agreement for the original release of Windows Vista includes some truly opaque wording about installing in a virtualized environment. This wording was significantly cleaned up for the Vista SP1 license agreement, and this same language appears in the Windows 7 EULA. The “Use with Virtualization Technologies” section is straightforward:

Instead of using the software directly on the licensed device, you may install and use the software within only one virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device.

• You’ll need to take a few extra steps to lock down your privacy. In section 4, the license agreement specifically notes that some features that normally require you to opt in are instead turned on by default:

Because this software is a pre-release version, we have turned on some internet-based features by default to obtain feedback about them […] You may switch off these features or not use them.

Most of the services on the list are fairly benign and involve little risk of divulging personally identifiable information. However, if you work with sensitive data files you might want to turn off the Customer Experience Improvement Program and automatic error reporting options.

• Activation and validation are alive and well. Anyone who was hoping that Microsoft would back off from its hard-line antipiracy initiatives might be disappointed. The license agreement specifically describes activation and links to a privacy statement that says activation is required for Windows 7. The lengthy section on validation is identical to the one in Vista SP, including the bold-faced warning:

You are not permitted to circumvent validation.

• Benchmarking not allowed. Microsoft prohibition on speed tests is included in the license agreement, as in previous beta releases of Microsoft operating systems:

You may not disclose the results of any benchmark tests of the software to any third party without Microsoft’s prior written approval.