Joseph Hinkle at MyITForum.com

Mary put together a nice set of articles that cover the basics of the MacOS Terminal application.  If you’re interested in learning more of the internals of MacOS, this is a good place to start, as many things are only available from the command line.

Mary Norbury-Glaser

This is a great thing.  As I’ve become more interested in other platforms and browsers, it gets a bit frustrating when basic things don’t work.  It’s great to see Microsoft working toward becoming more friendly with the other platforms.

IEBlog : Genuine Windows and Browsers

I talked with Brad Graziadio, the guy who runs the Windows Genuine Advantage team, and he walked me through customer feedback. Basically, customers said “We want to make sure our PCs are running genuine Windows and have access to all the content on the Microsoft Download Center; the experience when we’re running a Mozilla browser is not great. Do something about it.” Brad’s team did. I think that’s a good thing for customers.

The Mac News Network is reporting that Apple posted a firmware update to fix the random crash issues in the 1.8Ghz G5 PowerMac. 

MacNN | Apple resolves single-processor G5 issues

Apple on Tuesday finally resolved long-standing issues with some of its early Power Mac G5 models by releasing a firmware update. Apple said the new G5 firmware update improves the reliability of some early Power Mac G5--especially after it has been inactive for two hours.

Google officially launched Google Base.  Most of the content that I’ve seen is coming from Career Builder and Idealist so far.  There are a few (hundred) recipes too.  I’m really curious to see how all of this pans out.  Will it be more useful that general web searches?

Official Google Blog: First Base

Right now, there are two ways to submit data items to Google Base. Individuals and small website owners can use an interactive user interface; larger organizations and sites can use the bulk uploads option to send us content using standard XML formats.

Rather than impose specific schemas and structures on the world, Google Base suggests attributes and item types based on popularity, which you can use to define and attach your own labels and attributes to each data item. Then searchers can find information more quickly and effectively by using these labels and attributes to refine their queries on the experimental version of Google Base search.

SQL Server Developer Center: SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Overview

SQL Server Express Edition, a free product based on SQL Server 2005 technology, includes the unique Application XCopy feature, and networking and security that differ from other SQL Server 2005 editions. This article discusses these topics and the integration of SQL Server Express with Visual Studio 2005. We also compare this product with the existing Microsoft free databases like MSDE and Jet. (19 printed pages)

Scoble links to the two current Xbox 360 TV spots.  They’re ok, but I think the idea might get a bit lost on the general public.  Major Nelson talked about them a bit in his last show.  The ad campaign focuses completely on the community aspect of the console.  Lets see some game footage!

Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Time for a commercial break

I thought I would give Firefox another try.  I used it a year ago or so, back when everyone was trying it.  I got a little irritated with some things and switched back.  Since I’ve been spending a lot of time with my Mac, I’m getting used to what things work and don’t work outside of IE, so it isn’t as drastic as I thought. 

So far, I’m happy with it.  I really like how it tells you that a plug-in is needed in place, then gives you a link to download it.  The extensions engine seems to be really powerful. I’m used to Safari’s download manager, so I appreciate that a lot as well.  We’ll see how long it lasts this time.

I was unaware that Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson have a security podcast.  Well, they do.  This week they discuss WPA and best practices for wireless security.  Its a pretty informative discussion if you want to get a little more serious about wireless security at your house.

Security Now! Transcript of Episode #13

Leo and I follow up on last week's discussion of the Sony Rootkit debacle with the distressing news of "phoning home" (spyware) behavior from the Sony DRM software, and the rootkit's exploitation by a new malicious backdoor Trojan. We then return to complete our discussion of WiFi security, demystifying the many confusing flavors of WPA encryption and presenting several critical MUST DO tips for WPA users.

Thank goodness.

Sony pulls XCP CDs, offers to replace bought copies with regular CDs - Engadget - www.engadget.com

pull the freaking CDs, and offer to replace them with regular CDs for those who’ve already bought. Apparently four million of these XCP copy-protected CDs were manufactured and 2.1 million have been sold to date

I found a list of a good majority of the Ads affected by Sony’s foray into DRM.  I strongly believe Sony will pay dearly for what they decided to do.  Consumer’s rights have been eroded substantially over the last five years, but not far enough for everyone to take this kind of abuse without a strong negative reaction.

idiotabroad.com » CD’s affected by the Sony-BMG spyware

I wasn’t planning on it.  Actually, I was planning to get a new 5G iPod.  Last night, I went by my local Best Buy and looked around.  They had a 360 set up in a kiosk, so I went over to take a quick peek.  Thirty minutes later, I quit playing Call of Duty 2.  The graphics are just incredible and the interface is really good.  I’m really impressed. Well, impressed enough to buy one at least. 

I plan to be one of the 3 Million

Now, I plan to be one of the 3 Million

This has been talked about extensively, so I won’t rehash what has already been said.  Check out the page below if your interesting in Windows Live.  There are links to the blogs about the individual services, so there is some interesting reading there.

Windows Live Ideas – Homepage

In case you missed it, Apple posted the 10.4.3 update for Mac OS X a few days ago.  There are quite a few improvements, including some updates to the SMB components.  The full list is on the other side of that link down there.

About the Mac OS X 10.4.3 Update (Delta)

For all you ASP.NET developers out there, MSDN posted a quick-start tutorial.  It goes into some fair depth, so if you’re already familiar with ASP.NET, this should get you up to speed quickly. 

ASP.NET QuickStart Tutorial

The ASP.NET QuickStart is a series of ASP.NET samples and supporting commentary designed to quickly acquaint developers with the syntax, architecture, and power of the ASP.NET Web programming framework. The QuickStart samples are designed to be short, easy-to-understand illustrations of ASP.NET features. By the time you finish reading this tutorial, you will be familiar with the broad range of the new features in ASP.NET 2.0, as well as the features that were supported in earlier versions.