The IT Crowd

UK's Channel 4 is airing a new comedy, "The I.T. Crowd", on the web a week before it's TV broadcast. The I.T. Crowd is a new sitcom from Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books) and producer Ash Atalla (The Office). Sounds promisng!

The high-rise towers of Reynholm Industries are full of go-getters, success stories, and winners... apart from in the basement. While their beautiful colleagues work in fantastic surroundings, Jen, Roy and Moss lurk below ground, scorned and mocked by their co-workers as geeky losers, doomed never to make it back into normal society.

Watch Here

Why I love bots

Yazan says: who created you? Encarta® Instant Answers says: I was built by Conversagent, Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA and New York, NY. Yazan says: not by god? Encarta® Instant Answers says: [Service too busy] Yazan says: didn't god create you? Encarta® Instant Answers says: I am a simple computer. Let humans worry about theological matters, I say. OK, should we get back to the kind of questions I was designed to answer? :-) What is the country with the smallest area? If you don't know, just ask me.

Review: Windows Live Messenger

So awaiting in my inbox today was an invitation to test Windows Live Messenger (WLM from now on). Just when MSN started to become a verb in certain regions of the world, at least mine anyway. Microsoft decides to change the name into Windows Live Messenger. The program still installs on "C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger". The name also suggests it won't be available for other platforms. Naming aside I'm not that impressed. Click to expand Design: By default the top bar is hideous shade of bright orange, which can be changed with a few mouse clicks; I've changed mine into blue as you can see from the screenshots. What annoyed me most is that Groups & Contacts kept on expanding when I hovered them, thankfully the later can be disabled from the options menu, and the first can avoided by moving your mouse outside of the MSN box. There's no way to hide your tabs unless you declare your computer as a shared computer which in turn won't save your messages / contact list / login information. Features: Here's a list of the few notable features of WLM.

• Better Contact Management [screenshot here] You can now add your contact into a group immediately, those who sort their contacts by group will benefit from this feature, you will no longer have to add a user then drag them into the appropriate group afterwards. You can also attach contact information to any user on your list, there will be immediately synchronized with your hotmail or Live Mail contacts. Surprisingly adding a birth date to a contact doesn't immediately reflect on your calendar, but then again this is just a beta.
• File Sharing [screenshot here] This is rather amusing, WLM was unable to recognize my antivirus software ("Windows OneCare") and offered me a free Antivirus Software which turned out to be Windows OneCare again! Now with file sharing you create folders for each contact and files into them, files will be automatically synchronized with them, very useful if say you're working on the same files / projects. As always .exe, .pif, etc are blocked to prevent sharing virus infected files.
• Offline Messaging Name says it all, you can now send instant messages to your offline contacts and they'll receive them once they get online. This feature is nothing new it was built into ICQ back in 1998!
• Search Contacts Box This is quite useful for those who manage huge lists, or if you want to send a message to an offline contact. You can type in part of the name/email address of any contact you have on your list and your list will be narrowed down to them.

How to Get It

• Legal Way: is to either wait for the final version, or request to beta test it on www.live.com
• Not So Legal Way: Download MSN Messenger 8 off Microsoft, then use MSN Proxy patch

$5678 Bucks for running Windows XP on MacTel

As of this posting $5678 USD have been pledged by several bloggers if you can get Windows XP to boot on a MacTel. Some people might wonder why anyone would want to dual boot Mac OS X with Windows, and the answer is quite simple. Just because you can. Or perhaps just because you need to. For instance Keynote is miles ahead of Microsoft PowerPoint. On the other hand many enterprise software available for Windwos isn't available for Mac. Having the two on the same machine can save you time and money. Contest Rules Some sites that can put you on the right track:

• OSx86 Project
• Apple Intel Faq
• ELILO

Free VOIP by VOIP Stunt

It seems a new player is jumping into the VoIP bandwagon almost everyday now. Skype, Gizmo, OpenWengo, Google Talk, you name it. Clearly Skype is the market leader. By offering free PC-2-PC VoIP calls and dirt cheap SkypeOut service Skype managed to create a ripple effect all across the internet, but cheap is not free. Enter VOIP Stunt Hideous interface aside; it seems VOIP stunt is offering free calling to landlines in 36 countries, including Australia, Austria, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom (Canada and the United States are on the list as well). Sweet? It gets even better! The software promises no adware, malware, or spyware, which is a major plus, but I still attach my standard privacy policy warning. I still haven't tested the service due to bandwidth congestion at the office, so I can't really recommend it (I might review it later on) but feel free to Try It

A good addition to your mobile bookmarks

Are you an internet junkie? Can't stop checking blogs using your mobile/pda/etc.? Google to the rescue! It seems Google has a Skweezer like service, that will optimize any website for viewing on a mobile phone or PDA Try It (http://www.google.com/gwt/n)

Correct me if I'm wrong...

But last time I checked KDE was copying Windows. Times must have changed; it seems Vista is copying KDE. Click here to download video [WMV 25 MB; 20 Minutes] Moving on... I won't even comment on Timberlake's presence! A Music Partnership with MTV? I'm presuming you've watched the video, if not check this , here's an excerpt:

Bill Gates: "With music, having MTV as a partner is a great thing. We think they can get the word out, do some neat things. We're also doing a lot in Messenger to make it so you can share playlists, so you can listen to different things. The next version of Messenger has music as one of the big breakthrough scenarios."

Yeah Right! Except partnering with MTV for music expertise is laughable, stupid and very very lame. You can't FIND music on MTV anymore. Check their schedule, Next, followed by the Real World, followed by My Own, followed by another episode of Next, Punk'd, and the list goes on. These are all reality-based television shows. Where's the F@!?ING music? Teaming up with MTV for music is like teaming up with McDonalds for tacos. Sure if this were 1984, partnering with MTV would be totally sweet. But in 2006 it's just sad. Once again, Bill is behind the curve. Apple is flying high with iTunes, so now Microsoft has to do yet another "me too" by making their own music store (apparently MSN Music didn't work out?)... except they team up with a has-been and give it a lamer name like "URGE" When is Microsoft going to stop being the bloated whore of the tech industry so they can be lean, hungry, and bleeding edge? When is Bill Gates going to understand that these sloppy "partnerships" are irrelevant when we're talking about a ship that's already sailed. I'm tired of Bill being late to the dock, then renting a little rowboat thinking that he'll be able to catch up... all the while screaming to the media about how Microsoft is doing all this cool shit that, in reality, is only cool to him. Bill I think you should stick to fighting Ballmer (10 MB; 5:41 min, you really should watch this). Man McTacos would be sweet.

Somebody give Google Money

Much to Jameed's dismay, it looks like Google is heading towards an everything-casual-PC-users-need' on their desktop pack. Scott already made excellent comments on the bundle so I won't repeat his comments other than to say Acrobat is not 'that' evil (unlikeReal Player), and bundling Norton Antivirus sounds quite fishy, a counter-WindowsOneCare campaign perhaps? So it appears Google is attempting to get the proles hooked on their easy install software - it looks like it will auto-update eventually providing a maintenance free PC. It already notifies of new versions available for download - nice! Now fast forward to eighteen months from now: 80% of regular internet users have the Google Pack installed, and by then it has good office capabilities (certainly possible if Google throws 300 cheap Indian engineers at Open Office).

Today several apps in Google Pack already exist in Linux. When Google Pack is a comprehensive desktop suite and identical software exists in Linux what is stopping a free Google OS based on Linux? Imagine a Net PC like Larry Ellison tried to offer in the nineties; it will be cheap, secure (because of intense peer review) and do everything 90% of internet users require. Would you like another prediction? In 2006 Google will make in-roads into their own DRM solution(s) - they need this before big-studios allow content on Google's OS.

On a side note; it seems Google are in a desperate need for cash, check out their Macworld booth.

Macbook Pro running Windows... hmmm

This just in. The new Macbooks have been confirmed to run Intel's EFI Bios replacement. EFI can apparently emulate a BIOS using a compatibility layer; presumably this is how the Macbooks will be able to boot (blah) Windows. Read More More on Intel EFI

Macworld 2006 Predictions

According to Kevin Rose, the following will make their appearance on the “red carpet” at Macwrold 2006: 1. 15″ intel Macbook - order tomorrow, ships Feb (thinner, dual core) 2. iPod FM receiver 3. iWork/Life ‘06 4. New remote of some type 5. Photocasting (iPhoto) 6. OS X.4.4 w/new widgets Countdown… Argh the anticipation is gut wrenching.

Podcast: The Kungfu Sheep

Happy Eid Everyone كل عام وأنتم بخير Download the file & stick it in your ear. Yazan Malakha & The Kung fu Sheep Sheep sound effects stolen off Jameed's Post