Boxee, the XBMC-based media player I wrote about a few weeks ago, has released a new alpha version. The official list of changes (to the Linux version, at least) is as follows:

• complete UI overhaul
• play content available from: Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, MySpaceTV, NextNewNetworks, On Networks
• connect to videos from Hulu and CBS straight from friends activity and recommendations
• manage your personal RSS feeds from http://app.boxee.tv and access them through boxee (on My Feeds under Internet Video or Internet Music)
• navigation in media is vertical (up/down) instead of horizontal (left/right)
• mouse is supported and enabled by default for new installations (for upgrades it can be enabled via Settings > Appearance)
• application settings (YouTube, Flickr, Last.fm) are now accessible from the Settings menu
• improved SMB support, which also fixes accessing your media via the Apple TV
• when using a keyboard, the ESCAPE button always takes you to the previous screen
• improved lyrics support
• improved subtitles look and feel, support for subtitle switching and fixed media going Speedy Gonzales for a few seconds when subtitle are applied
• when working in off-line mode, you can now properly access your local content
• numerous bug fixes
• many fixes from our friends at xbmc.org
• moved boxee install directory to /opt/boxee under Ubuntu (POSIX compliance FTW )

Linux Mint has now released a 64-bit version of Linux Mint 5 Elyssa. For some reason, when Linux Mint 5 was initially released, the 64-bit version was not ready for release. Instead, the team seems to have worked exclusively on the 32-bit version first, then finished up what needed to be done on the 64-bit version once that was done.

The team has said in their blog that they will be releasing the 64-bit versions concurrently from now on.

They are looking for feedback from users that have been using the 32-bit version to see if the 64-bit version works faster and better, like it should. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to download the installation disc and replace my Mint installation with the 64-bit version, soon.

Every time I check my Yahoo! Mail account, lately, I have three or four new spam messages from someone with an aim.com e-mail address. Almost all of them have a subject similar to “Private message for you”.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue? It only seems to be happening with my Yahoo! Mail account. None of my other e-mail addresses are receiving these strange messages.

Apparently, Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 was launched the other day, and I am absolutely astounded by the significant price of the software.

I have always thought that Adobe’s products were severely over-priced, but I don’t even remember CS3 costing nearly as much as the retail price of CS4. Has the company lost its mind?

(more…)

Two days ago, the YaBB team put out yet another update to the indomitable forum software. YaBB 2.3 includes quite a few great feature additions, listed below. In addition, the new update adds a lot of bug fixes.

If you downloaded this package already, the team actually released a critical patch for the software today, so be sure to update your installation.

Here are the documented new features in the software:

Feature Additions:
—————————————–
1. Quick Reply Advanced Edition
2. Reverse Post in Topic Advanced Edition
3. YaBB Backup
4. Top of Page Button
5. Pie Charts for Polls
6. Showcase Poll
7. Preselected Smilies
8. Category Pictures
9. Image Resize
10. Multi-Attachments
11. Avatar Uploader
12. Split/Splice Advanced
13. Expand/Collapse Advanced
14. New Members E-Mail Notification (to Admin)
15. Extended Profiles
16. Spell Checker

If you are a fan of YaBB, be sure to download and install the newest version. However, because there were a few immediate bug fixes and one critical patch released today, I would recommend waiting until tomorrow to download the latest package, ensuring that your version includes the critical patch.

Congrats to the YaBB team for continuing to get things done.

First, I have to admit that I only actively visit two social networking sites. However, I’ve noticed that all of the groups I’ve joined on either of those two sites never seem to have any activity. It seems that only once a month, if that, someone starts a new topic or responds to an existing topic.

I’m sure that it must just be the groups to which I belong, but it really is disheartening to post a query on which you’re looking for some input and end up getting diddly for responses.

Are you a member of any really active groups on the social networking sites you frequent? If so, are they specific niche groups, or are they something we might all be interested in? What are they?

I’ve spent the last week developing a new interface for our Web site at work to allow us to insert, modify and remove various course descriptions. The bulk of the time has been spent simply inserting over 500 different course descriptions to get the database populated initially.

However, along the way, I kept running into different items that threw me for a loop, causing me to have to go back and rethink the way I had written the script.

(more…)

I’m noticing more and more that everyone seems to be abandoning the traditional e-mail server in favor of Google’s Gmail. My Internet Service Provider switched over a while ago. Recently, I also joined a consulting group, working on managing and maintaining their Web site (and doing side Web work for them), and found that their e-mail is completely managed through Gmail. That Web site is hosted by GoDaddy. After a bit of research, it seems that Google and GoDaddy have (and have had for a few years) some sort of agreement that allows users to sign up for Google Apps and GoDaddy hosting all rolled into one.

In addition, I have heard that many colleges are now switching their student e-mail servers over to use Gmail rather than the services they have used in the past. In fact, the entire state system under which I work has moved over to Gmail for the student e-mail system. While our support staff e-mail is still hosted locally on an Exchange server, all student e-mail now runs through Gmail.

Is the whole world switching over to Gmail? Is anyone still using their own mail servers to handle sending and receiving correspondence? Does it even make sense to use your own server anymore? Will the world come to a grinding halt if Google’s e-mail servers ever shut down for any reason?

This evening, while visiting My Yahoo!, I came across a Yahoo! news article discussing the upcoming voter registration deadlines. I clicked on the article to read it and found a link inside leading to a VentureBeat article about the voter registration application being offered on Facebook.

When I finished reading that article, I noticed an interesting item at the bottom: a link to CenterNetworks. While CN was not really featured on Yahoo!, they are only three clicks away.

I’ve posted some screen shots of my progression after the jump.

(more…)

Some very big rumors about Sega have been circulating on the Internet over the past few days. Most of those rumors have centered around the idea that Sega will be developing and releasing a handheld gaming device next year, attempting to rival the Sony PSP. Gizmodo even took the bait and ran with it. There was, apparently, even a shoddily produced video supposedly showing the new “Vision” in action. The video has since been removed from YouTube.

However, from what I’ve been able to ascertain, most of those rumors are false and have been blown way out of proportion. CrunchGear ran a couple of articles trying to get to the bottom of the situation. In the end, Unofficial RPG posted seemingly official quotes from Sega officials confirming the existence of the Vision handheld, but stating that it was simply going to be a portable media player rather than a new handheld game console.

As of yet, there is still no official word on Sega’s Web site, so it is very difficult to ascertain how much fact and how much fiction are involved in this story. I, for one, will be one waiting with baited breath to see if Sega really does dip its toes back into the hardware game.