I am really excited by this. We are already using this service regularly and now I expect to use it even more. This totally justifies my Roku purchase, and adds tremendous value to the upcoming 360 dashboard update. Go Netflix go.

I'm happy to report that I did the transplant myself using the excellent instructions and am really happy with the new screen. I think it's brighter than the old one. There are a lot of vendors out there doing iPod repair, and I just wanted to thank and recommend Kokopelli Music for being fast and honest to deal with by doing this unsolicited post and link back. Thanks, guys.

]]> 609@http://www.nullstream.com/ Reviews 2008-09-22T00:05:34-08:00 http://www.nullstream.com/archives/000608.html So what do people expect of the new MacBooks? I know Paul is in the market. John wants one but can't quite pull the trigger. I'm tempted by an upgrade. This could be the first "Nullstream Laptop" - something each of us is willing to buy (very rare).

I'd be happy for aluminum case and hardware bump. I'd really like to see what I expected the MacBook Air would be - an aluminum MacBook with no optical drive. That alone would be very interesting to me. On another note, my next laptop will have 8GB of ram. Just saying...

]]> 608@http://www.nullstream.com/ Rumors 2008-09-21T23:51:58-08:00 http://www.nullstream.com/archives/000607.html Well this week the first Android based phone will be announced by T-Mobile. But what are we expecting here? Something as cool as the iPhone? Probably not. Will this be a game changing platform, or just another me too phone? Chime in with your thoughts.

I am running the Mini headless connected to my XP Laptop via a firewire cable and accessing it with VNC. Tuning VNC for the firewire bandwidth gives me performance that is nearly as good as connecting local. Moving large windows stutters slightly, but everything else is smooth even animations and video.

Some of the tricks:

You need some sort of network between the mini and the laptop of course, the faster the better. VNC is a pig with bandwidth. An easy trick is to just use a firewire cable between the two. Both sides will acquire an address. I found that if the Laptop is booted up first the host names will resolve. That's a good thing, else I'd have to set the mac up with a static IP.

Don't use Leopards internal desktop sharing. Install Vine Server, it is much faster and supports more encoding options. Setup Vine Server to run the system server as well as the desktop server. This will allow you to see the log in window at boot.

All VNC clients are not created equal. Normally I swear by UltraVNC. I have it optimized for use on WIFI G and slow Internet tunneled through Hamachi. In the case of high speed networks like firewire or Gig E, however, RealVNC is coming out on top. It beats UltraVNC and TightVNC using the same encoder settings - go figure. I set it to HexTile encoding with full color. It is blazing fast.

As a side effect of booting without a keyboard I am now able to use my 'windows' key as an 'option' key. This never worked for me through VNC before.

The DRM on it is insane: you can only install it three times and then you're out of luck. Ever have to repave your Windows install? Ever feel like playing a game you bought a few years (and computers) back? Too bad.

I understand that piracy can be a big problem, particularly for game developers, but treating your honest customers like criminals is not a strategy for success.

See the reviews on Amazon.com for a good example of the protest vote.

And, while you're at it, pick of a copy of Stardock's Sins Of A Solar Empire instead: DRM not included. Check out Stardock's Gamer's Bill Of Rights. Well played. ]]> 604@http://www.nullstream.com/ Gaming 2008-09-08T22:09:17-08:00 http://www.nullstream.com/archives/000603.html

Microsoft has announced new Zunes features on the Eve of Apple's Ipod related media event. New models include a 120 Gbtye and a 16Gbyte model.

The more interesting part of the announcement however is the new software features. Starting on Sept 16th the Zune will support a feature called 'Buy from FM'. This feature, which will work with over 450 radio stations at launch, allows a listener to 'tag' a song they are listening on the radio for purchase. If the user is connected to a Wifi hotspot (public or private) the song will be purchased and downloaded instantly. Otherwise it will be queued for when they connect or dock next. Although I don't listen to the radio much anymore but there are a significant number of people that still do. Many Zune owners have listed the FM radio feature as a significant reason they chose a Zune over an iPod. (I'm sure the fact that their Dad works for Microsoft could be listed as another reason.) I can see how this feature will be popular. It is pretty cool and dare I say innovative?

Additionally MS has announced an unlimited music subscription program for 14.99 a month. It should be noted that many are predicting Apple to announce a similar program tomorrow.

Additional feature are the ability to update the 'Zune card' sharing in real time, as well as Audible.com support and some new games. It should also be noted that MS is giving this update away to existing Zune owners for free and not charging them the (required?!) 10.00 amount that Apple charged iPod touch user's for new features.

I've been working on Google Chrome, our new open source web browser. I wrote the SafeBrowsing (anti-phishing and anti-malware) feature with another engineer, the download manager, and a bunch of random other bits. I'm currently working on the Mac and linux version. I guess I'm now a paid open source developer, which is cool.

Some of my favorite things:
- fast and minimal user interface
- fast rendering (via webkit) and javascript (via v8)
- resizable input text boxes (thanks to webkit)
- downloads don't prompt you 15 times
- multi-process architecture makes Google Chrome robust to crashy sites
- tabs are slick and easy to manage by popping in and out of windows
- search / address bar and the new tab page train themselves to my usage very fast

Since each tab can use its own process, looking in the Windows Task Manager might be a bit confusing. You'll see multiple chrome.exe instances and on XP, shared memory isn't accounted for properly so it'll look like we're using a ton of memory. So we built our own task manager: right click on the title bar and see what the tabs or plugins are doing. In any case, browsers are doing much, much more these days than rendering static pages, so the resource usage is going to more, too.

This is a beta launch, so there are likely to be missing features. Leave your wish lists here.

p.s. Some users have been having trouble getting youTube search to work. It seems to help if you delete one of the YouTube cookies first. You can do this by going to Tools > Options > Privacy > Show Cookies > search for "Youtube" > select "VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE" > Remove Cookie. It worked for me.

There is an on going drama unfolding regarding Nullriver's new iPhone App 'NetShare'. Netshare is an iPhone app that implements a SOCKS proxy and allows for limited tethering (without Jailbreaking your phone). Apparently you can buy an additional app for your Mac or Pc that will tunnel all your traffic through the proxy. When the app first appeared it generated quite a bit of buzz. Then it was yanked without warning or explanation. A short time later it was still available via direct link, then back on the store and people where purchasing it like mad. It has now been yanked again. Clicking on the direct link now yields the message shown above. Nullriver does not feel that they violated any of the developer agreements and points out that a carrier's restriction on tethering is not allowed in many countries where the iPhone is sold. The above error message seems to indicate that if Apple does allow the app to be sold, the US will be blacked out.

I have it fired up and so far so good. No dead or stuck pixels from my preliminary inspection. I didn't look to carefully though, and I won't look again. It's better not to know. The vertical viewing angle is definitely not as good as my 2405, which is as expected. The specs claim 160°. I can't say much about the brightness, however, as I turned it down to 10 right away. I find both of my monitors to be far to bright at their stock setting to be comfortable for extended use. Contrast is 1000:1. Response is 5ms. Don't ask me about color accuracy, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a good monitor and a bad one.

The monitor is nothing fancy, just VGA and DVI input - oh and there are speakers on it somewhere. But as a second monitor it will do just fine.