d MacSpot: May 2005

5.23.2005

Systm Has Arrived

Systm is here, NOW. Get the links on Systm. They've got a ton of different formats, so choose your favorite.

Kevin Rose announced that he has gotten out of his contract with G4 and will devote all of his time to Systm and theBroken. Get ready for a ton of content to be comming your way.

I'm at 20.2% downloaded on Systm. As soon as I watch it I'll post my feedback.

+MacMan

5.18.2005

M1cr0sof7 S9e@k$ 1337

In February Microsoft published an article to parents on how to interpret "leetspeak" so that parents could understand what their kids were saying. The article is off the wall funny. Microsoft seems so serious in its presentation of the facts. Below are some excerpts from the article. The full article can be found here.

1. While it has many nicknames, information-age slang is commonly referred to as leetspeek, or leet for short. Leet (a vernacular form of "elite") is a specific type of computer slang where a user replaces regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words phonetically—creating the digital equivalent of Pig Latin with a twist of hieroglyphics.

2. Rules of grammar are rarely obeyed. Some leetspeekers will capitalize every letter except for vowels (LiKe THiS) and otherwise reject conventional English style and grammar, or drop vowels from words (such as converting very to "vry").

3. Non-alphanumeric characters may be combined to form letters. For example, using slashes to create "/\/\" can substitute for the letter M, and two pipes combined with a hyphen to form "|-|" is often used in place of the letter H. Thus, the word ham could be written as "|-|4/\/\."

4. The suffix "0rz" is often appended to words for emphasis or to make them plural. For example, "h4xx0rz," "sk1llz0rz," and "pwnz0rz," are plural or emphasized versions (or both) of hacks, skills, and owns.

Leet words of concern or indicating possible illegal activity:

"warez" or "w4r3z": Illegally copied software available for download.

"h4x": Read as "hacks," or what a malicious computer hacker does.

"pr0n": An anagram of "porn," possibly indicating the use of pornography.

"sploitz" (short for exploits): Vulnerabilities in computer software used by hackers.

"pwn": A typo-deliberate version of own, a slang term often used to express superiority over others that can be used maliciously, depending on the situation. This could also be spelled "0\/\/n3d" or "pwn3d," among other variations. Online video game bullies or "griefers" often use this term.


Other common leet words:

"kewl": A common derivation of "cool."

"m4d sk1llz" or "mad skills": Refers to one's own talent. "m4d"
itself is often used for emphasis.

"n00b," "noob," "newbie," or "newb": Combinations synonymous with
new user. Some leetspeekers view "n00b" as an insult and "newbie" as
an affectionate term for new users.

"w00t" or the smiley character \o/: An acronym that usually means
"We Own the Other Team," used to celebrate victory in a video game.

"roxx0rs" Used in place of "rocks," typically to describe something
impressive.

"d00d": Replaces the greeting or addressing someone as a "dude."

"joo" and "u": Used instead of "you." This is also commonly written as
"j00" or "_|00."

"ph": often replaces "f," as in "phear" for "fear" (as in "ph34r my
l33t skillz") and vice versa, such as spelling "phonetic" as "f0|\|371(."


Well, thank you Microsoft on that fine lesson in leetspeak. *cough*
+MacMan

5.17.2005

Systm Widget

Hi All! I just got through making a widget that counts down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the release of Systm. This is a Konfabulator only widget.

*Note: The image below will not update as it is a screenshot. The real widget updates every second.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

What is a widget? Its a small program usualy written in HTML and Javascript that is designed to do a simple task such as display the weather, a calender, to-do lists, clocks, etc. In order to work they need to be run in a program like Konfabulator or Dashboard.

UPDATE!
You can now download the widget here. Its set up on the Konfabulator widget gallery.

ou'll need to download Konfabulator to run it. I'm going to make a Dashboard version soon for all you Tiger users out there.

This is my 1st attempt at a widget, so any feedback will be most welcome.
+MacMan

5.16.2005

System Countdown Clock

Scopetech just posted about the release date of Systm. It'c comming out 5/23/05 at 8PM PST. If you sign up for the newsletter you can download it 1 hour earlier. Systm is going to be similar to theBroken, but more like the old The Screen Savers. I can't wait!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Also in the way of TSS, Kevin Rose, and online technology content, This Week in Tech is a new PodCast put out by all the old TechTV guys.

Leo, Kevin, Pat, Yoshi, Robert, and Dvorak are all onboard on the project. The just released episode 5 today. TWIT was #1 on PodCast Alley this week, so check it out.

The best way to enjoy TWIT, download some PodCast software. Then listen to it on your computer, iPod, non-iPod player, or cd.

Mac - iPodderX

Multi-Platform - iPodder
Windows
OS X
Linux

+MacMan

Google Store

Have you been to the Google Store yet?

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

I'm going to get this and iron www.MacSpot.Blogspot.com on the back

Oh the possibilities...
+MacMan

5.15.2005

Search the 4 is Dead

If you remember, a little over a month ago I made a post about Yahgoohoogle and SearchThe4 as alternatives to the standard Google search. We'll, its been brought to my attention that SearchThe4 is dead. But, with its passing comes another site almost identical to it, only better.

Rjnsmith Search is a search engine that is basically SearchThe4 but with more options of search engines to use. The user has the option to use these search engines for general web searches.

Yahoo
Ice rocket
AllTheWeb





Ask Jeeves
Teoma
Lycos
Excite

WebCrawler
Vivisimo
MSN
Google


Meta Crawler
Search.Com
Mamma
Dog Pile

These for images

Yahoo
Ditto
Picsearch



Alta Vista
Ice Rocket
Ask Jeeves
Alltheweb

WebCrawler
Object/Image
fotosearch
Google


Meta Crawler
MSN
Mamma
Dog Pile

These for news

News.com
Google news
Market Watch



Fox News
ABC News
CNN
Daypop

NewsIndex
Poynter
PBS
Sky News


Reuters
World News
SlashDot.org
The Street

These for info

Answers
Dictionary
Onelook



Infoplease
about.com
Education W.
Encyclopedia

Encarta
bartleby
britannica
Bible


Merriam
libraryreference
reference.com
Thomson

Being able to pick from all these different search engines from different categories makes Rjnsmith Search a one stop shop

Also, Yagoohoogle might be going away. Its new site will be Twingine

Thanks to the Anonymous commenter for the link.
+MacMan

5.07.2005

Google getting Hacked?!!

It's 5:50 CST and I cant get to google. It says "google.com cannot be found"

Is Google getting hacked, or are they just messing with their servers. We'll see.

Updates to come

Update:

Its back online. I wonder why it did that.

+MacMan