This week has been quite a busy one for me. Only 2 posts since the last The Net post last Sunday. The main reason for this is Halo 3! I have been playing that non-stop! I have already beat the game and have been playing online a lot. So many of my friends have it I usually always have someone to play with online. If you have not tried the online co-op it is a lot more fun than playing the campaign by yourself, especially since you can turn the difficulty up to legendary! Also I have been trying to pump out reviews for ThinkComputers. I am still a bit behind, hopefully I can get caught up in the next few days. Ok so what’s going on this week?
iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 Out
This has to be the biggest technology story of the week! I have recently bought an iPhone and have successfully hacked it enabling it to run 3rd party apps, a lot of which are really useful. The new firmware update locks out those 3rd party apps. Even worse if you have hacked your iPhone to be used on another carrier your phone basically turns into a paperweight. You are brought back to the activation screen and you are basically screwed. The only thing the firmware update does that is useful is fixes the speaker phone volume and adds the WiFi iTunes music store. I think I’ll keep my 3rd party apps instead. Gizmodo has a great write-up on what will work and what won’t with the new firmware.
How Top Bloggers Display Their Ads
Serverdome has an interesting article on how the top bloggers display their ads. The article outlines 6 of the top bloggers pages and gives you the percentage of ads above the fold. Guess who was #1 on that list? John Chow followed by ProBlogger. It was interesting to see that a lot of the top bloggers are using the 6 square ad placement on the right side of their blog. That placement is becoming the new standard for bloggers.
A Wine Just for Microsoft
I’m sure Microsoft can afford any wine they want for their employees, but of course they had to have their own. The Blue Monster Reserve Sauvignon Blanc was created by South African winery Stormhoek for Microsoft and its employees. The bottle has a very creative and interesting logo that says, “Microsoft change the world or go home”. It was created cartoonist and blogger Hugh MacLeod. So how do you get a bottle of this wine? You have to either go to a Microsoft party that Stormhoek sponsors.
Poodwaddle.com World Clock
Now this is kind of scary. This live word clock shows A LOT of information. Everything from births, deaths, to computers produced. The figures on the clock are approximations based on past stats and estimates. It is really a lot to take in. I was really surprised to see that besides car accidents suicides are the 2nd biggest cause of death.