Zune Is Gone… Again and Finally
If you thought Microsoft’s Zune was gone, you were wrong… until today. While Microsoft stop producing Zune players, the Zune brand name was still around.
Today, the Zune name is no longer.
tech
Ready for IPv6 Launch
Thanks to Dreamhost and Cloudflare, Pulpconnection is ready for tomorrow’s IPv6 Launch Day. Dreamhost provides free IPv6 address assignments while Cloudflare has enabled their IPv6 gateway for all its users.
Linkwithin > Outbrain?
I haven’t been collecting data on this but purely by observation, it seems like my previous install of Linkwithin generated more internal clicks than Outbrain. Providing similar services for recommended posts, Outbrain sounded more comprehensive, so I made the switch.
Now I’m not so sure. I recall more clicks recorded from Linkwithin recommendations. There are a few from Outbrain, but much less on a daily basis. Maybe it’s time to change back?
Integrating Pinterest with Your Blog?
That sounds like a great idea! Pinterest is hot right now, and I admit that I don’t quite grasp the hype. Oh, I am a Pinterest user but primarily to see what’s it all about. What I do know is that things I pin like kicks and Draw Something “artwork” generate activity without having to do much else. Wouldn’t it be great to perhaps direct this activity to your own blog? That’s what WP Pinner aims to do. Watch this one-minute video for some details.
Autopost to Pinterest, scheduled pins, and analytics on pins all for free? Yep, check out WP Pinner.
A Smush.it and CloudFlare Workaround
I recently started using the WordPress plugin Smush.it which optimizes images for better user performance. Instead of slowing down page downloads with large-but-resized images, Smush.it trims the fat so you download less. For some reason, Smush.it intermittently conflicts with CloudFlare, often times giving errors or timing out.
If you’re getting this behavior, be sure to check out this thread of possible fixes. There are some workarounds listed, and I’m going through them now.
DNSChanger Detector Activated
Been hearing about this DNS Changer malware recently, and since I’ve been using CloudFlare, I activated the freely included DNSChanger Detector. If you’re visiting Pulpconnection and see an error message about the DNS Changer malware, there’s a good chance that you’ve been infected.
You can learn more about DNS Changer here or from the FBI’s site.
Rocking the Old iPod Cable
Though Firewire is no longer supported on newer iPods and iPhones, these old iPod cables featuring both Firewire and USB still work. Well, just the USB cable anyways. Might as rock’em if you got’em.
Don’t Try This
Using Lion’s new Recovery partition and its pre-installed tools, don’t try to erase the main hard disk of a MacBook Pro. You can’t do it. The drive won’t unmount to perform the partition or erase commands in Disk Utility.
It’s because the Recovery partition is “part” of that main hard disk and therefore the hard disk is technically in use. Disk Utility won’t let you partition or erase a disk that’s in use.
Here’s a word of caution about this. OWC blogs about this issue of cloning Lion-based hard disks due to the Recovery partition. Seems like the best bet is to create a bootable USB Flash drive, start from it, and perform the Disk Utility actions.
Testing out CloudFlare
Dreamhost and CloudFlare recently joined forces to offer a sweet deal for Dreamhost users – free CloudFlare! I’m still learning about all the benefits of CloudFare then need to figure out what plugins I won’t need because of CloudFlare.
Note to Self: Recalibrate iPhone Home Button
If that iPhone home button is acting up, try recalibrating it. Yes, it can be done. Here are instructions or watch the video below.
Reading About 99 Titles and 40-GB Copy Protection
Just doing some reading about the 99 title and 40-GB copy protection on DVDs. Interesting ways to stymie copying of discs.
What I Learned About My MacBook Pro
So I have an older MacBook Pro, and only recently learned a thing or two about this trusty workhorse. This MBP is the first unibody design, designated “Late 2008.”
First the good news. When it shipped, this model supported 4GB of RAM. Then it was discovered that the machine was still stable with 6GB of addressable memory. This meant one 4-GB module paired with one 2-GB module, giving a total of 6 GB. Not bad, but when Apple released Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6, they also supplied a firmware update for some machines. This firmware update had an undocumented change which consequently raised the RAM ceiling to a full 8 GB.
To replace the internal hard drive is easy since the drive is very accessible. The Late 2008 MBP can handle SATA2-speed drive throughput. But… don’t try to future proof the purchase of a replacement drive, especially if you’re looking at the newer Solid State Drives (SSD). Some SSD drives that operate at SATA3 speeds (6Gb/s) are not fully compatible with this MBP and instead of downspeeding to SATA2 speeds, these fast SATA3 drives run at SATA1 speeds! That’s a big waste of a fast SSD, so don’t do it. Go with the slightly cheaper SATA2 drives.
Besides the unfortunate SATA compatibility, the Late 2008 MBP has a well-known but unacknowledged hardware issue based on its graphics chip set. The problem manifests itself in random blinking of the top third of the built-in display. While not destructive, this bug is very irritating, and there’s no clear fix. On the Apple Support Communities, replacing the logic board is the usual course of action but that doesn’t always lead to a fix. In fact, several board replacements is sometimes followed by a whole computer swapout. I haven’t reached that extreme yet, but it’s sad there is no clear way to solve this.