Microsoft Sells 1 Million Xbox Ones in the First 24 Hours Too!

Well, wadda ya know? The PS4 sold 1 million in 24 hours last week, and this week, the Xbox One sold 1 million in the first 24 hours. Very, very interesting!

Microsoft sells 1 million Xbox One units in its first 24 hours

TheNextWeb – “Microsoft has announced a successful Xbox One launch with over 1 million units sold worldwide in the first 24 hours. That roughly matches Sony’s PlayStation 4, which also topped 1 million in its first day.

Friday’s launch outpaced the launches for the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox. As TechCrunch points out, Microsoft’s numbers include sales in a total of 13 countries, while Sony launched the PS4 in just the US and Canada.”

So, arguably, Sony did better!

Geek Software of the Week: Password Safe

You have a LOT of passwords to keep up with. Now, you have a free, Open Source, secure way to do so!

Password Safe Web Site

“How Many Passwords do YOU have to secure?

Whether the answer is one or hundreds, Password Safe allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encrypted user name/password list. With Password Safe all you have to do is create and remember a single “Master Password” of your choice in order to unlock and access your entire user name/password list.

Security starts with you, the user. Keeping written lists of passwords on scraps of paper, or in a text document on your desktop is unsafe and is easily viewed by prying eyes (both cyber-based and human). Using the same password over and over again across a wide spectrum of systems and web sites creates the nightmare scenario where once someone has figured out one password, they have figured out all your passwords and now have access to every part of your life (system, e-mail, retail, financial, work).

  • Start your safe and simplified digital life
  • Free open source software
  • Installation in minutes on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8
  • Designed by renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier
  • Over 4 million downloads”

Bitcasa Jacks Up Their Price… a LOT!

I thought Bitcasa was “da bomb” because they offered unlimited storage, with no restrictions, at $99.00 per year. And, I signed up. But, no way I am renewing at $999.00 per year! Are you kidding?!? I got Pogoplug. $49.99 per year. They had better not raise their price, or I will be REALLY miffed!

Bitcasa’s infinite cloud storage balloons to $999 a year

Engadget – “If you thought Bitcasa’s infinite cloud storage was too sweet of a deal to exist on this mortal plane for $99 a year, that’s because it was — or at least partly because the bulk of subscribers filled up far less of their digital lockers than expected. According to the outfit, 98 percent of its customers use less than five terabytes of data, and 92 percent ‘do not store anywhere close to a terabyte.’ In addition, the firm says a survey of its customers revealed they valued more features over additional space. As result, the unlimited service will now cost $999 a year, or $99 per month, and the company will focus on making the platform more useful, starting with a freshly-released API. Free accounts have been tweaked to start at 5GB (as opposed to 10GB), and the $99 per year (or $10 a month) tier now nets 1TB of space. For those with even more bits to squirrel away, 5TB can be had by contributing $499 a year (or $49 each month) to Bitcasa’s coffers.

Existing subscribers will get to keep their current plan’s rates and storage, but won’t get access to some new offerings — such as the future Linux client — unless they switch to the new pricing scheme. Tencent’s free 10TB of online storage might sound even more tempting now, but it’s worth taking this instance as an example of what could happen to your cloud paradise.”

Will Microsoft Buy Winamp and Shoutcast?

As someone that runs Internet Radio Stations, the idea of Shoutcast going away is scary, and the idea that Microsoft may buy it is crazy!

Source: Microsoft In Talks To Buy Shoutcast And Winamp From AOL

TechCrunch – “Looks like the llama may not get off so easily after all. AOL yesterday announced that it was shutting down Winamp, media playing software for Windows and Android devices that it picked up through its 1999, $80 million acquisition of Nullsoft in 1999. But today Techcrunch has learned that AOL is talks with Microsoft to sell Winamp, along with Shoutcast, a media streaming service also developed by Nullsoft. We have also learned that AOL has been planning to announce the closure of Shoutcast next week.

AOL has declined to comment for this story, and we are still waiting to hear back from Microsoft with a response. From what we understand, the deal is not yet finalized, with AOL and Microsoft still working out the price. It could also be very wishful thinking from those intent on trying to save both services.

AOL did not give any guidance yesterday on what would happen with Shoutcast.

If this is correct, it would represent an interesting, and strange, twist in the story.

On the AOL side, it’s fairly clear why AOL is closing down Winamp and Shoutcast, and it makes sense why it would want to sell both.

As an owner, AOL has never given much of a strong direction to the products, at a time when other digital music companies have been building up audiences and evolving technologies (although, as we pointed out earlier this week when writing about Rdio layoffs, the digital music business is tough). It has already shuttered and sold off other music assets as part of a bigger strategic shift to focus resources as a web publisher (it owns TechCrunch, Engadget, Huffington Post and a number of other bloggy properties), and as a rich-media advertising network operator across those and third-party sites, with an increasing focus on ad-tech to improve how those ads are delivered and measured.

Yes, music properties could very much fit into that mix, but not without a lot of financial and strategic investment in them.

On the Microsoft side, the Windows giant has had its own setbacks in music (RIP Zune). But it has more recently thrown a lot of eggs into the Xbox Music basket, which works on the Xbox 360, Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8,iOS and Android devices, offering free, ad-supported streaming, subscriptions, and downloaded music.

Where would Winamp or Shoutcast fit into that mix? While I’m still trying to figure out what Microsoft would do with Winamp, Shoutcast has a platform that acts as a portal to over 50,000 radio stations. This could be one area that Microsoft might want to add to the Xbox Music platform, and which it currently lacks, to complement its Pandora-style personal radio feature.”

HBO GO is Now Available on Chromecast

HBO GO users can now rejoice! Google Chromecast now supports your HBO GO addiction!

HBO GO now works with Chromecast

“Grab your favorite snack and get cozy on your Iron Throne, because HBO GO has added Chromecast support to their Android, iOS and web app. Now you can easily enjoy ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ ‘Girls’ and your favorite movies on your TV by casting from the HBO GO app or website.

To start casting from HBO GO, just check that you have the latest version of the app for Android or iOS. You can also cast from hbogo.com using Chrome browser on your laptop or any Chromebook. The mobile and web apps will be rolling out over the next few days.

Winter is Coming!”

Dr. Bill.TV #314 – Video – “Blimey, A Timey-Wimey Edition”

Browsers as weapons, 08:09:10 11/12/13, how cool! Sony’s new PlayStation 4 runs on FreeBSD! Sony sells over 1 million PlayStation 4s in 24 hours! ArkOS, a server running on Raspberry Pi, GSotW: Panda Free Cloud Antivirus, Google+ and YouTube, the revolt!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

Panda Free Cloud Anti-Virus for Home


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/oOYz221UbPU

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/79641027


Dr. Bill.TV #314 – Audio – “Blimey, A Timey-Wimey Edition”

Browsers as weapons, 08:09:10 11/12/13, how cool! Sony’s new PlayStation 4 runs on FreeBSD! Sony sells over 1 million PlayStation 4s in 24 hours! ArkOS, a server running on Raspberry Pi, GSotW: Panda Free Cloud Antivirus, Google+ and YouTube, the revolt!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

Panda Free Cloud Anti-Virus for Home


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/oOYz221UbPU

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/79641027


Google + and YouTube – People Yearning to be Free!

People like personal choice and freedom. Every time a big company, or government, any large entity, pushes something on folks… they get up in arms and take on ‘da man!’

Well, that is certainly happening with Google’s forced integration of YouTube and Goggle +!

Forced Google Plus integration on YouTube backfires, petition hits 112,000

ZDNet – “Google’s war on anonymity during its involvement in NSA controversy has imploded as its move to force YouTube commenters to use Google Plus – and its unwanted ‘real name’ policy – has backfired.

On November 6, Google changed its YouTube property to only allow comments from Google Plus accounts, thus de-anonymizing commenters, as the principal element of its site-wide comments overhaul.

Google’s move to force Plus onto YouTube has outraged the YouTube community – and beyond.

YouTube user fury is fueling this anti-Plus petition with over 112,000 signatures, increasing by the minute. (Update November 17, 10:12am PST: over 167,000 signatures.)

Why am I unable to comment? I have been a YouTuber for 3 years and this is the kind of treatment we ‘originals’ [Before any of the G+ crap came in] receive for refusing to show our name publicly?

We want privacy. I do not want my full name on YouTube. I do not care for Google Plus either so stop shoving it in my face. [Nathan S, UK]”

Geek Software of the Week: Panda Free Cloud Anti-Virus!

Panda Cloud AntivirusAnother great, free anti-virus! Come on folks, you have no excuses now! Use Anti-virus!

Panda Free Cloud Anti-Virus for Home

Light
Only works where necessary. It’s so light you won’t even notice it.
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Secure
Panda Cloud Antivirus is based on Collective Intelligence, a system that continuously collects and analyzes viruses and other threats gathered from the community of millions of Panda users around the world.
Free
No tricks! Panda Cloud Antivirus has a free version that protects you against viruses and malicious websites.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is based on Collective Intelligence, a system for detecting and disinfecting viruses and other threats that feeds off the knowledge shared by millions of users. Thanks to it, the computers that are part of the Panda Community instantly share and benefit from all the information stored in the cloud.

Features:

  • Real-time Antivirus & Antispyware
  • Behavioural analysis protection
  • Process Monitor
  • Automatic & transparent upgrades
  • URL & web filtering
  • Translated into 20 languages
  • Community Firewall
  • Protection in public WiFi networks
  • Automatic USB vaccination
  • VIP support. Multilingual 24×7
  • Ad free

Young Developer Offers a “Private Google” on Raspberry Pi!

(Cross-posted from VirtZine) Watch out Google! When you shut off projects like Google Reader, that folks depend on, you run the risk of them developing their own, private Google for home! (Somehow, I don’t think Google is losing sleep, but hey!)

This 23-year-old’s open-source project, a server running on Raspberry Pi

VentureBeat – “For most of us, Google shutting down Reader was annoying. For Jacob Cook, it was a call to arms.

He’s now building an operating system that anyone can use to replace all of the services that Google provides — or any other cloud company, for that matter. Email, chat, file sharing, web hosting: With Cook’s arkOS, you’ll be able to run all of those essential services on a secure, private server in your own home that’s about the size of a credit card.

‘Google, while it is a great service that has done wonderful things for the Web, is showing some troubling signs,’ Cook told me. ‘Their shutdown of Google Reader earlier this year means that none of the services [we] rely upon are sacrosanct if they are not profitable enough for them.’

ArkOS is a Linux-based server operating system that’s designed to run on the popular, diminutive Raspberry Pi hardware. (Eventually it will be able to run on other platforms, such as the BeagleBoard, or even full-size PCs.) Running on top of arkOS is Cook’s open-source Genesis application, which provides a web-based interface for controlling the different services running on your server. Genesis is open source, and all the files are available on GitHub, and you can also download the arkOS files and install them yourself. However, the project is still at an early, ‘alpha’ stage of development, so Cook advises against using it for any serious work just yet.

Cook, who is a 23-year-old university student, has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money so that he can focus on arkOS full time. He’s hoping to raise $45,000 in the next 24 days, and has already collected $5,645 in pledges from over 100 backers. He has also created a legal entity, the CitizenWeb Project, to be the organization responsible for the project.

In addition to the long-term unreliability of Google’s services — the fact that they could shut anything down at any time if it no longer aligns with their business interests — the recent revelations that the NSA can access so much online data gave Cook’s project an additional impetus. If the NSA is able to extract data from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, Twitter, and who knows what other services, who can you trust with your data?

‘The idea that the NSA and its global counterparts can have nearly free reign in the networks of these large companies makes users a target,’ Cook said. ‘Moving users out into self-hosted nodes makes sense from this perspective: It makes wholesale data collection many times more difficult. And when coupled with proper cryptography and secure setups by design, it makes NSA-style snooping practically impossible.’

The arkOS project, when it’s complete, will provide users with a small device they could plug into an Ethernet port at home in order to host their own cloud services. There are commercial alternatives, like PogoPlug, but PogoPlug only lets you host your own files — it doesn’t provide a comprehensive suite of Internet services, like website hosting, chat, email, and so forth. ArkOS will provide those services, with customizable levels of security so you can control who gets to access each one.

Other secure open-source operating systems exist as well, most notably Tails, which gives you a secure desktop environment to do your business. (It, too, is based on a version of Linux, and is pre-configured to use a range of secure applications, and relies on the Tor network for secure browsing.) But Tails is a desktop operating system, while arkOS is for servers.

‘If you host your data with arkOS then access it on your other computers with Tails, it’s a winning combination,’ Cook said.

Another potential limitation: Most home Internet service providers optimize their services for download speeds, not upload speeds — so you can stream video to your TV just fine, but hosting a big media library on an arkOS server might result in very slow performance if you’re trying to access it from outside your house. To address that, Cook said he’s working on ways of hosting arkOS remotely, through providers like DigitalOcean, so you could run an arkOS server in a data center but still have total control over it yourself and manage it through the same web interface.

Cook hopes to have the framework stable enough to use by March, 2014, and will continue adding features for the next year.

The project is based on his own experience as a Linux hacker and IT administrator as well as his academic interest in computer security. He admits that he doesn’t have deep cryptographic knowledge, but as he’s not building a new crypto system, that’s probably not a big problem. He’s also attracted a few people to contribute to the open-source system, but for now he seems to be the primary driver of it.

He may be just one young coder, but then Linus Torvalds was just a lone coder once, too.”

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