Hamarana

I may never open Macintosh Mail.app again.

I use gmail for everything… I have a number of accounts, and in addition, I have my domain mail hosted there to gain the benefit of the google/gmail spam and virus protection.

Enter Mailplane.app. Its a wrapper for gmail and behaves just like a regular mail client. It has the usual toolbar, and dropdown menu system, all of which talks to gmail, and it presents your mail with the gmail web interface within the app.

I liked it before, but was hesitant, because the previous version only allowed one mail account at a time. In other words, when you logged out, the app would close. This issue has been dealt with in this version and switching between accounts is a snap.

I can see that I will be registering this one as soon as its out of beta

If you use a Mac, and you use gmail, this is a must-get app.

Join the beta program… it takes a while to get the invitation but it will come sooner or later.

Microsoft as an advertising giant? Not beyond the bounds of possibility. I wonder how it goes, when one computer company has the largest share of computers, and the largest share of the advertising industry (hypothetical, of course… this purchase doesnt put them there… yet..)

Microsoft has taken a deep plunge into the online advertising business, paying $US6 billion ($A7.3 billion) in cash and a massive 85 per cent premium to snap up one of the last major players in the sector, aQuantive Inc.

The deal came just one day after another online ad company, 24/7 Real Media Inc, was acquired for $US649 million ($A789.39 million) by advertising conglomerate WPP Group PLC and is the clearest proof yet of the urgency that technology and media companies feel about getting a piece of the online advertising boom.

It is the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. The all-cash, $US66.50 ($A80.89) per share price represents an 85 per cent premium to aQuantive’s closing price on Thursday of $US35.87 ($A43.63).

Read the rest in the Sydney Morning Herald online.

Its getting to that time of year when I start getting bored to sobs with having a blog.

Blogging is something which pretty much forces you to keep updating your site even if you don’t much feel like it, or if nothing much attracts your attention. Blogging is also something which eventually leads you away from the original intent of your site and into a more general kind of content.

I used to have a site which was tech oriented and which attracted a lot of visitors. Now I have a nothing kind of site which has no particular orientation and which attracts even more visitors.

But I am bored. So will I sell the domain and give it all up? Or will I move the blog into a subdomain/subdirectory and make the main site something more like what I began a few years ago?

If you want the domain, make an offer (and it will have to be substantial)…

I have only just learned, thanks to a forum I am involved in, that the US government has access to a truckload of personal information of non-US citizens.

Some of you may be aware of, and may have even used, the SWIFT method of bank transfer. Perhaps you have kids overseas who needed a boost and you sent them some money. The Brussels based SWIFT is one of the ways of getting money from “here” to “there”. It may not go to the US, it could be, for example, between Italy and the UK.

But.. guess what… after 9/11, the SWIFT people agreed to give the US government all information about what money was moving to where. Antiterrorism, they said. But this flow of information has never stopped.

Read more at privacyinternational.org: The article is old, but the information is current.

At last, Sun is jumping into the fray and assisting with the port of OpenOffice to a native Mac format.

Currently all thats available is an X11 version, or the other ported NeoOffice.

Read about it on the GullFOSS blog

Some things really piss me off something shocking.

The Labor Party’s decision to give Kelly Hoare the boot in favor of Greg Combet is sickening. Its the kind of thing which turns me OFF a labor vote.

Kelly has been the sitting member for Charlton since (I think) 1998. She’s done a fabulous job. She cares about her constituents because she lives here, she’s lived here all her life. She knows the people, she knows the problems of the area, she knows what needs fixing AND she listens to her constituents. If Kelly stands in Charlton again, the Labor party is assured of a win.

But, in its group wisdom, the Party has decided to kick Kelly out and bring in someone who doesnt live in the area, who has never lived in the area, who hasn’t a clue about the local people and the local situation but has done a fine job as a secretary of the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) in the Rights at Work campaign. Mind you, if Howard had never pushed his new Industrial Relations policies, nobody would know who the hell Greg Combet is, right now.

They could have had him stand in his own electorate. He would probably win, no matter who the current sitting member is… but instead, they have decided to get rid of Kelly. Lord knows what’s going to happen to her, she’s out of a job. Not because she hasn’t done a good one herself, but because the golden-haired boy has to have a “safe seat”. Obviously they don’t trust him on his own merit, he can only succeed riding on Kelly’s coattails.

I’m sick to bloody death of Party Politics. We should be aiming for Direct Democracy… not this pathetic crap which is designed not for the good of the people but always for the good of the party. Our electoral system is a self-sustaining self-serving nonsense.

Direct Democracy is beginning to be the only thing that makes sense to me.

[Edit] NB: Please be aware that the owner of this site (and writer of posts) is a user like yourself, and as such, is unable to provide support or information which may help solve your HiSense issue.

I had a lapse. I wasn’t going to do this because there were other things (like proper airconditioning, and maybe a new computer) that I thought I wanted first. But then, I saw this really decent looking and performing TV in Good Guys at Kotara last week. I wandered through on Thursday, and thought “maybe”… bought what I needed on that day and went away again.

Saturday came and when I woke up I realised I was contemplating life with a large TV. So off I went to see what I could get. I had always had my heart set on the midrange Samsung (LA32R71BDX) 81cm, which I had seen in action many times. It came with a builtin HD tuner and I could get it, I discovered, for way less from Bing Lee than anywhere else. Nonetheless I didnt commit because I kept thinking about this noname TV at GG. So I went back and looked again and decided that it was enough for me, I didn’t need to go the whole hog for a Samsung or Sony, and that a decent 81cm for under $1000, with a 3 year in house replacement warranty was good enough.

The TV is made in China, and the company is around 40 years old. Apparently they are one of the top Chinese companies, but haven’t yet made much headway into the Australian market. I’ve seen the brand in JB HiFi, and Good Guys, but nowhere else.

Specs:
Screen Size (Diagonal) : 32 inches/81cm
Aspect Ratio : 16:9
Native Resolution :1366×768
Viewing Angle : 178(H)/178(V)
Brightness: 500cd/m2
Static Contrast Ratio: 800:1
Response Time: 8ms
HD ready (analog TV tuner only)
Power consumption: 150w
Audio Output: 8W+8W
Connections in: RFx1, Videox2, SVideox2, Audiox4, Y PbPrx1, VGAx1, HDMIx1
Connections out: Videox1, Audiox1 Subwooferx1
Weight 19.5kg
Channel Coverage: VHFL 48.25 to 168.25, VHFH 175.25 to 463.25, UHF 471.25 to 863.25
Analog RGB Mode: VGA, SVGA, XGA
Y PbPr Mode: 480i/60Hz, 480P/60Hz, 576i/50Hz, 576P/50Hz, 720P/60Hz, 1080i/50Hz, 1080i/60Hz

I can use it with a computer, but I reckon its a bit too big: still and all, it has been great, once I got all my bits connected. I’m only connected via the composite cables at the mo, but this weekend I’m going to fritz about with the SCART cable for my set top box, because I am told that improves the picture even more.

It should be said that the built in tuner is just yer basic analog tuner so If you want proper digital TV you do have to have a STB. Mine is standard definition (a Topfield TF4000T) so I can’t get High Definition TV programs but it doesnt really matter… but the time all programs are broadcast in HD, the appropriate STB won’t cost nearly as much as it does at the moment.

Not a lot of sense to be got from me at the moment, I am really enjoying the change from a tiny (by comparison) 51cm CRT TV.