phpBB launched the fourth version of the phpBB3 generation. phpBB 3.0 “Olympus” Beta 4 can be used for testing purposes only, not in live forums.

Changes from Beta3:
- automatic updating method (not 100% safe)
- 400 bug fixes

Download links:
- phpBB.com
- phpBB.ro

Recently I saw a link on Microsoft’s homepage, taking me to 3D maps - a new service by Microsoft. It is similar to the ones offered by Google and Yahoo!, still, I’m not going to present it in comparison to them, but rather by itself.

3D maps is available in two ways: online, as part of the Live Search, here, or downloadable, as part of Virtual Earth 3D (which is still Beta). I didn’t get the chance to download Virtual Earth, but I have tried the online version. Read the rest of this entry »

Click to enlarge

This is a serious issue given the fact that by limiting the access to knowledge and information basic human rights are violated. Given this the researchers from Citizen Lab in Toronto created a free (released under GPL open source license) software that allows users to workaround web restrictions. And that software is called Psiphon, what basically psiphon does is to create a secure HTTPS connection to a machine in the free world and that psiphon server (psiphonode) handles all the page requests of the psiphone client (psiphonite).

Psiphon is a initiative I salute and software like this might make the difference for someone who doesn’t have the good luck to browse the Internet freely.

Did you ever find a product, may it be an electronic gadget or something else, and think that it’s totally pointless, then feel the need to play with it for a bit? Or did you ever find such an item, and immediately think “Wow, I wouldn’t spend a dime on this! But it would be cool to receive it as a present…”? I know I did. Here’s a list with some of these products. Read the rest of this entry »

Samsung released its (and the world’s) first SSD Notebook earlier this year (rated at about $3,700). Instead of a hard drive, the notebook is equipped with a SSD (Solid State Drive). The first model is called Q30SSD, and the main differences between it and older notebooks are the speed (it writes 300% faster, with about 53MB/s and reads 150% faster, with approximately 28MB/s), the temperature (the laptop/PC will not overheat as much). As a result, XP (for example) boots 25% to 50% faster. Also, the Q30-SSD displays Videos and Photos without having to boot first. But, keeping in mind the hard drives/SSDs, we have to say that SSDs are smaller, lighter, faster and cooler (regarding to temperature) than normal drives.

Considering these advantages of SSD-equipped PCs, will hard-drives keep up? Or will they quickly become obsolete? I think that only time will tell for sure.

Windows Vista and Xbox live, try to interconnect and make it easy for users to share content and media. The Xbox live in particular is a system meant to bring HD movies and TV series to Xbox 360 users, it’s a point based system where you buy points with money and with points you can download content. This looks simple enough and if you think that the same point system might be used by Microsoft for it’s new mp3 player, Zune, it sounds rather good.

But as always there are ups and downs, one of the downsides is that Xbox 360 only has 20 Gb available for storage and that’s not a lot when talking HDTV. Besides there were some Read the rest of this entry »

xbox 360 games compare xbox games in Australia

There is a wave of rumors over the blogosphere lately about the new Wii gaming platform from Nintendo. Games agree that Wii is lots of fun for the whole family, especially for the kids and all agree also that Wii has a better sense of immersion than the direct contestants, PS3 and Xbox360. The wireless controllers used by Wii have motion-sensors that guide the actions of the game, so in order to play a tennis game you have to make all the moves that a tennis player would do. Now I have found a lot of funny stories about some guy that accidentally hit a friend or a dog playing games like tennis or bowling, but that’s mostly entertainment.

Some, more out of shape gamers, have other complaints about the Read the rest of this entry »