Taking a Small Void Hiatus.

Well, I have new things in store for void, mostly a new look, and this will take some time to craft. I'm calling a timeout for void, don't worry void will be back ASAP. I also have some things to care of as well, and lets not forget a German international test looming the horizon.

Regardless, of crappy excuses, I'm calling this time out. Void shall be back with a new look soon, badder, faster, more reliable with 150-new features.

T'ill then, enjoy, and remember I still want my tic tacs, yo know what to do ;).

XB0X 360 Out in the Wild Already...

... and the pics of the system have started to pour into the internet. 1UP has a great feature article filled with XBOX 360 pics, worthy of been checked out.

So as I checked the pictures I drew some conclusions regarding the Xbox 360. Which I will share with you now.

• The console is more aesthetic inclined than the first XBOX. Good.


• This console appears to run a lot hotter than the previous gen. Hence the need of 2 exhaust fans in the back. Not so good.


• 2 different packages for one system. Stupid.


• Getting rid of the black and white buttons on the face of the controller. Good


• Controller lighter than previous version. Very good


• Giant Power Supply, styled by the same guy who designed the first XBOX apparently. Bad.

Lastly, one the things that struck me, was the really cheap look of the Live headset. See for yourself.



Whoever came up with that design, well buddy the prior design was miles-ahead better than this. This just looks cheap. The sort of thing that for an average adult's head will be a tight fit. I deemed by the 4th time i put take it off and on..the thing will brake.

So there you have it, my small take on the 360. I won't comment on games because I haven't gotten a chance to play with one ( I doubt I will), regardless these are my first impressions by seen a gallery of pics snatched of the system and components.

Google Analytics.

One of the (many) new Google endeavor is their Google Analytics service. How does it work, what it is, and how it matters to you i'll explain that in a bit.

First, and foremost this a free service. What this service offers is a tool that tells you everything about your website's visitors, how they found your site, and how they interact with your site. According to the search engine giant, its a great way to focus your marketing resources to actually get traffic flowing to your site, by analyzing search engine keywords, referring URLs etc.

What more does Google say about their new service well..

Sophisticated, yet easy to use.
We believe that web analytics should be simple and sophisticated at the same time. We've designed Google Analytics to have enterprise level capabilities and yet still be accessible to anyone who wants to improve their marketing and site design. Google Analytics delivers all the features you'd expect from a high-end web analytics offering, and provides timesaving AdWords integration features.

I'll try it out here with void, will it replace StatCounter.com, as my traffic analysis site? Who knows, I'll try and see.

If you are interested in trying as well, head over to http://www.google.com/analytics/ and take a look.

GMail Wap Access - Get Your Gmail on Your Cell.

Ever had the need to check your Gmail on the go? Maybe you want to know if that important email you were waiting for was finally waiting for you in your inbox. If you have a cellphone with WAP access, there's a solution for your Gmail email checking needs.

Now, first things first dong go trying to access wap.gmail.com, Gmail has no support for wap access.We have to use some third party stuff. We have 2 options.

First, do you have your own PHP web server? then you all you need is Gmail-Mobile. This PHP front-end allows access to Gmail accounts on WAP/WML devices, and its GPL (open source) which is always good.

Second option, you don't want to mess with setting up PHP stuff, somebody has probably done it already, lets use theirs I say. They guys at GmailWireless.com have, and they are willing to let you use their service.

What you need to so is point your cellphone web browser to wap.gmailwireless.com. Once the page loads you will presented with a form asking for your gmail username and password. Fill that in, hit OK, and there you have it your Gmail inbox on your cell.

So there you have it 2 quick options to retrieve your Gmail email using your cellphone. Hopefully at one point or another Goggle decides to actually add support for WAP access from mobile devices.

Amazing FREE streaming music service reads your mind!

Normally I don't blog Digg stories, but this is too damn cool to pass up. Check it out, all you need to do is enter your Favorite artist, or song and it will find similar music and stream it for you. You own personalize radio. Should you like what you hear, it even links you to the iTunes Music Store to purchase a given track.

A great tool to discover new music, or find the title to that elusive track you once heard, but don't remember the name.

The Digg Description:

Enter your favorite artist and Pandora creates a playlist of music that is eerily and accurately similar. Sound quality is great and it runs inside your browser...what more can you ask for? Been dug before, but it used to cost $$$. Now it's free!

read more | digg story

617 Visitors in One Day!

I submitted Monday's post on the Slashdot-like Digg on Monday night. To my surprise, I checked the traffic stats on tuesday hoping to see around the area of 60-70 Hits. The usual for an unsuccessful submitted story. Boy was I wrong..


When I saw that I had gotten 617 hits in one day (!) I must say I believe in the Digg effect. Turns out my post had reached front page with around 75 Diggs around sometime at night. Low and behold, 600+ came and visit.

Pretty damn cool, what was left from my post been seen by so many people? 9 Comments, and $0.01 cents from Google ads. All said and done, getting that amount of visitors in one day, sure made me believe in the power of the frontpage @ Digg.

Want to Counterfeit Money? Don't Use Photoshop.

So the other day I was forum hopping around the internet when I stumble across a peculiar post. Some guy wanted to photoshop a pair of boots in a US 20 Dollars Bill. Intrigue by the plan this guy had in mind, I continue reading the replies he got.

One of the first things needed to go about doing this, was of course a picture of 20 Bill. Somebody posted a pic of the bill, of course tagged with the word SPECIMEN on it, as to drive away any weird ideas you may have.



Bored that I was, I decided to have some Photoshop fun and drop this .JPG into Photoshop, when I was greeted by this very interesting Dialog Warning Box:



Interesting, given that image doesn't contain any meta-data of any kind. How does Photoshop know it's a 20 dollars bill? What's of interest, other Bill pictures such as the ones found here in wikipedia, don't make this warning pop up.

What does this 20 dollar bill have, that others don't? Who knows. Are Image editing software able to detect the shape and forms within images, making it say -"OK this is a Bill" thus triggering that warning box? But then, what about the other pictures? I even tried some pictures of Euro currency, again no Warning box popped up.

Truly an interesting case. Anybody willing to give some insight into this?

P.S. Excuse the use of imageshack, Blogger's image service is acting up, or is refusing to let me upload a picture of a Dollar Bill.

The new generation of Microsoft Certifications.

Today I received this cute little email from Microsoft:



I remember been part of the survey in which they asked MCPs about the next generation of certifications and all that. Well here's the result..

Dear Microsoft Certified Professional:

You already know about the newest versions of Microsoft® SQL Server™, Microsoft Visual Studio®, and Microsoft BizTalk® Server. We'd also like you to know that we're complementing these new products by introducing new Microsoft Certifications.

Consisting of four credentials in three series, the new generation of Microsoft Certifications provides IT managers with a simpler and more targeted framework to validate your skills. Better yet, they give you a tool to showcase your skills in a more relevant, more flexible, and more cost-effective way. And, as Microsoft releases new products, we'll introduce additional certifications.

In short new certifications to become more a Microsoft centric person. Pay us so you can be tested, perhaps even be certified to know how to use our products and just our products. Brilliant strategy by Microsoft really. You have these MS products in your company you need our new certification, to truly manage them. Meet Bob, our new Microsoft Certified Person.

I have concluded that these certifications in term make more money to MS, and whatever training place you went to, that they will ever make you.

True Fact.

*hides MCSE/MCSA/MCP certfication*

58 Days 00:43:12 'til 06.

Amazing how time files, seriously its truly note worthy. I know this is a recurrent theme with my "monthly" posts, but I can't help but bring that to attention. In 2 months 05 is done man...matter of fact I bet he's already packing his bags and saying "Well I hope I made an everlasting impression on you guys!" You know I must say that 2005 has been a year of changes, mental development, and learning experiences.

I can't complain even tho there's always that "Well things could be a tad better.." I don't know we shall see..still 58/57 days left maybe 05 goes out with bang? I doubt it. Then again, by the end of this month I have to take my final International Deutsch test, should I pass that..November has been good to me.

Thats all..57 days left..308 days I'll never get back. Maybe make these last 50-sumthing days worth something? *shrugs*

...And This is Why You Don't Date a Crazy Guy's Ex.

First thing first, they are some things you just don't do. For example, mess with a German Bavarian piece of art. What can lead to such an outrageous act? The story behind this sad sight is as follow...

-M3 Driver was screwing psycho guy's ex. Psycho guy goes to ex's house..sees the Driver's M3..takes all his frustration away on the poor car.

Now thats what I call a very expensive punching bag. At the same this got me thinking, what does the car have to do with anything? Be a man you crap, go knock on the freaking house, call the dude and sock him in the face. You little crap, wasting your time buying new-age interior orange paint to then brake such a piece of marvelous engineering. Yo make me sick, hopefully the M3 shall be restore to its pristine condition. Else, anybody willing to send it to Argentina? I''ll ride it like that..I'll live in it. You don't know me I'm crazy about BMWs...



Don't worry little buddy, you will be back to normal in no time..

Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.3 Update Out -Mac Geeks Gone Wild!

Yesterday marked the released of the long awaited .3 release update for OSX 10.4 Tiger. Quickly and diligently I set to update my macs. The update came in 2 flavors a 97.0 MB update and a ~58.0 MB update. What determined which update you had to download? Who knows.. all i know is that my PowerBook I had to wither a 97 MB download on 256k "broadband" meanwhile my PowerMac had the more reasonable 58 MB one.

But this isn't about the update, but more about the whole activity that OSX updates creates around the mac geek community. Its amazing the amount of replies, this topic gets on forums. See here if you need proof, 683 replies and still going strong. Crazy. The update rocks, its snappier, safari kicks ass, my firewire doesn't work, I get Kernel Panic when ___________, It didn't fix ____________, It sucks, its cool. All phrases you will find there.

I know us mac users have a special bond between the mac and us. However, that been said it is amazing how fired up and update can get a whole community. Only rivaling a new hardware introduction, Oh man...now there's something to admire. The crazy life of many mac geeks, I guess.