After a long time here comes another post on this lonely blog, and I kind of thought about rere(re)*re-starting to write more regularly, maybe complain about the world, so I don’t bother people that don’t care directly and give the chance to comment my thoughts to other haters like me. Or something. I think I am becoming stupid and don’t know how to write in English any more so excuse me for my mistakes.

And maybe it is time for a redesign and a separate domain as I see some of the posts are still being read quite a lot and maybe it would help grabbing a nice name somehow related to me or something. Maybe my name + surname to show off a little bit? Why am I still writing this?

Anyway, as the post title is suggesting I am on G+ and can invite you, in case you still didn’t manage to join us 31337 h4x9rz (it is still closed right? I don’t even know that). Post a comment or send me an email (via the about.me page) with your mail so I can invite you.

So that was it for now, I could write something about Windows 8 or my new Samsung Omnia 7 (running the beta Windows 7.5 Mango release) but I guess I will do it tomorrow.

Have a great day!

PS: feel free to check my about.me page. It is kind of lame but who cares right? I am lame.
PPS: happy wifi day! (8.02.11 for American date style)

The qwiki.com decided to add an invite your friends feature to the site and since I’m an alpha tester, I now have the chance to invite my friends. If you don’t know what qwiki is, let me just tell you that this project might have a cool future. It’s basically a search engine but everything you search is pictures + audio instead of the common text form. They won at TechCrunch Disrupt and their mission is:

to forever improve the way people experience information

Check the site at http://qwiki.com,

So Invites are available, if anyone would like one just write a comment (with your real email as I can invite you only via email).

Anyway, if you are like me and don’t have the money to buy an expensive HTC (I know there are cheap ones, don’t bug me) but still like their user interface, here is something you can do.

1. Download Fancy Widget. It adds the nice clock + weather widget (present in the Sense UI) to your home screen. It is actually a widget that was available in the Android Market but had to be removed because HTC didn’t like the design which was basically the same as their own interface. The main difference between the two is that this widget is not animated. Notice that the link I gave you is from 4shared. The file works, I installed it. You download it, copy it to your sd card, use the My Files app (or whatever app you use for directory browsing), click on the file and install it. More mirrors (I think this is the latest update available).

If you would like to have this widget on your computer you can download HTCHome, which is a “widget that shows nice animated clock with weather like on HTC phones. It’s written in C# + WPF in Visual Studio 2010.”

2. Install LauncherPro from the Market. It changes the home screen and adds this:

to your phone. You will be able to see up to 7 desktops on a single screen, much like on the Sense UI (the pinch obviously won’t work, you will have to press a key of your choice). It also changes the 3 dock icons, giving you the possibility to add shortcuts to 15 applications of your choice. And with LauncherPro Plus (which costs $2,99) you can add some pretty usefull widgets, like a big calendar, a friend feed, messages and so on. Check the official site for detailed information.

Read about Tabnabbing: A New Type of Phishing Attack at azarask.in.

The Sign In screen:

Get Social:

Welcome screen:

The MySpace login screen (haven’t tried Failbooks):

The new WLM full view, featuring news from your myspace or failbook contacts, photos, statuses etc:

And the compact version (very similar to the old one except I find it cleaner):

The conversation windows (note they are tabbed by default):

New emoticons (the old one were nicer IMO, maybe I’m just used to them):

New sharing in the conversation:

And that’s about it, I think it’s what’s changed. I didn’t see the OneCare options for antivirus checking of received files so maybe that’s been removed (I hope so).

I also can’t seem to find where to change my nick (as you can see it’s nasal Kovac which was my nick + my surname and I’m really not sure where to change this, no option in the options but a button that connects me to the profiles.live.com page… whooot).

So that’s about it, download it and try it out. There’s also the apatch patch ready for it, which I’m trying to install now.

Comments?

I’m just installing the Messenger and Mail beta, to see what’s been changed and play around a bit, as I like playing with beta toys

If you would like to try them, you can visit the Essentials page and download the installer from there.

Let’s play!

New Xbox 360 gets official at $299, shipping today, looks angular and ominous (video hands-on!)

At first we were doubtful that a edgy box appearing in a little Flash ad from Italy last night could be legit, but Microsoft just got real with the new Xbox 360. (That’s all it’s officially called — just “the new Xbox 360.”) It’ll launch today priced for $299, while the old Elite will stick around for $249 and the Arcade will drop to $149. The new box is crazy sexy in glossy black with touch-sensitive buttons, and Microsoft says it’s “whisper quiet,” with one large fan instead of two — the new 45nm chipset undoubtedly generates less heat to begin with. On the features front, it’s got integrated 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi, five USB ports, and 250GB of storage on a removable hard drive, although it’s not a standard drive or same drive as the old console, and older Memory Units won’t work, either. Upgraders can use a USB-to-Xbox hard drive connector cable to migrate to the new box, however. There’s also a “custom Kinect port” on the back that looks like an HTC-style ExtUSB port, and it also seems like the power supply has moved inside the case, which is a welcome change. New Xbox 360 units are shipping to retailers now, with availability expected later this week, and MS conference attendees are actually getting theirs shipped today.

If you’re in Europe, don’t fret, as yours is coming soon. Microsoft’s official Xbox Twitter account has confirmed the console hits there on July 16.

Update: We just got the official fact sheet, check it after the break. Oh, and we’re calling it the “Stealthbox” to keep all the models straight. It just feels right, you know?

Update 2: According to a Microsoft representative, the Xbox 360 Original will still be sold while there’s stock, but they’re not making any more of them. Once they’re gone, they’re gone — and we’d assume a new $199 variant of the new design will eventually be released to fill the void.

Read the whole article at engadget.

function generate_qr($url, $size ='150', $imgsize = false, $EC_level='L', $margin='0') {
    $url = urlencode($url);
    return '<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs='.$size.'x'.$size.&cht=qr&chld='.$EC_level.'|'.$margin.'&chl='.$url.'" alt="QR code" width="'.($imgsize ? $imgsize : $size).'" height="'.($imgsize ? $imgsize : $size).'" />';
}

You call it like this:

<?php echo generate_qr('http://blog.zurka.us'); ?>

And get something like this:

Try pointing your favorite code reader at it!

PS: I just noticed that it doesn’t work well because of the dark background, try it here.

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