Apple will offering a live stream of the WWDC 2013 keynote today on the Apple website. You can also watch the live stream on the newly added “Apple Events” channel on Apple TV.
Live Streaming video requires Safari 4 or later on Mac OS X v10.6 or later; Safari on iOS 4.2 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later. If you’re looking for older videos from Apple’s past events you can find them archived here.
The next update to Windows 8, which was codenamed “Blue”, now has an official name, Windows 8.1. That sounds about right, there’s really no need to put any spin on it, just increment and improve please. Windows 8 is an adventure and whether you love it or hate it, it’s clear that the OS needs a bit of repair and a whole lot of love. The update will be available for free.
One of the biggest problems I have with Windows 8 is it’s dual personality. Currently, the new UI doesn’t allow you to access to all of the settings that are available in the control panel, instead you end up back in “Desktop Mode” with the “old” control panel open. The experience needs to feel complete and flipping between old and new just breaks up the flow. It needs to be one or the other. Windows 8.1 will hopefully address some of these issues by fully integrating your settings into the new UI.
This is the first of many updates that will eventually hit Windows 8 users as Microsoft has ramped up their update release schedule. Some see this new cycle as an advantage for Microsoft as it allows them to keep things “fresh”. Others have criticized the new cycle saying that updates could be a lot less stable and/or secure since they have less time to work out the bugs. No matter what we think, Microsoft has chosen a direction and time will tell whether it was the right direction.
Very rarely do people play Pac Man and reach levels in the 200’s but if you happen to hang in there long enough, something rather odd occurs after you get past level 255.
You reach what is referred to as a “kill screen”. This kill screen essentially renders the game unplayable and you start to see some really strange stuff going on. This isn’t just exclusive to Pac Man either, other arcade classics such as Donkey Kong and Dig Dug also have kill screens.
So what’s behind all of this? Why isn’t there some type of formal ending? Well, the folks behind Numberphile have put together a great video that explains exactly why this happens.
Sometimes you need to access files that are normally hidden by default, but these files can sometimes be critical to the proper operation of the operating system and are therefore hidden for a reason. This means that it isn’t always easy to “unhide” these files as developers want to try to prevent less experienced computer users from deleting things accidentally. However, if you’re a geek then chances are you know exactly what you’re doing and you need direct access to hidden files in OS X.
Fortunately, “unhiding” files in OS X is very easy. Just open Terminal and enter the following command.
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
If you find you no longer have the need to view hidden files, you can hide them again by adding a “NO” at the end of the command.
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
Once you have entered either one of these commands, you need to relaunch Finder in order for the changes to take effect.
Relaunching Finder
One of the easiest ways to relaunch Finder is to hold down the “Option” Key and then click and hold the “Finder” icon. You can also hold down the option key and “Right-Click” the Finder icon. You should see the option to relaunch. After you relaunch Finder, you should see your changes take effect.
In order to better understand what IPv6 is and why it’s important to the internet’s future, we should briefly discuss what Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is and what the main problem with it is.
IPv4 addresses are comprised of a 32-bit value. This system is what the majority of the internet has been using for Internet Protocol (IP). A standard IPv4 address looks like this:
(192.x.x.xxx)
This 32-bit integer system allows for a possible combination of up to 4,294,967,296 (232) addresses. Yes, that’s a lot of addresses but we have run out of them, in fact we ran out of them in early 2011. Keep in mind that there are over 20 billion active devices connected to the internet.
The Problem:
Every single device that connects to the internet is assigned an IP address. As we mentioned earlier, there are billions of devices out there and that number keeps getting higher every day. The internet needs to be able to keep up with that incredible pace, but it can’t. IPv4 has already run out of addresses and all we can do with IPv4 addresses now is reclaim them and re-assign them.
The solution
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the next step forward in internet address assignment. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address system and that means a possible combination of up to 3.4×1038 addresses, yes, that’s 340 trillion trillion trillion! Clearly this is the format we wan’t to be using in a world that’s constantly adding more and more devices to the internet.
A common address for IPv6 is formatted like this:
(2001:0db8:85a3:0042:1000:8a2e:0370:7334).
What are some other benefits that IPv6 has?
IPv6 is far more efficient when it comes to sending data and it even offers up auto configuration capabilities that don’t exist with IPv4. The new protocol is also much more secure and offers true end-to-end connectivity, which eliminates the need for Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT helped reduce problems with the IPv4 model as it began to run out of addresses by allowing you to hide multiple private IP addresses behind one IP address. Without it, we would have had a lot more trouble with IPv4 in the past.
So when do we switch and how long will it take?
Well the transition to IPv6 is going to take quite a while but it has already begun. The world IPv6 Launch occurred on June 6, 2012 and we continue to make progress as internet providers and websites make the change.
Am I on IPv6 Already?
Chances are that you aren’t but if you want to be sure, Google can help you figure that out by heading here.