Only 20GB?

From Flickrer Max Aretz’s photostream.

I was in an crowded elevator at the La Salle College of St. Benilde the other week, and I was a bit puzzled at the muzak being piped in. It wasn’t too clear, but I could tell it was a noisy metal band blasting away. Metal muzak? I listened closer and was startled to realize that it wasn’t from the elevator sound system - it was coming from earphones plugged into the ears of a student at the back of the car. Dear God, I thought. Is he deaf?

If he isn’t yet, he will be soon.

iPods are capable of hitting 100 decibels - the equivalent of standing 10 ft from a pneumatic drill running full-tilt-boogie - and just listening at that level for 15 mins can seriously damage your hearing, say experts. New models of iPods can run for more than 12 hours straight, so you can imagine the potential for damage. Even if you don’t crank it up all the way, the cumulative damage from listening at high dBs for 21 hours a week, the average amount of time a typical user keeps the buds plugged in, can be very disastrous.

Telegraph.co.uk reports that Apple is finally acknowledging the problem and has recently put in a patent for a system that automatically adjusts the volume to safer levels in forthcoming iPods and iPhones. Apple’s patent states

Since the damaging effects on users’ hearing is both gradual and cumulative, even those users who are concerned about hearing loss may not behave in a manner that would limit or minimise such damaging effects.”

Apple’s system will calculate the listening levels and length of time the music has been blaring and will gradually lower the audio output to less harmful levels. It will also calculate the “quiet time” between turning it off and then turning it on again so that the level can be raised higher after a significant rest period for the user, although it has been determined if this automatic level control can be optionally shut off.

Ok, ok, we hear ya. We’re turning it down.

I did a double take yesterday when Software Update pulled up Security Update 2007-009 for me to install on my desktop Mac in the house.

Huh? Didn’t I do this already last week? But I figured, doodling around regularly with different Macs at home and in the office, I must’ve forgotten to update this particular one. Not likely, but possible given the current state of my memory. So ran it, and it installed.

But still, it bugged me so I checked around.

Apparently, I wasn’t paying attention again. It was Security Update 2007-009, but to be more precise, it was Security Update 2007-009 Version 1.1. Huh?

It looks like the first one, but Apple still hasn’t said why it was compelled to release this second version one week after it released the first.

V1.1 has new versions of Core Foundation, CUPS, Flash Player Plug-in, Launch Services, perl, python, Quick Look, ruby, Safari, Samba, Shockwave Plug-in and Spin Tracer. But if it was significantly different, why not just call it Security Update 2007-010? What was wrong with 009?

I started looking around for entries in the Support pages of Apple for info on the first release of the update, and all I got was a slew of Page Not Founds. Seems they took everything about V1.0 down. Hmm. My spidey-sense is tingling vaguely.

Could be nothing of course, but let’s wait for more news to surface.

The Playstation emulator circulating in beta has officially been released at Version 0.1.0.

The emulator, psx4iPhone, of course needs PSX ROM files, like the other emulators out for Apple’s phone, and you’re on your own trying to find some. It looks a lot like the GameBoy Advanced emulator, and has roughly the same features, like game saves, etc. And like the others, it’s still a bit clunky, with poor audio and herky-jerky video, but it’s a great start.

You can download it from the Home of Homebrew ZodTTD and manually install it, but as of today, it’s been available via Installer. Load your ROMs in Media/ROMs/PSX.