You may find you get the following problem when trying to stream music to multiple speakers. Streaming to either local computer OR your airport express works, but when you try to stream both, you get an error message that looks like this:
“An error occurred while connecting to the remote speaker ’speaker_name’. An unknown error occurred (-3256).”
This is most likely caused by a firewall issue. If you’re running Tiger, then there’s a fix here. If, however, you’re running Leopard, then it’s a little different:
1. Open System Preferences
2. Click Security
3. Click Firewall
4. Either:
a. “Allow all incoming connections” – but I don’t recommend this, so
b. “Set access for specific services and applications”. Click the + symbol, then find iTunes in your Applications folder. Then set its permission to Allow incoming connections.
You should now be able to stream to multiple sets of speakers. Whilst you’re playing about in the firewall settings, click Advanced and enable the stealth mode, which seems to be off by default. You should also check that logging is enabled, as it’s possible that the change to your firewall settings will interfere with other applications you have installed.
If you already own a D-Link G604T wireless router, then you can upgrade it to the G624T model, simply by flashing the firmware. The 624 firmware has many more configurable options, including much improved support for ADSL2+. Here’s what to do.
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A recent post on HackADay on what to do with an old laptop got me thinking. I have an old laptop (a Sony VAIO FX804) which was pretty much sat on a shelf doing nothing and turning it into a digital picture frame to display some of my photos seemed like a good use for it. I’m by no means an electronics whiz, but this seemed like something I was capable. The steps involved are pretty straightforward – get the laptop set up to function as you would like (some sort of slideshow, configured to either run off a hard drive or via an Internet connection) and nothing much else. Then dismantle the laptop so that the screen is frontmost and then somehow jig the rest of the machine behind it, perhaps in some sort of softbox. I’m good at dismantling stuff, although perhaps not so great at undismantling stuff, but what the heck – I had nothing to lose.
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The looooong-awaited sequel to one of the best video games ever, Grand Theft Auto 3, has finally hit the stores. And with such an anticipated and massively-hyped release, expect some serious press coverage and the usual airing of the “games are so violent my kids stabbed me in the eye and stole my money” stories and the anti-fun patrol out in full force.
And right on cue – there has already been one incident of GTA IV attributed violence – and this was before they’d even bought and played it.
But can GTA IV really go one better than the infamous Hot Coffee mod? Well, if this video snippet of GTA IV gameplay is anything to go by, then the answer would be a resounding “hell yes.”
That ought to have the repressed masses lathered up in to a raging fury in no time.
UPDATE: Following this post, I decided to go out and buy it. Why not. AND DAMN – it’s awesome. It’s got some bugs (it caused the XBOX to lock up a couple of times) but generally speaking, it’s unbelievable. It now comes with an online multiplayer mode (kept separate from your actual game progress) – you can perform missions with other people, have death matches or just use the “free” mode, which does what it says on the tin. I’m quite sure that a lot of GTA owners love it for the simple fact that you can just meander about, shooting, stealing and generally just be a bit of a ponce – and now you can do it online with lots of other similar ponces. Magic.