Entry for 3/22/06

Microsoft delays Vista yet again. I can picture Steve Jobs, and the rest of the competition to MS greedily rubbing their hands together at this latest announcement. Its just hard to ignore the fact that, despite its dominance and popularity, Microsoft has now dropped the ball accross the board with their product launches (Origami), Innovation (IE7), and Operating Systems. This continuing spiral into unpopularity can mean nothing good for the Giant in the Northwest. Here are a couple of CNET articles responding to the news:

Perspective: Vista delay is back to the future for Redmond

Vista delay could sting PC makers

Entry for 3/21/06

Some thinks just go way beyond geeky and meticulouse. Take this software that allows you to track and analyze sleep patters for your newborn. From experience I can tell you that people with newborns just don't have time to mess around with something like this. Here's the link to check out for yourself: http://www.trixietracker.com/tour/sleep

Also...

The REAL Google Beta (from 1998):
http://web.archive.org/web/19981202230410/http://www.google.com/

Funny Stuff

This comic strip I found this morning kind of sums up how I feel about the whole trend of things with Apple. I actually like Apple's innovation, and think that they are an interesting company to follow. However, I think a lot of people take that a little too far. Check out the parody here:

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/796.html

An Article Worth Reading

This article has to be one of the best I've read from a blog in a long time. I'd definitely give it a read. On a personal note, I would have to say that I agree with what the author has to say. Your achievements in life are only hindered by what you think your limitations are.

Read the article here.

The problem with Apple Fans and the Recent Announcements

This past week, Apple announced two new products and a product upgrade to the masses. The results: Mostly a bunch of complaints about how Apple "psyched up" its fans only to "let them down". The reason? You've got me? I've read and heard a lot of discussion the Apple's annoucement that is filled with nothing but complaints about how Apple just "dropped the ball" this time.

I don't necessarily agree. While I think that the iPod Hi-Fi is pretty lame, and so are the 100 dollar leather iPod cases, I don't think that the problem had anything to do with what Apple did. Its more of what the fans and the Press was expecting. They let themselves down. Let's review how this all started:

About two weeks ago, Apple sent out a letter to the press basically saying "Come and see some fun new products on February 28th." That's all it said. Now, with plenty of time between the letter and the moment of truth, speculations on what the event was about went berzerk. People were dreaming up the most magnificent ideas about new iPods, ibooks, etc. Nobody had a clue, but their imaginations were nowhere near being curbed at all.

Then the day the event comes and Steve Jobs comes out all exicted, and announces a new Intel Mac Mini, a leather iPod case, and an overpriced speaker for an iPod. People were bummed. So bummed because despite Apple being excited about what they were offering, the people's curiosity was not gratified. The results: mass grumbling against Jobs and Apple.

People were claiming things like "Its Apple's fault that it is a flop because they 'hyped it up' by keeping it a secret." Uh, not really. The hype came from the Press and the fans. I'll use the following allusion for my example:

Let's say that you are a small boy wanting a bike for Christmas. Your parents come home one day all excited and telling you that they can't wait to see you open your gift from them. You suddenly start dreaming up ideas about how great the gift will be. Could it be a new bike? Maybe an xbox 360? Your mind wanders while your heart races in anticipation for Christmas day. Christmas day comes along and your parents, still excited, hand you a present. You open it, and it turns out to be a football, not a bike, Xbox, etc. Are your parents at fault? They were excited with what they got for you. They figured you'd be excited too, but you weren't. Is that their fault or yours?

I think that the Press and Apple fans who felt let down are like that boy. They dreamed up all kinds of ideas on getting something dreamy, like a 10lb iPod that microwaves your lunch and can make you fly. But instead they got a "football".

Honestly, if people had not been speculating, they wouldn't not have been burned by their own expectations. That being said, it is clear to see that Apple did nothing wrong.

And the moral is: Stop acting like a spoiled child and go play with your football!!! :-)

Attack [on] the Mac!!!

Here are two very interesting articles about Mac Security and the recent attacks against them. Although it looks like Macs are still safer, it also looks like people are now starting to turn their attention over to the challenge of exploiting this undiscovered territory of Mac vulnerabilities. Both very good articles by Larry Seltzer of eWeek.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1928716,00.asp

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1916535,00.asp

Entry for 2/21/05

This is just too funny to make it wait. I've heard about it, but getting the chance to see the pic makes it even funnier.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/4630

Entry for 2/16/06

This article touches on something that is so very, very true about communication over the internet.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70179-0.html?tw=rss.index

Optical Illusions are pretty cool. These pictures take that to a whole different level with using simple paint in the right places:
http://www.2loop.com/3drooms.html

A Lot of people don't even know how to drive their cars, and yet somehow we feel compelled in inventing technology so that they can fly them???
http://news.com.com/StudentsCatCMITCgiveCflyingCcarCaCshot/2100-11389_3-6040007.html?tag=nefd.top

Finally, I heard this morning that last night's episode of American Idol received much better ratings than the Winter Olympics. Not a surprise really. Americans want to be entertained. They want to be entertained when THEY want it. Not when the network wants it. NBC holds up all of the good coverage until later on in the evening, and after most people have exhausted their ability to stay up. Add that to the fact that the results are easily discovered on the internet or the local news. Not much entertainment coming from the Olympics with all of that against it.

Entry for 2/7/06

Well, this weekend will certainly prove to be interesting. On the agenda: A solo trip to New Castle, PA where I will engage in hours of co-op video game play with my cousin Ryan, A two hour coffee house concert singing and playing guitar, and of course witnessing the Pittsburgh Steelers battle the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL with my Steeler-fan friends.

But enough about me. Check out this cool Beta software that pretty much allows any windows user to get the "Expose'" feature available on the Mac. I like it, except for the fact that it is a Beta version with limited configurability. Its called, "Small Windows", and it allows you to view all of your currently opened windows in thumbnail form. Here's the link to it:

http://smallwindows.sourceforge.net/

...ok, since this is delayed, I'll catch everyone up. The weekend went very well. The Steelers won the Super Bowl...WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!! And I had fun showing a handful of people my incompetence at using a tamborine. Ryan and I finally defeated our video game too.

On that software, its VERY buggy. I finaly uninstalled it today, after I found it just getting in the way and being too buggy to use. I thought that I'd use it more, but my old habits of using a taskbar are too hard to break. Oh well. It is still worth looking into if you have the time and patience.

Entry for 1/30/06

this is one of the most disturbing articles I've ever read about the Chinese...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/01/24/international/i135115S12.DTL

...actually, I'd like to add that another disturbing thing about the Chinese is that they eat dogs...of course, so do a lot of asian cultures.

This is one of the funniest sites I've seen in a while. Check out the videos:

http://www.askaninja.com

Wanting their cake and eating it too, people now move to desparate measures to enjoy the best of both Operating System worlds on one machine:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=452

Father and Daughter celebrate Steeler Championship victory

This is a pic of Audrey and me as we celebrate the Steeler victory over the Broncos to win the AFC Championship game. Some things we're just born into. :-) 

Entry for 1/20/06

A lazy way to sort your socks:

Never Sort Socks Again

Mac users shouldn't kick back when it comes to security:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4609968.stm

A personal switcher's story about switching to a Mac:
http://backside180.blogspot.com/2006/01/switch-boy-and-powerbook.html

I have stopped using Mozilla Firefox for about a month now. I was disgusted with its slow launching and memory hogging. On top of that was always the ramdom site that just didn't want to render correctly. Needless to say, open-source worshippers and the tech media have had nothing but good things to say about this browser since its inception. Granted, Firefox is a HUGE improvement over IE6 right now. However, there are many other options out there, such as Opera (www.opera.com) or Maxthon (www.maxthon.com), which can easily give it a run for its money. Furthermore, I found an interesting article below which helps put to rest some of the hype on Firefox. It is a great read for those who think that Firefox is bullet-proof:

The truth about Mozilla Firefox:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html

..and this just in: I got my hands on a Beta version of IE7. All I can say is, wow. There are some kinks in it, but the coolest feature I've ever seen is the thumbnail feature you can view when you have multiple tabs open. Very very cool!

Entry for 1/11/06

This site is pretty cool. It really expands upon the idea of an online word processor. But even more so by offering you an entire online office-type suite to create power points, spreadsheets, etc. It also offers up to 30 MB of storage etc. Pretty cool. I still like writely though, for ease of use and the fact that you don't need to download so many java applets. Check it out below.

ThinkFree Office Online


...so it turns out that Apple dropped an Intel chip into its products a whole 6 months earlier than predicted. That's awesome. While I am not anywhere near in the market to buy a Mac and make the switch (it would be hard to justify dropping 1,000 bucks on a computer when you already have 2 working computers already), I am keeping my eyes and ears open tight for feedback on this new change. I'm also curious to see what windows Vista is like when it finally comes out in the year 3015. It will be interesting to compare the two operating systems.

My website (not my blog, but actual website) is becoming an issue in the back of my mind. It seems to consistently be way out of date with pictures and news. I have yet to write a smooth interface for updating any of it. Not only that, but Meg is taking pictures at a pace too insane to keep up with. I am going to need to get myself into a project of re-writing the programming on our website to allow her to do picture uploads and content editing. This way I can at least get both of us keeping the content active. Now, if I can only find the time to do this... :-)

a few more links of interest

Ok, I came accross this interesting link that made me shake my head. Its cool. But whoever did this has way too much free time to kill:

Go to your start menu

Select Run

At the prompt type in: CMD.EXE

At the next window (which should be a DOS prompt) type in: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

Enjoy the movie!!!

This next article is of no surprise really:

Employees complain as IE begins its rapid descent

What the world needs less of

I find it very, very hard to respect countries and people where the practices of Islam are taken to this extreme:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051228/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_honor_killings;_ylt=AoV_S4gLh5YOrs4OuUYIzP_jOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE

Obviously, this guy has issues. In Pakistan he will probably be sentenced to death, which is a just punishment for such a crime. In the US, however, he probably has a chance of living in a prison and getting food and shelter from our tax dollars for the rest of his life.

Notes and Updates

Yeah, like this will make them any safer:

http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/honda-unrolls-worlds-first-motorcycle-airbag/

Why it pays to have a cute baby (Which I do, hehe):
http://news.com.com/2061-10786_3-6009893.html?part=rss&tag=6009893&subj=news

An update to my home PC issue: It appears that my theory was dead wrong. It wasn't an overheating computer. Rather, it was a faulty power supply. A good friend of mine provided me with a spare Powers Supply that he had, and when I tried it out, the computer worked perfectly. Not only that, but my new cdrw can burn a full disc in 2.5 minutes! Awesome! This is good news, because I really wanted to wait a while before getting a new computer. Also this gives me time to wait until the new Intel Macs are out on the market and have been run through the wringer by early adopters. In any case, I'm very happy to my friend, Dave who provide me with the power supply.

Of truth and consequences

Here's a great quote that merits a posting:

"The plural of spouse is 'spice'. "

On a less happier note:

My journey over to the world of Apple just took a step closer as my PC decided to stop working for me. I installed a new cd-rw drive to extend its life and usefullness and was rewarded by a machine that reboots every 3 minutes. Even with the new drive removed!!! Now it just turns off without warning. My suspicions are that the processor is overheating somehow, so tonight's experiment will allow me to find that out. In any case, I'm reduced to a slower, but currently more reliable Laptop. Stay tuned for further musings on this problematic issue.

Yes, I've Flip-Flopped yet again

I've done it again. I've switched from Firefox to Internet Explorer. Why? Well, first off, I was noticing that leaving firefox open on my work computer for a few hours was consuming massive ammounts of RAM. Okay, maybe not "massive" but enough to make me annoyed. Also I was contemplating on the fact that I use very little of its extensions for anything. I really like it for its ability to use tabbed browsing and its pop-up blocker. However, it does have a tendency to force me over to IE when I want to view a nice website with all of the bells and whistles, which it cannot display. One of those sites is ESPN.com. I use Yahoo services extensively as well. I noticed that Yahoo mail, as well as other services offer a more seamless experience in Internet Explorer. And despite what most people say, Firefox has crashed on me quite a few times, and that's with a gig of RAM.

So I decided to enhance IE by installing the MSN toolbar, which gives me pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing as well as desktop search (Which I don't use). The switch thus far has proved to be pretty good. IE launches much faster than Firefox, and the toolbar has been doing a great job as well. Its also nice to go to a website with full confidence that I will be able to experience every feature it has available.

In other news, I followed the advice by John C. Divorak in the latest podcast of This Week in Tech, and am trying out the "Writely" online word processor. I have to say, this is pretty sweet. Right now I am composing this blog with their service. I haven't examined all of their features yet, but I will post a future evaluation of it once I'm done. Now, let's see how this "blog" option works....

Good Advice I Heard Today

Listening to a radio show today, I heard some advice that I can agree with:

"Sometimes the best choice you can make, is the one that you don't... Nobody ever suffers from giving a decision a little more thought...With the fast-paced society we live in getting instant responses on cell phones, instant messages, and e-mails, everyone has lost sight on a valuable method for dealing with life. Waiting...What decision ever gets ruined by giving it a little more thought?"

This is advice we all need to consider.

Difficult choices for the cost-conscious consumer

This is the kind of information that makes it difficult to make an all-out switch to a Mac.

"Are Apple Computer computers a bargain? It depends on the perspective of the buyer. This week, CompUSA is selling an iMac with a built-in 20-inch LCD monitor for $1,699. It comes with a 250GB hard drive and 512MB of memory.

For about the same price, a consumer can get two high-end HP Pavilion PCs and two 15-inch LCD monitors at the same store. For $844, CompUSA has a bundle that includes the HP model with a dual-core Athlon processor, 1GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive.

Or a shopper could get five Compaq Sempron-based systems (each bundled with a 17-inch CRT monitor) and have money left over. "

Links and Thoughts #6

If this gets off the ground, Cable might actually be worth purchasing:

a good idea

Smash me an XBox while you're at it:
this is too funny

This story is tragic. However the moral is...um, I'm not really sure:

Kiss of Death

What do you do when you're using Firefox and your mouse bites the big one? You read this article:

Mouseless Firefox tricks

A temperature-controlled butter dish: because we can't think of anything else to invent:

A buttery idea


Best quote heard this week:

(comment made concerning parental discipline of children in today's society)
"It seems like the age of personal responsibility has gone by the wayside when it comes to parents disciplining their kids"

What NOT to be thankful for.

So Thanksgiving Day has come and gone, and now we're off to prepping for Christmas and the New Year. Each year as I sit down in front of a huge pile of food on the last Thursday of November, I think about how many people in the world have probably never seen this amount of food in one place in their entire life. American tradition has caused us to plop down around a huge table, say a little prayer and engage in a ritual of gluttony that should probably disgust us. There are lots of things to surely be thankful for. But in some cases, I think that we need to re-examine how we celebrate what God has given us. I'm not against eating turkey and pumpkin pie. What I am bothered by is not what we celbrate with, its how we celebrate it. Is God honored when we ritually sit down and eat until it hurts? Is he honored when we spend 3 to 5 minutes of thanksgiving prayer and then spend the next 3 hours feasting like its our last meal?

When was the last time we've heard a sermon on gluttony in this country? Do pastors preach on such a thing? Does anyone really understand what gluttony is anymore?

Not that I am in the least bit innocent of this charge. I'm certainly pulling more than my share of fat and calories each day. I just wonder if anybody else considers this issue each year?

Free + Recycle = Freecycle.org

I can't really explain why I haven't posted about this really wonderful concept before, but now I am. A few months ago, a friend of Meg's told her about this online community called "Freecycle.org". Freecycle.org is a website that allows one to give away or recieve items for free from people within their surrounding community. Its kind of like a free version of the classifieds. Most of the community groups are organized by city or county. To give you an example of how it works, let me explain about our experiences with it so far:

1. the first experience we had was when Megan set up her account, which sends e-mails to your yahoo account (Freecycle is affiliated with Yahoo! Groups I believe). Each day the folder would fill up with "offer" or "wanted" notices for various items. One of the freely offered items was an all-wooden baby's high chair from somebody in the nearby area. Meg replied to the person offering the highchair, who gave us directions to their place as well as where she would leave the item. A couple of days later, we found the person's house, picked up the highchair, which was out on the person's porch, and went home. It was as simple as that.

2. Our second experience was a metal filing cabinet. Meg and I had been thinking of buying one, but when we saw this, we figured, "what the heck?". The person was out in E-Town, which is about 1/2 hours from our place. However, a free metal filing cabinet is a free metal filing cabinet. Because of poor written communication via e-mail by both us and the person giving the cabinet away, we end up driving out there and finding nothing. A week later, the scheduling for both the person and us was better communicated and we came home with a free working filing cabinet.

3. The 3rd experience we had was getting rid of a bunch of useless computer junk that I had lying around the house. Recylcing computers can be a pain, so this was a great way. We divided up our items into separate free offers and posted them on the web. We got several responses, asking for the items right away. The arrangements for pickup were made and we set the items out on our front porch. Within the week, all of the stuff was gone. It was so easy!!!


Of course, one has to realize that not everything that people are giving away is going to be top-quality, or in top-quality condition. For instance, the high-chair is very nice, but the finish needs re-done. The filing cabinet works fine, but its missing a metal folder rack in one of the drawers. Of the computer items I gave away, some work, others didn't (of course, I DID let everyone know that before they chose to claim the item).

All in all, I think that Freecycle.org is a great idea for people. It allows people to be rid of stuff that is taking up space, and allows others who are looking for various items to find them at no cost. Its a situation where everybody wins. If you think that you might be interested in checking it out, here's the link: Freecycle.org

Links and Thoughts #5

I'm posting this link in dedication to my conscious decision to switch to the Mac Platform with the purchase of my next computer. More details to come about the reasoning behind this. Here's an article detailing the history of Apple's long-standing operating system:

history-of-mac-os/


Pictures of Michael Dell's house. So much for modest living. If I were as rich as him, my house would only be 23k square feet. :-)

the house that dell built

Interesting Patents, including...um, Coffee Beer?

weird patents

Happy Birthday to the coolest available web browser out there:

happy b day firefox!

What Microsoft Needs To Do

Ok, let's insert this opinion right here. After reading tons of articles and comparing products and such, it is clear to me what Microsoft needs to do in order to not only survive, but somehow improve.

Release Operating Systems More Often

One issue we've seen with them is their lack of dependability because of operating system vulnerabilities. Rather than continuously putting out new patches and fixes each month, they should just mimic Apple (like they do for their OS anyways). Release an operating system every year to 1.5 years. This would make it easier to insert current tech features into the OS, and periodically reinforce security issues. The whole OS could be progressively improved, and it would also make a great way to keep hackers from figuring out the code. If its always changing, then its less likely to be hacked and exploited. It would also provide improved revenue.

I understand that the cost to support all of the new products at this measure would increase, but that's another area where Microsoft could make money, in offering support contracts with every OS that they release. This would guarantee enough revenue to handle the support. Every 3 to 5 years, they could just drop support for the oldest OS, as they do now. This would prompt people to upgrade every couple of years to keep up with new changes.


Innovate

Let's face it. When was the last time that Microsoft actually came up with something original? Do you mean to tell me that with billions of dollars flowing throughout that company that they can't just invent something new? They've been copying ideas long enough. Its hard to give somebody credit for their work, when most of it is copying their main competitors ideas 5 years after their competitor introduced the concept.


Read comments in the comment box

Come on, Microsoft! I've been reading article after article where people have been mentioning huge annoyances that have existed for years in Microsoft Operating systems. Why doesn't Microsoft address it? The registry? The false "Time remaining" stats when you're copying files? The copy feature that quits in the middle of copying a huge amount of files if there is one error, and you have no idea what files are copied are what ones didn't make it. These issues have existed for many releases. Listen to us and fix them please!!!!

Of course, I'm no expert. I know that there are probably a few flaws in my rant, but I think that the ideas are still something Microsoft should consider. If they keep going in the same direction like they are now, my daughter might be reading about them in her history books when she grows up.