My computer history goes back to 1980 when I touched my first computer other than a calculator.  Way back then I purchased a Commodore VIC 20 which had 3.5 K RAM (yep, that is K not Megs, I have emails much larger than that today ;) ). I was consumed with computers and technology every since, it was wonderful seeing all the changes over the early years.

Well, way back when Apple produced the first Apple Macintosh, people seemed to flock to it from the time it first appeared.  Apple’s marketing has always been amazing and they are great at getting into people’s heads and making them want something.  It would seem they can sell anything regardless if it is good or bad.  They even have the power to brainwash people into believing it is Apple who invented all the technology. 

Apple’s brilliant marketing launched the Apple Macintosh during the Super bowl game with this commercial:

The iPod Example: when the iPod came out, most people just referred to MP3 players as MP3 players, but after the iPod, it seemed about everyone was using the term iPod for a replacement of the term “MP3 player”.

When the iPod came out, it was extremely expensive compared to the competition and actually had less features than some.  There where a few MP3 players had radio, recording and one had the ability to broadcast to your radio, which of course, the iPod had none of these.  But, that Apple marketing not only made the term “iPod” replace “MP3 player”, but most people think Apple invented the MP3 player and that they were the first on the market.  It was sad, even tech people who knew better fell into the Apple tractor beam as a cow being led to the slaughter..

So, history shows that Apple’s intent was to sell a lot of iPods, yep, but their money machine was betting more on the sales of Mp3s from their sight, which people just dumped more and more money purchasing songs.

Where is the arrogance?  Well, throughout Apple’s history they have had the mindset that THEY are the ones that know what is best for you and only THEY are intelligent enough to design a “user experience”.  They have puffed themselves up to such a point of pure arrogance.  One example is how with their Mac computer, they forced people to a single mouse button and ignored the thought of a scroll wheel on a mouse.  Trivial perhaps, but a clue to how arrogant they are, they must really think they know what is best for you.  While the world of PC’s have enjoyed mice with a right button and some even a middle button and great usefulness of the scroll wheel to enhance your user experience, Apple only recently tried alternatives to give you more than one mouse button.  Absolute arrogance!

Well, they are at it again showing more arrogance than ever and people still walk into the tractor beams and lose their brains.  Their new product that ‘iPad” is their crowning joy of arrogance.  They used their iPhone OS instead of their OS X operating system.  While this opens the device to many iPhone applications, it also locks the functionality of the device in many ways.  They did not even provide a USB port on this device.  I find it hard to see their thinking on many levels, but they even made the device unable to replace the battery….

Limitations?  Yep, they are promoting this as your best experience for browsing the web..  Well, they have a limited browser ability which does not allow Adobe Flash or other enhancements to function.  This means there is a multitude of sites on the Internet that you will NOT be able to view or will be functionally crippled.  In addition, as new technologies come up, the iPad will not be able to experience them, you are locked into Apple’s back pocket.  This also means that all those applications that are being built for the Internet that use Flash, Flex, or Silverlight, will not function on an iPad.  With the iPad, you have your Internet browsing experience filtered by Apple who of course, thinks they know what is best for you..  

Below is a video showing what you CANNOT do on the iPad as it does not support Flash:

(above is a video that you will not be able to see on an iPad, since it does not support flash… )

Where is the arrogance in this?  For the non-tech person they do not see the details, but what Apple is doing now is saying that they know what is best for you and are DEMANDING that the Internet change to meet what Apple thinks is best for you.  They say that people can just use a new standard for designing web sites called HTML5, but not only does this standard not cover the functionality that Flash, Silverlight and others offer, but it is not a “standard” yet and probably will not be until 2020. 

Their arrogance with demanding the Internet to change reminds me of the old joke that came out some time ago that they said was an actual conversation at sea:

(Capital lettering indicating shouting)

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course. Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS, AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

I really hope the Internet is the Lighthouse and they refuse to change, but the pressure of how many of those iPads are selling may start to make a dent.  This I hope is Apple’s undoing and people wake up enough before they vote with their money to harm the Internet.

My hopes lay in the future of tablet computers, which this year seems to be the focus of many companies this year.  HP will be offering a similar device that runs the full Windows 7 operating system that will be out this summer/fall along with probably a dozen different tablet machines, some running Windows 7, Windows Phone 7 or Google’s Android OS.  Perhaps the flood of new devices will force Apple to be more compatible with the Internet.

I do wonder what is in Apple’s future, the do own the domain name “iSlate” so perhaps, after they have sold enough iPads, they will make a machine that runs OS-X and allows you to have a full Internet experience under the name iSlate…

The new line of tablets coming out are pretty exciting.  The HP Slate looks like a pretty good device and I plan to get one when they hit the market.  The machine does look a little limited on horsepower for Windows 7, but still should work great for most applications and wonderful for browsing the Internet as it will allow a full experience. 

Even with all the information showing the HP device and others have more features and abilities than the iPad, there is ALREADY disinformation coming out from people admitting that the device is more powerful and has more features, BUT…  they think the Apple is better as IT is DESIGNED for touch while they others are only limited touch on top of a desktop OS and not much is designed for touch, they even break into the old “just putting lipstick on a pig”. 

This to shows their extreme bias as they Silverlight platform (that both Apple and Windows users can use) now come with touch features built into it FOR the Internet, that is, with Silverlight, you can design a touch based app that runs on a website or even run it from you machine without going to the Internet.

Microsoft has invested heavily in Touch technology since the debut of the Microsoft Surface machines a number a years ago which has a great deal of it’s functionality built into Windows 7:

Touch is only one area, Microsoft also has built in voice recognition and text-to-speech ability.  Windows 7 packs a big punch.  I am sure we will see even more technologies line up and interact over the coming couple years as Microsoft has major technology coming up this fall with Windows 7 Phone series OS and devices and Project Natal for XBox:

Microsoft’s focus is on user experience and they touch is just one of the main focuses.  You get that great technology in any tablet with Windows 7 or Windows phone 7 OS’s.

Don’t fall for the Arrogant Apple, they need to be put in their place as not a RULER demanding everyone change, but to serve you and give you and YOU want.

Here is a different take on powering those workstations.  Add these to your cubical at work and power your computer and other electrical devices from the ambient light in the room.  If the power goes below what is needed, it just kicks in the power from the regular power grid.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1554054/cubetube-generates-power-from-the-fluorescent-lights-above-your-cubicle

The day had come, it was time to move to Windows 7 along with all that reinstalling of applications and migrating your data to the new install.  Well, life got a lot easier for me for a few items at least!

Several years ago, I got tired of all the hassles of moving data around with Microsoft Outlook files (account settings and passwords and all that stuff, have over 30 email accounts setup) and moved to Mozilla Thunderbird as it only took a copying a couple files and everything but my passwords moved over.  Today, I was worried if I could remember all those passwords and dreaded the hassle of entering them.  Then I found a simple little utility MozBackup:

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

With this app, it will make a backup of Thunderbird files and settings as well as other Mozilla apps such as Firefox.  It simply packages up your data, settings and passwords into one data file (which you can password protect)  which you simply copy to the new machine and use MozBackup to restore those profiles on your new machine.

Are you tired of the built in defrag tool for Windows?  I needed to shrink a drive today and took a quick look for a defragger as I had not even been using the built in one.  Well, I came across one that seems to work pretty well and it is free!  It is from a company named Auslogics:

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag

They have some other tools (try the products tab on their site) I might look into also.  They have one called BoostSpeed that might be intersting..

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/boost-speed

I am looking to see if I can get by with a version of Linux on a few of my machines.  One of the first versions I tried is Kubuntu Linux.  To make my life easier, I used the VMWare Virtual Appliances which made life easy (you will find all you need at http://www.vmware.com).

One of my main concerns is a few Windows programs that will be needed.  So I dug through and found how utterly simple it was to install WINE, a Windows emulator, and then installed one of the program I use all the time, E-Sword Bible software.  After I figured out where it installed the program and how WINE works, I found there was a problem in the E-Sword display along with a missing DLL.  After a quick search of the Internet, I ran into this page which got the program running:

http://www.gustason.com/?p=12

While I have not tried many things on Linux and WINE yet, it was nice to see this app work as it is supposed to work!

More fun with Kubuntu soon.

hat a way to go!   Check out this video:

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/videos/view/56-Electric-Drag-Racing

I am wondering when the other movie rental companies will wake up and get on the ball.  At this time, it looks like a Netflix world. 

LG and Netflix announced they are working together to bring new HDTVs from LG which you simply hookup to your Internet and you have streaming HD movies.  It is all built in, no boxes to handle the streaming!

With all the rush that is going on with set top boxes for VOD (video-on-demand), I would if there will be a standard coming out any time soon that will allow these devices to work with all VOD providers that would support the standard.  Sure would be a pain to buy an HDTV which supports Netflix and then decide later you want Blockbuster’s services.  I imagine, in time…

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/05/technology/netflix_lg_electronics/?postversion=2009010512

Say this posted today on lounge forums on CodeProject:

http://andyslife.org/games/sand.php

Simply select your material from the list below and then drag around the screen.  For example, select “Wax” and then drag it around.  After it collects some stuff, then place some fire under the wax.  Yep, it melts :)

Warning, be sure you do not have any deadlines before entering the site :)

Late comer to the set-top box market is Blockbuster.  Netflix has been on the scene for while now which may have been eating into Blockbuster’s profits in more than one way. 

Blockbuster’s new set-top box and service through MediaPoint will charge you $99 for the box which will include 25 movie rentals.  Here is a “gotcha”, unlike Netflix’s subscription based viewing where you play a small rate each month (lowest at the moment to have access to online media and even includes one DVD out in the mail at a time, is only $8.99 per month), Blockbuster’s high prices will continue as you will be charged $1.99 to $3.99 for each movie you watch (OOOUUCCCHH!).

One the box end of Blockbuster, they will pre-download movies to the box (which has the capacity to hold five movies) compared to Netflix’s streaming method.  Netflix’s method, while common, is dependant on bandwidth, if you have a big broadband pipe you will get better quality than those with a lesser bandwidth pipe.  Blockbuster’s model will result in a better quality service for those with smaller pipes or poor connections.  I personally like the model of pre-downloading for quality sake.  My Internet provider, Charter Communications, seems to often over-sale their bandwidth causing unreliable connections.  In the last month and a half we have experienced many dropped connections and missed connections (obvious when you hit a page and it responds with “404 not found” when the site is there and simply refreshing brings it up or when you have a continuous connection such as “Remote Desktop Connections” and it keeps dropping connection).  This is the second time in three years we have went through this issue of quality and previously it lasted for several months).  I wish Netflix would move more into this model, but there may be issues with digital rights management.

How does the libraries compare?  Well, Blockbuster is offering around 2,500 titles.  Netflix on the other hand has a collection of OVER 12,000 titles and have made a deal with Stars to broadcast Starz along with thousands of their titles and you have access to all those for only a flat fee of $8.99 per month.  Not only can you use the set-top box options which Netflix has several options including through your TiVo or xBox 360, but you can watch them on your PC or Mac through your browser thanks to Microsoft Silverlight technology!

So, if you wish to have a possible higher quality picture or perhaps do not plan to use the service often, then you might check out Blockbuster and pay a couple of dollars per movie, otherwise, you might check out Netflix (also, Netflix has a good selection of Christians movies and documentaries).

In today’s world it can be important to keep an eye out for what is going on behind the scene on your computer.  Windows Sysinternals Process Monitor V2.02 has evolved into a must have utility!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

The title Process Monitor really does not convey the functionality of this tool.  It does not just monitor processes, it allows you to monitor:

• Processes and thread activity
• Profiling events
• File system activity
• Registry activity
• Network activity

All of this with filtering ability to zero in on a target.  It is a mature product and comes with many useful features.

Give it a test spin and see what it can do for you.  Just turning on the network monitor and watching what all processes in your computer are communicating over the network can be revealing.  Got a trojan house app on your machine?  This will not only show you when it communicates over the net, but also your are able to track down what processes and threads it has, watch registry settings it is using and where it is located on your drive.

It seems Plastic Logic has shown a demo this fall of their new Plastic Logic Reader, which is a tablet which uses Electric Paper (some refer to as electric ink) which is a monochrome display which is lightweight, flexible and low power.  Here is a little more on their new reader:

Would be nice to have, but sure would great to have color!

http://www.plasticlogic.com/product.html

Somehow I have managed to skip the earlier betas of IE8, but yesterday I decided to give it a shot.  While the toolbars a little tacky compared to Vista’s styling, the overall impression is no hardship over IE7.  The download package of IE 8 Beta 2 comes with both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions (for those running Vista 64 or XP 64):

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/worldwide-sites.aspx?icid=ie8_asdf123

I did read the release notes and it said that this version of IE was incompatible with Netflix Instant Viewing of movies, but on my Vista 64 it worked fine.  You can always remove it if you have problems.

New Tab

When you click to open a new tab, it now has options for you instead of just showing a blank page:

As you can see from the image (click on it to enlarge), you now have options for that page such as “reopen closed tabs” which shows a list sites you have recently closed in another tab and even an option to reopen the sites you last had open when you closed IE, which is great if you ever close the browser by accident :)

Tab Grouping

An interesting feature they have added is “Tab Grouping”:

Tab Grouping simply highlights the tabs that you have launched of a a page.  That is, if you are on a tab and open a link into a new tab (hold down CTRL and click a link on a page) it will be highlighted with the same color of tab as the parent.  However, if you manually drag that tab to a new position on the bar, it will lose its grouping color.  It would have been better to have tab grouping such as Vista where it would have them in one tab with a drop-down list.

Searching Updated

Back when Vista Beta came out, I switched back to using IE instead of Firefox.  It had enough features for me along with having a decent RSS feed reader built it thus eliminating the need for an additional program (hassle to maintain, I am browsing, RSS feed browsing complements the experience).

When I made the switch, I hated the quick search box in the upper right of the IE frame as it appeared to be just wasted space to me, that is until I started using it and adding providers (tip, if you do not have answers.com added under that list, visit the site and then select to add that provide, VERY handy to have around).  I spend a lot of my time in that box now and seldom go to a search engine directly anymore.

In this new version of IE, there have been some major upgrades to the search box:

As you can see, it now provides suggestions from the currently selected search engine, based on what you have typed at that point along with a selection of links that might apply from your past browsing history.  Also note that along the bottom of the drop-down menu is a list of icons show the various search providers you have installed to easily switch to a different engine.

Address Box

Similar changes have been made to the address box (where you type in a URL) although it does not appear to be based on the currently selected search engine:

This also adds possible matching or related links from your Favorites links.  There is also a reminder at the bottom of the keyboard shortcuts you can use one what you have typed so far.

Developer Tools

Also included in this version is an enhanced version of the IE Developer’s Toolbar:

The functionality of this tool if far beyond the scope of this post, but a few features really seemed to jump out there.  First if the “Document Mode” drop-down that allows you to select IE 7, IE 8 and Quirks mode.  By changing this, the current window in IE will be changed to represent that document mode.  This can even be handy for those that are not technical, when the page they are visiting does not display properly.  Next to this feature is the Browser Mode which is similar functionality.

This tool also has a “pinned’" mode that embeds itself to the bottom of your browser window instead of being shown as a separate window (as above).  I personally like the separate window mode myself.

While there are a lot of other features in this new version along with enhancements to the rendering engine, the above features were what caught my attention.  Microsoft is clearly heading in the right direction!

What's on TV tonight? No need to look to a limited cable, satellite or broadcast, why not pull your shows through the Internet?  Your choice, many free or small monthly fee!

Netflix has for some time now, offered unlimited streaming video for a low monthly fee (currently only $8.99 per month unlimited online viewing and includes having one DVD out at a time via the mail).  Recently they made a deal with Starz! to offer much more content.  It is only the beginning though, expect to see more deals and more content coming down the road.

If you want to watch your shows for free but with commercials, you can look into Hulu.  They allow you to watch many full length shows anywhere from “Chuck” or “The Fringe” down to “Woody Woodpecker” or “Alf”.  All free, but you have to put up with some advertisements.

There are others in the market also, but the new guy on the block appears to be Google with YouTube, which has announced they will soon begin delivering full length shows with advertisements through their network.  For more information their announcement:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN1037791320081010?rpc=44

Choices keep coming and within another year or two, I wonder how many people will have cable, satellite or antennas for entertainment..  It seems we are heading for one large pipe coming in to bring Internet and all other services running through that pipe. One monthly bill with make life a bit easier ;)

It has been a number of months since I checked into browser stats.  After doing the rounds of my sites and found IE is slipping fast and Firefox is closing in on the leading browser.  Here are the stats from one of my non-Microsoft centric sites:

That is a big shift from the past where IE had 85% of the market.  While Firefox has moved to be the real contender to IE, it is worth noting how in only being available for about a month, Google’s Chrome has already supplanted Opera and Safari.

While different sites had a small variation from the above stats they were still quite close and IE never topped 56% which is a massive loss of market share.  Even with that percentage, almost 30% of those using IE where still using IE 6, which has vast rending flaws.

Microsoft needs to get their heads out of the “clouds” and get to work in making sure IE 8 is ready for primetime or they will find themselves in the minority of market share even though they have the majority by Operating System.

Microsoft has released a new product of SysInternals called Desktop V1.0.  It is a simple utility to visualize your desktop offering up to four virtual desktops.  You can activate different desktops by either using the icon in the system tray or by hotkeys.  When you first install it,  you have the option of setting the hotkeys for desktop switching:

As mentioned you can also active a different desktop by selecting the icon in the tray:

When you click on the tray icon it displays a panel to select the desktop you want:

When you switch to a different desktop, all your background and any icons you have on the desktop are replicated to your other desktops.  The taskbar in each desktop only displays the apps running on that specific desktop and some tray icons may be missing.

All seems okay and could be useful since it even detects my dual monitors, but all is not a go on my Vista 64 system.  The scroll wheel on my mouse only works in the primary desktop, others do not seem to detect the scroll wheel (that is a show-stopper for me, I will not use a system without a scrollwheel).  But beyond this, some useful system tray icons do not carry across all desktops and while writing the post, I did have a quirk where it would not access the icons on my primary desktop for a period of time.

UPDATE: I had an IE instance open in my primary desktop and when I would double click a link on the desktop in one of the virutal desktops, it would open a tab inside the IE instance in my primary desktop.  Had a lot of tabs open in that instance before I found out what was going on ;)

Seems like, on my system at least, I will have to wait for Version 2.

Here is the link if you wish to try it out for yourself:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx