High end computers - followup from 8/2006

I thought you might be interested. In followup to my post from August of 2006. The computer I could have bought in August 2006 for $2,275 would now cost $1,558. Not bad.... you can save $700 by waiting a year.

Ubuntu

I thought the title might intrigue some of you. Ubuntu is the name of a "flavor" of the Linux operating system. I'm actually blogging from it right now. Other notable operating systems are Mac OS X and .... man, I forget the name.... oh yeah... I remember....Microsoft Windows.

The most notable difference between the three operating systems are these:

Mac OS X - cost = buy a Mac $1200, the Mac OS X only works on Apple computers. It's a really pretty and fun system to work in. Hardly any support for computer games.

Windows Vista - cost $300, works on most computers, has bugs and security flaws, plays tons of games, and "just works".

Ubuntu Linux - cost $0, works on most computers, can run windows software and "just works" (usually)

That said, I've been messing around on Ubuntu Linux (version Feisty Fawn) and I think it's a great. It's not quite as easy to install programs as Windows and it can be tricky to set up, but I think most people could do pretty well using this version of Linux. At this point, Linux can now be used by 2 our of 3 types of people (as opposed to the 1 type about 2 years ago). The two types are 1) People who never download new programs or try to install anything new and 2) People who are pretty knowledgeable with computer software / programming.

I don't recommend it to people who don't have high speed internet access or anyone who doesn't have a computer expert nearby to help with problems.

It's got some really great, free programs though. GIMP is an image editor that is really robust and comparable to Adobe Photoshop (a very expensive program). OpenOffice.org is the equivalent to MS Office (another very expensive program). It comes with Firefox as an internet browser and Evolution for e-mail and calendar stuff. It has GAIM for instant messaging that allows you to talk with people in all other messenger applications (MS Messenger / Yahoo IM/ AOL instant messenger).
K3B will burn CDs and DVDs. Rythmbox will play all your audio files.

Best of all, it's all free.

Now for the fun part. I installed Beryl (an awesome desktop application that lets me do this.

Four Desktops (Windows only has one) / Rotate a cube to see and use them

Windows don't just close when you click the little red X to close the window, they go up in flames now :)

Thumbnail views of your minimized windows before you maximize them

A window manager called "slam"...bump your mouse cursor up against the top right corner of the screen and Beryl will display all your windows in an easy page (below) so you can select the one you want to use

A nifty little feature called peek allows you to peer underneath a window you are currently working in. Also notice when you do that, it makes the window slightly transparent.

Last but not least, the Jello effect when you drag windows around the screen they stretch, then snap into place.

You can turn all these features off or install many more, it's all up to you.

If you want to give Ubuntu a try, just let me know :)

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't write this today

According to videobusiness.com

"Sony fixes problem DVDs
Copy-protection glitch reported on Casino Royale, Pursuit of Happyness others
By Jennifer Netherby 4/17/2007
APRIL 17 | Sony Corp. of America says it has fixed a glitch on recent DVD releases including Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction that prevented the movies from playing on some DVD players."


I'm still glad they're not in the paperback business... :)

Sony's way of increasing electronic sales

There has been a small buzz the past couple weeks about Sony's new DVD protection and I was affected by it last night (and a couple nights ago).

A few nights ago, Kristen and I sat down to watch Casino Royale (the new James Bond movie). I grabbed the DVD that we rented from Netflix and stuck it into our Mitsubishi DVD player (which has been working great for almost 5 years). Nothing came up on the screen. So I took it out and looked at it to see if I could see any scratches. It looked pretty good except for a the funny reflection. So I proceeded to put the DVD into our computer and it seemed to work fine.

Hmm.... says I .... this be a strange predicament, says I.

So, I reported it as a broken DVD to Netflix and got them to send us a new one. This one worked for about 15 minutes of the movie, then bombed out on us. Could have been scratched, but it didn't look it.

It turns out that Sony has implemented a new copy protection (The Holiday / Stranger than Fiction / Casino Royale). A copy protection that's sOOOOO good that (on some DVD players) you can't even "copy" the video from your DVD player to your TV screen.

Sony says they have no plans of changing their copy protection. Another interesting fact is that their new disks won't even play on some of their own manufactured DVD players. I'm guessing that they probably spend more to "protect" their software and information than would ever be lost by people copying stuff.

We consumers better hope and pray that Sony never gets into the paperback book business. I can see it now...

NEWS
Sony implements new copy protection for their division of paperback books. Upon opening the new print run of Harry Potter, readers were surprised by a blinding light emanating from the inner binder of the book. Unfortunately, no one can read the new book because of the light. This was Sony's newest release in a long line of paperback book copy protection. When senior executives were asked about the matter, they commented "we have no intentions of changing our copy protection... at least no one will be copying them. We suggest you purchase our copy protection sunglasses for 299.99 from your nearest best buy."

I know it seems ludicrous when you talk about paper books, but for some reason digital "paper" is different. Really....they've done the same thing... they've blinded my DVD player so that it can't read the DVD. What's the difference? A book is a book, why can't a DVD be a DVD.

You better be sure you want that software

I recently purchased a piece of software (an hardware) for our home computer. I really didn't buy the thing for the software. I bought it for the little piece of hardware that comes in the package that is supposed to convert video streams to computer files. Well, after I bought it, I figured out that it doesn't actually convert video streams to computer files, it only converts video streams to USB format, then it lets your computer do all the work of creating the computer file.

Well, the hardware that I bought doesn't work on our computer. But there's a silly rule at Target / Walmart / BestBuy... to prevent software piracy and it doesn't let you return your product for anything except the exact same product. It's a pretty good idea, but now I'm stuck with a $50 product that doesn't work and I can't get my money back.

I need to find a business that allows me to sell things to people and not give money back for faulty product. Sounds like a good deal.

Dell's "Express" Vista Upgrade

Many of you know that Kristen and I purchased a new desktop computer from Dell back in December of 2006. It came with a "free" upgrade to Windows new operating system, Windows Vista. I say "free" because it actually costs $10.50 in shipping and handling charges, a very cheap price to pay considering you can actually buy a brand new computer for cheaper than you could buy Windows Vista.

Windows Vista came out on 1/29/2007.

January 13th
I ordered my upgrade disk from Dellvistaupgrade.com At that time Dell showed on the "order status" screen...

"Dell expects to ship all upgrade disks by the end of February."

February 25th
I went back to check on the status of my order.....

"Dell expects to ship all upgrade disks by the end of March." Grrrr, frustrating....

March 25th
I went back to the Dell website to check on my order....

"Dell expects to ship all upgrade disks by the end of April.".... Ahhhh I can't stand it!

April 7th - just for fun
I decided to check the Dell upgrade website. Do you know what it said

Yup, you guessed it "Dell expects to ship all upgrade disks by the end of May."

Turns out that Dell shipped "Vista capable" computers that weren't actually capable of running Vista.

So, Dell has learned their lesson to never again sell a free upgrade to the new system and I have learned my lesson to never buy from Dell anymore. At a minimum, they should not charge the $10.50 and really they should figure out something more that they could do to make up for their error.

Ok Enough complaining for me today. Thought you might all like to know about my "express" upgrade :)

Directions from NY to Dublin

I find step 23 especially interesting. Click on the picture for a larger image.

Picture of Alanna playing in the snow

Here's a picture of Alanna a couple weeks ago playing in the snow (and mud). We ended up having to go inside after a slight incident involving slippery mud and a large puddle of cold water.

Funny Picture

A New Tolkien Book

I thought my brother-in-law might be interested in this little tidbit of news.

According to the independant news in the UK, Christopher Tolkien will be publishing a new book entitled "The Children of Hurin" based on an incomplete book and volumes of detailed notes from his father J.R.R. Tolkien. The book slated to be published (in the UK at least) on April 17th. I'm curious about it. Silmarillion was a very interesting book published in 1977 (after J.R.R. Tolkien's 1971 death), but it was pretty difficult to read. It read more like a history book or an ancient text rather than a good novel.

According to all the news I can find on the book it sounds like it will be pretty good. I'll probably pick up a copy after I read some reviews from Amazon.com

Growing up in the 80s

O.k. I just had to post this for those of us between who ranged between the ages 3 and 15 during the 80s.

http://cassiegermsheid.com/2007/03/23/you-grew-up-in-the-80s-if/

Nerve stimulator for spinal injuries

Every week I learn about several new gadgets that get invented, but none have been more impressive than this one that I just read about on Gizmodo. They linked to an article written at medgadget.com that linked to an article written on www.curespinalcordinjury.com.

There is a new experimental device that is being used currently by a woman named Jennifer French. Jennifer's muscles work fine, the reason she is paralyzed is that the electronic impulses from here brain cannot reach her legs. Since her muscles still work, there's no reason why she shouldn't be able to stand and walk, despite the broken link between her brain and her legs.

According to the curespinalcordinjury website, Hunter Peckham of Case Western Reserve University has developed a device that sends the electronic stimulus to the legs using a button strapped to the waist of the paralyzed person.

Jennifer French is now able to stand, despite her paralysis. According to the website, she was able to walk down the aisle at her wedding with the help of the device.

If you'd like to read more about, you can go here...

http://www.curespinalcordinjury.com/electronic-nerve-stimulator-enables-walking

iPod, iPhone, iTunes, iHaveLimitations ...

I've recently been looking at the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV box online and keep asking myself why do companies such as Apple and Microsoft keep making products that only do half the job.

Apple TV, for instance, is a really cool little device that sits next to your TV and will play downloaded music and videos (stored on your computer) directly on your TV. That's great, but it doesn't take away any of the other boxes that are sitting next to my TV. I still need (ahem...o.k. want) a DVD player, VCR, Playstation, Nintendo Wii, and a TIVO. Apple is taking advantage of their trendiness and slacking off. If they really wanted to create an innovative product they would make a set top box that does the following:

1. Plays blue-ray high definition DVDs and regular old DVDs (up-converted for High Def)
2. Streams music and movies from my computer to my TV (yeah, it already does this)
3. Streams music and movies from my TV to my computer, so I can record TV shows, or even better, stores TV shows and allows me to download them to my computer whenever I want.
4. Has caller ID on my TV if I want
5. Allows me to control my computer from my TV.
6. Has digital output
7. Cooks breakfast and makes a cup of coffee in the morning
8. Dispenses coca-cola and popcorn
9. Always connected to the internet so you can schedule shows online just like TIVO

Now, I understand what they are trying to do. They want you to buy the shows from iTunes and play them on your TV. The only problem is that I want a plan where I don't have to pay 99 cents for every single show I watch on TV. It's a little steep. If I were to pay for every show and movie Kristen, Alanna, and I watch our TV bills would be through the roof.

Consider this. Let's say Kristen and I have three shows a week that we watch a week each (6 shows a week) and Alanna watches two 30 minute kids shows a day (14 shows a week). Let's say we also watch two movies a week. Add up the 99 cent cost of shows $20 a week and the cost of two movies $4 a week and you come up with a whopping $96 you would pay Apple for TV. Well, at least the selection is horrible, so we wouldn't actually watch that much TV, which is probably the better solution.

Someday I'll come out with my invention of the century and I'll call it "etc..." I'll keep you posted on my development of "etc..."

Chumby, Midomi, and other cool things

I'm back. I was talking with Kristen the other day and she was commenting on how I don't write to my blog anymore. I said that I just didn't have a whole lot of new things to say or any new insights to add to the world. And that might be right. But... I figured I'd just keep going on about things that interest me. Maybe you'll find some things that interest you as well.

The Chumby...as I read my Popular Science last week, I was introduced to a fun little device (not on sale yet) called the chumby. Apparently a bunch of independent Linux (interpreted free) developers decided that they had experienced just about enough of the single use electronic devices. They were sick of alarm clocks that only told the time and woke you up in the morning... sick of these things called "ipods" that did nothing more than play music... sick of the portable game systems that only played games and on and on and on... So, they decided to make and "open-source" device called the chumby. For those of you who don't know what "open-source" means it refers to allowing the users to modify the device in any way they want. Including the ability render the device unusable. If a programmer wants to change the way Windows works (internally), they need to write a separate program to run on top of windows. No one can change the way Windows runs without breaking it....That is the opposite of open-source. Open-source also usually means free.

Basically, the people at Chumby made a device who's sole purpose is to do what you tell it to do. Call it a calendar scheduling, alarm clock ticking, news ticking, weather monitoring, mp3 playing, movie playing, calculating, currency converting, measurement converting, recipe storing, shopping list storing, paperweight :) It's at the top of my new want but don't need list :)

Midomi - another fun site that I found in my adventures through cyberspace is a fun little site called Midomi.com I haven't used it yet, but it's gotten a pretty good response so far. The basics of the site are if you can remember the tune of a song but can't remember the singer, title, or words, you sing the tune into a microphone and it will search and tell you the song. It's like a google search of tunes :)

JustBreadMakerRecipes - for all you people who need 1,432 recipes for your breadmakers take a look at http://www.justbreadmakerrecipes.com/. You can have a different loaf of bread every day for four years and go through approximately 2,800 pounds of flour :)

Well, that's all for today. Until next time....

New Year's Resolutions

For at least 2,000 years people have been making "new year's resolutions" Our historical record shows that they began in early Rome with the Roman god of gates and doors, Janus. Janus, from which Augustus Caesar derived the month of January, represented the god who could see the comings and goings (past & future), the god beginnings. The early view was that Janus governed the decision to "turn over a new leaf". Choosing a new path was seen as entering a new "door", and since Janus was the god of doors, it was only logical.

Statistical analysis shows us that only 10% of the population invites, promotes, and creates change. The other 80% somewhere between a slight and strong resistance to change. At the other end of the spectrum, approximately 10% of the population actually sabotages change in order to keep things the way they are. I belong to the 10% of people that constantly changes everything.

It has been said that change is easy when done by you, but difficult when done to you. I would agree with that.

I see new years resolutions as a way for the 80% to force themselves to change some things that need changing. Being in the 10% group, I think that it's better to change something when you see that it needs changing, but I realize that it doesn't work that way for everyone.

For those of you making new years resolutions here are a few suggestions to help you accomplish your goal.

Set a deadline for your goal.
Describe the steps you will take to achieve your goal.
Make an easy way to measure your goal.
Make your goal within your grasp.


For instance, "lose weight" or "lose 10 pounds" is not a good goal. "Lose 10 pounds by April 15th, by running 3 times a week and cutting out soda" is a good goal.

Give it a try. Good luck.