Google ChromeOS: Pundits miss the point.

Recent coverage of the Google ChromeOS CR-48 makes me think that the tech media is missing the point.

For example, PC Magazine recently posted an article "Six Things Chrome OS needs to go to work" ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374294,00.asp ).  The writer feels that there are only 6 things that the CR-48 will need to be used in an office environment.  It needs:

- To join a windows domain: Why?  How? For network accountability?  To know who is on the corporate network?  You don't have to join a windows network unless you want to have access to Microsoft resources (Exchange, Windows Shares, etc).  The Google ChromeOS netbook has no business with such things.  Loading Microsoft Office for Outlook and Sharepoint is useless, the web interfaces are the only way to access these services.
     The author mentions security as a reason to join a Windows domain...  this is silly as the ChromeOS gets updates like the current Google Chrome web browser.  It will not connect to Microsoft Windows Update or be updated via Microsoft System Security Configuration Manager.. it is a highly customized version of Linux.  In this situation Google knows best.

- A way to browse network shares:  This is a very slight need.  With network shares you could use the netbook to browse printers and pull PDF files off a share.  But a better way is to just email documents or use Google Docs for collaboration.  If network share browsing were to be included it would be a feature not needed by users unless they were logged into a corporate network, the ChromeOS would need to add the Microsoft network protocols, printer applications as well as applications to handle all the files a person might encounter on a network share.  This increases the amount of software needed on an average installation of ChromeOS as well as increase the processor and memory needs, forget what issues it creates for security and licenses to Microsoft to allow Google to use these protocols.  It is a minor feature normal users can live without which by inclusion would impair the netbook.  Sounds like a loose-loose to me.

- Hardwire Ethernet:How many home users will use a hardwire ethernet connection?  Even most commercial businesses run wireless networks.  A wireless network is the most common network now and more so in the future.  Suppose it had a gigabit Ethernet connection (which has bandwidth several times greater than wireless), the extra hardware for this legacy connection and associated costs will be added to every laptop when most users will not ever need it.  The added bandwidth would not be useful as it would only let you connect to other local computers at a high speed as your internet connection will remain slower than your wireless network speed.

- VPN:  I agree with the VPN.  If we are stuck on wireless networks of limited security, a VPN would help secure our data to at least some systems.  The problem?  The netbook is designed to connect to Google for Google apps.  A VPN will not help as your data is still traversign the open internet and is just as likely to be intercepted while carried wirelessly as it would over the internet.

- Another Web browser: What browsers can you run on a specialized Linux install?  Internet Explorer? Nope.  Safari? Nope.  Opera? Nope.  The only candidate other than Google Chrome is Firefox.  I support the idea of installing Firefox but doing that will lower security (and I use Chrome 90% of teh time anyhow).

- Customizable Interface:I agree that an interface should be the way a user wants.  They should be able to customize the heck out of the interface.  That is the reason why I hate Windows 7 Starter edition.  Now this is Google and I am sure they will offer "skins" and other ways to customize the interface.  Even Apple lets you put up a wallpaper.

The point of ChromeOS is to offer a low cost and light (price, hardware, power) netbook.  The idea is to remove as much complexity as possible.  Many of these features are by nature complex and will make the device heavy and expensive.  The ChromeOS CR-48 is not a business computer, don't expect to do your taxes or edit a movie on it.  Expect it to help you connect to the internet and use the web.  The same complaints can be applied to any Apple device, yet 1 in 6 people will be getting an Apple device this Christmas - I'd copy them.

XBOX Live anguish

I want Microsoft to be successful.  While they are not the best corporate citizen, they are less draconian than Apple.  Should Apple's business model be repeated as a success story, it would mean the demise of most Open Source software I have come to cherish.  After all, which apps in the Apple App store are Open Source?

I had felt that Microsoft's dominance in the game console market would be their rock in these stormy times.  I was sure the XBox 360 and associated services were the software giant's shining light, applying the best practices in automation and customer service.  I could not be more wrong.

My trouble started when my son wanted to renew his Xbox Live subscription for his birthday.  We found a good deal and bought a pre-paid one year XBox Live subscription card.  When he went to enter the code we got a "can't retrieve information from xbox live. please try again later. Status code: 80169D3A" error.  We tried entering the code from the XBox, we tried entering the code from the xbox.com web site.  We tried google and even a little voodoo.

The Xbox.com website was a mess.  Broken links and indecipherable error messages such as "Oops, you have found a glitch in the system" and "information not available" were the most helpful things we could read on the web site.  After a lot of this insanity, I found a phone number indicating I can cancel my service by calling it.  Hoping for the best, I called the number.

I was told via auto-menu hell that there were a lot of phone calls ahead of me and that the web site was more helpful than calling the phone number.  Thinking it was impossible to have my time more wasted by sitting on the phone than reading broken link error messages, I remained on hold.  I was informed I would need the "gamertag", phone number, email address, home address and credit card information used to activate the account a year ago "so they could help me".  

While I tried in vain to find the information I was sure they would need a human answered my call.  While I tried to explain my situation the nice Canadian gentleman interrupted my statements with "yes", "go ahead", "uh-huh", "ok" and so fourth.  At one point his responses were so close together that I stopped talking to see if he would notice.  As my frustration peaked to the point where I tried to "sith choke" him through the phone, he directed me to the web site to give him the information he required to verify me on the phone.  I told him I didn't know any of the crap he wanted to know and tried to give him my email address and my son's email address to see if he could look us up.  After wrangling with the phonetic alphabet and his ability to interrupt you with affirmative statements, he managed to misspell "Gmail.com" a few times and finally look our account up.

Come to find out, we could not use the prepaid card to renew the subscription because our account had unpaid charges for the auto-renewal of the subscription which was charged to an expired credit card.  Praise the living God I didn't get a bill for $60 on my card unexpectedly!  

After my joy at their inability to suck money from my pocket subsided I said "Well, why can't I use the prepaid card to renew the subscription."

"Well, your account is suspended because you have an unpaid balance."

"Well, I don't want to pay that balance as I want to use the prepaid card."

"Well, I am not sure what you want me to do."

"Well, let's get rid of the auto-renewal balance and unlock my account so I can use the prepaid card."

"Ok, I can do that."

So, after several hours of attempting to use a purchased item, searching the web, calling support, sitting on hold and then dealing with a crazy person on the phone I was finally able to successfully give Microsoft money.  I had to work several hours to give THEM money.

The number one rule of business is to not make it hard for customers to give you money!  If you had a great boutique at the other end of the "Wipeout Zone", you might not get that many customers (and the ones you did get would be wet and pissed off.)  There is nothing that says "open for business" at Microsoft right now.  They don't work hard enough for my money, I end up with all the work.  I load the patches, I deal with the crashes, I have to scour the web to figure things out, I have to sit on hold while they sit back and expect prompt payment.  Why?

Look at the Nintento Wii.  Do I have to jump through these hoops to buy and download games? Nope, it just works.

Look at the Apple App store or iTunes.  When you don't have a valid credit card on file can you still add money from a gift card?  Yes!

Xbox???  --And I can't wait until the "Windows Marketplace" is where I have to go to buy applications for Windows 8.  I'd bet there is some "Windows Live" subscription I will have to have just to change my wallpaper.

I want Microsoft to be successful, but maybe they don't.  I wonder how many Microsoft-ies have their money in Apple, Google and Nintendo stocks?

What Microsoft Should do..

In light of recent news about the declining market share of Internet Explorer, corporate dependence on Internet Explorer 6 and reviews of Internet Explorer 9: I think Microsoft should licence Firefox.

Children, I will tell you of days when computer technology companies envied IBM, Digital Equipment Corp and Sun Microsystems.  Each had their own version of Unix and massive hardware to run it.  IBM got an idea, if they made a small computer which could run simple software then more people could own computers.  IBM worked with Microsoft and others to create the first PC.

We'd still be talking about using our "IBMs" if it weren't for Microsoft better capitalizing upon the market.  They stood the most to benefit from IBM's idea and IBM didn't even realize it until it was too late.  The lesson was the smaller company with the software on the most systems won.

We all knew computers get smaller and faster.  We all knew the computer that took up the whole desk would one day fit in a briefcase and then one day in the palm of a hand.  We knew it would happen but we didn't know WHY!

Who would buy these tiny computers?  Why would people buy these tiny computers to fit in their hands?

A collective slap on our foreheads as we stared in awe at the first iPhone.  Duh! That is the tiny computer in everyone's hands.  Apple was ready with a brilliant idea.  The iPhone was a game-changer.  But the only company ready to compete with Apple was a search engine company?  Where was Microsoft?

Microsoft had been making phone software for years before Apple came out with the iPhone, but their approach was like an IBM approach and centered in old thinking.  They were competing with Blackberry for mobile email, text, when Apple offered us the web with pictures, sound and video.

So with the phone battle almost lost we should all wonder what will be left.  To see Apple's direction we should use iPhones, iPads and maybe Air laptops.  I don't disagree, but my checkbook does not offer such options.  My option is more like (maybe) an Andriod phone, (maybe) a Chrome tablet and (definitely) a netbook.

Facing the fact that Microsoft will not play a part in the first two devices because if I were to spend the money necessary to buy a Windows Phone and Windows TabletPC I would be in line at the Apple store instead.  Price is the main factor keeping me from Apple, but Microsoft devices are not the least expensive and there is no compelling reason to buy them when Google is on the block.

So the netbook, which I will be buying soon, might have Windows on it.  I say might because it bothers me my two options are Windows XP (old, insecure and heavy) and Windows 7 Starter (new, can't change the wallpaper and heavy).  Why?  I know they must charge money for their OS buy why is it the same price to buy a locked down OS where I can only run "x" number of programs and not change the wallpaper or the old and insecure OS?  Microsoft, you know what I will be doing with this netbook?  Surfing the web with Firefox or Chrome -- I can do that with the latest Linux distro for free and they let me change my wallpaper!

So thinks look bleak for Microsoft.  They are expecting brand loyalty and product tie-ins to trump common sense.  As things move to the Internet cloud, why pay the Microsoft tax?  Microsoft has nothing compelling, just bad copies of existing products.

What can they do?  They need to cut losses in some areas, focus on their core and strengthen their brand.  

Consumer devices are a lost area.  If they have decided that both Google and Apple are the enemy then they need to back out of the consumer device market, they will not have an effect there.  They are priced in the middle but offer nothing better than Google who is priced lower.  They don't have an application store or an exciting space for developers to make cooler stuff than they can with Apple or Android.  In the business handheld area they have been loosing to RIM's Blackberry for years, why would they win now?

Browsers are a lost area.  Most of the future computer users will never see Internet Explorer (or only see it long enough to download Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari).  Why fight the fight to at best tie with the best.  If people are willing to go through what it takes to install a different browser it shows that the default browser is not good enough, and efforts to fix that fact still fall short.

Netbook operating systems will be a lost area.  Once Google Chrome is out there, Microsoft will have a lot of saber-rattling to do to keep vendors in line.  I predict they will risk increased OS Licence fees to offer netbooks preinstalled with Linux-based operating systems.  Windows 7 starter is just not good enough to compete.  Windows 7 Starter would only kill the versions of Linux from 2003, not modern distributions like Fedora or Ubuntu.

Silverlight: I guess it is not hurting anything, and it is a major part of Netflix's business so it can't be killed.  But how many people are developing it?  What is the plan?  Further pushing of Silverlight to capture Adobe's fading influence is stupid.  Since I still hope Microsoft and Adobe merge, I guess keep silverlight, but I am not happy about it.

So here is my idea: Release Windows 7.5... 

Starter edition: Get rid of the application, memory and processor limits on starter edition and let people change the wallpaper.  Why would you intentionally cripple the performance of your operating system?  You are branding the frustration your users feel.

Home Basic/Premium: Why is there the racist/classist division?  Anyone should be able to have Basic and then upgrade to premium.  The assumption with Basic is that no one can afford Premium in the other countries, while the other assumption is that in "first world" countries everyone can afford Premium.

All editions?  Partner with the Mozilla foundation and merge the good things in IE with Firefox for Windows.  Default FireFox to Bing and give people a chance to use it.  Optimize new Microsoft Web services to look great on the new FireFox (not services that cannibalize existing software like Office).  Also optimize these web services to be compelling on BOTH Google and Apple handhelds, thus beating them at their own games.  Mozilla will not mind since Google stabbed them in the back with the Chrome web browser.  Microsoft developers can learn a lot from the Mozilla culture, and Mozilla needs some cash and strong OS support to push back Chrome, Safari and Opera.  Microsoft still has the desktop market share, so it is still in the driver's seat.

This will not fix the damage done, just hopefully stop the bleeding.  The issue will be that once everyone's windows laptop dies will they buy a Linux netbook or a windows notebook for twice the price?  That is when the chickens will come home to roost.

Microsoft and Adobe merger dreams...

I am a big fan of Adobe.  I am less of a fan of Microsoft.

I can go on and on about why I like Adobe.  I like Photoshop and Flash.  I like Coldfusion and Flex.

I can go on and on about why I am less of a Microsoft fan, but the root of my distaste for Microsoft is actually the root of my love for Adobe.  Adobe has flagship products and tries to improve them in ways the users want and attempt to keep ahead of Open Source competitors.  Gimp is close to Photoshop in many ways, but if you need professional and reliable image editing the latest version of Photoshop wins.  I am a web developer and have worked with PHP quite a bit, but if I am developing for someone who has money and wants a reliable web platform I prefer Coldfusion.

Microsoft?  What are they doing?  How are they better than their Open Source competitors?  I don't know and neither do they.  They are so lost on that crucial issue that they are loosing ground in important areas.  Bing vs Google?  IE vs FireFox | Chrome | Opera | Safari?  Silverlight vs Flash? 

Back a long time ago I loved Microsoft.  Windows NT was amazing.  IIS with ASP was amazing (Visual Interdev rocked).  IE made AJAX possible.  The years since they have squandered their lead.  They gave us Vista.  They invented the smartphone but Apple spanked them with it, then Google showed up late to the party and spanked everyone.  The invented the tablet and Apple spanked them with the iPad (Bill Gates: a useful interface would have helped TabletXP instead of just pen-enabling XP).  

At some point Microsoft stopped inventing and started copying (and when you copy you acknowledge that someone else is better than you).  Microsoft took on Adobe with Silverlight, now I have to use Windows to watch Netflix on my PC -- but that is the ONLY TIME EVER I HAVE USED SILVERLIGHT!  They copied a whole series of applications called "Expression" to attempt to get us excited about Silverlight.  If I already have Flash -- which I know and love, why would I pay big money to learn and use Silverlight on less platforms with less capabilities?  If Microsoft had released Expression for free, we would be crying about HTML 5 and Javascript replacing Silverlight ~and~ Flash.

Microsoft is not exciting at all anymore.  They are now IBM.  The XBOX 360 is cool, but so is Nintendo Wii.  Internet Explorer 9 is cool, but it only is almost as cool as the current Open Source browsers.  Everything else is failing!  Ballmer is running the place into the ground!

Not only SHOULD Microsoft merge with Adobe, but they have to.  Only then can something new be made to excite the technology world that Steve Jobs will not be putting a lower case "i" in front of.

1) The merger with Adobe will ally them with Google on the whole Flash issue.  If Microsoft dropped the Windows 7 smartphone crap and made applications for Google Android with Flash then they could at least be back in the software market with mobiles -- compared to frozen out playing second bannanna to RIM.  Windows compatible applications on Android would make it a better pick for businesses and accelerate the business smartphone market -- sorry RIM.  Microsoft could release a Windows 8 tablet AND an Android tablet (both would buy Microsoft applications from a online Android/Microsoft marketplace).

2) Adobe is a consistent performer with its own products which have no equal.  Adobe will always make money with their current business model.  The new Photoshop features are amazing!  The animation tools in Flash are fantastic.  Coldfusion?  It just rocks.  Where Microsoft and Adobe overlap, Adobe should win.  No more ASP.NET.  No more Silverlight.  No more Expression Studio.  Imagine Photoshop Express coming on every computer instead of Paint?  I have goosebumps.

We can also expect Microsoft to always make money on desktops operating systems.  Microsoft has a solid place in the hardcore gamer console market.  But Mobile is where the future is.  The gamers who love their XBoxes now will grow up and love their iPhones - unless Microsoft can get out there.

3) Adobe can have some synergy with Microsoft and improve all of their current products as well as come up with new ones.  The Premiere and Photoshop programmers working with the DirectX shop.  The Coldfusion, Flash and Flex people working with the Internet Explorer and Internet Information Services people.  And for God's sake, FIX READER!

If they don't merge?  Well, Adobe will loose Flash as a platform thanks to open standards and mobile market demand (even if you can make things in Flash and export it to the iPhone because if you are exporting the same things as other tools you have to do it better and Flash is just too late to the party).  Adobe's other products are so niche that it will not matter long term and they will remain a graphic artist's company and little else.

Microsoft has a LOT more to loose.  They have a solid hold on Desktop Operating systems, and might maintain that for a long time.  But, a Desktop Operating System will be what you have to use at work and what you choose to use at home and everywhere else will be either Apple or Google.  Laptops?  The netbook revolution will tell you that the heavy laptop is going away.  The iPads are here and will stay.  We will see Google Android devices from phones to tablets to netbooks, all pulling applications from the Android Marketplace.  Google will get lots of search revenue and money from the marketplace.  Google will heavily invest in Open Source and that will hurt Microsoft on the server and eventually desktop markets.  

Why is mobile so important?  Ask a 14-20 year old which they have used more recently, a smartphone or a computer.  I am sure you will find they use smartphones more often.  When they get jobs and money what will they spend their money on?  I'd bet a fancy phone and data plan will be first on the list.  When they are at work and have a choice of what technology to purchase?  Mobile is the future.

IE 9 First Impressions

I am still excited about IE 9, even after using it.

On the surface it is a fast and capable browser.  It is strange to double-click on the blue "E" and have web pages perform like they do when starting Firefox or Chrome.  The performance probably suffers on my computer because I have a very old video card and am using XP drivers rather than official Vista drivers, but that only would explain the graphics artifacts I occasionally see.

Perhaps some web pages still push you to "IE" friendly style sheets and javascript based upon any version of Internet Explorer.  To be sure I could get a valid picture of what the browser can do without worry of a cautious developer protecting IE visitors in a sandbox, I hit a few web pages showcasing the latest jQuery examples as linked on the WebAppers Blog ( http://www.webappers.com/ ).

While all the demos I tried worked on Firefox and Chrome (with the exception of the real time capabilities of Smoothie Charts - http://smoothiecharts.org/, where Firefox would not draw the charts real time ), only a few worked on IE 9.  I also tried out a HTML 5 support test web page ( http://www.html5test.com/ ) where IE 9 scored 96/300 and Chrome scored 217/300 and Firefox 139/300 -- also linked on WebAppers.

In all, IE 9 Beta is amazing by Microsoft standards, but basically a bit below average compared to the other modern browsers.  Hopefully the IE 9 gets additional speed and HTML 5 support as time goes on.  Back with IE 4 and 5 Microsoft set the standard for web browsers, and they still do.. as the lowest level browser they are the baseline for what components you can count on all users having access to.  The only remaining trick is to get all the XP users out there to Windows 7 so they can install IE 9 as it is not avalable for anything below Vista.

(Speel chek is stil missing, so becaue I am writing this in IE 9 Beta you are allowed to keep any misspellings you have noticeed)

 

 

 

Halo Reach Madness

So, my son spent a weekend sanding and staining the deck.  The price for his efforts was a pre-order of Halo Reach for my son.  It came home from work with me today and he immediately started playing it.  At about 6pm his friends still didn't have their copies, so he was able to break away for dinner. By 9pm his buddies had their copies and he was saving New Alexandria from the Covenant. 

I was blown away by the graphics, they were superior to anything I have seen on the XBox 360.  While many games have had good graphics, Halo Reach has me wanting to actually play it (if I can get the controller away from my son).

Have you played it yet?  What do you think?

Google Chrome 6 and the Google Web Store

How do web developers get paid?

Back in 2000 a web developer could buy a domain name (PigeonWatchers.com) and go to venture capitalists and claim that all future pigeon watching hobbyists will use the web page and it would be good for them to invest now rather than after it has become a household name.  A IPO and Superbowl commercial later the web developer is laughing in a private jet...  or so the story goes.

This didn't really happen that much because PigeonWatchers.com didn't end up the household name it should have been.  Plus half the site was not functional because the developers got into a big fight over who's Dodge Viper was cooler and were not willing to continue development until a proper race could be held.  This process left a bad taste in the VC investment world and people started dumping tech stocks as the whole thing crashed.

The problem remained.  How do developers get paid?

The next generation of great idea-thinking-developers-seeking-money-and-fame-ers used banner ads to raise funds.  Suddenly it was profitable to have a blog because people gave bloggers money for each banner ad displayed.  This drove the engine of social media, distributed content generation and all the other "modern" technologies used to fund web development.  But people hate ads and like their television counterparts, they are not totally effective.  As the economy slows down, and technology to bypass ads becomes more common the ad revenues might be drying up.

How will developers get paid?

Apps my son, Apps.  With an app you can do almost anything you want and get paid for it directly.  Why should a good idea have to hide behind an awkward way to fund it?  You can develop the next big thing and charge people to use it.  People seem wiling to pay $.99 for an app, would you like $1 for each unique user to your web site?  And users will not mind, after all they hate ads and if you ask people to click on the occasional ad you become a money-grubbing troll.

The introduction of Google Chrome 6 and the Google Web Store ( http://code.google.com/chrome/webstore/docs/index.html ) will bring the "App Store" mentality to the browser.  One can assume this is a prototype to make a store that can deliver customers who are using phones, chrome browser and the upcoming chromeOS.  If this all works out then we are looking at a Google that has the volume approaching Microsoft and the appeal approaching Apple.  

Before you think to yourself that Google's volume is not close to Microsoft consider this:

- TechCrunch has noticed that Chrome is sneaking up on FireFox as IE flounders ( http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/02/chrome-firefox-techcrunc/ )

- Google's Android Phones are overtaking Blackberry and iPhone ( http://gigaom.com/2010/08/02/android-sales-overtake-iphone-in-the-u-s/ ).

Can Google synergize the browser popularity with the mobile device popularity and end up with a popular Netbook format? If so, don't you think you should check out the Google Web Store development process (just in case)?

Apps are the future, Ads are now.

I am off to read the development docs, keep an eye out for my Google Web Store app...

I would like to buy a Tablet PC

I write this as a broken man.  My laptop after several faithful years has passed on.  It was the victim of my 7 year old's Wii habit and was too close as he was jumping turtles on Super Mario.  First there was a rattle in it (never good to have loose metal inside a laptop), but before I could open it and remove the presumably worthless metal it shorted out something and the whole laptop will not boot at all.

It was a Toshiba A135-S7404.  I had lovingly upgraded the RAM and put a Google Chrome decal on it.  I suppose it was dying anyhow, I bought it years ago as Best Buy was trying to get rid of them (they were too underpowered for Vista without extensive tweaking and the necessary RAM upgrade) and I had already taken a soldering iron to the power supply more than once.  Maybe it is good, maybe I need a new one.

Here is the problem, I have made $6.83 in ads on my various blogs and that is not quite enough for even the best laptop deals to be had.  It would be cool to run out and buy something, but I don't have it in the budget.  So I will sit and research.  But this does not mean you will not see a benefit, I will post my research here!

Here is what I am looking for in a laptop (in short, the impossible):

1. Processing Power: I am a graphics nerd.  I use Photoshop, Flash, Blender and Gimp.  I am also a computer networking/security nerd so running virtual machines in VirtualBox is also important.  I need something with some kick.  Will an Atom-based system be enough?

2. Tablet Power:  I had a Fujitsu Lifebook T3010 for work a long time ago.  It had no CD Drive and maxed out with 1GB of RAM.  It ran Windows XP Tablet PC edition and was a total dog in Photoshop.  MAN I LOVED THAT LAPTOP!  The digitizer was made by Wacom, who are the only people who should be making such things as they rock so hard 8 days a week.  I later got a HP/Compaq tablet which had much more processing power and RAM, but the tablet digitizer was awful and more designed for an executive with large hands to draw organizational charts than for graphic arts.  Using it was like using a large sharpie on a napkin or toilet paper.

Can I even get something which is both powerful and a tablet?  It seems either it is a good tablet with no power or a high powered computer with crappy tablet abilities.

I think the central problem is that the market is not for graphic artists who want to use tablets.  Artists make do with what they have at hand and the executives in marketing run out and buy things, offering important opinions on tablet/laptop desires such as:

- Powerful, multiple 64bit processor cores running at top speed AND

- Huge hard drive (either SSD or SATA with at least several hundred Gigs of storage)

- Large, bright screen 

- Endless battery life (at least 12 hours)

- Light weight

- Solid

The laptop manufacturers are left with to either defy the market or the laws of physics.  The laws of physics are not often broken, so we are left buying laptops and tablets designed for idiots who don't know what they want designed by people who are attempting to please everyone (poorly).

So the laptop reality is:

Either:

- Powerful

- Big storage

- Big Screen

- Short Battery life

- HOT (legs get sweaty)

Or:

- Underpowered

- Small Storage

- Small Screen

- Long battery life

What is the best balance?  What are you willing to trade and compromise to get?

Good morning

Why are there ads on this site?

Since many readers might not know unless I be forward and mention it, Advertising is the modern way to get paid for content.  I write things, people search for them and find what they are looking for and if enough people find my posts interesting then they visit more often and hopefully see ads that remotely interest them.  When a reader clicks on an ad, I get money.

How much money?  Well in 3 years of blogging with ads, I have made $6.54.  In 3 years of blogging on various topics I have earned enough for a value meal at McDonalds.  I am sure my posts have been more useful than that to someone.

If you find a blog post on any site that helped you please consider doing the following:

- Leave a comment: This will help the blogger know what people are interested in.  They will tailor their blog to your interests.  If you are a blogger as well, they will visit your page as well.

- Read another post: This will give the blogger more page views and also let them know what people are interested in.

- Share a link: Link to their post someplace.  Quote the blogger, tweet the link, post it on Facebook.. people who listen to you will check out the blogger.

- Click an Ad: Does it hurt you to click an ad for something that hopefully interests you?  I am not suggesting you should click on links to what could be spyware, but a safe ad for a good company or product only helps the web.

You are welcome to dislike ads. Remember the days of Tripod and Netzero where popup ads and banners used up precious bandwidth?  I hated those days too.  I won't post ads like that!  But I also would like to host these blogs on my own host and get off of Blogger.  If these blogs can't support themselves then I can not do that.  

So I post this stuff, maybe you like it and maybe you do not.  No matter what, consider the suggestions above and while you are considering click an ad.

I am very glad you visited, thank you!

Gimp and Wacom

Today I started in what I hope to be a habitual thing, I started up my computer and tried to get my Wacom Tablet to talk properly to Gimp 2.6.10.  I was immediately reminded that such things are easier in theory than practice.  Gimp works very well but no matter what I did, the tablet pen would not draw on the screen. I could move windows and could click buttons but Gimp would not show brush strokes.  Then it came to me...

A tablet usually has two modes, a mouse mode where the pen stylus position is relative to the last position and a screen or pen mode where the pen stylus position is mapped between where the tip of the pen is on the tablet and where the mouse cursor is on the screen.  This means that if you have a tablet of my size of about a 3 x 5 active area and a monitor which is about 10 x 16, then a movement of 2 inches on the tablet is almost 6 inches on the screen.  Very tiny movements on the tablet are very large movements on the screen in pen/screen mode.  The smaller the tablet and the larger the screen, the more the ratio of real movement to cursor movement.

Now, I have two monitors to boot so the area my little 3 x 5 tablet maps to is about 10 x 30.  When this happens, left and right movements are proportionally larger than the up and down movements and therefore even harder to deal with.  This is why I prefer mouse mode.

But, Gimp and Wacom have an issue with mouse mode and that is what was causing the tablet to not draw in Gimp.  So, here are the settings you will need to use to get Gimp to work with your Wacom tablet.

1. In the Windows Control Panel (Start, Control Panel), choose the "Pen and Tablet" settings.  Ensure "Pen Mode" is selected and if you have more than one monitor I would suggest you also click "Details" and choose the monitor you will be drawing on to be the only one the tablet maps to.

2. Start Gimp and hit Edit, Preferences and "Input Devices" in the left tree.  Click "Save input device settings on exit" to ensure the settings you are about to configure will be used the next time you open Gimp.  Then click "Configure Extended Input Devices" and review the settings in that window (you should see the modes of your tablet Gimp supports like the Stylus mode and Eraser mode).  Make sure the settings are mapped to "Screen" and not "window".

3. Click "Input Controllers" on the left tree below "Input Devices".  Make sure "DirectX DirectInput" is in both columns (click it in the left column, then click the right arrow to copy it to the right column).

4. Press "Ok" and quit Gimp.  When you start Gimp back up the tablet should work properly.

To truly take advantage of Gimp and your tablet you need to select the "Brush Dynamics" settings in the Paintbrush options panel.  I usually set the Pressure to alter the Size of the brush.  Playing with the pressure sensitivity in the "Pen and Tablet" control panel and the settings in Gimp is best to determine your personal tastes.

**(NOTE: This is a bit of an experiment, I am attaching the screenshots which should explain the steps 1, 2 and 3 in this process.  I am not sure where or how they will be placed in this entry, my apologies if they are a bit messed up)

How to get Flash on Google Chrome in Fedora 12 x64

I love Google Chrome.  I use Firefox's extensions in web development, but for just surfing I use Chrome.

I recently installed Fedora 12 and was at a loss to get Flash working under Chrome.  Here is how I got it to work:

1) Install Google Chrome via the RPM installer.

2) Install the flash plugin and dependencies:

(as "su")

yum install flash-plugin 

yum install nspluginwrapper.x86_64

yum install nspluginwrapper.i686 

yum install alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686

yum install libcurl.i686

(they can be all on one line, but I like to see each one)

(some might already be installed, just move along)

3) Make a link to the plugin for chrome: (as "su")

ln -s /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins-wrapped/nswrapper_32_64.libflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/plugins

4) Change the Chrome menu item to start with "--enable-plugins" 

5) Start Chrome and go to about:plugins if you see the flash player in the list then you are done..

Windows Steady State and nostalgia

If you work in an environment where there is one computer and multiple users, and there is more than one user with admin rights to that computer, you might have seen the need for Windows Steady State ( http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx ).

It "freezes" the configuration on a Windows XP or Vista computer so if there is a change made to it a reboot will restore the computer back to the standard "frozen" state.  If you have kids who use your computer and you don't want to mess with things like admin accounts and family configuration control boards, this tool is for you.  It is free for valid (genuine) windows installations.

In the nostalgia column, did you know AngelFire was still up and running?  The good old days of free web hosts with banner ads are still here.  Who knew?  But I would not recommend going there ( http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=angelfire.com ) it is still a den of viruses and malware.. but it is nice to know that some things don't change.

CACLS in a Batch File

I was working with permissions in a directory and remembered the command CACLS to change permissions. I needed this in a script but it ran and prompted the user for a "Y or N". This would not be good since I inteded to run the script on a scheduled task and there would be no one to press Y or N when the script ran. There is not a "/Y" option for CACLS, which would normally automatically answer "Y". Instead you have to run the command like so: " echo y| cacls folder /g everyone:F ". The spacing is important because with a space after the Y it would cause CACLS to fail (CACLS is apperently looking for just "Y" and not "Y+(space)".

Installing Sun Java on Fedora 12 and making it work on Google Chrome

So, Google Chrome on Fedora is great, but getting Java on it is hard.

The problem is that Fedora is that they only have Open Source
installed by default, normally this is cool but not everyone uses
totally open source all the time. Sun Java programmers are some of
those people. I have a big, huge (kinda sick) love for "Flame"
(http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/#top) but it requires
Java..

So here is how I got Java to work on my Fedora 12 install:

1) Download Java from Sun..
2) Sun will give you a ".bin" file (yeah, WTF!?!)..
3) Now you have to open a console, change to the directory where you
don downloaded Java...
4) chmod a+x jre-6u18-linux-x64-rpm.bin
5) now you ./jre-6u19-linux-x64-rpm.bin
6) read the EULA and type "yes"

Java is now installed in /usr/java, the trick now is to let Google
Chome know about it.

7) in the console window as su, go to /opt/google/chrome/plugins
8) make a link to the java browser plugin library: ln -s
/usr/java/default/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so

restart Google Chrome and give it a try!

Restore ZIP File/Compressed Folder in XP after WinZIP Removal

I am not sure your opinion of WinZIP but I am done with it (I have
been since Windows XP was launched). The native "Compressed Folder"
functions of Windows XP were just better than WinZIP, even if you
could specify a higher compression with WinZIP Zip files.

No matter your opinion, many users still install WinZIP without buying
it. I am not one to violate license agreements, if you must install
some ZIP tool install 7zip at least, so I have removed a few installs
of WinZIP in my day. WinZIP just happens to burn a bridge on the way
out of the system and not restore the ZIP functionality of XP --
almost like throwing the bird to your boss as you are walked out by
security after getting fired...

To restore the native ZIP file functionality in XP (maybe Vista for
all I know) the following works for me:

1) Open a command prompt and run: REGSVR32 ZIPFLDR.DLL

2) then run: assoc .zip=CompressedFolder

3) you are done!

Script to bind/enable network clients to adapters

I had an issue where there are a bunch of machines which need to join the domain. The problem is that the "Client for Microsoft Networks" was disabled on the image for these machines.

Since there are so many and I am very lazy, I wanted a script to enable the ms_msclient..
but finding none I tried to locate how to do it in the registry..
but finding no way I changed the setting and watched the results in ProcMon..
but finding nothing I went to find a scriptable application to use..

then I found nvspbind ( nvspbind ). Now I can make a script that calls this little command line application ( the "XP" version worked for me -- I don't get the distrobution files on the web page). A BIG thank-you to Keithmanage ( keithmange )!!