Technology & Internet Blog Posts

I read somewhere a few days ago that pictures and video on the internet don’t do the Motorola Droid justice. Boy, they were right about that. In person, this thing is phenomenal.

After Jiu Jitsu practice this afternoon, I somehow ended up in the Verizon Wireless store in Glastonbury. Don’t ask me how I got there, it was a blur. All I know is that I wanted this new PDA because the screen is much larger than my current Blackberry Curve screen and I can see the browser 100% better. Also, HTML emails show up as HTML, not text with code all over the place. It’s a superb business tool.

I am going to keep this post short because the Motorola Droid has been plastered all over the internet and television for that past few weeks. I am not going to go over all that again, but I will throw a nice little video in this post for you. Let me say this…the phone is awesome. Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts are seamless. Apps are just a few clicks away. The operating system is extremely intuitive. At first glance, I thought I would actually need the manual to learn how things work. About 15 minutes of playing with the phone gave me a good working knowledge of how to use just about everything.

The Motorola Droid is the best PDA device I have ever touched…hands down.

I was reading an article entitled, “Mac fanboys should get a life and some Windows 7 common sense” today and came across a line that piqued my interest. The line was this: “Vista was a Windows failure.”

When I read that line, I stopped cold for a second or two. I started thinking and asking myself silly questions, like, “Gee, I’m working on Vista right now. What’s wrong with it?” and “Why is it that when ever I read something about Windows Vista, it’s negative?” and “Why do I feel like every computer I go near that has Vista installed on it is going to blow up like a giant stink bomb?” Seriously, I am typing on a machine running Windows Vista right this very moment and the world is okay.

I am not simply sticking up for Microsoft, although I was just saying a few days ago that it wouldn’t really matter what position someone takes, I am bound to take the opposite one. I am a debater by nature and right now Vista is the underdog. So there you are.

I will tell you this, I absolutely hate Internet Explorer. It doesn’t matter what version comes out, it pains me to open the program. Maybe it’s because it is excruciatingly slow. It’s not only slow to browse web pages, it’s also slow to just open and run. I read a comparison between the latest versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome the other day. They said that speed was generally the same among all three applications. My eyes nearly fell out of my head. I was like, “What planet are you from?” I only use IE for one thing now and I don’t look forward to it.

I also hate ActiveSync. I used to use it to sync my Treo with Outlook. It was such a waste of time. How many times can a person sever and restore the relationship between the phone and the computer? My fingers used to hurt from crossing them so much.

This brings me to the last thing (I think) I don’t like from Microsoft…and that is Windows Mobile. When I was using Windows Mobile on that Treo, I must have given that phone a hard reboot hundreds of times. It pushed me into the arms of Blackberry, where I have been warmly embraced ever since. I have had my Blackberry for about two years now. Do you know how many times I had to reboot the phone? Once. That’s right. I had to reboot the phone once since I got it and that was just last week and the problem wasn’t even with the phone. It had to do with a Google app that had a bug. Now that’s good.

So, back to my original question. What in the world is wrong with Vista? It is just that there were some compatibility issues when it first came out? Does it have to do with usability issues? Do people dislike the little box that pops up when they have to install or uninstall software?

Since I really don’t know the answer and really have only had a few problems with Vista, I decided to do a little Google search. Here are some sites that offered me some answers:

– The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed
– Microsoft admits Vista failure
– Why Vista failed – suicide by not fearing Linux enough

I guess there are some legitimate reasons why people are a little ticked off. Especially when the company that made the software admits it didn’t work out. I seem to think they are just pumping up Windows 7 though. You know, if you say your previous product (which is naturally dying off soon anyway) was so bad, it makes people want your new product that much more. “Gee, this new Windows 7 must be really GREAT!!!” Honestly, if you want to beat up on a version of Windows, you should have beat up on Windows 98. I am still having shivers from that one. Want to talk about blue screen?

I gotta tell you something. Maybe a lot of the people who are complaining about Vista are open source users. Over the last year, I have actually transitioned myself to use more open source programs than traditional ones. Maybe that’s an exaggeration. I use a few though. I really like what I use. Most of them are smooth, lightweight, fast and have frequent updates. I can’t wait for the day that I have the guts to actually switch to an open source operating system. That probably won’t happen for some time because I am not one to sit and struggle with configurations or trying to see what works with what. I am impatient. If it doesn’t work quickly, it gets uninstalled.

Here’s a question – What has Vista done to you? I would like to hear from real people with real problems. I’m sick of the biased bloggers out there who now have a venue to talk smack. I don’t believe any of them. The problem is, many people do. So, let’s have it.

Have you seen this? I guess the launch was today, because the new “Dyson Air Multiplier” is all over the place on the web. It’s funny, because as I was looking for videos to post here, they were being posted to YouTube pretty rapidly.

Basically, this “bladeless” fan consists of a stand (with a fan in it) and a big round thing (with a slit in it) that the fan pushed the air through.

Some people are saying that this is simply revolutionary. Some people are saying this is just a fan with hidden blades. I say that this guy is a genius because he can 1. come up with such a simple idea, 2. create such a buzz about it, and 3. actually get people to spend $300 on such a device. Hey, you can’t blame him.

Check out the two videos. In the first one, you see a woman with a weird grin on her face who is just mesmerized by the cutting edge technology of this new fan. If you’ll notice the hair in this video, it’s blowing as if the woman and baby were standing in front of a traditional fan.

Now, take a look at this video. Do you notice anything strange? Yup, there is not a hair out of place. Also, it seems very much like these people are either hired or work for the company. What kind of person right off the street says, “It looks like another amazing new technology?”

So, what do you think of the Dyson Air Multiplier? Will it sell?

I’m not even sure I am going to head down this road. I don’t want to use too many tools offered by one company. It is a good idea though…

Here’s the problem. Google offers the tools that rock. I mean seriously. I have mentioned this before, but it’s true now more than ever. I use a lot of tools online that are offered by a variety of companies. The one company that seems to really get it right is Google. Somehow, they have gotten in my head and figured out what I want.

I don’t know how they did that.

Perhaps it’s the median age of their employees. I bet it’s the same age as I am. I also bet that many of Google’s employees like the same things I do and do what I do. We appreciate the same types of cars and read the same magazines. I suppose I am a market for them.

So, what’s Google Voice?

From Wikipedia: “Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) is a telecommunications service by Google launched on March 11, 2009. The service provisions a U.S. phone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Outbound calls may be placed to domestic and international destinations by dialing the Google Voice number or from a web-based application.”

Kind of reminds my of Skype, except Skype has video as well, which is really cool. I bet (if they don’t already), Google Voice will have that soon too.

Well folks, as you can see, this is where things are heading. Get ready to use your cell phone with some sort of a voice app on it. Also, get ready for video calls on your cell phone. Oh wait, that’s probably already available. Where have I been?

By the way, if you are interested in getting in on Google Voice, you can click here to visit Google’s blog post with instructions on what to do.

This is the big news today. From what I am reading all over the web anyway. Microsoft has taken the beta version of “Microsoft Security Essentials” anti-virus software out of beta and allowing the public to download it for free.

For free? What? I did a little doubletake at this one. I have been looking for good free anti-virus software for a while. Well, ever since Norton AntiVirus started annoying me. Let me tell you why I got annoyed:

1. Every time I have to renew Norton, it seems like the price goes up. How much higher can they go?
2. Norton has this annoying feature that sets auto-renew to “on” by default. While this is good for those of us who forget to renew our anti-virus software, it can get annoying for us who can handle this chore. Personally, I like to give my options a yearly review. Good thing they send that email to warn me and to remind me to turn off auto-renew.
3. Apparently, Norton has had some issues with double-charging their customers when it comes time to renew the software. They did this to me. Hey, don’t take my word for it, just click here to see for yourself.

The reviews on Microsoft Security Essentials have been pretty good. I watched a few videos of the beta version and people seem pretty happy with what they get. Remember, this is free, but I think it only works on Windows. It’s a shame we just renewed three computers here at about $50 each. Yeah, I told you it was expensive.

Here is a video describing the free anti-virus software.

Oh yeah…if you want to download Microsoft Security Essentials, click here.

I am a backup maniac. I backup and then backup the backup. Then, I seal up the backed up backup, stick it in a safe and plunge the safe in concrete. Even with all that, I will probably lose data eventually. I didn’t get like this overnight. I’ve had…let’s say…experience.

You know, it’s strange – with all the people out there who rely so heavily on all their computer files, very few of them ever back up anything. The worst part of it is that the majority of them work on laptops. I used to work with a girl who was in sales. One day, she came into work all upset that her laptop crashed and she lost all of her data. There was nothing she could do. When I say she lost everything, I mean the computer repair dude handed her back a laptop with wires hanging out of it. It was toast.

I said to her, “Oh don’t worry, just go grab your backup and we’ll load it up for you.” Her blank stare was priceless. I mean seriously, how long did she think her computer was going to last? It was bumped and bruised for years. Whatever. I knew she didn’t back up anything, I was just being a wisea$$. It was easy to pick on her because she had some pretty wild political views. I didn’t take too kindly to that.

Okay, onto my situation. I have websites. I back up all the data I have on the servers quite frequently. It’s a big job and it gets done a lot, but I just do it because it’s important. After the “Oh sorry sir, we don’t really have that backup up” I got from my old friends at “1 and…” hosting company, I decided to get real. I now have a pretty serious setup. Even with a new host and private servers, I still download everything. I don’t care what they tell me. One guy said, “A meteor has to hit this building for us to lose your data.” Yeah, famous last words.

Here’s a piece of advice for any of you who run websites – never trust what a hosting company says, no matter what kind of triple platinum guarantee they give you. When something happens and it comes time to get down, it’s awfully easy for them to tell you they don’t have what you need and to rush you off the phone. Here’s another piece of advice, stay very far, far away from technical support that is based in a foreign country. I don’t want to knock the support, I do want to say that the company doesn’t give these support people any power to do anything. They are basically telephone operators who create support tickets. With the old servers and “1 and…” (I forget the name), I actually had a server down for about two weeks. I just couldn’t get someone to restart Apache. I could have flown to the data center, walked in and restarted the thing myself. You want to talk about stress? Man oh man. It was rough living with me for those two weeks.

Okay, back to my situation. I back up my data from the servers. It’s probably about 15 gigs. Then, I have about 2 more gigs of working files on my desktop. So, overall, I have about 17 gigs that I really don’t trust sitting here on my computer. I back up on a portable drive, another external drive and online, all encrypted. I will say that devising ways to back up data gets quite addictive. Three backups is really enough, but I might have some others hidden.

It goes even further than that. My online backup can’t be in the same city as where my servers are. I know, I know, but trust me, when push comes to shove, it matters. Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc… Remember when I said that the guy from the hosting company told me that a meteor had to hit the building for me to lose my data? Well, during the first week of me hosting with them, a car hit a telephone pole in a main intersection near one of their data centers. They were forced to run on generators for two days. I now have my servers split up between two data centers in two states.

Up until today, I was using MozyPro as my online backup service. They offer a pretty good service with lots of great features. Luckily, I never had to recover any files, but I’m sure they would have done a fine job if I needed them.

A few days ago, I noticed that I wasn’t receiving my nightly summary backup emails. I looked into the reason why and it ended up that my files weren’t actually being uploaded to the backup servers. This was a Friday. I called support and was connected to an obvious foreign country. My face got red. I explained the situation and a ticket was created. Then Monday, I got a response that the ticket was escalated. Two full days had gone by with nothing done. I called support again and got nowhere. My next call was to sales to close down my account. I don’t deal well with outsourced support. I have a long experience with being politely told that nothing is going to get resolved.

Today, I set up an account with Jungle Disk. From what I hear, they are pretty good. My files are being backed up as I sit here and write. I am under no illusion that the support is any better, but I had to do something. If I need to keep jumping to different online backup companies, so be it.

There are a few things that I like about Jungle Disk (run by Amazon, bought out by Rackspace) that MozyPro didn’t give up too easily. First, I can download the software onto any computer and just run it under the same account. I can upload and download on any of my five PCs. I like that. I can even get files from the road. Second, they charge for usage. You don’t need to buy a certain amount of space and then worry about returning unused resources. That’s pretty helpful.

Jungle Disk was very easy to set up and is quite simple to operate as well. It’s also very affordable. To top things off, I trust Jungle Disk because one of my favorite relatives uses it, along with many of his friends. Hey, word of mouth…there ain’t no better way.

I picked up a sweet little gadget the other day.

Since Laura is now using the laptop to work on more and more, I thought it might be a good idea to get myself a second laptop. Only, this time I thought about it a little longer than I thought about the previous laptop purchase.

I figured that I really don’t need all that much power or storage. I just need to connect to the internet on something small. I took a look around Dell’s website and settled upon the “Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook.” I actually called Dell and ordered it. Then, when I found out that the ship date is three weeks from now, I called back and canceled the order. I’m not waiting three weeks for something I can go up the road and buy. I did just that.

I hopped on Staple’s website and did some comparison of netbooks. The “Acer Aspire One AOD250-1165 Netbook” looked pretty much like the Dell I was previously interested in. The Dell was a little better looking, but I decided to get over myself and buy the Acer.

These little netbooks are really cool. They are pretty small, so you can just stuff it in your backpack and go. They have wireless cards built in, so I can get signal anywhere from in the house and I also installed VZ Access, so I can just hook up my Blackberry and get broadband on the road. Pretty spiffy.

Here are the specs. Not bad for $299.

* 3-cell battery, 2.5 hours run time*
* 1GB installed memory
* 160GB hard drive
* Intel® Atom™ Processor N270
* 10.1″ WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite™ LED Display
* Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
* Acer InviLink™ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED®
* Integrated Acer Crystal Eye Webcam
* Two Built-in Stereo Speakers
* Dimensions 10.17″ (W) x 7.24″ (D) x 1″ (H) (2.44lbs)
* Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3
* 1 year

If you don’t already know this about me, I’m a satellite image junkie. I used to be hooked on Google Maps and then graduated to Google Earth. One day, my mother introduced me to Live Maps and it was all over. The bird’s eye view is killer. It’s like you are sitting in a helicopter at about 1,000 feet looking around.

The reason I like these types of applications so much is that I have a horrible memory for places. I constantly think of stuff I have seen and then want to see it again. If we had transporters like they have on Star Trek, I would be everywhere all the time.

Live Maps is okay, but sometimes it runs slowly and takes a few moments for the photos to load. That bugs me. Also, the bird’s eye view isn’t available for every place I want to look. I mean, it’s really great exploring through Live Maps, but I need more.

This evening, I was thinking about various places I used to visit in Atlanta, GA. I was thinking about all the roads and different stores and restaurants. I think I have a more romantic view about what there was down there than what was reality. I went over to YouTube to see if I could find some videos of the stuff I was thinking about and only came across a few not-so-great videos. I was a little disappointed when a thought popped in my head. I said, “Hey man, why not download Google Earth again? I know they updated it and now offer Street View.” How great of an idea that was.

Well folks, I downloaded Google Earth and I have to say that my socks were knocked off. The last time I checked this program out is when they were just introducing 3D maps. Now, they have 3D, Street View and somehow, I can see what’s under the ocean water. I haven’t figured that out yet.

After playing around for a little while, I decided to give my mother a call to tell her that I was looking at her front door through Street View. I haven’t been down there in a while, but amazingly enough, all of my memories came back to me through all the photos that Google Earth offered me. It’s pretty incredible.

What’s really cool is the fact that you can use Google Earth for so many things, like checking out a neighborhood if you are interested in moving there, you can reminisce about places you used to live and you can even check stuff out while you are on the phone with people to get a better picture of what in the world they are talking about. I think I am going to use this the next time I talk to my father about where he works.

Okay, enough talk. Take a look at these videos to see what I am trying to get at. Then, go ahead and download your own copy of Google Earth and start having some fun.

I think this is going to be the second and last part of my “Complaining about the Internet” series. I just need to get this one out there.

Have you ever heard of Twitter? If so, you’ll know what I am talking about here. If not, I’ll explain what it is to you. Basically, Twitter is a website that allows you to post very short updates on the happenings of your life. It can go something like this…”I have my hand stuck in the toilet.” You can post as many updates as you would like all day long if you want to. People who follow your Twitter feed can stay updated on how many times you get your hand stuck in the toilet during the day. It’s marvelous.

I hope I am describing the service correctly; I have never actually used it.

Just because I haven’t used Twitter, doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it. Please, let me know if the following is annoying to you too.

The other day, I was watching the news or something like it. Maybe it was one of those news shows, I’m not sure. There was a fascinating story on about how a few surgeons were operating on someone and another doctor was Twittering the goings on of the operation. I didn’t think too much of it at the moment. Then, later that day, I started thinking more about it. I asked myself, “Self, why was a doctor Twittering about an operation as it was in progress?” I began having strange thoughts and my mind started to wander. I must confess, I got annoyed for a while. I finally calmed down and tried to look at the plus side of the whole thing.

Let’s look at the “goods” of Twittering during an operation:

1. Comfort – a family can sit around a computer or a mobile phone reading “Tweets” about their loved one’s operation.
2. Informed – The world can get a first hand look at what goes on during an operation.
3. Progress – The doctors and hospital can glow in the limelight of their cutting-edge technology.
4. Contact – Everyone can be proud of themselves that we no longer need to have any amount of human contact.

Today, I watched the White House press conference for a few minutes. I got to the part where the Press Secretary said, “I find it humorous how many press releases have gone out and how much Twitter activity has gone on about…” I had to stop watching. Are you serious?

Okay, I love technology just as much as the next guy, but at what point do we implant “Borg-like” cybernetic enhancements on the sides of our heads and call it a day?

I thought it was great when email arrived on the scene. What a time saver. Then, when I could read the news online, I was thrilled. When I could finally keep up with friends and families through their blogs, I just loved it. When people started broadcasting every heartbeat that occurs inside their chest cavities, I thought the line was crossed.

I tend to think that this modern computer age is a “tool” to assist us in our “real lives.” Did you read that? A “tool” to “assist” us in our “real lives.” I might be over-quoting here, but I believe we are headed towards a place that is quite the opposite of what I just said. It’s going to be like, “Oh man, I have to go out in the sunshine today? Can’t I just twist the knob on the side of my skull and relay all my thoughts to everyone who belongs to the collective? Well, if I must go outside, I am going to need some sunglasses.”

Exercise? Family time? Conversation? Hiking? Looking someone in the eyes? I don’t think so folks…I’ll just go to YouTube and watch a video of someone else exercising, email my family about what I did today, use Skype to have a face-to-face conversation, get a treadmill and call it a hike and email someone a picture of me. I think that about covers it.

As I am finishing up this post and re-reading it, I am seeing a theme among this post and my prior one about Facebook. It appears that I get most agitated at the constant updating of our lives. With my blog, I write every so often to give you folks some information about me. I do it with thought and care. I plan it, write it and then proof read it. I don’t do it randomly and I certainly don’t do it 30 times a day.

Let’s go back to the Tweet, “I have my hand stuck in the toilet.” I think many of us might ask, “Who cares?” Seriously, “W-h-o c-a-r-e-s?”

To think, I thought I was alone. This guy sums it up nicely.

I was just reading an article on how Windows Vista may have affected Microsoft’s earnings in 2008. The article didn’t blame Vista per se, but it did blame Vista, Windows XP and the sale (or lack thereof) of computers due to the lagging economy. As everyone most likely already knows, most of the sales of computer operating systems are tied to the sales of computers, because the operating systems come installed on the computers. When computers don’t sell, neither do the operating systems.

The article talked about how people were generally dissatisfied with Windows Vista and that may have been taking its toll on computer sales. In other words, people were willing to stick it out with Windows XP and an older computer, until a new operating system is released. They said that many computer users are waiting for the release of Windows 7. This is what I found interesting…

Here is my logic: If people didn’t want Vista in the first place and were willing to keep an older operating system, how is a new operating system going to fix the problem?

As far as I know, there really isn’t all too much of a pull for a new version of Windows. I totally understand the need to come up with new and better products, but a new version of an operating system every few years isn’t really necessary. Especially when so many users out there are perfectly willing to use an older one. Why not build on that one?

Here is a disclaimer: I have absolutely no reason to believe I know what I am talking about when it comes to the inner workings of software. I am merely stating simple observations.

So here is my question: Has anyone taken an in-depth look at Windows 7? From what I can tell, it looks a lot like other versions of Windows, with things arranged differently, along with some new icons. I am sure the developers over at Microsoft would like to slap me for saying that. I wouldn’t mind someone familiar with the system to comment.