Posts Tagged → Microsoft
Poison Ivy Almost Gone
This morning I woke up to go to work and was still itching pretty bad though you could barely see it. This evening when I came home from work I noticed something was different. No itching at all! After four and a half weeks it is finally on its way out and all I can say is thank God! This has been a rough month with the never ending itching and even worse the allergic reaction to the medicine.
During this time I had two very big events my life and that was graduating OU and the other was seeing my family in New Mexico for the first time in 21 years. The enjoyment of both of these events were a bit lost because of having the most severe poison ivy outbreak known to the human race. For those of you that saw it, you know what I am talking about. For the rest of you, I will spare you the pictures but I do have some. 
While we were gone on our trip my oldest son Kevin was a hero. He did not get to go with us on our vacation because he forgot to tell his boss about it until it was too late to let him off. I was upset for a while but that was changed when some bad guys broke into our house while we were gone. My son captured two of the three and the police caught the other one. Everyone of them were over 18 years old so we are pressing charges. He walked in on them inside the house. Just yesterday he was at work and helped to capture a thief at his work. I told him that being a police officer may be his calling. The bad guys come right to him. I am so proud of him and the way he handled the situation.
Now that I am feeling better this weekend I have to work tomorrow. That is okay because it will be a short day. I am working a straight eight hours from 6:30 am to 2:20 pm. That should go fast and I will be able to squeak by with a decent weekend after all. Our WIN System repeater was blocked this week because of a stray signal that was mistaken for intermod. This happened once before in 2007 when a local ham was transmitting amateur television (ATV) on 439.25 MHz. This local ham is very close to the repeater antenna and has a very high gain antenna. I am not sure if that is what happened this time or not. Another possibility is that another new ham was trying to get into the repeater with a handy talkie (HT) and was not getting into the system very well. I am hoping that was the scenario because that is an easy one to fix. We have since been unblocked but we are reluctant to connect back up until we confirm the source of the signal.
Just the other day I posted about the new Microsoft search engine Bing.com and how cool it was. A story came out today that shows that in just three days, it has taken the number two search engine spot world wide over taking Yahoo. I have mixed feelings about this because I have always loved Yahoo and still think they are very relevant. At the same time I am really pulling for Bing to succeed. I really do like the way it operates. Well I have rambled long enough so I will get this posted.
I’m Still a PC
Am I the only one that has noticed all the Apple hysteria these days? If you turn on the television, watch any sitcom, or movie you will see everyone with a Mac. If you go onto social networking sites or blogs around the world you will find similar sentiments. This has become another follower story similar to the Google follower story of about two years ago. Remember when Google was the equivalence of the second coming of Christ? This is what is happening with Apple these days and it is almost nauseating.
Let’s have some sanity in this argument. Apple products are just plain overpriced and I refuse to use them when they continue to be that way. Even their Itunes software is not very attractive. The iPhone is off the charts too expensive and so is ANY iPod. I mean seriously… You can buy virtually any mp3 player with more storage space for 50 to 75% of the iPod price. The Apple advertising story is to say that to use a PC means that you are vulnerable to attack with virus’ worms, or any sorts of malware. The truth is that Microsoft still carries 80+% of the market while Apple only has 10%.
Think in terms of a terrorist since most virus authors are just that in their own way. If you had to blow something up and weapons were very expensive or time consuming wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on a target that would do the most damage to the most people? In other words authors of malware and the like target Microsoft because they are the most used, not because they are the least secure. This is a message that Apple will never tell you, nor will their followers. They only have the appearance of being more secure because they do not have enough market share to make cracking them worth while.
Despite the never ending barrage of attacks from the Apple loving, Microsoft haters Microsoft still makes very good products. The small exception of the initial release of Vista is hardly the rule. Microsoft Vista has actually become a very nice operating system from what they were in the beginning. This is not an attempt to attack Apple for making bad products but rather an attempt to combat some of the over zealous hysteria around their overpriced products.
Many of the people that I hear swearing allegiance to Apple are the same people that I use to hear bashing Microsoft for their proprietary ways. The ironic thing about all this is that Apple is far more proprietary than Microsoft is. They will not even allow you to use their software on hardware that they did not make. Of course this can be done but not without violating the end user license agreement (EULA). I watched four movies this weekend and everyone of them had Apple Macintosh computers on their desks. I watched a Christmas episode of House just yesterday and he was not only using a Mac but was holding an iPhone. I am not saying this is bad for a person to use their products but rather to say that Hollywood’s portrayal of Apple is that everyone uses them and everyone wants them. This is simply not true and I am one of them. I have zero desire to purchase any products by Apple and I know I am not the only one.
In all honesty I have to hand it to Apple for making some pretty good products lately and I have nothing against them other than their pricing for similar PC products. The thing that bothers me is the disproportionate love fest with their products among the tech world and Hollywood. The tech world mainly for the hypocrisy of bashing Microsoft for being proprietary while their love child Apple does the very same thing. Hollywood for their continued habits of trying to create spin while they are supposed to be entertaining. They do this all the time with their subtle hints at liberal slanted topics and social issues. Instead of just doing a performance to entertain which is what their audience wants to see they try to use this monopolistic platform to try to shape people’s minds. I guess it is no secret that I am no fan of the entertainment industry.
I have been a computer enthusiast for more than 20 years and I still love them. I am no expert with computers, rather an enthusiast that loves learning about new gadgets. I claim no expertise in any way but I have been around long enough to see how trends come and go and this Apple hysteria is just another example of groups of people following the crowd paying twice what a product is worth just because of the perceived “coolness” factor. Somehow these days it is seen to make you cool if you own a Mac despite paying a higher price for the same product. If you are in the “IN” crowd you think this makes perfect sense while those not in the “IN” crowd see it as lunacy.
An analogy that could compare would be the guy that drives down your street playing the stereo so loud that the bass shakes the dishes in your home. To the deaf guy in the car and his buddies, this is so cool that it gives them chills to see people look in their direction. To them this is the height of attention and in their eyes everyone is looking at them with envy. To the people outside the car looking in the same situation is seen with disgust. The person inside the car is looked upon as a person with not enough brain power to save his own hearing. The same situations seen from two completely different perspectives. The Apple Mac buyer walks around with his overprices Mac with chills as people glance his way. He sticks his chest out knowing that everyone that glances his way is looking upon him with envy. To all those that are in agreement with him they support his lack of budgeting skills and cheer him on. Those others “NON COOL” types look upon him with pity. They see this poor soul as one that was so caught up in pleasing his friends that he paid twice the price for a product than he had to. They get down on one knee just before bed to ask God to forgive them for they know not what they do.
I know I know… That is a little over the top but I sometimes find that a little tongue in cheek sarcasm can be used to illustrate a point. To all my Apple friends you are in my prayers .
Rearranging Flickr
Yesterday I uploaded all 300+ photos that my son and I took when we were in San Antonio. I noticed that I have many sets that were duplicates so I began to use the collections feature Flickr has to offer. I had several sets about San Antonio so I created a collection called “Trips” that contains all the other sets. Hopefully this will help to keep some order. I created a collection called “Family” and then added all the sets relating to family so they will be easier to find. I think this is much easier to maintain and find what I am looking for. With my online photos now surpassing 5,000 I needed a way to keep things in order.
I usually try to tag all my photos so they are searchable but occasionally I miss some. I noticed that most of my San Antonio pictures have been missed so I will have to go back to those as I get time. When I graduate next May, I am hopeful that I can get more time to focus on photography. Right now I do not have time to spend to edit them or even go through them effectively. Even ham radio has had to take a back seat. With these trips for my work, it takes even more time.
I sure hope Flickr is able to survive all the merger talks that I keep hearing about between Microsoft and Flickr’s parent company Yahoo. This is probably one of the best inventions on the Internet. Even Microsoft’s new Windows Live Gallery has adopted the tagging features that Flickr. I have noticed that with the new Windows Vista, they have included the tagging feature to all files making all of them searchable. Well I guess I have rambled long enough.
Scary Trends
I understand the temptation for signing up for the newest toy that comes out. I have been paying attention to the computer industry for more than a decade. One thing that has consistently been the story is the hatred people in the computer industry have for Microsoft. Some of the stated reasons were because of their proprietary ways trying to control the market. This constant complaining about Microsoft is about their licensing methods and desire to maintain control. These complaints have been growing over the last ten years yet Microsoft has continued to have the greatest market share.
In the last two years I have seen a pattern shift and the roots seem to be around the San Francisco self appointed experts in the computer industry. They call themselves tech experts so they can increase their influence over phones, cameras, and other electronic devices. This shift to Apple products by these groups has been building the last couple of years. I have heard at least one of them admit that he has stock in Apple and Google. This is interesting since Apple is even more proprietary than Microsoft. Their products are consistently over priced for equally valued products from other companies. Apple is even worse than Microsoft in that they require you to use their hardware in addition to their software. I am not saying their products are substandard but rather they are way over priced. In fact, I almost bought an 80 GB iPod lately until I realized that a Microsoft 80 GB Zune was cheaper and it even had an FM radio tuner built in. Let’s face it Apple products are just too expensive. It is almost like a teenager drinking because his friends are drinking. Most people say beer is an acquired taste so that means they did not like it the first time. If you did not like it the first time, why did you try it a second time? It was that desire to do what your buddies are doing. I believe it is the same thing here with the Apple frenzy. Their products are so expensive but you acquire the taste anyway so you can do what your buddies are doing. I have a real problem with being a follower and those that are.
My observation is that the self appointed tech elites are all followers. There is a group of about 10 people in San Francisco, that I will not list, that join every social networking system that comes out and then adds everyone that will add them to their friends list. These individuals add 20,000+ people to their contacts list and then post about the newest toys that come out and pine over Apple products. Keep in mind the above comment about owning stock in the company. While they tend to have credibility because of their previous jobs being connected to the computer industry, they lose credibility with the admission that they are stock holders in these companies. People listen to them because a couple of them have been on technology related programs on satellite. Another one use to be a blogger at one of the larger computer software manufacturers.
With their background and their proximity to major computer, and Internet companies, they have taken on a celebrity status among computer enthusiasts including myself in the past. I see many fads based on people following those they see as celebrities. I know this because I have fallen for them myself. I love technology and have found myself adding these individuals to my list as well and following their advice with the group. It is almost like a cult following that has grown out of control. Before you tell your friends that I said it is a cult, you need to remember I said it is “like” a cult the way people just follow these people by the thousands.
It is very enticing to be a part of the group and feel as though you are part of something big and have inside information about the newest toy coming out before anyone else knows about it. It gives the impression that you are also an expert in your circles and people come to you as though you know everything there is to know about computers. I still have people come to me to ask my advice on computers and I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I love computers but I am not an expert. I guess one of the things that woke me up from this trance was the constant confrontation with those with views that conflict with my religious views. This should not surprise anyone because as much as California tends to be pretty liberal in their political slant, San Francisco has a reputation of being so far out there in their anti-morality views and they are very proud of them. One day I stumbled on a post from one of them telling about how intelligent people cannot believe in God. At first I engaged the argument and it kept coming up over and over again. I finally realized that I have no place in their circles. As painfully as it was, I removed them from my contact lists. There are many scriptures that tell about befriending non believers when they refuse to accept God’s ways. I have nothing against them but realized that continuing to be around those that are so confrontational with my religious views is not only bad for me but for them as well. I made a decision a few weeks ago to remove myself from the celebrity worship of those self appointed computer experts from San Francisco.
I canceled my Friendfeed account, Facebook, Myspace, Zooomr, as well as other accounts. If you really think about it, the main motivation for joining them is to join this celebrity worship group. I could have mentioned the San Francisco people that I am referring to but thought that would have been counterproductive to my cause. If you are one of them in the group that follows them, then you know who they are. Some of them are very pleasant to be around and very friendly. It does not help one’s testimony though when you are befriending those that are famous for their opposition to your religious beliefs.
The Apple/Google/Firefox/Linux worship that I have encountered can be traced back to this celebrity worship on all these social networking sites. You have thousands of people proud of themselves for their friendship with their perceived celebrity friend. They can walk around telling their friends that they are friends with ______. You will find that whatever _______ says, it is followed without question. This is not to say that Apple, Google, or Firefox have bad products but rather, their appeal is that _______ uses them. I have found many friends that will join AT&T and pay for their most expensive program just so they can own an Apple iPhone. These same people have a history of bashing AT&T for being in bed with “THE MAN”. They hate AT&T for cooperating with the Bush administration (their worst enemy). Nevertheless because Apple has an exclusive contract with AT&T, they will look the other way. I firmly believe this same celebrity worship is directly related to the demise of Yahoo, a pioneer on the Internet. They have been a victim of the endless and relentless condemnation of this group.
With the invention of these social networking web sites and social news pages that allow people to vote stories to the top and bury other stories they disagree with, we have witnessed a formidable force on the Internet. Microsoft has reason to fear them because I have seen them work. There are a couple of these social news pages that post about a story and then vote it to the top. This produces so much traffic to third party web sites that their servers cannot keep up with the demand essentially bringing it down for hours. This gives the effect of a denial of service (DOS) attack. I have heard those that use these social new pages brag about this power and have given a name to it. I will not reveal the name because it will reveal the name of these sites that I am talking about. I do not reveal these sites because I do not want to make myself liable for my opinion of them. This practice is real because I have been a part of it for several years. As a ham radio operator, I have always enjoyed programs that allow you to communicate with each other making myself a vulnerable target for these types of pages.
I often wonder how long this will go on. I will venture to say it will get worse. While this is not some moral debate, I do believe we are living in a generation that has rejected God and his standards. Whenever there are no standards, there is anarchy. People are desiring to have meaning and cling to these groups to have worth. I have heard people brag about how many contacts they have even though they admit they do not know most of them. We are living in an age where people have no idea what is right or wrong and base their beliefs in what the crowd believes. This moral relativism is a dangerous way to live because the media has a lot of power to convince the crowd. Remember, it was not that long ago that the American majority thought it was acceptable to have black slaves. Without a standard that never changes, we have no standards at all. Who will be the next victims?
Social Networking and SMS
As most of you know, I am an Internet junkie and love to play with social networks minus Myspace. No matter how much I try, I just cannot get into Myspace. I have grown to love Twitter because of its short messaging system (SMS) capability. It is really nice to be mobile and get text messages to my phone. I can be out mobile and just send a text message to 40404 and it shows up on my Twitter page. I wish Facebook would include T-Mobile in their mobile service. I have been with T-Mobile since 2000 when it was Voicestream. I really like Facebook but I wish they would wake up and realize that T-Mobile is NOT a small mobile service. They are one of the major carriers and should be included in their mobile accounts. I have been happy with their service and have no intentions of changing after eight years.
Facebook and Twitter go well together. If I am out somewhere and post a Twitter message, it automatically updates my Facebook status and shows on the Facebook feed. There are many programs similar to Twitter like Pownce, or Jaiku but I stick with Twitter because of the SMS. I do not understand why they all do not include SMS. Yes, I can go to their mobile page and log in to check the page but that is too much trouble. Having SMS, allows me to get a message sent “to” me as opposed to having to go search for it. I can be in a meeting at work, and get a message right to my phone. This is where putting the phone on silent really helps . If they did not have any other features, SMS should be included. Using mobile web is nice but not that convenient.
I think Pownce has a lot of potential but until they get SMS, they will never get a large following like Twitter does. Myspace has finally included SMS but it is rediculous. They send you an SMS message telling you that you have a new Myspace message. Then you have to log into Myspace to check your message. What a waste! If i am in a meeting and do not have a computer nearby or do not want to pay extra for the mobile web, then I do not know the what or who the message is from. If I am in a meeting, then I have to be discreet when checking my messages. You cannot be very discreet while logging on to the web.
If you are like me and want to stay connected when I am away from home, you will love these toys. I must say that my favorite is the Twitter/Facebook combination. So far I think they are light years ahead of the others. Without question MySpace is the worst. It is the AOL of social networking. They will not allow access through other forums and even their SMS is only one way and does nothing more than tell you that you have some information on their website. Their pages are geared toward teens with hormone overload. Every page has some girl wearing scantily clad outfits with some provocative comment. I will admit that one thing that really bothers me about Facebook is the way it automatically requests you to send new applications to all of your friends by default. When I get those, I always say no.
I am curious to see how this is going to hold up in the long run. To my knowledge Twitter has no means of generating income so as much as I love it, I am not sure what their long term strategy is but for now it is just a lot of fun. Oh…one more thing. I know Microsoft Vista gets a lot of heat for many reasons but one thing that I love about it is the tagging features. For those that have come to love Flickr and its tagging and searching capability, you would love the fact that Microsoft has included this into Vista. Lets hope this becomes standard and open to other standards. I like having the ability to tag my photos and have this information embedded into the file itself making it search able. If you are like me and have thousands of photos on your computer, it is nice to be able to search through them. The new Office 2007 has the tagging capability as well even if you use the old Windows XP.
If people ever find out about these features and start to use them, it would make their lives a lot easier. How nice to be able to find a single photo out of a library of 10,000. I guess I have rambled long enough so I will get this sent.
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Tags: Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, SMS, MySpace, T-Mobile, AOL, Microsoft, Vista, Office 2007, tagging Flickr,
Yahoo to Rebuff Microsoft
You may remember last week I posted a message about Microsoft making an unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo for $44.6 Billion last week. The buzz going around on the Internet today is that the Yahoo board has met secretly and decided they would not even consider an offer of less than $40.00 per share. Last week at the time of the bid, they offered $31.00 per share because Yahoo had lost value in their shares in recent days. Since that offer last week, Yahoo’s shares have gone up considerably and Microsoft’s shares have decreased. This should be interesting to watch because Yahoo wants to stay independent. I have always had a soft spot for Yahoo because they were one of the original pioneers of the Internet back in 1995. I would hate to see that history destroyed. I am sure there will be more information come from this in the coming days so keep an eye open for this.
Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo
I went to work this morning and there was an email in my box telling me that Microsoft was trying to take over Yahoo. I ignored it for most of the day for one thing, this is not the first attempt, and secondly I was busy. Later when I went home, I looked up the story on the Internet and was surprised to find that Microsoft was offering 44.6 Billion Dollars and Yahoo did not immediately refuse. They did post on their Yodel Anecdotal a generic response saying they are reviewing the offer and that they were going to do what is best for the company. Considering Yahoo’s stock price has suffered I would only assume they will eventually accept.
If Yahoo does accept, I think it will be a sad day because Yahoo has been a pioneer on the Internet. The were one of the first big presence web sites and I have been a member ever since the mid 1990’s. Maybe it is just my appeal to nostalgia. Microsoft and Yahoo are so different in their styles and it is hard to see a positive side as far as Yahoo is concerned because Microsoft will not even commit to keeping the Yahoo brand name alive.
Yahoo has so many cool toys to use and I spend more time on their site than most. I do not have anything against Microsoft but they are so much different in their approach on things. We will see what happens over time.
XBox 360
Last June we bought an XBox 360 and many peripherals costing literally $1,500+ for the family and we just loved it. It was so great at first. My wife and kids all thought it was a very nice system with incredible graphic. I loved the ability to share with Windows Media Center on one of the desktop computers. The ability to share photos, and music on the television is very nice.
The problem is this game console overheats and shuts off all the time. We sent our console back to Microsoft and they sent us a replacement. The replacement was worse than the original. I mean you cannot watch a single movie or play fifteen minutes of games without the console shutting off. I get so frustrated because it is so undependable. You know, it is one thing to be undependable but when you put more than one thousand dollars into product and it still fails it is really hard to stomach.
We go out of our way to make sure that none of the vents are blocked. In fact, we have a special shelf with nothing on it but the XBox 360 console. We even bought the extra fan called an Intercooler. It has three fans that connect to the back of the console and blows wind into it to keep it cool. Even with this added piece of equipment, it STILL fails! Is that poor quality or what?!? Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those anti Microsoft people that just trashes them just for the sake of trashing them because I do like some Microsoft products. The game console is very nice when it is working. I cannot say how frustrating it is to spend that phenomenal amount of money for a game console and then not work. I thought maybe I had received a lemon and then the replacement was doing it also.
My warrantee expires this month and we have a year of the XBox Live paid up and have not been able to use the console for several months for more than five minutes. Maybe I will put a radiator on there to keep it cool . I am sorry to vent but this is clearly a rip off to people who try to legally buy these products and then get such poor quality that you cannot use it for more than five minutes. Maybe we can get it sent back again.
Technorati Tags: XBox 360, XBox, Microsoft, XBox Live, failure