braintubes.com

YouTube Graphs Video Performance0
Joe M posted in products on February 16th, 2010

YouTube is now offering a graph of performance of their site.

For anyone that is curious as to whether they get good performance (as subjective as that could be) from YouTube…

This could be something they might want to review.

You can check it out here.

From what I can tell, and the way I interpret the colors in the graph, it gives the user several points of reference as to how YouTube video performs for them.

Graphene, The Next Evolution0
Joe M posted in products on February 9th, 2010

Researchers at IBM have successfully created transistors using graphene.

The transistors have performed above and beyond the abilities and limitations of silicon.

Transistors created with graphene have the ability to turn off and on 100 billion times per second.

Graphene has properties that allow electrons to travel through the molecular structure much faster than they ever would through silicon.

What that means is….

Potentially, we could see graphene-based processors that operate at speeds well above and beyond traditional silicon.

Transistors created this way could run at terahertz speeds without the overhead of heat, like in silicon.

Physicists at the University of Maryland have also been conducting research using graphene.

Graphene has less resistance than silver, which is a highly conductive material.

The applications for using graphene may stretch beyond just using the material in processors and transistors.

It could also be used in anything from traditional sensors to touch screens.

An Alternative To The iPad0
Joe M posted in products on February 5th, 2010

Okay…

For those people not sure about the iPad, and those people that are not necessarily Apple fans…

I came across this.

The iPad looks cool.  Right?

But…

Some of the buzz around the iPad has characterized it in a certain light.

There are things that everyone agrees on.

It looks like a big iPod Touch.

It’s cool.

Battery life is reported to be 10 hours.

The downside?

Apple keeps a tight hold over apps that will run on it.

It’s proprietarily controlled.

Adobe Flash is not being allowed to run on it.

But…

Talk about another product, that is open… and also cool?

Alwaysinnovating.com has developed a netbook / tablet.

(The top part dismounts from the keyboard.)

It’s ARM processor based.

It runs several different flavors of Linux… (And… inherently, Adobe Flash).

The battery life is between three and five hours, off the base.

It comes with 512 MB of RAM.  You can buy more, later on.

It has an 8 GB SDHC solid state drive.

It does not support multi-touch… but, for the offering, that does not bother me.

Get ready…

The sweetest part?

The tablet alone, costs $299.

The tablet with the keyboard / stand, costs $399.

Keep in mind… it has an ARM processor.

That means that it lies outside of the support offering for running and flavor of Windows.

That is, until Microsoft decides to start supporting Windows on the ARM-based platforms.

The iPad is here0
Joe M posted in products on January 28th, 2010

The Eyewriter0
Joe M posted in products on January 16th, 2010

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Google Offering Even More In The Cloud0
Joe M posted in products on January 13th, 2010

Google announced today, it will be adding to its service offerings, once again.

Adding more cloud capability, the new online storage service will be available in the coming weeks.

Until now, users have been able to store files online, in one of the GoogleDocs format.

There will be a 250 MB limit on filesize, for the files you upload.

The free offering will be capped at 1 GB.

Additional storage will be offered at $0.25 per GB.

That’s for the personal storage option.

Business clients will pay a little more… reportedly, $17 per 5 GB, per year.

The offering will also feature organization for files and folders.

It does not sound like a bad deal, for anyone that has certain documents for which they want access, anywhere.

There are also offerings with access into the Google API, for the storage.

That means that a programmer could provide code inside of a program to access the online storage.

Several third parties have been working in conjunction with Google on the new offering.

These include offerings to sync files between the cloud and the user desktop.

Google has been quoted as saying they will be monitoring for abuse, and will shut it down.

(What they consider abuse, or how the shut down will occur, I am not sure.)

Dungeons and Dragons Demo’d on MS Surface0
Joe M posted in products on December 17th, 2009

SurfaceScapes Gameplay Session from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

The $99 Notebook from Cherrypal1
Joe M posted in homelife, products on December 16th, 2009

Cherrypal has announced a $99 notebook, the Cherrypal Africa.

Although it’s probably closer to a netbook…

The notebook reportedly has a 7 inch screen, a 400 MHz ARM processor, with 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB flash drive.

The notebook runs Windows CE and Linux.

The notebook is called the Cherrypal Africa, and is aimed at users in third world countries.

It’s much like the OLPC XO, but at half the price.

Since this is the initial model of the Cherrypal Africa…

I am waiting to see what reviews it gets.

The Cherrypal website boasts that the laptop is efficient and green.

I would love to see this, after evolving for about 18 months.

With netbooks still being a growing market…

ARM is getting positioned to take their place.

While reading about the Cherrypal Africa… I am not overly optimistic about this particular model.

I do think it shows promise.

It will help drive prices for the consumer down, more and more.

The day will be arriving soon, when we can buy a laptop that will do what we need, or our basic stuff…

Yet, won’t cost a small fortune.

Microsoft Introduces exFAT For OEM Devices – For A Small Fee0
Joe M posted in products on December 11th, 2009

Microsoft won a lawsuit against Tom-Tom earlier this year for using the FAT file system.

Microsoft is now offering to license exFAT, an updated version of FAT…

To the tune of $300,000 per license.

FAT is the File Allocation Table.  It’s leftover from the days of DOS.

exFAT is the updated, feature-added version.  Call it the descendent of FAT, if you will.

Since that time, many manufacturers have decided to use FAT as an easy platform to base their flash memory devices, as well as physical-based storage devices.

That could include cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, USB sticks… just to name a few.

It could include any device that has storage capacity.

So far, Microsoft has signed Sony, Canon and Sanyo.

exFAT provides some updated features from the original FAT and FAT32 systems.

It promises more file handles (for more files) and a 256 TB storage capacity.

It also offers some manufacturers the ability to customize the filesystem.

I am not sure, if that means, “Lock it down,” and / or, “in a proprietary format.”

Does that mean that manufacturers will be able to lock down or control a consumers ability to copy / share data stored on such a device?

It makes a person wonder.

It ought to be interesting to see what flexibility and application exFAT provides.

Who will be happier with it, consumers or OEMs?

Google Tackles Real-Time0
Joe M posted in products on December 10th, 2009

Google signed a deal with Twitter and Facebook.

Now, when you search on an item…

Google will search Twitter and Facebook to see what results come up.

If there are entries in either, they will appear in the format of the bottom part of the picture, above, periodically scrolling.

If no one is talking about the item… it will not appear on the search results page.

(So, it has to be an item that is ‘hot’… and lots of people are buzzing about it.)

Extensions For Google Chrome Now Available0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on December 9th, 2009

Google has released their extensions for Chrome.

There are more than 300 available.

You can check them out here.

The Future Of News On Google0
Joe M posted in Musing, opinion, products on December 1st, 2009

I have been watching the public exchange over Rupert Murdoch and Google, over the past few weeks.

Murdoch essentially wants Google to quick linking to articles on his companies related news sites.

It’s Murdoch’s observation that Google has been earning revenue by indexing articles from his organizations.

It has been reported over the past few days… that Murdoch’s news companies have been in talks with Microsoft… for the potential possibility of being exclusively indexed exclusively by Micrsoft’s Bing search engine.

So… what we could eventually see is Google News that is missing links from Murdoch’s companies.

Or… will we?

Google may not have the resources, now.

But what is to stop them from venturing into an alternative?

What if they built their own news organization from the ground up… or purchased a fledgling news company?

Thinking about what happened with Microsoft… Google may approach Rupert Murdoch’s observations as a challenge.

I might be completely off base.

Google seems to have a knack for drawing an audience… and utilizing their advertising dollar.

If they approach it the right way… It could turn out to be a positive spin of events, instead of a negative.

The interesting thing is… over the past few years that Google has been the dominant force in search…

People and companies have spent millions of hours trying to figure out how to rise to the top of search results for Google.

That’s a result of realizing the benefit of having their links at the top of each.

The major news organizations have wound up at the top… and yet, they feel that Google is not allowing them to earn their full revenue potential.

Jumping the Boxee 64 bit Linux Hurdle0
Joe M posted in Home Support, products on November 25th, 2009

One of the challenges I have been facing in my new media center, stems from the fact that I am running Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit.

Boxee has been a blast, and has almost become a necessity for my media center.

The only problem?

Boxee is available for Win32, Win64 and 32 bit Linux.  No 64 bit is available.

I have grown quite fond of it on the 32 bit version of the install on the media center.

I have had a couple of people ask, “Why do you have to run the 64 bit version of the OS?  32 bit should offer everything you need.”

Call it a quirk, but there is something about having more resources available that gives me comfort.

Whether it’s the fact that a 32 bit OS gives you limited addressibility to your RAM without a cheat or utility, I just feel better, running 64.

So, I have spent the past few days working through forum posts, blogs and articles regarding how to install Boxee on 64 bit Ubuntu.

After culminating several readings, I finally managed to get it to install on Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit.

Here are the steps I took.

wget http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/getlibs-all.deb
sudo dpkg -i getlibs-all.deb
wget http://apt.boxee.tv/dists/jaunty/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
zcat Packages.gz | grep boxee

(Once you figure out what the latest version is, from the last command… change the filename at the end to match the latest version)

wget http://apt.boxee.tv/dists/jaunty/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.14.6992.deb      (replace the boxee-X.X.XX.XXXX.deb with the version result from the zcat command).
sudo dpkg -i –force-architecture boxee-0.9.14.6992.deb
getlibs /opt/boxee/Boxee
sudo apt-get install lib32nss-mdns

Once I completed all the steps, Boxee fired up without any problems.

Opera 10.10 Now Available0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on November 24th, 2009

Opera 10.10 has been released.

It features Unite, a way in which users can easily share photos and stream music.

You can check out more at http://unite.opera.com.

Opera is free to download and use.

Xbox Banning: A Closed Approach To Hardware0
Joe M posted in products on November 22nd, 2009

With all the talk this week of Xbox users getting banned from Xbox Live…

There seems to be all sorts of patterns developing.

It seems that users that made any changes to their Xbox, either modding, adding chips or installing tainted software were completely kicked off.

Once again… seems like Microsoft is missing the boat.

They missed it in the 90’s with WebTV.

It was an appliance that would promise great things…  as long as what you wanted to do was send text email or browse something on MSN.

Some parts of it were the right idea… wrong execution at the wrong time.

With the original Xbox, MS missed the boat again.

People modded the box and made it a great appliance.

Being able to play movies, media and much more.

For some reason, MS went (and still goes) out of their way to make sure that users that mod their Xbox were banned, kicked or disabled.

With the announcement this week, of Boxee’s hardware partnership…

Seems pretty certain that MS missed another opportunity.

For some reason, they finally got the message from users and produced Windows 7, probably much to the behest of some of their partners.

Microsoft could still stand to learn a great deal more from their user community… and benefit from it.

Why not allow users to make changes and mod their Xbox?

Not sure why they feel the need to allow others to view them as police, judge and jury.

Microsoft has been flirting with open source and even released some open source code lately.

Why not open source some of their own hardware?

(The question is rhetorical.  I am pretty sure someone in their partner community is prompting them to circumvent ‘piracy.’)

It would create a buzz and a motivation within the public to own an Xbox.

That’s not to mention the benefit of having users contribute code and design to software and hardware.

Microsoft is not alone in their behavior.  Think about how Apple feels about the iPhone and iTunes.

I think an open philosopy would benefit all of them, in more ways than any are willing to admit.

Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta (For Windows)0
Joe M posted in products on November 20th, 2009

Microsoft has released Office 2010 Beta for download to the public.

Office 2010 Beta includes Word, OneNote, InfoPath, PowerPoint, Access, SharePoint Workspace, Outlook, Publisher, Communicator and Excel.

Microsoft recommends that you uninstall any previous versions of MS Office, prior to downloading and installing 2010.

They also recommend running it on a ‘non-production’ system in your household… meaning that if you have a dependence of Office on a particular PC, they recommend against installing it on that machine.

They also recommend backing up your data from the target machine, prior to the install, in case something should go wrong.

Here are the pre-requisites:

Internet access for the download updates
500 MHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher
256 MB of system memory or more
3.5 GB of available disk space
1024×768 or higher resolution monitor
DVD-R/W Drive

It works on the following versions of Windows:

Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit)
Windows Vista with SP1 (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 with SP2 (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)

If you are interested in giving it a spin… see the details and the download here.

The download does require that you register to use the evaluation copy.

Preview Of An $80 Laptop0
Joe M posted in opinion, products on November 17th, 2009

This video is a little long, almost 20 minutes.

Keep in mind, this laptop he has seems to be somewhat of a prototype, or a proof of concept.

The Arm processor it’s built with is out of date… but the important thing are the basic demos.

Pay attention to the fact that this one is running Windows CE.

I can’t wait to see someone take and tweak Android or another appliance-oriented Linux for one of these.

And, don’t forget… Arm is forging ahead with new designs in processors.

Their success means that computing becomes more affordable, for all of us.

No more paying for stuff you don’t want or need… whether it’s hardware or software.

I don’t know why I am so intrigued with these.

Not sure if it is the boost in competition or the boost in efficiency.

Power Your Photo Touching In Windows With paint.NET0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on November 11th, 2009

There is a new version of paint.NET available.

If you are running Windows and need a free, powerful photo editor…

This one is for you.

paint.NET offers some advanced features that rival Adobe Photoshop and The GIMP.

Version 3.5 is out and available here.

Upgrading My TV Media Center0
Joe M posted in homelife, products on November 8th, 2009

After messing around and getting frustrated with my old pentium 4 desktop, connected to the TV set…

I finally decided to upgrade.

I decided that it was time to replace the whole box.

I did some research, first.

Reading reviews and forums… I decided that an AMD quad-core processor would be more than suitable for me.

It would provide a good platform for running Ubuntu and the apps that I wanted to run.

I decided on a AMD Phenom II 945, with 4 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SATA HD.

I ordered the machine without an Operating System and a video card, since I had a PCI-e put aside.

I also had a DVD burner, so I skimped again and ordered it with an optical drive.

I had a wireless card, so I did not bother ordering one of those, either.

For the OS, as I stated earlier… I would run Ubuntu.

It’s user-friendly, and seems to have gained quite a bit of acceptance and support.

I ordered the machine online, from Ascendtech.
$460 + shipping costs… not too bad.

I spent some time last night, getting the hardware components and the OS installed.

The parts of the install that took a little longer:

1.  Getting the wireless card and the PCI-e video card seated, properly.  (Note:  I used an NVidia video card.  For the most part, ATI cards work OK, but with Linux support… NVidia cards are usually better supported and more reliable when you run Linux.)

2.  For the video card, it came with a special dongle.  I connected the S-Video cable to the dongle and to the back of the TV set.  I had to go into the NVidia applet to change the settings to allow the S-Video to work, properly fed from the card.

I downloaded and installed the Hulu client.

I had to catch myself… I wanted to watch several shows via Hulu, as opposed to finishing the install.

I finally managed to finish it.

Now, I am in the phase of adjusting and tweaking.

So far, I am completely happy with the purchase, and the performance of the machine.

The amazing part is… I actually forget that I am watching a computer…

It’s like having a completely new set of channels.

My next step is to install Boxee and some of the other media apps.

I will post more on my progress.

Tasting Ubuntu Zen With Karmic Koala0
Joe M posted in Home Support, free stuff, products on November 1st, 2009

I spent some time today, upgrading to the new version of Ubuntu.

Karmic Koala, Ubuntu 9.10, has been released for a couple of days.

The upgrade still took a couple of hours.

My guess is… there is probably still a great deal of traffic going to the distribution servers.

Right off the bat…

The boot splash screen seems snappier, better coloring… a nice change… even though it’s sepia toned.

Ubuntu Software Center seems a little bit more friendly, than Synaptic Package Manager.

Not that I had any problems with Synaptic… but looking at the big picture…

I can see it’s appeal for a new user.

From using it today, the function all seems to be pretty solid.

So far, everything is running pretty well.

Even though it may seem on the surface that all the changes from the previous version may be cosmetic…

I can tell there were some changes that were made ‘under the hood.’

The upgrade experience was much better, this time, than my previous experience with 9.04.

Due to the ATI card in my laptop… and the lack of support for ATI drivers… I had to go through a couple of gyrations to get the video drivers to work.

No problems this time!

So far, I am really happy.

Can’t wait to find out more.

Building Your Webpages For Free0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on October 29th, 2009

I got stopped and asked a question, today.

“I want to build a website.  Tell me what software I need to buy.”

Let me add… this is a person that is wanting a website for a hobby, not for a business.

I told them about Sea Monkey.

For anyone wanting to dabble in web pages and a little web development… the new version is out.

Sea Monkey 2.0 is available for download.

It’s an internet suite, available from Mozilla.

It includes a browser, composer, mail and newsgroup client, IRC client and some extra web development tools.

You can check it out here.

Checking Out Hulu0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on October 26th, 2009

I had a little time this weekend to play.

Don’t get to do it that often… but I seized the opportunity.

I have been wanting to download and play with Hulu.

There are quite a few shows there of which I am a fan.

Hulu just released a Linux client a few days back.

I went ahead and downloaded the client on my Ubuntu, TV-attached PC.

The install went without any issues.

I rebooted, just for good measure and pulled up Hulu.

The first video I tried to watch resulted in freeze frames and an audio track.

I tried several tweaks, but to no avail.

My TV machine is an old P4 1.7 MHz, with 1 GB of RAM.

If all else fails… read the instructions.

I went to the Hulu website, and looked up the hardware requirements for the Linux Hulu client.

The minimum hardware requirements are:

Core 2 Duo Processor

2 GB of Ram

Scratching my head, I still wanted to see if the client worked.

So, I installed it on my laptop, with 2 GB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo (T7200) processor.

I rebooted it.

I pulled up the Hulu client.

It worked pretty well.  I was impressed.

What had me miffed was why Hulu would have such massive hardware requirements.

Certainly seems to preclude many machines out there today.

It seems like Hulu would want more people to use their software, and their website.

Not sure what is going on there.

The other thing is… I heard that Hulu is considering charges for access to their online content.

Overall, I like the software, but dislike the requirements.

I doubt seriously that it will run on netbooks, and there are quite a few out there, these days.

Looks like I will have to upgrade the TV machine, if I want to enjoy Hulu on my big screen.

If you want to check out Hulu… you can do that here.

Windows 7 Hits The Shelves0
Joe M posted in products, security on October 25th, 2009

Windows 7 was released this week.

Microsoft did a pretty good job of listening to consumers, this time around.

Having tested Windows 7, I can vouch for the improvements over Windows Vista.

Hopefully, we are nearing a new age in technology.

Manufacturers of software and hardware no longer team up, to dictate requirements, or mandate more spending by the consumer.

Windows 7 is a definite improvement over Windows Vista.

Luckily, this time, there are no reported silly sticker campaigns, blurring the lines, definitions and understandings between compatibility and capability.

Windows XP is not completely dead, yet… but Windows 7 is a feasible alternative.

Now, buyers in the consumer and business markets will be able to purchase machines with Windows 7 licenses.

With Windows Vista, it appeared that Microsoft had partaken of too much of their own Koolaid.

They seemed to be under the impression that no matter what they put into Vista, consumers would still buy it… like software-eating zombies.

After a couple of years of having to listen to consumers gripe… it seems they finally paid attention.

But… was it listening, out of pure benevolence and wanting to please consumers… or was it a matter of wanting to improve sales over the returns from Vista?

Whatever the actual case was, Windows 7 has been released and is on the market.

It will come with a new PC or laptop… or can be purchased separately to run on most of the hardware of your choice.

It comes in two basic architectures, 32 bit and 64 bit.

One of the best deals of late… is that you can purchase a family pack license for about $150 for three machines.

A word of caution… as with any widely available and popular software package…

Vulnerabilities and potential exploits will most likely be identified.

Windows 7 has some advantages over its predecessors, but I would still recommend a full virus protection package.

I would recommend a ‘better safe, than sorry’ approach to Windows 7 and security.

Heavy Duty Text Editing With Notepad++0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on October 18th, 2009

I got a call from a friend of mine.

He was helping someone with some monster batch files.

Somehow, he managed to create several text files.

He wanted to use the text files, some more than 100,000 lines, to create batch files for deleting files from the person’s machine.

He spent a day, trying to open the files in Windows Notepad.

Nothing but hourglasses and locking up his laptop.

Next, he decided to try MS Excel, much to the same result.

After spending so much time working on the project, he got frustrated and called me.

Without having tried it, much… I recommended he give Notepad++ a spin.

I also downloaded and installed it.

The amazing part was… Notepad++ handled the editing of the large text files, without locking up.

Sure, some of the larger files took a few seconds longer to open and edit… but the end result was pleasing.

The only other caveat… was that, by default, the format Notepad++ saved the batch files in was not ANSI.

After completing that change… he had the batch files up and going, performing his deletions, without a hitch.

I was impressed and quite pleased.

Whether you are writing and editing batch files, Unix scripts or plain HTML… Notepad++ has some features that just may thrill you.

Notepad++ is free and open source.

You can check it out, here.

Opera Simplifies Connectivity And Sharing With Unite (Beta)0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on October 16th, 2009

Opera has realeased a beta version of Unite.

It is a browser-based technology that will allow users to connect directly to one another.

Opera Unite touts the ability to traverse firewalls, without having to have a great deal of technical support.

According to the website, you have to have the 10.10 beta release of Opera to use Unite applications.

The applications range from media and file sharing to documents, as well as chat and streaming.

It looks promising.

For immediate application, I can see it being really helpful to friends and family members at different locations.

There is also a chat lounge feature… and others which are available from buttons inside your browser.

Microsoft Vulnerabilities, In Record Numbers0
Joe M posted in opinion, products, security on October 14th, 2009

With a record number of flaws being patched, it’s time once again to run Windows Updates.

According to a post at Microsoft, 34 vulnerabilities have been identified.

The patches include fixes for critical exposure in several Windows functions.

There are vulnerabilities in Windows Media Player, SSL, XML and SMB2 (for Vista).

There’s 13 bulletins and 34 flaws published.

Once you start thinking about software “Time-based” licensing, and the vulnerabilities, it makes for an interesting scenario.

Would it put Microsoft at a disposition of greater exposure?

Think about leasing an apartment.

You tell your landlord, “The locks are unsafe, and need to be replaced.  I am afraid my belongings are at risk of being stolen.”

If the landlord ignores you, can you launch a civil suit for your losses?

Now, think about Windows as your apartment, and Microsoft as your superintendent and landlord.

Your identity gets stolen, through malware and viruses.

Would you expect Microsoft to take the blame, or at least part of it?

The suspected caveat… I bet there is a loophole / waiver in the EULA that prevents it, and protects them from user and consumer lawsuits.

For everyone running any version of Windows…

If you have not run a virus scan, malware scan or Windows Updates in a while, now is the time to do so.

The Debian To Come0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on October 11th, 2009

I read today that Debian “Squeeze” will be based off of the FreeBSD kernel.

That’s the next release of Debian.

Reading over the Debian website…

I interpret the information there in a different way.

It says that there will be “kFreeBSD Support” in the next release.

Not sure if I missed something, or if I didn’t.

Taking a “What if” approach…

If Debian is based solely on the FreeBSD kernel, what are the overall implications?

There are numerous distros based of of Debian… Ubuntu for one.

Forgiving my blissful ignorance of Linux and Open Source development, what would that mean for those other distros?

I would tend to think, surely, that they could continue developing off of a current ’snapshot’ of Debian, utilizing the Linux kernel.

According to the blog post I read, it has some good advantages.

That means that it will be more likely to get ZFS filesystem support.

If the whole distribution is based off of FreeBSD, it will no longer actually be a Linux distribution, unless I am missing something.

They also say that it is more likely that the distribution will gain in performance and booting.

At this point, I still have questions:

Will Debian “Squeeze” feature a FreeBSD kernel, or will it simply offer FreeBSD support?

Will there be a day in which we go the Ubuntu website, and download Ubuntu FreeBSD?

Goodbye MS Works, Hello MS Office 2010 (With Ads)0
Joe M posted in opinion, products on October 10th, 2009

Microsoft announced this week… it’s ‘The End’ for Microsoft Works.

MS Works has been a sort of ‘lite’ version of MS Office.

It has been able to open and edit MS Word and MS Excel documents, but has often lacked the full function and features available in MS Office.

It has hosted some proprietary capabilities for documents, spreadsheets and databases.  It has also featured a mail-merge function.

These functions were somewhat limited, and did not have much range of portability.

It was, by my understanding, a version of a suite that more or less encouraged you to buy the full MS Office suite.

Since MS Office 2010 has been seen on the horizon, Microsoft has decided to take a little different, but still familiar approach to 2010.

MS Office 2010 will be introduced by several OEMs (yet to be named), and will be offered with new systems.

It is expected to be bundled with Windows 7, as well.

The drawback for these versions of MS Office 2010?

They will be ad-supported, and will not have all the features in full.

Users and consumers will be able to purchase a license, enter the key, and unlock the full potential of the suite.

The features will be in the software, but the key will be required to unlock them, and to get rid of the advertisements.

One of the caveats…

MS Office 2010 will not install on a machine running MS Office 2007.

So, you can’t try 2010 without uninstalling 2007.

Not sure that was a really good move, on Microsoft’s part.

I will be interested to see how this little change affects the acceptance of MS Office 2010.

They’ve changed… but not that much!

Advances In Dorky Designs0
Joe M posted in homelife, products on October 9th, 2009

This has been out a couple weeks, but I think it’s still interesting.

The Segway has taken heat for looking geeky / dorky.

I expect this thing to get similar treatment.

All that aside, I think it’s intriguing and shows some promise for more advances in technology.

The Next Needed Reform… Software Licensing!0
Joe M posted in opinion, products on October 8th, 2009

There is a story about Steve Ballmer addressing a group in a meeting at a Microsoft event in London…

Ballmer admits to MS licensing being a nightmare to comprehend.

Quoted from OSNews:

Ballmer was frank, and acknowledged that there are problems with Microsoft’s licensing policies. He said that Microsoft’s fine print certainly has its ‘gotchas’, but that his people should not harass companies about these gotchas. “I’m sure we have fine print we don’t need. We’re not saints,” he said.

This brings to light a problem, that is growning more complex, each day that goes by.

License agreements are filled with so much double-talk, they’re hard for anyone to understand.

How many people have installed P2P software, scanned over the license agreement, and never seen the acknoledgements?

The devil is in the details.

Now, doing research for a friend of mine… he asked about a terminal server solution.

In case you are not familiar with it… Microsoft Terminal Server provides a way to offer access to a Windows desktop session, over a network or remotely.

You can install MSTS, and install your apps on the TS.  That’s opposed to installing the needed apps locally on each PC or laptop.

That’s it in simple terms, but there are more benefits… which I won’t go into.

I came across a really promising software package.

It’s XPUnlimited.

It’s a terminal server that runs on Windows XP and Windows 7, without having to have Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 installed.

You can check it out at www.xpunlimited.com.  (You can use it for 60 days, trial.  It offers 3 concurrent sessions, including the local login.)

Relative to my discussion about licensing… I have looked at several websites, and several posts.

I am still scratching my head.  I can’t tell if it complies with the MS EULA for Windows XP.

You have to be both a software expert and an attorney to be able to understand it.

If someone were to ask me, the simplest solution from the consumer and commercial standpoint… I think it would be to require Plain Language in the license.

If it’s too hard to understand, make it null and void.