http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2006/12.php .
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The European Commission has decided that Microsoft has not complied with the Commission's March, 2004 ruling against the company. A Microsoft spokesperson struggled to hold back her laughter as she stated that Redmond "is deeply concerned" about the news.
I seriously doubt that it will do anything to "increase your chances of being hired as a tech support rep," but The Technical Support Wannabe’s Guide to Internet Connections will give you a concise, non-technical overview of the different ways to connect to the Internet.
If you're like me, you have several old home videos on VHS tapes that you'd like to convert to DVDs. Here are some ways to do that.
Way back in Tech 152, Dr. Savage used to show us episodes of the fascinating BBC series, Connections. Here's the episode on Technology Traps that I've never forgotten, because it taught me that technology is a two-edged sword.
If you like watching TV sitcoms, you might enjoy these
bloopers from The King of Queens and
deleted scenes from The Office.
In the U.S., the Christmas season is the busiest shopping time of the year. In Japan, they're busy shopping all year. In fact, they're in so much of a hurry that they have to ride trains through their supermarkets.
Have you ever visited the future? Here's a man who claims that, by crawling under his kitchen sink, he went several decades into the future and met himself as an older man. He even has cell phone video to prove it. Oddly, he doesn't mention how he returned to the present time.
If you're like me, you remember the old cartoon in which Bugs Bunny is in an airplane that is plummeting to the ground. Just before the plane crashes, Bugs calmly steps out of the side door onto the ground, unharmed. Seeing cartoons like that made many of us think that, if we were ever stuck in a plummeting elevator, we could save ourselves by jumping up right before it crashed. It turns out that that wouldn't work. I guess that's what we get for trusting cartoons to teach us physics lessons.
John Cleese was very funny as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He's just as funny as Dr. Harold Twain Weck in this clever promotional video for a hard drive-based data backup system.
If you enjoyed the video of an Ohio man's incredible, musically synchronized, computer-controlled Christmas lights display that I showed you on Christmas Day last year, you'll absolutely love these
17 computer-controlled Christmas displays — unless you happen to live across the street from one of them.
Regular readers of this Journal know that I switched from Windows to Linux on my main PC this past July, and I haven't looked back. Here's the story of another Windows user who switched to Linux.
When Windows Vista is finally released to the public at the end of next month, will it tempt Linux users to switch back to Windows? That's extremely unlikely, for several good reasons.
I'm half-Italian, and I've always loved Italian food. In fact, I like to tell people that if you cut me, I bleed tomato sauce. Still, I think I'd be pretty upset if I bought a $1600 (U.S.D) camcorder at Best Buy, went home, opened the box, and found a jar of tomato sauce instead of a camcorder. Even if it was really, really good tomato sauce.
Many people think that college students are lazy, immature, self-centered, party animals who don't really care about anything but themselves. Here's proof that that stereotype is not true — this college student is willing to fight to defend his love for The Price Is Right.
If someone could make
an incredible aging video like this of you, would you even want to see it? I don't know if I would. What if it ended with you looking exactly the way you look right now?
On Saturday, I received a new kind of spam email message. In fact, it took me a few minutes to figure out that it was actually a spam message. Instead of sending the usual spam-filter-fooling mishmash of nonsense sentences surrounding a spam message, this spammer sent me an entire real email newsletter from a synagogue in Michigan, including all of its news stories, upcoming events, contact numbers to call for information, and an unsubscribe link. But there, in the middle of the newsletter, was an embedded image that contained the spammer's advertisement for prescription drugs. I don't know of any spam filter that would've been smart enough to figure out that it was a spam message. I didn't see the spam image at first, because I have my email client configured to automatically block images that are in email messages from senders who I don't know. I saw the code that downloads the spam image when I analyzed the message's source code (after turning off my DSL modem as a security measure.) I suppose that more and more spammers will start piggybacking their spam messages onto other people's real newsletters and messages, and I hope that antispam software quickly evolves to be able to recognize that type of spam.
Yesterday, one of the cable TV stations aired several episodes of the TV drama, 24. I had never seen that show before, but I ended up watching several one-hour episodes of it. Now I understand why many people find that show to be addictive. Just like gambling, 24 depends on the high addictiveness of intermittent positive reinforcement to keep people coming back for more. I found myself watching hour after hour, hoping that something good would finally happen to the good guys, or something bad would finally happen to the bad guys. Apparently, the show's main character, Jack Bauer, is supposed to be some kind of James Bond superspy, but to me, he's more like the Wile E. Coyote of spies. Everything that could possibly go wrong, goes wrong for Jack. Everyone that he trusts, betrays him. Every marvelous technology that his job requires, fails him miserably, right when he needs it the most. Many people shoot at him, forcing him to regularly have to dig bullets out of himself. Still others torture him until he dies, then revive him so that they can torture him some more. Every witness that he needs to get information from, dies while they're trying to tell him what he needs to know. His own spy agency never believes his conspiracy theories, even though apparently every single one of his previous conspiracy theories have always turned out to be true. Every time he has 15 minutes to save the world, the thing that he's working on takes 20 minutes to complete. And, every time he barely gets a crisis situation under control for a few minutes, his clinging daughter calls him on his cell phone to tell him that she misses him, or that she's in some sort of trouble again, which distracts him from the bad guys just long enough that all chaos breaks loose again. If I were his boss, I'd refuse to patch her through to him when he's working — "Sorry, he's busy. Click." Because of the show's serial cliffhanger format, it took a full 6 hours before I finally got a little bit of satisfaction from how the plot had developed, but even that was immediately taken away by another horrible cliffhanger event that happened in the last minute of the episode. I guess I'll never know what happened to the President after that cartoonishly evil-looking woman in a crowd of well-wishers rubbed some kind of flesh-eating bacteria all over his hands. That's another thing — how come none of the show's supposedly highly intelligent spies and politicians have ever noticed the pattern that really bad things happen to them every single hour of the day — and they always happen at 59 minutes past the hour? Someone should alert the Secret Service about that.
Are you a Windows user who's thinking of switching to Linux? If so, then you probably wonder if there are Linux applications that could replace your Windows applications. A good place to start finding answers would be this list. Just remember that there are very few Linux applications that look or work exactly like Windows applications, other than specific applications that work on both platforms, like the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email client. And while some Linux applications aren't as full-featured as Windows apps, other Linux apps have more features than their Windows cousins.
Many families and countries have their own coat of arms. But I wonder: How come nobody has their own pants of legs?
If you've ever been out on even one date, you probably already know a lot more about how to behave than the people in
this video.
Car-rental companies are always looking for new ways to please their customers, but the jet pack idea probably wouldn't work very well.
The Christmas season brings back a lot of memories. Unfortunately, for many families, they're not always good memories. In this commercial spoof, the Saturday Night Live cast presents an album of songs of relentlessly dark humor, A Dysfunctional Family Christmas. We may have never heard the melodies before, but to some of us, the lyrics sound very familiar.
When's the last time you saw a really funny silent movie? The Blacksmith and Cops are two really clever and funny 20-minute Buster Keaton classics from 1922. Even the kids will love them.
That's a good dog, Shana! Good,
good dog!.
People are starting to realize that Windows Vista has a lot of shortcomings, and that about half of American business PCs don't even meet the minimum requirements to run it. And even if they could run it, why would anyone want to? With all of that in mind, it's no surprise that some analysts are wondering if the incredibly expensive-to-develop Vista will turn out to be Microsoft's last operating system.
If you're thinking of buying a new printer, you should probably decide whether you agree with this article that Inkjet Printers Defraud Customers.
When you buy a new PC, what do you do with your old one? If you're like me, you store it in your garage, so you can cannibalize it for parts to fix other computers. Whatever you do, don't throw it away. Here are many good ideas for what to do with it.
If you like 'Top 10' lists, you'll want to visit Tenspotting, where you can read others' lists, and create your own lists for others to enjoy.
Web Pages That Suck will tell you several ways to make sure that yours don't, and it will do it in a fun and memorable way.
If you've received an ever-increasing amount of spam in the past several months, you're not alone. According to the people who keep track of such things, there's twice as much spam as there was a year ago, and it's gotten so bad that currently, more than 90% of email messages are spam.
Why are people sending cans of Silly String to Iraq? To help save lives.
If you've ever watched the 1953 movie, The War of the Worlds, you know that, while it was very scary to audiences of its day, it's too slow-paced for the short attention span of today's audiences. I guess that's why someone created
The War of the Worlds in 30 Seconds — Re-Enacted by Bunnies.
For one person's impressions of his Windows Vista upgrade, take a look at Microsoft Vista: The Good, Bad and Ugly.
Here's a job that includes a pretty good chance that you'll end up in prison: Internet criminals are hiring college students to be 'sleepers.' After reading that story, the Baretta theme song is playing in my head: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time - Don't do it."
It normally sells for $149 (U.S.D), but, today only, you can download it for free. FlashSpring Pro (for Windows) converts PowerPoint presentations into Flash movies. I've been using Linux exclusively since this past July, but I downloaded FlashSpring Pro anyway, just in case I ever want to use it.
I'm just strange enough that I've actually wondered about this before. Now I know some of the strange things that people have throw away.
This has got to be some sort of medical miracle: Doctors successfully re-attached the head of a 12 year-old boy who was internally decapitated in a racing accident. The boy says he wants to go back to racing, but he doubts that his parents will allow him to do it. I wonder why they ever allowed him to do it.
When bad things happen to us, we can choose to be
victims or
survivors.
Let's say you want to make the move from Windows to Linux, but instead of installing Linux onto an existing computer, you'd like to buy one that comes with Linux already installed on it. The problem is, where can you buy such a computer? Here's list of vendors who sell PCs with Linux pre-installed.
If you've lived through the release of any previous Microsoft operating system, you know that this is a case of history repeating itself: A hardware analysis firm has concluded that Microsoft's stated minimum hardware requirements for Windows Vista are unrealistically low. Are you surprised?
We all knew that this would happen: Despite the fact that Microsoft added additional anti-piracy "features" to Windows Vista, hackers have already cracked Windows Vista's activation server for its Business and Enterprise editions. In other words, the Windows anti-piracy "features" aren't going to stop hackers — they're just going to cause inconvenience and problems for honest corporations and computer users, just like they always have.
If you're a big fan (or a vocal critic) of weird architecture, you'll love seeing these unusual buildings.
After seeing this video, you'll understand
why many people distrust computer repair shops, and why they really appreciate the ones that give them honest service at a fair price.
Last night, my wife and I went to the coast and watched a Christmas lighted boat parade, in which about 40 boats passed by, all decorated with Christmas lights. We arrived early, parked in a spot that was 5 feet from the water, and stayed in our car, listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio until the parade started. At that point, we moved to our folding chairs in front of our car. Though there were more than twice as many boats as the parade that we watched from one of the islands last Saturday night, this week's boats were further out in the water than last week's, so we didn't get as detailed a look at their decorations. We've already figured out where we're going to park for last night's parade next year, to be closer to the passing boats. Tonight, we plan to go to another one of the islands to see another Christmas lighted boat parade.
Xsnow is a fun little app that adds falling snowflakes to your Linux desktop. I have it running on my desktop, and it's a constant reminder of what the weather is like right now, for nearly everyone I know.
This site has had incredible, nearly 100% uptime for the past several years, mainly because I've spent a lot of time over the years, finding the best web hosts I can afford. If anyone ever asks you which web host you use, give them a good laugh by telling them that you use No Uptime Hosting.
Why would an insurance company choose to only insure women? Here's one reason.
Apparently, they're quite controversial to some people, but you may enjoy these funny Mac-vs-PC-type commercial spoofs that differentiate between being a Christian and being a Christ Follower. Here are Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4.
Here's a very clever piece that uses overhead views of large groups of choreographed people to create
fun animations.
Last night's Christmas lighted boat parade was fun, even though it arrived where we were about an hour later than we thought it would. By that time, many of the people around us had given up and gone home, but we weren't in any hurry, so we waited for it. It was worth the wait, as there ended up being about 50 lighted boats — including a couple that we recognized from the previous night's parade.
Is your web site one of your employees? It is, according to The 3 Crucial Things Every Page Of Your Website Must Do To Be Your Perfect Employee.
For nearly 3 decades, PCs have gotten cheaper and cheaper, but thanks to Windows Vista's voracious hardware appetite, the average cost of a PC is going to go up about 20%.
This afternoon, Rick Robinson, a regular reader of this Journal, called my attention to the fact that scientists have developed a new type of computer memory. The new "phase-change" memory is non-volatile and 500-1000 times faster than flash memory, while using half the power.
The end of the year just wouldn't be the same without a whole bunch of retrospective lists. Here's one of the first ones — a list of The Top 10 Technology Disappointments of 2006.
Pretend for a minute that you're a counselor who helps abused women. While you're doing that, watch this
commercial for a headache pill from the 1950s. Can you identify the dysfunctional lessons that it reinforced to husbands, wives, and children? Would any company air such a commercial nowdays? Break into groups and discuss it among yourselves.
If you're thinking of switching from Windows to Linux, then depending on your current comfort level, you may want to try a at least a couple of the tips offered by Five Steps to Improve Your Linux Migration Experience.
I've read many articles that offer a few tips for how to send out successful HTML email newsletters, but Top HTML Email Coding Mistakes does a good job of summarizing the most important ones.
I have no tolerance for cheaters. During the years that I taught "for credit" college courses (as opposed to non-credit training courses), I caught 9 different students cheating. All 9 immediately received a failing grade for the entire course, as was clearly stated in all of my course syllabi. Nowdays, technology makes it easier for students to cheat and harder for teachers to catch them.
If you're tired of eating your dinner all alone, take heart — now you can buy a dinner companion on a DVD. How sad is that?
Here's a funny commercial that shows how
things aren't always the way they seem.
Some of us have been doing it for months, and now, others are saying Why You Don't Need Vista Now. If you know all of that, but you're still intent on upgrading your existing PC to Vista, Brace Yourself For a Nightmare. And even if you manage to get it installed correctly, antivirus experts predict that 90 percent of current malware will run on Windows Vista. Tell me again why you still think Vista is worth hundreds of dollars.
While I keep hoping that someone will create a solution to the world's ever-increasing spam problem, here's a writer who states several reasons Why Spam Won't Go Away.
Diamonds are very rare and valuable gem stones, and "a diamond is forever." That's what we've always been told, but none of it is true.
With all the problems in the world, it's hard to believe that some lawmakers spend their time and collect their salaries to come up with laws like this one. If this law passes, his next one will allow them to drive city buses and taxicabs.
Here's an interesting video that demonstrates
how to do a neat magic trick. The video forgets to mention this, but be sure to pull the knotted fishing line completely off of the box before you give the box to people to examine.
I've owned and used personal computers since 1980. In fact, I started before the IBM PC and PC-DOS even existed, and I've used every version of DOS and every version of Windows up through Windows XP. But this past July, I found a version of Linux that was good enough to replace Windows on my main PC, and I've been using Linux exclusively ever since. Here's another long-time Windows user with a similar story.
Ouch! That's gonna hurt for a long time. It's just been revealed that, in a 2004 email message to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates, Windows development chief James Allchin (remember him?) said that Microsoft had "lost sight of it customers' needs," and had also "lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means." Later in that same email message, the man whose work was crucial to the development of Windows Vista, told his bosses, "I would buy a Mac if I didn't work for Microsoft." Mr. Allchin plans to retire from Microsoft at the end of this year. In the meantime, expect to see him do a lot of serious back-pedaling.
By using 26 different "leak detector" tests on 21 leading firewall products, researchers have determined that free software firewalls provide more security than their commercial cousins. The best firewall scored 9,350 out of a possible 9,625 points. Can you guess which firewall came in dead last, with a total score of zero points? That's right — it was the Microsoft firewall that's been built into Windows for the past several years.
Your life has been especially stressful for for the past several days. You should kick off your shoes, make yourself a nice cup of cocoa, and relax while you watch this 24-minute video of the strange-but-hilarious Mr. Bean, doing his laundry and playing miniature golf.
If you know a lot about web design, you'll understand this item. A few days ago, I posted a Journal entry with a link to a funny video. A few hours later, I discovered that the site to which I had linked also contained pornography, so I immediately deleted that Journal entry. To me, that incident underscored the fact that I have no control over any of the external sites to which I link; I could post a link to an excellent article that's on a perfectly fine web site today, but tomorrow that site could contain objectionable or even illegal material, and this site would still be linking to it. That made me wonder how many of this site's thousands of hyperlinks point to sites that have, or will eventually have, questionable content. I certainly wouldn't want search engines to interpret this site's external hyperlinks as "endorsements" of any disreputable sites. So, after researching the issue and giving it a lot of thought, I added the rel="nofollow" attribute to all of this site's external links.
Linux users know that, when it comes to software applications, they have a lot of choices. Here's a comparison of some top Linux photo managers. As always, be sure to also read the informative comments after the article.
All-In-One Video Bookmarklet lets Linux users easily download online videos. It "works for videos hosted on YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, Break.com, Putfile, Dailymotion, Sevenload, MyVideo.de, and Clipfish.de. It's platform-independent and works with the Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera Web browsers." Cool.
In a surprising breakthrough that turns diabetes research on its head, scientists in Canada have succeeded in curing diabetes in mice overnight, by injecting them with "a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas." Could this finally be the key to curing diabetes in humans?
Sometimes, a smoker tries to get away with lighting up in a "no smoking" area. And sometimes, someone reminds them that it is not allowed.
Mike Rayburn, "The World's Funniest Virtuoso Guitarist," plays the songs that you know and love — sort of.
When Windows XP was released more than 5 years ago, a lot of people were opposed to it, saying that most of its "new features" had been added only for Microsoft's benefit, while they restricted computer users' ability to use their computers as they saw fit. As badly as XP was received, I've never seen as much opposition to any new operating system as I've seen for Windows Vista in the past few months. The Free Software Foundation has even launched a new web site, BadVista.org, "with a twofold mission of exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free software alternatives that respect users' security and privacy rights."
You've probably heard the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That's the basic idea behind the well-written eWeek article, Vista: Why Bother?
More and more schools around the world are coming to understand that they will save money and be better prepared for the future if they replace expensive proprietary desktop and server operating systems (i.e. Windows) and applications (i.e. Microsoft Office) with free and open-source alternatives. I hope that trend continues.
For security reasons, most tech companies are smart enough to delete an IT worker's administrative rights to the network the instant that worker's employment ends. Here's why.
What kind of mirrors did ancient people use before they figured out how to make glass? Wooden ones, of course.
Those around him have always marketed Bill Clinton as a smooth ladies' man, but here's a video of him,
callously making a little girl cry.
I didn't want to say anthing until it became official, but now I can tell you: I am Time Magazine's "Person of the Year." Am I the only one who sees a sad irony in Time's selection? To me, it's like pneumonia choosing penicillin as its "Discovery of the Year."
If you're looking for Linux tech support, try LinuxQuestions.org. Here's an interesting interview with its founder.
Here's yet another new embarassment for Microsoft. If your company runs Microsoft's SQL Server database management software, you might want to hold off on upgrading your PCs to Windows Vista. Why? Because Windows Vista can't run the current version of Microsoft SQL Server. Redmond is working on a new version of SQL Server that fixes the problem, but it's still in beta testing, with no announced release date.
If you appreciate good acoustic guitar playing, you'll want to watch Rodney Branigan play 2 guitars at the same time.
Do you remember the children's story, The Three Little Pigs? Do you remember it ending like this?
If you're a parent, then you're also a teacher.
What are your children learning from you?
If your web site has its own online forums, guestbook, blog, or other interactive feature, you've probably had to deal with spammers signing up for them just so that they could post spam messages. For many years, I protected this site's interactive features by adding the names of every free and "throw-away" email service that I could find to my site's blacklists, to prevent spammers from using those services to join my forums. My blacklist was pretty extensive, but it was nowhere near as good as this one. You may want to copy and paste it into a text file, and then add it to your site's blacklists.
It's annoyingly smug. It's infuriatingly self-congratulatory. It reeks of intellectual superiority. It might even be insulting to a lot of people. But it's also true.
How many of them have you ever used? I've used 14 of Peter Coffee's 25 Killer Apps of All Time. Does that make me better than someone who has only used 13 of them?
I think this guy's resume cover letter would go something like this: "You may not realize it, but your bank really needs my security consulting skills. I feel so strongly about it that, without your permission, I am going to hack into your systems. Then I will give you my unsolicited security advice. Then I will send you a bill for my services. And then I will sue you if you don't pay me."
Whatever you do, please don't give me a gift card for Christmas. Think about it: Why would anyone want what basically amounts to money that can only be spent — and must be completely spent — at one particular store? Seriously, I'd really prefer that you give me nothing at all. I know that you love me; you don't have to spend money on me to prove it. The last time I got a couple of gift cards, it took me almost 2 years to finally find something that I wanted to buy with them at that particular store. When I got it home, it turned out to be not as good as I had thought, so I returned it for a refund. The store insisted on crediting the refund back onto another gift card. Ever since then, I've hated gift cards. I must not be the only one who feels that way, since it is predicted that, this year, stores will make
about 4.8 billion dollars (U.S.D) from selling gift cards that people will never use. Come to think of it, maybe I should start selling ComputerBob.com gift cards.
Along with stories and information about computers, web design, domestic abuse, medical breakthroughs, and other topics, I like to share stories about both good and bad consumer experiences. This story is about a very good experience. Yesterday, I went out of town to a
Lowe's store, to help a friend buy a new refrigerator, to replace her 20-year-old one that had broken down a few days ago. The old refrigerator was a large side-by-side model, with ice and water dispensers in the freezer door. We had done our research the day before, and when we saw the prices of new refrigerators, we decided that the best bet would be to buy a smaller, simpler model from Whirlpool, a reliable brand. The one that we chose had its freezer-on-top, was smaller than the old refrigerator, and didn't have an ice or water dispenser, but it costs significantly less than a bigger one that has those features. Lowe's promised to deliver it to her this afternoon. An hour after I got home, my friend called me, and she was very upset. Lowe's delivery people had called her to say that they had made a mistake — due to a mismarking error in their warehouse, the refrigerator that we had bought was not in stock, and wouldn't be back in stock until 11 days from now. When I hung up from talking to my friend, I called the store manager at Lowe's. He was very apologetic and cooperative. We talked for about 45 minutes, while he also spoke to his warehouse on another phone line, trying to find a solution to the problem that wouldn't cost my friend any additional money, and would still get her a new refrigerator today. To make a long, long story short(er), Lowe's is going to bring my friend a brand new refrigerator this afternoon. It is a big, side-by-side Whirlpool refrigerator with ice and water dispensers in the freezer door. In fact, it is the same size and has the same features as her old refrigerator. And even though the new refrigerator sells for significantly more than the one that we bought yesterday, they're giving it to her at no additional cost. Needless to say, she's very, very happy. Now that's what I call great customer service. Thanks, Lowe's!
This past year, I finally found a version of Linux that could replace Windows on my main PC. Many of us will remember 2006 as the year that changed Linux, though not everyone will be happy about those changes.
A year from now, we'll know whether it happened or not, but another research firm is predicting that Microsoft Will Drive Linux Desktop Adoption in 2007.
One of the biggest hurdles that new Linux users have to face is the fact that Linux Is Not Windows. At this point in its development, Linux is a perfect solution for many people, but it is not for everyone (and may never be). In fact, the best advice for many Windows users may be Don't Switch To Linux Just Because You Can. And, if you're a regular reader of this Journal, you know that you also shouldn't switch to Windows Vista just because you can.
You may want to consider getting some of these 25 Gadgets That Will Save You Money as gifts for your friends and relatives.
Whether you are now, or have ever been, a fan of Archie comics, you'll probably enjoy this detailed rant, complaining about
Betty and Veronica's new look.
If you wonder why those of us who have switched from Windows to Linux are often very enthusiastic about our choice, it may be partly because many of us looked for years to find a replacement for Windows. Why Linux Has Zealots explains some of the other reasons.
If you still need justification to either delay or totally avoid upgrading to Windows Vista, 25 Shortcomings of Vista will serve you well.
It's a simple concept, but it can be confusing to beginning web designers. Here's a good explanation of the difference between margins and padding.
I'm sure it took a lot of patience, skill, and creativity to create this
clever stop-motion animation.
Some Linux users are glad that the look and feel of many Linux distros have become much more similar to Windows in the past few years. Others are staunchly against the changes. What do you think: Are Linux Distros That Look Like Windows A Good Idea?
Microsoft Watch asked its users what they think of Windows Vista. Will you be influenced more by what they named as Vista's good features or bad features?
They would start faster and be much more reliable than today's PCs. They would also be virtually immune (pun intended) to viruses and other malware. It looks like solid-state PCs may be the next big thing in computing.
Here's a funny little gift from OfficeMax.
Elf Yourself lets you upload a photograph of someone's face, and it uses it to create an animated dancing elf to entertain your family and friends.
Here's an example of what the finished product looks like. For additional fun, point at the yellow OfficeMax logo in the bottom-right corner, and a menu will appear, listing several games that you can play. I had some fun with Don't Shoot Your Eye Out!, but I especially enjoyed Reindeer Arm Wrestling, even though the reindeer won — and then made fun of me.
My wife and I rented and watched Little Miss Sunshine this morning. It's a really funny moving film about 6 family members, driving across the country so that their youngest member can compete in a beauty pageant. I was particularly surprised and touched by the realistic and honest portrayal of family dynamics — Olive, the little beauty pageant contestant, is a real little girl, without any of the precocious sarcasm and "wisdom" that we're all sick of seeing in TV sitcom children. To me, the only downside to the movie is that it is moderately peppered with "very adult" language and adult situations, so ironically, it is not suitable for children.
Today's Howtos has some information that Linux users may find useful.
Roadblocks to Switching to Linux are one guy's personal reasons for not switching his main PC to Linux — yet.
He seemed OK until he said, "I am Batman."
Here's a cute and funny animated short that reminds us that, no matter what's going on outside, it's not as important as what's going on
between two people who love each other.
I recently finished decorating Max's Lighthouse for Christmas. The lighthouse light is a green fluorescent bulb, while the lighthouse itself is decorated with tiny red lights. The base that holds the lighthouse is covered with green garlands and white lights. Max is wearing a little Santa suit, and there's a radio inside, playing Christmas music. I added a few photos to Max's Lighthouse, to show how it looks with its Christmas decorations.
I think they're amazing — that's why I vote for these two sisters to be the next Doublemint Twins.
The camera work and lighting are inconsistent, but it's still a pretty good stop-motion animation, created on a blackboard.
Here's Santa Claus with a little reminder that, if you're going to drink, be sure to do it responsibly.
If you're having a Christmas party tomorrow, and you're looking for some soothing classical music to play in the background, you might want to skip this guy's CD.
It's sad when people go through all the motions of preparing for Christmas without ever thinking about its true meaning. On the other hand, it's hilarious when
Mr. Bean does it.
Every year, we spend millions of hours and billions of dollars decorating our homes, traveling to visit loved ones, and buying cards and gifts for relatives and friends — all to celebrate the birth of one baby more than 2,000 years ago. Have you ever stopped to wonder why so many people put so much effort into honoring the baby who was born in a manger, but so few people put any effort into honoring the grown man who died on the cross? I think it might be because everyone loves babies. Babies are cute and cuddly. Babies don't claim to be the Son of God. Babies don't go around teaching concepts that make us feel uncomfortable, like "No one comes to the Father except by me," and "Love your enemies," and "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven," and "Take up your cross and follow me." Babies also don't challenge each of us to reexamine our purpose in life and our relationship (or lack of relationship) with our Creator.
Today, as we eat our sumptuous dinners, open our expensive presents, and wish each other, "Merry Christmas," let's try to remember that the birth of that baby more than 2,000 years ago would not be worth celebrating now, except for the fact that that baby grew up to change the world. He can still change our hearts, if we let Him. And that's the greatest gift of all. Merry Christmas!
Unlike Windows, most Linux distros can be installed pretty quickly. For example, it took me less than 15 minutes to install the Mepis Linux that I've been using instead of Windows since this past July. Also unlike Windows, most Linux distros come with tons of software applications already installed, which saves even more installation time. Unfortunately, even after you've finished installing an operating system and some software applications, it can still take a few days to finally get your entire system and all of your applications reconfigured exactly the way you like them. That's why it's a good idea to backup your system when it's totally configured and in a good state, to allow you to quickly and easily restore that state any time you want. Happily, in Linux, you can back up your system with free software.
For months, we've heard all kinds of negative press about Microsoft's new Windows Vista. In the latest bad news for Redmond, "computer security researchers and hackers have begun to find potentially serious flaws in the system that was released to corporate customers late last month."
What do you think are the main differences between a manager and a leader? Which one would you rather work for? Which one would you rather be? Which one do you think serves their company better? Which one do you think their company appreciates more?
Over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the TBS television network aired 24 hours of the movie, A Christmas Story. How old do you think the little boy who played "Ralphie" is right now? I had no idea until I saw this short bio of him.
It's a bad idea to lie to your boss about why you're late for work, but if you're going to do it, at least
be creative.
If you'd like to try installing and using Linux, Baby Linux Steps will help you get started.
I love using Linux instead of Windows, but as I've said before, it's probably not the best solution for everyone. While it does everything that I need it to be able to do, Linux-based operating systems (like all operating systems) have Room For Improvement.
Here are a couple of good examples of the power of style over substance. I wouldn't call him a great guitarist; I wouldn't even call him a really good guitarist, but I enjoy watching his unusual technique. In the same way, these other 3 guys aren't that good, and their song kind of drones on for way too long, but it's interesting to see all 3 of them play one guitar at the same time.
It can put a big strain on your relationship when your partner is
always thinking about work.
Last night, I got an email from someone who runs a web site that's full of information and help about emotional and verbal abuse. I checked out their site, found it to be excellent, and then added Emotional Abuse and Your Faith to this site's Abuse Info section. I highly recommend that you check it out.
Regular readers know that it took me a few years to find a version of Linux that could finally replace Windows on my main PC. Here's the saga of a man who is In Search of a Win2k Replacement. His plan is to try out several different Linux distros for 2 weeks apiece, and write about the pros and cons of each experience.
I told you about 2 of these verbal pratfalls when they first happened; now Wired has chosen the winners of their 2006 Foot-In-Mouth Awards. I'll leave it up to you to decide which ones are funny and which ones are just plain sad.
Every time I see a news story about a blizzard up north, it always reminds me of living in the Frostbite State for 17 years. It also makes me feel very grateful that I live in a place where the coldest temperature of the year is nearly always above freezing. My memories are especially clear and I'm especially grateful when I see things like
this commercial,
Would you believe movie reviews if you found out that the reviewers were accepting bribes from movie producers? Here's an issue that should send shockwaves throughout the computer industry and cause irreparable damage to some bloggers' credibility, but it probably won't do either, because Microsoft has titanic marketing abilities. Here's the gist of it: "Want to know why Microsoft has so many people saying good things about it, despite endless security problems, high prices, product lock-in, and a big-brother attitude towards using their products? They bribe people." Read that article and its follow-up, and then see if you still believe anyone anymore.
I've written about Linux's multiple desktops before, because I find them to be extremely useful in the work that I do. Are Multiple Desktops Really Useful may convince you to to start using them, too.
2006: the IT Year in Quotes cites some memorable statements by important IT industry leaders.
In what could turn out to be a huge medical breakthrough that could affect us all, "British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease."
When you have a computer problem, it's hard enough to get useful help over the phone from outsourced tech support people in India. It's even harder (but more fun) to
take your computer to the support center in India.
More than 2 1/2 years ago, I told you about my horrible experience with a domain registrar called RegisterFly. Their service was so bad and they broke their promises so many times that I finally took a financial loss to transfer all of my domain registrations back to NameCheap. Apparently, RegisterFly is still in business, and their service still stinks.
If you read yesterday's articles about Microsoft bribing bloggers to write nice things about Windows Vista, you'll want to read what one of the bribed bloggers says about it. Be sure to read the comments after the article, too. What would you do if Microsoft tried to bribe you?
Here's a 10-hour time-lapse video of 2 cats, showing what they do all day. I can vouch for the fact that my 2 cats do exactly the same things.
Here's a funny clip from The Simpsons in which Homer learns an important lesson: If you travel back in time, be very careful or
your behavior might have a drastic effect on the present time.
Every few days, someone writes an article asking the question, "Is Linux Ready For Prime Time?" Well, apparently it is. According to the results of a survey of management at 133 companies worldwide, "Nearly half of all enterprises will be running mission-critical business applications on Linux in five years' time."
It's a good idea to regularly backup your computer's important data. It's an even better idea to have remote backups.
Regis Philbin is supposed to be totally unbiased and not offer any help to contestants on "Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire," but here's an example of him unfairly influencing his friend, comedian Norm MacDonald.
Good looks, popularity and physical aptitude will only take you so far in life. Eventually, you may find yourself applying for a job at a high-tech company, run by one of the computer geeks that you used to make fun of.
That'll be the day that the geeks will rule the world.