CompHobby! - News

Some Thoughts On Something I Said

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:57:00 -0500

The statement in question is in my last piece about the Ubuntu release cycle versus hardware requirements (longevity) as opposed to let just say Microsoft release cycle versus hardware requirements (longevity) and my comment was...

some other OS products seem more like they are out to consume the current installed hardware capabilities of average user

The only reason I am bring this up is because there is an excellent article at InfoWorld about this which gives a Windows OS/Windows Office comparison from 1999 to the present. It is really well written because the author references the average hardware base at each part of the evolution, talks a little on how service packs affected everything, and how much more powerful PCs became as the years passed by. He even has an abbreviation for for the phenomenon (some people just call it bloat) The Great Moore's Law Compensator (TGMLC).

Despite years of real-world experience with both sides of the duopoly, few organizations have taken the time to directly quantify what my colleagues and I at Intel used to call The Great Moore's Law Compensator (TGMLC). In fact, the hard numbers above represent what is perhaps the first-ever attempt to accurately measure the evolution of the Windows/Office platform in terms of real-world hardware system requirements and resource consumption. In this article I hope to further quantify the impact of TGMLC and to track its effects across four distinct generations of Microsoft's desktop computing software stack.

This of course all begs the question but with evolving hardware aren't things really happening faster than they use too???

The net result is that, surprise, Vista and Office 2007 on today’s state-of-the-art hardware delivers throughput that's still only 22 percent slower than Windows XP and Office 2003 on the previous generation of state-of-the-art hardware. In other words, the hardware gets faster, the code base gets fatter, and the user experience, as measured in terms of application response times and overall execution throughput, remains relatively intact. The Great Moore's Law Compensator is vindicated.

The whole article is available at InfoWeek and is called Fat, fatter, fattest: Microsoft. So once again more of the do less with more type of thinking continues to rule in Redmond but then again there seems to an actual sort of kinda scientific principle in play here as well... The Great Moore's Law Compensator (TGMLC).

Apple's Fuzzy Math

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 02:09:00 -0500

I know this is old news but I am a little slow where numbers are concerned. Someone please explain to me how offering early adopters of the iPhone a 100 dollar selected Apple merchandise credit takes the sting out of paying 200 dollars more for the thing. It does however keep Apple in the news and now people can I suppose trade that credit toward the purchase of a new iPod. Apple certainly likes toying with their customers but apparently they don't mind all that much.

Digital Music More Risky Than Porn?

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:08:00 -0500

Don't really know about this one as the article doesn't really define risk very well .

McAfee's SiteAdvisor said that music and technology related websites have a negative impact on computers since they often leave spyware and other malicious codes, which can lead to a massive increase in the amount of spam generated.

The study revealed that browsing porn websites through search engine has a 9 percent risk of infecting PCs with spyware, adware and spam. This figure jumps to 19 percent when searching for digital music. Other sites that can harm computers are those related to electronic gadgets and for background wallpapers.

By define risk I mean is giving up personal info to some pornographer somewhere safer than downloading some P2P file sharing application and using it to share copyrighted materials. Both practices sound fairly risky to me. Check out the Earth Times Online Newspaper for more.

License To Use The Internet

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:28:00 -0500

We've heard this stuff before about how clueless PC users are turning the Internet into some sort of front end for international crime syndicates.....

Service providers and everyday users were singled out by panelists and audience members for not taking enough responsibility. Attendees slammed ISPs for not searching for rogue computers on their network or shutting off internet access to compromised PCs reported to them by security companies, charging that ISPs were endangering the internet to avoid support calls from cut off customers.

For their part, users don't care about security because the rogue zombie software often only uses minimal computing power, making the background spam-spouting code not their problem.

A few audience members argued seriously that computer users should have to take a test to get an internet license, maintain botnet insurance and have their machines inspected for information-super highway worthiness. Others countered that individuals shouldn't have to know how to secure their own computers -- the machines should simply be more inherently secure.

Personally I don't think it is going to happen. Users are not going to be licensed, ISPs could generally care less, until of course they get caught with a malware spewing botnet in their network. Even then at most they'll just block the users in question and get even more clueless users to replace them. As far as systems getting more inherently secure well how long have the major players been working on that one and is it better or worse than say five years ago. Oh well for the whole article that I pulled the above quote from head over to Wired News and check out the rest.

Somebody Sent Me a Link

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:55:00 -0500

I made some comments about Joost in my last post and as a result I received an email with a link to get an invite to download the software. While I don't think it will revolutionize the way the world watches television (not in its present state anyway) it is definitely several notches better than YouTube or Google Video as far as the appearance of the streamed content goes. The application is supposed to be ad supported but maintains there will be less ads than on conventional television. So while I won't go as far as to say Joost is the best thing since indoor plumbing it is a nice effort at a internet based multimedia experience especially when one considers that this is only a beta effort. The Joost site has up a pretty good Q&A section that will answer most questions one might have about the application and some hints as to what the future might bring for it as well. On the next page I have a couple screen captures of the program.
This is a full screen capture 80% quality at 1280x1024 32 bit resolution in other words running the application with full screen viewing turned on. It scales alright but does show some pixel effects in this mode. Also a feature called widgets is running as well as the program comes with a headline ticker, instant messaging client and other sundry items. Currently it runs on Mac and Windows platforms but the developers say that a Linux version is in the works.

One more that shows the program running at its native size in relation to the whole desktop. Also the basic controls are exposed as well.

Well that's about it for this installment and as far as my comments about Joost being a way to get advertisements into my online experience well I still stand by that statement, however at least at the beta stage Joost does look a little more creative than the usal methods. With the get an invitation thing being fairly easy to accomplish now I am sure that Joost's user base will swell immensely fairly quickly. Whether a service like this can last or is it just the flavor of the month only time will tell.

Some Quick Notes

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:46:00 -0500

For Dell Ubuntu it is..

In February when Dell launched IdeaStorm as forum for customers to contribute ideas for product offerings, we received overwhelming feedback that customers wanted Linux on desktops and notebooks. As part of an overall effort to update our Linux program, today we are announcing a partnership with Canonical to offer Ubuntu on select consumer desktop and notebook products.

Anyone who reads this site with any regularity might have guessed I am a Ubuntu fan. I really hope Dell can pull this off but realize all experiences with Ubuntu are not always fun.

Saw on another site today there is some really wicked malware that can allegedly destroy a PC in than 10 Minutes.

A good 30MB+ of individual files are downloaded onto the PC, and it just kills it. Kills it right in the face. Kills it right in the face with a brick and then comes back with a breeze block to finish the job.

Really sounds nasty I am looking forward to the follow up on that one.

Then lately there is this whole Joost thing going on. Taking a page from Google and Gmail by making it an invite only thing at first to peak interest these guys have got it going on for the moment. We'll see how it works out as some big players have jumped in with them. Still not having seen the service myself it sounds like yet another way for them (whoever them represents) to get advertisements onto my PC. Self directed reruns and commercials sort of like cable only the way I want it instead of the package cable provides. Curious yeah but not that much though.

Of course with Microsoft's recent release of Vista things are starting to get interesting in the hackasphere. Shall we say game on?

Las Vegas (NV) - A hacker duo will demonstrate several ways of getting past Windows Vista security in an upcoming Black Hat training class. Polish security researcher Joanna Rutkowska and Alex Tereshkin will show off new rootkits and ways to defeat Vista’s vaunted BitLocker drive encryption.

An actual class on the subject of defeating a platform's security features for 3,000 dollars. Not my thing but I do find it interesting. I wonder if people attending a class like that sign NDA documents or something similar.

Last off in the incredible greed department there is this whole lets screw up internet radio thing happening as well. One thing is for certain the entertainment industry really doesn't get their target demographic anymore in fact they are completely clueless about them... a side effect of greed I am sure. Well thats it for this installment.

Saw This Today

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:53:00 -0500

What OS do some billionaires (at least one anyway) run on their laptops.

What operating system do the heads of Fortune 500 companies run on their personal laptops? In the case of Michael S. Dell, president and CEO of Dell, it's Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn.

Yes, the head of Dell Inc., with a market-capitalization of just south of $56-billion, isn't just saying that Dell will be selling Linux-equipped PCs in the near future -- he's already running Linux at home...

The whole synopsis of Mr. Dell's $4000 rig can be found at DesktopLinux.com. Other things that I just happened to notice today was that as advertised Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn went final today.

Dell Might Be Listening

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:09:00 -0500

It seems that a major player in the PC manufacturer sphere might actually get past talking about offering the average end user a choice in a desktop OS. No word on which Linux yet or what support options will be available, but the whole overall strategy is more less explained on Dell's blog. From their Ideas in Action website is this bit.

Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today.

By all accounts I can find Dell isn't saying a whole lot about this other than it will happen and may happen fairly soon.

I for one would like to see this idea succeed. i hope they give this a lot of thought and planning so time frame in my opinion is not the biggest issue but rather getting it right for the end user is. Things like offering at least two popular distributions and some cool hardware options (as cool as hardware on any Dell is in a relative its got to work seamlessly with Linux sort of way). Then most importantly really promote the products as a valid choice (and the products should be really thought out well enough to be one) to their customers. If Dell can pull this off then that would be really awesome as finally there would be something out there beside OS X and Windows based PCs. I mean since PCs are what every one is building for the desktop/laptop market these days why not have another OS or two supported by at least one of the big time PC manufacturers.

Linspire 'Click And Run' To Work With Other Distros

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:38:00 -0600

Sounds interesting enough I guess if they can really make it work seamlessly across the different distros. They will also offer access to free as well as pay for software offerings. I could actually see this having an at least small following if reliability and ease of use can be achieved.

Launching in the 2nd Quarter of 2007, CNR.com will be a free on-line digital software warehouse and one-click delivery service designed to solve the complexity of finding, installing and managing software applications on your Linux desktop computer. CNR.com will be the most extensive resource available anywhere for desktop Linux software. Search from tens of thousands of Linux software products, packages and libraries by title, popularity, similar software, category, author, or function, and then install the software with just one click of your mouse.

Finding, installing and updating software has been confusing for many desktop Linux users, with each distribution requiring their own installation process. With over five years of development, CNR will now normalize the process of finding, installing and updating Linux software for the most popular Linux distributions, both Debian and RPM based. Support for different Linux distributions will begin being available in the 2nd Quarter of 2007 via a new website, www.cnr.com. Distributions expected to be supported during 2007 are (alphabetically): Debian, Fedora, Freespire, Linspire, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu, with other distributions planned to follow.

I personally like Linux and would love to see it succeed as a mainstream desktop OS. In my experience however it doesn't pan out that way and ends up being a hobby OS. That's fine for me but the average user though probably sees it more like a frustration or even a waste of time. I mean when someone asks "what time is it?" Do they want the time or instructions on how to build a clock. That is how the whole Linux on the desktop scene strikes me anyway. So if any company or individual could simplify the experience for end users I would support their efforts. Some people close to the source don't always see it that way while others seem more realistic. If anyone is interested check out this press release.

Some Site Stuff!

nospam@example.com (Dale M) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:45:00 -0600

I am not one to recommend scripts all that much but I have been playing around with something called SimplePie and it's pretty sweet.

SimplePie is a very fast and easy-to-use class, written in PHP, for reading RSS and Atom syndication feeds. By keeping it simple, and focusing on what’s important, we’ve built a pretty sweet little API. SimplePie’s focus has been two-fold: speed and ease of use, and has been very successful on both fronts. And no, we didn’t steal it from Apple.

My description is just edit a few variables put it on the server and it works. Most refreshing! So far I've done a couple mashups. One tech feed page and one web comics page using the guidance from this page and this post from the SimplePie support forums. The way the script is supposed to work is the newer items will appear toward the top of the pages. Don't know if that is how it will happen we will just have to wait and see.

As far as the word "mashup" is concerned I don't know if that is err... correct. The definition I am basing that on is....

A mashup is a website or web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API. Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) and JavaScript. Many people are experimenting with mashups using eBay, Amazon, Google, Windows Live, and Yahoos APIs.

Yeah right whatever sounds more like aggregation or indexation or yet just another buzz word but SimplePie seems pretty cool anyway.