Category: Computers, Internet & Technology

A fun new series of TV Ads from Apple. Check them out.

NewMexiKen’s host, Hosting Matters, was the target of a massive DOS (Denial of Service) attack Friday morning. NewMexiKen was down for some time and even now, hours later is running slow. Should be back to normal soon. Sorry for any inconvenience.

David Pogue reviews the new Internet Explorer — available to you now.

But hope is in the air. Earlier this week, Microsoft took the wraps off IE 7. The new version is a public beta — Beta 2 — and therefore technically unfinished. Still, Microsoft feels that this release is ready for average people to try out; you can download it from www.microsoft.com/ie. Phone help is available, and you can easily restore Version 6 if necessary.

How this new browser measures up depends on the ruler you’re using. If you’ve never used anything but Internet Explorer, you won’t be able to wipe the grin off your face.

But next to rivals like Firefox, Opera and Safari, IE 7 is a catch-up and patch-up job. Some of its “new” features have been available in rival browsers for years.

For example, IE may be the last Web browser on earth to offer tabbed browsing. This useful feature lets you keep several Web sites open on the screen simultaneously — not in a hopeless mess of overlapping windows, but all in one window. File-folder index tabs at the top of the window keep them straight.

NewMexiKen doesn’t know why you wouldn’t just choose Firefox or Opera or Safari, but at least IE is catching up. It’s more secure than IE 6, too.

(Of course, tabbed browsing is so 2004 for most websites. RSS is the newer new best thing.)

For Microsoft Money. While there are a few other Windows programs I would add * — I mean as long as it’s there — Money is the only one I “need.”

My iMac came with Quicken for Mac and I’ve converted all this year’s financial data (an unpleasant process). But Quicken is an ugly program on Windows; on Mac it is an ugly, difficult, counter-intuitive program.

But I hate paying $150 or more for Windows so I can use a $30 program, Money.

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* Microsoft MapPoint, because it permits trip planning rather than just routing. Microsoft Access, because I haven’t figured out how to convert my existing databases (CDs, books) to a Mac program. And Wilson Turbo Texas Hold’em, because it’s smarter than the other poker programs (like iPoker for Mac), if homely.

Imagine if Coca-Cola agreed to stock Pepsi in its vending machines.

While not a totally apt comparison, it begins to convey the upside-down sensation that came with Wednesday’s announcement that Apple Computer has introduced software that will allow the simple installation of Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system on Apple’s newest computers.

And now that we are thinking the unthinkable, here is one more: What if Microsoft decided to buy Apple?

Dealbook

As one commenter put it, if Microsoft bought Apple where would they (Microsoft) get their ideas?

From an Apple Press Release:

Apple® today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Available as a download beginning today, Boot Camp allows users with a Microsoft Windows XP installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac®, and once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS® X or Windows XP. Boot Camp will be a feature in “Leopard,” Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August.

How ’bout that?

Apple stock was up 9.84% on the day.

Bill Gates describes his desktop:

If you look at this office, there isn’t much paper in it. On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you’ll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity.

The screen on the left has my list of e-mails. On the center screen is usually the specific e-mail I’m reading and responding to. And my browser is on the right-hand screen. This setup gives me the ability to glance and see what new has come in while I’m working on something, and to bring up a link that’s related to an e-mail and look at it while the e-mail is still in front of me.

At Microsoft, e-mail is the medium of choice, more than phone calls, documents, blogs, bulletin boards, or even meetings (voicemails and faxes are actually integrated into our e-mail in-boxes).

I get about 100 e-mails a day. We apply filtering to keep it to that level�e-mail comes straight to me from anyone I’ve ever corresponded with, anyone from Microsoft, Intel, HP, and all the other partner companies, and anyone I know. And I always see a write-up from my assistant of any other e-mail, from companies that aren’t on my permission list or individuals I don’t know. That way I know what people are praising us for, what they are complaining about, and what they are asking.

There’s more.

From a report in the Wall Street Journal:

Japan’s Aozora Bank Ltd. is planning to do something once unheard of in the business world: switch nearly all of its 2,300 desktop personal computers to Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh computers.

Most companies use PCs that run on some version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system. But in a multi-year effort to replace its outdated mishmash of computers — most running older versions of Windows — Aozora is forsaking the standard PC.

A third of the company’s computers already are Macs — including sleek iMac computers that combine a screen and hard drive in one unit with a camera perched atop that allows employees to videoconference. Within a few months, Aozora expects about 90% of its machines will be Macs.

NewMexiKen’s own transition from Windows to Mac these past two months hasn’t been without friction, but I wouldn’t consider anything but a Mac now.

From a Maine press release:

Under the current timelines and subject to final legislative approval of the Department’s budget, the Department intends to deploy new laptop computers to teachers, librarians, principals and technology coordinators in the summer of 2006 to begin preparing for the 2006-7 school year. New laptop computers for all grade 7 and 8 public middle school students will be issued at the start of the school year. In all, the Department estimates that over 36,000 laptops will be deployed.

“Apple Computer, Inc. was selected as the top-scoring bidder for services and equipment.”

“I run both spyware and virus scans nightly on my Windows computers, and I advise all Windows broadband users to do so.” [emphasis added]

Walt Mossberg

Surely you all know how to do this but just in case, Walt Mossberg tells how to open many web sites at once.

Q: I like to visit about 50 news sites every morning but don’t want an RSS feed only. I like to see the entire site. Is there a way to open all of them at the same time, without having to click on each bookmark one by one?

A: Certainly. All you need to do is switch to a tabbed Web browser, like Firefox or Opera for Windows or Mac; or Safari or Camino, for the Mac only. These browsers can open multiple Web sites, in the same window, marking each site with a tab bearing its name. And they allow users to open these multiple sites with a single click. Though each differs slightly, all have a command — usually called “Open in Tabs” — that will open a list or folder full of bookmarks with one click. For instance, every morning I open about 20 technology-related Web sites in Firefox or Safari with one click.

Internet Explorer 7.0 — available as a beta — also has tabbed browsing.

These days putting a lowercase I in front of any product is tantamount to printing your own money. Following shirt er, suit is something for all the hipsters in the house, the iShirt from PodShirt. It s a standard black t-shirt with the word iShirt printed on the front in block white letters. Cool? Yes, yes it is. Even more cool is that the I is actually an iPod shuffle attached to a magnet. (Shuffle not included, obviously.) $29 buys you instant popularity. (Gizmodo)

Click to see photo.

Multi-Touch Interaction Research.

Just watch the video for awhile. It’s becomes more fascinating the longer you watch.

Somewhat of an improvement over Etch-a-Sketch.

Link via David Pogue.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I’ve only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

From Wired News, which has details.

Key quote: “‘People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they “hear” the tone they intend in their head as they write….'”

Of course, not many of you get to discuss you emails from the witness chair in federal court, as NewMexiKen has. That’s always fun.

NewMexiKen received this response after notifying Amazon that a rebate input page was not accepting my data:

I’m sorry to hear about the system error you experienced that prevented you from entering your rebate information.

We are aware of this issue, and our developers are working on a resolution. Often these errors are corrected after only a short time, so please try again after one week.

Again, I apologize for this inconvenience. Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Note: If after two days you are still experiencing the same problem, please use the link below to e-mail us so we can investigate further: [Emphasis added.]

One week? Two days? After the cutoff date for submitting the rebate?