Category: Computers, Internet & Technology

Best line of the day, so far

The familiar pattern of a decade ago begs the question that Bill Gates was asked when he met last month with a group of executives and journalists from The New York Times: Will you do to Google what you did to Netscape?

Mr. Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and chairman, paused, looked down at his folded hands and smiled broadly, as if enjoying a private joke. “Nah,” he replied, “we’ll do something different.”

From Can This Man Reprogram Microsoft?, an article in Sunday’s New York Times about the new internet and Microsoft’s re-invention. Interesting look at where we may all be headed.

The “man” in the title is Ray Ozzie.

I think he likes it

We’ve been testing this new iMac, and our verdict is that it’s the gold standard of desktop PCs. To put it simply: No desktop offered by Dell or Hewlett-Packard or Sony or Gateway can match the new iMac G5’s combination of power, elegance, simplicity, ease of use, built-in software, stability and security. From setup to performing the most intense tasks, it’s a pleasure to use. And, contrary to common misconceptions, this Mac is competitively priced, when compared with comparably equipped midrange Windows PCs; and it handles all common Windows files, as well as the Internet and email, with aplomb.
…

The combination of the new, improved hardware, plus Front Row, makes the iMac G5 the best consumer desktop you can buy this holiday season, period. For mainstream consumers doing typical tasks — Web surfing, email, office productivity, photos, music, home videos, etc. — it’s the finest desktop PC on the market, at any price. Hard-core game players, stock-market day traders, serious video producers and some other niche users should look for other computers. But, for most people, the new iMac G5 is the best choice.

Walt Mossberg

Firefox 1.5 is here

If you’re using Internet Explorer, now is a good time to try Firefox. Click the button.

Firefox 1.5 has an intuitive interface and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. It delivers web pages faster than ever. And it’s easy to install and import your favorites. Packed with useful features like tabbed browsing, Live Bookmarks, and an integrated Search bar, Firefox will change the way you experience the Web, for the better.

Current Firefox users should receive the update automatically.

Office Suite Software Without the Sticker Shock

Those interested in Microsoft Office should consider OpenOffice. Rob Pegoraro takes a close look at the Office Suite Software Without the Sticker Shock. His findings are mixed, but he likes the price.

Fortunately, there’s another choice — a free one, called OpenOffice.org 2.0. This open-source release doesn’t do much to alleviate the complexity of office-suite software, but it has brought the cost down to a figure most people should like: nothing.

This set of programs (Win 98 or newer or Linux, free at http://www.openoffice.org/ ) is built around its Writer, Calc and Impress components, counterparts to Microsoft’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint. OpenOffice also throws in database, drawing and math-equation tools — but it lacks an equivalent to Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail/address book/calendar. …

OpenOffice, more so than most other programs competing with what comes out of Redmond, has to live in a Microsoft world. It can’t just function on its own, but it also has to read and write Microsoft’s closed, proprietary formats.

That’s a challenge OpenOffice can usually meet.

Thanks to Nora for the link.

‘Tis the season to be Googling, Fa La La La La

Google has a page dedicated to searching and browsing mail-order catalogs online.

Rather go to the movies? Google has a page where you can type in your zip code and get all the Movie Showtimes in the area.

Or there’s the new Google Base, which some say will be a combination eBay, Craigslist and classified ads from the newspaper (though too new to be those things yet).

Genuine Microsoft Software on Firefox

In international terms, Microsoft just gave diplomatic recognition to the new nation of Firefox.

“A Plug-in is a helper program that can be downloaded and installed to extend the functionality of a Mozilla-based Web browser. You may download and install the Windows Genuine Advantage Plug-in in order to use this web site for validation of your copy of Windows.”

Get the plugin: Genuine Microsoft Software

Link via Ed Bott. Ed has good Windows tips and Microsoft news every day.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Amazon has not only pulled all of Sony’s rootkit-infected CDs from its catalog, they’re also contacting everyong who bought a rootkit CD and offering a full refunds, whether or not the CD has been opened.

Now this is a textbook example of how retailers should be responding to the news that Sony tricked them into selling CDs that screwed up their customers’ computers.

Source: Boing Boing

The Good is Amazon.

The Bad and the Ugly is Sony BMG. A list of the culprit CDs.

I’d like to teach the world to compute in perfect harmony

Saying they hope to bring every child in the world a computer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are set to unveil a laptop that will cost around $100, run on batteries that can be recharged by turning a crank, and connect to the Internet wirelessly by piggybacking on the connection of a nearby user.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Now we’re getting places

The Mossberg Solution takes a look at the online mapping services:

This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested the old reliable, MapQuest, against Google Local, http://maps.google.com, and a new, enhanced version of Yahoo Maps, http://maps.yahoo.com/beta. Yahoo’s new site was just released last week, and it’s still in its “beta,” or test, phase.

As everyone who has used online mapping knows, it has its limitations. The mapping services too rarely spit out the kind of smart, speedy routes a savvy local driver would choose. Their suggested routes are generally more convoluted, and sometimes wrong. But, in most cases, they do get you where you’re going, and thus are a boon to drivers unfamiliar with the area in question.

These newer sites are free, like MapQuest, but they offer some fancy features, like the ability to pan across a map simply by moving your mouse’s cursor, or zooming in or out on a location quickly. Google adds satellite photos of the actual locations, down to the trees in your front yard.

MapQuest looks a little dowdy by comparison to the newcomers, but it works for a lot of folks because it gets people from point A to point B, without any extra fuss. So, we tested these new features from Google and Yahoo to see if they were actually useful, or just a lot of hype that muddied up the direction-retrieval process.

Overall, we concluded that, for the sake of getting where you’re going with the most-thorough directions, MapQuest still does the best job, with the most accurate directions. But Yahoo has a multipoint routing feature that’s valuable. And, for some, the ability to quickly pan a geographic region on Yahoo and Google — with satellite photos on the latter — can familiarize them with the surrounding area and make the drive easier.

There’s more.

Noise-cancellation headphones

Scott Adams’ fantasy below reminded me. NewMexiKen recently acquired Bose noise-cancellation headphones and wore them on the trip to Baltimore and return. Outstanding! You don’t even completely realize how good they are while they are on, but once you take the headphones off you cannot believe the incredible noise in the cabin. No wonder you see people wearing the headphones without any music device attached.

Windows Live

Though still in beta, Microsoft’s new Windows Live start page looks promising, especially for Hotmail users. As with Google and My Yahoo!, (or for that matter My MSN) the page lets you add elements such as news headlines, weather, RSS feeds, etc.

Windows Live will also list your incoming email messages right on the front page.

And you can move items around the page with your mouse.

Open Office

Don’t have or don’t want Microsoft Office. How about OpenOffice 2.0?

OpenOffice is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

NewMexiKen has played around a little today with OpenOffice 2.0, which has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database functions. It’s too soon for me to decide if it could replace Microsoft Office, but it’s possible and it’s free. Takes up less than half the space on the hard drive, too.

One nice feature in OpenOffice that MS Office doesn’t have yet — save your file as an Adobe PDF.

Download it here.

Look at me

The Mossberg Solution reviews the new video iPod.

Apple wisely calls this primarily a music player, with video playback thrown in, at no extra cost, as a bonus. And that description seems both fair and right. In essence, this iPod’s video capability is kind of a business or social experiment. …

The new iPod is a handsome product that works well and is a good value. If you don’t expect too much from its video function, you will find it a nice bonus. But, for now, we urge you to think of it primarily as a music player, just as Steve Jobs does.

And figure another $50 to $100 for “essential” accessories (like a charger).

Resolution

Just over half of the visitors to NewMexiKen (55%) are viewing the page(s) at 1024 X 768 resolution. Remarkably, 14% are looking at it at 800 X 600 (they have black and white TVs and AM-only radios, too). And one percent see it at 640 X 480!

Just more than 20% view NewMexiKen (as I do) at 1280 X 800 (or a variation). The remainder (9%) have even higher resolution, as high as 1680 X 1050.

NewMexiKen read today that a larger monitor is the single greatest factor to improving productivity among workers who rely on computers.

82% of you are using Internet Explorer. You might want to give Firefox a try, or Opera. In NewMexiKen’s opinion both are superior to IE, though, as with all things, there is admittedly a learning curve.

95% of you are using Windows, 4% Mac, 1% Linux.

Almost six percent of the searches that lead to NewMexiKen are for the largest college stadiums. Three percent are for Omarosa nude or naked.

An Apple a day

Ed Bott, author of several how-to books about Windows, has an excellent and useful blog with many helpful ideas about getting the best from your computer’s operating system. Today, however, Bott posted excerpts from an anti-Apple diatribe by Slate’s Jack Shafer — all about how the press is so enamored of Apple.

I don’t hate Apple. I don’t even hate Apple-lovers. I do, however, possess deep odium for the legions of Apple polishers in the press corps who salute every shiny gadget the company parades through downtown Cupertino as if they were members of the Supreme Soviet viewing the latest ICBMs at the May Day parade.

Shafer goes on to say that once the newness wears off he can’t find any press references to these same products, thereby concluding they are all second-rate failures.

NewMexiKen’s computers have all been Windows (or DOS) but I love iTunes and my iPod. I read a lot of reviews and here’s the kind of thing I keep seeing. This is from Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal:

Every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider the Mac. Its operating system, called Tiger, is better and much more secure than Windows XP, and already contains most of the key features promised for Vista.

As NewMexiKen commented on Ed Bott’s blog, “Perhaps Shafer can’t find articles about the older Apple products because new ones keep coming along at a rate that Redmond cannot fathom.”

Laundry gets high-tech

Dubbed LaundryView, colleges and universities can set up networks of washing machines and dryers. Via an online site, students can see which machines are free and how much time is left on those that are currently in use.

What’s more, the system will send alerts to mobile phones and PDAs when the machine a student is using finishes its cycle. According to the site, LaundryView will also track overall usage for the last two weeks, so students can determine which days and times are usually the busiest.

— CNET News.com

Thanks to Jill, official oldest daughter of NewMexiKen, for the link. Jill thinks “this is quite possibly the coolest thing EVER invented. I may have to go back and get a doctorate.”

Yahoo for Yahoo

Walt Mossberg still likes Yahoo Mail best.

I’ve been comparing the new version of Yahoo Mail, which claims to be the leader in Web mail, with Gmail, the challenger Yahoo most fears. My verdict: The new Yahoo Mail is far superior to Gmail. Yahoo more closely matches the desktop experience most serious email users have come to expect. Gmail, by contrast, is quirky and limited. Its only advantage is its massive free storage, which exceeds what most people will ever need. …

Yahoo’s new email program would blow Gmail away if it were widely released today. That’s partly due to its features, but also to its respect for user choice.

The new version of Yahoo Mail is not yet widely available. Hotmail doesn’t even get a mention.