Journal #8, October 19

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/apples-all-new-macbook-pro-packs-new-nvidia-gpu-glass-trackpad/

So Apple comes out with new laptops. Well not really, they came out with the exact same thing and said it was new. Well what I was expecting was for Apple to make an 800 dollar Mac and at least try to compete with the PC price range. They are not going to keep up with the economy with new 1,999 dollar laptops. You can get a very good computer off eBay for way less. I got my desktop that runs at lightning speeds for 600 dollars. It has better specs than apples best laptop starting at 2,700 dollars! I assure you that you will not be taking that portable sun with you everywhere you go either so it's not that great. Basically right now it’s the same Mac with better stuff inside. They always do that. I guess I had my hopes up.

What did they really do on this update? They got rid of the touch pad button. They took away half the I/O ports (note there is no more IEEE1394A). Then finally they "upgraded" to glossy look only. Seriously? Not a good choice in my book. First, I need the touch pad button. That button is the only thing from making me destroy every laptop ever made. I hate just wanting to scroll or move my mouse when as soon as i touch the touch pad it automatically clicks whatever the pointer is on. I always disable the touch pad internal click so it never does this. No fire wire (IEEE1394A) means no hookup for DV cameras and other software. The whole update boils down into they took the old laptop, put a better graphics card in it, cleaned it up, and shipped it out. Doesn't every other company do this? By the way, every tried playing a game with a touch pad?

http://www.apple.com/macbook/
http://www.macworld.com/article/133150/2008/05/macbuying.html

Journal #7, October 12

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/youtube-adds-read-comment-aloud-feature-from-xkcd/

I think this is a very neat, innovative idea. This proves that google is always one step ahead of the game. YouTube was already great and now I can ready my comments directly from the posting section? Amazing! This article is true though. I immediately went and looked at YouTube and pretty much one of the first comments I saw was "Some one can give me the name of the song? =/" Does posting a YouTube comment give you the ability to speak like Yoda? People just ignore grammar totally when writing YouTube comments for some reason. Also people say the dumbest things. I think that it will actually lead to better, meaningful discussion http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/10/08/youtube-audio-preview Now it won't help a lot, but it will help every now and then when someone does click on the audio preview. At first people will click it just to see what it sounds like, and then realize that what they are saying is not as good as what it could be. People who have things to input maybe won't say comments like "awesome" or "terrible" and now give reasons and facts backing up their claim. All in all I like the idea.

Google does a great job with everything. They are the number one search engine. People use their website as a verb in common language. They basically have a monopoly, but better for the consumer. This is how a company should run. They come up with innovative new technology all the time, and always comes at little or no cost. Look how innovative google, YouTube, and Apple have worked recently together. The Ipod touch, which I got recently based on a previous article I wrote, is just amazing. It's worth every penny. 

This is a funny comic too. Xkcd always does some good technology articles. They did one recently on google maps it was hilarious. Definitely read that, you will get a kick. http://xkcd.com/461/

Journal #6, October 5

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39594/140/

So they are extending windows XP again.  I know why, because Vista is horrible. It has huge problems with it. It uses way too much RAM just to run idling. This is why when you buy a new computer it's still just as slow as the one you bought in 1995. Even though the speed of the processors has exponentially grown and memory size and speed has skyrocketed, so has the operating system requirements of Microsoft’s "upgraded" operating systems. This is why my XP computer will run faster than someone’s better computer with Vista. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Windows_Vista  has many reasons why Vista is just outright terrible. Well I shouldn't be too hard on them. They are getting better. They are upgrading Vista more and more every day, but as it stands, vista is just added weight to a computer. Now windows 7 should be coming out in 2009. I have not seen a beta of this yet, mostly because I guess I'm assuming the worst and am sticking with XP. I'll try to look at it one of these days. I hope its an upgraded XP, but what I hear is it's an upgraded Vista. Too me this is like the guy who built his house on the sand. 

Has anyone seen these new ads that Microsoft has put out? They are so bad. Now, I am a Seinfeld lover but this is just ridiculous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiVMPgCf6YY I almost feel bad giving you that link. It’s like now you’re going to be like what in the world does this have to do with ANYTHING!? Except for maybe a hint that Microsoft has cheaper products, the only thing I got out of that was a couple bad jokes and our computer are going too be made into cake.

By the way I think it’s hilarious that Microsoft calls it a “downgrade” from Vista to XP. 

Journal #5, September 28

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-study-confirms-users-are-idiots.html

This survey is a bit ridiculous to start off. If this was done on a college campus, usually college students do not care two cents about what happens to a computer on campus. As long as it’s not their computer they are risking then it doesn’t matter. This is why the pop ups that were just randomly clicked through could have been because user’s were just trying to do what was told as fast as possible.

The title is misleading. This doesn’t make them idiots thought. It just says that they are not professionals at computers. Just because someone doesn’t know what a carburetor is doesn’t mean they are dumb. So just because someone doesn’t know what a pop up error means doesn’t mean they are dumb either.

I thought this article was quite interesting. I do believe that what they are trying to get across is true. Most user’s, even on their own computer, will just randomly click through pop up boxes. One of my friends, today, was on a computer at school and just clicking away through some very important boxes. Not only was he clicking away, but he was clicking the top right “X” instead of the “OK” are the “YES”. A lot of the pop ups I recognized and laughed later when his program wouldn’t run because he had not chosen the right choice. A lot of the pop ups are experience though. You have to know when a pop up is real and asks whether you want to upgrade flash for instance or whether you want to “get rid of all your infected spy ware”.

I did think it was hilarious how they made the pop ups switch to a hand which is like screaming “please open up a new Internet window and infect my computer”. Then it was like adding salt to a wound when they put the status bar.

Fake pop up here http://arstechnica.com/news.media/FakeDialog.png

Journal #4, September 21

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-microsoft-tester-fired-after-talking-about-xbox-360-defects.html

This is crazy how Microsoft, although everyone knows that the "red rings of death" happen so much, will still go to Lengths as to firing someone over it. It's also crazy that someone, who willingly knows that he will get fired, talks about inside information from Microsoft. "For Delaware, this likely came as no surprise. He was breaking company policy by dishing the details on the Xbox 360 defects." He was hired through a temp agency, which is not exactly like firing the VP, but still sends a message. 

Now you might be thinking after reading the article hey this isn't news, a guy was hired by a temp agency (usually you hire though temp agencies so you can fire at whim), he signed a contract saying he was supposed to spill the beans, he spilled, he got fired, end of story. Well the real message that Delaware was trying to get across, is that Microsoft will release products early just to hit the market before competitors just to capture the extra buck. This could give them a better scope of people to sell too. This product was obviously too early in development. The numbers do not lie http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080214-xbox-360-failure-rates-worse-than-most-consumer-electornics.htmlSo was this a savvy business move or another screw up for Microsoft? Well they are making a lot of money off of the xbox, but did they do it at the customers expense? It's really not that fun having your xbox shipped back to the company because of a defect (assuming it's still under warranty). 

I have actually seen this "red rings of death" happen to many of my friends. There are many reasons that the "red rings of death" happen but mostly because the system overheats and melts the metal inside the xbox. This can be fixed by wrapping your xbox in some towels and leaving it on. This will overheat your xobx again, which will allow more things inside your xbox to solder/unsolder themselves. 

Journal #3, September 14

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080909-apple-announces-new-products-at-lets-rock-event.html

So the new iPods are coming out! I've never owned an iPod but I can definitely see how many people choose to own them. They are very stylish looking music players. They are great for listening to music, watching movies, and various other things on the go. If they weren't so expensive I would definitely get one. Apple has come out with some serious better technology lately. HD shows for 2.99! A genius play list creator which uses one of your songs to find similar artists/music that you will like. They also came out with the new firmware for the IPhone that my friend says is ridiculously better than the old firmware. I was reading about the iPod nano and it has greatly improved to where someone like me who has never gotten one might fork over some cash. 

Apple is getting bigger and better. I like their software more and more each day. There is no question about it, they create some genius software and hardware. The iPhone blows every other phone out of the water in design, aesthetics, and speed. The only problem with pretty much all apple software is that it is expensive. Take the apple computers for example. You can find the same hardware in a dell computer for half the price or less than an apple computer. Granted apple runs faster with the same hardware, but apple has its own operating system that is designed to run better and faster. This is also why most software doesn't work for macs, it's harder to program for their computers. 

It amazes me how many people in today's generation have apple products. Everyone seems to talk about apple all the time. Whether it's the new iTunes, or the iPhone, or the wonderful operating system they have built, people are always talking about apple. I might check out the new buzz and get one of the cheaper iPods. Then I will have more insight on whether or not it was a giant waste of money, or a greatest thing since sliced bread.

Try the new iTunes out here http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Journal #2, September 7

http://www.google.com/chrome?open

First off I think the Google chrome's icon looks like a poke ball (a toy in a recent kid's card game). I like the way Google chrome is layed out. I didn't think it was going to be that good since it's just a beta version, but I was wrong. It is very fast. It's faster than any other browser. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html?part=rss I feel sorry for all the people still using Internet Explorer. That's like choosing to drive a 95' dodge neon instead of a 09' dodge charger and they are both free. Although they both get you to the same place, one gets you their much faster and in style. I might switch to Google chrome permanently, I'm not sure yet. One thing I like about FireFox that other browsers don't have is built in spell check. Right now I'm typing this I'm going to have to spell check at the end. With FireFox, I wouldn't have to do that. Also there is no "stop" button in Google chrome. This is that red x that you never touch unless you accidental pressed enter in your address bar and it wouldn't let you type in their until it finished loading. Also there is no bottom bar to tell you if your page is loading or not. Right now it's a toss up for me. Although Google chrome is very nice, I can see where down the road it can give me frustrations. This browser has some cool new features. Their are some awesome features of Google chrome though. Besides the fact that this thing is super fast, also it has a really clean look to it (because all the buttons are gone). Their is also a hilarious feature they give you (IE offers it as well, surprising I know) that is called "incognito" mode. You can go in this mode and nothing is stored on your computer. Chrome says you can use this when your trying to hide shopping for a present or something but basically to 99% of evil Internet people its "porn mode". I'll let you decide whether that's right or wrong.