Today we cancelled class just so we could all huddle around the radio and listen to Obama's inauguration address. To sum it up, it was great. I walked in the classroom hearing him say, "We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories." That's what I like to hear.
He basically was talking about how we're in an age of uncertainty and depression, but as long as we stick with our values and reforge our loyalty in our government and America itself, we can do anything we put our minds to.
A great part was when he said, "To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." He said that "[Our nation] can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to the effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."
Fantastic. I'm sure he'll do great as our new president.
-Derek
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Positive things about Windows 7
Let me make one thing clear about Windows 7: It's far better than Vista. Far, far, FAR better. I haven't installed the Beta of Win 7 yet, and I don't plan to unless I have an extra computer to do it on. However, what I've heard about Windows 7 sounds great. What's great about it?
-It runs on cheaper, less powerful hardware than Vista. Vista runs terribly on the laptop I used XP on. Windows 7 apparently 'uses half of the 1 GB of RAM" on the same type of laptop, which is exciting to hear.
-It's snappier, more reliable
-It organizes files better
-It's compatible with all major hardware and software from the start, unlike Vista
-It looks very nice, and you can customize colors and themes
-Microsoft has said that they're working to make it "faster and more reliable". Of course, that's what they've said every time they've released a new OS, but this time it looks like they're telling the truth.
Of course, that doesn't exclude the bad things.
-It continues the tradition of ripping off of Apple with features that Microsoft calls "innovative"
-It changes a lot of UI concepts, when 90% of Windows users don't want change
-It comes in many different versions, and that makes it confusing to get an OS with everything you need while not costing to much
-And of course, this.
But I think this is finally going to be Windows users' big break. It's far better than Vista, and it's exciting for me to eventually get it.
-Derek
-It runs on cheaper, less powerful hardware than Vista. Vista runs terribly on the laptop I used XP on. Windows 7 apparently 'uses half of the 1 GB of RAM" on the same type of laptop, which is exciting to hear.
-It's snappier, more reliable
-It organizes files better
-It's compatible with all major hardware and software from the start, unlike Vista
-It looks very nice, and you can customize colors and themes
-Microsoft has said that they're working to make it "faster and more reliable". Of course, that's what they've said every time they've released a new OS, but this time it looks like they're telling the truth.
Of course, that doesn't exclude the bad things.
-It continues the tradition of ripping off of Apple with features that Microsoft calls "innovative"
-It changes a lot of UI concepts, when 90% of Windows users don't want change
-It comes in many different versions, and that makes it confusing to get an OS with everything you need while not costing to much
-And of course, this.
But I think this is finally going to be Windows users' big break. It's far better than Vista, and it's exciting for me to eventually get it.
-Derek
Brand New Goal
I am planning to wait until Windows 7 is released, and if it's cheap enough ($99-$199), I'm going to build my own desktop computer and run Windows 7 on it. It's a relatively simple process depending on how you do it. I want mine to be really powerful: it needs to have a nice processor (I'm talking about Intel Core Duo at least, if not Core 2 Duo), a nice graphics card for gaming, an big hard drive (I don't want to have to get an external hard drive later), stuff like that. I also want the screen to be nice and big. No cutting corners on display. I've already made a personal checklist of parts I need to build it. I'll need to save up money for a while.
-Derek
-Derek
Friday, January 16, 2009
Introducing: the iPhone 4G
Well, not really. But Apple needs to start thinking about that, and according to electronista.com, there's a new chip that they may put in their iPhone called the SMARTi LU from Infineon. It apparently has something called "Long Term Evolution" (LTE), but what interests me is that it has 4G technology, and it's backwards-compatible with 3G and 2G networks like you'd expect. Apple might want to put this chip in just to get ahead of the competition.
-Derek
-Derek
Thursday, January 15, 2009
:(
Yes, I'm just as shocked and disappointed as you. Unless you didn't hear.
Steve Jobs, just days after describing his "hormone imbalance" health issue, wrote a letter to all his employees announcing that he's taking a "medical leave of absence" because the issue is "more complex" than he originally thought. He doesn't plan to return until late June. Tim Cook will be running Apple until then.
I'm really scared. No Steve Jobs for 6 months? I don't have faith in Cook's abilities to be CEO, and even if he does do a decent job, nobody can match Steve. They never had a back-up plan, and that could really tear the company apart if this continues.
Dan Lyons, AKA Fake Steve Jobs, appeared on CNBC and threw a hissy-fit while talking about this.
I'm actually told that he was banned from CNBC because of this. I don't blame them. Let me tell you something about Dan. He's an idiot. And he doesn't care about his FSJ fans. If he did, he would've kept running the FSJ blog. All he is is a jerk who tries to bring attention to the dying magazine he works for, Newsweek. You know what he said a while ago? He said "If Steve Jobs is still running the company at year-end [2008], I'll be shocked." Too bad he wasn't speaking literally. Maybe it would've knocked some sense into him for a change. It's now January 2009, and not only did Steve run the company, he technically still is running the company. He stated that he's still going to run CEO operations while he's away. Here's the full letter.
Let's hope that Steve stays okay so we can have our awesome CEO back and so we can have our awesome computer company back!
-Derek
Steve Jobs, just days after describing his "hormone imbalance" health issue, wrote a letter to all his employees announcing that he's taking a "medical leave of absence" because the issue is "more complex" than he originally thought. He doesn't plan to return until late June. Tim Cook will be running Apple until then.
I'm really scared. No Steve Jobs for 6 months? I don't have faith in Cook's abilities to be CEO, and even if he does do a decent job, nobody can match Steve. They never had a back-up plan, and that could really tear the company apart if this continues.
Dan Lyons, AKA Fake Steve Jobs, appeared on CNBC and threw a hissy-fit while talking about this.
I'm actually told that he was banned from CNBC because of this. I don't blame them. Let me tell you something about Dan. He's an idiot. And he doesn't care about his FSJ fans. If he did, he would've kept running the FSJ blog. All he is is a jerk who tries to bring attention to the dying magazine he works for, Newsweek. You know what he said a while ago? He said "If Steve Jobs is still running the company at year-end [2008], I'll be shocked." Too bad he wasn't speaking literally. Maybe it would've knocked some sense into him for a change. It's now January 2009, and not only did Steve run the company, he technically still is running the company. He stated that he's still going to run CEO operations while he's away. Here's the full letter.
Let's hope that Steve stays okay so we can have our awesome CEO back and so we can have our awesome computer company back!
-Derek
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Pirates of Silicon Valley clip
In the spirit of love, I'll share a clip from the amazing film "Pirates of Silicon Valley". It's fantastic. This is the stuff that makes technology politics so interesting.
-Derek
-Derek
Windows 7
So CES just happened. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made many inane statements that make no sense. For example, he said something along the lines of "2008 was a really bad year economy-wise. But these economic problems don't affect those who are innovative." Well in that case, Microsoft is pretty much screwed. They haven't ever been innovative. It doesn't look like they're planning on starting being innovative, as shown by their latest updates on their latest OS, Windows 7.
For example, there's one feature called "Aero Shake". Whatever the "Aero" means is beyond me. It means that when you shake a window, all other windows will minimize. The video can be seen here. Now really, look at this. It doesn't take much shaking at all to minimize the windows. What if I accidentally make it all minimize when I didn't want it to? Apple did something that could be compared to this, called "Shake to Shuffle" on the iPod Nano. Now that could've been risky, since you might accidentally shake it and have it shuffle when you didn't want it to. However, Apple actually thought of this and made so that it knew when you were really shaking it. I'm worried about whether Microsoft was smart enough to do that with "Aero Shake". Also, didn't Apple do the same basic thing with Expose'? The only difference is, instead of shaking it, you just hit a keystroke. You can also see all the windows of a certain application in Expose.
There's another feature that I don't know the name of, where you move your mouse to a certain corner, and you can see the desktop. Sound familiar? Yes. Apple did the same exact thing, once again with Expose'. The only little difference is that instead of the window flying out of the way, the window turns into a square outline of the window, as if you're looking through a sheet of glass. Cool effect, but otherwise, it's a blatant copy. And what's really funny is that somebody from Microsoft spouted about how "innovative" they were by doing this. They keep using the word "innovative". What's with "innovative"? Are they trying to talk like Apple? News flash, Microsoft: even if you're going to copy off of somebody's work, that doesn't mean you have to act the way they do too.
Anyway, I'm not going to completely bash Windows 7. I actually secretly have high hopes for it. Why? Because I'll never afford a Mac, so Windows is all I have. I want Windows to be as good as possible. But I'm sure it's still going to be a memory hog, and I'm sure it still has a confusing interface, just retouched to look different.
For example, there's one feature called "Aero Shake". Whatever the "Aero" means is beyond me. It means that when you shake a window, all other windows will minimize. The video can be seen here. Now really, look at this. It doesn't take much shaking at all to minimize the windows. What if I accidentally make it all minimize when I didn't want it to? Apple did something that could be compared to this, called "Shake to Shuffle" on the iPod Nano. Now that could've been risky, since you might accidentally shake it and have it shuffle when you didn't want it to. However, Apple actually thought of this and made so that it knew when you were really shaking it. I'm worried about whether Microsoft was smart enough to do that with "Aero Shake". Also, didn't Apple do the same basic thing with Expose'? The only difference is, instead of shaking it, you just hit a keystroke. You can also see all the windows of a certain application in Expose.
There's another feature that I don't know the name of, where you move your mouse to a certain corner, and you can see the desktop. Sound familiar? Yes. Apple did the same exact thing, once again with Expose'. The only little difference is that instead of the window flying out of the way, the window turns into a square outline of the window, as if you're looking through a sheet of glass. Cool effect, but otherwise, it's a blatant copy. And what's really funny is that somebody from Microsoft spouted about how "innovative" they were by doing this. They keep using the word "innovative". What's with "innovative"? Are they trying to talk like Apple? News flash, Microsoft: even if you're going to copy off of somebody's work, that doesn't mean you have to act the way they do too.
Anyway, I'm not going to completely bash Windows 7. I actually secretly have high hopes for it. Why? Because I'll never afford a Mac, so Windows is all I have. I want Windows to be as good as possible. But I'm sure it's still going to be a memory hog, and I'm sure it still has a confusing interface, just retouched to look different.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)