Another Youtube Vid

When it comes to technology these days, this guy has got it so right, its freaky

This was featured on the US's Conan talk show

Technology taken for granted

How true, How true! :)

Windows 7 and Microsoft

Okay, so we've been told so many times that Microsoft is staying Personal Computer-oriented and not going Web 2.0 and keeping it that way...

That's all well and good and i've read so many articles saying that is the way it should be...

And then I walk down to the city and read that Microsoft is releasing Azure alongside the supposedly PC-based Windows 7. Now in case you hadn't noticed, Azure is not PC-based.

For those uneducated of you, Azure is a system that actually replaces Office, and other apps with a server-side system of 'cloud apps' that each user could 'connect' to in order to empower their computer's abilities.

There are two problems with this. First up, why buy Office for a couple extra features. I'm paying $450-odd dollars for the ability to make a mail-merge (oh yeah, i do those all the time). Releasing Azure as part of a product range made for PC's, is like giving a gun to prison inmate, it just guarantees that things are gonna screw up.

Second problem, unless they do things like shipping computers with it, setting defaults to it, or integrating it with Win7, i find it difficult to believe that anything Microsoft comes up with will be more successful than Google's efforts.

They do have one thing going for them but, Google is a bit of a 'fringe' company compared to Microsoft. The other bigger thing is that Microsoft's monopoly (yes, it's a monopoly) on shipping OS's means that every copy of Windows will encourage and coerce every Windows user to begin using Azure rather than begin using Google. While previous Google users will probably continue to use Google Apps/Docs, new cloud users will be likely to move toward a system thats designed to integrate with almost every single computer on the planet. While Chrome users will be familiar with the concept of web applications and shortcuts as will anybody who has used an eee PC (by ASUS). This is a great idea, being able to run cloud apps off a local terminal, but it is a bit of a problem for Google since every Windows user will be able to run Azure as if it was Office and probably have it interact locally with their machine.

It will be a sad day, when Google Docs calls it quits, and by then it will be Netscape all over again...

Vista Goodies

For Christ sake, what is it with Microsoft and levels and extras and stages and more bloody money...

I say this because i have just spent some time looking at different levels of Vista (no, i'm not stupid enough to fork out my cash on Vista, are you insane!) and my god, there must be 7 different levels of Vista alone, and then there's Office. When XP came out, everyone was getting into a rage about the 'confusing' Pro and Home versions. Now there's Starter edition, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate and some random one they're trying to flog off to failing autocratic governments or something.

But more than this, every single one is different to every other one. There is one problem for Microsoft but... They didn't do a very good job of keeping them separated. See, as some others at school would vouch for, my (school-issued) Tablet PC appears to be an odd blend of Vista Ultimate, Third-Party Software and general customisation. As the logon screen betrays, it's actually Vista Business, but with Windows Aero, and all the premium games, and Windows DreamScene (unfortunately, whenever i try to change my background, say to DreamScene, it just says 'Page Failed to Load'... Still Fiddling, help would be appreciated), and i think i've found out how to get the supposedly Ultimate-only Bitlocker.

I'm pretty much just missing Media Center, something i don't really have a need for, but i've certainly compensated with all the third-party crap I've put on this thing. The fact that i'm writing this using FireScribe, a Firefox extension is enough, but the fact i have another 37 extensions is more, hell, the fact i'm using Firefox 3.0.3 means i've been fiddling with this thing. you name it, i've probably got it, or something to do its role: Winamp, VLC Player, Webshots, Graph, Motorola Phone Tools, the entire Office 97, CyberLink DVD Suite, PowerProducer, Google Calendar Sync, Mozilla Thunderbird (with extensions), a couple extra PIM Managers, Nero Suite, Palm Reader, RealPlayer (*shudder*), TrueSuite, Fingerprint Software, WinRAR (*ugh*, what's wrong with zip files), YouTube Downloader, Google Chrome and IrfanView...
I've also changed almost every setting in Control Panel, a couple of Registry Keys and anything else that can be changed.

While this may seem like overkill, i use most of them pretty regularly!

But to get back to the original topic (OMG! Topic creep on blogs!) my Vista is pretty different to the one they hand out at your local Hardly Normal (Harvey Norman) and it makes you think...

Why the f*** did you pay extra for Ultimate, sucker!!

PS. I'm fairly sure the Idiocy Department (IT Dept) aren't going to recognise this computer when i hand it back to them, especially now i've got my own custom skin on the inside and outside.


UPDATE!
I now have 41 other extensions, not 37 anymore... yay! i broke the 40-extension barrier!