Category: Technology

AppleInsider | Parallels preps major update to Windows virtualization software

(this is cross-posted on Digital-Motion, my new digital media blog, wish there was a nice way to do that automagically with wordpress)

AppleInsider | Parallels preps major update to Windows virtualization software

This is oh-so-very-cool. I have to run bootcamp on my mac book pro because I need to be using the full power of the GPU. This won’t completely obliviate that need, but it will mean that I won’t need to install XP twice on my little MBP so that I can pop into Outlook or IE if I need to without restarting. With the new version of Parallels, you can use your bootcamp partition as the root drive of your XP Parallels session. Also cool is that they’ll support other OSes nicely, which means you can drop a linux install on there too easily. This will be awesome for web designers because they won’t need to buy extra machines to validate stuff on. This may even get me back to installing some windows or liinux audio and video stuff again. There is a lot of freeware we mac folk miss out on.

I think this virtualization stuff is progressing exactly the way I want to see it. Next step is to find out how well the Macintels run Vista…

I wonder how long until either Apple or Microsoft buys Parallel Inc. The fact that they are located in Redmond probably speaks more to the fact that they are probably well staffed by former Microsofties than that they made their plan to be acquired at the beginning.

I would have loved this a couple of years ago.

In our last house, we had a neighbor who was pure evil. Since I am good at heart, more or less, I never gave him the rich thrashing he deserved (with the exception of calling the cops when he would destroy our property or peep in our windows). I did dream of having something like this though:
ThinkGeek :: The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron

Something like this is perfection for that person that deserves no joy in their lives and that can be driven slowly insane.

Situation:Terminal » My Xbox Live HD Video Rental Nightmare

Situation:Terminal » My Xbox Live HD Video Rental Nightmare

I love posts like this (I’ve written several myself). It is one of the joys of our interconnected age that when companies give bad service, it is now our duty to tell the world.

(Can you tell that I’m digging the “Press it!” button too much?)

Wow, the Zune is sinking like a stone…

Now, I’m not so much of a Microsoft-hater as I used to be. The Zune announcement left me a bit cold, there are some cute ideas, but the kow-towing to the music companies at the expense of the users kinda bugged me.

I guess I’m not alone. The Zune seconds ago is at #46 on the Amazon top sellers list, putting it behind 10 different kinds of ipods, 3 iPod accessories, and 3 different SanDisk MP3 players.

Yow! That has got to hurt!

Interesting article on the evolving Microsoft media ecosystem

Microsoft’s media convergence strategy has been eluding me even as it has evolved. With the Zune imminent, the 360, and Windows Media Center PCs already here, I’ve found myself monumentally unimpressed with it all. Microsoft has the technologies, but not the integration. The individual technologies themselves are completely unappealing to me. However, this article from tech crunch puts it all together in a way I hadn’t considered.

iTunes 7.0.1 is the buggiest piece of software I have ever used

and I worked at a Unix company in the days before testers, so that is saying something.

Usually, I take my time installing a major update. I waited until the 7.0.1 patch came out to iTunes which supposedly fixed most of the issues and for me, at first, it worked fine. What I’m finding, after a few weeks, is that it is becoming increasingly unstable. Like can’t run more than 10 minutes without crashing, as in, completely useless. As in, how fucking long do I have to wait for Apple to fix this P.O.S. now that they’ve captured my music collection? At least I wasn’t stupid enough to encode in a proprietary format so the biggest problem would be figuring out how to move my meta-data to some other music application (I love my metadata, hear that Steve Gillmor?)

The Motorola RAZR is a poorly made product

But what I really wanted to say was P.O.S…

In under 18 months I’ve seen two batteries die (one catastrophically), and I’ve had to replace one phone completely when the off key stopped working.Also, by the way, screw you Cingular for your incredibly crappy repair and replacement policies.

For a relatively expensive phone, this is ridiculous. I had each of my previous Nokias for years. I only had to replace my first one because my dog chewed off it’s antenna. Shame on you, Motorola.

Developers Developers Developers Developers

Apple hates Developers Developers Developers Developers

Just got back from WWDC ’06 and all I can say is “it’s amazing that anyone develops software for the macintosh at all.” Apple (like Microsoft) is continually trying to use their 3rd party software developers as a billy club to bring their users onto the latest OS. Apple (like Microsoft) is trying to get their 3rd party developers to adopt a new development language that is locked into their platform (but both claim that it isn’t). However, Apple (unlike Microsoft), pretends that all their developers have embraced this new language and new OS when all evidence is to the contrary. In session after session, Apple employees surveyed the attendees, asking “How many of you use C++, Objective C, Objective C++?” Each time, the answer was overwhelmingly C++, which I imagine was the result in each year previous. Yet, every new Apple API is in Objective C, every code sample was in Objective C. The new APIs look really fun. I bet we’ll see some awesome shareware when Leopard comes out. The professionals (especially those writing cross platform apps) and Apple’s high-end products will continue to ignore these new APIs as they always have.

You add this continual dismissal of developers needs with Apple’s insane secrecy and poor documentation and it seems amazing that professionals embrace this platform at all. I came into this (expensive) conference as a die-hard-mac-fan-boy and now I’m feeling much less so. I still like using macs, but developing for the mac seems much more a chore than a joy, especially compared to windows.

PalmTX as laptop replacement (review pt. 2)

I bought the TX for e-mail and web access during my Europe trip, here’s my thoughts.

A major reason for my purchase of the TX was that I wanted an easy way to check e-mail and surf the web without having to lug a heavy (and hard to replace) laptop around on my Europe trip.

How did the TX perform? Pretty well. Almost as well as I had hoped it would.

The benefits:
1) I had no problem finding and connecting to 802.11b networks and was surprised to find them everywhere we stayed, including St. Remy in Provence (thanks Biscuit, Biscuit for the free wi-fi!)
2) It was no problem carrying it around, the protective case that I got with it was much heavier than it was and even with that case, it fit into an inside pocket in my coat
3) The battery lasted long enough to take care of stuff in the cases where I had to leave my hotel room to get wi-fi.
4) The web program and e-mail program worked o.k. and a lot of stuff was reasonable even on the small screen
5) Nice to have some games to pass the time.

The problems:
1) A bug in the blazer web browser made it impossible to load some php pages which made it impossible to sign up for our hotel’s wi-fi in Nice
2) The 802.11b connector would disconnect from the network to save power if you hadn’t used it for a minute or so. This was a super pain in the ass because we had a card with a super long code we had to type in every time we connected to the wi-fi in our hotel in Paris.
3) The mail program got confused on which mail it had downloaded and which mail it hadn’t, leading to multiple downloads of the same mail.
4) Not enough memory to make the video player or audio player features worth-while
5) too hard to compose long messages with Graffiti
6) Bug in the mail program where you can’t easily delay message sending until you are connected.

I’ve had many PIMs over the years, but I’ve never really stuck with any. I don’t really need constant access to my information or whatever, so now that the trip is over, I’m not sure what I’ll use the Palm for. I can let you know that the “Speaking Language Translator” isn’t really worth your money. Not that it doesn’t work, but mostly, you aren’t going to whip it out in the middle of a conversation with a shop keeper, so it isn’t really that useful.

The one thing which I did absolutely miss from my laptop was the ability to play movies. The TX doesn’t have enough memory (and big MMC cards are prohibitively expensive). It would have been cool to be able to watch some pre-recorded TV shows or movies from home sometimes.

Most of the biggest pains we had with the TX where in its software. I couldn’t find a way to configure the network to stay connected until I disconnect it manually which is really painful if you have a code you have to enter in each time you connect to a network. The php bug in the web browser made it impossible to load some pages. The bug in the mail program made it annoying to compose mail while not connected to a network. We had to save our messages to the draft folders and then when we connected to a network, edit each “draft” message so that we could send it. It would be a lot easier if stuff got saved in your outbox when you were connected until you did get connected.

Would I recommend this as a laptop replacement for other travelers trying to keep the crap to a minimum? Absolutely. If you were planning on keeping your pals at home updated on your travels with extended e-mails though, I would absolutely recommend one of the portable keyboards. That would have saved us a lot of headache.