Yahoo Goes...

Yahoo, sadly, has discontinued their "Go" service for mobile phones. This is quite disappointing to those of us that enjoyed accessing Ebay, Caltrain schedules and Flickr via an interface reminiscent of an early Palm pda.
To quote Yahoo on their departure from the web-portal-in-your-pocket game:
"November 18, 2009,
There are many reasons. There are more sophisticated mobile devices and browsers available to you, and your needs are changing. You need easier ways to access your favorite Yahoo! content and services from your mobile phone. To respond to these changes, we have created a new mobile homepage. It is available across more than 3,000 devices at http://m.yahoo.com. In addition, we have feature-rich applications for a variety of devices. We will make mobile versions of more Yahoo! services, improve existing offerings, and develop new and engaging experiences that integrate Yahoo! Mobile services and reach many mobile devices and browsers."

I guess the eggheads in Sunnyvale saw the writing on the wall in Cupertino (or Palo Alto!) and figured that competing against the iPhone onslaught whilst simultaneously facing the rising of the Androids was a losing battle. Especially when their offering was akin to a circa 1994 Apple Newton, in color.

The idea behind "Go" was essentially a portal type environment, not unlike a My-Yahoo page, with various widgets thrown together by independent developers on their own initiative. None of the widgets I used had any cost attached, so there was the added benefit of adding functionality to my mobile device without having to visit some "app store", negotiating multiple pages of an end user liscense agreement, giving a pound of flesh, and agreeing to be billed on my cell providers bill. (wait was that a one time charge or recurring?).Okay I won't lie. I used Yahoo Go to access Ebay from my blackberry. Frequently. It also had some nifty little widgets for several San Francisco Bay area transit agencies.
Of course Yahoo Go went nowhere. The initial offerings by Yahoo brand sites like Flickr were joined by a few others that are strategic partners like Ebay, and a few more that overachieving Stanford students found useful, like Caltrain ans sports scores. Then nothing. The Carousel interface was just silly. Once you had more than 5 or 6 items in there it became a pain in the ass. There was also the opaque functionality of it. It took me a couple of days to figure out how to properly exit from Go so my Blackberry's battery wouldn't die quite as fast.
So basically Yahoo realized, our mobile presence sucks.

Most Stylish Supercomputer

The Jaguar Supercomputer takes home the best dressed supercomputer in the petaflop or better division.


The Jaguar Supercomputer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US. (1.759 petaflops; 224,162 processors).
Though the color coordination may seem a bit out touch for a happening number crunching monster of the late 00's, the nearest competition is quite a bit dowdier in comparison. Both sartorially and in terms of brute hexadecimal obliteration.


Sporting the traditional IBM powder-coat black and Prussian blue, which of course dates back to the 80's and beyond, the IBM Roadrunner (Los Alamos National Laboratory, US ,1.042 petaflops; 122,400 processors) may be a heavy hitter in terms of numbers, but is not easy on the eyes.

The Chinese fielded an entry for the first time this year. Of course the Chinese entry Tianhe-1, National SuperComputer Center, China (563.1 teraflops; 71,680 processors), failed on both parts. Being neither a petaflop capable system, nor very well dressed at all.

Windows 7 tricks

Geeky Shortcuts

Big one and little one If you are eyesight challenged (like me) pressing the Windows key and the + key will zoom in on your display. To make it smaller again, Windows key and the - key.

the fun one-press the windows key + tab. Windows will show a 3D rotating view of your open windows.

Snappy one. Try pressing the Windows key plus any of the arrow keys. This causes your open windows to snap open or closed or...

Invisible one. moving the mouse cursor over the small rectangle at the lower right of the screen will make all open windows transparent. To do this without your mouse, press the Windows key + space bar.

Bass

I was just working on my

Mesa-Boogie Tube Bass Amps

Visit this group

Macintoshes, Not as safe as you think

Most of us are familiar with the Macintosh "feature" that they are supposedly less suceptible to viruses and hacks in general than Windows computers. Apple has put this out there in its marketing and TV commercials. Both implicitly (in the case of "just wanting an computer to work") and in explicitly in overt claims that the mac platform is virus free.
Trendmicro, the home of Housecall free online virus-scanning service has recently published a little piece about Macintosh security threats.
The Article details 4 trojan type threats which prey upon the ease of installation which Apple computers are known for.
Two of these trojans are inserted into pirated versions of Mac software, iWork 09 and Snow Leopard, which once installed compromise the security of the systems. Apparently these have been making their way around the torrenting community
One of the trojans uses an age old trick from the Windows side. The executable file presented as a pornographic video gambit.
The fourth is not so much a security threat as just bad sportsmanship. A "free" program known as Macsweeper (not to be confused with Mac Sweeper) will do a systems scan and reccomend a course of action. However at this point you must pay to continue! Also pushing it over into the malware category is the difficulty of removing the Macsweeper program. Apperanlt it has also surfaced as Imunizator.
I would like to also add that Macs, being based on the BSD unix platform are often able to be compromised from the shell session prompt. Not a lot of folks are familiar with the workings of Unix, but there are still those of us out there that remember logging into University Unix servers and using VI, nano etc.

O'Reilly plus Microsoft?

Wow this is either awesome or awful. Apparently OReilly press, the alpha and omega of IT and programming books, will be co-producing and distributing Microsoft press books.
I am hoping this will mean that future Microsoft press books will be a bit easier to follow, less error riddled, and will stick to the exam topics for which they are intended.
I have had some bad experiences in the past with studying for an IT exam, then when exam time rolls around I am presented with questions that were not covered in the book. Or more commonly, the books cover material that is quite out of date. (IPX SPX?)
Now I am off to play another game of HRmageddon.

Its HERE!

My Windows 7 Party pack has arrived. There have been a lot of posts about this elsewhere. Even an unboxing on youtube. Which was posted on October 3rd? How did he get his so damn fast! I also have to say that I am disappointed in the balloons. Plain color balloons. No "Windows 7" logo or even a "Microsoft" logo? How else will my prospective guests find their way to my hovel, and not to all of the garage sales or bounce houses which infest my neighborhood on weekends. Jeez, printed balloon technology is pretty mature Steve Ballmer. Bill Gates used to spring for em all the time. and you know if you dont measure up as cool as Gates. Thats saying something.

I haven't seen any mention of the other contents. Or perhaps my box is "regionalized" for the cynical west coast with extra incentives? In addition to all the other goodies, there are a good wad of flyers or what may better be described as handbills.

1-"Thank you for attending our windows 7 launch party" cards. Business card sized containing a URL which will allegedly have special offers on Oct 22nd and thereafter.

2-14 day free tryouts for Zune. Apparently Zune is a monthly fee with unlimited music. Still I can't see installing a media program like Zune for only a 14 day tryout. A month, maybe.

3-Flyers for Corel WinDVD pro and Digital Studio. Also with a discount code for 50% off. Neither of these appeal to me as I already have Sonar 7, Cubase 4 and Logic 8. I also already play DVDs on my computer everyday, woth no problem. ($99 for dvd/blue ray software? What does a standalone player cost, $101 dollars?)

4-Postcard sized flyer from Sonic Solutions for a package deal on Nero 9 and "Backitup and Burn it". Never heard of the latter product. Nero has worked well for me in the past.

5-A postcard good for a 40% discount on Norton Internet Security 2010. Nothing good to say about Norton.

6-Finally, postcards for a free download of Kaspersky and an entry into their contest for a Kaspersky themed martini party. Yeah that sounds like fun, distilled spirits and anti virus software. With olives.

Yeah, pretty mundane stuff.

Virtual Shmirtual

Went to an IT event last night at the Ritz Carlton. The focus was desktop virtualization. Noticably absent were Oracle and Sun who have been huge proponents of the thin client/virtual client thing. It was an HP, Citrix, Intel Micorsoft party.
The food was excellent. The prizes were neat (an HP netbook and some core 2 duo processors). I wish I had won one! There were some gee whiz demonstrations of the flexibilty of the technology. I like the one where the guy opened up powerpoint in an XP desktop, then opened vista and it migrates there, then he opens a windows 7 desktop and it automatically migrates there as well.
A couple of questions come to mind though.
If everyone is accessing their desktop 'virtually' over the network this will mean you probably need to upgrade network infrastructure. Especially if they are relying on thin clients that cant do any lifting of their own. A network outage will be even more paralyzing than with regular desktops!
Also, this seems like it takes work away from low paid entry level workers and shifts it to middle management, back end MIS types. So the job you used to pay 5 guys $30k to do, you are now paying 2 guys $80k to do. and youhave less coverage of the 'floor'.
It's like with printers. Network printers are supposed to put a stop to waste and make things more efficient. But almost every company I work for has multiple local printers in addition to the big HP 8100's at teh end of each cubicle row.
I dont think virtual desktops will replace regular desktops. They do fill a niche rather well. For instance for telemarketers and customer service people that have a high turnover and not much personalization. Also for medical profession workers this may have some benefits.
I think I will download the demo and play with it for kicks though.

Party Pack!

My UPS notification came on Thursday. My "party pack" is on its way! The contents of which are intended for my Windows 7 party.
The alleged items in the box;
win 7 ultimate "Steve Ballmer signature edition"
Win 7 64 bit upgrade disk
Win 7 playing cards
10 Win 7 tote bags
Win 7 napkins (no table cloth?)
a Win 7 puzzle
Win 7 balloons
and a poster.

There may be some other stuff as well. If there is it slipped my mind.
I had originally intended for my party to be a "Win 7 does music production party".
Instead I think I will make it more a Win vs Mac party. I have a mac mini running 10.5.5 and my Lenovo laptop running Win 7 RC. They both have the same Intel 945 chipset, almost identical cpus and ram. The laptop has a much bigger faster hard drive though.
The laptop shreds the mac mini! It can't be just the hard drive. The Mac mini is'nt just slower, its agonizing!
I think it will also be interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two.
BTW I snagged the photo of the box from another fellows blog. Interesting story. He went to the Win 7 House Party website and tried to sign up as a host. Apparently his tiny Carribean nation was not represented! He wrote Microsoft about this (or emailed I am not clear) and was sent a full party pack! So even though he isnt officially hosting a party he seems to be among the earliest folks to receive their party packs!
It also bears mentioning that some people are selling theirs on ebay. Not very sporting, but not surprising.

H4N, Windows Party

So I made it to the finals for the windows party. Then because I completed the "finalist" steps immediately after receiving the confirmation email, I was apparently confirmed as a party host just by virtue of my promptness.
The theme of my Windows 7 release party is "Windows 7 for Audio Production: ready for prime time?" I will be running my RTM candidate version of win 7 with Sonar 7 and Cubase 4 audio applications.
check it out if you are interested. Feel free to bring some chips and dip.
http://www.houseparty.com/party/183483

In more annoying news I noticed just recently that ZOOM/Samson does not offer a Macintosh driver for the H4N portable audio recorder. So if I decided to upgrade to a Macbook I would have to boot to Windows in order to access the device? This is annoying as I had hoped to use Logic on a Macbook. Part of my long range plan for upgrading my audio production facility. So now if I want to rock Logic on a Macbook I will be buying a 3rd audio interface!

Windows party?

So I get this email last week asking if I would like to host a windows 7 party in early - mid october. i would get a windows 7 party host kit and a fresh off the presses copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
Hells yeah! So I go and sign up and fill out all the weird forms. Its done through a third party site which is apparently just for organizing parties, called houseparty.com.
Ooh I hope they paid a marketing firm to come up with that name. Well I guess all the good ones are taken already?

More DNS-ing

Well last night I decided to take a brilliant leap of faith and convert my entire second disk (data disk) from basic to dynamic. the Server 70-290 book swears up and down you can do this with no repercussions. So I open up disk management and click on the status box next to the data disk, and its 4 partitions (ok volumes). I select convert to dynamic disk, expecting a lengthy ordeal of every single directory being re-created in the dynamic disk world.
Well i guess it just changes how the partition table sees things, as it only took a few seconds to finish.
However, and you knew there had to be a however, the DNS/DC was taken off line by this operation. There really should be a big red flashing box that warns you about this when you convert the disk it resides on. It would be nice if it was mentioned in the books as well.
I got up this morning and tried logging in with one of my 'users'. No dice. Then I went to the server and popped open users and computers. What the hell! Nothing is visible! I can't look at users, computers, cant even open disk management on the server?
Well I looked at all the perms for the various folders and they seemed the same.
So I restarted the system thinking that, maybe the paths look funny to the DNS, after a restart it will work with the new version of the partition table.
It works now.

I control the domain

Well got my Domain controller up a few weeks ago. Still trying to get it to play nice. I keep getting errors back from my webhost's DNS sayingI am stepping on their toes. Think I need to revise my forward and reverse lookup settings.

Today my KVM cables came, so I cam disconnecting everything and patching in my 4 port KVM.
This means I get to go back to 2 monitors for my main system and the Mac gets relegated to one of the KVMs ports!

Microsoft TechNet Newsfeed Widget

I went to NYC for a few weeks recently. It sure was fun to spend my breakfast working furiously at my laptop in various wifi enabled cafes around Brooklyn.
Two that I can reccomend are Gorilla coffee in Park Slope

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and Atlas Cafe in the less hip area of Williamsburg.

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Before my trip I procured a nice new gadget. Its called the H4N handy recorder by Zoom of Japan.
Its not as small as I would like as I prefer to travel light. Literally one carry on was all I had for my laptop, gear, and clothes. But it does everything you could want in an audio gadget, well nearly.
It is primarily a field recorder.
Recording to SD flash memory. I used a handful of 512mb and 1gb chips I had for my canon e320. I plan on picking up some SDHC jobbers in the near future.
It works extremely well as a field recorder. I got some great snippets of subway noises, streetcorner preachers and some kickin tunes of some bands I saw, such as 5 dollar priest and Marcia Ball. In addition to that it can also be used as a plain old 4 track, think Tascam 424MKII. I have yet to explore this option as I have a perfectly good laptop with Twelve Tone/Roland's Sonar 7 producer. Who needs 4 tracks whenyou have unlimited!
This is also where the H4N does its big trick. It's also an audio interface!
I was skeptical of the utilityof this, but it works great in ASIO mode, even in Windows 7!
You can even record from the built in mics straight to Sonar.
Needless to say, this has replaced my blackberry 8320 as my new favorite toy.
If you are ever in NYC and are a camera, video, or audio geek, you sincerly owe it to yourself to stop by B&H. Fry's has nothing on this place for sheer geekery.

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7 7 7 7 7 7 more seven

Well windows seven definitely has drawbacks as well.
I had a hard time finding 'run', so that I could get to a command line. finally did a search for 'run' then pinned that to my task bar.
Not totally jazzed with how services works. While it is neat that Task Manager shows both processes and services, you are able to kill less of them. I am still trying to find a good resource on which processes I can nuke. I had this notebook down to 18 processes under XP. My desktop at home does great on 15 with XP pro. But it also has no wifi!
Wheras Win 7 has about 38-41 in most situations. Not killing me, but JEEEZ, this is a 2ghz core 2 duo, with 2 gigs of ram and a 7200rpm 200gig hard drive (not a bad notebook). And my ram usage is at 48%!
I also am pretty annoyed with HP. I had to print out a boarding pass formyflight to NYC today. The HP 'win 2k/XP/Vista' driver that I downloaded, all 100mb, returned an error that it could not function on this operating system! Well Sonar 7 (last years version) runs great, as does crusty old photoshop 7. Blackberry Desktop Manager 4.0.37 and Syncplcity are just peachy.
So I had to go install the HP driver (180mb!) on my Mac-mini and physically move the damn printer across the room.


On the plus side...
The task bar thing works great. Love the preview! You can even see a mini view of the video if you are watching youtube or adultswim. I must say I am really impressed with how well the graphics of the OS work. I actually get snappier smoother looking UI interaction than I did with XP on the same machine! Media Player 11 in Windows seven works rather well (comes with a DVD codec! unlike XP sp3!) Though the subtitle options and root menu optins are rather buried.
To access any real configuration options of media player you have to switch from 'player' mode to 'library' mode. Which is not exactly intuitive. This is a theme with Win 7. My Documents is all under 'Libraries' which is kind of an awkward word to me. Not that I have any problem with books! I just think it is an old fashioned armature to hang your media off of. A library is very linear and rigid. Digital media is not.

RC cola

Well I am really digging windows seven RC.
So far it is stable and smooth. Looks nice and seems like a big improvement over Vista if not XP.
I am in NYC for hte next 2 weeks so I am hoping this install doesnt give me any problems while I am on the road!

down with AT&T!

JEEEEEEZ! I finally got my blinkin blackberry. I went over to Verizon. AT&T has managed to completely alienate me as a customer. I will never as long as I live pay for anything from AT&T. I could not beleive that after UPS lost my phone they expected me to pay for another phone! then wait 30 days until they would refund me for the first! When it had been 2 weeks since I lost my original phone I just caved and went to Verizon. I must thank the very attractive young lady that waved my fees and everything after she heard my story about AT&T. To top it off my bills with Verizon are going to be cheaper for the same exact plan, and they have a faster network!
The EVD A and EVD 0 are much better than whatever AT&T's 3g was getting me on my last phone. AT&T is WEAK!
The phone I got looks exactly like the photo below, but it doesnt say t-mobile.
I mean really what kind of nerd has no communicator?

Blackberry withdrawal.

Lost my blackberry the previous weekend. I ordered a shiny new berry from AT&T. It is still not here, though I paid for 2 day air. Somehow UPS lost it. Or I am thinking, someone that works for UPS is less than scrupulous. I am finding it difficult to cope with my connectionless status. What will my friends do without constant updates on my status? How can I take sly photos of wacky server install hijincks?

Super duper

Wow, super busy lately. Lots of work with my day job, lots of projects going on in the evening too. I also have suddenly sprouted a social life somehow. I think it is a side-effect of me being on Facebook all the time. (which is a side-effect of my day job providing a service which interfaces with facebook) . I need to get whatever version of roundup you use to nip that in the bud.



Most interesting thing I have seen recently is a ruggedized Dell notebook. I have seen a lot of Dell notebooks. Hundreds? Maybe thousands. It seems that whether I am working for a biotech, a startup, a bank or a gvoernment agency, Dell notebooks always abound.

This I have never seen.

It has those kind of twist locks like you see on ATA flight cases for all the user accesible compartments like ram, HDD, CPU etc. On an IBM these would be the FRU access areas.

The dock is the regular Dell dock, with a space station latching mechanism to connect to the armored exterior of the Dell.
It is heavy too. I am guessing 12 pounds?
You could definitely stop a bullet with this guy.