tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70747768816497913582024-03-05T20:13:23.913-03:30My Tech CloudLiving in a computing cloud. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.comBlogger296125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-73097916230545971612013-05-19T16:05:00.002-02:302013-05-19T16:06:20.416-02:30The New Google Maps <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/THxJHcR1D2c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Google <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2419150,00.asp" target="_blank">introduced the new Google Map</a>s at Google I/O this week. Along with a brand new shiny look it has added Earth mode (see 2:11 in video) which is a lite version of Google Earth minus the Google Earth plugin. This will run in all modern browsers and no extra software will have to be installed; I also expect more features will be added to the web app with time. For us <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.ca/2011/11/chromebook-initial-thoughts.html" target="_blank">Chromebook users</a>, this is a must needed feature. As I have told many of future Chromebookers, cloud enthusiasts, and techies the only major thing that Chromebooks were missing was Google Earth. Here's hoping that my invite to the new Google Maps arrives soon!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-83163209907069509382013-02-10T21:12:00.001-03:302013-03-31T10:52:47.648-02:30Life With Google TV: Canadian and No Cable subscription edition<a href="http://stjohns.kijiji.ca/" target="_blank">Kijiji</a> how I love you; you gave me a $230 <a href="http://store.sony.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=100803&storeId=20153&langId=200&productId=8198552921666462151" target="_blank">Sony Google TV Box</a> (NSZGS7) for $130, unopened (it was a credit card reward for a retired teacher). I had read some<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/26/sony-nsz-gs7-google-tv-review/" target="_blank"> good reviews </a>about the device, and since I love Google products, it was an easy decision. The Apple TV Box was somewhat attractive, but the killer missing item is the browser, especially since all TV channel websites have video but not all have apps.<br />
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Initial setup was extremely easy, it took less than 10 minutes including spending 5 minutes trying and successfully pairing it with my Samsung 32" TV. Within 30 minutes I was extremely comfortable with the system including the remote...both sides of it.<br />
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In order to keep things short, below are some highlights of the Sony Google TV Box; Canadian Edition:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqWvqCgScI9e_cssrol5xjaDGEU-Im69pYTecyaeEs__x29g2EC6ZLI230eToVewH3si8IGvLXj9Jssdw526OqiI0BV7sl8SPUgQmIIc7qCOwsNgCWzlP1-YCsa5_YFdwa9OkK1nepIyU/s1600/IMG_20130210_175259.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqWvqCgScI9e_cssrol5xjaDGEU-Im69pYTecyaeEs__x29g2EC6ZLI230eToVewH3si8IGvLXj9Jssdw526OqiI0BV7sl8SPUgQmIIc7qCOwsNgCWzlP1-YCsa5_YFdwa9OkK1nepIyU/s320/IMG_20130210_175259.jpg" width="320" /></a>
<li><b>Hardware:</b> Not sure what the processor or RAM is, but it handles everything well with no hesitation (remember,<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/14/rip-spec/" target="_blank"> the spec is dead</a>). There is HDMI input/output ports, 8 GB of internal storage (about 4 GB free for apps) 2 USB ports (which I haven't used yet), optical audio output, and an Ethernet connection. The remote is well designed, possibly a bit too big since I find it a bit clumsy and I have somewhat large hands. The 2.7" clickable touchpad (touch to click also available) works fine and has edge scrolling for horizontal and vertical webpage movement, and the QWERTY keyboard which is also backlit gets the job done; occasionally the remote is unresponsive. Battery usage seems average, the include batteries are working fine and I have used the remote a lot.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFWyjMdfSlDloE7qUkDDGqfxirkajGA5kUCvGeZCyu7Ggfh5bvTBAn19lqMuLlgIFn-LmOU2L6LmGJ2OWovxwONYuwjHG5zarhSYOeiro5_OqzmEy6Vp0ttxExhnVlyBXKYYbpoeTP2e8/s1600/IMG_20130210_175330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFWyjMdfSlDloE7qUkDDGqfxirkajGA5kUCvGeZCyu7Ggfh5bvTBAn19lqMuLlgIFn-LmOU2L6LmGJ2OWovxwONYuwjHG5zarhSYOeiro5_OqzmEy6Vp0ttxExhnVlyBXKYYbpoeTP2e8/s320/IMG_20130210_175330.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><i>The Remote: Maybe a bit large, QWERTY keyboard on the back.</i></li>
<li><b>Apps:</b> There is nowhere near the selection of apps available as for an Android phone or tablet and most of the apps are pretty-much useless. Google itself has a very poor selection; there is no Google Earth, Maps, Google Plus, and so on. There are some nice streaming TV apps available, one of my favorites is <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mitechlt.tvportal.play&hl=en" target="_blank">TV Portal</a> which provides a huge list of shows with appropriate links for streaming in a very nice interface. Movies are available for rent/purchase, TV shows still haven't arrived to the Great White North. Sony Video and music unlimited come pre-installed and I haven't used either yet.</li>
<li><b>Chrome Browser:</b> For some reason, Google TV uses version 11 of Chrome, current desktop versions are at 25!! It gets the job done, has Bookmark sync, and it has Flash Version 10 (this was a deal-breaker for me). Every website except for CityTV has allowed me to stream video, although some playback issues has been experienced with the <a href="http://www.ctv.ca/" target="_blank">CTV</a> site. Chrome runs within Android 3.2, which, like the browser, gets the job done.</li>
<li><b>Updates:</b> This is not a Nexus device, so I wasn't expecting many updates. I received one when the system was turned on, none since. I am expecting the next will be sometime after Google I/O 2013. </li>
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The overall experience with the Sony Google TV Internet Box has been great. Prior to this I relied on my <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.ca/2012/04/chromebook-future-of-enterprise-and.html" target="_blank">Chromebook</a> connected via VGA to my TV, this was fine but lacked the HDMI experience and the "lying back on the couch channel surfing" experience. The box has become part of my routine; I turn it on before I eat breakfast to watch the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/" target="_blank">CBC National</a>, stream some <a href="http://www.netflix.com/" target="_blank">Netflix</a> during the evening, and explore the great unknown of TV Portal at night. When all of this gets boring, I can surf the web via the Chrome browser to update G+ and Facebook statuses, check to see when the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/02/10/nl-storm-continues-210.html" target="_blank">latest snowstorm will hit Newfoundland</a>, and look at <a href="http://catinabox.com/" target="_blank">beautiful pictues of puddy tats</a>. If you are a user like me, one that lives on the web and dislikes <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.ca/2011/02/cable-tv-i-dont-miss-you.html" target="_blank">Big Cable</a>, the Sony Google TV box is highly recommended. </div>
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<i>The Google TV Experience (the really bad ending to Lost is getting closer!!)</i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-35530590805705247722012-09-11T20:50:00.002-02:302012-09-11T20:58:15.173-02:30Codecademy: Learning Code in the CloudI have dabbled with coding before; I am OK with HTML, mediocre with CSS, and horrible with Javascript. All of this will hopefully change as I work through <b>totally online and free </b>courses through <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/" target="_blank">Codecademy</a>.<br />
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<i>Learning in Codecademy is done via basic instructions and an online editor</i></div>
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Besides those mentioned above, courses on jquery and python are also available; there are also lessons built around applying this newfound knowledge, and both courses and applied lessons are continually added. The UI works is very visually pleasing, and has worked 100% of the time during my sessions. </div>
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If you have time and want to learn code, check out Codecademy. Its simple, free, and totally done in the cloud.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-50563071206258690342012-09-09T12:19:00.001-02:302012-09-09T12:19:09.197-02:30A Simpler Life: Chromebook EditionI recently came across this post on Lifehacker titled <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5941496/top-10-simple-things-every-computer-user-should-know-how-to-do" target="_blank">"10 Simple Things Every Computer User Should Know How To Do,"</a> and I realized that life with a <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/" target="_blank">Chromebook</a> is so much simpler. Here are the things from the list (and their respective numbers) that Chromebook users don't have to do:<br />
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<b>#10: Set Up a Dead Simple Backup System:</b> 99% of Chromebook user's is stored in the cloud, we simply let Google take care of things.<br />
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<b> #8: Protect Yourself From Viruses:</b> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/05/12/is-googles-chromebook-the-death-knell-for-antivirus/" target="_blank">Chrome = Virus free</a>. No worries when you are surfing those <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.ca/2011/11/streaming-it.html">free-TV streaming sites</a>.<br />
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<b> #5: Access Your Home Computer From Anywhere: </b>Again, we store most of our data in the cloud, as long as we are connected we have our files.<br />
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<b>#4: Keep Your Computer in Tip Top Shape with Regular Maintenance:</b> Chromebooks are constantly updated and termed the "always new" computer. I am on the Beta channel and receive updates weekly, free of charge. I own both generations of the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-samsung-550.html" target="_blank">Samsung Series 5</a>, and both have actually gotten faster with time.<br />
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<b>#3: Instantly Share a File Between Two Computers:</b> All we have to do with a file is hit "share" and type in the address; simple!<br />
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These are five somewhat time consuming tasks that us Chromebook users don't have to do. We let the big G take care of everything and enjoy a much simpler computing life. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-37725781691007822822012-04-01T14:27:00.002-02:302012-04-01T14:27:32.912-02:30Chromebook: Future of the Enterprise and Education Realms<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Samsung_Chromebook.jpg/634px-Samsung_Chromebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Samsung_Chromebook.jpg/634px-Samsung_Chromebook.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I have <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.ca/2011/11/chromebook-initial-thoughts.html" target="_blank">owned a Chromebook</a> for the past 8 months and absolutely love it! Two of my favorite things are the lack of antivirus software and the<a href="http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=177889" target="_blank"> easy update system</a>.<br />
My Chromebook is currently on the beta channel and receives updates about every 2 weeks; this consists of clicking on "the wrench," waiting for the update to download, and then restarting, this last step takes less than 10 seconds. Overall it is a very simple and quick experience which can be easily applied to the enterprise/education realm. <br />
At a stark contrast to this are the enterprise and education models using traditional Windows PCs (I am not sure about the Mac updating process). Usually some kind of imaging program is used, which is much more complicated than it should be, and quite often crashes during the updating process. People get frustrated, they don't have hours to waste on updating computers, this results in computers not being updated and creating statistics like this; <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_explorer.asp" target="_blank">~25% of IE users are using IE 6 or 7</a>! IE6 was released in 2001!<br />
With the Chromebook model, everyone can easily have the latest and greatest browser version with ease. Say goodbye to the 11 year old operating systems and browsers.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-87948320585729456122012-02-25T21:22:00.001-03:302012-02-25T21:22:42.481-03:30The Death of Point-and-Shoots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I love my Nexus S, I really do. It is running <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/12/pure-android-way-it-must-be.html" target="_blank">pure Android 2.3</a> (ICS on the way), it has a decent processor, the screen is 4" (0.5" bigger than the iPhone) and I love the camera...so much that I have hardly used my 14 MP Sony point-and-shoot in the past 4 months.<br />
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Why do I love the camera so much? Even though it is only 5 MP, it takes good photos and avoids a lot of the hassle with point-and-shoots:<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.eye.fi/how-it-works/features/geotagging" target="_blank"><b>Geotagging:</b></a> As long as the my phone's gps is turned on, photos are automatically geotagged, and the accuracy is pretty good. With the point-and-shoot, I have to manually add the gps information with software that often crashes.</li>
<li><b>Uploading:</b> Android allows easy uploading to major photo sharing sites. I am a diehard <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/" target="_blank">Picassa web album user</a>, to upload I simply select the photos and the album to upload to. For the point-and-shoot, I have to transfer them to my computer via a usb cable, then upload them to Picasa web albums. I hate having to deal with wires.</li>
<li><b>One Less Device:</b> Back in the day I rocked a dumbphone and <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-next-computer-will-be-ipod-touch.html" target="_blank">iPod Touch</a>. Like <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/15/analysts-ipods-sales-expected-to-decline-7-2-year-over-year/" target="_blank">a lot of people I have ditched the iPod Touch</a> and dumbphone, and use just the smartphone. Using the smartphone as my primary camera is another step in the direction of using just one device. Before the smartphone age, people would whip out their point-and-shoot to grab a photo, take out the dumbphone to make a call; now they simply whip out their smartphone. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/" target="_blank">Flickr numbers provide evidence for this</a>, the iPhone is the most popular camera used (and yes, I admit that the iPhone does have a great camera) and I suspect other phones are playing catch-up. </li>
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Photographers out there will never move in this direction, and most probably don't use a point-and-shoot, they will stick with their SLR or DSR or whatever it is called. The average user is ditching their point and shoot for their smartphone and I expect the rate of this will increase. Instead of users upgrading their camera, they will upgrade their phone (8 MP cameras and higher are very common in smarthphones these days). I know I will be doing this come October.<br />
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Finally, here is the same beautiful <a href="http://maps.google.ca/?ll=47.338823,-70.224609&spn=36.436871,79.013672&t=m&z=4" target="_blank">Newfoundland</a> scene taken with my Sony point-and-shoot and my Nexus S, I am not sure which device took which photo, for me and the average user it doesn't matter. </div>
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</ul>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-30595182023266748192011-12-06T17:37:00.001-03:302012-01-06T21:27:33.064-03:30Pure Android: The Way It Must Be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Recently I purchased the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/introducing-nexus-s-with-gingerbread.html" target="_blank">Nexus S</a> for a great price on eBay. My other phone*, the HTC Desire was becoming dated; the camera was horrible, it was getting no more updates beyond 2.2 (<a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/10/android-fragmentation-its-ugly-picture.html" target="_blank">fragmentation is a pain</a>) and the internal storage was getting extremely low. As a side note, one thing that you notice with low internal storage is how much larger in storage the applications are getting (especially <a href="https://plus.google.com/112752028543342410543/posts//p/pub" target="_blank">Google+</a>). After spending just 10 minutes with the Nexus S running Android 2.3.6, I never want to go back to a phone running bloatware again.<br />
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To be fair, the HTC sense overlay was nice, but the problem is that it took up a lot of the system resources, especially the Desire's precious internal memory, and this led to issues such as system slowdown and apps not opening. So far on my Nexus S I have all of my previous apps plus more loaded, and there has been no slowdown. The battery life is great (it lasts twice as long as the Desire), the overall look and feel is much simplier which makes finding things easier, and I am a big fan of the<a href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3-highlights.html" target="_blank"> launcher</a>. Finally, the camera is fantastic! Over the holidays I took most of my photos with the Nexus S, my point and shoot sat silent in my backpack.<br />
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<i>December in NL, captured with my Nexus S (unedited)</i></div>
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If you have the money and want to experience Android the way it's meant to be, get a phone with just Android and none of that crapware/bloatware. Its the only way to go.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-50679178356518818922011-11-22T21:52:00.000-03:302011-11-22T21:54:48.112-03:30Streaming ItApproximately 1 year ago <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/02/cable-tv-i-dont-miss-you.html" target="_blank">I canceled my TV subscription</a>, the extra $50/month and the freedom of not having TV control my life are both fantastic! In this short amount of time, downloading has basically disappeared from my life.<br />
<br />
During the first few months of being cable-free I would purchase items on <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/163606/2011/11/check_your_musics_icloud_status.html" target="_blank">iTunes</a>, possibly (wink-wink) <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/09/canadian-downloaders-beware.html" target="_blank">download movies via torrents</a>, and get some loaners from my friends. Now I basically stream* everything from Netflix, <a href="http://watchseries.eu/" target="_blank">TV Channel Sites</a>, JustinTv, <a href="http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/09/renting-movies-in-canada-eh-check-out.html" target="_blank">YouTube Movies</a>, and the <a href="http://www.nfb.ca/" target="_blank">National Film Board</a>. There still isn't a lot of live sports streamed, but sports networks such as <a href="http://www.tsn.ca/" target="_blank">TSN</a> and <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=cbc%20sports&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fsports%2F&ei=10rMTu7vDMP20gGG8YTJAw&usg=AFQjCNG2ZTpJc7Et_s3Mo3SC0YmFjrBbDg&sig2=OMSjerVv_pQTLCgtXFoYbA" target="_blank">CBC</a> are starting to live stream some of their games (all highlights are viewable on their site). It has been approximately 5 months since I downloaded anything, the need is just not there anymore.<br />
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Along with downloading, the traditional TV model will die and will be replaced by a web-based model in some shape or form. People won't have to be home at 10:30 to catch the latest episode of Fringe, they won't be limited to watching it solely on their TV, and they won't be in zombie mode as they are watching it. It may take a while, Apple TV and <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/10/28/google-tv-android/" target="_blank">Google TV</a> may be the Neanderthals of this new model, but it will happen, and we will all love it!<br />
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*Note: I live in Canada and we don't have streaming services (legally) such as Hulu and Amazon VideoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-72346933456319005962011-11-18T23:45:00.001-03:302011-11-18T23:57:48.538-03:30Arrested Development Returns and it's on Netflix!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e3/Arrested_Development.svg/250px-Arrested_Development.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e3/Arrested_Development.svg/250px-Arrested_Development.svg.png" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great news for all of you Arrested Development fans out there, the Bluth family are<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/18/netflix-makes-up-for-all-its-past-mistakes-by-resurrecting-arrested-development/" target="_blank"> returning with new episodes that will air exclusively on Netflix</a>. It will be available to US viewers as early as 2013, hopefully :) it will open up to other countries. This, along with <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/10/original-content-coming-to-youtube.html" target="_blank">original content coming to YouTube</a> is another reason (<a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/02/cable-tv-i-dont-miss-you.html" target="_blank">plus many more</a>) to cut the cable TV cord. Die cable TV Die!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-47300806251936495452011-11-09T21:40:00.000-03:302011-11-09T21:40:21.251-03:30Ubuntu: It Was Nice To Know you<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ohh how the times have changed. About one year ago <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2010/02/ubuntu-great-change-for-windows-user.html" target="_blank">I was praising the well-known open source OS</a>, now I am abandoning it. Why?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My primary problem with Ubuntu is <a href="http://unity.ubuntu.com/" target="_blank">Unity</a>, and how it's not the <a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/products/features/windows-taskbar" target="_blank">Windows 7 taskbar</a>. I have been known to <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/05/life-without-windows-8-weeks-and.html" target="_blank">criticize Windows</a>, but one thing that the big M did get right is the taskbar. It just works. Unity on the other hand, doesn't. Quite often applications fail to launch, menu items don't appear when hovered over, and when multiple windows are open for an application, I can't close any of them using Unity. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.linux-radar.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Ubuntu-11.04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://www.linux-radar.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Ubuntu-11.04.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I hate Unity!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other problems besides Unity that I need to complain about are</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't easily adjust the mouse scroll speed</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flash often fails. This is crucial since I watch <strike>most</strike> all of my TV online. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No Netflix support!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No <a href="http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html" target="_blank">Google Earth Plugin</a>!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Issues with dual monitors.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unity and the top panel have dissappeared on my dual boot work computer, I'm not sure why and I have no idea how to fix it!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Random problems such as the Print Screen button not working. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe I will switch back to Ubuntu, maybe they will get rid of Unity, or maybe I will do everything on <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/11/chromebook-initial-thoughts.html" target="_blank">my Chromebook</a>. </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-18691822035069853992011-11-06T19:54:00.000-03:302011-11-06T19:54:21.452-03:30Chromebook: Initial Thoughts<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 1 to this post was "<a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/05/chromebook-will-i-buy-one.html" target="_blank">Chromebook: Will I Buy One</a>?," and yes, I did buy one and so far I love it.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.gadgetreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Samsung-Chromebook-White-650x637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To begin with, how did I buy a Chromebook? I live in Canada and they are not released up here yet. I checked Amazon and Best Buy and neither would ship to Canada so I did some browsing at <a href="http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=samsung+series+5&_sacat=See-All-Categories" target="_blank">eBay</a>. After about 2 weeks of searching/following, I bought a <a href="http://www.google.com/chromebook/#chromebooks-samsung" target="_blank">Samsung Series 5 3G</a> for ~$350 with shipping; thank you high Canadian Dollar (it has since lowered). Within 10 days it arrived in an oversized boxed filled with camoflauge paper packing.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJI1Ud9v694NQSI528g6xgK0HLJ249YAtqyrNhr0MLPM0l1xUdyTCatAca9G7Y6kaVATFtA9WaoTwY3PyZpJvg1wj_52Fddc1Qnwl1OFbX71WgmK9usjVEMtZPQnHlqi5nXLdcqBez0g/s1600/DSC05068_Edited_20111105_175759.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJI1Ud9v694NQSI528g6xgK0HLJ249YAtqyrNhr0MLPM0l1xUdyTCatAca9G7Y6kaVATFtA9WaoTwY3PyZpJvg1wj_52Fddc1Qnwl1OFbX71WgmK9usjVEMtZPQnHlqi5nXLdcqBez0g/s400/DSC05068_Edited_20111105_175759.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I love my Chromebook...and my Ikea table</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next, how was the setup process? <b>It was extremely easy</b>! It took less than 10 minutes, I entered my language, connected to the wireless network in my apartment, did a system update, signed into my Google Account and bam, done! Since most of my information is synced, all of my apps, extensions, form information, bookmarks, and theme(s) were present.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx5GNagsACOXxp1PCOQbLmdmO6jQInh0voEnl-aCppoHvUxj6XmmhfsIeE2eNtMrUZP4yid0czKFFYkh7rzWTM7IFaEP-mPRstaV_OHVtIdn0_Wnncjfpwt6P8erG_R2GW7kBMSZl4edA/s1600/chromebrowser_Edited_20111029_201435.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx5GNagsACOXxp1PCOQbLmdmO6jQInh0voEnl-aCppoHvUxj6XmmhfsIeE2eNtMrUZP4yid0czKFFYkh7rzWTM7IFaEP-mPRstaV_OHVtIdn0_Wnncjfpwt6P8erG_R2GW7kBMSZl4edA/s640/chromebrowser_Edited_20111029_201435.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html" target="_blank">Browser</a> is the Desktop...</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is it like without a desktop? Initially it felt alien, after the first few hours I realized that the Chrome New Tab page is an excellent replacement for the desktop. In general, computer users are spending more time solely in the browser and the need for a desktop is disappearing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">After using the Chromebook for about 4 weeks</span>, I have discovered how important battery life is to me. <b>I am getting ~9 hrs on one charge!</b> Other aspects of the Chromebook that I absolutely love is the weight, chicklet style keyboard, rarely hearing the fan kick in, anti-glare screen, and the fact that the bottom of the Chromebook never feels hot, just warm. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also like the simple folder system and reduced system options which makes finding things extremely easy. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am currently on the developer channel and since the start of this post I have been getting weekly updates; there is now an <b>offline photo editor</b>, </span><a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-in-labs-offline-gmail.html" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">offline Gmail,</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Netflix support, and offline Google Docs (view only); Google realized that the world is not completely online....yet. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigWkJq5q5priYEOvIut6mHOkIkI0moHrXT1NIm3Con2Z_-yrE0o6JgeWPtggWFrx2WQXIRfoKQOUA8I35KwKptq41IkTFBlk94A95Jjfy2UPjOCzzJQ0KwGq7XoUkvyGniPD0enqd9Gio/s1600/photoeditor.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigWkJq5q5priYEOvIut6mHOkIkI0moHrXT1NIm3Con2Z_-yrE0o6JgeWPtggWFrx2WQXIRfoKQOUA8I35KwKptq41IkTFBlk94A95Jjfy2UPjOCzzJQ0KwGq7XoUkvyGniPD0enqd9Gio/s640/photoeditor.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Worlds Simplest Photo Editor</i><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQcZ_GPURNZziz4JZMux3-gGQgyAlact1tvampOZRwNIYtrD5hEzQLPocKUSuUbt0jfqC-9m31FJQ5bdFC9egZzreyU3rCbEndCxPG6tu0kN1YBRlmyTIceyXgVgjQ_wMYon7B7jeQKo/s1600/foldersystem.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcQcZ_GPURNZziz4JZMux3-gGQgyAlact1tvampOZRwNIYtrD5hEzQLPocKUSuUbt0jfqC-9m31FJQ5bdFC9egZzreyU3rCbEndCxPG6tu0kN1YBRlmyTIceyXgVgjQ_wMYon7B7jeQKo/s640/foldersystem.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Worlds Simplest File System</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the negative side, sometimes the Chromebook does feel underpowered, there is no <a href="http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html" target="_blank">Google Earth plugin</a>, <strike>certain sites render extremely slow</strike>, and <b>I miss having the Home and End keys</b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In summary, if you have $500, do most of your work in the cloud, and <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-im-not-buying-ipad.html" target="_blank">regret buying that tablet</a> which is impossible to type with, treat yourself to a Chromebook, it is the future!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Note: As you may have guessed, this post was written with a Chromebook. </i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-24658199832330428922011-10-30T20:20:00.000-02:302011-10-30T20:21:45.136-02:30Original Content Coming to YouTube<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For all of you <a href="http://mytechcloud.blogspot.com/2011/02/cable-tv-i-dont-miss-you.html" target="_blank">cable-cutting people </a>out there, rejoice the the following news: original content (aka online tv channels) <a href="http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-great-content-creators-coming-to.html" target="_blank">are coming to YouTube</a>. The list can be found <a href="http://www.youtube.com/creators/original-channels.html" target="_blank">here</a>, and includes some big names like <i>Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half Men is so much funnier these days), Shaq, Tony Hawk, and Jay-Z</i>. The "channels" are expected to hit YouTube next month and more will be added over the next year. This should make <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/28/just-lipstick-on-a-pig/" target="_blank">Google TV more appealing</a> and persuade more people to ditch the cable TV bill. <span style="font-size: large;">Die cable TV Die! </span> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-37194562477313959082011-10-29T10:52:00.000-02:302011-10-29T10:52:46.708-02:30Android Fragmentation: It's an Ugly Picture<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Technically it's not a picture, it's a chart and a great one created by Michael DeGusta at his Tumblr blog: <a href="http://theunderstatement.com/" target="_blank">The Understatement</a>. The basic color rules apply here: green is good and red is bad. As you can see from a quick glance at the chart, Android users have a lot more red than iPhone's green :( Check out <a href="http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support" target="_blank">Michael's analysis</a> for more details. </span><br />
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<a href="http://media.theunderstatement.com/016a_android_orphans.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="810" src="http://media.theunderstatement.com/016a_android_orphans.png" width="590" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-37977332129161518932011-10-26T19:31:00.003-02:302011-10-29T10:54:51.288-02:30Google Earth Flight Simulator<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They say that everyday you learn something new, today I discovered the <a href="http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=10c63abc222bee4534eac0c788d9092f&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gearthblog.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F10%2Fthe_ge_flight_simulator_gets_some_s.html&v=1&libid=1319665996243&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ge-flightsimulator.com%2F&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gearthblog.com%2F&title=The%20%22GE%20Flight%20Simulator%22%20gets%20some%20solid%20improvements%20%7C%20Google%20Earth%20Blog&txt=ge-flightsimulator.com&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13196663896971">Google Earth Flight Simulator </a>created by Xavier Tassin. The simulator uses the <a href="http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html">Google Earth Plugin</a> (sorry Linux and Chromebook users) which means that it's all done online....awesome! There are 10 aircraft to choose from, real time local weather conditions, chat, and many great animations. Check out the video below to see it in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">action:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HWu2v3WmgOU" width="560"></iframe>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-26667247976109702332011-09-11T21:10:00.000-02:302011-10-29T10:54:31.766-02:30Canadian Downloaders Beware<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"></span><br />
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<a href="http://labcollector.com/images/download.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://labcollector.com/images/download.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: inherit;">Life has been pretty good for illegal downloaders up here in the great white north, <a href="http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/canadian-isps-to-deliver-customer-information-in-hurt-locker-lawsuit/1000575650/">but the times are a changing</a>. Voltage Pictures LLC, which owns the copyright to the film </span><i>The Hurt Locker</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: inherit;"> <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110828/22523115718/us-copyright-group-hurt-locker-producers-sue-dead-man-others-unlikely-to-have-infringed.shtml">has sued thousands of downlaoders in the USA</a>. Voltage used the Montreal-based IP law firm Goudreau Gage Dubuc to force three Canadian ISPs - Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, and Videotron to hand over subscriber account details. These people will probably be sent letters insisting <b>they pay thousands of dollars for copyright violations</b>. I miss the good ol' days :(</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-33220327592020316612011-06-14T12:13:00.002-02:302011-06-14T14:56:57.959-02:30Browser Blast From The Past<div>Yesterday a coworker found and booted up an extremely old laptop. Here, it all its beauty, is Netscape 1.0. It's definitely light years away from today's browsers. Enjoy! <br />
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<img height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYZVqGxbURmTA87qPGGwEeh-UGz5d_vKCYjyI_dutZkL9NySG-EPj9nyq75MvrqARpKhtNGFynSYq7r8Zjtb0-Jx6Fi344EEOZYuJb9NkwgdFUCS7fg4ULm_bmYtbRgc_KgtBSWAsTbc/" width="400" /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-13434707882038131322011-05-27T13:31:00.001-02:302011-10-29T10:53:49.940-02:30Desmos: Collaborative Educational Whiteboard<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/" style="line-height: 19px;">Techcrunch Disrupt</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"> happened this past weekend and one of the great startups that showcased their product was </span><a href="http://www.desmos.com/" style="line-height: 19px;">Desmos</a>, a free online collaborative tool that's focused on the education sector. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">I signed up and tried out their <b>web app</b> (offline program also available), the editor is quite good (lots of options), the app is very intuitive and educators can collaborate on a whiteboard (file) in<b> real time</b>. Apps like these are badly needed in the educational world to stop the fragmentation associated with new technology. I will definitely be giving this a try for the Fall 2011 semester. Long-live the cloud!</span></span><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-81039468877021797402011-05-24T13:14:00.000-02:302011-05-24T13:14:51.817-02:30Life Without Windows: 8 Weeks and Counting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.besttechie.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ubuntu_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://cdn.besttechie.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ubuntu_logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>In the past I have dabbled with <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, 2 months ago I made a more dedicated commitment; transforming my 1.5 yr old Windows 7 laptop into a dual-booting Ubuntu beast. The <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot">process</a> was quite easy; download the image, burn it to a disk, restart windows with the disc inserted, and after about 30 minutes and a few clicks, Ubuntu is installed. <br />
<br />
Initially I had planned on splitting my computer usage 50:50 between Windows and Ubuntu, it's actually worked out to<b> 99% Ubuntu and 1% Windows</b> (I haven't been in Windows for at least 2 weeks). The switch has been so good that I also changed my work computer and teaching computer to dual boot machines. What am I enjoying about it so far?<br />
<ol><li><b>No antivirus:</b> Not having this has been great. No more do I have to deal with virus updates or scanning.<br />
</li>
<li><b>Ubuntu is better at updates:</b> Approximately 2-3 days of the week Ubuntu has to be updated. This may seem like a lot but very rarely does it have to be restarted.<br />
</li>
<li><b>Great free software:</b> I have not been in a situation where free software can't get the job done. I use <a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/download">Libreoffice</a> for "office-like" work, <a href="http://inkscape.org/">Inkscape</a> for vector editing, Picasa for photo editing, and Dropbox for file sharing.<br />
</li>
<li><b>Fantastic customization:</b> With <a href="http://wiki.compiz.org/">compizconfig</a>, basically everything (desktop icons can be different sizes!) can be customized.<br />
</li>
<li><b>Easy on System Resources:</b> Currently I have Chrome, Google Earth, and Libreoffice open, and I am only using 700 MB or RAM, Windows 7 uses over 2 GB.<br />
</li>
<li><b>It's Free!</b>: If I want to upgrade Windows, it's going to cost be anywhere between $200-$300, with Ubuntu it's free and occurs every 6 months. Also, these upgrades take about 1 hr and do not require clean installs. </li>
</ol><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwnXFtyMS5ySutyX-qdap5_8x99jniYzMqHo5QZ9R_lnqJd9oOOCfLt_QQeypyHRN1YZcoG25ZiZ3cLBZaTZgc8scHun6XKDkQx8fO7L1mANO3ishy0iwk3417pVB-2yO5NE-Om-VB500/s1600/Ubuntu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwnXFtyMS5ySutyX-qdap5_8x99jniYzMqHo5QZ9R_lnqJd9oOOCfLt_QQeypyHRN1YZcoG25ZiZ3cLBZaTZgc8scHun6XKDkQx8fO7L1mANO3ishy0iwk3417pVB-2yO5NE-Om-VB500/s400/Ubuntu.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The only negative thing I have encountered is the lack of <a href="http://www.netflix.com/">Netflix</a> support, I use the Wii for this but the video quality is low. Hopefully Chrome will get this support at the same time that <a href="http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/chrome-os-to-offer-netflix-support-at-launch-2011059/">Chrome OS</a> does.<br />
<br />
So far it has been an excellent 2 months as a part of the Linux world. The learning curve has not been steep, and with the <a href="http://unity.ubuntu.com/">Unity</a> interface, the switch to Ubuntu is even easier. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot, you may become hooked!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-13141627633467478072011-05-14T17:50:00.000-02:302011-05-14T17:50:03.700-02:30Chromebook: Will I Buy One?The <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/samsung-series-5-chrome-os-laptop-hands-on-at-google-i-o/">Chromebook</a> - Google's version of a notebook that uses the browser as the OS. There is no desktop, no antivirus, no installation of software (web apps), and no annoyingly-long boot times. All of this sounds great, but what if I do need an offline app? As an example, Google Docs works great, but sometimes I need that bit of extra formatting (merging rows in a table) and this is only found in offline office suites such as <a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/download/">LibreOffice</a>. Also, computer intensive tasks requiring photo and video editing can be done online, but it's extremely slow and limited (editing photos in Picknik).<br />
<br />
Currently, I think the Chromebook will work as a great secondary device. It is built for the web, and it does a great job with it. It will eventually fall into the primary device category, the web hasn't evolved enough to put it there yet.<br />
<br />
So my answer to the title of this post is .....maybe.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JkGbIyPTOlo" width="560"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-74725730802473682792011-05-13T20:12:00.000-02:302011-05-13T20:12:18.470-02:30Livestreaming Bald Eagles: I love the WebHere's another reason I love the web: a continuous livestream of a bald eagle nest. With over <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/12/nearing-100-million-views-decorah-eagles-become-the-most-watched-live-stream-ever/">100 million views</a>, this is the most watched live streams ever, take that Royal Wedding!<br />
<br />
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" height="296" id="utv669755" width="480"><param name="flashvars" value="autoplay=false&brand=embed&cid=3064708&v3=1"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="movie" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf"/><embed flashvars="autoplay=false&brand=embed&cid=3064708&v3=1" width="480" height="296" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="utv669755" name="utv_n_255042" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /></object><br />
<a href="http://www.ustream.tv/" style="background: #ffffff; color: black; display: block; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; padding: 2px 0px 4px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; width: 400px;" target="_blank">Free live streaming by Ustream</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-29151917139025706892011-02-25T14:14:00.000-03:302011-02-25T14:14:10.894-03:30Cable TV: I don't Miss You<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a href="http://www.the-games-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cut-the-cable_cord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="http://www.the-games-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cut-the-cable_cord.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For a New Year's resolution, I decided to cancel my cable TV subscription. I was paying $50/month for it, <b>and was about to increase $65</b>, and I really only watch about 5 different TV shows.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The change was different but not difficult. I purchased a VGA-audio cable on ebay (computer cables are much cheaper here than in brick and mortar stores) and then easily set up my Windows 7 machine for <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-7/how-to-setup-dual-monitors-in-windows-7/">dual monitor</a>. For the first 2 weeks I would think, "hmm, it would be so nice to channel surf." Those thoughts disappeared and were replaced with "Cable TV really does have a lot of commercials" and "I love being able to watch my show whenever I want" and "downloading TV shows is great!" Currently my "channels" are simply bookmarks in my browser which I can access from any computer since I use <a href="http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165139">Google Chrome Sync</a>; for background TV I put on something from <a href="http://justin.tv/">Justin.tv</a>, and I also pay for a <a href="http://livingwithanandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/netflix-coming-to-future-android.html">Netflix</a> subscription ($7.99/month and the selection is getting much better). For the most part I can watch anything that I want online that I want, the exception are Sports highlight shows (no problem to find individual highlights) and high quality sporting events. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To sum up, I am really enjoying the freedom from cable TV and the $50/month in savings. To everyone out there with a TV subscription, "Cut The Cable!"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-games-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cut-the-cable_cord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-42756205113884862242010-08-27T15:25:00.000-02:302010-08-27T15:25:26.623-02:30Why I'm Not Buying An Ipad<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To start with, I think that Apple makes great products, but they are a bit beyond </span><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2006-11-19-young-and-in-debt-cover_x.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my price range</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. If I did have lots of money, I still probably wouldn't buy an </span><a href="http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">iPad</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, here's why. </span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>First of all,</b> </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">there are no USB ports</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. For a device with a maximum storage capacity of 64 GB (for $749 or $879 !!), file transfers are a necessity. I think it's totally ridiculous that there's not at least 1 USB port, and if you want one, you have to pay $35 for an adapter. iTunes can be used for transfers, but it's terribly slow. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, I like buttons</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. I own an iPod touch, which works great, and has some excellent features, but playing games on it is brutal (with the exception of games involving a lot of tilting). I can't imagine typing long documents on an iPad, it would be finger-cramp hell. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third, lightweight netbooks/notebooks that can do more</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and come with better specs can be bought for less than $500, why would I spend money on something that's more expensive and can do less? </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fourth, there's no camera(s)</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, I really hate how slow iTunes </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">works on windows, I want to keep my iTunes time to a minimum. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apple releases great products, for me this isn't one of them. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.techdigest.tv/ipad%20gallery%205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://www.techdigest.tv/ipad%20gallery%205.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-25450615345329021442010-06-17T13:59:00.000-02:302010-07-31T18:51:31.517-02:30The New Hotmail<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the release of </span><a href="http://mail.google.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gmail</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, Hotmail has felt dated and sluggish; with this new update we can say this no more. I won't go into the fine details of the update, but here are the best new features:</span><br /><br /><ol><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sweep:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This allows you to delete all messages from 1 sender and to continue doing this in the future.</span></li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 GB Attachments</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: Wowzers!! These are tied into your Skydrive account and for any photos, they appear as a slideshow within the account. </span></li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Content Within Emails:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a> links appear as videos that can be played within the email and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">flickr</a> links as slideshows.</span></li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tracking Numbers:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hotmail will automatically recognize a tracking ID and give you all of the information within the email.</span></li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Office Integration:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Simply put, it does an awesome job at working with Microsoft Office documents. </span></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new update also makes Hotmail feel snappier. For a comparison of </span><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5564776/how-does-the-new-hotmail-stack-up-to-gmail"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gmail with Hotmail, head on over to Lifehacker</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2010/06/500x_custom_1276710760985_galleryhires.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="254" src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2010/06/500x_custom_1276710760985_galleryhires.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos in the new </span><a href="http://mail.live.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hotmail</span></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-64252859434744130882010-06-10T16:42:00.000-02:302010-07-31T18:51:31.569-02:30Windows Live Documents Is Live!!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #353535; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br /><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This past Monday, <a href="http://live.com/">Windows Live documents</a> was finally opened up to public use, and after spending about 1 hr using it, I'm thinking the big M should have spent some more time developing it. It's not that its a bad suite web app, its just looks and feels ancient, like its from 2008!</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Signing up was easy and can be done with any email address which is great since I really dislike hotmail (even the name bothers me). The opening documents home screen is rather plain (see slideshow below) and documents can't be sorted but they can be shared and there is the option to edit them in the browser or desktop program. Also, <b>your given a hefty 25 GB of space</b>.<br /> </span></span><br /><embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fsheldonhuelin%2Falbumid%2F5480470738541821025%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCJ2EgJaEiY6UjAE%26hl%3Den_US" height="350" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500"></embed><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">The first web app that I opened was <i>Word</i> which had basic editing features, but did <b>not have features found in <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a> or <a href="http://zoho.com/">Zoho</a></b> such as Find and Replace, Thesaurus, Equations, and so on. Also only images stored on the hard drive could be inserted and drawings could not be produced. Next on the list was the <i>Excel Web App</i> which again had basic features such as sorting and number formatting, but graphs can't be produced which is surprising since this is one of the basic needs of a spreadsheet user. Finally, I gave the <i>PowerPoint web app</i> a quick whirl. It had a decent selection of themes, again the formatting was limited and there was no option to created embedding code. Like the Word web app, only images stored on the computer could be inserted and there was no drawings feature although there is a Smartart feature that wasn't working. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Windows Live documents also has a <i>OneNote app</i>, it seemed OK. </span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Windows Live documents suite is definitely meant for light editing, anything more serious requires a desktop program or another web office suite such as Zoho or Google Docs. <b>The big M has a lot of catching up to do</b>. </span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br /><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074776881649791358.post-30432552914995338702010-06-08T09:48:00.000-02:302010-07-31T18:51:31.587-02:30Demo Of Google Docs<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not everyone out there knows what "</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the cloud</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" or "</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Web 2.0</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" is and even with videos/images, people may still not know what the heck these terms are. Google tries to solve this problem for people curious about </span><a href="http://docs.google.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Google Docs</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by offering users the ability to use Google Docs without having a Google account. Curious users just have to visit <a href="http://docs.google.com/demo">docs.google.com/demo</a> to give it a whirl. This is not a game changing feature but will probably help increase the number of docs users. </span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/4176500/4176937_035c_625x625.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/4176500/4176937_035c_625x625.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01130948166758353095noreply@blogger.com0