Techno Geek, Musician & Mentally Unstable
Archive for February, 2010
BitBurn & the space monkeys from slushyland
Feb 27th
Everywhere else they’re getting tons of snow but here in the great national capital region we’re getting nothing but slushy snow and rain! I kind of don’t mind as it reminds me that spring is almost here :)
Oh and in case you wonder, the National Capital Region (NCR) is the official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighboring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and the surrounding area. This also mean that a lot of people here, including myself, are working for the federal government which is why consumerism is very high because, well, people’s got dough! Sounds like the right employer right? Wrong. It ain’t. In general, working for the government is boring. The pay is good but it is just very boring. In fact, if working at an HMV music store would pay better I would rather work there!
The truth be told, there is a lot of waste in the government. My department alone is a huge waste of your tax dollars. It’s not that they’re a useless department – it’s the money spent on the “inside” that is just crazy. My director and her #1 monkey makes a combined $225,000 annually, alone. Then, the real party begins: consultants, consultants & more consultants! All for the greater good of…whatever the heck. Nothing gets accomplished; just a bunch of projects, policies and processes that ends up serving no one because by the time things get too big, too complex and just outta control the bureaucracy decides “let’s start over, clean slate, with a better approach, new people , a more elaborate plan”, thus once again things start on a positive note, the past is the past and all towards a brighter future we work for, we strive for!
Seriously that’s it. Just a continuous flow of bullshit. And around we go! But, things could be worse I guess.
Have a wonderful day my dear space monkeys :)
Enter The New Computer Era
Feb 18th
Ladies & gentlemen, let me break it down for you – The PC as we know it today is on the way out.
Now, you don’t need a crystal ball to figure that out; laptops are everywhere, smartphone sales keep rising, netbook sales are rising and so Apple’s iPad and other similar mobile device will only further this reality very soon. But of course, there will always be people in need of a full computer tower with a kick-ass video card for gaming, graphic artists, musicians, and geeks that require mo’powa! But the PC will no longer dominate households. Instead they will be replaced by more compact devices that require ultra-fast boot times, no pointing device and no local software installed other than the operating system; all software needed will be…in the cloud – look that up it’s fascinating ;-)
Some of you reading this may be thinking I’m hallucinating but I bet you a thousand bottles of tomato juice that within 5 years you will do most of your computing stuff on a “lite” computer of some sort, either on a tablet computer, smartphone or whatever else.
Now, the questions beg, who will lead the new computing era? Microsoft? Apple? Google? For me, I can tell you that I do not have my money on Microsoft. Why? Well they’re already losing ground to Apple (iPhone OS) and Google (Android and soon Chrome OS). I know this week they presented the new & upcoming version of Windows Mobile v7 now dubbed Windows Phone 7 Series in Barcelona but, well, with little fanfare. The product looks alright but it just may be too little too late for them; the launch is actually set for October 2010. Oh and it won’t be an actual “Windows Phone”; they will be licensing the OS to other vendors, such as HTC and Samsung I suppose. Same bullshit as they did with Windows but only this time it just won’t work. Which brings me to my next point…
A lot of people bitches that Apple have a very “locked-down” ecosystem, both for the Mac and the iPhone. And you know what? It’s true. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad either. For Apple, having everything locked down allows to, not only insure a perfect synergy between hardware and software but also avoid having crappy $299 Mac clones that works like shit like their Windows counterpart. Apple works that way, and more than ever it seems like the right model to follow nowadays – and it is. And Microsoft could learn a thing or two from doing that. A matter of fact, Apple’s renewed success of the past 10 years is owed in part to Microsoft’s failure in the new computer era (post Windows 95/XP).
And as for Google, now that’s a question to ask ourselves isn’t it? Those guys are getting BIG! and fast too! But I am skeptical about that Google Chrome OS. Why? Well the fact that it’s another Linux distribution I’m afraid it might become just that – another Linux distro. And Linux has “geek” print all over it. However, Google are not retarded and I doubt they’ll introduce another geeky Linux distro that we really don’t need. The following video shows exactly what Chrome OS will be and it looks very interesting:
Well anyways, I think the next 5-10 years looks very exciting and promising as ever.
My experience with Office 2010 BETA
Feb 15th
As you may know, Microsoft is preparing for the launch of Office 2010 which is scheduled for release in June. But like many of you I have downloaded the very workable Beta and that’s great because it will be fully operational until October 2010. Thanks Monkey boy..Steve Ballmer.
Anyways, personally I did not like Office 2007 at all. The much bloated and busy interface, overlapping light blue menubar with a blue border and blue menu items was just too blue for me. I still believe Office 2003 is the best version they’ve released.
I have been playing around with this Beta for about three weeks now and, indeed, Microsoft cleaned up the menubar. It’s still a bit thick like the 2007 version but at least the colors are right this time. Word also defaults to DOCX instead of DOC which drives me nuts (and Excel to XLSX) but you can customize all that. But my favorite Office app is still Outlook; it is still unbeatable for handling large quantities of emails.
Either way, I’m bored, so I don’t really feel like writing a complete detailed review; Gizmodo, ZDNet and CNet already done that so head over there if you want more information OR just download the Beta and try for yourself. Like I said it’s pretty stable and will give you a free workable version of the software until October!
