As anyone who reads this blog should know, I am a geek. I am a perpetual early adopter. It drives Cassie nuts because I’m always wanting the newest and best available technology. I was one of the earliest adopters to Firefox, I started using it when it was still named Firebird about version 0.4. I read tech and gadget blogs on a daily basis. I like to be connected.
One of my favorite software concepts of the past couple of years has been Flock. It’s built on the same code as Firefox, but it focuses more on the social aspect of the web. It integrates all of your photos, videos, bookmarks, and blogs in one easy to use package. Unfortunately, many of the early releases weren’t ready for daily use as a replacement of Firefox. With Flock 1.0, I don’t know if I can say that anymore.
The upcoming 1.0 release of Flock is not perfect, but it is great. In the latest release they’ve included much better support for my two favorite sites on the web, Facebook and Twitter. Plus I can quickly access my Flickr photos, YouTube videos and other media sites with the built in media bar. I can also view my friends’ photos from the media bar. Flock has a built in blogging feature (which I am using right now to write this post) which is solid but not spectacular. For people who are avid users of these sites, like myself, this could be the ultimate killer application.
Tags: Flock, Technology
So last winter I sold my laptop computer in order to get some money to buy a Windows Mobile Smartphone. It was a really smart move if I do say so myself. I love this phone and all of the features it has.
Right now I’m connected to the WiFi at our hotel outside Chicago and I’ve been able to send and receive my email, keep up to date on NHL and NBA free agency, and now I’m updating my blog. With all the hype the past few months about the iPhone, I’m quite happy with my phone that cost a fraction of what you could spend on an iPhone.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to check and see if Chauncey Billups has re-signed with the Pistons.
In every family there is one person who is the “computer guy.” That person is the person who everyone calls when something goes wrong with their computer, and most of the time something is wrong because of a user error. In our family we are lucky enough to have two of those guys, my brother Andrew and myself. Now since I’m the guy who does the fixing of computers for my family and friends, you would think I could keep my own computer up and running. Well I’ve had a miserable ten days of computer issues.
In short, I tried to resize the hard drive partition that Windows Vista is installed on and it ended up corrupting both Vista and XP. I got them both working again, and then I ended up with a virus that wiped out Vista again. It’s been a frustrating time, but now I think we’re on the right track. The most frustrating thing was that I’ve resized hard drives at least a dozen times before and never had any problems. After reading about it online, I discovered that you can’t mess with a Vista partition without totally screwing it up. So if you are planning on installing Vista anytime soon, keep that in mind.
So I’ve decided to give Windows Vista a spin and see if it’s worth the wait. I’ve been following the development of this version of Windows for close to 4 years now. There have been dozens of delays and cuts from what the original version was supposed to look like, but I will say that what is included is very good.
It is a very visually pleasing and well put together package. It is nice to look at and everything has a glossy look to it. Because I don’t have a great graphics card, I haven’t even been able to activate the Aero desktop environment which adds many more sweet visual effects. All in all I like it, and if Cassie learns it well enough to break free from Windows XP, I may just switch to using Vista exclusively.
One more thing. The claim has been made for decades now that all Micro$oft does is rip off Apple and Mac OS. Well I think that whoever believes that is probably right. There are a lot of aspects of the Windows Vista visual style that is a blatant rip off of Mac OSX. Plus, they’ve bundled over a dozen built-in Windows applications that seem very similar to iLife and Frontrow. I know that Steve Jobs already hates Bill Gates for ripping him off when Micro$oft first developed Windows. I’m sure he’s still mad that nothing has changed all these years later, but he’s probably too busy counting his billions of dollars in iPod sales and thinking about the billions he’s going to make off of the iPhone in a couple of months.