Opera 10 is quietly being sampled out to beta testers

Download Opera 10 Alpha

From the Opera Website:

“Note that this alpha release is not intended to show off the full feature set of Opera 10—that will be a while off. It is the first public release of the Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which will be present in Opera 10, made available so you can start trying out some of the new Web technology support. ”

We love to play with shiny new toys so we downloaded Opera 10 alpha for a spin.  This is a nice browser.  Most of the compatibility problems with Opera’s famous strict standards adherence are gone.

Speed is way way up!

The classic Opera speed dial is even better.

While Opera 10 is probably, today, not a good choice for your default browser, this is absolutely worth a look. In fact, I have no bugs to report in my use and this story was just published using it.  That’s better than Apple Safari 4 with which I could not publish anything.

I will publish a speed test report comparing it to Explorer 8, Firefox 3.1, Apple Safari 4 and Google Chrome when it gets to be Opera 10 Beta instead of Alpha.

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I saw that Apple has released Safari 4 Beta

I love the way that Apple approaches design and I keep hoping upon hope that they will someday deliver a better, faster  browser instead of one that seems fast for a few things but cannot be your day to day default browser.

I think Firefox is great, fast and ugly.  I know you can skin it, etc.  You cannot turn an ugly troll like Firefox and Explorer into a princess like Safari 4 Beta.  You also cannot teach that princess (Safari 4) to walk and chew gum at the same time.

The game changer might just be Opera 10 (now in Alpha) which I will cover in a separate review.

Here are the raw browser speed test results for Firefox 3.06, Safari 4 and Internet Explorer 8:

Now just wait a second, you say, that’s not right, I thought that Firefox was the fastest!

In actually fact, it’s the fastest stable/compatible browser and today, in my humble opinion the one you want to use as your day to day default browser.

If you want a car to go really really fast, just take out all the things that weight it down, like brakes for instance!

While Safari has great speed results (especially considering how bad they were before under Safari 3) it could not even post this article.  It’s simply not compatible with major web applications like WordPress.

Explorer 8 has continuous crashes and strange bugs relating to Adobe flash.

Firefox is the worker that needs no management.  It’s the only one I update this site with.

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Apple, “We deliver freedom from choice. In the age of Open Source, we give you closed, proprietary products.”

I have a low opinion of Apple’s technical capabilities and here’s why:

Brief History:

• Apple releases Appletalk Remote Access which was stolen from Microcom’s MNP4 and then had 2 bytes switched so Apple could make it proprietary. Then Apple broke the compression in other ways to make sure industry standard devices could not function.  They licensed that ‘technology’ to third party vendors who wanted compatibility. All this while the internet and TCP/IP was starting to explode!  I know, I was there. I consulted to the ARA team at Apple.
• Apple defends the ONE BUTTON MOUSE only to later change to a standard PC mouse.
• Apple chooses Firewire for iPOD data transfer and later has to change to USB like everyone else.
• Apple defends the Power PC Chip (what a bunch of crap!) and then later ditches it to use INTEL standard hardware which it now admits is way better.
• Apple releases the iPhone, which is beautiful, but has been beset with an array of technology problems so severe that they had to be banned on many company and campus networks until problems could be resolved.
• Apple’s iPhone has many features designed to deny users access to the full potential of the device and lock them into Apple proprietary services. Apple again delivers ‘Freedom From Choice’ and ‘Restrictions on benefits’.

I could easily have listed more than 50 strange, technologically impotent Apple ‘technologies’ but that should be enough to get a sense of the company.

In short, Apple has the DNA to make sure that every daughter it produces will be prom queen but often lacking quite a bit in IQ.

While the world is embracing Open Source and Open Standards, Apple continues to create proprietary products.

Now Apple is selling industry standard CPU, Motherboard, Graphics and more at 2x the price for the same products from another company. Why? Because they’ve made them proprietary too.

I’ve got a PC on my desk that runs OSX just fine. It performs as well as the ‘real MAC’ made from the same parts. It costs $800 less. The MAC at the store is not an Apple product and more than my PC on my desk is an Apple product. We bought (Apple and I) our technology from the same place!  Apples value proposition lacks integrity.

When Apple realizes that closed, proprietary systems designed to limit customers use of the products is as dead as the PPC and the one button mouse, then we’ll all be using Apples technology and some of us who are deeply into the open source world, will be very happy to help Apple teach Microsoft a few well deserved lessons.

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I’ve used Avid, Adobe Premier, Pinnacle and even open source/free video editors. What I have not used before is video editing software that is as intuitive as Sony Vegas 9 Movie Studio Platinum. Ok, so it’s probably only intuitive to people who have experience in video editing, but having had projects using many different systems, I am very impressed with Sony’s offering.

Without consulting a manual or reading anything about it at all, I’ve just assumed that it works like a video editing software and viola, it does.  No strange quirks or annoyances, just productivity. All the menus, structure and symbols in the user interface are easy to interpret and follow industry standards (possibly the first time Sony has bothered with things like that). It still lacks some of the features and third party plugin capability that you would find in Adobe Premier, but it’s just so instantly productive that I think I’ll be using it for a long while.

I did some test video editing on the Windows 7 Beta system and the performance was mind blowing! All video and rendering operations were noticeably faster. I’m not sure what to attribute this to, but that’s what we observed.

My project was to edit a YouTube video for another website essentially made from cut together YouTube videos, some pod safe music and some titles. It took me about 20 minutes to succeed with the project using this software. My project was super simple, but that fact remains that I’d still be at it with Adobe Premier.

When the project was rendered, I clicked ‘Upload To YouTUBE’ and it’s done! Fantastic! I love it! Have you ever tried to get Premier to output for YouTUBE? zeeaakks! Does Adobe not understand that the needs of MILLIONS OF YOUTUBE UPLOADERS can be very very profitable to meet? Sony get it. I’ve never been a fan of the Sony software, but I really have to give them credit on this one.

If you need a very high productivity, high performance video editing suite, you should at least give this a try. They have a free 30 day trial and you can download Sony Vegas 9 Pro or Movie Studio Platinum directly from Sony.

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Windows 7 Beta - One Month In, What Do We Know Now?

It’s been about a month since we loaded version Microsoft Windows 7 Beta version 7000 (official Microsoft Windows 7 Beta) on our test computers here at the office.

I thought it might help people if I shared a list of what seems to work, what has problems and what we did to get things going.  Here is our list and our install notes.

At the end of the article we give our top tips for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Compatibility for your applications and games.

If you have any additions, things you’d like us to test or problems, please use the comments and we’ll get you an answer on every single item.

Office Applications and Utilities On Microsoft Windows 7 Beta
Microsoft Office 2007 - No issues found
Adobe CS3 Master Collection (Tested Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks) - No issues found
uTorrent - No issues found
Thunderbird - No issues found
Winzip - No issues found
Mozy Backup - No issues found
Open Office 3.0 - No issues found
Winamp - No issues found
Power ISO - No issues found
Adsense Log - Cannot keep track of the current time in the status popup box, but works normally.
AVG 8 For Windows 7 - No issues found
Firefox (all versions) - No issues found
Microsoft Songsmith - No issues found
Abyss Web Server - No issues found
Xampp Web Server - No issues found
Sony Vegas Studio 9 Pro Platinum - No issues found
Adobe CS4 - Macrovision (we call it malwarevision) preventing correct install yet again
Adobe CS4 - Torrent Hacked Version -(Tested Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks) No issues found
Filezilla - No issues found
TightVNC - viewer works only in Java mode
UltraVNC - viewer works only in java mode
PC Anywhere v12 - installs, but cannot start
Slysoft Virtual DVD - does not work
Deamon Tools Virtual DVD - does not work
Games on Microsoft Windows 7 Beta
Spore - No issues found
Dead Space - No issues found
Far Cry 2 - No issues found
Fallout 3 - No issues found
Crysis - rocks - No issues found
Crysis - warhead - No issues found
Saints Row 2 - No issues found
Heroes of might and magic - No issues found
Brothers in arms - No issues found
Lord of the rings conquest - No issues found
Mirrors Edge - No issues found
Neverwinter - No issues found
Left 4 Dead - No issues found
Mass Effect - No issues found
Burnout Paradise - No issues found
Medieval 2 Total War - No issues found
Xplane all versions - No issues found
Womb Raider underworld - No issues found
Vampires edge - No issues found
The Witcher - No issues found
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 - No issues found

Tips for getting business applications and games to run on Microsoft Windows 7 Beta

1) Turn off the aero interface
2) Only if you have a problem, tell Windows 7 to emulate Vista
3) Install and run as administrator

This solved 70% of all install and run problems for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta

Tips for getting the best performace from games

Get the WDDM Pre-release driver for NVidia from Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Update - Your frame rate will go up and your aero interface performance will also.

So that’s our list of what works and doesn’t work so far.  I am a bit surprised at how well all the game software works on Windows 7.  I am a bit disapointed at Adobe learning nothing from all the problems their customers have had installation and uninstalling the software.  To keep something as easily bypassed as Macrovision shows Adobe understands nothing about their users and nothing about copy protection.  The only things that did not work are the drive emulators which install a driver.

Please do us a favor!  If you find something on the working side or the non-working side in your own testing, please let us know in the comments and we’ll update the list.

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Garmin GPS Nuvi 350 Series Report

Garmin really does dominate the GPS business these days.  Looking at the Google search statistics for it versus it’s competition shows that it has nearly 10 times the search volume of competitors TomTom and Magellan.  I knew they were popular, but really 10x? That’s a powerful brand.

The Garmin GPS Nuvi 350 is a mid level unit designed for easy mounting in cars but can be used as a portable GPS as well.  It’s extremely well priced for the functions included, but one might wonder if a few dollars more for the 360 series might now be a better buy.  Among the feature upgrades included in the Garmin GPS 360 are blutooth hands-free phone connections.

Basic technical features of the Garmin GPS Nuvi 350:

• 700mb memory for map and map updates
• Included suction cup car mounting braket (actually quite nice)
• Garmin Maps included: City Navigator NT Turn by turn for USA / Canada and Peurto Rico
• Automatic routing (duh)
• SD card slot for updates upload or download maps and routes traveled
• Dimensions: 3.9″ x 1″ x 2.9″
• Weight: 1lb
• Screen resolution: 320 x 240
• Travel Kit: MP3 Player, Audible Book player, picture viewer (why?), clock, currency converter (hmm), calculator, soduko solver, map of the stars including Tom Cruise’s secret underground Scientology lair of doom. (ok so I made up the last two)
• Speakers (yes it talks)
• Battery: 800MA
• headphone jack (?)
• USB connection to PC
• Optional Traffic Receiver connection
• Displays 3D and overhead map modes
• 12 -24 volt power adapter comes in the box (nice!)

Check out the current prices at Amazon.com - Buy a New Or Refurbished (save a ton!) Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

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It’s been an interesting day.  I’ve had a job related assignment to review online backup services including the free backup online and online data backup services that you’re starting to see advertised now more and more heavily.

We tested three well known online backup service products on Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP2.  The results were not pretty.  I found I could not recommend any of them.  In fact, they were so new and so unfinished, that I am not allowed to even name them or discuss them here.

I posted as much on a message board (forum) I hang out on and got a response in just a few minutes that I should try Mozy.  Good call.

Click This Link To Try Mozy Free Online Backup Service

I signed up for the free online backup mozy account in about 1 minute.  I downloaded the software and installed it and that took about 2 more minutes.  It instantly worked on both my test machines and that was that.  Problem solved.  Time for lunch, I am a happy IT guy.

The Mozy free online backup service is limited to 2gb, but that’s more than enough to store most users documents.  In fact it’s pretty generous.

It runs in the background and takes care of your online backup service automatically.  You can select the load it has on your system and that makes sure that you never know it’s running.  In fact it’s running right now and my personal machine, which became our third test machine runs as fast as ever.  Even playing SPORE and Command and Conquer 3 Red Alert showed no signs that Mozy was running a backup.  If you could feel something (perhaps on older slower machines) you can move the slider from ‘Quicker Backups’ to ‘Faster Computer’ and your problem is solved.

Mozy is a secure online backup service and they are serious about data security.  You can use their algo or you can go for alternatives.  I went with their native Blowfish encryption and in my opinion lacking any nuclear secrets in my documents, it should be way more than good.

Mozy may be new to you and the company behind it is new to me and it’s named Decho.  They have a comprehensive ‘about us’ page that can fill you in on the details.  I can tell you that this software is not new.  It’s up to date, it’s extremely well polished, and it lacks a certain raw feeling that the other products had (and they failed to perform).  I have a feeling that this has been worked on for quite a while and I am endorsing it for our internal and external client projects on the basis that it performed flawlessly in all our tests.

For individuals they offer the free online backup service up to 2gb storage and $4.95 for unlimited storage (cheap at twice the price).

For companies it’s based on the number of computers an other factors but it’s still cheaper than the cost of deploying your own systems and hardware to do the job.

If you are at a large corporate location you might have the scale needed to get a better ROI on an internal solution, But (that’s an acronym for Behold the Underlying Truth) we’re all trying to get closer to our customers and that means more field offices, smaller work groups and less opportunity to achieve economies of scale for internal solutions.

I say save the money and outsource small to medium sized offices to Mozy.  This is an no brainer.  You can deploy it in under a day including client training.

See some pictures of the install process and Click This Link To Try Mozy Free Online Backup Service

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AVG, my personal absolute best pick for Antivirus and Anti Spyware for Windows 7 / Vista suffered an attack on their website which as of this writing is still not repaired. I’ve attempted to reach the contacts their and let them know, but nobody is answering the technical contact telephone number.

In addition to modifying the home page, they have disabled all the downloads and insterted a . in front of the clickable links for trial download of AVG 8.

They are a high profile target to be sure and they are certainly not the first anti virus antispyware company to be hacked. Their products are still the best I’ve ever used and on Windows 7, not a single bug, not a single problem and all third party applications report the system as clean as well.

I still highly (yes my mother uses it) reccomend their AVG 8 for Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta.

See if it’s still hacked and if not, download the NEW AVG 8 FREE TRIAL becuase it’s fantastic! AVG WEBSITE

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Amazon Kindle 2 Reader

Check out thes hot new pictures of the AmazonKindle 2 Reader.  Just leaked pictures show the product to be announced (reportedly) on Feb-9.

Amazon has upgraded the Kindle 2 Reader with a thinner, lighter design, metal back plate and quite ipod style design cues.  It even comes with stereo audio and headphone jacks.

It’s EV-DO wireless equipped & 2gb memory.  It looks like a form factor upgrade more than a core technology upgrade.  That’s good, becuase I found the original Amazon Kindle reader too bulky, boxy and more than a little retro.

The reported price is $359. You’ll need to get a Kindle cover or Kindle case to protect it, so figure on $400 fully equipped.

Think about students who carry all those books.  Now they can have this elegant little Amazon Kindle 2 and search, sort, reference all their books.  It’s simply fantastic.

Lighter and smaller than a book, why carry a hardback?

Check it out from Amazon.com

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Yahoo Search Marketing Promotion.  This deal is no deal. Where I am from it’s called fraud.

Recently I was asked to set up an online advertising campaign to promote a friends business.  I was going to set up a Google Adwords account for them, but I saw this great offer from Yahoo Search Marketing Small Business and decided that I’d set up both an Adwords account and a Yahoo Search Marketing account using this advertiser coupon / bonus / credit.

Please note the nice young lady with the sign.  Oh sure she looks friendly enough, but watch out! She bites!  Just to the right above the ’sign up’ button,  plain as day you can see the $100 credit offer.

Will you get the credit?  Absolutely not! A customer service inquiry got me the answer that the promotion was not valid and that they could only offer a $25 credit.  Other reports online say that I was lucky to receive even that.

Notice the little tiny ‘1′ on the left side of the sign up button?  Check the fine print on the  bottom of the very same page where is says $100 and you’ll see that they are going to give you “$0 credit into the account”.

So at this point, Yahoo has my friends $30 and my friend has been cheated by Yahoo.  What did I do?  I got another friend to sign up and I used a page that says it will give you $100 on the top and in the fine print.  Guess what?  They still will not deposit the credit. Having had two experiences with this on different offer pages for two different peoples accounts, I can tell you that this is a repeated pattern of criminal behavior on the part of Yahoo.  If I didn’t have two responses from their customer service reps to show, then I would not say that, but I’m calling it like it is.

Attn Yahoo: You can respond any time and tell us all exactly how sorry you are and what you are going to do to correct this for my friends and for the millions of customers out there that you are currently cheating.  Come clean and this post gets updated.  Come really clean and make good and I’ll even delete it and call it a temporary error on your part.  Until then in the interest of public safety in avoiding online scams, the post stays.

Please consider an MSN account in addition to your Adwords account.  Both companies actually follow through on their offers and the performance on MSN, although lower traffic, has been startlingly good.

This has been a Dave Williams Public Service Announcement - File under Staying Safe Online

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