My Tech Cloud

Pure Android: The Way It Must Be

2011-12-06T17:37:00.001-03:30

Recently I purchased the Nexus S 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 (fragmentation is a pain) 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 Google+). 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.

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 launcher. 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.

December in NL, captured with my Nexus S (unedited)

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.

Streaming It

2011-11-22T21:52:00.000-03:30

Approximately 1 year ago I canceled my TV subscription, 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.

During the first few months of being cable-free I would purchase items on iTunes, possibly (wink-wink) download movies via torrents, and get some loaners from my friends. Now I basically stream* everything from Netflix, TV Channel Sites, JustinTv, YouTube Movies, and the National Film Board. There still isn't a lot of live sports streamed, but sports networks such as TSN and CBC 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.

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 Google TV may be the Neanderthals of this new model, but it will happen, and we will all love it!

*Note: I live in Canada and we don't have streaming services (legally) such as Hulu and Amazon Video

Arrested Development Returns and it's on Netflix!

2011-11-18T23:45:00.001-03:30

Great news for all of you Arrested Development fans out there, the Bluth family are returning with new episodes that will air exclusively on Netflix. It will be available to US viewers as early as 2013, hopefully :) it will open up to other countries. This, along with original content coming to YouTube is another reason (plus many more) to cut the cable TV cord. Die cable TV Die!

Ubuntu: It Was Nice To Know you

2011-11-09T21:40:00.000-03:30

Ohh how the times have changed. About one year ago I was praising the well-known open source OS, now I am abandoning it. Why?

My primary problem with Ubuntu is Unity, and how it's not the Windows 7 taskbar. I have been known to criticize Windows, 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.

I hate Unity!

Other problems besides Unity that I need to complain about are

I can't easily adjust the mouse scroll speed
Flash often fails. This is crucial since I watch ~~most~~ all of my TV online.
No Netflix support!
No Google Earth Plugin!
Issues with dual monitors.
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!
Random problems such as the Print Screen button not working.

Maybe I will switch back to Ubuntu, maybe they will get rid of Unity, or maybe I will do everything on my Chromebook.

Chromebook: Initial Thoughts

2011-11-06T19:54:00.000-03:30

Part 1 to this post was "Chromebook: Will I Buy One?," and yes, I did buy one and so far I love it.

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 eBay. After about 2 weeks of searching/following, I bought a Samsung Series 5 3G 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.

I love my Chromebook...and my Ikea table

Next, how was the setup process? It was extremely easy! 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.

The Browser is the Desktop...

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.

After using the Chromebook for about 4 weeks, I have discovered how important battery life is to me. I am getting ~9 hrs on one charge! 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. I also like the simple folder system and reduced system options which makes finding things extremely easy. I am currently on the developer channel and since the start of this post I have been getting weekly updates; there is now an offline photo editor, offline Gmail, Netflix support, and offline Google Docs (view only); Google realized that the world is not completely online....yet.

The Worlds Simplest Photo Editor

The Worlds Simplest File System

On the negative side, sometimes the Chromebook does feel underpowered, there is no Google Earth plugin, ~~certain sites render extremely slow~~, and I miss having the Home and End keys.

In summary, if you have $500, do most of your work in the cloud, and regret buying that tablet which is impossible to type with, treat yourself to a Chromebook, it is the future!

Note: As you may have guessed, this post was written with a Chromebook.

Original Content Coming to YouTube

2011-10-30T20:20:00.000-02:30

For all of you cable-cutting people out there, rejoice the the following news: original content (aka online tv channels) are coming to YouTube. The list can be found here, and includes some big names like Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half Men is so much funnier these days), Shaq, Tony Hawk, and Jay-Z. The "channels" are expected to hit YouTube next month and more will be added over the next year. This should make Google TV more appealing and persuade more people to ditch the cable TV bill. Die cable TV Die!

Android Fragmentation: It's an Ugly Picture

2011-10-29T10:52:00.000-02:30

Technically it's not a picture, it's a chart and a great one created by Michael DeGusta at his Tumblr blog: The Understatement. 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 Michael's analysis for more details.

Google Earth Flight Simulator

2011-10-26T19:31:00.003-02:30

They say that everyday you learn something new, today I discovered the Google Earth Flight Simulator created by Xavier Tassin. The simulator uses the Google Earth Plugin (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 action:

Canadian Downloaders Beware

2011-09-11T21:10:00.000-02:30

Life has been pretty good for illegal downloaders up here in the great white north, but the times are a changing. Voltage Pictures LLC, which owns the copyright to the film The Hurt Locker has sued thousands of downlaoders in the USA. 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 they pay thousands of dollars for copyright violations. I miss the good ol' days :(

Browser Blast From The Past

2011-06-14T12:13:00.002-02:30

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!

Desmos: Collaborative Educational Whiteboard

2011-05-27T13:31:00.001-02:30

Techcrunch Disrupt happened this past weekend and one of the great startups that showcased their product was Desmos, a free online collaborative tool that's focused on the education sector. I signed up and tried out their web app (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 real time. 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!

Life Without Windows: 8 Weeks and Counting

2011-05-24T13:14:00.000-02:30

In the past I have dabbled with Ubuntu, 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 process 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.

Initially I had planned on splitting my computer usage 50:50 between Windows and Ubuntu, it's actually worked out to 99% Ubuntu and 1% Windows (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?

No antivirus: Not having this has been great. No more do I have to deal with virus updates or scanning.
Ubuntu is better at updates: 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.
Great free software: I have not been in a situation where free software can't get the job done. I use Libreoffice for "office-like" work, Inkscape for vector editing, Picasa for photo editing, and Dropbox for file sharing.
Fantastic customization: With compizconfig, basically everything (desktop icons can be different sizes!) can be customized.
Easy on System Resources: Currently I have Chrome, Google Earth, and Libreoffice open, and I am only using 700 MB or RAM, Windows 7 uses over 2 GB.
It's Free!: 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.

The only negative thing I have encountered is the lack of Netflix support, I use the Wii for this but the video quality is low. Hopefully Chrome will get this support at the same time that Chrome OS does.

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 Unity interface, the switch to Ubuntu is even easier. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot, you may become hooked!

Chromebook: Will I Buy One?

2011-05-14T17:50:00.000-02:30

The Chromebook - 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 LibreOffice. Also, computer intensive tasks requiring photo and video editing can be done online, but it's extremely slow and limited (editing photos in Picknik).

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.

So my answer to the title of this post is .....maybe.

Livestreaming Bald Eagles: I love the Web

2011-05-13T20:12:00.000-02:30

Here's another reason I love the web: a continuous livestream of a bald eagle nest. With over 100 million views, this is the most watched live streams ever, take that Royal Wedding!

Free live streaming by Ustream

Cable TV: I don't Miss You

2011-02-25T14:14:00.000-03:30

For a New Year's resolution, I decided to cancel my cable TV subscription. I was paying $50/month for it, and was about to increase $65, and I really only watch about 5 different TV shows.

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 dual monitor. 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 Google Chrome Sync; for background TV I put on something from Justin.tv, and I also pay for a Netflix 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.

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!"

Why I'm Not Buying An Ipad

2010-08-27T15:25:00.000-02:30

To start with, I think that Apple makes great products, but they are a bit beyond my price range. If I did have lots of money, I still probably wouldn't buy an iPad, here's why.

First of all, there are no USB ports. 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. Second, I like buttons. 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. Third, lightweight netbooks/notebooks that can do more 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? Fourth, there's no camera(s). Finally, I really hate how slow iTunes works on windows, I want to keep my iTunes time to a minimum.

Apple releases great products, for me this isn't one of them.

The New Hotmail

2010-06-17T13:59:00.000-02:30

Since the release of Gmail, 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:

Sweep: This allows you to delete all messages from 1 sender and to continue doing this in the future.
10 GB Attachments: Wowzers!! These are tied into your Skydrive account and for any photos, they appear as a slideshow within the account.
Content Within Emails: YouTube links appear as videos that can be played within the email and flickr links as slideshows.
Tracking Numbers: Hotmail will automatically recognize a tracking ID and give you all of the information within the email.
Office Integration: Simply put, it does an awesome job at working with Microsoft Office documents.

The new update also makes Hotmail feel snappier. For a comparison of Gmail with Hotmail, head on over to Lifehacker.

Photos in the new Hotmail

Windows Live Documents Is Live!!

2010-06-10T16:42:00.000-02:30

This past Monday, Windows Live documents 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!

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, your given a hefty 25 GB of space.

The first web app that I opened was Word which had basic editing features, but did not have features found in Google Docs or Zoho 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 Excel Web App 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 PowerPoint web app 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. Windows Live documents also has a OneNote app, it seemed OK.

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. The big M has a lot of catching up to do.

Demo Of Google Docs

2010-06-08T09:48:00.000-02:30

Not everyone out there knows what "the cloud" or "Web 2.0" 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 Google Docs by offering users the ability to use Google Docs without having a Google account. Curious users just have to visit docs.google.com/demo to give it a whirl. This is not a game changing feature but will probably help increase the number of docs users.

Search Those Zoho Apps

2010-06-03T17:17:00.000-02:30

Zoho added an "actionable" search feature to their productivity suite today. This allows a user to search across an organizations entire suite of Zoho products such as Zoho Mail, Docs, Writer, Show, Discussions, etc. It works the same as any search engine whereby users can search by keyword and results can be grouped (i.e. based on application). What's really great about this feature is that users can edit documetns, reply to emails, and update contact information within search. Zoho continues to push the envelope for web based office tools.

Interview With Google Docs Product Manager Dave Girouard

2010-05-12T11:31:00.000-02:30

I just came across this great article over at cnet. Google Docs Product Manager Dave Girouard was interviewed and he basically tells consumers not to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010, instead use an old version of Office and complement it with Google Docs. Below is a preview of the article (I love Daves' comparison of desktop vs. online apps):

"What is really the goal with Google Docs? I imagine it is not to take the existing types of tools and bring those exact same features online and stop there?

Girouard: We're really creating a platform (where) everybody really can contribute to the Web, whether that means in the confines of a company or as a consumer to their family. I think that pretty core to all of our apps-related services is (allowing) everybody to contribute and work together to create content. The essence of our platform, and I think of cloud computing in general, is about people working together as opposed to an individual being productive on their own.I think that's what the PC era was about, a single person on a single computer doing things you couldn't do before, like creating a fancy brochure, you would have otherwise had to go to a printer before. That was really compelling in the 80s and 90s. I think this era of computing is about how people get things done together. The Web is that platform to enable that."

Microsoft and Facebook Partner Up With Docs.com

2010-05-04T14:14:00.000-02:30

At the f8 conference about 2 weeks ago, facebook announced a way of sharing Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files named Docs.com (not very original). It is very similar to Google Docs; documents can be created, edited, and shared (through facebook) online, but so far there is no simultaneous editing in Docs.com, which is a very powerful feature of Google Docs (and Zoho Docs). Check out the video below for more details.

Google Docs Gets A Major Update

2010-04-13T21:12:00.000-02:30

Google Docs has been around for about 4 years and has come a long way in terms of features. In order to keep up with today's web (Yay for HTML5), a major update has become available to most users during the past 24 hrs. This update is called "a new Google Docs" and offers some great features, (make sure to checkout the slideshow at the bottom of this post).

Drawings: Users have been able to add drawings to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, now there is a standalone application. Drawings can be edited with others, can be exported as .pdf, .svg, .jpg, and .png, can be pasted into other Google Docs and vice versa. I gave it a quick try and it was very responsive and intuitive.
New Document Editor: This is faster and offers a better real-time editing experience. Other updates include sidebar chatting, real margins and tab stops, a better insert image window, improved commenting and footnote tools, better image handling, a more user friendly equation editor and improved importing of documents (this works really great). The current "new" version available to users has some problems such as lack of drawings, symbols, dictionary, thesaurus and a slew of other options. I guess that's why preview has been placed on this update.
Faster Spreadsheets: The old spreadsheets editor loaded very slow, especially for large files. This new version is must faster and offers auto-complete, better navigation between sheets, and a formula bar.

To access these features, all you have to do is click on "New Version" in the top right hand corner of any spreadsheet or visit the "Document Settings" page and click "New Version of Google Docs." Google Gears is not compatible with these versions, and will be replaced with the HTML5 Offline feature. Also, all modern browsers will run these new versions, and if your using IE (~~not~~ modern?), you need to use Google Frame. Finally, no updates were made to Google Presentations.

In summary, this update really shows the power of web apps and how great working/living in the cloud is. I expect more businesses/schools will sign on to use Google Apps, as they should since their in-house email hosting and use of MS office is costing them a lot of $money$. Competition is great.

Popout

Google Apps Gets Ready For A Disaster

2010-03-31T17:17:00.000-02:30

How safe is our data in the cloud? This is a question that all cloud users and non-users have asked. Google has addressed this in a recent blog post that gets into some of the fine details of the data backup process. If a Google data center is disrupted/destroyed, Google's backup system is set up such that no data should be lost (Recovery Point Objective) and the time without access to Google Apps services is zero (Recovery Time Objective). They achieve this with high speed simultaneous replication of Google Apps user's actions at two data centers; and this is done for the major apps in Google's Apps suite: Calendar, Sites, Docs, and Gmail.

This is great to know since we are investing so much more time in the cloud. Hopefully the other cloud vendors will release information on their backup procedures to ensure that their customers feel safe using their product.

Note: As an extra security measure, I export my documents to one of my hard drives, it's a "just-in-case" thing.

Apps Script Comes To Google Docs Users

2010-03-13T11:26:00.000-03:30

Google Apps Scripts, which are strings of commands that produce various spreadsheet functions, are now available to all Google Docs users. These easy to execute commands are accessed by simply clicking on Insert -and then Script. As displayed in the video below, this feature has huge potential by combining the power of spreadsheets with the vast amount of information available on the web.

Only 11 App Scripts are currently available