Mark's World

Google Instant

2010-09-09T00:11:00.000-06:00

I don't have a whole lot of time to write about it right now, but the new Google Instant is pretty sweet. Still not available to everyone - or in iGoogle, unfortunately - but it works extremely well. It makes searching the web much, much faster. It's not a "change the world" thing, but it's a huge help.

Why? Not because you get your first results faster - but because you can see the changed results as you type. So you can do several search queries to find what you're looking VERY quickly. It won't change the world... but it's a nice little productivity boost!

The New iPod Touch - Why No Still Images

2010-09-01T12:13:00.000-06:00

Apple really knows how to get people excited then break it. They're adding HDR photography to iOS... THAT is an exciting feature. They're adding a camera to the iPod Touch (two actually). But, in the ultimate of cruel irony - they're not allowing the use of the camera for still photography (or at least that was a feature not mentioned). Boo that. Even if it isn't iPhone quality, being able to take still images of typical cell phone quality with the added benefit of HDR would be amazing!

West of 60s Camp Recordings

2010-08-25T10:36:00.003-06:00

Hi West of 60s campers! Thank you for your patience this week as we had our tech glitches, that's the life of being at camp :) I know that many of you wanted tapes and CDs, unfortunately I had no way to duplicate those for you. I do have an AAC file of each service available that you can download and use on your iPod or other portable music player / cell phone / burn to a CD. You can download these files here (will be posted as available):

Monday Night
Tuesday Morning
Tuesday Night
Wednesday Morning
Wednesday Night

I hope y'all enjoyed your week!

Blessings,

Mark

Adwords Decade-Long Outage!

2010-08-20T18:16:00.002-06:00

This makes me laugh. A lot. I'm trying Google AdWords for my face painting business. I'm not too encouraged by the service uptime Google is promising. When I logged in today I found this:

"On January 1, 2005, AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 1:00 AM to January 1, 2015 1:00 AM Mountain Time due to system maintenance. Please note that your campaigns will continue to run normally during this short downtime. We apologize for any inconvenience."

Apparently, Google has a 10-year-long planned outage... that started 5 years ago! Especially amazing is the fact that Google considers a decade to be a "short downtime"...

AT&T Owns Alltel

2010-06-23T01:42:00.001-06:00

Today, Alltel is all split up. Verizon has owned their chunk for over a year now. Atlantic Tele-Network has had their share for a couple months. And yesterday, AT&T announced that they own their chunk of Alltel. This came immediately after FCC approval, showing how anxious AT&T and Verizon were to close it. This is brand new information, and I will post more about the transition plan as it is known, just know that, at the latest, we'll all (Alltel divested to AT&T) be AT&T customers this time next year - that's their deadline to complete conversion that they committed to. For those of us in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, etc who can finally get an iPhone soon (and have 3G and not risk being cut off) this is great news!

I've Been Gone Awhile...

2010-06-22T15:06:00.000-06:00

Mostly, getting my new Dell Mini 1012 setup just the way I like it. And, unlike the last one, which had a few problems on arrival, this one has been absolutely perfect. But if you're going to get one, you need to realize some things that apply to netbooks in general. They're not the same as a full-size laptop. If you want a full-size laptop, buy one. You can even find full size laptops that are far more powerful than netbooks at a similar price point if you search.

The second thing you need to be aware of is that they usually come with an operating system (software that runs the computer) known as Windows 7 Starter. This is not the Windows you know. You can't even change the desktop background. Microsoft says Windows is about "Life Without Walls" - if this is the case, Microsoft's definition of a wall is very different from mine. Not being able to change anything, even the desktop background, is a pretty big wall to me. You have two choices for an operating system. One is to pay Microsoft for a Windows 7 "Anytime Upgrade" to Home Premium. This is $71.97 on Amazon.com. That's $72 to unlock normal OS features such as changing your desktop, the appearance of the computer, dual-displays, etc.

Not all netbooks have Windows 7 Starter, though. Some come with Windows XP. Windows XP is almost a decade old, and it feels it. However, a full version of Windows XP is still much more capable than Windows 7 Starter. But it was never designed for a netbook, and it feels long in the tooth, to say the least.

My preference is for an OS called Ubuntu. It's totally free - community developed and sponsored by South Africian billionaire Mark Shuttleworth. It's high quality, easy enough for kids to use (I switched my cousin's netbook from Windows 7 Starter to Ubuntu Netbook and she loves it), and it has lots of FREE community supported software. In other words, it's a hippie OS. And it's great for a hippie computer like an ultra-portable netbook. It fits the style, complete with my Timbuk2 Netbook Messenger bag (absolutely amazing, buy it. I love Timbuk2 bags, they seem expensive, but they are completely worth it - high quality, light weight, and durable). Ubuntu is easy enough for anyone who wants to get it running, they can. There is great community support at the Ubuntu Forums - where you'll find plenty of people eager to help as long as you remember that they're fellow users, not paid employees and do not wish to be treated as paid employees. Ubuntu is developed and supported by it's users. Keir Thomas has a great book called the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference that you can buy or you can download for free from the Ubuntu Forums. Buying it might not be a bad idea at all if you're new to this, and remember, your purchase helps support the community.

Ubuntu comes in two flavors - desktop and netbook. In my case, the choice was hard. Netbook is optimized for the small, low-resolution screen and is designed to fit it better than desktop Ubuntu (or any Windows flavor). However, only the desktop version is available in a 64-bit flavor. My Dell Mini uses an Atom N450 processor, which is 64-bit unlike the older netbook processors. I chose the desktop version and am completely satisfied. Netbook is great, but the desktop version is pretty darn good as well even on the small screen!

What you get with a netbook running Ubuntu is not a full-size Windows laptop. You get a different tool. It's hard to explain, but it's a more personal personal computer. More of a friend and less of a tool. More social, goes more places with you, but not a workhorse. A chihuahua instead of a doberman. And personally - I love it!

Windows' Biggest Problem

2010-06-18T10:44:00.000-06:00

To be able to run some software I wanted to play with (Corel Painter Essentials 4, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3, Apple iTunes, and FreeStyler DMX), I decided to put Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition on my new Dell Mini 1012. Which, by the way, not only isn't freezing like the one I had to return, the screen is spotless, and the battery is a tighter fit. The one I got from Amazon had somehow miserably slipped by Dell quality control.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am not Windows' biggest fan. It takes far longer (once you count drivers and stuff) to get working nicely than Ubuntu does. Ubuntu, generally, just works. Windows takes hours to get things like the video card, the touchpad, the webcam, the function keys, etc all working properly. This is because, unlike Ubuntu, the drivers aren't bundled. Ubuntu's interface is also much better optimized for the small screen. Even though I don't really believe I need antivirus software, I have Microsoft Security Essentials on it just to try it out. All in all, Windows is much harder to use and not nearly as user-friendly as Ubuntu. And you have to pay for it (let's not count Windows 7 Starter that comes with netbooks - that's the OS that left my cousin half-crying when she got a netbook because you can't even change the desktop it's so crippled)...

So... what's Windows' biggest problem? Well, you can get it working well, and you can buy it. And anyone can get used to an interface... The biggest problem is font rendering. If you're coming from Mac OS X or Ubuntu and are used to the silky-smooth fonts, prepare to be disappointed. By default, Microsoft's ironically misnamed "ClearType" makes fonts a horrible, blocky, chunky mess that is hideous beyond compare. This is due to excessive use of "font hinting" - the practice of hammering fonts into a monitor's pixel grid that dates back to black and white rendering on extremely low-resolution displays. It is completely unnecessary today, but Microsoft still uses it - and not in small amounts - the fonts are hinted into oblivion. It is possible to make them look okay, at least at small sizes, by using the ClearType Tuner. Choose the first (darkest) block, then choose the last (blurriest) block, then choose the last (darkest) block and you'll get the most accurate fonts possible. Guess what? They're STILL chunky and over-hinted, especially at larger font sizes...

Who, exactly, at Microsoft thought it was a good idea to call this rendering engine ClearType? It makes no sense, except maybe "chunky, ugly, hinted-into-oblivion type" wouldn't sell as well... The ONLY way to get clear type (not ClearType, but actually clear type) on Windows is in the Safari web browser, where Apple has an (optional) setting to override Windows' font rendering entirely and use Apple's own. The sad thing is that Microsoft had to make an EFFORT to make fonts look this bad, if they just rendered them with no hinting, that would be EASIER to implement!

To anyone who wants to tell me Microsoft's hinting makes fonts easier to read. No, it doesn't. It makes them chunky and harsh. But if you disagree with me, that's the reason I love Ubuntu (and other GNOME based OSes) - you can customize the rendering however you like. From no hinting to very heavy hinting, the level of subpixel rendering (also over-aggressive on Windows as it results in some color fringing in certain fonts - good sub-pixel rendering should never cause noticeable color fringes), etc... it's all customizable.

And guess what? I'm sticking with Windows on here, for certain software and also so I have a Windows machine available. But, if you buy a netbook, go with Ubuntu :)

Kalispell's New Wal-Mart

2010-06-17T16:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I showed up at 6:30 am outside our new local Kalispell Wal-Mart Supercenter. The store was to open at 8:00 and I was curious if there was anyone there - sure enough, there were these three guys who'd camped out all night to make the first purchase at the new store! There weren't a whole lot of people there, but if you want some more pictures I have them on my Flickr account. It was, interesting. There weren't any giveaways that I got (I guess some people got free spaghetti and stuff but I didn't). There were some product samples. No sales, grand opening specials, etc. The announced opening ribbon-cutting ceremony was not public, it was employees only, though we did get a glimpse of it through the (locked) doors. The most interesting thing, to me, was that the regional manager for Tracfone Wireless was there. Tracfone provides Wal-Mart's Straight Talk product. All I will say is that I think everyone will be incredibly impressed by what they have coming this year. We spent about 45 mins chatting, great guy.

I went back later with my cousins. There were more samples. And cake. And a remote controlled toothpaste robot. Yeah. Um, no huge prizes. No special bargains. Not much of a grand opening for a huge company that'll radically change our town (by shifting traffic from Evergreen to north Kalispell). Still, a whole lot nicer than the old Wal-Mart! Me, personally, I'll still be doing a lot of shopping on Amazon.com. But I love the grocery prices at the new Wal-Mart!

Memories and a History of Kid Pix

2010-06-15T01:17:00.000-06:00

(note - I originally created this post for Extreme Randomness - a site co-produced with my cousin that's a lot more silly than my blog, however it is of interest to the techie audience too - especially those of you with artsy techie kids)

Who in here has memories of Kid Pix? I'm probably dating myself somewhat, but I remember being really excited when I finally got Kid Pix after waiting a LONG time for it. It was the coolest thing ever. Today, not so much. There's now cheap pen tablets, and much better software out there that kids will have far more fun with. But Kid Pix, well, Kid Pix redefined art and painting on the computer and made it *fun* - very fun. In fact, Kid Pix was one of those things that I would say changed how I view art.

By chance, today I found a great history of Kid Pix written by the program's author, Craig Hickman, you can read it here. It brought back some memories, and made me remember why I liked computers even. They were a unique tool that redefined what is possible. They allowed your imagination to explore new areas. Oh, and yeah, that's why I see computers as more of an art tool - I'm not a traditional math computer geek. I hate math, and I can't do it well. And no, I couldn't program "hello world" even to save my life. But Kid Pix? Now, that was amazing.

For your young artist today? Well, the version of Kid Pix linked to above is interesting, but honestly a waste of $39. The current Windows version is even worse, though cheap. Now, you can get a cheap Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet for about $65, which comes with Corel's Painter Essentials. This natural paint program blows away Kid Pix. There's other great tools for kids to explore with, such as MyPaint -which is free and can be made full screen like Kid Pix. There's Autodesk Sketchbook, a great natural media sketching program. There's the full-on amazing Corel Painter. There's even Craig Hickman's Beautiful Dorena, which is wacky and fun - and reminds me a bit of the original one-man-project Kid Pix getting all grown up. But it all started with Kid Pix.

Adsense vs Affiliate Marketing

2010-06-14T18:24:00.000-06:00

Today, I have a question that has came up from a blog reader - making money with your blog. First, as a full disclosure, I don't make money from this blog. So I'm not exactly the most qualified person to talk about it. I spend far more on products I write about than I ever get back. Ads help to offset expenses, they don't even come close to covering them yet. Hopefully, that'll change eventually. My traffic is growing rapidly and I'm gaining interest in my sites, if one of them takes off in a viral way, I may even make some money. We shall see. I make no claims that what I'm about to say here will scale. As for now, I'm really only comparing Adsense to affiliate marketing. Adsense displays ads and you get paid a few cents when someone clicks your ads. Affiliate marketing pays you only when someone actually buys the product, but you have more freedom to customize it to your site and you get paid a larger commission. I have ran Amazon Associates affiliate ads for months now, and have just added some Google Affiliate Network links (though I got rejected for most GAN programs I applied to, presumably for lack of traffic, which - as I said - is quickly changing). For anyone wondering, lets cut to the chase. I earn money off Amazon Associates, not a ton, but a reasonable amount - around $60 last month, though that was my record high, not an average. Definitely enough to make it worthwhile though. I don't earn money off Adsense. In the under a month I've been running Adsense, I've got... oh, right around zero clicks.

Now, obviously for me, affiliate marketing has proven much better, though I will keep Adsense on, I just need to figure out how to use it in a way that's beneficial for me. I'll tell you the biggest problem I have noticed, not just on my own site, but on others, with Adsense. It's context-sensitive ads are often the opposite of what the page is saying. Right now, ads displayed right against an eyebrow waxing article are... "eyebrow restoration" & "clinically proven longer thicker brows"... um, okay, but I think people reading about eyebrow waxing are having the opposite issue! My own rant on refilled ink cartridges is getting some wonderful ads for ink refills running beside it. Yeah, okay, Adsense isn't quite smart enough. I can't pick the ads I think my readers would be most likely to click on. And that costs me. Adsense is quick and easy. Affiliate marketing is better targeted, and more likely to do well.

Also, I'll note two things - one, I rely on peoples' trust. I don't post affiliate links unless I believe they're the best deal. If I believe a better value is out there to be had, I'll give people that link instead of an affiliate link. I also don't make my sites look like a pure ad-fest. I want repeat visitors, not short-term spamming.

Cell Phone Reception

2010-06-14T13:42:00.002-06:00

One question that I get asked a lot is about reception. Cell phone dead spots, television reception, etc. People who call me and just can't get the signal they need. Well, I found a company that specializes in the products you need to get the reception you need. They're called Solid Signal, and they have a wide selection of products for cell phone, television, wireless, etc reception. They also have a lot of other products whether you want an iPod case or a full cable TV headend system. These are sponsored links, so buying through them does support my blog - just as a full disclosure - but I'm recommending them because I've never seen as wide of a selection of equipment at such a good price. They also have very positive reviews around the Internet. So if you're facing a poor signal issue, check these guys out, they may have a product to help you (oh, and as a full disclaimer, remember you are responsible for making sure you operate within all applicable government regulations):

Ink Refills

2010-06-12T20:00:00.000-06:00

In my local town, ink refills were the hottest thing since sliced bread for awhile. There's a franchise in town that sells refilled ink cartridges at slight discounts vs OEM cartridges. There are a few caveats though:

One, the quality may not be as good as OEM cartridges. I bought a toner cartridge for a laser printer from them (MUCH easier to get right than an ink cartridge) and the print quality with their refilled toner is atrocious.

Two, they may void your printer's warranty. Regardless of any claims made by retailers selling them, most printer warranties are very clear that they don't cover damage caused by 3rd party and refilled cartridges. Note that they are most likely to cause damage in printers where the ink tank and print head are separate like Canon and Epson.

Third, and by far the most serious, data from Wilhelm Imaging Research shows that 3rd party inks fade quickly. This problem is so serious because you won't know until it's too late. Your prints may look great, and then years later you go to show your (now infant) child her baby scrapbook at her wedding, and your pictures are a faded, yellow, ugly, mess. Note that paper also makes a big difference in this. Manufacturer's ink and paper combos are usually tested to work very well together and produce long lasting prints. However, in Wilhelm's testing, 3rd party inks never last as long as OEM inks on any paper.

Why risk it? Saving a few dollars just isn't worth it. Go somewhere like OfficeMax and get OEM inks and papers. The few dollars extra is well worth it:

And guess what? If you want photo printing, check out Costco. Their print quality is great, and they're *real, traditional chemical photos* - all for far less than home printing and none of the hassle. Upload, pickup, go. No cleaning and maintaining printers, loading paper, messing with print head alignment, etc.

Google Affiliate Network

2010-06-12T19:46:00.001-06:00

I got my first response to a Google Affiliate Network request today (remember I'm accepted in Adsense and Amazon Associates)... declined for Electronic Arts. Granted I'm not a high-traffic site, but I've done okay for very little traffic with Amazon. I'm curious why EA would decline me... sure, I may not get much traffic or plug video games often (the ads would be for Extreme Randomness), but as long as my website isn't really bad, isn't it in their best interest to just accept me and take any sales they get from it?

Some Freezing... Continued

2010-06-11T17:28:00.001-06:00

Turns out something was VERY wrong with the netbook. It was freezing A LOT. Wireless driver fix didn't work. I tried Windows on it too, it took a couple tries to get Windows installed. The INSTALLER hung. Not only that, but I found a spot on the screen that I'd thought was a bit of dirt was actually a damaged screen, obviously not my fault as the screen had suffered no impacts nor any real chance to actually even get dirty. Just a tiny little hole in the glossy coating of the screen near the top that I had thought was dirt. Boo that. Amazon couldn't replace it, they were out of stock, so I returned it for a hopefully full refund. Amazon theoretically has restocking fees on computers that aren't being exchanged but I was willing to do an exchange and they didn't have any to exchange it for...

After trying to decide what to get to replace it to do my netbook experiment, I got... a similar Dell. Wal-Mart has a brand new version (lower-end) of the same Dell 1012, on sale for $228. Wal-Mart also has a great return policy so I know if I have major issues / constant freezing / etc with it, getting my money back should be no problem. It's a new revision, a made-for-Wal-Mart model with lower end inside guts so hopefully not from the same batch or anything that I had a problem with... I'll keep y'all updated! Mark

My MacBook is shut down, Dell availability

2010-06-10T06:00:00.001-06:00

I was a little surprised yesterday to find that the netbook I bought is no longer available from Amazon (where I bought mine, Amazon has been great to me - though as a full disclosure, the Amazon links on my site are referral links - however, I'd never refer to people for a company I don't believe in - Amazon is one of only two companies that I've been really impressed with shopping online from - the other is Newegg - and that's not a referral link :) ), though I know I'd got a good price. Digging around, I found Amazon has replaces it with the model that has 802.11n, and a 160GB model without it. Personally, I'd save the $30. Netbooks are meant to be cheap computers. Unless you want the range of 802.11n, why bother? The extra storage is really not needed for a netbook, I only got it (when it was only $15 more and didn't add 802.11n) because I thought about dual-booting. Which I'm not even doing.

Anyways, my MacBook Pro is off and I plan to leave it off for the week. Will I make it? How will I like the netbook in daily use? We'll find out. So far it's treating me well. It's not the machine the MacBook is, but it's also 1/3 of the price. I could buy three of these. Does your average person need anything more than this? I really don't think so, but we'll see...

Some freezing...

2010-06-09T22:02:00.001-06:00

I experienced some freezes on my netbook. Remembering the wireless driver issue, I redid my research and learned the Broadcom STA driver is the good one, B43-fwcutter is the one that causes freezes. Hopefully all is resolved. Downside to the STA driver - it's a lot slower to connect and to find a network :( But it works and seems stable so far (maybe related?). As a PS, this model is out of stock at Amaz apparently indefinitely... so I'm providing a link the the 160GB model (also the current one promoted by Dell). To be honest, 160GB of storage ought to be enough for any netbook use. I bought the 250 thinking I might leave a 50GB or so Windows partition, but when I started Windows and remembered how nasty it is I just wanted it off of there, so the 160 should be more than adequate for your needs.

Got my netbook up and running!

2010-06-09T13:09:00.000-06:00

I'm ready for my netbook experiment, and like I promised, at least a blog a day about the whole experience! I think I might actually start TOMORROW. YES, tomorrow. I expected to need more time to make the netbook usable. So how did the setup go?

1. Get netbook from FedEx
2. Take home
3. Start up and setup Windows to test everything works (to rule out hardware problems if Ubuntu doesn't go as planned)
4. Start up off Ubuntu USB key, run install, restart, add wireless driver (I used the B43 driver, NOT the STA as I heard it's more reliable) and run updates, restart, add software to taste (Google Chrome - way faster than Firefox, and Ubuntu Restricted Extras are two good starting places), restart for good measure
5. Copy files over (I just did music, I mainly use Google services)
6. Test, test, test
7. Love

So far, I only have two complaints - the built-in speakers are loud, but rather distorted; and the function hotkeys aren't quite right in Ubuntu. Wireless on/off functions as next music track (thus there's no way to turn off wireless...), change monitor types the letter "p" and hits enter (seriously) - the others work though! Everything else seems to work great - no weird volume tweaks to get the mic working, no problem with the card reader, etc (those are two big problems Ubuntu has on some netbooks).

Dell has an official version of Ubuntu for this netbook, but I'm not using it. I'm using the normal netbook edition of 10.04. This is 32-bit; I may try the 64-bit desktop version but I like the netbook interface... and I'm not sure how much benefit 64-bit is on a machine like this (it's worth noting Windows 7 Starter is also a 32-bit OS).

What's with Apple taking Cisco's names?

2010-06-08T00:18:00.000-06:00

The iPhone itself was actually Cisco's name... used without Cisco's permission, and eventually resulted in a licensing agreement. This time around, Apple is using the iOS (IOS in Cisco's world) name. And while they have permission, I can't help but ask "why does Apple keep taking Cisco names?" Especially iOS - are they joking? It's a bad name for Cisco's product and an even worse name for Apple's...

Safari 5... Yes, It's Fast

2010-06-07T19:34:00.004-06:00

How fast? Faster than Chrome fast...

Here's Google Chrome 5.0.375.70 beta (nothing else open): 401.4ms
... And here's Safari 5 (nothing else open): 344.6ms

This is on my 13" MacBook Pro using the industry standard SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, which gives a good idea of performance in the real world since JavaScript is one of the most substantial ways a browser can affect performance. Sadly, I didn't think to benchmark Safari 4 before upgrading, but know it was always substantially slower than Chrome. I like this trend - browsers competing to be lighterweight and faster, while more standards compliant. Personally, I like that you can theme Google Chrome and I like the in-line PDF viewing of Safari. Tough choice, though I am sticking with Chrome... for now. I do plan to play with Safari 5 more tonight, and may (or may not) write more about it if I find something else cool and noteworthy.

P.S. For anyone wondering how Firefox 3.6.3 would do in this comparison... it ain't pretty: 1024.8ms. Finally, lest I forget Opera 10.53: 431.8ms. Browsers (except Firefox) have clearly been tweaking their script performance very well and are doing, in general, a great job. Firefox - once my favorite browser - is really, quite frankly, falling behind. That's what popularity does to you I guess...

I'd love to be excited about the iPhone 4

2010-06-07T13:02:00.000-06:00

...but to be honest, other than the high-res display, it seems like a rather weak product up against Android FroYo. I'd take an HTC Evo 4G (once it gets FroYo) over an iPhone 4 any day of the week. Google is innovating, and Apple is copying in an odd reversal. Video calling? Over Wi-Fi only? Revolutionary? ARE THEY JOKING? My HTC Hero does video calling in Fring (no front-facing camera though). Multitasking? Are they joking? I'm officially not excited about Apple's product lineup. Now - FroYo? There's something I'm truly excited for and I wish HTC would bring to the Hero...

Are you excited about iPhone 4? Or did it feel like watching showmanship and marketing up against the really technically impressive Android FroYo? I will say, HTC Sense is responsible for the delays in Android updates sometimes I feel, I'd rather get a plain Android phone like a Motorola Droid or a Nexus One - I'd take a Nexus One over an iPhone 4 any day! What do you want for your next smartphone? Comment below!

On Wi-Fi Security

2010-06-07T09:58:00.000-06:00

I've always left my own Wi-Fi access point unsecured, while traditionally advising most people to secure theirs. Why? Because I didn't want to be responsible for theirs if it proved a problem, BUT, felt that if I blocked P2P (Peer 2 Peer) networking, which I do (in theory) on the router, there was no real risk. I'm now reading about router owners being investigated and found partly responsible for all manner of bad behavior. Sadly that means - it's lockdown time. As of today, I'm now running WPA mode security.

Granted, not many people will be out because of that. But how many local coffeeshops, hostels, similar places are going to be getting a lot more hesitant to offer free Wi-Fi if the courts continue to pursue investigations and even penalties against unsecured hotspot owners? Granted, for now, it appears in *most* countries that places of public accommodation are recognized as such and not being pursued. But, how long until the courts say "keep detailed records" (a task not worth it for a small business) or we're going after you? Of course, this won't affect big restaurant and hotel chains that can pay an ISP with tracking abilities and all that to run their WiFi, potentially taking an amenity traditionally associated with small businesses and making it exclusive to the big guys... :(

I Ordered A Dell Mini 1012 Today

2010-06-05T23:53:00.000-06:00

Today, I decided I finally found the netbook I think can replace my Apple MacBook Pro as a day-to-day computer. I ordered a Dell Mini 1012 - the new version of the Dell Mini 10 netbook. I chose this netbook over an Acer 532h because the Acer's card slot is not supported in Ubuntu, whereas people have generally reported success (albeit with some effort) in making the Dell fully functional under Ubuntu. The card slot is important to me as I want to be able to easily load pictures from my Sony DSC-W350 (which I reviewed here and here) onto the netbook to upload to Flickr. I also needed a good screen, and the Dell I saw at my local Best Buy seemed as good as netbook screens get (if faded compared to my MacBook Pro or even my HTC Hero cell phone).

Now, here comes the fun part - I will be using this netbook as my only computer for all of next week, from Sunday through Saturday. Or at least, attempting to. If I fail for any reason (even just to get a document off my Mac, which I may need to do once or twice but I'll try to copy everything I need first); I'll blog about why I failed and what would remedy that. If I can make it a week comfortably with only a netbook, they'll be fine for any average user. If not, I'll learn what they're like in the real-world. Watch this space for more :) I'll be writing as I get it, and journaling all of next week. I hereby dub this the "Can a $325 Dell replace a $1199 Apple for an artsy geek?" experiment. We shall see. And remember, if you have any questions about this product, email them to me - mark@markuhde.com

Congress...

2010-06-05T02:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I know my tech blog is going a little off-topic, but Extreme Randomness is supposed to be a bit more kid friendly and this should be a good laugh for the adults. Right now, our country is in the midst of a recession, we are dealing with what is likely the largest environmental disaster ever created by mankind, and guess what our Congress is doing? Fixing the economy, balancing the budget, and allocating resources to the oil spill? Nah, they're working on much more important resolutions:

H. Res. 1073

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
May 26, 2010.

Whereas 1910 marks the first year of mass-produced, manufactured, motorized campers and camping trailers;

Whereas 1 in 12 households in the United States owns a recreational vehicle, and over 30,000,000 recreational vehicle enthusiasts take part in this affordable and environmentally friendly form of vacationing;

Whereas recreational vehicle vacations allow families in the United States to build stronger relationships, explore the great outdoors, and take part in healthy activities;

Whereas this homegrown industry, including recreational vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, and campgrounds, employs hundreds of thousands of people in the Nation in good-paying jobs across all 50 States;

Whereas recreational vehicles offer the freedom, comfort, and flexibility to see all parts of the United States, from historic landmarks and national parks to local campgrounds and sporting events; and

Whereas the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the recreational vehicle into the United States marketplace will be celebrated June 7, 2010, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame and Museum in Elkhart, Indiana: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) supports the goals and ideals of RV Centennial Celebration Month to recognize and honor 100 years of enjoyment of recreational vehicles in the United States; and

(2) encourages the people of the United States to celebrate this anniversary by taking part in recreational vehicle vacations.

Attest:
Clerk.

Some Thoughts On Radiation

2010-06-03T15:23:00.006-06:00

I am getting tired of correcting people with some totally incorrect thoughts on radiation. Not only laypeople, but even cases such as medical professionals who do things like compare a patient's radiation exposure from an X-ray or CT procedure to a microwave oven or cell phone use. The comparison is completely invalid. I'm not sure why this is done, but both possibilities are scary. Either the professional truly has no idea, in which case, I am very concerned about the fact they're allowed to expose people to potentially carcinogenic radiation; or they are deliberately lying to patients to put them at ease - also not a good situation. I've also heard of a case where a girl being exposed to a relatively high-radiation procedure was not to worry because "the radiation will be out of her body within a year." Technically, that's true. In fact, it will be much less than a year. Radiation doesn't stay in your body. The instant the X-ray is shot, the radiation is gone. However, the damage has just begun. For anywhere from two to thirty years, this girl likely now faces an increased risk of leukemia. For the remainder of her life, she is also likely to be at an increased risk of solid tumors, especially breast cancer given the procedure that was involved and the fact that the girl was at an age that is developmentally sensitive.

That's just one example of a good friend of mine. The same situation happens daily. Medical and professional situations involve radiation exposure that likely is often used more as a liability protection or to make you feel good they did something rather than out of a true medical need or detailed risk / benefit analysis. Increasingly, this involves CT scans in the ER - especially high radiation procedures when compared to flat X-rays.

Now, this is all "ionizing" radiation I've been talking about. This radiation carries more energy than visible light. It has enough energy to create ions, thus the reason it is known as ionizing radiation. This energy is the reason this type of radiation causes cancer. Visible light, infrared (radiated heat), and microwaves / radio waves are all known as "non-ionizing" radiation. Non-ionizing radiation doesn't have the energy to create ions, or, therefore, to cause the damage that we know is the mechanism by which ionizing radiation causes cancer. The only known effect of non-ionizing radiation is heat. Heat. Any cancer would have to occur by an as-yet-unknown mechanism. It cannot be compared to ionizing radiation.

Next up - how dangerous, really, is ionizing radiation? It seems it's probably not as dangerous as we think. There are a wide range of camps. They range from it being much more harmful than we realize, to it being essentially harmless in small doses, to it being slightly beneficial in low doses (almost like a vaccine). One mother of a son who received numerous X-rays as a newborn, then suffered leukemia at one and a half years was told by the Health Physics Society that it was extremely unlikely his X-rays caused his cancer. Personally, nobody knows. I have to admit, if I was in her shoes, I'd be blaming the X-rays. Rightly or not, I do not know - but I will tell you, I consider myself fairly educated and I'd probably naturally assume the X-rays caused it - especially since the exposure was at such a young age. The truth is, nobody knows what caused it and my assumption is no more or less valid than the Health Physics Society's. The Health Physics Society is of the general view that low levels of radiation exposure do carry a possible (but not certain) risk, but it is immeasurably small and shouldn't cause concern. Other groups believe the risk is much larger. A small few (mainly those who seem to have an interest in this being true) believe it may have a beneficial effect. Almost nobody believes that ionizing radiation poses the risk that the general public perceives it to.

So where did this fear come from? Well, what would our world be without people selling you $100 chunks of worthless plastic and metal to protect you from most-probably-mythical risks from non-ionizing radiation exposure? How would you fear the Russians and communism if the environmental impact and deaths resulting from Chernobyl hadn't been greatly exaggerated? How would Greenpeace and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament argue against nuclear power if it was known that far fewer people have died and far less environmental damage has been done with nuclear power than was done with, I dunno, a huge oil spill off the Gulf Coast, or the strip mining of coal to burn?

In the end, do the research, form your own opinions, and let me know what you think. As for me, I do believe there's a risk to ionizing exposure. I do believe it's unethical for professionals to compare ionizing radiation exposure to non-ionizing radiation or vice versa. I do believe that avoiding unnecessary ionizing radiation exposure is a good idea. Just like avoiding hot dogs is a good idea. But I'm not going to be unreasonably paranoid if I do end up with some ionizing radiation exposure. Or if I do end up eating a nitrate-laden hot dog. :-)

Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition vs Meego 1.0 Netbook

2010-06-02T23:02:00.003-06:00

I have recently tried both these operating systems on an ASUS EeePC 1005HA. There isn't really much of a battle here, or rather - there shouldn't be. Ubuntu thoroughly beat Meego in every way I can think of. Meego is an OS that is basically a smartphone Linux scaled up to a netbook screen. It's extremely limited - much like what I expect Google's Chrome OS to be (and there are some similarities, as Meego's browser IS Google Chrome). Ubuntu is a fully loaded Ferrari of an OS. Meego, well, isn't.

Ubuntu has the built-in "Ubuntu Software Center" where you can click to install a wide variety of free apps that will do almost anything you could need. Meego? Not so much - I didn't even bother trying to figure out how to add applications, but I'm pretty sure you use RPM packages. No visible terminal even. Wow.

Which brings me to the fact, neither OS is really ready for prime time end user installation. Both take some work to get everything working right. If you're trying to make a USB stick on a Mac to install Ubuntu, expect some of the most horrendous documentation you have ever seen (you have to click Mac under directions). The commands presented are outright wrong in places, and missing a lot of spaces that are required to make it work (I consider myself very experienced and I found a few places I had to trial and error a couple times to find where the spaces should go). The documentation for Meego (making a USB drive) on Linux were better, but ultimately - neither resulted in a bootable USB drive! I *have* used Ubuntu's built-in bootable USB drive creator to make working bootable USB drives on the same drive before, so I know it's not an issue with the USB drive but rather the direct byte-copy method being used in both how-to guides. I resorted to CDs with an external CD drive.

Once you get it running, Ubuntu Netbook Edition is more intuitive, better organized, and feels faster. It could benefit from Google Chrome instead of Firefox in the default install, but other than that, it's just better out of the box. My Alltel 3G card just works, I couldn't find any way to make it work in Meego's simplified networking menu. Navigating Meego with it's panel was counter-intuitive and rather painful. Ubuntu did a much better job of balancing small-screen capabilities with a great, intuitive user-interface. One small bar on top (sadly, they're adding a sidebar to Ubuntu Netbook Edition in 10.10 - a design decision I do not like on such a small screen...).

Overall, Meego Netbook is half-baked and inadequate. It's unpolished and downright ugly in places, and it is counter-intuitive to use. Ubuntu Netbook Edition is a full-on, high quality, desktop operating system. Scaled down to work well on the smaller screen. Ubuntu blows the backside off Windows 7 Starter (or even Home Premium!). Meego makes me wish I had Windows. Any Windows. And maybe that's the goal? Meego is ran by Nokia and Intel. Maybe it's a way to create an "ultra-entry-level" OS positioned below Windows Starter in the market? I don't know... but that's all it would be good for.

And yet, it's that very quality that make Meego much more likely to gain the widespread commercial availability pre-installed on Netbooks that Ubuntu Netbook Edition will likely never see. What we need are some netbook makers willing to ship Ubuntu Netbook Edition instead of Windows. They say Linux netbooks do poorly in the market. And I'm sure they do when they ship with garbage. If they shipped with Ubuntu, I think they could do quite well. Linux is not an operating system, it's part of one. Meego and Ubuntu are totally different OSes. One is great. One is hard-to-use and very feature-limited.

Meego Netbook Home Screen

Ubuntu Netbook Home Screen

P.S. I fully expect both platforms to be absolutely dwarfed by Google's Chrome OS. Why? Revenue sharing. I expect Google to PAY manufacturers to bundle Chrome OS (share Google's ad revenue). Meego will stay the realm of Nokia hardware, and Ubuntu will be the Netbook OS of choice for geeks who are okay with installing an OS themselves. Chrome and Windows will be the competitors on the shelf in Best Buy...

P.P.S. I do have one set of real benchmarks. I don't think these numbers mean anything, Meego feels a lot slower and that's what counts. But for the benchmark fans, here is SunSpider on Meego; and SunSpider on Ubuntu. Both are running in Google Chrome. The build on Ubuntu is newer and likely accounts for the difference. Don't read much into this, but I figured I'd post it anyways.