How Cluttered Is Your Desktop?

'nuff said...

Why I Think The MacBook Air Is Not a Good Buy

The MacBook Air, Apples new Subnotebook computer, is soon to be released to people all over. But is it really a good buy? It really comes down to what you need. But, I'll tell you why I think getting the MacBook Air isn't such a good idea.

First of all, the MacBook Air is apperently the least powerful Mac in terms of processing power. The low-end Mac Mini's CPU clock speed is at 1.8 GHz. The MacBook Air's CPU clock speed is 1.6 GHz, but you can get 1.8 GHz at an extra cost.

The second thing is, the small hard disk it comes with. The capacity of the MacBook Air hard disk is 80GB. While it may not be reasonable to conclude that the MacBook Air will be someone's primary computer, people like me use only one notebook as our primary, and only computer. There is an option to add a 64GB Solid State flash drive, but doing so adds another $999 USD. The flash storage is simply not a good idea to get in any computer if unless you have a very good reason to get it.

The final thing is, the price. It costs $1799 US. That would not be a bad price for a good Dell or a MacBook Pro, but why pay that price for what's essentially a pretty, thin, seriously underpowered computer? If you want a good deal, get the plain MacBook or the MacBook Pro, not the MacBook Air.

VLC Media Player - A Wonderful Media Player

You may have or have not heard of the VLC Media Player. This program is an open-source program for a variety of operating systems. I personally use it to play back CDs, DVDs, or files that I don't want in my music library. One of the killer things that I like about VLC is the fact that it is simple. The default music player in Windows is Windows Media Player (WMP). While I like that music player, it really should be called Windows Media Jukebox or something. It is just a little bit too complicated for my taste. If I want to play a certain file once, or if I want to listen to a Music CD, I think VLC is perfect for my needs. What's more, even though it runs on a variety of operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, it still looks native to the operating system. For example, if you use Mac OS X, you will be happy to know that Mac OS X is a native Cocoa application, thus making it fit in with the operating system. I really like this application. It is one of my favorite open source applications besides OpenOffice.org. You should check this out. You can download it at http://www.videolan.org/.

Is OpenOffice.org a Worthy Alternative to Microsoft Word?

It depends... Well, I mean, I can't just say "yes" or say "no." It's one of those questions where you have to evaluate your needs to see which is better for your purposes. If you are looking for an office suite, but you don't want to spend $150 dollars for it, then by all means get OpenOffice.org. But, if you want to have perfect compatibility with Microsoft Office, there's nothing more compatible with Microsoft Office than itself. If you use a Mac, well, maybe you should go with Office or iWork, since OpenOffice.org is still in beta for Mac OS X.

Personally, since I can't afford Microsoft Office, I'll stick with OpenOffice.org

Spread Firefox!

The Firefox web browser is one of the most powerful browsers around. Maybe you are using the web browser and would like to help spread the word about it. Well, the folks at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ can help you get some inspiration to do so.

Am I the Only One Who Likes Windows Classic Theme?

Everyone I know seems to wonder why I like to make my desktop look like Windows 2000. Put simply, I think Windows 2000 looks awesome! Windows XP and Windows Vista have pretty themes. But the new Aero glass theme seems to be a little too bloated for my taste and the Start menu looks better in Windows 2000, at least in my opinion. Anyone else agree with me?

Launching Programs with Google Desktop

I love Google Desktop. It is able to do a variety of things that make my life easier day to day. But did you know that it can start up applications for you sort of like the "Start Search" in the Start menu in Windows Vista? Well, now you know. It helps me search my files, search the web, and start up my applications. It's a pretty handy tool. Maybe you would like to try it out. You can download the program for Windows, Mac, and Linux. When you install it, you simply press the Ctrl key (Command key in Macs), and you can search the web, your computer, and start up applications. Try it out at http://desktop.google.com/

Macworld 2008 Steve Jobs' Keynote - The Results

Well my hope for a 3G iPhone has come to an end... Steve Jobs was giving a keynote presentation earlier today to announce some pretty important products, one of which, I really love. If you haven't seen the keynote in person (like me), you can stream it from the Apple website. Anyway, the first thing I saw was the introduction of the Time Capsule. It was a basically an AirPort Extreme router plus a huge hard drive that could either be 500GB or even 1TB. It seems to be great for laptops, like mine. However, it seems to work best with Macs, which I don't have.

The second thing I remember is the updates to the iPhone and iPod touch. These are major updates. Let's focus on the iPhone first. The iPhone first gets updates to its Google Maps client, and even includes a feature that lets you find your location on the map. The interesting thing is, is that the iPhone doesn't even use GPS. It finds your location by using cellular towers as well as wireless routers that can some how, when put together, they can pinpoint your approximate location on the Earth. Also, you can now have your bookmarks that you have in Safari show up on your home screen. During his presentation, Steve Jobs, demonstrated this feature by putting bookmarks to Google and the New York Times on the home screen. Steve Jobs also demonstrated the ability to move your icons around your home screen. You can also have up to 9 pages of icons on your home screen. These features have been available through third-party hacks, but now that the firmware now officially supports it, well, I think that it's awesome. The iPod touch had gotten a nice new software upgrade, if you cough up the $20US to get it. The iPod touch now includes applications that make the iPod touch a more compelling reason to get that compared to an iPhone. It comes for free with every new iPod, but costs $20US for all existing iPods. The audience was very silent, almost groaning, when they heard about this $20 early adopters fee. The good news is that now you can use these applications without jailbreaking your iPod. Also, the new features that come on the iPhone will be on the iPod touch.

On to AppleTV. It has been updated to handle iTunes store downloads and movie rentals. It can view photos on your .Mac or flickr account. It has signifcantly improved the user interface. You can even rent some movies in HD. On top of that, the price has been lowered to $229 US. Also, if you own an AppleTV, you can now upgrade the system software for free. So you will have all of these things for a very good price or for free, if you already own an AppleTV.

They also announced something amazing. It is called the Macbook Air. You have probably heard of it. It can fit into one of those inter-office envelopes and only looks like a small stack of paper. It does seem pretty pricey at $1799 US, but it is hard to put a price on beauty. It supports 802.11n and Bluetooth. It's also missing an optical drive, but you can purchase an add-on superdrive for $99 US. Or, if you already own another computer, wether its PC or Mac, you can install some software to make it shareable with the Macbook Air. That's pretty awesome. I wish I could get one... Maybe you can get it. Let's see how people like it as it ships.

There's Something In The Air... - Macworld 2008

I just went to the Apple website today and I saw one of the weirdest things I have seen on the Apple website. Now there have been lots of predictions about what Steve Jobs' keynote will contain. My bet (and what I would hope), is that there is an iPhone with 3G data transfer speeds. One of the best places for prediction I have encountered is from CNET. They supect other things like an "Apple-ish UMPC" or Apple having notebooks with Blu-Ray drives. Now I would think that the Blu-Ray drive thing might happen someday, considering that it seems that HDDVD appears to be losing. Who knows? I know that I am hoping to have a 3G iPhone someday.

Mahalo

I was recently trying a slightly new search engine called Mahalo, and it is a pretty polished search engine. You may be wondering "What exactly is Mahalo?" and I'll explain it for you. Mahalo is a search engine that has results that are written by humans. Normally in a search engine like Google, there would be a special program called a spider that looks around the internet, grabbing all sorts of pages and putting them in a database. Google creates results automatically, but you could end up with not very good links, or link farms, or phishing scams, or anything else undesirable. Mahalo attempts to skip that by getting paid people to update their results pages and add links, as well as remove them from the search page. They argue that you will get better links that you would otherwise not see on the first page in Google. Also, they have some cool information that would lead you into interesting topics. It sounds like a cool site to check out.

The New Mac Pro

Have you heard that Apple announced their latest major update to their Mac Pro line of Macintosh computers. I never had a Mac Pro, but it sounded like an awesome thing to have. I have always heard of dual, even quad core computing, but this is amazing. The newer Mac Pros now have two Quad-Core processors featuring the latest Intel processors according to the CNET Buzz Out Loud podcast (Episode 637). However, the Mac Pro starts at a hefty $2800 US, but you can go with the quad-core configuration for less. I am so amazed that computing has come so far in only a year... The Mac Pro also features a huge RAM capacity at up to 32 GB. I can't imagine using such large amounts of power for myself. But I can see a wonderful use for graphic design, video production, and even servers.

I'm not endorsing CNET, but I just love one of their podcasts, Buzz Out Loud. You can listen to, and subscribe to the podcast at bol.cnet.com

Changes to The Look of This Blog

I hope you have noticed some changes I have made recently. I chose a new template and did some customizations to the interface. I actually like it better than the last look I used. Also, you may have noticed that there is now an easy way to subscribe to an RSS feed. I think that these changes to the blog and the more that will follow will benefit the blog as well as make it more personalized to be like me. Hope you like it too.

What To Do When You Buy A New PC - My Recommendation

I usually receive a new PC every two to three years, either by buying one myself or getting one as a gift. Now I did not get a new PC. It would be awesome, but sadly I did not get one. But over the times that I had to restore my computer to factory condition and other people's computers to factory conditions (which essentially make them new again), I have put together in my head some tips for when you first open that box to when you use it day to day. It is also helpful to note that this would also apply to new Mac or Linux machines somewhat, even though this post mainly applies to computers running Microsoft Windows. Hope you enjoy it.

First of all, unpack carefully. How many times have I heard about people having issues with a new product and then they have to do all these sorts of things and in the process, end up damaging the computer? I heard it enough times, believe me. So please, unpack with caution. Also, wait until you are in a quiet, safe spot for opening and unpacking your computer, like your desk, or your normal computing place. Bad things could happen with all of the confusion that could happen with people running around and pulling power cables or accidentally spilling something on the computer or its peripherals and documentation. So wait for the best time to unpack.

Next, when you turn on the computer, follow any directions the computer tells you. It may ask you for a language, time, etc. Once you complete such a course, you will hopefully be greeted by the desktop. Now this is where the fun begins.

Next, remove all crapware. Crapware is basically trial or crippled software that gets factory installed by the manufacturer. On a Mac, usually you would get iLife, which is a great suite of creative applications that are pretty awesome and are the only thing preinstalled usually. On a Linux computer, you will see a lot of preinstalled software, however, they actually are not trial or crippled software either. On a Windows computer, well, that is not usually the case. So go to the Add/Remove feature in Windows in remove everything that is unnecessary, except the trial Anti-Virus that comes with the computer usually. You will need some way to protect yourself until you get a decent Anti-Virus. Then, get your computer updated as soon as possible. Once you are done, we move on.

Next, get your favorite Anti-Virus software and remove the old one. Windows Live Onecare (http://onecare.live.com/) is pretty good from what I heard. Nod32 (http://www.eset.com/) has also gotten great reviews. Just so you know, I don't get paid for mentioning these people. Personally, I use AVG Free Edition (http://free.grisoft.com/), as well as Windows Defender (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx). The good thing about AVG Free Edition and Windows Defender is that they are both free, as well as the fact that Windows Defender is included with Windows Vista. Security updates patch security holes from which bad things can go through.

Next, get your favorite applications, as well as hardware drivers installed. Firefox (http://www.firefox.com/), and OpenOffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org/) are wonderful examples, and plus they are FREE! So check those out. Get your driver discs, software discs, etc. Install what you need. This is important, the less unnecessary software you have, the faster your computer will be. Trust me.

Finally, restore your documents from a backup or transfer from your previous computer. And then you are done!

In the end, you will have a nice fast new computer that has been tweaked to suit your needs.