Great Mac like volume control for Windows

Having a lack of drivers for those extended buttons on my Sony Vaio laptop, I discovered a fantasticly useful application for Windows. It's called simply 3RVX, it allows you to set hotkey combinations to control volume. Such quality freeware!

Microsoft not compatible with Microsoft?

Microsoft live mail, part of Microsoft Live Essentials offers no support for getting your email, calendars and contacts from exchange 2007!

Not only am I shocked that Windows 7 comes with no email client out of the box, but it isn't even compatible with its own company's mail, calandaring and contacts solution. On my Mac it takes just a couple of clicks to set up exchange support for Apple mail, iCal and Address book all of which are available out of the box. Even Linux in its Ubuntu form comes with evolution mail supporting exchange mail, calendars and contacts.

Further more, isn't the clue in the name? Windows live essentials, i.e. essential apps, i.e. a bloody email client! So in an attempt to slim down Windows 7 which is admittedly much slimmer than Vista but nowhere near as slim as OSX or Ubuntu, Microsoft have chosen to axe essential apps resulting in a much poorer out of box experience.

I like Windows 7, it is certainly the best Windows yet with much to commend. But this just shows that the words 'joined up thinking' and 'Microsoft' cannot be used in the same sentence!

Microsoft Security Essentials

Although I have not yet thrown live viruses at Microsoft's new security essentials virus protection software, initial results have been very good indeed. Microsoft Security Essentials takes only a small amount of memory whilst running, system and file scanning is fast, real-time protection uses minimal system resources, and it has a very efficient virus definitions update process.

I have replaced AVG (free) with Microsoft security essentials and have noticed a big improvement in the speed and responsiveness of the system. So much so, that my aging Sony Vaio with 1gb of RAM has suddenly become a very usable system running Windows 7 and Microsoft security essentials.

Now to set up a walled garden virtual machine environment, and throw some viruses at it to see if anything sticks. If the results are good I can see little point PC sellers pushing the majority of customers to buy 3rd party security suites which generally cripple the computers they run on. Although I doubt that will stop them trying.

Laptop and Desktop doomed?

As the popularity of mobile computing dramatically increases in the phone space, there is the distinct possibility that smart phones become the next main computing platform. You would have the ability to slot your mobile into a desktop docking station (possibly inside the display), similarly you would be able to slot your mobile into a laptop docking station. This is not as crazy as it first appears, ten years ago desktop computers were running at a speed of 200Mhz, today the iPhone 3Gs runs at 600Mhz easily able to run complex software. Within 5 years the mobile phone will reach processing speeds into the multi Ghz range allowing complex desktop class software to run.

Modern smart phones already run some desktop class software and OS's (OSX iPhone, Windows mobile, Android), today I could do most of my job just using my mobile. How long will it be before the only computer I need is my mobile phone?

SAASY Google

Software As A Service combines cloud back end services with either web based applications, or synced desktop applications..

What does this mean? It means that Microsoft should be looking over their shoulder in case another company decides it would like to get into the enterprise market. Google has launched their Google Apps SAAS offering which can act as a full exchange solution, with the ability to even migrate an existing exchange environment. Users can even use outlook with all the facilities of Microsoft Exchange without needing the server, or the air conditioned room the server lives in, or the backup infrastructure, or indeed the staff of computer experts to run it all.

It only requires an outlook plugin to work, which unfortunately does not work directly on the Mac. However the Mac can utilise sync tools to talk to Google mail/calendar/addressbook. The iPhone is able to sync with Google mail/calendaring/addressbook directly ironically using Google's licenced Microsoft Exchange solution. This allows Macs and PC's, plus many makes of mobile to use the same exchange like services millions of pounds cheaper than the Microsoft solution.

This is cloud computing at work. Microsoft still has the advantage of an excellent back end solution for PIM functions, many systems including the iPhone and Evolution Mail for Linux can directly sync with Microsoft exchange using a simple direct connection (unfortunately Evolution is not yet compatible with exchange 2007).

The complexity of running your own exchange environment is taken away by using Microsoft's cloud services. I think that Microsoft will move more and more into cloud backend services, and play less of a role in the front end of computer users lives in the future. However, Google has cloud services that work across a larger range of computer platforms and at a much cheaper price than Microsoft's cloud services.

Following the trend through to it's ultimate conclusion, it's clear that the traditional server room will cease to exist, being replaced by just a few massive data centres running hosted cloud services.

Tech post from OZ

I was trying to think who would buy a copy of Windows 7 starter edition when it is released. The artificial limit of 3 applications running at one time would mean that I would be crazy to use it as my primary OS, but wouldn't it make a fantastic virtual machine to run the odd Windows application for Linux and OSX users? These users could use the excellent VMWare, Parallels Desktop, or the free Virtual Box to fire up a copy of windows 7 when needed.

Assuming it cost a small amount of money, say £10, and I could buy a copy electronically by downloading the disc image, and it let me install it as a virtual machine, then I would be the first in line to buy a copy! I think Microsoft could sell large numbers of this version if they were sensible enough to relax their EULA and sell licences electronically.

Why would anyone bother to steal a copy of Windows 7 if there was an easy and cheap way to buy a suitable version legally. Trouble is I don't think Microsoft wants to sell this version of windows at all, preferring users to buy Windows home premium instead. So my question is:-

Who is Windows starter edition aimed at? Who will buy it? And why does it exist anyway.

Mad predictions, my head in the clouds again.

So what is the future of computing going to look like in 5-10 years? Usually it's only a mad man or a fool who would predict the tech world. Ok, so I'm mad. ;)

I am going to stick my neck out and say that cloud computing is the future. Cloud computing enabling technology trends are converging. I see more and more lower powered computing products that have great connectivity appearing such as netbooks, and touch based tablets. Future cloud products will be greener, they will have a great battery life because they are so low powered, and will become incredibly portable.

All the heavy lifting is being done by powerful servers 'in the cloud'. Just a few weeks ago I would have said that cloud computing would be a niche because it would be impossible to play demanding 3D games or edit video purely using cloud based server technologies. I was completely wrong.

Look at the advantages:-

• Your computer will weigh almost nothing.
• It will last 20 hours on a single charge.
• You will be able to play Crysis 5 on every device you own.
• The difference between a desktop and laptop computer will just be the size of the display.
• Computer's will get much cheaper than the cheapest netbooks are today, since there is no need for a beefy processor or much if any storage.
  
• You will have 128 cores at your disposal in the cloud. In fact the number of cores your computer has will dynamically change depending on what processing needs you have.
• It is green computing in the extreme.
• Who could afford a top of the range gaming rig with 4 SLI extreme graphics cards to play their games with? Everyone can have one if it is part of your subscription to the cloud gaming service.
  
• Once you have edited your video, it can be instantly posted on every site you want since it is already compressed, and already uploaded.
• Want an extremely powerful computer games system to play on your 3D TV in the lounge? That will cost the price of two games. It might even be free with the subscription service to play games via any device in the house.
  
• Full data redundancy, no need to ever back up. You already have all your data spread amongst the cloud so that it would be impossible to loose anything.
  
• No need to ever upload anything, as every bit of content you generate is already out there. Instant links are simply created to the same data using smart tagged meta data.

The key to this working is the open cloud consortium and open id, if all data is inter-operable with every service then it does not matter if a service is unavailable for a few hours downtime. For instance if flicker goes down, simply access the same photos using the same account from another service that is working.

Having your data hosted by a datacentre is far safer than having it on your computer, even if you are careful enough to have local backup storage. How many of us have an off-site backup? Drives may fail in a datacentre, but no data is at risk on large industrial Raid storage systems.

Now for the really far out stuff

I believe Microsoft Windows' consumer market share will continue to decline. Microsoft (if it has any sense) will move into the cloud business big-time, to offer businesses and consumers back-end services.

Windows will all but disappear on the desktop, as Microsoft moves into back end cloud services. Linux finally gets its day as the desktop of choice for many people and is used almost exclusively in business on the desktop. Apple specialises in the very best consumer cloud computing kit and moves much of its software into the cloud, it also produces specialist computing kit for content production such as for film and video work. The apple experience will be delivered through OSX, Safari and Sproutcore and the iPhone will play a large part to show that cloud computing could be just the normal way computing is done in the next decade.

The sorts of software we already use day to day include many cloud services already. This blog is a cloud service, I started writing it on my Mac upstairs, I wrote some more on an Acer netbook, finally I checked it and posted it using my Ubuntu powered Sony laptop, everything created and posted in the cloud. This is normal, why would it be such a stretch to imagine many other computing tasks done in this way?

Entertainment and indeed work will just become subscription based services. The seeds of change have already been sown. Once you can play Crysis in the cloud on a netbook, anything is possible!

Linux is ready for the desktop?

After testing the new beta of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 I am convinced that it is more than ready for the desktop. I will certainly be installing it as the primary OS on my old Sony laptop.

The ease with which you can install Ubuntu on a variety of hardware is even better than Windows Vista / Seven. Windows does an extremely good job of automatically finding drivers, and yet Ubuntu manages to better this! Very impressive indeed. It literally takes a few minutes to install proprietary drivers (if needed) and the codecs used to play your favourite content using Firefox 3.

The whole process is seamless and automatic, not requiring any manual hunting or downloading from various websites. Ubuntu is pure class. Couple this with the fact that it comes with an extremely sensible set of applications including a full office suite and you are on to a winner.

Another huge advantage (of which there are many) of using Linux is that not only is it free, but it can be updated to the full next release without needing to re-install from disc. So install the OS once and it will update itself to major new releases forever. It is also incredibly fast and efficient.

The future of games!

I have seen the future, and it is kind of fluffy and cloud shaped!

An amazing service has been announced that if successful could improve the gaming landscape for all computer users, it could even have an impact on how companies provide us with software in the future.

Here is the idea... Run a server farm which has thousands of games installed on thousands of virtual computers, stay with me on this one. The user is able to connect to this gaming service, play the latest 3D games using any computer Mac, PC, Linux, netbook, perhaps even PSP or iPhone in the future. The gamers input is collected and passed in real time to the virtual machine running the game, the video and audio output is compressed and streamed in real time back to the player.

• Play Windows games without needing Windows.
• No need to keep updating your graphics card every 6 months to play the latest games.
• No need to ever install a game or have a hard disk big enough to store all the game data.
• Episodic gaming will be simple, as the game makers simply update the game in the cloud.
• No need for gigabytes of memory or fast processors to support complex games.
• The very best and latest games available to play through your TV with an incredibly cheap set top box. All the box has to do is collect your movements through a controller and stream HD video. This will almost instantly kill Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft games consoles.
  
• Social gaming would be great. Video of your exploits can be shared, any user with any computer can play any game with any other user!
  
• Start playing a game seconds after buying it without a huge download.
• Play as many demos as you like instantly
  

This has already been demonstrated playing Crysis (a particularly demanding game) on a netbook with minimal ram!

For the doubters out there, cloud computing is going to be massive. It is going to revolutionise many things, not only games.

It is possible to stream 30fps 720p video now on many broadband connections. As our internet connections get faster we will be able to play full screen 1920x1080 games at 60fps through the cloud.

Melinda Gates banned from having a Wii?

Bill Gates has perhaps unsurprisingly banned his family from owning any Apple products, poor things. Mellinda (Bill's wife) has been lusting after friends iPhones for a while but has resisted the urge, with commendable willpower. The adverse publicity that this could cause Microsoft's chairman (her husband) would be awful if she were to buy one, but would it?

Surely the adverse publicity is the sad fact Bill's family are banned from Apple technology. Indeed it could be argued that there is some great Microsoft technology in the iPhone with its implementation of Microsoft exchange and the fact that Microsoft themselves are writing applications for the iPhone. It's all a bit sad really.

I am sure that Steve Jobs personally uses some Microsoft technologies, and would not even think about banning his family from using Microsoft products. Remember that the next Apple operating system (Snow Leopard) will have full support for Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange built in.

My motto is use the best kit for the job, whoever makes it. Microsoft as a company seem happy to embrace some Apple technologies, as well as Apple having an extensive track record of embracing some Microsoft technologies. Arguably Bill has generated more adverse comments by banning his family from Apple than he would have done if he had let them embrace Apple's products.

This begs the question. Does this extend to any other companies that Microsoft is competing with? For instance is his family only allowed to play with xbox's, is Melinda banned from having a Wii?

Windows hates my camera!

I thought I was bound to have something nice to say about Windows for this post, but no alas, one more thing has decided to ruin it for me. I have a Fuji s9600 camera, often described as a bridge camera since it is a bridge between a digital compact and a full SLR. It's a great camera, but unfortunately Windows just doesn't get on with it.

The camera can rotate images by changing the exif data within the photo to say what orientation it was taken. This manual setting is set to 0, or 90 degrees so that when it is opened and edited it is the right way up. this ensures that the quality of the picture is the best, since the file does not have to be rotated and re-saved. Unfortunately Windows seems to completely ignore the orientation of the image.

Vista presents this portrait as a landscape, if I rotate the graphic and re-save it, it will open incorrectly on computers that understand orientation properly. Besides quality will be lost if I do this with a jpeg, since every time you save a jpg you get one generation loss of quality like ye olde video tapes.



Windows 7 shockingly still has this bug.



Mac here is displaying the same image, no surprises, everything works fine and I get a useful indication of the orientation data. Interestingly detected as TIFF data, which is what could be throwing Windows. Mind you, the Mac works whatever you throw at it.



Ubuntu does an excellent job of interpreting the orientation data.



My conclusion is possibly a tad extreme, but I don't think I could trust any version of Windows to give me consistent results in the realm of photography.

To be fair to Windows the fault probably lies with Fujifilm, except this does not explain why OSX and Ubuntu seem to work fine with every image I have thrown at them from many cameras. The issue can be sorted out by editing the orientation tag with a windows application.

Hello, I'm a PC

Steve Ballmer went swinging for Apple during an interview with PC Magazine (US). Amongst the snippets of wisdom displayed, Ballmer said that Macs were overpriced "Have you ever seen a cheap Mac?", and that Macs had little place in the workplace "Do Macs work in business? No, they do not".

He also dismissed Apple's extremely successful chain of retail stores as a desperate act "Apple started doing stores because nobody wanted to sell it's PC's". Remarkably Ballmer criticised a Microsoft application shooting himself in the foot, and the Microsoft Mac business unit in the back when he said "Can you find the applications you want on a Mac? Well, you don't really get full Microsoft Office". He then apparently tried to explain 'The Apple Tax' and that 'Windows offers far better value'

1. Have you ever seen a cheap Mac? Answer: No, although a Mac mini is great value. Apple tend towards quality rather than quantity.
2. Do Macs work in business? no they do not. I beg to differ, having used a Mac daily in my job building Windows installations and working with windows servers, fitting in perfectly with our Microsoft back end systems for well over a year without a squeak of a problem.
3. Well you don't really get full Microsoft office. Perhaps I have more faith in the Microsoft Mac business unit team than their own CEO, I find Office 2008 for the Mac to be quite a good deal. In some ways Microsoft office 2008 on the Mac is nicer to use than office 2007 for Windows, and it is improving all the time.
4. I must confess that I don't really understand the Apple Tax, can anyone enlighten me? Personally I have spent less money, and enjoyed computing much more since I have owned a Mac. I don't even have to mention the amazing digital lifestyle apps that come pre installed on a Mac as opposed to the 'crapware' that is installed on most PC's!

I don't mean to make Steve Ballmer sound incredibly stupid, he seems to have that one covered! But couldn't he just stop acting like a child and work with Apple, and the open source movement and embrace new technologies and open standards? Many talented engineers at Microsoft appear to be doing exactly this. Steve Ballmer seems to kick his own staff and Microsoft partners in their mouths every time he opens his own.

Steve Ballmer, oozes understated charisma and professionalism as he leads the worlds most popular business software maker. Steve Jobs on the other hand simply leads the worlds most popular consumer hardware and software maker. I'll leave you to watch further videos of the two Steve's, and ask one simple question. Which Steve would you trust with your computing needs? ;)

The six versions of Windows 7!

Yes, you read that right. From a PCPro story today, it looks as if Microsoft is wasting a massive opportunity to simplify a confused market.

Starter Edition: "A lightweight version for netbook computers, that will only be capable of running three applications concurrently. It will lack the vast majority of the advanced features, such as Media Center and touchscreen support, but will include the new Taskbar and Home Group feature."

So netbook owners are not expected to want to watch media, use a touch screen or do more than 3 things at once! How will Windows stop you running more than 3 things at one time, with a helpful error message? Sorry, but what a crock of crap. I'll stick to Ubuntu.

Home Basic: "For emerging markets only. Microsoft has, bizarrely, appeared to swap the meaning of Starter and Home Basic. Intended to "access the internet and run basic productivity applications"."

erm, so all this OS does is allow you to access the internet and run basic apps? Again, a crock of poo! Give me Ubuntu any day.

Home Premium: "The mainstay version that Microsoft will put the majority of its marketing weight behind. Will include Media Center, touchscreen support, full Aero glass graphics, improved media format support and streaming, and the option to easily share files across a home network with the new Libraries feature."

Ok, so this combined with Windows 7 Ultimate should be windows 7 home. I don't see why this would not run on a netbook since the Windows 7 Ultimate beta already works fine on many netbooks. However, I would like the windows installer to allow you to choose which bits of the OS you would like to install if you don't have much hard disk space on your netbook, like windows used to do. Unfortunately this version of Windows is unlikely to be included in any purchase of a netbook. Sorry, but this is another example of Microsoft missing a massive opportunity to cash in on the netbook craze!

Professional: "A business version for home workers and small businesses not operating on a volume licence. Will include features such as advanced network backup and Encrypting File System. However, BitLocker encryption is once again reserved for the Enterprise and Ultimate editions."

So home business users are not expected to want to use an encrypted file system? And the (finally) easy to use BitLocker encryption is excluded. Sorry, but I can't believe this is happening!

Enterprise: "For volume licence customers. Will include all the Professional features, plus BitLocker protection - including the new option to encrypt USB flash drives and external hard disks. Will also include DirectAccess, which allows remote workers to securely access a company network without a VPN."

So DirectAccess would not be usful for home business users that cannot take advantage of volume licences? Pathetic, I am growing more and more tired of technologies such as BitLocker and DirectAccess because they are not cross platform.

If somebody bitlockers a drive with a video on it to edit, then gives it to a Mac user, they just get an unreadable disk. It would be far better to use an open standard such as PGP which could be decrypted by all platforms and allow governments to not lock their precious data into a proprietory encryption scheme.

I am sure DirectAccess enabled servers for home working would not be usable with any other computer. Why not ignore DirectAccess and use open standards for remote working, or at least a third party proprietory cross platform solution. Struth!

Ultimate: The all-encompassing version of Windows 7, although there's no repeat of Vista's much-maligned Ultimate Extras. Branded as the "no compromise SKU for tech enthusiasts" it will include every single feature available in Windows 7.

What is wrong with having Windows 7 home, Windows 7 business, and Windows 7 server? Put all SKU's of Windows 7 on one disc, if you install it on a 64bit processor you get a 64bit version, likewise for 32Bit. Include an option for the user to do an advanced install and choose the components they would like.

Am I mad and completely alone in wanting Windows 7 ultimate to be Windows 7 Home, Windows 7 professional and Enterprise to be just Windows 7 business available to both home business users and as a volume licence, and Server 2008 to be Windows 7 server.

Microsoft seems to think they can charge a premium for Windows 7 Ultimate, which contains features that should be in all versions of Windows 7 home. Home users have different priorities than business users, fair enough, that's why there should be just two versions to cover this Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 business.

And there I was thinking Microsoft were actually improving and listening to their customers! Confused? You will be, this is looking closer and closer to a joke I was sent the other day. Enjoy!

Ignore standards at your peril!

If you are a web developer, you really need to think about who is out there using your sites. Browser market share has changed dramatically from the time when your audience was 95% Windows and IE, with 5% 'others'. Today approximately 10% of web surfers are OSX users, with 88% running Windows.

Windows 7 even though it is still a beta product is proving to be very popular, seeming to suggest that Microsoft will have a hit on their hands when they release it replacing many older copies of Windows out there. The Windows 7 beta includes support for h264 encoded Mp4 video files as well as AAC audio.

This is absolutely huge from the point of view of anyone creating media or including media on their shiny new web 2.0 sites. The h264 codec is incredibly important as it is an open standard which is in use by a very large number of professional industry heavyweights such as, The BBC, BBC iPlayer, SkyTV, and practically every Hollywood studio / editing facility.

This means that if you encode your video as an MP4 file using the h264 codec, it will be natively playable 'out of the box' on OSX, Linux, the Web, the iPhone, and many other mobile internet devices and now Windows 7 using windows media player. The video also does not have to be re-encoded to support YouTube, the BBC iPlayer, and Flash.

I give Microsoft a standing ovation for making use of and adopting open standards. I urge everyone producing content to use Mp4/h264 rather than closed proprietary video formats. I'm sure this would never have happened while Bill Gates was running Microsoft, however, I'd like to see them go one step further and make h264 the default as Apple did several years ago.

Have a look at The quicktime HD guide and Vincent Laforet - Smugmug to see what h264 can do. Sorry, but the next time I see scabby 320x240 video on the web that can only be played on a small number of platforms I will scream!

Woz on Apple revival

Apple has much to celebrate, not least that it is the Mac's 25th birthday. It has come through some sticky times. Perhaps this quote from Woz could tell us why.

"I'm proud now. I'm especially proud not just because Apple turned around, but because it turned around in a way so in line with our early values. Those values were about excellence in product design - so excellent that people would drool over the idea of having that product. Those values were about an emotional feeling - a feeling of fun. Like the way we decided to have color on the Apple II in the early days, back when nobody thought it would happen. I'm so proud that Apple has gotten back to the important things." - Steve Wozniak, iWoz

Mac sales up, PC sales down

Apple have reported their best sales quarter ever, while Microsoft are suffering a slump in sales, although they don't look that bad. Even the economic downturn gripping the world has seemingly had little effect on Apple sales. Could it be that Apple are producing consumer products that people want to buy?

There also appears to be evidence of Apple's move into the enterprise space, without Apple even trying. The Macintosh had a history of not being seen as a powerful business platform after loosing their way in the 90's (although ironically the Apple II started it all with Visicalc) but it is finding its way into offices, not just the design studio.

They must be doing something right.

Michel Dell said that Apple should give up now, Microsoft had won. He advised Steve to sell Apple before it became worthless. Now Apple could buy Dell outright! Dell has said it would love to sell PC's running OSX if Apple would licence it.

What is the reason Apple is doing so well? Take a look at their site, and the first thing you see is no presure sales information and friendly videos showing you how easy it is to achieve what you want to do. This same approach filters through to the Applestore. You get "come in, come in.. try some of our kit, use the free wifi want to sit upstairs and use your Windows laptop on our network, no worries. go for it have fun, we'll show you how to do stuff and give you some free training". Contrast this with any other computer store and you get "Can I help you with that sir?, no just browsing? You really need this protection software suite, are you going to play with that all day or are you going to buy it?"

Have Microsoft already addressed some of their issues by making Windows 7, if so why the job cuts?

Apple Reports First Quarter Results

January 21, 2009

Apple today reported the best quarterly revenue and earning in its history, ”surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” according to Steve Jobs. Announcing results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter, Apple posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. During the quarter, Apple sold 2,524,000 Mac computers, a record 22,727,000 iPods, and 4,363,000 iPhones.

Huge sales predicted for Windows 7

I'm going to put my neck on the line now and predict that even Microsoft will not be prepared for the huge sales that windows 7 will generate. Hell, I might even buy a copy myself!

I can't believe I just said that... medic!

Not only will Windows 7 sell it's usual high amount bundled with many PC's, but sales to users wanting to upgrade will be equally positive. This is not due to Windows 7 being the best operating system in the world, but simply because it is the best version of Windows. XP users have had nothing to update their systems to as Vista's heavy demands would kill their PC. Microsoft themselves have had nothing to offer to netbook manufacturures apart from a stay of execution for Windows XP.

Windows XP is very long in the tooth now, it may be fast but it doesn't do much. It is a dead OS. Vista includes some grovy tech but is still rather poor in its execution, and I am being very kind to Vista here. Windows 7 is a very well optimised version of Vista, and it will finally run on the good old netbooks of this world as well as older systems owned by Windows users wanting to upgrade.

As soon as Windows 7 is released, XP will be dead!

Why on earth would I like a copy of Windows 7 if I use a Mac? Nope I've not gone mad, OSX is still the best OS out there. I would actually like a cheap home version of Windows 7 to replace my copy of Windows XP I use on the Mac to play windows games, as it contains directx 10/11. I'll stick with XP for the moment as it will take me a while to finish half life 2.

Quick update:

A few hours after writing the above, I have just learned that Microsoft are to shed 5,000 jobs. The world economic state is blamed. I can't help thinking that MS are being a bit premature, it could also mean that although Windows 7 deserves success, the economic climate may curtail sales dramatically.

iPhone for richer or poorer?

People assume that iPhone owners are rich or at least well off, but what about the argument that the iPhone would be just the ticket if you were unfortunately broke? I have heard it mentioned in more than one podcast, that iPhones are quite popular with those of us who are not so well off.

A 16Gb iPhone 3G on pay as you go in the UK costs £391 which sounds a lot, but there are several points that put this price into perspective.

1. The cost of a years worth of unlimited data and use of the cloud wifi hotspots are included in the price. This usually costs £10 per month, which is an excellent deal from O2. So taking this cost off the phone brings it down to £271.
2. The iPhone 3G is a portable computer with phone capabilities, very useful for finding a job, making appointments, push email, using the web.
3. The iPhone does the job of several devices. If you can't afford a computer, it is your computer. If you can't afford an internet connection at home, it is your link to the world. If you want to play games, it is your games machine. If you want to watch movies and educate yourself watching podcasts, it is your portable media player. If you need a radio, Wunder radio from the app store will sort you out. Need to get to that interview? The iPhone is your GPS unit and city guide.
4. A PSP costs £129 an Archos PMP equivelent media player costs £188 a 2MP camera costs £45 taking this away from the £279 iphone and it is free ;)

If you find yourself short of cash, investing in one device that can do many things can be the sensible choice, besides its great fun.

A weekend with Windows 7

I've been playing with Windows 7 build 7000 over the weekend. I have been (for the most part) pleasantly surprised. It is the first version of Windows that I have been impressed with. I say this because back in the day Microsoft Windows 3.1 turned into Windows 95 which was less impressive than the Amiga OS I was using at the time. Windows Vista is being compared to Windows ME, with Windows 7 dubbed 'Vista done right'. So, what are the big news items that hit you right away?

Performance and Size

These are the two things that many users had problems with when using Vista SP0. I've not had a chance to do any timing checks but Windows 7 'feels' twice as fast as Vista SP1. This could just simply be that the user interface is more responsive but it is certainly nippy in many ways, although not as fast as Ubuntu.

At this point I should remind you that I am testing Windows 7 on a triple boot 5 year old laptop also running Vista and Ubuntu 8.04LTS so that I can see the differences of each OS running on the same hardware.

A bare bones installation of Vista Enterprise SP1 came in at a whopping 12Gb, whereas Windows 7 ultimate (containing more than Enterprise) comes in at a much smaller 6Gb. To massively over simplify, smaller files = faster reads = less RAM = faster computer.

Oh ok then, enough words already... Here's what it looks like.



Windows 7 has done a good job recognising my hardware, just need graphics card, audio, and ethernet. To be honest I would always install latest versions of these anyway. Windows update also detected and installed extra support for the laptop, a Sony Vaio GRT996VP.



The performance scores are pretty good. Desktop performance in Aero is slow but that is the fault of the poor graphics card and drivers. I used the same drivers that were used for Vista to check compatibility, it might be possible to improve performance further using better drivers although nVidia are annoyingly incapable of supporting their own mobile edition cards!



Slow Aero performance on older machines can almost be completely solved with one mouse click. Right-Click on 'Computer', choose properties / performance, then choose 'adjust visual effects' Untick the box enabling transparent glass and desktop performance will noticeably increase. It still looks nice.



When scanning the network it even discovered my Time Capsule.



A feature that I have grown to love on the Mac and Linux is the 'virtual desktop'. Although Windows 7 has internal support for these, you try getting them to work. I trawled the interweb for "Windows virtual desktop manager" and found several, unfortunately they were almost all completely awful. With the exception of two.

'yodm3d' is for those of you with a good graphics card and powerful computer. It imitates Linux's 'compiz' 3D desktop effects on Windows. Unfortunately while compiz running on ubuntu is ultra slick and very fast, yodm3d is as slow as a very slow thing, although it is easy to compensate by adjusting it's settings it is still no match for compiz.

My favorite virtual desktop manager for Windows is 'Vista virtual desktops' which works more like 'spaces' in OSX. In OSX 'spaces' is ultra fast, very slick, powerful and incredibly reliable. 'Vista virtual desktops' is fast, not very slick, nowhere near as powerful, and sometimes crashes, but it fulfils a need not serviced by Windows 7.

There are however good features unique to Windows. Dragging one window to the left and another to the right so that they can be automatically compared is a master stroke. Each window fills it's own side of the screen, returning to its previous size when dragged away.

The 64,000 dollar question is 'would I buy it?' what with me being a confirmed Mac convert. I'd have to say, at the right price, yes I would. On this particular laptop though, nothing beats Ubuntu hardy heron!