Mar 22, 2006 | blog
So who out there hasn’t heard that the consumer release of Windows Vista has slipped again?
I’m not going to rant on Micrsoft about this – I’m one of those people that belives that any product destined to reside on hundreds of millions of computers worldwide should be as close to perfect as possible.
Kudos Microsoft!
The important thing with an OS upgrade with the scope of Vista is stability. As both a corporate IT architect and a home consumer of MS producs, I have an expectation of technology. Usually I’m the one that accepts the glitches, the anomolies, the problems with most software. I simply either work around them, or understand that that is how the program simply “works”, or don’t even notice. To be precise, I understand how it works and accept the faults as a matter of course.
This outlook of mine has started to change in the last few months or so, and with Vista I’ve changed my expectations more than I thought I ever would. More and more, I am using technology for a reason, not simply because technology is cool. There are tons of cool things out there, electronics, software, golf clubs, whatever… but this time cool isn’t going to cut it. I am anticipating not just “the most stable version of Windows yet” (which incidentally I’ve already had several times – NT, Win98, W2K, XP), but the most usable system as well.
Well here is looking forward to the future – it’ll be closer to a year from now to walk into the store and pick up a retail version of Vista, but it should be worth it.
As an aside – when the public preview comes out, you should try the new OS out. It is definitely different, though not radically so, and will take quite a bit of getting used to.
Mar 15, 2006 | blog
I’ve been telling people over the last few months that the next real important piece of Web 2.0 will be online storage. Had actually contemplated how a person could go about jumping into the fold and building a site and service – but alas it would not be (I have not the skills nor the investors neede:)).
However, I am glad to see new online services start to pop up. Like Box.net for example.  They have crafted a nice AJAXy interface that is simple to use and easy to see what you have stored there. With multiple pricing plans starting at $5/month for 5GB, it looks like a nice service to try out.
You can sample the service yourself with a free 1GB account. I’m currently filling up my new account with a number of files I’ve been meaning to back up for months now (no really I have meant to…). The process was simple, the results as I expected. You can upload by browsing with a standard Windows file browse dialog, or their Drag-n-Drop window that allows you to copy whole folder structures at at time – very nice.
Good luck guys, I’m going to continue to use the service and see if I can find enough data to upgrade to a larger account.
Also, check out Russell Beattie’s post on Box.net!
Mar 8, 2006 | blog
So I’ve run across Writely – a web-based word processor. I’ve been watching for something like this for awhile, and thought it would be interesting to try writing a blog post from Writely, a feature they talk about in their site’s tour. The neat thing about Writely as a blog post editor is the full suite of word processing tools available to you.
That’s not to minimize the feature set at all – it is a serious word processor with all the main tools you need to write many document types. There is support for tables, images, multiple styles, and much more. It automatically saves data on the fly, and can also track document versions.
Via: Om Malik
Mar 2, 2006 | blog
Ok, I’m game – what exactly is foldera? I’m very curious about this upcoming service and it’s offerings. Supposedly it will be free for the basic services and have enhancements available as pay-for add-ons when you need to upgrade.
From a small-business point of view, this service intrests me a great deal. I mean, the ability to focus on providing your services to your customers rather than spending time just maintaining your applications to run your business is appealing.
Let’s see – some features are email, task management, calendar, document manager, comment folders, activity folders, contact management, instant messanger… the list is quite long for services. I can’t wait to give it a try and see how it works for small groups.
You can sign up for more information on there site here!
Mar 1, 2006 | blog
So I suppose this article over at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will add more fuel to those people trying to keep everyone from using electronics on airplanes.
Not a very interesting article, though it will be interesting to see if there is anyting of substance to this study. I’ll not claim that it isn’t possible, but sometimes I think we over analyze things a bit too much. I guess what frustrates me is that several studies in the past 18 mos. or so have indicated that there isn’t much of a problem, that airlines have worked towards “shielding” sensitive equipment, etc… Though with the current financial state of many airlines today, that is a bit hard to believe.
Its kind of like butter – first its bad, then its good, then we’re not sure – or chocolate, same thing. Guess it’ll be one of those confounding mysteries, or urban legends – better call the MythBusters.
