April 2008

New Macintosh

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 08:25
ShareThisI joined the Macintosh revolution tonight and added to Apple's ascendancy. A father's love for his daughter knows no real bounds. I rebelled at the thought initially. It's the entry level MacBook with a super drive. I'm still a Ubuntu user. I think my daughter will be using Open Office 3.0 or NeoOffice on this new MacBook. I'm sure I'll be writing more about the Mac soon.

Moblin

Submitted by Don Watkins on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 08:41
ShareThisI came across this interesting site tonight and it's really exciting especially in light of information I wrote about earlier today with respect to Google's Android. I think we've come to a point of convergence of a number of groups and individuals intent on creating a mobile computing platform. Mobile Linux is a Linux community project to create a mobile Linux platform.

Android

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 17:31
ShareThisLast week while I was on the road I used my Motorola RazR a great deal more than I normally do. It was a camera platform, a video platform and both voice and SMS messaging. All of those technologies are tremendously helpful and added not only to my enjoyment of my vacation but it was also a way to share what I was doing and seeing with family and friends back home. Mobile phones are replacing personal computers world wide and in fact in most countries except the United States and Canada mobile phone outnumber personal computers.

Reading twitter and relaxing a...

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 07:16
ShareThisReading twitter and relaxing at home.

Mac Fans

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 07:09
ShareThisLast week I read a post at Suse Linux Enterprise in the Americas where the Asus EeePC was compared with its competitors. The quote that really grabbed my attention mentioned that Asus made the MacBook.  I did some googling and checked that out and it's true Asus does make the MacBook. Wow!  Apple's got a great product except I can't get used to using one mouse button after having used two for too many years. Add to that Asus is making an IMac killer that is going to run Linux.

On the road

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 06:09
ShareThisI've been on vacation for the last week and I took my Dell Inspiron Ubuntu notebook with me. I stayed in four different motels each with differing wifi capability. The most Linux friendly environments were at the Econlodge Inn and Suites in Albany, GA and the Days Inn at Clemson, SC. Both had WEP security and were easily joined using the key provided by the front desk. My first night was a stay at Motel 6 in Wytheville, VA. The motel is an exceptional value, but I couldn't get on it's wireless network.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Linux Users

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 05:56
ShareThisOver here I compiled a list of 7 habits that I feel someone has told me when I started out. I believe that getting into these habits will make the Linux experience more secure, convenient, educational, and ultimately more enjoyable. read more | digg story

Holographic storage ships next month!

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 05:54
ShareThisEven since astronaut Frank Bowman disconnected the HAL 9000’s holographic memory in 2001: A Space Odyssey techies have been wondering when we could buy real holographic storage. Now we know: May, 2008.  I've been interested in the potential of holographic storage for nearly twenty years. Maybe we'll see it sooner. read more | digg story

Another victim

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sun, 04/13/2008 - 05:13
ShareThisYesterday, I got a call from a customer with a Dell Optiplex 330. It's only about a year old. It's a nice machine with Windows XP installed.  They couldn't get on the internet and only recently their computer had been working fine. It's on broadband with just a cable modem. There was no hardware firewall between it and the modem.  When I got to their home, the computer had a message coming up about a software package that needed to be updated. No matter what they did or I did there was no getting rid of this software package.

Windows Collapsing

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 08:09
ShareThisI've been thinking much like Gartner it turns out. Microsoft Windows is broken and has been for several years. Home users are buying Vista, but corporate desktops are staying with Windows XP Professional.

Gartner: Windows collapsing under its own weight; Radical change needed by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- Microsoft’s Windows juggernaut is collapsing as it tries to support 20 years of applications and becomes more complicated by the minute.