Outright Rant

iPad vs. Netbook: Netbook FTW

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I’m glad to see the iPad is announced. It looks like an interesting device, not quite a notebook, not quite an iPhone. I, however, don’t see how it’s anything beyond a portal to give Apple more money. Please, if you see I’ve made an error here let me know in the comments. Thank you! 1. AT&T. Seriously, a “breakthrough” deal with AT&T is like being the fastest reader in remedial reading class. You’re still in remedial reading class. 2. No Flash. It’s astonishing how much stuff I watch in Flash on my laptop, and it being missing on this device is going to be a big hole. Lots of stuff is in YouTube, but not everything, and HTML5 isn’t going …

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Rain Forecasted, From The Cloud, On Your Desk

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“I’m filling out a survey. Can you tell me if we have a cloud?” “Yes, we do,” I reply. “We do?” “Absolutely.” “Really?” “Yeah, I’d know — I built it.” “You built it? No, I think the survey wants to know if we have a real cloud.” Well, thanks a lot. “We do have a real cloud, and it’s the same one I’m talking about. In fact, we have two clouds, in two different locations. They’d probably be best described as ‘private clouds.’” “Well, there isn’t an option for private clouds, so I’ll just say no.” ARGGGH. Ten minutes pass… “Hey, I’ve got another question. Do we use virtualization software?”

Y2K10, DECade, Blue Moons

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Dear people using the term “Y2K10,” Please realize it’s actually one character longer and significantly more confusing than just typing “2010.” Yes, yes, I know it’s not nearly as hip and cool, but I’m sure you will survive. You may even come to appreciate using these commonly-understood terms when you notice an increase in your readership, due to suddenly being understandable. Also, while we’re talking about years, please be aware that a new decade started on 1/1/2010, despite what you might have heard from people who don’t regularly remember that some numbering starts at zero. We may not have wanted, or remembered, them to be, but years 2000 to 2009 were actually ten (10) distinct years. Hence the ‘dec’ part …

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Fearing Computers

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Good post over at marco.org on why Microsoft Windows Vista hasn’t sold well. The most striking paragraph: Our industry has collectively taught average people over the last few decades that computers should be feared and are always a single misstep from breaking. We’ve trained them to expect the working state to be fragile and temporary, and experience from previous upgrades has convinced them that they shouldn’t mess with anything if it works. They’ve learned to ignore our pressures to always get the latest versions of everything because our upgrades frequently break their software and workflow. They expect unreliable functionality, shoddy software workmanship, unnecessary complexity, broken promises from software marketers, and degrading hostility from their office’s IT staff. It isn’t just …

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Brent

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Dear Vikings, I hope he waffles about retiring and pisses you guys off as much as he did with the Packers & Jets. Congratulations on signing a complete jackass. …Me I think this t-shirt sums it up nicely: (my apologies to my non-U.S. readers for rambling on about stuff like this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if even you knew the ridiculous story)

Mozilla Weave Just Deleted All My Bookmarks

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If you were thinking about using Mozilla Weave I definitely suggest backing your bookmarks up first. In my case, I have no bookmarks anymore, and couldn’t add any bookmarks again until I removed the plugin. Interesting concept, but the implementation obviously sucks. Especially since it removes things (things == everything) without asking. At least it logged all the bookmarks it deleted…

Easiest Way to Get Rid of Malware

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Q: What’s the easiest way to get rid of malware on Windows[0]? A: Not to get it in the first place. A couple of other observations I made while cleaning a friend’s computer: 1. The malware was detected by my friend because it was closing windows. Any window that could be used to fix the infection was closed by the malware. That doesn’t seem to be a very productive strategy for staying installed. 2. The Avast BARTPE CD creator rocks. Luckily, a part of my organization that does more desktop support for customers has a license for it. It’s really nice to boot off a CD to fix everything. 3. I started with the Avira free antivirus scanner. It is …

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FeedBurner Hosed

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In the last few days, since April 1, my RSS feed subscriber count on FeedBurner has plummeted, now just a little over a third of what it has been for a long time. It looks like lots of people are having this problem, as well as email subscribers not getting any email. Perhaps Google should apply the “beta” designation to FeedBurner, too. I’ve figured that this was some sort of reporting problem, because a 60% change in readership numbers is a huge error, and catastrophic for people who have ad deals, apply for funding and grants based on statistics, etc. In typical Google style there’s just one little mention of this on their blog: Issue: We are observing reduced subscriber …

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Join This Guy

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Would you join this guy in a marketing company? Sure, English is probably his second language, but still.

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