Windows 8.1 is a good OS except for Metro.

I use windows 7 at work everyday and I use windows 8.1 at home. I prefer windows 8.1 the O/S seems to operate with less resources. The underlying features are definitely improved. The problem is that it got a big old blemish called Metro (no that name got retired). If you kill metro which is very simple then Windows 8.1 is a pleasure to use. Simply boot to desktop and install "Classic Shell" which is free. Another great open source program.

Oculus Rift Shipping numbers

Google Reader is dead, long live feedly

The problem with web based applications is that when the company kills the product it's gone. With traditional applications you can run it until your computer dies but with web applications you are dependent upon a slew of computers deep in the bowels of a data center usually in some deep rural location at somebody else owns.

Google has recently killed a bunch of applications a few of which I used regularly. They killed Google Reader, they may have felt that Flipboard was a doing a better job or so Google plus centered they decided to focus on it. I can't complain since its a free service and clearly they had a hard time monetizing it. Like delicious before it the internet is a very competitive and there are other services competing for that market. Fortunately Google is an open company so when I migrated to a new service it was not a problem.

Feedly is the one people seem to be recommending and its very nice. I prefer is interface, its more visual and less cluttered. The worry is that companies will start killing their RSS feeds since Google stopped using them. Google does not care since it scrapes the site so it does not need RSS. So a good company idea might be a psuedo RSS feed by a third party that scrapes sites and provides links to the original content.

Can you buy a nice phone at a small cost?

I finally got annoyed at my Apple 3G. It needed to be flashed with firm ware but Apple dropped support for this long ago. So I wanted a new phone

• It had to be cheap under $200
• Have ICS (Android 4.0) or greater
• Have a dual core processor at least 1Ghz
• 1GB of memory
• It would be really nice if it had a Micro SD card and replaceable battery.
• It would be nice if it had GSM sims
• Most important no contract pay as you go with a plan cost of $50

This was hard since the Nexus 4 met some of my requirements but it was sold out Cricket has a Samsung S3 for $329 but it was not available in my market since it was 4G only.

Virgin had a HTC EVO 4G for less $150 and it met 95% of my needs. So I was not GSM and the unlimited plan was $55. So I switched and I've been really happy. I dropped in a 32GB micro SD and I got a great phone. The works with the Google play store and all my music

Cost for the plan over 24 month is $1300 for unlimited everything. So I ate my own advice and went Apple free.

Buying a smart TV is a dumb idea

Buying a smart TV is a dumb move because you are locking yourself into a technology frozen at least six months ago. Here are a few points:

• It cheaper to buy a ROKU or at worst an Apple TV and it going to be cheaper than the extra you will pay for a smart TV. I picked up a HD ROKU for $38, most big box shops are going to charge you that for a HDMI cable.
• There is more to go wrong. The more complex a TV has the more components that can go bad.
• It is highly unlikely that once you buy that TV the vendor going to update the firmware. So those new services are likely never going to be available for your TV.
• Your cable box is dumb when a smart TV talks to a dumb device the TV becomes dumb. A lot of HDTV are still being feed by a coax based SD cable box.
• Unless you are hooking up a blu ray player all your sourcing device are going to look pretty much the same on a $300 HiSense verse a $800 Sony Google TV.
• This market is still in flex and no standard exist for smart TVs. The closes thing you have to Smart TV standard is a company store.

So basically buy the dumbest TV you can with as many HDMI inputs as you can find.

Why the fiscal cliff is coming and there is no stopping the insanity

Why the fiscal cliff is coming and there is no stopping the insanity.

When democracy fails why not be surprised when politicians bend to the will of those holding the money purse rather than what the voters actually want. Democracy has nothing to do with congress there are two primary reasons 1) Congressional redistricting and 2) Voter suppression.

Recently I had a horrible time getting my sons first learners permit, it took three attempts to get him a valid picture id. Why the strange difficulty in getting a valid picture id, the politicians will tell you preventing identity theft (my sons US passport was not good enough). May be but if you are somebody who does not own a home, get electrical bills etc then your a likely to be poor and vote democratic. Making it hard to get a picture ID with the new voter laws means to suppress the vote.

Both partiers do it but the recent congressional redistricting maps if you seem them on a map looks like a 2 year olds scribble. No sane person would draw a map like that but the districts a rigged into concentrate voters on one party and spread the other parties voters out. Simple to create safe seats for a politician so he does not have to worry about the main vote just the primary.

The primary is how the democracy falls apart since only the real passonate conservatives or liberals tend to vote. So by the time the main election comes along the race is already decided. People in congress are not worried about their electorate but the people who vote in the primaries which is where the fiscal cliff comes into play. The people on the sides in the debate would rather go over the fiscal cliff due to dogma than be rational. So don't be surprised if come January 1st we go right over that cliff.

Even if we don't it not because of the will of the people but maybe in just enough congressional districts democracy still works.

Is Javascript the English Language of the computer world

Is Javascript the English Language of the computer world

English is an ugly language, it roots are in multiple countries,people to study languages prefer French. So why is English much more dominate than french (a lot of people in France might disagree.) In the end the answer is probably a mixture of politics, power and flexibility. The United States and Commonwealth two major powers across the world for the last several hundred years use it as their primary language. Its flexible in evolving rather than say French which has its government are trying keep pure. Its a language that you can use across the world since in is the second language for a lot of people. It make for a default communication.

So is Javascript the new English of the computer world. I'd say yes because it works everywhere. It didn't, it still have a hundreds of different variants based upon where it is used and that keeps evolving. But thanks to JQuery it will work across most browsers.

How to fix windows 8 on the desktop.

The big problem for windows 8 is desktops users hate it. We Just try to buy a touch base monitor for your windows 8 desktop and even if you have one it basically clumsy. Microsoft has a simple solution for the windows 8 desktop experience it called Kinect.

If you could implement the interface using the kinect style web cam that tracks you finger movement. If you could simply raise your finger (not your middle one) from your keyboard and activate the touch interface. Whats nice about this is it cheap. The kinect cost less then $50 to manufacture much less than touch screen.

The world is changing faster than I can believe

I'm a geek in remember in 1980 sitting in high school reading a book on Microprocessors. I was amazing but it was hard to get information back then. I was on holiday in San Francisco and they had books that would not be in UK stores for a few years. I was lucky to have access (thanks Mother and Father).

Now that's all changed with the internet. Youtube, Pluralsight, Lynda and google has changed all that. I feel that i'm in a wind storm of information and its hard to keep up. If you need to learn anything it is a keyword away and a 5 minute video.

It's scary how much you need to learn and thrilling too learn it.

Inspiration vs plagiarism

Could not resit a little note on the Apple vs Samsung trial. But the real issue is when does Inspiration from a third party become plagiarism. That a tough question because something similar is definitely allowed.

Function verses style is the problem here especially when the style chosen is minimalist. Clearly logos and brands are off limits but a flat touch screen with a bezel clearly points to function and there is plenty of prior art.

An area where Samsung probably was wrong was the phone icon. Apple is compulsive about art. I once saw a 60 minute video on designing app icons. They are compulsive about look and feel. Green on white phone icon looked to me like a copy.

Reality distortion field at Apple may have finally took over. Your in trouble when you start to believe your own bullshit. They truly believe that they created the iPhone from scratch, that Palm and Microsoft has nothing to do with ideas and prior art. Given how much Palm defined this field Apple should just sign over the company to HP in my humble opinion since it clearly defined the market of truly portable devices.

Apple certainly made an excellent device but they used ideas and technology from a lot of different companies. Apple has ensured that it will spend the next ten years in court. They can probably create a temporary competitive advantage doing so. But somebody is busily working away to create the next advancement and it probably a small company.

When that product hits Apple better be very careful about their inspirational because they may just loose the farm if they are locked out of that product idea.

HP Please sue Apple

It's my belief that Apple got most of their inspiration for the Ipod Touch from the PalmOne Tungsten T5.

The iPhone clearly got its inspiration from the ipod touch. The Ipod touch looks to me so much like a T5. The touch screen. The home button. But the T5 pre-dated the Ipod by over three years.

If Apple wins the suit over Samsung then HP got a hell of a case.

A little more Apple bashing

So you committed to spend $1700+ on that Apple 4s here's another ugly little secret. It probably will be worthless in less than three years. Apple has ugly habit of ending life of the their products. They drop support very rapidly meaning that you can't upgrade your App and your OS often after just three years. That window might be even smaller if you choose to get a IPhone 3GS at the lower price.

OK I admit that most Android owners are stuck on Gingerbread but the App store is full of apps that work with much older version of the OS. Most of the applications in the iTunes store required the most up to date version of the software.

There is another problem is that your phone might not even last three years. The battery if it gives out is very expensive to replace. Apple glues together it hardware meaning it is nearly impossible replace components that go bad.

So not are you being over charged for a phone that has a 200% sales profit and a 800% profit if you include the cell contract, they make sure you have replace it within a few years.

It reminds me a lot of the American auto manufactures in the 80's obsoleting cars after a few years. They paid for that dearly withing other taking their lunch after a people got upset for being taken for a ride.

That ATT iPhone in your friends hand cost him $1,729

I'm often wrong my Netflix post last year said that the stock markets reaction to Netflix was over played but the price is still $82.00. So given that logic Apple stock is $613 today so the stock will be $700 next year given my negative thoughts on their stock. I'm no professional.

How long can Apple maintain its profit margin. That an important point since if they have to start selling iPads and iPhones at lower. Lets compare the Galaxy Nexus for $349 to an iPhone 4S at $649 (nearly double the price.)

Hey you say I only paid $199 for that phone, guess again if you compare prepaid phone plans $50 unlimited to contract plans $120.00 with a two year commitment. So that a $70 dollar difference over 24 months (probably a lot less on family or legacy contracts). So if we factor in prepaid + full priced phone verses discount phone + 24month contract.

T-Mobile unlimited prepaid 24 months ($1,200) + Google Nexus from the Play store ($349.00) = Total of $1,549

At&t Unlimited + texting + 3G data ($120*24 = $2880) + Discount Iphone 4S ($199) = Total of $3,079

So for basically the same service unless you live in an area not covered by t-mobile at the end of two years you paid an extra $1,530 dollars for that iPhone.

But you may say that you don't have to go with an unlimited package true but you can get a $30 dollar plan verse may be $80 for a lower rate plan. Its a wash.

But the Iphone is such a better experience that Android. True if you compare Ginger Bread to IOS 4. But its a wash with Jelly Bean and IOS 6.

The App store is better at Apple than Google's Play store. Can Apple hold that $649 price point. May be?

Second given that the proposed Apple Ipad Mini will hurt sales of the Ipad with a much lower profit margin. Given a Nexus 7 ($199) verses a Ipad mini ($299). The Ipad profit margin must be higher than a iPad mini.

Given 55 million iphones and 22 million Ipads sold last year if Apple has to lower profit by $50 per device, that is $3.85 Billion in lost profit. If Apple has to lower the price $100 per device that's $7 Billion. To hurt Apple all that Google has to do is sell at cost and drive down Apples margin.

The patent war may sound stupid and Apple has all the cards with the its market dominance. Google has a lot less to lose than Apple since it makes money on a device no matter who sells it. Apple stock reminds me of 2005 house prices, they may continue to rise for the next few years but 2015 may be different.

What will be the next generation of TV.

I was listening to the latest episode of web ahead talking about Web based TV's. Even the XBOX is getting a web browser later this year. I think we are missing the point of what a TV is about here. The television is a shared experience. Even when we are using a console we are sharing the experience over the internet.

Look at a family watching TV. If somebody up and changes the channel while you are in the middle of a show. TV watching is not web surfing. The successful next generation devices are content streamers not browsers. That is because that is how a big TV is used.

Unless your the only person in the room and you using your TV as a computer monitor and that's a strange experience. Surfing the web is a personal activity like reading a book while TV is like watching a play a group activity.

Windows 8 is the New Coke of the IT industry

Geeks should be geeky

Windows 8 Release candidate is a large step backward from the consumer preview which in many ways was a step backward from the developer preview. Windows 8 is Microsoft trying to out UI Apple in the UX(user experience) and they totally failed. Think of a geek guy in high school trying to be cool. The kid who got straight A's but no girl would look at, well I've always though Microsoft as kind of that guy. So one day he wants to be cool but he can't carry it off. The cool clothes don't fit right, the $100 haircut doesn't fit his face and he just doesn't walk cool. Windows 8 release candidate is that, the Metro interface hides all the good windows features while being awkward to use of you have more than a handful of icons. They've removed all the features you like remote desktop and media center. Trying to find the calculator, notepad and control panel is just plain difficult. I've been using Windows 8 for 10 months so its not needing to learn the interface.

For all the bad press Microsoft products work well in real business and getting things done. Apple may be the darling of the media industry but if the iphone/ipad had a bad day then they would be in a world of hurt. They are a one trick pony IOS, they've put the Mac on the back burner to focus on Mobile. It's paying huge for them. Microsoft wants some of that cash Apple is getting for IOS. Even when Windows had a bad day (Vista) Microsoft kept making money. Any IT manager will NEVER want windows 8 in their organization.

Hopefully Microsoft business customers (like the principle of the geeky guy in high school), pull Microsoft aside and explain trying to be something your not is a bad idea. Even Apple is smart enough to know that IOS cannot be OSX, they are different products.

Javascript

I've spent the last few months playing with Javascript and it changed a lot since I last used it. OK Javascript has not really changed except the browsers have got a lot better. The libraries have made all the differences.

Microsoft and Adobe who by the nature of my skill base is whose tools I tend to use a lot have chosen in their wisdom to kill Silverlight and Flash in Favor of HTML5. You may argue that Flash(or Silverlight) is far from dead . That is true but given that the mobile editions of both products have been discontinued it basically makes them dead in most large organizations.

So that leaves HTML5/Javascript/CSS and since I'm at heart a programmer I'm focusing on Javascript. I've spent the last few months reviewing the blog/docs/tutorials and Javascript has developed. Don't be fooled I still believe that Javascript is a horrid language but I get the feeling most other people agree with me.

Give a developer a problem and like an Engineer he will try and make a pile of scrap metal into a beautiful machine. That is what the developers of languages such as JQuery, Knockout, backbone, node and a million others decided to do. They take the pile of $*** that Javascript and various legacy browser and made them usable.

Like most people I got a particular darling technology I'm focusing on and that is JQuery Mobile. Take a look at the demo pages it amazing.

Been gone try to learn new stuff

I've been busy at work so I have not been posting. Kind of busy learning jquery, jquery mobile, phonegap and mvc3. Jquery makes javascript livable with.

The Humancentipad

South Park can be very blue but if often hits at the core of many things. Last year before Steve Jobs died it had a hilarious show in which one of south parks main characters was taped between two other unfortunate apple users because they failed to read the ULA (that legal notice you click so Apple will let you use its products). ULA are usually very long, not written in plain English and nobody reads them. One of the things Apple likes to do is hire lawyers. I heard rumors they have their own building in the Apple campus because there are so many of them.

Steve Jobs reportedly said he would spend his last dime suing Google out of existence. Steve Jobs may be dead but just like in the book DEAMON about a software pioneer who used a system to manipulate the world after his death. Steve Jobs may have unleashed his own Daemon in the form of an army of lawyers in Apple to make all our lives hell. It seems sad that a computer company need lawyers more than engineers.

Not Single Computer Market

Apple wants you to believe the PC is dead. Apple has great marketing and sales abilities but just because somebody tell you something it is not true. When a salesman keep hammering a point then you know he is bending the truth or just plain lying. Does an Ipad replace a PC, yes for certain functions such as browsing the internet casually, viewing videos and casual data entry. If you go into any office you will see desktops and laptops. Students working on term papers are using laptops. Serious work does not happen on a tablet. I have four monitors on my desktop providing me with increasable productivity gains, a laptop would not be able to do that.

The PC is not dead but it is evolving. Windows 8 is proof of that. Apple may have some land in Florida it wants you to buy its a little wet but its very expensive that why they are so profitable. I have a very nice rooted nook, it a lot cheaper than an Ipad, has full access to android market place. Its seven inch screen is perfect for bed. There are rumours that apple will introduce a eight inch tablet to compete with the Amazon fire. Is Apple finally seeing that the market does have competition.

History repeats itself

I usually talk about technology on this Blog, but today I'm going to the Economy but it has direct links to technology. The second world war had its start in the financial crash of the late twenties. The Nazi party grew out of the destruction of the German economy in the great depression. A lot of angry people and some terrible people (Nazis) who used it to blame the rich aka the Jewish population in Germany. They were a false target since many rich Germans were not Jewish and many Jewish Europeans were very poor.

America did a much better way of handling the thirties through huge social projects. This gave its population a chance to vent its anger with a job and a way forward. Britain too had social programs. We saw the formation of Unions to balance the power of Gilded Age super barons.

We are now in the biggest recession since the thirties and we are seeing some of the same tensions in Europe and the United States. The problems in Greece are similar to Germany in the thirties. There are some very different causes this time round though key similarity is that there is rising disparity between the super rich and the middle class. Financial obligations that people are refusing to withstand.

Unions are ineffective in a Globalized economy and they have hurt themselves with unrealistic work practices and demands on business in global market. Unions are pretty much regulated to service and public sector industries that are not subject to globalization (though we are seeing outsourcing).

We are seeing some of the same tensions between the super rich and a middle class that is seeing economic erosion of wages. Financial Companies and Conservatives have budded up with religion to control a large portion of the US heart land minds and wills. Built huge propaganda machines (Fox News and talk radio) to push their agenda.

In Europe they have a different problem in they've created huge social support benefits that they cannot afford. As the money dries up the coffers of European government the social programs will suffer. A large group who have become dependent upon government benefits will riot as they have in Greece as those funds disappear.

At the heart of these problems is globalization and the erosion of the middle class. But rather than meet at the middle we see politicians using class warfare on both side to further divide the populous. It may seem easier for politicians to blame somebody else than to address the true problems.

We discourage our politicians from making hard decisions because elections are less about performance but rather than getting elected through money (pathetic attack advertisements). The problem is that if we don't address the issues at the center of the problem and deffer from class warfare to a joint solution. The problems will mount and more people will get hurt.

So what technology got to do with this, in many ways it the cause, globalization has its heart in technology, companies can downsize because of increased automation. But technology can also be the solution through the exchange of information, more efficient food distribution and information/knowledge sharing.