I am disappointed that a device that we all use (and loathe) every day has not progressed much at all in the last 10 or 20 years. I have looked in every store and compared online the options of alarm clocks both cheap and expensive. At best, the alarm clocks out there are basic, at worst they are complex - having too many features that require multiple simultaneous button presses. All seem to suffer from either poor design, poor implementation, or both. The other day I ran into a device powered by Linux called the chumby. At first, the review I read made it seem perfect, but after reading more about it I found that the alarm clock looked more like an after-thought.
So here is what I think a good alarm clock should be able to do:
- Play MP3s, Ogg Vorbis, Shoutcast streaming radio, FM, XM Radio, and possibly HD Radio (if HD Radio turns out to be worth a shit)
- An alarm that will still operate when running on the battery backup (lithium ion?), even if it is a reduced functionality mode (simple buzzer perhaps?)
Continue reading ‘The Perfect Alarm Clock’
Recently, a friend of mine asked me to look at his karate instructor’s computer. I went over there and the computer was continuously rebooting. It was running Windows 2000 and MSN as their internet provider. He, like most other computer users, did not have a backup of his software or data. He runs his business off of this computer, which has irreplaceable information from the past 10 years and has a program that manages all of his students, training, schedules, and billing. He said he does not have the CD that the program came on anymore as the last person that worked on his computer destroyed it. Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided to set the computer up to automatically reboot when it encounters a blue screen of death, rather than show the error message and just let the user reboot on their own. I guess even Microsoft hopes that problems will just fix themselves. “No problem,” I thought, “I will just reboot into safe mode, set it to not reboot on errors, fix the problem, and I will be done.” Yeah right…
Continue reading ‘Would You Trust Microsoft With Your Business?’
Is it possible for Linux to win in the fight for desktop users against Microsoft Windows? Is it possible for Microsoft to stay competitive against another operating system that is available for free when it has spent over $6 billion dollars to make Vista?
I recently read yet another article posing the question of what would happen if Microsoft makes Windows available for free (as in price, not open source). I personally think this is a ridiculous question to ask because users already pay for Windows. Price is not the issue. Users also pay for Mac OS X, which is built upon the BSD like Darwin. Linux can be much like OS X using nothing but free, open source software. So why do people pay for an operating system?
Continue reading ‘The Future: Windows, OS X, or Linux?’
The real question that is being asked here is how much can someone change Firefox and still be able to call it Firefox. But before anyone takes this article the wrong way, let me clear up a few things. I love Firefox. I respect the fact that they wish to have quality control over the product that bears the Firefox brand. I will continue to recommend Firefox to Microsoft Windows users without any reservations. However, I trust Debian far more than the Firefox crew to package and configure Firefox/Iceweasel in a way that meets the standards of my Debian system. And yes, there is much more at play here than trademarked icons!
Continue reading ‘Why Iceweasel Instead of Firefox on Debian?’
