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The Apple iPad revealed. What now?

Apple's new iPad - image from Apple.comI was wrong on plenty of things regarding this tablet computer. Some of the things are disappointing, but I’m happy I’ve taken some time to digest it a bit, to listen to some arguments. I think Apple’s iPad is pretty darn cool. It *might* be something I’d buy, but I can’t say for sure just yet.

I’m going to start with this statement. I’m relieved that I now know what this is. The build-up was just ridiculous.  But I think that the suspense was valuable because people put forth so many ideas, they may have even encouraged innovation by other organizations to meet needs.

I think the iPad will be a good computer for people of every age to read and learn. I think most media companies will like it because it encourages the consuming of their information, books, films, and audio. And it’s created to be hyper-convenient to purchase those materials via this mainstream channel.

People were hoping for more than the iPhone of course. And the lack of camera surprised some.  I think I don’t mind it not having an onboard camera as long as a durable one can be connected. I think it might be better as a peripheral actually, then it could be pivoted to see the subject best for whatever use case, chatting or games.

One area that does bother me right now, but I hope for resolution is the lack of a dedicated drawing program. I thought for sure that one of the most important ways to justify the existence of a device like this is to throw down with designers. In a way, I think Apple owes the design community something like that because the design community supports them.  People were mentioning they were surprised about a lack of stylus. I kind of agree, but I want it known that a stylus does exist that can work with these capacitive screens. How the device will handle a sharp input, I don’t know. And that’s too bad, because it’s a niche opportunity.  But I think it’s something Apple probably wants other companies to handle, Adobe of course and smaller companies.

Sounds good right? Well yes but still I go back to this intended as a consuming device.

What else is missing?  Well I said in my earlier posting that I expected the device to have a real operating system, not just the iPhone OS. Well I was wrong. And that means it doesn’t really have the ability to support programs and utilities outside approved app store apps. Will this matter to most people who can find useful programs in the 150,000 large app store?  Nope, they’ll be fine.  And in fact, for every lost hobbyist, there will be hundreds or thousands of users who are given more than they need at prices they don’t mind, in a closed platform they don’t mind.

The good news is, plenty of other devices predating and developed concurrently are going to work for hobbyists. And these will gain a lot from the iPad. The envelope must be pushed. And it’s happening in price, weight, battery life, user experience and more.

What’s hot?  As much of a bugger it is for me to say, the app store is really hot. Because it is a market where a lot of people can get involved. Sure it’s closed off, but it’s not 150,000 strong by keeping people out. It’s quite open too. And somehow non-public apps will be made as this device and platform evolves if certain businesses want to take advantage.

What else is missing? I think a lot about the possibilities of a really strong voice recognition to complement a handwriting recognition where one could produce text to share these ideas almost as quickly as with a keyboard.

So after seeing the real thing, will I get it?  I’m torn, I mean the price points certainly make it more fun, but given that the potential for the Android devices, the battery life potential of Pixel Qi screen tablets and Ebook Readers and it’s hard to part with the money if I don’t have a killer drawing program. And I want the   It’s a good idea if one were to skip this device that they might keep an eye on the app store still. Because that’s where one might find exactly what they’re looking for.

It’s very exciting.  A few years ago, there were plenty of devices that would fail and never return.  One might think this wasn’t something people wanted and would go away before it reached a potential.  You get the feeling now though that we are definitely inching towards the right version for most people in this form factor.  It’s happening now and just like all other technologies, it will keep getting better. It will get to the point where you will see too many reasons to buy one.  They present many opportunities for in-home control over networked devices, energy settings  or other monitors and smart features.

February 5, 2010 at 7:07 am | computers, design, mac | No comment

Interesting possibilities in Photoshop CS5

I remember getting pretty excited the first time I saw the Seam Carving technology from a SIGGRAPH demonstration, which eventually made it’s way into Photoshop, The GIMP and Xara Xtreme.  That seemed to happen quickly, and I’m certain because the code was made open to a certain extent. A custom app was built, a plugin for the Gimp was great.  Xara and Photoshop integrated Seam carving really well. And it works. It’s actually one of my best new tools I can make use of probably once for every web project I do.

Now things are evolving even more with what may be upcoming features that will help with fixing and doctoring photos.  I don’t find doctoring photos that enjoyable really.  I love helping customers, but I wish most of this wasn’t necessary.  That being the case, if you have to doctor a photo, it might as well be pretty easy to do.

Here is a video of Improved Seam Carving and PatchMatch, both of which were part of an Adobe/Princeton/University of Washington project.  To my knowledge, nobody said explicitly this WILL be in Photoshop CS5. But it is shown operating in the Photoshop interface and take from it what you will. As an aside, I like this website I discovered.  CS5.org. Despite it’s authoritative look, it appears not to be an Adobe site. Granted I could be wrong, but it’s showing Youtube Videos rather than using an Adobe player, and it’s showing a white paper using Scribd rather than an Acrobat-esque flash paper embedded PDF viewer.  Still that doesn’t mean it’s not all great information.

Adobe does have a video from a few members of their user experience UX design team re-published on the CS5.org website.  It features some discussion and examples of multi-touch and how they can leverage it for their graphics creation tools.

October 4, 2009 at 5:10 am | computers, design, graphics, media | No comment

Dropbox – the perfect computer utility

Ever get tired of sending attachments to people? You write the email, click “add attachment”, browse, find, upload, wait, AND, send. Blah, that’s annoying just to think about.  I got tired of it a long time ago. That’s why I’ve been using this service called Dropbox for probably two years now, as soon as I heard of it. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it in this blog before, but anyway, you want to check it out and get it. It’s truly one of the best online services ever created. And it’s in both free and pay premium versions.

Simple instructions here, visit getdropbox.com and download their utility.  It works on Windows, Mac and Linux. Install and it makes a networked folder in your computer that will sync up with the Dropbox server. Files dropped in there are automatically archived on the internet for you. Dropbox let’s you share 2 Gigabytes of files free, and you can pay a small fee for even more storage.

To share a file, move or copy it into your Dropbox public folder (create subfolders inside if you like) right-click and choose to Copy public link. Paste this link URL into your email and you can share the file with somebody without having to attach anything, (and without them needing to detach it.)  Here’s an example of the public link you’d be pasting into your email:

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/000000/foldername/filename.jpg

As a designer, it’s been a great tool to use because I can quickly update a file on my desktop and it re-synchronizes and my client can just revisit the original email I sent for the link. They will always be downloading the most recent file.  Just remember if files are big you’ll watch them sync with the server, the little icon next to the file will indicate when it’s done synchronizing.

Dropbox also archives versions of files and let’s you revert to them. It’s not infinite versioning, but it’s an added bonus that can help you in case of an accident.  If your PC goes down, you can also install dropbox on the new or refreshed pc and it will sync it back for you. Those files will only delete if you actually delete them from your folder.  I also use it to share files between my PC and Mac, so no worries if I’m on or off my home network.

Just get it, and start taking advantage of this perfect utility’s exquisite convenience. Oh and if you had the idea that you might be able to share files over the internet with a second person, you can definitely do that, you could share your login with a person, (which works but might not be what Dropbox intended) or add users within the service as documented.  The free service is great, the pay service is worth it.

getdropbox.com

September 29, 2009 at 11:19 pm | computers, design, gadgets, mac, tools | No comment

Apple finally gets a clue on memory cards

I’m happy to report, that Apple finally pulled their head out from underneath them by finally adding an SD card slot to some of its upcoming laptop line.  Research revealed to them that their customers liked using digital cameras and didn’t like using the USB cable.  What? People don’t like carrying a jumbled mess of cables in their bag?
Do me a big favor. Next time some fanboy Apple enthusiast says something like “Apple drives the industry” you will simply respond, “Yeah like that time they added an SD card slot 6 years after everyone else. Booyah!!!”  And of course they will say “That’s because nobody wanted it…blah blah” and at that point they have already shown themselves to be a hairy charlatan.

Apple is brilliant though. Shameless self-promoters. Imagine if Campbell’s soup held big conferences every year where they said things like, “Hey we’re even more awesome because we finally added a pull tab to our cans since we’ve determined that’s where the industry is going to go and we are leading the way.” Meanwhile, the actual smart platform-agnostic critics with a crinkled brows say “Steve, sardine cans have had that style pull tab for 90 years now…” and of course those voices are drowned out by a bunch of blue-jean wearing black shirted sycophants.  (Tee-hee I don’t even know what that word means I’m just trying to make my friends mad at this point. You hear me Matt and Susan?)

P.S. This post was written on a very flawed, nondescript, overpriced, feature-limited Mac that has not improved my lifestyle like the commercials said it would. In fact I’ve had just as many annoyances with it as I might expect with other computers. But it’s not all bad and kind of cool in it’s own way. In other words, it hasn’t solved all my problems, and introduced several new ones, which means it deserves very little fan-fare, certainly not the degree it has enjoyed.

P.P.S. Keep my rant in perspective. I’m just providing balance here because I’m being overwhelmed with too many flattering articles about Macs and iPod 3Gs’s today. Sometimes you have to introduce a little blowback and overstate the bad things. All in all, this is a good release for Apple. And I’ll give them a little more positive attention when the rest of the hardworking industry gets their credit when they release great stuff, which they do constantly and they don’t get the tickertape parade. Currently Apple enjoys an enormous mindshare that I feel it doesn’t deserve next to all the other innovators.

June 8, 2009 at 5:57 pm | computers, gadgets, mac | 1 comment

Name Your Price – Irradiated Software Gets It.

Being a computer power user, you often have subtle needs that can improve the navigating experience. After a lot of time spent in your default environment you think, “I wish I had a utility for that limitation.” or “Why didn’t they foresee this redundant nonsense while making the operating system?” For a long time, my biggest pet peeve with Mac OS X was that you couldn’t resize the app or folder windows without being forced to grab the little bottom-right corner triangle.

For custom resizes, this became a big nuisance, as it requires precision mousing. I’d often argue with people about the inferiority there, even commenting on earlier Mac OS window shade capability. Mac users simply didn’t identify with my problem. No searches yielded any programs. Was I really mostly alone on my window management hassles? Was I just too fidgety for changing my environment? Later, likely due to the surge in Mac purchases and migrations, seemingly enough people were annoyed by this because programs emerged addressing my exact problem.

The first program I found is called Zooom. It’s a commercial utility that allows you to grab or resize a window by holding down a set of keys. Doesn’t even require touching the edges. You can even grab windows from behind others. Despite some cool features, at the time I found it too pricey after evaluating the trial version. Also it didn’t operate properly on all programs. I thought that for a small task like this, there must be a script or freebie out there. Coming from Windows and Linux, hundreds of small single-serving apps like this are free.

One day, I was searching the depths of a web forum and somebody had mentioned a free program written by one guy, called Window Dragon. This program modified your system so all sides or corners of windows and programs were draggable much like Microsoft Windows and Linux. It had some quirks and was programmed for a previous version of OS X. I was too skeptical to try it despite being free. Something in the program description didn’t sit well with me and I felt my system modification might be detrimental somehow with other programs.

Eventually on a day I was really frustrated with the problem, I went back and purchased Zooom. It had updated to a new version and I believed it would work well.  Zooom does what it advertises and some upgrades are free. Plus it can be kind of fun. But at $15.99 and the fact that it doesn’t work properly on multi-panel Adobe software (conflicting keys and jitters that I can’t really articulate verbally) I just didn’t feel my problem was fully solved. I phased it out of my workflow. Since I couldn’t depend on it for everything, I decided it almost isn’t worth initiating if I was getting mixed and unexpected results or annoyances.

A couple months ago, I found a little utility called TwoUp by a company called Irradiated Software. This program will pop your window instantly to take up the left, right, top or bottom half of your screen. No small adjustments, just quick reliable action. This is great for copying files from one folder to another, or seeing the contents of two webpages simultaneously. TwoUp is free. YES!  After they programmed it, the company got a lot of requests for certain functionality. So they created a beefier version of TwoUp with added features and called it SizeUp.  They listened to legitimate requests, kept the free version and asks that people pay for the better version. Many companies have this type of offering, but too many create the good version initially and strategically strip down the LE Lite Edition (Loser Edition). Going in that order, companies tend to take away too much and leave you feeling like, well, a loser.

What I’m very impressed with, and what prompted my comments here is the pricing strategy. I mentioned earlier that Zooom was $15.99. Not that expensive right? Obviously not since I did end up springing for it albeit reluctantly. That’s fine, but a power user often needs 4 or 8 utilities like these for easier computing. A few utilities priced at this level you are approaching the cost of the entire OS X operating system! And when you use little utilities for one thing, and not too often, the popular $19.99-29.99 pricing scheme just looks wrong. That’s why I was so pleased with Irradiated Software’s pricing of SizeUp. They use the pricing scheme called “Name Your Price.” They state that given the cost of sales / download / administration, they need to price it at minimum $1.26. You can own it for that price. They have a suggested price of $7.99 to match what they think it’s worth. And if this is the greatest sliced-bread utility you’ve ever used, you can go above that too and they will be thrilled.

I love this. Their suggested price is very reasonable. Clearly they get it. And they will sell more in volume than if it were $16 or more. Plus, it’s stupid not to buy it at $1.28 if you’ve had the trouble with windows like I have. Plus when you are in the middle of the transaction, you might begin to think, well I appreciate their efforts, so why not throw in a couple extra bucks because I want their continued progress. And certainly among good honest people, many wouldn’t feel right not paying the entire suggested price. Then of course you have the very generous folk pledging even more. There you go.

To wrap up, I don’t want to say that Zooom is bad or TwoUp/SizeUp is much better in all ways. I’m just expressing my appreciation for what I feel is clear, objective thinking and pricing. I think with the iPhone and the app store, there are a lot of people getting used to charging for, and paying for smaller yet useful utlities at lower prices. More might even buy just to try it. Just like you’d spend 75 cents on a video game just to pass the time. These are good tools and I’m glad they exist. See below for links for Mac and for a Windows alternative.

Irradiated Software, TwoUp
Irradiated Software, SizeUp
Zooom/2 by CodeRage
MaxTo for Windows (screen partitioner)

March 31, 2009 at 10:43 am | computers, tools, writing | 1 comment

Nice Primer Video on Digital Photography

A new favorite website of mine, Academic Earth is attempting to compile and make more efficient, the university open courseware sites video content. I was obviously interested in what kind of classes might be available in design and related computing. There is a category of computer science, but not design. Fortunately due to overlap, a few classes in my field are there to enjoy even though they don’t exactly hit the mark.

I think you’ll like this workshop on Digital Photography given by David J. Malan at Harvard University. It’s quite detailed, but not out of range of the novice.  I appreciated some of the examples and analogies given. It’s nice to be clear on technical equipment and it’s limitations. Particularly, since cameras are products nearly all of us buy, we all benefit from knowing a little more before we buy.

Workshop – Digital Photos by David Malan via AcademicEarth.org

Dear Universities offering open courseware. Please add design, typography and more. It’s fun, and valuable and useful for so many people. I suppose it would involve a lot of screen capturing which might not be as easy as video production, however, that doesn’t mean it’s not viable or not worth the resources to try.

February 1, 2009 at 5:12 am | computers, gadgets, graphics, photography | No comment

Holiday Linux for Aunt Judy

Two posts ago, I attempted to lay out whether Linux could replace Windows sufficiently for most people. Some rewarding field work today proves it can and does happen. My Aunt was complaining about viruses again after we reinstalled XP less than a year ago.  Imagine my surprise hearing of this.  But it got me thinking about what I could do about it this time for a more permanent fix. Refreshing Windows is annoying for sure, but worse is the way people respond to their infected computers. They feel uncertain if they can properly use a computer, that maybe they caused the problem. Some feel guilty for wasting money on an lemon, even though their PC is probably fine.

Fortunately aunt Judy has a small set of needs for computing. Webmail and Internet searches and maybe the occasional letter document. She added pressure by surprising me with her dysfunctional printer that could only spit out blank pages. And we needed to give one more critical device a closer look. She hopes to one day see her grandkids on her new webcam before they graduate college.

I only had a disc of Ubuntu Studio 8.10 on hand that I had planned to eventually use at home. It would work fine, though it has too many programs Jude has no use for. Oh well. Either I could spend two hours removing stuff in the package manager or She could simply ignore some of the menu clutter. After a briefing, she assured me she didn’t have anything on the computer she was keeping so I went with an overwrite install on the hard drive. A nice clean slate. Cool!

Ubuntu Studio didn’t come with office, so I installed OO.org. Then I added MS Core fonts and Flash Player 10 for a better web experience. Of course the Ubuntu auto updates were dying to join the party so we let them in.

This “Studio” distribution of Linux is centered around media creation and it’s really beautiful. I loved the startup animation and login screen. The main menu bar and empty desktop are dead simple. I replaced the wallpaper with a fun 3D graphic I created last year and some nice big essential desktop icons. Then I reinstated some of their web favorites. Judy was pleased I didn’t delete Google and returned it to its proper location. Everything was going well, but I still had that feeling that I’d be abandoning them tonight and something they expected wouldn’t be there. I think they voted for Bush so maybe they’ll appreciate security and overlook any of the liberties I accidently might have taken away from them. ;>)

Next I installed the latest skype from a .deb installer file on skype’s homepage.  The webcam and video test worked, but later we got an audio io error when I rang her from Skype at home. Add to that, her printer managed to still only spittle out blank pages. This makes me growl. Sure we haven’t lost anything that wasn’t disabled before, but I can’t stand loose ends.

What is great though? Once prolific virus code on Windows will wither and die trying to execute on Linux. Plus the addition of a hardware router (I can’t believe I missed this the last time.) helped us close the door on ancient history.

Now for the absolute best thing about today.  Spending some fun time with Jude and Sammy chatting about everything. Family, politics, past Christmas’ and listening to old tape recordings of me, my sisters and my cousin Jen when we were 4-7 years old. I hope she had fun like I did. Judy apologized that it took six hours to do everything, but I could have been out of there in just two hours if I really wanted to just get it done. I loved introducing them to some of the fun stuff I do with computers such as discovering favorite music on Pandora.com web radio. They had no idea something like that existed. We also watched part of a feature film in full screen on Hulu.com and looked at all the free movies and TV shows Hulu has. It was a good test for Linux Flash player too. Judy’s old Dell was performing well and I think it might have long life ahead of it.  I’m hoping now there are some new activities that will be enriching for them.

Next mission: Give Judy my old (yet very booming) Cambridge speakers so they have even better radio sound. And we WILL conquer the webcam and printer troubles eventually.

January 5, 2009 at 3:44 am | computers, family | 1 comment

Will Linux work for you so you can dump MS Windows?

ABC news has a story called Imagining a Microsoft-Free Life.

So many stories like this are written, usually not by the MSM, but they trickle in every year.  They rarely get to the most important points. They are rarely written by people who are able to compare their experience with most people.  These articles usually center around the fact that you can install a free Linux Operating System such as Ubuntu and just use that, no longer having to worry about the expensive Windows upgrades.  This option sounds attractive, but nearly every article (except by those who are Pro-Linux) will typically end with “Yeah it sounds great right, but it’s actually not likely to work for you.”

I will enter this cesspool with my best effort.

Starting out.  Microsoft sucks in so many ways.  In particular, from XP to Vista. What a joke. Vista came out and had a new glossy black look and thats about it. Not only that, it was unnecessarily bulky and worse, very expensive.  For a small number of new features and eye candy, you pay a lot of money. Also that eye candy which was a heavily pushed and highlighted feature (see task switching on every vista commercial) it’s actually not that great.  The menu update is OK, but also a little difficult to navigate. The amusing thing is that all the glossiness is easily done in Linux. Linux users laugh or shrug their shoulders when they see that flashy Windows stuff shown.  Because it’s free, faster and more flexible in the Gnome or KDE desktop environments of Linux.  Before I move onto those, I’ll mention one more important feature of Windows Vista. DirectX 10 is an update to a 3D graphics framework only available in Vista. Clearly done purposely to influence gamers to upgrade. Many people said that it was a very pretty update to games, making things look more realistic, such as reflections and light and texture effects. But not worth it given the strong system you’d need to run it and the sacrifice you’d be making on overhead with Vista just running by itself.

So it must be known that there are some high quality free operating systems available using the Linux kernel.  When it’s Linux, they call these operating systems “distributions” and in a lot of ways, they are similar.  They have the start button menus you are used to, even if they don’t say “Start” on them.  They have folders and files you can open and rename. They run programs such as office spreadsheets, image viewers, and solitaire.

I’ll center this around Ubuntu because it’s popular and very heavily worked on by both the community and a company called Canonical. Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux that uses as a default the Gnome desktop environment (controlling the menu / folder / window look).  Certain things are branded Ubuntu, certain things work the way the developers wanted, that slightly differ in other distros of Linux.  These are the core things of Ubuntu I guess.  In the details, you have things like support for Wireless laptop cards, easy configuration of devices (hopefully) and lists of things that make Ubuntu unique as a distribution of Linux.  Ubuntu is free, it has a very straight forward CD install and can replace Windows and work well for many people for a long time. It has many simple auto updates which means it keep itself up to date for you. And like most distros, it’s very extendable.

Will Ubuntu or another Linux distribution work for you? The significance or usefulness of these free Linux distributions come down to how you answer three questions.

  1. Are you tired of Windows or having trouble with it and prefer not to upgrade to the new Windows, and instead would like to take a shot at something new and slightly different?
  2. Are your computing needs general such as document creation,  web browsing, photo viewing, watching videos, playing CDs?
  3. Are you willing to forego certain things such as specific games and applications in case they aren’t available on Linux due to the difference in program structure?

Most articles that are written about all this don’t cover this issue properly because the experience of computing is always unique to each computer user. The fact is you can dump windows easily replacing it with a dead-simple experience in general computing on several variants of Linux. Where things get a little hairy are some specific things that some people might like. for example:

I said earlier that whether moving to Linux is a good idea depends on the individuals unique needs. So let me give you a short case study of myself. I don’t like Windows all that much.  I don’tcare about it.  I own a Mac but I don’t like doing a lot of my graphic work on it because the mouse handling feels mushy to me.  The actual cursor, not the mouse device.  I’m not alone here even if you think I’m nuts saying that. Trust me ok. I also despise Windows Vista and the entire campaign with the seven different versions, the limits placed on cheaper versions and the audacity they had of complicating Vista instead of simplifying it.  I’ll say again SEVEN VERSIONS to figure out which one to buy?  What the hell Microsoft.  People all along the chain of that decision need to be stabbed.  And during that time, Apple releases one version of it’s OS X operating system. That’s how you do it. One option that handles it all./end rant.

So you’d think I’d be the likely candidate to try Linux.  And I have.  But there are problems that prevent me from being ‘Microsoft-Free.’ Those problems aren’t due to a lack of computer experience. They are genuine limitations.  I want to use the Latest Adobe software on a system that feels non-mushy. Because Linux can’t run Adobe CS4 Photoshop, Flash, AfterEffects, Premiere and more, that leaves Windows. I also enjoy the game franchise Call of Duty.  I also like being able to print photos with my Canon scanner / printer. I also like to use certain wireless mouse and keyboard features that only the windows drivers support (switching buttons)

Linux can probably get me pretty close to my goal.  Despite Canon not making Linux printer drivers, somebody else has written them. I might not get every printing option or be able to see ink levels in the system tray like I can on Windows XP, but still if I can print good prints on the right paper, I’m happy.  Whether I can do that without a nightmarish install process is a question though. Because anyone configuring their mother’s computer knows that seeing you five hours into it, they are frustrated with Linux without having touched it. My mom might reject Linux because it SEEMS complicated, even though I take care of the difficult one-time stuff.

One more case study: My wife.  Linux helped her a lot because of an older laptop and a missing Windows disk. We weren’t able to legally load Windows for her after a hard drive failure left her with a blank slate.  We recovered files, loaded Ubuntu Linux and I did my best to configure it nicely.  She was used to the “My Documents” folder and where it was located.  With a little walkthrough, she learned the new best location to save files.  Her problems with the webcam were evident, and her favorite greeting card software wasn’t available. We couldn’t find an alternative to that.  One big problem for her might be small to somebody else, but when we were able to Install Windows again, she was ready to because of it.  For whatever reason when she wanted to attach a photo to an email, she could not view thumbnails of the photos for attaching to Yahoo mail.  Maybe a silly small thing but that was her need.  And you can’t argue with that.  She did really well for the few months Linux was running, despite some printing challenges, which again would have been perfect with the Windows driver.  It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just personal preference and in a lot of ways, expectations.

It must be known though, that Linux kicks Windows behind in so many areas too. Such as the sheer number of free applications, many chat channels for help, ability to learn new things, ability to make many massive theme changes with less overhead. And it’s only gonna get better with the cross-platform Adobe AIR and the slow migration of favored programs.  Some pressure is on companies like Canon and Logitech and Nvidia to create drivers for Linux users. It’s in their best interest to support as many as they can.  There are also some Linux-only programs that are exquisite and you’ll take advantage of those.  e.g. Rosegarden which I mentioned previously.  There’s a lot more there to be discovered.  And Linux can be installed with a ready-to-use webserver. Admin tools are strong, as well as programming tools.

In conclusion, whether you can enjoy Linux, Mac or Windows depends on your expecations, your individual needs and what software supports those needs.  I cant’ tell you how many small needs I have that NO computer meets.  So to say that Windows is better than Linux, or Mac is better than any of them is just ignorant and biased. I think being free and supporting old hardware is a big advantage of Linux. Wouldn’t it be great to spend $90 on a used laptop and outfit your college student with free office, browsing and learning tools? That is very possible and that may be an enormous significance to people who are willing to try it. I love that Linux gets better constantly, Ubuntu releasing new versions every six months and people are trying to get things to work with popular devices.

December 10, 2008 at 6:12 pm | computers, learning, mac | 2 comments

New Mac Laptops are still weak

Apple just introduced new laptops this past week.  But unfortunately they just aren’t there yet.  Foolishly Apple is  omitting some things that really should be there for people. And sometimes I think they must be looking at some competitors and deciding purposely not do what others are doing even if those ideas are good. To me it should be very simple. You look at what you promise and you maintain a strong sense of what people deserve in the products you sell them.  The new MacBook and Pros still don’t have an embedded card reader.  Why is this?  They should have a CF and SD camera card reader. Probably a Sony Memory Stick and others should be there despite whatever political issues might be there. Do it because it’s the right thing to do.

Also, what is with these strange ports Apple uses sometimes?  Apple’s magnetic power port is a superior idea even though it’s a custom port. But when it comes to video ports and monitors and peripherals, they really need to just make it standard, to match everybody else. The more compatible the better we all are equipped. Even though it’s boring to be standard and its tempting to stylize ports a company shouldn’t create monitors and require the purchasing of a $30 adapter. How does it look when you overprice a connector while creating a headache for customers?  I hate having to carry these kinds of things with me.  Stop doing this to people. Stop making modified video, firewire, and USB ports on your and devices. Keep it simple because customers deserve it. And keep firewire when you make people depend on it.  They removed Firewire for the lesser MacBook and there’s really no reason other than an attempt to make people want to go over the threshold and buy the more expensive MacBook Pro. Unfortunately this will annoy people rather than encouraging them.

And that’s really what this is about. People buy things they don’t understand because they like what the technology does for them.  But as they understand it more and can compare with other products, if their product is missing something it’s frustrating because it’s limiting them. From my perspective, limiting people is wrong when you can do more to enable them. Free people to do more with what they have. You can be simple and standardized and connectable.

October 19, 2008 at 2:41 am | computers, rants | No comment

Renew your plates on Missouri’s pile of trash plate-renewal website

It was that time again for me.  Renew my plates.  I used to go downtown and do it.  Then I remembered that even though the lady at the desk and the ladies at the window are usually nice (when I’m prepared), everything else in between, the metered parking downtown on shitty one-way streets, the long lines (not always though) I decided it’s better for everyone if I just do it online.  After doing so I realize that somehow the MO plates website has been made to mimic the annoyance of the real life DMV.

Here’s my walkthru because you have a few minutes.

Our story starts off ok at plates.mo.gov.  Right at the top, a single big link to “Click Here to Renew Plates Online” cool!  Or maybe not so cool.  I’ll explain in a couple points.

  1. Quickly it all goes to hell.  Next we have a long list of reasons why I won’t be able to complete this process.  A bunch of exceptions. Thanks for the vote of confidence.  Just like the mean ladies downtown.  Why not shove these on a sidebar m’kay?
  2. After the exceptions list we have the prominent “Click Here” button.  That must be it.  It has to be, I’m so tired of reading exceptions. Well actually it’s not it. ‘Click Here’ and a page tells me my renewal is not complete.  No kidding.  That’s why I’m here.  Site error? After trying that button 5 times, I realize I’m not experiencing a site error, it’s just a horribly placed and vaguely labeled button.  That button is to  check if my renewal went through. It’s for people who did this 5 days ago and want to verify the system accepted it.  Why is this “click here” button here? The first site page told me to this page to renew my plates.  If I wanted to check my already renewed status, that option should have been on the very first page.  I’ll repeat this just so it sinks in.  On the “Renew my plates” page I start off with reasons why I might not be able to renew and then just under that we have the unlabeled link to check my renewal.  Oh but it gets better.
  3. After figuring out the first half is not applicable, we scroll down to “Getting Started”  Wait, what?  I thought I already started 10 minutes ago? Oh that’s right, the first 10 minutes you are just playing with yourself.  Duhh.  If you haven’t realized it yet, this chunk that says “Getting Started” info needs to be placed at the top.
  4. Next we have a big orange panel of what we need.  Now were talking.  I like strong color backgrounds used for emphasis. This colored list is good Except for #6, you actually do not need your insurance card to do this.
  5. Next we must agree that we won’t submit false information and a reminder that’s against the law.  I’m kind of mixed on agreements these.  As someone who would never do that, it seems cheesy. I’m also not sure this will matter to one who intends to insert false info.  Oh well it’s not too annoying.  “I agree, please continue.”
  6. Enter your pin and license plate#.   Aw dang it.  What is my plate #.  Why didn’t that nice orange box tell me I needed that?  Oh good it’s on the paperwork.  You see if I took the time to find my license plate, the session would have timed out in a matter of a hundred seconds idle time.  Then I have to start over.  Thanks.
  7. After entering my pin and license itt verifies my information. Cool,I’m in the system! That’s convenient right?
  8. Then it verifies your information again (pay special attention to the way your name is listed there).
  9. Then you have a form that says “enter ID and product code. But then it says if you aren’t from X counties you don’t need to do option one, move on to option 2.  Interestingly option one, which is the product code area, isn’t actually labeled as such? But that has to be what they mean right?   Hurray! I can skip to option 2, Jackson County has it’s privileges!  Option two isn’t labeled either, so go ahead and muddle your way through that, which is the best way to fill out critical government forms anyway in my opinion. Hope I’m right.
  10. Option 2 is Fill out your name, address, city state etc. (as printed on your tax receipt, and they say damnit make sure if your address has two lines, then use both address lines of the form. ) Ok, Ok I will.  I need to follow the format of the tax receipt. I’m fine with that.  But wait, why am I even filling this out again?  You already showed me that you had my information.  You verified it to me 2 or three times where you made me agree it was correct.  This is just another chance for me to make a mistake and get kicked out again.   And…
  11. Error, (I’m paraphrasing) “You need to fill out the appropriate information.”  That’s vague.  So I DID need the product code and ID from Option 1?  But I don’t have a product code or ID on my tax bill.
  12. So maybe just a temporary error.  I’ll try again…Error, And again, keep getting it.  WTF?  I read the error page thoroughly.  It mentions I might need cookies enabled.  And it links to instructions for IE and..Netscape Navigator?  Jesus, that browser isn’t supported any longer and is unmistakenly dead.  I’m using Firefox.  Then I wonder is this a Firefox issue?  I’m going to be really mad if Firefox isn’t supported and netscape is.  And what about people on Mac using Safari? Screw this, I’ll go to the horrible unsecure Internet Explorer in order to submit my legal information over the internet.
  13. Now I’m in IE, ladadadada,  doing it all over again. Then I notice something.. When it makes me verify my personal information twice, it shows my name as Last, First M.  I didn’t notice it the first time because it’s just a quick verification.  Wait, you don’t think that I need to print it that way on the next page do you?  But I followed the tax receipt, like they told me and on the tax receipt it was printed normally.  Ok, I’ll try it.
  14. Blammo, it works. Thank GOD.
  15. Then 38 seconds of screaming, one broken coffee mug. Who in the hell is going to realize this naming convention? I’m lucky. I spotted it by pure luck. Everyone else is going to get pissed off and bring their anger to the DMV office.  Why do they want this?
  16. Ready to pay?  Great!  Simply fill out your personal information AGAIN.  AHHHHH!!!!! You already have my info!!! WHY WHY!!!!
  17. Next, do you want to pay by Credit card or E-Check?   (It’s a trap.  I remember it from months ago. Pay by credit card and it will cost you a few dollars, and an e-check is 60 cents charge) Obviously I’m gonna go with e-check but how many people don’t realize this?  Yeah everybody else.  Later and on other pages, they call these “convenience fees.”  Hey DMV dickwads, It’s more convenient for YOU if I pay by credit card or check, because it eases your lines, your parking and your employees.  And yet you make ME pay for YOUR convenience.  And even though it’s just 60 cents, FU.
  18. Next we have the longest processing time ever.  I am on the supposed double-fast DSL and it just creeps along. Normally I don’t complain about this kind of thing, but if this was dial-up, it’s totally gonna time out on me.  After all that work if it times out on me,  I’m grabbing my torch and saber.  If it happens to time out, it won’t tell me if the payment went through.  Then everything’s in limbo.  Then I’m going to call the DMV, take up their time and give them the 3rd degree.  So, find a fast way to process payments. Period.  And if it costs more, you fire one guy from your web team who created this monstrosity and pay for it that way.
  19. Lastly we end on a good note.  A decent 1 page formatted receipt that we can print out.  But the happiness of that is quite thin because going back to point #2, because I received this notice that it went through, why would I come back and check that ridiculous ‘Click Here’ button on the front page to verify my renewal.  I suppose I could somehow forget that I didn’t renew and I come back to check?  Given the rarity that would happen, it makes that “Click Here” button at the beginning seem very dumb for it’s placement.

Ok DMV, see ya next year.  At that time I’ll need an inspection so it’s gonna be even more fun.  Oh if anyone from that website group reads this.  Maybe consider spending about 2 hours, with some pizza and a couple testers to just walk through the paying process like I did.  This should never have created this poorly.  Clearly there was no testing done.  Or there was, but everyone was completed drunk when they did it.  And you know what.  I know that if their web guy or girl does read this, she’ll be upset.  I’m sure you are a nice person web guy/girl.  I don’t mean for you to get down in the dumps.  But you first need to admit this is bad logic, programming and design, and never do it that way again.  Because though you think it’s no big deal and my posting is much too offensive, It’s you who have caused pain to hundreds of thousands of people by doing this, including your co-workers who answer calls and have to pick up the pieces from a broken process daily.

March 28, 2008 at 8:55 pm | computers, general, rants, webdev | No comment

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