Found this on There I fixed it and I thought I share it. Way to do the 1995 upgrade and pop a collar…LOL

Though many are discussing the parts of Paul Allen’s forthcoming biography where he, Mr. Allen, alleges that Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and others tried to cheat him out of a large part and the value of Microsoft’s stock. To me though the more interesting thing is Mr Allen’s discussing (summarized at FT.com here) where and how Microsoft got offtrack and feel behind. The three key area’s Mr Allen points too are Microsoft’s size (inability to react due to internal politics and legacy frameworks), the corporate culture (fiefdom’s and intellectual isolation between departments and sectors), and lack of visionary leadership (less capable managers, and Steve Ballmer’s fast follower mindset). Overall these are the same things I personally have said about the Redmond gang for a long time.

That said, I still run more Window’s boxes then I do Mac or Linux ones, though my Android collection is growing.

Current computer count –

Myself @ Home – 2 Window’s Desktop’s online (one dual booting XP / 7 and one XP only), 2 windows laptop’s (1 XP, 1 Windows 7), a G4 Mac, a Linux box, a ready to power up backup offline XP desktop, and a personal Android smartphone.

Myself @ work – a XP desktop, a XP laptop, and a Andriod tablet assigned to me. Regular access to a shared Windows 7 tablet.

In my garage @ home and offline – one good XP box looking for a good home, and 3 old 2000 / XP PC’s that need to be recycled.

My wife @ home – a Windows XP desktop, a Windows 7 laptop, and a Windows Phone 6.0 smartphone currently, but is considering a move to a Windows Phone 7 model later this year.

My wife @ work – a XP desktop

So even with Microsoft having problem most of what my wife and myself use and access daily are based on Microsoft products. The only platform with increases around us in the last year has been Andriod based devices.

Well it seems that the eBook is here to stay as even the Knoxville Public Library (known to many as one of the slowest reacting governmental agencies East of Nashville) has begun to actively “check out” eBooks. They are offering them in online now – story here. Every hipster on Market Square rejoiced in unison before ordering another latte and a brownie.

I am sure that Al Gore will soon be figure out a way to reappear from the vast abyss of middle TN and take credit for leading this incentive along with telling us how he revolutionizing TV with CurrentTV. The world has yet to see the Current revolution that he predicted. Unfortunately for Al, that was one revolution which was barely televised, or barely noticed.

Computer School.org has a VERY interesting graphic up about the actual size of Google. It is AMAZING just how big and vast this corp is, as well as sharing some facts about Google in general.

Infographic by computer school.org

Ray Kurzweil, a man that I have always found to be creative, inventive and genius, but who I disagree with on several major issues, has felt for several years that it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when that computers will become self aware and more intelligent then humans. From this break through will come immortal humans and computer’s which make ethical decisions and evaluate art for example. Much of Kurzweil’s thoughts are covered by his theory of singularity. The wiki for technological singularity states that Kurzweil defines singularity as –

the concept in terms of the technological creation of superintelligence, and allege that a post-singularity world would be unpredictable to humans due to an inability of human beings to imagine the intentions or capabilities of superintelligent entities..

Kurzweil is the inventor of things like the reading machine for the blind, the voice activated typewriter (VAT), and the Kurzweil synthesizer. In the past he has predicted the fall of governments due to increases in technology which allow the free flow of thoughts, and the rise of the internet. Now Kurzweil believes that computers in 2045, if not before, will reach the point of singularity and immortality for humans will occur due to increases in nanotechnology and medical advances.

Regardless of your view of Kurzweil and his ideas, a recent piece in Time is a very interesting story. I would advise everyone to give it a read and a think here.

Kurzweil on “I’ve Got A Secret” in 1965

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Currently the IBM based Watson computer is winning on Jeopardy. Post Here

cables wireless

I find it very interesting that a company named CABLES UNLIMITED is making WIRELESS systems.

Well not sure how I missed it, but the future of Open Office (my personal long time favorite for all those that need an office suite but don’t have $200 to throw away for basic Word / Excel compatibility)is looking brighter. It seems that the very thing that Open Office has needed for awhile, a separate and well funded non profit, is going to develop and distribute a fork of Open Office apart from Oracle (the current owner of Open Office due to their purchase of Sun). this is great news. Full story at Ars here.

The NY Times had an article on the trends / steps in high school and college – focusing on Central Florida University and turnitin.com – to stop cheating (full story here). Since I have not seen a classroom in almost 20 years this kind of stuff was really interesting to me. I knew cheating was high tech and I assumed that attempts to stop cheating were high tech as well, but this was really interesting to me. I also thought the ideas that some colleges expressed for not using services was interesting as well.

PC World has a interesting piece up discussing Google’s idea to suggest Enterprises / Corporations stay on their current version of Office (instead of upgrading to Office 2010) and begin to use / integrate Google Docs into their infrastructure as a means of web / cloud / shared components. Google’s idea is centered around the fact that Office 2010 and Microsoft based cloud computing / shared components require Sharepoint Server installation and Sharepoint sites to share files many times. That is a very good point in my view, but I doubt that it will sway many Microsoft centered houses (at least big ones) to look toward Google Docs as their shared / cloud solution. Of course from Google’s side of the field they don’t need to win all of the Microsoft clients over, just a few each month until in a few years Docs is viewed as a viable option for the enterprise. PC World’s full post here

Well Gizmodo has a very funny post up with photoshop’d images of Steve Jobs introducing NON Apple products. Full Post here Number 28 is my favorite.

The Wall St Journal, and about 1,000 other sources, has an interesting story out today about Google’s move into the internet provider building with the announcement of their plan to roll out some test cases (for 50,000 to 500,000) users high speed fibre based internet access. This service would offer 1Gbit (that is right 1 Gigabit) speed. Most US high speed service is less then 10Mbit so this would be a 100 fold increase or more for most US users.

If you look at world wide Inet service the US is fairly middle of the road when it comes to high speed service. Japan and Korea typically offer their residents the highest average speed Inet performance, but those speeds are typically located in major cities, which will probably be the same for Google and any short term services similar.

Found some interesting things on the web about reusing some of the left overs of the IT revolution – old computers, walkman’s, CD / DVD’s that have failed to burn right, etc.

Uses for old / outdated tech times here.
Uses for old / flawed CD’s here.