by cameron | Mar 21, 2007 | Melbourne, Podcast, technology
Despite Scott’s slagging of Vista today, I like it – especially now that I’ve got 2GB RAM. Don’t tell anyone. I’d hate for Jeff Putt to hear about it.
Okay so, as I said on the show the other night, it isn’t the major new paradigm that was promised over those long, long, Longhorn years. Remember quotes like these from BillG?
Longhorn, the next version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows desktop operating system, will be so different from its predecessors that users may not like it right away.
(link)
Longhorn makes it easy for your information to show up on any device. It makes it easy to navigate that information.
(link)
Say you keep lists. Anytime that you’ve mentioned a restaurant, it automatically goes onto this list of restaurants, and your system would automatically keep track of what are the hours there, how that menu has changed.
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There is more R&D being spent on Longhorn than on the 747.
(link)
Now that we are moving to this Web services world–a loosely coupled, message-based breakthrough that computer scientists have dreamed of for decades–all of the things that let that be possible need to be in the US$50 operating system. And so here we have Indigo that will be in Windows and let you do transactions and queuing.
(link)
And let’s forget about WinFS….
But as an operating system, it’s pretty “neat” (I can imagine BillG calling it that… isn’t he just the child of the 50s??).
Here’s my desktop at the moment:
What do I like?
1. It’s prettier than XP.
2. When folders open and close they do this little.. shrinky… thing. It’s… neat.
3. Ummm… having the sidebar pre-installed is nice but I’d been running Yahoo Konfabulator for a few years on and off so it’s not an entirely new experience. It is, however, packaged. The widgets I’ve got installed are currently:
iTunes controller
News.com.au RSS feed
Dual Core monitor
Shortcuts to key docs and folders
Melbourne’s weather
Calendar
4. The little clock thing in the taskbar allows multiple timezones!! Now I can see what time it is in Scotland and Washington when I’m hiding from Ewan and Scott on Skype. I can wait until I know they are asleep before I stop lurking.
5. Most nearly everything I need is running. All except my printer. I had trouble with the scanner but Photoshop figured out how to make it work.
6. The “snip” tool from Windows XP Tablet PC Edition ships with it and that is VERY handy.
7. It’s pretty (did I already say that?)
8. The new Win-TAB is old technology (I can’t remember what it was called but I used to have an app which did that years ago) but great to have in the OS.
9. The way the little previews of the windows you have open pop up when you hover your mouse over the taskbar.
10. ummm. it’s pretty?
The list of things I don’t like is shorter…
1. The integrated search is better but not, IMHO, as good as Google Desktop. Come on Microsoft. Catch up.
2. Hmmmm… no podcast support?
3. It doesn’t swallow?
4. Oh yeah. Google Desktop searches open in IE and not FF. I haven’t been able to figure out how to stop that. Anyone know the secret (no, not the stupid new agey documentary which says “whatever you conceive and believe you can achieve”, but just… the regular type secret)?
5. Oh yeah… I had to spend the first two days turning off the stupid security features. YES – I WANT TO RUN THIS FRAKKING APPLICATION! THAT’S WHY I CLICKED ON IT STUPID!!
I don’t know. I can’t pick much fault with it so far I guess. But then again I’ve only had it four days. Give me some more time.
Would I go out and pay real shells for it? No. The benefit over XP is really just cosmetic as far as I can tell. I really cannot for the life of me tell what’s truly new and innovative in Vista apart from the prettiness and I wouldn’t shell out $600 – $1000 for that.
However, if you are getting a new PC and you have Vista as an option – and you are well aware that some of your software and/or peripherals may not work – then go ahead and move to Vista. Mum – that means you.
by cameron | Mar 16, 2007 | media 2.0, Podcast, technology
On episode 214 I have Rich and Gra from Scouta on the line. As most of you will know, Rich and Gra used to be podcasters on TPN before they selfishly and wantonly deserted me to run their own start-up. Do I hold a grudge? Do I ever. I’m like Tony Montana. Don’t cross me. I get my revenge today by singing Rainbow Connection to them. That’ll teach them.
Anyway, for those of you who haven’t already checked out Scouta, it’s a pretty cool idea. It’s a website where you can tell it what online videos and audio shows (like, for example, this podcast) you like a lot and it will recommend new things for you to watch and listen to.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
by cameron | Mar 16, 2007 | Melbourne, technology
Jodie asked me to post up the spec of my new PC (which hasn’t arrived yet).
It’s basically a Lenovo A55 with the Core 2 Duo E6300 1.8 GHz processor, 1 GB DDR2 RAM (not sure this is going to be enough but I’ll buy another stick later if it needs it). Comes with a 250GB drive and I’ve got another TB of external drives that I’ll slam into it from the old machine. Here’s a link to the machine on Lenovo’s site.
It comes pre-loaded with Vista which I’m nervous about for a variety of reasons:
I’ve heard mixed reports from friends about Vista’s performance. I don’t buy into the “it’s not secure” arguments – which I even got from my dealer – people have been saying that about Windows for years and it’s just nonsense. My house isn’t secure if I don’t lock the door either. If I let complete masked strangers into my house I’m just looking for trouble. But I am worried about performance. I’ve been running Office 2007 for the last few weeks and it’s pretty but slow. So we’ll see what happens. If it sucks, I’ll degrade it down to XP.
I’m a little worried about how my apps will run on it – mostly my production apps – Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition and Skylook. They all apparently are Vista compliant but the Adobe stuff has “minor known issues”. Messing around with a new config, on a production machine, is always a worry. Most other apps I rely upon are now web2.0 and OS-proof.
I’m also worried about getting Vista drivers for my external Waveterminal U24 soundcard. It’s a about five years old and even the XP drivers for it were flaky. Might have to buy a new one of those as well.
My key hope for the machine is that it will be QUIET. For the last few years I’ve had to turn my desktop off when I record and work on the laptop because the desktop sounded like a Boeing. The idea is that this one will be quieter because of the dual core processor and it’s got multiple smaller fans in it rather than a couple of the huge ones. Fingers crossed this does the trick.
I was originally going to get the smaller Lenovo desktop unit but it doesn’t have many expansion slots and when you’re doing a lot of audio and video editing, you never know what cards you might need. The integrated audio and video on the mobo usually aren’t enough for high-end processing.
By the way, my ‘dealer’ is my next-door neighbour David Jackson who has a company called Bespoke Solutions (soon to be re-branded Hexworks). If anyone in Melbourne is looking for a boutique IT solutions company, I can highly recommend David’s services. He’s a Christian but I can overlook that.
by cameron | Mar 9, 2007 | Australian politics, Melbourne, Podcast, technology
On episode 211 my guests are Dr Phil Burgess, Group Managing Director, Public Policy and Communication, Telstra and Garry Barker, Technology Editor at The Age. We spent an hour at Telstra’s Melbourne offices this morning discussing the state of broadband in Australia.
Phil is often in the news (here are some recent stories) debating the broadband issue with other Australian corporate executives, the ACCC and the Federal Government, but this is a rare opportunity to hear him speak (loudly and passionately) about Telstra’s official position on the broadband debate for an hour.
Thanks to Phil and Garry for participating and to Paul Crisp and Rod Bruem at Telstra for making it happen. I know Phil is a supporter of blogs and podcasts (he is the guy who make Telstra’s ‘Now We Are Talking’ blog happen) so hopefully this will just be the first of many such conversations.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
by cameron | Sep 19, 2006 | singularity, Uncategorized
From the Mprize press release today:
Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, and angel investor in social networking site Facebook, has announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging, to be conducted under the auspices of the Methuselah Foundation, a charity co-founded and Chaired by Dr. Aubrey de Grey.
If you don’t know who Aubrey de Grey is, listen to my interview with him: G’Day World #42 – Dr Aubrey de Grey
Very exciting to see more entrepreneurs getting behind life extension research. If Gates and Buffett threw some of their Gigantor cash at it, it could probably get knocked over in ten or twenty years. By the way, Thiel is the same guy who co-produced THANK YOU FOR SMOKING. According to Wikipedia, he has also made early-stage investments in several companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, Rapleaf, and Ironport. In May 2006 he spoke at the Singularity Summit. I’ve got to get this guy on the show. How long do you think it will take me to get an intro?
by cameron | Aug 20, 2006 | Podcast, singularity
About
a week ago on this blog I mentioned that I’d just read an amazing book called “The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect” (aka MOPI). Today on the show I’m very excited to have the author of that book, Roger Williams. Roger talks to me from his home in New Orleans about the genesis of the book, why it has never been published, the sequel he’s writing, his other fiction, the Singularity, and what life is like in New Orleans 12 months after Hurricane Katrina.
Get MOPI here
Find Roger’s other fiction here
Read up on “The Singularity” and what others are saying about it
Listen to my interview with Ray Kurzweil from late 2005
Read up on Eliezer Yudkowsky who you’ll hear Roger mention a few times
