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Microsoft Surface: Bill Gates and Co can still innovate after all these years
May 30th
Well today marked the announcement of a new product from Bill Gates and Co (Microsoft) that is nothing short of revolutionary. Microsoft’s new product named Surface is the next step in computer interaction. If you haven’t had the opportunity to witness what Surface is yet have a look at this short video that gives you a glimpse at this new computer interaction device disguised as a table.
Although Surface isn’t yet being released for mass consumption it will be out Winter of 2007 they say, though Microsoft is notorious for having to push back release dates similar to their latest Vista OS launch.
Surface if adopted widely could change the way things in our world are done, imagine sitting in a restaurant and the table your eating at is actually a Surface computing device. You could preview the dessert menu, and place your order for a chocolate cheesecake. Or maybe you want to split the bill among 3 people. Just put each of your cards on the table and divide of the bill by dragging the items from the bill to the individual credit cards. Or maybe you’ve got digital photos of your recent trip to the beach and you want to load them onto your cellphone for a new desktop background. Well then set your camera and cell phone on the Surface and let Surface display a collage of all your images and then drag the images of your choosing to your cell.
Surface could really revolutionize the way that we all interact with technology in the future and I for one can’t wait to get one of these as a new coffee table at the house. Imagine how much fun Christmas at our house would be if we had this in the living room.
Below is a video of a longer and in-depth technology showcase of the Microsoft Surface in action while presenting it to the press.
WordPress 2.2
May 18th
We’re running on the latest version of WordPress now. Version 2.2 is awesome. I hadn’t upgraded our blog platform in awhile but now that I have I’m super happy that I did. One of the unexpected features we got that I didn’t even plan on was an autosave feature built into the blog backend. Also support for CRON jobs and more makes administering the blog that much easier.
I’m so excited it just makes me want to write about anything because I’m having so much fun with the new platform.
Alright well thats the end of my praising for WordPress 2.2. I’ll get back to work now.
Moving web hosts from Net firms to Host Gator
May 18th
Well we recently switched hosts to Host Gator from Net Firmsbecause to be honest even though NetFirms is really affordable at only $10 a year they’re just not reliable. The uptime is actually pretty good, but their MySQL really really sucks. I mean if your trying to run a blog, or anything that relies heavily on MySQL it just won’t work. Pages would sometimes take 20sec.+ to load and frequently would totally timeout. DNS transfered over yesterday so I’ve been working on the new server from HostGator now for maybe 18 hours or so. And so far I must say I’m very happy. The page load times are very quick, and I haven’t had a single hiccup yet.
We’ve still got some domains to move over from Net Firms but I think we’re going to be much happier with our hosting from here on out.
Updates to come later.
Free virus and spyware removal tools
Mar 6th
Are you a victim of spy ware? Have a virus? Have no fear! Many people think that when their computer starts running slow or they have different kind of “malfunctions” they need to buy a new computer. That’s usually not the case. As a matter of fact your problem could be a virus or spy ware and you, the technologically challenged, may be able to fix it yourself FOR FREE. There are free spy ware and virus removal tools available, but you need to be careful when choosing which one to use since some advertise themselves as a spy ware removal tools and are actually spy ware.
Most people know that it’s always good to have some sort of anti virus running on their computers along with a firewall to help ward off the evil spirits of spy ware and viruses, but today programmers are so on top of their game they make it extremely difficult to remove them.
PC WORLD Magazine, a really great magazine that even non-computer geeks can appreciate, wrote an article giving the simple steps anyone can follow to resuscitate their PC’s from viruses or spy ware. You can read the article here.
Food for thought-With all the viruses and spy ware out there are all their creators just malicious with nothing better to do? OR are Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft, and other big names, in on the scheme and paying the spy ware programmers to continue making them to generate more revenue for the above mentioned big names to find “patches” and other “new and improved” “top of the line” security programs they can charge you for?
Man sues IBM over being fired for adult chat rooms
Feb 18th
Yes, that’s right. A former employee of IBM is suing IBM for firing him for his addiction for “Adult” chat rooms. Instead of being held accountable for his own actions he says that IBM was wrong for firing him because he’s a sex addict and needs help. James Pacenza a 58 year old man of Montgomery, New York says that he developed traumatic stress in Vietnam while watching his Army buddy die in 1969. Since then the availability of the internet has prompted his entries into chat rooms which created his pathway into the “sex addiction”. Read full article here.
He also accuses IBM of age discrimination. He says that he had been there for 19 years and would have been able to retire in just one more year. However, IBM states that James was warned about his chat room behavior 4 months earlier and said he could be fired for that, but James denies the warning.
It has also been determined that IBM did not offer counseling for James’ medical condition. Whereas, other employees with drug and alcohol problems were offered counseling. IBM is trying to get a summary judgment, so we’ll have to wait and see if it ever goes to trial.
Whatever the case may be, this shows how litigious our society is. Some people are scared of what others may have the power to do so they threaten with a lawsuit. For others it’s a game of getting even for something, so again threaten with a lawsuit. In this case an employee was allegedly warned about his internet habits and the consequences that may be rendered. Weather or not he had been warned, for most of us in Greater America we are expected to work when we go to work. So being reprimanded for going to pornographic sites or chat rooms should be expected. If this guy felt that his chat habits at work were in fact directly related to his psychological illness incurred during the Vietnam war, and knew it was becoming and increasingly bigger problem why didn’t he try to get help on his own even if not offered by IBM? Why didn’t we hear of problems at home with his internet fetishes? Or is this just the beginning? If you are an employer you are paying your employee to perform their duties at work and not to surf sex sites during working hours. Maybe that’s just too logical. I do agree with one thing, without a written warning firing this guy may have been a little harsh, especially after 19 years of service. What will come next?
Best Buy customer service vs. Circuit City customer service
Dec 22nd
Ok. Nowdays everyone is shopping on the internet. Can you blame them? Who wants to deal with the long lines and attitudes of people around you. One of the great new options stores are offering is online ordering and in-store pick-up. This saves the customer shipping fees and gives them the opportunity to swing by and pick it up at their leisure. Or, well, at least it’s supposed to.
I am one of those customers. The idea is grand, but with Best Buy it NEVER works out that way! Everytime I order online with Best Buy for in-store pick up I not only have to wait in line forever, but they always have a problem with my order. The first few times I ordered online with instore pick up it worked beautifully…I was hooked. But since Christmas 2005 it has been a nightmare with them.
Example: I ordered online and never got a verification to pick up my order like their site says you should. So I called and the store employee said they were getting ready to put back my order because I hadn’t come to pick it up. I explained how I never got an email that it was ready and she said that I should have. I went on to Bestbuy.com and logged in and sure enough it still said order in process…not complete like others on my order history page. I printed that and took it down there and the girl was speechless. All she could say is to call the online customer service to find out why.
PEOPLE don’t bother with that either…they take 3 days to respond to you and then you get an automated message saying how sorry they are. If you reply to them a few times and over an elapsed period of about 2 weeks they’ll cancel your order.
Rating on Bestbuy customer service 1 star.
Circuit city on the other hand…beautiful. They have an awesome 24 minute $24 guarantee. You order online for instore pick up and if you get down there within 24 minutes and your order is not ready for pick up you get a $24 gift card. Out of 3 online orders with them to pick up in-store, I got 1. This was because they showed one of my items in stock, but it was misplaced in the store. So they were trying to search for it and defaulted on their guarantee and gave me the $24 gift card. Not only that, but they offered me another title of PC software that was comparable and more expensive for the same price I was going to pay for the item they couldn’t locate.
Overall, Circuit City online ordering well exceeds Best Buy. The differences:
Circuit City= Free Shipping on all orders over $25, 24 minute in store pickup or a $24 gift card guarantee, but NO CD’s or DVD’s for in store pick up orders.
Best Buy=Pay shipping almost always, bad customer service online and in store, usually same in prices as Circuit City or a bit lower, don’t know when you should go to pick up your order in store, and when you do a search for a product it doesn’t tell you how much it is until you click on it.
That’s my experience you be the judge. It’ll be interesting to hear what experiences other people are having with online ordering with these two big names in Electronics.
ITT Tech
Dec 14th
I graduated high school in 1997 and held a job that would fund my partying. I had no idea where I wanted to go with my future. Nothing sounded exciting enough. I finally decided to take a few courses of general education at a local college thinking I could knock my general ed out of the way and then figure out a major. I GOT BORED FAST! I got nervous because still after my hard work I didn’t have any clue which direction I wanted to go and thought that I may never know. So I continued working finding a decent paying full time job with benefits. After almost three years there I decided between the two things that interested me. Cooking and computers! Strange combo I know, but they are both very exciting to me. I checked into the culinary school and found out how expensive it was for a short term. In case you thought it was easy, it’s not. The course a 9 month program at a prestige school would run $27,000. That’s just for the Patisserie (baking) program. Sure I would be able to make some unimaginable wedding cakes and desserts, but I wanted the full deal. To continue another 6 months for the chef portion would cost an additional $27,000. Yes, you read right $54,000 for a 13 month program. Seeing as though I was a single mom I did not see anyway that even with financial aid I could afford this. Next stop, technical school…. I checked into a few local colleges and was finding out that I could accomplish the SAME thing through ITT Technical Institute or Devry as any of the jr. colleges or university’s, but in 1/3 of the time. I spoke to a counselor at ITT Tech and found that the prices were still high, but with student loans and financial aid I would probably be able to swing it. So I enrolled. My first quarter seemed pretty normal. I got my text books on time, classes began and ended as I was told before signing my life away, and it seemed like a typical school. I began to enjoy going back to school because I knew where I was going with my schooling and I knew I’d get the degree so many employers want to see now days. Classmates were nice, teachers were nice, and things seemed to flow as I had expected based off of what I was told by the recruiter. Little did I know that would all slowly begin to change…
We’re registered with Technorati now
Nov 28th
Well to get any kind of people to even know our blog exists I created an account with Technorati so they can track when our blog gets updated, and hopefully when people search for stuff that we mention in our blog will find ours. At least that’s the hope. We’ll see if it works or not though. So here’s a link to my Technorati Profile
