Alex's Journal

[digg=http://www.digg.com/apple/Macs_in_the_Corporate_World]I have long wondered when the popularity of Apple’s line of Mac computers would breach the modern day corporate world. With the release of Unix-based Mac OS X and then the switch to Intel processors, not to mention the dual boot capabilities with Boot Camp and Parallels, Apple has certainly set itself up to break into the corporate world.

At the university I currently attend, I have found that most of the students here are using Macs instead of Windows PCs as the computer they bring with them. It’s not at all an uncommon sight to walk through commons areas and see a plethora of Apple logos on the back of laptop screens. They, by far, outnumber the number of PCs that can be seen.

To me, it seems this should eventually spill over into the corporate world. As students graduate and move onto their carriers, they will want to continue using a familiar (and frankly, far more problem-free) environment. I figured it would be a few more years down the road before we started seeing major changes in which type of computer is used in the corporate world, however, it appears this is already happening.

I came across an article today that talked about this. It claimed that the feature catching the corporate eye the most was how compatible the Mac was with everything else. The new Intel architecture, the ability to run Windows when necessary via Boot Camp, the ease of creating programs and the software selection available for Mac OS X, which is quickly becoming comparable to the library of Windows software. The other enticing feature is how easy Macs have become to network. Unlike the old days of AppleTalk, Macs not only easily talk to each other, but also with Windows, Linux, Unix, and any other type of PC out there. If you would like to read the article, you can find it here: http://www.networkworld.com.

Who knows if Macs will really get a firm grip on the corporate world? I would like to see it happen, but it will definitely take some time.

CNET recently released a video on CNET TV stating their top 5 reasons as to why you should not buy Windows Vista. Check it out:

http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-26277.html

[digg=http://digg.com/software/A_Journaling_App/blog]When I first began blogging, I knew I didn’t want use my browser every time I wanted to blog about something. I wanted a local program that I could use to compose my blog entries and one that would also easily allow me to keep an offline record of all of my journal entries. For a while, I just created a folder on my hard drive and used Apple’s Pages (in the iWork suite) to write my entries. This worked well, but I wanted something more. I was sick of having to open my browser, then copy and paste the entire entry into the text box in the browser, then reformat everything with HTML. After a bit of searching, I found several different types of journaling/blogging software. Most of them were quite hideous looking (I’m very meticulous as to how my programs look) and they didn’t have a lot of the features I wanted. I eventually found one with exactly what I was looking for.

This application is called Journaler. The first thing I noticed was how well it used the beautiful Mac OS X interface. It even allowed me to change between the three major themes of Mac OS X applications: normal, unified gray and brushed metal.

Journaler looks a lot like the Mail app that comes with Mac OS X. It was also just as easy to use. On the left side, you can have folders and even smart folders to help organize entries. On the right side, you have a list of entries in the currently selected folder (you can select the standard folder called “Journal” to view all of your entries). Below it, you have an editor to edit the entries. You can either edit or create new entries in this standard three panel view or you can open an entry in a new window to edit it. The other feature I really liked about it was the tabs. In the three panel view, you can have more than one tab open at a time, which means you can easily have more than one entry open at a time; no matter what folder the entry is in. This eliminates the need to have more than one window open or the need to have to constantly switch back and forth between two entries.

The next thing I looked for was how nice the editor was. It appears to use the standard rich text editor that Apple supplies as part of its development kit and that Apple uses in its own TextEdit application. This rich text editor allows for almost everything offered by more feature-rich applications such as Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages and also uses the standard Mac OS X spell checker integrated into the entire operating system. This made me happy, however, I was still afraid I would have to copy and paste it into my browser and reformat. After a bit of experimentation, I found a button called “Blog”. When I pushed this button, a window opened that displayed my entry with all of the formating I had done converted to the necessary HTML. In the preferences, you can setup as many blogs as you would like to post it to. Journaler then checks your blogging service for categories and builds a list. You can then choose the blog and the category you would like to post your blog to, click the “Post Blog” button and bam. Your blog’s posted. Your blog does have to be MetaWeblog API compatible, however. If you don’t know what this is, just ask your blog provider whether or not they support it. Most major blog providers do support it. Also, you do have to upload images and media via your blog’s website.

The next feature that I found (but wasn’t necessarily looking for) was integration with Apple’s iLife suite of media software. This includes iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie, etc. By opening a window (as shown below) and dragging a file to the editor, you can easily add media content to your blog entry without even having to use the Finder or opening any of the iLife apps.

These are only some of the basic features that Journaler offers. I haven’t even begin to use or dive into some of the other features offered by it. If you have a blog and you are a Mac user, I highly recommend Journaler. It’s free for personal use and if you use it commercially or to gain any profits, there is a $24.95 licensing cost. You can also make a donation.

You can visit the Jouranler website at http://www.journler.com for more information or to download it.

[digg=http://www.digg.com/software/A_Nice_Little_App]I found a nice little application today that I think I will be using for quite some time. It’s an application for Mac OS X called Cashbox.

Cashbox is a financial management program that has no frills. My favorite part of Cashbox is that it only does the basic functions that most people need. You could almost consider it a replacement for the paper log found in checkbooks, but with automatic adding and subtracting and graphs. It also allows you to keep track of more than one bank account and make transfers between them. You can also add labels to each transaction, which it uses to generate graphs. For example, you can have a “Food Expenses” label or a “Gas” label. If you had both of these, you can view a pie-graph that will show you what percentage of your budget goes to food expenses and what percentage goes to gas.

Other than that, it doesn’t really do much else. It’s simplicity is really nice and is also compensated by the fact that it’s freeware. You can make donations if you would like, but no payment is required to use it.

Now that I’ve told you about it, I’ll give you a link so you can go download it. Here it is: http://www.fadingred.org/cashbox

On YouTube, I found a behind the scenes video of the making of the commercial for the debut of Apple’s Macintosh that aired on Superbowl Sunday, 1984. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf5b2U9AXs]

[digg=http://www.digg.com/gadgets/Sit_Button_Stool]Do those three words seem rather random to you when put together like that? Normally they would to me to, however, I’ve found something that has caused me to giggle like a school girl.

It’s a stool in the form of a keyboard button with the word “Sit” on it. See below.

[digg=http://www.digg.com/software/Windows_95_and_Vista]As I mentioned in another article I wrote yesterday about Windows Vista, Vista has hardly received any positive reviews. This is another example of that, however, it brings up some very good points that were not brought up in any of the other articles I posted in my last entry about Vista.

The article I read compares the launch of Windows Vista with the launch of Windows 95 over 10 years ago. When Microsoft released Windows 95 back in the third quarter of 1995, it basically provided consumers with a new interface with which to interact with their computer. It made the primary interface that users dealt with graphical by default. If you don’t know what I mean, let me explain.

Before Windows 95, PCs ran MS-DOS. MS-DOS, or sometimes simply called DOS for short, was a command-line based operating system in which the user needed to type each command in via the computer. The mouse was not used on a standard basis and in order to use commands, you had to know what they were. Then along came the graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI was first created by Xerox, then adopted by Apple for use on Apple’s Lisa computer. Microsoft eventually came out with its own version of a GUI that it called Windows. The first couple versions of Windows (Windows 1.0 and 2.0) were hardly used by consumers. After these 2 experiments, Windows 3.0 was released. Windows 3.0 was a much bigger hit with consumers than previous versions of Windows had been, however, it was not a real operating system. It was simply an application in DOS that provided the user with a graphical interface for DOS. The problem was that the user had to launch it manually. For those who were not computer savvy enough to use DOS or just didn’t care to, this wasn’t much better.

When Microsoft released Windows 95, it changed this by having the GUI launch by default. No longer did the average user have to interact with any command line interface ever again on a PC. The overall look and feel of Windows 95 was significantly different than that of the previous versions of Windows and was the forerunner of what Windows looks like today. This sounds good, right?

The problem is that none of this was innovative or even new technology. Apple had been doing this for over 10 years! Windows 95 was also clunky and buggy. How does this compare to Windows Vista today? Vista sports a cool new look and includes several new features not available in previous versions of Windows (most of which are almost directly copied from Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger), but it doesn’t include anything truly innovative.

Windows 95 was released and gained its popularity in a fledgling computer industry that was just beginning to go mainstream. Windows Vista was released in a competitive market that has high consumer expectations and a thirst for features and good looks. We’ll see how Vista holds up. Windows 95 proved to be a success despite all of its drawbacks. Maybe Vista will surprise even the most cynical of us.

By the way, I mentioned an article I read about this earlier on in this entry that inspired me to write this. You can find it here. If you have a few minutes to kill, I recommend reading it.

We all know about the timeless war waged between the two largest consumer computing behemoths in the world. It’s the classic problem of Mac vs PC. In recent years, Apple has been able to regain ground lost to Microsoft in the mid-ninties and has proven that they seriously mean business.

Why is this? Earlier today I was reading an interesting article comparing Apple announcing new products at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco and Microsoft announcing new products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The article gives a timeline of what each company talked about every year since 2000.

I won’t repeat everything that is written in the article I read, instead I’ll just give you a link: http://www.roughlydrafted.com

I will, however, give you a basic overview of what is discussed there, as it is quite a long read. Basically, when Microsoft announces a new product or a new service at CES, it doesn’t always deliver. Apple, on the other hand, delivers what it promises. Apple also has a tendency to discuss and to say what the consumers want to hear, whereas Microsoft has a tendency to talk less about what consumers want to hear. It also briefly discusses Microsoft’s all-to-often-failed ventures into consumer electronics and it’s failures at having successful partnerships.

To sum it all up, I leave you with a quote from the article: “With partners like Microsoft, who need enemies?”

You can read the article at this website: http://www.roughlydrafted.com

As a college student, it is not an uncommon thing for me to be assigned essays and papers. An research assignment given to me about two weeks ago had a strange requirement attached to it: we are not allowed to use Internet sources. When I asked the 80-something year old professor why we are not allowed to use Internet, he simply said that he doesn’t trust any of the online sources available out there.

This professor also has never used a computer to type anything (all of his syllabi, assignments, tests, etc are all typed on a typewriter) and never checks his e-mail.

That got me thinking. Is there such a thing as an Internet phobia? I did a quick search on Google for Internet phobia and quickly came up with several relevant links. It turns out that there is a minority amongst seniors that simply resisting new technology such as the Internet or even computers in general. According to a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “Fewer than 31 percent of seniors older than 65 have ventured online, compared with more than two thirds of the younger baby boomers, 50 to 64. Of seniors older than 65 whose annual household income is less than $20,000 a year—a group that makes up the majority of the elderly on Medicare—an even slighter 15 percent have gone online.”

Source: Newsweek

All I have heard about Microsoft’s new Windows Vista is negative things. I admit that I haven’t really gone into to much depth as far as researching facts goes, but as a consumer, I shouldn’t have to. The media (including various blogs I’ve seen) have so far given a very negative attitude towards the new OS.

For example, I visited PCWorld’s website http://www.pcworld.com and the first thing that I see on the homepage is an article entitled: “The Most Annoying Things About Windows Vista”. For those of you interested in reading it, you can find it here. Despite negative reactions such as this, however, Microsoft’s chairman, Bill Gates, has been quoted as saying that the Vista launch has been “incredible” and that “The reviews have been fantastic”. (Related Article: http://www.news.com)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know what reviews Bill Gates has been looking at recently. Here’s quite a large list of the reviews I’ve seen (all of them negative…):

Vista first look: Bugs and confusion
Dim Vista
Windows Vista: why Mac OS X will win
A First Look at Windows Vista
Vista makes me sad; Five years for a chrome-plated turd
Windows Vista: the best reason to buy a Mac?
Tech Test Drive: Vista’s pretty, but it’s a shameless Mac OS X imitator
Windows Vista Ultimate
Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting
Uninspiring Vista
Review: Mac OS X Shines In Comparison With Windows Vista
Apple’s New OS Leopard Sets New Bar for PC Operating Systems
Windows Vista: Beta 2 Preview
Windows Vista Rips OS X…And At a Great Hardware Cost (And Apple Gains in the End)!
Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista