Apple’s iPad then. – Just a quick post today. – Hit or Miss?

Well initially I’ll say it’ll be a hit; the Apple faithful will initially each say that it’s the best thing since sliced bread and they’ll all buy one for themselves during the first week or so.

Meanwhile those who aren’t in the Apple fanboy/girl club aren’t going to bother with it that much if at all.

After a month or so those Apple fanboys/girls who bought one are going to be wondering exactly what to do with it: It’s hardly portable as such; I mean you can’t really carry it to work with you. It’s also not designed as a desktop machine; so that’s out.

What exactly can you do with an Apple iPad?

It might be useful to the medical profession. Also you could hang it or wall-mount it as a security system; controlling lights, curtains, garage doors, etc.

Other than that – what? It’s a waste of money. Eventually even the Apple fanboys will come to see it as a large and expensive trash-can filler.

Kkomp.com – Beyond gives the iPad a huge thumbs-down – FAIL.

What do you think: Hit or miss? Post a comment why not?

What is a “core”?

Does it mean the computer’s made by Apple; hence ‘Apple core’?

No, but that’s a humorous idea nevertheless, even if slightly esoteric: -

A ‘core’ is a separate processor; therefore a single-cored processor is a single processor. A dual-cored processor is 2 processors in the same chip, and so on…

A processor is a vital part of the computer; it’s where the main calculations are carried out; the computer’s brain, if you like. You may often have heard it said that two heads are better than one, and 2 heads = 2 brains, 2 processors, 2 cores.

A processor core is not a computer in itself, though, any more than a brain is a human-being. As the human body requires many different organs to make it run properly and continue working; such as a nervous system, blood vessels, heart, – so in the same way a computer requires many different parts to keep it working; such as data buses, power rails, chipset.

At the time of writing, the number of cores generally available are: -

1 core. (Intel Atom (32-bit low-power processor currently used in many netbooks.))

2 cores. (AMD and Intel – various.)

3 cores. (AMD Phenom.(AMD’s previous generation of processors, mainly using 65nm fabrication.))

4 cores. (AMD and Intel – various.)

I believe that 6 and 8-cored-offerings are on the horizon from both AMD and Intel also.

What’s the advantage of having all these cores?

That depends on what software you’re running at the time, and what that software’s doing: -

Very basically; a single core can only perform 1 calculation at any given point in time. It works so fast that it may appear to be doing more than 1 thing at once; but even if it’s running 2 or more processes simultaneously, it’s only doing one calculation at a time: Therefore it’s doing a calculation for process A, and then it’s doing a calculation for process B, and then back to process A, and so on… ‘Introduce 2 cores, though, and core 1 can do all the calculations for process A, while at the same time core 2 can do all the calculations for process B; at least in theory. In practice it’s a little bit more complicated than that, though. – But that’s beyond the scope of this article.

Let’s not, at this point, forget hyperthreading: Hyperthreading is a technique introduced by Intel, ( -and later developed and adopted by AMD) in the very-early 21st Century, that makes each core of the processor appear to the operating system as 2 cores. This doesn’t mean that each core is as fast as 2 cores, or as effective, but each single core with hyperthreading will still be faster than a single core without hyperthreading.

If the program that you’re running is CPU-intensive; then it’ll benefit from running on a multi-cored processor by being able to utilise the processing-power of an entire core all to itself; whereas if it were run on a single-cored processor, it would slow the execution of other programs down, and they would likewise slow it down too.

But there are programs; particularly games, that are written in such a way that they utilise the processing power of more than one core in their execution. In fact, lately, entire operating systems are written to take advantage, in part at least, of the processing power of more than 1 core; such as Windows 7, for example. Writing such software can be rather complex and tedious; which is part of the reason why every single program in existence these days don’t all take advantage of all the cores of a multi-cored processor.

Great; so what are you recommending?

Personally I recommend a dual-core or more processor; depending upon what software you’ll be running. – In fact, unless you’re talking about a netbook made in 2009 or earlier, or a laptop made before 2008, you’ll be fairly hard-pushed to find anything still working that has a single-core processor fitted. – Maybe a 6-year-or-more-old desktop?

If you’re a gamer, or you use CAD software; both of which are extremely processor-intensive and designed to use more than 1 processor-core, then the more cores the better. – Also the more RAM the better too; which is where running a 64-bit operating system comes into its own.

If you’re a standard run-of-the-mill computer-user, then you should currently happily breeze through with a dual-core processor.

If you run Windows 7 64-bit, or a 64-bit Linux operating system, then I suggest doing so on a processor with 3 or more cores for optimum performance, although 2 cores will do the job fine also.

Mac users: Well Apple seem to be fairly proficient at ensuring that their latest computer products are good enough for anything that the users throw at them; so I’ll leave Macs out of the equation.

Is there anything you’d like to add to the above, or is there anything that you feel I missed? If so then please leave a comment.

Hello and welcome to another public newsletter.

In this newsletter I’ll mention some changes I’ve made to this blog, we’ll take the usual look at and quick review of the last fortnight’s posts, and I’ll include some general small talk.

Ch-ch-ch-changes…

Ok, so to turn and face the strain, and get the ball rolling, I’ll mention that the last thing I’ve done, as far as this blog’s layout is concerned, is to have the latest post displayed in its entirety on the Welcome (home) page. This may change to having excerpts of the last few posts displayed with a “read more” link for each post. – I’m still fighting with php along with the assistance of some paid help, in order to get this optimised. – Bear with me on that. Time may change me; but I won’t change time.

I’ve also changed the logo again, as you may notice: Whilst the simple black-text on a blue background was easy to download and possibly sufficient, it wasn’t exactly particularly eye-catching, and failed to initially capture the reader’s vision.

I apologise to anyone still using dial-up, for the fact that the logo now takes about ten-times the amount of time to download; but such is progress. – In the same way that people no longer spend hours to optimise their blogs in order that any readers still using Internet Explorer 6 (spit) can gain maximum viewing pleasure, so I see no reason to use a minimalistic theme any longer for those still using dial-up. Internet Explorer 6 is yesterday’s browser, despite being the default browser which loads with XP; it’s horrible with a capital H, and these days webmasters expect people to use other browsers, which is easy to do. – Just download and run another browser; it cost nothing and it’s easy. – In the same way, if anyone’s still using dial-up, then I suggest that they start using a decent internet connection: Dial-up is yesteryear’s internet-connection, and should, in the light of necessity, be upgraded.

I’ll carry on making small changes to the logo over time, as I have been doing.

Another thing is that I’ve changed the name of this blog from “Beyond” to “kkomp.com – Beyond”. “Beyond”, by itself, says not-a-lot: Yes; it does convey a sense of being at the forefront or even ahead of that; but as a brand it sucks. kkomp.com says even less than that, true, but the two together are a definite brand-name ( See PC Mech.com: PC Mech is a linguistic invention in itself; although maybe rather more appropriate for a tech blog..): That’s something which will be important as this blog becomes more and more business-oriented and commercialised over time. – Don’t worry; I’m not going to start charging for every article: There’ll always be free content on this blog, but I can’t continue indefinitely to run this blog for no-profit or at a loss. – It’s just totally unrealistic to expect me to do so. – So I will be slowly and gently turning the blog into a moneymaking-venture in addition to hosting much free content.

I do hope that you like the improving layout. Whilst layout is only a part of the whole; it is nevertheless something that contributes to the overall attractiveness of a blog, and a good layout is therefore equally as important as producing great-value content. I’ll be doing another reader-satisfaction-survey in the foreseeable future, and I hope that I get a decent response to this one with regard to numbers participating: The turnout in the case of the last one was worse than that of a British local election.

Promotion

At this point; I’d like to remind you that I’m giving away a free report; “Some Things to Try if XP Crashes During Boot”. Windows XP can, and in certain cases, does, crash during boot-up. This 25-page report in pdf format will give you many tips and ideas for getting your XP computer restarted so that you can diagnose the problem.

You’ll see the purple text at the top of the sidebar on almost every page. Simply insert your email address in the space provided, and click on “Get the Free Report”. You’ll get a confirmation email from FeedBlitz with both a confirmation-link for my email list, as well as a download location for the free report. I ask you to download the free report as well as clicking the confirmation-link.

On The Move

On that note; I’ll be moving my mailing-list from FeedBlitz over to Aweber fairly soon; so at some point those already on my mailing list will receive a confirmation email from Aweber with a link to click to indicate that you still want to receive emails from this blog. I’d ask you to simply click that confirmation-link when you get the email from Aweber, and that’ll be all you’ll need to do. If you’re not on my mailing list then you’re missing out on a free report, insider information, notification of blog updates, the whole shebang. I suggest that if you’re not on the mailing list, you get your free report as well as click the confirmation – link so that you’ll be a part of it and you’ll stop missing out.

Let David Risley teach you the basics of a six-figure problogger business in only 3 days. The course includes 14 videos, and has a 92 page transcript, checklist, and audio podcasts of all modules included. Download my FREE 5-page .pdf report on 3-Day Money

Reviews

And now; a review of the posts that have been posted since the last Public Newsletter: -

According to figures released by Net Applications on or around 5th November 2009, it would seem that Windows 7 had at that time already taken 3.67% of the operating system market; a 1.68% growth since its launch on 22nd October 2009.Most if not all of the figures released on 22nd October were related to the free release Candidate, but the increasing figures suggest that many users are upgrading their operating systems to Windows 7.

Despite this somewhat explosive growth; it appears also that Windows 7 installations, in the main, are simply replacing older Windows operating systems, rather than capturing market real-estate from competitors. From September to end of October 2009 the Mac’s market-share grew from 5.12% of the market to 5.27%; a rise of 0.15%. Did those users migrate over from Linux or Windows; or are they perhaps using Windows and Mac on separate computers? Maybe they’re new users? It appears that Windows 7 isn’t causing any Mac people to convert at this time.

The overall Windows market share in fact dropped slightly in October. Nevertheless, Windows accounts for 92.52% of the marketing total, according to available figures released on 5th November, compared to 92.77% in September. – It’s growth, then, for both Microsoft and Apple.

That fact could well be due to the timing of Apple’s release of Snow Leopard, as well as the factor of a good pricing policy on their part. The low price of Snow Leopard in comparison to Windows 7 is offset by the high price that Mac users initially paid for their machines; so all in all the cost of running either comes down to a similar figure at the end of the day.

Of course, the figures released by Net Applications quite obviously are more relevant to the USA than globally it would appear, although do correct me if I am wrong. The sales of Macs in America appear to be greater then their global sales figures; so the figures presented herein could paint more of a cloudy picture for Windows 7 than is actually the case.

Whatever the case; it appears that Microsoft have scored  rather well so far with their new operating system. It would be interesting to compare the difference in percentage terms between those Win 7 users who are installing the 64-bit version and those installing the 32-bit version. – I don’t have those figures available currently, but any significant increases in 64-bit usage is sure to increase speed of the heralding-in of the age of 64-bit computing.

Why is this so important? Because although a 64-bit operating system utilises more memory-space for its operation, with an increase in 64-bit computing comes an increase of both operating system and hardware-versatility: Gone is the up-to 4-megabyte memory limitation with 64-bit, and it’ll be a good few years before a motherboard is manufactured that can hold even a single exabyte of RAM. Also advantageous is the fact that 64-bit hardware is far more multi-application-flexible; therefore executing a number of different programs simultaneously puts less strain on the hardware and allows faster operation.

I’ve heard it said amongst certain geeks that standardisation of 64-bit software with regard to a Windows environment will be at least two years in coming: Personally I doubt that, and would estimate that figure to be one year at most. Without the 64-bit-adoption-statistics to hand, however, I can currently only speculate.

What’s your view?

I feel like doing something unusual today; so what I’ve decided to do is to post a (slightly edited) copy of an email that I sent to people on my mailing list. It’s regarding a free report along with a course that Yaro Starak is launching next week; the Membership Site Mastermind course.

Perhaps you’ve already heard some of the chatter with regard to this; maybe not. Whatever the case, this course could -  and I speak quite sincerely here – be the answer to all of your financial worries at the end of the day. Why? Read more

I want to cover two main issues with this impromptu post:

The first; a minor issue, is that a couple of people asked me why I didn’t cover the Summer Solstice in any way whatsoever on this blog; being a Pagan and this blog being of a Pagan disposition they assumed that I would be doing so. Maybe I should have done so; but I really didn’t have time what with one thing and another. I utilised what little spare time I did have this solstice to cleanse my home, office, and the area directly surrounding it of negative spirits and energies.

As you may or may not know; I have been, up to this last weekend, producing blog posts by writing and publishing them on the same day. – Sometimes within the same afternoon or evening. Whilst this method of posting always ensures a totally fresh distribution of published posts; I find that the posts I produce can at times be of better quality if I return to them a day or more later and re-edit them.

Bearing this in mind, I remembered this from some years back with regard to the papers I used to write when I pre-wrote the first draft of the kkomp.com birthday post on the 15th June 2009 in lieu of publication on the 24th: This blog’s first birthday. Between than and now I have somehow managed to put in a special effort to write almost an entire week’s worth of posts, all of which are scheduled for publication this week. (This may mean that the posts are published but not added to the Blog Contents page until a later time, as I am still using a system of manual activation in order to have new posts listed on the Blog Contents page. Eventually I will get round to writing a script that lists the new blog titles automatically as and when they are published, but for the time being I’m using the manual method.)

The upshot of pre-writing, editing, re-editing, and publishing post entries at a later date will hopefully be that the new posts as you the reader sees them will be of better quality, more informative, and containing less grammatical and spelling/punctuation errors; although I do strive to keep the latter to a minimum as things stand now. (This post has been typed in draft, edited, and published within a few hours on the same day, therefore,,, apollogeeze 4 any errorsx that wood otherwhyse hav bean editted out.) </font></p>

Next; a more major issue, in implications for the Windows world at least, and a return to the subject of computers and the internet. This section of this post from hereon is, basically, an advisory: -

Microsoft appear to be taking too long to produce some patches pertaining to various vulnerabilities in their operating systems: So long in fact that by the time the patches are released on Patch Tuesday, the exploit code used to exploit the security hole has been released into the wild and is finding its way into systems globally; despite on a more minor scale in comparison to some attacks.

One such still-unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003 is reported by Symantec to have been added to an attack kit that lures people to use a phishing site, then the phishing site redirects visitors to another URL that hosts some DirectShow attack code, which exploits a security hole in Microsoft’s Direct X that Microsoft issued a security advisory for in May 2009, at the same time confirming evidence of “Limited attacks” even back then.

The code is in the form of a malicious .avi file. Multiple malformed .dll files are loaded onto the system under attack also. Those malicious .dll files load an .exe payload that downloads and installs a Trojan horse. The Trojan then adds the compromised PC to a growing botnet.

This attack code affects Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. Windows Vista and Server 2008. are unaffected, as is the so-far-unreleased Windows 7 RTM. (I believe that the Release Candidate that is currently on many computers is also unaffected.)

Ben Greenbaum, a senior research manager with Symantec, is reported to have said that this attack is of limited distribution rather than a targeted attack.

Microsoft suggest that users disable QuickTime parsing on Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 machines. Apple’s QuickTime itself is not flawed; however the QuickTime parser in DirectShow, a component of DirectX, is flawed. Microsoft have issued instructions for editing the Windows registry, as well as issuing a tool that automates the process. The effect of running this tool or editing the registry is to disable Quick Time content playback. Microsoft have also issued an antidote for the automated process tool which resets the registry back to how it was. These tools and instructions are downloadable from this link.

It would appear that Microsoft have no intention of issuing a proper patch until next Patch Tuesday on 14th July 2009. Until then we have to hope that the issue doesn’t escalate to crisis level.

Normally I begin a newsletter by rattling on about the British weather: That’s just an English thing, as our weather is so changeable that on rare occasions we can have literally all four seasons in one day. If you look at that from a positive note; that’s not bad value: Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall), and Winter – All in 24 hours.

A couple of the posts that I’ve made this last week also give you similarly good value: -

  WordPress on Crack

This post was a brief introduction to the product called “WordPress on Crack”. – A course in which you can learn to write your own WordPress plugins in php. I found this a bit difficult to write in a way, as I’m certainly no php expert; which is why I simply introduced the subject matter and sent the reader to a page where the main vendor describes their course.

This course is a bit similar to the British weather, in that you get not only the specified course itself, but also 4 complimentary bonus products in one package. – Once again, that’s not bad value at all.

The next article I wanted to talk about is a review of a course by problogger and internet entrepreneur David Risley: -

3-Day Money – Review

In a matter of just 72 hours you can learn powerful tried and tested marketing secrets, used by David Risley himself to generate a six-figure income, all for much less than a six-figure sum. I have purchased and studied this course myself: It is amazing value for money; but be prepared to spend a while downloading it, as there’s a lot of materials packed into it.

Moving on…

Apple, seemingly minus Steve Jobs (Jobsweh), appear to be at it again; in the United States at least: -

Apple Con Their Customers Again

This has browned off a number of geeky US people, and no doubt they’ll try something similar over here in the UK too.

That’s not the only thing that’s got my goat this week though. (Ooh I am a grumpy bitch at times. )

Something’s Bugging Me…

How on earth can this be? The plot thickens – Like my head.

- And finally it’s back to Apple again: -

Mac OS X Has A Severe Java Vulnerability: Not Yet Patched

I believe, from reports that I’ve heard, that Microsoft have at last patched the Mac version of PowerPoint; but as far as I am aware, this vulnerability still remains, and this is solely up to Apple to sort out.

There’s the usual Friday review of the reviews and posts for the week.

This is Sharron Field, for kkomp.com, wishing you, as usual, a great weekend.

Keep reading this blog for more revelations and facts about the technical world in which we live; geeks and non-geeks alike.

Namaste’

I used to be very disapproving of Apple under Steve Jobs, or “Jobsweh – the god of all things Apple.” as I referred to him in the past. I assumed that it was Jobsweh ’s greed that caused Apple to charge extortionate amounts for their products.

I do admit that Apple’s products are extremely well-made; which accounts for some of the extra cost. – That’s a fair point. But they seemed to be taking the real retail value of their products and doubling it before arriving at the actual RRP.

That was back in Jobsweh ‘s heyday. Eventually I came to the conclusion that if people were willing to pay a fortune for the Apple logo then that was their problem. I even considered buying a secondhand iPhone myself in time.

(I never did though. I still have my Samsung z750i, and I’ll be having it unlocked and transferred to Vodafone soon. Reason: 1) I can tweet on Vodafone in the UK. 2) 3 Networks, who I’m about to end contract with, are in short, crap. What’s more they operate a call-centre in India. – I’m not racial-prejudiced, but if I wanted to have a hard time in communicating with Indians over a bad-quality line then I’d invest in shares in the Bombay Telephone Exchange. Besides, I get enough of that bad shit with BT and their Indian call centre, who I spend hours in hell with getting nowhere every time I have a BT-related problem. I want to be able to escape from it using my mobile phone if need be, not have more of it!)

Back to Apple. I quote from the aforementioned article:

“Apple said today that the iPhone 3G S costs $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB). But that’s the price only for new AT&T customers. The price if you’re already an AT&T customer and/or are upgrading from an iPhone 3G? Try $699 (32GB), $599 (16GB), and $499 (8GB). To quote Peter Ha: “HOLY SHIT.””

Yes; HOLY SHIT just about sums it up. I think Apple have shot themselves in the foot and blown their lower leg off. I now in a way look forward to watching Apple topple over. – And they thoroughly deserve it too. – Yes it might be the phone companies’ greed as much as Apple’s; but this is still inexcusable.

Can you imagine the conversation the phone companies and Apple people might have had in the recent past?

“Look we’re Apple Inc: We can charge as much as we like for our products, to a point, and some mug will still buy them. We’re giving you the chance to cash in along with us. – You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours.”

“I’m starting to like the sound of this: We cash in with you on the massive rip-off under the Apple logo; both of us make a fortune, and as a thank-you gesture we reduce the cost of iPhone calls at some point in the future. We’re still vastly in profit thanks to you guys, who have by then made enough to buy a small county. – OK count me in. We have a deal.”

Nothing would surprise me.

I can see them trying to pull something like that in the UK also; and after a week’s outcry the sheep will all follow the leader and start paying out for it too; before complaining about how they’ve been ripped off: .

“…But it’s Apple, so it must be worth it.”

Must it f—k! If I hear anyone say that, or I see it written anywhere, I will instantly start writing my criticisms and pour vitriol upon them. If anyone is gullible enough to believe that then they don’t deserve to have any money. – Sorry; but if I hereby step on anyone’s toes in saying that then tough. – ‘Live with it.

Apple have been conning their customers by using this cult image thing for years. – This time they’ve gone too far. It’s time people woke up and started boycotting them. – End of story.

If you have something to add then please comment.

Despite the claim by Mac users that their operating system is safer than Windows and much more secure; there is a chink in the armour. No, I’m not referring to a Chinese knight; I’m actually referring to something that would better be described as a gaping chasm rather than a chink: There’s still a large security vulnerability in Mac OS X with regard to Java; and it’s never yet been patched by Apple. It’s already been patched in both Windows and Linux.

According to kdawson, writing on slashdot.org: -

"Security researchers say that Mac OS X users are vulnerable to a critical, 6-month-old, remote vulnerability in Java, a component that is enabled by default in Web browsers on this platform. Julien Tinnes notes that this vulnerability differs from typical Java security flaws in that it is ‘a pure Java vulnerability’ and doesn’t involve any native code. It affected not only Sun’s Java but other implementations such as OpenJDK, on multiple platforms, including Linux and Windows. ‘This means you can write a 100% reliable exploit in pure Java. This exploit will work on all the platforms, all the architectures and all the browsers,’ Julien wrote. This bug was demonstrated during the Pwn2own security challenge this year at CanSecWest, but the details were not made public at that time. Tinnes recommends that Mac OS X users disable Java in their browsers until Apple releases a security update."

Here’s how to disable Java in your Safari and FireFox browsers in Mac OS X: -

If you still need Java access, I suggest that you install NoScript into FireFox. (See also.)

To disable Java in Safari on Mac OS X, click the Safari tab in the menu at the top right of your screen. Click Preferences in the drop-down list. In the Security section of the preferences window, uncheck Enable Java.

To disable Java in Firefox on Mac OS X, click the Firefox tab in the menu at the top right of your screen.In the Content section of the preferences window, uncheck Enable Java.

It appears that Mac users are deluding themselves that Macs are more secure than PCs: Just because something gets attacked less doesn’t mean it’s more secure.

In 2003; AMD introduced the first 64-bit processor targeted at the average consumer, the single-cored Athlon 64, onto the market. Six years later, and now virtually all processors produced at the present moment are 64-bit capable. Also most processors used these days have 2 or more cores, enabling approximately 1.7 times or more of the functionality of a single-cored CPU.

Meanwhile, leaving the minority operating systems, such as Linux, and Mac osX – which only runs well on an Apple computer anyway, aside; between 2001 and almost up to the present day the market leader of operating systems, namely Microsoft Windows, has in reality been fairly stagnant. Despite the release of Windows Vista in January 2007, which in many ways went down like a lead balloon from the offing, most people have been using Windows XP since 2001. (Myself included.(Well, since January 2002 to be exact. – I stayed with Windows 98SE until I managed to afford a new computer. – Things were a bit tighter then.) Back in the days when XP was launched, everyone was using a single-cored processor that was only 32-bit capable. In those days 250 megabytes of RAM was considered a vast amount, a 60GB hard-drive had a massive amount of space on it, the Intel Pentium 4 was the latest cutting-edge CPU, (The new machine I bought in 2002 had a first-generation P4 2.8GHz processor installed.) 32MB graphics were considered the norm, and 64MB were considered leading-edge… Nobody but the extreme-geeks wanted 64-bit operating systems; and therefore most of the XP CDs sold were 32-bit. 32-bit became the norm, became known. It was taught that computers went from 4-bits in the 1960s and 70s, (Commodore Pet) to 8-bits (16-colours!) in the 1980s, to 16-bits (DOS) and then to 32-bits (Windows 95 et al.) in the 1990s. – And from there a general feeling amongst the less-computer-literate that this was the ultimate destiny, that technology had no need to progress further than that. Windows 98SE became replaced by the excuse for an operating system known as Windows ME, and shortly afterwards by Windows 2000, which combined the advances made in ME with the lessons learned from ME: The limited and insecure FAT32 file-system which Microsoft had previously hailed as the way ahead, was falling out of favour, and customers had the choice now of using either FAT32 or the far superior NTFS disk-formats. Not far down the road came XP; which built on the lessons learned from 2000, and XP and 2000 were the in-thing. Many people stuck to using 98SE and ME, in addition to those using 2000 and XP.

Support for 98SE and ME was eventually discontinued; but to this day some die-hards still use those operating systems, despite their now being a massive security-risk both in terms of the user and of the rest of the internet-community as a whole. XP became the principle operating system, even holding out extremely well against the newer Windows Vista, which flopped from launch. – This caused consternation among many of the Microsoft faithful; many of whom switched to Linux and Apple’s Mac in protest.

Despite all this; the remaining Microsoft community – which only shrank in size by a few percent due to defectors to Linux and Mac – stayed in the 32-bit frame of mind. A few took up 64-bit computing with Vista after SP1. Even fewer took up 64-bit computing with XP after SP2 and 3.

Meanwhile; Apples Mac community; its numbers swelled with Vista detractors, was already completely 64-bit. Linux distros appeared utilising the 64-bit potential of modern machines also. Microsoft people either didn’t appear to know or care about 64-bit computing: 32-bit computing appeared good enough so why change? There was and still remains a danger of getting stuck in a rut.

What’s the big deal about 64-bit computing then? Why should I want to use a 64-bit operating system as opposed to a 32-bit operating system?

Let me ask you this: (I know a question in answer to a question may be considered lame; but bear with me here.) Why would you want to use a 32-bit operating system as opposed to a 16-bit operating system? Because 32-bit has more capabilities, right? – Like 32 million colours as opposed to 256 colours…

No I’m not saying that there’s several trillion colours in 64-bit…. Well there may in fact be so; but it’s a bit pointless to use that as a reason to upgrade, as the human eye only sees just over 24 million different colours. The main thing about 64-bit operating systems is that they enable your computer to work with more memory. (RAM) – Vastly more in fact: These days applications are demanding more and more RAM and other system resources to be in use on your computer in order to run them. – But there’s a limit to how much RAM you can use per system. If you’re running a 32-bit operating system you can use up to around 3.5 gigabytes of RAM. In 2001 that must have seemed like a colossal amount of memory. These days 2 gigabytes is standard. – On a computer with a 32-bit operating system that is.

I’m typing this on a computer that I built in December 2008. This computer has 2 GB RAM, an AMD Athlon 64 x 2 dual-core 64-bit capable processor… Yet as with most such computers belonging to most people, it’s currently running a 32-bit XP Professional operating system.

The computer next to it, which I built in April 2009, has 4GB RAM – and today I bought another 4 GB RAM which I intend to fit soon. It has an AMD Phenom triple-cored 64-bit-enabled processor and is currently running Windows 7 RC 64-bit.

My point is that this year a new Windows operating system is going to be launched. – But this is no Vista: This one’s Windows 7. It works almost flawlessly and neither I nor several of my online acquaintances can find anything to complain about with regard to it. – And this is before it’s even been fully released! – OK ‘straight to the point: Which is that 32-bit is so 1990s and 2000s. Next year we’ll be entering the 2010s and, as usual, technology will be moving on at its standard fast-pace.

Windows 7 will be available in both 32 and 64-bit versions. If you have a 64-bit capable computer and buy and/or load 32-bit Windows 7 you won’t be doing yourself any favours. When Windows 95 was released it was possible to run a 16-bit operating system on a 32-bit computer designed to run Windows 95. – Try running one of today’s apps in a 16-bit environment though. It wouldn’t run. Even if it did run; the machines that were around when 16-bit was the in-thing would hardly be capable of running a single app that’s used today. (I tried running XP Home on a computer powered by a Pentium 1 processor. (1996/7 IIRC.) It was 32-bit capable so it ran: Badly and tediously slowly. It took 1/2 hour to boot…)

In a few years your 32-bit operating system won’t be capable of running the applications of the time properly and in multiples, because they’ll need more memory than is able to be utilised by a 32-bit operating system. Remember; a 32-bit operating system can only see about 3.5 gigabytes at one time. A 64-bit operating system can see and use over 16 million terabytes of RAM though. That should be all you need for a few years yet.

Do yourself a favour: When you move up to Windows 7; get a 64-bit version of the operating system (Provided that your system is 64-bit capable.(Most systems built in the last 2 years are 64-bit capable. If unsure ask your retailer or an experienced geek.)) It’s time everyone snapped out of this 32-bit mentality; it’s so yesterday. – It’s like choosing to drive a Reliant Robin in favour of a Porsche.

Let’s all break the mould and go 64-bit. I intend to do so; and it’s in everyone’s best interests to do likewise.

Do you agree?

I thought it might be fun today to write about the new box I built myself over the weekend. Whilst it’s not exactly the type of thing I regularly put on this blog; I think it might be useful to someone maybe. Whatever the case, doing so will be useful for me in the form of it being a record of my weekend’s activity if nothing else.

On Thursday 16th April 2009 my second computer failed. I’d been doing further maintenance work on it, and I’d inserted a Molex plug incorrectly into a drive’s power socket so that the two ground pins shorted the 12 volt rails: I’d just had a break, and returned without remembering that I hadn’t checked my work before the break. I absent-mindedly powered up the box and the PSU died. Maybe I put it out of its misery?

I’d had so many hardware-related problems with that computer recently that I wasn’t that sad about it. It felt as if that box was jinxed in a way, and as soon as I replaced something another problem appeared. I decided after not-a-lot of thought to replace the machine totally. It was an old model built on a barebones box that I’d rebuilt during 2008 after a BIOS failure.

I’d already made up my mind that I was going to build a box to run Windows 7 on when it was out of beta and the RTM version was released. I decided to bring that forward; and either run XP on it until Windows 7’s RTM, or run Windows 7 beta build 7000 if I could find the key to the 64-bit ISO I’d made earlier in the year.

‘First things first: Let’s get the new box put together:

I’d already decided what components I was going to use: -

For the processor I was going to use an AMD Phenom x 3, 2.3GHz. I’d seat this on a Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 motherboard. (The board with the chipset that isn’t really a chipset in the full sense of the term.) 

That board is different from the ones I usually use, in that it has no onboard graphics, and relies on a separate graphics card inserted into its one PCIe x 16 slot for the output to the monitor. I used the old Asus nVidia 6200LE graphics card from the old box, as that would give me the 250MB graphics I required. (Although this card only has 64MB graphics memory fitted; it “borrows” the rest, up to 256MB total, from RAM if need be.)

I fitted 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800Mhz RAM; which leaves 2 slots clear for another 4GB at a future date. I wasn’t after anything gamey, and had no intention of building a high-performance machine: I just wanted something that worked well and had decent specs. Also I wanted to keep the cost down: I wasn’t intending to spend a small fortune, rather I’d just spend as necessary and use anything secondhand where possible.

I utilised the old HDD from the old box: I wiped it using Webroot System Erase and returned it to as-new condition. I also used the IDE DVD-ROM from the old box and connected it to the single PATA socket via a ribbon cable.

Everything was up and running, and seemingly built properly and well. I was later to discover that I’d improperly connected the front USB sockets; but that took 5 minutes to rectify, following which everything was fine and dandy.

If I need extra storage in the future I’ll add another hard-drive. – After all; there are six SATA II 3mb/s sockets on the board; and currently only 1 is being used. The old HDD from the machine’s predecessor that I used is only 160GB; but that’s plenty big enough for a system-drive. I can always add more; currently up to another 7.5 terabytes storage if I choose to do so.

I found a couple of product keys for 64-bit Windows 7 betas amongst some paperwork I’d filed away, and one of them worked with the copy I installed.

Windows 7 is a very Vista-esque operating system. I have very limited experience with Vista, and until then almost absolutely none with Windows 7. – So if you were expecting a huge write-up on the benefits of Win 7 I’m afraid you’re out of luck, at this time anyway.

I’d been quite keen on the idea of a triple-cored processor since I’d first heard about it prior to AMD’s release of their Phenoms. To be honest I find the triple-core Phenom to be quite a gutsy processor; easily capable of handling anything that Windows 7 throws at it, at the same time running Carbonite online backup, which is rather processor-intensive at times.

The system appears to be using around 1.6GB RAM on tickover with Carbonite and a few other programs, such as Panda Antivirus Pro, Glint system monitor, Google Talk, Twhirl, Windows Live Messenger, DS Clock, and a few others, running in the background. Firefox is also running and has a window open.

Unlike the early reports I heard of Vista taking up 2GB RAM just to produce a blank screen, along with stability issues and driver incompatibilities; this OS appears to be quite stable and neither processor-intensive or resource-hungry. (The one gripe I have with it is that I’m unable to run my Samsung ML-2010 printer with it: It doesn’t like the Vista driver, nor will it work on the XP version.)

Some 64-bit software can be difficult to get hold of. – Such as the Windows Vista 64-bit version of iTunes from Apple (The 64-bit version is required: The OS advises you to install the 64-bit version when you attempt to install the 32-bit version.); but a little perseverance gained a result. Many 32-bit apps such as FileZilla, GMail backup, Glint, Hootech Net Meter, and even Microsoft Office XP Professional, run without a problem on it

Rich Menga of PC Mech.com had already described Windows 7 as “Vista as it should have been in the first place”. – And seemingly so it is. I’m impressed with the effort that Microsoft have put into it, even as a beta. I’m looking forward to seeing the release candidate in the near future. I think I for one will be purchasing a copy of Windows 7 when it is finally released to manufacturing later this year.

I’ve written a few articles over time about AMD’s (so-far-unsuccessful) struggles to stay up to Intel’s market position as the number one processor-builder: But that’s been mainly from a commercial perspective. In this article I’d like to look at the current quality of product and how it would affect you as a desktop-computer-builder.

The type of computer you’re building makes all the difference:

Intel have overflowing coffers, are in cahoots with Microsoft, and, in the case of most people, one of the first things they think of when the word “computer” is mentioned is “Intel”. Some people conclude that, since Intel have the reputation, the position, and the money, then they must be the best and their processors are far better than AMDs.

In some ways you’d be right there; but only in a limited context. Four years ago (2005) it was AMD who were at the forefront of technology; while Intel were lagging well behind with their single-core Pentium 4.

Things have come a long way since then, and at a surprisingly quick pace too: We now have quad-core processors from both Intel and AMD, and 12-core chips loom not far away on the horizon.

Today, however, the situation is that many tech people are recommending Intel chips for everything: “Windows was originally designed to run on Intel processors.” That may be the case; but it may have escaped the attention of some that we’re no longer using the original version of Windows; neither is everyone using Windows. (OK; Macs will probably always use Intel chips from this point forward, granted. I don’t build Macs. I leave that to Psystar.)

The truth of the matter, in a nutshell, is at this point in time, that if you’re looking to build a performance PC than you should always use an Intel processor. For anything else; why waste money on a more-expensive Intel CPU and motherboard when a cheaper AMD setup will fare just as well for everyday general computing purposes?

OK there have been a few exceptions to this rule lately, granted: the early AMD Phenoms (Quad-core.) sucked badly, and produced enough heat to cook your dinner with. The current series of Phenoms, the latest release, are competitive with most of Intel’s offerings though. In the dual-core market the AMD and the Intel ranges of late have been much the same performance-wise other than in the realms of overclocking potential, at least as far as general-usage-computing  is concerned.

So if you’re an ultra-geek and you want to always stay up to date with technology’s leading performance with a highly-overclocked top-spec gaming machine capable of playing all the latest and near-future releases from the games industry, always use an Intel CPU. If you’re a general geek who just likes messing around with anything and everything technical then sure; build the odd box with whatever takes your fancy if you can afford it. If you’re building a machine for just general household or office usage then in my view it really isn’t’ worth going to the added expense of using Intel: use AMD. the processor and also the motherboard will be cheaper and yet will do the job just as well.

I currently run 2 boxes; both have an AMD Athlon 64 x 2 processor running at 2.2 GHz stock speed. I have 2GB of DDR2 RAM in each, and a 250MB graphics card in one, a 500MB card in the other. (The one I’m writing this on.) I have a Gigabyte motherboard in this one + a Hitachi hard-drive, the other uses an Asus motherboard with a Hitachi and a Seagate hard-drive. I have thus far had no major problems with either machine, and have been able to do everything I wanted with either. I don’t overclock or play the latest games, (In fact I hardly ever play any games.) and the machines are just right for me.

I’m thinking of building a third machine to run Windows 7  beta on. If i do then that’ll most likely use the latest AMD Phenom quad-core CPU, or I might just stay with an Athlon 64 x 2 dual-core chip. i don’t want to performance-test Windows 7, just see if and how well it works for general computing on a new machine. – So I don’t need a powerful top-spec overclocked machine to do it on. – I’ll use an AMD processor and save money. What’s your opinion; AMD or Intel? For what and why?

“Untouchable” Apple are becoming security-conscious it appears:

Despite the “I’m a Mac” guy sneezing the word Vista at the “I’m a PC” guy in their adverts; Apple have found it not below their demeanour to publish the following page on their website: –

Does the great Jobsweh suddenly feel that his invulnerability is threatened – or is it just the paranoid manifestation of the symptoms of hormone imbalance? Whatever the case, it appears that Apple have woken up to the fact that just because a rival operating system is more targeted, it doesn’t make theirs immune to attack.

It’s in every Mac user’s interests to ensure that your Mac doesn’t become infected with something called “malware”: That’s the nasty malefic mini-programs that only a few months ago the Apple advertising campaigns were insinuating only affect PCs. You might like to click upon this link to be taken from here to a place created by your own kind from whence you might gain the protection that you’ve hitherto been told you don’t need.

The Mac-attack is coming: Prevention is better than cure. Immunity is a myth.

Read This. Don’t end up with a rotten Apple.

There’s an RSS feed to the Apple Networking and Security Downloads page by which you can get notified when new tools are put on the list.

Question: Are Steve Jobs’ kids known as “applets”?

Yesterday I opened the post "Dwindling Economy Hits US Trade Shows" with the words:- "Steve Jobs has not had a heart-attack; indeed Steve Jobs [aka "Jobsweh"] is not in poor health, nor is he dying."

My timing was impeccable considering the announcement today by Jobs himself. My information sources may not be quite right though:

According to Scientific American website:

"Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs posted an open letter to customers on his company’s Web site today in which he says that he’s being treated for an unspecified "hormone imbalance" that has caused severe weight loss and kept him out of the public eye."  http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=apples-jobs-hormone-imbalance 

‘Maybe not quite as much  weight loss as suggested in the illustration left; but it is nevertheless apparent that Jobs is suffering from a bit too much lean-ness.

INTERLUDE

At this point during writing this article the power went out. Fortunately I have 2 UPS’s looking after my entire system; so I was able to finish the line I was on and shut down everything without data loss or damage of any kind to my systems. For further reading see http://www.pcmech.com/article/avert-disasters-with-a-ups/ .

Is that the way to lose weight without trying? Hormone imbalance? If so then perhaps I should find hormones to start taking at random? I’ll just have to be careful I don’t start speaking in a gruff voice, or grow wings, or something. – Not that I’m particularly overweight; but I could do with a little weight-loss nevertheless.

Perhaps the hormone imbalance explains Jobs’ overly aggressive marketing, combined with his control-freak style? Whatever the case; I didn’t get it quite right:

I stated the information that I’d heard from Robert Scoble on Twitter. – This was largely accurate; but not 100% so.

Anyway that’s cleared up the misunderstanding; so now onwards and upwards: I have another article which I’m intending to get written and published; hopefully today.

Do please comment on this article.

Steve Jobs has not had a heart-attack; indeed Steve Jobs is not in poor health, nor is he dying: In fact, according to @Scobleizer on the microblogging service Twitter last week, after visiting a shop frequented by Jobs, Scoble says that staff there report that Jobs is in the best of health.

Filling the role of Jobs at this year’s Macworld will be Senior Vice President Phil Schiller. Although Apple are continuing to be on a roll, despite the current conditions, tech analysts expect there to be less in the way of stirring innovations from them this year.

*See also this BBC report.

- But it’s not Macworld alone that’s been hit: This week’s CES in Vegas is showing a decline in exhibitors this year, with figures down by 10% on last year: Some exhibitors even pulling out at the last minute, while others are making cutbacks in their showing.

Personally I take the David Risley line on this, and I think that, if anything, companies should be increasing their advertising budgets rather than cutting them in an economic downturn. – Each to their own though: Some will survive, some will fall by the wayside regardless.

Some companies, such as Cisco, are taking meeting room suites rather than exhibiting, in an effort to cut costs.

Analysts are now questioning the viability of trade-shows in the light of today’s climate: On the other side of the coin; Jason Oxman, senior vice president at the Consumer Electronics Association, disagrees:

"Trade shows take on renewed importance in a down economy. Every major consumer electronics manufacturer, buyer, installer and retailer is there. It’s the most efficient travel saver imaginable."

Will this type of opinion retain validity in the light of experience though? Could we see a considerable cutting-back of trade shows? Will we see many going the way of Macworld in the light of experience and reality? It’s certainly a possibility. Time will tell.

With all the economic prophecies of doom and gloom, plus talk of a deep worldwide recession; enhanced of course by the news media, who are making money from doom-mongering, you’d imagine that all industries were having a bad year during 2008. – But you’d be wrong: The computer industry’s retail sector, although having unexpected results, appears to be doing rather well:

The US figures for November 2008, released by the research firm, NPD Group, indicate that, while Apple made no progress but no losses either in this area, sales of PCs were up 7%.

-This despite the fact that sales of desktop PCs dropped by 20% overall. The fact seems to be that people are going for notebooks these days.

According to NPD analyst Stephen Barker: "For notebooks, there is a little extra value to consumers [to buy Apple], for desktops I’m not so sure. To me the real story is the iMacs need a refresh."

The forecast for this sector from IDC , which tracks sales of technology products, appears to nonetheless be rather gloomy: IDC said earlier this month that it expects global PC sales to fall 5.3% next year to $267 billion (£174.7 billion).

Would anyone care to speculate an opinion on their own thought regarding this? There is a comments section below, and you are allowed to use it. Who knows; people might just enjoy reading your comments too?

Do Macs require security-enhancing software? Apple appear to think not; that their osX is invulnerable and only PCs get viruses, at least seemingly from their advertising. Symantec, however, beg to differ; and have released Norton Internet Security 4.0 for the Mac.

As has been noted in recent articles on this blog; there is indeed Mac malware, and yes some Mac users have been subjected to the Macattack. – Maybe not many up until this time of writing, but even one is too many: Macs do need anti-malware then: If they didn’t then nobody who uses a Mac would ever have been infected.

Could the Macattack it become a more serious problem? Yes it could, and it probably will; despite anything that Apple have to say to the contrary. Prevention being better than cure; it’s a good thing that anti-malware companies are taking action:-

In addition to Symantec’s efforts there are others such as Intego VirusBarrier, to name but one other that specialises in anti-malware for the Mac. Quite obviously Mac users are already protecting themselves: If there weren’t a market then the companies wouldn’t be catering for it.

Symantec claim to have the best firewall for the Mac as a part of NIS4Mac. There are location-based network rules which set different rules based on where you are connecting from, and logged preferences can be set as to which apps access the internet. There’s also blacklist data gathered from their DeepSight network to block access from known malware-bearing sites. NIS4Mac also includes phishing protection based on blacklists and heuristic analyses.

There are also a number of other features that are too numerous and in-depth to mention here.

The question is; is Norton as crappy and resource-hogging on a Mac as it is on a PC? I haven’t tested the software so I can’t say for definite; but knowing Norton; I’d bet that it’s almost certainly some form of bloatware. Norton’s effectiveness on a PC is commonly ranked within the lower echelons of results; so will the Norton software for the Mac be similar for all its bloat? At a guess I’d say ‘probably’.

Are you a Mac user who runs Norton Internet Security for the Mac? What is your opinion of it? It would be interesting to gain insight from a first-hand user.

It would appear that the image of invulnerability that Apple attempt to portray in their advertising is becoming threatened. This is now concurrent with a Firefox trojan which tarnishes the open-source community’s similar portrayal, as well as another security vulnerability discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The malware writers must be ready for a field-day!

On December 15th 2008, Apple released security updates for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, client and server, bringing the products up to versions 10.4.11 and 10.5.5. The updates address 21 individual vulnerabilities. 7 of the vulnerabilities are in the Adobe Flash plug-in.

If Apple dared to use severity ratings then a number of these updates would have been termed "critical": However the pretence continues, and no doubt Steve Jobs will manage to sweep this unfortunate necessity under the carpet in the usual style.

With all these circumstances which could lead to arbitrary code execution, Apple had no choice but to patch. I wonder how their advertising campaigns will be affected in the light of reality? :-

"I’m a Mac"

"…And I’m a PC."

"What’s up PC? Have you picked up another infection?"

"No Mac; my user stopped using Internet Explorer until Microsoft release a patch for a recently discovered vulnerability. – Just like Apple recently did for you. How many updates was that now..?"

"Oh a few…"

"- Twenty-something springs to mind: That’s rather a lot for an invulnerable system, wouldn’t you agree Mac?"

"OK, OK, But I’m patched now; so I’m still invulnerable. Your patch hasn’t been released yet."

"Now Mac; aren’t we getting a bit above ourselves? Invulnerable systems don’t need patches. – What’s that? We’re out of time? OK I’ll conclude this ad for you:-

Apple – Patching up the Future Invulnerability."

"Hey! Wait a darn minute PC…" (Sound fades out.)

Apple users should update their systems ASAP.

When I heard the news the first thing that I thought was “Excellent; at last the iPhone will get cheaper.” – If Wal-Mart drop the price of an iPhone then other American stores will start doing likewise; and eventually the price-drop will find its way to the UK and I’ll be able to get my hands on an iPhone at a discount.

There was just one crucial factor that I didn’t consider, though; that being JOBSWEH.

Steve Jobs (Jobsweh) has his finger on the pulse in every way possible; from what an individual user can and can’t run on their iPhone, to exactly how much retailers sell it for, and consequently what percentage of that ends up in his pocket.

‘Cut-price iPhone? Pah; no chance. Not if Jobsweh can help it.

“Employees in the cell-phone departments at five California stores, contacted by phone today, said Wal-Mart will offer iPhones by the end of December. Employees are currently being trained on how to sell the device, all five said.”

I dread to think how they’re being trained to sell an iPhone:

“…Yes this is an Apple product. As such it’s immune to any and all malware: Only Microsoft products are susceptible to that. Microsoft’s products suck, but all Apple products are personally controlled by Steve Jobs, aka Jobsweh; God of all things Apple…”

In September, Jobsweh got Best Buy, a US electronics retailer, to start selling iPhones. Apple stores were deluged and overwhelmed back when the current iPhone was released in July 2008. Jobsweh was seeking to expand the market to prevent such a mass rush on his stores whenever there would be a next time. AT&T had also been selling iPhones; but their cred was and still is tumbling down the gurgler, as they tried to lock all purchasers into a long-term contract with them, and then increased their prices while their service standards worsened. Although they still have the exclusive US service-provider rights for the iPhone’s signal, people possibly weren’t willing to give them a profit on the unit itself in addition to that which they made with their service. – That’s my theory anyway – So the market needed to be expanded.

Maybe, though, there is a possibility of a cheap iPhone after all? :

“Analysts say Apple may offer a discontinued 4-gigabyte version through Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart and sell it for $99. Apple currently sells two models at $199 and $299.”

“A $99, Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst for Kaufman Brothers in San Francisco. “One of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line” with low- end, mid-range and high-end products, Wu said in a Dec. 5 note.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling wouldn’t respond to the report and said the company “does not comment on rumor or speculation.” Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said the company hasn’t made an official announcement on an iPhone offering and has no comment. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel declined to comment.”

Well despite my distaste for Apple in some regards, they are on the up so I can’t knock them. Although their share price has dropped considerably this year, along with pretty much all others, they’re bouncing back and bucking the trend.

Good luck to you Wal-Mart. – But keep your eye on Jobsweh; I wouldn’t put my trust in him totally if I were you.

All quotations are from Bloomberg.com http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4YIU21gLaSY

“Windows 7 basically takes Windows one step closer to the design aesthetic of the Mac, where form is valued over function. I’m not sure this is the right strategy. Simplicity, taken in isolation, may seem like a good idea. But I’m afraid that in Windows 7, Microsoft is sacrificing too much in its bid to be more like Apple. And it’s the users of Windows who will pay the price.”

- So says blogger Paul Thurrott in his article “Windows 7: Simple Vs. Easy” 

Me; I’m not really in the know: I haven’t even seen the pre-beta. – But I want to highlight this suggestion that Microsoft are trying to make Windows more like Mac osX.

ZDnet’s Mary Joe Foley commented in a part of her response to Thurrott’s article:

“If I wanted a Mac-like environment, I’d buy a Mac. I want an computing environment that helps me get my work done and doesn’t require a how-to manual to figure out which icon does what. Maybe Microsoft could introduce “Windows 7 Luddite Edition” for those of us who value function over form?”

I suggest that you read the two articles right through, and then, if you would be so kind, state your opinion by means of a comment below. What I’m asking is; do you think Microsoft are in danger of making Windows too like Mac osX? Also do you think that they are attempting to present Windows 7 as a simpler-to-use operating system by hiding the complexities; in other words sacrificing function to promote form?

I would imagine that, even in 7, it’s possible to access all the usual functions from the command line, even if those functions may be buried. Not all users are actually familiar with the command line though – After all this is Windows, not Linux.

I miss the point maybe; or is there some benefit to be gained by encouraging the stupid and lazy to become stupider and lazier by hiding things they can’t understand and can’t be bothered to learn about?

Apple may not want to admit it, but there is already Mac-malware going around. Security experts have long raised concerns about a Mac-attack suddenly arising from a particularly virulent piece of malware. Meanwhile Apple continue to stress that Macs are invulnerable and don’t require anti-malware protection in order to generate their better-than-a-PC image.

Apple employees at their stores deny any need for anti-malware and anti-virus for a Mac. Apple’s own ads imply that a mac is pretty invulnerable. Yet despite this, even the Apple.com website has links to anti-malware solutions for the Mac running osX. Why would that be if there was no threat?

I’m sorry to say it, Apple-lovers, but you are being conned by Jobsweh and his followers. When the malware-writers have waited long enough to lull you all into a false sense of security while the Apple movement grows, and many more people are conned into getting an "Invulnerable" Mac, they’ll release their malware into the wild.

It’s obvious that Apple know that this is going to happen someday. Windows needs antivirus solutions, despite the fact that many of them are inadequate. At least it’s some protection rather than none. Windows gets targeted a million times more than a Mac; true, but as the number of Mac users grows then so will the target on the Mac osX operating system, and malware writers will strike a totally unprepared and defenseless market sector.

I wonder how Apple will try to worm their way out of it when it finally happens? What do you think?

This year, Microsoft forced major retailers to stop supplying XP. In January 2009 even small system builders such as myself will be stopped from supplying XP. Will that be a death knell for XP?

Not immediately, no; but if the pre-beta code reports are anything to go by, then Windows Seven may well be the start of the end for this almost seven-year-old operating system.

Some reports I’ve heard indicate that Microsoft will be launching Seven in October 2009. According to PCWorld.com:

"The word on the blogosphere is that Windows 7 should be released to manufacturing in October 2009 with general availability by November".

Microsoft haven’t yet released anything concrete yet as far as I know – Other than declaring that the new OS will be launched in the latter half of 2009, however some bloggers may be privy to insider information that I have not yet received.

Windows Vista; the disaster of an operating system in many ways, and the major trigger of the minor popularity-loss for the Softies, which did more good for its predecessor XP and the Apple Mac with its osX Unix operating system than anything else, has kept most of those users who continue to use Microsoft’s operating systems (Including myself.) with XP for the time being. In fact this blog’s visitor count indicates that almost 5 times more visitors use XP than use Vista, with a third as many people as those using Vista on a Mac using osX.

Seven is coming; and in my opinion we’ll probably be seeing most of those who upgraded from XP to Vista upgrading to Seven in 2009; as well as probably at least two-thirds of the XP users. That will be probably just as much a death knell for Vista as it will be for XP, if not even more so.

Seven will work on the same hardware as Vista; so there’s really no reason for Vista users not to upgrade. XP users boxes will be starting to clap out in a lot of cases, so those affected will no doubt upgrade equipment and operating system too.

If you have a perfectly good computer that’s still running XP, and either you can’t afford to, don’t want to, or simply can’t move to Seven because of the hardware requirements, then don’t worry:

Currently, as stated in the Microsoft XP Product Support Lifecycle page, partially shown above; they will continue mainstream support for XP until April 2009 – As they are currently doing that is – after which they’ll only be continuing support regarding security issues from that date until the currently scheduled day in April 2014 when XP becomes obsolete.

Then XP will go the way of 9x and ME. By then, however, Seven’s successor will probably have been long released, Vista will have been condemned, and maybe even a successor to Seven’s successor will be in beta?

One of my computers that I recently built from scrap components probably isn’t capable of running anything greater than Vista Home Basic. It has a 64-bit capable motherboard running a 32-bit AMD Sempron 1800MHz processor in a socket configuration that’s already almost obsolete; AMD socket 754. I don’t think they made any dual-core processors in that socket, and even if I could upgrade to a single-core Athlon 64 by buying second-hand, I wouldn’t bother upgrading to Vista. – So that’s one computer which’ll be running XP to 2014; if it lasts that long, that is.

Feel free to comment generally on anything you like in this article: There is a comment box below for that purpose. Have a good day/evening/night/morning, wherever you are on the planet.

There are times when things can be hard to write; and maybe this is one of them, but what the…

OK I’ve been somewhat of an anti-proponent of Apple up until now; and I have to say that I’m still having problems in my mind with what I term "the Steve Jobs modus operandi". I’ve borrowed incidental comments from others and expanded upon them, slating Apple and Steve Jobs in the process. I’ve even used the name "Jobsweh" as a derogatory name for Jobs, (A parody of the all-powerful and demanding Yahweh in the Bible.) which I picked up from a term used once in fun by Ded Ryzing in July of this year, 2008.

But it’s starting to get to my head, and after almost actually, without realising it, trolling in a comment I made on PC Mech earlier, which owner David Risley described in his follow-up comment as a "knee-jerk reaction every time he mentions the word "Apple"", I’m beginning to realise that all that’s happening is that I’m, without meaning to, starting a pointless one-woman-crusade against Apple; which is a ridiculous thing to be doing.

So what got me started on this foolhardy idea in the first place? Well during July I had a long conversation with a taxi-driver whose brother-in-law worked for Apple, and who had passed on some insider-information to him that Apple had rushed out the initial iPhone platform to get the iPhone to market ahead of the LG Viewty. I looked up the LG Viewty on the web and realised that it was a very nice cameraphone. From then onwards I became a proponent of the Viewty in opposition to the iPhone.

At the same time the world went iPhone mad: Suddenly everyone had an iPhone, but very few people owned a Viewty, despite the Viewty’s camera being far better than that of the iPhone. The thing was that the Viewty was a top-class camera-phone, but that’s all it was; a camera and a phone. It wasn’t a mobile personal computer like the iPhone.

At this point I was on the verge of admitting defeat and going with the flow; when suddenly up popped the news that Steve Jobs; control-freak extraordinaire, had a lever that would remotely block any chosen application on any selected customer’s iPhone. The iPhone suddenly became just like a Mac: The property of Steve Jobs, right down to which applications you could run on it. It was no longer a personal mobile computer as in your personal mobile computer; it was Steve Jobs’ personal mobile computer that you’d paid to lease on the proviso that he dictated what Apps you can and can’t run on it. It was yours to do what Jobsweh liked with, literally. It seemed like people were paying Apple for a computer that they were told was their property, but was under the remote control of Apple, with Steve Jobs at the controls. That; to my mind, is a con.

From that point onwards I’ve been expressing my distaste of Apple and Steve Jobs; which is starting to go overboard and is serving no useful purpose as such other than possibly to negatively affect my popularity of late.

Unfortunately it’s time for me to accept the fact: Apple, despite what I may think, and regardless of my opinion, have pulled it off, and they are a successful company, and growing too. Whatever I may think of the tactics of Steve Jobs; they work and they have made him a fortune: More than anything ethical or that I consider ethical has ever made for me. Do I need to redefine ethicality within my own mind? It may be so; maybe not? – I have to think a lot on that one.

Whatever the case; Apple have the iPhone as probably the most popular phone on the planet. Apple are the only company who managed to get everybody excited about their phone product: Think about it; no other mobile device has such a buzz associated with it. Why? The iPhone seems to just work the way people want it to. I don’t know if they envisage Steve Jobs at a remote-control booth somewhere in iWorld booming "I am the Almighty Jobsweh! Thou shalt not run that program upon thine iPhone that I have granted to thee." and pulling the lever. I have no idea whether they see it anything like I do but just put it out of their minds. Whatever they do or don’t do they buy iPhones – millions of them. – And now everyone is trying to make their latest mobile device look nd feel like an iPhone to the greatest extent that they can. Am I missing something here?

Why iPhones? Why not Blackberrys? Why not Sony Eriksson z750i like I have? Why not a Windows Mobile-powered device like I have? Evidently the others seemingly don’t have what it takes. I love my z750i – It’s cute, it’s a cool girly flip-phone. I’m content with my Windows Mobile-powered device to a certain extent too; although it could be better. – But I heard something today which went down like a lead balloon with me: Microsoft are prepping the ancient IE6 to work with Windows Mobile: In itself that’s good news, the current browser I’m using is insubstantial. – BUT would you believe it – here’s the bad news – it’ll require a 500MHz processor to work properly! My device has a 201 MHz processor, 64MB RAM with 128MB flash RAM. Great! No wonder they’re not offering it as an update; millions of people will require a new device! Thanks Microsoft!

Will I be getting a new Microsoft Windows Mobile device? Will I fsck. I’m getting an iPhone next: Not right at the moment; but when I decide to upgrade, which might not be until a better model iPhone is released, I’m getting an iPhone. There you are all those who I’ve slated iPhone to. – Flame bait for you all.

I don’t know if it’s a wise move; I don’t know if I’ll regret it, but in for a penny, why the heck not: It seems to be the better of a bad bunch.

As time goes by I expect mobile devices to improve, and the future is anyone’s guess. Right now; if I can’t beat them – join them.

In an unexpected turn of events, Microsoft have become rather chivalrous by aiming to provide a free tool, code-named "Morro," that will provide a basic anti-malware service; protecting against viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

This will be offered at the same time, June 30th 2009, as they discontinue their Windows Live OneCare consumer security service.

Morro will have a small footprint and use only a few system resources. The idea is that it will run on low-power PCs and low-bandwidth networks. As a stand-alone download it will support Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Existing OneCare customers will be directed toward using Morro instead when it becomes available. If you are currently and/or up to June 30th 2009 a OneCare user you will continue to be able to use the online backup feature as normal until that date; probably with the same charges attached.

The Windows Live OneCare blog says that this is not due to a poor sales figure, but rather a tactic aimed at bringing protection to millions world-wide who have none. Personally I think it’s probably a bit of both – Oh please; Microsoft aren’t known generally for being that public-spirited, despite being nowhere near as tight and money-grabbing as Apple. I very much doubt that they’d drop a product line that was making them a fortune.

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“There’s a new trend out there designed to scam computer users: web sites that sell bogus software. Not only does the software not do what it claims to do, but the companies that sell this “software” get a hold of your credit card and can do even more damage to your bank account."

Sunbelt Software , who have exposed a lot of crapware (Rogue software) aimed at the Windows platform, have now at last found crapware aimed at the Mac OSX platform. They know it’s crapware because it’s brought to you by none other than the same people who gave Windows users scareware like Antivirus XP 2008 and XP Antivirus.

There aren’t many malware components aimed at OSX; but the number has seemingly increased by at least 1 recently. However they only found the site itself for the new MacGuard malware program, but were unable to get hold of any program. The site itself appears to have now also been disabled; possibly by Apple themselves?

Macs have appeared relatively untouched by threats for a long time; but now it seems that malicious software targeted at OSX is about to awake Mac users from their sleep of complacency. Previously in March of this year, 2008, a Mac security site, Macvirus.org, with a forum full of links to malware which targets Apple computers; the RSPlug-Gen trojan in particular, as well as the Zlobar-Fam trojan for distribution to PCs running Windows. They were posing as fake codecs supposedly needed to view a non-existent pornographic film of Britney Spears.

There are a number of ways of looking at this: Either you could say every virus targeted at a Mac is one less virus targeted at Windows (Aren’t there enough already?), or you could say that those people who use alternative operating systems to Windows aren’t as safe as they might imagine; and their complacency could be their downfall at the end of the day.

What do you think? Do non-Windows users need to bother with anti-malware programs?

In the headlines today are 2 new ads from Apple. The first of the "I’m a Mac and I’m a PC"-style ads slam Microsoft’s advertising spending on Vista and highlight the problems people have had with M$’s latest operating system:-

Do people really care about Microsoft’s advertising budget though? OK the money has to come from somewhere, usually from the customers. In general, though, people don’t consider that when going out to buy a Microsoft product.

"Oh I don’t think I’ll buy Microsoft’s product because they’ll just spend any profit they make from me on advertising Vista."

Was it actually slamming Microsoft’s advertising budget though; or was it just emphasizing the problems associated with Vista?

The second ad pokes fun at Vista in a bleep-out; again highlighting the issues that people have faced with the operating system:-

The question is: How does any of this kind of negative-advertising actually promote Apple or the Mac? None of what I see makes me think "Wow; I should go out and buy myself a Mac."

I have 2 PCs; each running XP. Why XP? Because Vista has too many issues for my liking and I really don’t think it’s worth upgrading. When Windows 7 is released, if it’s much better than Vista, I’ll build a new PC for myself and install Windows 7.

I see a Mac as an expensive PC running Unix. Granted the OSX operating system hasn’t had the number of issues that Vista has had; but ME was another of Microsoft’s mistakes and I’m running the operating system that they released after ME. Why do I want a Mac? I can’t build a Mac; I’m not allowed to. I have to buy one ready-built. I can’t upgrade a Mac myself: I have to take it to Apple to be upgraded with what components they say I can have in it.

A ready-built PC will cost me slightly more than a self-build PC and it won’t be built as I want it to be built. A Mac will cost me even more than that, and it will be built as Apple and the Great Jobsweh; god of all things Apple, has decreed it shall be built – So saith the LORD.

I’ll continue building my own PCs, and I’ll continue to install Microsoft software. Why? Because I’m not allowed to install OSX on my home-built PCs. Apple can knock Microsoft all they want; but I’ll still buy Microsoft’s products. I’ll skip Vista, just like I skipped ME.

Apple should be addressing the fact that I don’t want their Mac for the reasons stated herein, rather than slagging Microsoft off.

If I could build and upgrade my own Mac I’d probably have one. OK I’d have to abide by the limited choice of components that Apple say I can upgrade it with probably, and I may have to build it according to certain specifications and conditions, granted; but I’d have my own personal Mac rather than Steve Jobs’ computer.

If I could run OSX on one of my PCs I would do just that; and Apple would sell me the operating system: But they won’t, so I lose out and they lose out.

If I could repair a Mac that I’d purchased when it went wrong then I would and I’d buy one in the knowledge that I could do just that. I don’t want to have to take it to an approved Apple stockist to be mended for 3 or more times the price I’d otherwise pay. I have the capabilities to do it on site, and I’d want to do it on site.

So Apple can spend as much money as they like on slating Microsoft and telling me how much better a Mac is then a PC, (Although there is very little difference in my mind: To me a Mac is a sturdy regulated PC running Unix.) but I still don’t want to buy a Mac because it’s not in essence my computer when I do: It’s Apple’s computer which I’ve hired indefinitely! I’d rather have my own computer that I own fully and can do what I want with.

Wouldn’t you too?

This report has been the big rumour of the day today; as you may have heard – Setting the gossip lines, blogs, and Twitter, alight with chat:

Apple says the Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report Is Not True.

Of course it’s not true: For one to have a heart attack one must first posses a heart.

Jobsweh may posses an organ that keeps the blood circulating throughout his body; but any outgoing emotion from that organ appears to have been stemmed by his control-freak nature and love of profit at any cost.

Using tactics of mass-mind-control akin to those used on the German people during and just before the second-world war by Hitler and the Third Reich; Jobs has conned the world into buying his substandard products in a hypnotic marketing ploy using deceptive yet convincing tactics to deceive the minds of the masses into thinking that anything bearing the Apple name is the best thing since sliced bread.

What is a Mac? A Mac is a PC with a sturdy chassis and an inflated price tag. What is an iPhone? An iPhone is a small programmable handheld computer/phone with a weak non-user-replaceable battery that is remote-controllable and block-able at the behest of Steve Jobs. What is OSX? Well-developed Linux with its own special flavour – No more and no less.

So an Apple system is no more a sturdy PC made of Apple-approved components in an Apple-defined design configuration running a specialised flavour of Linux called OSX written by Apple, all of which costs twice as much as a normal PC running a normal Linux distro. Maybe this Apple system’s overall operation is slightly better than average; provided that all software is approved by and provided by Steve Jobs at an inflated price. It’s not anything different from the norm in reality: It’s the ultimate con.

Is Steve Jobs worried that he’s taking the public for a bunch of mugs. No; not even an iota of shame or guilt. Does he care that he’s selling a PC as a specialised improved type of technological evolution?

Having said that though – I must admit that I definitely do admire him for his unbelievable nerve. Not even Bill Gates with all his wealth and genius pulled such a massive confidence-trick on so many to get where he is today.

If you’ve seen the 1970/1980s BBC TV comedy series “Only Fools and Horses” then you may remember the episode where Del and Rodney are bottling tap water and selling it wholesale for a profit as “Peckham Spring”. ‘Far-fetched you think? No more far-fetched than Del Boy Jobs selling a PC running Unix as a Mac at an inflated price. No more far-fetched than a mentally-unstable Corporal putting on a display of authority and conning an entire nation into following him and his Third Reich.

The same old confidence-trick in another guise is still just the same old confidence-trick. As Shakespeare wrote in his famous play Romeo and Juliet:-

“That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Despite a strong wind from the NASDAQ with the potential to dislodge Apple and send it tumbling as an economic drop-out; the company has had its own windfall in the States recently according to figures released by US market watcher NPD: The figures indicate that Apple made an impressive 20% of all retail notebook computer sales during July and August of this year, 2008.

The MacBook range of laptops appear to have gone down well with parents buying for their kids for the new school year, as well as with students. I perceive the dollar-signs lighting up so bright in the eyes of Jobsweh; god of all things Apple, that they nearly cause a fire as he curls his talons around his increasing capital assets:-

The 20% figure is for stock turnover. The revenue percentage of market share is 35%: Whoever suggested that Jobsweh had priced himself out of the market?

Of course, as I mentioned in another article, the MacBook line is due to be refreshed about now or in the very near future – Yet even just clearing the old stock has set the cash-registers ringing merrily across America.

The “anti-Vista lobby”; IOW a large percentage of (ex-)Windows users, must have helped account for the unexpected fortune of the company – switching from Windows notebooks now mainly only available pre-installed with Vista, to MacBooks with OSX installed. Despite the relatively high-costs involved it seems the American public on the whole feel that it’s a price worth paying.

Can this boom continue or is it merely a lucky blip? Despite the economic misfortune that now bites the world economy, it appears that Apple have had such an effective marketing campaign that consumers will still buy MacBooks despite the extra price tag and the cheaper Linux-bearing alternatives.

It would be wise for Apple to drop their profit-margin somewhat on the upcoming ranges though, as competition is still rife and economic future trends would appear to favour lower-cost devices. If the price of the new lines are right then Apple have the chance to make another massive windfall, rather than breaking where their growth is stemmed, and dropping from the money-tree to become fodder for the foragers and scavengers of recession.

Do you think Steve Jobs (Jobsweh) can resist overpricing his wares?

This current economic downturn is, by its very nature, set to affect everyone; small or large. Apple are already finding that due to economic forecasts of future spending behaviour in light of the troubles, that their expensive products are in danger of pricing them out of the predicted market.

That’s not the only trouble on the horizon though:

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday 30th September that the global financial crisis will sap consumer and business spending, affecting all companies, including his own.

This fact is a problem from which nobody is immune. It’s an all-encompassing difficulty which everyone has to face: When consumers are spending less there’s less money in the economy due to that fact. If the revenue isn’t coming in from the customers then it doesn’t appear in anybody’s coffers by magic. When consumers spend less due to a lack of supply in the economy then consumer confidence starts to wane further; the knock-on effect of which is that analysts start to produce grim forecasts which have the effect of driving share prices down – Resulting in even less money within any given company. When this circle repeats often enough and begins to cascade, the money-markets start screaming “Recession”, following which share prices take another battering, and everyone from small startups to huge multinational conglomerates see their stock devalue to a fraction of its original worth. From that point it’s survival of the fittest as the economy begins to pick up again.

“Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly … spending by the financial services industry,” Continued Ballmer.

“We have a lot of business with the corporate sector as well as with the consumer sector and whatever happens economically will certainly effect itself on Microsoft,” he told the Reuters newsagency.

“On the other hand, when businesses have less money — they can borrow less money, they can spend less money — that can’t be good. When consumers feel the economic pinch, house prices come down. That can’t be good,” Ballmer said.

Could it be that investors have taken Ballmer’s remarks as an indication that Microsoft’s revenues could be hurt by the continuing financial crisis? Apparently some NASDAQ traders seem to think so.

Reading between the lines; Ballmer is ready for the recession that he is certain is coming. The economy is already collapsing, and any countermeasures taken at this point appear to only serve to delay the inevitable.

If this is the right way to see the situation; and it seems from the evidence available that it probably is, then rather than wasting resources in attempting to prolong the agony as George Bush seems to be attempting to do, it would seem to be a more sensible option to use those resources to cushion the fall and avoid as much damage as is possible when everything reaches its nadir.

To my mind Bush is attempting to delay the inevitable until he’s out of the way of the falling debris, by throwing money at the problem. When the big lumps hit the fan, a lot of it is going to end up as the responsibility of government to clear up.

How to cushion the economy?: When there’s no money around people aren’t going to want to spend much on anything as there won’t be much to spend in the first place. Business needs to make a profit still, though, to survive while the economy picks itself up again.

The answer would appear to be to cut prices. The knock-on effect of that would see a reduction of profits, due to both less revenue from the consumer sector as well as, quite probably, increased cost of raw materials. This could well cause companies to diversify their product lines and produce smaller and/or lower cost products from less resources.

The upshot of this may well be that the situation could force a further leap in technology with regard to manufacturing processes in order to accomplish this; which would have a positive effect on the economic implications of industrial manufacturing, as well as assisting the forward progression of technology as a whole.

In conclusion, then, it appears that there is unavoidably going to be a recession: Possibly a rather deep and dismal time ahead for all sectors. As the world emerges from it, however, I believe that things will get a lot better and the overall effect could quite probably be a developmentally positive one rather than a detrimental one.

What’s your opinion?

Prologue Rabbit:

Quite some time ago – 2 years plus; I’m not exactly sure how long, I got an invite from a friend to join Facebook. I’d heard a lot about it but wasn’t really into social networking at that time: Times were good economically, and I was concentrating on getting a computer-building enterprise running. I wasn’t that fussed on spending hours posting my life online and getting chatted-up by lonely losers using the internet as a last-ditch attempt at getting a date with anyone they could find.

Anyway I eventually gave Facebook a try – And I found it so sucky at the time that after not long I closed down my account in protest. I kept a MySpace account going but abandoned it and forgot the login details.

More than two years later; having become a Twitter, FriendFeed, etc, user – I found that everyone and anyone was using Facebook. Yesterday I made up my mind to give them a second chance and opened an account: The new look Facebook is so much better, more user-friendly, and functional.

The Guts:

…And so to the purpose of this article; having released and dispensed with the drivel:-

I’m going to be honest and say that I’m not an iPhone owner or user. What? A geek without an iPhone?!: Dracula without fangs, a tree not made of wood! Well, approve or disapprove; I’m a Wintard and I use Windows Mobile on my mobile phone supplied by BT, and some Linux variant on my Sony Ericsson X750i, I think it is. I simply don’t see the point of buying an iPhone, and I have possible gripes with Apple – But that’s another story. Since I don’t own an iPhone I can’t tell you much about this App from experience: So I’m going to cheat and quote a little from TechCrunch.com:

“While previous releases of the Facebook application supported the News Feed feature, only mobile photo uploads and status updates were displayed. In version 2.0, the News Feed has been completely overhauled to match item-for-item with that of the site itself, throwing news posts, relationship and interest updates, and all photo uploads into the mix. Furthermore, users are now able to comment on any given bit of news, or limit the feed to only the categories they wish to peruse.”

Ah what the heck: Click the link below and read:

Facebook Rolls Out Version 2.0 of their iPhone Application

Yes; maybe it’s not standard practice to just hand over to another blog mid-story: A little deviation from the norm won’t hurt anyone nevertheless; plus I’ve done Michael Arrington, Greg Kumparak, and the rest of the TC crew a favour.

…And Finally…

Something else that’s hitting the headlines is the House of Representatives’  Web site – Which has been overwhelmed this week by a tidal-wave of visitors trying to e-mail their Congressperson and/or download George Bush’s Financial Bailout Bill that the House rejected. The site saw three to four times its normal traffic yesterday, 29th September,, according to Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House Chief Administrative Officer.

That’ll teach ‘em to vote “no”: DDOS ‘em as punishment, lol.

And now; Some advertising:

Due to slowing demand and bad economic forecasts, Apple’s shares have today been forced down to their lowest price since May 2007 at only $110. Morgan Stanley and RBC both downgraded their stock on the NASDAQ earlier today. (Monday 29th Sept.)

Being more specific about the reason for downgrading; firstly the Mac purchase intentions for desktops and laptops have suddenly moderated since August. Current and future growth trends in the PC market are related to those products with a price tag of less than $1000 – Which excludes all Apple products.

Basically greedy Steve Jobs (Jobsweh; the god of all things Apple.) has priced himself and his company out of the market in the face of an unexpected economic downturn: In the authors opinion it serves him right too: After all; a Mac is just a PC with an Apple logo on it and a high price tag.

…And the forecast isn’t good either for Apple; with the dodgy economy meaning less multiples for growth stocks – And that’s Apple included; so their drop in fortunes isn’t over yet by a long shot.

It may not be all doom and gloom though; as Apple is bringing out 2 ranges of new laptop within the following fortnight. If Jobsweh can control his overwhelming greed as the dollar-signs light up in his dark eyes and keep the price below $1000 then there might just be some hope on the horizon.

Jobsweh

So what do you think? Is Steve Jobs going to become a victim of his own greed? Suppose the new laptops have a price label greater than $1000; do you think that’ll put the final kiboshes on Apple?

Contrary to popular rumour; Microsoft may have not yet pulled the plug on the Gates/Seinfeld advertisment series.

According to Gizmodo.com:-

“From a trusted Crispin Porter source, we’ve learned that some sites have jumped the gun and that the Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been axed. It’s true, Microsoft apparently asked the agency to focus on the new “I’m a PC” spots. And it’s true, the agency has gotten plenty of “I don’t know what this means” response in their measured statistics of the Gates/Seinfeld ads. But no one has pulled the plug on the dynamic duo just yet.”

There are more Seinfeld/Gates adverts in the pipeline then: That’ll come as a relief to Apple; who thought the Softies might be about to produce something that would be more effective in countering the successful Apple advertising campaign.

But according to other reports; Microsoft are ready to step up a gear after their ads which have got everybody talking about Microsoft. In the next series Apple’s strategy is ripped into with a Microsoft engineer resembling a character in Apple’s ads appearing with the words “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

The renewed campaign carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls”. Microsoft intend to turn Apples own tables on them; by using the image of the PC that the Apple ads have attempted to generate – but against Apple.

It appears that Seinfeld has no further part to play in the forthcoming advertising campaign; at least initially and for the foreseeable future; although Bill Gates is set to remain very much a player, along with Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra, and singer Pharrell Williams – These stars play regular PC users who confirm their happiness at running PCs utilising Microsoft software. (I really do hope that they’re not still trying to convince the public that Vista is any good though; otherwise the new ads will be about as effective as a Windows ME salesman giving away a pound of apples with every purchase.)

Also starring in the Advertisments are 60-plus other Microsoft employees (Including and extra to Bill Gates.) – An unusual example of how; in a few cases, being company-employed can make you rich – all of whom publicly display their email addresses: Spammers take note.

Microsoft want to take back the initiative from Apple and be positively realistic about the benefits of the PC. Apple have tried with some success to negatively caricature the PC; but Microsoft want to reverse this without dragging Apple through the mud. If it works it could strengthen the flagging dominance of Microsoft as a market-leader possibly; but having said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating – Microsoft are going to have to ensure that Windows 7 is a markedly better than and totally bug-free operating system compared to Vista; which is still being compared to ME as a total flop.

Advertising agency Crispin Porter; who produce the Microsoft series of advertisments ,appear to have thusfar acted true to form by first getting everybody talking prior to the main thrust of the campaign designed to reverse the tactic used by Apple of PC mockery whilst glorifying the Mac.

What do you think about this strategy?

Years ago back in 2002 I needed a new computer. At that time I wasn’t building computers; I was a software geekette, and I was still learning about hardware. My old 233MHz Cyrix processor on a PC Chips PC100 motherboard  was becoming  too slow even for Windows 98. I wanted to move up to Windows XP; but wasn’t happy about trying it on my existing system.

Like I said; I wasn’t a hardware geekette, but I knew what to look out for; so I did the usual British thing and headed for the PC World store.

I parked outside in their car park and entered the store through the plush sliding automatic doors; went to the back of the store, and started looking at what they had to offer. It wasn’t that bad; but I only had a choice of around 15 different computers; each with its own special deal.

I felt eyes on me and noticed a salesman hovering not far away pretending to dust a shelf. I wandered over to the pre-SP2 stacks of Windows XP Professional CDs: £99! – Extortion! I was going to have to cut a deal here.

To cut a long story short I left the store that day with a computer made by Medion, running a 2.8GHz 1st generation P4, (A cutting-edge processor at the time.) 512MB RAM, (Standard at the time was 250 to 512MB) and 32MB onboard graphics. (Again standard for the time 32-64MB) I also had a ton of crap freebie software thrown in, and the tower came with a wheel-mouse, reasonable stereo speakers, ( – Which I still posses.) OK keyboard, Canon inkjet printer – Which I got them to upgrade from the cheap-looking Hewlett-Packard printer that originally came with the deal, and a free Windows XP Professional CD.

How I got that free was a bit of a crafty deal: You see PC World stores in the UK make a huge percentage of their money selling warranties on their goods and earning from the commissions from that; and therefore the salesman wasn’t going to let me get away without buying one. (All their customers complain about the warranty that they’re virtually forced to buy with their new computer, and which usually costs around as much again; but still they keep going back to them like wasps to a jamjar.) I cut a deal in which I agreed to buy the 5-year-warranty that they were pushing on me on condition that they gave me a better printer than the one in the bundle, and that they threw in a free XP Professional CD. I was trying to get their top-price scanner free with the deal too; but I had to drop that in compromise.

I was happy at the time, except that the box was the wrong colour and I’d had to give up the chance of a model with 64MB onboard graphics to get the model with the printer in the bundle. 2 years later, and with the price of RAM still high, I wanted to upgrade to 1GB RAM and found that there were 2 x 250MB sticks already in the box; which meant I’d have to replace rather than fit 2 more as there were only 2 slots. I also wanted to upgrade to 128MB graphics and did that instead with a Radeon PCI graphics card. I also wanted to upgrade the CPU to the latest 3.06MB P4 with hyperthreading; but that was out of the question.

2006, and I’d just finished my electronics course and gained 2 certificates. I’d also killed two birds with one stone by messing about with computer hardware/software in the computer course classroom which was adjacent to the electronics lab; much to the tutor’s annoyance, as he had to keep coming over and getting me to attend his impromptu lectures. – You could therefore say that I was trained in computer hardware also; although without a certificate.

By this time my computer was in its old age and was starting to show it; although I’d kept it going reasonably well. I was in a mind to attempt my first full-build – I had the know-how; I just needed the parts. The immediate objective; though, was flashing the BIOS on my existing box: I’d done it before on that box, and I’d done it a number of times at college; all successfully. This BIOS flash didn’t go to plan however: A power-spike during the process – I was economising by not having a UPS in-circuit – fried the BIOS chip: All I got from it was a blank screen and a continuous beep…And it was a week before Christmas too! I phoned the warranty company and got a number unobtainable tone. PC World informed me that the warranty company had gone out of business and that the company that had taken over were now closed until the New Year. – I couldn’t wait until then for a computer. I know; I’ll build my own: I’d bought a book from PC Mech that covered everything. In case I’d missed something or did something wrong I’d have that concise manual to put me right. I need components. I’ll make a list: Just in case I’ve missed something there – It is my first full-build after all – I’ll check with the book I bought mail-order off the internet from PC Mech … Let’s have a look…Blimey they cover everything in here: Windows 95 to Windows XP, Linux, the lot… OK I have listed everything – Good. Now to order. Oh my god everywhere’s shut early for Xmas! PC World will be open but will charge me a fortune…

Panic mode: I grabbed the telephone directory and ordered a machine to be custom-built for me before Xmas from a firm I’d never heard of. I did that and the custom-built computer arrived in 2 days; it worked, and I used it until April – When the PSU exploded!

Fortunately I’d already made my first build by then; checking everything from the book I’d ordered from PC Mech just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I post-mortem’ d the blown PC and found that the company I’d employed had used all cheap components, the wrong components, (e.g. A 32-bit single-cored Sempron CPU rather than the 64-bit dual-cored Athlon I’d asked for…) and built it badly – so I started legal action against the fairly-local English bodger-company; but that’s a totally different story.

Actually to be honest I needn’t have bothered with the computer room at college had I ordered that book earlier: It was just like a computer course in its own right: In fact I’d go so far as to say that it was more concise than the college course, and everything was well written and easy to understand – Honestly even a beginner without any computer experience whatsoever could use it to teach them how to build their own.

That really pissed me off; because I’d seen it advertised, I think it was the year before I went to college; maybe even before that; but I’d thought ‘Oh; it’s just another American net-profits person flogging more cyber-junk’: I thought I’d find that’s part 1 which I’d bought at a discount, and I’d have to buy all subsequent parts and join a get-rich-quick scheme to continue to receive the other instalments: Oh how wrong I was! I so wish that I hadn’t been so pessimistic and that I’d bought it then and there. It would have saved me time, money, and hassle.

Well I did it all arse-about-face and I paid the price – Literally in some respects; all because I was too cynical and didn’t think that the book was worth buying – I mean it doesn’t exactly cost a fortune either; but Miss Tight here was just procrastinating to save a few £s; and yet it cost me a few £s more maybe: False economy.

I don’t want to say which book it is after all that: I mean if I do and you buy it then you could end up knowing as much as I do and that’ll put me at a disadvantage. Having said that; I kept my money to myself and ended up losing; so if I were to keep my knowledge to myself then would I end up losing also? Probably knowing my luck.

I’ve been churning it over in my mind for some time whether to let the cat out of the bag; but look what procrastination did before; see above.

Which company and/or its staff/owner have I mentioned more in this blog than any other? Apple. – Well almost; but in a slightly derogatory way. No; PC Mech. Why? Because I have experience of PC Mech and I know that I always get a good deal out of them: That’s why I have a membership with PC Mech, like quite a few others also do.

I’m in England; PC Mech are in America. If I were in any way dissatisfied with their service I’m hardly likely to be able to drive over to their office and have a go at them am I? – Oh believe me more than one English company has had a piece of my mind in the past. No; it’s a matter of trust. What more needs to be said?

So no further procrastination. If you make a fortune out of what I share with you then I want half; all right? Like I’ll get it eh? Well you’re going to find out one way or another; so I suppose ‘better from me than someone else. Scroll down.

Either you want to find out which book it is or you don’t. If you do then scroll down. Of course; if you don’t want to custom-build a PC for yourself – ever – then there’s no point: Thanks for reading.

– I’ve had to do some work typing this lot you know; so it’s not going to hurt you to do a tiny bit yourself. Keep scrolling…

Keep going; you’re authorized: Remember; it’s a matter of trust…

If you’ve bothered to scroll all the way down here then you’re either interested to know more or you’re as crazy as me. Whichever is the case you’re about to get what I said you’d get.

In fact I’m not only going to tell you the name of the book; I’m also going to give you a link to a bit more information and the point of purchase. I’ve procrastinated to this point, and now I’m no longer doing so: The knowledge can be yours.

- All you have to do is click on the ad, no more than that.

What; you’ve come all this way and you’re wondering whether you should? Oh give me a break!

OK; If you’re determined to make the same mistake as me and continue procrastinating until you miss your chance then this link will get you out of here.

– Otherwise there’s a square-ish bluey thing below to click on:-

Happy building!

"Dave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California."

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/09/13/whyIphoneIsAnUreliablePlat.html

I think, on that evidence, it would be fair to assume that he knows what he’s talking about: I’m sure you’d agree – So when Dave Winer says that the iPhone is an unreliable platform it should make some people pop their head up from their comfort zone and take note.

Wakey-wakey!

What he didn’t say; and I stress this now so as his words aren’t taken out of context, is that the iPhone software provided by Apple is buggy and unfit for purpose. I’ve not read any complaints about iPhone 2.1 yet; but then again I didn’t read that many about 2.0; even though I knew for a fact from insider information that it was so: The Apple faithful remain tight-lipped about any of Apple’s failings; though one can read between the lines and derive their true feelings by inference rather than by direct speech:

For instance; David Risley posted an article on his blog about his initial impressions of the iPhone while posting to said blog using the iPhone WordPress App. After he made an obvious comment about the fact that it works, he followed it with two negative criticisms; a complimentary remark in the following paragraph to diffuse his last two points; saying that it’s

"…pretty cool that I can even do it at all",

followed by

"End of post because typing on this thing is still a bit slow. ".

So an iPhone is "Pretty cool because [it works - Because it doesn't 'not work']"? Hmm. An interesting definition of ‘pretty cool’ there David. – So; my television clapped out after over 30 years this week: The screen is blue; nothing else; just blue. (‘ironic, myself being a Wintard, that my TV dies with a BSOD!) But it works nevertheless: It still produces sound; and there’s still something on the screen: It’s a "pretty cool" TV then?

(I am aware that there is a track fault on the PCB in the colour synchronisation separation circuitry; but the dear old set is so old I’m not going to bother fixing it: I’ve already got another one.)

My comment on David’s post was:

"So overall you’re saying that it’s a load of utterly unusable crap that is non-user-friendly, slow, and poorly designed; but it’s really cool because it’s an Apple iPhone. Wow!"

I’m not "anti-iPhone" or "anti-Apple" despite appearances: "Anti" is too strong a description: I see it all for what it is, and what it is; or at least was, is no more than a botched rushed attempt from Jobsweh at making a fortune. By combining this with employing a strategy copied almost directly from the previous actions of Microsoft; the gamble paid off, and Apple landed in clover and Jobsweh made his massive profits. Fair play to him.

Back to Dave Winer; who is saying that developing an iPhone App isn’t worth the hassle; because when all’s said and done; apple might reject it after all the work and aggravation has been carried out.

Why would Apple reject it? Not necessarily simply because of an unseen bug that might make it detrimental to people’s iPhone hardware; but because it competes with existing Apps; as in the case of Podcaster yesterday, (13th September 2008.) where Podcaster was rejected because it competed with iTunes. It’s as if Apple are saying:

"We’re the best, and we alone make the best software for our own hardware. Anything that competes with or that appears to be better than anything that we build will be immediately silenced and we’ll just conveniently forget that it ever existed – Because you honestly can’t better Apple; so don’t even try."

Or put another way:

"I am the great Jobsweh; god of all things Apple, and there are no gods, no programmers, no designers, better than me. I am the beginning and the end. I was there before computers existed and I shall be there after they have ceased to exist…"

…Er hang on Steve; aren’t you forgetting something? You’re mortal yes?

I think I’ll end here with the last words of Dave Winer in his article:

"…the Internet is the platform without a platform vendor. That’s the most powerful kind of platform there is because it is the least regulated."

Thank the gods (Excluding Jobsweh.) for Web 2.0.

See also:

http://daringfireball.net/2008/09/app_store_exclusion

After my continuing opposition to Apple’s products; in particular the iPhone; you’ll probably be surprised to hear that I’m glad that Apple have at last brought out a platform-update in the form of iPhone 2.1.

Apple have not only fixed most of the bugs that came with 2.0 but also have added a number of features.

I’m not an Apple user myself; so I’ll not go into all the tech details here; rather I’ll link you to this site for more on that.

But despite this all my previous commentaries still stand with regard to Apple. If you haven’t seen my previous commentaries in this blog you can find them by using the search facility, by clicking on “Apple” in the tag cloud, or through Google/Yahoo by inputting kkomp.com Apple into the search bar.

Apple are becoming the image of Microsoft in my opinion: They produce buggy unfinished software in their rush to get the product onto the market; after which they fix the bugs with an upgrade – Exactly what M$ did with Vista.

(My blog stats show that, despite Windows being the most-used operating system(s); the number of XP users who visit this blog is almost seven times the number of Vista users. (After Vista comes Linux in third place, followed by Mac OSX, and then Windows 98.))

Back in June 2008 I commented in a scoop that Apple had rushed the 2,0 platform through in order to get out ahead of the LG Viewty; which they saw as the major competition at the time. Well that tactic; while being more Microsofty than anything other than Microsoft themselves, worked; and the Viewty didn’t make it as major competition to the iPhone. It wasn’t only that though; the fact is that the Viewty is an excellent camera-phone; and in that respect alone is many times better than the iPhone. However what the Viewty doesn’t have is the ability to run Apps, and neither does it have an App store.

So in the light of the above; was it worth the rush? Was it worth it for Apple to produce a buggy product ahead of time just to beat a partially-competitive product from a rival to market?

Maybe; maybe not: But the proof of the pudding is in the eating – Jobsweh (Steve Jobs) gambled on it and it worked. I can’t knock it. I wouldn’t have done that myself – But that’s probably why Steve Jobs is CEO of Apple and I’m a blogger. No more need be said on that.

Apple have seemingly at last saved face: Good on them; kudos to them. It’s going to boost the Apple image, and no doubt sales figures will be affected in some positive way.

BUT why follow the Microsoft route? Because it works? It does; but there must be a better way; because it’ll end in being tarred with the Microsofty-brush; if that hasn’t started to happen already.

What do you think this move will bring for Apple? Do you agree that Apple are going the Microsofty route? How would you run Apple if you were Steve Jobs? Feel free to leave a comment.

Actually not “pulled”: More like “rejected for no good reason”

Apple have started being funny about their Apps: One developer had their App, called “Pull My Finger” rejected by Apple on the grounds of “Limited Utility”; despite the App known as “Koi Pond“, which has extremely limited utility itself, being the number 1 App in the App Store at time of writing:

- Wow; a fishpond on your iPhone! Although a fishpond may be one place to dispose of an iPhone; with the limited non-user-replaceable battery charge being rather…limited; I can think of 101 better uses for it.

Going back to “Pull My Finger”: Here’s a copy of the rejection letter from Apple:-

“Hello Developer,

We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.
It may be very appropriate to share with friends and family, and we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing.
Regards,
Victor Wang
Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple, Inc.”

Here’s the rejected developer’s vid:-

Little things please little minds. Hmm; what do you make of that? Favouritism? Bloody-mindedness? – Or just plain absurdity? It wasn’t offensive, it wasn’t even tested – it was just seemingly rejected on principle. Why?

What’s your take on it?

Gerry Seinfeld was paid $10 million to appear in a commercial with Bill Gates: Lucky Seinfeld! What was the purpose of this expensive $300 million commercial?

Ignoring any third-party commentaries for the moment; I have absolutely no idea: Seinfeld meets Bill Gates in a discount shoe store…Not even an Al Bundy in sight…They chat about shoes, as gates is buying a new pair…When they reach the mall parking lot 2/3rds of the way through the commercial; Microsoft is mentioned at last.

Here’s the commercial; take a look before we go any further:-

The future…Delicious…Bookmarking? – Uh? The era of edible computing dawns perhaps? No; at least I doubt it. (Munch a monitor today. Chew USB. Haute d’hard-disk.) Bill Gates has a problem with his shorts: That’s a strange thing to advertise; especially at a cost of $300 million!

Ok the ad says nothing: It’s a waste of $300 million. But wait; maybe if we knew the purpose of the ad then we’d get it? Yes? Well the purpose of this ad was to counter Apple’s successful “I’m a Mac; I’m a PC” advertisment. I’m sure Apple are delighted that Microsoft wasted $300 million of their budget in proving that they’re capable of embarrassing themselves. – Oh and I still don’t get it either; so the original verdict stands:

This ad is a waste of resources.

See also TechCrunch’s article on the subject.

What’s your opinion?

We’ve heard moans twice from Apple Fanboi Michael Arrington; but we want to be convinced that it’s not just one voice in the darkness.

Well here it is: The post you never expected to see from one of the new Apple fanboys:-

“Apple Showing Warning Signs”
Posted Aug 28, 2008 by David Risley 

“As many of my readers know, I have converted pretty much everything to Apple products. I am now a Mac user and recently I switched to the Iphone. As of a few days ago, even my keyboard is built by Apple. I am a fan of the company and their products, but I am seeing big red flares that are showing signs of trouble on the horizon.”

(I think that’s meant to be iPhone; but ‘easy typo either way.)

-So David says; and I quote “I am a fan of the company and their products“. Fair enough: Each to their own. He continues:-

“Why I Like Apple“

“It continues to be funny when I witness the emotional reaction Apple can get out of people. A lot of non-Apple geeks are quick to dismiss me as a “fanboy” because I like Apple. Such a reaction is really asinine and, ironically, often comes from people who would buy Apple if not for monetary reasons…”

Help me Wikipedia:

“By 1990 the term was being used in popular music and science fiction circles, and as electronic entertainment gained popularity, the term became increasingly applied to computers and video game consoles – with people often developing an obsessive loyalty towards one platform or brand.”

“Current subjects of such obsessive loyalty include areas of: TV shows; movies; music; anime; comic books; cars; video game consoles, video games and MMORPGs; and computer operating systems, hardware and software—and more recently politics.”

“”Fanboy” was added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in 2008.^“

Next:

 

 

“…But, There Are Warning Signs”

“While I have admired the user-centric design of Apple products, the company has been showing some signs of losing touch. Some examples:

1. Iphone battery life has been a complaint, and it seems really stupid not to have it be user replaceable.
2. The Iphone software has been a bit buggy, worse for some than others. I’ve had my Iphone crash many times. I’ve had it slow down or features stop working that required a restart to fix.
3. No copy & paste on the Iphone? Stupid, stupid stupid. This is OS design 101.
4. The MacBook Air hasn’t been that high quality and many have been reporting stupid problems with it.
5. MobileMe has been a huge ball of fail since it launched, showing once again that Apple is horrible when it comes to anything on the Internet. And the fact that they’re charging money for it when it can all be done for free elsewhere is dumb. Apple tossed users some free time for their troubles, but all that is is free time using a barely functional service. Also, the fact that all the .Mac customers were automatically moved into this crappy service is a case of very poor customer service.
6. There have been complaints about decreased built quality on the MacBooks and MacBook Pros. “

                    Fail                                                   Better

“What I’m sensing is a bunch of Apple users who really want to continue liking Apple, but are having to find ways to explain the parade of bonehead moves and buggy products coming from the company.”

That last sentance was very well written and extremely spot-on-target: Those people are called “Apple fanboys/girls”.

Of course, not being a fanboy himself – and any suggestion that he might actually be a fanboy being “really asinine“; David doesn’t fit anywhere near into that category:

“In all fairness, most computer companies release crappy stuff. I guess Apple is held to a higher standard because of their marketing and the loyal following that they have. Perhaps Apple is just showing us one thing: they’re a computer company just like any other computer company.”

Of course; that’s not actually anything like “ways to explain the parade of bonehead moves and buggy products coming from the company.” : It’s just an excuse for darling Apple’s incompetence – ‘All companies cock-up from time to time: Apple are no different; in fact they’re much better at cocking up than any other company.’

Exactly; just one of the many things they do better than anyone else, isn’t it?

You read it first here; unless you read it first there: Apple cocked up – As admitted under a veil by an Apple…non-fanboy himself.

My analysis? Apple have lost it: I foresee a lot of their market-sector gains dwindling slowly back to much how they were. I see the crown falling from Jobsweh’s head. As a Microsoft fan I don’t see any immediate advantage to Microsoft. I would say that Linux will continue to make small gains from both M$ and Apple, at least until Windows 7 is released.

Do I see Linux reaching 10% market-sector impact? It’s possible but unlikely in my estimation. I won’t rule it out altogether, but Linux had its day; in fact around 3650+ of them. Ubuntu have made inroads in a sense; but the various distros are still proving difficult to give away; even in the light of Microsoft’s shot in its own foot with Vista.

??

Mystery Advert
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Today is a “Bank Holiday” in the UK; which is Brit talk for “skive”: That applies to the employed-only populous though: I’m continuing much as usual here, although I did get a chance to finally see a few people I’ve been meaning to see for a while earlier.

It’s been a bumper weekend as far as hits are concerned on this blog; and my thanks to all who made it so: I hope you found the information that you were looking for and that it was useful to you.

In this blog entry I’m going to be focusing on operating systems and browsers with regard to the statistics of this blog from the last six days, and try to give my perception of exactly what this means for their respective markets.

Let’s look at some figures in terms of overall percentages for the operating systems used:

I apologise for the fact that the illustration’s not that clear: Nevertheless it can clearly be seen that Microsoft Windows XP is by far the leading o.s. at 75.8% (Of just over 1000 original hits.) ; beating Windows Vista into an un-commanding second-place at only 8.8%. To me that shows a big failure notice for Microsoft’s latest operating system and confirms the fact that people are sticking to XP for the time being, or downgrading their Vista installation to XP where possible. If this graph were to be taken as a representative sample it would indicate that for every person using Vista, there are 8.61 people still using XP.

What of the rest? Unbelievably in third place behind Vista is the obsolete Windows 98 at 4.3%: This also speaks volumes about Vista, as this says that nearly half as many people as those who currently use Windows Vista would rather use an obsolete operating system than Vista.

Let’s tot up the percentages of all Windows usage excluding Vista: We’ve already got XP at 75.8% and Windows 98 at 4.3%. Also there’s Windows 2000 in sixth place at 1.7%, NT4 at 1.1%, Server 2003 at 0.7%, ME at 0.6%, 95 and CE at 0.1% each.

I make that 84.4% of everybody, using Windows but avoiding Vista. Total Windows usage including Vista = 93.2%.

What of the others? Well there are two Linux groupings on this graph: “Linux” and “Ubuntu Linux”. I’m going to add those two together and call them “All Linux”; giving 2.4% of total: That’s not that bad a representative score for Linux in all honesty, and indicates some growth in the usage of Linux; I think somewhere in the region of 0.5% growth of market share.

Now Apple: There’s Mac OS X coming in at 2.9%, and the iPhone at 1.5%. I’m going to add those together and call them “Apple Platforms”; giving 4.4% of overall usage. This shows significant growth for Apple too; somewhere in the region of a whole percent if I remember correctly.

Obviously this isn’t an official survey, and the statistics gleaned from this are only representative of my viewers. If it were an official survey of a small cross-section of users, and there must be at least some parallel with the official figures, it would indicate that:-

• XP remains the prominent OS of choice.
• Vista is a failure.
• Linux usage is growing fairly fast.
• Apple usage is growing even faster.

To clarify; with apologies for the non-clarity of the graph again:-

• Internet Explorer 6: 50% (!),
• Internet Explorer 7: 23.7%,
• Firefox 2: 8.4%,
• Internet Explorer 5: 6.1%,
• Firefox 3: 4.5%,
• Safari: 3.8%,
• Opera: 0.9%,
• Firefox 1: 0.9%
• Konqueror: 0.7%

The other categories are “Firefox” (No number) 0.6%, Firefox 1.5 0.3%, Generic Gecko 0.1%, and Internet Explorer (No number) 0.1%.

I think what I’ll do is group Firefox, Firefox 1.5, and Firefox 1, together and call them “Not Firefox 2 or 3″, giving 1.8%.

Also I’ll group Internet Explorer and IE5 together and call them “Not IE6 or 7″, giving 6.2%.

OK; so IE6 appears to be a clear favourite: Strange that; I thought that since M$ were distributing IE7 as an auto-upgrade then everyone would start using it. I certainly do, and I prefer it to IE6 – I’m in the minority there it seems. IE7, which I use in XP, comes in second with less than half as many users as IE6. If we assume that all Vista users use IE7, then only 14.9% of XP users have adopted IE7. Fair enough.

Firefox 2 in third. Hmm: Although Firefox 3 was a record download it certainly isn’t a record Firefox; 2 still being the prevalent choice out of the Firefox versions.

Strangely enough IE5 with all its many vulnerabilities and its funny GUI has more users than Windows 98, indicating that people are using it with other Windows versions such as ME and 95.

Firefox 3 with just over half as many users as Firefox 2 eh? : That should be a concern to Mozilla perhaps?

Safari at 3.8% – Well there’s the iPhone accounting for some of it, though I’m surprised its usage is that high.

Even more surprising to me is that Opera’s usage is so low at just 0.9% in comparison to Safari’s beating it by more than a factor of 4 times: Maybe some people know something I don’t?

The rest is pretty much academic anyway – So; in conclusion:-

• IE6 is still the most popular browser.
• IE7 isn’t a failure, but it appears that most people would choose IE6 rather than IE7.
• Firefox as a whole has gained a good foothold and is becoming popular.
• Firefox 3 didn’t go down as well as anticipated.
• IE5 seems to have a cult-following.
• Opera is, in my opinion, underrated.
• Safari is, in my opinion, overrated.

I found that statistical analysis quite exhilarating: I hope you found it interesting and maybe in some ways useful.

What do you think? Are you at all surprised by these results? Do you think that this study is a fair analysis that could be used as a representative cross-section poll of users? Do you think these results are typical? What would you expect the results of an official poll to be; similar, or different? Please feel free to comment.

Update: September 1st 2008:-

I’m getting some good hits from loads of Open-Source browsers all of a sudden: Keep ‘em coming! (IE6 is still in the lead.)

 I’m now going to have to review some of these and blog about them. Excellent!

Click Here 

Latest reports appear to indicate that Apple  aren’t quite as bad as it seems; in fact it might appear at first sight that they had a windfall.

That’s not exactly the case though: Despite news of their taking top customer-satisfaction honours among personal computer manufacturers, as released on Tuesday of this week, there are two things you should note before assuming that Apple are the tops and that this blog is heavily biased against them:

Firstly nobody even thought to ask Kustom Komputa if they even wanted to be included in this award; probably because they knew Kustom Komputa would trounce Apple into second place. On a more serious note, though, the index measures results only for the three-month period ended in June – Before the crap began to hit the fan for Apple, starting with the release of the iPhone.

Also on Tuesday; Apple admitted that a software update for their much troubled iPhone only partly fixes the connection problems it has had in connecting to 3G networks: In other words; honestly this time: “FAIL: We scratched again.”

It has been reported that it isn’t only Apple’s buggy software that’s to blame: There have been reports that the Infineon Technologies 3G chipsets used in the iPhone are faulty. That could mean that no matter how good the software, the hardware issue might cause the problem to never totally go away.

It has been reported that it isn’t only Apple’s buggy software that’s to blame: There have been reports that the Infineon Technologies 3G chipsets used in the iPhone are faulty. That could mean that no matter how good the software, the hardware issue might cause the problem to never totally go away.

The crap certainly has been hitting the fan lately for Apple; and maybe rightly so too: It seems that Steve Jobs has always been a bit of a dreamer;   and now incarnated as “Jobsweh”; the god of all things Apple; it appears that the power has gone to his head and mingled with his dreams, turning his wallet into a bottomless pit that seeks filling with loot, no matter what the cost.

As reported here on kkomp.com; Apple were recently forced to extend the free trial of MobileMe in a face-saving operation.

“We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make.” Said Apple.

To me that sounds like: “We did it again by releasing a service well ahead of schedule in order to market before the competition: It wasn’t actually ready to be released; but we did so out of a case of having to. We hope we can eventually get it to work.”

If they don’t it’ll end up costing them a few dollars more; which could incur the wrath of Jobsweh!

In the same email Apple stated “We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour.” ROFLMAO – You’re telling me! What exactly has been Apple’s finest hour during the past two months? Steve Jobs seems to think he’s Apple’s answer to Bill Gates of late. The question is; is Jobsweh, the god with the bottomless pockets, fit to run Apple any longer? Should someone more competent and less greedy take over?

Fire Your Computer Technician!

A computer technician spills the beans and makes available the knowledge he has charged clients hundreds in service fees for.

CLICK HERE

This; direct from Apple:

“Why is Apple granting a 60-day subscription extension?
The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped.”

First understatement.

“While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.”

How generous of Apple to realise that they cocked up – Again!

“Am I eligible for the 60-day extension?
You are eligible if you are a MobileMe member whose account was active as of August 19, 2008 at 0:00 Pacific Daylight Time.”

Ah I knew there was a catch!

“What if I am currently in a free trial period?
If you were in your free trial period on August 19 at 0:00 Pacific Daylight Time, your free trial will be extended an additional 60 days.”

Blah blah…Ah: Is this another crafty catch? :

“I have an activation key. Will I lose my extension if I apply the key now?
If you are currently in your trial period, you will lose the remainder of your trial period —including any extensions— as soon as you apply your activation key.  If you already have a paid subscription, you can enter your key at any time and Apple will automatically apply the key to renew your subscription after your extension period expires.”

Remind me to fire my Advertising Executive

In his blog entry entitled “Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges” he goes on to say:

“My obvious enthusiasm for Apple products is fairly evident to readers of this blog. But recently I’ve had a string of bad apples come my way, so to speak. It’s time for Apple to stop screwing around and start paying attention to product quality.”

He then goes on to speak about the single hour of battery life he gets from his iPhone , as well as certain Apps vanishing at the behest of the great Jobsweh with his lever of power; before, in usual fanboy style, declaring his undying love for his dead battery iPhone; symbol of the divine nature of the great Jobsweh. (Waste of time, costs you a fortune, sub-standard.)

- As his following commentary notes, under the heading:

“Mac Mini, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and Macbook, All Failed“

* – Read the rest of “Apple Is Flailing Badly At The Edges“. – *

Some of my online associates say that I’m anti-Apple: I disagree; I’m not in any way prejudiced against Apple because they’re not Microsoft, even though you could say that I’m a Microsoft fan. I’m looking deeply into the eyes of Apple and seeing a culture of control, company domination, and exploitation of customers: In fact I see a kind of Pagan-istic-ish fundamentalist cult religion appearing; one where the faithful hang on every word of and would be willing to give their life for, Jobsweh, the god of all things Apple.

- And even though this cult-following; like a flock of ante-Linux zealots, is happening; the faithful are being sold utter substandard crap for a small fortune as massive amounts of profit appear in Jobsweh‘s pockets.

A friend commented that I could be cruising for a lawsuit to be filed against me: Quite obviously Apple strongly discourage the expression of opinion through free speech; but in trying to sue me they’d have to interface American law with British law and probably apply for an extradition warrant, only to end up being paid any settlement from my limited funds at about £1UKP a week.

How many $million was that? Oh well it’ll be paid one day – I can imagine being connected to an Apple-funded life support technology to keep me alive indefinitely until the debt is paid in full; like some frankenstinian contraption from the backrooms of science-fiction in the great Jobsweh‘s research laboratories  – Until suddenly the entire thing fails and I begin to rapidly age and die as technicians rush about to resolve the issue:

“Holy shit: We used an iPhone battery to power this thing! That’ll add another £ 55 (includes VAT), plus £ 7.29 shipping and handling, includes VAT.”

“Don’t worry about cost right now; she’s dying, and Jobsweh will be mad at us if he doesn’t get his money!”

“Man are you serious? We’ll have to take all this equipment to an Apple store and wait 5 working days plus shipping time!”

Today, after a week of iPhone battery jokes and chidings aimed at a certain iPhone user I know online, whose iPhone battery died very quickly on Monday last, I thought it an idea to have a look into the topic of iPhone batteries a bit more deeply with a little research. A quick Google search revealed 16,300,000 results for iPhone batteries. Quite obviously I wasn’t intending to read them all, and as it happened the first one that I clicked on inspired me to write this blog entry:

The following was what I found at http://www.apple.com/uk/support/iphone/service/battery/ : Basically it describes Apple’s method of further ripping off the customer post purchase in the event that their battery becomes useless and fails to retain its charge. (I wonder exactly how long that will be? Has anyone actually reached this point already? If so then do please feel free to comment. – Otherwise do feel free to comment anyway.)

The page in question is officially entitled “iPhone Out-of-Warranty Battery Replacement Program Frequently Asked Questions” and begins with the question “What is the iPhone Battery Replacement Program?”

Many iPhone users will be glad to know that there is an official battery-replacement program – Until they hear the cost of it. The article says:

“If your iPhone requires service only because the battery’s ability to hold an electrical charge has diminished, Apple Technical Support will replace your battery for a service fee. Be sure to follow these instructions for optimizing life span and battery life before submitting your iPhone for battery replacement. “

The instructions in question say; in a most roundabout and lengthy manner, that the more use you give your iPhone the less time your battery will remain charged: That’s quite logical I suppose. The catch is, as with all rechargeable batteries, the more you recharge the batteries the less you’ll get out of them: Fair comment. It then goes into great detail about ways of not using your iPhone so that the battery’s charge lasts longer. (Following which it instructs you to “Use your iPhone regularly”.) I find it rather strange that Apple made a product that is to be used as little as possible; but as we’ll note later, this is a caveat for the process of charging you a fortune to replace a dead battery. “Jobsweh(1)“, the god of all things Apple, is a greedy and profitmongering god who likes to milk his people for every dime that they posses after they sell themselves into bondage with him by buying one of his products.

The article continues:

“How can I set up my iPhone for the Battery Replacement Program?”

“You can take your iPhone to your carrier. You can also contact Apple Technical Support or take your iPhone to an Apple Retail Store.”

Yippee-doo; thank you Apple for being so helpful. Now here’s the sting in the tail:

“How much does it cost to participate in the program?”

“The program cost is £ 55 (includes VAT), plus £ 7.29 shipping and handling, includes VAT. All fees are in Euros. Service may not be available if your iPhone has been damaged due to accident or abuse. Please review Apple’s Repair Terms and Conditions for further details.”

EH?! Fifty-five quid to replace a f—ing battery! That’s over $100 USD; and only “if your iPhone has [not] been damaged due to accident or abuse.” – Accident such as the case accidentally disintegrating perhaps? Abuse such as allowing the case to disintegrate in the first place?

Moving on:

“How long will service take?”

“Service through Apple Technical Support normally takes one week (five business days) from the date the unit is shipped to us. Time may vary if it is done through your carrier or an Apple Retail Store.”

Oh the geeks are gonna love that! A whole week PLUS shipping time without the iPhone: $100USD+ to be without your iPhone for 2 weeks; maybe more? Apple are the biggest con out there today – And people moan about Microsoft! – Er, reality check: Wake up!

This may be the answer you’re looking for:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkKQoUlOQg

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———–

1. Credit to DedRyzing ( http://twofourtech.com/ ) for naming the divinity of Steve Jobs.

Starring:

Sharron (Me) 

DedRyzing 

davidrisley 

Bitch that I am I can never resist a bit of “I told you so” bragging: So when David Risley posted the following tweet on twitter:

  “Went to use my Iphone and, sure enough, it’s dead. Frickin’ battery. No comment from @kkomp please. ”

- This war happened:

Me: @davidrisley iPhone, iPhone, falla-diddle-iPhone. iPhone, iPhone, falla-diddle-i…No more need be said…ROFLMFAO!

- At this point DedRyzing opened up on target: 

DedRyzing @davidrisley Well ya know Dave…everyone was saying the iphone battery is dung.  And ya bought two…sad. I feel for ya

DedRyzing @davidrisley Don’t fret though. Disabling the phone will increase batt life for important things like ibeer and the lightsaber thingy 

A feeble response of counter-fire: 

davidrisley @kkomp @DedRyzing Its still the best phone out there, guys. I haven’t seen a phone yet with the same balance of features.

It’s war:

DedRyzing @davidrisley Honestly, yer right. Which says less about how good the iphone is and more about how BAD other phones are.

A shot across the boughs from me:

Me: @davidrisley That’s only because you never bothered to get a Viewty.

A veiled attempt at opening negotiation from the target: 

davidrisley @kkomp Looked at Viewty. Good camera phone. But, it is no Iphone.

Fire 1:

Me: That’s the beauty of a Viewty: It’s not an iPhone! – I ought to do their PR; they’d sell more product than apple!

Fire 2: 

Me: @davidrisley That’s the beauty of a Viewty: It’s not an iPhone! – I ought to do their PR; they’d sell more product than apple!

Fire 3: 

Me: @davidrisley I – Phone but the battery’s dead; so I use the beauty of my Viewty and get straight through: iPhone + dead battery = No phone.

Incoming communication from allied force: 

DedRyzing @kkomp It boils down to this. Other phones do a few things crappy.  The iPhone can do a lot more things crappy.

Incoming challenge from target: 

davidrisley @kkomp DedRyzing Hope you guys will be in the show chatroom tonight so I can argue with you.

Reload tubes. Response to allied force: 

Me: @DedRyzing That says it all : Let’s email LG today and offer to jointly run their PR campaign: KompDedRyzing Promotions Present…

Fire 1: 

Me: @davidrisley LOL you’d better beleive it. Topic = The iPhone battery life and ways to improve it other than not using the iPhone at all.

Fire 2: 

Me: @davidrisley On second thoughts that’ll be the shortest topic discussion ever.

Small-arms attack on target from allied force: 

DedRyzing @davidrisley Geez man…every show I argue with either you or @frostedside. Man…stop picking fights.

Fire 3: 

Me: @davidrisley I hope Apple never develop an electric car…

Incoming communication from allied force: 

DedRyzing @davidrisley Just start running OpenBSD and use an OpenMoko Freerunner and everything will be ok

Response to allied force: 

Me: @DedRyzing …Or he could always invest in a Viewty; as I suggested before he wasted his money on a dead battery – I mean an iPhone.

Nothing further from target – Scanners detect target neutralised.

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It’s called the iPhone Apps Blacklist Feature; and sitting at the remote-cut-off controls of your iPhone is none other than Steve Jobs himself; playing god with your purchase.

It must be a comforting thought for all iPhone users that the great Steve Jobs has control over what Apps you can run on your iPhone that you paid for.

Jobs said that the intent behind the capability is “high minded”: It sounds to me like a case of a control-freak mentality:

“I am the great Steve Jobs; God’s boss, and I shall decree with my awesome power what you will and will not have on your iPhone.”

“Hopefully, we never have to pull that lever,” Jobs said, “but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull.”

It certainly removes a massive element of control by not having it.

What next? MacBooks saying “I’m sorry user; but Steve Jobs has decreed that you are not allowed to run this program; however there is a similar program available from Apple for $$$”?

Apple allegedly need this function to deactivate potentially hazardous software: In other words so that they can instantly defeat any attempt at hacking or at running any open-source Apps from the Open-Source club and the Linux zealots etc.

Last week there was a rumbling and concern amid reports of the so-called “Kill-Switch-Ability” This week the Apple CEO confirmed it himself. We used to think that Microsoft impinged upon personal freedom in computing: This, however, makes Microsoft’s previous alleged control-freak mentality less than academic.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball spoke with an “informed source” at Apple on Friday, who confirmed the presence of a URL inside the iPhone’s Core Location API that downloads a blacklist of applications designated as malicious. Independent iPhone developer and author Jonathan Zdiarski discovered the URL earlier in the week.

Remember; when you are using your iPhone; big Uncle Steve is watching!

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Mozilla won’t be developing Firefox as an iPhone App: Mozilla Chief Executive John Lilly says Apple has made it too difficult a task to accomplish. Instead Mozilla will focus on other mobile platforms and in particular the LiMo project, aimed at putting Linux on other mobile devices.

Development of desktop Firefox is still going ahead in leaps and bounds: The alpha release of Shiretoko; AKA Firefox 3.1 has already happened.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.1a1/releasenotes/

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.1a1/releasenotes/#download

Besides adding new filtering features to the Awesome bar where users can filter their searches to show browsing history only, Mozilla are particularly set on improving the Gecko rendering engine and adding a new visual-tabs feature.

What of Microsoft and IE8? Well IE8 is in beta and available for download. I’ve heard that installing this beta kills the Microsoft auto-update ability of Windows to receive critical updates and patches from M$ Update: I don’t know if that’s still true or if they’ve updated the beta to prevent this?

According to Microsoft:

“Some of the new features designed for developers include a developer toolbar and improved interoperability and compatibility…Internet Explorer 8 will take the web experience beyond the page.”

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/features.mspx

- Beyond the update too it appears? I don’t see anything immediately outstanding about enhanced security features; although a Google search reveals this:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=IE8+enhanced+security+features&meta=

The good thing is that IE8 beta is available for download to Windows XP as well as to Vista – I hope this is also the case with the final retail version.

Why, though, has IE8 been in beta so long, while all other browsers are advancing and releasing newer versions? Who knows the mind of Microsoft? Does M$ itself know it’s own mind after the departure of Bill Gates?

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On August 1, 2008 Apple Inc. issued patches for 17 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, including one meant to fix a critical bug in the DNS

The DNS patch doesn’t seem to be very effective though; according to Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. “The difficult news this morning is that we thought we were getting a patch, but we haven’t gotten anything”

Last week after the technical details of the DNS vulnerability were revealed exploit code appeared; this week attacks began against unpatched servers. Apple’s boob, a patch that doesn’t patch, isn’t going to stop further attacks.

Tests revealed that systems running Mac OS X weren’t randomising ports as they should have been doing if the supposed fix was working.

One would have thought that after Apples recent history of poor performances; such as releasing a buggy firmware platform early in order to beat the competition to market, http://kkomp.com/archives/214 and producing an auto-disintegrating case for the iPhone itself, http://kkomp.com/archives/664 they’d have made a special determined effort to get things precise and spot-on from that point. Apparently not though: It appears that Apple’s catalogue of disaster is continuing to be revealed. Perhaps Steve Jobs should make way for a better candidate – But if Microsoft is anything to go by then the same power-struggle will happen with Apple too.

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The new Apple iPhone: Probably the most popular and well-known product around in today’s market. What will cause an ongoing problem with the iPhone; both the old model as well as the latest offering, is the buggy software platform developed by Apple which is currently being used as an operating system in all Apple iPhones.

Although many people swear by the iPhone and think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread; there is a better product out there; and one which Apple both fear and beat into submission by gazumping the market with an early release, causing a buggy and underdeveloped platform to be issued to users ahead of the intended release date.

I discovered this fact today in the strangest and most unexpected of ways: The story goes like this:-

Today I went to town to buy a few things and tie up a few loose ends: It was a sweltering hot day with broken cloud and extremely high humidity. I so longed to be back in my air-conditioned office with a cool breeze from the fan; but right now I had several carrier bags tied to my handbag and was trapsing through the hot streets toward the chemist’s (Pharmacy). As I sat on the waiting bench in the shop in lieu of my prescription being assembled I thought I’d try out my new mobile device on the wi-fi hotspot nearby by posting to Twitter: That was easier said than done. I got through and was told that I was on a 30-minute session and that I had to sign up to The Cloud via McDonald’s which was where the nearest hotspot was located. This I did and was then shown hundreds of screens giving information on The Cloud. I emerged from the maze confused and bewildered to a web browser sponsored by McDonald’s that required me to log in again and provide loads of personal information, fill out a survey regarding my customer experience with McDonald’s, and give my impressions of their internet service. Having answered everything with the word “crap” I was sent back to The Cloud’s index page: Nowhere could I find a decent web browser and I just gave up.

Later on; sweating like a pig in the humidity and heat, whilst laden with carrier bags I made it to a taxi-rank and got into a taxi cab. Somehow I got talking to the driver about the Apple iPhone. I explained that I was a blogger and that I’d written an article or two about the iPhone; particularly regarding the buggy platform software that Apple had issued as an operating system, and although people were trying to blame the App developers for the failure of the software from the App store; it was the fault of Apple themselves. It was at this point that that the driver gave me the scoop:-

Evidently his brother-in-law was a manager at Apple and had revealed that Apple had rushed the platform development through to be out ahead of the release of the LG Viewty (Pictured above.)

 http://viewty.lgmobile.com/uk/ 

- A MUCH BETTER cameraphone with software that works properly and which would have wiped the floor with Apple.

In order to get their inferior product into full sale ahead of a decent much more user-friendly and higher-quality competitive product, Apple employed some dirty tricks at the expense of both customers and quality.

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39030107,49292601,00.htm 

http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/lg-viewty-ku990.htm

Had Apple not been such a big name, and had they waited until their platform was properly de-bugged, the LG Viewty would have been incredible and quality competition against the iPhone: It’s similar-looking, more functional, and runs totally bug-less software. In the dog-eat-dog world of business however it’s no longer the better product that makes it; rather it’s the better-known producer with the snidiest tactics that gets the top spot regardless of the product.

So it is with (Cr)Apple: Dirty tricks and concentration on sales volume rather than customer satisfaction – The mark of greedy Steve Jobs, who somehow manages to sell a load of bad jobs for a fortune. Hola cowboy!

Just a cotton-pickin’ Apple-pushin’ gazumping cowboy. Yee-haah!

Come along; it’s all wrong: get ripped off at the Apple App Store:

We have software – that isn’t working; – and we want to sell it all to you.

We are snide; and we lied: Have a ride on our faulty platform;

Because your money – is what we’re after: Steve Jobs wants to be a bill-i-on-aire.

- Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

“CUPERTINO, California—July 14, 2008—Apple® today announced that iPhone™ and iPod® touch users have already downloaded more than 10 million applications from its groundbreaking new App Store since its launch late last week. Developers have created a wide array of innovative mobile applications ranging from games to location-based social networking to medical applications to enterprise productivity tools. Users can wirelessly download applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch* and start using them immediately. More than 800 native applications are now available on the App Store, with more than 200 offered for free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10.”

““The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.””

Inside the iPhone  

Take a look inside (Don’t) 

Full of bugs

You pay your fee; you download the application you’ve just bought from the Apple App store to your new iPhone, you open the application, get a blank screen, and are returned to the home page; or the phone resets. Great: Thanks for nothing. Thank you Apple for making developers rush to meet your deadline with buggy progs.

…And the developer community say it’s Apple’s fault also: it turns out that it’s not the applications that are buggy after all apparently: From the crash logs it appears that the problem is with the 2.0 firmware’s instability; therefore although Apple made developers rush to meet a deadline; didn’t even build a solid platform on which developers could build.

People who have seen the crash logs in question themselves appear happy with the developers’ opinion; although there are reportedly some not-so-excellent applications in the App store it appears: It doesn’t matter how great the hardware; if the software’s not up to scratch you’ll have problems.

I foresee a game of buck-passing coming up; with Apple blaming the developers who in turn blame Apple – And then I expect to see large firmware updates appearing and being downloaded: All this has the whiff of Microsoft to my mind!

You are reading the third edition (Final Retail) which has replaced all other editions. Each edition is extremely similar to the previous edition but with added content.

Ok here’s my first thoughts about the whole damn thing:-

Today everywhere has been alive with iPhone buzz: FFS it’s only a phone! Networks are overcharging, Apple are overcharging, but the crowds just keep charging up to the counters for the pleasure of getting ripped off so they can say “Ooh look at me; I’ve got the latest gadget -Just like everyone else!” Pfft!

Big deal! Clever you with your new toy – Moving on: In a case of perfect timing WordPress have announced WordPress for the iPhone: Now you can blog with your new toy too if you know how to read and write. Remember that thing called school that you tried to avoid? At school they taught you how to read and write…Oh never mind; go play with your iPhone.

Don’t hold your breath on wpiPhone though. (That’s WordPress for the iPhone for the benefit of iPhone owners.) I have a weird premonition that it might just go to pot as they try to make it bloom. Keep watching for nipples and if you see more than one then wpiPhone has probably gone tits-up.

I just cannot credit the hysteria about a phone – Holy carp!

I set out to be brief on this article; and brief I shall be. When the hype has ceased to have any residual effect and networks send people their bills for using the phone.

(Phone is what it is and it’s not mine and probably never will be, so why call it an iPhone? Information – pah! Try reading classes first. ROFL. I wonder; can Chris Pirillo’s followers read the instructions? PMSL!

Google – Help; I’m in hysterics!

Chris Pirillo <—Yay! AVG 8. 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pirillo

I always and without fail crease up every time Pirillo announces an apology in his posts that certain things may involve reading. I bet Apple never thought to include a text-reader in their new phone though did they? – Hey don’t take it personally; you got great advertising out of it.)

The new iPhone – The perfect escapism for the cyber-escapist – Until the first bill arrives: You just wait. <chuckle>

iPhone, iPhone, folla-diddle-i-phone; iPhone, iPhone, folla-diddle-i.

iPhone, rip-off, overcharged by networks; goon-fad, boy’s toy, I will never buy.

I could be wrong; I have been known to be so before; but I reckon it’s all a big hyped up load of trash and people will end up regretting the day they ever set eyes on an – Oh I’ll utter it then. – iPhone. <shiver>

That’s all; that’s my twopennethworth.

No it isn’t: I lied: ‘Still same day and already the problems have started!

“Software problems bug Apple’s launch of new iPhone” Friday July 11, 1:59 pm ET

My thanks to David Risley of  PCMech for providing the following link via Twitter

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080711/apple_iphone.html?.v=27

And so it begins:

“”Steve Jobs knows what people want,” Web developer Lucinda McCullough told the Christchurch Press newspaper, referring to Apple’s chief executive. “And I need a new phone.”"

-Quoted from that linked site.

Then why the hell am I trying to sell unique quality desktop computers? If Steve Jobs really does know what people want I’ll get a few old wrecks that no longer work properly out of the spares cabinet, give them a quick identical case mod, and sell them at an exaggerated price: Who cares whether they work or not provided they all look the same and are the latest fad eh Mr Jobs? While we’re at it Steve Jobs; perhaps you’d inform me why it is that you’re named after a polite english slang term for crap?

Brilliant Headline from Gizmodo.com:-

“Apple and AT&T Stores Having Difficulty Activating iPhones (UPDATE: It’s the iPocalypse)” (Linked)

“Even the iTunes link on Apple is gone. “

Throughout the entire United States and Canada; in fact seemingly worldwide, Apple’s servers have crashed or are over-capacity

“So How Did This Happen:
The source of the iTunes crash/slowdown seems not be those buying iPhone 3Gs from Apple/AT&T stores at all but the millions of people updating to the new firmware at home. Firmware 2.0 isn’t like other firmwares in that it needs to update the phone and reauthenticate the service. And in turn, when the servers are slammed and the phone reaches for reauthentication, the server isn’t always there to reactivate the service. This is how some of those newly bricked iPhones are occurring, and a source tells us that even first gen iPhones are susceptible.”

Unacceptable: There is no other word for it. The internet isn’t to blame: The wiring isn’t stretched to capacity, the isps are taking the load without trouble. The problem is Apple – Nobody else: Sheer incompetence!

“iTunes activation servers go down, iPhone 3G customers being sent home unactivated, first-gen iPhone customers stuck with dead iPhones.”

From http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/11/itunes-activation-servers-go-down-iphone-3g-customers-being-sen/

“Update: Apple has confirmed to us that activation is down, and that customers are being asked to take the phone home and activate via iTunes later. We’re not sure what good that’ll do, since the servers are down no matter where you are, but Apple says it’s “working on a solution.” In the meantime, it looks like the new SIM works in first-gen units, so at least upgraders aren’t totally phone-deprived. Oh, and remember that updating a first-gen iPhone to 2.0 requires hitting the server as well, so if you haven’t taken the plunge we’d say hold off until this all gets sorted.”

“Update 2: In related news, those updating their first-gen iPhone to 2.0 are also getting caught in the activation shuffle, leaving some with bricked iPhones. In our test case, the activation servers came back up after about 45 minutes just long enough to get 2.0 running on our first-gen iPhone, but not all have been so lucky.”

<Fits of laughter>

“This does not look good. Apparently people at home can’t even upgrade to firmware 2.0 and the problem is afflicting iTunes on an international scale.”

This is the end of my coverage for this article: Follow this link for the continuing saga:

http://gizmodo.com/5024187/apple-and-att-stores-having-difficulty-activating-iphones-update-its-the-ipocalypse

The Joke is on Apple.

Why not go buy a Mac?… ROTFLMAO!

 I just have to add this: It had me in stitches:-

From Steve Rubel on Flickr: