Democracy or Republic?

Interesting video on the difference between a Democracy and Republic, with a historical perspective on the varying forms of government.

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Windows 7 Whopper

Oh. My. God, could this be for real? Could this have anything to do with the fact that Microsoft and Burger King have the same ad agency (Crispin Porter)?

Quoted: …it’s kinda sorta poetically perfect isn’t it? I mean as a visual image of what Windows is — a big giant pile of grease and fat, served up cheap.

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iPhone doesn’t think it has media

All of a sudden my iPhone is ignoring the 22GB of media residing on it. When the iPod app is started I’m greeted with a message saying “No Content – You can download music from iTunes”.

Unfortunately this wasn’t remedied by the ever necessary power cycle, so I may need to make a trip to talk to those Geniuses at the Apple store.

Posted in Rants | Tagged | 2 Comments

Windows 7 is darn good; Apple OSX Snow Leopard is a upgrade dog

Funny article outlining Snow Leopards upgrade problems, and singing praises for Win7…

Quoted: In a phrase, Windows 7 is darn good… very good. A huge congratulations to the dev team in Redmond — Well done! In fact… very well done!

Quoted: You’d think that Apple would learn from Microsoft’s stumble with Vista but no… they followed every bad move Vista made and then some. Do not upgrade to Apple OS X Snow Leopard!!! Wait to upgrade AFTER at least two major update release fixes from Apple … My Macbook Pro that came preloaded with Snow Leopard kicks butt and is a screaming fast machine. I have zero complaints about my brand new MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard but when I tried to upgrade one of my "older" Macbooks, it was a fricking disaster from hell.

Quoted: Moral of the story – DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE TO APPLE’S SNOW LEOPARD!!! You’ve been warned. I might try to do it again but it won’t be till Apple releases at least 2 major fix updates. If you want to roll the dice and try, go ahead… your upgrade might work however random installs not working is not good for me. Lesson learned — I’ll wait. I guess Apple really wanted to catch up with Microsoft — too bad they ran after Vista.

[tags: windows, windows 7, apple]

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Windows 7 Vodka and the Microsoft Hangover

Quoted: For all of the fanfare surrounding the new OS, Win 7 is really just a Vista martini. The operating system may have two olives instead of one this time out, but it’s still made with the same cheap Microsoft vodka.

Quoted: Steve Jobs was right about Microsoft years ago when he accused the company of collectively having no taste. But now I’m not so sure. There are flashes of brilliance and good taste all over the company, but Microsoft is just lazy, careless, and not at all detail-oriented anymore. There are also indications that the employees all play a zero-sum game, hoping the guy in the next cubicle fails. This is a flaw that crept into the company long before Gates’s exit.

I’m offended by that. But, ok, I’ll give him the part about PR and Advertising…

Quoted: Where is the “wow?” Where is the tour-de-force? It’s not going to happen with this marketing team calling the shots, so we have to assume that no matter how good or bad Windows 7 might be (it’s good, but not really better than Vista SP2), the company doesn’t understand the value of using better vodka.

Better Vodka? WTF? Why is this guy comparing the DNA of one of the world’s most successful and innovative companies to alcohol? What an chump. Maybe Dvorak had a few too many before he wrote this article.

[tags: microsoft, news]

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A Review of Windows 7

Wow. Awesome article.

Quoted: After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced. It’s a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use. Despite a few drawbacks, I can heartily recommend Windows 7 to mainstream consumers

Quoted: In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That’s no longer true.

Quoted: Bottom line: Windows 7 is a very good, versatile operating system that should help Microsoft bury the memory of Vista and make PC users happy.

[tags: windows, windows 7, microsoft]

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Microsoft’s So-Bad-It’s-Good Windows 7 Ad Goes Viral

Funny. Of course “Microsoft knew what it was doing all along”. ;-)

Quoted: In the No. 4 spot is the Windows 7 Launch Party instructional video. Microsoft has been relatively savvy when it comes to viral video; this one, however, seems to be of the “so inadvertently bad it’s good” ilk that makes it onto the chart from time to time. It’s promoting in-house Tupperware-style parties to show off the new operating system, but the cheesy, forced dialogue and awkward phrasing has made it the subject of all sorts of ridicule — enough that it drove a half-million views. (Who knows, maybe Microsoft knew what it was doing all along.)

[tags: media, microsoft, windows 7]

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Oh, Broadstripe, how I loathe thee

I’m supposed to get 6 Mb/s download speed. Yeah, perhaps at 3am when nobody on the west coast is using their computer. But at 10pm, I get .52 Mb/s? That’s nuts.

This speed is less that half of the global average. Perhaps I should dust off an old dial-up modem… I might just be better off using that.

Digital life can be so unfair. Why do I have to live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have FIOS. I’d be quite happy with Comcast for goodness sake.

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Deadly wildfire surges closer to Los Angeles

Very sad. This is the backyard of where I grew up. I played and hiked and camped in these hills. I know many people who live there. I wish them all to be safe.

It reminds me of a time ~18 years ago when there was another fire in this area. My very best friend and family lost their home. It was tragic.

Quoted: A deadly wildfire destroyed more than four dozen homes as it blackened a wide swath of tinder-dry Southern California forest, forced thousands of residents to flee and burned dangerously close Monday to a vital mountaintop broadcasting complex.

Quoted: Fire crews set backfires and sprayed fire retardant at Mount Wilson, home to at least 20 television transmission towers, radio and cell phone antennas, and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory. The observatory also houses two giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar university programs. It is both a landmark for its historic discoveries and a thriving modern center for astronomy.

[tags: Fire, brush]

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Windows 7… Microsoft’s Best OS Yet

A good article in Wired about Windows 7… surprisingly positive (not that Win7 is undeserving ;-) . Some of my favorite quotes…

Microsoft delivers a slickly designed, vastly improved OS that will warp you to the world of today. This upgrade is big, and it’s hugely recommended for Microsoft users.

Everything from the typography to the icons, and from the toolbar to the windows, has been refined with some extra detail, polish and shadows. Finally, Microsoft creates a clean, modern look that competes with Apple’s finely designed Mac OS X Leopard.

It is frustrating however to see comments like this…

Windows Media Center gets a utilitarian makeover that looks a tad like Apple’s Front Row (and we’re not complaining).

Uh, Media Center has had that same basic UI since the first version XP Media Center Edition. If anyone should get implicated for copying, it’s Front Row.

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