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Tuesday, November 27, 2007Overdue Everything Must Go UpdateI had hoped to begin a new "Everything Must Go" update before this, but time has gotten away from me. Before I can do that, however, I need to rectify some mistakes from the last batch.This is embarrassing, but I've heard from two people now who didn't receive DVDs they ordered from the last batch of stuff. I've had postal service issues before, and immediately suspected something along those lines, but when the second email arrived, what should have been obvious suddenly dawned on me: Maybe it was my fault. It was. In both cases, the ordered DVDs were sitting here with DVDs that were never sold. So I'm going to send out those DVDs via first class mail this week with refunds. But if there's anyone else out there who didn't receive ordered books or DVDs, please let me know as soon as possible. Now I'm fearing I might have stranded other people, and that's obviously not the goal here. Once this is all figured out, I'd like to get going on the next batch. Please don't email me ahead of the next posting about this stuff, as I will supply a heads-up about the posting time before it happens. But it looks like I'll have numerous Xbox 360 games and various electronics devices and accessories. I will likely be giving away a ton of PC games for the price of postage as well, since I can't imagine anyone actually paying for that stuff. There should be at least a couple of iPods, some USB 2.0 hard drives, and the like. But again, I need to straighten out the last mess first. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink ]
Sunday, October 28, 2007Everything Must Go - October 2007, Part 1Being basically bedridden all day yesterday hasn't helped matters much, but I did at least get some DVD movies and books posted for today. I'll get going on the electronics, which include some iPods, very new external USB hard drives, a Web cam, and a slew of Xbox 360 titles, within the next day or two, and I'll provide a heads-up here before I post that. (Please don't contact me with specific requests. As always, it's first-come, first served based on when the items are posted.)Anyway, here's the first batch for this month. Note that books are free, though I ask that you please pay for shipping and handling. Individual DVDs are $4 each (includes shipping) and DVD box sets are typically half off (or less) the Amazon.com price. Everything Must Go [ Posted at 11:41 AM | Permalink ]
Friday, October 26, 2007Everything Must Go ... Now SundaySorry for the delay on this, but between racing to finish up my Leopard review and just being sicker than heck, I'm going to have to push back the virtual yard sale by one day. This will give me time to catalog everything and so. Sorry about that. New ETA is mid-day Sunday EST.Labels: Personal [ Posted at 5:13 PM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, October 23, 2007Everything Must Go ... SaturdaySo I'm still going through the hundreds of responses to my previous post about what to do with this blog. Thanks for that. I'll figure that one out soon, but in the meantime, I did want to provide a heads-up about the next "Everything Must Go" event, in which I'll be selling a number of items (DVDs, electronics, Xbox 360 games) and giving away another set of books. Since this seems like the more appropriate place to do this, and since I've been doing it here all along, I'll be posting this here to the Nexus blog and not to the SuperSite. This will happen on Saturday before noon EST and will be a first-come, first-serve kind of thing as usual. Thanks! --PaulLabels: Personal [ Posted at 2:33 PM | Permalink ]
Sunday, October 21, 2007What's next?So I've gotten a lot email from people wondering what's up with the Nexus blog. It's a fair question. Since starting blogging over at the SuperSite for Windows, I have allowed this blog to become stale and silent. I guess there's only so much time in the day. Without getting into a history of what could'a been, I'd like to at least throw out a few thoughts about the future.First, I think it makes sense to have a single blog, and there are good reasons why that should be on the SuperSite. For starters, I've been running the Nexus blog at a loss, somewhat deliberately, since it began over 6 years ago. That means there are no comments or forums, or whatever, because the time it would take to monitor that stuff would be prohibitive. That's not the case on the SuperSite. That said, I know that many readers appreciate that I have a non-Microsoft-oriented forum for discussing other technologies. Understand, however, that that hasn't stopped the kiddie Apple lobbyist cabal from misunderstanding and mis-characterizing the point of this blog. I don't hate Apple or any other non-Microsoft companies, organizations or technologies. I just believe you should be able to criticize things when they're not right and point out the good things when they are, whatever the setting. That is and will be the case on the SuperSite as well, though of course just having the word "Windows" in the title puts a certain spin on things in the minds of some people. It shouldn't: I advocate for users, not Windows or Microsoft. There are some things the Nexus is still a more appropriate forum for, and that makes it difficult for me to figure out what to do here. For example, I still have a bunch of "Everything Must Go" stuff to sell and give away (DVDs, electronics, books) and had hoped to get some of that up before now. I'm currently away so that will have to wait (hopefully next weekend), but clearly doing that through an independent blog makes more sense than trying to do it on the SuperSite, where my corporate masters might be confused about my desire to make money on the side (as paltry as that might be) using their resources. It's an understandable concern, however. So. I'm not sure what to do here. I could continue blogging about non-Microsoft issues on the Nexus, I guess, but then there could be no discussion and, more importantly (to me, anyway), it would exclude the Windows-using readers of the SuperSite from learning about non-Microsoft topics. Or I could just move it all to the SuperSite. I think that makes the most sense. But I understand why some may disagree. Let me know which you'd prefer. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 9:41 AM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, October 03, 20078 Reasons Windows Users Don't SwitchSteven Leigh at AppleMatters makes up a nice, logical list that should be at the forefront of the mind of anyone concerned about whether Apple will continue gaining market share at Microsoft's expense. My feeling, frankly, is that the Mac has to plateau at some point, unless some of these issues are addressed:Experienced Mac users may not have the perspective that it takes to see what makes Windows users stay with Microsoft, and let’s face it, some Mac users (not you or me, of course) are just downright zealots.Well. Actually, the truth remains: Macs are more expensive than PCs, they still are. Yes, Macs are often comparably priced to similar PCs. The problem is that PCs come in many, many more price points, and unlike with Apple, PC users are used to choosing exactly what they want and getting it. This is a key differentiator that Mac fans often overlook. If you want to spend $1500-2000 on a PC, the iMac is competitive. But if you want to spend $500, there's a decent PC out there for you. The same is not true on the Mac side. It just isn't. 5. LiesYep. This one and number 6, Windows Bashing, are essentially the same thing. I remember watching the 20 or 30 minute Vista-bashing session at the WWDC conference and wondering why Steve Jobs is so insecure that he has to berate the opposition. Can you imagine shopping for a car and having the salesman only talk about what’s wrong with the competition’s cars?Brilliantly put. 8. Mac UsersThis is, quite possibly, the biggest problem facing the Mac community. You may not realize how serious this is. But consider this: Mac fanatics are like Detroit car lobbyists. They've spent decades doing nothing but propping up the Mothership, all for what they think is a good cause, but all they've really done is harmed the thing they love so much. People understand quality, and that's why so many are swayed by Apple's products. People also understand bullying, and that's why so many ignore Apple's products. The good news? We're already at the point with the iPod family that the vast majority of users are not Apple sycophants but rather normal consumers. And they're not concerned with the same issues that plague the fanatics. On the Mac, it's finally getting there too: As Apple gains market share each quarter, the percentage of crazies goes down just a bit. Pretty soon, they're the minority. They're still a loud minority. But they're a minority. Don't let the crazy people ruin the Mac, or the iPod, or the iPhone, and shout down the people who are honest enough to point out problems where they exist. That's just silly, and while Apple's fanatics might have been desirable or even necessary during the rebuilding years, now they're just dead weight. Good riddance, I say. Labels: Apple, iPhone, iPod, Mac, PC, Vista [ Posted at 10:03 PM | Permalink ]
Zune 2.0 coverage on the SuperSiteSorry for the delay since my last post here: Between traveling for the last week and starting up the new SuperSite blog, I've been a bit busy. Plus there hasn't been much going on in the Apple world, though I'm now looking at both Microsoft Office 2008 and Leopard for future write-ups. In any event, I've posted a bunch of content about the new Zunes that should be of interest. My take on this is that Microsoft will indeed by the solid number two behind Apple in the portable player market by the beginning of 2008. Things are getting interesting.Zune 2 Preview Zune 2 Photo Gallery Microsoft Reveals 2nd Gen Zune, DRM-Free Music Plans (News) Some thoughts on Zune 2.0 (Blog posting) A Zune follow-up (Blog posting) [ Posted at 12:38 PM | Permalink ]
Monday, September 24, 2007My new Windows blogToday, I finally started blogging about Windows-related topics. You can find my new SuperSite blog, naturally, on the SuperSite for Windows. It's still in "beta" in the sense that the design needs to be updated to address the UI work I've been doing on the wider site, but I'll be writing there daily going forward. Expect the same irreverent look at Microsoft and the Windows community that I've done here with the world outside the software giant. [ Posted at 6:47 PM | Permalink ]
The iPhone is not a UMPC, sorryThe Apple Blog engages in a bit of wishful thinking:Microsoft had their chance at defining a market. They pushed for the creation of the Ultramobile PCs (“UMPCs”). The Windows-based mini-tablets have not found their market. However, the Apple iPhone (and now the iPod touch) is actually the UMPC done right.Um. Not quite. The iPhone isn't big enough to be a UMPC, and doesn't include USB ports so you can use a mouse and keyboard. It doesn't work with Mac OS X software and indeed can't be extended in any way. Heck, the iPhone doesn't even support Cut and Paste. Think about that for a second. What the iPhone really is, is a new computing platform. It sits at the Windows Mobile level, not the UMPC level. It's a smart phone for consumers, or an entertainment device. But it is most definitely not a UMPC, sorry. Labels: Apple, Internet, iPhone, Mac, PC [ Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink ]
Saturday, September 22, 2007The Tao of SteveElizabeth Spiers looks into the psychology behind the Apple fanatic's fixation with the company and its leader:I blame Steve Jobs [for] seduced me into buying his sleek machines, even if their delicate organs seem to fail with alarming regularity, like the beautiful consumptive heroines in Victorian novels.I think this hits it on the head. What's interesting, of course, is that the bad parts of Mr. Jobs' personality--his prickly defensiveness whenever one suggests that an Apple product is lacking in some way, for example--seem to ooze down to the fanatics as well, as if by osmosis. You can see it in their vitriolic emails and their rabid and sometimes illogical defenses of the company in online forums. As the saying goes, they are a minority, but they are a very loud minority. Anyway. Though I like Apple's products quite a bit in general, one of my regular criticisms is that Steve--er, ah Apple--always choose style over functionality. You can go too far in the other direction, of course (HP anyone?) but I think there needs to be a middle ground. One example: Many MacBook/MacBook Pro users would really appreciate and frequently use a multi-format card reader built right into their machines. But Jobs will have none of that: Such a port would be an ugly gaping hole in the side of these sculpted masterpieces, and there's already two USB ports, so if you need such a thing, you can just figure it out yourself. But I would point to the Lenovo ThinkPad line--specifically the T61 I'm currently using--as the current apex of this compromise between style and substance. The T61 has a wonderful built-in media card (or not, your choice) and yet manages to be quite stylish. In fact, most people would agree that the ThinkPads are the most elegant notebooks around. Because they are. Maybe I'm just a tad too practical to completely embrace the Apple Way--or the "Tao of Steve," as Spiers accurately calls this intriguing lifestyle choice. I would absolutely choose functionality over style any time--my Motorola Q beats the iPhone hands down on this point--but do appreciate elegant form factors. Is there a middle ground in the PC or electronics industries? Lenovo? Sony? I'm honestly not sure. But I suppose if there were, few people would be fanatical about it. Curious. Labels: Apple, iPhone, Mac, PC [ Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink ]
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