Are you tired of struggling with Microsoft Windows?

Two alternatives:

The cheap one - Ubuntu Linux



Linux is not necessarily for the faint-hearted, but it is a more stable OS than Wind'ohs, and you can run it from a CD or on a dual-boot option if you want to try it out without a lot of risk. It's a straightforward install, but you'll feel more at home with Linux if you have a strong inner-nerd.

And you won't spend hours on the phone with tech-support (I'm not sure there is telephone tech support) but you can find out how to fix any problem you have by googling for it. Someone else has gone through what you've gone through. There's a large and active ubuntu community out there.

PLUS - it is absolutely free, now and forever. And it comes with a huge library of free software to do almost anything you need. I use Ubuntu myself, and run Opera for a web browser, Thunderbird for email, OpenOffice for MS Office capabilities, plus a large array of other software. My current favorite app is the Lucidor ebook reader (I'm finishing up reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot as we speak - that book was also free). If you're a developer type like me, it's a fabulous environment to work in.

Free.

The second alternative? Not so free. But still great. Get a Mac.



Five and a half years ago I debated on this site whether to get a Mac. Some people were telling me that Macs don't last long and are non-upgradable. The Mac we bought in 2004 still runs great, and I've upgraded it two OS levels and for a larger disk and memory, and - full disclosure - I replaced the motherboard on it last year, but was able to do it myself. We recently bit the bullet and bought a new iMac, just to get newer capabilities and more performance. It is one sweet machine. Macs, by the way, run on top of a linux variant.

Not free. But awesome.

I'm so tired of updates on my computer. I get the dumb reminder, and it wants to install, (or it installs itself) and then it tells me I have to restart, and if I don't it'll eventually do it to me anyway when I walk away from the computer. And it's not just Window's, it's all kinds of programs. Feels like every program needs to update:
Virus Protection
Web Browser (in my case, firefox. They're the worst offenders. It's like once a week.)
Flash
Java
Adobe
Microsoft
Even the HP printer has updates...

And I'm sure there's more. It seems that every few days, someone wants to install an update which I wouldn't care so much about except that I have to restart my computer. And that's a pain, because I have all kinds of stuff I'm working on, and I hate having to remember what all I had pulled up so that I can go reopen it all again...and then I have to keep clicking "remind me later" over and over all day. Aaaargh! Enough Already!

Anybody know of a way around that?

I've thought of two ways:
1- A way for the computer to save all my stuff and restore it after the restart. The computer does save all my stuff,(it's called "hibernate") but a full restart cancels that out.
2-The computer could put all the updates in a bin, and do it all at once, once a month.

Am I the only one that gets aggravated by that?

Text messages cost the phone companies almost nothing. The reason it has to be small is because they hide the message inside a space they are using anyway.

TEXT messaging is a wonderful business to be in: about 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones worldwide this year.

All four of the major carriers decided during the last three years to increase the pay-per-use price for messages to 20 cents from 10 cents.

Mr. Kohl’s letter of inquiry noted that “text messaging files are very small, as the size of text messages are generally limited to 160 characters per message, and therefore cost carriers very little to transmit.”

A better description might be “cost carriers very, very, very little to transmit.”

A text message initially travels wirelessly from a handset to the closest base-station tower and is then transferred through wired links to the digital pipes of the telephone network, and then, near its destination, converted back into a wireless signal to traverse the final leg, from tower to handset. In the wired portion of its journey, a file of such infinitesimal size is inconsequential.

Perhaps the costs for the wireless portion at either end are high — spectrum is finite, after all, and carriers pay dearly for the rights to use it.

But text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.

That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.

Professor Keshav said that once a carrier invests in the centralized storage equipment — storing a terabyte now costs only $100 and is dropping — and the staff to maintain it, its costs are basically covered. “Operating costs are relatively insensitive to volume,” he said. “It doesn’t cost the carrier much more to transmit a hundred million messages than a million.”

Once one understands that a text message travels wirelessly as a stowaway within a control channel, one sees the carriers’ pricing plans in an entirely new light. The most profitable plan for the carriers will be the one that collects the most revenue from the customer: unlimited messaging, for which AT&T and Sprint charge $20 a month and T-Mobile, $15.

Customers with unlimited plans, like diners bringing a healthy appetite to an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, might think they’re getting the best out of the arrangement. But the carriers, unlike the cafeteria owners, can provide unlimited quantities of “food” at virtually no cost to themselves — so long as it is served in bite-sized portions.

If that headline isn't enough to get you to read with curiousity (and possibly some incredulity) I don't know what is!

My favorite part is at the bottom in bold.

Miley Cyrus Says The Internet 'Wastes Your Life'

When Miley Cyrus left Twitter last fall — possibly at her beau and "The Last Song" co-star Liam Hemsworth's request — fans were upset at not being able to keep track of the pop star's every thought. And while they still may be mourning the loss of Cyrus' tweets nearly six months after she said goodbye, she doesn't regret the decision to leave one bit.

"I was kind of tired of telling everyone what I'm doing," Cyrus said in an interview with Movieline. "I hate when I read things and celebrities are complaining like, 'I have no personal life.' I'm like, well, that's because you write everything that you're doing."

Cyrus said that she realized the only person she was hurting by tweeting every moment of her life was herself. "So I was that person who was like, 'I'm so sad. I have no real, normal life. Everyone knows what I'm doing.' And I'm like, well that's my own fault because I'm telling everyone," the singer explained. "And then I'd tweet, 'I'm here,' and I'd wonder why a thousand fans are outside the restaurant. Well, hello, I just told them. So I'm just, like, kind of thinking it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Everything I'm saying is not really going with what I'm putting on the Internet."

Cyrus explained the benefits of not constantly being on the Internet: "I'm a lot less on my phone, I'm a little bit more social. I have a lot more real friends as opposed to friends who are on the Internet who I'm talking to — which is like not cool, not safe, not fun and most likely not real. I think everything is just better when you're not so wrapped up in [the Internet].

"I just think it's kind of lame," Cyrus added. "I feel like I hang out with my friends and they're so busy taking pictures of what they're doing and putting them on Facebook that they're not really enjoying what they're doing. You're going to look back and have a million pictures, but you're not going to be in any of them. Because you're not having fun, you're too busy clicking away. So I think, just enjoy the moment you're in, and stop telling people about it. Just enjoy it."

And what advice does she have for other teens wrapped up in their online life? Well, simply to get offline and get outside. "I'm telling kids, don't go on the Internet, it's dangerous, it's not fun, it wastes your life," she said. "And you should be outside playing sports or something."

Contra vs. Duck Hunt

There is so much awesomeness here, it may blow up your monitor.

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. Now her fascinating life, with all its challenges and successes is being brought to the screen. HBO has produced the full-length film Temple Grandin, which premieres on Saturday, February 6th on HBO. She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio), major television programs, such as the BBC special "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow", ABC's Primetime Live, The Today Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours and 20/20, and has been written about in many national publications, such as Time magazine, People magazine, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and New York Times. Among numerous other recognitions by media, Bravo Cable did a half-hour show on her life, and she was featured in the best-selling book, Anthropologist from Mars.

Dr. Grandin didn't talk until she was three and a half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was diagnosed with autism and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. She tells her story of "groping her way from the far side of darkness" in her book Emergence: Labeled Autistic, a book which stunned the world because, until its publication, most professionals and parents assumed that an autism diagnosis was virtually a death sentence to achievement or productivity in life.

Dr. Grandin has become a prominent author and speaker on the subject of autism because "I have read enough to know that there are still many parents, and yes, professionals too, who believe that 'once autistic, always autistic.' This dictum has meant sad and sorry lives for many children diagnosed, as I was in early life, as autistic. To these people, it is incomprehensible that the characteristics of autism can be modified and controlled. However, I feel strongly that I am living proof that they can" (from Emergence: Labeled Autistic).

Even though she was considered "weird" in her young school years, she eventually found a mentor, who recognized her interests and abilities. Dr. Grandin later developed her talents into a successful career as a livestock-handling equipment designer, one of very few in the world. She has now designed the facilities in which half the cattle are handled in the United States, consulting for firms such as Burger King, McDonald's, Swift, and others.

Dr. Grandin presently works as a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also speaks around the world on both autism and cattle handling. At every Future Horizons conference on autism, the audience rates her presentation as 10+.

The Google-naut is coming...

Since Google is using its new Buzz social network in an attempt to take down Facebook, the #1 social network should return the favor: Facebook should tell Google to buzz-off. Permanently.

To protect itself from Google, Facebook content must never appear in any form as part of any Google product. Not ever, and Facebook should make the announcement today.

Here's why: If Google Buzz is ever connected to Facebook, it will be the beginning of the end for today's #1 social network.

As a Facebook user, the last thing I need in my life is another social networking service. I have lots of friends--business and personal--on Facebook. It plays an important role in my home and work life. What I don't need is for my friends to start dividing themselves into Facebook users and Buzz users.

I want all my friends on just one service.

Just as Google, Amazon, and eBay have become dominant in their markets, almost to the exclusion of all competitors, Facebook has become America's social network. We do not need another one and Google will someday regret trying.

Google is simply too late to the game and given its failed history in social networks--Orkut, anyone?--there is little reason to predict success beyond the power of Google's name.

For Buzz to succeed, it needs Facebook content. By denying it, Facebook can help secure its future and help wall off Google.

Given Google's modus operandi, Buzz will manage to somehow strip revenue from any social network that it allows it to connect. Eventually there will be just Google. Don't believe me? Sit back and watch.

Facebook must act now to stop this. It should never allow Buzz to aggregate Facebook content or send updates to Facebook users. If Facebook does this today, nobody will notice and not much of a stink will be raised.

There is no demand, at the moment, from Buzz users to connect to Facebook. Over time, however, demand will develop if Facebook doesn't take steps now to prevent it.

Facebook does not need Gmail as a client to attract and support users. And I don't need an e-mail service to divide my friends into Gmail users and everyone else.

So, if you are looking for me, I'll make it easy: I'll be on Facebook and not on Google Buzz. You'll thank me for not complicating your life.

Just give me one of these.

Most people I know are losing their minds over the iPad already. Gotta have something that didn't even exist ten minutes ago.

I haven't checked into the iPad much yet, but my guess is that my take would be a lot like Challies: iPad: The Greatest Disappointment in Human History

Yesterday I sat and watched liveblog coverage of the long-awaited announcement from Apple. To no one’s great surprise, they unveiled their newest device, the iPad. While everyone knew this tablet device was coming, everyone had wondered exactly what it would be. Apple has high standards when it comes to devices like this one and I, for one, was prepared to be amazed. Alas, I was disappointed. iDisappointed, even. I’m ready to declare that the iPad is the greatest disappointment in all of human history (at least since The Phantom Menace).

Tell me what is, in your opinion, the best free program or resource on the Internet. For example, some might say Open Office or Wikipedia, and those would be great choices!

A couple of days ago a friend of mine chatted me up about Ubuntu. Apparently it's a Linux-based free operating system. I'm not 100 percent sure I have the huevos rancheros to try to boot up a free operating system, though Vista does so often get on my last nerve. Still, I like the idea of geeks (like our very own Billboy and his Bloo software) who use their spare time to wage guerrilla warfare against the Axis of Evil: Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

(On a side note, I've done so many links on this post that I feel like The Anchoress.)

How does yours stack up?



The chart comes from an independent warranty peddler (hence the 2 year and 3 year time frames).

Via this post on chron.com.

Oh man, this is great.



I had no idea Crowder was so funny.

(This was sent to me by a girl in our youth group. She said she saw it and thought of me. I have no idea what she was trying to tell @me. ;-)

(Btw, you can follow me on Twitter: @jaredcwilson !!!)

Calling all geeks!

Previously I had been using an old version of Palm Desktop to serve as my calendar and address book. I've actually used that program for more than 10 years, and it's time for me to move on.

Do any of you guys or gals out there have any recommendations? I'm thinking about Google Calendar (which I already use on a limited basis), but it would be nice to have an address book and calendar that sort of talk to each other, if you know what I mean. Unless I'm missing it somewhere, Google Calendar doesn't seem to offer an address feature.

I need some suggestions -- preferably with links!

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only compulsive message checker on earth. I check my email probably dozens of times each day. I'm always scanning my cell phone to see if anyone left me a voice mail or a text message. I usually can't wait to see if anything interesting came in the mail. I'm a message junkie.

I'm going to be doing some photography here soon for Waco's local Care Net, and I was over at the Care Net office today meeting a couple of bigwigs to discuss the photo project when my phone chimed in with a text message. I thought, Crapola. This is awkward. This nice gal's talking, but I've just GOT to check that text message. I tried to think of ways to subtly slide my phone out of my pocket, flip it open, and then scan the juicy text. My mouth was practically drooling at the opportunity. Just when I thought I had enough will power to resist the urge to peak at my mobile -- BEEP BEEP BEEP -- another flippin' text message came in! I was a wreck, but by the grace of God I managed to get through the meeting without laying a finger on my phone. (I did, however, flip open my cell while the gal who was seeing me out gave me a quick tour of the place. For a split second she turned away from me ... that's all it took.)

I was happy to get back to my 9 to 5 job after that. I flew across town, anxious to get to my computer. I knew some emails had to have come in while I was gone.

Am I alone?

Shot and shared by Bill Kinnon, an excerpt from his wife's upcoming documentary on church leadership in the 21st Century.

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

1. Do You Have A Facebook Page?

2. How Often Do You Check it? (or do you just leave it on all the time?)

3. Do you accept friend requests from anyone who asks?

4. What are your criteria for accepting friend requests?

5. What is your facebook philosophy?

6. Why are you on facebook?

7. Do you post tons of pictures, and status updates and other stuff about yourself or do you just kind of lurk and watch what everyone else does?

8. Do you have facebook friends that you don't actually know in real life?

9. Has facebook helped you find old friends?

10. Have people found you through facebook that you wish hadn't?

11. Do you understand this article? Can you explain it to me?

the company announced today that it has begun making status messages, photos and videos visible to the public at large by default instead of being visible only to a user's approved friends.

This is both uber-cool and a little bit frightening. This is an 8 minute video but well worth watching, especially once you get past the intro. It wouldn't surprise me if we start seeing devices like these soon, although I wouldn't like the part where someone blazons all my information (plus what they think of me) on my sweater while we're talking.



[Hat tip: The Anchoress]

I know I can google it or something. But I probably won't. I'd kind of rather not know.

"It" is this thing everyone is all of a sudden (it seems in the last five minutes or so) talking about on the internet. A "Kindle".

I honestly don't know what it is. A cell phone of some sort?

To everyone who's panting over it: you've done perfectly fine all these years without a "Kindle". What changed in the last day or two? Is this the next big thing we just can't live without?

I thought there was an economic downturn/Great Depression going on. I keep waiting for that to change our culture in some discernable way.

But then again, I don't even own an iPod, so I'm a good hundred years minutes behind everyone else.

I think I'm just old.



Update: OK, I've been educated on what this is. It's an e-book reader, and, though I don't enjoy reading books electronically (probably because I can't dog-ear the pages) I have to admit this is pretty cool. When I first posted this I thought it was some new cell phone or something. This is better.

I heard my local sports talk guys say today that only 15 percent of the population isn't on some sort of cable or satellite TV plan, so all of the digital switch brouhaha is to be blamed on a minority of people.

I fall into the 15 percent, so I guess I'm to blame. Too bad I was an idiot and let a couple of my government coupons expire before cashing them in on free digital converters. I did get one in on time, so the main TV in our living room is a sleek, svelte piece of digital equipment. (Actually, it's a 27-inch off-brand that would have looked impressive in anyone's living room 15 years ago, but looks downright homely by today's standards.)

The cool thing is with digital I get like three times as many stations as I did with analog. I feel like I upgraded to some sort of basic cable service -- it's awesome! The picture is crystal clear (for not being HD), and the reception is perfect.

I do feel sorry for the small population of elderly people who are getting snow on their screens today. I'm no technology slouch, and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to hook the thing up so it would work in conjunction with my VCR. It wasn't quite as simple as screwing in a light bulb.

I better cruise. Digital Lost is on in 30 minutes ...

New pill could erase bad memories.

Will make millions if it works.