How to enable the start menu in Windows 8

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Mark Urbin

As a follow up to my earlier post on Windows 8.

This requires the use of regedit. Pretty straightforward though.

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First commercial Spaceport under construction in New Mexico

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Mark Urbin

Pretty forward thinking, now that the US Government has gotten out of the manned spaceflight business.

This spaceport isn’t entirely free-market, it is being build by the state government of New Mexico, but its purpose is to service private contractors like Virgin Galactic.

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Why Windows 8 will fail

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Mark Urbin

Oh, and fail it will. Big time.  The single driving issue behind its approaching and certain failure is the Metro Desktop.

Metro clearly defined as a touch screen interface and it is just bloody awful to use with a mouse and keyboard.  Really, it’s truly horrible.

To make it worse, you can’t launch your apps from the desktop, unless you pin them to the taskbar or use a third party app launcher.

Yes, that’s right.  You will have to use a third party app launcher because the idiots at Microsoft have been drinking their own marketing Kool-Aid ™ and have removed the start menu from the desktop.

Now if you are one of those people who think Facebook (where you are the product) is the entirety of the Internet, then you will probably be cool with Metro.

Here is a video that makes it pretty clear that Microsoft expects Windows 8 users to buy new hardware.  Expensive hardware with hardware graphics accelerators and touch screen monitors.

Didn’t these clowns learn anything from Vista?

If the new OS requires expensive new hardware, corporate customers are not going to want to adopt.  Why should they? Windows 7 (or XP for those who are still using it) runs their applications, the employees know how to use it, and they don’t have to spend money on new hardware.

In case the Microsoft execs haven’t noticed, the economy is still bad, and companies are looking for ways to cut costs.  IT is not going to sign off on new hardware just so the rank & file employees can directly access Twitter and Angry Birds from the Metro Desktop.

Windows 7 was a nice apology for Vista, but it looks like Windows 8 will be the reincarnation of Vista.

Good luck with that.

Filed under: Microsoft, Operating Systems | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Kindle Fire Review

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Mark Urbin

I recently got my hands on a Kindle Fire, Amazon’s 7″ Android tablet. I can see why they are selling like the preverbal hotcakes. For $200 you get an Android tablet that is optimized for the Amazon eco-system.

The screen is sharp, and the text clear. It’s still not an e-ink display, so if all you want to do is read books, you are better off with one of the other Kindle devices. They are cheaper and easier on the eyes for prolonged reading.

The Fire is also WiFi only. No cell carrier based updates and also, no Bluetooth. So no add on keyboards or wireless headsets.  There is a headset jack, and stereo speakers.   You’ll probably want to use headphones or ear buds, but the audio is good enough through the speakers for casual use.

It has just one button, everything else, including volume/mute requires multiple touches to the screen to adjust. The screen is also a fingerprint magnet. Possibly worse than first gen iPads. Bad enough were I started carrying a stylus I had picked up to draw on the iPad with to use *all the time* on the Fire.  The screen is very crisp and the video quality is quite good, so I don’t want to be staring through fingerprints to see that picture quality.

I’ve heard one review consistently that I have to agree with. For content formatted for the 7″ screen, it looks great! Other content, not so much. Streaming video from Amazon in landscape is large and sharp! I’ve loaded some video content and the gallery player only plays it in portrait mode, so I’ve got landscape formatted video playing in the middle third of the portrait mode screen. Definitely sub-optimal. Browsing the web is not as clean as it is with a larger screen (an iPad for example). I found myself constantly having to drag the screen focus in order to read the end of a line.

The Amazon Android App store is ok, but definitely limited.

Bottom line, if you are already invested in the Amazon eco-system, and just want to read books & magazines, and watch videos from Amazon, then is a very well spent $200.

If you want more flexible device in order to see more of the Internet than what Amazon provides, then you are better off with a tablet with a 10″ screen, with either a more open version of Android or Apple iOS.

Filed under: Android, Etext Reader, Gadget | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Switchblade Drone

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Mark Urbin

Nice bit of man portable UAV tech here. The Switchblade drone.  The drone and it’s launcher only weighs in at six pounds.  Not only can this UAV be used to spot the bad guy taking pot shots at you from the ridge line, it can be used to take him out as well.  Faster than calling in an airstrike from an Apache or an A-10, or hoping you are in range of  the platoon mortar team.

Check out the video over at Liveleaks.

Filed under: Miltech | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

When Chatbots collide

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Mark Urbin

This is what you get when you point chatbots at each other.

HT to my friend John for this one.

Filed under: Internet | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Byte is back!

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Mark Urbin

I’m old enough to remember the old mainstay of hardcore personal computer magazines, Byte.

Well, Byte is back.  Online only, but they do have Dr. Jerry Pournelle writing for them again, which is a good thing.

 

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Browser wars summed up

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Mark Urbin

I recently “upgraded” to IE 9 on one of my systems.  Remember that  “upgrade” doesn’t mean “better.”

This cartoon sums up the browser wars pretty damn accurately.

Filed under: Google, Internet, Microsoft | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Google Plus

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Mark Urbin

I like the circles concept of google plus.  I’ve only been on a couple of days though and and just getting the hang of it.

If you are interested in it and want an invite, let me know.

 

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The Rules of Building, Making and generally mucking about…

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Mark Urbin

Something I found that I though was cool.

Originally posted at the Urbin Report.

Filed under: Geek Skills | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

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