Rants Tagged with “Technology”
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As far as I am concerned, it is not much of a contest. They are pretty similar in the US, but to call it Virtual Earth seems a little ambitious. For example, here is Paris in Virtual Earth:
Alternatively, the Google Map of Paris (can you detect the landmark ;):
Microsoft has just released Virtual Earth. While it is a great competitor for Google Maps, it is still missing much of what Google Earth gives you (unless I am missing something). It is impressive what they are doing as a browser app without a download.
I played with "Locate Me" a bit. It did require a download. What it attempts to do is figure out where you are based on WiFi/IP Address. It was quite a bit off for me. It could figure out that I was in Atlanta, but located me in the capitol building (I am about 30 minutes from downtown Atlanta). Speaking with Robert Scoble at our geek dinner on Saturday, he told me that it was quite accurate. Perhaps they have more of the Northwest mapped out than Atlanta.
One word of warning. The "Locate Me" download ends up installing itself into the tray and loads up when windows loads. Come on Microsoft, don't play those stupid tricks. I have too many "TSR"s running anyway.
If you want to be able to play with topographic maps and see mountains and cities in 3d, check out Google Earth or my Rant about about it. Also check out Google Moon (especially the full zoom)!
Yahoo is especially bad in that every free utility on the web is trying to install it on my machine. Usually an opt-out situation where I have to remember to uncheck the magic box. Adobe Acrobat and Shockwave now try and install it (and others). MSN Desktop search isn't much better in that is forces you to use the MSN toolbar (and I cannot even disable or hide it). I just want my google toolbar, none of the others. Arg!
Palm announced their new logo today and told the press what the new logo "means". Here's the logo:
And this is what they had to say about what it "means":
"The new Palm says its updated logo reflects the brand equity from the former blue Palm circular medallion. The updated typeface is suggestive of digital content, the company said, and its orange background symbolizes energy."
Almost every company I have been an employee has had this sort of marketing nonesense in their mission statement, rally cry or other propaganda. Maybe I am the idiot who thinks its mostly bunk.
In other Palm news, it seems that they bought a company for $30 million for their NASDAQ symbol. Palm used to trade under PLMO, but now they can trade under PALM. Makes me wonder if there are any Ticker Symbol Squatters?
Google Earth is available for download again! Get it before they stop allowing downloads. It allows you to browse the earth, including elevations, some city skyline blocks, historical weather etc.
While I don't agree with much of what they say, especially that MS code is poorly written and buggy; I am convinced that MS has lost their way with what the story around Longhorn really is. They announced so many interesting ideas in Longhorn that have been either dropped (WinFS, Monad) or moved it to pre-longhorn (Indigo, Avalon, Aero), that they have lost the momentum story.
The funny thing is that I don't think Apple or Linux have an opportunity here (unlike what the article perports). I think Windows real competition in the next round is with Windows XP/2003. People just won't move because Microsoft wants them to. XP is a solid OS (unlike 9x or even 2000). I cannot imagine that unless there is a real story here around Longhorn (and they get it right *not*, not when the public beta arrives), many people will move. Unfortunately, I think Ballmer is betting the company on Longhorn's success.
Lastly, I'd like to hear from Microsoft on which direction Longhorn is headed:
- Replacing the Win32 with a .NET API; or...
- New Hardware Model that will lower driver crashes.
I can't imagine they can do both, and I suspect the promise of the .NET API is dead. Too bad. We will still be stuck with Win32 legacy for too long. Avalon might help this, but until we see a real designer that can help replace WindowsForms, VB and a ton of older RAD tools...I am not convinced. Essentially Win32 was a maturation of Win16. There are a lot of hold-overs from Win16 that still plague us. We now have coolbars, gradient titlebars and other niceties, but it is still basically Win16 designs. Avalon promises a new model where we can actually innovate...hopefully.
What do you think?
With Apple moving to Intel chips, is a price war with Dell, HP and Toshiba far away? I'd love to get OS X in virtual machine to play around a bit. This might even make Mono more compelling. This might change everything...or nothing...
I am mostly blogging about this so I don't lose the link again, but this is a *great* app that hooks into the Task Manager to do a couple of things:
- Grey's out processes that are Microsoft processes/services so you can see the important ones (see pic):
- Adds an Extension meny that allows you to look for processes that have specific files or modules (great for finding locked files); as well as other tasks (see pic):
I didn't notice this until today, but did you know that if you have MSN IM you can select the XBox tab and view your online XBox Live buddies? Me either...
