I can't believe how much Microsoft is getting away with, in terms of selling a crap piece of software such as Vista. Haven't they learned their lesson with Win ME? I know, it's been stated, and really this is a venting post.
What gets me is the piss-poor support from Microsoft and Dell, when I bought this laptop that I am writing on. The single most disappointing purchase of my life. I am writing to you from this computer under UBUNTU, not Vista. It hasn't failed me yet, but Vista couldn't be up and running for a day. I get blue screens, and restarts without any notice.
It's one thing about an operating system that gives an error, and another about constant crashes. It the reliability factor of the computing system you have. I was a strong supporter of Microsoft in their world domination, but it seems they have just alienated everyone.
It is such a shame to see such a product out there, because we are going backwards in time, because there aren't really any alternatives. On the one hand, you can revert back to XP, but who knows if your hardware will be supported, or you can just duke it out with Vista, and expect the unexpected.
There are only a few options to choose from, if you are planning on purchasing a new computer.
1. Don't even bother right now, if you don't need to. If you are an avid Windows fan, wait a couple of years when the Windows OS is more stable. It might be 5 years given how long people had to wait for Vista.
2. Switch to UBUNTU (bootable and installable by CD) if you have already bought a computer with Vista on it or if you have a slower computer and want newer software on your obsolete Win 98 installation. UBUNTU does have its quirks, but because the software is free, the cost/benefit ratio is huge compared to taking on Vista.
3. If you must buy because you have an old, old computer. Buy a Mac.
Change is inevitable, and if you have to change, avoid Vista at all costs, and any change would cause you to relearn another operating system. Because your time is too precious to get frustrated at support folks who wish they had an easy time at their jobs supporting software that doesn't have any bugs, but then they would be out of a job.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Apple needs to allow Flash on iTouch/iPhone!
Why is such a hard task to get Flash on the iTouch/iPhone or PSP. Why? It's not hard, just allow plug-installed on Safari. I heard from a Mac dealer that Flash consumes too much battery and it runs hot, and that Adobe needs to fix their Flash before it would allow it on the phone. As in my last blog, there is not much you can do about it. Transportability vs. CPU consumption.
My opinion is that Apple chooses not to allow flash to work, because it is in direct competition with their CODEC (Quicktime). Go figure, because it would hurt their chance of wide acceptance of Quicktime that they are going to prevent the plug-in to install. What a load of ****? If the Flash player install on iTouch/iPhone hinder sales, then that is in direct opposition to what the consumers are saying. In actuality, Flash has no correlation on how successful and widely accepted the iPOD family, (mainly iTouch/iPhone) has been. Yet, I believe it would increase the sale of an iTouch/iPhone. It certainly hasn't prevented me from buying one. So why prevent Flash from being downloaded? My only conclusion would be because it is in direct conflict with QT. QT in my opinion has outlived its usefullness, although I have to say it, Flash uses it in its Flash Video conversion (so it is an industry standard).
I would like to see Flash on the iTouch/iPhone and observe the correlation with increased sales. The iTouch/iPhone has reached the masses, and the mass is saying it should be there. Why is Apple not listening to their customers? Apple should take advantage of that, and market it as being the first full-content searchable browser, which they claim, but is not true. By the way, I don't need to tell them. They already have excellent marketing.
The main reason I purchased an iTouch was the WiFi capability vs. the WiFi-less Blackberry. A reason I wouldn't purchase the BB, and consider an iPhone. Though the BB has revolutionized e-mailing, it is still behind on advancing technology, and the only reason why the BB is the way it is and others like them are the $ generated from data plans.
My opinion is that Apple chooses not to allow flash to work, because it is in direct competition with their CODEC (Quicktime). Go figure, because it would hurt their chance of wide acceptance of Quicktime that they are going to prevent the plug-in to install. What a load of ****? If the Flash player install on iTouch/iPhone hinder sales, then that is in direct opposition to what the consumers are saying. In actuality, Flash has no correlation on how successful and widely accepted the iPOD family, (mainly iTouch/iPhone) has been. Yet, I believe it would increase the sale of an iTouch/iPhone. It certainly hasn't prevented me from buying one. So why prevent Flash from being downloaded? My only conclusion would be because it is in direct conflict with QT. QT in my opinion has outlived its usefullness, although I have to say it, Flash uses it in its Flash Video conversion (so it is an industry standard).
I would like to see Flash on the iTouch/iPhone and observe the correlation with increased sales. The iTouch/iPhone has reached the masses, and the mass is saying it should be there. Why is Apple not listening to their customers? Apple should take advantage of that, and market it as being the first full-content searchable browser, which they claim, but is not true. By the way, I don't need to tell them. They already have excellent marketing.
The main reason I purchased an iTouch was the WiFi capability vs. the WiFi-less Blackberry. A reason I wouldn't purchase the BB, and consider an iPhone. Though the BB has revolutionized e-mailing, it is still behind on advancing technology, and the only reason why the BB is the way it is and others like them are the $ generated from data plans.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Why does Flash consumes so much power?
There has been serious complaints that Flash CS3 consumes huge amounts of CPU cycles, and I was wondering the same thing. There is a perfectly good reason why this is, that most people may not know.
With the surging popularity of Video content over the Internet, like YouTube, this is not due to the popularity of the Flash Player nor due to the power of Flash, but rather the power of the CODEC behind the Flash Player (the Sorenson Squeeze CODEC). This CODEC has a high compression ratio, when compressed is a small file that can be transported over the Internet with little bandwidth requirement. This makes the delivery of video content very accessible to the masses, hence the reason why YouTube took off that way it did. (They also provided an ingenious way of converting all sorts of formats to one common format)
So now you have a highly-compressed, lossy, compact file which doesn't use large bandwidth, yet there has got be a trade-off somewhere. Something has to make up for this benefit, and that is on the client-side; the end-user. When the file is received, it has to go through a decompression algorithm in order for the video to be viewed again, and that's is where the Flash Player consumes the energy.
So when you are looking at those YouTube videos, just remember, there is a lot of work that your computer is doing to display that video.
Ok, that's not the whole story. Earlier versions of Flash did not take advantage of Hardware Acceleration, due to the fact that Flash is a plug-in to your browser, and the browser is intended to use what the browser gives it as resources, and so when requiring computational power, it consumes the core CPU. It had no way of using your Video Card's Hardware, neither did it need to. Regardless, the video still requires decompression.
With the surging popularity of Video content over the Internet, like YouTube, this is not due to the popularity of the Flash Player nor due to the power of Flash, but rather the power of the CODEC behind the Flash Player (the Sorenson Squeeze CODEC). This CODEC has a high compression ratio, when compressed is a small file that can be transported over the Internet with little bandwidth requirement. This makes the delivery of video content very accessible to the masses, hence the reason why YouTube took off that way it did. (They also provided an ingenious way of converting all sorts of formats to one common format)
So now you have a highly-compressed, lossy, compact file which doesn't use large bandwidth, yet there has got be a trade-off somewhere. Something has to make up for this benefit, and that is on the client-side; the end-user. When the file is received, it has to go through a decompression algorithm in order for the video to be viewed again, and that's is where the Flash Player consumes the energy.
So when you are looking at those YouTube videos, just remember, there is a lot of work that your computer is doing to display that video.
Ok, that's not the whole story. Earlier versions of Flash did not take advantage of Hardware Acceleration, due to the fact that Flash is a plug-in to your browser, and the browser is intended to use what the browser gives it as resources, and so when requiring computational power, it consumes the core CPU. It had no way of using your Video Card's Hardware, neither did it need to. Regardless, the video still requires decompression.
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