Translating Technology with Humor
These Snow Board Builders… or whatever you call a person who builds snow boards, have paid homage to the Great Steve Jobs. Many people have done this over the past couple of weeks and I am posting the most creative and interesting ones. Watch this video to see ‘Signal Snowboard’ (http://www.signalsnowboards.com) create a functional snowboard that has the design of apple and includes a functional iPad. Also take a look at there cool designed Snow Boards.
It seems that a little story from the middle of Wisconson has taken the buzz this week. A girl who is in college ordered a computer from Dell and didn’t realize she selected ‘Ubunto’ Linux instead of Windows. Now she tried to return it, but the Dell reps convinced her that Ubunto was better then Windows. What i don’t understand is the price. Usually when you get a linux based computer your going below $1,000. But this person paid more then $1,100 according to the article.
Now a computer isn’t like the steak that wasn’t cooked enough, you don’t just send it back to the kitchen. There is always a learning curve and what is very frustrating out there is not enough people know or want to know how things work. The problem I see is that the world is convinced that Windows is the only way to go, but that isn’t true. Like going out to eat, you have your choices. Windows is more like Sushi, its expensive, a little dangerous and you walk away still a little hungry. While Mac is more like a steak house, you pay a lot for a lot and sometimes its just too much. While Linux is more like the hot dog stand, you order your beef frank but have to put the mustard and relish on your self and then you might want to buy a side of fries.
There is a lot of places out there for peole to learn how to use linux and openoffice. There are wonderful open source proudcts out in the world that will not break your bank. However, when its free, there is usually no hands on support. No one to call. This is what makes it harder for people. We all want someone to hold our hand.
Steve Jobs, a Technically Foreign guy that we salute here, gave this Commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. It might be a couple of years in the grave, however, the words keep to the faith of a man who has had some rotten times but still knows a good apple. In a way Jobs, maybe without knowing it, used what people refer to as ‘The Law of Attraction’ to overcome the rough times and eventually become successful. It feels good to know that great leaders in technology overcame many issues and hard times with positivity, focus and belief. Here is to Steve Jobs, our Nikola Tesla of the 21st century.
Here is the transcript of the speech.
After a long day and many crashing Windows machines I’ve decided to lean inward and grab good old curiosity and let her scream. I’ve done it, apparently Chavez got the wrong guy. According to popular weblore Bill Gates might be the devil, not President George W. Bush. However what makes people think that Gate’s is so Devilish? What makes so many people hate this geek? I for one can’t say I hate the guy, I may hate some of his products but lets face it when was the last time the guy coded an entire operating system himself? Never, only one man in the history of computers has done such a thing and that was Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Anyway back to the random Google experiment here, I typed in ‘Bill Gates the Devil’ into google and came up with about 448,000 results. Not bad, but how many on the first page are relevant?
Top link: The Bill Gates is Satan conspiracy theory . The site isn’t hosted in the US, so this is apparently an international belief. The Theory is quiet interesting in stating that if you add Bill Gates birth name (William Gates III) in ASCII then you get 666. Interesting theory. I wonder what mine is?
2nd Link: Bill Gates is the Devil, Hitler implicated – Which is an interesting article from the register dating back to 2001. It takes a humorous look at a German article which states the unpopularity of Gates and has a picture of Hitler on the opposing page. Someone must of had fun putting that order in.
3rd and finally: Since I don’t want to take you away from updating your Windows with the latest security patch. This was not third on the list however, it is a well written article on a statement which Gates said. Devil’s Advocate: Should Microsoft be paying you to use Windows?This article from silicon.com really shows the Devil at work as he suggests Google should pay users back for using Google. Now after reading the article and realizing that Bill Gates is the richest man in the world from the investment of one company – Microsoft – I wonder at which point he was willing to give consumers money for just using a product?
All the above may not prove that Bill Gates is the Devil, hell, it doesn’t make sense for the devil to be wearing geek clothing. To make things fair ‘Steve Jobs The Devil’ gets 312,000 but some of those might reflect on the ‘Fake Steve Jobs’ as well. In the end we love to symbolize anyone as good old Satan, hell, I’ve called some of my best friends the devil and sometimes a little worst. But until Bill Gates wears Prada I’d just say he’s just a geek who knew how to sweet talk and delegate.
/// PHOTO – William Henry Gates the Third Arrested for Speeding at the age of 19! Not your average Geek!
Microsoft, most notably the number one reason for increase spending on System Administrators and Help Desk staff is entering your supper market. They will be providing software that will have a Smart Shopping Cart with ads that will ‘help’ a consumer to ‘buy’ more things. This technology will use up-links from home PC, RFID technology and coupons. While this is an interesting concept, it is a prototype and just the tip of the ice-berg of things to come. As we get more wireless and screens get smaller the computer will invade every square inch of our everyday mundane life.
“Blue Screen of Death in Isle 5,” I can here over the loudspeaker as a service technician is called out from behind the freezers.
About ten years ago there was a company giving scanners to people to do self check-out, they were attached to carts and as the customer put the item in the cart they would scan it. Today we have self-check out in many stores fixed at the exit. These first prototypes help our direction towards the future where, ads are displayed on carts and a customer can easily access information about the store, a product and maybe one day have Britney Spears tell them how much she loves Eggo’s and don’t fogert to buy her new Album so she can pay alimony.
However we are stuck in the year 2008 where these silly things of computerized shopping carts are the wave of the future, we’ll have to stick with our talking GPS’s and wireless digital cameras. Who knows, by the time Microsoft gets out of the Beta for the product we will have an Apple Driod doing our grocery shopping for us.
Microsoft Smart Shopping Carts – VIA: Information Week
After years of systems support in both small and large environments with windows, mac, netware and linux I have made a choice. I don’t do windows anymore. I have found that all systems are frustrating and at times don’t behave well, like when your dog pees on the carpet. But after a good yell and those puppy-dog eyes you learn to forgive. Not the Bill Gates Bull Dog. I have recently switched over to a job that is mostly Mac system support. I love it! I clone machines, in a heart beat, run an entire OS off a portable hard drive or CD, and numerous other tricks you can’t do with windows. Let’s face it there just too fragile. Linux and Mac OS X are in the same ball park and everything I mention here can be done with Linux.
Now comes Vista, which in Spanish means View, a Window with a View… HAHAHA. So, the only view the user is getting I hear is a frustrating one. I tested vista in beta and got nothing but a headache, it crashed, never worked, none of my programs worked from Windows XP and the reply from everyone around me was “that’s to be expected, its beta and its a new product.” When Mac OS X came out I beta tested it in 2000 while I was working for a media company, they were working on the NASADAQ Market site in Time Square and needed to render the globe. This globe was the size of a couple stories and curved. So, the rendering on a G4 I believe with SCSI hardrives and fast graphic adapter said it would take around 90 hours. I was testing mac os x and put a classic os 9 environment on top of it, ran the same program on a G 3 without the SCSI hardware and did the same rendering in only 40 hours. Of course this was only BETA. I did have other issues with the Mac OS X beta but the machine ran smooth, applications did load, things copied and most of all backwards compatibility seemed to be working just fine.
What sparks me to write this is that everyday a new bug is found in Windows Vista yet more people are using the product. I think people have to start making the move off Vista and onto Linux or Mac OS X. The time has passed Windows if Microsoft can not make a product that is stable enough to work efficiently. I could go into all the little details as Microsoft Certified Professional that I’ve seen over the years but it really isn’t worth it, it’s just a crime to see a company that’s products don’t even work properly on its on operating system then blame the consumer. So, educate yourself and see a whole new world out there.
Article on copying issue with Vista: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=829
Consumer group demanding XP over Vista