Rix Bits

Two of my favorite things - computers and Seinfeld - have finally been brought together via the new marketing campaign Microsoft has been doing. I'm a big fan of Microsoft products, but when I'm not on the computer, I watch Seinfeld re-runs as if I haven't seen them 47 times already. :)



My friends are making fun of me because of the not-so-funnyness of the first commercial. I told them that I'm convinced there is a master scheme at work here, and if we don't get it, there must be something wrong with US! Okay, I'm being silly, but I actually am kinda thinking that down the line this whole thing is gonna unfold as some masterful marketing magic. How can you go wrong with Seinfeld on your team??? :)



I watched the 2nd commercial via Microsoft's website in its full HD, Silverlight-powered glory. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

I got into a little discussion this week with a couple of guys re: Mac vs Vista. One guy was a Mac owner who claimed Vista was bad, tho I don't think he's used it (see Mojave experiment). The other was a PC owner, tho not necessarily a power user, who had recently been dazzled by a Mac presentation in a store and was now considering buying one.

Then there was me - long time Microsoft-lover as well as Mac-owner. I had to give them my $0.02 because their opinions were starting to be driven by the same factors that seem to drive many folks - Mac's "i" software, Mac's "stability", and Mac's alleged freedom from viruses.

Let's get the easy one out of the way first - we know that viruses are created by crazy & malicious hackers out there that want to cause trouble, right. Historically Mac has never had trouble with viruses. Why? Cuz those hackers didn't bother wasting their time on Mac! Windows machines control the world - why would I waste my development time putting a virus together to affect all seventeen of the Mac users of the world! :- )

okay, i'm exaggerating, but you get my point. Anyway, this security piece is recently being proven now that Mac is starting to get products like the iPhone that are taking a bigger bite out of the market. Check the news - you hear more and more stories about Mac being 'hacked' these days. So yes, you probably will have less trouble with viruses while using a Mac, but please don't assume it's because Mac is somehow superior in its security design - and please remember that the more popular your Mac becomes, the more susceptible it will be - will Mac be ready when the hackers decide they're ready to launch a full-blown attack?

Re: stability, for the most part I usually concede that Mac is more stable. But the reason behind this is what's important to understand:

• Windows is like those 60's hippies - everyone's welcome to join in, love is everywhere, let's all join hands. Mac is like a fraternity - very selective about who gets in, and once you're in, play by our rules.
• Windows is like a wild toga party of 300 people crammed into small house - noisy, wild, people spilling drinks on the floor - but fun. Mac is like 12 people studying in a locked library - yes, you're getting your work done, everything's nice and neat, but you're missing the party.

What the heck am I talking about? I've found over the years that Windows instability for most users comes from the non-Microsoft software they put on it. Vista has been extremely stable for me, and those times that it wasn't ended up being a 3rd party software or driver issue. Is it Vista's fault that it invited another software maker to the toga party that didn't know how to hold his liquor? Meanwhile, Mac doesn't invite quite as many people to library, and when they do, there's a lot of "Quiet, please!" going on.

So yes, normally I'd say Mac is more stable, but for a user like I me, I simply prefer the toga party - I've got more options, and I'm the kind of user that nows how to clean up spilled beer... i mean, troubleshoot stability issues. :) I will point out, however, that mere days into my Mac ownership, I was already having stability issues reminiscent of my Windows experience - could it be that maybe Mac isn't quite as stable as advertised?

Re: software, many people on the web have compared iPhoto vs Windows Photo gallery, iTunes vs Media Player, and iMovie vs Vista's Movie Maker. Here's my comments in a nutshell:

• each side's software essentially gets the same job done. tho there's a different experience for each. whose experience you prefer is up to you, but let's not act like one of them is doing something more remarkably groundbreaking than the other.
• I like to remember that although both are giving me these software tools for free, with Windows OS & hardware being significantly cheaper than Mac, I wonder if Mac is truly free after all???
• Anybody that has traditionally felt Mac's tools were better than Windows needs to try Vista - maybe in the past the argument was true, but Vista pretty much copied a lot of ideas from Mac and put them in Vista.
• I agree with many that Mac's tool take away a lot of freedom - which is why i never could make the jump over to iTunes and iPhoto. They're very specific about how they want you to manage your photos & music, and I don't like them telling me what to do. Maybe my 70-year old grandmother, who doesn't care either way and just wants to store her grandkids' pictures, would like iPhoto, but not me.

In closing, here's a pretty good feature comparison I found. The green boxes essentially mean it's better. However, there's a few points I disagree with it on:

• Find windows - both Expose and Flip 3D are equally useful (or equally useless, depending on your usage)
• Virtual desktop - although Windows doesn't come with it, there is a free virtual desktop tool built by the developer community that does the same thing that Spaces does. Tho I'm one of these guys that has never found a lot of value in the concept. Although I'll many time have a dozen or more windows open, I'm never quite comfortable saying that "these 4 windows can be pushed out to another view" - my mind jumps around to all my windows simultaneously! :)
• Calendar - iCal and Windows Calendar are equally useless. :)
• Remote desktop - VNC is an inferior user experience compare to RDP in Windows. This has been a major issue for me in my Mac adoption.

Alright, i guess I've talked enough. Hope this helps someone. Vive la difference!

Today I laughed [a little more] at the iPhone after watching a satirical video ad on the show The Soup. Being a proud HTC Mogul owner, I always tell my Apple-loving friends to "get a real phone, not an iPhone".



In fact, during a recent business meeting, I noticed that someone else in the room also had a Mogul. Turns out we are old college buddies, so we decided to share each other's information. Why pull out our business cards? We just beamed each other's contact info via Bluetooth. Took just a few seconds, and we didn't even have to worry about pointing our IR ports at each other like we used to have to do 'back in the day'.




After swapping info, she told me that she wanted me to check out her company website to see if I might be interested in re-designing it. Since her web address was right there in her contact info, I was able to pull up her site right then and there! (and with the new Internet Explorer that comes with WinMo 6.1, I was able to zoom out and get the full birds-eye view the same way Opera does!)



After doing all this, I felt the need to make a smart-a** comment to my friend sitting next to me. You see, just moments before all this technological euphoria had taken place, he had commented that his son had just bought an iPhone. "Let's see your son's phone do that!", I sarcastically exclaimed. :)



In actuality, tho, I assumed that the iPhone COULD do that. I thought beaming info (contacts, files, etc) via bluetooth was something all high-end phones could do. Well, I just did a little research, and it sounds like the iPhone doesn't do that. Now I admit, the bluetooth stack is a fickle lady that all phones sometimes have trouble with, but I just was sure that the holy iPhone had that stuff mastered. What a surprise. Of course, this also means that the iPhone also can't be used as a wireless Phone-As-Modem the way my phone can. Interesting....



So tell me again why everyone's in such a frenzy about this whyPhone... i mean, this iPhone?.... ;- )

There was an interesting article that talked about an 'experiment' that Microsoft did. They took 120 people who previously said "I don't like Vista". They put them in a room and had them try out a brand new operating system called "Mojave". Afterwards, they revealed to them that they were actually using Vista (minus any identifying logos). Those peoples average rating of Vista went from 4.4 (unfavorable) to 8.5 (out of 10).

Most were XP users. About 22% were Mac users (insert devious giggle here).

I've been using Vista for quite a while with very few problems (especially post-SP1), and I prefer it over XP. Perhaps more people should actually TRY it before they dismiss it. :)

Update 8/17/08 - found Microsoft's website for the Mojave experiment.

Would it be weird for me to say that I fall deeper in love with my phone with every update? LOL

Okay, maybe not love, but I sure do like my phone a lot with the latest ROM update. There's lots of stuff I could say about the Mogul and related software, but I don't have much time, so I'm gonna hit the high points.

There's several major software updates. One being an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1. We'll have to see if over time this manifests itself in stability and performance. But also, two other goodies they added in this update are Sprint TV (which should have been there from day 1 but for whatever reason was not), and threaded text messages.

I'm not a big one to watch videos on my phone, but hey, with this Sprint TV maybe I can be converted. The quality is decent - certainly no high-def videos being displayed, but enough to make watching things bearable.

The text messaging I think is pretty kool. I'm sure all it did is bring the Mogul's text messaging interface up to par with other people's phones, but for me it's a kool feature. Essentially now we've got threaded conversations instead of having to view one disjointed text message at a time.

Aside from some other subtle improvements, the other thing I must say is that I started to create a list of must-have apps for this phone. Three of these must-haves are: SPB Mobile Shell, SPB Pocket Plus, and Pocket Controller. (see screenshots)

They say that SPB Mobile Shell does things on the phone that Microsoft should have done already but didn't. I totally agree. I had the 6700, 6800 for months before getting the SPB suite, and when I started using it, it made me say, "Yes! This is how it should have been all along!"

One of the many many kool features it allows is for additional function assignments to the phone's hardware keys. So for instance, the phone can already be programmed to make the Internet Explorer button do something (like, for instance, open Internet Explorer). But with Pocket Plus, you can also program that button to do an additional tasks when you HOLD DOWN the button! I used this feature to turn the Comm button on the side to a Task Manager shorcut - by holding down on it, I go straight to the Task Manager to be able to jump to some other minimized program (see screenshot). This is crucial when I'm on a call, using my bluetooth headset, and the caller needs me to check my calendar, or I need to take notes while on the call, or the caller needs me to find someone's phone number in my Contact book - or all 3 at the same time!

The Pocket Controller software allows me to connect to and operate my phone via my computer (and also allows for the kool skin that you see in the screenshots). This is now a must-have software if for nothing else

because it made an easy task out of getting my phone back up to speed after the full data erase necessary for the ROM upgrade. Re-adding my 4 email accounts is such a pain via the Mogul keyboard and my two thumbs, but using the Controller allowed me type with all the furious keyboard speed contained in my lightning-fast typing hands! :) The Controller does lots of other stuff too, but again, I'm running out of time.

I just had to put my $0.02 out into cyber-space along with all the other Mogul users to let you know my thoughts on this great phone. Don't get me wrong - it is a love/hate relationship, just like everything else. Somedays the screen freezes or missed calls or battery life issues are frustrating. But overall it's a good phone, it still make's the iPhone look like a toy I'd give to my 7-year old nephew, and it keeps getting better with every update!

Rumor has it that we're just days away from the official Sprint update of my phone, the HTC Mogul. This will be update #2 for this year.

I'm trying to be patient and wait for Sprint (even tho they've already missed two advertised delivery dates for this update). Otherwise, I can always download the official unofficial leaked version of the ROM. It's amazing how talented folks are out there - there are some super-techies out there developing software for my phone and hacking the existing ROM - and they do a better job of it than Sprint and HTC do!

The strong connection these days between manufacturers and their educated consumers is pretty impressive, especially when compared to, say, 10 years ago. As I surf the Net, I see unprecedented levels of community involvement in the development and QA of software and electronics. I believe most companies nowadays have a policy of putting out betas or leaked versions for the specific purpose of allowing the community to test and tweak their products (w/o paying them of course).

That makes me both excited and uneasy at the same time. It used to be that you could depend on manufacturers to make high-quality stuff that you can depend on. Now it seems like they throw 'whatever' over the fence, and let us figure out how to fix it. Somewhere around version 3.x the product is usually good enough to use. :-) Hmmm, interesting...