Image by Stephen Edgar – Netweb via Flickr

I installed Windows 7 on my machine about three weeks ago and per my usual procedures, that meant that it was time for me to re-boot my Tablet back to factory Specs this weekend. I have this “terrible” habit of wanting to try new things (software/applications), different system settings, just simply experimenting with the new system and messing things up to the point I have to start over.

That is where I ended up last night – I almost made it a month this time, so I am getting better.  This experimentation allows me to get to know how the system works, what I like and what new programs that I want to use to make me more productive and then get my computer into the configuration that I want it.  Then I don’t mess with it nearly as much.

So I stayed up until 2:00 A.M. this morning re-booting Windows 7.  It wasn’t hard, just time consuming, the updates take the longest. 

I continue to be totally impressed with Win7!  It does everything it is supposed to do at least from my perspective – as an end user.  I can go in as deep as I want to, but to date, I haven’t had a crash or any problems that I didn’t cause.  It is far superior to VISTA or XP.

After a bit of thought, I have decided that I am going to forget about trying to use the same software/applications on my HP Tablet that I use on my MLTI MacBook.  I use the Windows machine a lot more right now and just want to be as comfortable as possible on it.  Besides there are counterpart programs for most everything on either system, it just where the commands are located that can be confusing.

So what are the programs that I choose to use:

Fences:  The most noticeable newcomer to my laptop inventory is Fences, it is a desktop organizer that allows me to organize my desktop in a logical manner, so that it looks a lot better than it used to and I can quickly find my icons, but best of all it stays that way (at least so far).

Browser:  Actually I am finding IE8 works fantastic in Win7, it doesn’t bog down like it used in VISTA and renders the pages really quickly, but it doesn’t have a good side bar function, so that I can follow Twitter/Facebook in my Sidebar.  Flock handles the social media as well or better than any of the other browsers and can use most of the Firefox add-ons, so I will use it as my secondary browser.  I used Flock almost exclusively for about 8 months and then at my other job, couldn’t use the Social Media functions and drifted away, now I am back.  A good balance will be to use IE8 for work/updating the system and Flock the rest of the time.

Productivity:  Microsoft Office – I had the 2010 Beta on before I re-booted, but it had too many other programs that I don’t need/want, but it is going to be better than 2007.  Realistically, I don’t need much more than Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote.  I will probably re-load the Beta later soon, but for now 2007 does what I want.  I do love the ribbon interface, it is just so much more intuitive for me than the other interfaces out there.

I am not a fan of Outlook and have always searched for something different, but haven’t found anything that really impresses me as a mail manager/calendar/task manager application.  Since Google Mail & Calendar can now be used offline, I am using them, but they are not the solution I am looking for.  Who knows when they get the 2010 version a bit more stable, it might be closer to the solution I am looking for.  If their task manager was a bit more like Basecamp or Zoho’s Planner with the ability to control how it prints better, I would embrace it.

I have been using Google docs for my cloud application because it is platform independent and I can use it on my HP or the Mac.  It is simple and education friendly, others have written a great deal more about how well it works. I could have used Zoho, but it appears to be more a business application and while quite useable for educational purposes, does not embrace schools as fully.  However, of all the cloud apps I have used, I  like their User Interface the most.  I still haven’t got an invite to Microsoft’s Office in the Cloud, so that is still a question mark, if it works like Office and I can access it using the Mac, you can guess what will be my new cloud app.

Bookmarking:  Delicious – simple, stable and it works across computers and O/S.  Diigo was just too complicated and does more, much more than I need, but is a lot of people’s choice.

Social Media: 

Twitter – simple to use and quickly gets the word out, without it would not “know” near as many people on the web. 

I have Tweetdeck on my machine so that I can follow different # and for #edchat on Tuesdays, but otherwise I don’t use it that much.  I am not a Twitterholic and I prefer to follow my stream in a sidebar of the browser.

Facebook – the easiest way to keep track of family and friends.  I don’t “Friend current co-workers or students here, I believe in a separation of work/home.  My boundary is until a student graduates high school, I won’t “friend” them in Facebook.  Still not that crazy about it, but it is better than it was and I guess I would miss not knowing how some of the people that I really like are doing.

LinkedIn – my professional site, I use it intermittently, but probably should update it more often.

Photo/Image Manager – Picassa: I don’t like its file management system compared to some others and it is difficult to copy an image to LiveWriter, but that is the only beef I have with it, otherwise it simply does everything I want.  I use Picnik to quickly and accurately re-size my photos.  Also Flock’s integrated image management system works fairly well to grab web images – resizing them is an issue though therefore – Picnik.

Blog Writer - Windows Live Writer: it is simply the best and most versatile blog writer out there today.  It does have some issues getting the Blog Configuration correct, but that is pretty minor in the face of all it does right.  Also editing a previous entry that is not in the Live Writer library is not easy to do.  Now if they could just get to the ribbon interface with it. I will try to use Flock’s blog editor for a while or maybe re-try using Google Docs and see if I can get it to work with this Blog and find out how to add Categories/Tags…that would probably be the best route in the long run, but this blog writer selection is still a work in progress

Video/Music Player: Windows Media Player, it is simple and plays most everything I need.  If I need something that Windows Media Player can handle, I have VLC in my download file and can quickly load it, I just haven’t got around to it yet.  I don’t like the iTunes interface, but when I want to use my iPod I have to use it (Songbird was just too buggy) – that is why I went out and bought a MP3 player, so I wouldn’t have to use my iPod.

Tools – Glary Utilities: after looking at a bunch of different ones, this one did more of what I wanted.  I will probably load Secunia back on because of how it reports weaknesses in your computer’s security.

PDF – I went out and bought Nitro PDF Professional last summer.  I like the ribbon interface and the price I paid was outstanding for a full-featured PDF editor/creator.  So far I am very happy with my choice and have deleted Adobe from my Tablet.

Security – Microsoft Security Essentials:  Have used a bunch of the free ones and when it’s free Norton and really wasn’t all that impressed by any of them.  I figured I might well go for the integrated approach and have the big bulls eye on my computer.  Microsoft will either get it right or I will get hammered .  Hopefully, they will get it right.

Blog Host:  Finally, my blog.  If anyone has read any of my blogs I have used Blogger, WordPress, Edublogs and some others.  I don’t want to be in charge of the back-end management of a blog – otherwise I would still be at Aging Reluctantly. Unfortunately, I am one of those inveterate tinkers when I can be. I found that I was always changing something on my theme instead of actually writing.  That is why I chose WordPress.com to host this blog.  I have some control over the themes and widgets, but will have more time to write now that I am not looking at tweaking the theme.

Game – Oblivion:  I need something to get away from working all the time and I do enjoy this desktop Role-Playing Game and it is good escapism from the rigors of the real world.

I have attempted to seriously simplify my software and applications that I use down to a minimum and unless something totally blows my socks off, will continue to use them.   Otherwise how else will I get to really know the software or application beyond being a superficial user.

I do plan to continue to look at new apps as they come out, but in order to kick something off this list, they are going to have to be cloud based with a desktop sync option be platform independent and like I said “totally blow my socks off”.

That is what the this Special Education Teacher is using today on his newly re-booted Windows laptop.

Required disclaimer:  I have not received any compensation from any of the above products.  What I have written is a review my thoughts/experience on each of these applications and how I use them.

Idag tänkte jag tipsa om ett av dom program som jag tycker om allra mest – Last fm heter det och där har jag varit medlem sedan oktober 2007.

Last fm är ett himla fiffigt program. Man installerar det på sin dator, och sen håller den koll på all musik som man lyssnar på. Man kan även hålla koll på spelningar, göra blandband, titta på musikvideos, skriva i forum etc. med hjälp av sin medlemssida.

När man loggar in kommer det alltid upp rekommendationer på olika artister, videos och spelningar – och allt är uträknat efter vad du lyssnar på.

Programmet håller koll på alla musikprogram, såsom Windows Media Player, Spotify osv. Det krävs att man har internet för att all data ska lagras, men lyssnar man på musik offline så registrerar Last fm alla dom låtarna nästa gång du startar internet. En väldigt användbar uppfinning för oss som älskar musik!
Skrobblaren, som ihopsamlaren av musik kallas, kan du ladda ner här.

Da Il Riformista del 20 novembre 2009

La Commissione europea ha deciso di avviare una procedura contro Standard & Poor’s per abuso di posizione dominante. L’oggetto del contendere è la codificazione International securities identifying number (Isin), l’unica che contiene le informazioni essenziali degli strumenti finanziari trattati sui mercati mondiali. Come nel caso della recente istruttoria aperta dall’Authority italiana nei confronti di Auditel, unica società per la rilevazione dei dati di ascolto televisivo, a volte ci si domanda se il potere dell’antitrust non rischi ogni tanto di cadere in una specie di trappola a metà tra la maniera e l’ideologia. Ne abbiamo parlato con Herbert Hovenkamp, docente della University of Iowa e ricercatore internazionale sul tema della proprietà intellettuale.
La vicenda di S&P inizia lo scorso 16 novembre, quando la Commissione Ue invia alla società di rating una lettera. Nella missiva si spiega che «Standard & Poor’s sta abusando della propria posizione dominante richiedendo a istituzioni finanziarie e fornitori di servizi di informazioni di pagare tariffe di licenza per l’uso dei numeri di identificazione dei titoli nei loro propri database». La controversia verte esclusivamente sul mercato americano, nel quale l’unica emittente di codici Isin è S&P. In altre parole, ogni operatore finanziario statunitense paga una tariffa per vedersi assegnata una numerazione identificativa dei propri prodotti. Secondo Bruxelles «l’evidenza della posizione dominante è sotto gli occhi di tutti, dalle banche alle finanziarie, che sono costrette a pagare per veder allocati i propri strumenti sui mercati». Per la Commissione Ue il caso di S&P è emblematico, poiché le altre società emittenti Isin non applicano tariffe per questo servizio. Anzi, a sfavore di S&P ci sarebbe una questione in più. L’Antitrust Ue ritiene che «gli operatori finanziari statunitensi non ricevono direttamente da Standard & Poor’s le codificazioni Isin, bensì dalle agenzie d’informazione Thomson Reuters e Bloomberg». Se così fosse, la società di rating non sosterrebbe costi tali da «giustificare una tariffazione». Gli avvocati di Standard & Poor’s hanno a disposizione otto settimane di tempo per preparare delle memorie difensive e chiarire la propria posizione. A suo vantaggio c’è un aspetto da non sottovalutare. L’indagine dell’authority Ue è partita a gennaio 2009 e si tratta di una inchiesta preliminare «non completa», dicono da Bruxelles.
Herbert Hovenkamp dell’Università dell’Iowa, al Riformista dice che «la differenza fra un monopolio di fatto e l’abuso di posizione dominante è sottile». Per Hovenkamp il caso di Standard & Poor’s è «molto controverso». Colpa del fatto che la società di rating e analisi finanziaria «detiene un ruolo praticamente inattaccabile rispetto agli altri soggetti sul mercato». Nel campo della codificazione Isin «non c’è altra possibilità per il mercato americano di adottare altri standard o appoggiarsi ad altre società». Ma quali possono essere gli sviluppi di un procedimento contro S&P? Hovenkamp si dice fiducioso: «Dalla Commissione Ue si accorgeranno presto che un problema di monopolio su questo tema è sterile». Per il docente statunitense «i dilemmi sono altri, soprattutto nel campo dell’energia o, semmai, nella burocrazia europea, a tratti incredibile».
Si tratta quindi di un caso differente da quelli che hanno visto protagonista Microsoft. Negli anni passati, la società di Redmond si è vista comminare dall’Ue due maxi multe per abuso di posizione dominante. La prima nel 2004, per 497 miliardi di euro, quando il Commissario Ue Mario Monti decise che il colosso informatico americano doveva essere punito per il suo programma Windows Media Player, venduto in abbinamento obbligatorio coi sistemi operativi Windows. La seconda sanzione, pari a 899 miliardi di euro, è stata comminata dal Commissario per la Concorrenza Neelie Kroes nel febbraio 2008, a causa del perpetrarsi della sua posizione dominante. Dopo il procedimento Ue, Microsoft ha mutato le sue strategie commerciali, aprendo i propri sistemi operativi ai concorrenti.
In ambito italiano è di pochi giorni fa la decisione dell’antitrust di procedere in una verifica nei confronti di Auditel, unica società presente sul mercato che effettua rilevazioni sui dati d’ascolto televisivi. Un procedimento di questo genere non è contraddittorio? Se in quel mercato relativo non vi sono altre realtà analoghe e i motivi non dipendono dal soggetto monopolistico di fatto, esistono le condizioni per un procedimento contro quest’ultimo? I casi di contraddizione ideologica non sono pochi. «Questo si può superare solo indicando componenti delle authority che non abbiamo nessuna correlazione politica», spiega Hovenkamp. Ma l’evidenza che le influenze politiche nelle scelte dei regolatori possono distorcere la concorrenza non è una novità. In un campo come quello dei mercati aperti, il dilemma della risoluzione dei monopoli di fatto è un elemento giurisprudenzialmente vivo. Settori come quello del gas, dell’energia elettrica o dell’acqua rimangono ancora di difficile interpretazione per l’oggettiva difficoltà a porre dei paletti concorrenziali nei confronti dei soggetti operanti questi servizi essenziali, in genere pubblici.
Più complicato comprendere il limite fra posizione di spicco e dominanza abusivista di un mercato che non ha concorrenti per ragioni esogene al primo attore commerciale. L’esempio di Google, per l’ambito dei motori di ricerca su web, è significativo. Non c’è antitrust al mondo che abbia ancora sollevato la causa del ruolo di Mountain View perché, spiega Hovenkamp, «in quel caso sono stati i consumatori finali a scegliere e decretare il successo della compagnia. Non si può pretendere che si vada nell’ottica discriminante quando si parla di mercato libero».

Hola antireales…..estoy cansado de todoooo!! tengo mucho sueño, y cuando me pasa esto me pongo malo y contestador….jaja…… Ultimamente ando demasiado somnoliente…  asi que se imaginan que estoy de animos peleadores. Desde que empece el blog, me puse el casette,  se me trabo la tapita del equipo y quede en modulo PELEADOR .

Era Lunes,la noche anterior me habia quedado despierto diseñando el banner del blog, y escribiendo mi presentacion. Termine de hacer esto tipo  3 y algo de la mañana, me tenia que levantar a las  6  asi que habia dormido un poco menos de 3 horas. Llegue a mi trabajo, y extrañamente ya habia algunas personas esperando para entrar. Para que el dia no se haga tan tedioso pongo musica desde el Media player de la pc de mi caja….el hijo de mil, no arrancaba, asi que en el local habia un silencio que me dormia mucho mas.  Se acerca al mostrador el vendedor  J y me pide el precio de un producto ….O sea… me vino a romper las pelotas bien temprano, ya estaba algo caliente con la musica que no andaba, asi que le tire el precio y agache la cabeza para desaparecer en la pantalla de la pc. Luego de un rato, se acerca una señora con el producto que J me habia preguntado el precio, lo cargo en el programa de la caja y le digo: HOLA SEÑORA…COMO ESTA USTED… y la vieja bien soretona me responde: QUIERO ESTO…. CUANTO ES?. Saben que en mi familia, una de las cosas que mas bronca nos da, es que no respondan a nuestro saludo…..Ya me estaba calentando, sin musica sin dormir,sin ganas y con una gran y forzada sonrisa falsa le dije a la vieja sorete: SON  $23.50 SEÑORA…. A lo que ella me respondio: EL VENDEDOR ME DIJO  QUE ERAN  $17, A MI ME VAS A RESPETAR EL PRECIO QUE ME DIJO AQUEL PIBE……llame a  J y le pregunte sobre lo que le habia dicho a la vieja, a lo que el me respondio que el precio que le dio era $17. Lo mire con cara de (SOS PELOTUDO?? TE DIJE $23.50!!!!!!)  El muchacho, tratando de solucionar su error se mete en la conversacion entre la vieja y yo y dice: SI QUERES LA DIFERENCIA LA PAGO YO………… en ese punto yo ya estaba estallando de la bronca… Mire para todos lados buscando  no se que cosa….en ese punto de la pelea, ya estaba medio local mirando como me enfurecia cada vez mas y mas y mas y mas……Y ese fue el momento en que la vieja dijo las tres palabras magicas que terminaron de hacerme calentar: QUE PAGUE EL……………………………….No podes ser tan hija de puta vieja de mierda y la puta que te pario, no tenes respeto por el trabajo de la gente, y ni siquiera sabes como carajo se gana la plata para que tan deliberadamente hagas pagar a un pobre gil por tu viveza, que solo te servia para hacerte la superada en frente de tu amiga!! Pero saben que fue lo mejor de todo?: SEÑORA, LO LLEVA A $23.50 O A $17…. Ella responde: A $17………… Nos miramos fijamente largo tiempo, borre el articulo que cargue en mi maquina mire hacia adelante y dije: EL SIGUIENTE? QUIEN SIGUE? jajajajaja Vieja forra… no te lo vendi y te fuiste con la cola entre las patas. Matate idiota, y matate doblemente, saben porque? porque a la hora volvio y lo termino pagando $23.50. que infeliz que sos!!! Me va a encantar cuando por esa casualidad algun conocido tuyo se tope con este blog, se interese en el y te cuente tu historia. Vas a  fruncir el culito y te vas a callar.

Saludos a todos y ya saben, si se topan con algun soretin que no tiene respeto por el esfuerzo del otro, Haganlo cagar!!!! asi aprenden estos giles, que la masa trabajadora es la que ejecuta todas las acciones y que un peon tambien puede voltear a la reina.

My inaugural post, a lengthy history (personal and generally) of MP3 players, was meant to lay the foundation for this post.  This shorter post.

You’re welcome.

MP3 player.  Doesn’t just roll off the tongue, does it?  And isn’t it funny how the word “iPod” has become synonymous with MP3 playing devices?  The same way a band-aid is both a bandage and a brand name.  The power of success, eh?  But what exactly does MP3 mean in the first place and is it important?  Well, let’s take a look!

MP3 is actually a shortened version of something else, which also doesn’t roll off the tongue:  MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3.  And we can make this even longer by turning MPEG into Moving Pictures Experts Group.  You can begin to see why “MP3″ took off.

MP3 is a codec, which is a piece of software that compresses and then decompresses (the “co” and “dec” of codec) data.  In this particular instance we are discussing the compression and decompression of data related to a file of music; a song.  MP3 is just one of many codecs that exist in the consumer electronics field as related to digital audio.  Some are open source and some are proprietary.  Some are lossless and some are lossy.  Isn’t this fun?  Even more weird terms to wrap our heads around, but I imagine if you are here, at this blog, you probably already know something about these terms and as such I won’t bother to explain what you already know (and if you don’t know you will find wikipedia and google to be your best friend).

What I really want to get to in this blog is what I call codec snobbery.  The notion that one codec is superior to another and that to use any other codec is simply a waste of time and shows you to be a fool who doesn’t understand anything about digitizing music.

Much is written about the various codecs in the market place and why one is better…no….superior to the others.  There are those who swear by open source codecs like Ogg Vorbis and FLAC.  Why be roped into someone’s proprietary mess when you can be open source?  Well, because the vast majority of MP3 players don’t support either Ogg Vorbis or FLAC…and neither do the mainstream digital audio software players (think iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.)

Are there advantages to going open source?  Sure.  It’s free.  But last time I checked I’m not paying anything to download and install Windows Media Player or iTunes.  There is no cost to me to do such, so I’m not really certain I understand how these free and open source codecs are of some great advantage.  I mean, if they sounded notably better than the more well-known codecs (AAC as used by iTunes, WMA as used by Windows Media Player) then one might be able to make a better argument, but they don’t really sound any better than any other codec in the great scheme of things.

Of course, there are those who swear by AAC, WMA and MP3, which is fine as well.  But I think these folks are mostly steered into their given codec not by some allegiance to the codec itself, but by the player they purchase.  The iPod.  The Walkman.  The Creative Labs.  The Archos.  They encode their CDs in whatever codec their player will play and their software will recognize.  It really is that simple.  As a matter-of-fact, I think it would not be unreasonable to assume that better than 80% of all MP3 player owners wouldn’t even know what is a codec, much less at what bit rate they are encoding their music on their computer.

Yet there are experts and writers out there who want to convince us that FLAC is the only way to go or that WMA VBR (Variable Bit Rate) at a bit rate setting greater than 256 is the bees knees.  But short of using complicated and precise measuring devices to actually “listen” to music encoded by these various codecs at various bit rates and alternating between Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and VBR there is no way to know which sounds best.  And even then I would swear that blind listening tests using tens of thousands of listeners would be the only way to fully understand and appreciate which codec at what bit rate is the best.  And I think it’s pretty obvious this isn’t going to happen.

So what does one do?

For many folks they do nothing.  They go out and purchase the MP3 player they want.  They go home and use the software they like best that will work with their given purchase.  They probably don’t know how to change the bit rate and have never heard of VBR or CBR.  And they probably couldn’t care less.  It makes the whole issue of which is the best codec a horribly moot point.

I mean..think about it.  The iPod, while clearly the run away success of MP3 players, isn’t the best sounding MP3 player on the market.  Never has been.  Will probably never be either.  But that hasn’t hurt its sales in the slightest, has it?  Its success was built upon either criteria.  In other words it sounds good enough.

The average consumer (and by “average” I mean something like 99%) doesn’t care or probably even know about codecs.  They buy the MP3 playing device they want and they want it because it looks cool.  Or is popular and will impart popularity upon them.  Or something.  But it is something other than codec support.

So when the experts tell us we need to be concerned about such matters because it might make an infinitesimal difference in the quality of the sound of the music, I think they should sod off.  Unless the sound quality is noticeably better and can be had without any extra work on my part (having to find special software being the big one), then I don’t want to hear about it.  I’ll stick to WMA or AAC and be happy that I can quickly and easily create music for on the go.

Taking this opportunity, we are pleased to offer you our new products — Vibration Speaker for music lovers as attached.