iLike

Steve Jobs: 'Blu-Ray Is Just A Bag Of Hurt'

Wayne Hartman — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:42:23 GMT

The real kicker in Apple's notebook announcements wasn't the release of their new manufacturing process, MacBook upgrades, or glass multi-touch trackpads, but Steve Jobs' response to a question on why the new additions didn't include options for a Blu-Ray player:

"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."

Phil Schiller chimed in immediately after Steve saying, "We have the best HD movie and TV options in iTunes." Ouch. In other words, Stevo isn't convinced that a plastic disc is in Apple's digital future, it's costly to implement, and this far into its nascent market emergence, it isn't worth putting in their laptops. This isn't much of surprise considering consumers seem to be clinging to the popularity and ubiquity of DVDs.

How To Kill A Brand, Apple Style

Wayne Hartman — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:34:28 GMT

When I think of Apple, one of the first things that comes to mind is good, quality products. Expensive, but nice. The experience I get when I go to the Apple Store is top notch and I have a feeling that a lot of people feel the same way—until now.

I’m seeing a disturbing trend lately where Apple seems to be slipping quite a bit on the quality side—not necessarily with hardware—but with their software. It seems that with the latest iteration of the iPhone, it has been plagued by software bugs and defects that really detract from the whole Apple experience. Apple’s latest flub involves the release of its latest version of the iTunes software which is causing Windows Vista machines to BSOD. As much as I dislike Vista, you still have to play nice.

Not a big surprise really, considering how fast Apple has been moving with their iPod and Mac lines, but one has cause to wonder when they’re going to catch up and provide stable products. One of the mainstays of a successful business is maintaining and improving your brand image. When you do things that detract from that brand, you create opportunities for competitors to move and capture a slice of your market—not that Apple ought to be worried from the likes of the Zune, but it’s the small (and large) things like bad 3G connectivity, apps crashing, and getting your email wiped out that really take a detrimental toll on that brand that ought to give you pause.

I think the big issue here is that Apple is really expanding, meaning that these are just growing pains that Apple is going through. Microsoft has taken a big hit (the bad kind) with its release of Vista, giving Apple an opportunity to cut into the computer market with its diverse array of integrated products. In the end I think Apple will pull itself out of its funk, but let this be a lesson to us all: if you grow too much, too quick, there are going to be some painful times.

XP Drivers For HP S3500T

Wayne Hartman — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:17:53 GMT

I had mentioned previously that had gotten a new PC. This one is an HP S3500T. I purchased it to take over the responsibilities that my server has had for not only housing the data of all my music, DVDs, and other videos, but being hooked up to the TV to watch and listen to them. This puts a strain on my server at times when there is a lot of things that it is trying to do during the day--one of which is to host this blog.

So, the first item of business was to wipe Vista off and put XP on. While finding drivers for everything was pretty much a breeze, I did have some trouble with the IR receiver for the remote control and the TV tuner card.

Chipset Driver - http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_630i_610i_winxp_16.08.html
Video Driver - http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html
Audio Driver - http://waynehartman.com/downloads/WDM_R195.exe
TV Tuner Driver - http://waynehartman.com/downloads/AverMedia m792 Drivers.zip
LAN Driver - http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&softwareitem=pv-42542-1&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

You'll notice that I don't have the IR receiver drivers listed. You actually already have the real driver installed, it's just that the INF files don't recognize it to be compatible (even though it is). So for that, you have to do a little INF hacking to get it to work. All you have to do is follow the direction in this forum post and it will run perfectly in Windows XP. Just in case that link goes dead for whatever reason, I will post the directions on my site later.

The reason that I had so much trouble getting the TV Tuner driver is that AVermedia does not actually have the driver posted on its site. Appearently the card that goes inside the s3500t is an OEM only part, so HP provides access to the driver. Unfortunately, HP only provides a Vista driver and had inserted a procedure that checks your Windows version before installing it. If you don't have Vista, then it won't install the driver. Fortunately for us, however, their installer expands all the files into your temp directory before doing that check. Otherwise, I would have had to rip the installer apart to get at the files. Also fortunate for us, the driver is compatible with XP, so I have graciously posted the file for your use above.

With those drivers, you should be able to use all the hardware inside your box. For those not running Windows Media Center 2005, but want to take advantage of the multimedia and PVR hardware in your machine, here's a shameless plug for MediaPortal, an open source media center application. It's free, it's better than Windows Media Center, and they've done a pretty darn good job, so pick it up.

Shields Up!

Wayne Hartman — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:08:26 GMT

After nearly six months of waiting, the iPod 2.0 firmware now supports 802.1x authentication, meaning, I can beef the security back up on my wireless access point. I had to lower it last November because my Wii didn't support it, and later, neither my iPod Touch. I got a Ethernet adapter for my Wii which solved its problem (the wireless on it is pretty flaky anyway), but I still had to resort to plain old WPA-PSK because of the iPod.

Last night that all came to an end. I installed the latest 2.0 firmware which allows you to download/purchase applications, in addition to supporting more enterprise functionality such as Cisco VPN software, better email functions, and yes, 802.1x authentication. I'm pretty surprised that the iPod Touch came with those enterprise grade features, but I'm not going to complain. I was able to bring the stronger grade authentication scheme back up, connected my wife's lappy, and then connect my iPod Touch.

Shields up!

First Impressions: Firefox 3 RC1

Wayne Hartman — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:19:21 GMT

With the announcement that Firefox 3 had entered release candidate status, I finally decided to install it and check it all out.

Installation is pretty simple and for those who are already Firefox aficionados, there are only a few subtle, but powerful differences in this new edition of one of the best browsers out there.

One of the key differences in this latest release is FF's new look. Mozilla made a concerted effort to make the browser feel integrated with whichever OS it is installed. This means that FF on OS X *looks* like a native Carbon app. FF on XP looks just as integrated as Internet Explorer. FF on Ubuntu Linux feels like it was part of the overall desktop theme. This is cool *if* your OS has a good theme going on. I usually run the Windows Classic theme on Windows XP, and to be honest, FF looks like junk when compared to its FF 2 predecessor. It actually inspired me to change to one of the other XP themes, just so it'd look OK. Customization allows you to override that, of course, but at this point there aren't very many themes to download and install.

Another detail that they've enhanced from a functionality perspective has been the download manager. You can do real stop and resume downloading, as well as perform searches against downloads. Another cool feature is that the time remaining information has been integrated into the status bar of the main browser window so that you know the download progress without having to have the download window visible.

A more subtle improvement (that I particularly enjoy) is being able to resize the address and search bar. As a software engineer, I end up doing searches on error messages that can get lengthy, so being able to expand and contract the search box to fit my query is a nice touch.

One noticeable difference is what has been termed 'The Keyhole'. Most traditional navigation buttons like Back, Forward, navigation history, etc. share equal prominence on the toolbar. In FF3, however, greater prominence has been given to the Back button, while the other nav buttons take a more diminutive role in navigation. I don't know that I like/dislike the change, just that it's different. Whenever you change something that users expect, you cause quite a bit of psychological dissonance that UI designers should take great care to avoid. We'll see how this plays out.

So is it a keeper? YES! There will be some lag time between getting updated themes, extensions, et all, but that comes with the territory. I can't wait until the final release comes out!

After the Honeymoon: The iPod Touch

Wayne Hartman — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:39:22 GMT

I've had an iPod Touch for a little while now, and have found it to do pretty much everything that I had hoped for it. It didn't take me very long before I jailbroke it, and the fact of the matter is, you'll never maximize the potential of it until you do. Apple's core set of applications leave the device wanting, but jailbreaking it brings out all the things that peoplle want in a mobile device, especially one as innovative as this.

I bought the device primarily to surf the net. It does It fantastically with the caveats of a missing Flash plugin. That glaring mistake aside, the iPhone/iPod Touch brings new meaning to the pairing of mobile devices and the Internet. Surprisingly though, I find myself reading ebooks on this little thing. I first started out with 1984 and Brave New World, and quickly moved to more contemporary science fiction like Star Wars.

So, with the honeymoon over, what do I not like? Well, I don't care for the limited set of gestures that it supports. This hampers anything with dragable support on a web page, as well as limiting things like copy and paste. Of all the things to include in a device, you would think that's one of the basic to be included.

If I had had the opportunity to purchase it again, would I? Absolutely! The thing is such a joy to use, and I feel like I can multitask web, email, etc much better than before. Updates are coming in June, so I look forward to extending its functionality even further.

Another Site Update

Wayne Hartman — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:12:30 GMT

I've decided to change my main site again. I made some updates and accidentally deployed the design I had been playing with. I decided to keep it there only because I didnt want to take the time to fix it.

I have been working on someone's website of late, so I decided that I should give my design another whack. You can see it here. As you can see, the design is very monochromatic. I was looking to create something that was a little less outlandish and minimalist, but contemporary for the times. Once again, I decided on not puting out anything with a glossy button, but did decide on some nice gradients.

We'll see how long this lasts... ;)

UPDATE: Activision Makes Up For Sound Problem

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:39:31 GMT

Today we got a phone call from FedEx saying that they had a package for us, but that the address on it was misspelled. They wanted to know if they should deliver it to our house or the office. This kinda piqued my interest since I wasn't expecting any sort of package from anyone. A million thoughts ran through my head on what it could possibly be and was completely shocked when FedEx arrived with this:

In it was a little note from Activision and Red Octane:

Rock on! I was a little ticked off over the whole affair, but this more than makes up for it. You're awesome!

Post From My New iPod Touch

Wayne Hartman — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:39:13 GMT

Today I was able to sell my old 80GB iPod to subsidize the cost of buying a new 16GB iPod Touch. I'd been stewing ever since it came out last September, but really didn't get too excited until the SDK was announced earlier this year. The one thing I really wish this thing had is Flash player. Many of the sites I frequent have Flash videos, so it kinda defeats the purpose of surfing the Internet without. Oh well, this is a pretty sweet piece of hardware, and I look forward to cruising the 'nEt with it.

Giving Vista (Another) Try

Wayne Hartman — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:04:08 GMT

So. I went to a Microsoft Developer Conference this past week and decided to give Vista (another) try. I've been using it for several days now and have some preliminary thoughts:

Great for email.
Great for surfing.
Not too shabby for coding.
Sucks for gaming.

The biggest gripe that I have is gaming. Because the Aero interface is using GPU resourcing to draw all the pretty glass, it's sapping those resources that could otherwise give games another 10fps. Even when the Aero interface is turned off in favor of Windows Classic, I still don't get the frames per second that I get in my Windows XP installation.

It is pretty, don't get me wrong. Having the windows zoom, fade in/out, etc. is a joyful experience, but if I can't play the games that I like at a descent frame rate, then I'm not sure it's worth keeping.

Everyone rants about the Accept/Cancel tedium that one has to endure in order to do a lot of things, but I myself actually like it. It keeps me aware of things that I'm trying to do. I just wish the experience of it popping up wasn't so jarring. It'd be cool if it faded in, rather than with a flash, it makes the screen go dark and there's a Cancel/Allow popup on the screen.

Another thing I don't like is the removal of the 'up directory' button in Windows Explorer. I use this quite a bit in navigation, but the not-so-intuitive UI improvement I accidentally found, is that I can click on the directory names in the tree to accomplish the same thing, albeit in a much quicker way.

I installed the Ultimate version of Vista, but one of the biggest things that I can't understand is it's 10GB installation footprint. It really bothers me that the base installation is bloated. I really wish that I could turn off and uninstall a lot of features that I know that I won't use on my workstation. For example, let's get rid of Media Center. I don't have a tuner card installed, so I won't watch TV. I don't watch DVDs on my computer, that's what my entertainment center is for. I don't need x. Don't need y. Why won't you let me remove them?! I want to be able to have just in case I want to use them, but please! I want to have a little bit greater control than you're giving me!

So will I keep using it? Well, I didn't enter my license key, so I have at least 30 days to decide that yet. From what I read on the Internet, I can keep rearming the counter a couple of times, so I think I'll give myself at least that much time to settle in. Funny thing is, I did the same thing when I was still debating to make the leap from Windows 98 to XP...

Stay tuned.