Archive for November, 2007
The size of software always expands to fill the resources
Not only does the size of the Windows operating system seem to always increase to match available resources but other software does the same. In a posting, What Intel Giveth, Microsoft Taketh Away, XPNet reports on the latest version of Microsoft Office:
“What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away.†Such has been the conventional wisdom surrounding [...]
No matter how powerful your machine, Vista won’t be any faster
There is some sort of rule that Windows expands in complexity to consume any new or faster resources. One of my disappointments with Vista is how sluggish it seems on a fast, dual-core machine with 2 GB of RAM. Actually, an old, much less powerful system running XP seems to have just about the same [...]
AMD finds some deep pockets - Consumers should be glad
Nothing epitomizes the value of competition more than the contrast between the price changes in computer hardware compared with the price of Windows. The former gets cheaper while the latter goes up in price. We owe a lot to AMD for the fact that PCs are not only more powerful but cheaper every year. If [...]
Windows Live out of beta
“Windows Live” is a suite of free online applications and services that Microsoft has been developing. Recently, the company declared it ready and took the beta tag off. It includes email, a manager for posting photos, and other things. It’s one of Microsoft’s ventures into Web 2.0. Microsoft has been talking about this project for [...]
The death of email?
According to an article in Slate, the young are ignoring email for other forms of communication like social networks and instant messaging. According to the article:
Ten years later, e-mail is looking obsolete. According to a 2005 Pew study, almost half of Web-using teenagers prefer to chat with friends via instant messaging rather than e-mail. Last [...]
Get any song you want from online jukebox
I am an old fuddy-duddy who gets his music from CDs and not online but I ran across a site that might interest the large group of people who use the Internet for music. The AppScout has a report on a new Web jukebox service called Songza:
If you’re into music discovery, there are [...]
Spruce up the appearance of Windows XP
Maybe it’s because of my bad eyesight or the fact that I remember using PCs when everything was black and white but I am not generally that interested in changing the appearance of XP with a lot of different themes. In fact, I preferred the “classic” gray look for several years before I finally started [...]
Command line tip #6 - Easy backups with Xcopy
The command line repertoire contains a powerful method for copying or making backups of a folder and all its sub-folders. For many home PC users who want a simple but versatile backup method, the command “xcopy” is ideal. I discuss “xcopy” in all its glory at another site but here is an example of how [...]
Which is more important to Web advertisers - numbers or demographics?
Although Rupert Murdoch thinks more readers mean more ad revenue, market strategist and hedge-fund manager Barry Ritholtz sees it differently. At his blog, he makes the point that many of the Wall Street Journal advertisers are selling luxury goods and services and are interested in reaching the affluent, not just anybody:
I am not so [...]
Advertising for your eyes only
More and more emphasis is being placed on ads that are tailored to the individual. Your tastes and preferences in Web viewing are tracked, tabulated, and processed. You are then presented with ads that some algorithm perceives as appealing to the real you. Even the readers of news reports are fair game. A story in [...]