15 Years to Pick an OS

Posted on by Kristan Kenney
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For the last 15 years, I have been a Windows user and developer. I’ve owned several different computers, all running one version of Windows or another, and sometimes I’d even do a little bit of dabbling in Linux, but for the most part I’ve always felt that Windows could be better. The user interface lacks consistency, and personally I feel that with Windows Vista, things are going down hill.

I was set to build a new computer for myself at the end of February, but I realized soon after I had finished finalizing the specification that I would need to run Windows Vista 64-bit on it in order to take full advantage of my hardware. I’m not much of a fan of Windows Vista 64-bit, due to all of the issues between 32-bit and 64-bit executables and the headaches of 32-bit vs. 64-bit Internet Explorer. After considering many things, like what I plan on doing with my computer, I changed my mind on building that system, in fact I’ve completely crossed it off of my list.

Let me tell you, I never thought I’d see the day where I actually managed to pull this one off…

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Things to Think About When Switching to a Mac

Posted on by Kristan Kenney
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If you are a die-hard Windows user and are considering jumping over to the other side of the fence (don’t worry, many of us have had this feeling at one point or another), you may be wondering, “are there any good reasons for me to switch?” or “what software can I use on the Mac to replace the software that I use on my PC?”

Fear no more. I’ve written this article with the potential Mac “switcher” in mind. I’ve been a long-time Windows-user myself, and have only recently made the switch to what, in my personal opinion, is a better overall platform.

First and foremost, Apple computers are not the cheapest on the planet, but you definitely get what you pay for. You’re probably wondering, “is it really worth spending so much on a computer?” This is really up to personal preference and budget, however I do feel that it is a great investment, as a Mac will last you several years, not to mention that Macs have a very high resale value. You could turn around in 2 years and sell your Mac for close to what you paid for it then and buy a new one. You just can’t do that with a traditional or OEM PC, because they lose value from the day you purchase it.

When you consider making an investment such as this, make sure that you pick out a Mac that’s right for you. There’s nothing worse than purchasing a computer that you’re not going to be satisfied with. First, you need to decide if you are going to be doing any traveling or moving around with your Mac. If you are, you’d most likely want to look at getting a portable Mac, but if all your computing is done from the comfort of your home office (or bedroom), then a desktop Mac will be fine.

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January 2008 Update

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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There’s been a lot going on so far at NeoSmart Technologies, and 2008 is shaping up to be an exciting year… Yes, January is almost over; so, no, this isn’t a New Year’s resolutions list. The thing about New Year’s resolutions is that they’re almost always left unfulfilled. But that doesn’t mean we can’t share the good times, does it? Here’s some stuff to look forward to out of NST’s camp in the coming days/weeks/months:

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Microsoft to Push Silverlight via Redesigned Website

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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Microsoft SilverlightSeveral months ago, Microsoft inserted themselves into the RIA framework business – years too late and against pretty scary odds – with the initial release of the Silverlight framework. Microsoft Silverlight is the online counterpart to the Microsoft .NET 3.0 Framework and a direct Adobe Flash/Flex competitor.

Microsoft isn’t new to the whole “virtual” monopoly business (where a single company holds the entire market thanks to “superior technology” and “better business sense”) – it’s just not too often that they’re on the wrong side of this particular proverbial fence.

When Silverlight was first announced and PopFly, Microsoft’s social network built to demonstrate and hopefully kickoff Silverlight, were simultaneously launched; we were quick to appreciate the technical aspects of .NET and WPF taken online, but were careful to make it clear that we didn’t think it stood much of a chance.

But things might be on the verge of a big change. Large portions Microsoft’s website are in the middle of a redesign that will feature a fully Silverlight-powered interface – doing away with HTML and everything else. We’ve had a chance to test the new interface (currently in beta), and here’s what we think:

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Scribd Isn’t Flickr…

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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Scribd isn’t Flickr. Sure, they’re both similar: both are social “web 2.0” websites established on the principle that people love to share stuff, both let you tag and group objects, both give you unlimited space, and both are great examples of the internet being put to good use. And, let’s not forget, both seem to love to Murdr the English language (pun intended)… But that’s where the similarities end.

Flickr is for photos. Scribd is for documents. Period… Or at least that’s the way it should be – theoretically.

So why is that so hard for people to get? Something about Scribd’s ease-of-use and flexibility has made people forget – and it looks like the people up top don’t seem to mind much, either. For instance, “i LOVE Milla Jovovich,” a group with over 1500 photos pretending to be documents was one of today’s “Featured Groups” on the Scribd homepage.

But the thing is, Scribd isn’t only not intended for photos, it’s not optimized for photos either. Users are uploading photos as PDF documents – unnecessarily increasing their size and limiting the photos’ usages. It has limited tagging options, doesn’t support any form of EXIF implementations, and offers all the wrong tools.

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Microsoft’s .NET-Powered Windows Live Writer

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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Believe it or not, Microsoft’s Microsoft .NET LogoWindows Live Writer is important in more ways than one. To most PC users, Windows Live Writer is simply the best tool that gets the “job” done. More importantly is how “job” is defined though, because WLW does things quite well and quite thorough.

Windows Live Writer has a huge range of options and takes advantage of almost all the features and functionality available via remote blogging/XMLRPC that make it almost pointless to even enter your blog’s administration center. You can upload images and movies, set categories and keywords, specify the slug/permalink to posts, modify the post date, set passwords on posts, send trackbacks, manually create an excerpt, and even specify whether comments are or aren’t allowed on any given post – all this without leaving your desktop client.

But what most don’t know about Windows Live Writer is more what it represents than what it does: Windows Live Writer is the first full-scale consumer product to ship out of Microsoft’s camp built on the .NET Framework.

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Are you Still Manually Approving Online Sales? Don’t!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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The whole point of the online sales revolution, and as a direct result, the growth of companies like Amazon, eBay, and dozens of smaller sites like Newegg and ZipZoomFly, is to take advantage of the benefits brought by technology to the retail industry. These advantages include less overhead costs, fewer employees, constant availability, and instantaneous sales. So, please do tell, why is that you’re still manually verifying and validating all sales before they go out!?

This may not be too obvious when you’re selling tangible goods over the internet – after all, there is still a lot of the “human element” when it comes to packaging and shipping the product. But when you’re selling digital products, be it software, music, games, or text, you should never, ever have a human doing the verification. It’s insulting.

With presence of automated purchase validation systems, like 2Checkout and PayPal IPN available which give virtually real-time updates on the status of a transaction and let you know when you’ve received your money (or at least when it’s on its way), there is absolutely no need for a data monkey to press “OK” at the prompt. After all, what’s this data monkey know that PayPal’s IPN report hasn’t already told your system?

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Vista’s Purple Screen of Death

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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We’ve all heard of (and, quite unfortunately, experienced) the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Some of us who tested the earlier Windows Vista beta builds had the unique experience of trying out the Red of Screen Death, which occurred when the bootloader experienced an un-handled exception (we experienced more than our fair share of these during the early days of EasyBCD development!). And then there’s Vista’s Purple Screen of Death, which few have seen.

Vista Purple Screen of Death 

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Gutsy Gibbon and Really Slow Internet

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
27

Last month, Canonical Ltd. released the newest update to their extremely popular Ubuntu: Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10)… But it hasn’t been all fun and games, as thousands of irate users will tell you… If you search the web, the blogosphere, usenet, and the Ubuntu Support Forums for slow internet problems, you’ll get more than you ever bargained for. Ubuntu 7.10’s networking stack is broken, make no mistake about it.

The symptoms include incredibly-slow internet access, inability to access certain domains, slow logon times, slow application launch times (under GNOME), and so on and so forth. There hasn’t been any official acknowledgement, but the consensus is that it’s a bug that’s re-surfaced from Ubuntu Edgy Eft (version 6.10).

In short, internet on Ubuntu is useless. There are multiple guides across the net with the solution along with an “explanation” we find to be inadequate and fundamentally flawed. The solution is to disable anything that even smells remotely of IPv6. Remove it from the network settings, remove the definitions from the hosts file, configure your favorite web browser to pretend it doesn’t exist, and you’ll get your internet back.

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Why Skype for Windows Mobile Sucks… On Purpose!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
40

Skype is a great and most-useful program, and undoubtedly one of the revolutionizing services in the world of online communication. Windows Mobile (both versions 5 and 6) is an awesome examples of mobile productivity and portable office that fits in your pocket. But unfortunately, the two just don’t mix… not at all. Skype for Windows Mobile has been out for years now, and it’s completely unusable thanks to a problem that has yet to be addressed: it’s absolutely useless without a headset.

Skype doesn’t make this too obvious, but if you take a look at the Installation Instructions for Windows Mobile, you will find this:

At the moment, Skype calls only come through the loudspeaker or a headset. We’re working on this [emphasis added], but in the meantime, please use a headset for the best audio quality.

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