I just don’t get it

I’m sure this is going to get me flamed by some of my more geeky friends and it’ll probably get me labeled even more as a Mac fanboy (there are worse things I could be called) but I just don’t get Linux, I’ve been playing around with a few different distributions and well…I’m not impressed.  In fact, I just don’t get the devotion that Linux people have, every distribution that I played with had one thing in common, they just didn’t feel complete.

The last one (and last one for me for a pretty long while) was ubuntu on its homepage it touts that “You’ll never go back”, it is supposed to be the super easy “every persons” Linux distro.  Apparently I’m just not geeky enough for it because, while I appreciate the fact that it is free and includes many free open-source applications, it just feels empty, uncompleted.

Now, this is coming from a Mac person, so if you’ve never used a Mac you should understand one thing…people are passionate about the Mac for good reason, it works the way a computer should work, you want to uninstall something you drag it to the trash can, sure you can get really geeky with it but it is made not to frustrate the user but to enhance the overall computing experience.  It has a lot of quality free software out for it, Linux has a lot of free software. 

My opinion of Linux is that it is bland, kind of like going fishing, cleaning your catch, and then boiling it…sure it will feed and nourish you but it isn’t something that you are going to get excited about.

I’ve got plenty of friends who enjoy command line and tweaking there own personal Linux distro (something you can’t do with OS X or Windows) and I really wanted to enjoy using Linux, I hoped with all of the different flavors that I’d find one, I even saved ubuntu for last because it predicted that I’d never go back, I mean that is a bold claim, I was nervous about trying to explain to my wife why I turned my beloved Macbook into this lean mean white Linux machine and that scared me…but luckily I didn’t have to do that.  I’ll leave it installed as a virtual machine under VMware in case I get the urge again but I’m thinking it’ll just get deleted in the not to distant future.

Linux people, I salute you, takes a rare breed to enjoy that.  I understand that I’m selling out to the man and that I’ll never “know” the freedom that you enjoy but it is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Entry by Chris

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Why are teachers against Google?

It seems in every single project that I do for my school, the teachers say every time “No using Google!”, this is in school at least. This also is a huge deal to them with Google Images too, because they think that something inappropriate will come up. Now I know that there are things that can come up on your search can be “bad”, but if you take some precautions it can solve the problem sometimes.

Another service that my school teachers are against is Wikipedia. I think their main reasons that they don’t like this site is the fact that almost anyone can get on the pages and edit them. But I don’t think that they check into this at all. 1. The pages are checked sometimes, and 2. Most of the pages have references to ensure that there is valid information. So, I think that all the teachers need to relax about Google and Wikipedia. One thing that they could do is check them to make sure that the information is reliable in head of time then give them to their students later.

There are also other reasons why not using Google can be bad. Google gives me great websites with great information. The other option that the teachers give us is things like nettrekker.com or ebscohost.com. These sites are good but they always seem to lack a lot of good detailed information. Another thing is, they aren’t going to know if you used google or yahoo. They are basically the same exact thing, and usually come up with close to the same results.

So, do you use Google for school projects? What do you think about this?

What should we talk about more?

Well, it’s time for you to voice your opinions and tell us what we should talk about more here at Gadgets and Tech. The choices are Technology, Video Games, Computers, Gadgets, or Internet Sites. Please do the poll so we know what you want to hear.

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EDIT: I’m not sure why but you can’t do the poll here so please go to the website and take it.

Nike+ for iPhone?

As you probably know, there have been some rumors of the Nike+ features coming to the iPhone. I think that this would be a great move by Apple for two reasons. One, a lot of people will buy it which just means more money for Apple. Two, Apple could realy make an impression on the “workout” community.

Even if only a fraction of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch users bought this that would be so much money for them. The device it self is $29 and they might charge for it. I would guess around 5 to 10 dollars, but this might only be for the iPod touch, from what we have been recently been seeing.

Another reason why Apple should implement this is to kind of “get their foot in the door” in the workout community. Nike and Apple could do amazing things with their iPods and the connections that Nike has. Also, almost everyone in the United States knows what an iPhone is and this could get them even more publicity and reasons for people to buy it.

I hope that Apple makes the right decision and implements the Nike+ features for the iPhone and iPod touch because I would defiantly buy one. Some other people are saying that it is just a matter of time before they do that, like it will defiantly happen but I wouldn’t count our eggs before they are hatched.

Too Human Preview

The are a lot of great MMOs and RPGs out there that have captured the love of millions such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Lord of the Rings Online. Another type of game that is very popular is the action games. But as anyone ever combined the two types of games? The answer to that now is yes. Too Human is a combination of an RPG and Action.

Too Human will have 5 different classes from which to choose from, they are Berserker, Champion, Defender, Bio-Engineer, and Commando. The Berserker is an all attack class with high melee damage but low armor and HP. The Champion is a well rounded class with middle ranged HP, Armor, Melee Damage and Ballistics. The Defender is the tank of the game. He has the best armor and a lot of HP. The Commando is your nuker who accels in firearms and explosives. Last the Bio-Engineer, he is basically your healer. He uses nano technology to heal and also do combat damage.

The max level cap in Too Human is level 50. As you go through the levels you can get hundreds of thousands of different weapons and armor sets. The story behind Too Human is set back thousands of years ago before the time of Atlantis and before the Ice Ages. This video will give you the whole story.

Well there is the history for Too Human and some of the story line. I am looking forward for this game to come out. The release date has not been told to the public but Silicon Knights has ensured that one has been set. Too Human will becoming out only on the Xbox 360. When the game comes out I am going to try to do a full review of it.

Sony Bud Style MDR-ED12LP/SLV

Product: Sony Bud Style MDR-ED12LP/SLV

I’ve been through a large number of head and ear/canalphones and I’m pretty picky about sound and the actual way they feel.  Before I go on I’ll qualify my review of these earbuds by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed using a pair of Shure earbuds from spring of last year until early winter and I “upgraded” those to a pair of Ultimate Ears super.fi 5pro’s, I loved the Shure buds but the UE never felt as good as I wanted them to inside my ear.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the sound that both of these buds, but the ill fit of the UE’s caused me to get rid of them and once again embark on the journey of buying some lightweight buds.

I have full sized headphones that I enjoy but it is nice when I’m walking my daughter to school through the woods to have something that can fit in my pocket so I don’t wear those.  That brings me back to the topic of this review…the Sony Bud Style MDR-ED12LP/SLV.

First thing, I bought these because I thought they looked nice and the store I went to didn’t have the pair that I originally wanted to buy in stock and I was intrigued about what a nice looking pair of $15 earbuds actually sounded like, normally if it looks good and is inexpensive they spent all of the money on the looks.  So I made my way to the checkout and paid and figured since they said they worked with an iPhone I’d check them out, if they were as awful as I thought they could be I’d be out $15 and I would be able to roll the dice on another pair.

The first thing you notice about them is that they are light, very light, almost too light and the cable is thin, thinner than stock iPod buds.  Well, I almost didn’t even try them on, since up until know even for $15 I was fairly unimpressed, I mean if I didn’t try them on I could technically still return them and not feel bad about it, but I did put them in and fired up the music and I actually had to stop what I was doing and remove them to make sure these were the same buds that I just pulled out of the package…one word, WOW!  The music was full and rich and definitely sounded like it was coming from a much more expensive package.  Now the package states that they are heavy bass and if this is the main reason you are buying these than prepared to be disappointed, rather than being overly bass driven they actually deliver a good quality of bass, but on heavy bass type songs they are pretty unimpressive.  In fact to fully appreciate the quality of sound that these deliver you should listen to something that is less bass and more acoustical (blues, something from Corrine Bailey Rae or fellow Machead John Mayer, or Eric Clapton Unplugged) and smile as you hear a complex sound and realize that you just spent less than $15 on a pair of buds that you won’t cry if something happens to them, in fact at this price you could buy an extra pair for those “just in case” moments.

Pros:
Price
Sound
Lightweight
Comfortable

Cons:
Thin cord
One size fits all, no customization
Buds may be too big for some ears
Not good in heavy bass situations, even though the package says they are

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that there are worse things you could drop $10-$15 on and not be as happy, if you are still using stock earbuds that came bundled with your media player of choice and would like to enjoy your music more and don’t want to break the bank these would be perfect.  Do I think that these are as good as a high quality pair of ear or canalphones?  No, they aren’t but they are very impressive and when you take into account sound quality and price, these are a very good alternative for those who want a better music experience but don’t want to pay a whole lot.  I’m going to pick up a couple of pairs and give them to friends that are still using the white “mug me” buds that came with their iPods.

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Adobe releases the Adobe Media Player

Adobe just recently released a very cool new application called the Adobe Media Player. In this you can download and watch many TV shows from many different networks including CBS, MTV, The Food Network, and PBS. They also have on some very popular internet networks such as blip.tv. I have downloaded the Adobe Media Player, and it has a very nice modern look to it. In general this 1.0 version of the software is very stable, and works very well.

Now some of you might wonder, “Will it give some competition to iTunes?”. Well I personally don’t think it will because I don’t think that is the market Adobe is looking for, and I don’t think that Adobe will put music downloads on it.

If you would like to download this you can go to Adobe’s website at http://www.adobe.com and go to their products page. I would like to hear you opions about this. Is it a good choice that Adobe did this? What do you think Adobe is trying to do with it? Comments are always welcome, tell me what you think?

I am very excited to see where this will go, and see what Adobe can make out of this media player. If you would like to learn a little bit more you can go to Chris Pirillo’s site and he did a brief video on it.

Motion Sensitive Xbox 360 Controller

The Xbox 360 is one of the greatest probably the best console on the market right now. With its great online play and good graphics the 360 has captured the hearts of millions of gamers. Now Microsoft’s newest device (this is only a rumor) is a motion sensitive controller. This controller is supposed to look like this.

These are some of the features that the controller is expected to have when it is released.

“an LED sensor on the front accelerometer and gyroscope … that can detect tilt and motion, rumble motors, wireless two way data communication with the 360 [and includes] a built in Microphone for Xbox Live and voice-activated games.”

As you can see the controller will have great new features and some enhanced features on the old controllers. This controller will be something that all 360 fans will be anticipating and hoping a very quick release. The only thing that I am worried about is having it be released too early and having the controller not work right because of the hurry.

Vista is better than OS X?

I like to hear what Chris Pirillo has to say, and I watch a lot of his video’s. I came across one today and I completely agreed with him. In my mind he couldn’t have been more right. This guy Preston Gralla, made a list and posted 5 reasons why Vista is better than Mac OS X. His 5 reasons were…

1. Vista Runs more software
2. Vista is safer
3. It’s the money, stupid
4. Mac is closed, Vista is open
5. Two words- Steve Jobs

You can check out what Chris thought of this on his YouTube video (below). This is the post that he wrote on his blog.

 

Games for Windows Stops the Magazine!

I am sure all of you have heard about the Games for Windows magazine and some of you probably have it yourself and you might have some of the games they make like Age of Empires 3. It is a great magazine and has tons of subscribers. Despite all its success the magazine has announced that it is going to close up the shop. GFW is going to stop its printed magazine and go to just being an online source. The source will located at http://www.1up.com.

Jason Young, CEO of Ziff Davis Media and parent of the 1up network says, ”PC gamers and marketers have made the online space their home. There are 10 million World of Warcraft subscribers, 15 million Steam users, and when online and digital distribution is taken into account, DFC Intelligence reported that people spent more money on PC games than on any other platform last year.” “It’s a natural move for us to refocus our resources and talent to the online space, in order to reach the PC gaming community where it truly lives.” Added Simon Cox, VP of Content for 1UP, “I am very excited to refocus our vision for GFW to online and reinvigorate it with new life. GFW has always been a stellar publication, and it will now be able to grow in more ways than ever before in content and audience. I think GFW fans and 1UP Network users will truly love our enhanced online PC coverage and the features it will now be able to offer them.”

Well there you have it that pretty much sums up why GFW is transfering to an online network rather than printing. Changing to online source does end the longest gaming magazine in print. The magazine formerly know as Computer Gaming World lasted for a total of 27 years. Now that is over. I would just like to thank the GFW magazine for making a great source for PC games, hardware, and software information. Thanks a lot GFW!