Has there been a more obnoxious piece of software than Real Player? I remember back in ’96 hearing a radio commercial about this new software product called Real Audio which could stream audio over the internet. I recall thinking how cool that sounded and went home and downloaded it. Back in the days of 28k dialup the audio wasn’t high quality and the streams were choppy at times but the concept was cool and anyone could see this was going to make waves down the road.

So fast forward a few years to the time Real Audio changes its name to just Real and begins to complain about the Microsoft monopoly and the inclusion of Media Player on every copy of Windows. This is the time when idiots at Real decided they had to be “in your face” with their products. If they couldn’t keep Microsoft’s Media Player off your machine they could pester you at every turn. Real Player is like installed spam all over your computer. Once Real Player is installed it attempts to take over your computer. It puts itself all over your system including the system tray, quick start menu and programs menu. It’s simply the most annoying product I’ve ever installed on my system by a wide margin. And good luck trying to figure out the install process and not having the Real Center auto-launch in your system tray each time you boot Windows.

It’s been a while since I’ve installed any Real product because it feels so creepy, so slimy. It’s just not worth the hassle even if the video/audio stream is only available in a Real format. What happened at Real? Did a group of executives sit around and brainstorm ideas on how to make their products as annoying as possible? Led by Rob Glaser, Real has taken a revolutionary product and ruined it.

I expect Real to become even more aggressive in pushing its products on customer’s computers having been outflanked by Apple and the popular iTunes. Good riddance, Real.

ESPN is reporting that Karl Malone is leaning towards retirement. As a lifelong Utah Jazz fan I was disappointed he wore out his welcome in Utah and forced the trade to the Lakers. I recall Karl stating that he wasn’t interested in growing the young talent on the Jazz roster so he got his wish to play for a contender and was shipped off to play with Shaq and Kobe, two of the most selfish players in the league. Karl didn’t get a ring or a scoring title although he did make a pass at Kobe’s wife.

Don’t you wish you could have retired with the same class shown by John Stockon?

In what has to be one the strangest stories I’ve heard in a while, the Christian Conservative group says the Spongebob cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. MSNBC adds to the hilarity with this quote:

SpongeBob, who lives in a pineapple under the sea, was “outed” by the U.S. media in 2002 after reports that the TV show and its merchandise was popular with gays.

Doesn’t the Christian Conservative group have anything more important to do than watch cartoons? Dora the Explorer promoting lesbianism can’t be far behind with these wackos.

Additional article
“These Crackpots can be saved” by Michael Ventre at MSNBC

I already have two portable mp3 players (iRiver H120, Nomad Muvo NX) but I still want a Shuffle.

PC Magazine

Bottom Line: Probably the best flash player without a display, the iPod shuffle has excellent audio performance, a low price, a near-weightless design, and interesting random-load/random-play features.

Pros: Very light weight. Top-notch audio performance. Recharges from USB. Can automatically update itself with fresh songs.

Cons: No navigation display, preferences, or settings. A little too minimal for music explorers. Loud enough to cause hearing damage if you’re not careful. Full review

More Reviews

*Russell Beattie compares his new Shuffle with the Muvo

*iPod Lounge has posted an excellent review

*Engadget chimes in with review and tons of pics

*MacWorld likens the Shuffle to your favorite radio station

*Mossberg takes the shuffle for a test drive

From time to time I’ve been known to complain about Microsoft products, especially IE and Windows XP. Actually, I complain about them a lot and several people have asked why I stick with a PC instead of moving to a Mac. I have to admit that the Mac Mini looks very enticing, but I don’t see myself using it as my main machine at home. I can see adding it as a third PC to be mainly used by our 3 year-old daughter. This got me thinking about why I continue to use a PC loaded with Microsoft Windows so put together a list of reasons:

1. I like to tinker and build my own computers. This might not sound like a good reason, but it is for those of us who like to carefully chose every single component that goes into our machines. I’m not just talking about what hard drive or video card to put in my machine either. I’ll research power supplies and aluminum Lian-Li cases for weeks before deciding on the perfect choice for my box.

2. Games, games, games. I know that more and more games are released on the Mac but I want a choice of every single game, and I know they will nearly always be released first on the PC. I can’t imagine sitting around with my Mac while my friends are immersed in a game of Half Life 2.

3. Number of available programs. This doesn’t mean I couldn’t get accustomed to Mac alternatives to Quintessential Player, Desktop Sidebar, or Nero. But it’s still a sizeable investment to research and learn new programs other than those I’ve used for years. Most of my friends run XP so I can oftentimes test out products before I buy.

4. Windows XP is pretty good. It still gives me problems occasionally but overall it’s been quite stable on my system. Sure, it seems to require too many security patches and IE is just terrible, but once it’s tweaked a bit and Firefox is installed, it’s not bad at all. I do hope that Microsoft someday comes around to offering a very scaled down version of Windows minus IE and Media Player and a few other non-essentials.

Having used a PC for the past 15 years I’m still smitten by the Mac. I’ve had an opportunity to use Photoshop on an Apple G5 machine at work and it just feels right. I don’t feel quite at home yet, but I can see really enjoying Jaguar and those applications you hear about that run so well on it like the Adobe apps. I’d love a computer that I don’t have to baby-sit as much as I do my PC. I wish I didn’t have to spend so much time keeping spyware/adware off my machine. So maybe this is the year that we are no longer a PC-centric household.

I realized we’d received a lot of rain this past week but had no idea the scope of damage it would cause. Our family moved from rainy Seattle to a normally dry southern Utah this summer so when we had rain four days straight we didn’t think much about it.

Unfortunately the combination of heavy rains and fast snow melt-off has caused close to $200 million in home and property damage to this small community of Santa Clara and St. George. This past Tuesday I returned from work just in time to turn on the TV and watch home after home fall into the raging Santa Clara river. Most of the homes are just a few minutes from our house in Ivins.

On Wednesday morning we drove though parts of Santa Clara high enough to view the devastation. We saw families with all their belongings loaded onto trucks while some had less than ten minutes to grab what they could and then get out of their house before it disappeared into the river. Here’s one photo I took yesterday that shows one of the many homes that were lost. We feel very blessed to be safe and hope those affected by the floods find quick resolution.

Click here to enlarge

You won’t find it on his blog’s main page but he does have a Firefox link on his press policy page. He knows a quality product when he sees it.

When I interviewed for my current job at LearnKey I was asked to provide a few writing samples. Most of the writing I did took place when I worked for Microsoft and Petplace.com. Well, I never thought to take along digital copies of work I created at Microsoft, and I’m not sure how legal that would be anyway. I suppose if I created a flyer or press release which become public knowledge I could probably pass it on without any problem. Most of the writing I did at Petplace.com is history since they closed down the offices in Seattle.

So that didn’t leave me with much to provide this prospective employer, but I had to provide something. I was browsing around folders on my computer looking for anything that might prove my skills when I figured I’d just provide them with the URL to my blog. I looked over my blog and noticed immediately that most of the writing I had done was very casual. I wasn’t sure it would be in my best interests if I came across as being too relaxed and somewhat sarcastic at times. So I thought about it for a couple of days and figured I might as well provide my blog as they were going to get to know me anyway if they decided I was worth hiring.

I ended up getting the job so my blog must not have been so bad. I waited a couple of months before I suggested to our technology director that our company should encourage a corporate blog of some sort. I explained to her what a blog is and she seemed interested but not exactly convinced. A put my idea on the back burner and decided to bring it up at a later date. But the next week I was in brainstorming sessions with several groups that were discussing upcoming promotions for the year another director at the company suggested that our company start a blog.

So it appears we may jump into the corporate blog waters in the near future. I’m not exactly sure the best route to go as far as where the blog is hosted, who provides support and who is allowed to contribute. I’d be interested to hear from other if you’ve been involved in getting your company to join the blogosphere.

I’ve been using this plug-in for Outlook for about a year now and it’s saved me hours that I used to spend sorting through spam. It’s simple and straight-forward to use as well. I suggest that if you download and install it that you set it to “manual” mode where it watches how you sort your email and learns what you consider spam and what you consider valid email. Sometimes it’s simple tools like this that save the most time. Highly recommended for Outlook users.

Scoble writes an interesting piece on where he sees software playing a part in consumer electronics. This got me thinking about what software is inserted into my life today and what I might like to see in the future.

PDA – I use a Palm Tungsten E PDA that works well for information retrieval and light data entry. I’m sure many other have the problem of syncing up data on a home and work computer. It seems like regardless of how careful I configure the hot sync software, I end up having to baby-sit the data. Sometimes I end up with multiple instances of the same appointment or contact. I’ve used a number of Pocket PC devices and ran into the same problem. Both the Palm and Microsoft software seems to be made to work well on a single computer. Adding another computer to the mix is a crapshoot from my experience. Does anyone have a good solution to this problem?

Car – Currently we have a DVD player in our car for those times we take trips with the kids. It would sure be nice to be able to move programming off my Tivo and onto a DVD and then into the car for viewing. I know that the newly released Tivo-to-Go will eventually allow this, but I use a DirecTivo unit which will never have this feature. I can only hope that DirecTV releases a tuner which allows this but I’m not holding my breath. I have a nice iRiver H-120 mp3 player but I don’t like the idea of moving it to and from my car. I keep enough CDs in the car that I’ve always got something to listen to, but I would like an easy option for making my mp3 collection available in the car without having to tote devices back and forth. Lately I’ve preferred to listen to sports radio or NPR. I’m strongly considering adding a Sirius or XM Radio receiver to my car.

Home Entertainment – Like I mentioned, we own a DirecTivo received with dual tuners. I can’t imagine watching TV program any other way. I would love to be able to to control my DirecTivo from my computer like Series 2 owners can do but I’m not willing to give up dual tuners at any cost. I’m concerned about the complexity and cost of a Microsoft Media Center and don’t like the idea of having a PC in my living room, but I would like my PC to work hand in hand with my Tivo allowing programs to be passed back and forth. I’d like to be able to move programming I download off the internet over to my Tivo to watch when I want. I’d also like to be able to move programming off my Tivo and onto my PC where I can burn to DVD to watch in the car.

Kitchen – I currently don’t have a PC in the kitchen and used to laugh at the notion. But I can see how it would be handy to be able to access recipes, news and music from the kitchen because we spend so much time there as a family.

I don’t quite understand the buzz surrounding the Tablet PC. My main problem with the Tablet is that I type about 70 WPM and I can’t reach anywhere near that speed on a Tablet. When I worked at Microsoft I had access to a Tablet, and it was very handy taking meetings notes especially having campus-wide wireless. It came in handy during boring meetings. Instead of nearly falling asleep or acting like I was engaged, I’d instant message friends. But I’d still prefer a tiny Sony notebook that’s just as mobile as a Tablet but contains a keyboard for faster input. I will admit that one instance where a Tablet came in handy was on a trip from Seattle to Utah when I put several “Dora the Explorer” episodes I’d downloaded off the internet onto the Tablet for the kids to watch on the drive down. This was before I installed the DVD player in the car so it wouldn’t be as critical now, but at the time it was huge sanity saver.

I would think that I’m the type of person that Microsoft would target for it’s Media Center PC, but so far I’m just not very interested. It still seems way too complex for the rest of the family to use with any degree of confidence. Given that it runs on Windows I’m sure it requires frequent updates and too much babysitting. Now that we are used to Tivo, any device that would take its place would have to come with its elegant simplicity. My DirecTivo just works. That’s the best compliment I can give it.