Safari has uphill battle

I wasn’t surprised to see Apple release their Safari browser for Windows today. I installed it tonight and played around with it for a few minutes. After visiting a few sites, I right-clicked and dragged my mouse down, forgetting momentarily that Safari doesn’t have ‘mouse gestures’ like I’ve installed on Firefox not to mentioned a few dozen other plug-ins I won’t browse without. This makes the likelihood that I’d ever switch browsers very unlikely.

iTunes became a hit on Windows because it was required to load music on your iPod, not necessarily because it’s a superior product. Does Apple feel there is a large enough audience out there who is unhappy with IE, Firefox, and Opera? Safari isn’t a bad browser, but I don’t know what it brings to the game. Maybe it loads pages faster in official, measured tests, but in my unofficial tests, it felt about the same at Firefox. Microsoft has 75% of the browser market on Windows and Firefox has 15%. I just can’t see IE and Firefox users switching to Safari. That leaves a 10% chunk for all the 3rd tier browsers to fight over.

Would Apple have the guts to bundle Safari with iTunes, the way they did with QuickTime?

DirectX Creator: Vista broken for gaming

I guess I’m not the only person who has run into problems with Windows Vista. I was reading the latest CPU Magazine, specifically a column titled, Vista Bombs, by one of the founding creators of DirectX technology when he worked as a Microsoft employee. He’s now the CEO of Wild Tangent.

Here is the first paragraph to the article and he only gets more blunt:

Well, I hate to say I told you so, but after five years in development and 50 million lines of code, Vista arrived to deafening accolades of silence. Before Vista launched, I wrote several columns warning CPU readers that the early beta versions looked critically flawed, insecure, bloated, and broken for gaming. What I heard from many readers and Microsoft was, “Oh that’s just the beta, it will all be fixed before the launch.” The best thing about Vista having launched is that I’m no longer the only one saying these things. Vista is out there for everyone to judge and is shaping up to be a bigger, more expensive failure for Microsoft than Windows Me.

Why the Wii is Winning

“We are not competing against Sony or Microsoft. We are battling the indifference of people who have no interest in videogames.”

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata

Fortune Magazine has a very interesting article on why the Nintendo Wii is beating the pants off Sony and Microsoft. I believe one reason the Wii has been successful is that it appeals to a much wider audience than the PS3 or Xbox. I only hear males talk about Xbox or PS3 or PSP, but I hear men and women of all ages talk about the Wii.

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Taco Salad

I went to Taco Time tonight and ordered a shredded beef taco salad. I asked for black beans, ranch dressing and no salsa. The lady taking my order said, “Salsa only comes on the tostada salad, not yours”. Ok, cool.

So I was surprised when this same gal brought the taco salad to our table with salsa stacked on top. Before I could say anything she said, “They put salsa on it instead of black beans…..should I have them make you another one?”

I’m not sure why she took the time to ask. But she went back and had them make what I ordered so all ended well.

The Dark Side of the Moon

I can’t believe I didn’t come across Wil Wheaton’s blog before this weekend. But I’m glad I did just in time to read this post about his favorite album of all time: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

This has been my favorite album as well for many years. It doesn’t seem that long ago when one of teammates on our high school baseball dubbed the album to cassette for me and told me to listen. I loved it the first time I played it through. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard. The mood, the subtle guitar, the background voices and sounds and machines. It was all there as it opened my mind to how music could be used to relax. Most of the music I was into up until then was loud, screeching metal or hard rock. Dark Side changed that.

I carried my Walkman and that cassette tape darn near everywhere I went for several years. When my dubbed version wore out I bought the album from which I’d make copies over the years. It came in handy during long bus trips around the state of Utah for baseball, basketball and football games. It helped me relax before and after the games. Like a good book, it would pull me into a world of mellow. The instruments, the lyrics and the mood they set were perfect. Even the cover is perfect.

I can’t imagine another album reaching me like Dark Side has. Back in 1984 it become my favorite album which still stands today.

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The Low Tech Approach

crayons.jpgMy oldest daughter, Luca, found a website where she could create a calender. She picked a header picture and gave her calender a theme. The website automatically added any holidays to the calendar.

When she was finished with her design she asked if I’d print it to our color printer. I told her I’d do that but that she first might want to type in any special appointments on the calendar such as her Grandfather’s visit next month.

Luca looked at me and said, “I don’t want to type it. I want you to print it and then I’ll color it in myself with crayons and add stickers to it”.

I thought for a moment. I then printed her calendar knowing she was right. Typing in the special dates doesn’t make it very special, but coloring it in on her own would.

Sometimes the low tech approach is the best approach.

Software to do the Job

Have you ever worked for a company that wouldn’t provide the software you needed to do your job? Most companies I’ve worked for were either very good at providing the software I needed or very good at looking the other direction as employees brought software from home. One company forced us all to use Lotus Notes which was painful.

Most of the software I want on my work computer is available for download for free. But there are times when I wish I had Photoshop installed. I guess Microsoft Digital Image Suite will have to suffice for the time being.

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Would you like to save $2.83?

I feel sorry for the employees who are instructed to ask every customer if they’d like to save money on their purchase by applying for a credit card. If you’ve shopped at Target, Eddie Bauer, or Mervyns you’ll inevitably be asked if you’d like to apply for one of their store branded cards.

I find such policies annoying in most cases especially when I’ve already taken out my American Express and run it through the card reader. But such a policy borders on the comical when the employee is forced to shill the card regardless how much a customer spends.

I recently purchased a few pair of socks and was tempted to open an Eddie Bauer credit card to save $2.83. I just shook my head as the cashier smiled, sensing the humor in the offer.