All yesterday I saw murmurings about this new "Mojave" OS that Microsoft was announcing or something along those lines. I have to say, I kind of skimmed over the headlines and skipped reading the articles; I wasn't really interested in a new OS out of Microsoft yet.
Then, for some reason, this retweet on Twitter got me curious. So I googled and found out that what MS did was to gather a focus group of people, and asked them about their opinions about Vista, and why they don't like it or won't use it. Then, they had the group test out their new upcoming operating system, "Mojave". The users came back pouring with 94 percent in favor of the new OS and the other 6% neutral or abstaining. Then it was revealed that Mojave was really just Vista. The users came back with expressions of shock. Microsoft published the videos from the "Mojave Experiment".
I'm not surprised that so many of the subjects had simply assumed bad things about Vista through what they heard around them versus actually trying it. In fact, the results are completely in line with what I would have expected had I heard that it was a non-biased party conducting the experiment and without hearing the results ahead of time. Tech Ex makes a good point though, in saying that the demo doesn't deal at all with configuration usability and other such issues, which could frustrate actual users who do switch to Vista.
Still, I'm impressed with the marketing scheme. I don't think it's a cheap trick, and in fact, I think it's smart. Apple commercials slam directly on PCs. Microsoft is just shooting down false impressions of their own OS, even though they were tricking people to do it.
It'll be interesting to see how this campaign affects their market sales.
20080730
The Mojave Experiment
20080728
Another Reason to Buy DRM-free Music
Normally, the biggest reason cited to buy DRM-free music is to be able to play your purchased songs using whatever player or computer you own as opposed to being restricted through the license on the music in some way. Last last week, users of Yahoo! Music Store were told that any music they bought will no longer work as of September 30, 2008 when the DRM license key servers are taken offline. Yahoo! apparently suggests to users to burn music cds from the songs they "own" the license to, then rip the music cds into mp3s again. As Ars Technica put it and The Washington Post quoted from them, "Sure, you'll lose a bunch of blank CDs, sound quality, and all the metadata, but that's a small price to pay for the privilege of being able to listen to that music you lawfully acquired. Good thing you didn't download it illegally or just buy it on CD!"
There are plenty of places now that you can buy DRM-free music legally. iTunes Store Music defaults to DRM music at $0.99, but you have the choice to buys DRM-free music for $1.29 instead. Rhapsody recently opened up a section to buy DRM-free music for $0.99, and Amazon
20080725
Rest in Peace, Randy Pausch
Since his Last Lecture, I have been checking Randy's blog to check up on how he's doing. When I checked my puter this morning, I was saddened to find that Randy had passed away today.
He inspired many. From time to time, I wish that I had chosen to go into ETC instead of Robotics, and that's his fault. I had been wondering all morning what I'd write about this. Then I got an e-mail from the Office of Alumni Relations at CMU that I think does a good job.
Dear Alumni:
It is with great sadness that I inform you that our dear friend and colleague Randy Pausch passed away today, July 25, after a brave struggle against pancreatic cancer.
Randy captured the minds and hearts of millions worldwide with his Carnegie Mellon lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," and his book, "The Last Lecture."
Randy, who earned his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon in 1988, returned to the university in 1997 as an associate professor of human-computer interaction and computer science. Along with Carnegie Mellon Professor Don Marinelli, Randy was the co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center, a leading interactive multimedia education and entertainment center.
At Carnegie Mellon, Randy was also the director of the Alice software project, a revolutionary way to teach computer programming. The interactive Alice program teaches computer programming by having kids make animated movies and games. A fitting legacy to Randy's life and work, Alice may in the future help to reverse the dramatic drop in the number of students majoring in computer science at colleges and universities. Randy was also known as a pioneer in the development of virtual reality, and he created the popular Building Virtual Worlds class.
An award-winning teacher and researcher, Randy was also a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. He used sabbatical leaves to work at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA), and he consulted with Google Inc. on user interface design. He is the author or co-author of five books and more than 70 articles.
Perhaps the greatest lesson, however, Randy taught us all was how to live, even in the face of great challenges, and how to follow our passion. While Randy's greatest passion was clearly his family, he did not shy from sharing his passion for his work as a professor, for his students, and for Carnegie Mellon. We will miss Randy, but we will carry the memory of him and all that he did to make Carnegie Mellon a better university and each of us who knew him a better person.
A memorial service for Randy will be scheduled at a later date. For more information, visit www.cmu.edu.
Sincerely,
Jared L. Cohon
President, Carnegie Mellon University
Rest in peace, Randy Pausch. You taught us how to live and I have no doubt that your children will know it and remember you well, despite their young ages.
Undervolting the Macbook Air
After reading this post about running cooler without losing performance from the MacRumors forums, I decided I would also try to undervolt my Macbook Air.
What is Undervolting
Undervolting is different from underclocking. Undervolting is a software-based tweak to decrease the amount of power being sent to your CPU. CPUs are not consistent in the amount of voltage needed. Since laptops are mass-produced, they just set a high threshold to ensure the stability of every laptop. On most laptops and in particular the Macbook Air, the voltage is set a lot higher than that which is necessary on the actual chip you received. Undervolting will not reduce the performance of your laptop. Some people claim that it can even speed up the performance of your laptop if it runs at a more optimal temperature without needing to turn on your fan as often, but I think this is purely theoretical and if it does, the performance difference would be marginal at best.
How to Undervolt
Using CoolBook, a Mac-only software by Magnus Lundholm, I was able to play with the settings on my laptop. It also works on Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Depending on how hot your computer gets, it will run at different clock speeds. You can adjust the number of volts sent to the CPU at each speed, or remove different speeds from the configuration. Removing slower speeds will have your computer run faster even if it's getting hot. Removing faster speeds will help conserve energy, particularly useful when you are stuck being on battery power for a long time. The settings are easily resettable to the default, so you don't have to worry about not being able to put your laptop back to the way it was if you are not happy with it.
Since each CPU differs, I cannot recommend a certain set of voltages that will work for your particular laptop, even if it's a Macbook Air like mine. You just have to play with the settings. You can use CPUTest to check your settings to make sure that it works. It'll be some guess and check, but you don't have to tweak it exactly to achieve noticeable results. CPUTest is a free download.
My Results
My computer is very noticeably cooler to touch. Before tweaking, a few minutes of use would bring the bottom of my laptop surprisingly hot to touch. After the tweaking, it remains cool to slightly warm always. I have to say though, during sessions of intense use, the fan still runs a lot more than I would like, but it's definitely an improvement. I spent about 20 minutes playing with my settings, so they probably aren't optimal but I am still more than pleased with the results. And I could always go back and retweak the settings.
The only slight hiccup I had in the process was in the purchase of the license. A license for CoolBook does cost $10 USD (+25% VAT in the EU), which I think is a perfectly reasonable price, and can be bought with PayPal. My PayPal account is set-up to send e-Checks, which take a few days to clear. Understandably, I did not get my license until my check cleared, though I didn't receive verification that the transaction was in process until I pinged support. But don't worry, as soon as it cleared I received my license immediately. They were very responsive once pinged.
20080723
Twitter Etiquette - the dos and don'ts
Recently, my bf joined Twitter and asked me about Twitter etiquette. (Feel free to follow me on Twitter!) Here's the list of Dos and Don'ts I came up with as a result.
DOs
- Update with random thoughts.
- Respond to other people's messages that you find interesting.
- Use @<username> to respond to something someone else is saying. Make sure to spell the username correctly (my biggest problem) so it'll show up on their replies tab (whether or not they are following you).
- Keep your tweets to 140 characters. There's a limit for a reason. Don't split a message into multiple messages. Find a way to make it work.
- Follow anyone you enjoy reading or conversing with.
- Call updates "tweets".
DON'Ts
- Don't use your account only to notify people of new blog posts. That's what feeds are for. It's okay to promote your blog posts, as long as you also make personal updates too (even something as simple as what you ate for lunch).
- Don't have lengthy conversations with someone where you are both responding in real-time to each other through Twitter. That's what chat clients are for.
- Don't reveal anything personal about someone you know. If you want to respond with someone personal that they haven't revealed themselves, use direct messages.
- Don't continuously brag about your intelligence compared to others and then misspell every tweet you have (I unfollowed someone for this... probably the only case I unfollowed a non-bot).
- Don't go around following everyone you can on the public timeline just so you can boost your following/followed numbers.
- Don't follow spammers.
Anything else you think that should be added to these lists?
20080721
sʎɐʍ unɟ ɹǝɥʇo puɐ uʍop ǝpısdn ƃuıʇıɹʍ
The site's been around for a while, but I recently discovered a site that uses Unicode to let you write text upside down.
Here is an example:
˙ʎɹǝʌɐɹq ǝuıuıɯǝɟ ɟo sɯɹoɟ ǝɥʇ ɟo ǝuo sı ʎʇısoıɹnɔ
Users of Linux may know of figlet. You can use this web figlet site to help you create figlet messages in various fonts.
Here is an example (font: three-point):
/~` _. _ _._|_ . _ _ _ _ _ |` _|_|_ _
\_,|_|| |(_)_\| | \/ |_\ (_)| |(/_ (_)~|~ | | |(/_
/
|` _ _ _ _ _ _ |` |` _ _ _ . _ . _ _
~|~(_)| | | |_\ (_)~|~ ~|~(/_| | ||| ||| |(/_
|_ _ _ _ _
|_)| (_|\/(/_| \/.
/
Not quite as common, but some Linux users may also be familiar with cowsay. This site is an improvement over cowsay, providing other creatures as well.
Here are some examples:
__________________________________
/ Curiosity is one of the forms of \
\ feminine bravery. /
----------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
__________________________________
( Curiosity is one of the forms of )
( feminine bravery. )
----------------------------------
o ___-------___
o _-~~ ~~-_
o _-~ /~-_
/^\__/^\ /~ \ / \
/| O|| O| / \_______________/ \
| |___||__| / / \ \
| \ / / \ \
| (_______) /______/ \_________ \
| / / \ / \
\ \^\\ \ / \ /
\ || \______________/ _-_ //\__//
\ ||------_-~~-_ ------------- \ --/~ ~\ || __/
~-----||====/~ |==================| |/~~~~~
(_(__/ ./ / \_\ \.
(_(___/ \_____)_)
__________________________________
/ Curiosity is one of the forms of \
\ feminine bravery. /
----------------------------------
\ . .
\ / `. .' "
\ .---. < > < > .---.
\ | \ \ - ~ ~ - / / |
_____ ..-~ ~-..-~
| | \~~~\.' `./~~~/
--------- \__/ \__/
.' O \ / / \ "
(_____, `._.' | } \/~~~/
`----. / } | / \__/
`-. | / | / `. ,~~|
~-.__| /_ - ~ ^| /- _ `..-'
| / | / ~-. `-. _ _ _
|_____| |_____| ~ - . _ _ _ _ _>
__________________________________
( Curiosity is one of the forms of )
( feminine bravery. )
----------------------------------
o
o
,;;;;;;;,
;;;;;;;;;;;,
;;;;;'_____;'
;;;(/))))|((\
_;;((((((|))))
/ |_\\\\\\\\\\\\
.--~( \ ~))))))))))))
/ \ `\-(((((((((((\\
| | `\ ) |\ /|)
| | `. _/ \_____/ |
| , `\~ /
| \ \ /
| `. `\| /
| ~- `\ /
\____~._/~ -_, (\
|-----|\ \ ';;
| | :;;;' \
| / | |
| | |
20080718
Playing Bridge Online
I'm back from Las Vegas! Why was I there? Nope, it wasn't a sorority sister's bachelorette party. Nor was I there to get hitched or gamble. Instead, I was there for a bridge tournament.
Many people think of bridge as the game their grandmother plays in the kitchen with her friends. Some have grandmothers that go to tournaments trying to gain masterpoints and achieve various ranks (I myself am a Life Master). But this game isn't just for LOLs (Little Old Ladies). This game is also played by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, James Cayne (goes by Jimmy in the bridge world), and Warren Spector (former Bear Stearns co-President and co-COO). And all four of them are known to play online on Bridge Base Online (BBO). While Buffett and Gates usually play on anonymous accounts, Jimmy Cayne can be found as "jec" (James E. Cayne), regularly hosting "Cayne vs Stars" team games where you can kibitz (in bridge, meaning to quietly watch and learn, as opposed to chess' definition of kibitz) him playing against world class players. Warren Spector can also be found on BBO, as "warrens".
Bridge Base was created by bridge expert Fred Gitelman. Before Bridge Base, most online players played on free sites such as Yahoo! Games, MSN Game Zone, or paid sites such as OKBridge, the then favorite of experts, or others. Yahoo! uses rubber scoring whereas the rest used duplicate bridge scoring. In duplicate bridge, everyone plays the same hands and the results are compared to each other, so unlike poker, it has nothing to do with the luck of what hands you get but instead, what you do with a hand. If you pick up a monster hand such as: AKQJ AKQ AKQ AKQ, which is a clear "7NT" (the highest possible bid), it will be a tie score (50% in matchpoints, or a push (tie board, zero score for both teams) in IMPS) and getting the good cards doesn't actually give an advantage to those who get the hand over those with a bad hand. Bridge Base is now the lead duplicate bridge site. It has the most world class expert players, keeps stats, broadcasts real life tournaments from all over the world through the system, has a partnership bidding section, and is completely free. Gitelman's friendship with Gates over the years has now formed a partnership with the online bridge sites as well. Yesterday, MSN Game Zone announced its partnership with Bridge Base. I see this as a great opportunity for online bridge to gain even more popularity, drawing upon the membership of MSN Game Zone as well now.
Nationals in Las Vegas continue until the end of next week. You can watch portions of the tournament online through Bridge Base's online client, downloading their bridge software, or going through their online play client. Unfortunately, the downloadable version is Windows only, but their FAQ provides ways of getting it to work on Mac or Linux.
20080716
RoboJenny on Vacation
Sorry, I thought I'd be able to blog from Vegas, but finding it difficult to find time. =) At least you guys got 2 posts on Monday to make up for it.
Be back Friday!
20080714
External Hard Drive Suggestions
I received a comment in my post, Asus EEE PC, a smart cheap laptop alternative saying:
hey jenny ... do you have a recommendation for an external hard drive to get? i'm getting paranoid that my computer will crash and grad school work will disappear without ever getting backed up
I tried responding back in the comments, but my response is too long, so I copy-pasted it as a separate post here.
This is actually something I've done a lot of research on recently. Note that I was researching for external hard drives that could work for either Windows boxes or Macs. First of all, it depends on what size you want. If you want something large, there are many reasonably-priced 1 terabyte hard drives out there. I would describe them as roughly the side of a hard-cover Harry Potter book. They need external power from an AC adapter though. Amazon has the best prices by far. If you want one of these, I would look at the Western Digital My Book
If you're looking for something more portable to go along with a laptop, the max size is 320GB. I personally just ordered one myself earlier this week, but I have been watching the prices for a while. It seems that every week, they bounce back and forth between $125-129 and ~$155. For this range, I suggest one of three different brands: Western Digital My Passport
Hope that answers kgorm's comment and maybe help others as well!
Searching Online for Cheap Flights, Hotels, and Trip Ideas
I fly out tonight to Las Vegas, so I figured it would be fitting to do a post on tips on planning a trip using all the available online tools.
To search for flights, sites like SideStep or Kayak are the best. They ping and submit your search to all of the major airline in addition to sites such as Travelocity and Expedia. It then aggregates all of the results onto one screen. Their websites are also very well designed, using AJAX to let you filter items without having to submit or refresh the page. The one negative is that they do not search the low cost airlines like SouthWest, AirTran, and JetBlue, so I search those individually, depending on where I'm going. There are sites that claim to do the same thing as SideStep and Kayak, except they include the low-cost airlines, but I find that they are actually still inferior and it's still easier and more reliable to find better deals the way I suggest.
As for hotels, I find that Hotels.com does a very good job. They have really improved their site over the years to become truly a paradigm of Web 2.0 technology. There are a ton of user reviews for each hotel, the site uses a mash-up with Navteq to show where hotels are located in relation to landmarks and attractions, and the site is rich with interactive components using AJAX without refreshing or submitting pages. The tool is the easiest to use out of all the sites, and provides great deals on hotels. They even provide coupons
from time-to-time to give you an even bigger deal on hotel rooms than you can find on other sites.
Finally, if you just want to go somewhere as long as it's cheap and interesting, I would keep an eye on TravelZoo. Signing up (for free) to receive their top 20 deals makes it easy to keep an eye out for a good deal that looks interesting and fun.
20080711
Dealing with Long URLs and Big Files
Today I just want to share two useful online tools that I use to deal with large things. The first is to deal with long URLs. Sometimes, when you copy-paste a URL to a friend, it ends up being really long and depending on the editor, it can wrap in such a way that it breaks into two lines and is no longer a simple URL to copy-paste or click. It can also be too long to send in certain character limited fields. To solve this problem, I use TinyURL. I probably use TinyURL more than any other simple web tool there is out there. When I first started using Twitter, I was so pleased to see that it automatically converted links using TinyURL, which I was already a big fan of. It will create a permanent link to your URL, shortening your URL by dozens of characters. For example, the long form of this post is: http://www.robojenny.com/2008/07/dealing-with-long-urls-and-big-files.html. I inputted it into TinyURL and got: http://tinyurl.com/5r4x68, which is 49 characters shorter. Unsure of a TinyURL that you received and you want to make sure it's not a site that will install viruses onto your computer? Go to http://preview.tinyurl.com/
Another useful webtool I use frequently is YouSendIt. YouSendIt solves the problem of trying to upload and send large files via e-mail or using FTPs. With a free account, you can send files up to 100MB. YouSendIt will e-mail a link to your friend(s) to download your file. With a paid account, you can send multiple files up to 2GB each, track who has downloaded your files, get a dropbox page where other people can leave you files, and more. There are also corporate and business accounts for purchase. A free trial is available for any of the three types of paid accounts, though I personally find the free lite account to be enough for my needs.
20080709
Long Fingernails and iPhones
An article about women angered that the iPhone cannot be used with long fingernails has gotten a lot of press yesterday (though the article was first published last month in the LA Times. I find the picture posted with the article to be misleading; with fingernails at the length of the ones shown in the picture, the iPhone is perfectly usable as long as you make sure to put your flesh flat against the iPhone. With fingernails at that length, I find that I have to type in a similar fashion, where you flatten your knuckles and type flat-fingered. With fingernails that are long enough to curl around however, it is true that the iPhone does not work in the same way.
I have seen many secretaries with beautifully manicured fingernails that curl around. I am always amazed that they can type with their nails, but they can. Nails that long are a lot stronger and can push down the keys. The iPhone however, "responds to the electrical charge emitted by fingertips" and therefore will not respond to the chitin of fingernails even if they are strong enough to hit the surface consistently. When I heard this story talked about on Elliott in the Morning, one woman stated that with fingernails like these, the side of the finger can be used. A third-party stylus for the iPhone does exist, complete with clip, but Apple itself does not provide one.
What seems to be more surprising are the reactions to the supposed women who are complaining about this problem. While I would've expected people to complain about other people complaining (seems to always happen), I didn't expect so many people automatically stereotyping these women by referring to them as "bimbos." While I generally keep my nails shorter for playing piano and playing ultimate (it does also make it easier to type... my "N" key always seems to get scratched up somehow with the way I type), I do enjoy keeping longer manicured nails either in the off-season or in preparation of a formal event. I personally have not faced any problems with using the iPhone while my nails have been long. These women seem to feel that an injustice has been done to them since they feel like they weren't considered at all as a demographic for the iPhone, but I think a greater injustice has been done with the stereotyping of women who care about personal beauty as well as technology.
20080707
Stuffed Robots
This beautiful "Robot Inspired Art" is from StuffedRobots.com. They currently have three robots to choose from, all very cute and full of personality. They are each handmade in the US and quality made.
20080704
Firework Lighting Robot
Happy Fourth of July to my fellow American readers!
If you're in one of the states that allow fireworks, be careful! Fireworks can be dangerous. Today's video is an automated robot that can light your fireworks for you.
This robot was built with LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT
20080702
Make Sure Your New iPhone 3G will be Scratch-Free
In just a little over a week, Apple's iPhone 3G will hit the stores. Unfortunately, I seem to always manage to get scratches on my iPods within the first week getting them.
invisibleSHIELD skins
Not this time though, since I decided to do research and order a skin for my new iPhone ahead of time. After reading forums, visiting websites, and asking friends, I put in my order for the invisibleSHIELD for the iPhone 3G (with bestskinsever as a close second). Many other skin companies have prettier skins, but their quality didn't look as good, and most didn't have any for specifically the 3G anyway (which is shaped differently than the original iPhone). At invisibleSHIELD, all pre-orders for the 3G are 20% off, and receive free shipping. The free shipping takes 1-2 weeks though, but if you order now you should have your shield to put on your iPhone 3G immediately when you get it! Even though it's a pre-order, they aren't waiting until the 3G is out to start shipping; they will ship in time for you to receive the skin by July 11. The shields are industrial strength as the videos on the website show, and they are semi-permanent, meaning they are made to stay on, but are removable if you want to remove them. Putting the invisibleSHIELD will not void your warranty, and taking it off will not leave a scratch. If ever you have to take off the invisibleSHIELD for repair or replacement from warranty, invisibleSHIELD will send you a new skin for free; there is a lifetime guarantee on the product!
invisibleSHIELD also makes skins for laptops and other phones. I ended up ordering two iPhone 3G skins (one for my brother), and a skin for my Macbook Air. Buying 3 products at once, they gave me a 30% discount on the whole order! That made it so one of the skins was practically free.
Applying a Skin to a Laptop or Phone
Having done research on skins on several forums, it sounds like applying the skins will only take 5 minutes for phones and 15 minutes for laptops. I took notes on the tips they gave on these sites. First, it's good to work in a steamy bathroom, to prevent dust from getting trapped between your product and the skin. Wash your hands and make sure your device is off when applying the skin. Apparently some skins come with sprays to use. Instead of using a spray, make a mixture of warm water and baby shampoo (or another mild soap but looks like baby shampoo works best). If bubbles form from making this mixture, wait until they go away before using it. Dip your hands into the solution and pick up the skin. Remove the backing from the skin (but remember which side the backing was on) and dip the skin into the mixture. Remove the skin from the mixture, letting the excess water drip off of it. Hold it above your device and let it attach itself to one side and slowly let it contact across your whole device. If your skin has flaps, don't worry about pushing them down yet. Now take a rubber squeegee and dip it into the solution and squeegee the bubbles out of the skin. If the squeegee gets dry, make sure to wet it again. If you don't have a rubber squeegee, you can use the edge of a credit card. If there are small bubbles or water under the skin still, don't worry; just let the skin sit until dry and they will go away in the evaporation process. Let the skin set for 24 hours. After it dries, push down the flaps.
If you are interested in buying one of the other skins on the website and would like a 20% discount, please let me know; they sent me 2 one-time use 20% coupons after I placed my order and I can pass on those coupons to you.
