Why Windows Is So Expensive

Cuz they are. The Firefox Extension Guru's Blog Discusses the Expense of Windows Vista and Office 2007 in some detail. Now they say Windows 7 will be more expensive than Vista or XP.

But Microsoft keeps attacking Apple about the expense of their stuff. Hmmm. Jealous, maybe?

Anyway, you can get some software somewhat cheaper at Software Supply Group. I don't work for them anymore, but they're all right. I'm busy trying to sell discount medical supplies and hospital equipment.

Windows 7 Will Never Hit the Ultrathin Notebook Sweetspot

Windows 7 Ultrathin notebooks not hitting the sweet spot, according to Mary-Jo Foley.

But of course. And nothing is going to hit the ultrathin notebook sweetspot, or the netbook sweetspot, until Apple comes out with there iPhone-based tablet that'll knock everybody's socks off. Which will happen, soon enough.

PC World says the Apple Tablet is real. Now, we'll finally get an actual netbook market. Sorta like we got an MP3 market when Apple released the iPod, and finally got a touch-screen Internet phone market when Apple released the iPhone.

That's the stone-cold truth. Later, my friends.

Tron: Legacy Will Be Truly Banging

Of course, Tron: Legacy now has it's official name. I like it. Evokes the idea of maybe spending a little time running through the old mainframes at Encom, running into Ram and passing the old I/O towers. Legacy code. You know.

Michael Sheen, best known as Tony Blair in The Queen and that other movie, as well as David Frost in Frost Vs. Nixon and some silly glittering vampire in one of the Twilight movies--oh, and the main badass werewolf in the Underworld movies--will play the bad guy in Tron: Legacy.

Man, I really wish I could have been at SDCC to go to Flynn's and play Space Paranoids. Sigh. Geek nirvana--the most magical thing I can possibly imagine for my life--and I missed it. I feel like crying.

And here's the "trailer" for Tron: Legacy. Sigh. Can't wait for that.

The Official Tron Legacy Trailer
by allthingsdisney

Love Me Some Harry Potter

I actually haven't seen the new movie yet. But I have listened to the last two books in audiobook format, and they were both great books. And I'm listening to the previous books now, as I never made my way through them. Awesome.

Like I said, I haven't seen the most recent movie yet, but I understand that Hermione Granger has bloomed into a most charming young woman in this latest installment.

Looks like she could use a wireless bra-top blood pressure transmitter. Or Harry and Ron could, really, I suppose.

Jim Dale really does a great job of reading the books. Get 'em all from Amazon here.

In other news, you gotta read Athra. It's an on-line graphic novel by a friend of mine, and it's totally awesome. Go now!

Tron 2 At Comi-Con

Oh, it's coming. Two new viral sites for the new Tron movie have been loosed upon an unsuspecting public: Flynn Lives and Home of Tron. And a non-news update from Ain't It Cool News recently hit, as well.

In other news, if you're looking for goniometers, like this finger goniometer, or this extendable goniometer, then follow the links and all your goniometer dreams will come true.

How about exam lamps, like this Grafco Halogen Exam Lamp? Or how about Stethoscopes? Like this MDF Premier Stethoscope. The MDF® ER Premier™ 22K Gold-Plated Stethoscope is a robust and versatile stethoscope with superior acoustic quality that enables ER physicians to deliver fast and efficient emergency care to both pediatric and adult patients using just one stethoscope. Also with an included Bell Conversion this stethoscope can be transformed into Classic Cardiology™ Stethoscope. Precisely handcrafted from premium stainless steel for the highest performance and unmatched durability in any emergency medical setting. Pretty cool, huh?

Not exactly software and technology, but I've got to do whatever I can to promote the job I have, which is hanging on by a thread. So I'll try just about anything. Come on by! Feed my children! Take care of your healthcare needs! And . . . more later.

Bye!

CompuServe, Which Nobody Knew Was Still In Business, Closes Its Doors

Although if you go to http://www.cs.com/ they don't see to know it, yet. They still try and get you to sign up!


Ah, history. CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It charged hourly rates, and those rates were expensive. You might spend $79 dollars a month, now, to get gigabits of always-on internet access, at the top. Back in the day, you could burn through $79 in a single evening, chatting on the CB at 300 Baud thanks to your handy-dandy accoustic modem.

That's an Anderson Jacobson accoustic modem, almost exactly like the one I used to have, and which I used for years until I finally got a Hayes 1200 Baud direct-connect smartmodem. Ah, technology!

BTW, that Smartmodem 1200 was $699, back in the day when it was first introduced. That'd be about what? $1500 now? I bought mine a little later, and it was only $399. Still--wow. Expensive.

UPDATE: I decided to check this using The Inflation Calculator. What cost $699 in 1981 would cost someone $1635.20 in 2008 dollars. So, there ya go.

CompuServe hung-on. My very first internet access was through Compuserve, using their PPP service to establish my Internet connection. My, how things have changed. And now, Compuserve is on the way out. Goodbye, CIS! We shall miss you.

Looking for discount medical, hospital and clinical equipment? Look no further than DME Medical Supplies. Just FYI.

Anyone else remember Apple's eWorld? I gotta do a post on that, sometime.

The Mophie Juice Pack Makes Your iPhone Drinkable

No, not really. The Mophie Juice Pack provides longer battery life for your iPhone. Which is handy, if you can't be bothered to remember to plug the thing in on a regular basis.

And somebody says you can win a Mophie Juice Pack or something. Cool.



In other Macintosh related news, here are 10 OS X Pranks that'll get you fired. Or at least physically assaulted.

In other news, this cartoon is just stupid.

Seriously, the fact that Google is launching some amorphous effort at creating a desktop operating system--maybe--is the equivalent of kicking Microsoft in the sensitive parts? No, no really. In fact, it's nothing like it. There is already Red Hat and Ubuntu and Mac OS X, and Microsoft has survived that all well. Just because Google is--well, Google--doesn't mean that simply announcing they are going to do some sort of operating system means they'll displace Microsoft in the enterprise, or on home PCs, and that's 99% of Microsoft's market. Might catch on in developing nations. Whenever they get regionalization done. And so on.

Sigh.