The Tablet’s Are Coming, The Tablet's Are Coming

What’s all the fuss now day’s with the tablet PC’s? It seems as though that all the major computing companies are distributing them. The lesser know companies are manufacturing them as well. It seems as though everyone wants in one the growing bandwagon and as usual everyone wants to cash in. Whenever the things first came out (Microsoft released a version way back in 2001, a full X86 version) nobody wanted them, they just sat on the shelves clogging up valuable retail space. I guess that it really wasn’t until Apple came out with the iPad in April of last year, that kick started the craze once again.                   Now we have like I’ve mentioned different manufacture’s processing them. It is probably due to the fact of the Android Operating system. Then of course Microsoft has put Windows 7 on their versions. Apple has got the iOS for the iPad, and there are some companies that are releasing some with Linux on them. Of course there are a lot of different tablet’s, running different OS’s, as well different architecture’s (processor’s). Some of those different processor’s include the ARM, Intel Atom, and the X86.                       I myself don’t own one, but if I was to buy one, it would be a tossup between an iPad an a tablet with the Android on it. I feel as though that those two particular operating system’s are perfect for the tablet. What I like with Apple and Google’s Android, is well, the apps. I just really enjoy all of the different games, utilities, productivity apps. The list is almost endless. I would say that the Android does have the advantage though. Most all of their apps are free and the price of say the Samsung Galaxy Tab is much more cheaper than the iPad.                    Still for some reason people are buying them. Apple sold 3 million in under 90 day’s. More and more of the cell phone provider’s are starting to carry them as well. Do you think that the cell phone is going to become obsolete? In 10 years from now, will we all have them. I’ve read that doctor’s, teacher’s, businessmen all over the country are switching to them. I even read of one instance, I think of some city in the state of Tennessee they are requiring the student’s from the 6th to the 12th grade to have them.                    I know that where I work there have been rumor’s of us switching to the iPad’s. They say are productivity is supposed to increase tremendously. Anything would be better than our 10 year old Panasonic Toughbook’s. I’m sure they were fine for their time. Who knows, 10 maybe 20 year’s from now, everyone will have them. I think that Dell does make a model that does make phone calls. I for one really do hope that we switch to them here at work. I can’t wait to try one out. Then again on know that you can go on eBay and find a fairly cheap model running the Android. Tell me does anyone out there have any thoughts or ideas on the Tablet’s? I can be reached @ Godstempel@gmail.com    As always get out there and enjoy your day!

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10,000,000,000 Billion Downloads & Counting

       Wow, do we love the iPod or what? Can you believe that they have reached this amazing milestone? It was just a little over 10 years ago whenever Apple released the first iPod. As a matter of fact Apple released the first iPod MP3 player on October 23, 2001. I believe that this is the product that saved the company. After Microsoft had a very good decade in the 90’s with the Window’s operating system, Apple came along with these wonderful little gem’s. Admit it, those of you who have one, love it don’t you? You, if you are like me, wouldn’t give it up for anything.


        They come in various models, from the shuffle, classic, and the touch. They have discontinued a few model’s as well. Like the photo, mini, and the ever popular nano. What all of us really didn’t enjoy was the software. It seems as though at first, iTunes was really only compatible on the Mac, NOT the PC. Over the year’s though if I do say so myself, iTunes has gotten a lot better. Then it happened on April 29, 2003, the iTunes store. This is where it all started.


       Everyone remembers being able to buy and download MP3’s. You could either buy a single song or the cd. Single song’s sold for $1.29, while the cd went for $9.99. There are still, for whatever reason, a lot of various artist who refuse to sell the material through the iTunes store. It took a very long time for my favorite band of all time to make it, but hey they made it. I am of course talking about the originator’s, The Beatles.


       Then they just had to do it. They released the iPhone and my personal favorite, the iPod Touch. That’s where we get all of the apps. It was in September of 2006 when they started selling games and iTunes 7 came out. No looking back. They truly have an app for all of your needs. From office, productivity, utilities, games, books, the list goes on. I almost forgot, in April of 2010 the released the iPad. They sold an astounding 3 million of them in 80 day’s. We love our technology. What are you waiting for? You know that you want to, go ahead it’s o.k., head on over to the iTunes store right now and purchase something. As always, enjoy your day! 

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Chaos in Egypt

                   I didn’t know if anyone was paying attention to what’s going on in the world today, but I would say that we have another sad case of the way that we have become as a people. First the Egyptian government cut off services for Facebook and Twitter, now it seems as though that they have cut off all internet and mobile services altogether. You know, I sure am glad that we live in a free country. How many of you good people out there could go a day without Facebook or Twitter? Let alone having to go without internet or mobile services all together?


                        It seems as though that the Egyptian people have taken their protest to the streets? Would we do that in this country? You had better believe that we would! They say that the Egyptian people are protesting, which rioting has ensued from it. Could you imagine what it would be like to NOT get on the internet or pull out your iPhone, and not be able to make a call.


                        The current Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has called for the countries government to resign. Meanwhile the Egyptian people are calling for Mubarak’s 30 year reign in that country to come to an end. How bad is it going to become? I would say watch your favorite news channel, CNN, FOX, or whatever channel, and let’s see how things transpire. As always get out there and enjoy your day!    

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More from the Cloud

             You know some of the processes that we are able to do with today’s modern technology is absolutely amazing. I like many other’s around there world still run the Microsoft operating system. I am not knocking it at all. I think though that they finally got it right whenever they put XP on the market. Then of course we all know what happened after that, we all were exposed to the nightmare of Vista. It seemed as though that each new operating system that they released, you had to almost buy a new computer, or upgrade something. Then 7 came out. A truly great operating system, I think. If you haven’t upgraded, you need to.

            Then today as usual, I’m always trying to keep up with the latest technology I run across this article:    http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/32230/?ref=rss
It seems as though there are a few companies out there who are really trying to help those that can’t afford a new computer.

          If you read the article, it talks about a company called NeverWare, that have designed a cloud server called the Juicebox a100. It allows an older computer to be able to upgrade to the latest operating system. Now this I would say has been a long time coming. They say, once connected the PC doesn’t need a hard drive or any local software at all. Their Juicebox server allows those like school’s to be able to upgrade through virtualization and the cloud.

        There are a few other companies out there, who have something similar going. I for one am all for it. I just wish that they had came around 10 year’s or so ago whenever we all had to upgrade from 98SE to XP. What are they going to think of next. If you are interested in things like this, I encourage you to read the article. Enjoy your day!   

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CompTIA

               Today I would like to expound a little about the CompTIA certificates. I am presently studying for my A+ Certification. I didn't know if their were other's out there, who were doing the same. I have found it to be a lot of studying, through books, watching video's, and of course hands on.  You may ask, what is CompTIA? Well, I'll tell you, it's the Computing Technology Industry Association, it is known as the provider of professional certifications for the information technology industry (IT).  Right now the Comptia Associating is offering almost half price on their membership.


               They offer a number of different certifications in the IT field. First I think would be the A+ certification. It is the certificate that demonstrates competency as a computer technician. It cover's a number of different technologies and  computer operating system's. Topic's of the essential's or core examination's, include IRQ's, direct memory access, and practical computer repair. Some or all of the things that you would study would be, the installation and repair of hard drives, modem's, network card's, CPU' (central processing unit's), power supplies, PDA's, and printer's. The main focus is not theory, but practice.

               There are a number a number of different vendor's or provider's who offer help for this certification. They offer what they call " boot camps" for this offering. Prices vary, due a search if you are interested. I myself am unable to afford some of the pricing. That's why for me, I relied on my good 'ol friend Google.


              Upon doing a thourough search, I was able to obtain a lot of vauluble, even you may call priceless information. One day while doing a search, I came across a guy that goes by the name of Professor Messer. I have got to tell you, this guy is brilliant! A very good teacher in the IT field. He has a website, the address is here: http://www.professormesser.com/  He has on his website, put together a number of different video's on a number of different topic's ranging from CompTIA A+, Network, Security, Microsoft, to name a few catagories. Some of his video's, he offer's freely. His pricing on his full length video's are very reasonable.


           You can also view samples of his video's on Youtube as well.  I myself am looking forward to the day of taking and passing my A+ certification. I would like to say that I don't mind the job that I have now, it's just not the right job. I am passionate about being in the IT field. Working with computer's and on computer's is something that I truly enjoy. Remember to as always get out there and enjoy your day and enjoy what you are doing!  

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Google CR-48 Notebooks

           I know that I’ve mentioned this on here before, but I wanted everyone to take advantage of this great opportunity. Our good friends at Google are delivering, or shipping more of their CR-48 notebooks. I just read the latest news, that can be found here:
http://chromeossite.com/ 

         

           It seems as though, that they have extended their pilot program as well. So, what is everyone waiting for? Head on over to the Pilot Program website and put in all of the required information, that the good people at Google need. Who knows, maybe you can be one of the fortunate or shall we say “lucky” recipient of one of the CR-48’s. It is pre loaded with the new Chrome OS. It seems as though, that I almost forgot to tell all of you good people where to go to sign up for the Pilot Program. That website can be found here:  http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program.html   As always, get out there and enjoy your day.

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The Cloud

     Today I would like to focus a little on one of the new sensation’s that’s sweeping the internet, it’s the Cloud. It’s really not new, but I think that it is now finally starting to take off in a very big way. Just what is Cloud Computing? Well let’s just take a blog and see here, it’s location independent computing, where shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices, as in an electricity grid. It’s the widespread adoption of virtualization.  To me that’s it, just virtual. There are many computer companies out there who provide such services. You don’t have to have a lot of server’s for your workplace anymore, you just buy cloud services.

         One of the best ideas’ in technology to come along I think. Everyone who’s ready to try out cloud computing, just do a search on it. Google’s new operating system is based on Cloud Computing. You no longer have to have a very high powered computer, like Microsoft wants you to have. Seems as though evey system that they put out, you had to have a better processor, memory, hard drive, and so on. Google wants it where you don’t have to have much memory and no or a small hard drive. Everything will be done online. That is where we spend a lot of our time anyway.

        There are a few other cloud based operating system’s out there, from JoliCloud, Vmware, Red Hat Linux, IBM, Good OS, eyeOS, Easy Peasy, Ubuntu Linux Server “Cloud Edition”. The Cloud Operating System is a very simplistic system that runs a web browser, providing the user with access to a variety of web based application’s  that allows the user to perform many simple tasks without booting a full blown operating system. Because of it’s simplicity, it has a boot time of a few seconds. It’s designed mainly for netbooks, mobile internet devices, and older slower PC’s, that are mainly used to browse the internet. From the cloud the user can quickly boot into the OS, because the cloud continues booting the main os in the background.  

       Web and App developer’s like to use it, because it provides them the opportunity to try their new developments. I personally don’t really know a whole lot about it. I have installed and messed around with a few of the systems myself. I am as always very interested and very eager to learn. Do a search for yourself, and if you know anymore than I do, please feel free to share. Leave a comment or shoot me an email @ Godstempel@gmail.com  Go on get out there and enjoy your day!     

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USB FLASH DRIVES

                            

     The USB Flash Drive. There was a time when these little gems came out they only had a limited amount of space, and the price was really expensive. I remember just the 128 mega byte. Year by year though as we advanced in computer technology, our hard drives got bigger, more storage space. We increased our memory as well, it only made sense with more people using these little gem’s that they would grow in size as well. It’s not unusual to find a 4 GB drive or even an 8 GB drive as a standard these are really cheap at WalMart. You can pick up the 4 Gigabyte for around $10, and the 8 Gigabyte for around $20.

       They have many uses. Most people use to just carry them around in their pocket with office files or pictures, not anymore. You can run some of your favorite browsers and software from these little things. Try going to http://portableapps.com/   , this site has some really great programs or applications. You can also find a lot of really good program’s here: www.pendriveapps.com/

       So, you see the USB Flash Drive is not just for office files and pictures anymore. What I really like to put on these little gem’s is different operating systems, or as they say in the world of Linux “flavor’s”. One of the best way’s to get an operating system on these little drive’s, is to use a program called Unetbootin, which can be found here http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/  There is another really good place to try for putting operating system’s on your flash drive, it’s called Pen Drive Linux, which can be found here http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

         I myself probably like one of the newer Linux operating system’s the best, it’s Chrome OS Linux. It’s actually based on the cloud operating system,           ( different topic, might elaborate on later), You can find the Chrome operating system here: http://getchrome.eu/  There is a really young guy out there who makes burnable images of the Chrome operating system. From what I’ve read, he’s only in his teens. He builds these images from scratch and makes them, of course, freely available on his website. He goes by the name of Hexxeh, his website can be found here: http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/ 

          So you see, there are many uses now day’s for the usb flash drive. I hope that people out there have as much fun going to these website’s, trying some of the thing’s that I’ve suggested, as much as I have had about writing about them. Technology is so cool. So, go on already, get out there enjoy your day and happy teching!

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Virtualization Technology

            Yesterday I elaborated on the World of Linux, a really great operating system that is absolutely free. You don't have to pay a small fortune to have a great operating system for your computer. There are a lot of really great option's out there. Some people may already know this. There is yet another option to trying Linux instead of downloading the ISO file and burning it to disk. You can try Virtualization, really wonderful technology. There are a few really great options for this, there is Vmware and the Vmware Player, which can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/  This is a really great product. They have all of the documentation that you need to be up and running this great software in no time. They also have what they call Vmware Virtual Appliances, pre made virtual machines, which can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/   

               There is another option besides Vmware to try different operating system's. You can use Virtual Box, which can be found here: http://www.virtualbox.org/ They have some pre made appliances located here: http://virtualboximages.com/ There are some really great places out there to find virtualization. For Vmware you can also visit the following websites: http://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/ and one of my personal favorites is this website: http://bagside.com/bagvapp/ I think that the people at the last website truly make some of the best. There is one more place that I cannot forget about, actually maybe two, one is a place to make your own virtual machine files which can be found here: http://www.easyvmx.com/  Last, but not least, and another one of my personal favorite places can be found here: http://susestudio.com/  At the latter you can build your own iso file, virtual machine, or even a file that can be burned to a usb flash drive. I really enjoy modern technology, it's absolutely wonderful.      

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The World of Linux

          I would like to talk a little today about Linux. It is my my opinion a very good operating system overall. I still use Windows. I haven't completely made the switch. I really like Windows 7. I just feel as though that Microsoft is not too good at knowing what the user wants. They are really out of touch with people. I really like the Apple computer as well, but a little too expensive. That is where Linux comes in. There are as the die hard Linux enthusiast's would say, a lot of flavor's to choose from. You have Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Red Hat, Puppy, Mandriva, Slackware, Debian to name a few.

           I would say for those who are really up to trying, but aren't sure where to start, look at Ubuntu Linux, it can be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/  It is probably one of the most easiest and user friendly Linux operating systems. Just go to their site and take a look around. A lot of help there. Just download, burn to disk, reboot, make sure BIOS settings are for CD, and there you have it, you are able to try Linux out. What I really enjoy about Linux is it's free and ALL of the software that come's with it, is free as well. They have some really great software program's. It's open source, mean's you can change it, if that's what you like, unlike our friends at Microsoft and Apple. I'm not knocking either one, although they are, (WYSIWYG), what you see is what you get. Tomorrow I'll probably elaborate a little on Vmware. Until then, get out and enjoy your day!       

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