It’s been said – repeatedly – that Windows Vista is a step down from Windows XP.  I’ve already taken my own stance on this – and as a user of Windows Vista, I think it’d be great if people stopped listening to what others did for a second and tried it on their own.  You know, independent thinking.  Apparently, Microsoft’s been thinking along the same lines, and launched the Mojave Experiment.

Users that have never tried Windows Vista were introduced to it under the disguise of Windows’ next operating system, codenamed Mojave.  Surprisingly enough, the users trying Vista for the first time actually liked it – and were then told it was Windows Vista.  They still liked it.

I think this was a great idea on Microsoft’s part, but I don’t want to come off as a Microsoft fanboy.  So I’ll stop endorsing Vista, and just leave you with a link and a few words: stop letting other people decide what you think, and decide for yourself.

Enjoy:

http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/#

There’s been huge buzz about Canonical and Ubuntu as of late, and I must say that I’m pretty impressed.  Mark Shuttleworth is emerging as a charismatic leader worthy to lead Ubuntu to battle, the blogosphere is going crazy, and Ubuntu is well on its way to hitting retail shelves.  I think that even though Ubuntu is a great product and operating system, it’s still not going to be enough as of yet – namely because of the lack of mainstream awareness.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia…_NASA.jpg

I realize that Canonical might not have the financial resources that Apple or Microsoft does, so I guess we can count the example of iPod ads out of the picture (I still feel that those iPod ads with dancing silhouettes are a huge factor in how they sold so well).  Still, if Ubuntu somehow manages to find their way to the front page of a huge mainstream newspaper or the main story on CNN, I’m sure that they would have reached many consumers that otherwise would never have heard of it.  Now, I’m not saying that Canonical has to work out a publicity stunt, but perhaps Shuttleworth could do a presentation or press conference that finds its way to G4 or something (start small, think big, right?).

Ubuntu is ready for mainstream, but we have to ask ourselves, is mainstream ready for Ubuntu?  Have a look at the success of Apple, the lack of general dissatisfaction and consumer reaction with Vista (not to say I personally don’t like Vista – I think it’s fine), and I think you’ll know the answer.

An assortment of Stardock software, Object Desktop 2008 Ultimate is a suite dedicated to customizing the GUI, look, and vibe of your desktop.  From the ability to enhance themes, enable transparency, or even use animated wallpaper, Object Desktop 2008 Ultimate throws in a whole slew of capabilities into your computer.  I do realize that I took a comprehensive look at half the software suite — but alas, it was far too much work, and I couldn’t handle the capacity.  So, I’m going to finish off what I started three months ago with this one-shot review of Object Desktop 2008.

Overall GUI

The GUIs in all the software were acceptable and usable – alas, some were a lot more dated than others (I’m referring in particular to Tab Launchpad).  I liked how, in essence, Stardock used similar features and layouts within certain software.  From what I can see, there are two types of layouts Stardock uses in Object Desktop software: one being a graphic and list beside it, which is used in software such as TweakVista with many options.  The second looks more modern, and is used in software that has a heavier use of graphics, such as previews of themes.

A prime example of this would be the similarities between the layouts in IconPackager and WindowBlinds.  However, I also felt that Stardock could’ve done better in this continuity thing – some of the GUIs look a bit dated (Tab Launchpad), and some look way too wonky (MyColors).

The Deal-Sealers

Every suite’s got a set of deal-sealers – a single or variety of features that makes it worth the juice worth the squeeze.  Not every single piece of software is absolutely essential to the suite – contrary to my previous belief – and I’ve isolated the deal-sealers to a trio:

IconPackager

I think IconPackager was an appropriate deal-sealer for two reasons:

1. Not only does it offer a one-click change of almost all your default computer icons, but it also supports Vista’s folder view feature – meaning that now, you can see that preview of your documents all the while using IconPackager icons.
2. Nothing else does it like IconPackager.  If you want free, you’re going to want to have a look at IconTweaker, or manually change those icons by yourself.  Ugh.

I had once tried emulating Mac OS X, and I realize that this tool would’ve come in extremely handy for such a purpose.  Unfortunately, back then, I hadn’t actually considered paying for software, so I gave up and stayed with XP’s look.  Right now, I’ve gotten sick of Vista’s default look, so I actually use a Japanese-themed icon set that I’m extremely satisfied with.

DeskScapes

Now, you don’t need Windows Vista Ultimate to enjoy the beauty of moving wallpapers.  I don’t think I need to say anymore – this alone arguably makes the purchase worth it, considering the price difference in the versions of Windows Vista.  If you understand what I’m trying to say.

WindowBlinds

How could Object Desktop 2008 be what it is without WindowBlinds?  In fact, I argue that the entire Stardock might be in jeopardy if it weren’t for WindowBlinds.  This widely-renowned piece of software is a non-resource-hogging, skin-serving, machine.  I didn’t even notice it running in the background – because I had it switched to the default Aero theme.  I must say, I’m impressed – for what it’s worth, WindowBlinds’ reputation precedes it.  I’m glad to see that generally, many users have started realizing that WindowBlinds doesn’t hog as many resources as people claim.

You might have a few doubts as to my choice of selection – and I can’t say that I didn’t expect such a question.  What made these three pieces of software stand out from the others?  Wouldn’t MyColors, DesktopX, or even Impulse, have been worth a mention?  I suppose that they do deserve a mention, but I personally don’t think that a software that forces you to pay for themes, or a software that simply packages everything together in even wider themes is very deal-sealing.  I hadn’t heard of these pieces of software before the review, and I can see why – in contrast, IconPackager was famous, DeskScapes was popularized by Vista, and I’d had WindowBlinds in mind since Day 1.

Conclusion

Long overdue, but I’m glad I finally got through with it.  For $69.99, I’m saying that Object Desktop 2008 Ultimate probably wouldn’t be as nice as a new wireless keyboard or even an Adidas sweater – but for you customization freaks, it’s an absolute essential. In fact, if you had asked me two years ago, I would’ve said it was the best thing since sliced bread – and if how your computer looks is a priority, then don’t even take the time to question or hesitate and pick up Object Desktop 2008 Ultimate.

Very recently, I was informed of a new service called Quamut.  Launched by Barnes and Noble, Quamut is a service that offers many guides to life – their slogan is “The go to how to”.  I was immediately interested, and even had the opportunity to receive a couple of guides to read from Barnes and Noble.  Quamut refers to one of their guides as a Quamut, but in our report, I’ll be calling it a guide to dissolve most of the confusion.  …yeah, it sounds a bit weird, but I think you’ll eventually get what I was trying to say.  If not, just ignore the statement and continue.

You might think that I exaggerate when I say that a Quamut serves as the guides of life – I do not.  Quamut has guides on pretty much everything, from songwriting to fly fishing.  I received guides on Home Plumbing, Basic Cooking, as well as Buying a Hybrid Car.  While I’m not an expert on either of these subjects, and thus, can not evaluate them from that perspective, I can tell you that I did learn a lot from all of these guides to-go.  These guides to-go cost USD$2.95, but Quamut offers guides for free over the Internet.  Furthermore, a different .pdf of a guide to-go is available for a free download daily, which serves as extra incentive to check out their site regularly.  In that sense, I think they did a top-notch job in making the site very attractive.

Very Easy on the Eyes

As I scanned my Quamut guide, I noticed that the important information popped out at me – which is because Quamut took care to highlight the most important vocabulary with bolded text or in a red colour.  Furthermore, the diagrams included were  very useful in helping me build an idea of what kind of information they were trying to convey.  Although I found the text to be a bit small for my taste, I guess that’s justifiable to save on the amount of material used – plus, I know that I would much rather carry around a zippy, thin folder of information as opposed to a lugging around a huge binder.

Strictly for Newbies Only

While I did find the guides to be good reading, I also took them to an expert – Jonathan, of APH Networks, for appraisal.  To be specific, he was interested in the guide on Buying a Hybrid Car.  He did report that while the guide was generally pretty accurate, the information seemed to be tilted towards persuading the reader to purchase a hybrid car, and on occasion didn’t show both sides of the story.  For example: many negative aspects of hybrids are not mentioned – such as the effects the nickel batteries have on the environment, or how the hybrid standards have been revised since the article was written, and in fact, the article overall looks more like a promotional article for hybrid vehicles.

From the perspective of a newbie, however, I found the Quamut guide to be very informative and comprehensive.  Because the errors were relatively minor, most of the information actually made perfect sense to me, although it did take me a while to absorb the whole thing – it’s actually quite a good amount of reading, in case you were wondering.

I guess the conclusion that we arrived at was that while Quamut guides are great for newbies, they should only be read by newbies and not by any experts – however, it’s not likely that experts will flock to read Quamut guides – if they’re so knowledgeable about a subject already, why would they read a guide for newbies (unless they wanted to teach, or were very modest)?

Final Conclusion

Quamut guides: if you want to learn something, they’re probably the best place to turn to.  Quamut’s guides are generally very accurate, although experts on certain subjects will be able to find a few errors scattered here and there.  The guides are available free, so I can’t see a reason not to – and if you end up loving them as much as I did, you’d probably be compelled to purchase .pdf’s of them for $2.95 or even the quality-printed guides that can be found at Barnes and Noble.

Thanks to Madison Dunn for informing me about Quamut, and taking the time and care to mail those Quamut guides!

Keyloggers.  Spyware.  Data corruption.

Nowadays, these three words strike fear into hearts of users everywhere.  However, I will direct this article towards the organizations – such as schools, libraries, Internet cafes, as well as even corporations.  These behemoths serve a multitude of users daily – ranging from a couple hundred at a local library, to several thousand at a popular university.  The chances of having a careless user download rogue spyware or a bad egg installing keyloggers are insanely high – in fact, a rumour that I myself had caught flying around was that an organization I attended had been infected with keyloggers.  The rumour was dispelled when a friend of mine informed me that the organization used Deep Freeze – which then sparked the question: What is Deep Freeze?

Deep Freeze is an intelligent solution that offers absolute system integrity, according to its creator, Faronics.

Faronics Deep Freeze helps eliminate workstation damage and downtime by making computer configurations indestructible. Once Deep Freeze is installed on a workstation, any changes made to the computer—regardless of whether they are accidental or malicious—are never permanent. Deep Freeze provides immediate immunity from many of the problems that plague computers today—accidental system misconfiguration, malicious software activity, and incidental system degradation.

Deep Freeze ensures computers are absolutely bulletproof, even when users have full access to system software and settings. Users get to enjoy a pristine and unrestricted computing experience, while IT personnel are freed from tedious helpdesk requests.

Source: http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

Basically, a computer (or workstation) is programmed to retain certain programs – for example, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Word 2007, but otherwise is reformatted everytime the system reboots.  Sure, that means that everyone’s documents stored in My Documents will be deleted besides the Sample Pictures.  But, that also means that if the system gets infected, it will also be removed as soon as the computer is rebooted.  This is what I would consider an ideal solution to most organizations’ problems with system integrity.

If you’re a home user reading this and contemplating getting Deep Freeze, I would think twice – although the chances of you accidentally installing spyware are still high, I think that it would be impractical for you to sacrifice your computing experience for paranoia.  Addressing keyloggers, no one would be silly enough to install a keylogger on themselves (besides, there would be no point to that).  However, for organizations that can’t afford to leak information, or organizations that treasure the security and trust of their users (such as libraries), I think this is a great big picture piece of software.  Heck, it gained my trust.

For more information and case studies, please visit Faronics’ web page for Deep Freeze:

http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

Why would you want to use any other search engine besides Google?

That’s the first issue that popped up in my mind too.  Google is the King of search, no doubt about it — and it’s used on a daily basis.  We’ve grown familiar with it.  We’ve even…befriended it.  We use Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Documents on a daily basis.  And I get that, because I’m in the same boat as you are — in essence, a Google lover.

However, there are certain aspects in which a search engine dedicated towards searching through forums would surpass Google.  For example, if you were looking for more variety when it came to opinion, who would you look towards?  Sure, Google — right?  And usually, Google would lead you to a review site — perhaps like CNet or Ars Technica, and that would be fine.  But what if you wanted more opinions?  Real people that have encountered real technical issues?

I’m not saying that reviewers aren’t real people, but we only get a certain amount of time to test our products before judging them, and to be honest, in such a short timeframe, there’s hardly any chance the product will have any issues.  Nor will we be able to thoroughly test it out as well as a real consumer who uses it.  And besides, variety would give you more of an idea of what to expect.  One reviewer telling you something is one thing, but a majority of members on a forum screaming the same thing is a whole new level.

I give you Twing

Twing is a search engine that is directed strictly towards forums.  Twing was actually brought to my attention just a week ago, and I’ve really gotten to enjoy using it.

The feature that I really loved was the option to search by post, topic, or even the entire forum.

The results satisfied my thirst for knowledge and I am pleased to say that I will be using Twing in the future to have a look at other people’s opinions on certain subjects or products.

Visit:

http://twing.com