Josh-Kerr.com

So I finally got around to watching the whole video on the iPad and I’m still not that impressed.  I’m sorry but I’m not and IMO you shouldn’t be either.  Lets get the obvious cons out of the way:

• No flash support still!
• No USB
• No CD/DVD drive
• No stylus pen
• It’s a big iPod Touch…  no really, it is!

Now the reason for no USB and CD/DVD might not seem apparent at first but let me explain why I consider this con.  Computer makers have been trying to break into the Tablet market for a long time now.  There’s the traditional slate design which the iPad follows, the laptop hybrid/convertible style, and the Ultra-Mobile PC.  All of these have been tried and for the most part flopped with the exception of a small following (doctors/physicians).  Why they failed is up for debate; weight, portability, design, software, take your pick.  Of the different variety of tablets most of them have USB support and a few actually have the CD/DVD drives.  And then there’s Apple who wants to break into the market and doesn’t have either one?!  Seriously?  Apple, the guys who made one of the lightest, if not the lightest notebook around which has USB support and they suddenly couldn’t put it in a tablet computer?  What’s up with that?  Oh yeah, it’s a big iPod Touch!  The iPad isn’t running OSX, it’s running the iPhone/iPod OS.  This is the biggest reason why I’m not impressed!  Apple takes pride in inventing and revolutionizing the industry and then they release a blown up iPod Touch and call it ground breaking… No.

Now let me change gears a little to the stylus pen.  Why a stylus pen when it’s touch based?  Well, believe it or not some people would actually like to use a tablet computer like a tablet.  Meaning if you’re going to design a “computer” that can be held like a notepad and written on perhaps you’d want to give the users the ability to write!  Sure you can lay it on your lap and type with the keyboard but if I’m a doctor or an ‘on-the-move’ assistant I don’t have time to sit down and type, I’m writing on the notepad I have with me on the go.  This is a critical design flaw in my opinion.  There is no out-of-the-box incentive for people who want to replace their notepad to pick up and iPad.  Instead they’ll still rely on whatever means they already rely on be it their current tablet PC, pen and paper, or their phone/PDA.

Now I don’t completely hate the iPad.  I will say it’s nice to see how far companies are taking touch based computing and using the accelerometer.  I think the Kindle and other eBook readers are in a world of hurt now.  Apple did their home work with their new “book store” and they could probably corner a good portion of the market.  It’s also nice to see solid state drives really taking off.  Give it another year or two and they’ll be standard in computers.

Will the iPad sell?  It’s an Apple product so yes it will.  Apple could wrap up dog poop, put a pretty case on it, and call it the iPoop and people would still buy it….  Flame on Mac Zealots, flame on.

This year for Christmas Stephanie and I decided to buy something that the family could use rather than just gifts for each other.  Now we’re the proud owners of a new Canon Rebel T1i, w00t, and let me tell you what, this thing is awesome!  Random photos:

For the record, taking close-up photos of a moving baby is not easy

I laughed when I saw this:

Windows 7 activation error: 0xC004F061

If you receive error “0xC004F061″ when trying to activate Windows 7, it means you’re using a product key for an upgrade version of Windows 7 and a previous version of Windows wasn’t on your computer when Windows 7 was installed. To install an upgrade version of Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP must be installed on your computer. If you formatted the drive before starting the installation process, you won’t be able to use the upgrade product key to activate Windows 7. To activate Windows 7, you’ll need to install your previous version of Windows, and then reinstall Windows 7. For help with the activation process, go to the Microsoft Support website.

Seriously?  Is that what you call customer service?  Rather than giving your customers an option to enter their XP/Vista product key you want them to reinstall the old operating system only to reinstall Windows 7….  Does anyone else see something wrong with this?  So if you don’t want to reinstall two operating systems there is a registry fix to get around this.

1. Open up regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
2. Backup (Export) the folder just in case
3. Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
4. Open up a command prompt running it as Administrator
5. go to C:\Windows\system32
6. > cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -rearm
7. Reboot your computer
8. Enter your product key

Hope this helps

I’ve been playing around with Android now and so far it’s been a good experience save one really annoying thing.

Project ‘Project Name’ is missing required source folder: ‘gen’

Seriously?!  I mean common, the folder is in the project for crying out loud!  Sadly I’m not the only one who has been plagued by this error.  Many Google searches later and still no hard-fast answer that.  I have found one thing that seems to help although it’s a pain to keep doing it over and over again….

1. Delete the R.java file under the gen folder
2. Refresh the project
3. Build Project, not Clean

This, so far, seems to be the only way to consistently get rid of the missing gen folder message….

OK, I’m really kicking myself now.  Why the hell haven’t it before?   I mean I’ve read up on Chrome and all but I’ve just never gotten around to using it.  Don’t know if I’ll make it my default browser or not but it’s pretty nice so far. We’ll see if Chrome suffers from the same memory issues are FF….

I spent some time playing around with Windows 7 RC a few weeks ago and I have to say it was actually kind of nice.  I don’t know if I would be saying the same thing if I ran it on my older hardware.  Lets just say anything better be running fast on an Intel Core i7 920, x58 mobo, 150GB raptor, and 6Gigs of triple channel memory.  To this day I have never run Vista so it took sometime to get used to the new Areo interface and the Vista-ish start menu.  The UAC really does remind me of the Get a Mac commerical but thankfully it was easy enough to turn off (Obligitory plug for just disabling it by default).

Currently I’m toying around with the idea of running it again for a while.  I was able to run all my usually applications and get my development environment up and running after learning how to navigate the new file structure.  I just hate the idea of having to reload everything again….  CNET has a good review for those of you thinking/wondering about Windows 7.

Technically it was yesterday System Administrator Day but meh.  A salute to all my fellow geeks out there.

So Bioware is making the new MMO, Star Wars The Old Republic, and I must say I’m hopeful.  Bioware is a great company and has pushed out some really great games in the past (KOTOR anyone?).  Lets keep our fingers crossed :)

Thanks Kent for showing me this plugin and app!

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