Accidental Empires, Part 8 -- The Tyranny of the Normal Distribution (Chapter 2)
Eighth in a series. I don’t think posting pieces of chapters is working for any of us, so I’m changing the plan. We have 16 chapters to go in the book so I’ll be posting in their entirety two chapters per week for the next eight weeks.
Down at the Specks Howard School of Blogging Technique they teach that this is blogging suicide because these chapters are up to 7000 words long! Blog readers are supposed to have short attention spans so I’ll supposedly lose readers by doing it this way. But I think Specks is wrong and smart readers want more to read, not less -- if the material is good. You decide.
BitTorrent launches SoShare for sharing large files
BitTorrent has launched an app for sharing large files, but this time it is not the latest Hollywood release. Yes, I know the service is famous for being a source of piracy, but the peer-to-peer service is also a good way to share and distribute legitimate files -- Linux distros, for instance. Now the distribution service wants to add a bit more legitimacy to the resume by adding a way for users to share large files in the course of everyday work life.
Today BitTorrent announced the beta release of SoShare, a service that users can access to share files with one another that are larger than those that the typical email service would permit. Quite a bit larger as a matter of fact. Catherince Meek says users can "send up to a terabyte of data in one transfer".
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Sixteenth in a series. Windows Store's slow but steady application growth continues this week with the addition of 610 new apps in the US store. This brings the total listed to 28,665. Of those, 22,101 free and 6,563 paid. It is not clear why there is one application missing when you add free and paid apps.
The growth is slowing down if you look at the recent performance. Two weeks ago, 970 new apps were listed in Windows Store, one week ago that number dropped to 773, and this week we see another drop to 610 new apps. It will be interesting to see if the downwards trend continues or if there will be a recovery in the coming weeks.
Steve Ballmer should step up, or ship out
Fifteen days using Surface Pro as my primary PC, I must say that I really, really like the tablet. Windows 8, the same. Ditto for Bing and Internet Explorer. I'm no stranger to using Microsoft products or services. But I am new to them being presented and consumed the way the company intends. The experience is refreshing and exhilarating, yet depressing. Who will know, with so much attention going to Android and iOS devices, or nimbler competitors offering more compelling products or services at faster pace?
Microsoft's problems aren't new, and that is the problem. This morning I reread my December 2009 post: "Microsoft isn't losing its consumer edge, it was game over long ago". I'm disturbed how little has changed, so much that, except for the lead paragraph, I could repost with new headline and the content would still be relevant. I will lift some parts here, as I offer, for the umpteenth time, remedies to Microsoft's woes.
Office 365 raises flag over the Lone Star State
In a stunning win for Microsoft, Texas will deploy Office 365 to more than 100,000 state employees.
Today's news comes on the heels of a recent win by the company when it nabbed the government of the city of Chicago. Now, in a joint statement, the two entities wanted to proclaim love for one another.
Skype officially announces it's engaged to Messenger
Microsoft announced last year that it would be killing off its Windows Live Messenger service -- part of a complete overhaul of the Live suite that also included the recent death of my beloved Live Mesh. We also knew that the cause of death for Messenger would be ruled "purchase of Skype". Now, today, all of this has become just a bit clearer.
Microsoft's Parri Munsell has elaborated on a few details -- the biggest one being that "the upgrade from Messenger to Skype on Windows desktop will start on April 8". The statement comes with an asterisk though and that caveat reads "with the exception of mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available".
Want a Nexus 4? Google tells you where to go
Google, in conjunction with LG, released the Nexus 4 on November 13 2012 and it has largely been difficult to get ever since. At the time of writing the Google Play store claims the device will ship in "1-2 weeks". However, Google would like to help out potential customers who are looking to get the handset a bit sooner and, to that end, the company has created a way to get a Nexus 4 today.
The search giant has launched a finder web site to aid you in locating a Nexus 4 close to home. Of course, this means the locations of T-Mobile stores around you, but at least you learn where the device is actually in stock. Customers can choose from distances ranging from five to fifty miles, depending on how far you wish to drive to grab your new phone.
Microsoft Surface RT now available in 13 more European countries
After Microsoft cancelled the Surface Pro launch event in New York City due to bad weather, the software giant announced that starting Valentine's Day it would be expanding the Surface RT availability in 13 more European countries. And, as promised, the Windows RT-powered tablet has made its way onto the old continent, likely disrupting a few romantic plans in the process.
Surface RT fans in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland can now purchase the tablet from various local retailers or directly from Microsoft Store, depending on the market. Pricing is consistent among countries where Euro is used, ranging between EUR479 and EUR487 for the entry-level Surface RT in 32GB trim (without the Touch Cover keyboard).
Overhauling a home network, Part 1 -- Making decisions
Over the years the little network within my humble abode has grown. It started as a way to connect a laptop and a desktop, but has since become a conglomeration of multiple devices -- a desktop, three laptops, an HTPC, a home server and even three smartphones. Not to mention that the Blu-ray player, DirecTV DVR and Netgear NeoTV are networked. It all comes together in a combination of ethernet and WiFi connections that are controlled through a router in the home office on the third floor of our old restored Victorian, an extender which resides in the entertainment cabinet in the living room -- sorry, "parlor" since it is a Victorian -- on the first floor and a network switch in the basement.
Parts are getting old however -- in the past year I had to buy a new router and replace my daughter's laptop. Recently, more things have become unreliable. My home server, which ran FreeNAS died recently. It was housed in an old tower PC that had once been our desktop. Our HTPC has grown old, despite having been upgraded with new video and audio cards and additional RAM. The Netgear NeoTV is not as reliable as it once was.
Archos unveils the Platinum tablet lineup
On Valentine's day, French consumer electronics company Archos professed its love for mobile technology by unveiling a new tablet lineup dubbed Platinum. The three devices, 80 Platinum, 97 Platinum HD and 116 Platinum, are designed for the wallet-conscious tablet buyers while also sporting pretty decent hardware specifications.
The common denominators between the three tablets are found inside the shell, with only the physical dimensions and screen specifications separating them. The devices share a quad-core 1.2GHz processor backed by an 8-core GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and 2GB of RAM. Archos also throws in its branded Media Center applications, front and back cameras, as well as a mini-HDMI port and microSD card slot.
Replace Windows Run box with the more powerful Run-Command
The Windows Run box has always been a quick and easy way to launch programs, but it’s not exactly packed with features. You can specify an application to launch, choose something you’ve run recently from the History list, and, well, that’s about it.
You don’t have to live with these limitations, though. Grab a copy of the new Run-Command and it’ll take your Run box to a whole new level.
Google posts Android 4.2.2 factory images for Nexus 4, 7, 10 and HSPA+ Galaxy smartphone
Three days ago, Google released the much-anticipated Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update, containing security improvements as well as Bluetooth-related bug fixes. Making Nexus owners even happier (well, at least some of them), the search giant also updated the factory images with the latest green droid iteration.
Among other purposes, the factory images can be used to restore Nexus-branded devices to a stock state after previously running custom green droid distributions, or update them to the latest version of Android. At a quick glance, for my Galaxy Nexus smartphone, the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean factory images ship with a newer radio (XXLJ1), as well as a more recently-dated kernel (version 3.0.31, with a November 28 time-stamp). The "userdata.img" file is also freshly-dated with a February 8 build date.
Chubby Checker sues HP over penis size app
A few weeks ago I wrote about Apple allowing a member-measuring app into the App Store (which BetaNews readers seemed to love) and now news reaches us that veteran singer Chubby Checker has got his knickers in a "twist" and is suing Hewlett-Packard over a penis size estimator that bears his name.
The "Chubby Checker" app for HP’s Palm OS platform was pulled from all Palm and HP listings in September last year and the developer, Magic Apps, is no more, but that hasn’t stopped the singer’s lawyers going to war over the (frankly genius) use of the name and demanding a stiff half a billion dollars for "irreparable damage and harm" to Checker.
Valve launches Steam for Linux and announces a celebration sale
After two months of public beta testing, the Linux version of Valve’s popular multiplayer gaming ecosystem has been officially released and is available to download for free from the Ubuntu Software Center.
To celebrate the release, Valve is cutting the price of 50 Linux titles by between 50-80 percent in a week long sale that will end on Thursday, 21 February at 10 AM PST. Games currently on sale include Bastion, Trine 2, Counter Strike Source, Serious Sam 3, and Darwinia.
Why I love Surface Pro
First in a series. I have loved many computers and gadgets over the years. They typically share two things in common: Initial "Wow" reaction and improved experience the longer used. Microsoft Surface Pro gets the first, but more time is needed on the second. February 14 marks my fourteenth day using the tablet.
Too often tech vendors put too much emphasis on features while missing something more fundamental: Joy. How do you feel using the product. Does it make your life better? Are you happier for using the thing? Design -- how a product looks and the interaction with it -- is paramount. Apple products, for example, are pretty for a reason. On this Valentine's Day, after two weeks with Surface Pro, love is appropriate topic. Because the tablet makes me feel good.
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