Codename “Tahiti” is a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use Codename “Tahiti” to put your heads together and collaborate.

I am curious how many collaborative tools Microsoft is going to make. I am not cool enough to have a downloaded copy of Tahiti, but it looks like the Vista meeting space but online. I suppose that is cool for non-vista people, but I am getting overwhelmed here – when you think of Exchange 2007, OCS 2007, Meeting Space, Groove, Messenger, SharePoint, etc. so much of the functionality overlaps it is hard to visualize the “Unified Communications” strategy.

Source: Microsoft Codename “Tahiti” Pre-Beta

It is hard to find good plugins for IE, which is why most tech nerds prefer Firefox. This link only shows seven, and I don’t think IE will ever provide the functionality that firefox does, but I suppose it really depends on what you want out of a browser. All most people want is a window to the Internet – which is why the debate really only exists between geeks. Personally, I do love all the little tweaks you can make to Firefox, but at the end of the day I don’t use all the extensions as much as I think I will. The one piece Firefox 2.0 offers that I keep coming back to is the spell checker built into the browser…and if you have read this blog you know why. So check out the first one on this list -  ieSpell. I’m in business now! Really, the web hasn’t caught up to the new browsers yet, and I still run into issues all the time. Some things work in IE only and some in Firefox only – so my adivse is always carry a spare browser.

Also big ups to Lifehacker

Link to Wired News: Seven Best Add-Ons for IE7

Holy Shit – This is pure gold for those of us out there who still haven’t got an Xbox360…or would like Media Center extender in another room. Seems like a pretty easy hack though I am almost positive it will take longer than 30 minutes…..and who cares if you screw up your old Xbox….it’s the 360 hacks that make me nervous…I’m no Four Hundredaire!

Link to How to Go from Xbox to Xbox Media Center in 30 minutes – ProductWiki

It looks from this survey that Apache as a web server is on the decline and has reached below 60% for the first time since 2002. Which to me means that people are realizing that IIS has overcome it’s security woes that plaged earlier versions.

I guess people like GUIs after all.

Link to Netcraft: Web Server Survey Archives

This is a serious of You Tube videos that kinda cover the basics of evolution. I’m sure to a lot of intellectuals would look at this as rather simple concepts, but I find it as good ammution if you have “crazies” in the family.

This overall qualitative research study has as its purpose–”To discover the opinions of established scientists regarding the position of science in the United States today.

The overall study is broken down into sub-categories. The scientists are the respondents in the sub-category dealing with the controversy of evolution vs. creationism. As the data is collected, categorized, and analyzed, it will be published in the form of  short videos that play on You Tube.

Other sub-categories are: Abuse of Science, Separation of Church and State, Global Warming, Stem Cell Research, Human Sexuality, the media & democracy, and Authoritarianism.

Link to the videos

 This seems like a pretty viable way to encrypt you browser traffic. The real challenge here is having an ssh server you can always get at. Even if you have one at home you would need a dedicated IP to access it 24/7.  I’m sure a lot of hosting companies offer ssh capabilities – may be worth $10 a month I guess….depending on how bad your porn addiction is.

Link to Geek to Live: Encrypt your web browsing session (with an SSH SOCKS proxy) – Lifehacker

 I have not tried this yet, but it looks promising. It is a freeware tool that will convert an online widgets into a Vista Sidebar widget. So all of the online widgets found at sites such as the Windows Live Gallery can be converted into one of those glorious widgets occupying all of your desktop real estate. I will add an update once I try this out…..finally the Live Clock will live and breath in my sidebar…moo ha hah ha huh huh (evil laugh)

There is also a version for OSX.

UPDATE: I did try this and the software works OK, but porting the web gadgets to the sidebar is inherently jenky. It brings over non-transparent backgrounds, titlebars, etc. (I haven’t tried really messing with the xml) So I guess its OK, but it may work better for you.

Link to Amnesty™ Generator for Vista

2 days ago I decided to ditch the iPod 30gb video for a Zune going against almost 100% of the so called Tech News community. (right now Leo Laporte is vomiting in horror.) Sorry folks, but it is a better device – to me anyway. So most tech pundits respond more based on other reviews and articles they have read than actually using the product. Anyone who has been using it regularly has much less harsh words if not actually liking the device.

So here is a basic run down of what everyone on the tech blogs/ podcasts bitch about with the Zune

1. Wifi is loaded with DRM and limited.
2. The Zune Market place sucks
3. Its too big
4. Click wheel with no clicking
5. Bad marketing – ie Welcome to the Social

Well…allow me to retort

Wifi is loaded with DRM and limited.
This is true. I do think the wifi could be way better (and probably will be with firmware updates) But I honestly don’t care. I am not a person who is friendly to strangers and I don’t see myself sharing my music with anyone – f people. I suppose it would be cool if I could buy music or sync from the wireless. Since the iPod or any 30gb+ player doesn’t have wireless either, it is just a feature that is underutilized but will probably get better with time- the pre-zune hype did disappoint, but get over it. As for the DRM – it exists equally in the iPod and Zune. It is in the songs not the hardware. You must train yourself to avoid it.

The Zune Market place sucks
Maybe, but in my opinion..if your buying DRM music online from places like iTunes then you are a retard anyway. I am not about to buy music that locks me into a platform like Apple or Microsoft. I would rather just pay extra, buy the CD, and rip it than be locked in to a device. At least the Zune marketplace is a subscription service so you are just renting the music anyway. Leave the DRM shackles behind and use eMusic (unless you are a trendy top 40 person who can’t find what they like on a site that has real music)…kidding, but eMusic is the only online music I buy.

Its too big
Yeah..ok…its a little portly….but this isn’t the type of device I take to the gym - I use a tiny flash player for that (right now a shuffle). I use the zune for the car and office so the size isn’t a problem personally.

Click wheel with no clicking
No big whoop. I actually prefer the up, down, left, right response. Have you ever been jogging at night and trying to use a click wheel through gloves and a neoprene sport case? Yeah….not so good…. the click is only good in optimal conditions. I can live without it.

Bad marketing – ie Welcome to the Social
Oh for christ sakes who cares….just shut your Apple fanboy faces.

So while some features, or lack their of, could be deal breakers for some it really depends on what you are looking for in a player. For me, I prefer the Zune to the iPod because I think the interface is hands down better, and the screen is actually big enough to SEE Video…what a concept. The zune software is also better than itunes – as someone who has over 20,000 songs I can actually manage my entire library in the zune software pretty easily and just sync 30gb to the device. I am aware you can do this is iTunes but the “list” interface in the iTunes library blows (I might as well be managing my music library in Excel) – basically the only way to manage your music in iTunes is with playlists – that sucks.

I was all over the iPod/iTunes craze when it first hit the scene and it has taken me a long time to strip the DRM out my music and break free from the Apple lock down. My strategy now is to stay away for any DRM at all costs – which is easy no matter what device you use. No matter how much you hippies think that Apple is the rebellion fighting the Empire, it is obvious that, like Microsoft, they are both “evil” corporations interested in 1 thing – making money (God bless Capitalism) So wake up! Don’t be a whore to marketing!

So I say to each his own – pick your gear based on the features that matter to you personally. My strategy is to take advantage of a store’s 30 day policy. I think I took my last device back 5 or 6 times before settling on one…man, I’m a dick…..but the only way to decide is to use it..

Ok. I know there are some people that would argue that humans are not actually doing damage to the environment – that the world basically goes through cycles and we just periodically have things like global warming occur.

But I say WTF mate! How in the holy hell do you get orange snow. Now if that is not proof we are effing things up then I don’t know what is.

Luckily the Russian government says that orange snow cant hurt you. Think of it as a mango slushie from God. 

UPDATE: It is also critical to mention that residents said the snow had a rotten or rancid smell to it…..yeah….thats gotta be good – “go outside and make snow angels kids”

Link to English Russia » Orange Snow in Omsk, Russia

I have recently discovered the new scripting tool from Microsoft called – Powershell. This is not an add on to DOS – this is an extremely powerful shell that competes with it’s Unix and Linux counterparts. I was just starting to mess around with vbs scripting when I cam across this and now I’m totally distracted. I’m not a sys admin so I only play with this kinda stuff so much but it has some pretty nifty features for the power user. Of course all the ADFS, file management, etc. , but it also can work with the Win32 com objects – like hooks to Windows Media Player (they have a demo of that in the link.) …and it works in Vista

One that is particularly funny is messing with the vista speach COM object –

PS> $spVoice = new-object -com “SAPI.spvoice”
PS> $spVoice.Speak(“Go to hell you bastards”)

I am already planning to bust this baby out in a lot of meetings.

If you want to see the video demo, check it out at the channel 9 DFO Show

Link to Windows Vista Team Blog : IT Forum Day One: Windows Vista and Windows PowerShell