Something about this struck me as pretty funny: Burger King is helping to celebrate the release of Microsoft's Windows 7 in Japan with their Windows 7 Whopper:
Click here to see the YouTube video

Comcast's service has been really unreliable lately. Our connection drops fairly frequently, and of course not only does our internet disappear, but our phone stops working, too. About a month ago, I called them about it, and they sent a technician out to have a look at it. He was able to determine that the problem is not on our end, that a connection down the street seems to have a problem, and they'd have someone come and look at that. It seemed to get better for a little while, but we keep having problems with our connection dropping quite frequently. This is quite irritating. So we're thinking about looking for another company for internet & phone service..

I found this article online today, and while it is over 3 years old, this was the first time I had seen it:
http://lowendmac.com/hodges/06/0817.html

It describes some of the same thoughts I had when Apple swiched from using PowerPC processors to Intel processors in their Macintosh computers. For a long time, Apple had been advertising how much better the PowerPC architecture was over Intel because PowerPC was more efficient and thus faster for the same clock rates. Then suddenly Apple decided to switch to Intel, saying IBM had failed to deliver a fast enough PowerPC G5 processor and failed to deliver a G5 processor that would run cool enough for a laptop. They also said that the (then-new) Intel Core processors were faster than the PowerPC processors they had been using. Something seemed fishy about that to me. Suddenly Intel CPUs were faster than PowerPC, which Apple had been bragging about for so long?

I'm still a little confused by that, but I've used recent Intel Mac computers, and they seem fairly quick to me. Also, now that Macs are using Intel CPUs, they have the added benefits of being able to run Windows and being able to run virtual machine software in OS X that doesn't have to rely on emulation.

Today when I plugged my iPod Touch into my PC to transfer some music onto it, iTunes told me about the 3.1.2 software update available for my iPod Touch, so I installed it. I did a Google search for version 3.1.2 to see what was new in it. I actually had to spend some time looking for a page actually discussing the update, because most of the search results were pages discussing how to jailbreak version 3.1.2.

I used to always jailbreak my iPod Touch with each new software release, but since upgrading to version 3.0, I hadn't jailbroken it. I had a look at some of those pages discussing jailbreaking 3.1.2, and they all referenced Blackra1n as the new jailbreak software for 3.1.2. I decided to give it a try.. I was very surprised that the jailbreak literally took seconds! Now my iPod Touch has version 3.1.2 and is jailbroken. Blackra1n provides Cydia, ICY, and Rock, which are alternative app installers that provide you with access to 3rd-party apps that aren't listed in Apple's App Store.

Recently I've been thinking about learning about iPhone software development. I've heard that iPhone development tools are only available for the Macintosh, so I recently bought a Mac Mini. I'm fairly impressed with the latest generation of Mac Mini - Particularly, its use of the Nvidia 9400M graphics chipset. That gives it some fairly good 3D graphics power, allowing it to play some of the modern computer games available (although certainly not with the highest video settings). I enjoy a video game every so often, and there are other applications where 3D graphics is useful (i.e. Google Earth), so I think this is great for the Mac Mini.

I'm also liking Snow Leopard, the current version of Mac OS X, which came installed on this Mac Mini. It seems to work well all around, and it looks nice too. My Roland Juno-G synthesizer works with it too, which is nice (Roland still hasn't made Juno-G drivers for 64-bit versions of Windows!).

One Mac app in particular that I've enjoyed using in the past is Garage Band. It's very easy to use, and its MIDI synthesis just seems to work better than other music software I've used. I'm looking forward to using it again. I think it's pretty cool that Garage Band comes free with a Mac, along with the other iLife Suite apps (which let you organize photos, edit videos, etc.). Mac OS X also includes XCode for free, which is Apple's software for software development. There's certainly a lot of value in the software included with a Mac.

Yesterday, I noticed that Firefox 3.5 had been released on June 30. Normally Firefox automatically checks for updates and tells you when a new version available, but this time it didn't - I think it only tells you about minor updates.

In version 3.5, Firefox is faster than ever. They also added a "private browsing" mode, where it won't record your browsing history, and also a way to remove sites from your browsing history. Another thing I noticed is that when tabs are in use, next to the rightmost tab is a little tab with a "+" on it, which adds a new browser tab. I suppose they added that because other browsers have that feature. I personally don't really like it, because it looks too much like a regular tab. It is nice, however, to have an easier way to add a new tab than by clicking File > New Tab when CTRL-T doesn't work. Perhaps in later releases, they'll change the appearance of that button to better differentiate it from regular tabs.

With the speed increase in version 3.5, as well as Firefox's vast selection of plug-ins, Firefox continues to be my favorite web browser.

A few weeks ago, I found Microsoft's Windows 7 Release Candidate program and downloaded the DVD image of the release candidate. I installed it today, replacing my Windows XP x64 partition. After having it installed on my PC for nearly 10 hours, these are some of the things I've observed:

• Compared to Windows XP, it seems to boot up faster.
  
• Folder loading times also seem faster.
  
• Also compared to Windows XP, the directories for user accounts and settings, start menu & desktop icons, etc. have changed.
  
• It looks like it uses more RAM than Windows XP, but not quite as much as Vista.
  
• One of the more prominent features is that the taskbar has changed. Taskbar buttons (for when apps are running) can also double as quick launch buttons - although it's still possible to enable the quick launch toolbar.
  

I noticed that Daemon Tools (one of my most-used apps) doesn't work in Windows 7 yet. Bummer. But I'm sure they'll fix that eventually.

I also noticed that Windows 7 doesn't provide an easy way to select a preferred MIDI output device. Windows XP provided an option for that in its "Sounds and Audio Devices" applet in the control panel, but Windows 7 includes no such option. Come to think of it, Vista didn't either. I'm not sure why; I ran a MIDI-related application under Windows 7 that listed all of my MIDI devices, so I know Windows 7 still at least recognizes MIDI hardware and software synthesizers.

I'm not sure I like the new taskbar's functionality. Having the application buttons double as quick launch buttons actually takes away some functionality - One of the nice things about quick launch buttons is being able to click them again to launch a new instance of the application. But with Windows 7's taskbar, once you click on the button, it becomes the application's taskbar button, which performs the minimize/maximize behavior.
All is not lost, though. I've found that the taskbar can be made to work like the more traditional Windows taskbar, although you do have to jump through some hoops. It's not too difficult though - The quick launch toolbar can be enabled by following the steps on this page. The Desktop toolbar can be added more easily.

I'm also not a big fan of fancy UI graphics, such as the Aero interface that was introduced with Vista. I think Aero's graphics can be somewhat distracting, and they also take more of the computer's resources. I think the traditional Windows appearance looks cleaner. Even in Windows XP, which was released almost 8 years ago, I had disabled its Luna interface in favor of the more traditional Windows look. I did actually like Luna though, and recently I had started using it occasionally. I would prefer Luna over the Aero interface.

If you disable the Aero interface and enable the quick launch toolbar, it starts to look a lot like Windows XP on the surface.

I still don't think Windows 7 provides much of a significant upgrade over Windows XP, although the improvements in bootup time and folder loading time are nice. I've been waiting for some improvement in folder loading time since Windows 2000 was released; Windows 2000 seemed slower in that regard than Windows 98.

The lack of an ability to choose a preferred MIDI output device is a drawback, but I suppose there are ways around that.

If I were just looking at Windows for the first time with Windows 7 (heck, even Vista), I'd probably say that it is a nice OS. I think Windows 7 would be considered a worthy successor to Windows XP. At some point Windows XP will become obsolete, at which point we'll be forced to upgrade anyway.

If you currently use a non-OEM version of Windows (not one that was pre-installed with a PC you bought), Microsoft announced on June 26 that through July 11, you can pre-order Windows 7 upgrade editions at around 50% off. So now would be a good time to order Windows 7 if you're sure you'll want to upgrade and have an upgradable version of Windows. That page lists several retailers where you can pre-order Windows 7, but you can also pre-order Windows 7 from Microsoft at the Windows 7 pre-order page at the online Microsoft store.

Since 1999, I've used Linux off and on for personal use. I also once had a job for 4 years where the company used only Linux. One reason I like Linux is that I've always been interested in alternatives to the more common Windows operating system, and computers in general. Also, Linux has continually improved, and it has gotten very good in the past few years. Linux is also good for internet servers, as it is stable and has a lot of internet-related software available for it (Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, etc.). And one of the great things about Linux is that it's free and open-source. You don't have to pay money for it, and it's developed by a community of developers that won't suddenly disappear one day (due to bankruptcy, etc.).

I've noticed that there are some fairly common misconceptions about Linux. These are my two least favorite/most annoying Linux misconceptions:

• Since Linux is open-source, anyone can insert malicious code or a virus, because either they are a hacker or a virus writer wanting to cause trouble, or they don't know what they're doing.
  
• You get what you pay for, and Linux is free, so it must be pretty bad.
  

These misconceptions just show what some people don't know about Linux. For one, open-source doesn't mean that just anyone can add to it. When people have something they want to add to it, their addition needs to be approved by a committee. That way, viruses and malicious code can be kept out of Linux. And Linux has already proven itself to be a stable and reliable operating system: Big companies like IBM and Novell and others have been supporting it for a while now. IBM installs Linux on their servers, and Novell is the current owner of the SuSE distribution.

Also, the adage "you get what you pay for" simply doesn't apply to Linux. The reason it's free of cost is that the developers who work on Linux aren't doing it for money, they're doing it simply because they want to. They're developers who enjoy developing software and want to create good software that is freely available for anyone to use. Also, if the software is open-source, that doesn't mean companies can't make money with it. Linux itself has been used as a platform on which companies have built a set of software. And, business models are changing such that some companies are making their money mainly from software support rather than software sales. This is the way it has been with Linux. Many different companies and organizations have taken Linux and built their own Linux "distribution" - A package that includes an installer and a set of software that runs on Linux. Many Linux distributions are free, but there are also companies that offer commercial Linux distributions for a price, complete with a support plan. One such company is RedHat. RedHat used to offer a free Linux distribution, but since around 2002 or 2003, they went completely commercial with their new product, RedHat Enterprise Linux. At that time, Fedora was created as a free RedHat-like distribution, sponsored by RedHat. CentOS exists as a free clone of RedHat Enterprise Linux. RedHat continues to be profitable, and I think that just shows how viable Linux is to businesses and to the computer industry.

From what I've observed over the years, Linux has grown and continues to grow all the time, making more and more inroads in the computer industry. Microsoft has been nervous about Linux, and for good reason. I think Linux will continue to grow and become better all the time. One day, companies like Microsoft and Apple may need to seriously re-evaluate their business model in order to compete with Linux.

CutePDF Writer is one of the most useful pieces of software I've seen for Windows in recent years. It sets itself up as a virtual printer, and when you print a document to it, it will write the printout to an Acrobat (PDF) file. Also, it's free. This is the link to their page:
http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Lately I've been running an old-school style BBS, available over the internet, using Synchronet. I'm still amazed at what Synchronet can do as a BBS package. It's a modern software package that allows old-school text mode connections, which look and operate just as dialup BBSs did, except via telnet and SSH rather than dialup. Not only does it have a built-in telnet server for incoming connections, it also has a built-in web server, SMTP/POP server for email, and IRC server, along with a modern GUI. It also lets users communicate with other users on other Synchronet BBSs via the internet. For a BBS, I think that's fairly cool. Back when BBSs were very popular, it would have been very surprising if a BBS software package allowed that.

If there are any BBSers reading this and would like to check out my BBS, this is the info:
BBS name: Digital Distortion
Location: Aloha, OR, USA
Internet address (for telnet and web): digdist.bbsindex.com

Door games	Message networks	Local message groups	File area groups
Barren Realms Elite Legend of the Red Dragon Legend of the Red Dragon 2 TradeWars 2002 Land of Devastation Tournament Trivia ...and more!	DOVE-NET [DIGDIST] SciNet [77:1/136]	Music Computer programming	BBS-related Windows DOS Linux ...and more