Logikworx
Aka, go away.
On Thursday, September 25, 2008, a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., confirmed what I called back in August of 2007, namely, there isn’t any $1.52 billion payday for Alcatel...(read more)
I have about had it with Firefox 3.
Yes, I do use it as browser #2.
For goodness sakes, the incessant shutdowns, the page errors, sheeez!
Light posting for the past several weeks due to being sick and completing a major migration at the day job.
I’ll be retro-posting on issues on my mind during that time.
Mauricio Freitas, Editor-in-Chief of Geekzone, New Zealand’s most trafficked tech (and, probably most trafficked overall) website, has been invited to Lost Wages for a Zero-G flight either this weekend or next week.
A Zero-G flight!
There is a lot of truth to the rumor that I am jealous.
For I have had those kinds of aspirations for nearly 3 decades!
Have fun in Las Vegas, M!
Nice. And fast too.
“The quad-core Intel Xeon Processor 5400 Series consists of the new X5492, X5470, and L5430 processors, the fastest of which claims a clock speed of 3.4 GHz”
Now look at the graphic below: I have been zooming along with a dual-socket...(read more)
adacosta (Andre da Costa) has been selected as the winner of the HP xw4600 Personal Workstation Giveaway by AbsoluteVista.com.
Congratulations, adacosta!
The Microsoft SharePoint Administrator’s Toolkit v2.0, the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, and the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 (eval) have been released into the wild by Microsoft.
At LogikLabs, we use the MDOP, and are...(read more)
According to a yum-yum on Cnet, it is a problem with people, not the code.
Say what now?
Describing Phalanx2 as "a self-injecting kernel rootkit designed for the Linux 2.6 branch that hides files, processes and sockets and includes tools for sniffing a tty program and connecting to it with a backdoor."
Okay…..
This drone then goes on to try to explain that while Linux may be ‘inherently more secure than Windows, as long as admins fail to secure it, it will be just as vulnerable.
That so, Sherlock?
Isn’t it amazing how the cattle try to moonwalk away from the truth every time?
Listen, dodo, that explanation holds true for every operating system.
However, since Microsoft has made ‘Secure by Design’ an architectural priority in Windows, the attack surface has decreased, and the number of vulns reported for Windows has been the best of any OS these past couple of years.
Contrast that to your stuff, yoyo!
You can now see why Linux, however much these clown bray about it, can never get traction with regular humans.
Can you imagine telling a business owner that the reason some criminal in some former Cold War country made off with their data is because it’s all about the people, not the code?
If you installed Linux as the operating system for your business, or your clients' business for that matter, he's right: it's your fault!
Linux, the favorite of the ‘live-under-the-stairs-in-my-grandma’s-basement’ crowd.
Not ready for business, Linux is!
O Oh!
I guess it isn’t a cakewalk to produce an OS, any OS, after all, is it?
When those arrivistes from 1600 Amphitheater Parkway in Mountain View announced their all-encompassing mobile phone OS sometime in the past year, the mainstream media harlots went agog...(read more)
I have just been informed by Xavier Lanier, the Supremo over at Notebooks.com that he is giving away four lappers.
Yes, that is not a typo! ….(read more)
In January of 2007, HP announced, and shipped the first generation of TouchSmart PCs. Positioned squarely at the entertainment and lifestyle spaces; it was far reaching in its potential, and probably just slightly ahead of its time.
The IQ506 represents the next generation of TouchSmart computers, and it shows in this stylish, yet functional system. The current TouchSmart software is more fluid in use, and provides seamless, yet dynamic tactile controls to the user.
Since August 5, 2008, I have been using the HP TouchSmart IQ506 personal computer.
This system is a single piece system with wireless mouse and keyboard combo. Touch functionality is enabled throughout.
Unboxing/OOBE
The TouchSmart IQ506 came in a very distinctive, and attractive yellow shipping box made of some plastic/composite material. This huge box, and with, a first for me on a system box, Velcro® bindings, contained the TouchSmart IQ506, the easily attached base, and an wireless keyboard and mouse combo in the well-padded case.
(NOTE: This yellow box is special packaging for the review units, as they have to withstand several packing and re-packing cycles during the course of the reviews.)
The OOBE setup manual, a TouchSmart user manual, and the usual support and licensing documentation were in the box as well. All required cables and cords were also in the box. A screen-wiping cloth completed the items therein.
I snapped the base onto the monitor/system unit, connected the power, and got the show started.
First impressions
I had shied away from all-in-one personal computers in the past since I assumed, correctly, that the tradeoffs were not worth the convenience of a multi-piece system.
No longer.
A look at the specs on this system reveals why:
All that in an all-in-one unit!
Testing Scenario: Entertainment
Since entertainment is one of the segments targeted by the TouchSmart, I decided to test it using lots of audio, video, and photographic content.
I went t the archives in The Floating O’odua, and transferred nearly 20,000 songs to a folder on the hard drive. I broke down my already sorted directory structure, and had WMP re-sort the files.
I copied movies to the hard drive, ripped some movies, and copied raw footage of movies, my animated movie I have been working on. I also copied several gigabytes of photographs to this system
Media Hub using HP TouchSmart Software
The HP TouchSmart system is a two-factor solution: apart from the touch functionality embedded in the TouchSmart PC hardware, HP TouchSmart software also drives this system.
The TouchSmart Software Suite is optimized for entertainment, and consists of the following components: music, video, pictures, RSS feeds, calendar, notes, and is controlled by the Touch Browser, an icon of which is embedded into the front of the system and a shortcut placed on the desktop.
Touch Browser. This allows two-finger scrolling, and single-finger selection of items. I was able to scroll easily through content listings, and select as easily.
TouchSmart Music. This is an easy-to-use music player. It presented my music in two album views that were customizable, and made the creation of playlists as simple as (finger) drag and drop. All music controls using the player were within a finger’s touch away.
TouchSmart Video. As simple to learn and use as the Music Player. It takes advantage of the embedded webcam and array microphones to enable the creation, which can be uploaded directly to YouTube.
TouchSmart Photo. TouchSmart Photo gives uses editing capabilities, with viewing, resizing, album creation, and slideshows at one’s fingertips. I found the use of touch to be much more intuitive in content creation than using the mouse.
Media hub, using Windows Media Center
After using the TouchSmart software, I connected the system to a cable feed and turned it into a media hub.
As a Windows Media Center device, the IQ506 performed as expected. DVR, HD content shone.
Media creation
In order to create content, I installed my consumer stalwarts on the system: Pinnacle Systems Studio 12, CyberLink DVDsuite, Reallusion iClone Studio 2.5 and CrazyTalk Pro 5.
Original video content was shot using a Canon HV20 HD digital camcorder, while a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR and a Nikon S52c point-and-click camera were used for still photography.
I created a movie containing animation from iClone Studio, HD content from the camcorder, and still pictures.
I then had Studio 12 transcode for Blu-Ray, regular DVD, and the Zune.
(Please look my forays into high-end content creation using the HP xw8600 and Adobe Premiere Pro shortly….)
In a word: sweet!
Unintended use: The Small Business Desktop
Why should consumers have all the fun?
One of the reasons I was intrigued by the TouchSmart series was touch functionality.
I have been a proponent of (Microsoft Windows-based) Tablet PCs since I realized the productivity gains afforded by the Tablet functionality while using them. As a result, I wanted to see if those sort of gains could be realized using the TouchSmart.
I am pleased to report that the TouchSmart does provide those productivity gains.
In my tests of the HP TouchSmart IQ506 in a small and medium business setting, from a business executive’s desktop, to an inside salesperson’s system, and culminating as a physician’s desktop adjunct to a laptop/mobile system, the IQ506 shone. Brightly, too!
It was fast, capable, ran Windows Vista™ smoothly, and didn’t create or run into incompatibility issues with software written for Windows XP.
For these business scenarios, the IQ506 met or exceeded expectations.
For the executive, being able t manipulate data and information directly using his/her own digits is without a doubt, a godsend. Perusing BI and CRM dashboards using Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft CRM is a lot easier when you can point and select directly with your finger.
The salesperson is able to view several pieces of information, and move through several levels of that information effortlessly.
Finally, for an ongoing project, our test subjects the physicians actually preferred the TouchSmart to a standard PC since it presented the same interface as their Tablet PCs. In fact, I was informed that replacing all desktops used by the physicians and mid-level providers was under consideration, and might make it into their budget in 2008 EOY for fiscal 2009. Yeah, it was that good!
For this scenario, I installed Microsoft Research’s InkSeine.
Missing/wish list
Despite all this, the TouchSmart seemed to be missing the following:
I found myself wanting to augment the use of my fingers for close-in work, and using a stylus from one of my Tablet PCs for most of my business desktop trials.
Conclusion
The HP TouchSmart IQ500 series of systems should be your next media hub, and lifestyle system.
It is currently the best all-in-one system on the market, with the innovative TouchSmart technology serving to improve your entertainment experience.
It passes the OOBE test exceptionally, and then goes on to deliver more than expected based on that same combination of Windows Vista and HP TouchSmart functionality.
We award the HP TouchSmart IQ500-series the SmallBizVista.com Business Ready Award of Excellence.
I went into the test of this system looking to see if I could bring the benefits of TouchSmart technology to by core constituency, the small and medium business spaces.
I believe this system will deliver to the business desktop the same gains in productivity we now see in the use of Tablet PCs, of which my personal favorite is the HP tx2500 series.
I am looking forward to pitching the value represented in this device to my clients, also making them aware of the future proofing built into the IQ500 series: the Touch functionality that will be inherent in Windows 7.
System highlights
In addition to the system specs listed above,
Acknowledgements
My review of this system was speedy, and very much unexpected, for which I thank Marco Pena unconditionally. All it took for him to facilitate this review was a request.
Furthermore, he and Andy Lutzky were able to make Garrett Gargan, the Product Manager for the IQ500-series at HP, available to brief me personally on this worthy device.
One of the best PowerToys out there has been SyncToy, formerly in version 1,4
Now, SyncToy v2.0 has been released....(read more)
I am so NOT surprised!
That is a revelation I had thought about for a while. ...(read more)
They were?
Weren’t they Linux systems?
That supposedly unbreachable system?
To compound it all, the intruders gained access to systems used to sign Fedora packages.
How titillating!
How does that old adage go again? Something about people, glass house, and stones?
Heal yourself, Red Rodent, before trying to mouth off!
In comments to my post, Taiwan starts orbiting the silly galaxy, reader ‘adacosta’ feels it is a sovereignty issue, while reader ‘Michael Turton’ starts back down that tired line of Windows Vista is bad.
Since I spent quite a few minutes on my reply,...(read more)
Just when you think it is safe to go outside comes the news of another formerly sensible country entering the silly constellation.
This time it is Taiwan!
In news straight out of Mad magazine, the powers that be at that manufacturing powerhouse have decided...(read more)
What did the ISO and the IEC say to the anti-OOXML crowd?
“Go away, losers.”
Previous/Related
aka Stupidity reigns supreme in Centrinoland
Has the world gone mad?
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The Recipe: Take your flagship product. Improve it . Insert secret ‘time bomb’ code into it. Release gold version of said product with the stupid code intact. Have users unable to use their systems when the date activates the shut down code. Is this how...(read more)
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