The Interlocutor

Chris Aarons creates BuzzCorps.com

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Chris Aarons is leaving AMD to create Buzz Corps.

Bookmark it.

Immediately!

Michael J. Reyes, of The Hardware Geeks, informed me of Chris initially, and Chris confirmed it is a telephone call, and an email.

I had it to say, but Mike beat me to it with his announcement of Chris leaving AMD to hang out his own shingle.

Chris Aarons is a Master at engaging people at all levels in our industry – believe me, if he can get to the propeller-heads in IT, can you imagine what he can do in other fields – without being overbearing.

There really isn’t a lot more that I can add to it except to say that I know that it would be a great, and immediate success.

I look forward to seeing his name in the lights, and I know I am not alone in wishing him the very best.

Which is what he deserves.

Bonne Chance!

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Presenting....Silverlight!

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WPF/E has now been christened 'Silverlight', a new technology for creating 'Rich Interactive Applications'.

Announced by Microsoft today at the NAB confab in Las Vegas, Silverlight, which is more than just Flash, will do, actually, I'll let Darryl K Taft break it down:

Silverlight is based on the .Net Framework and enables developers and designers to use their existing skills to deliver media experiences and RIAs—which Microsoft refers to as "rich interactive applications" as opposed to "rich Internet applications"—for the Web with role-specific tools: Expression Studio for designers and Visual Studio for developers.

More in his article here.

As usual, Mary Jo Foley has some thoughts, and Robert McLaws chimes in too.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

The HP tx1000 Review

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I have been reviewing the new HP tx1000 Tablet PC.

I reviewed the HP tx1000 in three phases: as an entertainment Tablet PC, as a mobile information worker’s replacement laptop, and as a Tablet PC replacement for the Acer C100 Tablet PCs that are currently placed at client healthcare providers’ offices that are at the end of their operational life.

Unboxing and looks

In the box was the tx1000, a remote control, an additional battery, and two sets of stereo earbud-style headphones.

The sleek, black tx1000 is a very welcome departure in design from the normally utilitarian looks of Tablet PCs and notebooks, apart from the Ferrari series of notebooks from Acer.

This unit has quite a few little design elements that speak to the desirability of the unit. The touchpad, for instance, is of an entirely new design, and the most comfortable I have ever used. It also comes with an integrated fingerprint reader, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, dual microphones built into the lid, and dual headphone jacks, for the included headphones. The stylus has a lanyard for securing it to the system. Going further along with the entertainment theme, the tx1000’s stereo speakers are located on the lid, allowing the user the full benefit of the speakers even when the unit is in slate mode. A dual-layer LightScribe 8X DVD drive completes the package. An added vig is the remote control.

The system also has a plethora of I/O ports, from three (3) USB ports, Ethernet, modem, external monitor, S-Video, ExpressCard, and a 5-in-1 memory card reader.

Configuration & Performance

Configuration

The tx1000 has both 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in. In fact, it has a very nifty switch built into the system that allows you to enable/disable wireless connectivity on the fly!

This system came with a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2003 Student & Teacher (why?) and Microsoft Works (again, why?). A 6-day Norton Internet Security 2006 package was also in the box (why, why, why???).

I promptly discarded the Norton, AOL, Works, and Office 2003 software, RealRhapsody.

I then installed the Logikworx Standard Desktop Suite 2007.

Performance

The tx1000 is based on the speedy dual-core AMD Turion TL-60 CPU running at 2.0 GHz and an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 with 128MB.

This system has a Performance Index of 3.0 and more than that, feels pretty fast, for a compact Tablet PC.

Testing

Suitability to task 1: Default configuration (almost) aka Entertainment Tablet PC

As an entertainment PC, the tx1000, out-of-the box (OOB), has a range of multimedia software included, such as Muvee AutoProducer DVD edition, and Sonic Digital Media Plus.

The system just rocked. The IR remote control allowed me to make the most of it and the speakers were quite loud, even in a crowded airport. Using the headphone was another plus, as I was able to get two test subjects (John-III & Trevor) to quietly watch Callou, Bob the Builder, and other content quietly…..

Suitability to task 2: Mobile Information Worker’s Tablet PC

In this test, I tested the suitability of the tx1000 to the task of being the primary workstation of a mobile information worker, such as insurance agents, real estate agents/brokers, or a drug manufacturer’s representative.

I completely wiped the system and performed a clean install of Windows Vista Business and the Logikworx Standard Business Desktop 2007*……

Suitability to task 3: Healthcare Provider’s Tablet PC

I made the tx1000 into a dual-boot system by installing both Windows XP and Windows Vista™, since some of the target PM software required Windows XP. In the Vista™ partition, I tested the tx1000 using the two most common PM and electronic medical records (EMR) software suites among our clients in both a direct install, and running in a Windows XP Virtual machine…… (Please see notes below for information on Windows XP on the tx1000)

Conclusion

HP has a winner here.

In the tx1000, HP has a Tablet PC with an impressive feature list and at a price point that is easily palatable to most users, small businesses, and enterprises. It is compact, powerful, relatively-inexpensive, and durable enough to be used daily.

Apart from the relatively short orientation for the passive display, I found it to be a very capable machine. In fact, compared to our reference Toshiba Tecra M7, which cost over $1,000 USD more than the tx1000 in a virtually similar configuration, the tx1000 more than held its own.

It is in this vein that we are awarding it the SmallBizVista.com Preferred award, and making it the recommended Tablet PC for all our customers.

In closing, I would like to thank HP, and AMD for the opportunity to I got to review this desirable unit. My only negative feeling about is the fact that the tx1000 has to go back. Sob, sob……

The full SmallBizVista.com tx1000 review is here.

*The Logikworx Standard Business Desktop 2007 consists of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, Microsoft Office OneNote, Microsoft Windows Defender, Microsoft Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft Expression Web Designer, Paint.NET, Spybot Search & Destroy, v1.4, ahead Nero v7.8, Microsoft Tablet PC PowerToys, and InterVideo WinDVD v8.

The HP tx1000 is a Windows Vista-only system and is available with either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows Vista ONLY.

My installation of Windows XP was for demonstration purposes ONLY.

Windows XP is an unsupported configuration for the HP tx1000.

If you downgrade to Windows XP, you will do so at your own risk, and your system may either cease to function, or lose functionality.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) will NOT support you or your system in this configuration.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

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© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Steve, please try Microsoft Dynamics, OK?

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Newsflash: Apple delays OS X 'Leopard' till later in 2007 as a result of bodies sent to work on iBrick.

Apple, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, California

Dear Steve,

I heard today that you have delayed the release of Leopard until October because your drones are working on the iBrick iPhone.

Now, pundits are using this as an opportunity to pile on.

Forsooth, some writers are even comparing you to those philistines in Redmond.

Like you, I am upset.

However, I have the perfect solution for you: Microsoft Dynamics.

The Microsoft Dynamics suite of enterprise resource planning products would have eased, indeed, allowed you to avoid this mess entirely.

While it is out of the space we work in, if you give me a call, I will be glad to connect you with someone at Microsoft Business Solutions who would make ERP problems at Apple, Inc. a thing of the past.

Sincerely,

John Obeto.

________________________________________________

I mean, can you imagine the package on this guy? He must have balls made of Ununoctium (atomic number 118) or some other heavier, yet-undiscovered element!

Check out the past misdeeds:

  1. iTunes ships with virus: “We blame Microsoft for not making Windows more hardy against viruses…..”
  2. iTunes incompatible with Vista™: “Windows Vista’s release crept up on us so suddenly, we were not able to develop for it on time” or some drivel like that, despite 100 million sold.

And now this?

I really don’t blame him. When you think of the number of media harlots who make a living feeding at the teats of the nonsense machine that is the Steve Jobs Show,you then get a sense of why he comes up with sh*t like this.

If only Microsoft talked down to users like this, the money I could make……..

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Don't smoke the Penryn pipe!

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Contrary to all the noise being generated by Intel about that die-shrink MCM known as 'Penryn', I am convinced that waiting for Barcelona is still the best bet for enterprises wanting to upgrade their server hardware this year.

Since Barcelona follows the usual AMD dev strategy, it will have the usual lead in scalability, and flexibility, power and thermal displacement that we have come to expect from Opteron. Furthermore, it will have cooling intelligence built into the CPU.

The only reason Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme is being mentioned now is because Santa Clara was able to bring its economics of scale to bear on manufacturing to produce the MCM that is Core Extreme/Penryn.

As for all that talk about Nehalem.

What Nehalem?

In 2008?

I have no doubt that when Barcelona drops, all talk of Nehalem would evaporate, as its performance would send poor Nehalem back to the drawing board, a la Pentium 5 and Itanic.

While I shall be poring through recently-acquired information, press releases, published information, and rumors/facts in the blogosphere over the next few days, be rest assured I will have more on this next week.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

No cellphones on airplanes

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Thank you, FCC.

For once, the FCC gets something.

(They were, actually they still are on their way to becoming as well regarded as that former unlamented FEMA director!)

Letting cellphones on aircraft would definitely, IMO, increase air rage incidents.

The absolute last thing I want to hear while trying to nap on a plane is one half of a loser's conversation.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Adobe CS3

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What a ripoff!

When Adobe came out with that amazingly stupid statement about not patching currently shipping software for Vista, tell me, who didn't see this ripoff coming?

Who?

Now that the other shoe has hit the jaw, I hope the herd decides very carefully where to invest their coins of the realm next time.

A$$wipes!

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Motion LE1700 is 1st Aero tablet?

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According to this headline on Digital Trends it is.

How so not true!

It is disconcerting when PR copy is substituted for editorial content, as must have happened here.

I sincerely hope it is not a new trend, pun intended, at Digital Trends.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

AMD Shrinks XENOS

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Announced at the recently-concluded GDC, I almost missed this nugget.

AMD has succeeded in shrinking the XENOS GPU to allow for installations in mobile devices, aka cellphones.

Are you freakin' kiddin'?

The XENOS is the DirectX-10, unified memory graphics processor powering the Xbox 360. Yes, that XENOS processor.

Maybe, just maybe, TV, video, and gaming on mobiles might have a future!

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

The Next Intel CPUs are the old AMD CPUs!

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Intel introduces its next-generation of processors…

And it is….

OPTERON!

Congratulations, Intel.

It is nice to see Intel finally, finally, see the light and commence the development of AMD chips.

The announced chips will be extremely innovative, using technology delivered by AMD back in 2003.

In fact, it is extremely disturbing to see that it by the release of Nehalem in 2008, it would have taken Intel only five years to replicate the efforts of AMD in the server/desktop GPU spaces. Disturbing to holders of INTC, not I.

In a release a couple of days ago, Intel introduced their roadmap for the next two generations of processors, codenamed Penryn and Nehalem, respectively.

Unlike the mainstream media harlots outlets ho's, I came away from the entire announcement totally underwhelmed by the ‘advances’ promised by these two processors.

Why?

I had the feeling of déjà vu, you know, like I had heard or seen it all before.

Guess what?

I have heard, and seen it all before! In fact, I already have it! And will have it soon, in Q3 2007.

It is called Opteron, and Athlon, and Torrenza, and Barcelona, and AMD Fusion!

Penryn
What is Penryn?

Penryn is essentially a die shrink of Core 2 Duo, period.

SSE4? Deep Sleep? Bigger cache? Better virtualization?

All those fancy words do nothing. See, ‘Double-Secret Sleep’ or whatever the low-power state is called is nothing new.

All you have to realize is that it is a die-shrink.

Nehalem
Nehalem, is the next rev of the Core 2 Duo architecture.

It is viewed within Intel “as the first true dynamically scalable microarchitecture”. From Intel, that is. Totally discounting AMD Fusion.

It will also have an integrated memory controller, a la Opteron. Among other things.

No one was able to get Gelsinger to admit to the integration of a GPU with the CPU.

Also mentioned was the fact that there would be versions of Nehalem designed expressly for mobile devices.

How incredibly not new!

All of the ‘innovations’ to be delivered by Penryn and Nehalem are already here.

Furthermore, all the talk about performance gains due to process improvements are a chimera. Looking back at Intel CPU evolution through several process shrinks, most recently the 130nm-90nm-65nm-45nm processes, where have the performance gains come from? Not the process shrinks. It has come from larger caches, higher frequencies, and in the case of Core 2 Duo, a new microarchitecture. The only nugget in the announcement, IMO, about driving the power of the CPU/GPU down to mobile devices, is also made somewhat irrelevant by AMD.

Look no further than the announcement by AMD at the last GDC that they have succeeded in driving the XENOS GPU in the Xbox 360 down to mobile devices. Now, that is an announcement, and a revolutionary one at that. I had expected the technology behind the XENOS to be driven down to the desktop, but the AMD wonks pushed it down waaay further. This should bring gaming-class 3D graphics to mobile devices: another way to annoy your fellow passengers on flights.

The Intel announcement, while informative about their technology roadmap, was an exercise in intellectual masturbation; a lot of effort being spent on meaningless but exciting words, and an empty feeling later, after the euphoria evaporated, of having accomplished nothing significant.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Deepfish

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What is it?

Deepfish is a browsing enhancement utility, currently in beta, for Windows Mobile devices. According to Microsoft Live Labs,

Deepfish is a lightweight client application that leverages a powerful server side technology for delivery of content such as web pages to a Windows Mobile device. Content is displayed in a familiar desktop format that requires no additional work by the content or site author.

Just how impressive is that?

It creates dynamic snapshots of regular web pages which it then zooms into on demand from the Windows Mobile user.

Yes, regular webpages, not designed for mobile devices pages.

Folks, Deepfish has to be seen in action to appreciate it.

Another product from the Microsoft Live Labs, and Microsoft Live crew of which you all know I'm enamored of.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Windows Live on Lenovo systems

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They have seen the Light Live!

Lenovo, the #3 PC manufacturer, has inked a deal with Microsoft to ship its systems with the Windows Live Toolbar, and Live.com as the start page of all systems.

The move for Lenovo to Live.com from the former sparse page will allow for greater customization of the start page by Lenovo, and their customers.

Live.com, for the 3 people on Terra who do not know, allows an infinite number of customization options including gadgets, RSS feeds, and mail.

I also see deals of this sort help the fortunes of other Live properties, which is 'A Good Thing', since I consume virtually all of the Windows Live products on a daily basis, including but not limited to Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail Desktop, Windows Live writer, Windows Live QnA, Windows Live Expo, etc.

This is a big blow to those those search philistines who owned the space with this vendor before.

Congratulations to the Bruce Kasrel and the Windows Live team for this very auspicious start to the hopeful flood of similar deals.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

USB flash drives as modern-day dongles

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John C. Dvorak has a knack for being infuriating, especially to those who frequent his blogs.

However, I still keep his PC Magazine feeds.

This article is one of the reasons why.

In it, he implores all of us to be vigilant against a possible bonehead evolutionary branch of the humble USB flash drive into a dongle.

He is right.

Before the innocuous-sounding moniker DRM, we all knew and hated copy protection software and devices.

We really need to band together to make sure the days of the dongle are not, and never revisited!

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Open XML is on ISO fast track.

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It must not have been a good weekend in Armonk.

Despite all their specious arguments, the ISO, speaking through Lisa Rajchel, informs us that, after consulting with staff at the International Technology Task Force - a grandiose name indeed - she decided to move the application to a fast track status.

Can I get a 'YAY' from the audience?

Isn't Ms. Rajchel several megaparsecs removed in functional processing power than that harridan, Kroes?

I wonder if the headbanging at IBM over this new development has stopped?

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Redeem your Vista Express upgrades soon!

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Thanks to a post by Ed Bott, I just remembered that I had a Vista Express Upgrade due me from Toshiba for the Tecra *M7.

That offer is due to expire at the end of this month.

I immediately sent out emails to clients I know purchased personal systems during the period of time in the offer was in place, and will be sending out spam an email blast to all contacts later today to remind them of the impending expiration date.

BTW, I also redeemed my Vista Express upgrade, to Vista Business Edition from XP Tablet PC Edition, and I am awaiting the media, which costs $10+coins delivered.

Thanks Ed.

*I ordered the dual-core Tablet PC on December 19, 2006 and it didn't get delivered until January 8, 2007. Yeah, shame on them.

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Lost emails at the CEO-level

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How will 2007 shape up for Intel?

While developing his thesis on Vista migration, Intel's CEO apparently forgot to save emails as required for the current lawyerfest called AMD vs Intel.

Hopefully, this will not snowball.

Then again, why not?

For someone like me who thought his dissertation was at best imbecilic, it was 他人の不幸は蜜の味

Translation: tanin no fukou wa mitsu no aji

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Intel CEO: We'll wait for Vista SP1

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That has got to be the most stupid statement coming from the piehole of a Fortune 500 CEO for a long while!

Also, from Intel?

For a company which is supposed to be this great company, now you know why they stumbled that greatly and for so long, Dell notwithstanding.

Wait for Vista SP1?

Still a lot of media ho's carried the news, treating is a some sort of validation of their position.

I'm afraid not only is the point missed, but the stupidity of Otellini's statement is missed as well.

Is this the way you treat your best software partner? Does this yum-yum think that the 4% Linux, and 3% OS X market share can take him there? Forgot, AMD had the greater Linix market share as well.

Robert McLaws, of Windows-Now.com, skillfully dissects the Intel position in a rejoinder to Otellini's moronic statement, and provides the text of a memo from AMD Executive VP Henri Richard exhorting his troops to move to Vista post haste.

For goodness sakes, if Robert, myself, and several thousand other people could have had over 2 years to test Vista, where were the yobs at Intel whose CPUs were targeted by Vista as well?

Intel is waiting for Vista SP1?

I hate to tell Paulie this, but by that time, AMD would have released Barcelona. And if estimates are to be believed, and I don't see why not, what platform do you think would be hot during the Christmas/end-of-year buying season?

In the same vein, what company's products do you think I would be recommending to clients, family, and friends?

Certainly not the company whose boss does not have enough confidence it his own IT department's ability to support Vista today.

Can you say, AMD?

Here's looking at my next desktop, with a 2-socket Barcelona solution for a total of 8 cores come Q3 of 2K7!

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

PointCast, RSS feeds, and history

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In a conversation with a luminary in Microsoft technologies today, we briefly touched on RSS.

Which led me to think of PointCast and their technology back in the day for delivering news to the desktop.

What seemed to new and esoteric then is now not only commonplace, but in on the verge of having extensions developed for it, by Microsoft no less, that would allow for the same sort of rich content PointCast promised. This time without the fat client and bandwidth hog that PointCast was.

Wow, it has been ten years since the board of PointCast, with the hubris of overawed business neophytes, declined the $450 million USD offer from News Corp for their company, which eventually got sold to an Idealab subsidiary two years later for $7 million USD.

Someone forgot to tell them to take the money and run!

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows