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The Spoils of Christmas 2006

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The very good thing about a Christmas Day birthday is that the gifts keep getting better as your family and friends become, more, well, well-off!

It was a very, very profitable haul this Christmas for yours truly, even by Ferengi standards!

Check this out:

  1. Canon Digital Rebel XTi
  2. Zune in Black: Wifey, retro payment for my Zune
  3. 3 mugs for my collection
  4. (Really Big) Shirt
  5. Paciotti Shoes
  6. Toshiba Tecra M7 Core 2 Duo, 2GB Tablet PC
  7. Velocity Micro Media Center box: Microsoft, AMD, Aaron Coldiron, Nick White, The Hive
  8. Sony PSP and 2 games
  9. Fashion shirt
  10. Several sugar-free cakes
  11. Flat-panel sound-sensitive light
  12. Jamaican Rum cake: really alcoholy!
  13. Buzz Lightyear soft shell car for ages 2+
  14. Ca$h

Thanks be to God for his kindness and for allowing peace to rein during this Christmas season.

Props to all who gave, and also offered felicitations, including, but not limited to:

  • Wifey, I love you always and forever
  • My kids, John & Trevor
  • My parents
  • My big bro', Chris and his wife Janet
  • My siblings, Gracie, Mary, Greg, Lucille, and their families
  • The next generation: Chris II, Senami, Brennen, Sessi, Emmanuel.
  • Taiwo and her family; Dippy, my godson Jack, Jennifer, and Amanda
  • Isi and her family
  • 'Sosa and my goddaughter, Karyn
  • Abbey Babayemi and his family
  • Chuk Ndulue
  • Mike Reyes and family
  • Kabyr and his family
  • Fredricka Sule
  • Mummy G. O. Inneh

Dream system to review!

in

Select community leaders were given either a Ferrari 1000/5000 notebook computer, or a Velocity Micro MCE system for a long-term review.

Velocity Micro MCE or Ferrari?

The choice was hard but...

Velocity Micro MCE Box (picture below) with the following drool-ian specs:

  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+
  • Dual 400GB SATA RAID-1 Hard Drives
  • 2GB DDR2
  • Lightscribe DVD RW
  • AMD Radeon 1950XT 256MB
  • AMD TV Wonder 650 HD Tuner
  • Microsoft Wireless Media Center Keyboard
  • Microsoft Media Center Remote
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
  • 2007 Microsoft Office Professional System

Sweet, eh?

And this is before I even turn it on!

As they say in the 'hood,

Holla'!!!

Thanks to Microsoft, AMD, Aaron Coldiron of Microsoft, Nick White of the Windows Team Blog, The Hive and the Microsoft Communities.

A search online reveals that I am in pretty exalted company.

Nice.

But.... not all is well.

As usual, the haters are out with their flensing knives.

Totally discounting the tossers who got squat, some site owners who received review units are concerned about the perception that they (the site owners) were for sale, or could be bought.

???

A cursory review of the terms of the units is that the computers were for a long-term review of AMD's processors in conjunction with Windows Vista. It is also my understanding that the it is also the site-owners prerogative to give away the system after conclusion of the review.

So what is all the noise about?

The fact that it is from Microsoft?

A community leader who received a Ferrari unit had this very astute observation, "The fact that they can be given away by the site is overlooked since no one wants to give them away".

How true is that?

They would rather bemoan the fact that a unit is given, while daring all to attempt to pry it from their clutching fingers.

Go figure!

Edit: Michael J Reyes, CEO of The Hardware Geeks has just informed me that his review system has a Windows (Vista) Experience Index of 5.1
Edit: Dana Epps has a thought on this issue here.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

What is a zoo-nie?

in

At Costco the yesterday, I heard a droid try to help a customer looking at MP3 players.

This is a Zoo-Nie (Zoo-ney?)

I totally cracked up!

Funny enough, the droid steered the customer away from an iPod to the Zune, but ran out of good things to say about Zune other than it was the new thing this Christmas.

I proceeded to help out, starting with the name.

BTW, customer bought the Zune in black.

They are back!

in

Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely today at the Johnson Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida after a 13-day, 5.3-million mile journey.

During this trip, which incidentally features two African Americans astronauts, Captain Robert Curbeam, USN, and Joan Higginbotham, the International Space Station was repaired, and also upgraded with new functionality.

In fact, Captain Curbeam performed a NASA single-mission four (4) extra-vehicular activity (EVA, or in popular parlance, spacewalks) tasks.

Welcome back.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Joe Wilcox on Vista being 'Last Windows'

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Joe Wilcox, who in my mind will always be The Microsoft Monitor, has, as he is always wont to, a very to-the-point article on those SWAG-sters/soothsayers* analysts(?) at Gartner.

In his piece Vista Isn't Windows' Last Destination, he correctly asks the question that most of those supposed 'pundits' should have asked before spewing forth their bloggorhea about the Gartner declaration as if it came down on a tablet with our Patriarch, Moses.

The question?

"Who spiked the eggnog at Gartner?"

Unfortunately, his good manners do not allow him to be more condescending and/or downright insulting to those Madamme Cleo-wanna bes!

Not hobbled by that admirable limitation despite a classical British upbringing, I can definitely say that the tossers at Gartner are a bunch of headline-grabbing morons.

Remember my earlier posts about those yum-yums here and here.

Joe has thankfully taken over the reins of Microsoft Watch, which after the exit of that estimable lady, Mary Jo Foley, had gone to the dogs. Literally!

It took three articles by the placeholder for Joe for me to thoroughly discount MS-Watch and delete it from my feedlist. Since Joe's arrival there, the quality shot back up.

Thanks Joe.

* SWAG: Stupid Wild-A$$ed Guess. The algorithm used to derive their declarations.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Microsoft NoCal QPB

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I attended Microsoft’s Northern California Quarterly Partner Briefing on Wednesday, December 13, and, it was Vista™, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007 everywhere.

While I like Microsoft and all the partner resources they provide, and believe me, they do have a lot, I really do not appreciate the pressure the breadth of those resources places on me!

What???

With such a definitive and highly useful set of tools, there isn’t any reason for any partner not to be successful; we just have to produce.

Forget about all those dreams of goofing off; during this initial intro period of ViOfEx, your customers and clients will be bombarded with ads, news, and info about ViOfEx.

Every day and everywhere.

Get ready

My thanks to everyone at Microsoft that worked on the event and also everyone working to keep us partners singularly focused on the task at hand: helping our clients move to a more secure and productive form of computing and messaging.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Lakers 102, Houston 94

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It would have been the Mother of All Tank Jobs if we had lost this game, which at one time we were leading by a margin of 90-64.

We pulled it out thanks to KB24.

Lakers (15-6)
Season Stats | Roster
Starters
Name Reb Ast PF Pts
K Bryant, G 8 7 3 23
L Walton, F 5 8 0 18
S Parker, G 1 2 0 14
K Brown, C 4 4 3 12
L Odom, F 1 0 0 0

Bench
NameRebAstPFPts
V Radmanovic 3 0 2 10
B Cook 6 3 6 8
M Evans 3 1 1 6
A Bynum 5 0 4 5
R Turiaf 2 1 0 4
J Farmar 0 0 1 2

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

O Oh, here come the apologists!

in

Reading the LATimes fishwrap today was a revelation.

An article in it on the errors of the anti-doping agencies virtually killing the careers of athletes was the cause.

Mentioned, of course was the current fiasco with Floyd Landis and his alleged doping at the Tour de France.

Isn't it niiice to see all these guys hypocrites come out with their carving knives sharpened?

These are the same morons who, without any proof, have convinced the herd proletariat that Barry Bonds was using steroids. The same assholes that are warning us to wait for proof before accusing Roger Clemens and Lance Armstrong.

BTW, Look at the parallels between Bonds, Armstrong, and Clemens.

All have been accused, but there hasn't been any physical proof.

None whatsoever.

However, since the mainstream press, especially those imbeciles at ESPN who have their heads stuck so far up Armstrong's rectum that they can actually peek out his mouth, and like Clemens, they are willing to give them as pass until there is physical proof.

Are you jokin'?

The same standard does not apply to Bonds, since, those crusading reporters dicks in SF read some grand jury papers. As a result, it must be true.

Never mind that if it was, Bonds would be in pokey for lying to a grand jury.

Nah, he should just get out of baseball for baseball's sake.

The worst offender here is Bud 'The Human Asshole' Selig, the head monkey for MLB, who prejudged the whole affair by saying he would not celebrate Bonds' passing of Hammerin' Hanks record, thereby implying that something was amiss.

Listed bud, all insults intended, you're a punk-ass fool, and nobody asked you. Just go away.

Notice that I did not say a word about Landis, which should speak volumes.

He is the only one mentioned in this article who has has a sample come back tainted.

All I know is that before and during the TdF, all I heard about was how he was such a devout Mennonite, and all-round nice guy, and I rooted for him.

I still root for him, because I respect what his branch of Christianity stands for, and their emphasis on service and serving. He, however, should this fiasco be found to be true and he juiced, would have brought great disrepute to a totally undeserving Christian congregation.

Since it is the policy of this blogger not to give further credence to the nonsensical articles I find in fishwraps or glossies, I refuse to insert a hyperlink but only mention the name of the newspaper.

Los Angeles Lakers 106, Spurs 99

in

With KB24's 34-point, 8-rebound evening coupled with Lamar Odom's near triple-double (18 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists), the Los Angeles Lakers defeated their first respected opponent of the season, the San Antonio Spurs.

Hopefully, this keeps up as we now go on the road.

The line:

Lakers (14-6) Season Stats | Roster
Starters
Name Min Reb Ast PF Pts
K Bryant, G 39 8 1 2 34
L Odom, F 39 11 9 3 18
L Walton, F 34 3 2 1 17
K Brown, C 30 5 3 4 11
S Parker, G 29 3 2 5 10
Bench
Name Min Reb Ast PF Pts
A Bynum 18 8 1 2 6
M Evans 17 1 3 2 4
B Cook 14 2 0 0 4
J Farmar 19 1 4 0 2

BTW, I like the fact the I now have two ways to replay the games: my T-Mobile Dash, and Zune! If only the Zune had a flash card slot!

Bon Voyage, STS-116

in

Space Shuttle Discovery, on mission STS-116 blasted off a few minutes ago at approximately 5.47 pm Pacific.

They will make space-worthiness checks to Discovery, and then mosey on to dock with the International Space Station, where several EVAs will be made in the process of modifying and upgrading the space station. Docking at the space station is scheduled for 2.07 pm Pacific on Monday, December 11.

Among the crew are two people of African descent, Captain Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., USN, and Joan E. Higginbotham, both of whom are Mission Specialists.

Bon Voyage.

All pictures are and remain the property of NASA

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Network Rival to YouTube?

in

Don't look now, but the networks are looking to create a rival to YouTube.

Suits, don't waste time, money, and talent on this any further.

There is a viable alternative available right now:

MSN Soapbox.

Though it is still in beta, it has a lot going for it: better UI, easier uploading experience, and the backing of Microsoft, a company that knows how to play nice with you.

Networks discuss YouTube rival

in

Don't look now, but the networks are looking to create a rival to YouTube.

Suits, don't waste time, money, and talent on this any further.

There is a viable alternative available right now:

MSN Soapbox.

Though it is still in beta, it has a lot going for it: better UI, easier uploading experience, and the backing of Microsoft, a company that knows how to play nice with you.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Lakers 106, Georgia 95

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Even without the Incredible KB24, the Los Angeles Lakers made short work of the Peachtree team, with Luke Walton and Lamar Odom providing sparks.

Lakers (13-6)
Season Stats Roster
Starters
NameMinRebAstPFPts
L Walton, F3446325
M Evans, G4012422
K Brown, C3077513
S Parker, G2511011
L Odom, F4115716

Bench
NameMinRebAstPFPts
J Farmar2324015
V Radmanovic114005
A Bynum163204
S Vujacic120003
B Cook21002
R Turiaf54040

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Coke's (Coca-Cola's) effect on your body.

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This post in The Consumerist just serves to bring the effects of highly-sugared drinks on the human body to fore.

At the end of the day, the effect of Coke is actually, Just Like The Real Thing, Baby!

Of particular importance is this line from the article: Everything in moderation, otherwise diabetes goes better with coke!

As a recently-diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetic, it resonates.

Loudly!

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Some malware with that Vista warez?

in

I guess it is true: there is always a catch!

Some idiots downloaded a warez version of Vista only to find that it was a doctored version with a nasty payload.

In how many languages can I say serves them right?

Unfortunately, not enough.

L

Losers!

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

The Classmate PC

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This very welcome bit of news hit today.

After the rants commentary of this weekend about the WankerPC, I just love this new development.

Hopefully, enough orders will pour in bringing down the cost of the devices.

My rejoinder to the comment on my post here:
I don't waste my time on anyone who reduces meaningful discourse on computing to a referendum on Microsoft and Intel.

This time though, since the whole idea of 3rd World education is important to me, listen up.

Thank you for your comment.

However, I think you have missed the boat entirely.

In your comment, you mention the number of systems I have with respect to their power consumption. Not a problem for me, thank you. The systems’ power requirements are directly proportional to my computing needs.

Nevertheless, let us get to the nitty-gritty.

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a branded WinTel system, so I’m assuming you mean Windows-based PCs which use a varied number of processors, so what do you pejoratively call them: WinAMD? WinVia? WinMeta?

If that is the case, the solar panel and hand-crank, in your view, represent the state-of-the-art in technology? Are you kiddin’? This view totally invalidates any credibility you have with respect to this matter.

Believe it or not, people in Africa use computers, even mainframes and supercomputers. With available power when it is required; emphasis on required.

Your snide comments about the length of time I have been in America are totally infra-dig. I would not even begin to give it any mind since I have spent over 78% of a more than 4-decade life (so far) abroad.

A different view from mine regarding a pressing need for any laptop of any kind for impoverished kids in 3rd World nations is eloquently expressed in this article for Marketwatch by John C. Dvorak.

Classmate PC

in

This very welcome bit of news hit today.

After the rants commentary of this weekend about the WankerPC, I just love this new development.

Hopefully, enough orders will pour in bringing down the cost of the devices.

My rejoinder to the comment on my post here:
I don't waste my time on anyone who reduces meaningful discourse on computing to a referendum on Microsoft and Intel.

This time though, since the whole idea of 3rd World education is important to me, listen up.

Thank you for your comment.

However, I think you have missed the boat entirely.

In your comment, you mention the number of systems I have with respect to their power consumption. Not a problem for me, thank you. The systems’ power requirements are directly proportional to my computing needs.

Nevertheless, let us get to the nitty-gritty.

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a branded WinTel system, so I’m assuming you mean Windows-based PCs which use a varied number of processors, so what do you pejoratively call them: WinAMD? WinVia? WinMeta?

If that is the case, the solar panel and hand-crank, in your view, represent the state-of-the-art in technology? Are you kiddin’? This view totally invalidates any credibility you have with respect to this matter.

Believe it or not, people in Africa use computers, even mainframes and supercomputers. With available power when it is required; emphasis on required.

Your snide comments about the length of time I have been in America are totally infra-dig. I would not even begin to give it any mind since I have spent over 78% of a more than 4-decade life (so far) abroad.

A different view from mine regarding a pressing need for any laptop of any kind for inpoverished kids in 3rd World nations is eloquently expressed in this article for Marketwatch by John C. Dvorak.


© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows