JohnTyra.com

Our good friends at Microsoft announced a reorganization for their PSD (Platform & Services Division) group that will effectively split them into two separate groups. One group to handle the Windows OS and another for Windows Live/Online Services.

Paul Thurrott will be pleased, as he has been talking about this very same thing for years, except that he was referring to a further level of separation: consumer versions of the Windows OS as a separate company versus the business versions, which actually makes sense. At the risk of duplicating what Paul has already said, there are very distinct differences between what a business needs and a consumer needs in terms of an operating system.

Let’s set aside the flame war between the anti-Microsoft and anti-Apple camps for a moment and just speak generically regarding this concept. For most of you home users, they are not going to need the ability to add their computer to a domain or push enterprise-level management policies to thousands of machines. On the other hand, your enterprise/business needs don’t usually include low-end movie editing or gaming. These groups are simply two very different animals, but the OS rarely reflects these differences.

Overall, let’s hope this is a step in the right direction regarding Microsoft’s future plans for the segration (and eventual fine tuning) of their different branches of influence. With each division focusing on a more grainular scope, they can push the product further without worrying about their changes affecting other divisions. It’s like the difference between using a shotgun to kill an ant versus simply stepping on it with your shoe; both are effective, but only one is efficient.

I’m a big fan of the folks over at LifeHacker.com and the articles they publish. Just yesterday they released a post about a nice little jem called HFSExplorer that allows a windows machine to read the HFS+ format. The reason this is pretty darn cool is that means you can connect your old (or new) mac HD to a windows machine via a USB adapter or other means and actually read the data.

This is excellent news for anyone in a support role, or in an environment that caters to both windows and mac based computers. Instead of having two seperate platforms for data recovery and repair, you could have a single platform to do both. Pretty nifty!

A new computer called the CherryPal has been announced that uses only 2 watts of energy. In comparison, a typical incadesent lightbulb uses 60 watts of energy and even a high-efficency type-A lightbulb consumes around 15~20 watts. Is this the solution to our world’s energy and ‘green’ problem? Doubtful.

First, there is no ‘OS’ that the user is exposed to…instead, there is an embedded Linux backend which handles everything. The user is only shown a Firefox browser, good browser choice, which then becomes the operating system for the user as that is all that’s seen. Now it’s a inexpensive solution for only $250 when you look at the pricetag, but remember you’re only getting a 400Mhz CPU with 256MB of RAM and 4GB of flash-based storage. Wow, those are the same specs as my HTC pda phone…and I get an actual OS with mine. Also, when looking at the offerings from the Eee PC or even low-end OEM machines (like HP) for a mere $50 to $150 more, you’re increasing your power and performance by 1x to 10x for very little cost difference. However, you’re also increasing your ‘carbon footprint’ according to the more green minded individuals when choosing one of these other options.

But, on the positive side, you could install one of these almost anywhere and since your data is stored on the ‘cloud’ it automatically means it’s backed up and stored off-site, which is far above and beyond the average end-user’s data habits of today. Who knows where these might end up, especially if the price gets down to $99 or so for these CherryPal computers.

At first, being geographically challenged, I was thinking…”president of Georgia…wtf?!?!”…and then I remembered Russia’s neighbor, Georgia. Anyway, apparently their site was on the receiving end of a DDOS attack last weekend (7/19/08 - 7/20/08) according to the ‘ShadowServer Foundation’ who monitors attacks like these.

This attack was directed from a botnet farm, which seems to be the standard (and highly effective) DDOS method currently in use. The ShadowServer website says it’s not certain if the attack orianted from Russia or not, but that the MachBot C&C server (used for the attack) is a common tool used by Russian bot herders.

Universal is still picking on the little guy…literally. They are still pushing for a ruling on the infamous YouTube video of a 10-year-old kid doing a few second dance to a Prince song. Which, by the way, you can bearly hear…in fact, pretend you didn’t know the song unfront and it might take you two listens before you got it. Anyway, Wired has an interesting write up about the legal aspect of this case that is worth a read…

That’s the nice thing about music: no restrictions, no requirements, you can listen to whatever you want. Bored of the same old stuff? Change it up! My thoughts exactly…we’re sticking with the same ‘tune’ of unsigned artists, but moving to the more progressive/rock genre for this one. This group is called ‘Chasing Mercury’, and it’s not too bad actually. Head on over to Unsigned.com to their page and give it a listen…they seem to have their stuff together. But, what do I know, I’m just a blogger. =)

Here’s what’s on their main page:

Economically, the Supply for bands in the entertainment market far exceeds the Demand, which drives down the Price at which most bands are paid for products or services rendered. This explains why the vast majority of musicians (ie. drummer Luke ‘Skyrocker’) have to telemarket all day in order to finance their musical career, all in the vain hope that one day they may only have to telemarket for enjoyment on the weekends. In the cutthroat industry of music, which is governed by the biological law of natural selection or ’survival of the fittest’ [everyone knows there is no nepotism in the music industry], the only way to sustain this hope is to compile a biography that rocks much harder than every other band’s bio, thus ensuring the proliferation of future generations of Epic bios. Essentially, the band’s music is secondary; the ’soundtrack,’ if you will, to the biography. The offshoot of this is that, according to every bio in existence, the band it refers to is the only innovative sound in a stagnating scene, which combines the technical elements of the elite bands, with the melody and catchiness of the top 40’s artists, not to mention innumerable adjectives describing the godlike abilities of the members; whose culmination ultimately spawned the brainchild of which the world has never seen! And, this biography is no different!!

But aside from the obvious, Chasing Mercury is a 4 piece progressive rock/punk band based out of London, Ontario. The band is currently completing the tracking of their 13 song debut album “Midnight at the Ball,” with a CD release date planned for Sept 15/07. In order to fund the production of the CD, the singer/guitarist of the band, ‘Robbie Mercury,’ took out his tool kit from the tuff box of his pick up truck and literally, singlehandedly built a massive studio now called ‘Beach Road Studios’ in the summer of 2006. From then until May 2007, the group continued the arduous process of writing, arranging, rehearsing, re-writing, scrapping and reviving old songs. Much like the building of the studio, the meticulous process can be likened to ‘digging a giant hole and building your way out of it.’ Often times luxurious additions are added only to be shattered with the proverbial wrecking ball of compromise. And unseen termite infested pockets are exterminated and converted into metaphorical steel girders (THAT’ll hold) of sobriety. However, the group is confident the end result “Midnight at the Ball” is an immaculate crystalline Wizards’s tower with at least 13 bathrooms.

The band really is ‘Chasing Mercury’ in every sense of the phrase. The perpetual pursuit of the Roman messenger of the gods would undoubtedly be an unattainable endeavour [he's a fast motherfucker], and as we all know, very few bands succeed in the music industry. However, the relevance of the name is broader than that. Anyone in the world can, in some way, relate to the sense of futility attempting something seemingly always beyond their grasp, be it the pursuit of meaning, lasting happiness, satisfying career, or creating the perfect song. Nevertheless, the best way to get the furthest you’ll ever go is by chasing something you’ll never catch. And if you aren’t already won over by our bio (as if, haha), go listen to our CD. Alternatively, ‘catch’ my fist.

While Apple can’t compare to the sheer volume of other companies, they are growing. For example, everyone was excited that Apple sold over 1 million iPhones during their weekend launch. Nokia ships over 1 million phones every single business day. The numbers vary, but the same scale is true when comparing Apple to their software counterparts like Microsoft, or the OEMs like HP.

But, be small as they may, Apple does have around 200 or more stores globally. Their newest addition to this figure? Beijing, China! As is the typical norm with Apple events, there were people lined up overnight to be the ‘first in line’ at the new store. Haven’t these people heard of Apple.com? Anyway, not much to this story, but it is Apple’s first store in China so who knows what they are up to…

Just last week Microsoft announced the future option of watching Netflix on your Xbox 360, and today TiVo said they are going to start offering YouTube videos on their set-top boxes. However, it’s not ALL of the TiVo models, it’s only the Series3 and TiVo HD DVR ones that will have this feature.

While this, as well as the Netflix announcement is ‘cool’ one has to think…why not just use a computer? As cheap as computers are getting, prebuilt or build-your-own, there is no reason to invenst in 3rd party hardware to do the same thing a computer will already do. Even with low-end hardware, a media-based computer can handle your DVR functions, internet streaming, scheduling and many other options. Why use multiple hardware devices when you could consolidate into a single device?

With all of these cool gadgets coming out, I guess it’s a bad year to not be a console gamer. Just yesterday we talked about the Netflix on your Xbox 360 , and today Logitech adds into the pot with a full-featured keyboard for the Wii. Pretty cool if you’ve ever had to type in…oh…anything on the Wii, even on a friend’s console. It is not exactly the most fun part of a Wii, to say the least. With more MMORPG and social oriented games coming out, a full-sized keyboard could easily find it’s way into the console world.

Currently, the keyboard is scheduled to be available in August for about $50. Let’s hope it won’t follow the same Wii trend and be impossible to get for the first six months. =)

It’s been, what, not even a week since the 3G iPhone has been released? For those who have been considering using the 3G iPhone on other networks, consider no more…see the original blog who broke this story or the cNet story on this, but soon it’ll be all over the place (if it’s not already). Sure, it’s more Apple and iPhone news, but you have to admin it’s kinda funny. =)