windows vs mac

This really goes without saying, but... I love my MAC computers. I tried tonight to help a friend get connected on his new verizon DSL network. He's spent about a week now trying to get connected and has met brick wall after brick wall. We did make a little progress tonight, in that by hooking up my mac, we were able to verify that his Verizon DSL is working, and that sadly, it is his computer that is not. He's so frustrated, and doesn't know where to turn next... the tech support from India has not been able to help him, and Verizon is blaming it on his computer (which is a dell) - rightfully so. I suggested maybe calling "geeksquad" but they would charge about $150!! Neither of us know of any good local tech support places either. I feel bad, because I've been away from the windows world for too long now to be of any help.
My advice... buy a mac.

Quantum computing?

wow, this one totally slipped by my geek radar...
The website "Engadget" has an article about a company called D-Wave, that has made a claim that on this coming Tues they will debut the world's first Quantum Computer. This is big news to me because I thought that Quantum computers were something that would be developed in the next 30-100 years! To be honest, I don't fully understand the technology behind it other than to say [in theory] these computers would be SO FAST as to be able to calculate the number of atoms in the universe. If any of you are interested you can try to make your way through this wikipedia article about Quantum Computing. I did a quick glance and was also lost quickly. (the terminology is funny though; qubits, hilberts, decohere, superposition, time evolution, quantum logic gates, eigenvalues, etc...)
So all this to say, the world of computing may make history this Tuesday! I remain skeptical. But if its true, it could change the world as we know it.

Tech Tags: computers D-Wave Quantum+computing universe skeptic

first blog

Well, this is it... my first blog post from my new imac. (my apologies if it sounds like I'm bragging about the new computer. I'm just excited about it.) It's been a few days now of use and I have two complaints... The imac speakers are a bit lame. Very "tinny" with hardly any base. I bought some speakers probably about a year ago from Bose that are designed for desktop use, Believe it or not it was difficult to find a decent desktop speaker set up. I have had in the past a NICE set from Yamaha that had two small speakers and about a 10" sub, but for some reason Yamaha stopped making these. So I went with the Bose (no sub woofer, but it's not totally necessary). My other complaint... I think I got a busted mouse. Apple's new mouse design has two "buttons" on the side (funny how they still keep to the visual "one button" mouse design, yet they've hidden multi buttons - almost like they refuse to admit that a 2 or more mouse button design is a mistake). Anyway, the two buttons on the side are meant to trigger a function that you can customize. Well, on my mouse when you press down slight as if you were about to click, for some reason this triggers the squeeze function (many times). So now I'm torn... I'm NOT going to go through the problems of shipping this back to amazon over a mouse, but it's disappointing. I think what I'll do is maybe head up to my local apple store and see if they can help me out. OR I'll try an track down my favorite mouse from Kensington... a whopping $19.
The only other "complaint" is not really a complaint... I am trying to figure out the best way to either 1) start from scratch for my web bookmarks, or 2) export ALL my previous bookmarks. There's something nice about starting fresh, but I don't know how tedious it will be.
Finally, I have ordered a software bundle from Adobe to do all my "work and fun". This should arrive Wed. I have sources that I could have [ahem] borrowed the software from, but something in me this time wanted to go Legit. It was a HUGE expense, but I know I will use all the software, and It will be nice to have all my own serial numbers with all the latest updates.
Ok, I'll try to refrain from computer related posts in the near future.

Oh, I just thought of one more thing that may help other firefox users... (mac especially)...
One thing that "just burns me up" about firefox is that when you try to drag a bookmark into your toolbar at the top, one of the yellow tabs pops up tha BLOCKS the drag and drop function. A while back I found a post on Lifehacker.com that listed several ways to modify and customize firefox... one of the tips was how to turn off that "tooltip" function. If you use firefox, you may find this link helpful. I'm also posting this on my blog because this morning I had a difficult time trying to figure out what firefox called that little yellow tabby thing. It's called the "Chrome tooltips" So If I forget in the future I can search my own blog... yellow tab, tooltip, chrome, link, about:config, firefox.

Tech Tags: imac apple computer firefox