Infinity IT Consulting

Stallman, Chrome OS, and Cloud Computing

I’ve never been a huge fan of Richard Stallman’s and have often disagreed with his views even though I fall firmly in the free software and open source camps, but in a recent article from the Guardian he makes a good point against cloud computing.

He sees a creeping problem: “I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there’s a sucker born every minute. The US government may try to encourage people to place their data where the US government can seize it without showing them a search warrant, rather than in their own property. However, as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear.”

MobileMe Apps for Your Domain

Shawn Blanc links to an article from Charles Jade arguing that Apple should offer MobileMe as a free service. Free is great, but Shawn adds that Apple needs to make MobileMe a must-have service by way of a link to an article he wrote on MobileMe a couple of months ago.

The points are all valid and sound, and I certainly agree all-around. MobileMe is a great service, but one that seems to cost way too much for the return. Especially when compared to offerings from companies like Google. Which brings me to my MobileMe wishlist.

In addition to pretty much everything that Shawn and Charles discuss and see where MobileMe has potential, the one ‘must-have’ feature for me would be using the MobileMe service to host email and such on my own domains, similar to Google Apps. The improved syncing and functionality of MobileMe, coupled with access to services via my own domains would be killer. I’m already paying for MobileMe, and if it goes free, I’d continue to pay for that one feature alone.

(Via Shawn Blanc)

Google Releases the Nexus S Android Smartphone

After discontinuing the Nexus One earlier this year Google has released a follow-up device to showcase the newest version of the Android OS.

The Nexus S has some interesting features, including a contoured display. Some of the new features for Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) look compelling as well. Built-in VOIP/SIP calling and improved copy-paste are among them.

My favorite feature of the Nexus S? 16 GB of internal storage.

So, if you’re still in the market for a smartphone this holiday season, and you’re staying away from the iPhone and/or AT&T, this may be the next best phone on the market.

Available unlocked, but tied to T-Mobile’s 3G network. $529 unlocked, $199 with a two-year T-Mobile contract.

More details on Google’s Nexus S page.

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Opera Mini for iPhone Sucks

Honestly, I wasn’t going to say too much about it. Opera Mini is a great effort, and I can see how it might be a great browser on older, less-capable smartphones. But, on the iPhone Opera Mini sucks.

It’s not the number #1 download in 22 App stores because it’s good. It’s #1 because people are curious. I doubt very many people are going to use Opera over MobileSafari on a regular basis.

Tips on Becoming a Power User

The Ultimate Guide to Productivity: Git ‘Er Done With Helpful Hacks and Hints by Terrence O’Brien has some great power user tips and tricks.

Windows 7 SP1 Coming Soon

If you’ve been waiting for SP1 to do a migration to Windows 7 the time is near. However, it sounds like you might have been waiting for nothing.

According to Microsoft:

For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.

That news doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me as Windows 7 has been pretty polished from the start. So, if you’ve just been waiting for SP1 it may be time to go ahead and pull the trigger on the upgrade to Windows 7. The sooner the better in my opinion.

Should You Ad Block?

In my opinion, the short answer is yes. Ads can be used for all sorts of nefarious things aside from just being invasive and annoying. Every time I load up a web browser without ad blocking all I can think is is how ugly and annoying the ads make browsing.

There is a point that ads do help support sites and if there are places you visit often and wish to help out you can always easily add them to your whitelist so that you do see those ads.

The other option is to install the ad blocking software and then selectively enable blocking on sites that annoy you, however, this won’t necessarily help with blocking the nefarious stuff to begin with.

To effectively block ads and have a more secure web browsing environment you first need to download and install Firefox. After that you need to install AdBlock Plus. When Firefox restarts subscribe to the EasyList that’s selected on the screen and you’re all set. To whitelist a site you want to continue to see ads on and support with the revenue they make from said ads you can then click on the little down arrow next to the red ABP stop sign icon that gets added to the top right of the browser widow. In the menu that pops up you’ll see an option to allow ads from that site.

In many ways it sucks that it has come to this on the internet, but as someone who wants to have a clean and safe browsing experience I put the safety of my eyes and computer above the need to see any annoying advertising.

Is Palm on It’s Deathbed?

After betting the company on the Pre last year Palm has had a rocky ride. And while the Pre and WebOS have carried with them the potential to be strong contenders in the smartphone field nothing of the sort has materialized.

Jon Stokes at Ars says:

So what happened? Wasn’t webOS the greatest thing since the original iPhone OS? Wasn’t the Pre a great phone? How did Palm blow it so badly?

I was a Pre user up until January of this past year, when the Nexus One came out. I went with Palm as far as I could, but in the end, I bailed. Here’s where I think Palm went wrong, and why I left the Pre.

He goes on to give quite a few reasons why he sees the Pre as a failure. Most of it seems hardware related aside from the lack of a deep selection of apps in the Palm App Catalog.

While it doesn’t look great for Palm, I would still recommend checking out the Pre as a good alternative to the iPhone if you’re in the market for a smartphone. You can even get a Palm Pre Plus with a Verizon contract for $30. Kind of hard to argue with a deal like that.