Category: Tech

Windows XPiration Date

There are four computers in the house with Windows XP SP3. Updates for them will stop on April 8, 2014, when Microsoft ends life support for XP. By that time Windows 8 should be out. I have a system at work running Windows Server 8 Beta, and it took a while for me to warm up to the new Metro user interface. Fortunately, Microsoft included a trick, where if you place the cursor in the lower left corner of the screen, there’s an option to launch a more familiar Desktop-style interface.

With Apple’s phenomenal success in touch screen products, the introduction of a new version of Windows for consumers seems as irrelevant as it is inevitable. One area where Microsoft is enjoying success is with the Kinect and its gesture interface. The Kinect’s lead developer was Johnny Chung Lee, who I featured four years ago, when he was at Carnegie Mellon University. Microsoft has released a software development kit for the Kinect, with hospital operating rooms being one of the best possible uses for touch-free display control.

http://youtu.be/vXVXEgpTY1A

Watching a Little Beaver

Whah hah! Leave It To Beaver is back on Netflix Watch Instantly! But it’s in high definition, despite the lack of the HD symbol. Why is this not good? Because on my Sony 32XBR100 TV it puts a small 24-inch image on the big 32-inch screen. Why, Roku, don’t you provide a feature to disable HD on SD outputs?

(By the way, the title of this post is a reference to a character in the Red Ryder comic strip.)

Follow-up: 42-inch Panasonic 1080p plasma, with a free Blu-ray player deal, is on the way from Amazon, with free shipping. Total cost is $470, thanks to Amex points.

Upgrade!

I pulled the trigger, or bit the bullet, or whatever gun-related metaphor you prefer, on the Bluehost Pro Plan. It took longer than I thought it would to complete the transfer to a less busy host, but now that it’s done the improvement is anything but subtle. The site should be a lot faster now, and if it isn’t, let me know.

Don’t Click That Mouse, Hand Me the Keyboard

A Mr. D.F. Rogers of Massachusetts writes:

Check out the pricing on this very essential and cool mp3 item. I think there is still a logic problem with digital/mp3 pricing… 😉

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Crush-That-Dwarf-Pliers/dp/B00138KN6O/

You can buy each side of “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers” for only 99 cents each — since each side technically has only one “track” — but if you want the whole album (both tracks!), well then it is $9.99!

The same goes for “All Hail Marx and Lennon” (How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All) — it’s cheaper to buy the cuts than the whole album, though only by a buck or so. BUT you can get “Nick Danger” — all 28:00 mins of it — for just 99 cents! I think I’ll do it!!! Just $2.97 for three sides of mp3 side-splitting fun, and you didn’t even know that an mp3 had sides!

I think Firesign Theater would appreciate the absurdity of this, although they are getting very little monetary gain from it.

Denro has since reported that he has indeed taken advantage of this big boggin — two tracks for two dollars, instead of the same two tracks as one album for ten dollars, and the Nick Danger track, too. I already have both albums on CD, but come to think of it I haven’t seen Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers in a long time. I’ll invest two dollars worth of time looking for it before buying the MP3, which should make the CD magically appear.