Why Linux Is Still Not Ready For Primetime

I just finished installing the newest Windows 7 version and the newest version of Ubuntu (linux) on my laptop.  I wanted to see what they both had to offer and how each operating system would affect what I use a computer for.  From my very initial impressions, I don’t think I could make the full time switch to Linux. Here’s why:

1. My 2nd monitor didn’t work right away in Linux (and still isn’t showing the correct resolution).  I am not sure if I didn’t correctly install the video card drivers in Ubuntu, but Windows 7 found them right away and was able to extend my desktop. Strike 1
2. I need to have Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I need to use Photoshop for this blog and for doing some website work. I know there is GIMP but it still just isn’t the same.  I use Dreamweaver to do all of my website work and I know there are alternatives for this, but I’m not going to switch if I don’t have to. I also know it’s possible to run these programs in a virtual environment in Linux, but why should I have to deal with that? When will Adobe release these products for Linux? Strike 2
3. I have an iPhone. As far as I know, you have to have a Mac or PC with iTunes to use your iPhone. Again, I might be able to do this in an emulation window, but it’s just easier to run Windows. Strike 3.

I will say that installing Ubuntu was a breeze and the operating system is very slick. They have come a long way in making it easy to use and appealing to the eye. I’m going to continue to use Linux for some casual internet browsing and to tinker around to see if I could eventually make the switch. For now though, my main system will be Windows 7. Thoughts?

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Watch the Swine Flu Outbreak Live

Every one has likely heard something recently about the Swine Flu.  I just received an email from a lady that was a FAQ about the Flu.   I personally don’t think this is going to be a plague like situation, but I want to keep an eye on it just in case.  So for all of you paranoid people that are strapped to a computer at work, there is an interactive map that will help you steer clear of areas with infected people.  I can see it now, Google maps/latitude for people with AIDs or STD’s.  Who knows maybe they will put together a map with every deadly disease out there and what cities to avoid.  Below is the interactive map from Wall Street Journal (Interactive map)

Find The Perfect Desktop Background

I usually use InterfaceLift to get all of my desktop backgrounds but I just heard about a new way to find a great wallpaper.  Using Google Image Search, you can automatically determine your screen resolution and find wallpapers with that resolution.  It’s a very useful addition that Google added and I’m a little surprised it took them so long to add it.  Here’s how to use it:

1. Click here to get to the Google Advanced Image Search. You’ll should see this:
   
2. Click on “Use my desktop size” and the form should magically be filled with your monitor’s resolution.  Here’s what mine looks like:
   
3. Type in your search terms above and then hit “Google Search.”
4. You should now see a bunch of results with images in the exact size of your monitor. You can then click on the images and set them as your desktop background.

Let me know if you have any questions via the comments below or on Twitter.

1 Billion Apps Downloaded. What I use Daily

Apple’s App Store has reached the 1 billion mark and is, without a doubt, a huge success.  Blackberry has already realized the potential of an app store and released their own. Nokia has also announced one.  Apple has been a pioneer in many different markets and this was no different.  The app store has attracted thousands of developers and millions of users with the majority of both groups being happy.  Here are the apps I use on a regular basis:

1. Facebook
2. Tweetie
3. vlingo
4. Remote
5. TripIt
6. Daily Finance
7. Skype
8. Blackjack
9. Flight Control
10. Wikipanion
11. Sportacular
12. Shazam
13. Pandora
14. Mint.com

Any recommendations to any apps I may be missing?

Friday Linkage

Glad to have you back again Friday. Don’t go so soon this time. 

Here are the best links we have found this week:

• YouMail – Love Your Voicemail
• 40+ Absolutely Stylish & Creative Hand-picked Wallpapers
• Top 10 Money-Saving Guides for Common Purchases
  
  
• Six Ways You Should Be Using Twitter (that Don't Involve Breakfast)
• Twtrfrnd finds mutual friends on Twitter
• 5 Easy Websites to Share Files Online Without Signing Up
  
  
• How Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Gets Things Done
• A Lost Laptop Costs Companies $50,000
• Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" Released
• Nintendo's Game Boy turns 20

Figure Out When To Meet

Do you ever find it difficult to pick a day to meet with a group of people? It can be such a hassle to pick the right day to meet and that’s where Which Date Works helps you out.  This simple service allows the meeting moderator to enter the email addresses of the other collaborators and select some dates that will work, won’t work and may work.  It’s a very simple service that can make your life just a little easier.

When you get to the website all you need to do is enter your meeting title, your name and email. Then select some dates and the email addresses of the people you want to invite and the site does the rest. Check out this screenshot:

If you’ve ever needed to schedule a meeting with a group for work or school you should definitely check this site out.

The Worst Program for your Smartphone

I was reading about a new program last night that made me tremble because it is all about utilizing your smartphone so that there is a record of everything you do.   From what calendar appointments you have, to what you said on your phone conversation with a customer, to where you are at any given time.  I am not an advocate of this software nor would I want to have it on my phone. 

What it does is pulls all the data from your smartphone together into one program.  This would be nice if you were an employer and you wanted to track your employees, but as an employee it is just one more thing to worry about them following your every move.  Did you ever send a questionable text message from your work phone? Well now you could be fired for it!  I hope this doesn't come to mainstream any time soon!

Let us know if anyone out there actually thinks this software is a good thing for them?  The name of this software is 3Deep and here is the link to the article about the software. (3Deep)

Quick Tip of the Day

Today’s quick tip is for keeping your system running well. Lots of junk can accumulate with the daily use of a computer. Temporary files build up, your browsing cache gets loaded up with junk and your registry can get bogged down. CCleaner can easily help with all of these issues which then can make your computer more responsive.

First go to the CCleaner website and download the program. After installing the program you’ll be greeted by a screen that looks like this:

You can either just hit Run Cleaner or you can hit Analyze and get a list of the stuff the program is going to do first before deleting any files. I usually just run the cleaner as it doesn’t do anything harmful to your system. It should only take a matter of seconds to run the program unless you have a lot of junk on your machine. After it’s finished you should notice a more responsive system. Leave some comments with any other similar tips you may have.

Pimp your Blackberry

The one thing as a Blackberry owner that separates us from the elite iPhone owners and snobs is the fact that we can change or implement interactive user-defined home screens. Here is a cool skin that allows you to change the entire look of your home screen. It is a pretty easy process you download the file to your blackberry and run it. 

Make sure you are up to date with the newest operating system before you do this otherwise you could have some problems installing the skin.  This is one of the best parts about the Blackberry, it is open to altering and customizing to your liking.  How many iPhone owners out there can say that?  Most likely only the ones with their phones jail broken.  Praz and I had a conversation about this last week and his biggest complaint was the fact that when he had his phone jail broken it was less responsive to everything.  That sounds like a pretty big downfall to me.  Below are some of the best applications for the blackberry I have found.  They can be found in the blackberry AppWorld:

GoogleMobile app (NEW)

Google Maps

Gmail App

Picasa App

Blackberry Bolt Browser (Best App I have found for web browsing)

Weather Bug

Pandora

Bloomberg App

Vlingo

Friday Linkage

Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend.  Here’s the best of the rest:

• Spike TV to chase pirates with US Navy
• How To Make Your Own Workout Music With The Right Beats
• Lebron James Gets Warmed up for Dunk Contest
  
• AT&T; Trying To Extend iPhone Exclusive Until 2011 (AAPL, T)
• Find better Windows, Mac, Linux and online applications
• New Afghan law does not allow marital rape... but lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex, says cleric
  
  
• Learn To Code At Any Level With Google Code University
• 10 Must-Try Social Media Sites for College Students
• Cops: Woman Taped Puppy To Refrigerator
  
  

• Google Maps Shows Local Webcams
• Zoho Gadgets Put Your Web Work Nearly Anywhere
• Top Tip: How can I get more out of my CPU?
  
  
• The Pirate Bay founders sentenced to prison, website soldiers on
• Ashton vs. CNN; Web vs. TV. Web FTW!
• YouTube goes Hulu, adds TV, movies

Quick Tip of the Day

Some people are mouse people and some people are keyboard people.  Most people would agree that using the keyboard is a bit faster than a mouse and I would agree with them.  There is a great program on Windows (and Linux) that makes your keyboard much more useful.  Launchy is a small utility that runs in the background and when called upon can be a very helpful shortcut.

First, click here to download Launchy.  Then after installing it you will be able to call the program up by pressing Alt + Spacebar (the default setting).  You’ll then see something like this:

You can then start typing any programs you might have installed and it will start to search your start menu for them.  It also has a built in calculator for doing some quick math.  There is also a program that does the same thing for the Mac. It’s called Quicksilver and you can get that here.

Organize Your Travels with TripIt

I really don’t travel that much but I have an obsession with being as organized as possible.  TripIt allows you to easily manage all of your travels from their website, their mobile website or their newly released iPhone application.  Another cool feature of TripIt is way that the service lets you share your travels with other people and it will even let you know when you and your friends will have overlapping schedules

TripIt just released their iPhone application that lets you view your schedule on the go (even in airplane mode).   It allows iPhone users to keep track on all of their flights and hotel information.  You can also add activities that you might do while on your trip.

TripIt couldn’t be any easier to use.  All you have to do is forward any confirmation emails you may get to plans@tripit.com.  Their service works with hundreds of travel websites and will decipher the emails and create an itinerary for you. 

You can even take this organization a step further if you use a calendar program that supports iCal feeds.  TripIt publishes an iCal feed of your itinerary that you can then subscribe to in your calendar program.  I use Google Calendar for my “calendaring” needs and subscribing to the iCal feed is very easy.  You first copy the iCal feed from TripIt then go to your Google Calendar settings and subscribe to it.  All of your trip then show up in your Google Calendar in a different color.  It also includes the flight information in that feed so you can see what time your flight is, what airline you’re flying and the flight number.

If you fly a lot for your company and you don’t personally book your flights or hotels, I’m not sure if the site will pick up your confirmation emails.  If anybody has experience with this please let us know in the comments.

Bolt Browser for BlackBerry

I really am “Nerd”; I get antsy when I don’t have the coolest new gadget out there on the market.  I have been satisfied with my Blackberry Curve (Verizon) for quite some time due to the fact that I am constantly driving and having the buttons to type make all the difference in the world to me.  I am able to type at a pretty rapid speed without looking at the keys which allows me to gChat, or type emails all while driving (not the safest thing in the world).  But as of lately I have iPhone envy because the Blackberry Browser + Opera Mini just isn’t fulfilling my idea of a “Smart Phone.” 

I have constantly been searching for the next best browser out there and I have finally found one that is up to par for the Blackberry line of phone.  Just to clarify because I said I am envious of the iPhone doesn't mean its a better overall phone.  I still believe Qwerty keyboard + background running apps + new appworld make for a pretty solid combination.  But I will be the first to admit the browser options are very limited until now.  There is a new version of this amazing browser called Bolt Browser 2.   If you haven’t tried it, visit http://boltbrowser.com from your Blackberry. You will not be sorry.  It is much better than Opera Mini and speedier.  Plus there are video streaming options!  Now it still won’t work with flash unfortunately but I have a feeling it will work with flash one of these days.  Maybe even before the iPhone.  If you have any questions hit me up on http://twitter.com/studentnerds, michael.klear@studentnerds.com, or http://twitter.com/mklear.  I will help anyone get this up and running, it will be like a whole new web experience on your Blackberry.

What I’ve Been Listening To

Here are some good songs that I’ve been listening to.  Let me know what you think:

Incubus – Black Heart Inertia

Vampire Weekend – The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance 

Bloc Party – One Month Off

Cage The Elephant – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked

Manchester Orchestra – I’ve Got Friends

Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch (not available yet)

Puscifer – The Mission

Weezer – The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

3Oh!3 – Don’t Trust Me

Pearl Jam – Brother

You can listen to all of these songs on my Songza page before you choose to buy/download them.  http://songza.com/mklear

Who I’m Going to See on Saturday: Rocco Deluca

Friday Linkage

It’s Friday again so here are the best of the rest.  Have a great holiday weekend!

• New in Labs: Inserting images
• Best Websites for Teens to Earn Money Online
• Zappos Live Map
• 10 Old Wives' Tales Debunked
• Five Fabulous Gmail Gadgets You Won't Find in Labs
• Gocycle Bike Offers Best of Both Worlds for Urban Greenies: It's Folding and Electric
• Area 51's Secrets Revealed: Existence of UFOs Still Being Denied
• The Crunchpad
• Burglary Live On The Internet
• Google Street View camera + low bridge = uh-oh
• All 12 Beatles Albums Newly Remastered, MP3 Distribution Coming Soon?

3 Reasons Variable MP3 Pricing Sucks

Starting yesterday, Apple started charging different prices for different songs in their iTunes Music Store.  Popular songs are $1.29, less popular songs are $0.99 and the “bad” songs are $0.69.  In addition to this, Apple has removed the DRM from all of their music. Even though removing DRM is a win for the consumer, the variable pricing is a terrible move by the music industry. 

Apple has wanted to offer DRM free music for a long time but the music industry has never wanted to give in.  DRM is another issue for another time, but I will say it is one of the worst and most useless technologies ever created.  The music industry did cave though and in return, Apple (and now Amazon and Wal-Mart) has introduced variable pricing.  Here are my top 3 reasons variable pricing sucks (in no particular order):

1. There are very, very few $0.69 songs.  The argument that Apple made when they announced the variable pricing was that to balance the more expensive $1.29 songs, they would have more $0.69 songs.  Well, it’s a huge chore trying to find any of those songs and when you do, you probably don’t want them anyway.
2. The music industry had a great opportunity to repair its tainted image with consumers. They failed miserably as this is just basically a price hike during a recession. Real nice guys!
3. Variable pricing is just a stepping stone to a different type of music industry. In the future, music is going to be free and the record labels will tap into different revenue streams.  Here is a great article about this by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

I am glad to see that DRM is finally being removed from music downloads as it causes more headaches than it does good.  Hopefully the music industry will keep adjusting to the needs and wants of the consumer and just not what lines their pockets the most.  As musicians learn that they don’t need a record contract to become successful it will only get better for the consumer.  Thoughts?

The Last 5 (Good) Albums I’ve Listened To

I’ve been collecting quite a bit of music lately and I’ve actually found some decent stuff.  I try to listen to wide range of music but I’ve been finding that I’m really liking more alternative music.  If we get some good response to the article, we could make this a regular feature and even take some advice from our readers.  If you agree with any of the picks, let us know. If you disagree with any of them, you must have bad musical taste.

 

	Death Cab for Cutie – The Open Door EP
	Van Morrison – Astral Weeks – Live at the Hollywood Bowl
	Carolina Liar – Coming To Terms
	MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
	The Picture – Bluebirds

Strack & Van Til + ShamWow = Deadly Combination

This article has absolutely nothing to do with computers or fixing your own computer, unless maybe you spilled a drink on your computer.  ShamWow would make for an amazing cleanup.  But I am wondering why so many infomercial products have produced so much hype.  Is it because the face of ShamWow got his tongue bit off by a hooker, and then he proceded to beat her? Or is it cleverly designed products that consumers were truly longing for?

There are so many questions about why certain products like Snuggies, ShamWow, Slap Chop are so popular.   Are they popular because of their animated infomercial spokesmen or are they on to something here with viral marketing (i.e. Snuggies bar crawl on Facebook).  The concepts are so ridiculous it made people talk and thus led to people wanting to buy it to try for themselves.  Anyway, below are a list of the goofy products that have come out recently that are doing very well for whatever reason:

Smittens

Snuggies

ShamWow

Slap Chop

Slankets

Link it Up

TGIF.  Check out some of the best stories of the week.

• How To: Use BitTorrent Like a Pro
• Facebook adds private groups for families
• Convert your PDFs to MS Word
• Ultimate Battle: The Snuggie vs. Slanket vs. Freedom Blanket vs. Blankoat
• A Brief History Of Spring Break
• Stealing Music: Is It Wrong Or Isn’t It?
• Why Cellphone Reception Still Sucks
• Madonna's adoption rejected by Malawian judge
• U.S. to North Korea: Don't launch your rocket
• Will Google Get Shamed Into Buying Twitter?
• Resign, Mark Zuckerberg, Resign
• Rumor: Apple Orders 3.2-Megapixel Camera Sensors For Next iPhone
• Study: 'Leisure browsing' increases productivity

Netflix’s 2 billionth movie was a Blu-ray.

Many of you have heard of Netflix, but if you have not, it’s service delivers movies to your house via mail. You watch them and pop them back in a pre-paid envelop and mail back. They have also been a pioneer with streaming movies to various set-top boxes and your computer. This business has boomed since 1999 and most would agree they are a big reason as to why Blockbuster is struggling. Blockbuster tried to imitate the Netflix business model but has not been able to imitate its success.

Netflix has been trying to expand its services to downloading/streaming to different mediums. Praz has a Blu-ray player that can stream movies from Netflix but the quality varies greatly. It is clearly the way of the future though. There are other competitors popping up that threaten Netflix like Redbox, or even iTunes which pose a serious threat to their business. I personally have not been to Redbox or used iTunes but I gave my parents a subscription to Netflix because I know they don’t like leaving their house a movie rental. They also have a Blu-ray player so Netflix was a no brainer. Who do you as our readers think will have a lasting business model out of the three?

Geek Squad Leaves Customer Satisfied

In a shocking turn of events, Best Buy's Geek Squad has fixed a customer’s computer successfully.  Today will go down as being a great day in history for the Geek Squad.  Founded in 1994, Geek Squad has had much trouble obtaining a good public image.  They are notorious for providing sub-par support and over charging their customers. 

The great news came out of Ames, Iowa.  The technician, only known as Gary, was able to successfully figure out that the customer’s hard drive was unplugged.  Gary assumed it must have shaken loose during a recent move. Gary plugged the hard drive back in and everything was good to go.  Susan, the first satisfied Geek Squad customer ever was thrilled.  “I never thought I’d see my computer working again! I’m so happy,” Susan was overheard as she left the store. “I don’t even care if it cost me $250” she later told a local reporter.

Even though the Geek Squad will be a future competitor when Student Nerds launches, we would like to congratulate them on a successful computer fix. Way to go geeks!