I have been waiting to get my hands on this release of Ubuntu. I got up this morning and went to the Ubuntu site.This Site is Temporarily Unavailable

It was that way until the afternoon. At the rate my download is going, the 700 MB file should be ready tomorrow when I get up. I will install it tomorrow and have the weekend to mess around with it. Most people downloading it will probably do the same. In a month, all of us will still be using what we were using yesterday.

I have never understood all the bickering over operating systems. I remember a Slashdot article from last month where someone asked the only important question that should be asked.

What does (another OS) do that (my OS) doesn’t do?

Fill those names in with whatever you like. The list of features unique to one operating system is short.

I run them all. I have to have access to the same programs my students use and my online students can choose to run any operating system. Mainly they run Windows, but some run OS X. I have yet to have a student that uses Linux as a desktop OS either at home or at school.

Just for the record, I have never purchased an operating system. I use what comes on my computers. My main OS right now is Windows Vista. I run Home Premium on my desktop and Ultimate on my laptop. My MAC has 10.4 and my iPod Touch runs some version of OS X. The rest of the family runs XP Pro. We all use IE as our main browser. All the machines have the free version of AVG anti-virus except for my machines. I don’t run anti-virus software on my personal machines. We don’t run anti-spyware software on any of our computers.

We don’t have spyware and have never had a virus. I have been using a computer for twenty years and I have never had a virus.

Here are most of the things we do on the computers in our house:

1. Browse web pages and read email
2. Create and organize documents, spreadsheets and presentations
3. Create and query databases
4. Schedule work and family activities
5. Draw pictures
6. Manipulate photographs
7. Digitize and watch videos
8. Create and listen to audio files
9. Play games

I am back to the question that no one ever asks. What OS can’t do these things?

Until someone creates an OS that has useful functionality that no other OS has, we will all probably continue to use what we have. That’s why the version of Ubuntu I’m downloading right now won’t change much.

There are plenty of reasons behind the car advertisements we see on TV and may sound like pitches from personal computers.

With the help of computers and electronic players, automakers are hard working trying to replicate the comfort and entertainment centers in the vehicles which are experienced now only at your home. Daimler Chrysler’s initiative with its minivan started years ago where the marketers, designers, and engineers spent lot of time with the families of minivan. They hung out with these families riding and living with them to understand the lifestyle better. Daimler designers came up with cabins equipped with gadgets which will synchronize with car stereos. Also offered are choices of having a satellite TV, radio, video, gaming systems and digital music library. Today, most of the customers preferring for Country & Town minivan are choosing to equip the minivan with video and audio devices of worth four hundred and seventy dollars.

Dell have been known for providing a superior technology for an affordable price and now they are concentrating on tablet PCs.

Dell has focused all its expertise to enhance the touch technology used in the tablet PCs. Generally tablets use the technology of resistive touch and needs sufficient pressure to recognize the input, where as Dell uses capacitive touch which is more durable and accurate than the former one. Capacitive technology is designed to recognize finger touch and hence do not require pressure. The response time for this is far more than faster than other tablets available in the market. The tablet come handy with sufficient battery life, X1250 ATI Radeon integrated graphics, keyboard and optional base for optical media and docking as well as regular hard drive diskette. The tablet technology is likely to keep evolving and can evolve in the direction of multi-touch interface, similar to that used in the iPhone.

Here is a handy tool for anyone interested in finding a podcast about a specific topic. Everyzing is a service that scans through an assortment of podcasts and converts all that speech into text that is searchable. You can search for generic topics like “educational technology” or broad topics like “politics.” Search results can be sorted by date or relevance. By clicking on a hit, you can listen to the audio in the built-in player.

A link to your specific search term is also available so you can jump right to the part of the podcast talking about your topic. In this way, you can quickly hear a phrase in the context it was recorded.

The site also searches online video clips and other multimedia. The goal is to make all digital content searchable. Imagine being able to find a video clip of someone giving a speech by searching for a few key terms from the speech. You wouldn’t even have to know the speaker’s name.

EveryZing also sells a product that will convert multimedia content to printed pages. This has potential for hearing impaired students.

Songs amounting to three billion and more have been sold through the music store from iTunes since the year 2001 and more than 110 million iPods were sold globally.

Increase in capacity of the iPod ranges has helped Apple sustain the momentum and definitely has given a facelift. Apple also added a complete selection of new iPod shuffles in pastel color and as well introduced video playback, squatter iPod Nano and launched a mobile phone. Also the much hyped and long awaited iPhone did make it debut in the month of June. iPhone featured widescreen and touch screen device. Also iPhone offers a web browser that is sensational with an iPod integrated along with features that are nifty like Google Maps. iPhone can videos capture and send messages in picture and marks a shift that is fundamental for consumers and their experience from their phones and internet.

Evergreen has released the DN-2000 Black, a 58×60×13 mm (about 2.5”x2.5”x.5”), 30 g MP3 player for the equivalent of about $9.99 Canadian.

The DN-2000 is about the barest-bones MP3 player imaginable. It has no internal memory, requiring an SD card of up to 1 GB; plays only MP3s; and uses a USB 1.1 connection. The DN-2000 went on sale yesterday, and the retailer that DWT links to has already sold out! (sorry people available in Japan only ATM) Full story here