Pimp Your G1

Colorware announced that they will be making the Google G1 available in a rainbow of colors. They are charging $150 to paint your G1 or will sell you a G1 in your choice of colors for $725.

Perhaps I could get a G1 quicker if I ordered one from Colorware :-)

Why I Love Google

People ask me on a daily basic why I am a Google fanatic. I love Google! I love everything about Google. Why you might ask - because it works. If Google makes it, I probably use it. I even moved my domain to Google Apps. In fact, Google could charge me a lot more for their services and I would still use them.

So, why is this a big deal? Anyone who has used Microsoft products for any length of time knows exactly what I am talking about. We are tired of products that are not ready for prime time until the first service pack is released. Products that are often broken.

I am not alone. People are moving their digital lives to Google. The FAA is even moving their operation to Google Apps. Their CIO has expressed that one of his goals is to be a Microsoft free shop within the next five years.

Some people call me a 'Google Evangelist.' Thanks for the compliment :-)

Vaclav Klaus Slated to Lead the EU

You have to love Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic. He is a 'take no prisoners' kind of guy. Mr Klaus will be the next president of the EU.

You may remember that Mr. Klaus is one of the few people, aside from Roy Spencer, that talks about global warming is a logical fashion. He once called Al Gore an “apostle of arrogance.”

To supporters, Mr. Klaus is a brave, lone crusader, a defender of liberty, the only European leader in the mold of the formidable Margaret Thatcher.

Mr. Klaus is certainly going to be interesting to watch. Trained as a free market economist, perhaps he can straighten out the EU.

Watch Out Monkey Boy!

HP is so mad about the problems that Vista has caused them with their customers that they filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. HP's CEO, Mark Hurd, emailed Steve Ballmer to complain about HP's "call lines being overrun," with customers struggling to upgrade to Vista. "I'm sure you're aware of this."

How bad are things internally at Microsoft? Nearly everyone who left a fingerprint on Vista is now gone from the company. Likewise, HP is considering building its own operating system.

For Microsoft's sake, Windows 7 needs to be rock solid. I am not holding my breath.

Boo Boo Update

Is may be my Boo Boo masterpiece. In his photo he look just like Yogi! It is kind of spooky.

Not yet four months old, Boo Boo is now 5.5 pounds. He is going to be huge :-)

Dell Customer Service

As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. This photo demonstrates the difference in Apple and Dell when it comes to customer service.

Dell actually posted a larger than expected profit this quarter. How did they do it? Other than shutting factories, customer service cutbacks.

Zune Success Plan

Microsoft has released the third-generation Zune. Who knew? They also lowered the price. But alas, people are still not buying the Zune. Perhaps Microsoft should adopt the same strategy that they use to entice people to use their search engine - pay people to use it.

Microsoft Now Offers Free Protection

You have to love the irony of this one. Microsoft's inability to create a secure operating system has spawned an entire industry of security software. Rather than include security software, for the security problems that they created, as part of their operating system, they have been willing to sell it at an additional cost for several years.

Today Microsoft announced that beginning with Windows 7, their OneCare product will be free. In typical Microsoft fashion, they will not make this easy for the consumer. Rather than bundling this security product as part of Windows 7, it is a separate download. Are you kidding me?

Jerry Yang Resigns - Finally

Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO of Yahoo today. It's about time! Yang turned down Microsoft's offer to buy the company for more than 44.6 billion ($33 a share) because he said that the company was worth more. The Microsoft offer represented a 62 percent premium over it's market value at the time. So, how has Yahoo done under Yang's leadership since then? Today Yahoo is valued at a whopping $12 a share. Way to go Jerry.

How did the market react to Yang's resignation? The market cap increased $2 billion today. That pretty much says it all.

Steve Ballmer Insults Android - Again

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, is either a genius or maniacal. Yesterday at the Telstra conference in Australia he said the following about Google's Android Platform "They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind in a certain sense."

In my opinion, Android will be a major player in this space and much more successful in the long run than WinOS. Remember, Mr. Ballmer called the iPhone a fad. What does that tell you about his judgement?

Window 7 - Vista Only Worse

Just when you think that Microsoft might be able to build an operating system that doesn't cause devastation all around it, they unveiled Windows 7 at PDC last month. Microsoft has 1000 full time developers working on Windows 7. So how is it going? Well according to Randal Kennedy at Infoworld, it performs exactly like Vista but breaks all sorts of things that used to work fine under Vista. He went on to point out that "IT organizations rejected Windows Vista en masse, and Windows 7 is Microsoft’s response. Simply put, it’s not enough. Slapping an upgraded UI onto an already discredited OS platform fools nobody and serves only to further alienate the very enterprise customers whom Microsoft claims to be wooing."

Does this sound like lipstick on a pig?

OS X Snow Leopard vs. WIndows 7

This chart, published at the Onion, summarizes the differences between the new operating systems slated to be released by both Apple and Microsoft. I am of the opinion that they got this 100% correct. Sad, but probably true

All Cats Want to be Red!

I saw this photo today and a thought came to mind. Do all cats really want to be red?

Aston Martin DBR9

I am a huge fan of Aston Martin! The DBR9 won at Le Mans. For the 'Top Gear' fans, they did a test of the DBR9 This is one of the fasted cars ever built.

The best part is that it is cheaper than the One-77 :-)

Friends

I think that Boo Boo and Winnie are friends now.

Microsoft Pays South Korea $60 Milllion to Use Its Software

In what world does this make sense? Microsoft is paying the government of South Korean $60 million to use its software. I suppose that when you have US governmental agencies like the FAA moving to Google Apps, you have to try to plug the dike wherever you can.

Whatever happened to making products so good that people wanted to use them? The most recent technology that comes to mind is the Android platform. It seems like every mobile hardware maker is racing to adopt Android!

I suppose that Microsoft will soon have to pay companies to use it's Windows Mobile Platform. It has been rumored that Microsoft is trying to buy RIM. Now there is a winning strategy!

Dell Releases 24" XPS One

Dell has released a 24" version of the XPS One. For a Dell computer, my 20" version of the XPS One has been great. That is something that I have not been able to say about Dell for a long time.

Somehow, I see a 24" version in my future.