Why Do All Netbooks Have The Same Specs? Microsoft and ULCPC (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

This post started as a comment over on jkontherun, where James posted a great hands on report of the new HP Mini Note 1000 netbook. It looks really, really nice - as soon as the 6-cell battery version becomes available, this will probably be the one I buy for my family (I have been a fan of and recommending the Eee PC 1000H, which is still a great netbook - a half dozen people I know have bought one on my recommendation, and they love them).

BTW, I’m posting this on my own blog, instead of on the Intel Software Network blog (where I’ve been writing an ongoing series of posts on “The World of Netbooks”) because it could be seen as a little controversial, and it represents my opinion, and my opinion only, with a healthy dash of speculation. I don’t have any inside knowledge of this topic - all I know is from what I’ve read on the web.

Have you ever wondered why pretty much all the netbooks on the market have essentially the same specifications? A 9 or 10 inch LCD screen at 1024×600, 1GB RAM, the Intel Atom processor, etc. I think I know. It has to do with Microsoft, and something called ULCPC - Ultra Low Cost PC.

Microsoft doesn’t want to keep selling Windows XP. They want to kill it, and sell Vista. Makes business sense. But, these little netbooks don’t meet the minimum specs for Vista.

So, MS grudgingly decided to keep selling an “ULCPC” or “ULPC” edition of XP, but only for systems that don’t exceed the specs they set: no larger than 10″ screen, no more than 1GB RAM, etc. If OEMs make netbooks with beefier specs, MS won’t let them sell them with XP.

I suspect that the 1024×600 screen resolution limit is part of those restrictions, but I can’t find anything documenting that as fact. And I’m seeing contradictions about the limits. For instance, the ULCPC specification states a CPU no faster than 1GHz, but exceptions are made for the 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU we see is almost all netbooks. Same for the 80GB hard drive limitation - many netbooks have 160GB drives. I imagine that the complete ULCPC specs are known only to Microsoft and netbook OEMs. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. I REALLY had hoped that HP would buck the trend, since the old Mini Note 2133 has a 1280×768 screen, but alas, no.

One could argue that Microsoft is doing something “evil” here, or that they’re only practicing good business. Personally, I think they were blindsided by demand for netbooks, and had to scramble to get some strategy in place that would keep them from being shut out of the game altogether. But it’s a frustrating, arbitrary limitation, and one of the big reasons fanboys like me hold out hope that Apple will make a netbook. I mean, I actually like using XP on my netbook, but I’d like better specs in a netbook than what we’re ever going to see as long as MS gets to dictate their terms. Sure, Linux is an alternative, and a good one, but all the programs I love to use run on either Windows XP or Mac OS X. And if Uncle Bill won’t give me what I want, I can only hope that Uncle Steve will.

Oh, and raise your hand if you think Windows 7 is going to run better than XP on netbooks? That’s what I thought…

Posted in: blog , microsoft , netbooks , windows

Juxtapositions: Default OS Browser Fonts (The Jux Entente) by Zagrophyte

Kenny has started a war, a typographical war! Let’s see who survives round two:

Posted in: features , fonts , juxtapositions , mac , os x , ubuntu , windows , xp

Windows Mobile 7 Details - It's Not Pretty (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Inside Microsoft has exclusive details on the next major release of Windows Mobile. As expected, Microsoft has taken notes from Apple and Windows Mobile 7 will feature touch controls and motion sensing technology. Reading the notes from the document raises a bunch of issues regarding Microsoft's take on this-gen (for the iPhone) and next-gen (for everyone else) phone OSes:

• It seems to be meshing too many interaction paradigms - in addition to the new touch/motion controls (flicking to scroll, tiliting and shaking, etc), they're also leaving in button controls (the old Windows Mobile menus everyone loves to hate) and finally "[a] stylus will be required on devices meeting certain screen size, orientation, DPI and resolution marks." Three interaction paradigms makes for a steep learning curve and a lot of energy wasted by users when they have to remember to switch input methods because an action can't be performed in the current interaction mode.
• Shaking to wake up your phone? Definitely not as classy as sliding to unlock.
• The phones will use the camera as the motion sensor. I can't see how well this will work in a dark room or when the camera is obscured, such as when you're holding it in your hand.
• It's coming in 2009. This should be out mid-2008 at the latest if Microsoft has any hope of stopping the iPhone juggernaut. By 2009, Apple will have had a two year lead. Competing with the 2007 iPhone in 2009 makes Microsoft look foolish and reactive; similar to how they looked when Vista was released to match features with an Apple OS that came out two years prior.

So while it's nice to see that Microsoft is actually doing things to advance it's mobile offering (unlike Palm), again, my criticism of Microsoft's efforts boil down to too late and too complex. This report makes it seem as though they're making Windows Mobile 6+1 by bolting on iPhone features to a broken UI instead of doing what they should be doing: starting from scratch and developing a consistent and enjoyable user experience.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, mobile, Windows Mobile, user interface, Apple, iPhone, Palm

Posted in: microsoft , mobile , user interface , windows

Exterior window mullions for the gate car (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

My apologies for the week break. I'm back to work once again. Today I worked on making the window mullions for the exterior of the long sides for the gate car. I have a few more pieces still remaining. These are made using the basswood Midwest scale lumber and painting them to match the rest of the wood exterior. I am gluing the wood pieces directly to the clear styrene that is the windows using wood carpenter's glue. This is probably not the best glue, but it works as long as no tension is applied to the glue joint. You can see in the photo that one mullion has been knocked loose and is lying at an angle waiting to be re-glued. Posted in: 1273 - brooklyn union 'gate car' , basswood , windows

OMG! Men are stealing my windows! (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

At precisely 13:00 this afternoon the builders started removing the windows at the back of our apartment.

We are currently in the process of replacing all wooden window sils in our building with plastic and steel ones. The wooden ones are almost completely spent and the plastic ones will last us at least a few decades.

In about four hours the workmen should have everything replaced and built. By sundown the back of our apartment should be weatherproof again.

Update @14:12:
In a litte over an hour the guys have completely removed the old windows and their sils. They're now cleaning up and sizing up the various parts for the new windows.

Update @16:30:
They're done! Wow, they're fast. The new windows look great and feel much more solid than the ones at the front side of the building. Good stuff :)

Posted in: break stuff , plastic , windows , windowsil , wood

Voila! Windows! (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

I went ahead and cut out the five best windows from last night, and glued four of them into position. They are the best windows on a boxcar, ever, but of course, they still have flaws. They are all the same size, so that problem is solved. And they look more believable than previously, so that is good,too. But two of the windows look like they have lighter brown lines. There are a few more wooden pieces to cut and fit, then I will add make the info plaque and install the hardware for the doors and windows. Posted in: boxcar , gb 5079 - boxcar , güterwagen , windows

Practice makes perfect windows (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

I may try drawing a few more windows, but out of these, there are four that are acceptable. There's just that little compulsion to try a little bit harder and possibly squeak out a smidge more improvement. The next step is to get them cut out, of course. The secret to drawing the diagonals and the box seems to be keeping the pencil really sharp and getting the parallel lines really close together. Applying a little less pressure with the pencil also seems to help. Posted in: boxcar , gb 5079 - boxcar , güterwagen , pencils , windows

Beginning the doors and windows (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

Here you can see the beginning of the doors and windows for the boxcar [Güterwagen]. I did this the same way as the previous boxcar, I mixed up the basic paint color and then used a paint knife to smear it onto Bristol board. This time I tried to get a thinner coat since last time I got a thick coat and the paint bubbled and cracked. I used the Holbein acryla-gouache, same as last time, but this time I mixed the colors Naples yellow and titanium white. My efforts to get a thinner coat have paid off - there is no bubbling nor cracking. The color came out quite even toned. It is a little lighter tone at the edges where it is a really thin coat, but that can be not used. Though, the variation in tone is interesting. I may try to add a little dirt that is lighter in tone in addition to the slightly darker dirt. I made three pieces so that I can play with one - try a few new dirt and paint tricks - and then paint the two other pieces for use. I want to have enough so that I can make extra doors and windows in case something goes wrong, I'll have a spare. Posted in: boxcar , doors , gb 5079 - boxcar , güterwagen , paint , windows

Windows? On my Mac?! (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

A long long time ago I installed Qemu and Windows on my Powermac G5 so I could run some old games of mine. Most notable the Magic: the Gathering game from the late nineties.

This morning I installed Windows XP in a Parallels VM. I may heartily dislike Windows, but there's still something cool about running a Windows VM on Mac OS :D Dance puppet, dance!.

Again I plan to use Windows for Magic, but the main purpose is to run some Windows-only software from School.

Ah, the miracles of modern-day science :)

Posted in: mac os x , parallels , windows

Windows? On my Mac?! (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

A long long time ago I installed Qemu and Windows on my Powermac G5 so I could run some old games of mine. Most notable the Magic: the Gathering game from the late nineties.

This morning I installed Windows XP in a Parallels VM. I may heartily dislike Windows, but there's still something cool about running a Windows VM on Mac OS :D Dance puppet, dance!.

Again I plan to use Windows for Magic, but the main purpose is to run some Windows-only software from School.

Ah, the miracles of modern-day science :)

Posted in: mac os x , parallels , windows

Google and Yahoo Afraid Of Microsoft? (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I can't believe I missed this: Google Gears is available for WebKit. This was announced three weeks ago, but I just found out about it on this TUAW post regarding future Google/Apple iPhone-related announcements.

News of this makes me feel better about AJAX/HTML based apps on the iPhone, easing my concern over offline access to these apps. I also haven't seen many developers complaining about the lack of a "real" SDK on the iPhone, which makes me believe that offline access and home screen placement was discussed at NDA-covered WWDC sessions.

A big question I have is that amongst all this Google/Apple collaboration, Apple decided to go with Yahoo for the iPhone's bundled email solution and widgets (you'll note that the Stocks and Weather widgets now sport Y! icons). Could Apple be playing both sides? If Google and Yahoo were desperate to get placement on the iPhone, then perhaps they didn't want to (or couldn't get) exclusivity. Google and Yahoo are currently tied on home screen icon placement at two a piece (Yahoo is slightly ahead overall because of the mail tie-in, however).

The biggest loser in all of this is of course is Microsoft. The one-two punch: iPhone is going to take away customers from the Windows Mobile platform (RIM sure isn't helping them out either). Thanks to the Google/Yahoo integration, iPhone users will have an investment in Google and Yahoo's online services, driving usage away from MSN/Windows Live/whatever it's called now. After the iPhone, Microsoft will be facing increased competition from both the mobile space and the internet space.

There is a bright side to all of this for Microsoft. From any way you look at it, Microsoft is seen as the biggest competition to Google and Yahoo: Either Google and Yahoo compromised to "share" the iPhone, in which case they don't think they can handle Microsoft alone, or Apple didn't want only Google or only Yahoo on the iPhone, in which case Apple thinks that Google and/or Yahoo are vulnerable to Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, SDK, iPhone, WebKit, Google Gears, widgets

Posted in: apple , google , iphone , microsoft , mobile , offline , windows , yahoo

Safari on Windows (The Mighty Squid's Ink) by Mighty_Squid

So Apple is entering the browser wars.

Public Beta of Safari 3 Download

Despite being a fan of Apple I have never really been a fan of Safari. It's small simple and fast but FireFox has all the awesome easy add ons.

However there is never such a thing as too many browser options. Safari will be number 5 on this box behind IE, FF, Opera and SeaMonkey. All have their own strengths and weaknesses. I can't really compare a beta to them so I will just give quick first impressions and some screenshots.

You can click on all screenshots for larger images.



I didn't know what Bonjour Service was but apparently it's a device/sharing protocol and it's ok not leave it unchecked.



And we're in!



The start page is pretty swanky. Smart putting a lot of iTunes information on there since PC users are already used to that Mac product.

It ported over my IE history as well as my bookmarks in FF and IE.



I have only checked out a few pages so far but everything seems to be working.

Time will tell if Safari gets massive market share like FF or just be a geek toy like Opera. However with Apple being the current juggernaut that it is then IE should be scared.

I'll post more as I check it out more. Posted in: apple , browser , firefox , kool aid , opera , safari , sea monkey , steve jobs , windows , wwdc keynote

Customizing your Desktop Icons (The Mighty Squid's Ink) by Mighty_Squid

Everyone has their own system but on any computer I work on I have at least three main folders. A download folder, a work folder and a fun folder. There is a structure within those folders for pics, video ect. but I like to keep a clean desktop so that's my three main ones.

Since I use them so often I like to customize their icons so I can find them easier plus it's just fun. I primarily work in Windows so that's what I will be referring to.

To customize a folder's icon you need to right click it and choose properties. Then click on the "customize" tab.



At the bottom you have a "change icon" button. If you click it you are automatically sent to where all the icons live which is "%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll". There are quite a few good ones to choose from there. I'm fond of the star myself. Easy to spot in a folder list.



Click on the icon you want and click ok.

Now those icons are ok but if you want fun ones you gotta hit the web. Not any image will do. It has to be a .ico and it's not something you can easily make with Photoshop and the like although there are tools available. However I've found Icon Factory has great free icon downloads and I've used those.



Changing your icons isn't much but I've found it really helps me find what I need in a hurry. Posted in: best practice , customize , desktop , icon factory , icons , useful , windows

Windows are complete (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

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I finished the windows, the window trim, and the window hardware today. And I am pooped! I tried out using “matte medium” to glue the window hardware. I’ve had a bottle of this stuff sitting around my home for a year or so. I bought it to use for gluing the ballast on that old piece of track. For that, you mix it 50/50 with water and dribble the resulting liquid over the ballast and let it dry. A miracle occurs, and this liquid that seems very unlike glue, actually holds the ballast in place.

I had tried also mixing this stuff into the actual paint. The info on the bottle says you can do that to make the paint more workable and matte finish, but my experience with this (and using Liquitex paint), was that it didn’t really do anything useful, nor did it make the paint less glossy after it dried. So, I shelved the stuff.

But everything you read insists that “matte medium” is a glue. I tested it out using a piece of painted metal and painted basswood. And, much to my amazement, it glued the two items together. And securely glued them together. This stuff is not wimpy glue. And it dried to a more matte finish than the wood carpenter’s glue, but still not a totally matte finish. An improvement nonetheless.

I generally try to not have any glue showing, but some does show up on the finished car. So, I used this stuff to glue the metal hardware that I did tonight. And it looks much better than the previous boxcar’s metal hardware glue-job. I may use this stuff for glue a lot more in the future.

There is still more hardware to do…

Posted in: güterwagen , uncategorized , windows

Windows are progressing along (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

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After a few practice attempts, I got the window drawn and cut-out. I made two sets of guides for these. One set for the white box that the “x” goes in, and the other set for the cut-lines for cutting the windows out. Since the windows are not the same size (they are supposed to be - but I haven’t quite gotten that problem under control — this boxcar has less of a problem than previous boxcars, though) - two of the windows are 8mm wide and two are 9mm wide - so I made each set of cut-outs have the two sizes that I needed. This worked nicely. Unfortunately, you can still see that they are different widths.

Posted in: güterwagen , windows

Exploring the windows (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket

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I never did make a list of improvements for this boxcar to make it better than the previous boxcar. I didn’t because I wasn’t sure of what improvements I would successfully achieve. I had some things in mind to try, but I didn’t feel confident that I would pull them off. At this point in this boxcar’s construction, I have successfully implemented a number of improvements - wheel journals, brakes, paint color, dirt, front steps, adding the car number, overall dimensions/proportions, and making the door logo nice.

This all gets me to - windows. How to make the windows? I’ve tried something different each time I’ve done the windows, none satisfactory, but each being a tiny improvement. I’ve tried to score bristol board to make the “x” - that didn’t work - the bristol board is too thick. I could try a thinner paper…. I’ve tried basswood - and using a knife to cut the “x” into the wood (reverse of what it is) and hoping that it would trick the eye into seeing it correctly. I didn’t like that solution too well. And last time, I just drew the “x” on with a dark-brown colored pencil, which worked so-so.

This time, I thought I would continue with the stagecraft, and try to do a more believable job of drawing the “x” on with colored pencil. I kind of like how the test of it went…though, adding the box around the perimeter of the window seems to be a huge challenge still. Maybe with some more practice this might work ok.

I used the Prismacolor Verithin color dark umber for the dirt, and the Prismacolor color creme for the highlight. I like the Prismacolor Verithin pencils because they have very hard lead, which can draw a very fine line, but they come in a limited color range compared to the regular Prismacolor pencils. I used a regular pencil sharpener to sharpen the pencils in general, then I used sandpaper to sharped them to a nice point. I find this results in less trouble with the pencil lead breaking.

Posted in: güterwagen , windows

Microsoft Brain Drain 2007 and a Vista Non-Vulnerability (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Two very important people are leaving Microsoft. First is Bryan Lee, former VP in the entertainment and device division, who oversaw the Zune launch. Second is Jim Allchin, former Co-President of the platform and services division. The latter had an excellent blog post on a day in his post-Microsoft life. Neither are going to competitors, however, instead both are going to "pursue personal interests," as the Reuters article linked above puts it.

In other Microsoft news, a so-called "vulnerability" has been found in Vista. The vulnerability involves having voice commands from a third-party being played over speakers and doing nasty things to a PC. I don't really see this is as a new problem, as it could have been done on any other OS that had voice recognition (e.g., XP or OS X). The easy solution is to disable voice commands (who really uses them anyway?), but a more long-term solution for people who do want voice commands is to have it require a passcode to be said before the OS runs a command.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Jim Allchin, Bryan Lee, Zune, Windows, vulnerability, voice recognition, voice commands, sound, voice

Posted in: microsoft , news , operating systems , people , security , vista , windows

Macenterprise.org [ma.gnolia] (Put together quickly (Haligan)) by MichaelBiven

Daylight saving time laws were enacted in 2005 that take affect this March 11th 2007. John M. Flender put together a great list of patches to handle the switch for different operating systems, hardware and software.

Tags: sysadmin, mac, os x, windows, Linux, Daylight saving time

Posted in: daylight saving time , linux , mac , os x , sysadmin , windows