The Mad Cow Blog: 2013

When I thought of what I was going to call this, a number of titles crossed my mind. Among those was “Microsoft, Start Your Buttons”, because the “return of the Start Button” seems to be the main headline surrounding Windows 8.1 along with the ability to boot straight to the desktop. I found it interesting that the two biggest headlines around Windows’ biggest update since its release are the two features that add the least functionality to the OS. There’s already a Start Button on everyone’s keyboard and if your PC or tablet is new enough, there’s one right below the screen. Let’s not forget about the charms. Booting to the desktop is fairly pointless when it’s so easy to get there from the Start Screen.

The feature of Windows 8.1 that I found most impressive is one that no one seems to be talking about and it’s a feature that’s only found so far on the Android OS and has been there for years. They call it Active Desktop. It’s the ability to have a moving image as your background on your screen. In Microsoft’s own words: “Windows 8.1 offers more colors and backgrounds for the Start Screen – including ones with motion.”

This is a feature that is not available for iOS nor on Mac OS. Also, Mac OS is clearly not optimized for a touch screen. So, next time you read the headline on Apple’s web site that reads iOS: The World’s Most Advanced Operating System, you may just want to question it.

Although this is just a cosmetic change like the Start Button and “boot to desktop”, this is a more important one because it’s showing that Apple is falling further behind. Another feature of Windows 8.1 that’s important is the unveiling of Internet Explorer 11, which promises to be the world’s first touch based web browser. A feature like this one does more than just make the screen look better, but it will add much needed functionality to the web browsing experience.

Right now if you compare the major browsers – those being IE10, Safari, and Chrome – Safari is undoubtedly the worst at handling a touch screen, even on iOS. Take a simple concept like tapping a hyperlink with your index finger, for example. In Chrome on an Android device, you would tap the link and if the device is unclear at all about the link you meant to click it will magnify the link and the surrounding links to make it easier for you to click. With the new Windows 8 touch screen devices, the stylus makes it all easier to navigate; however, in Safari many times you will find yourself having to click the back button because you clicked the wrong link. It can get tedious.

These are only a few of the features coming to Windows. As you can see at the screenshot at the top of the screen, we will be able to split the screen in more ratios than the current 1:2 or 2:1 ratio that’s currently available on Windows 8, but perhaps more importantly is the integration of Bing into search. As Windows 8/8.1 continues to build momentum, the integration of Bing will bring Bing along for the ride with Windows which should finally make it the competitor with Google that they always wanted it to be.

Windows 8.1 clearly is going to have the functional advantage over iOS 6, Mac OS X, and Android 4.2. With the introduction of the new Xbox One, Microsoft clearly has some big things in the works. Microsoft is building momentum and they are building it fast and as I pointed out in an earlier post, Microsoft is the smart bet.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Why the Smart Phone Wars are Over

By Rich Woods
http://rwoods716.wordpress.com

My first smart phone was an iPhone 3GS that I found in the street. I never went to AT&T to try to get service for it because I thought they would take it away, but I used it on Wi-Fi for a while and found that it immediately took control of my life. Finally, wanting to try the Android platform, I got an account with AT&T and got myself a Samsung Captivate, the first of a very long line of Galaxy S phones from Samsung. Disappointed in a glitchy phone/OS combo, my next upgrade was to the iPhone 4S and for the last 14 months, I’ve been watching the market deciding what my next pocket sized gadget is going to be. Do I stay with my trusted iPhone? I’ve never had a problem with iOS and the iPhone 4S is an amazing phone. Do I give Android another try? I’ve heard they’ve made some great improvements since Gingerbread. There’s always the Windows Phone 8 and the Nokia Lumia 920 which is one phone that I fell in love with in the store.

Then came Samsung with the announcement of the Galaxy S4. The plethora of new features on the S4 left me wondering, what do I really need in a smart phone? I definitely don’t need one that does the things that the S4 does. I’ve been hearing from everywhere that there is no more innovation at Apple and they are falling behind. But why? What exactly is the iPhone lacking? Near field communication? The ability to share a picture or a playlist with another user by tapping phones? Samsung loves to play up that feature of their phones but I’ve never actually met someone with a Galaxy that even uses it.

So then the question arose: Do I even need to upgrade at all? Samsung just showed us all that there are not many features left that we even need in a smart phone.

If you listen to tech news, it’s mostly speculation about what is going to be coming out soon, from iOS 7 to Android 4.3 to Windows “Blue”. While the tech news outlets are speculating what the average consumer wants from an operating system, I don’t think that the average consumer cares which operating system they’re using at all. People ask me quite often which phone they should buy and I always ask them the same question: “What do you use your phone for?” The answer is almost always the same. They want a phone that they can make calls on, send messages from, listen to music, watch YouTube, and play games. Any new phone can do all of those things and they can do them well.

At this point it seems that the smart phone market has matured to the point that we have all that we need from a phone. There is not much more to do with a 4 or 5 inch screen and consumers will begin to realize just that. Tablets are another story all together. There is a lot more that can be done on a 10 inch screen than on a 4 inch screen and we can still plan to see much more from that market for a few years to come.

Where the hell is Apple?

http://rwoods716.wordpress.com

By Richard Woods

Apple has a reputation for being very secretive as to what they are working on. That’s why people love to spread rumors about what they are doing. If you search the internet, you could find hundreds of images of what the next iPhone will look like, even though it’s all speculation until Apple makes an official announcement, and we haven’t heard an official announcement from Apple since they announced the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad back in November. So here we are six months later and Apple is clearly falling behind their competitors and we haven’t heard a thing about what they’re working on. Well Apple’s big yearly event WWDC – which stands for World Wide Developer’s Conference – is coming next month and all eyes are on Apple. So what are we going to see?

First we have to look at Apple’s history. Typically, we get a new phone every year between July and September which ships with a new version of iOS. The iPad was a yearly refresh as well until last year when they came out with the third generation model in March, the fourth generation model in November, and surprisingly decided to discontinue the third generation model and continue to make the second generation model as a low end model. When they did this, many people that bought the third gen iPad were upset because their product was rendered obsolete so quickly. So based on Apple’s history, I would not expect to see a new iPhone or full size iPad in what remains of the first half of this year.

Next we should look at what Apple has to do to catch up with the rest of the technology industry. Touch screens are rapidly becoming the standard in the pc industry. Google has even introduced a touch screen ChromeBook called the Pixel. Windows 8 is designed with the idea of a touch screen in mind and it assumes that touch screen is the future of the industry. Touch screen computers are coming in all shapes and sizes from tablets that turn into laptops to laptops that turn into tablets and everything in between. Microsoft has released the Surface RT and the Surface Pro which are the first tablets that run Microsoft Office and they have attachable keyboards.

Apple currently doesn’t make any kind of touch screen computers aside from the iPad and who hasn’t at some point tapped the screen of a MacBook expecting something to happen? One thing that we know about Apple is that they don’t do anything unless they can do it perfectly and Mac OS isn’t quite yet designed for touch screens. But the key word in World Wide Developer’s Conference is “Developer”, meaning they won’t necessarily be announcing any amazing new products but they will be appealing to developer’s and telling them what they need to know to keep making great software for Apple products. Everyone knows that there will be a preview of the new operating system that will come to iPhone and iPad, iOS 7. My suspicion is that we will also see a brand new Mac OS that’s a little more like Windows 8 in that it will be designed for touch screens and pave the way for touch screen computers that will come in the fall.

So no word in six months and all we’re gonna get is a couple of OS refreshes? Not necessarily. The next thing we have to look at is what everyone is expecting from Apple. Since the retina display was released with the iPhone 4 and gradually made its way around Apple’s universe everyone wants every Apple product to have one. The brand new iPad Mini still doesn’t have a retina display and the MacBook Air still doesn’t have it. So two new completely redesigned operating systems, an iPad Mini with Retina, and a MacBook Air with Retina can make for an impressive keynote, but “Apple impressive”? I’m not so sure.

We want something new. Something innovative. We want the new iPod announcement, the new iPhone announcement, the iPad announcement…we want the Steve Jobs special. Many people have talked about the possibility of an iWatch and for some reason, I’ve never heard the words “iWatch” and “FaceTime” in the same sentence. Why not? Video calling through a wristwatch? Definitely a product that I would buy. It’s also something that they would need apps for, so it’s very likely something that they would announce at a developer’s conference.

The rumor of an Apple TV (a physical set top box) has been around for a few years now, but that’s hardly an exciting product. What will an Apple TV do that every other TV doesn’t do at this point. Apple is a computer company and they are currently losing market share in every aspect of the computer industry. It makes no sense to create a product in a market they are not in when they clearly need to keep their focus on the market that they are in.

One last thing that I wanted to talk about is the possibility of a game console. iOS is known as one of the best touch screen gaming platforms out there and we know that there will be a few Android powered gaming consoles coming soon and Microsoft just announced their new Xbox One console. Can you imagine playing Madden on your iPlay and being able to design your own plays on your iPad while you play the games on your TV? But this doesn’t seem to be something that we will see at a developer’s conference as it is more of a consumer product.

So what will we see from WWDC next month? The new iOS 7 is a guarantee and a matching redesigned Mac OS is likely to come with it. An iPad Mini with Retina will likely be there to replace the existing iPad Mini at its $329 price point. The existing iPad Mini is likely to drop from $329 to $229 to compete with the high end smaller Android tablets. The Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD both retail for around $199 depending on the size of the hard drive. And one more thing…the all-new iWatch with video chatting capabilities.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Christian The Lion

Watch "Christian The Lion - Reunited - From "The View"" on YouTube

Old video, but still great

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Long Island Firearms

You all know we don't just send out emails randomly. This is important.

This is directly effecting one of us!
This is a member of our community (well respected) whom we all know is in trouble.

Please take a moment to visit this thread. Read it and pass it along to EVERYONE!! We cannot stress this enough:
I urge you to forward this and pass this to all media outlets as well.

The actual story:
March 1st was just another day when I put my 10 year old, fourth grade son John on the bus and sent him off to school. Or so I thought. On the contrary, today was the day that my life as a gun owner was about to change, dramatically and rapidly.

Sometime during the day, my son allegedly spoke with a few of his classmates. The boys (excluding my son) were involved in a school yard pushing incident the day before. Two or three of these boys (including my son) were talking about going to the house of the boys that did the pushing. These boys were to take with them a water, paint and bb gun. Word of this got to the principal. She immediately interrogated the children. I received a call from the principal advising me of this just as my son got off the bus. She also advised me that my son was to be suspended for two days because of his words. She decided that this talk amongst students warranted filing a police report. If this wasn't bad enough, the police were sent to my residence and I was advised that my guns may be taken from me. This can't be happening, I thought. But it was.

The following Monday I received a call from Pistol Licensing that they would be at my residence in the morning to take my guns and suspend my license. I attempted to explain that this must be a mistake, no wrong doing occurred on my part. My son has no access to any of my guns. The officer that came to my residence saw that all my guns were secured.Pistol Licensing was not interested in my side of the story. They were only interested in what happened with my ten year old son in school.

If you think this can't happen to you, you are wrong. It is happening every day here in American.
Kids get suspended from school and the aftermath can be as ugly as my situation.

When will my license be restored? What is involved? What is the cost? These are all questions that I had. Some still remain unanswered. The few answers I have are not at all comforting. According to the police, I can expect to have my license restored when my son is an adult and moves out of my residence. If I don't want to wait that long I can file an Article 78 and request that my license be reinstated. The cost, so far, about $6,500 monetarily. Emotionally, the cost is far, far higher. That can't be calculated. All my handguns are gone, my license is suspended and my long arms are out of the house waiting to be sold at a local store.

What can you do to protect yourself and others? First, pick up the phone and call Senator Flanagans office. Demand that they enact legislation similar to Maryland's Senate Bill 1058. It will protect school age children, their rights and those of their parents. Second, keep a firearms attorney on your speed dial. Carry his card. Remember his number. Next, buddy up with someone you trust that has a valid pistol license. Be ready at a moments notice to transfer your guns to him. You of course will do the same for him if the need arises. That will protect your guns from becoming property of the County in which you live. Talk to your kids. This is what hurts. In order to make them "School Compliant", you will have to supress there rights to exist as children. Don't let them say "pow" when they point there little fingers. Don't let them mention guns, water, paint, bb, or other. You just learned what can happen. And it happened right here in Suffolk County, to one of us.

With any luck, and some hard work from us all, a bill comparable to 1058 will pass here in New York. Then we can begin to breathe more freely. Schools need to understand that 5-12 year olds pointing their fingers in harmless gestures, are not the threats they need to subdue. What we need to subdue is the army of over zealous, over paid, school administrators that suddenly have become the "finger pointing police",

Thread and donation needed to help this member. Let's all visit this post and make a reply to help keep this member's hopes alive for his rights and freedom as an American.

Thread:
http://www.longislandfirearms.com/forum/topic/67755-just-the-mention-of-a-gun-in-school

Monday, April 1, 2013

LOL

Watch "MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO)" on YouTube

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Mosh Pit Math: Physicists Analyze Rowdy Crowd : NPR

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Watch "TOMMY JAMES- " DRAGGIN' THE LINE " ( W / LYRICS)" on YouTube

Saturday, March 2, 2013

I hate religious nuts

Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) tweeted at 9:30 AM on Sat, Mar 02, 2013: Hollywood power couple wants Bible taught in public schools http://t.co/JwOs3acO2A (https://twitter.com/HuffingtonPost/status/307860367470632961) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

So sick of our education system and the crap people are trying to pull. As it is the southern states are ridiculous with their bible hugging. The freakin bible has no place in education, its a fucking fairy tale and if you believe otherwise then you are a moron. Keep humpty dumpty and his friends out of public schools. We need more science, not fairy tales.

These religious nuts have no problem with science when it gives them tv, radio, cell phones, cars, (everything we use every day) yet they still believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old and somehow humans and dinosaurs were around at the same time. Religious people are stupid. Science is king, not your religion.

Deaths Caused by Christians alone:

1562-1598 – French Wars of Religion – France – 4 million
1095-1291 – Crusades to the Holy Land – Middle East, Spain, Africa – 1.5 million (This does include all sides of the conflict)
1184-c. 1860 – Various Christian Inquisitions – Europe – 17,500

Friday, February 22, 2013

Education

We need a federal standard for education in this country. Enough with the Bible hugging south states who believe humans rode on dinosaurs. If you honestly believe that humans and dinosaurs were around at the same time you are a moron. Earth is not 10,000 years old it's much much older.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Catnip

Watch "CATNIP: EGRESS TO OBLIVION?" on YouTube

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