Recently a good friend of mine and I were debating desktop Linux vs. Windows. I’ve been playing with Ubuntu Linux a lot lately (and really like it), but have decided that it’s still not ready as a common desktop operating system (meaning for main stream use). While Linux is making a lot of headway here it still has a way to go…

So as we discussed this we discussed the main difference between Linux and Microsoft, that being vendor lock in. As we dug into this I realized something, that the key to getting Linux on the desktop really isn’t mirroring the Windows feature set and ease of use (which, let’s be clear, you do have to do), the key is beating Exchange.

If you look at this from the perspective of the “killer desktop app”, the #1 killer app for business (more on business vs. personal later) is Outlook. Outlook, more than any other application, I’d venture to say, is the most important app on most people’s computers (again I’m speaking generally here). So here’s the chain:

So I’ve been waiting for quite a while for the new Joshua Redman album, Momentum, to come out. His last album, Elastic is one of my all time favorites, so I was really looking forward to the new release. He did not disappoint!

Fortunately iTunes had it together and had it available today (the day it was released). My good friend Derek Worth reminded me of the release so I quickly went out and grabbed it. WOW. Just plain WOW. Redman has done it again, this one is great. Continuing his collaboration with keyboardist Sam Yahel he’s continued the feel he started with Elastic. I’m not sure if I like it better than Elastic just yet, while it’s also with his Elastic Band it definitely has that awesome funk feel to it, but it’s a bit more out there in places than the last. When I started writing this I wasn’t sure if that was good or not, but now I’m sure, it is. For someone as amazing as Redman is it’s not surprising to see him branch out into new places. While this is still a Jazz album at heart, it’s really much more than that blending funk, fusion, techno, hip-hop, oh, and of course modern Jazz (no Kenny G crap here!).

It’s also awesome to see the musicians that he’s included on this release, including drummer Jeff Ballard, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and guitarists Peter Bernstein, Eric Krasno, Jeff Parker, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Oh, and saving the best for last Flea (incase you’re clueless of The Red Hot Chili Peppers). Man-o-man can he lay down a groove. Track 11, “Double Jeopardy” is just awesome, the groove he throws on it is funk itself.

While it is getting some mixed reviews, mainly citing that it’s to “reserved” I totally disagree. Where they see reserved I see style, patience, and intent. Redman clearly wanted to go outside the box here without getting so outside that he looses the listener. Listening to it is simply a joy, you can help but tap your foot and do the white boy overbite

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I recently purchased a HP Compaq tc4200 TabletPC for Brad Feld. He’s wanted one for a while, and had one of the first generation Compaq ones when they came out. Since he ddn’t like that one we sent it back and now he’s decided to give it another go.

My prediction: He’ll hate it. Here’s why.

If you ask me (and since you’re reading this you kinda did…) TabletPCs fit a VERY specific niche. A VERY specific one. They are NOT for general purpose computing. While the tc4200 is a laptop/tablet combo (meaning it has a keyboard and can be used as a standard laptop) it just isn’t useful in tablet mode. The main issue is that it’s just too heavy and hot. Ok, so Brad wants to use it in Alaska to read his email and blogs while lying on the couch (sounds good to me) so I figured that’s how I’d evaluate it.

As a Tablet
So this weekend I spent about an hour lying on my ass playing with this thing (after 5 hours of landscaping so don’t give me too much crap!). I figured I’d do what Brad will do, read blogs/sites and magazines. So I switched to tablet mode and started surfing away. First problem, man is this thing heavy! At 4 1/2 lbs it’s a lot to hold in your hands, and too heavy to rest on your chest/stomach. After about 10 minutes you really feel the weight, oh and next comes the heat. While it’s not nearly as hot as my OQO was (and man was that thing hot) it still gets uncomfortable. Then there comes surfing. The issue isn’t with moving in a page (the jog dial on the side is really nice, but it’s located too high) its with opening new pages/links you don’t have bookmarked. The handwriting software sucks for surfing. What I mean is this. I write slashdot.org (and I’m VERY careful with spacing) and it thinks I wrote Slash Dot org (since it tries to interpret what I’m saying). So I switch to the other mode (where you get little boxes) but that’s really restrictive. Ok, you could bookmark everything but come on… Next is the pen as a mouse – it SUCKS. Plain and simple. They should have put a small pointing stick on the front so you could use that…

As a laptop
Ok, so as a laptop it’s not bad, but it’s no IBM T Series (which is easily the best laptop ever made…). After using IBM’s for years there is just nothing that comes close, not even a little close (ok, maybe my powerbook, but still not as nice…). The keyboard just doesn’t feel right, the mouse buttons are TERRIBLE, the glide pad sucks, on and on and on and on.

Oh, and I didn’t mention the worse thing. The screen SUCKS. SUCKS!!! It’s just no where near bright enough. I have 20:8 vision and I can barely read the thing. Even in a low light room it’s just not enough.

So in short HP just missed it here. And I think tablets are just for VERY specific purposes, purposes where you would NEVER use a keyboard (think doctors, factory workers, anyone that moves around all the time). So, next it’s to Brad, we’ll see if my prediction is right. Hell he may keep it just to spite me

Friday night we watched Cellular starring Kim Basinger and relative newcomer Chris Evans. It was a lot like the TV show 24 (without Jack Bauer of course). What I mean by that is the story was only so-so (not very well written) but it was very edge of your seat exciting…

Basically Basinger is kidnapped by Jason Statham (from The Italian Job, The Transporter, and Snatch) to find where her husband “hid it”. Basinger says that she doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about, and the stupid Statham leaves her with a phone (even though he smashed it with a sledge hammer she somehow makes it work). She finally gets it to work and gets Evans on his cell phone (ah, there’s where the title comes it…) and asks for his help.

You can guess the rest, Evans goes on a spree trying to help her (which is pretty high energy) and finally hooks up with one of my favorite actors, William H. Macy, to help him save the day. There is one pretty decent plot twist (I won’t spoil it for you) that actually made me give it an extra point in my rating. If you’re in the mood for a good energy movie (without a ton of violence) then you should like this.

As I’m sure you know I’m a Firefox user (if you don’t know about Firefox yet PLEASE check it out – basically it’s the best web browser that has ever been written). One of the down sides to using Firefox is that most apps are written to work with IE since it is still the major browser on the market.

As I’m getting more into the blog space I finally installed Newsgator for Outlook. One of the cool thing that Newsgator does is install a plugin into IE to allow you to right click on RSS feeds (like the Feedburner link to the right) and subscribe to them directly from IE. Since they don’t officially support Firefox they didn’t write one for Firefox.

Here comes the open source community to the resuce. Someone out there (sorry I’m not sure where it really came from, if you do PLEASE tell me so I can give proper credit) wrote a Firefox extension that works just great. The only catch is you may have to download it first (to your desktop) then double click on it to get it to work (that’s what I did). So if you want to give it a go:

Newsgator Firefox Plugin

Once you install it you’ll have to restart Firefox for it to become active. Then in Firefox just right click on a RSS feed link and choose “Subscribe in Newsgator” and you should be all set. Enjoy!

So for a long time I’ve been thinking about donating blood. Both of our girls (Sierra, 6 year old Lab and Ellie, 2 year old Golden) donate blood once every 3 months so I figured I should do the same (if you have dogs between 1-7 years old and 60 lbs you should STRONGLY consider donation, it’s fast and easy – and easy on your pets). I’ve donated once in the past (about 7 years ago) and it wasn’t really that bad for me so I figured I should get in there.

So today I thought of it again, and before I could forget I called Bonfils to see about coming in to donate. I was a little surprised to find that they generally do donations by appointment but they were very happy to have me come in without one.

How was it? Well it was really easy, and, as you’d expect, the staff was exceptionally polite. They must have thanked me at least 10 times for coming in to donate. They definitely made me feel like I was doing a good thing. Honestly the hardest part (to me anyway) was the finger prick to test for red blood cell count (mine was just fine). Donating was just fine, I didn’t get light headed or anything – for some reason even though I hate needles (hell who doesn’t?) I never felt bad at all. Granted I never looked at my arm, but hey, why chance it right?

So in short DONATE BLOOD! One of the nurses said that a study was done on why people don’t donate and by far the #1 answer was because no one asked them too. WELL I’M ASKING YOU TOO! Write yourself a note, AND GO DONATE! You’ll be fine, you’ll feel good about yourself, and you even get free orange juice and a cookie! Yum!