Since July, the Sign-Up button on the GMail login page has been changing. The frequency of the changes hasn’t been constant, and there have been a large variety of different styles.

Since July 28, 2007, I have been taking screenshots of the different buttons, and I’m publishing the screen grabs here. It’s kind of fun, seeing a different button every day, but the question is “why?” Why is this happening? Are there some bored employees at Google?

Here are the buttons:

This odd occurrence is still happening, and I’m still taking screenshots of the new ones.

Verizon is suing the FCC over the 700MHz open-access requirements. Verizon says “Imposing any such requirements in the competitive wireless market would reduce the revenue the government will receive from the spectrum auction and limit the introduction of new and innovative wireless services.” Yeah, and I’m Bill Gates. Who cares if the government is receiving more revenue from the 700MHz spectrum? And how do the requirements “limit the introduction of new and innovative wireless services?” The open-access requirements increase the introduction of new services by keeping telecom companies like Verizon from controlling the band.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, Apple, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Viacom, Real, Napster, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Sandisk, and other companies are being sued by some lunatic “company” that patented the concept of playlists. Oh, and “Premier International Associates” has no company history prior to the lawsuits. How the heck did they get the patent in the first place?

Most computers tend to last only 2-3 years. It’s an annoying fact, but that doesn’t make it any less true. My previous computer was a Compaq Presario, which lasted about three years. My current machine, a Gateway 835GM, has been kicking since a few days after the release of the sixth Harry Potter book (July 16th 2005 for the uninformed). How much longer will it last? No idea. At random times (read: the worst possible moment) everything locks-up, and then goes blank. It’s been happening for a few months now, and my attempts to pin-down the problem have been unsuccessful. Who knows how much time is left until it quits.

If you spend a week reading my articles, you’ll likely come to the assumption that I’m a big Apple fan. You’d be right, though I haven’t used any of their products for more than ten minutes at a time. I get Macworld from the library, I read Apple news online, and I’ve read several books about Apple and their products. I don’t have a Mac yet, but I definitely want one. Why, besides being totally obsessed with Apple products (a.k.a. “The Pinnacle of Innovation and Design”)?

First of all, Windows sucks. I’ve been using Windows since before XP was around, and it wasn’t very good. XP came out, and it was more stable and a little easier to use. Nowadays, Microsoft is marketing the heck out of Vista, and I’m thinking “How stupid does Microsoft think we are?” Vista is at least a step backwards. Vista is basically Windows XP with some security patches, a new interface, and more versions. The new “cool” interface may look cool, but from what I’ve seen it definitely hinders usability…and performance. Buy an OS with higher (like double) minimum spec requirements so I can have translucent window borders? No thanks.

In the hardware area, things aren’t much better. New PCs generally have Vista preinstalled, and you run into the problem of your computer self-destructing in two years. Throw-in bad tech support, device conflicts, malware, and the headaches start.

Some people will tell you that Macs have “compatibility issues.” Well, Vista definitely has “compatibility issues.” Only a third of software that runs on XP will run on Vista. You’ll need a new secuity suite for sure, and countless other apps won’t work. Meanwhile, Macs are becoming more and more adept at running Windows apps. Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion allow you to run Windows applications in the Mac OS. That’s right, they even appear in the dock. How is that possible? Now that Macs have Intel chips, it’s a lot simpler to run apps in a “virtual Windows playpen.” Before, virtualization systems had to emulate the chip as well. Of course, some programs won’t run in a virtual state (3D games for example). That’s where Apple’s Boot Camp software comes in. With Boot Camp, you can have an actual copy of Windows installed on your Mac. You can turn off your Mac, and restart it in Windows so you can play Need For Speed or whatever processor-intensive program you need to run. And get this: Vista runs faster on Macs than on any other PC on the market. The Vista Upgrade Adviser even scores iMacs higher than any other non-Apple machine. So…wait…how high would a Mac Pro score?

I think all of the above is enough reason to go Mac.

Apple’s done it again.

This afternoon, Steve Jobs announced the 2007 iPod lineup. After spending fifteen minutes staring at the above picture, and a further twenty minutes absorbing the specs, you’ll probably come to the conclusion I did: “Holy @$#&%#! There’s no way any of Apple’s competitors can top this…or even come close to it.” I’m happy to say that I did a great job at predicting the new feature set. Let’s take a look at the new iPods, shall we?
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