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.

Allegedly this YouTube video was made by a Microsoft employee who was later fired. It features Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft as an "iPod Silhouette", and some anti-Zune stuff near the end. Not bad work, though Steve Ballmer obviously didn’t thin so. Link to video.

Microsoft has for a long time liked the idea of Windows being subscription-based. What do I think? If they do, their little empire will collapse.

They’ve got to be kidding. Really, would you pay a yearly subscription…just for your computer to operate? You already pay $30-50 a year for your security suite, do you want to pay $100/year for your OS? If you stopped paying that fee, your computer would cease to function. Would you really agree to that? I wouldn’t.

 From the New York Times:

“When the Google and Vista search programs are run simultaneously on a computer, their indexing programs slow the operating system considerably, Google contended. As a result, Google said that Vista violated Microsoft’s 2002 antitrust settlement, which prohibits Microsoft from designing operating systems that limit the choices of consumers.”

You can read more at this post on Compiler.

Renamed “Windows Live Hotmail”, Microsoft’s email service has been revamped. Of course, the changes have been in the works for a long time. I remember when the beta came out: Not long after GMail launched. Using AJAX and DHTML, Hotmail is once again a viable email option. I still won’t use it, though. My main email accounts are GMail, NTugo Email, and GMail Domain Email.

So what’s new with Hotmail? Nothing, if you were beta-ing it for the last few years. It acts a little like Outlook Express, and I’ll leave it at that. Oh, and a quarter of your screen space is taken up by ads.

If you create a new Hotmail account, you’ll get the new version. Old users can click a button to switch to the new version.

Yahoo has been trying to conquer the web lately (again). After lying dormant for awhile, the great beast that is Yahoo has resumed it’s evil rampage. They’ve acquired Flickr, Del.icio.us, and seem to be planning to get into the OpenID business. With the launch of Yahoo Brand Universe, they began trying to take on the many fan sites on the web. They’re claims? They claim that there are too many small sites out there run by individuals. I prefer those sites to Yahoo by far. Take The Leaky Cauldron for example. It’s one of the two foremost Harry Potter websites. They have successfully become an authoritative source for Harry Potter news, and everything Harry Potter. I don’t want a Yahoo minisite for everything. It’s to late for them to do anything about Harry Potter though. Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet have large user bases.

Google too has been acquiring other sites, though mainly to make sure they stay around. YouTube is a prime example. Google bought them mainly because the YouTube guys had huge bandwidth bills piling up. YouTube is still going, and it’s run by the same people as it was before, though Google pays the bills. What Google did was they paid $3 billion for a say in what goes on at YouTube. Recently Google bought Doubleclick, a major ad network, for different reasons. Doubleclick was acquired so Microsoft wouldn’t get their hands on it. Plus, I think Google is trying to kill off the pop-up ad.

Microsoft is now wanting to acquire Yahoo for $50 billion. If it happens, it will have been the biggest website event (financially) in a long time. Possibly since Google went public. Why would they want to do that? FYI, Microsoft is just as bad at Yahoo about trying to take over the world. Here’s a quick formula for you: 95% of the world’s computers run Windows + Millions of combined Yahoo and MSN users + More acquisitions = Total cyber domination. This has probably been running through Bill Gates’ head for awhile now…

Well, I don’t want the Microsoft Empire to own the internet. If Microsoft does buy Yahoo, they will continue to buy up innovative new sites, adding them to the ever-growing Microsoft Empire. Hopefully they won’t merge.