Living The UnInstalled Life

UninstalledLife.com Logo

My Uninstalled Life is one of those sites I randomly came across while navigating the net. The blog is a chronicle of how to operate a PC without having any locally installed applications and instead, relying completely on web based apps or “CloudWare“.

One thing I’ve noticed during my 10 computeryears is that I have many tools, applications and files that I need daily. But there’s a catch, most of the stuff I use is installed on my desktop. So if I’m not infront of my computer – I’m out of luck. Not very effective right? Not to mention if the whole computer crashes.

My Uninstalled Life was started back in August of 2006. At that time, the Web 2.0 bandwagon was just beginning to pick up steam and within one year, were almost at the point of being able to live an UNINSTALLED Life. The best example I can think of right now which really illustrates this concept is the $199 Everex TC2502. The PC is currently being sold at WalMart and is running Linux GOS. A variant of the popular Ubuntu but with lots of optimization for Google products. The desktop is literally filled with links to online Google services such as Google Docs, Google Maps, and GMail. The machine does come installed with OpenOffice but you could always UNINSTALL it in favor of GDocs.

The author behind the Uninstalled Life blog does have his own thoughts in regards to what Web 2.0 is:

As I see it, it’s the second generation of the web. It should give you an experience close to what locally installed desktop applications would give you. I wouldn’t say we’re at 2.0 yet.. maybe 1.5? Before we’re at 2.0 the applications on the web should be…

* As fast
* As many features
* As easy accessiable (just doubleclick that icon…)
* Free! (I know this rules out a bunch of alternatives.. but I like free stuff)

As long as the “web 2.0″ applications or “webapplications” are not there, we’re not at 2.0, if you ask me.

Wouldn’t it be great to simply not need a desktop PC at your home? Just some small appliance with a webbrowser and an Internet Connection? That’s all I want!

I think it’s safe to say that if you really didn’t want a desktop PC at your home, you could purchase a high storage USB thumbdrive, throw on a copy of PORTABLE APPS, and now, all you need is a PC with a free USB port and a network card and you should be all set. The PORTABLE APPS could be those that you need which you wouldn’t want to be replaced by an online variant. Everything else could be accessed over the web. In essence, your desktop PC would now reside in a USB drive.

One has to question the practicality behind this method, but I find it fascinating that the PC could theoretically be contained within a USB thumbdrive.

To get back on topic, the My Uninstalled Life website has a series of blog posts which tell the story of how to replace local apps with web based applications and I recommend it to anyone who is trying to accomplish the same goal. Although I’m not sure if the blog author is actively pursuing his goal anymore since the last post on the blog is from July 30th of 07. Maybe he finally reached his goal:

My goal: Keep everything online – uninstall everything.

Do you think we are there yet? Can one actually replace their desktop and live an uninstalled life? Let me know how you would go about doing it by leaving a comment.

Blogs – A Lifestream Of Links

It wasn’t too long ago when my poll asking if blogging was dying concluded with an astounding NO. BookTwo.org recently published an article highlighting a change that is taking place within the blogosphere.

I’ve noticed a trend in longtime bloggers, which I’m certainly a part of. Blogging less, linking more, generally winding down the straight blog in favour of a more distributed presence via Twitter, Delicious, videoblog apps like Seesmic. Some of these may be fed through the blog, like Booktwo’s RSS links, but it’s all getting a bit bitty. “I think RSS is one of the main reasons for this (perceived) decline in blogging. We don’t visit each others’ sites, so it’s less obvious when the frequency declines. As more small social apps like Twitter, and larger ones like Facebook, increase their reach, we don’t need blogs as our home pages either.

“It’s good to have a place to put these things, thoughts, articles &c. But I think it’s time, and I think it’s happening, that the delivery mechanism was stripped down. RSS might be the answer: people are starting to have ‘lifefeeds’ more and more, which aggregate everything they’re doing.

Unfortunately, BookTwo is on to something. What’s also interesting to note, is that this article falls in line with Steve Spaldings take on where blogging is heading.

Microblogging will be the critical change in the way we write in Web 3.0. Imagine a world where your mobile phone, your email, and you television could all produce feedback that could easily be pushed to any or all blogging platforms. If you take a picture from your smart-phone, it would be automatically tagged, bagged and forwarded to your “lifestream”. If you rated a television show that you were watching, your review would be forwarded into the stream.

This is the type of seamless integration that will finally bring the concept of blogging to the masses. Posts will become shorter and more topical, the world of rehashing the meme will be replaced by one where life and news generation go hand in hand. Blogging won’t be a hobby reserved for internet enthusiasts, but a past time for the MySpace generation.

Of course, the allure of any individual blog would be much more limited. As the popularity of micro-blogging explodes, more and more basically “unreadable” blog will start to populate the blogosphere. It’s not hard to imagine a world where the vast majority of your posts amount to, “stuck in traffic, ugh…”

That last sentence in Steves take on blogging is the one that concerns me the most. The last thing I want the blogosphere to turn into is a series of links with little substance. I want to see bloggers continue to write their opinions, reporting on things in their own way, and continue to be the driving force behind new media. I want to continue to see quality content written by someone other than big media properties. Continue to blog and if you need to share links, create a link blog as I illustrated how to do in a previous article.

I don’t want to see everyone’s blog turn into a lifestream of links. Do you?

Windows Home Server Now Available

Windows Home Server Logo

Just an FYI for those interested. Windows Home Server is now available to the public for purchase. Windows Home Server software, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, Best Buy.com, Buy.com, Circuit City.com and CompUSA.com. According to Microsoft, Windows Home Server will be shipped to customers and available via other leading retailer Web sites later in November. Additional Microsoft hardware and software partners are also delivering new consumer products and solutions designed to work with Windows Home Server.

“Digital devices and content are everywhere in our day-to-day lives and they are more important all the time,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “With the launch of Windows Home Server, Microsoft and its partners are creating a new consumer product category that will help people keep their digital media safe and make it easier for them to enjoy it with friends and family.”

HP is currently selling a Windows Home server solution in the HP MediaSmart Server, powered by AMD LIVE! The server is offered in 500GB version for $599(U.S) and a 1TB model for $749(U.S.) For those that don’t like HP, here are a list of alternatives coming out later this year and next.

Available in Europe in late 2007, the Fujitsu Siemens Computers SCALEO Home Server 1900 offers 1TB capacity across two hard drives, Gigabit Ethernet and advanced power management features.

Iomega Corp. today unveiled new details about its home server product due in early 2008, the Iomega HomeCenter Server, which will ship with one 500GB hard drive and four “easy-swap” drive bays for storage expansion.

• Available in early 2008, the Life|ware Life|storage will offer enterprise-class capabilities to consumers, including Life|ware Entertainment and Automation Server software for home management.

• The MAXDATA Belinea o.center, which will also be available in Europe soon, is energy-efficient, offers advanced management and media functions, and allows up to four hot plug SATA hard drives.

• Also available in Europe later this year, the Medion Home Server comes with up to 2 TB of storage capacity and will offer universal plug-and-play media streaming based on PacketVideo PVConnect software.

• Available now, the Tranquil PC T7-HSA Tranquil Harmony Home Server is a small, quiet and energy-efficient solution with 500GB and 1TB options.

• On sale today, the Velocity Micro NetMagix HomeServer is a small, sleek unit that can be situated in a horizontal or vertical position, starting with 1 TB of expandable storage capacity.

Third-party software developers have created more than 35 innovative add-in programs to run on the Windows Home Server platform. These solutions provide personal blogging and media sharing, home security, home automation, protection against viruses and malware, and more. Several software vendors today announced support for Windows Home Server:

• Avira GmbH in Germany today announced that its malware detection and removal technology will support Windows Home Server.

• Diskeeper Corporation today released a special edition of its Diskeeper 2008 defragmentation software for Windows Home Server.

• Embedded Automation Inc. released the mControl add-in for Windows Home Server, providing home automation functionality.

• Proxure Inc. announced the release of KeepVault for Windows Home Server, providing automatic, online backup and storage of data.

• SageTV LLC released SageTV Media Server for Windows Home Server, enabling media streaming from Windows Home Server to any PC or Macintosh, at home or over the Internet.

• SightSpeed Inc. announced SightSpeed 6.0 video chat service compatibility with Windows Home Server.

• Telligent Systems Graffiti CMS is compatible with Windows Home Server, enabling users to quickly create personal Web sites and blogs.

• WiLife Inc. announced the release of Command Center Software version 2.1 home security software for Windows Home Server.

I’m really considering picking up a copy of Windows Home Server. My family runs at least 3 Windows based machines so it would only make sense. Will you be picking up a copy of WHS or will you purchase a machine with it already pre-installed?

FeedBurner In Glitching Mode Today

https://i0.wp.com/jeffc.me/images/feedburnerlogo.pngLook like I wasn’t the only one to notice a sharp decline in my RSS subscriber count. Earlier this morning, my subscriber count fell from 115 to 69. According to Darren Rowse, the problem seems to center around the Google Feedfetcher stats not displaying today. These types of errors with Feedburner happen on occasion and to those of you who are freaking out, calm down. The numbers usually return to normal after 24hrs.

5400 FPS Camera Video

I thought this was pretty cool. Watch a kernel of popcorn explode into a puffy piece of popcorn via a high speed color camera (5,400 fps)

This color high speed video(zoomed in from original 1K x 1K resolution sequence) shows a close up of popcorn popping on a hot plate. Recorded by the Schmitz family using the Photron SA1 slow motion video camera.

So that’s what happens to a kernel of popcorn! What did you think of the video?

JayK Releases 20 Beautiful Badge Graphics

Jay K of Flying-people.com has released a free 20 icon set which contains an array of beautiful gradients. The badges look great for use of promotional material or to slap onto a site lacking in color. I’ve seen quite a few icon packs but I have yet to see a pack which contains gradients like these. Give these badges a try if your looking for something colorful to add to your site.

Click Me To Download The Pack

Click here to download the badge pack.

FireFox 2.0.0.9 Released

FireFoxLogoI feel like I’m the last to know about these software releases. Maybe I should look into my feed reader a little more often. At any rate, FireFox has released version 2.0.0.9 of it’s popular browser software. This version is in response to the unusual amount of large regressions that occurred in the previous version.

This latest release fixes these particular issues:

  • Bug 400406 – Firefox will ignore the “clear” CSS property when used beneath a box that is using the “float” property. There is a temporary workaround JS/CSS code available for web developers with affected layouts.
  • Bug 400467 – Windows Vista users will get “Java not found” or “Java not working” errors when trying to load Java applets after updating. To fix this, users can right-click the Firefox icon and “Run as administrator”, then browse to a page with a Java applet — doing this once will fix the problem and permanently restore Java functionality.
  • Bug 396695 – Add-ons are disabled after updating. Users can fix this problem by opening their profile folder and removing three files (extensions.rdf, extensions.ini and extensions.cache)
  • Bug 400421 – Removing a single area element from an image map will cause the entire map to disappear. There is no workaround available at this time.
  • Bug 400735 – Some Windows users may experience crashes at startup. There is no workaround available at this time.

I’m still running on FireFox 2.0.0.7 and have yet to receive an automatic update notification. I’ll continue to wait and see if 2.0.0.9 actually fixes more than it breaks. Let me know how your upgrade experience goes please!

WordPress Themeing Cheat Sheet

WP Theme Cheat Sheet

WpCandy has released an awesome PDF which contains helpful information related to developing themes for WordPress. The cheat sheet includes the following:

  • Basic Template Files
  • PHP Snippets for the Header
  • PHP Snippets for the Templates
  • And Extra Stuff for WordPress

The resource has been translated into Spanish and Romanian in case English is not your native language. At any rate, click here to view the PDF within your browser. Alternatively, you can right-click and save the file to your desktop.

Considering Matt Mullenweg and company are considering a WP-Theme Marketplace where unique theme designers can be paid for their designs, it might be a good time to pump up that WP theme knowledge.

Smashing Magazine On RSS

Smashing Magazine Logo

Smashing Magazine has put together an interesting article that describes what RSS is and why it’s a good idea to have an RSS icon on your site. It’s interesting to note that not long ago, RSS icons were merely graphics with XML on them, which was wrong. XML is the markup language, not the syndication itself. SM also goes into detail regarding the different RSS icons that exist and the different ways to tell your visitors that you have an RSS subscription feed without always having to use the STANDARD icon.  You can check out the article here.

By the way, I thought it was hilarious to see a page that contains the world’s LARGEST RSS icon on the planet. I am REALLY tempted to place it on this page to see what sort of reactions I get!

This article makes me think that perhaps my RSS button is not clearly defined enough. What do you think?