Its sort of rare when a piece of technology acts almost exactly as advertised. As someone who had been in the Windows world for about 15 years I think I’m mighty skeptical. I remember lining up for Windows ‘95 and then realizing that while better than Windows 3.1, better is a term of art rather than a hard and fast law. When I switched to being mostly Mac-based in the last couple years, I’ve seen tech work closer to how its been touted, ditto for the iPhone and iPod.

But this is Microsoft here, and while the XBox is – in my opinion – the best next generation system out there, it hasn’t been flawless (I have had two red rings of death). And I really wish I could play Blu-Ray on it somehow. But the recent rollout of the new dashboard (and I could do without the cutesy Mii-knockoffs) has been pretty slick and the streaming both from my desktop and via the Netflix service has been awesome. It’s actually easier to navigate than the Comcast On-Demand system in my horribly noisy cable box. The only big drawback I see is that I have to go to my computer and log in to Netflix to add video to the queue. I don’t see why they couldn’t build a way to flip through Netflix via the XBox.

But it’s still a pretty sweet feature. It’s no Gears Of War 2, but then…

I want a jetpack.

I was always interested by the Mac but I didn’t use one or entertain the idea of one for a day to day machine. Now, there’s really no way I would go back. I’ve used Vista and see nothing special about it, it feels mostly like Windows XP wrapped up in glossier clothes. From what I’ve read about it it’s essentially a flop who’s only saving grace is that its installed on every new PC by default.

The Mac, out of the box, does everything I want to. Apps like AbiWord do word processing for free, and the built in iMovie is all I need for quick web video – if I needed to do more I’d spring for Final Cut (which is what we use at Media Matters, which is all Mac in the web production dept. nowadays).

So it’s kind of amazing that the big thing Microsoft showed off about Windows 7 was freaking multitouch. Seriously. I like multitouch on my iPhone, and the application they have that uses it at the Newseum is neat, but it ain’t exactly what I would want to see if I were a Microsoft shareholder or someone who wants to see the company do better. This is Microsoft getting into the sluggish phase of a mature company. They have these tools and applications (like IE) that sort of work, and sort of is good enough for them. In a strange way I’ve always kind of rooted for Microsoft (I was against the antitrust action). I liked when they would get something wrong then Bill Gates would rock like a madman in his chair and get stuff done – like when IE became a legit alternative to Netscape Navigator. They are never going to be Apple and Apple is never going to be Microsoft, but with Apple’s products you get the sense that they are trying. They don’t always knock it out of the park, but when they do the user gets something for the investment.

Right now the only thing Microsoft makes that’s kind of interesting is XBox 360 and besides the giant glaring error that is the red ring of death (I’ve had to send mine back twice), its a good machine with great software, and that’s because Microsoft knows that Sony and Nintendo are nipping at them. In the article linked, Ballmer essentially sees no need to compete because Apple is so much smaller than them. But that’s not the point. Microsoft shouldn’t accept suck.

Yes, folks, Sony bought a two page spread in MacLife magazine advertising the Sony Vaio Laptop. In big letters it says “Sony recommends Windows Home Vista Premium”. Is there any way they could waste their money any more than burning it?

This isn’t said as an Apple fanboy but at someone practically interested in advertising and marketing. You don’t advertise the Dallas Cowboys Fan Club in the pages of Washington Redskins Monthly, do you? How many people who have already made the commitment to read MacLife magazine are going to see this ad and say “You know, I’m clearly an Apple fan, and I have this spiffy Macbook laptop but I’m going to junk it and buy this overpriced Sony laptop with the widely panned Windows Vista on it”? None!

Also, even in the world of PCs, does anyone actually fall for Sony’s marketing spin on their machines? I’ve looked at them lots of times (there’s a Sony Store in the Pentagon City mall) but for the life of me I can’t figure why you would pay Sony so much more for a laptop when right across the street there’s a Best Buy with machines that are just as good for less.

So anyone think it’s a worthy upgrade?

(I’m planning in the next 6-8 months to replace my HP desktop with one of the new tricked-out iMacs, though if anyone wants to gimme a Mac Pro with a gigantic cinema display for free I’m down with that as well)

Fake emails claiming to offer nude photographs of Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Milla Jovovich and pixelated videogame babe Lara Croft are behind 80 per cent of computer viruses last month, according to experts.

For, though claiming to contain shocking pictures of female celebrities, the emails, once opened, install a malicious rootkit.

“These emails are masquerading as pornographic content, tempting the unwary into opening a file on their Windows computer which will install a rootkit and download further malicious code from the internet,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

Jolie, Kidman, etc. I kinda get – but are people really so desperate for cheesecake shots of the not real Lara Croft? Sheesh.

The problem is that Blodget, like all analysts, build authoritative sounding but essentially bullshit predictive models to back up whatever prediction they’ve just pulled out of their ass.

Which leads me to wonder if Arrington has ever read his own site, Techcrunch, in which every day some Web 2.0 app is going to be the nail in the coffin of Microsoft, Adobe, or some other tech giant. I don’t dispute the very real, very true value of a lot of the stuff coming out nowadays, but the fact of the matter is a lot of it is unmitigated crap that smells like Web 1.0 and is being cheerleaded by sites like Techcrunch just like The Industry Standard, Business 2.0 and Wired did back in the old days of 10 years ago.

AT&T has brought down new Terms of Service for its network customers. From now on, AT&T can terminate your connection for conduct that “tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.”

For video codecs it’s simple
open terminal and type
sudo apt-get install vlc

Excuse me? WTF? How do you expect the average user to do something like that? I’ve used PCs for almost 20 years now (I remember when DOS was all we had, when you had to change switches manually to install a hard drive, and when soundcards were an exotic accessory you had to install and hack your win.ini file to get working) and that makes no logical sense. Especially after having switched my main machine from XP to a Macbook in the last six months, it makes even less sense. Make it easy, please. It’s 2007 and computers shouldn’t be that hard anymore.

I understand a lot of the kids playing these games, while ignorant of basic math and science, are great at these games. In contrast to them I am an old man whose first game system was Intellivision. I remember when the original NES represented a great leap forward in technology. But I still like playing games, and I’d like to be able to win at them.

A few years ago I bought James Bond: Everything Or Nothing. The odds of me beating that game with the default settings were a million to one. But, it had an easy setting and though I struggled mightily even with that, I actually won a video game that wasn’t Madden for the first time in years. I enjoyed the heck out of the experience, and not just because they had a 3D Shannon Elizabeth.

So, in closing, make the damn games easier for us idiots.

Love,
Oliver
Gamertag: owillis1977

I’m excited to announce the next three experts for the TechCrunch20 Conference in San Francisco this September. Caterina Fake, MC Hammer and Rajeev Motwani join the previously announced experts.

M.C. Hammer. LOL. I worked at a early-00s dotcom whose claim to fame was that we had Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi on our board of directors (the press release survives, at least). This can only end badly.

The low-end version of the Playstation 3 is going to cost $500. Um, exactly how much money are kids getting for allowance nowadays? I should call up my mom and get back on that program. (BTW: Am I the only nerd who realizes the logo type of the Playstation 3 is the same as what Sony uses for the Spider-Man movie?)

I currently have an XBox. At best I may purchase an XBox 360. The only thing I really play is Madden, though I bought Call of Duty 1 the other day but it is way too much pressure. I’m used to games where you just shoot everything (Quake), not games where THE LIVES OF YOUR BRAVE FELLOW SOLDIERS DEPENDS ON YOU. It’s honestly too much pressure because the games are too realistic now.