by Michael Penney

So by now, everyone who follows technology has at least heard of Google Wave. And if you haven’t, you need to crawl out from under that rock and take a peek at what is going on, because this is big.

Google Wave, in simplest terms, is supposed to be the second iteration of email. It’s a next-generation communications technology that takes all the best things about all the different ways we communicate, and puts them into one tool. It works under the assumption that you don’t need to go to different places or services to send email, use IM, collaborate on documents, or share files or photos. It also changes how we think of email as an object.

Email was invented 40 years ago. It mimics snail mail, in that you write your message, and you send it off where it needs to go. Your recipient can then take that message and reply to it, forward it, or whatever. And this works. It’s worked for a long time. But in today’s world, we often have to communicate on a larger spectrum. Maybe you need to CC your boss on the email, or keep someone else up to date on what’s been said. And if you’re not careful about replying properly, different forks of the messages can be created, and people end up on different pages, and it becomes a mess (which is described really well in the video below).

Google Wave starts out with the concept of a shared conversation. You create a wave, and then you add people to it. A wave is one shared document that everyone has access to. There’s only one copy, so everyone stays up to date. And if you add more people later on, they can play back the whole wave from the very first message, to see how the conversation evolved, and then add their own insight.

I am very excited about getting an opportunity to use Google Wave, and I hope you are too. If you haven’t yet, I strongly recommend checking out the developer preview video. It’s 80 minutes long, so set aside some time to get through it. If you just can’t sit still that long, or would like just a quick overview of what Wave is, and how it’s different from email, check out the two-minute video below.

By far, the most important part of Google Wave, is that it is an open-sourced protocol. Google won’t be the only ones giving people wave accounts, once this picks up. Just like email is today, you will have a choice in your provider, and everyone will be able to communicate together.

Here’s to a bright future of communication!

by Michael Penney

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to make a quick post to let people know, that just because the regular audio podcast version of the Smackdown has come to an end, it’s not the absolute end of the PC/Mac Smackdown. As Cal has said a few times already, this blog will remain up and running for the regulars to post and for all of you to comment on.

I’m also having discussions with Cal about just where we can go from here. I’m playing with the idea of creating a YouTube channel. We could also set up a Smackdown Forum?

Why don’t you tell us what you think? What do you think we should do? What would you like to see? Do you have any brilliant ideas? Leave them in the comment section below.

The podcast may be finished, but the Smackdown lives on!

I don’t usually gripe about much, but one thing that always gets me steamed up is when people give out bad tech advice to people who know even less and don’t know any better.  What’s worse is when it comes from people that are working in a store that sells hardware or software for computers!  I can excuse the people that work at places like Wal-Mart as I don’t know for sure if they really get trained for the area and are all over different parts of the store.  I have had this happen a few times when I have been in the Wal-Marts in the past, and happen to catch these errors, and the sales personal pretty much walked away at that point because I guess they knew that they were already out classed by my tech knowledge and had other customers to attend to.  What really burns me though, is when I go in to the Best Buy stores and this happens. As this past weekend the day after Snow Leopard had arrived, and I was killing some time with my daughters waiting for the local Mac store to open.  As I was meandering up and down the isles looking for a N.A.S. (Networked Attached Storage) router, and as I happened to overhear a sales associate telling some poor unsuspecting customer some really bad information about how to switch out cable modem.  He started out by saying that she could just hook it up and go; when she asked if she had to inform the cable company of the switch he said, “No, there isn’t any need.” At that point I was screaming in my head and as I cannot stand people getting bad information, I had to interject, at that point the sales personal started to actually disagree with me!  However, as I had already gone through this with a former neighbor I had many years ago, I already had my arguments all in order and at that point the sales associate tried to show me away by asking me what I was looking for and directed me to an area where he knew the item I was looking for wasn’t there, or maybe again, he was wrong about that as when I went to look again after being down that area, I thought I might had missed it.  However, it wasn’t there so I headed back to the area where I would have guessed it should have been, but they apparently stopped selling them at this time.  I happened to run in to the woman again with out the sales associate around and apologized for butting in on her conversation and explained that I really don’t like how people go out with bad information.  She smiled and then said, “That’s ok, I’m done with him anyway.”   Not sure this is really a PC or Mac issue here, but she was carrying a Mac Airport Express at the time, so I guess I wanted to be sure she was going to get the real help she needed and not blame her computer at home, which I guessed, was a Mac LOL.

Anyway, if you are or working in a store that sells technology, please at least KNOW what your talking about and if you don’t, please get someone that does or work in another part of the store. Like the TV’s or stereos!

Ok, I usually post tips, but this time I thought I would post something fun I just came across. If you have or are using Vista, this song is for you!

The song “Vista Drivers”

Verse 1

Got my parts, got what I need
Just gotta put it together
Active cooler and some new thermal grease
So my new CPU will not fry

Verse 2
So many times, I’ve clocked it too fast
Hot swapped my BIOS for glory
But not again — I’m learned so much since then
I just hope that I don’t cause a fire

Chorus A
When I find all the drivers that’s when I’ll know it’s right
I’ve got all the components I desire
I’ve got new SATA cables and some cold cathode lights
But I don’t know if I have the right
Vista drivers

Verse 3
Motherboard mounts in the case
I put in two brand new hard drives
Don’t have to wait, ’cause they’re both solid state
Add two more, now that’s four, in RAID 5

Chorus B
But I still need the drivers or those hard disks won’t write
Without them, this whole project’s looking dire
I’ve installed several RAM sticks and the optical drive
But they won’t do me much good without
Vista drivers

Verse 4
Final piece falls into a place
Lean and mean, power hungry
DLLs have been giving me hell
With a flick of the switch it’s alive

Chorus C
It came down to the drivers, though they put up a fight
I can see my performance soaring higher
Now with my best screwdriver I’ll make everything tight
And I finally found all the right
Vista drivers

Those damned Vista drivers
Nvidia drivers
Creative sound drivers
I hate Vista drivers
They’re still Longhorn drivers

So you finally, decided that it’s time to go out and buy a new computer, but what to buy? The old argument of “I’ve had a PC running XP for so long and from what I’m told they don’t have anything available that I can do on it.” Well I’m here to tell you that many of the programs that you have on the PC can and are available on the Mac.

The argument “No writing programs”

This is a big misconception on the Mac. The Mac has built in a word processor called TextEdit, while this program is good for writing down notes, typical text files, and you can even use it for HTML editing (if your good at hands on HTML editing) .

The argument “When I send these files to some one they can’t read them!”
This is also not true. There are many ways with this FREE text editor that you can save your files so that your friends, relatives, and colleagues. The formats that this simple little FREE (Did I mention FREE?) word processor can save to:

Rich text format (RTF)
RTF with attachments (RTFD)
HTML
Web Archive
OpenDocument Text (odt)
Word 2007 format (docx)
Word 97 Format (doc)
Word 2003 XML Format

This includes tabs, text formatting and yes even your pictures in the documents!

If you are dead set on giving Micro$oft more of your hard earned cash, you can always get Microsoft Word for Mac.
It has most everything that the MS Word on the PC side that you can think of.  There are so many there I would be writing a book if I were to get them, all down here.

The argument “What about chatting? My friends are on XYZ! I want to talk to them!”

Yes Virginia, you can also talk to all your friends and even do it all from one Application!

On the Mac, another FREE (There’s that word again!) application, called Adium. You can find this at http://adiumx.com. With this you can talk to your friends on several networks that are the more common and even some that are unusual!

This one program covers the following: AOL, Jabber, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Bonjour, Facebook, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, IRC (Interenet Relay Chat) Laconica, LiveJournal, Lotus Sametime, MobileMe, MySpaceIM, Novell GroupWise, QQ, SIP / SIMPLE, Twitter, Yahoo! Japan.
Now some of these you wont even have any idea what they are and some you will. This list is from the beta one that is out that only works under Mac OS 5.0 and higher., however the current version does handle about 99% of the ones listed above.

The argument “I don’t know what anti-virus programs to get for it!”

Well let me set your mind at ease here. Quite simply.. You don’t need any! However, if you really feel you want to get an anti-virus for your Mac, there are a few suggestions that I can make.

The following are free:

iAntivirus This works with Mac OS X 5.0 and up http://www.iantivirus.com
ClamXav This works with older Macs http:// www.clamxav.com
This one also finds most windows viruses so you don’t pass them on to your PC buddies!

The argument “There aren’t any programs for the Mac!”
If I were to name every site and every program that was available for the Mac, You would be reading this list like it was the book “War and Peace”.

A great place to get you started to finding free and other programs is the site http://versiontracker.com

This is a great place for a new user to start browsing for applications. They cover PC stuff as well!

The argument “The Mac costs to much!”

This has been an argument since the days of Mac & Windows became rivals. There is an old saying and I don’t know anyone that won’t agree with this “You get what you pay for.”   PC makers are using cheaper and cheaper parts for their computers, we all know this but are afraid to really admit it. When the cost of parts goes down, the cost also goes down, but that means there is little or no customer support for that computer.  Many PC makers have gone this route, and if you don’t believe me, call your customer service department and just try to get someone that can really help you without pulling out your hair!  Also with the Mac there are a lot of programs that come already with the OS that are free (Free? AGAIN?) and not the demo stuff that works for a week or less then quits working, but full working versions of great software, making movies, basic photo editing and as I mentioned before the word processor. I have only touched on just a few of the applications that come with the OS. There are oh so many more!

Argument “I won’t know how to use a Mac! Aren’t they like all weird and stuff?”

Using a Mac is not any harder than using the Windows environment you’re already used to. There are a few little differences in the GUI (Graphical User Interface) but they are minor and if you know how to switch a computer on, you can handle using a Mac.

A few subtle differences are you will notice that instead of closing your windows on the right side, you close windows on the left side. Here you have a ”Dock” vs. a “Start bar”.  Also instead of clicking on your start bar your applications that you want to use many times can be put in the dock or removed easily by dragging them to it.  Go up to the top of the screen to control stuff vs. going to the bottom.

I could go on, but if you really want to get a feel for the differences between the PC you have now and a Mac you could have or are considering getting, you can visit your local Apple store or neighborhood Mac fan boy. I’m sure they will be glad to show you their Mac!

Join us live for the latest show!

8:30 Central Time

Apple has publicly answered the FCC!? What??

Weigh In:
Pounds this week = –2.2
Pounds total = -17.4

This is the penultimate weigh-in and the scale is looking pretty good. My average, weekly weight loss has dropped below three pounds, but I had a fairly unproductive week last week.

My left knee is a little sore after riding home today, but I think it’s temporary. I never did lift any weights and I won’t this weekend either as I am going to be out of town.

I’ll see you again next week on the 26th for the final weigh-in. Go get ‘em, Cal!

I’ve been listening to my normal bout of podcasts and such lately and it seems that many are being very critical of Apple recently.  The purpose of this blog is to discuss this perception that is created, in large by the media, and whether it is accurate or not.

First, it should be known that recent practices that have come to light to the public at large are not a recent change for Apple.  We’ll discuss this more in a bit.

Apple has made several business decisions over the years that have brought them great wealth and great losses.  What we are talking about is the company’s decisions on how to approach computers and consumer electronics.  The products may be niche products, but they represent Apple’s attempt to enter certain markets that they feel they can compete.  Apple invested millions in the products they produce and they aggressively promote and defend those products in the market.  Many successful products go through the same basic process to gain market share.

The exact process of how Apple goes through the development process is a tightly held company secret.  One things that appears to be generally agreed upon is that the products developed are created first through design and then through engineering.  This mean the company is highly focused on the user experience from cradle to grave.  For those who have purchased Apple products, you’ll know that every detail is considered right  from the moment you open the box.  The consider the materials, the finish, the fit, the presence and location of every screw.  Often this leads to the use of materials that may be more expensive or manufacturing processes that cost more to setup and run.

So, h0w does this matter when we are talking about the current market environment as it relates to Apple?  Simple.  They are continuing to run their business as they always have, and it currently is working out well for them.  The company is both profitable and successful.

So, why doesn’t Apple let you upgrade their computers (except the Mac Pro which is upgradeable)?  One could argue that the vast majority of customers have neither the knowledge nor the desire to do so.  They want to plug in the device and have it just work — like a light switch.  Once you add the ability to change the hardware to random bits and bobs, the ability for the system to be stable drops considerably and support costs go up dramatically.

So, why doesn’t Apple let you put OS X on any machine?  I’m not sure the reasoning is any different than the above.  Companies spend big money supporting the configurations involved, whether it is internal IT or someone calling Microsoft for help with a problem.  You could also ask the question;  Why can’t I put my TomTom software on my Garmin?  Why would you want to?

So, why doesn’t Apple allow you to run multiple apps at the same time on the iPhone?  User experience.  On other platforms that do permit this, battery life is usually unacceptable.  Background apps are always consuming resources whether you know they are or not.  As an iPhone user, I’m not sure how much I’d use it for practical purposes, and I haven’t had a situation where I needed it.

So, why doesn’t Apple just allow any application into the iTunes App Store?  A poor application can have several negative impacts to the phone.  For example, crashing my be perceived as an iPhone issue which raises support costs.  Malicious apps could attempt to steal personal information.  Apple may also be restricted by AT&T for the types of applications that they will permit on their network (since many will indicate it’s not great to start with).

Apple decided that all of the other features on the iPhone aside, it still needs to be a phone.  Like their other products it has just work.  I know that of all the phones I’ve owned, nothing allowed me to really take advantage of some of the basics like the iPhone did.  SMS on traditional phones is a painful process unless you were born after 1990.  For the rest of us, it’s pure torture.

If you do not want to deal with the decisions that Apple has made, then you have choices.  Buy an Android phone, or buy any of the cacophony of computers available and run Linux or Windows, or what have you.  You have choices.  You wouldn’t go into Burger King and demand they make you a Big Mac, would you?

Does this mean Apple is right?  No.  Does this mean those that don’t agree don’t have a right to say so?  No.  Apple sells millions of devices a year, and there is always going to be some complaints.  However, the market seems to be responding with their wallets and indicating the methods Apple is using to approach their devices suits their needs.

It’s also important to say that Apple is making other manufacturers try harder to make products their customers want.  Windows copies from OS X time after time.  The cellphone industry has gone through a revolution by the appearance of the iPhone.  Even if you hate everything about Apple, you have to keep in mind that the alternatives you choose have been influenced by the existence of Apple challenging the status quo.

Apple provided me an alternative to the distractions and frustrations presented by the other devices I worked with over the  years.  I don’t feel as though I made a compromise, and I’m much happier with the solutions I have today with the Apple logo.

footnote:  I am not an employee of Apple, nor do I own any stock or represent them in any way.  I’m just a person that buys products and has an opinion.

I JUST recently found an older ORIGINAL iMac at our local pawn shop and proceeded to set it up for my kids so they wouldn’t have to fight over the one computer I had available to them here in the house for them to use.   Well when I booted it up for the first time, I discovered that the original owners of the iMac left quite a few surprises for me to discover.  So I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to set aside some time to point out some common mistakes people often do when selling their older hardware.

A lot of these tips can be used for either platform, Mac or PC. Some will be focused mainly at the Mac side.

Remove your passwords!

No one likes to boot up a used computer that has been locked down with a password. When selling your used machine, go in to your system preferences in your user accounts and clear out the passwords if any. This way when the next person to buys your old equipment they most likely wont know how to get by this unless they have a geek in the family or a few extra bucks to pay someone to fix this.

In the Mac you will also want to clear out your passwords from your key chains.  You will find this in your Utilities folder. The application your looking for is called “Keychain Access”. Why do this? You may ask?.  Well as the computer passwords can be reset and anyone with some good knowledge of what they are doing can dig up the passwords for all the sites you visit.  This would include your email locally and out on the internet at your favorite web sites, along with any chat programs you regularly use as well.

While your email while interesting to you could be even more interesting to the person getting your old machine! If that sounds like I’m trying to make you worry about that, well frankly in a way, I am!  So much of our personal lives are in our email and our address books. If you leave anything in there (Like the stuff I found) I did find somewhat interesting. All your email can be seen. Spam, letters to mom, dad, friends and relatives alike can be very telling about who you are and what kind of person you are as well. Naughty, nice or who knows, the alien planning world domination MWHAHAHA!  All joking aside your email is not and should not be for everyone’s eyes, but yours!

Remove personal photos!

The baby that you left on the desktop picture is real cute and you want to share them with the world right? WRONG! In today age, you need to protect your kids from the eyes of someone that you don’t know who currently has your child or grand child’s pictures! These are also found in the (yes again) email you forgot to clear out as well!

Clear out your browser!

Don’t forget to clear out your bookmarks that you have left behind. If you have done this already your ahead of the game. However did you remember to clean them out from the menu bar with your favorites?  How about the history the browser just went through just before you packed it up and took it to the pawnshop, sold it at your garage sale, or even put it on sale at eBay!  Who knows who will be buying the computer next and if you haven’t done this then the racy material that you left behind could be found by someone that you know wouldn’t want seeing it. If you have kids, would you let them see this stuff?  I should hope not!

Clean out the addresses!

If you actually used your address book on the Mac, would you want the next person to know where you live currently or lived at?  How about all your friends? Would they mind becoming the target for a scam because you didn’t remove them? So your thinking what’s the big deal??.. So what if I leave their addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, personal notes about them whether they come their hair on their head or on the foam head they keep on the dresser? Well this is an age of information and you have given away the keys to the kingdom with this information and knowing that Bob works at ABC safe company or BRG Bank and loan could be doing them a great disservice to them.  Just think some one could call up one of your friends and say “Hey I’m a friends of Bob and he said to contact you about a loan or a great idea he thought you would be willing to go in on!” This is called a SCAM if you haven’t guessed it by now.

iTunes or other music

Please clear this stuff out, these are tracks you paid for and if you haven’t backed them they will be lost for good! Plus I don’t want to hear a song about someone doing  ******** to your ******* or whatever spew comes out of what is passed for as music today. And as I was prepping this computer for my kids, I don’t want them to be exposed to that as well!

Clean out your calendars!

On the Mac there is the iCal calendar which if you leave that stuff behind where your eat at regularly or who you have been dating (even if your hubby or wife don’t know about it) the next person that goes through it they sure will!

While these are time-consuming things to do to your computer you can always take the easy way out and make sure that the next person who get that computer and they wont have any issues with what you have left behind. That is to simply put n your install disk and erase and install a fresh OS then once its ready for the first run the next person can go to it like it was a brand new computer and history of your being there will be no more. Well mostly… But that’s a topic for another day

So unless you want everyone one to know who you are, what you have been doing, where you have been, and what you have been up to be sure to clean out your crud first before you sell or give it away.. While you’re doing that, I will be doing some mining on that not cleaned out computer now…. Hmm Interesting…

You have finally made the transition from Windows to the Mac, but you are missing the power of knowing where and what your CPU is doing.

Please make note that if you are not familiar with the processes of what’s going on with the computer, then this tip isn’t for you. However with that said, if you do tinker with this and things stop working just right, this can be easily remedied by a reboot.  The processes in here will restart and be good again once you have done that.  The item in this case is not called the task manager; in this instance instead of starting it with a key command you have to go to the Applications folder -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor

Once you have started this you will see all the processes your computer is currently doing.

You will see the following the following picture:

If you look through this list and depending on how your colors are setup, most of the tasks that your computer are working on and having no issues will be in a standard black text. However, if a process has stopped working or has hung itself some how, it should be in a red color. When you see this happen, and under the user name shows your user name that you signed in with then you can quit this process without the computer putting up much of a fuss or little fanfare. If you click the drop down box that by default should show “My Processes” you won’t see any thing else going on with the computer.  Click this and you will see a selection and select “All Processes” you will now see even more of what’s’ going on, including what the system is doing behind the curtain. You will see another process going on called “root”.  These are the main system processes that are stuff that you don’t usually think about as they run on their own.  You can click on these and force them to quit should they decide to hang on you. With one exception, if you try to force these to quit the system will prompt you for the Admin user name and password. This is normal.

One of the other things you will see is a small bar green and white boxed bar appear on your screen as seen in this picture below.

The is called the floating CPU Window and is like the one you would see in the task manager except with this one you can move it anywhere on the screen you want it and will remain there until you move it again or change its look to be in a vertically, horizontally, or not at all.

With this application, you can take back to processes and keep an eye on your Mac like your PC and see everything that is going on and tell it what to do like you could with Windows.