Up Next —> Apple awarded patent for “cough into sleeve”process that protects the general public from coughs and sneezes.

This Just In —> Apple claims that common flu infections are down this year due to their new “cough into sleeve” process. Kleenex and other facial tissue companies are worried that Apple may soon F&*K them up the a$$.

Breaking News —> Apple sues App Store developer for creating an App that demonstrates their patented “cough into sleeve” gesture. Apple claims the developer did not obtain permission before showing “cough into sleeve” process using video in his iPhone application. Defendant claims that he was only trying to help all mankind stop the spread of bullshit patents.

Inspired by Mashable’s Video Post

How many of us have a DVD or CD with installation software on it? CDs and DVDs are not as common as they once were. In my opinion, they are becoming obsolete.

However, there are times when we need to install CD/DVD software on our netbooks and our laptops with no optical drives.

Solution = Copy the CD/DVD to a USB

This is not that difficult to do and performing an installation from a USB is extremely quick and convenient.

Instructions

1. Run CMD.EXE as the admin (i.e. Click start, type cmd, right click, run as admin)
2. list disk (i.e. Identify what which disk your USB is)
3. diskpart
4. select disk # (E.g. If your USB is disk 2, then: select disk 2)
5. clean
6. create partition primary
7. select partition 1
8. active
9. format fs=NTFS (or fat32 depending on your needs)
10. assign
11. exit

If you are creating a non-bootable CD/DVD then:

Copy CD/DVD ROM content to the USB. This assumes your CD/DVD drive is d:\ and your USB drive is f:\

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f f:\

You now have created an installation USB

If you are creating a bootable CD/DVD then:

1. Copy all files from the CD/DVD into a folder on your computer.
2. Open the CMD.exe program as admin
3. Navigate to the folder you created with the CD/DVD contents
4. CD Boot (i.e. enter the boot directory within that folder)
5. Bootsect.exe /nt60 F: (Where F: is the letter that windows assigned your USB key in step 10.
6. Bootsect infuses boot manager compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable device.

Drag and drop all the files in the folder that you created to the USB using Windows explorer.

You now have bootable USB

Thank you to Norman Chan at Maximum PC for the original blog post and howto.

P.S. I am not responsible for screwing up your USB. This tutorial comes with no warranty but it works just fine.

My feelings about the ZDNet Article

Google’s bet

It’s about putting the CPU power back in the server room rather than on the Desktop/Laptop. Also, Android tablets and Chromebooks are two different markets.

Chromebook – Input/Output
Android Tablet – Output (Consumption device)
One device cannot service all markets. The PC era is coming to an end.

In my honest opinion bandwidth and connection speeds are the bottleneck. I believe that the computing industry will go back to dumb terminals – but they will not be dumb, they will be limitless because the end users can now share and access the power on the central CPU. The original terminals were made to be dumb purposefully.

For all those who disagree, I will eat me words when it doesn’t happen.

Back to Chromebooks and Google’s bet

I believe it makes logical computing sense and logical economic sense. Share CPU cycles on a central server. It’s the way of the web. Does your personal PC serve up web pages or run billions of calculations and store world’s banking information? (just one example) – Most likely not. These jobs are handled by server farms.

It makes more sense to put the muscle in the server rooms and put the access everywhere. Hence cloud computing, tablets, Chromebooks, iCloud, MS 365, smartphones, etc.

Like I said, this is my opinion and when it doesn’t happen and we all pound the keyboards of our basement PCs, I will eat my words.

Normal

Seeing a person drive a car with a child’s car-seat and no child. Reasoning in the mind of the onlooker – child must be at home.

Abnormal

Seeing a person walking a dog with stroller and no child in the stroller. Reasoning in the mind of the onlooker – this person just flew over theCuckoo’s Nest.

Note: This realization occurred to me after dropping my daughter off at daycare. I was walking home with my dog and an empty stroller. I take my daughter to daycare in her stroller. On the way back from dropping her off, I have been getting many strange looks. My reasoning:

• adult male walking down the street
• dressed for an office job
• dog attached to stroller
• no baby or child in stroller
• WTF!

I recently received this email and thought it raised some interesting political ideas. This blog entry is an opportunity to respond to the email with my opinions.

The email:

He who strives will succeed

When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when the Government takes all the reward away, no one will try, or want to succeed.

Is this man truly a genius?

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

It could not be any simpler than that.

These are 5 sentences applicable to this experiment

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

The five points only make sense when you over-simplify the issues.

I live in Canada and Canada employs features of socialism. Our economy is based on the capitalist system but that is balanced with the social policies of our government. Capitalism and socialism are not black and white constructs. They exist in a spectrum of political and economic ideologies. Both capitalism and socialism in their truest forms will ultimately fail. I would argue that a responsible balance of the two, social policy with the opportunity for individual gain, has allowed Canada to weather this economic storm far better than most.

Re: Point 1

When the wealthy control an unbalanced and unchecked portion of power, they can legislate the poor into slavery.

Re: Point 2

I believe that this is the basic virtue of charity taught by Jesus. We should show kindness and compassion to others in their time of need.

Re: Point 3

Agreed. But this applies to both sides of the spectrum. Social assistance should be gathered from the wealthy and from the poor. The idea here is to look at one’s ability to give. Those with more can contribute more. Those with less can contribute less. But all members must contribute what is fair, so that we do not strip basic dignity and human rights from the lower classes. Otherwise I would argue that we have agreed to slavery under a different guise.

Re: Point 4

You should not gain at the unfair expense of others.

Re: Point 5

This is not socialism. This is a government and nation gone unchecked. Back to point three, each member of the system must contribute what they can in a fair way while respecting member’s right for individual gain (I am not in favour of communism). If people choose not to contribute, laws and legislation should exist to prevent this. This point speaks of laziness and sloth and these characteristics should not be tolerated in any political ideology. Point five is about social welfare gone awry, not socialism itself.

Something to think about.