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About Me
I'm Michael Koby, and I love technology. I'm also a programmer, currently doing Ruby on Rails development for a small Houston startup. Here I talk about technology, programming, politics, movies, music, and anything else I feel I need to talk about. If you would like to know more, you can check out the About page.Popular Series
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Cisco Wastes Zero Time
Well, it only took a little more than 24 hours, but Cisco Systems has sued Apple, Inc over the use of the iPhone name. According to the Associated Press, Cisco has owned the iPhone name since 2000 when it acquired InfoGear Technology Corporation and has already attached the name to a series of WiFi phones under the Linksys brand.
I wonder what the outcome of this will be? Cisco technically owns to the trademark on the name and has already released products under the name. Apple might have to modify the the name of their latest device to keep from going to court. However, the phones are two distinctly different kinds of products so Apple might be able to argue that fact. This will be a fun one to watch.
[Technorati Tag: Technology]
[Technorati Tag: iPhone]
[Technorati Tag: Cisco]
Posted in Technology
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Missing Elliott Smith (Fond Farewell)
As I sit here and listen to Elliott Smith’s song “Fond Farewell” I am reminded at how much of a lyrical genius he was.
“I can deal with some psychic pain, if it will slow down my higher brain”
It is a pity that he was taken from us. The album that “Fond Farewell” comes from, “From a Basement on the Hill” is probably his best work so I can only imagine what he would have done after it.
Posted in Music
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Ubuntu For the Wife
It is a well known fact that I am a huge supporter of free and/or open source software. I regularly use such software wherever I can. I utilize OpenOffce, Mozilla Firefox as well as Thunderbird, and Gnu Privacy Guard. But I took a leap over the holidays and installed Ubuntu onto my wife’s computer. There were a few things that I considered when making this decision and they are:
- I wanted something that “just worked” without the need to go out and buy a Mac.
- I wanted something that was almost completely virus/spyware free
- I wanted something that my wife could learn easily and not feel weighed down by having to learn a new OS.
Ubuntu meets most, if not all of these goals. I can install it, set up the user accounts, and go. The system took me about 2 hours to set up, just because I wanted to ensure she would have most of the stuff she would need from the get go (Flash, PDFs, and music). If I had not gotten all of that set up then I probably could have gotten away with a 1 hour install time. The idea here is simplicity. I wanted out of the box workability. And I think I got it. I just need a set of speakers to finish up the computer and all is well.
Over the next couple of months I will give reports on the progress of my wife using the computer. Hopefully the wife will get use to Ubuntu and continue to use it.
[Technorati Tag: Technology]
[Technorati Tag: Linux]
[Technorati Tag: Ubuntu]
links for 2007-01-10
Posted in Daily Links
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Oh! Gravity by Switchfoot
As far as Switchfoot albums go, there seems to be an either or thing going on. The album is going to either be great in that you can listen to the album from start to finish without skipping a single track, or the album will have a few good tracks on it and the rest are just barely so-so. The Legend of Chin, Learning to Breathe, and Nothing is Sound fall into the latter category. It is not that these albums are not good, or that that band is not good, just that quite simply the band does not live to their potential on them.
Fear not though, because Oh! Gravity, falls into the former of the the two categories. From the start of the first track (which happens to be the title track), you just get the sensation that this is going to be a good album and there is no disappointment of that feeling. The classic Switchfoot sound is here, but it has a slightly more raw/less produced feel to it, which in my opinion is a good thing since this band has always been good when they try not to over do it. Simplicity works best with Switchfoot songs since for the most part they are pop songs.
I think the highlights of this album are “American Dream” and “Dirty Second Hands” mainly because I like the message and sound of both of these songs, they just seem to stand out in my head hours after listening to the album. “Dirty Second Hands” seems to have very Depeche Mode feel to it (I’m thinking Exciter album) but without copying the Depeche Mode sound.
Overall, Oh! Gravity is a great record. And even though it is only 2 records after Beautiful Letdown it is just as good if not better. Plus at $9.99 from Amazon.com, it is not a bad deal at all.
[Technorati Tag: Music]
[Technorati Tag: CD Review]
[Technorati Tag: Switchfoot]
Posted in Music
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Michael Koby 