Curtis Bridges

This is an important step in finally developing a cohesive desktop strategy in Linux. Whether you like Ubuntu or not, I feel they are the one organization that is really moving the platform forward for end users. This is an important step for making a unified app environment, I'm happy to see it announced.

I really do like the Gnome desktop environment.  With the release of the Ubuntu 12.10 yesterday, Ubuntu Gnome Remix was also released. Here is a great video done by WebUpd8   detailing mostly Gnome shell, but specifically, some of the differences between vanilla Gnome and the remix. Good music, too. I'm still not a fan of Evolution, or of not using the latest Nautilus , despite the  controversial direction that project has taken. I'm also unconvinced that gnome-packagekit is in any way superior to Canonical 's Software Updater . I'm very much looking forward trying a new twist on an "old" distribution.

This is the sort of thing that drives me crazy about Marco. His  occasional  brilliance is overshadowed by his overwhelming jackassery. Tim is about as nice as they come. He's a standup guy, he's expressed many times that his Twitter feed and blog are his  opinions   not his employer's -- Google. Marco, you just look petty. Again. And Tim's point is valid; there are a lot of good writers in your list of contributors that we all like and respect -- now only  accessible  from a single platform, much to the tech industry's loss.

After trying all the major podcast clients for iOS (and Android), I've decided that Instacast gets my vote for the best app. Today it was updated, which fixed some of my remaining issues with the app so I can happily recommend it. It still isn't perfect, but it is superior than other apps in this category (Downcast was a reasonable second place). I have no idea why a podcast client seems to be so difficult to create; even Apple can't get it right, and they brought podcasts mainstream. I'm just hoping that Tapbots decides to make a client.

Phoronix has it right; I think the GNOME folks exist in some alternate reality. And to be clear, I absolutely love Gnome 3, even more than Gnome 2, which is not a typical stance on these versions. I find the entire desktop environment to be thoughtful, efficient, and cohesive. Despite how pleased I am with Gnome 3, its original design goals, and its future direction, the thought that Gnome could begin to find mainstream acceptance is absurd. Yes, there are lots of anecdotal evidence of non-nerds successfully using the Gnome interface (some of which is my own) -- predicting a 10% market penetration (let alone 20%!) smells of pure crazy. Worse, trying to plan for initiatives like this and a full stand-alone Linux distribution diverts already scarce resources away from the main experience and true work that needs to be accomplished in the future. I applaud the unified, bundled apps Gnome is adding, including both apps for normal people (mail, calenda...

Yes, I still love my TiVo Premiere . I was amazed to find that new product lifetime subscriptions now cost $499 -- we we bought ours, the service was $299 and was a tough call at that price. Ultimately, we went with product lifetime and now we've owned it for over two years -- break even is 20 months (with two consecutive 1 year commitments at $14.99 per month). Of course, since we bought the TiVo 2.5 years ago (our third TiVo since 2002), I've stopped watching broadcast TV (my wife still watches a handful of shows) and have switched from traditional cable service to terrestrial over-the-air broadcasting using a rooftop HD antenna and the TiVo has worked flawlessly on both providers. It will be interesting to see how the coming years pan out; with services like Verizon FiOS , AT&T U-verse , and new players like Google Fiber and a  potentially fully realized Apple TV ecosystem all competing in this space, things are finally looking like we'll...

Google has really polished its message over the last year, between this video and the original Galaxy Nexus commercial , they really have a compelling marketing campaign. "

A well done video showing the current state of elementary OS . I really like the concept behind elementary but I'm happy with the current state and future progress of Gnome 3 . Definitely two projects to keep an eye on for future developments.

This is insane. Even I think this is insane. There is no way this couldn't be simplified.

I took this shot last night while looking for subjects for my 365 project on Flickr - this is a shot of one of the rockers on my front porch and reminds me of summer. My wife and I spend a lot of time sitting in these rockers, watching the kids play in the front yard.

This seems like a decent solution to shrinking form-factor and 30 pin dock issue to me. That said, inductive charging/wireless docking still seems better in the long run.

Personally, I find this incredibly cool. I'd be willing to do it if I were single, living in a major city. video platform video management video solutions video player

I've been on a gaming hiatus for a couple of years (other than a short time playing Dragon Age II) but a new Diablo is something you just can't skip. I expect to play a little casually, maybe not immediately upon release, but at some point.

I've made up my mind; as much as I dislike corporate Verizon, their service has won me over and my next phone purchase will be on their network. Likely this fall... The infographic says it all.

It seems like the court case against the Big Six is finally moving forward after rumors of an anti-competitive market surfaced upon the big transition to the "Agency Model" of publishing two years ago. It is about time; nothing about this market's pricing makes sense to me -- digital goods should almost always be cheaper than their physical counterparts. There is no competition present in the current market, causing prices to climb over time, rather than fall as competition grows. It smells of cartel and collusion to me, through and through. I'll be following the results of this investigation closely.

I just don't see this happening; after mobile, living room integration/penetration is the next frontier for computers. PCs are no longer subjugated to a desk in a spare room or office; they are a fundamental part of our life now, from our phones, vehicles and soon, the living room experience. Why on Earth would Google divest itself of such an easy entry point into the heart of entertainment of the American household? Unless they already have a product (no, not GoogleTV as we know it) in the pipeline that supersedes the cable box ...

Steve Jobs used patents to pressure Bill Gates into 1997 investment in Apple This makes sense to me. I've always thought Microsoft investing in Apple in '97 was very strange, I didn't see a whole lot of upside in it for Microsoft.

I really like the idea of this space, especially separating your work space from your living space. I'm just not sure how well this setup would work here in the north east where we get 4+ months of snow and cold weather. That said, there is a lot to like about his space.

Google Music said to be floundering as user count declines each week Google Music I'm fairly surprised to see this report from a user perspective. I would say, while far from perfect, Google Music is a significant cornerstone of the Android experience, from a media standpoint. When I bought my Galaxy Nexus, I was knew I had to handle three features my iPhone 4 does well on my new phone. Access to my music library in a convenient way. I can't live without my podcasts (which I listen to more than music) Up-to-date, high-quality apps. I'll speak of #1 in this post, and maybe cover #2 in a later post. Google Music covers my music needs but isn't the perfect solution. First and foremost, my biggest two issues essentially revolve around one major issue: the music upload process. My first attempt at Google Music involved uploading my old music library (not my lossless library) and it literally took days to upload many gigabytes of data. Once uploaded,...

Assassin's Creed 3 Cover Art New cover art announced and man, it is attractive.  I've always liked the idea for the Assassin's Creed series but never managed to get past the first edition. Maybe if I get a decent laptop this summer, I'll be able to play this new one when it comes out. I also find the time period choice to be very interesting. I'm just very impressed with that cover art. 

Apple's 7.85-inch 'iPad mini' due later this year, report claims I find this to be an interesting report; I like the size it claims (7.85") as that seems like a more convenient form factor compared to the current 10" model. However, given the price quoted ($250-$300), I would think this could only be a version of the iPad that uses the current iPad/iPad 2 resolution of 1024 x 768 rather than the rumored iPad 3/HD model that doubles that in each direction. There is no way I would give up that DPI for a smaller form factor, regardless of the savings.

GnomeShell/CheatSheet - GNOME Live! I found this link to be helpful explaining many features of gnome-shell that aren't immediately apparent when you start using it. Side note: I don't believe Ubuntu supports screencast recording as mentioned in the feature as " this functionality is currently missing in some distribution packages. " I really should get Arch up and running on a machine, I've been on Debian/Ubuntu for a long time (RedHat before that) and it would be good to know a different distribution than those two families. Plus, I'd rather be on a rolling release distribution... Update: It works, it just works silently. Where the docs say it places a red icon on the screen to let you know it is currently recording doesn't work, at least in my case. Additionally, the file created is a .webm. I can understand why in an open source tool but I still wish it did h.264. Oh well, easily solved.

Dell XPS 13 I'm currently trying to decide what my next computer purchase will be, and I am leaning towards some sort of laptop or ultraportable. My last purchase was a 2009 17" MacBook Pro (MBP) and it is by far the best quality laptop I've ever owned. That said, I'm really open to the idea of moving back to Linux (with Gnome-shell) full time and installing that setup on an Apple device just feels a little like blasphemy to me. Recently, PC manufacturers have been trying their hand at " Ultrabooks " and this one from Dell debuted today (2012-02-28). I really like the look; very understated. The materials look exceptional: carbon fiber base, Gorilla glass screen, aluminum shell, glass touchpad. This all sounds great -- the innards seem just as good with an i7 option, 256GB ssd and even a mini-Displayport for video out, the same as my MBP. The sad part is, my biggest complaint to date with Dell laptops (and all other PC manufacturers) is the power...

Gnome 3 Core Application Mockups Despite all these shots being interface "mockups", I really like the direction the Gnome Foundation is taking with the built-in apps. I love how integrated everything feels. Gnome is crying for a truly simple (but functional) standalone email client and Thunderbird or Evolution aren't the solution, at least in their current form. I find Nautilus very functional as is, but there are some interesting shots for it here; Boxes (virtualization software interface) seems fairly niche at this point but for those of us in that niche, it looks good. I don't see a lot of use in the Clock app but I'm sure others would. Getting chat right is my favorite, although Gnome-shell's integration right now is my favorite on any platform -- I'm looking at you, iChat/Messages!

MyUnity 3.0 Released With New GUI, Quicklist Editor [Unity Configuration Tool] ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog Definitely worth an install, regardless of whether you enjoy Unity (or not). Hopefully it becomes part of the standard repositories soon, for everyone to use. Personally, I still prefer Gnome-shell .

This is a well thought out defense of Episode 1 -- really just comparing it the the rest of the franchise. I like the author's take on it. Jedi vs. Sith This was very apropos to my life, as my son is 5 1/2 and just now getting into Star Wars. Over the last month, I've been showing the movies to him. The real question in my mind (as a thoughtful, Star Wars loving Dad) was which movie to start him on. On the one hand, there is only one true order; theatrical release order. The risk in showing them in this order is not capturing his attention immediately due to the somewhat dated look of the original trilogy, whereas the new trilogy not only looks up-to-date, it has some very kid friendly themes (Boy-aged Anakin, and yes, Jar-Jar). The risk in showing them in chronological order is missing out on some of the big reveals. "Luke, I am your faaaather." Ultimately, I took a chance and played the movies in their natural order and I am glad I did. He really ide...

One of my favorite hobbies in life, not only do I like using the my computer, but also find it important to setup a nice overall workspace. SimpleDesks is a nice site for inspiration for your work area and often reminds me to keep it simple. I love this post as it captures some of my favorite workspaces I've seen in a long while.