Category Archives: technology

Boot Camp – Apple takes the PC market

Posted on by
Reply

Over the last weeks a lot of hackers have tried to run Windows on a Mac. Finally, one managed to overcome the issues and let it run. A big relief for a lot of Windows user’s how want to switch but still are stuck with some Windows applications.

Now, Apple has released Bootcamp, an application that guides your through the steps to create a Windows XP boot disk and then install it on an Intel-Mac. Whoever thought about that and decided to do that is a genious.

I expect the hardware sales for Apple to be phenomenal, and hope to see a MacBook (without Pro) soon (I predict around beginning of July, latest for the APD in August). Meanwhile I have to wait or buy a Mac Mini.

If you look at the site there are some nice comments. Michael Heilemann already mentioned some quotes. My favourite is

But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

and also

option key [...] (That’s the “alt” key for you longtime Windows users

Flash vs. Ajax – Entertainment vs. Application

Posted on by
2

The recent trend to create rich internet applications with AJAX has put preasure on Macromedia and it’s Flash technology. Products like Backpack, Writely, etc. make heavy use of Javascript and and XML. They interaction allows for dynamically adding items, drag-drop, even searches like “Windows Live Search” are done using AJAX.

Adam Pasztory has a comparison chart and discusses the different functionalities of AJAX vs Flash. Jonathan Boutelle also highlight some interessting points. One of his arguments “Integration with multimedia” is the one I think will have the biggest impact for still some more time.

If you want to create multimedia websites, using video and audio, you are better off using Flash. It gives you all the tools you need, especially if you use Macromedia Studio, it has image editing, animation, etc. to create the content of the Flash and then you plug it together. That’s very nice.
On the other hand if you create information or task orientent applications AJAX is currently the technology to use. It makes development easy, has nice interaction features and doesn’t need a lot of data to be downloaded in advance.

My point here is that I think you have to decide on the domain you develp for. Is it entertainment use Flash, is it appliaction use AJAX. This is indeed a black/white separation and developers of both sides will say they can do the other stuff also. But I think you should do what the technology is made for.

iTunes vs Media Player

Posted on by
Reply
Everybody has learned to use a stereo with these symbols:
> , « , », [] (stop/pause). Even children could understand that scheme very fast. So, when you use a computer now to listen to music, what would you do?iTunes: Apple chose to use those keys that would come to mind very easily. Right arrow, left arrow, for skipping to the next or the previous track. Changing the volume of the music, you use arrow up and down. If you want to play or pause you hit the space. Everthing is very easy.

Windows Media Player: Ctrl + P for play, Ctrl + F for next, Ctrl + B for previous track. Volume up is F10, down is F9. Nice way to learn where your keys are on the keyboard, but not very useful if you want to skip through the songs or have to change the volume. You always have to look where the key is.Why does Microsoft have to reinvent the wheel again. It would have been so easy to use Apples layout. This has the advantage that it is the same for each language, Microsoft has to change the key assignments for each country. Even in English it’s not very straigtforward. Instead of using the text label Forward for Ctrl – F they use Next (or Ctrl – N, to make it even better).