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In praise of Al Gore

There was a time when the computer/tech/video game geek could be pleasantly surprised by something – the announcement of a new product, an upgrade to an existing product, or something you’ve never seen before. The Internet has changed all that.
andrewbyline

There was a time when the computer/tech/video game geek could be pleasantly surprised by something – the announcement of a new product, an upgrade to an existing product, or something you’ve never seen before.

The Internet has changed all that. Thanks to dozens of spoiler sites, brought to you by the same people who probably couldn’t wait until Christmas morning to open their presents, we now have a good idea what’s coming and when.

Apple just tried to sue one spoiler site, www.thinksecret.com, for beating them to the punch in announcing several new products. They wanted the name of the leaker within their company who was apparently selling or giving away some very accurate information – presumably to fire that person and possibly worse. Last week the California appeals court ruled that Think Secret was entitled to the same level of protection for its sources as other journalists and media outlets.

While I agree with the judges in this particular case, I also agree that Apple has a right to announce new products how, when and where it sees fit, with as much fanfare and media as they can muster. It lets the gas out of the promotional blimp when someone lets the cat out of the bag a few days early, if that metaphor isn’t too mixed for you.

These days we know pretty much everything (or think we know, given how rumours spread on the Net) that’s coming down the pipe in the next year and year after.

Recently sales of consoles and games have dropped off significantly, mainly because people are waiting for the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 to come out before they make a decision on what system to buy.

Sales of Microsoft XP products have also slid, as most people await the release of the next generation Vista operating system – which people have been waiting for since about 2003.

There are rumours that Apple is developing a hybrid iPod/Bluberry device with Research In Motion, as well as an iPod with a big video/touch screen on one side.

The next Playstation Portable is due out this summer, apparently, and there are rumours it will have a built-in hard drive, and the ability to wirelessly download television and video content, as well as older PS2 games.

New batteries are in the works that charge faster, and last longer, as well as processors and logic boards that require significantly less power and run at such low heat they won’t require noisy fans.

New manufacturing techniques and capacity for flat screen high definition LCD televisions are expected to cut prices by half according to some rumours, but nobody knows when this is supposed to happen.

I haven’t been buying any new movies, waiting to see what happens with the whole Blu-ray Disk vs. HD-DVD battle. I also don’t intend on buying a player until I get a clear idea of what my costs are or how quickly the technology is expected to become obsolete.

It’s the technology waiting game, and one way or another we’re all playing it. How many people do you know are waiting for high definition televisions to become just a little cheaper before buying in?

The really frustrating thing about all this waiting – and there quite are a few things I’m waiting to get – is that there’s nothing you can do about it.

It wouldn’t be so bad if you could tune out spoiler sites like Think Secret, but the mainstream tech media shamelessly repeats all kinds of spoiler rumours.

How many days left until Christmas?

Google puts on a spread

This past week the Internet was abuzz with the revelation that Google was about to launch an online spreadsheet application, seemingly in competition with Microsoft’s ubiquitous Excel.

When you include Google’s recent acquisition of Writely.com into the equation, an online word processing program, you end up with a lot of conjecture that Google is getting ready to go head to head with Microsoft Office.

While there may be some merit to that way of thinking, there’s also the possibility that Google is merely trying secure its niche in Web 2.0. If you’re not familiar with the concept of Web 2.0, there’s a basic explanation at www.webopedia.com and it’s discussed in infinitely more detail at www.oreilly.net.

There are a lot of different aspects to Web 2.0, but one of the more compelling aspects is the gradual move from software to web-based programs. For example, instead of buying a graphic editing program and loading it onto your computer, you’d pay to access an online service where you can manipulate your images using tools on a web page. One of the benefits is that this system allows for easier collaboration – you can access a project from anywhere, providing you have web access – while never having to worry if you have the latest software edition or whether one format will work with another program.

In the case of Goggle Spreadsheets, you can create a pretty robust (but not exactly Excel level) spreadsheet and let anyone access your work you choose. You can also work on the same spreadsheet from anywhere, saving it to Google’s apparently infinite servers.

You’ll need a Gmail account to access the beta version, which is located at spreadsheets.google.com

Website of the Week

The one movie everyone’s talking about these days is former presidential candidate Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth about global warming. Check out the official website at www.climatecrisis.net. By the way, if you’re one of those people in 2000 who believed Gore had issues with telling the truth, keep in mind that every single claim he has made has been substantiated since then. Check out the Rolling Stone archives www.rollingstone.com for just one of the articles exonerating Gore, or do your own research on Google. Then go see this