Apple, leaving Los Cupertino

All things Apple used to be avante guard and simplicity in the making. But more and more its become by Apple developers and a store for Apple employees. Something material has been removed and I just don't feel compelled to look upon Apple products as a viable alternative anymore.

Its a hard realization to come to.. it used to be a Mac or an iPhone was an "all in one" it came with everything you needed. But the Privacy wars and the strange distractions to keep everything locked down and secret.. the terrible Update reliablity and almost predictable "failures" of its products has just made the high prices seem that much higher. I mean why pay more for "less".. sad day for me, why did it take so long for me to come to this conclusion?

I'm not saying Microsoft or Linux are really any better.. but at least its cheaper to throw them away.. or find a grand old version with.. [sigh] no further meddling Support Updates.. "I feel More Secure" without updates these days. Its almost helpful to be on a platform that Virus writers "can't target" because they don't know what your running.. you don't have any of those well known and "Published" exploits revealed in each Update.

The Updates are becoming hackers favorite "SDK malware kits" for new exploits and the Published "billions and billions Served" guarantees willing and able targets on a regular schedule. Where else can you get patch Tuesday, Second patch Tuesday, Patch Thursday with Zero-Day exploits and demo code to prove you need their Updates? This is insanity.. might as well get a cheap Chromebook and replace it every year or so.

But yeah.. Apple.. so long.. it was good to know you.. "until the next Steve Jobs" comes along and cleans house.

Skreens HDMI, Exploring the ins and outs of this device

I go over the outside and inside of this device. And connect up an HDMI input and let it share screen space with a browser window hosted from the Skreens box. And various Android and iOS apps are used to show resizing and editing the layout. Not a tutorial.. just a tourist in wonderland.

Czur Scanner, Firmware Upgrade

This is a video about How to upgrade the Firmware on the Czur ET16 Scanner. It was very quickly put together since a few people reported problems upgrading their scanner. -- This is the procedure I followed in Real-Time, nothing is sped up.. and I'm quite verbose and explicit about what was done both before and after each step.

Skreens HDMI, RTMP streaming to YouTube

Ugly ducklings can fly. I just got a Kickstarter gadget that accepts four HDMI inputs and blends them into one HDMI output. That's Science Fiction enough.. but it also has WiFi and an Ethernet port and Broadcasts H.264 Live streams to YouTube over RTMP. (And) I didn't read a single document or quickstart to set it up. Its a truly horrid looking video, but fantastic that it works at all.. I can't wait till I fine tune the setup.

HomeOS, dump the Force Luke

After the shock that was Windows 8, and the horror that is becoming Windows 10. I started looking around, and found Mate, and now ChaletOS.. which seems a whole lot more like the best of Windows 7 on top of Debian and Ubuntu.

Install was relatively painless and the stated goals of this Linux (this is Linux ? ) distro, is to "put things back where everyone expects them to be.." (why can't Microsoft do this ? )

I'm an OmniOS kind of guy, raised on CP/M, DOS, Redhat, Win95, OS9, OSX and so on.. but they all seem to converge in a way.. its when companies try to differentiate and diverge that they pull out the Claws and Fangs and make me scan for an Exit sign. -- I don't want to be their next Snackeroo... keep yur paws off my wallet please.

ChaletOS has a catchy name, and uses Emerald Icons ( lol ) but its happy to run on top of Xfce and Gnome3 and Gnome2.. it just seems to chill on all the territorial rhetoric. And that makes it Awesome.

The usual, familar popular "alternative apps" are baked into the default install, Firefox, VLC, GIMP, lots of audio video media players and Appstore like Software sources. But it doesn't hide the command line, when it does things in the background it pops up a cmdline window and shows you whats going on.

Its got Themes for all of the popular Windows generations. And Windows Classic modes seems to predominate. Rather than doing a classic Linux "we're not that Windows OS" shennanigans.. and doing the artsy "we do it differently just to be different mantra".. this distro actually seeks to put things where they are familar, from File Managers to Explorers, from Ctrl +C to Ctrl +V

Paired with VMware or Virtual Box, legacy Windows apps can even be run OSX Bootcamp style side by side. This is Linux kernel 4.4 and Ubuntu 16 LTS on Debian 8.. if that really matters.. suffice it to say.. it's modern.. and it has current creds.

Its styles are not all flat and lifeless, they ressemble a softened three-dee quality without looking Embossed and stitched into the carpet. There is a 64 bit and 32 bit version.

This is what I would think Windows 7 would have evolved into "naturally" had it not been done in on the Senate floor on the Ides of Windows 8 March.

Its smooth fast and just "comfortable".

Windows 10, well that didn't last long

Windows 10 has a lot of application incompatibilites, with itself, previous windows programs, and other basic programs. Its really not ready for prime time even now. Thank god.. I can just swap out the hard drive for my previous Windows 7. -- I'll try again after the November update to the RTM.. but really Windows 7 may be the end of the line for Microsoft products you want to use on Windows. -- Why can't they just improve Windows 7. Keep the old UI and -- pay attention -- to things they break? So sad.

Windows 10, Gosh its Ugly

I spent the weekend condensing and cloning my Win7 drive to a drive to Upgrade to Win10. It took about 14 hours to upgrade. Then I knew to avoid all AutoSpyware uploads to Microsoft and Disable all Express (we own your computer defaults) and Decline Cortana. Its done.. and boy is it an Ugly user interface.

I guess we will get use to it.. but seriously.. its Ugly. Dark Android 5 theme (which looks like Xfce or an old copy of CDE for Sun Microsystems) and very little user control. Lots of Ads and Lots of Upsell. -- I am so glad I have my original Win7 drive available. Its going to take some Numbing time to get used to this.

The good thing is by Upgrading and denying the Upload and Express settings.. my default Browser and other default app choices seem to remain in place. Irfanview, Video Lan Client, Media Player Classic, Print drivers. And (joy) I disabled Microsoft Edge successfully.. so succ-less.

The Start [thing] looks like an Xbox interface tilted on its side..

Just ugh.

Un-pinning Store and All the Animated Tiles on the "Start-Xbox" menu calms down the Epileptic fits that menu invokes.