Author: Dr. Bill

It has been a running Internet joke for YEARS! Duke Nukem was promised, and promised, and promised! But, it became the buzzword for a product that was doomed to be vaporware forever! Now, it MAY finally be coming out!

Duke Nukem Forever, the most delayed video game ever, launches May 3

“Last September, 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced they would finally be releasing Duke Nukem Forever on Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 after a delay of more than a decade. On Friday, the companies published the title’s final release dates: May 3 in North America, and May 6 worldwide.

Even after 2K and Gearbox demonstrated the game’s release at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, there was a considerable amount of doubt and speculation from the public about the game’s release. After all, it unofficially holds the title of “most delayed game of all time,” with nearly thirteen years between the title’s first announcement and its eventual release. Naturally, the sudden news that it would be released should be met with a large amount of skepticism.”

I guess we will see come May! (I am not holding my breath!)

HOWEVER… it is HUGE! A 40 meg download!

Microsoft releases WebMatrix, new Web development freeware

“…WebMatrix, a tool that lets users create, build and deploy websites based upon the web technologies and content management systems of their choosing. The goal of the software is to be an extremely simple, lightweight development environment that eliminates the need for switching back and forth between other applications while developing websites.

Sites can be built from templates or from scratch, and more than 40 open source web applications are supported, like the popular WordPress, Joomla, DotNetNuke, and more, and files can then be edited in HTML, CSS, ASP.NET or PHP. Naturally, Microsoft put some special shine on ASP.NET in WebMatrix and included support for the ‘Razor’ view engine and special single-line-of-code helper functions to integrate with external social and commercial services.”

What do I recommend, and use myself? A simple, Open Source WYSIWYG web editor called “Kompozer.” And a nice, Open Source, code editor called “PSpad.” That is what I use. Works great for me! Here are the links for those!

https://kompozer.net/

https://www.pspad.com/en/

Will YOU use it? They are pumped up that their new IE 9 browser will support HTML 5, I guess! Good for them! They haven’t exactly been supporters of web standards before this! Oh well…

Microsoft’s pitch for HTML5 logo has familiar ring

“I’m not doing cartwheels over the new HTML5 logo, which reminds me of a superhero badge. It’s bold, masculine and sort of orange, which will appeal how to the majority of web users? But the logo is a great idea, and it’s big splash promotion — some of that from Microsoft — is exactly what the standard-in-progress needs right now.

Today in a blog post, Jean Paoli, Microsoft’s general manager of interoperability, writes: ‘The logo links back to W3C, the place for authoritative information on HTML5, including specs and test cases. It’s time to tell the world that HTML5 is ready to be adopted.’

There’s a strange appropriateness to Microsoft promoting the logo’s use. It’s what the company did in the late 1990s to promote Internet Explorer. During the so-called browser wars between Microsoft and Netscape, each side adopted proprietary tags not necessarily supported in the other’s browser. Microsoft encouraged websites supporting Internet Explorer to put up an IE logo/badge — to be proud, to proclaim their support. As a marketing mechanism, the logo branding was brilliant and quite uncommon.

I remember interviewing Sun cofounder and then chief executive Scott McNealy in his office about Java; some time in 1997. McNealy, an avid amateur hockey player, limped from an injury on the ice from the night before. I scolded McNealy, calling him a boy who cried wolf, for making promise after promise after promise about Java — like powering light switches — that never came to be. He didn’t get upset at that but my accusations about Java branding. I observed that Internet Explorer logos were on tens of thousands of websites, while Java was seemingly nowhere. If developers are using Java, why are they keeping a secret, I accused. McNealy responded by pointing across the room at his Java terminal and the tiny logo on the side. He blamed his marketers for not listening.”

So… what do you think?

I must admit, I like the tablet form factor. I don’t have one of my own yet, but I have played with my Brother-In-Law’s Apple iPad, and it is nice! I am looking forward to the Blackberry Playbook, and I am curious about the Samsung pad as well! We will see… I bet I end up with one before too long!

Tablets Will Finish Off Netbooks in 2011: 10 Reasons Why

“With the start of 2011 in sight, vendors are thinking about their product strategies in the New Year. In order to do that, they also need to examine how the market changed in the past year. Part of this process includes determining which devices, whether smartphones, tablets, laptops or anything else, will help them generate the most profit. Vendors that have been competing in the netbook market will especially need to consider how they should spend their research and development dollars in the coming year. Going into 2010, netbooks were all the rage both in the consumer market and the enterprise. But as soon as Apple introduced the iPad tablet and several similar devices followed it, netbooks lost their value to customers around the world. Netbook vendors that expected to generate big profits on those devices missed out. With the start of 2011, those companies need to realize that tablets are well on their way to eliminating netbooks altogether. The industry may get an early indication of how strongly buyers are interested in tablets during the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. A significant number of new tablet models will be on display at the show. A year from now, the companies that stick with netbooks will be the companies that find themselves far behind the competition. Here are the reasons why tablets will eliminate netbooks as growing product category in 2011.”

We will be receiving LIVE coverage from Techpodcasts.com! As part of the Techpodcasts Network, we can take advantage of great “perks” like this… and even though I can’t go to the Consumer Electronics Show, at least we can carry the news from there LIVE, right here on the Blog! I am looking forward to it!

So, watch the box at the top of the sidebar on the Blog’s Main Page! CES 2011 sounds like it will have a lot of news on tablets, smartphones, and other way cool electronic doohickeys… my cup o’ tea!