Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

If Google likes a company… it just buys it!

Google Acquires GrandCentral

“If there is anything profitable on the Internet, Google will definitely want a piece of that action! With the advent of mobile phones that offer more and more Internet features, this has become a profitable business over the years. Now, according to a Reuters report, Google Inc. has acquired GrandCentral Communications. GrandCentral Communications is a start-up that lets users manage their existing phones and voice mailboxes over the Web as if they were a single account. Based in Fremont, California, GrandCentral is one of those companies, which are using Web-based software to voice calls over the Internet. The advantage in these methods is that the user can simultaneously with regular phones. GrandCentral’s founders, Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, have a history of being noticed by Internet giants. Prior to this, they were running Web-calling pioneer Dialpad Communications, which was acquired by Google’s biggest competitor, Yahoo Inc. in June 2005.”

Whoa! Check out the Dilbert cartoon that our buddy, Elio, sent me. Overweight, a beard, and suspenders… hummmm… a mite close for comfort! But, then, ya gotta appreciate the reference to Unix/Linux geeks! Sigh! Tune in to the next podcast for a discussion of “Unix beards”… are they a requirement for true geekdom? This and more is coming in the next podcast!

By the way, here’s a photo of the Doc:

Who is Dr. Bill?

Have you ever really thought about time? (Go with me on this.) I have been thinking about time a lot lately. Not because I am 51 years old, not because I am working on a space/time continuum dimensional refraction machine for DARPA (not that I would admit it if I was) but because time just keeps going on. This is what I discovered recently. (I know, I know, most of you knew this already!)

The thing is, I believe most people view time as something that actually changes depending on what they are doing. For instance, if you are standing in line at a “convenience store” while various idiots that should be using their hard earned money to pay for food for their kids are throwing it away on lottery tickets (OK, I digress.) Anyway, while standing in said line, time seems to drag on forever. However, when you are enjoying building a PC from various cool, high tech parts and seeing it come to life and boot up flawlessly the first time with no hassles, time seems to fly by! (OK, so I have geeky pleasures!) Anyway, the bottom line is… I have discovered that, actually, whether you are standing in the line thinking evil thoughts about idiots and lotteries, or, whether you are enjoying getting your geek on, time is ACTUALLY moving at a precise, stable, actual forward motion. Never backward. Always forward. One second followed by the next. Sigh.

And time can not be retrieved. A second gone is… gone. And if you want more seconds, or more minutes, in a given hour… you won’t get it. It is always 3600 seconds, or 60 minutes… no more, no less. So, if you try and pack more “stuff” that you need to get done into a given hour… well, you will only have an hour to do it.

“OK, OK,” you say, “What’s up with the Doctor?” Well, much as I would like to oh… say, get a podcast done… like I promised yesterday… well, there’s only 3600 seconds; only 60 minutes, in an hour. Only 24 hours in a day. And, sadly, I DO have to sleep at night (though admittedly, I haven’t been doing as much of that as I should lately!)

Anyhoo, here’s what can happen. Commit yourself to too many things, have too many major life changes (like changing jobs,) and actually, selfishly, make time to eat and sleep, and you have the magic formula for losing time. Time never to be returned. Time that just keeps ticking on.

Stupid clock.

You’ve heard the saying, “I’m having one of those days?” Well, try, “I’m having one of those couple of weeks!” It seems I get past one time eating situation and into another! I will TRY to get the podcast done this evening if at ALL possible. Maybe we can get things back to normal soon? What IS normal, anyway? Sigh! I DO have the best of intentions!

Wow! Dewd! 64 GIG in a solid state drive! Now, THAT is useful! I gotta have one of these!

Samsung mass producing 1.8-inch 64GB Solid State Drive

“Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is now mass producing 1.8-inch solid state drives (SSD) at 64GB (gigabytes). The company says SSDs feature greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. SSD can also improve battery life by up to 20 percent in notebooks. The 64GB SSD consists of 64 eight Gigabit (Gb) single-level cell flash memory chips. Use of 51nm process technology permits fabrication of much smaller components, with each chip having circuitry 1/2500th the width of a human hair.”

Here’s the image I promised in the last podcast of my son, the GameMaster, (Benjamin Bailey) as “Robert” the robot in the SonForce Kids Vacation Bible School that just ended this evening at Faith & Victory Church! Click on the link below to watch a video of a scene from the VBS play! It was VERY cool!

SonForce Kids Vacation Bible School Flash Video

And, by the way, here’s a link to our Church web site:

Faith & Victory Church Web Site

The VBS was AWESOME! Check out the flash video scene and you will see what I mean! Benjamin was a GREAT robot, and the other actor in the scene is my nephew, Jonathan Wood. Way to go, guys! Oh, the rest of the cast was awesome too… here’s a shot of the cast below: (From left to right) Jessica Taylor, Shannon Taylor, Benjamin Bailey, Rashon Lee, Jonathan Wood!

Talk about market share! iTunes is number three behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Pretty cool! AND, you can get the Dr. Bill Podcat there for free by clicking this link:

The Dr. Bill Podcast iTunes Subscription!

Here’s the BetaNews article on the story!

NPD: iTunes Now #3 Music Retailer

“iTunes’ dominance in the music industry continues to grow, data from the NPD Group showed Friday. Apple surpassed Amazon as the third largest retailer for music sales in the first quarter of the year, with 9.8 percent of the overall market. Apple is also gaining on leaders Wal-Mart and Best Buy, who finished the quarter with 15.8 and 13.8 of the market, respectively. Analysts at NPD say Apple’s strength is surprised considering sales are down by a fifth over last year. However, they also pointed out that both Wal-Mart and Best Buy are behemoths in the music industry, and will be hard to catch.”

I saw today in Mary Jo Foley’s Blog that Red Hat is also in the list of Linux vendors to refuse Microsoft’s “Protection Racket” scheme! Way to go, guys!

Now three Linux vendors won’t sign patent deals with Microsoft

“For a while, it was looking like Microsoft threats (and money) would convince a substantial number of Linux distribution providers to sign “interoperability and IP protection” pacts with Redmond. But as of today, the ‘deal/no deal’ count is even. Novell, Xandros and Linspire all have signed deals that Microsoft and those companies say will protect Linux users from the threat of Microsoft lawsuits over alleged patent infringements by open-source software on Microsoft products. Executives at Red Hat, Canonical/Ubuntu and now Mandriva all say they have decided against signing similar deals.”