1. What student or home user does not use email?

2. If I already own a copy of Home and Student 2008 (which I do) that includes Entourage (an email client), what makes Microsoft think I’m going to shell out $279 for a new copy of the same 3 user license WITH an email client as opposed to without?

I understand that the reality of the situation is that most of the students that want to use the Home and Student version probably use an online client already.  I know that I do normally.  What I also do is use Entourage to create another copy of all those online emails just in case.  I’ve been in IT too long not to know how companies go under or standards change.  Perhaps now is the time for me to move to Thunderbird or to a purely relational database interface that is suited to archival purposes.

One of the great features of Entourage is the integrated email, calendar and contact functionality.  The idea that you can create a project and drag and drop everything related to that into one place is so cool.  It is exactly what is needed when trying to grasp the disparate parts of communication and information that I create and possibly collaborate with others.  The color coding (I know its silly) of the contacts and therefore emails that come in is a nice visual touch for me as well.  The convenience of a web page is really the only thing that holds me back from using Entourage exclusively and if I worked from home, that convenience would not matter.

This issue merits further thought…

Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 includes Word for Mac, PowerPoint for Mac, Excel for Mac and Messenger for Mac, and it will retail starting at $119 U.S. estimated retail price [ERP].• It will be available in two editions — a single install for $119 U.S. ERP and a Family Pack for $149 U.S. ERP with three installs for families with more than one Mac in their household. The Home and Student edition provides the core productivity applications that Mac users want and need.Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 includes Word for Mac, PowerPoint for Mac, Excel for Mac, Outlook for Mac and Messenger for Mac, and it will retail starting at $199 U.S. ERP.• It also will be available in two editions — a single install for $199 U.S. ERP and a Multi-Pack for $279 U.S. ERP with two installs for a user with two machines. If Home and Student customers determine that they need the additional functionality of a desktop e-mail client, they can easily step up to Office for Mac Home and Business 2011using online upgrade functionality.

via Office for Mac 2011 Hitting Store Shelves This October: Qualifying new purchases of Office 2008 will include a full upgrade to Office 2011..

This actually rolls into a thought I had some time ago.  Perhaps I will expand on it in the future, but the outline is this:

BP is completely fucked.

Haiti is completely fucked.

How about BP brings four or more of those oil platforms that measure a square mile over to Haiti, lash them together and invite as many people as they can to live in that four square mile radius.  They could do the retrofit themselves of the structures, BP wouldn’t have to do the work.  Additionally, they could sell them for a modest price to the Red Cross, who I heard has a surplus of cash and BP could use some good PR.

Reference: here

Once I actually got in, there are two checkboxes that I think should be enabled by default on all cell phones from the moment they are activated.  “Block all text messages sent to you as email” and “Block all multimedia messages sent to you as email”.  Because cell phone service is still the wild west of telecommunications, cell carriers WANT you to be charged for stuff.  This includes texts and multimedia texts.  By checking these boxes, AT&T will check the sender and if it doesn’t come from an actual phone, the text won’t make it to you.  Brilliant!

I also appreciate the ability to block texts sent to MOBILENUMBER@txt.att.net, which I also enabled.  Now, you ask, well, what if you want to sign up for an alert to text you about something, like a plane flight?  There is also an alias option.  Instead of my actual cell number, which is something that can be wardialed fairly easily, instead I have a unique ALIAS@txt.att.net that I can use for that purpose.

Another really cool idea that may or may not work (quoted directly from the Blocking Options page):

“Text messages sent via email can also be blocked directly from your handset. When you receive an email that you wish to block, simply reply to the email with the word “block” in the body of your message. The sender’s email address will be added to your Block List. Note: this does not apply for mobile-to-mobile text messages.”

Of course it doesn’t apply to mobile-to-mobile texts.  If it did, everyone would turn it off and then the carrier couldn’t charge $.20/message over your limit.  Also, how would you know if the text came from email vs an actual phone?  I assume the sender info would display an email address vs a ten-digit wireless number.  I have no idea if the number is verified at any stage or if you could set up an email program to put a bogus number, but still, if this is an issue for you and putting the word ‘block’ in a reply text actually does work, that is pretty damn kick ass.

I’ve been on WoW for a couple years now and I can’t tell you how many times I check the Achievements section to see if I could gather just one more before I log off.

Want 50Mbps Internet in your town? Threaten to roll out your own – Ars Technica.

Of course, this wouldn’t happen if corporations thought they would have some kind of backlash.  But who has time to ‘police’ corporate actions?  Just the same way politicians say that if people got more involved with politics and told politicians what they wanted, then politicians wouldn’t have to make all the decisions on their own or listen to lobbyists or special interests or large donors.  Right, I have all the time in the world to call my senator (assuming its a federal issue), which, by the way, can’t happen.  You call (members of congress get a free 800 number) and get a staffer, they listen, thank you for your comments, send you a canned letter (members of congress get free postage) and you are forgotten.   Unless you have the clout of cash or an inoperable brain disease, it doesn’t benefit a politician to take their time to listen when they have all that money to collect so they can continue to say, “Where are all the people and what do they think?”

RaToNaGe – The Random Town City, Village or Place Name Generator

PriusChat Shop : Weathertech Toyota Prius Side Window Deflectors [W2472357] – $110.95.

Bullshit. They knew this was going to happen. How could they not? I’m clicking on Check for Update every five minutes or so and constantly getting the “server could not be contacted” bullshit right now. If they knew this was going to happen, why not just send out updates via disk or ask you to come into the store or both or download, store, disk? They knew this would happen…how could they not?

Yep, we heard that right.  Google is taking on Microsoft and the Office wars are officially on.  How do you, as Google, get a foothold in the corporate world dominated by MS brands/tools/stuff?  Charge businesses $50/per user/per year for almost the same tools as Microsoft charges oodles more for.  I say almost because

it is isn’t comparing apples to apples, more like apples to kumquats.  Still, you are a business that wants to save on your licensing fees from MS and Google makes it absurdly easy to migrate your email/contacts/calendar to Google Apps…and keeps it synced up afterward so you can stop using Outlook slowly?  Why the heck do I even continue typing?

show there is life outside corporate bullshit.  Why not admit that work is a part of one’s life and sometimes that means playing ping pong?  I want to work somewhere that doesn’t take itself too seriously and outside of PA, I think that means I will be going into business for myself…as a clown…selling meat on a stick…at a state fair.

Besides, who wouldn’t want to work somewhere that encouraged online collaboration while directing an avatar dressed like Conan?  I certainly would.  The last time I had a LAN party at my work, it was 2007.  Now we are in a smaller space that prohibits that type of gathering.  Sigh.

YouTube – Advanced Cat Yodeling.

This is an interesting post that I had not thought about before.  Obviously, this requires a web-enabled scenario and not a proprietary application for a specific platform.   Google, like the post says, could do this fairly easily, except for the encryption part, already.  In fact, this could be done with inbound rules, but the ‘ease of use’ factor is compelling.

Certainly thinking about email communication as vital and archived data of a person that should show trends and statistical values is a radical shift to the traditional profession-based function of electronic mail.  Notifications take up more traffic than probably is necessary.  Transmitting that via RSS, for example, and keeping that statistical information while deleting the actual RSS info, would be a start.  Perhaps I don’t need to know what Jeff emailed me about six months ago, but I do need to know that I haven’t emailed him in six months, for example.  (That is completely hypothetical.) Similarly, bill notifications from a year ago are not important, but the price I am paying a year ago versus today is important.  I use a separate online service, called Yodlee, that I can run reports on my trends and pinpoint a particular category for historical data.  This service is free and very powerful, but the above post has a point.  All that data is coming into the inbox already, it is the programs we use that cannot parse it correctly.  Of course this is only because we haven’t asked it to yet.

“What disappoints me is that the two ‘articles’ (and I do mean the quotes) are not news, just opinion.  No one knows how many times the file was shared, doctored and shared again.  [...] P2P sites share EVERYTHING, including crap that almost no one wants.  This could be in that category, only because it is such a rough cut.  One site has 2,500 users and only 50 have grabbed either of the two versions.  That’s not very many and does not mean that those 50 people will not buy a ticket.”

I also elaborated about the situation/symptom that created this:

“Now, who’s fault is this?  The guy (and I do mean guy) that uploaded it initially to the newsgroup anonymously?  I don’t think so.  Here’s the larger issue.  ANY movie that is produced and marketed without a viable digital option is begging to be copied.  ITunes/Netflix/digital distribution vehicle only allow me to stream or use on one computer.  I can rent a movie on Xbox 360, but I can’t watch it on my Mac/video iPod/iPhone/another Xbox 360.  ITunes does a little better with its Digital Rights Management (DRM), but I still can’t rent a movie on iTunes and watch it on my TV without an Apple TV device.  I certainly can’t watch a movie from Netflix on my iPhone, or even legally copy my own DVD to a digital file to watch on my iPhone.  There is disagreement among distributors regarding the restrictions for a consumer to digest digital content, to the point that unless you are locked into their hardware-specific solution, forget about transferring a digital file.  When consumers are treated like criminals, then they will act like criminals.  I borrow DVDs from friends and I have the opportunity to copy it and keep it.  What stops me is that the DVD is equally available to me at the store, cheaply and conveniently, and I can play it regardless of what DVD player I own (4).  A digital file is not available equally to all, it is based on your hardware.  This is because every company wants to be THE creator or distributor of digital content.  The exclusivity of the content distribution equals the exclusivity of the content itself.  This model, by default, assumes that the consumer will copy content if given the chance.  (Don’t get me started on federal laws being made for corporate benefit.)  The point is NOT to charge the consumer for each type of device the content is on, the point is to give the consumer your content on their preferred device at the moment.  That could be an iPhone, a living room computer, TiVo, whatever.  If I had to pay to watch a movie on my computer and then pay again to watch it on my TV, I would not be happy.  Blu-Ray has an option (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#BD.2B ) to limit the play device of a Blu-Ray disc.  This could be used to limit the device to specific manufacturers or worse, specific versions of devices.”

Finally, I give a two sentence taste of what I think the solution is:

“Fox could take the sting out of this type of situation by simultaneously releasing the movie on DVD/theater/digital download for all venues.  This would relegate the piracy to only the truly hardcore people that will rip a movie regardless of how easy it would be to get the actual thing.”

Later on, Ralph calls me and he mentions that studio execs are running around crazily because they are concerned about the ‘reviews’ of the Wolverine workprint that paint a not-so-rosy picture of the movie.

I still believe that a ubiquitous release concept of consumer content would take the wind out of a lot of pirate sails.  The old model of theaters first to network television last just won’t cut it in an age of digial media.  Potential loss of ticket sales is the ghoulish spectre haunting the MPAA.  Why?  That is how they rate the success or failure of a movie, not the DVD sales or iTunes downloads or NetFlix streams.  All this content is equal.  DVDs might have better extras than the iTunes download, but it is priced with that in mind (I am ignoring the secondary retail market).  I would rather pay once for digital media and have the ability to move it to whatever device I own, without restrictions.  We didn’t have this problem with VHS, they were too clunky.  Audio casettes were inferior media that wore out eventually.  Digital could be forever.  Why would I buy the same movie on Blu-Ray, a temporary media type, when I can download the file in a format that can be possibly converted for free?  Why don’t the studios get into the digital codec business and create a new business model?  If I could buy a digital file and be assured that it could play on my computer, iPhone, TiVo, Xbox 360 equally, I would be willing to pay a premium for it.

Its the business model that detracts from the studio making money on digital content.  The stodgy belief that theater sales are important and should be the primary focus of marketing is old thinking.  Moving to digital-only entertainment will only get easier.  I can’t predict when, but I can bet it will happen.

style.org > Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow.

So, I am clearly caught in the stench of a ‘sale’ and since I can’t turn the speaker off, down, or my ears, I must continue to listen to this rambling three minute pitch and realize that I am not an individual anymore.  Alaska Airlines has transmutated me to a consumer, a demographic, a target goal, and a nusiance.  Why can’t I just pay an exorbitant price for a substandard product/service so they would not have to do this?

I understand that the steward was only doing what he was told to do, it was his job.  He clearly did not relish the moment, his voice was animated, but it lacked the fervor of a true believer.  Instead, a convert to the religion with frayed edges on his slightly oversized, organization-issued jacket.  I could believe that he would rather be handing out ice water than speaking the words, but it didn’t matter.  He said them anyway and I received them with as much lackluster enthusiasm.

Another thought came to me: why do we rely on these workers for life-saving directions when they can just as easily make the opposite decision?  When the representatives of the corporation are required to speak words they do not believe for the benefit of the corporation, what is to stop the representatives to reach a breaking point in a crisis and think themselves just a worker, not really important and besides, I want to live, I have a family just like you, consumer-peon.  When the representatives of the corporation demonstrate how to put a seat belt on with equal interest as we would watch an ant on the sidewalk, I wonder if I would respond favorably to any command given to me by a representative?

Perhaps this is taking the moment in time to an existential degree not found very often, but this is my dilemma when I step on a plane.  The purpose of the airline is NOT to get you to Point B, it is to make money while taking you to Point B, unless its cheaper to leave you in Chicago while your connecting flight leaves for Columbus without you.

In other news, when resisting the siren song of WoW, I have been watching movies and reading with Katie.  We cannot keep our hands off Half Price Books and have the stack of, well, books to prove it.

Pygmy Marmoset – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Don’t misunderstand me.

I don’t like Joe Biden.  I watched the VP debates and I didn’t like either of them, though, Sentor Biden was more annoying and more pompous than Gov. Palin.  I especially didn’t like how he would speak about himself in the third person.  Despite all that, his foreign affairs credentials are quite impressive.  The New Yorker article (Thanks Mom) about Obama and McCain’s foreign policies really hit home for me.  I think that was when I made a decision to vote with the pair of people I think would do a better job.

When I read about Gov. Palin and saw the spin about her foreign policy experience, that really sent a warning flag up for me.  I was also concerned with Sen. McCain’s health and besides, doesn’t the country feel more exuberant with a younger, more vibrant president?  Is that not part of the Camelot mythology of JFK?

I believe that the correct pair of politicians won this time.  It is only an additional icing on the cake to know that this is a truly historic moment of breaking a race barrier in the most powerful position in the world.

The Tent (1 of 4)

I am now vindicated.  This is the killer functionality that the iPhone is lacking at the moment.  I cannot wait to see it pop up at the App Store.

Now, I just have to figure out how to SSH into a non-iBricked iPhone and I’ll be good to go.

I just saw this on a DVD of America’s Funniest Home Videos and I had to share it.

I have finally bought Skate. and I love it.  This video is what I would have to do without Skate. in my life.

This is really an interesting idea.  I originally used POP exclusively until Google opened up IMAP.  I thought about the lack of backup, but I figured that someone would talk about it eventually.  Well, this is the official word.  Use POP they say. Geez, like I didn’t already come around full circle.  The old ways are best, I guess.

Why not offer a backup service for a measley $15/year?  It doesn’t really cost them anything, gmail has already boosted its space, just add an extra 2GB and compress a backup once a week or month.  What would be even cooler is a tab-delimited file of all your email that you can access through Google Apps with hyperlinks to attachments.  THAT would rock.

Bad ass.

Amorphia Apparel – Insugent Chicken Tee Shirt

Rands In Repose: A Nerd in a Cave

I see several things here.   One, Katie needs to read this…VERY carefully.  I also have a female Night Elf on WoW and I see Rands point about said elf dancing on the screen.  I will admit I am more often found in The Place than in the The Zone, though I do find myself in said Zone late at night on a weeknight for several minutes at a time.  That being said, the basement is definitely my Zone and Katie has taken to sitting on the stairs, halfway between the outside world and my space.  She is quite cute when I reflect on her actions now, but when she’s sitting on the stairs and I’m trying to get notMac to serve my damn webdav server it is looked upon as quite distracting and annoying.

Two, I need to clean up my space a little.  I have too many projects that are taking up my attention, plus the attraction of the 360 and Skate, plus the movies that we rent, plus the stuff I download…geez, I got a lot of shit and it’s mostly pop culture, something that I disdain in intellectual circles.

Lastly, I know that stuff happens outside my space, I have the internet, after all.  The problem is that I feel that the moment I walk away from said info portal is the moment that something big is going to happen.  What I need to do is be a part of something big so that I know when its going to happen and I won’t need to wonder and wait.

Phil’s New Screen

http://www.break.com/index/motion-activated-sprinkler-vs-pigeons.html

Stixy: For Flexible Online Creation Collaboration and Sharing