Author: Dr. Bill

Did you know that “Dr. Bill – The Computer Curmudgeon” is not my only podcast? Did you know that we have over 1,100 subscribers? Did you know that I am tired of saying, “Did you know…?” Anyway, we are now listed on Blubrry, a Podcasting Community! Cool, huh?

Here are links to my other podcasts:

The Traditional Naturopath

The Spirit of Faith Netcast

and, here is the link to Blubrry:

Blubrry

About Blubrry (What they say about themselves)

“Why the funny name?

We at RawVoice believe in creating Fresh Organic Media. In time with our mission we felt that nothing ‘says celebrate the fruits of your labor with the people who make your show sweet’ than Blubrry. It’s not Blubbery but a crisp, refreshing podcaster AND listener community called blubrry– where there is no ‘E’ in fruit and no ‘I’ in our philosophy.

Blubrry is not a directory, it’s a community.”

Here we go again! Added to the 2006 update of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition… here’s the list:

Below you’ll find a sample of the nearly 100 new words and senses from the 2006 copyright version of the best-selling Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition—available this fall in bookstores everywhere. How many of these words are already a part of your vocabulary?

Technology and Computers
mouse potato
ringtone
spyware

Science and Medicine
avian influenza
biodiesel
gastric bypass

Pop Culture
soul patch
supersize

Entertainment and Leisure
labelmate
ollie
wave pool

The Human Condition
drama queen
unibrow

International
manga
qigong

Business and Industry
agritourism
big-box

Nature
aquascape
coqui

Miscellaneous
polyamory
sandwich generation

2006 marks the bicentennial anniversary of America’s first dictionary—Noah Webster’s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. To see what words were “new” in 1806, check out A Glossary of New Words in the special anniversary section of Merriam-Webster Online.

Merriam-Webster – New Words

Cool! Our language grows and adapts… even for geeks!

No surprise there! But Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols says that others may be catching up. He also notes that the most popular Linux distros seem to be those that have large communities behind them.

Results from the 2006 Desktop Linux Survey

Steven, like me, thinks that other time, Freespire may catch up, but for now, Ubuntu with the regular Gnome GUI is tops on the list!

“What’s happening here? Well, if you take a look at which distributions did well, you’ll see they have one thing in common: they’re all community-based distributions. I think what we’re seeing with our survey is that the people who’ve invested something of themselves in their Linux desktop are the ones voting. The people who simply use the Linux that’s set in front of them, or just buy it, have less invested in it and so are less likely to vote. I have no doubt, based on all the Linux desktops I’ve seen in use at tradeshows, homes, and offices, that while Ubuntu is number one, SLED and openSUSE are clearly the real number two in the number of users, with Linspire in third place. I’d be willing to lay down a small bet that as Linspire’s recent community Freespire release gathers more supporters, and based on what I’ve seen of the distro, it will be near the top in our next survey.”

AOL can’t seem to catch a break. (Ain’t it great?!?!) They were labelled as official “badware” by an independent group – the StopBadware.org coalition.

AOL 9.0 Slapped with ‘Badware’ Label

“The high-powered StopBadware.org coalition has slapped a ‘badware’ label on the free version of the AOL 9.0 software program. The group, which is funded by Google, Lenovo Group and Sun Microsystems, accused AOL of installing additional software without telling the user; adding components to the browser and taskbar without disclosure; automatically updating software without user consent; and making the AOL 9.0 software difficult to fully uninstall. ‘We currently recommend that users do not install the version of AOL software that we tested,’ according to a report released Aug. 28 by StopBadware.org. The recommendation is a serious blow to AOL, which is already struggling with user privacy problems related to the recent disclosure of search data of more than 650,000 users. The report said the AOL 9.0 software comes bundled with a number of additional applications, including RealNetworks’ RealPlayer, Apple Computer’s QuickTime, AOL You’ve Got Pictures Screensaver, Pure Networks’ Port Magic, and Viewpoint Media Player.”

Go get ’em, guys!

And, I mean “HOT” in both senses… it seems to run hotter, and very fast in the “hot” sense as well! But, the new CPU chip is out!

Mobile Core2 Duo: Performance at a Cost

“The mobile version of the Core2 Duo, code-named Merom, completes the circle: The company now has the same architecture across desktop, mobile, and most server platforms. The mobile version is identical architecturally to the desktop Core2 Duo, but adds more aggressive power management. That’s a good thing, as we’ll see shortly, because the new CPU can run hotter when pushed hard than Intel’s previous Core Duo mobile line.

So, there you go! “HOT!”

Internet Explorer Version 7 is getting close, but is it too little, too late? Microsoft announced the release of Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of IE7. However, even though it is BETTER than the old IE, Firefox users are not likely to move back.

Microsoft puts up first IE7 release candidate

“Speaking of Firefox, which is now estimated to have more than 15% market share, Mozilla is due to release FireFox 2.0 Beta 2 on August 30, slipping seven days behind its original August 23 schedule. Firefox 2.0 release candidates are due in September with final release due on October 24. With the current slippage of Beta 2, it is not clear whether Mozilla will hold to the October 24 deadline. While it is unlikely that Firefox will suffer significant defections to IE7 as a result of being a few weeks late to market with its new release, winning customers from the much improved IE7 will be a much tougher proposition than from IE6. The world is waiting to see Firefox 2.0 can maintain the edge Mozilla has established in the browser war.”