Apple OS X Lion only available as download from the Cloud
With the release of OS X or Lion, Apple has stopped shipping software in white boxes with CD ROM media.
Most of us are already using the Cloud whether we know it or not.
Apple software is only available by download from the App Store. To reinforce the point, the latest MAC hardware doesn’t have a CD ROM drive.
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Future Tax T1 software
I was pleasantly surprised this year by Future Tax T1 income tax software. It matches the market leader at a fraction of the price.
Future Tax does everything that Turbo Tax does for $34 less. Income Tax returns with Net Income less than $25,000 are free.
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iLok dongle
Companies live in fear spending their time looking for pirates. Write good software, price it reasonably and you will sell enough to make a profit.
The last niche of the software market that hasn’t grown up is the music business. The business practices are twenty years old.
Many companies in audio and recording require a dongle to use their software. Dongles disappeared from the face of the earth in the rest of the computer business around 1990. Continue reading
Sonar X1 Skylight interface (photo gearwire)
Cakewalk’s Sonar X1 digital audio recording software (DAW) was released in December to initial enthusiasm amongst Cakewalk’s customers and then bitter disappointment as the program literally would not work as advertised.
Cakewalk Sonar X1 has the potential to be one of the best DAWs with technical features second to none, great midi and editing tools, an array of free 64-bit VST plugins, samples and included software like Dimension Pro.
Update – Sonar X1b now ready for prime time
As a long time Sonar user, I hope they get it right sooner than later.
Sonar X1 sports a new and improved interface along with several excellent new features like ProChannel. All of that is tarnished by the inadequate testing before the public release. Continue reading
People who use Sonar Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) in business are losing money when the product is buggy.
Cakewalk supports Sonar as if customers are not in the business of recording music.
Update – Sonar X1b now ready for prime time
I respectfully submit that Cakewalk needs to develop a tiered support level to keep it’s customers happy and to pay for the support businesses expect.
This is not a problem with Cakewalk’s employees: it’s a failure of management to put the proper customer service systems in place.
Forget how buggy Sonar X1 is. The support of the Online Forum and email support doesn’t cut it when time = money in business. Continue reading
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison jubilant over suit with SAP (photo hellocompany.org)
When SAP purchased a TomorrowNow, an Oracle support company, in 2005 it was trying to expand its business by going after Oracle accounts.
This week a jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion against rival SAP in the largest copyright infringement case in history.
The previous record for a jury award in a copyright lawsuit was the RIAA $136 million award against Media group for unlicensed distribution of music including Elvis Presley songs.
Many companies are in the dark on licensing. Failure to acquire software licenses legally can result in punitive fines and jury awards. Microsoft routinely audits its business customers for copyright and license infringement. Continue reading
DietPower Food Log screen (click for larger image)
We’re finally at the part of the series on losing weight for people with disabilities where we get to the software that becomes your personal coach to more energy, a better life and maybe a few extra happy years to your life.
Most of these articles apply to everyone so even if you don’t have a disability keep reading.
In the process we all learn more about ourselves and the levers we can manipulate with food and exercise to maintain a better lifestyle despite disability.
So far we discussed -
1. It’s easier to get through every day without that “30-lb-turkey” of extra weight when you are living with a disability. Continue reading
Tiger Direct computer kit
Instead of buying your next computer online or from a retailer, why not build your own?
You will probably get a better computer, with better parts and have a little fun in the process.
It might cost slightly more than buying one already made but the difference won’t be much if you shop around.
Generally, the extra cost comes from upgrading components from bare-bones to high performance but that works for store bought computers as well.
The kit in the illustration from Tiger Direct is only $360. It needs an operating system which if you are on the cheap could be a free copy of Ubuntu, which for all intents and purposes looks and acts like Windows.
You won’t be running expensive Microsoft programs on Ubuntu since it is Linux but they have parallel programs for most of the chores we do on our computers. Considering that people are using their computers mainly on the Internet cloud, the decision is easy.
How hard are kits? They take basic mechanical skills to assemble. The tricky parts are carefully placing the CPU on the motherboard and making sure all the wiring is correct. There are plenty of diagrams, online help screens and videos to step you through the process.
I have been searching for 80 days for a low cost source for Microsoft Office 2010 and found it at eValusoftware.com.
A 2 computer license cost only $160, about $120 less than most places.
If Microsoft hadn’t pulled a Vista and ruined Office with Office 2007, I wouldn’t be upgrading. I live inside Microsoft Office and have for almost 20 years. The GUI changes in Office 2007 buried things like “File Share” and standard formatting you use all day long along a new-fangled “ribbon”. Everyone hates it including the mothers of Microsoft programmers.
Microsoft’s fixed most of the interface with Office 2010 which they offered on a 90 to 180 day trial. Good move since I got used to it. The crunch comes when you try to buy it. Office 2010 Home and Student for 3 users is a reasonable $160 but it leaves out Outlook which is the best mail client for people with multiple accounts, access to Exchange and a host of other complications. Continue reading
Adobe CS5 Master Suite
The release of Adobe CS5 in May gave me an opportunity to consider moving up from Photoshop and Premiere Elements. Those programs do a great job but I want to explore more possibilities with my video editing. The new Mercury rendering engine alone seemed worth the price. With Premiere Elements you are always waiting for a clip to render.
I learned that the Trial software is a waste of time.
After several hours of downloading and installation, I got to work on editing a 3 minute video. CS5 Premiere is significantly different from Elements. I studied the tutorial videos which are a decent introduction to the software.
Then I got started. Oops can’t import MPEG. Checked that out on Google. Importing in the Trial version is limited to AVI files. No problem. Get a converter and converted the file which is now 1/8th the size. The video quality was down noticeably.
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New Office Live
Without fanfare, Microsoft has released it’s free web version of Office. Hosted on Microsoft Live , all you have to do is login to Windows Live. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote documents can be created without purchasing an Office license.
The Office choice is between Messenger and Photos. The ribbon bar is much simpler than Office 2007 or 2010 which is a joy, just File, Home, Insert and View. Most of us can’t find the simplest things any more with office.
The product is a response to Google’s free Office apps that Google says are good enough to keep people from upgrading to Office 2010. Hard to say but Office Live works well. I’m composing this blog on it.
The documents are saved out there in the Cloud on something called SkyDrive. I saved the document and low and behold it told me I had 24.99 GB of space left. I didn’t know I had any. What I couldn’t determine was how to move this document to one of those folders. More experimenting required.