Category: Reviews

Buzzword

Thursday, 31 July 2008 13:35 Written by Mike 0 Comments

I recently did a review on Adobe’s acrobat.com site that allows document storage, document editing, collaboration and screen sharing, file sharing and more.

The part of the acrobat.com site that allows for document editing is called Buzzword.  Buzzword is a pretty powerful web based application that allows you to edit documents online in a word processor that somewhat resembles the big guys like Microsoft Word.

Buzzword is not as feature packed as Microsoft Word but for most tasks it will probably do just fine.  There is no charge for acrobat.com or Buzzword so it is hard to complain that they are not full featured :) .

This is the initial release of Buzzword, so I suspect that sometime in the near future new features will be added.

One cool thing about Buzzword and acrobat.com is they allow collaboration between multiple users.  You can share files, share documents, etc.  It also appears that more than one person can be editing the same file at the same time without losing work.

If you compare it to the other free word processors out there, buzzword is better than any that I have seen.  Also, you can access your document from anywhere on the Internet.  But yes, you need to be connected to the internet to get to it.  So you cannot just take your laptop out to lake where you have no internet and work on your document.

There is also an Adobe AIR based version of the acrobat.com suite of programs.  I am not sure if it can run without the internet or not, that is something I will have to research and update everyone on.  The little bit of research I did on the AIR version did not turn out happy comments.  Most comments were that it was hard to use.

Check back soon for an update on the AIR version of acrobat.

Bottom line, Buzzword is great for most regular word processing, it is free and has nice collaboration capabilities.  But if you need the advanced features that are available in Microsoft Word, then Buzzword is not there yet.  But by all means, check it out.

cuil.com a new search engine

Thursday, 31 July 2008 12:53 Written by Mike 1 Comment

Not sure if you have heard but there is a new search engine in town.  It is called cool but is spelled cuil.  Visit cuil.com and you will see a very simple interface.  Nothing cluttered like yahoo or msn.  Simple is the new beautiful :) .  Cuil claims to have 121,617,892,992 site indexed at the time of this writing.  That is at least 10 times more than Google.

The other cool (pun intended) thing is cuil presents it’s results in column format, just like a magazine or newspaper.  You can select if you want the results in 2 or 3 columns.

In my playing over the past couple of days I have found it to be very fast in finding results.  Now, remember this is a new search engine so as more people start using cuil it may get slower.  Hopefully the folks at cuil will keep an eye on performance and do upgrades as needed.

Unlike most other search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) Cuil does not keep any information on you, what you search for, etc.  They focus more on the sites and the site content.

Cuil was created by some former Google engineers who recreated the search algorithms from scratch to better index sites by content.

Cuil presents the search results in a very easy to use format and even categorizes with a tool bar for larger categories that it finds.

I am not sure of the business model for cuil but at least for now there is no advertising that I have seen.  I guess it remains to be seen if that continues or if they have a different business model than other search engines.  Up to this point though I am not sure how they are going to make money.

Give it a try.   www.cuil.com.  It might just become your new favorite search engine.

Acrobat.com

Monday, 28 July 2008 14:50 Written by Mike 0 Comments

Ok, just about everyone has heard of Acrobat.  No, not the bendy twisty guys and gals that fly around on poles, parallel bars, etc.  Think more geeky than that.  How about Adobe Acrobat?

Well, Adobe has a new site out now called acrobat.com that is aiming to replace some of your desktop applications.  acrobat.com has built in a feature rich word processor called BuzzWord.  It is not as full featured as Microsoft Word but hey it is free and it has one other very cool feature which I will describe in a little bit.

Acrobat.com is aiming at the collaboration market.  That is where it really shines.  In addition to BuzzWord the site has ConnectNow which is Adobe’s competitive entry into the market for screen sharing and web presentations.  Kind of like Webex.  I personally like the user interface for ConnectNow better, but that is just me.

The site also lets you share documents and create PDF files.  Remember that cool feature about buzzword I mentioned before?  Buzzword allows 2 people to edit the same document simultaneously.  Talk about collaboration…..

I will do a more in depth review of BuzzWord soon so I will skip all of the cool details in this review.

Go checkout acrobat.com.  There is no cost to sign up and use it.  You can login from anywhere on the internet to access your files, your documents, etc.

I am still trying to get more info on the roadmap for acrobat.com but the initial offering that is out there now is a good strong start.  I would think a good spreadsheet application is also required for the site to become highly successful.

Mac Vs PC

Saturday, 21 June 2008 20:01 Written by Mike 0 Comments

Oh, the great debate about Mac vs. PC. My view on the subject may not be a popular one :)

We have all seen the Apple commercials where Mac looks like the cool kid on the block and PC a whiny, geeky hypochondriac with severe allergies that was denied fun by his parents. Ok, so I read a lot into the commercials.

The debate between PC’s and Macs has gone on since the Lisa was first introduced in 1983. Back then it was the GUI interface vs the command line interface.

Ok, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty dirty stuff, but first let me just say I am not prejudiced towards either one. I love all computers. I have both PC’s and Macs in my house as well as linux machines. And I not only have all of these but use them all regularly.

I am a network / security engineer by trade and let me just say that for that type of stuff, the PC has many more tools available. Linux falls a close 2nd right behind Windows. It seems Windows has a big jumpstart on the tools I need to my job. All of those years prior to the Mac OSX operating systems put the Mac way behind because it lacked a good networking system.

Now that OSX is based on a unix kernel, the development of such networking tools would be much easier. There are tons of unix tools already out there and it would not take much to port them over to the Mac, at least in a command line form. And, now the Mac can run X-windows. But so far, there have not been many ports yet.

So, from a perspective of doing my network jobs, a PC is a requirement. I mean you cannot get tools like Solarwinds, the checkpoint dashboard, etc. on a Mac. At least not in native OSX. I do not want to delve into Parallels or VMWare Fusion. They may solve what I am talking about.

From the perspective of the office tools, I use both, it all depends on what else I am doing. For example, if I am using my Laptop doing some regular work I will use the PC. My main email is on an Exchange server. I do like Outlook better than Entourage. Although I will use Entourage if I am on the Mac.

For development tasks, I use the PC more than the Mac except if I am working on web pages. I use both for developing web sites. You can code in php, java, flash, etc just as easy on either platform. I use Dreamweaver which is available on both platforms. I think I am a bit more familiar with Dreamweaver on the PC but Dreamweaver on the Mac is easy too.

Now, I do a lot of photo work and video editing, I do all of that work on the Mac. There is in my opinion no better editor than Final Cut. I have used lots of them and Final Cut is a step above the rest. The Mac really shines in the graphics and video world and has for a long time. In fact that was a stigma that the

So, I know I sound like a politician, not taking sides. Why would I take sides, I like them both. As I mentioned before I also use a lot of unix (mainly linux). That is probably my favorite operating system. However, I do not use much XWindows. For the nice gui interfaces I stick with the Mac or the PC.

So which one is better? You could use the numbers that are published by Microsoft and Apple to determine that, but according to them, they each think they are better and winning. I do think there is a platform shift going on right now. I think the Mac is gaining ground.

A couple of years ago I got my mom to purchase a computer and get on the Internet. She is not computer savvy at all. She has Windows XP and I keep it updated for her. If I had to do it again I would probably have her get a Mac. I do think they are much more intuitive than a Windows system.

So that being said, what is the right one for you? There are a lot of factors that need to be looked at. First of all, what are you going to be using it for? If it is going to be just a home machine for the family to use, a Mac is a great choice. It is easy for kids to use, it is intuitive for the new computer users.

Macs are also come in some nice packaging forms now. The iMac is self contained. All you have is a monitor, keyboard and mouse with one power plug. The Mac is a complete system that includes matched hardware and software. Unlike a Windows machine where the hardware is made by Dell but the operating system is provided by Microsoft. If you have a problem you have one place to call for the Mac.

Now, I just talked up the Mac, now lets talk up the Windows platform a little bit, afterall, I like it too. First let me say, I am not a huge fan of Vista. I like XP better. I agree that Vista looks prettier, but like your prom date, it is what is on the inside that counts.

I have much better luck with Windows XP than Vista. Just my 2 cents…. Ok, so if you have specialized needs that require Windows or you are already used to Windows, there is no reason to switch. Unless you are getting tired of blue screen of death (BSOD) crashes.

Windows is not too hard to figure out. Windows does support a much larger selection of hardware and has a ton more software available for it than a Mac OSX does. More games, more productivity software, etc.

Ok, now you are convinced a Windows machine is the way to go right? Afterall it has all of this software, lots more than the Mac does. Well….. What if you could run all of the Mac software AND all of the Windows software on one machine? Are you saying to stop teasing you, oh stop confusing you…..

Well, with Parallels for Mac or VMWare Fusion the Mac can run Windows programs too. In fact, you install Windows inside of your Mac. Now, this is only a good option if you have a new Intel based Mac. the older Mac that used powerPC chips had to run a program called VirtualPC which runs very very slow. Not something I would recommend.

On my 8 core Mac Pro I run VMWare fusion and have Vista and Windows XP running and they run better than if they were on their own dedicated hardware. You ask why VMWare Fusion over Parallels? Well, I have another review of the 2 products coming out soon, in there I describe the 2 products. Let me just say you can have drag and drop between the operating systems as well as file sharing. It is awesome.

Ok, so now you are confused. Sorry…. Deciding on the right computer for you can be confusing. The first thing to look at is your budget. If you have the money, I can recommend a Mac with VMWare Fusion running Windows. You will have all bases covered and you will love the solution. The Mac has easy to use video editing and other tools that blow windows away. If you decide on a Mac, check out a .mac account, there are some really cool features you get with a .mac account.

What about Windows for a new machine for the family? Well sure, it will work just fine and you will save a few bucks over a Mac. Shop around, there are some great deals out there for Windows PC’s. I like IBM hardware, I am not a big fan of Dell Laptops but they make good desktops.

Now that I have probably completely confused you, the bottom line is I think both platforms are great platforms and each has their advantage over the other, but I think the Mac has more advantages over Windows when it comes to hardware and software integration . But you will not be making a horrible choice with Windows.

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