If you knew me in Real Life, you'd probably already know that I'm dangerously addicted to TED Talks. If you are reading this and have no idea what TED is, here's an explanation from the TED website:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

The TED Talks are video recordings of  people giving talks at these TED conferences. The smartest, most accomplished people in the world, telling me about their work, their ideas, their cutting edge gadgets. Right there on the web, for free.

I could lose DAYS on this stuff. I'm not the only one. Last year, my husband and brother-in-law (with total family involvement from our excited children)  hacked their Wii remote to create a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer after watching this TED Talk by Johnny Lee:

I ask you, where else could you find information that would make a whole family excited about disassembling  part of an expensive video game system instead of just, you know, using it to play games. (Of course, later that summer we created a low-tech air conditioner with a a box fan, a length of copper tubing and a bucket of ice water,  so maybe we're not the best examples.)

Still there is a lot of information to be had there. I can trace the fact that my sons are now home schooled back to this talk by Sir Ken Robinson, about how schools kill creativity (fair warning- it's 20 minutes long, but quite amusing):

 

 Now, for the tech-lovers among us, take a look at this jaw-droppingly awesome augmented reality mapping technology from Microsoft:

They have now added a "Best of the Web" feature which allows them to share extraordinary and inspiring talks that were not recorded at TED conferences. Like the Harvard commencement speech given by J.K. Rowling that has so recently moved and inspired me, The Fringe Benefits of Failure.

Many of the shorter, more entertaining videos have made their way onto YouTube. The best of these give us insight into our world and ourselves, or else give detailed instructions on how to turn household appliances into doomsday devices.

Well, okay. Not really. But TED Talks are like the best bits of the best lectures you might ever have heard in college, and they are totally free. What's not to love about that?

I am going to leave you with one I found to be quite fun, though perhaps not earth-shatteringly revolutionary. Micheal Shermer: Why People Believe Strange Things.

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*May not be as advertised.  May not be free.  May promise badgers.

            Hi!  How are you on this fine weekend! Monday.  Or whatever day I’ve caught you on.  You see, I’ve lost track, and I blame the world of WYSIWYG programs.   

WYSIWYG has become a popular, if long, abbreviated way of advertising for click-and-drag website builders.  WYSIWYG programs (which I’ll now call WisWigs, because I can)  are meant for us poor sections of the population whose brains tend to dribble out of their ears the moment someone tries to show us the glorious ways of .html, .xtml, Java, or the rest of the long list of ways to code a website lately.

            Now, I’m sure some of you are going, “But DeadCat!  HTML coding is so easy.  Let me show you!”

            What, you really do want to see my brains dribble out of my ears?  I assure you, it isn’t pretty.  It smells funny, too.

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Over the last week or so I've had to investigate many different Linux distributions.  The reason is because there are hardly any operating systems that will run on a eeepc 4G Surf anymore.  This all started when I misheard some advice and installed the newest version of Ubuntu 9.10 NBR.  While I'd love to give you a review, it did nothing but blow up my netbook.  To my credit, I've been using one version or another of Linux for about 7 years now.  So I'm not exactly a n00b and will put up with a lot of crap from an OS if I like it.  Since I had to reload my OS anyway I thought I'd do a little digging and a little shopping around.  Get out of my comfortable Ubuntu/eeebuntu zone and see what's out there. 

Boy, did I find stuff!  Mostly what I found is that Linux distributions are like women's shoes.  There are an infinite number of brands, styles and colors to choose from but a lot of them are going to hurt.  So without much further ado, my quick and dirty run down of different Linux distributions experiences on my Asus eeepc 4G Surf (BTW, this is by no means an exhaustive list):

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When someone sent this to me, I thought it was a joke. Four actors pretending to be friends, telling us all about how to have a successful Windows 7 launch party. Let's repeat that for effect :

A Windows 7  launch party.

It seems Windows is tired of being the brand of the Sheep, the operating system of Those Who Don't Know Any Better, bless their hearts. They want us to get excited about Windows 7 and invite our friends over to persuade them of the superiority of their product.

Who do they think we are, Mac users?!? 

I'll be honest -- my computer came loaded with Vista. When the "Geek Squad" tried to sell me on their "system optimization" I smiled and said, "When I get this puppy home, I'm nuking it back to Windows XP."

For better or for worse, Windows is something we tolerate, not celebrate.

I've hosted many a geeky get-together. One of them was  a Lord of the Rings party that lasted three days. People flew in from all over to dress up in costumes and party like it was the dawn of the Age of Men. The vast majority of my friends are geeks. Still, I can only imagine the looks I'd get were I to throw a Windows 7 party. 

Say what you will, but when people who are willing to go to the movies in elf ears think something is not cool, you know it's really, really not cool.

What follows is a video so socially awkward that even I cringed at it, and I'm a veteran of many a product-driven party (Tupperware, make-up, kitchen gadgets). This video makes those parties look like fashionable salons of the Renaissance.

 

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First, let me issue a blanket proscription on doing your online banking, stock trading, or anything of vital importance over a computer or network that you don't trust.  I'll call these important sites.  For the rest--sites with comparatively less ability to destroy your life, e.g. your webmail, your social networking--let's discuss some risk reduction.  Security is all about raising the bar.  Assume that a sufficiently motivated, skilled, and funded attacker can always defeat you.  Your goal is not to make it impossible to hack you; it's to make it not worth their time.  Attackers are lazy--there's easy pickings out there--so let's make it hard for them.  Let's make it hard enough that nobody bothers you.

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On May 7, just two days after it was released I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC 1.  This would be the mostly almost finished version of Windows 7, the successor of the horribly inefficient Windows Vista.  While some might say that I'm unfit to review a Windows product after my thrashing of Windows over the years (I was happily Windows free for years until the iTouch forced me back.  How's that for irony) I think this makes me an excellent candidate for testing it.  Because I'm not a Gates fangirl.  In fact, I'm starting to think Gates is the Anti-Christ, oh wait, that's Sam Winchester.  Sorry, I get confused sometimes.  The point is, against my better judgment?  I'm impressed.

I did have some issues installing but I can't even blame those on Microsoft.  No, that had everything to do with the fun and exciting Libyan power we have here.  So in the middle of my first attempt to install Windows 7, my laptop fried it's motherboard.  Apparently Vista was feeling the heat and figured it was it or Win 7 and it was going to make sure neither of them survived.  Or my HP committed suicide because of it's desperate, star-crossed love of Vista.  Either way?  She's dead, Jim.  Which presented a problem. 

Windows themselves will tell you not to install Windows 7 on your main machine.  That's not because they don't believe in the operating system, but because there are bugs in it.  Big bugs that they haven't found, hence why they're releasing it as a Release Candidate.  Think of it as your most finale draft that you send off to the beta reader right before you're gonna post your fiction.  You want them to find any and all glaring errors you missed.  This is the same thing.  Heeding their advice, I tried to figure out what I could put it on as I was down a test machine.  I ended up installing it on Virtualbox, which is a virtualization program that means you can have many many different computers on one set of hardware.  It's pretty cool, and I'll explain more in detail in another post.  The basics is that this program creates a pretend computer for you to install another operating system and use.  This would be perfect as I can test it out without touching my actual hardware.  (Plus, it's awesome for viruses as it never actually touches your "bare metal")

I created a virtual computer with 512 megs of RAM and a 20 gig hard drive.  Then I loaded Windows 7.  The install process was a breeze and this was the first Windows install I didn't have to sit and babysit.  Very easy and intuitive.    The only trick was the product code, but it wasn't required to install, which I thought it was odd and I have a feeling that will definitely be fixed by the final release.  Still after a few minutes of cursing and grumbling it was interesting to see that I didn't need it.  There is however a product code, which is given to you in a text file that comes with the download.  But as I didn't get the text file I was at a bit of a loss.

I had a lot of trepidation about the specs on my pretend machine.  Windows 7 minimum install requirements are 1Ghz processor, 1Ghz of RAM and at least 16 gigs of hard drive space.  That said, Microsoft has swore left, right and center that Windows 7 will be able to work on a netbook, those really tiny laptops that are great for travel, email, and Internet.  Those have at most 512 megs of RAM in most of them, so I thought what the hell, at least I can see if Microsoft is a lying liar who lies.

I will say this, the Windows designers have out done themselves on the pretty.  The artwork is stunning and someone over there in Redmond either is a huge fan of Hiyao Miyazaki or smokes the really good stuff.  Or both.  This version of Windows has bundled with 37 different wallpapers right out of the box.  They range from the default, which is a beta fish swimming in open water (anyone else see that as slightly defensive of Microsoft) to my personal favorite, the aptly named img20, which is very Russian looking and has matrioshka dolls and honey bears wearing clothing.  Before this trial ends I'm totally snagging the wallpapers because they are just that cracktastic.  When you right click on the desktop you can personalize it, which includes the ability to change your desktop every 30 minutes.  So far I haven't seen much of a slow down on my processor, but the night is young and I'm just starting to break things.  *grin*  Indeed the entire look of the OS has a shiny new feel to it.  It's hard to say, but this looks like what Aero, which is what Microsoft called their video effects program, is supposed to look like.  It's shiny, it's new and it's gorgeous.  Sometimes shiny silver is exactly the color to go with.  There are also many different sound themes.  Yes, remember way back to Win98SE and when we all had themes for every single day of the week?  Well, while not quite so garish, this is similar.  Unfortunately, I can't review the sound themes as, surprise!  I'm having sound issues.

The other thing is Java.  While yes, Microsoft it was really nice of you to pre-install Java on your machine, something tells me you have yet to let go of your grudge with Sun over Java and installed something that resembles Java but really isn't.  Perhaps your MS Java Virtual Machine?  Which...is not Java and my attempt at depositing a check online (greatest invention EVAH by the way) and also trying to check and see how my work email runs with Windows 7 tells me so.  Because both of them come up with the Java logo but then give me a big ol' X on actually doing anything.  Thanks a lot Microsoft.  You failed there, as Java is steadily becoming more and more prevalent in society as a whole and you really do need to let go of this grudge.  You stole Java and you got caught.  End of story man, let it go.

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Finally!  After almost two years of weird tics and random freezing, I finally had it.  The solution, or so I hoped, to all my woes on my desktop computer.  The newest version of Ubuntu had come out and I had it in my grubby little hands.  YES!  I took the .iso file (which is an image of what a DVD or CD will be when it's burned.  Think of it as a winzip file for disks.) and dropped it onto my desktop.  I had a new program that I wanted to try out.  A new way of installing operating systems that didn't involve a CD/DVD rom drive.  Which, if you've ever tried to reinstall an operating system on a netbook or an ultralight Toshiba, you know why this is a good and wonderful thing!  So I copied the disk to my hard drive and let the new program go to town.  When it was doing that, I carefully made sure everything I had on the desktop was moved over to either my 1 terabyte drive or my 250 gig external.  I didn't want to lose anything, so anything of value went over. 

When that was all done, I unplugged my external drives and away I went.  I plugged the USB drive I was put the installation CD on into my USB port and rebooted the computer.  Nothing...wait what?  Oh yeah, I forgot that I had make my computer boot from USB drive first.  If you used the CD this wouldn't have happened as that's the default for almost any computer under the sun.  Except maybe HP, but they're kinda evil anyway.  Try it again, and BAM!  It starts loading...the new operating system. 

Yes, Ubuntu installs via a Live CD.  What is this you ask?  Well, it's a great way to play with the operating system and not have to commit.  I'm sure men thought this up, but it's great.  While it's slower than it would be if you installed it on an actual hard drive, you can do anything you want to it.  Check it out, take it for a test drive, all while not touching anything on your computer's actual hard drive.  Can you do that with Windows I ask?  The answer is NO!  I played around with it for a few minutes, just checking out all the new pretty of the artwork and then I clicked on the button that says "Install."

I've gone through more OS installs than I care to remember.  From Win 3.11 to Vista, I've done most of them at least once.  In college I swear I was reloading about every semester as I broke something or as another component on my old 486x mutant Gateway died.  Man, that was an awesome time.  I don't know, let's try this!  That didn't work?  Um...let's try opening it up and reseating it!  Yeah, that'll totally work.  I was a bit of a Dr. Frankenstein in college.  At least when it came to computers.  The bottom line is, I know OS install procedures.  From simple to pain in the ass and the Ubuntu install?  As easy as they come.  It's all graphical, point and click, and as long as you don't want to do something, like say change your default file system from ext3 to ext4, it's a breeze.  Of course, I can't manage to do anything simple, so yes, I went looking for the ext4 file system.  It's there, if hiding in the manual partitions.  I actually had to ask another geek where it was, which...sigh, probably means my geek cred has gone down.  But I finally got it, gave my machine a bit of extra room, swearing the entire way, and sent it on it's way.

The best time to install any Operating System, unless it starts with the word Windows, is right after release.  Especially if you're on dial-up or any other type of limited weebage.  This is because when install you'll have to get updates.  Every operating system under the sun has bugs in it.  It's just impossible to find them all before release.  The longer you wait, the more updates you'll have to install right after your install.  If you have good Internet, it's not a problem, if you have crappy internet that's capped and they shut you down, it can be a problem.  Needless to say, I had very few updates that needed to be installed. 

It finished installing and told me to reboot.  This is my first chance to really get a look at the artwork.  Now, Ubuntu really does have issues on that part.  It's not exactly the sexiest looking operating system out there.  Especially with their determination to use company colors of brown and orange.  There's just not much you can do with brown and orange.  But they tried, and I have to say the splash screen is a definite improvement.  They obviously decided to capitalize on the whole Battlestar Galactica craze as it now has a very Cylon feel to it.  Of course, we won't mention that the Cylons are the bad guys.  Still, with the yellow dot sliding back and forth across a red line, it's definitely channeling the old school Cylon look and I for one really like it.  It's head and shoulders above the old yellow bar that was filled up in increments.

 
Speaking of splash screens and boot times, did I mention the newest version of Ubuntu boots in 35.8 seconds?  No?  Oh yeah, it boots in 35.8 seconds.  This is a huge improvement over even the eeebuntu on my netbook that boots in 1 minute 35 seconds and Vista's boot time of a cup of coffee and three Supernatural magazine articles.  *glares at the Vista laptop*  I do like the fact that this version of Ubuntu gives you the option of having a log in screen or logging in automatically.  Currently I have it set to logging in automatically but with the lock on the screen saver.  Because I'm only a little paranoid, not completely.  Unfortunately, this means that I cannot evaluate the artwork of the login screen, but you can change it if you hate it.

I'm now logged in and this is one of the biggest differences between Windows and Linux.  Unlike Windows, where if you do a clean install you only get whatever is part of the Windows operating system, with Linux and Ubuntu specifically, you get a fully working computer out of the box.  What does that mean?  I means that I get an email reader, firefox, a media player, Office equivalent, games, PDA sync ability, and more without having to install more programs.  That isn't to say I won't, as I don't like some of the default programs, but point is I don't have to.  Yes, I understand that Linux and Windows have two very different ways of doing this and that Windows is a for profit operating system and that an entire ecosystem has been built around people buying and installing programs they need.  I'm just saying, I like the ability to be able to use my computer after just install and not spend days installing other programs to make it useful.

Of course, that's not to say there aren't things that need to be tweaked.  I do this regardless of the OS I'm using.  With Linux, I'm changing out the defaults for programs I actually like.  For example, I always install Thunderbird with the lightning extension instead of using Evolution, the Outlook equivalent in Linux.  I usually add mplayer or VLC instead of using Totem.  (Though this time I haven't done it as I'm kinda digging the ability put in the DVD and see the menu on it) However, this is quite easy with Ubuntu.  The program Synaptic Package Manager has over 26,000 packages that can be installed on Ubuntu.  Some are simply libraries needed to run other much more cooler programs, but they're there.  Right in a program that's tied to the OS, and waiting to be installed.  These are specially tuned to your system.  No more going "dammit but it said it worked in Vista and now it doesn't and I can't take it back and dammit Jim, I'm a gamer not a computer geek!"  And if you're old school like me?  You can absolutely use the command prompt to type out what you want.  Which, awesome! 

This brings me to my main point.  Just about everything you would need to do in this OS?  You can now do with a point and click.  No more command line unless you want to use it.  Want to put in pretty animation a la Aero in Vista?  Right click on the desktop and go to visual effects.  It will install the necessary drivers and then add it.  Need to add a printer?  Go to System, Preferences, Printer.  Not only is it probably already installed, but right there you can add it and make it default.  How sweet is that?

I will say that I love the fact that Ubuntu now recognizes my sound card and hey!  I didn't have sound issues, except for the fact that the sound system really really wants to use my SoundBlaster card instead of my built in sound card.  Which wouldn't be a bad thing except I think there's an issue with the mic port on the SoundBlaster.  But hey, I only use the mic for Skype and Gizmo.  This was a simple fix, just telling Gizmo to use the built in sound card instead of the default.  HA! 

I'm an expert in sound now.  Really truly, after fighting with it in every other Linux distribution I've ever installed, I know sound.  I even have friends that say if I ever write a tech book or a memoir, the title should be "Surprise, I'm having sound issues."  So it really was a nice surprise that my only sound issue was that I plugged the speaker cord into the wrong sound card.

The wireless also worked flawlessly.  Wireless, traditionally, has always been a sticky wicket with Linux.  Considering very few wireless manufacturers build Linux drivers for their cards they all have to be reverse engineered.  This takes time and means that Linux usually lags behind Windows and Apple.  Well, can I just say, this is usually involves manually fix the wireless and is such a headache!  With this new version I didn't have to do anything with the wireless.  It saw the card, saw my network and said "Oh hey!  This is WPA2 encryption, would you like to put in the password?"  Yes, it's that simple and it. just. works!  Not only does it work?  These new drivers have fantastic range.  OMG, I can totally see my neighbor's completely unsecured wireless network on my desktop.  Something that until now, I could only see on the netbook with it pressed right up against our adjoining foot thick concrete wall.  And even then it'd be maybe a 5% signal.  I'm easily getting 20 or 30 percent on the desktop which is across the room from the adjoining wall.  Hallelujah!  Praise St. Isidore! 

Bottom line?  If you've been toying with the idea of Linux for a while, this distribution is the one to finally take that plunge.  You won't be disappointed.

*The distribution is free to home users and can be found at Ubuntu.com

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Just as there's three different types of ice cream there are three major types of Operating Systems. First there's soft serve. At some point in your life, you've had it. Every place under the sun has it and it shows up every where. Even here in Libya. It's what everyone knows, so it's the default if you're not sure what to get. Usually you don't get a lot of choice on flavors, but there's vanilla and chocolate and almost everyone can decide on one of those two. Soft serve? Is Windows. It's the comfy familiar.

Then you have frozen yogurt. It's trendy, it's cool. It's what you get when you're trying to lose weight or just be environmentally friendly. It's the hip and cool thing. Might have flavors, might not and you can't always find it everywhere. Which is part of the fun right? It's a bit more expensive but you're always happy with the product. That my friends? Is Mac. More expensive but worth the money and hey, it's the in thing right now.

Finally we come to frozen custard. No one's heard of it or if you have, you have no idea what it is. Is it even ice cream? The name itself brings confusion sounds like something those weirdos up in Wisconsin would like. Something you have to have grown up with to understand. An in joke, possibly. Not something normal people could try. You can't find it everywhere, and yet it pops up in the strangest places. It comes in so many different flavors when you do find it, you're just flummoxed and flabbergasted at what to choose so you end up going back to what you know, soft serve or frozen yogurt. Here's the rub, the part that no one tells you. Once you've had frozen custard? You never want to go back. It's just that damn good. And that my friends, is Linux.

So what is Linux? Linux is an operating system, much like Windows and Mac. It's built to run on most PCs. The main difference between Windows and Linux is that it's free. Legally free for home users and not only is the operating system free but over 40,000 different applications that you could use are also free. There's also one other main difference. It's open source.

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Due to a very sad set of circumstances, I've gone through not one, but three digital audio players in the last two years. Two were Creative and one was an Apple. The latest, when my Creative Zen ran away from home on the night of the Inauguration, gave me the opportunity to buy what I had been drooling and wanting for over a year. An iTouch.

First, I will say that unless you are willing to jailbreak your iTouch, if you have Linux this is not the device for you.

Due to the new encrypted database that the iTouch uses, it's now incompatible with Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox and all those other iTunes like programs out there for Linux. This gave me serious cause for reservation, as up until now I had been happily Windows-free, and loving it, for over 3 years. There was that blip where I got my new HP and was forced due to the less than optimal Libyan, we-will-cut-you-off-if-you-even-think-about-going over-your-allowed-bandwidth, Internet service to use Vista until some sweet soul could send me the newest Ubuntu install, but I don't like to talk about that. However, as my good friend Kim mentioned, I use a virtual machine for my banking as it was, so there should be no problem putting the iTunes on that. Yeah...that was a good thought anyway and got me over my reservations on not being able to use it at all.

After two weeks of having to listen to either staticy Arabic music on the radio or the one lone CD I had in my car, I received my iTouch. Oh it was just as glorious as I remember my brother's being. It was shiny and pretty and I couldn't wait to just look at all the games on it. Only to find, that in order to even turn it on, I had to plug it into iTunes. So I trudged through the rest of my day, staring at the clock and demanding that it hurry up and make it to five only to remember it was Sunday. Pilates class. D'oh, but then I discovered that Apple was joining with all the other manufacturers that apparently couldn't afford the 5 cents it cost to burn a CD. I was going to have to download iTunes, a 200M file on my less than optimal Libyan internet.

Once I managed to install iTunes, after accidentally downloading the 64 bit version and having to start over, I managed to get the iTouch running. I started loading music on it. I set up my mail to sync with the iTouch and my calendar and contacts to sync with Google calendar and contacts instead of the default Outlook.

Then I discovered the app store.

Oh yes, this is where my life took a startling change for the better. Now, don't get me wrong Libya is in the dark ages when it comes to wireless hotspots and whatnot. But, it was the possibility that intrigued me! The thought that maybe, just maybe, this slick pretty little device could finally be the all in one I had been dreaming of since I got my first PDA all those years ago.

I browsed; I talked; I listened. Now I'm from the dark ages of the internet, when freeware was really free and didn't have any sort of virii or spyware attached. Since that was my first introduction to software download, I have a big problem paying for tiny apps that I haven't had a chance to try out. Low and behold, apparently a lot app programs feel the same way. There are loads and loads of "lite" versions for most of the programs. They'll give you some of the functionality, or all the functionality but are ad-based.

Programs that I currently have installed almost all utilized the built in wifi in the iTouch. I installed the Facebook and Myspace programs that give me access to what's going on with those pages. Myspace, and my resistance and confusion by it, is a blog for another day. I installed the free version of Twitterific, a twitter client that allows me to send tweets anywhere I have wifi access.

I've also managed to find an ebook reader, ereader pro, that allows me to download books from fictionwise.com, ereader.com, and manybooks.net. Manybooks.net is a great substitute to Google Books, especially since a lot of their public domain books have all disappeared since their recent settlement with the Authors. eReader Pro downloads the books right to your device so you don't have to be dependent on Internet access, which is a must for me. Now if I could manage to figure out how to load my own content on the thing it'd be perfect.

Of course, all of that is good to go, but to be the go-to device in my own personal arsenal of tech it had to have one more thing. GAMES. Boy, howdy does it have games. There's just about every game you could think of to play on this thing. My favorites right now are Texas Hold'em and CroMag Rally. CroMag is fantastic but I have yet to figure out the pause button. Which makes it not the best for using whlie waiting for my officers to finish their paperwork so I can close the office up at night, as my officers tend to have questions and not understand that I've just got 2 more laps and then I can unlock a new level!

The best part of all, is that Apple has designed all of this without compromising the basic function of the device. Music! When you start music going it will continue to play in the background as you browse through your other apps. Double click the single button on the device and it will bring up the music menu no matter what you're also doing with the iTouch. So very cool and a great step up from PDAs that will stop if you close the program to go do something else.

There are a few things I'm quite annoyed with. The first being that they're no longer bundling the CD with the iTouch. Granted, their software updates on a regular basis and you don't want to be stuck with an old management system, but not everyone has high speed internet. There are still a bunch of people that have dial up and the 200 plus megabyte file is large enough that would it could take hours if not days to download. It really would be good they bundled the software, even if it was out of date, with the iTouch.

Another thing that peeved me was the fact that apparently all my fancy docks, I had an iPod before that died a horrible death in December of 2007, no longer charge the new iPods. This is simply total crap, in my not so humble opinion. It's not like the iTouch has a radically different plug. In fact, it looks like the same plug it always has been, just slightly smaller in width. I'm not about to spend hundreds of dollars on new speakers when I have perfectly good speakers that simply no longer charge my iTouch. For this Apple gets a big ol'Fail from me. The fact that the iTouch has to continually tell me that it won't charge on this device, like I didn't see that the first time, is also quite irritating. There doesn't seem to be a way to turn off those notifications and in fact they build up, like reminders on Outlook, that every time it turns on it felt the need to tell you that it can't charge on this device. Once would have been more than enough, kthxbye.

In conclusion, I still love my iTouch. It's a great little gadget even in the Great Jam where Internet is pretty much limited to houses. I can't wait to get back to the land of Internet Everywhere and see exactly what I can do with this little thing. Until then, I'll just be over here, jamming to my tunes.

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