tekno_boy

It (un)official. The mac mini is FAR MORE EXPENSIVE IN SPAIN (and I believe german france and probably anywhere other than the USA).

2010-07-25T22:32:00.004+02:00

I've been waiting 4 generations of Mac mini for the Apple to make a computer which I can buy that will satisfy two simple criteria:1) uses and external monitor (because I already have a good one)2) is capable of playing games, because -hey guess what Apple, I'm a gamer (yes we do buy your computers too).

With the latest Apple mac mini released in 2010 I can finally buy a mac mini with passable graphics. Actually the graphics aren't all that great, I would say entry level for games, but ah well.
But my elation that a mac mini has finally been release with a capable (citation needed - lol) graphics was short lived because, whats this a price hike?? why? I turns out it has some inexplicable reason to do with where I live. You see, I live in Spain (yea, its hot) and here the lowest cost mac mini is 792€ yep check it for your self.
But the Mac mini is $699 in the US, so why the difference. If you simply take the exchange rate into consideration, the mac mini should only be around 555€. There was some explanation on by a staff member on Apples site, they claim it's to do with tax. In Spain the vat tax (called IVA) is 18%, Apple claim that the tax rate is not shown on their US website because it varies state to state. Forgive me but that's either a bold face lie or your staff aren't very well informed. I think the mac mini is overpriced in Spain for no other reason than Apple can get away with it and I can (sort of) prove it.

Take a look at the following to screenshots of Apple online store. One from Spain, one from the US. For every product the Spanish price is either about the same or less in numeric value as the American dollar price, that is, except for the mac mini. The mac mini is almost 100€ more expensive than the numeric US dollar value.

It's as blatant as it is annoying. I have already dealt with the fact that despite the exchange rate all apple products are sold for the same cost in Spain/Euros as the US/Dollar. I can imagine with tax, shipping administrative cost - oh who am I kidding I don't like that either, but I can deal with it.

What I don't like is that the Mac min is so much more expensive in Spain. To make it easier to see just look at the last screen shot in which I have photoshopped the two screen shots together. See what I mean.
For whatever reason the mac mini is more expensive in Spain, I´m not happy. I was going to buy one, but am not anymore, hell I was going to outfit the whole office (I´m the head of I.T at work) but, well, that can wait. I'll see if apple changes its mind first. My guess; Apple is still selling mac minis like hot cakes and won't be changing the price anytime soon.

Windows 10 Screenshot.

2009-11-24T20:21:00.004+01:00

The year is 2019. Microsoft is about to bring out it's latest windows operating system.

In 2009 Microsoft launched Windows 7. Windows 7 was very well received and hailed as the savior of Windows Vistas failings. Three years later Microsoft released Windows 8 and got it right once again. Not wishing to change Windows 7 too much, in Windows 8 Microsoft concentrated on further refining the interface to make it easier an more intuitive.

Following the release of windows 8 in 2012, Microsoft decided to take the step of remodeling/enhancing the desktop. Amongst the changes for Windows 9, the taskbar was given a 3D effect and all icons were updated to a better design/higher resolution.

Windows 9 was released just before the holidays in 2015. Although it was now pretty, easy to use and intuitive, Microsoft still had some tricks up its sleeve. Microsoft embarked on more ambitious changes to completely alter the way the operating system used multi core processors and the power of modern graphics cards. It took four years to completely transform the core (kernal) of Windows 9, but the world is rejoicing once again the imminent release of a new Windows version.

This is an operating system which not only utilises graphics processor cores for other tasks, but will also properly manage multiple cores so that users could actually make use of their modern 16/32 core processors.

For those of you who can't wait for windows 10 or have already pre-ordered it here is something to keep you going until the release day: A screenshot of Windows X (Windows 10): -click to enlarge-

Latest free virus scanner for your PC 2009/2010

2009-09-29T22:15:00.006+02:00

This is just a small post for those who are looking for a free virus scanner 2009/2010.

One of the best free virus scanners of 2009/2010 is the one by Avira (Avira AntiVir)
Download Avira Antivir virus scan free

Another popular free anti virus lots of people use (myself included) is AVG Free Antivirus
Download AVG Free antivirus

Whats new in 2009 is the Antivirus from Microsoft. Microsofts new Antivirus scored highly (although Antivir Free scored better). Anyway, it's a newly available Antivirus and if you trust Microst (the people who gave you windows and the blues screen of death)....
Download Free Microsoft Security Essentials Anti virus

Hope that keeps you virus free.

Is Affiliano a scam?

2009-09-19T15:17:00.002+02:00

Is Affiliano a Scam?

If you've come across an affiliate scheme (oh, sorry “program”) called Affiliano and are wondering if it is scam or not, thats easy: Affiliano is a scam. How can I say this? Why do I know so much about Affiliano? Because I lost almost $7000 with it's predecessor Affiliate Junction. I'll get to that, but first it's important to say Affiliano is a scam, don't under any circumstances enter you email and contact details.

Affiliano you see, is either a copy, or (much more likely) a new site by the people who made Affiliate Junktion. It's the same in every way. They say a sucker is borne every minute, Affiliano is banking on the fact that around the world more and more suckers come of age and get credit cards. Don't be so stupid to think that you'll be the smart one. You're the sucker and Affiliano is going to take your money.

So how does Affiliano work, why is Affiliano a scam? It works (or operates) by paying you a commission for every referral you bring in. Affiliano doesn't pay you for conversion, all you have to do is get someone interested. Sounds good right? That's why lots of people are bound to sign up to Affiliano. But don't be fooled. Affiliano is a scam. After someone signs up, you have to spend money on advertising to bring people to the Affiliano web site. This is done with pay per click ads through Yahoo, Google Adsense or similar. Really this only benefits Affiliano because quality traffic (clicks) cost so much these days that you will send just as much if not more than you will make from Affiliano's scam.

But that's not the danger part and not the reason I lost money with the old Affiliano (Affiliate Junktion). It's quite simple. Even if you can get cheap enough traffic and enough suckers to fall for Affiliano Scam to make a profit you then need to get paid. In the beginning Affiliate Junktion paid out, so Affiliano probably will, for a few months, then the excuses start coming... “waiting for our advertising partner to pay”.. “next month” and then after a month “due to our click fraud check payments will be made at the end of next month”. Affiliano is a scam as sure as the sun shines.

If you want to take the time to see what happened to me, read my old blogs about Affiliate Junktion (Blog archive on the right column). I left them in case something like the Affiliano scam appeared. You can apply the same to Affiliano. You'll see that I even managed to get it working for a while, but in the end Affiliate Junktion just closed down, promised to pay the balance and never did. Affiliano is going to do the same and then just start again with another name. Don't be the sucker who fell for the Affiliano scam.

What about the claims and testimonials about how much people are making with Affiliano? Probably just BS. Why would you blindly believe Affiliano? If Affiliano is a scam, they are hardly going to have the morals to tell the truth for their testimonials are they? And even if the Affiliano testimonials were true and correct and Affiliano were not a scam, those totals don't talk about how much people are spending on advertising to get that sort of income. And if they are making that much from Affiliano it simply shows you how many thousands of people are going to be competing with you and forcing the price of traffic up even further.

In the end. If Affiliano did work (and was not a scam), it is unsustainable. Eventually it will reach saturation point and no one will be able to make money or get new referrals. Affiliano, by that stage will have stopped payment for a couple of months and will simply close down. You'll have no way of collecting your commissions and be left high and dry.

Make no mistake. Affiliano is a scam for sure.

Not the Apple fanboi this week. In fact I'm feeling like .. Apple sucks

2009-09-18T19:42:00.004+02:00

Turns out my brother was right Apple sucks.

Well, ok he didn't say that, in actual fact he agrees that the Mac is a great piece of technology and although we've had some heated discussion on the Mac vs PC front, we both pretty much agree we want MAC's.

Let me start by saying. I want a Mac. I have owned MACs and understand the value of the Mac OS. I have been patient. I have been waiting a long time to get my Mac. First I waited for Leopard (but couldn't afford a MAC at the time...), then I waited for a new mac Mini (I want a mini because I have a good keyboard, mouse and monitor), I still wasn't able to afford one. Finally I got back into the position of having more disposable cash. I'm ready to but a MAC, except...

... I've run into a snag, one that my brother is quick to point out and he's right. I can't get a machine capable of playing decent games (eg Left 4 Dead) without robbing a bank.

Apple has, you see, a very limited range. To some this is a boon because they don't want a lot of choice. I too think too much choice can sometimes be a bad thing, but at the moment I'm finding the reverse to be true because there simply isn't a Mac which meets my needs.

I want a Mac built with gaming in mind, that means with a decent graphics card. Neither the mini or the iMac have good enough graphics even for last years games.

So tell me Apple, what should I do? I ready, I've got cash, and I'm not asking for graphics super power, just something that would give me respectable gaming performance.

Update: I just purchase a Nvidia Geforce GFX 260 for my PC, putting off my Mac purchase indefinately. Now however I'm thinking, if I buy the right motherboard and CPU (under €200 more), I can make a Hackintosh... something I wanted to avoid. HELP ME APPLE: Make a mid range 'tower' (it doesn't need to be a tower, a cool fresh Apple design would rock!). - Please ..?

Confessions of a Video Game Tester

2009-05-10T16:41:00.004+02:00

I am now working as a video game tester (yes, it is the best job in the world).

Here are some random (fictional) bugs I came up with for fun:

- - -

During a test playthrough of 'Urban Darkness' the user noticed a striking resemblance of one of the NPC's to his grandmother. After taking a quick census of the office, it became obvious that she looks like everyone's grandmother. Given that in order to pass the lever you have to bash her head in with a blunt potato peeler then rip out her heart and eat it, do you think that the graphics could be changed a little?

- - -

While testing the game, the user was, in reality, attacked by a horde of mutant alien zombies. By coincidence, the 'Read Me' button on the installer actually started a rather powerful mutant alien zombie ray gun which instantly turned the invaders to dust.

Testing department requests the button be relabeled. Although installation during a mutant alien zombie invasion is an unlikely user path, if it does happen again the user is unlikely to click 'readme' and mankind might be doomed.

- - -

While testing 'Little pink furry animals 3' for girls aged 3 to 6, the user discovered that after the completing the game 32 times his home life was affected (he was no longer able to get an erection). This could (in time) reduce future tester candidates.

In order to alleviate this problem, we suggest a special 'tester' mode should be made available in which squashing those damn furry animals lets the user to unlock a secret 'island of nyphos' level.

- - -

While testing in game menu functionality of 'Left out in Space' the tester noticed that if the player returns back to the game from the in game menu and gets suddenly attacked by a monster, this would frequently result in an uncontrolled expulsion from the rear resulting in a damp messy seat, bad odour and an uncomfortable testing session. The only Fix to this problem seem to be a change of pants. As this was frequently encountered by the user and wearing a nappy was not considered a user friendly workaround, the testing dept. has given this a Critical severity.

Note the user found the title so scary that perhaps a fast key should be implemented to allow the user to quickly and easily call "Mummy !".

- - -

While testing the game the user found an Easter-egg first person game hidden on the DVD. We are not asking for the game to be removed, but rather specifically request the game (called "Castle of the unfeasibly large breasted nympos") not to be removed, as might end up the case.

Personal NOTE: in this game, um, how do you pass the 'satisfy all the bitches' level as we don't seem to be, er, 'large enough' (yes, we ARE still talking about the game).

- - -

While testing the user encountered difficulties with the nudity and simulated sex scenes withing the game. The resulting arousal caused discomfort (amplified by the testers tight Jeans) and could have been embarrassing if anyone noticed. We acknowledge this might be quite an uncommon user path because although it was 100% reproducible with male testers, it was only actually a problem because we are all really well hung.

- - -

While testing the user found that the game sucks. Dude, are you kidding me?

- - -

While testing the user found that during installation, if a sodium silicate vessel containing H2O was emptied over a fellow user, said user emitted profanity an responded by breaking the keyboard over the other users head.

In this case the install was interrupted and the game failed to install as intended is this intended?

Safari vs Firefox

2009-05-10T13:20:00.003+02:00

I recently reinstalled my OS. I just did a fresh install of Windows Xp, not because I like it but because I don't yet have the funds for a MAC and my computer wont run Vista (or Windows 7 for that matter).

I took the excuse to try a different Browser. I installed the latest Safari browser from Apple. It's got some great features. You can browse you history using cover flow with safari. It shows reasonable size previews of the websites you've visited in a flowing bookcase like way (the same way iTunes does it), making it a breeze to find a size you visited the other day even if you don't know what it is called.

Safari also shows you twelve of your most often visited sites (or you can 'pin' your favorites) as a preview every time you open up a new tab (ctrl+t).

Apart from that (and a bunch of other feature I probably don't know about), Safari has a great apple-like interface consistent with itunes and OS X.

However despite this (and being an avid Mac OS X fan) I think I like firefox more. Firefox just worked more like I do. I appreciate the logic in putting the tabs up in the title bare to save screen real estate, but I still like the firefox way better.

I didn't notice too much speed difference, I think 'sometimes faster-sometimes slower' is probably appropriate and really this is not a big deal for me.

I guess I just like having a home button available by default (although it wasn't too hard to turn this on in safari) and the way 'find' works in firefox.

I'm writing this in a Safari window, but I think I will install Firefox any day now. I might try to keep using Safari long enough to make sure my dislikes are not born out of habit. If Safari doesn't grow on me, then I'm going back to Firefox.

One thing is for sure, they are far superior to IE. Why anyone would still use Internet Explorer is beyond me.

Yes, I guess I should try chrome (I once tried opera, but liked that not one bit), at lease the underlying technology implemented in chrome looks excellent, I just want to see if Safari is better than Firefox (or Firefox is better than Safari) first.

I'll keep you posted.

The end of Affiliate Junktion

2009-02-08T17:36:00.002+01:00

It turns out that Affiliate Junktions excuses for non payment were founded on something more sinistar. On Sat 7^th of Feb 2009 Affiliate Junktion posted the message on its website:

“Dear Affiliates,

I would like to start by thanking you all for hard work on the Affiliate Junktion Affiliate Program.

Due to the change of direction and global economic changes, Affiliate Junktion's strategic business goals can no longer support the Affiliate Junktion referral program.

All Affiliates have been notified by email and in the news section of the control panel on February 5th and given 2 days notice as per the Terms & Conditions set out in the Affiliate Junktion Affiliate Agreement.

Please accept our apologies for the sudden termination of this program. “

My bet is that through a number of factors the system stopped working for them (and of course their affiliates of which I am one).

I for one really thought they had something. For a number of months I was making a theoretical (I say theoretical because Affiliate Junktion never paid it out) profit of $100 a day. In the end Affiliate Junktion wound up owing me around $6,500.00.

I still believe there must be a good way to make money online, just, as it turns out, Affiliate Junktion is not it.

EDIT: Now there new one: Affiliano, Is Affiliano a scam? Yes, like all the rest.

Affiliate Junktion, a scam after all? Only time will tell.

2009-01-31T16:43:00.004+01:00

I am way overdue for an update on Affiliate Junktion. Many people visit my site because they want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam. I’m beginning to think the answer might not be so easy to find.

In the beginning I couldn’t get the Affiliate Junktion system working. I thought Affiliate Junktion was a scam for sure. Then I managed to get my advertising cost right down and started to make a profit. At one stage I was earning NZ$300+ per day! Well, at least my account with them was showing that.

Here’s the thing, my first check was right on the money. I had earned 1,226.00 for my first month adn that is exactly what Affiliate Junktion paid. The problem is that Affiliate Junktion went through a website update and used that as an excuse to delay payments. The first of many. I only received my first payment about three months later.

This alone would not have been a problem. The next thing to happen was an ‘anti fraud’ deduction made to my commission. Basically, Affiliate Junktion payed me less than half of my commission and said that was because of anti fraud measures and canceled leads.

When you think about it there is no reason for someone to go to the trouble of making a unique ip address and a new email address to sign up through my links. If someone was trying to defraud Affiliate Junktion, then they would do it through their own links wouldn’t they? I was sending Affiliate Junktion traffic I had generated through advertising. Why would someone try to defraud Affiliate Junktion through random advertisments?

But it didn’t stop there… a few months later I was owed just under NZ$12,000.00 in commission, the result? When Affiliate Junktion finally did pay, I only received NZ$4,532.00.

The hardest thing is that Affiliate Junktion was paying later and later. I have been waiting over three months for the currently owed commission and until I actually receive a payment from Affiliate Junktion, I don't know how much they are going to give me.

Perhaps this is part of the plan all along. If Affiliate Junktion can manage to keep people on the hook for long enough then they have months of people advertising their system. This could be long enough for Affiliate Junktion to grow exponentially.

I would like to give Affiliate Junktion the benefit of the doubt, heck, I want it to work so I can make some money using the Affiliate Junktion system.

The thing which is making me suspicious is that the excuse they used last month was pretty dodgy. They claimed they needed to wait 2-3 weeks to get paid by their advertiser before they could pay out commissions. But that’s not the biggest problem. I emailed Affiliate Junktion 4 weeks after this to ask when the payment would be made and the excuse they gave me was the exact same one (word for word) as 4 weeks earlier. I now have to wait until the 28th of February 2009 to get my commission (for over four months earlier).

So, for now I have stopped my Affiliate Junktion advertising campaign. I’m going to wait until I have been paid in full before I continue. Actually I need to wait until I get paid by Affiliate Junktion to know how profitable it was and because, quite frankly, I need the money. I also want to wait because I want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam for sure. I don't want to advertise a program that is not going to work.

I believe that Affiliate Junktion could still be genuine. Perhaps they are just trying to pay out slowly to maximize their income by earning interest on their affiliate’s money for a couple of months before they pay out. I can't imaging this wouldn't actually be hurtful to Affiliate Junktion so don't really think thats it.

In any case I can’t in good conscience promote Affiliate Junktion at the moment. I suggest if you’ve heard about Affiliate Junktion but haven’t joined then don’t do anything right now. Check back here in a month to see what happened.

If you are already an Affiliate Junktion member in the same boat, you might want to consider being cautious and perhaps not investing a lot in advertising at this point.

At the end of the day the only people who really know how this is going to play out are those at Affiliate Junktion.

EDIT: Now there new one: Affiliano, Is Affiliano a scam? Yes, like all the rest.

No new Apple Mac Mini disappoints, utterly

2009-01-07T14:41:00.005+01:00

I’ve been waiting for a new mac mini. Waiting, for over a year. I’ve always wanted a Mac mini because the mini does what other Macs don't (save for the Mac Pro); the mini allows you to get an Apple Mac and still use your existing monitor and keyboard.

I, like most people was eagerly awaiting a new Mac mini which (we all thought) would be announced at the 2009 Macworld Keynote held yesterday. The new Mac mini (theoretically) was to finally have respectable graphics capabilities (using the same graphics processors in the new Macbooks). We all thought such a mini would be announced, we were wrong.

I’m so disappointed because I was going to buy two minis (one for me, one for my wife).

I have long been a defender of Apples ‘people don’t know what they want until you give it to them’ attitude because (and I really don’t care who wants to argue the point) they make great products. More or less: everything you want, nothing you don’t. The mac mini was (almost) everything I wanted without having to buy a new monitor/keyboard which I already have. So where is the new Mac mini? What have you done with our new mini apple?

Some people even went further and predicted a product between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. Something with more processing power and graphics clout than the mini but not quite up to the specification of the Mac Pro and therefore a better price. That is actually the machine I want because I just need some decent graphic capabilities. I want a little mini computer (not a big ugly tower) that runs Mac OS X and can play games with some respectability.

I also used to defend Apple Mac’s limited product line. Too much choice can be a bad thing, but Apple should realize, not enough choice often IS even worse!

Apple, where is the new mac mini? Or don’t you guys ‘get’ playing games?

Apple, you know what? I am now soooo tempted to build a hackintosh humph!

Funniest Wikipedia Captcha EVER!!

2008-12-07T15:39:00.002+01:00

Hi, I was editing a German Wiki the other day and the funniest thing happened:

In order to make sure your a real person (and stop people using 'bots to create spam), wikipedia uses captcha (or similar). Basically it asks you to type a word that appears on the screen (I'm sure you've seen them before).

The funny thing was the word Wikipedia asked me to type (I absolutely promise I did not use photoshop or anything to fake it, some times fact is funnier than fiction), check it out..:

Next stop $600 a day

2008-09-01T23:27:00.004+02:00

I surpassed my target of $150 a day with Affiliate Junktion a few months ago. As I sail past the $350 mark, I wonder how long it will take to reach $600 a day (my new target).

Find out how I do it here. EDIT>> I am waiting to get paid, read about that here.

Affiliate Junktion Payment Proof (cheque recieved)

2008-08-21T16:45:00.011+02:00

Here is proof of payment from Affiliate Junktion (for those of you waiting for a payment wondering if Affiliate Junktion is a scam or not).

Just because they sent me payment once, does not mean I always received it, please read my latest blog Affiliate Junktion, a scam after all? Only time will tell..

Bellow is a photo of the Affiliate Junktion Cheque I received. To sum up, I have so far been paid:

August NZ$1226.00 (by cheque)
September NZ$4805.00 (by paypal)
October NZ$4568.00 (by paypal)

September payment from Affiliate Junktion was made with paypal. I thought this would be better (its certainly faster than cheque), but paypal charged me $187.85 just to recieve the money! I'm going to get one more paypal payment, then I will simply be getting too much to warrent gettin paid by Affiliat Junktion that way (because paypal charges a percentage) and I'll go back to getting paid from Affiliate Junktion by cheque.

Please note, I got paid ns September for July's commisions, so you need to know thats how long it takes (yes the time period had me worrying as well, for two months I had to wonder is the ceque would arrive). More information of when and how they payout can be found here.

Proof of payment from Affiliate Junktion: Here is the first cheque I have received from them. It would appear they are registered as "E-Work Marketing Limited" perhaps their former name, anyway I was happy to get the cheque from Affiliate Junktion. I will add future cheques to this blog page so come back in a month to see the next Affiliate Junktion payment proof added.

As you can see by the remittance advice of the Affiliate Junktion Cheque, it has the Affiliate Juntktion web address pre-printed. Although my address was handwritten, this is due to their recent system overhaul and Affiliate Junktion also enclosed an apologetic note.

I also videoed open the letter from Affiliate Junktion because is hard to provide proof of payment over the internet. I'm going to post that to You Tube soon (don't have time to today, sorry).

As other forms of proof, I have provided a photo of the Envelope and (what I though was the most important proof that Affiliate Junktion does pay) is a copy of the bank deposit.

If you want more information or want to get a check like this sent to you every month then signup here. The information is free and worth a read, After receiving you instruction feel free to read my blog because Affiliate Junktion probably isn't for everyone. Take a look for yourself.

Funny Adsense Ad combinations.

2008-07-31T14:42:00.006+02:00

Today I came across some funny Adsense combinations.

Found on a hunting and fishing site.

I think it's interesting who the advertiser considers their target market....

Does this mean Hunters and Fishermen are more likely to cheat? (perhaps on their Asian wives..)
And lastly, when the Asian wife finds out about it all...

Perhaps even funnier that these ads appear together.

Saw these at a hunting ad fishing site like Kilwell Sports.

Top Multi Tier Web hosts for making money

2008-07-29T16:58:00.003+02:00

I've got a few small websites now. All have some form of Monetization. One of the best ways I've found of making money with a web site is by referring people to web hosting providers, because its something we (webmasters and we site owners) all need.

I quickly learned that just getting a commission is not enough. You want to be able to build a multi tier network of people generating commission for you.

Here are the top Multi Tier Hosts because...

Multi Tier= more cash

Green hosting provider with $100 first tier, $65 second tier

Free ipods and music cards as well as multi tier

Multi tier hosting a whopping 10 levels deep

Know any more/better Multi tier web hosting providers? Make a comment!

Two great things to do when you're bored

2008-07-27T14:58:00.005+02:00

Cool thing #1 Rastorbation

Printing a large image using you desktop A4 inkjet (or Laser printer) has a name. It's called Rastorbating (and you though no one was going to catch you).

If you don't have software to split an image up into the tiles you need to be able to print the image on a large scale, then here's something cool: The Rastorbator. It's a free online interface to allow you to upload an image and it will split the file into the tiles you need to print them at any size. Whats cool about is that the rastorbator splits images up using a process similar to line screening (used for printing/screen printing) which converts your image inter woven rounded shapes which give the image an arty look and keep the resulting PDF files size right down, allowing you to print them and email them easily.

You can also download a rastorbator stand alone program so you can rastorbate to any photo in the privacy of your own room :P

Cool thing #2: Wordle

Another cool thing to was some of you time is the cloud generator at www.wordle.net

You may have seem words thrown together in a bunch, some big some small. This is called a cloud. Search clouds are the most common example, these show the most searched items larger than the rest and can be a great way to tink laterally on things that misght interest you.

Now you can make your own artistic clouds from any text you like. Music lyrics, web sites, poems, whatever... here are some examples I came up with:

Google is Anal

2008-07-19T10:41:00.005+02:00

Is Google anal? My computer thinks so...

We all know that Google is a stickler for the rules and that going against Google is like going against god, but today I saw something on my screen that seemed perhaps a digital Freudian slip:

PS. In case your wondering, this happen when I opened multiple tabs in Firefox while logged in at Google Analytics, The words Google Analytics were shortened due to lack of space (or perhaps the computer was trying to say something....at least it helps me to remember how to spell analytics!)

The seduction of added value.

2008-07-17T18:21:00.002+02:00

The seduction of added value.

If you want to sell a product, any product, you need to understand value.

Value is the single reason why people buy things.

I don't mean we buy things when they are “good value for money”. I mean we buy because of a perception of value. Many people for example might not buy a Mercedes because you can get a Toyota much cheaper with a similar specification and yet Mercedes sell a lot of cars, they just sell them to different customers. The people who buy luxury cars have their own set of requirements which they value, the price has less of an impact on their perception of value than for other car buyers. What motivates a luxury car buyer might be Brand name, appearance, exclusivity (sometimes by just making a product expensive, you make it exclusive and therefore attract people who have enough money to want to be seen as part of the 'club' of owners of that product).

To sell you product you first have to understand your customer and what represents value to them.

People who buy Apple Mac's have a different set of value requirements than PC owners. This can bee seen by all the Mac vs. Pc comparisons on the Internet. If we all valued products for the same reasons, simply comparing specifications would be valid and perhaps PC's might winout. By Apple adds value to their computers. Apple gives a more stable product with great free software in a stylish all in one package with a unique operating system. This appeals to their customers who don't necessarily care the computer is the highest specification for the lowest possible price, without the ease of use and style that has become synonymous with the brand, there is little value to that customer.

Anything can represent value within a customer base, look at how quickly the world adopted MP3 as a music format. People wanted a small file which would allowed the files to be downloaded quickly, even though it meant the quality was sacrificed a little.

Value = Matching a customers needs (physically or emotionally)

Once you know what motivates your buyers, you can use a killer strategy to skyrocket you sales: Added Value.

Added value is the preferred way of improving the buyers perception of value without having to discount your product. Once you latch on to the motivation of you customer you can use this to add value. Added value is created when you provide some further incentive to make a purchase. You could offer additional products or services that may also be desirable to your customer at a reduced rate (or free) with their purchase.

In any case you should try to provide added value with minimal cost to you. Online services and E-books can be perfect for that.

Discount should be avoided if you can create value some other way, however sometime the best strategy is to offer a product at a premium in the first instance and then after the initial phase of the product cycle where it's new and interesting you will be able to discount it.

Although its always a better strategy to find other ways to add value, discounting is also added value. By establishing the products initial worth you are showing the customer they can now buy something with an already established worth for less money. Getting more for less equates to added value.

And added value is seductive. My wife an I recently walked past an nice looking furniture item in a shop which had been reduce from €129 to €24.95 it looked like it was worth every penny at €129, now it was a bargain. My parents who were with us at the time also agreed and we were ready to buy it until we realized we actually had nowhere to put it and did not need it anyway. We were simply stunned by the value.

Internet markets do the same thing with E-books. Because delivery is so easy and they don't actually have to produce anything, they can give you lots of bonus books and newsletters.

As added value for this article, feel free to download a free ebook on making money with Google arbitrage (a process of making a profit by paying to send people to a website with advertising so they in turn leave through more expensive advertising). Right click here and click 'save link as' to download it.

iMac Contenders threaten Apples title

2008-07-09T12:41:00.006+02:00

Most people agree, iMacs are cool.

Some (generally those that cant afford them) complain that they are too expensive. Many compare Apples legendary 'All in One' to any number of PC's. The biggest problem is that the PC with which people compare Apples iMac are tower pc's (also lovingly referred to as "boxes"), without any consideration to the value and cost associated with making an amazing looking computer which appears to be little more than a monitor.

But there are PC's capable of contending Apple for the all All in One crown. The most interesting thing is,... they are all (spec for spec) more expensive than an iMAC (and don't come with Apples amazing OS X nor iLife). And these aren't computers made by companies who can't produce enough to achieve economy of scale. These are the biggest brand in the business.

Take a look:

The Gateway 'One' ZX190

Sony's Vaio LT

Dell XPS

All in all not a bad lineup, I'm impressed. They just need a Mac OS and ilife....

My dowloadable Apple MAC Wallpapers

2008-06-29T15:32:00.010+02:00

I change my wallpaper frequently and today I decided to make some new Apple wallpapers, you can download the whole lot as a .zip by clicking here.

If you liked them please feel free to tell others . enjoy. PS. download Free Lost and Heroes/4400 Wallpapers here.

7 reasons why you wouldn't bother with Psystar computers

2008-06-28T18:23:00.005+02:00

Psystar is big in the news lately because it's selling computers with hardware compatible with the Apple MAC operating system. Psystar even goes as far as installing the Mac on a non Apple machine.

They charge you for a installing genuine Mac OS operating system, which might seam on the surface quite cool, but really, why would you bother?

I once bought a genuine Apple licensed Mac Clone in the 1998 and I saved over $2,000, I remember at the time I would have rather had a real MAC. How much can you save now? A couple of hundred?

7 reasons why you wouldn't bother with Psystar computers:

1.Psystar open computers don't come with iLife, so even if you save a few bucks you miss out on some top quality software.

2.A Psystar open computer is just another ugly PC.

3.You will get an operating system based on hacked software (and the ones who hacked the Mac OS are pissed at Psystar for taking advantage of their community based effort)

4.Your long term ability to get system updates is very questionable indeed.

5.How good is a Psystar guarantee if Apple closes Psystar down (due to Psystars dubious legal stance which breaches Apples End User License Agreement for OS X)?

6.Who ever heard of buying a Server using a hacked operating system. Servers a built for reliability.

7.Psystar open computers are just simply aren't Apple MACs.

Psystars open PC, still pretty ugly as far as I'm concerned.

It will be interesting to see if Psystar survives and if Apple does anything to thwart their business. Personally even though I am an open advocate of Apple releasing its operating system (OS X) as a software option (with strict license controls to ensure compatibility) I can't see that Psystar is offering any added value.

I do however applaud Psystar bringing the possibility into the public eye, who know's perhaps we'll see OS X for sale in PC shops yet.

How I made online passive income work.

2008-06-22T18:47:00.006+02:00

It was a slow start, but I got there after about six months. Actually, what I did, could be done in a matter of days if you don't have to go through the learning process that I did.

We're all looking for passive income. What could be better than money coming into your life without you having to work for it? Certainly there are plenty of ways of making money online but just taking part in an online money making program (like Affiliate Junktion) is not going to put money in your pockets you need to actually make it work.

I use Affiliate Junktion simply because one day it caught my eye and I decided if ever I was going to give something a go, this might as well be it. But it didn't start off well. I lost money in the beginning. Not wanting to loose much, I stopped trying and thought Affiliate Junktion is a scam.

Later I found out that if you want to bring people to your affiliate site then there is something you absolutely must buy: A keyword tool. Without a keyword tool your online advertising would be like driving without a steering wheel. It simply is a must.

The reality is that by spending an hour a day for weeks I managed to get Affiliate Junktion to payout about €10 a day. Then I bought keyword elite and overnight (literally) my income went from €10 to €110 and it really only took me a few minutes to create top notch keywords.

Without going on and on over the same point, if you can't yet afford Keyword Elite, then use the google keyword tool to get yourself going and then as soon as you can get Keyword Elite, it really is worth the money.

One last little note, you can use all the money you save when you lower the bid amount using a keyword list created by Keyword Elite to pay for Keyword Elite (over and over). If you want to make money online with Affiliate Marketing, Keyword Elite is a must.

Opps, I accidentally started making money online

2008-06-17T23:30:00.005+02:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on this subject is here - it is far more up to date >>>>>>

We'll it just crept up on me over the last few months.

Almost by accident, I started making money online with affiliate marketing.

The Affiliate program I started a few months ago (and the one I failed miserably with in the beginning) just started to make money for me.

Almost overnight, my account started to fill up, first with €10 a day and then a bit more and then more....

After being inspired, I purchase this keyword tool and a day later my income turned into over €100 a day. I so hope this is real, I don't want more, I just want it to be true. I'm still not so sure it is real, I had dreamed making money could be this easy, but could it really be possible? will it last? I don't really know the answer to these questions yet (I'm not due to be paid until about 16.07.08).

I'm so scared right now, I really hope its true and that it just carries on the way its going.

For those interested this is the affiliate program I'm using. Please note the following:
The information is free (as is a money making website), but you will have to pay to use their chosen web host. You will also almost definitely need to splash out and buy this keyword tool to make it work (best thing I ever did).

In the meantime, I don't know what to feel. I have such mixed emotions. The next month of waiting for my first payment will be excruciating, I'll continue to blog my thoughts, feeling and successes (or failures) here. Take a look at some of my old post to see the rocky road to riches i have experienced with Affiliate Junktion, then get the free information to see if its right for you.

The truth (with a bit of opinion thrown in)

2008-06-09T15:30:00.005+02:00

Please fell free to add a comment (good or bad) comments will only be moderated on this post to stop comment spam.

The truth (with a bit of opinion thrown in)

You can't argue taste
The tragedy of 9/11 was perpetrated or sponsored by the American Government (and realization of this is NOT anti-American)
The rest of your life starts Today
You should work less and play more
Daisy Duck is Hotter than Minnie
Metric is an improvement over Imperial
You are allowed to love yourself
Global warming is a lie (but we should minimize our environmental impact anyway)
It doesn't matter where you were born
The teletubbies are Aliens
Borders exist only in the minds of men
.9999999 recurring is equal to 1
“Allah” is simply a word. That word means “God” in English
Smiles are infectious
You can get all the nutrition you need without eating meat
Those who conspired to falsify safety reports about the air quality in New York post 9/11 should be brought to trial for the resulting deaths which could have been avoided.
It's not the megapixels, its the capture quality.
Patriotism is bigotry
Any charity is good charity
Money can't buy you happiness, but it can take away the problems lack of money causes
Terrorism is ineffectual without media coverage
Tom Cruise only plays one character, Tom Cruise
The invasion of Iraq is based on a lie
Captain feathersword is better than the wiggles
No means no
You are loved
Macs are the new PC's (and PC's are the new Mac's)
Penfold is a hamster
How you act affects outside opinion on your peer group

Apple MAC video games console, the time is now!

2008-05-31T22:49:00.006+02:00

I am in the market for a new PC. Without a doubt I want a MAC. Well to be truthful, I want Leopard with iLife, therein lies the problem.

Apple currently doesn't have a model that fits my needs. This is down to two main reasons. 1^St, I'm a gamer (in a couple of months I will be a profession gamer) and 2^nd I already have a monitor I'm happy with.

The monitor issue is not an uncommon complaint. There are many people who upgrade their computers and monitors separately and who therefor need a new computer but are happy with the monitor they have got. With Apple that leaves two choices the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. While they Mac mini is a great machine, if you want to play games or us any 3D apps it comes up lacking. The Mac Pro is an impressive animal capable of anything you throw at it, but an entry level Mac Pro costs $2799 (at time of writing). What is needed is something in between.

I think the time is right for apple to bridge this gap and they could do by entering a great niche. I envision Apple making a games machine.

Macs have never been the platform of choice for gamers, I put this mainly down to fate. For various reasons (that I'm not going into here) games got off to a better start on the Windows/Intel platform than on the MAC and the PC has never looked back. While there have been some excellent game releases for the MAC, the sheer quantity an quality of windows games out there, doesn't make it a gamers choice.

But with Apple recently switching to the Intel processor thats brought the opportunity back for Apple to get it's game on. Now on a Mac you can dual boot into windows (Apple even help you do it with bootcamp). While this is pretty pointless as far as I'm concerned for any other applications (because the MAC OS and Mac apps are generally much better), it does make sense for games.

Better still, as a gamer I always like to have my system clean for running my games optimally. If all my other applications run on the Mac OS side, that would leave me with a clean windows version strictly for games.

Thats were a new product for apple could fit in. Apple could easily bridge the gap between Mac mini and Mac Pro with a machine aimed at gamers. It could also come up with a funky design that would suit the customers. I'm so sick of the PC game machines which have a 'tattoo' or 'alien' look. Just because I play games, doesn't mean I have bad taste.

Who knows perhaps Apple could buy/license the technology from Parallels or Crossover, put it together with a streamlined version of Leopard (using a Front Row like interface for the installed windows games) as a boot option and the Mac games machine could suddenly be a console! (or is Apple afraid they'll just end up making another “pipin”)

Apple already tried to make a games console once with the pipin (pictured).
Is it too scared to make a games MAC?

This new game orientated Mac wouldn't have to be just for hard core gamers. It could also be for those other people who have a good monitor, but want something more than the Mac mini, and less than the Mac Pro. Just make it look cool and throw a great choice of graphics cards in there, and you've got a winner in my book (can I pre-order?).

Who knows, the mini is not all that far away from another refresh, perhaps this time, it will get decent graphics capabilities which may make my grumblings a mute point.

Macbook Air is old news, here comes the XO-2

2008-05-22T21:27:00.006+02:00

Forget MACbook Air, the coolest thing on the horizon in the computing world might be something bound for the third world.

I long been a fan of the OLPC program. OLPC stand for One laptop Per Child and is basically an initiative to get laptops in the hands of children in developing nations. Bravo I say.

Sure, I agree with my brothers criticism that really impoverished people need clothing, food, clean water, shelter and education far more than they need a laptop. Further more, the donated laptops might just end up being sold on the black market (ebay?) creating a dependency cycle of people needing to get them, to sell them, to survive. Yes, sure that may not solve much, but one would hope that's doesn't end up being the norm. I would think enough units would go into the right hands to make a difference. Isn't something this charitable better than nothing in its absence?

Further more, some of the people getting excited and involved with the project may not be the type to expend so much time and energy helping to provide wells or housing. The people driving this project are tech people, they like tech and it motivates them. It hard enough to motivate people to be charitable as it is.

I've seen other criticism too, but rather than defend OLPC further I just wanted to point out how the project could also benefit the rest of us. The next genration OLPC (the XO-2) is quite innovative and more importantly super cool! Once you put OPLC “give 1-get one” program (where you buy one laptop and another is donated to a child on your behalf) together with the next generation ebook-styled XO-2 (pictured), there are going be be a lot of people buying one for themselves just for the coolness of it. I mean, check it out! Who wants a Macbook air now?

The OLPC XO-2 in Laptop mode

The OLPC XO-2 in book mode

The OLPC XO-2 in Flat mode

The next gernation OLPC (the XO-2) will have:

Dual 16x9 proportioned sunlight-readable touch screens
Keyboard and touchpad both replaced by touch screens
Physically smaller than XO-1; size and weight more like a book
1 watt power consumption
Target price of US$75 to large educational buyers

You can find out more about the OLPC here.

Get a job interview, the alternative method.

2008-05-10T13:51:00.008+02:00

Recently I received something cool in my inbox, a job offer from Monster.com with a company I'd love to work for. I decided that not only did I want the job, I had to have it!

I'm not going to say too much about the position yet, but rather talk about what I am doing in an effort to get the job.

I started by sending a covering letter and sent it away attached it to my CV.

After four days I had received no reply, ok sure thats not that much time, but I was not prepaired to just sit and wait for them to come to me. I decided action had to be taken.

I starting working on an plan to make sure I got noticed. I researched the company on the Internet and wrote a magazine style display ad promoting myself (one that any advertising agency would be proud of) as the ideal candidate for the position..

Now I had to make sure this got into the hands of the right person. I needed to find out the first name of the person in charge of hiring for that position. I already had a first initial, but I needed more to succeed with my bizarre plan.

In order to find out what this important persons name was, I rang their office to ask, or at least, I tried to ring. Nobody answered the telephone number I found on the Internet. I wondered if the information I had found on the Internet was incorrect. So I called the German office, I could have asked in English because it is an international company and Germans are well known for having a reasonable English ability (they learn it in school from a young age), but I decided my accent would win some respect (relatively few foreigners bother to learn German) and told the operator I had to send a package to this person at the Spanish office.

5 mins later I had found out:

she was a woman
what her full name was
the physical address of the office
and even got her unlisted direct phone number!

Part two of the plan involved some theatrics.

I went to a shopping mall and purchase the following items:

A Star shaped gift box
Coloured balloons
A Hello Kitty helium filled balloon (pictured here)

I put my one page ad/presentation into the gift box Attached it to the balloons and drove in to the companies head office.

This company office is normally closed to the public, but because I showed up with a car full of balloons and told security "I had a delivery", I was ushered in.

I had only expected to drop the package at reception content in knowing that it would get to its destination and get noticed, but the receptionist was so excited by all the balloons, she insisted I deliver them in person to the woman concerned. 5 mins later I had an on the spot interview in person. It was a bit awkward at first, and maybe just a little uncomfortable for both of us, but we managed. I worried a bit that my Spanish was good enough, but she said it was the most interesting job application she had ever received, so thats got to count for something doesn't it?

I have since passed two more stages of the application process and have been waiting for some kind of indication as to whether I will get to the next and final stage (a formal interview with the head of department). Regardless I'm pretty pleased I got so far, I guess I'll now just have to wait and see...

EDIT: I have since been ask to go in for an interview. It went well, but I'm just waiting to hear the bad news (can you feel my pessimism?). Still I'm really pleased with what I achieved and I guess its now 50/50.

EDIT #2 (two week later): I got the Job! that just goes to show how thinking out side can improve your chances! I start in two months :)

Affiliate Junktion Scam test Re-loaded

2008-04-29T12:32:00.048+02:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date inforamtion on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

Welcome to the definitive blog on weather or not Affiliate Junktion is a scam. When people look for “Affiliate Junktion Scam” many people find my blog because it tells my own real story which didn't start off that well.

I suggest if you really want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam, you read this whole post as it is a culmination of my entire experience so far with Affiliate Junktion and weather or not Affiliate Junktion is a scam. During this post I will answer the most common Affiliate Junktion related questions.

The most important thing people want to know is not “is Affiliate Junktion a scam?” it is actually “is Affiliate Junktion going to steal from me, cheat me, sell my email address or worse”. The answer is no. They really do offer you free information on their money making program. So then you want to know “wheres the catch?”, there is no catch, but yes you will need to spend some money (very little, which you will get back). To understand it all go and visit omnis (it used to be ipwer). They offer good value web hosting. It's this hosting service that you will need to run Affiliate Junktions free website and use the Affiliate Junktion system.

You will also then need to generate traffic to bring to your promotional website, this can be done with online advertising rather cheaply. The downside is, it will take a month of advertising to bring in daily clicks before they pay you. In the mean time you have to bear the cost and the risk. You don't have to, but to really make Affiliate Junktion work, you should bite the bullet and splash out for a proper keyword tool. This tool turned my Affiliate Junktion income from €10 a day to €80 (and counting) - well worth it.

The good thing is you after you signup for the free Affiliate Junktion information you are under no pressurer to take part. I recommend you check out omnis and also get the free Affiliate Junktion information here (opens in new tab). One thing I can guarantee you, is that you can do all of this without obligation/risk. I always recommend researching anything before you get into it, so take a look at all the information that Affiliate Junktion gives you. By joining up (it's safe) you can see what they offer and decide for yourself if you want to take part.

Also check my other Affiliate Junktion blogs. Here is a post purely as a directory of my Affiliate Junction posts. When I first stared the program I made a loss, and didn't really understand Affiliate Junktion, but I managed to turn that around (now I'm making about €100 a day with affiliate Junktion - proof here). DO read what I've written to see if its the right program for you, but also get the free info from Affiliate Junktion (click here) it will help you understand more.

I am doing my absolute best with this blog to provide you with independent accurate information on Affiliate Junktion, so you can decide for yourself if Affiliate Junktion is for you.

Though Affiliate Junktion had not been successful for me at first, I tried again (the third attempt). I did so because I learned two things: That Affiliate Junktion paid out per referral not per conversion (how did I miss that - stupid), which means that people don't have to take part in order for you to get paid. I also learned some more things about advertising with Google adwords to help me make a better Affiliate Junktion campaign.

Lets start by answering the most common questions about Affiliate Junktion.

Q1) Will Affiliate Junktion actually pay me?

A) You can find dozens of websites on the Internet saying “I got paid by Affiliate Junktion” but most people say that from the time they join up thinking they need to do so to create interest in the Affiliate Junktion program (or at least to show Affiliate Junktion isn't a scam to help entice people). Often people will out and out lie thinkin it might help them make money with Affiliate Junktion, me, I don't care. Take a look at my Affiliate Junktion payment proof and if you feel you want to get monthly cheques in the mail like me then click here and take a look. You decide.

Q2) How do I know if Affiliate Junktion isn't going to use my credit card and steal my money.

A) Because Affiliate Junktion never asks for your credit card number, nor does Affiliate Junktion ever ask for any payment from you whatsoever. The information they give you really is totally free.

Q3) Is Affiliate Junktion legitimate?

A) Affiliate Junktion is legitimate in the sense that it does not try to defraud you of money. I have debunked (explained) Affiliate Junction in this post. It's easy to see how it works simply with the information Affiliate Junktion gives you.

Q4) If the information is free how does Affiliate Junktion make money? (Affiliate Junktion is trying to make money isn't it?)

A) It's easy to see how Affiliate Junktion makes it's money. Affiliate Junktion gets a commission from either omnis or ipower. Once you receive you free information the process is explained. You can check it all out here.

Q5) Does Affiliate Junktion really pay the $75 joining bonus?

A) Yes, the $75 joining bonus has been in my Affiliate Junktion account from day one. Please note that is NZ$75, you can check daily currency conversions here.

Q6) Why should we trust what you say about Affiliate Junktion?

A) Just because something is written doesn't mean it is true, (the same goes for the newspapers). You have to decide yourself how honest my explanation of Affiliate Junction is. You can see this blog is about other things of interest too me, and that my experiences with Affiliate Junction aren't all happy ones (I din't work it out in the beginning, - all these post still exist in Nov/Dec 2007). Also seven months has past since I joined Affiliate Junktion so I'm happy that one can see how genuine it is.

Q7) Whats does “ Affiliate Junktion pays out per referral not per conversion” mean?

A) It means Affiliate Junktion pays you NZ$2 every time somebody makes an enquirery , people don't have to join for you to get paid a commission (unlike other Affiliate programs).

Now lets talk about my new experiences with Affiliate Junktion as of late.

Since learning a bit more about Affiliate Junktion and advertising with Google Adsense I decided to give Affiliate Junktion another shot.

I started a new advertising campaign for Affiliate Junktion and here are the results:

1st month = €10 per day profit

2nd month = €110 per day profit (the change is solely because of this tool)

The two most important things are:

Months of successful activity with Affiliate Junktion - 3 --- Daily (yes daily) income currently €110

My income increase came from the use of this keyword tool.

Affiliate Junktion is now making me a decent profit. One can't help wondering how much my negative comments in the past have an affect on my own current Affiliate Junktion campaign. I took my wifes advice and decided to keep everything truthful and not inflate or exaggerate my results to try and improve them. In other words, I'm not going to falsify my experience to make it attractive for others interested in Affiliate Junktion.

Affiliate Junktion Summary (so far):

I can't say if Affiliate Junktion will work for all. It's not a scam in the sense it's not trying to steal from you, but you may not be able to get it working right straight away (I couldn't until I discovered this). If you are prepared to spend a little time learning abou how to get it working or if you have other sources of Internet traffic you can direct to the Affiliate Junktion program, than Affiliate Junktion might just be what you are looking for. One thing is absolutely sure, it cost you nothing to find out about it, I wholeheartedly encourage you to empower yourself with the information to help you make an informed decision and you can get the best information on Affiliate Junkiton from the source (here).

Is Jack Tompson promting GTA IV for TakeTwo?

2008-04-28T20:22:00.008+02:00

One could almost be mistaken in thinking that Jack Tompson is actuallt working for Take Two.

Jack Tompson is the attorney who wrote to the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, demanding that legal action be taken against Take Two and retailers of Grand Theft Auto IV.

He is bringing worldwide media publicity to the already hyped and highly anticipated GTA IV game.

But for Jack Tompson, that's just a necessary evil.

Despite unintentionally promting GTA IV, I think Jack Thompson is doing a good thing. He's bringing mature games into the lime lite. Hopefully this way parents will think more about games a little more and understand that their are games aimed at another audience than just "kids".

I agree with him in one sense at least, parents should be aware of the content of the game and make sure they talk about it with their children rather than just handing it over.

The same can also be said for many other games (not just mature games like GTA IV). Aa game written for a thirteen year old is almost definitely not going to be ok for a 7 year old (the same as with any other media).

The way I see it, keeping this game away from kids younger than those supposed to play it is the combined responsibility of the retail outlets and the parents in the same way that selling alcohol is. That just might be where Jack Thompson's argument comes a little unstuck.

Game playing parents (like myself) already know there is a difference between Mario games and Grand Theft Auto type games (remember Carmageddon?) . However some parents either don't know or simply don't care. If you combine this with the tendency for those same people to throw their kids in front of a Playstation/Xbox like they would a TV (to use as a babysitter) then you have a very scary combination.

Grand theft Auto is no different from any movies, or comics or other media aimed at the same yo.ung adult age group. A big problem is that outdated concept that video games are for kids. If you still think that like that, then watch this.

It all comes down to caring about what children are doing and being there for them. Perhaps thats Jack Tompson's goal, to show parents they do need to be aware of the content of such games. Or perhaps some took his ZX Spectrum away before he finished Manic Miner and he's still pissed, who can tell.

Critic of game like GTA IV need to remeber that like TV, Movies and Books, Video games are a great escape.

Grand Theft Auto looks like an amazing game and I believe that helping publicize the necessity for parents to watch what their children are playing and be there for them will be good for mature games in general. When parents start taking a more active interest in what games their children are playing, those of us mature enough can run around being bad ass killers and nobody will get hurt.

Is Apple missing out?

2008-04-15T00:14:00.009+02:00

The world is ready for Apple to make MAX OS X available to for PC's

Apple may as well, because others are already making it happen.

I've long been an advocate of Apple selling the operating system to those who want to install it on non Apple hardware.

Years ago Apple allowed other people to build machines with the same components and licensed the operating system. In 1998 (I think it was) Companies like Umax were selling Macintosh clones (I brought one, it was great!).

Fast forward to today and the MAC OS is now running on the same hardware as PC's making the possibility even easier. Dell and HP would happily jump at the chance to sell PC with MAC OS X installed. But Apple won't do it.

Apple maintains (amongst other reasons) that the hardware/software synergy is required to achieve the stability and reliability that MAC users enjoy and expect. If they suddenly had to support millions of hardware configurations as Microsoft windows (or Linux for that matter) does then the operating system would suffer and become less secure, prone to crashing and problematic (like it's current competition).

This is a weak excuse. There is absolutely no reason that Apple can release the MAC OS as a software operating system and specify which hardware it would run on.

The truth is, they are doing quite nicely the way things are. Producing the whole product they can make a profit on everything and guarantee a bigger sale.

Actually I don't blame any company for wanting to make an ever increasing profit, it is (after all) their duty to do so for their shareholders, but would releasing the operating system actually cost Apple money?

I don't think so.

If Apple sold the operating system, they would instantly open up a whole new market. Sure there would be new competition undercutting the Apple computers (actually thats already happening, I'll get to that soon..), but take a look at Apples customers, people buy MAC's because they are great computers, they look good and they are a strong (even cool) brand. I don't think that would stop, they would just get their computer sales and operating system sales on top.

If other people sold computers running MAC OS X they'll still never be as cool as MAC's. It still actually amazes me that there aren't any PC's that look as cool as MAC's (well I found a Sony as cool as an iMAC, but it was far more expensive). Plus if you look in other industries, big brand names are always finding a way to get their products into the hand of people on a lower budget in order to open up new markets, without hurting their brand image.

Car brands are a good example, you can buy non Mercedes SUV's with Mercedes motors. Some factories make the exact same car which sells for a different price by three different brands. Rollerblade (the big in line skating company) also owns a buget brand. They sell some models under both brands, if you want the badge you pay the price, if you can't afford to be in that club, they still make a sale and you still get the product albeit without the badge.

I'm sure that Apple could do the same.

Apple could also partner with the component manufacturers, or hardware makers. If they did release the operating system as a software only option then it would boost sales of particular hardware. Your telling me Apple couldn't get a percentage?

Well if apple doesn't, it just might miss the boat (*sighs*) -again. For those not yet in the know, since Apple MACS became Intel based (like PC's) there has been a movement of enthusiasts dedicated and determined to doing what Apple won't. Making it possible to install MAC OS on any PC. This effort is called OSX86 project, and they have done an excellent job.

If you build your own computer with exactly the same parts as in a MAC than installing MAC OS X on it is amazingly easy. Just a couple of tweaks and you have MAC OS X on your screen and be able to keep that big fat PC box on your desk (*sighs again*).

Some companies are even capitalizing on this.Take a look at this comparison of an “open computer” (now available by from a company called Psystar) and a MAC mini I found (on this pic it's called an “openMAC”, they changed the name last minute for fear of litigation from Apple, but forgot to change it on this jpg from their website)

It shows a computer built to run MAC OS (and they will deliver it pre-installed with MAC OS X Leopard) with better specifications for a lower price than the MAC mini.

For this comparison to be fair you have to consider one thing, the cost of the operating system. They should show the cost of the software in this comparison. The “OpenMAC” would cost (including software) $628 (more than the MAC mini). Just for reference, it would cost $618 using OEM Windows Vista Home Premium (note that the Leopard software is not OEM and is the 'ultimate' version).

*** oops, I almost forgot, that a new MAC comes with iLife which would cost you a further $79 if you bought the Open Computer from Psystar instead of the genuine article.

In my opinion it won't provide competition to genuine Apples (I'd still buy the MAC mini anyday) but possibly open the door to a new market.

In any case, it may prove that if Apple doesn't make MAC OS available to buy separately for installation on non Apple hardware they may suffer in the same way that the music and motion picture industry has done in the face of file sharing. Consumers showed that wanted the product a different way, when the industry failed to respond and the process went underground. Is the same fate slated for the 'budget' Apple MAC?

Only Apple really knows if their OS will ever be sold separately. If it doesn't sell it separately it may risk loosing the sector of the market that wants an ugly box with the best specification possible on the cheap, and thats something the Steve Jobs probably wont lose any sleep over.

Does a new technology mean a new way to breach copyright?

2008-04-13T23:57:00.006+02:00

One of the coolest things I've come across in a long while is a tool for 'sucking' 3D data out of any 3D application or video game.

Imagine you want you very own figure of you World of Warcraft character. You simply use this software called ogle to extract the 3D information, clean it up a bit and get it printed on a 3D printer.

Here you can see what I mean.

In case you don't know a 3D printer is like a cross between a bread maker and an inject printer. You put in a powdery substance in the 3D printer and a printing head moves through it spitting out a drops which harden it. After each pass head moves up a fraction slowly hardening the 3D object. The end result is that you can open it up and pull a solid 3D object that was made from your 3D data out of the tin of powder (at least thats a pretty good simplified explanation).

But if you can extrad 3D mesh data, you could also use the 3D models in any number of ways.

The problem might be for computer program manufacturers is that people might rip off their models.

It wouldn't be too hard to (theoretically) get the 3D data for an object, change the mesh a little and then use different texture maps to save you from making your own object.

Having said that, if your reasonably good in 3D it would probably just be easier to make your own models bearing in mind the probable amount of time you would have to spend cleaning up the mesh and the quality of 3D editing software. It would be far too obvious, for example, to use a character (and risk the copyright owner taking legal action against you) from a game for your own project, commercial or not.

I'd hate to see someone intent on inserting DRM into OpenGL (3D graphics data) in an effort to stop 'mesh theft' (my term).

I'm hope this is going to be a technology only really used for fun and for good. I can imagine that might be a cool niche business, 3D printing an painting (from a screenshot) figures of game characters (by that I mean configurable character like the ones in mmorpg's).

Dear Friend. How have you been scammed today?

2008-04-02T13:53:00.005+02:00

Are people really that stupid? I hope not.....

I received an email in my junk folder today (as much as I hate to admit it, hotmail is a Microsoft product I almost like because of its spam filter) thats starts:

"Dear Friend.

How are you today?"

It goes on to talk about the delivery of US$1.8m cash. It's supposed to appear as though it got sent to you by mistake, and that if you forward the identification details, they will send the US$1.8m to you.

C'mon are you kidding me? This is a phishing scam at its worst. If you get it, block the sender, delete the email, and if possible report the sender. Never reply, this will only alert the person who is phishing that the email account is live (in use), and it might be passed on/sold to a spammer, then you can expect a never ending supply of phishing emails in your inbox.

Phishing scams pray on our will to believe something (no matter how preposterous). If I told you I knew a way for you to make millions online you would at least listen. What you would also do, is hope. Hope and want that information to be true.

Phishing scams do it, affiliate marketers do it, heck, advertising agencies do it! The emotion can be strong, the argument convincing (I was once convinced to take part a sophisticated way to get you to part with your money called Affiliate Junktion).

But there was nothing sophisticated about this phishing scam I received today.

I have to wonder how many people fall for such pathetic attempts to get you personal information. More importantly, I worry about people I know who may be sucked in...

Here's the email in its entirety for those how get similar phishing scam emails and want to recognize them.

Don't be sucked in by Phishing scams like these:

Dear Friend.

How are you today? I am writing to inform you that I have Paid the fee
for your Cheque Draft. And I went to the bank to confirm if the
Cheque has expired or getting near to expire and Mr.Ahmed Zafa the
Director of Central Bank of West African States(BCEAO) told me that
before the cheque will get to your hand that it will expire.

So I told him to cash the US$1.8million United States Dollars to cash
payment to avoid losting this funds.However, all the necessary
arrangement of delivering the US$1.8m UNITED STATES DOLLARS in
cash was made with FEDEX COURIER SERVICES LTD. in Cotonou Benin Republic,
Mr.Ahmed Zafa the Director of Central Bank of West African
States(BCEAO) Cotonou have to package the sum of US$1.8 m in cash for me.Then he also agreed to help me to Register the Consignment with FEDEX
COURIER SERVICES LTD.Infact I'm happy that every movement I made goes
sucessfull.
As for our agreement with the FEDEX COURIER SERVICES LTD. they
promised that your consignment will leave this Country on monday next week,But
the Director of the FEDEX COURIER SERVICES LTD. said that they need
your contacts informations to able them meet up with you immediately the
Diplomat Agent arrived to your Country.

write a letter of application to the given address below.
Contact person: Dr.Jim Vicktor
EMAIL:***********removed to protect the stupid************@yahoo.fr
Send them your contacts information to able them locate you
immediately they arrived in your country with your BOX .This is what they
need from you.

1.YOUR FULL NAME---------------------------------------------------------
2.YOUR HOME ADDRESS--------------------------------------------------
3.YOUR CURRENT HOME TELEPHONE NUMBER---------------
4.YOUR CURRENT OFFICE TELEPHONE---------------------------
5.A COPY OF YOUR PICTURE------------------------------------------
Note.The FEDEX COURIER SERVICES LTD.
don't know the contents of the Box. I registered it as a BOX of an
Africa cloths. They don't know it contents money. this is to avoid
them delaying with the BOX. don't let them know that is money that is in
that Box.

Thanks and Remain Blessed.

Mr.David Baju

**********
The latest scam I got in my email was this one (give me a break!)

AWARD FINAL NOTIFICATION.
We are pleased to inform you the released results of the EUROMILLION SWEEPSTÁKE LOTTERY/NEW YEAR PROGRAMS held on the 14th July 2008.
Your EMAIL was attached to a ticket number 102/08 with serial number 000228 lucky numbers 4 5 5 6 4 which consequently won0the lottery in the 2nd category.You have therefore been approved for lump sum pay out of £10,600,000 Pounds(TEN MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS)in cash credited to file REF Nº: ESWL/2147/08/MAL.
To begin your claim please contact your claims agent: Mr Alex Taylor
The Foreign Services Manager of EUROMILLION SWEEPSTAKE LOTTERY
Email: ----------@hotmail.com

For the fun of it take a look at these other Phishings scams, some are quite hilarious.

Could blogging and the web save the third world and maybe even the planet?

2008-03-31T23:05:00.005+02:00

Computers are getting cheaper and cheaper.

Some people in the industry predict that we are on the Virge of significant cuts in computer prices.

This might be needed to continue to fuel computer consumerism.

When computer are cheap enough this might dramatically affect the lives of people in third world countries....

Computers are staying useful for longer. Indeed the computer that I am writing this on is already 8 years old (with a few upgrades). The result is obvious, people are not replacing their computer as often. To entice consumers value has to be created. The smart consumer already knows how much they will benefit from a new machine, but now they need a price incentive before they are prepared to throw away something thats still very functional and useful.

Whats that got to do with the third world? Lots.

Incidentally at this point I would like to add the although widely used, third world is not really a very appropriate term these days. Developing nations is generally considered better.

While its not currently incredibly viable economically to ship all our old computers to developing nations, as computers and screens get smaller, it is becoming more and more viable.

In the mean time an ever increasing amount of people in developing nations will be able to afford new computers simply due to lower prices. It's pretty obvious that as entry level price drops more customers in developing nations who previously couldn't afford a computer will be 'created'.

The amazing rise of Linux has also vastly contributed to the ability of such people to have access to capable technology. Ubuntu was designed for this purpose entirely. To bring a fantastic operating system to absolutely free to everyone who wants one.

The great thing about all this is how rapidly it will increase prospects for those in developing nations. The Internet is the one place were we are all together and we are all equal. Do you think America would be so quick to invade Iraq if corporate America employed large programming and web services from workers in that region? It may not be big in Iraq, but contract programming and web services available over the Internet are big business. Do you think that cool application you just found was made in you country just because it's in your language?

The one laptop per child (olpc) program was created to put a sub US$100 laptop in the hands of children in developing nations. At the moment the product they have created is a little bit more than their goal of US$100 but it wont be long before it surpasses that milestone and will only get cheaper.

When the developing nations can school up via the Internet and provide services to the rest of the world, money will start to flow in their direction. Even for those who won't want to learn programming or web design, there is no shortage of service opportunities provided by the Internet. There are an abundance of smart people who will provide us with cultural, intellectual insights and news via their blogs and earn revenues through advertising and affiliate marketing.

It's a great prospect. Very little is consumed during the process. When someone spends a day blogging, the only thing they consume is power and time. Not only are no trees cut down to make the product they sell, the income created may even mean they less people cutting down trees for farm land. Sure I admit power is still a big problem for this planet, but eco friendly power solutions are getting better while processors are continuing to use less juice.

Whichever way you look at it, I think its a positive thing. Technology will bring opportunities to those who don't have them and through this they will prosper.

Peace and quad cores to all.

Oh no, a MAC got hacked!

2008-03-29T19:13:00.005+01:00

When I heard the Macbook Air had been hacked at CanSecWest (the security conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia.) I could also almost hear millions of devout PC users go “nya na na nya nya”.

For those concerned about security an Apple MAC is the platform of choice. I still use a PC and consider myself and Expert PC user. But even I'm note sure exactly how to be as safe as need be. So hearing someone hacked a Macintosh was scary! If the MAC is not impervious to attack what do we do? Were do we go for shelter?

But it's not at all that scary in reality. The hack was made through exploit code placed in a website which allowed Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel of Independent Security Evaluators to take over the Macbook Air and claim a prize. This hack would not have been possible if MAC users follow two two steps to protect themselves. Things that savvy PC users are already doing:

Install Firefox and...
Use it with the “no script” plugin which will stop malicious scripts from running without your knowledge.

Do those two things, and yes, (I'm sorry to burst the bubble of gloating PC users) the MAC is safe.

By now the security vulnerability will have been plugged.

Just to set the record straight (for both PC users and MAC users who aren't quite sure):

No. MACs do not need antivirus software.

I think anyone celebrating the MAC hack (other than the contest winners) should just get a life, you shouldn't wish ill of others for any reason, least of all because of the computer they use. That goes ditto for smug MAC owners. I personally wish no one had to worry about resource hogging security defenses not matter what type of device/operating system they have and look forward to the day when nobody wins the prize.

Kirsty Lee Cook, Apples new iDoll?

2008-03-26T22:13:00.008+01:00

It 's hardly breaking news I know.

Apple recently joined the sponsors of American Idol.

I wonder if that means they'll rename it Apple iDoll?...

Perhaps one day we'll see Kirsty Lee Cook like this - click to view in higher resolution (yes it's a Photoshop job, just a bit of fun really).

Some possible similarities between Apple products and American Idols:

Nice to look at.
Constantly updated and outdated.
Easy to use.
Love em or hate, there is no gray area.
Work right out of the box (we'll some American idols do need a bit of 'tweaking')
Easily accessible to a wide audience.
High customer loyalty.
Driven by a great marketing engine.

Anyone think of any others?

The Apple Mac sites absolutley everyone should know about (even some PC users).

2008-03-17T22:58:00.020+01:00

Some great MAC sites to help you make the most of your MAC.

So if you've got yourself a shiny new Apple iMAC or want to dust of that old MAC and bring it back to life for the kids, here they are:

Here is a collection great MAC sites enjoy!

Do you know all the keyboard shortcuts for you MAC operating system? Here are the shorcuts for MAC OS X:
Apple MAC OS X shortcut list on Apple.com
Productivity boosting shortcuts on the MAC

I love open source, and found this great list of best free and open source MAC apps:
Open Source MAC. They are really good, and truly free. Here's a longer list I like of great MAC apps.

You can also download some amazing shareware for the MAC. For some reason Apple users always seem to make better programs, nice to look at, easier to use and intuitive with great functionality. I always found that the actually best place to get some great free programs was via Apple's downloads page.

Here are some great Apple news and magazine sites:
Apple Insider
Mac Rumours
Macworld
And for the latest Apple propaganda from Apple itself:

If you want to keep you MAC apps up to date, macupdate it's also a pretty cool place to find new apps because the list has ratings, and you know that the latest apps will work with Leopard. Or you can use an app called Appfresh.

Here's one for MAC and PC users. Do you know its possible to install MAC OS X on a PC? Don't tell me that all hackers are bad, checkout these sites.
OSx86 project wiki
If you decide to try it, you might need to visit this forum for some help.

You screen real estate is not fully utilized, here are some cool thing to put in the unused menubar space: Super OS X menu bar items

Want to 'hack your MAC' and make it cooler? If your comfortable with OS X's terminal, then heres the top 50 cool hacks you can do with terminal.

To make you MAC prettier and easier to use, change folder icons to represent whats in them (or simply to look cool). I find all my best icons here.

Got kids, heres a great kids drawing program for MAC OSX.

Did you know that when you install modern programs on MAC OS X that the programs contain code for both the Intel MACs and the older Power MACs still running MAC OS X? Heres a hand application to slim down those programs and also eliminate unwanted language file etc to save hard disk space and increase performance: Xslimmer

You can never have too many MAC fonts right? If you want some cool script to help automate things, try these: Better living through MAC scripts.

For old abandonware for a variety of older MAC hardware: Macintosh Garden - Mac abandonware.

If you need to download torrent files, you probably already know about MAC torrent apps like:
xtorrent or Transmission (allot of people use this one) or Bitrocket.

Want an alternative to front row, thats designed more towards people who don't only download via iTunes? Take a look and see if Center Stage is for you.

Love all things MAC? including old macs and nostalgia? Try some of these old MAC ads!

Aren't some (if not all) of those MAC vs PC ads funny? Have you seen the ones from England? They use different actors and some different themes. If you've forgotten, the American Mac vs PC ads are here.

This skitch app looks nice, I might try it out.

--have I forgotten anything cool? make a comment!

The future of computers is Solid, if only the consumer knew it.

2008-03-11T10:38:00.003+01:00

For a long time the general public has been savvy, but not savvy enough.

While consumers may be driving the demand for faster computers they are not necessarily driving in the right direction.

You see most computer buyers now know the basics: More ram is better, a bigger hard drive and a faster processor. But thats not always the case, and hasn't been for quite some time.

You have been able to get dual processors since the 90's (probably the eighties actually). In fact it was interesting to me that you used to be able to buy two processors than ran at 75% of the speed of the top processor of the time, for the same price. The reason it wasn't widely adopted was two fold, firstly the motherboards were too expensive. This was a catch 22, the price would have gone down if more units were sold, but they weren't selling that fast because of the price. The second reason was that the public and even enterprise was focused on faster processors.

The only reason that we have duel core processors now, is that the processor manufacturers are having a more and more difficult job of making the processors faster. In order to satisfy the consumers need for something better, AMD and Intel finally started going towards more processor cores.

Fast forward to today and we have the same problem as in the 90's. The computer consumer has enough knowledge to drive the technology, but is interested in the wrong thing, or doesn't know which direction will truly benefit their computing experience.

Today for example we have massive hard disks capable of storing far more than we need (unless one needs to archive large amounts of data like servers, or Peer 2 Peer file sharers). But most people don't need all that and there is an alternative which is much faster than a conventional magnetic hard disk – solid state hard disks.

You can think of a solid state hard drive as more RAM which appears as a hard disk. The access time and loading time for data off solid state hard drive is very little because there are no moving parts. The catch? Solid state hard disks are expensive,... or are they?

Thanks to digital cameras and the mp3 player revolution flash memory prices have plummeted. There is now more than enough available solid state memory technology to have facilitated cheaper solid state hard drives. Yes, they are still more expensive, but the move to using term in our computers is a move that the consumer has to take.

The consumer needs to understand that if (hypothetically) the price for a 500gb conventional hard sick and the price of a 80gb solid state hard disk are about the same, we should all use solid state. This would increase the performance more than faster processors do. Also as with the 90's example, the price would soon plummet and before long a standard would be established.

So what would I buy?

I don't have a big budget and am looking for my next computer right now. The computer I would like to buy would be restricted by my budget. I would like to have one of the slower (a good speed rating at an economical price) processors available but with a fast bus speed and fast RAM (yes RAM comes in different speeds) and a fast(ish) graphics card (I play games). Lastly I as the one thing I would incorporate is a Solid State hard disk. I have other Hard disks I can use for storage, but I want my operating system and programs to be store on solid state.

Probably the first company to provide such computers will be Apple. Apple has been building desktop computers using components normally found in laptops (iMacs). They do this to mac the computer so small it fits stylishly into a single unit (that looks like just a monitor). They are even already offering solid state options with their mobile line, because solid state also offers one amazing advantage to conventional hard disk thats great for mobile computing. No moving parts mean vastly lower power consumption.

I don't think it will be long before Apple notices that solid state hard disks offer a noticeable performance increase and choose to take advantage of that to use as a marketing ploy.

Unfortunately for me, I will have to save my pennies, because if there is one thing Apple is not good at, it's making entry level machines for budget consumers (especially gamers). While other manufacturers lower the cost of their entry level machines, Apple just increases their entry level specification (and price), but thats another post....

So be educated, look out for solid state hard drives appearing in more and more new computers. Don't be easily tempted with a big hard drive when a solid state hard disk my give you the fastest computer on the block.

Affiliate Junktion. Scam? my final word (I hope)

2008-02-27T23:27:00.009+01:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date inforamtion on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

To save you time, I'll start with the summary and work backwards.

Is Affiliate Junktion a scam? Legally speaking I think it walks a fine line, but what you probably really want to know (legal or not) is if it will make you money. Sorry, it won't ((EDIT: Oops, di I say that ??? I'm now making €100 a day with it!)). What qualifies me to say these things ((EDIT: Good question! seeing as how I was WRONG!).

I tried Affiliate Junktion and lost money. Later, after I had learn't more about google adwords and just to make sure I hadn't missed something, I tried again (and lost a little more money) I did this purely to put the Affiliate Junktion saga to rest safe in the knowledge that I tried sufficiently.
I am a tech guy, and learn very quickly. I am well capable understanding the system and following it correctly.
I don't work (I make some income off the Internet – but not with Affiliate Junktion, with sites like www.youtukan.com and www.reicohnearbeit.com), so I have plenty of time to promote the system.
I am a successful businessman who has already retired (in my early 30's)
My businesses were Advertising businesses.
This blog is genuine, It started out as some ramblings about Apple Macs etc and then I found Affiliate Junktion and decided to give it a go. I blogged the whole unhappy experience.

Ok whether you believe me or not just understand one important concept. Don't be quick to believe positive comments about Affiliate Junktion. Making a blog is easy. If you owned Affiliate Junktion, you would make some blogs to sing it's praises and inform people “its not a scam”?

Likewise the new recruited Affiliate Junktion members do the same. The believe if they give Affiliate Junktion a rave review they in turn will make convert a customer and receive a commission from Affiliate Junktion. How can you believe anyone who says they are making any sort of commission is genuine when they have a stake in saying that?

Internet copywriters know about this. They understand if you read “it's not a scam” and “I'm making...” enough, then you will start to believe it. Internet scams pray on your underlying will to believe. If someone says they are making a lot of money and they will show you how, we all want to believe it. We want it to be true.

But here are the facts about Affiliate Junktion:

Payouts are only made after your Affiliate Junktion commissions exceed $150, I would be willing to bet, that its about the time that people reach $100 in commission, they realise they are spending more money on advertising than they are receiving in commission (ie running at a loss) that people quit.
All payouts are in $NZ dollars (about US$.816292 – but the kiwi dollar is at an all time high)
Prices of advertising for fast money making schemes are soaring on the back of all the new affiliate program members. You can try to get cheaper clicks by using other keywords, but then your targeting the wrong people and can expect very few to join off your affiliate link.
Not only are the clicks hard (or expensive) to get, but getting someone to click a second time to follow your affiliate link to the Affiliate Junktion website reduces the amount of raffic even further.
Legal grey area: If a person offers you something for free and then requires you to make a purchase in order to get it... I'm no lawyer, but I think that means it's no longer (legaly) free, this has many implications, false claims being the mildest of them.

*If you want to know how Affiliate Junktion (and other similar affiliate schemes) works, I debunked it here. Behind the scenes of Affiliate Junktion is a really good piece of software called Post Affiliate Pro which can be used to make you own genuine affiliate program for your product or service and is used by many genuine companies. It's probably the most useful thing I learned from Affiliate Junktion.

The last thing I want to say before I put this experience to rest. is that if you have had a bad experience about Affiliate Junktion (or any other Affiliate program) write about it. Helping people from falling victim to scams is hard on the Internet because so many people are lying to help boost the image (to try and get commissions) that bloggers who tell the truth won't necessarily get heard.

Good luck dodging the sharks infested waters of online money making.

Here are some links of note.

My previous posts on Affiliate Junktion:

Aftermath of an online opportunity

What makes Affiliate Junktion (and others like it) tick?

Affiliate Junkion Scam or Truth a real test day 1

Day two Affiliate Junkion scam or truth

Day three Affiliate Junkion scam or truth

I want to fiddle with my knob.

2008-02-11T11:34:00.000+01:00

My nickname is Tekno_boy because I like technology. But I'm a bit disappointed that in this day and age, it seems, a man is discouraged from playing with his knob. I'm talking of course about the trend towards buttons and away from knobs.

Computers are prime examples. We could really use a few knobs to fiddle with on our keyboards for example. Some already have wheels for volume control, but a wheel is not a knob. Sure it's convenient to 'wind up the volume' with a wheel, but I always miss the ability to go straight to maximum or minimum, or anywhere in between while knowing exactly how loud that would be.

Your average knob could be used for allot of other neat things.

Wouldn't it be cool for example to be able to 'wind' through your applications instead of using alt-tab? Or have a knob (in this case I'd at least settle for a wheel) to make home video editing easier by being able to fast forward and rewind and know exactly how fast by how much you turn the knob? I'd certainly like to see keyboards like that.

It's worse with cars, far worse. Cars are going backwards. I have two cars, both Peugeot diesels, they are about the same model, but they are about 4 years apart. In the newer car, the volume knob has become a "+" and "-" button. This means while your driving you have to lean over and spend more time to turn the volume up or down by pressing the plus or minus repeatedly. This starts to become a safety issue.

Actually the later model has volume control on an additional steering wheel lever. I admit this is a big improvement, but lets talk about the heater for a moment. The newer car has done away with a switching knob for changing the heater vents selection, the temperature setting and also the fan strength. One starts to wonder if the designers understand the concept of functionality as an integral part of design. Perhaps they're ex Microsoft programmers.

In my old car, you can jump in, turn the heater straight to whichever setting you desire, wind up the fan, and bast it through whichever vent you desire, all in a matter of seconds. In the newer car, you have to first turn the heater on. In the old car this is achieved simply by winding the fan knob up. If the fan knob is on zero, the fan is off, ergo the heater is off. In the new car, you start by turning the heating on by pressing the "off" button (I kid you not!) and then pres "++++++" to finally achieve your preferred heat setting, the same is then done for fan setting, lastly you need to select your vent setting which is done be repeatedly pressing the vent selection button. Of course you almost always go past it by pressing the button too often and only ever get the right setting after you've been through so many times that you learn the sequence.

If you need to change the heater setting while your driving, it's a nightmare because it requires so much concentration.

I think were doing this all wrong. We should be thinking of more ways our knobs can be used to improve our lives, not trying to do away with them.

When asked about Apple MAC's

2008-02-02T22:42:00.000+01:00

Time for a topic change, lets get back to tech.

In an email today that a friend sent (in response to comments of mine about an Apple Mac being a good computer for home video editing).

He said :

“love the new version with Leopard O/S, but was told recently that they are impossible to get serviced......only Apple authorised dealers and there are not enough. Also, great if graphics are required, but the more used Word & Excel equivalents aren't a patch on Microsoft.Cost seems outrageous for the desktop equivalent. Please explain! “

I'm happy to explain that further here.

Firstly, on the whole Apple Macs need less servicing. Most “Servicing” problems in the PC world are derived from problems with Microsoft Windows or glitchy drivers, spyware, viruses etc. Allot of the time people need to take their computer in to the PC shop, its to re-install the operating system, or recover data. Mac OS X is built on the most stable operating system there is (used on servers) called UNIX. I'm sure if someone were to complete a study on how often Mac OS X suffered from software based problems compared to its counter part (windows) you would find there is a lot less need for experts to rescue the system.

Also one part of this point that people need to understand, is that Macs use the same architecture as PC's (nowadays), so if you hard drive fails, you can take it in to a PC shop and they should be replace it with the same type, no problem. Yes, apart from the operating system, and Apple Mac is a PC (which after all just stand for Personal Computer).

One last think I would like to add, is that PC's do nothing “out of the box” to help you protect the most valuable part of your computer.: your data. In fact most people never backup their data. But Mac OS X Leopard has a feature called “time Machine” which not only backs up everything (including your data, operating system changes, and software installation), it does it in the most user friendly manor. If you were to accidentally delete (or most commonly and often irreversible – save over a good file with a bad one), click on time Machine and you can go back in time, simply scroll back in time to a day when the file was there, of the file was good, click on it and you can restore. It will even do this for data, from within your programs, accidentally deleted a contact from your address book? Open the address book, search for the name you want and then go back in time to find the person you deleted and restore it. It's all done graphically and effortlessly.

The last part to that comment is that my friend who lives on the coast of Australia may not indeed have “enough” authorized Mac dealers, but the truth is you probably only need one. The people who sell Apple computers are normally a different breed. Knowledgeable, friendly and professional, this leads to high customer satisfaction. One of the reason the staff are good is because they loeve Mac's and wouldn't want to work with anything else. In the PC world, with high staff turnover and fly by nighters, you're less likely to return to the same shop twice.

So Apple Mac's are far from impossible to get serviced (if you actually need to), and in the event you do need service, you can be happy you data is safely backed up.

Now, on with the next part....

To be realistic, Apple Mac's aren't better if graphics are required, because most of the industry standard graphics applications are available for both. The reason Apple Mac is so strong in the graphics industry is twofold. Designers (and sound engineers) want to take care of business not fix their computers constantly, they also surround themselves in good design. The is no question that an Apple Mac is better both aesthetically and practically.

As for Microsoft Word and Excel. These are programs. Microsoft windows is an operating system from Microsoft. You can get some programs Word, Excel etc which run on Microsoft windows, but hey you can also get Microsoft Office for the Mac operating system, and, wait for it, Microsoft Office is better on a Mac (this is because of integration with system wide services etc).

Check it out at Microsoft's site (ctrl-click to open it in a new tab and continue reading)

http://www.Macoffice2008.com/

*note it has a different icon because the normal word and excel icons would never be accepted by sophisticated Mac users, but its the same (only better) program.

Also Apple have their own suit of application call iWork. Not only do some consider iWork to be better than Office (because it has all the features you need, an none that you don't, in a clean easier to use interface and for a fraction of the price), but its fully compatible with Microsoft products.

Still on the same point, Apple Mac's run Windows. Yes, you can install windows on any new Apple Mac and you can choose to reboot between operating systems, or run you programs right in the Mac OS like they would run in windows.

Still with me? Good.

Now lets tackle the biggest issue most people have. “Cost seems outrageous for the desktop equivalent. Please explain!” :- I will.

Macs used to be expensive, or should I say, they used to cost more. I once paid AUS$4,000 more for a Mac than a PC (the PC cost AUS$4,000 and the Mac cost AUS$8,000).

But that was a long time ago. Now its a whole different story.

Apple Mac's cost no more (in general) then other well know brands for the same item, with the same specifications (promotions and special offers aside).

Sure you can buy a no name PC with lower specifications (Apple tends to only make well equipped Machines), without a webcam, lower ram etc, but it's no different than buying a car without electric windows. Sure it cost less but you also get less. Also, relatively speaking, you don't pay that much more.

Note: The reason that an iMac cost a little more, is that you pay for the miniaturisation which allows them to have the computer built in to the flat screen monitor (they use some laptop parts) – compare this with the Sony VAIO VGC-LA38G an you will see, if you find the same product in the PC world it can cost even more!:

Sony VAIO VGC-LA38G - AU$2799.00

http://www.cnet.com.au/laptops/laptops/0,239035653,339273651,00.htm

Better Specification iMac – AU$1,199.00

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=7B723680&node=home/shop_Mac/family/iMac

But theres more to the cost argument. Its called “Total cost of ownership”. With a PC you need:

Antivirus

Antispyware

Firewall (although windows XP and Vista have this built in)

Trojan dectector/elimination

Registry cleaning and repair software

How much is all that software going to cost you? Also, how much does it cost you in time (studies have shown that people get more done on Mac's)? I presume you value yourself/your time don't you. How much extra will you have to pay for servicing a PC because it breaks down more often. Surely one would consider this when comparing the purchase price? People just don't seem to consider these factors.

Also, Mac's come will amazingly well made and easy to use full version software for photo cataloging/editing, video editing, audio sequencing, DVD making, address book, not to mention the absolutely Unequaled iWeb for making web sites easily (the only product in existence for any computer which makes web site building easy in my opinion).

How much extra do you have to pay after you buy your PC to get this software. And Apple make great software. They are among the few who understand that software should be easy to use, that making something hard to use, doesn't necessarily make it better.

To sum it all up:

Apple Mac's are just as easy to service, but have (in general less problems).

Apple Mac's run Microsoft Office better than PC's and can ALSO run windows.

Apple Mac's cost relatively the same amount as PC's. In fact PC's of a similar desing to Mac cost more. It's like getting a Lexus for the same cost as a Mazda. Mazda owners would argue they can get everything that a Lexus owner has for less and with more power. Lexus owners know better.

To learn a little bit more, take a look at these helpful videos from Apple.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/macosx/#basics-anatomy

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/macosx/#basics-windows

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/macosx/#basics-move

Did the computer company you bought your PC off provide you with instruction videos?

Aftermath of an online 'opportunity ' experiment (Affiliate Junktion, one month later).

2007-12-29T20:39:00.004+01:00

I recently found myself interested in an online affiliate marketing opportunity called Affiliate Junktion.

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date inforamtion on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

Deciding I should at least once in my life take the chance to see if they work, (and after confirming to the best of my ability that it was no scam) I decided to give it a go.

What convinced me were two factors:
1) An immediate $75 signing bonus
2) A guarantee (something like, if your not earning $150 a day, in three weeks, they would pay the $150 per day until you were)

So finally I gave in and decided to give it a whirl (feel free to read my previous blog entries on this topic after finishing this one)

The first thing worth noting at this stage is that all Affiliate Junktion payouts are in New Zealand Dollars (where Affiliate Junktion operates). So while you pay US$90+ to get you web hosting, Affiliate Junktion will theoretically refund you only US$57.95 (todays rate). After over a month, my NZ$75 signing refund is still showing in my Affiliate Junktion control panel as "pending".

The second thing is the NZ$150 per day guarantee. Over one month later, where is that? I new at sign up that Affiliate Junction's terms and conditions have provision to deny anyone this guarantee and make it impossible for people to take legal action against Affiliate Junktion regarding this, so I'm not that surprised. Maybe they bank on people apathy.

After signing up I followed their instructions and advertised the site they had given me. What I learnt over this time was:
1) Costs of getting traffic to Affiliate Junktion are far higher than Affiliate Junktion states. This is mainly because people followed the links to my site and never clicked through to Affiliate Junktion. Probably combine with increased competition for clicks which affiliat programs like theirs help fuel.
2) Conversion rate (when customers take action and become buyers) is not as high as Affiliat Junktion promised.
3) The commission is also in New Zealand dollars.

But I, persevered, Affiliate Junktion emailed me and did help with setting up my google adwords campaign, helping me to lower the click cost and get more traffic. I also realised I could send customers directly to Affiliate Junktion through adwords using my affiliate ID. This is a common practice, it solved the problem of people only clicking on my advertising and not getting through to Affiliate Junktion, so I immediately started to see clicks registering in the Affiliate Junkion control panel. The trouble was customers had not been warmed up (a process copywriters use, using persuasive, emotive language to improve the chances of making a sale) and so conversion rates weren't good.

So what was the end result? I spent €35 (NZ$66.65) to get NZ$16.00 in commission. It was a no brainer, I pulled the plug. ((EDIT, luckily I tried three time and on the last try nailed it. I now make €100 per day with Affiliate Junktion, the most important lesson learned is "if at first you don't succeed...")

I'm sure some people who find thier way to this page still want to believe, as I do, that is is possible, that I could have done something to improve things. Actually I'm sure I could have done better, but how long would it have taken? How much better could I have done? To make a profit I would have needed a conversion more than twenty time higher than I got.

Worth noting, Affiliate Junktion made 8 new sign ups from me. If they only duplicate my experience, then that will become 64 and so on... So its clear then even if their affiliates aren't successfully, than Affiliate Junktion (and google advertising) will be.

I hope this helps people make an informed decision regarding Affiliate Junktion. Maybe some day I workout how to promote the program cheap enough, at the moment, it's beyond me.

What makes Affiliate Junktion (and others like it) tick?

2007-12-06T16:25:00.007+01:00

Ever wondered exactly how Affiliate marking programs work? Especially the ones without a product?

In response to reader comments I wanted to continue the theme of affiliate marketing and this time look at how such schemes are constructed.

As an example, it was pretty easy to find out how Affiliate Junktion makes most of its money, by getting a commission from the web hosting company either omnis or ipower. when people sign up to host the web site that the Affiliate company supplies their members. Many of the more techno savvy (my name ain't tekno_boy for nothing) can see that it wouldn't be too hard to construct such a scheme yourself.

Lets take a look at the pieces of the puzzle shall we?

First, any successful Affiliate program will need to get your email address to send you their "important" information. They present you with an 'opt in' form which is attached to an autoresponder (like the one from aweber). In layman's terms they get you to choose to subscribe to emails which they periodically and automatically send. The first of these simply confirms you were the one asking for the information (in case someone else put your email in without your consent).

After you've confirmed that, your affiliate program will send you further instructions.

This is all done automatically through services like (and this is the service Affiliate Junktion uses) aweber's autoresponder service.

After you've joined the Affiliate marketing service's subscription. They will entice you to take some kind of action that generates income for them.

In the case of Affiliate Junktion, they offer a free web site and require you to join a hosting service (ipower ) for which they will get a commission. Once you've signed up (and they've confirmed this) they send you a website with an affiliate link which allows Affiliate Junktion (or you Affiliate marketing program of choice) to recognize when visitors arrive at their site through your links. If these visitors sign up, you get a commission.

The system many use (like Affiliate Junktion) is Post Affiliate Pro. Post Affiliate Pro is a php driven affiliate marketing system, allowing your affiliates to track commission sales manage their affiliate accounts. Post Affiliate Pro is not just for money making affiliate schemes like Affiliate Junktion, its also a useful tool for promotion of all sorts of products online.

Those are the basic three ingredients of money making Affiliate programs. Again here is a summary:

An autoresonder for aweber allows people to “opt-in” to your subscriptions service.
The first email to all subscribers tells them to sign up at either omnis or ipower and forward thet welcome email for confirmation (the commission rate -at time of writing- at ipower is US$100 per signup).
Post Affiliate Pro, allows the affiliate web site to track its customer commissions and lets affiliates manage their accounts.

With a little knowledge it seems reasonable that one could use these tools to build a site and “own” the Affiliate program not just join it.

Unfortunately It's not all that easy to do in reality, but for those who are willing to take the time to learn it's definitely not a rocket science.

One such example of this is www.utukan.com which uses those elements to offer people instructions on how to do it themselves. The difference is, they show people how to get the full commission from omnis/ipower and not just a couple of dollars (please also note that Affiliate Junktion advertises all payouts in NZ$ which makes it appear more attractive than it really is). The trade off for them (www.utukan.com), is they can't offer any guarantees or cash back, as they make no further income from those who sign up under their affiliates, nor will they get more money from future customers who sign up from an affiliate. Also because the instructions they offer 'give the game away' they are also a little more complicated and require a bit more time to complete. Affiliate Junktion has a simple system but the payouts are much much smaller.

The people at Affiliate Junktion and the like aren't silly. If you discovery the parts that make up their system and follow their links in order to make such a scheme yourself, they will get a commission on that as well.

Hope that help your understanding of how Affiliate schemes work. I certainly am enjoying the learning exercise and (although I have yet to break even) expect that this knowledge will ultimately serve me well.

The best advice I can offer people is to be very careful, take a look at affiliate marketing's programs, but don't be too quick to sign on the dotted line. Always be skeptical an do your research, only join when your sure you've gotten good independent advice and understand not only how you will make money, but also how the Affiliate marketing program makes money from you.

More on Affiliate Junktion...

2007-11-30T17:39:00.010+01:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

One of the things to watch, is that because they are in New Zealand, all payouts are in NZ$. If you check out www.ipower.com you will see they are making $100US per sign up. Not only that but a recent email to me suggested their lowest payout rate is NZ$1.50 (US$1.15). (At time of writing, I thought Affiliate Junktion paid per conversion, they don't, Affiliate Junktion pays per lead. Only Affiliate Junktion themselves know how many leads end up signing up)

If you put that together with the increase in people using keywords like "make money" through Yahoo or Google adwords resulting in a hight cost per click, its easy to see there is plenty of money for them, hardly any for you. (since writing that I have got my cost per click down to €0.03 for Affiliate Junktion ads)

Really the only ones making the money are Affiliate Junktion (maybe Affiliate Junktion isn't making money, see my latest Affiliate Junktion blog here) .

Maybe the occasional member who's experienced with online advertising is lucky enough to target his/her Affiliate Junktion ads effectively and cheaply, but for every member who does, there are no doubt plenty who signup and go nowhere. (that may still be true, but I suggest you get the free information here and then decide for yourself if Affiliate Junktion will work for you)

Day three. Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth a real test.

2007-11-22T18:34:00.004+01:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

After finding out that Affiliate Junction was a legitimate endeavor (see my other posts) I evaluated it as A kind of multilevel marketing program with relatively low payouts (mainly benefiting those running the affiliate program).

I the past day I have considered what it would take to run such a program oneself and its a bit more involved than you think. Maybe the fact that this is a real program, well thought out and simply executed (with importantly easy to follow step) could be of use to some.

To be fair, I decided to say that if your not really comfortable with making your own affiliate related site with content and advertising (possibly including customer log ins, keeping track of income and providing members with reports) than maybe I shouldn't be so harsh.

While I openly admit I personally am exploring other avenues, if your not so web savvy and want to give it a go (knowing that although you might get money from it, the person really makes the mega bucks is the one who brought the program to fruition), then I can say, at the very least you will end up with some very good web hosting for your money.

A comment made on one of my posts made me think that some people just want to make sure its not scam and are keen to give it a go. I can vouch for that at least. Maybe you'll get something more than you pay back, only time will tell. I genuinely think that the system is well executed and if you can't do it yourself, then Affiliate Junktion might be as good as any you'll come across.

Ironicaly I must be making some admission that the Affiliate Junction program has some merit because I'm about to post the link.

If you don't feel you've got what it takes to do better and were just looking make sure you wouldn't be scammed so you can go ahead, then here's the link. Please remember just one thing, most multilevel marketing programs (which parallel Affiliate Junktion) are not much more then pyramid schemes using products to stop the pyramid from collapsing. When the market gets saturated, then it might be hard to get the returns advertised.

Be informed and then make your own decision.
Affiliate Junktion

Day two. Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth a real test.

2007-11-21T10:48:00.005+01:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

This morning (about 12 hours after signing up) I received a conformation email from Affiliate Junktion saying my membership had been approved and to login to the control panel at Affiliate Junktion, a link was provided.

As yet, I have been unable to view this page. I simply get the error:
The server at www.affiliatejunktion.com is taking too long to respond.
Could it be that the Affiliate Junction program is really popular, or something more sinister? We shall see.

I have been trying now for about half an hour, I'll keep you posted.

After another hour the page came up, must just have been some kind of server problems (maybe unexpectedly large traffic).

Heres a screen shot of the control panel ((Edit Affiliate Junktion now uses a slightly different system)):

The getting started page in the Affiliate Junktion control panel tells you to download and install winzip (for those who don't have it), download you free websites a search and replace tool and free ftp software. Pretty obvious stuff. You meant to upload the site you received to you new domain (which you paid for) after replacing the appropriate referral links with your own.

It then simply goes on to explain how to market your new affiliate website using Yahoo and Google Adwords. Nothing here alot of us don't already know.

If you going to advertise a site, then why not make a nice site with information and some good affiliate links (perhaps including the joining the ipower affiliate scheme that Affiliate Junktion uses), this way you'd make a higher return on your investment ((Edit: Boy was I wrong)).

Conclusion:
Athough Affiliate Junktion is not a scam, don't expect to make any money from it ((Edit: Did I say that??? I'm now making over €100 per day!)). (read my post about my personal Affiliate Junktion experience) Affiliate Junktion is more or less a web base multi level marketing system using web hosting membership to give the bottom level something for the money they lose.

Also although you can join Affiliate Junction for free you are going to have to spend real money (first with web hosting and then with advertising through Yahoo and Google) and at $2,00 per sign up the only one who is going to make real money is the owner of Affiliate Junktion. ((Edit: again, boy was I WRONG!))

For a complete novice who can't get it together themselves I guess some money is better than none and you may be assured to know that Affiliate Junktion is not going to rip you off. You may just end up spending quite a bit for uncertain returns.

I for one will spend my advertising dollars on bringing people to more lucrative (for me) Affiliate programs than the one offered by Affiliate Junktion. I'm no longer just weary of scams, now I'll watch out for scam-like schemes similar to Affiliate Junktion.

I'll keep you posted to see if I get my $75 back!! -[edit] as of almost three months later, the $75 is still "pending" (not yet "approved"). ((EDIT: Yes, I got it back, here's my Affiliate Junktion payment proof)

Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth. A real test - day one.

2007-11-20T21:18:00.007+01:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

There are allot of Affiliate programs these days, and most good bloggers are affiliate savvy as are readers. I decide to take the plunge and check out one thats surfaced recently.

The site is Affiliate Junktion. Affiliate Junktion reads too good to be true. It guarantees to make you $150 a day, free to join and free website. We all know that affiliate plans can never 'guarantee' anything. In an effort to find out if Affiliate Junktion is a fraud, I did a bit of research:

I found (from forums/blogs) that after you join with Affiliate Junktion, sure you might get a free website (more on that later), but you have to host it with the service provider in their scheme. For that you have to pay for a years hosting, anything from US$5 to $10 a month (depending on time of year specials - currently only $4.95). Thats US$60-$100. So much for free (although the do promise to re-reimburse you $75 to cover that)

Looking at the site it appears to be New Zealand based. A quick whois check show Affiliate Junktion is hosted by bluehost.com in the US but (care of their domain privacy). OK so its hosted in the US that doesn't tell us anything. I had a look at the affiliate program at bluehost.com and they pay out $65.00 per signup to affiliates. That looks like where Affiliate Junktion is making their money.

So I thought lets see what happen when I sign up and registered my details. I immediately received an instruction email showing that I would have to sign up at ipower.com. Something smelt rather fishy. Why host with bluehost.com and direct people to ipower.com to sign up? So I check out their site, seams legit and a quick look at their affiliate program might hold a clue as to how Affiliate Junktion makes money. ipower.com pays out US$100 per sign up, enough to cover the promised $75 reimbursement and $2 sign up fee Affiliate Junktion pays its members (as I understand it).

About the guarantee to make $150 a day, we'll I check out Affiliate Junktions terms and conditions and it has a waiver that basically says that Affiliate Junktion is not liable for the validity or truth in the content of its site. That way Affiliate Junktion can guarantee and promise all they like it doesn't mean anything. You should know that.

I decided to carry on with the sign up. Hey I could use a years hosting even if the Affiliate Junktion turned out to be a scheme.

Therein I think lies the secret. Affiliate Junktion gets you to sign up for web hosting. This is how it avoids being a pyramid scheme, because at the bottom level there is someone getting a product, and one that most people who are likely to come across Affiliate Junktion (those searching for affiliate schemes) can use.

There are other schemes like that. They are called multi-level marketing. Basically a pyramid scheme which make sure the bottom level never 'breaks down' leaving people with nothing to show for thier money, by providing a product or service. They then encourage their members to duplicate the process and find more members. They even have a name for it, it's called "the cycle of duplication".

Whatever the outcome, I've paid my money to Affiliate Junktion so time will tell if they suckered me. If it is real, ones things for sure, Affiliate Junktion is set to make a bundle and at some stage there will be allot of people saying "I've got my hosting, now what?"

The last thing I did today ways to send my sign up proof to Affiliate Junktion. They are supposed to respond and upload the 'magical' website which will make me $150 per day to my host account. In any case I'll post tomorrow with more... if your thinking about joining Affiliate Junktion, maybe hold off a few days, we'll soon see if Affiliate Junktion is truth or fraud.

Don't cry for Microsoft (the truth is, it never loved you)

2007-11-13T23:11:00.001+01:00

Microsoft's history can be simply summarised. It made billions on the back of software that was in fact years behind the competition. What it did right, was to license the software for anyone who used a standard Intel architecture. This made it instantly poplar and useful for a lot of people. Others simply followed suit.

But Microsoft either always failed to make a great product for its time or never bothered. My money is on the latter. So many unpaid programmers making Linux the great operating system it is today must testify to that end.

It's easy to think that if Microsoft really wanted to, it has the resources to make the mother of all operating systems: small (comparatively), fast, stable, secure, bug free, easy to use, good to look at and pack full of useful features. Instead they came up with Vista.

It seams like Microsoft never really cared about its users more than it cared about planned obsolescence. I mean, making a product thats just good enough to keep your customer using it and still in need of the next upgrade may be Microsoft's only true skill.

But theres hope. You've heard of Linux. Maybe you've tried it, maybe you haven't. Linux is a derivative of Unix one of the oldest operating systems there is. But being old doesn't make Unix bad (unlike windows). Unix and Linux just keep getting more and more stable and nicer to use.

Unix based OS's like Linux (and Mac OS X and FreeBSD) are set to steal market share from windows. I foresee a future when only a few scared people won't move away from windows. This is because windows isn't getting really any better, but the others are. Even Mac OS actually seems to be getting better (arguably the best OS for those who want to use programs, rather than play with the OS) despite already being better than windows.

This is the catch up age. Making revolutionary improvements may now be relegated to changes in hardware not software (new touch screen input devices for example). Both Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.5 (leopard) have been called “evolutionary not revolutionary” and Linux is catching up fast.

I would say it's already there. Regarding Linux I have only one niggle left, which is not so much about Linux,more about the community for Unix derivatives. Those **nix (Unix type operating system) experts need to give help advice in both terminal commands AND gui (graphic user interface). Many new comers to Linux, don't ever want to open a terminal window. I have used terminal and know its nothing to be afraid of, but we the masses (and I include myself in the group) only want to use the user interface, we don't want to use terminal.

Linux will beat Windows only when community starts embracing the 'gui only' newbies. Better interest in Linux is good for all parties. What I couldn't say, is how long this will take.

Meantime those who want an alternative operating system to windows now, here imho (in my humble opinion) are the ones to choose. Mac OS, if you can afford it, Linux.

Quite simply, if your about to buy a new computer, or just have a little more then there is no question that Apple Mac OS X Leopard is the best OS at time of writing (and considering all the free, full version, easy to use professionally programmed software, they're better value than PC's).

If an Apple Mac is not viable, and you want to start (or take another look) at Linux these are my favorite distributions:

Ubuntu is the world leader Linux distro (distribution) because its backed by people with money and a large community. It's slick and nice to use.

Download the CD image, burn it and boot from it, your computer will not be change in anyway and you can try it out, all free, all legal:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

If you want nicer still, very fast and well optimised, try the latest version PCLinuxOS its achieved what Ubuntu has without the cash backing (kudos). If you want the 'up and coming” distro, try it, it recently shot to #1 at http://www.distrowatch.com/:

Download the CD image, burn it and boot from it, your computer will not be changed in anyway and you can try it out, all free, all legal:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

Maybe you'd prefer a Linux distro with a long history of great accomplishments and a large professional user base. In that case Fedora, Red Hat or Open Suse might be for you. I would say, if they were the right ones for you, chances are you'd probably know that already. New to Linux users would be better to try Ubuntu or PClinuxOS.

Last but not least an option close to Linux but not. Pure Unix, the mother of all these advancements has (as I crudely understand it) one cool advantage over Linux. It truly separates the OS from the program layer, offering improved protection against the all too common 'shelf life' which makes the system suffer (most notably speed and stability) after too many programs have been installed and uninstalled. We'll now there's a rather windows like, user friendly version of Unix (FreeBSD) it's called PCBSD and its really worth a look:

Once again you can download the CD free and legal here:

http://www.pcbsd.org/

I’ve invented a new MAC (Apple take note). I call it the iMtiny.

2007-05-24T22:16:00.000+02:00

Take one standard Mac mini. Change out the power supply with that of a laptop (power and battery). Connect it to a LCD digital photo frame and add a compact usb keyboard.

It’s tiny. Shouldn’t weigh more than your average laptop and may even be cheaper than an entry level Macbook.

I got the idea when I saw some LCD digital photo frames in Media Markt the other day. They looked really stylish. Then in the MAC section I saw a MAC mini for the first time ever. I thought, gee they’re really tiny.

Let me know if you have a better name or anyone actually builds one….. (Could happen).

Play on the go, but not on a MAC.

2007-05-16T23:42:00.000+02:00

Too say the least, after waiting (and checking apples website every day), I’m very disappointed in the new line up of Macbooks.

You can’t really call them new because all they’ve done is used a slightly faster processor and added more RAM and larger hard drives. That's hardly revolutionary.

Nowadays all computers are what I would call “capable enough” for most people, even the entry level ones. But that's where my problem is.

I want to buy/I’m ready to buy an entry level Macbook. The problem is a simple one. Crap graphics on the Macbooks. The Macbooks ship with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (integrated graphics). Which is fine for most business use and even graphics editing or Photoshop work (2D), but quite frankly it’s not good enough for games, and I play games (I plan to dual boot into XP, it’s a shame but at the moment the only decent way).

With games the single most important (more important even than processor speed) is your graphics card. The better your graphics card, the less work your processor will have to do, and with multiple pipelines and heaps of very fast ram on the card even the mobile graphics are now great for games. Except on entry level Macbooks.

You can get a Macbook with a decent graphics card, but they have a US$1999.00 starting price (because there are many other better specifications).

On a PC you can get a laptop with a bigger screen, good processor and reasonable graphic for less around $600.00.

I’ve always been an advocate that Macs don’t cost more because of all the useful software included and the better more efficient and more productive OS (MAC OS X), but come on Apple, when are you going to update the graphics on your entry level laptops?

The truth is, if you want to play games, you can get a better entry level games laptop by buying a PC.

But I want to play games, and I want a MAC, and I’m still waiting…….

You can't download condoms. Low tech, often means safe.

2007-05-08T23:33:00.000+02:00

I want to talk about security, but not about the type of security where you download some kind of program to protect you. No, this time let’s talk about low tech.

There are so many simply ways you can protect yourself from electronic thievery and the like that don’t involve special hardware or software.

Take for example using your credit card over the internet. By now you should know that if a padlock appears on a site it means you have a secure connection and that information passed between yourself and the web site cannot be read by others.

Actually that doesn’t mean your safe, because even unscrupulous people can make a secure connection. You also need to know who your dealing with and decide weather you trust them or not.

But that’s for another post. I’m going to talk about a low tech solutions to protect yourself.

Have you heard of a think called a Trojan? It’s a program that infiltrates your computer allowing its owner control. Control can mean running programs like keyboard loggers that record your every keystroke (in the hope of finding you credit card number etc). So when you enter you credit card number why not start notepad and click back and forth between the web page and notepad, occasionally typing some random numbers into notepad. Then you wont have to worry about a keyboard logger that slipped through your high tech securty suite.

My brother suggested another cool low tech solution. Save a text file with the middle six digits of your credit card and then copy and paste it. Don’t use the whole number because that might be able to be found. Also don’t be stupid and call it “credit card number.txt”, give something memorable like “are you sure you can afford it.txt” this will also help you control spending habits!

I’m always surprised how terrible people are with the saving their files. That’s why Microsoft saw fit to make a folder called “My Documents” for us to store everything in.

This makes an easy place for virus writers to tell their programs to search for useful information. I personally use a folder called “My files” on a separate Hard Drive. This has the added advantage of making my C: (Window Hard Disk) free to format and re-install Windows from time to time (it needs it).

When it comes to email security, tell your friends that all future emails coming from you will have a subject that starts with something personal. E.g. “Today’s topic:” or “Newz:” and then ad whatever you need specific to each email. If you’re email gets hijacked by a virus, your friends will always know if you authorized the mail they received from you or not.

Never under any circumstance store passwords on you computer unless they are in a specific encrypted program. Why not write them on a piece of paper and store it safely.

You see we have high tech lives and are under high tech dangers.

Don’t be afraid to come up with a new low tech way of keeping safe. If you think you have a good one, add it as a comment here.

Keep safe.

Leopard, fast land animal, slow arriving operating system.

2007-05-03T23:48:00.001+02:00

One sometimes has to wonder how Apple made it this far.

When Microsoft licensed it's DOS (disk operating system), the Apple equivalent was leagues ahead.

But Microsoft licensed its product and Apple didn't, and the rest is history (O.k. Thats a simplified version, but Apple has been trying hard to gain OS market share ever since).

Apples Macintosh range of computers survived only because of the MAC OS. It was quickly adopted by people in the businesses of design, publishing, audio and video. These people just wanted to get on with the job and/or weren't always technically minded. Lets face it being creative and being technical can sometimes be polar opposites. The MAC became the standard in creative businesses and those who used MAC, loved MAC and stayed MAC.

Notice how I said MAC people stayed MAC? There are allot of MAC owners who have iPods, but not all Macintosh owners love everything Apple. .

The Windows operating system however did the opposite to what Apple did. Windows captured 95% of the world operating system market and then started making a good product. Microsoft didn't worry itself in the early days about silly little things like quality, ease of use or stability. It set it sights on market dominance then used its power, position and profits to slowly improve the product.

At the same time Apple used the “if you build it they will come” marketing strategy. Making a great product (albeit a more expensive one) in the hopes that people would buy it. Not as many of them did.

But MAC OS has been holding on against Windows. Apple It's has been profitable all these years because it sells hardware as well (more computers than any other single manufacturer).

Today,Apple is really sitting in a pretty interesting position.

Millions of iPods sold, #1 music and movie downloading site, about to break into the telephone market with the iphone. Not to mention that the MAC OS has transitioned to the Intel platform allowing MAC users more speed, power and flexibility.

Whats more here comes the “leap frog effect”. Apple is soon to release its newest OS offering (we'll, by soon I mean October) which should be better than Windows Vista. Vista should have jumped ahead with all that money and time spent on it, but some annoying features (can you say “user account control”) have meant its come up a little short (at least in my book).

With many cool new feature's like “time machine” which lets you simply wind back the clock to recover deleted (or even saved-over files) and some feature still secret Leopard has a real chance to triumph over Vista.

To my surprise Apple is taking advantage of its loyal Macintosh users and delaying Leopard (until October 2007). It's has sifted some of its development resources away from Leopard and onto the iPhone, Apples new foray into the mobile telephone market.

But it's forgetting one of the major reasons people have MACs. The MAC OS has always been ahead of Windows. Macintosh users have always been safe in the knowledge that they were using the best there is to offer. What happens when you take away that advantage?

Are MACs just going to end up like PC's? Similar price, same components, same OS just with a different skin?

MACs are finally a similar price to PC's. Finally they have the speed, power and flexibly. Finally you don't have to commit to the MAC OS without good backup alternatives.

And Apple is throwing away the great advantage it could have if Leopard was here now.

Who knows? With Vista not quite the legendary OS the PC world was waiting for, Apple might have been getting more 'switchers' right about now.

I'm sure they are not going to loose customers. Are they? Maybe they want to sell mobiles instead? Time will tell.

MAC vs PC (Conclusion)

2007-05-01T22:34:00.000+02:00

If you've read my other posts, you know the answer already. I recommended you look at the other post for more detail.

Now that Apple MACs are Intel based they have the power for the price. MACs are either a fraction more expensive than PC's or the same price (occasionally cheaper). As I explained, if you compare directly the specifications of an iMAC or MAC mini, and adjust PC prices for miniaturisation , the MAC clearly come out on top.

But hardware maketh not the computer. Software is everything, because without software computers are nothing.

A beautiful collection of easy to use, fully integrated prosumer applications combined with the ability to run Windows as well (if you want it). Makes the MAC easily better value for money all round.

Turning to the easy of use are of the OS itself, it's not that MAC OS X shines, its more that Vista is a big leap backwards when it comes to making the computer more intuitive for all of us.

Perhaps Microsoft has just decided the masses are finally getting to grips with Windows and has made Vista harder to use to keep technicians in a job.

The bottom line is MACs are still easier to use.

I gave software availability to the PC. If your a true gamer, you need Windows installed with the best and latest support, updates and drivers. Because Apple doesn't support Vista (or Xp for that matter) on its machines and Windows is the gaming platform, the PC wins (all other windows software works in MAC OS X, with parallels or crossover - or you can dual boot into Windows)

As far as looks go, you can't argue taste. While the MACs have always looked good, were now starting to see genuinely pleasing PC designs and Vista doesn't look bad either. I would like to see PC makers get it together and bring more design innovation to their cases but there are at least enough now to make this one a dead heat.

I didn't even talk about security in fairness to PC's. The only reason Windows is so vulnerable to attack is that everyone is trying to attack it. I just didn't want to make the match too one sided.

The whole argument fails to point out that computers are better the ever before and no mather wich platform you choose you'll be using a great Computer. Me? I'm going MAC. Too many pros to ignore.

Also remember I didn't include Linux in this squabble. Linux is fast becoming of age. It's getting too powerful and usable to ignore. If you must stay PC, think about saving the cost of a Windows license and go to www.ubuntu.com for a great version of Linux with a whole heap of great applications all free and legal. Look out for posts on that to come.

What I still like about PC's and don't like about MACs:

Unnecessarily high entry level.

Paying for a Monitor (mid range models) even if you already have one. Or if you prefer, not being able to buy a reasonably powerful MAC without monitor.

Bigger screens on entry level laptops.

MAC vs PC: Aesthetics

2007-04-30T23:32:00.001+02:00

Which hardware/software combination pleases the eye most.

That's a matter of taste. But the great thing is, this is my post, so it's my taste!

Its going to be very difficult to say MAC or PC is better because there are an infinite number of makes and models.

The release of Vista hast started a new era for PC's. The new operating system looks good. I won't please everyone, but its a great jump forward as far as I'm concerned.

I wouldn't say its better than MAC OS X, just different and I wouldn't call MAC OS X superior to Vista on looks either (in fact I feel it is starting to look a bit dated). That said the 'shiny' look of Vista can get a bit too much (especially with everyone adopting it)

All in all I'd say that for the OS, it's a 50/50 for MAC and PC.

Now lets get down to the hardware. Apple make slick looking machines, heck they make slick looking cardboard boxes that the machines come in. So what's going on in the PC world?

Other than a shift away from beige a number of years ago to grey/silver/black not much. The bulk of PCs come in various modern flavours along the same lines. They are cleaner, sleeker and smarter looking but still lack something that MACs have.

How do they manage it? Apple doesn't employ all the designers in the world so how is it that they are the only ones who constantly come up with a top class look.

One can't deny there is a great amount of innovation in PC's. Alienware PC's have a distinct look and there are thousand of modified cases made by enthusiast with one thing in common. They all look like shit.

There are some bright lights on the horizon in the PC world, and I would go as far as to say just as many funky looking PC as MACs (considering the amount of manufacturers there should be).

Noteworthy is the new Sony Vaio VGC-LS1 (though the name doesn't quite have the same ring to it that iMAC does). It's a desktop computer with a real Vista look (on the outside). It houses the computer in the monitor (much like an i- uh... never mind). The attached keyboard flips up to cover half the screen and when this happens a screen saver type thing displays date, time, weather and music now playing. One has to wonder it doesn't just have a normal screen saver (and use the whole screen to add other items of interest: new items, rss feeds etc.).

But in any case it's looks great (I'd go as far as to say it's a contender).

But where are the rest? Couldn't a couple more PC makers sit down and say “rather than adding a coupe dozen more processor cores and ramping it up to 10 zillion squizahertz, let make this one look good.

All in all, the OS is too close to call and what the PC world lacks in style it makes up for in shear numbers to suit everyone's taste. Compare that with Apples consistent and industry leading computer case design and I'm giving this one (boring though it is) a tie.

MAC vs PC: Software Availability

2007-04-29T21:29:00.000+02:00

There is only one consideration to make as far a software availability goes.

Do you count the fact that due to their Intel architecture, you can install Windows Vista on an Apple MAC?

If you do, then obviously a MAC has more software available to it.

In fact the MAC has three ways you can run windows software on it.

With a dual boot, so you can shutdown the MAC OS and boot into windows.
Parallels visualisation software allows you to create a virtual machine into which you can install windows and it will run within a window not 'knowing' it's not the only operating system running. This gives one near equivalent speed (theoretically) but without the need to reboot and with some MAC OS integration.
Crossover is a program by codeweavers which allows one to install a Windows program directly 'onto' the MAC OS, allowing the program to execute as though it were running in Windows. The advantage is that you don't need a Windows license to run it. It also mean tighter MAC OS integration, but at the expense of speed and stability. Only a certain number (growing all the time) of Windows programs have been tested and are know to work with Crossover.

With all of these options the MAC does windows software well, and would be the clear winner if not for one thing. Games.

In my post I'm going out on a limb.Although Apple provides drivers for Window XP, I am generally talking about Vista here because its the latest release. Further more, Apple states that it does not support Windows on it machines (fair enough since Windows is more or less the competition). This means that none of the three options could be said to run Windows Vista optimally. That my friends, means everything to gamers.

The only way to get you OS at peak performance is to have the latest high performance support files (drivers for PC's, kext for MAC OS) and to have the OS unhindered (by running in a virtual machine – Parallels, or with api emulation - the way Crossover fools widows programs and the MAC OS into thinking they were made for each other).

With Apple not supporting Windows on a MAC we have to say that for most people its not going to run as well for games.

There is also the confusion that if you install Windows on a MAC, you'll need one copy (license) for that machine. Forgive me for the blatantly obvious but that makes it a MAC that is also a PC. The argument here is MAC or PC. Incidentally the term P.C. Originally meant 'Personal Computer', now it generally describes (as in these posts) 'machines which run Windows or Linux'.

So if we talk about an Apple MAC of the current line up, it can run windows programs and run them well, but I say it's still not the platform most used, and most trusted for games. And the are thousands of games out there.

There have been good speed tests of MAC's running Windows Vista but those normally have Vista installed and tweaked by experts.

Gamers need Windows unhindered, therefore software availability still goes to PC's.

MAC vs PC: Ease of use (or; Along came Vista)

2007-04-28T21:52:00.000+02:00

The MAC OS ease of use is legendary. If you’ve ever used one for any length of time you’ll know what I mean.

In my experience, the only people who have ever argued the point are those who have actually never used it or are the type of person my friend Jesus is. He is a “computer guy” (FYI so am I). He claims to be able to fix any and all PC problems (FYI so can I). If you visit his house you would see the panels of every PC and when you ask him, all his computers have some kind of problem that he's “working on”. You see that’s what he want his computer for, to fix/upgrade/tweak. He doesn’t want to run programs or actually do things, he wants to fix his computer and is perpetually doing so. Defrag this, re-install windows that. Thats why the MAC OS doesn't suit him less thing that need attention (FYI my PC works just dandy, and I spend time doing stuff rater than tweaking).

I not really his fault, Windows has always been famous for having to be re-installed after some months the keep it running smoothly (because it simply becoms slugish and problimatic over time). Not to mention unstable. Can you say “blue screen of death”? The problem was then, that you have to be the type of user who can deal with that. Most users aren't.

However with the introduction of Wndows XP, the Microsoft OS offering was finally becoming acceptably stable with a longer install life span.

Theres no question that the Windows family was heading towards user friendliness. On the other hand, MAC OS X has gotten a bit more complicated. No real fault of Apples though, MAC OS has been getting more complicated just as the computing world itself has been getting more complicated. The better the processors become,the more we can do with out computers.

Was it now too complicated? I once wanted to change my OS X so it would auto log on, allowing it to boot without user intervention. So I asked my brother to do it. He had hardly ever used a MAC before and had never used OS X. It only took him about 4 minutes (we timed it) to find the setting and change it (and two of those were me just showing him some non task related MAC things). Yes it would seem that the learning curve on an Apple MAC is still palpable for noobs.

What about Vista, can it claim the same? When I installed Vista I was immediately impressed with its sleek new look. After about five minutes I was shocked to discover the looks are about the only things that have changed for the better. So much had changed that one had to reacquaint oneself with where to do common tasks. Had this been an improvement I would have had no gripe, but burying programs under new topic names is not intuitive. After playing for 10 minutes I was even less impressed, these changes where going to make things harder for a lot of people.

One of the big problems with Windows is that it gives one the impression it was designed for geeks, by geeks. Vista I'm sad to say is not an exception. If anything it the OS that proves the rule. I shuddered to think of all the 'non computer' people who in this world will have to use Vista because they don't know any better.

One of the arguments people like this have always used is that they don't want a MAC because they don't want to have to learn a new OS. “Learning 'computer stuff' was already harder than it should be” (I agree). It always stuck my as a funny kind of argument “I'm not moving to something easy to use and learn because I've gotten used to something difficult”.

For anyone with XP thinking of going to Vista, Believe me, going from Windows XP to MAC OS X would be easier than moving to Vista.

MAC OS X is definitely easier to use.

MAC vs PC Part one: Value for money.

2007-04-27T14:46:00.000+02:00

Value for money in my opinion is just about the only consideration PC owner’s appear to have and the area that MAC owners seem less concerned with. Indeed the PC I am using now I built for €400 and at the time price was my only concern.

When comparing the cost of both machines I’m going to take into account software (some comparisons are hardware only). Oddly enough some people just don’t seem to think this is important when buying a new computer. I see huge amounts of friends who buy a new PC and then don’t really get much use out of it because it doesn’t have much software. They buy Microsoft Office, use Internet Explorer to connect to the net, and of course play solitaire. That’s about it. Happens all the time.

But without software, the computer is nothing. Just a big bunch of components. Both MAC and Vista PC’s come with bundled software and are usable right out of the box, but MAC shines in this area for having the superior quantity and quality software.

MAC’s come preinstalled with a suit of lifestyle programs (for photos/videos music etc) that are integrated with each other and the OS. The PC has some of these built in. Vista is better than any of its predecessors for allowing you to edit and keep track of photos for example and Windows Movie Maker is not bad. For other things, most PC’s simply come with bundled demo programs which lack the complete feature set or are crippled in some way.

One of the things that annoys me on the internet with these type of comparisons is that nobody seems to take into account software piracy when comparing machines. I see post and comments on forums about people who obviously don’t give any value the software that comes with a MAC. That’s because a lot of them simply get their software without paying for it (i.e. they pirate it). For the sake of those legitimate software users its worth pointing out the added value given to the MAC OS because of it great bundled software. The MAC is plainly better value software-wise ‘out of the box’.

As far as valuation purposes go, the actual operating systems MAC OS X and Windows Vista are no longer far enough apart to warrant any difference in value (bundled applications aside). I actually think that the MAC OS is still somehow better. I say somehow because it’s hard to put your finger on it. It’s just a better ‘user’ experience that you’d never understand until you used one (for a reasonable enough time to get to know it). This to me actually holds almost all the value because it is the software we all use everyday and I would end the argument right there except this ‘magical’ ease of use is difficult to quantify or appraise. For the sake of this blog, the operating systems of MAC OS X and Windows Vista have a similar enough feature set (something measurable enough) to give them more or less the same ‘on paper’ value (imho).

So, I’ll move right on to the hardware:

People are always comparing MACs to Dell. I think it’s really only fair to do this with the MAC Pro line and the Macbooks. Unless you intentionally want to give more points to MACs. You see the iMAC’s and the MAC mini’s don’t have many PC equivalents. Recently I read a brochure from Media Markt a Europe wide computer/homeware/cd-dvd superstore which advertised a PC the same size as a MAC mini. It had pretty much the same specs except it was black and had Windows XP installed (this was six months ago. It cost about €100 more than the MAC mini). Likewise I’m still looking for a real competitor to the iMAC in terms of miniaturisation. The only one that comes close it the Sony Vaio VGC-LS1. (http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PCOM/PCV-W101/feat3.html). I found the Sony at a web discounter for $1695, when configured with the same RAM, the closest iMAC has a 1” bigger monitor (20” unlike 19” for the Sony) and a far superior graphics card. It sells for $1674 from Apple).

I had an argument once with my brother about the iMAC coming with a corded mouse and how that takes up desktop space. Somewhere in amongst our debate, I asked him where is computer was. As it turned out he had the standard PC mini-tower sitting on top of his desk. Enough said. Credit must be given to the Macs in this are if you want to make a direct comparison.

If your were to compare computers of the same spec then adjust their prices based on miniaturisation then the iMAC and MAC mini come out clear winners.

By now (if you’re still with me) you probably think I’m a bit MAC biased and are screeming for the notebook and MAC Pro comparisons. I’m getting to those….

In my opinion the MAC line of notebooks is a bit lacking. They are great machines (as are many branded PC laptops HP, Dell, Sony Vaio for example), but I agree with my brother in that the MAC laptop entry level is not low enough.

My sister in law recently bought a laptop PC and I’m sure she would have bought a MAC if it was for those two factors: Cheap entry level (at the expense of processor power, but it is more than fast enough for her) and a big screen.

One thing is funny though; many people criticise the MACbooks for having smaller screens, but in case you haven’t noticed, laptop sizes are dictated by their screens. Give a laptop a bigger screen and the whole thing gets bigger. Sometimes a smaller screen (and therefore a smaller computer) is what you want, especially in a Laptop.

I personally prefer laptop with as large a screen as practical and therefore side with the PC’s on this.

One other thing common to laptops, is that Apple includes components into every machine that not everybody needs. Wifi, Webcame, Firewire etc. While I agree it would be nice to be able to buy the same machine for less without components that you deem unnecessary, because they’re already installed and the hardware is supplied by the operating system manufacturer, components tend to work better and require less user intervention.

Basically with MAC’s and good brand name PC’s, when the specs are similar you pay about the same, but the bottom line is, you can buy lower spec PC’s (or ‘no name’ PC’s with good specs) at far more affordable prices. Kudos PC’s.

My same criticism for MAC’s go to the MAC Pro line. I would like to see a far better entry level here. Instead Apple concentrated on other end of the market. 8 core machines. These computers have 4 processors with 2 processor cores in each. It’s pretty much 8 processors. But how many people are going to be able to use them? Most our processors are idle most of the time. As I type this, my AMD 64 3000 is hardly working above ‘idle’. To make use of 8 processors you need to have software that was written to utilise them, running on an operating system that was designed for them. Your computer will benefit from having a couple of processors running (dual core). It will mean you can run multiple apps and those in the background won’t have to take away power from you foreground applications. Unless your using specialist software (eg 3D rendering) you not really going to benefit that much. One would do better to buy more RAM (you can never get enough).

MAC pros have therefore the same problem that MACbooks have. No cheaper entry level. Some argue that if you want a cheaper machine, go for an iMAC or a MAC mini. But what if you want as much power as you can afford and I already have a screen? This is very common and it’s no less than shocking that there isn’t a better MAC Pro entry level.

I generally buy my screen at a different time to my computer. At the moment I’m ready to upgrade my machine so what MAC do I buy? A mini? No, too underpowered. An iMAC, and throw away my good monitor? A MAC Pro and pay more for power I don’t need and can’t really afford? There is a product missing from apples lineup. An entry level power machine (yes does sound a bit like a contradiction in terms) for those who already have a monitor.

For Laptops and Towers, I’m going to hand it to the PC’s for making things affordable to those who need it.

One last thing which affects the value is that Apple MAC’s are now Intel based. This means that a MAC can run Windows too. Apple also makes it easy to do so, with “boot camp” which automatically sets up a dual boot for Windows XP and writes Windows XP drivers for the MAC machine. There are other options too. “Parallels” is a virtualisation program which allows you to make a virtual machine in the MAC OS and run windows inside it. Or one could adopt “Crossover”, a product which emulates the Windows api inside the MAC OS (or if you prefer, tricks programs into thinking they are running in Windows allowing them to be installed on the MAC).

This is a versatility the PC doesn’t (barring running a hacked version of MAC OS X on a normal PC).

When it comes down to overall value. The MAC’s have it. No question. Why?:

1) Great bundled software.

2) Miniaturisation on the desktop for a better price.

3) Versatility (MAC’s run windows too – if you want)

Where the PC’s shine:

1) Lower entry level (all platforms).

2) Bigger laptop screens.

The only reason you might have to disagree was if either copy software (or already have a lot invest in PC software) or have never used a MAC for long enough (or both).

Coming up next: Ease of use…….

MAC vs PC (Introduction)

2007-04-27T14:24:00.000+02:00

Hi all, I've decided to get down to one of my favorite subjects. The Mac vs PC debate. I can’t actually think of one good reason to exclude Linux (it is a modern feature rich operating system) other than complicating the argument further.

If you haven’t already tried it check out one of the best linux distributions here: www.ubuntu.com , but that's another post all together...

I guess I’m going to focus on Mac vs PC because they are what most of us are using and most profession programs are available for at least one Mac or PC.

So which one is better?

We first let’s put the past behind us. History has no place in computing. When I did computing at school we studied early code breaking machines and the history of computers. What a waste of time! It may be interesting enough trivia to some, but the technology world moves far too quickly for that knowledge to be of practical use now. Same goes for anything that’s not still being commonly used right now.

So I’m not going to talk about Mac OS 9 vs Windows 98. Some Mac users could be accused of living a little in the past because Mac OS has always been ahead of Windows. PC owners either didn’t like to admit it (normally because they couldn’t afford a MAC) or genuinely didn’t realise that the Mac OS was better (because they had never used it).

Today it’s a different story. I’m a PC user and I am typing this using windows XP. With XP and Vista Microsoft Windows has caught up on many things and even surpassed the Mac on some features. This makes things more than just a little blurry.

So let’s get down to it. Which one is better and how do you quantify it. Giving the PC a slight advantage, I’m going to compare a PC running Vista, Microsoft latest OS with a MAC running OS X (10.4.9). My reasoning is that these are the operating systems that ship with current models. It gives Microsoft an advantage because Vista has just been released after five years and billions of dollars of development, while the MAC OS X is just about to be replaced with the new MAC OS X Leopard (coming out in October: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/ -look for ‘Apple Statement’). The leopard released date has been delayed due to development of the iPhone.

The things I will consider in this argument are:

Value for money

Ease of use

Software availability

Aesthetics (both software and hardware)

I’ll put each one in a separate post (because I ramble a lot and if I don’t the information will be out of date before I post it).

Enjoy ;)