I have a new cell phone and I absolutely love it.  LG's new Env is an amazing phone that I prefer considerably to the iPhone.

The phone has two keypads. The one you see to the right also opens up into a pretty decent sized QERTY keyoard. 

For me, the highlights of the phone are:

1. The keyboard. I can use this to send meaningful text messages, IMs, email, etc.
2. Navigation. It is the best GPS navigator I have ever used. Thanks to its seamless Internet integration with navigation, I can easily get the latest points of interests that go far beyond anything I've ever used.  In addition, the voice navigation is outstanding. It doesn't just say "take next right" it says "Take a right in 400 yards at Vine street." where it pronounces the names of the streets with eerie accuracy.
3. Email. I can pull my work email without a problem with it.

Those are the 3 biggies. Other nice features include the ability to identify a song you are listening to (it's like magic. You hear a song, let the phone listen to it and it will tell you what song it is and offer to download it for $1.99).

The included multimedia capabilities are reasonably good. I can buy music from the built in service. It's more pricey than iTunes but for the occasional gotta have song, it's fine.  The built in 2 megapixel camera is okay but not great. The video it can take is okay but not great.

I do like the abilty of being able to take a picture and email it right then and there without having to jump through hoops. Same for video that's under 30 seconds in length.  The instant messaging features support MSN, AOL, and Yahoo and work better than I had expected.

The phone isn't perfect though. It uses the icky BREW operating system which means it's web browser is terrible, it's UI inconsistent and clumsy, and it's Internet features somewhat limited (you can't use things like Yahoo to go or Google Maps mobile).

The other problem is that the phone is fairly crippled if you aren't within Verizon's network which gets patchy when you're in the sticks.  For instance, up north at the cottage the phone works but none of the key features (including GPS) work because I'm outside Verizon's network (phone works through roaming which is free through my plan).

But these are nits in the bigger scheme of things.  I wouldn't even contemplate ever going on a business trip again without a phone with the 3 major features again.  And the iPhone only has 1 of them.

Whether you have a damp basement or crawl space or a house that has a lot of wood in it, there are times you may need a dehumidifier.

A dehumidifier is similar to a refrigerator in many respects except that it takes the condensed water it collects and puts it into a tray or out a hose.

A typical house starts to feel rather muggy if the humidity gets over 65%.  In my case, I have a cottage that has wood floors, wood walls, and a crawl space.  I will ultimately end up getting a whole house dehumidifier but I wanted to get a portable one in the near term.

The one I chose was the Delonghi DE400. It can pull 40 pints of water out of the air per day (unfortunately it can only hold 10 pints at a time requiring frequent empting if you don't use the supplied hose and pump).

The user can set the requested humidity and it will run constantly until it reaches the desired level. 

This particular model comes with a hose and a pump that allows the user to pump water out of the unit to a drain which eliviates the need of having to empty the container. 

The ease of set up gave me a very favorable impression.  However, more research and more use have given me a somewhat less favorable impression of the uint.

First, even when it reaches the desired humidity level, the compressor turns itself back on every few minutes which is very taxing on energy and just plain annoying.  The unit is fairly loud which makes the regular restarting of the compressor that much more obnoxious.

Moreover, having taken a close look at the pump and how it's put together makes me wonder how long this pump will last. It's incredibly flimsy.  Having looked up user experiences on-line, sure enough, a massive number of people have the pump die on them after a few months of use. A decent dehumidifier (and this one lists for $279) should last decades without trouble.

The unit does have a very good display enabling me to see the current humidity level of a given room and it has done the job I needed it to do.  But I wouldn't contemplate having this in an area where people were going to be around and I am skeptical about its long term reliability.

My grade: 2 out of 5.

If someone invented a pill that would add 25 years of robust, perfect health life to anyone who took it but cost $10,000 per month to produce the pill, is society entitled to this pill?

That is, should the government, and therefore the taxpayer pay to make sure everyone has free access to such a pill?

Clarification: You have to take this pill every month to have the benefit ($10,000 per month for the person taking it).

The technology tree in Galactic Civilizations II is one of the most controversal parts of the game.

For some people, the descriptions of technologies have too much humor which they find off putting.  Others find the descriptions, particularly the early ones, too light on details and phoned in.

For the expansion pack, Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor, we have the opportunity to go back and redo the technology tree.  Most technology descriptions will be rewritten.  Some techs will be removed entirely. And a lot of new technologies will be added.

Below are some examples of new technologies that are being added for players playing as the Drengin Empire.  The difference in writing style is pretty noticable -- they are being written in third person rather than first and written in past tense instead of present.

The idea is to allow the player who chooses to read these to gain a better understanding of these civilizations.  Since the technology trees are no longer generic as they were in GalCiv II, we can give a lot more insight into these civilizations, their histories, and flesh them out more.

We hope you enjoy the changes:

Hyper Fusion Reactors

Hyper Fusion Reactors were the keystone of true interstellar travel.  Fusion power provided enough energy to allow physicists and engineers to begin contemplating concepts and applications that required immense amounts of energy.

From fusion reactors a myriad of new technologies become possible or at least, theoretical.  Artificial gravity, teleportation, folding space, and so forth.

It was the youthful humans on Sol 3 that managed to truly master fusion reactors. And one of their first applications of fusion reactors was the creation of portable star gates that became known as Hyper Drive.

Fusion reactors rely on Deuterium which is found across the galaxy in water. The other key ingredient is lithium which is common on most inner planets in star systems.

In a fusion reaction, energy is produced when two atoms join together to form one. Hydrogen atoms come together to form helium atoms, neutrons and vast amounts of energy.

The ancient empires of the galaxy, notably the Drengin Empire and Arcean Empires both have had fusion reaction for eons. They believed that they had mastered it as far as it could go.  Their fusion reactions made use of magnetic confinement which uses magnetic fields to heat and compress hydrogen plasma.  While this method works and has been in used for thousands of years in both the Drengin Empire and Arcean Empires, it requires a great deal of physical space to work.

The Star gates use fusion provided through magnetic confinement which is one of the reasons they are so large.

The humans, by contrast, took both approaches but eventually chose Inertial confinement, a different method and one completely unexplored by the other civilizations. Inertial confinement uses laser beams or ion beams to compress and heat the hydrogen plasma.

The advantage of this is that laser beams and ion beams benefit from military technology. That is, the fragmented nation states on the human home world of Earth led to constant improvements in these kinds of technologies which in turn improved the fusion reactions.

The concept of Hyperfusion reactions is more of an evolution or marketing term to conventional fusion reactions. Instead of the reactor having to be the size of a small city, the reactor can fit into a 2500 cube-meter volume.

Do you have WindowBlinds 6? If so, learn how you can easily create your own custom color presets!

[Fun with WindowBlinds 6 coloring]

Making your own color presets

One of the coolest new features of WindowBlinds 6 is the ability to selectively color parts of a skin. Combined this with another new WindowBlinds 6 feature - user created substyles and you have customization heaven.

For this demo, I'm going to show off a skin that hasn't been released at the time of this writing - Turbo.  Turbo is a new skin from Stardock Design that is being released exclusively for Object Desktop users.  It's not quite done yet - you will see some minor graphical glitches in the screenshots - but it will serve our purposes of what you can do with selective coloring.

First, let's look at Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista by default:

For a skin to be relevant, it has to look as good or better than the original. Aero looks pretty good I think but has some minor UI issues that are a matter of taste (I don't like that the address bar looks like it is part of the title bar, it might be a matter of taste but I think it harms the UI context).

Here is Turbo running Internet Explorer 7:

Turbo has a graphical glitch with the address line still but the site address and search field are clearly part of the client instead of part of the title bar. The status bar is also a lot cleaner.

But the important part and why I chose Turbo for this demo is that the skin has 3 main colors - black, red, and yellow.  In WindowBlinds 5, you could hue shift the whole skin but the results wouldn't have been desirable. In WindowBlinds 6, things are different.

Step 1: Create a substyle

WindowBlinds has supported sub-styles for a long time.  But with WindowBlinds 6, users can create their own mini sub-styles called presets that allow them to customize a particular skin and then save it as a sub-style.  So here we're going to do just that.  ON the Colours tab, create a new sub-style.

Create a new preset.

Give your preset a name.

Step 2: Turn on colorizing.

Once you've made a new preset, select the option to colorize your skin (see left side).  There is a small button in the middle that activates the selective coloring option. Once clicked, you get the advanced HSL colouring dialog.

Turn on coloring, then opt to use the selective colouring mode.

Step 3: Choose the color you want change

This can be a little tricky when you first start. The easiest way is to grab the little color picker on the right side and drag it (holding down the mouse button) onto the color you want to change.

Drag the color picker to the part of the skin whose color you want to change

The two sliders you see on the right determine which color you want to change. The second slider determines the color range -- how many similar colors do you want to include in your color changing?

And that's it.

Here are some example of it in action:

Note how the red buttons remain red. And there are areas that use other colors as well such as push buttons that have green mouseovers. In this way, users have a lot more control over the look of their skin and one skin becomes many.

For more information on WindowBlinds 6, visit www.windowblinds.net. 

The far left in the United States are outraged that Bush vetoed the bill that would have provided "free" health insurance to minors.

When these discussions get going, I am always amazed that the obvious solution isn't taken: Start charities that provide health insurance to the "needy".

It wouldn't be that hard to do.  Those who really feel strongly about paying for health insurance for other people could donate to these charities. Then, those who wanted said health insurance would send in their past year's tax return along with proof of children and then be given health insurance for that child. 

These kinds of charities already exist for people who have a random illness like cancer, breast cancer, childhood diseases, etc.  So what is the difference?  The difference from my limited research is that most of these charities and their fund raising are performed by conservatives (particularly religious conservatives). 

As was documented in the excellent book "Who really cares" American liberals have replaced concrete action with political belief.  To them, posting a blog or protesting or some other symbolic but ultimately futile gesture is the same as actually doing something.

For this reason, American liberals are much more inclined to support federal government provided projects for the needy because it takes the burden of having to do anything to back up their political beliefs.  The sacrifice and effort is transferred to other people (typically people who disagree with their views and are hence demonized by the left even as those they demonized are, as a practical matter, the ones actually doing the doing).

It is a pity conservatives aren't more inclined to step up and ask "Why not start a charity?" when an advocate of a socialist policy starts railing for some new government welfare program.  After all, the left routinely says "Why don't you volunteer for the military?" when a conservative supports US foreign policy.

BETA SCHEDULE

The second expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations II is about to go into beta. For Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor, we're going to try something different. Something that we think will be particularly fun.

The biggest single feature of the expansion pack isn't the Terror Stars, which are admittedly pretty cool. And it's not the map editor, campaign editor or scenario editor which do add a lot of new possibilities. And it's not even the Metaverse tournaments, which will probably be pretty popular. Nor is it the updated graphics which do bring Galactic Civilizations II up to a whole new level. No, it's the unique technology trees per player.

Let me emphasize this: The fact that each of the 12 major races will have their own technology trees we think is a major milestone for this type of game. The implications of it are far-reaching since technology trees are from whence ship components, planetary improvements, etc. come from.

Let me further add that these technology trees are not just cosmetic changes. Let me give you a couple of examples: The Arceans don't get Warp Drive or any other higher level propulsion techs. Instead, they have special factories unique to them that allow them to make their own ships faster. The Yor don't have factories but instead have collectives that produce based on their population. And, did we mention...these techs are tradeable back and forth. But thanks to a new AI enhancement (a willingness to trade a particular tech variable) tech trading will become vastly more intelligent.

So for the beta, to reward the users who are pre-ordering the beta (and hence funding this project) we are doing something special: The betas will introduce the unique technology trees in small groups so that players can really see the impact of them and have a chance at being introduced to them and be able to make suggestions on how they can be tweaked.

Below is the tentative schedule: UPDATED

• Beta 1: October 25th - Terran Alliance, Drengin, Arcean technology trees

• Beta 2: November 8 - Yor, Torian, Korath technology trees added

• Beta 3: November 20 - Korx, Drath, Iconians trees added

• Beta 4: November 29 - Thalan, Altarian, Krynn technology trees added

• Release Date: December 12.

As much as we've enjoyed Dark Avatar as an expansion pack, I am certain that Twilight of the Arnor will be liked even more by players.

To pre-order Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor visit here.

I like Windows Vista quite a bit. I like it a lot more than Windows XP.  That said, it's not perfect. There's been a real dog piling on this but me and the Greenreaper had an interesting conversation on 10 issues in Windows Vista that could be rectified.

Problem #1: The UAC. The most obvious new "security" feature in Windows Vista is the User Access Console known as the UAC. Type in "UAC sucks" into Google and you'll get tens of thousands of results. No single feature in Windows Vista has done more to harm the first impression of Windows Vista.  But it could have been avoided.

The UAC is a prompt that comes up whenever the user does something that requires elevated "priviledges" to run. This can include everything from installing software, changing your screen resolution, to any number of seemingly trivial things. Even if you are logged on as an administrator, you will see this prompt..often.

The implementation of the UAC is unbelievably bad.  There are no fewer than 4 different dialogs (each looks different) that can come up depending on the circumstance. 

The net result is that many users have simply disabled the UAC which undermines much of Windows Vista's new security initiatives.

Solution: The UAC concept isn't bad, it's the implementation.

1. First off, Microsoft needs to have the UAC prompts be consistent.
2. The UAC shouldn't change the screen resolution (there's a security reason they do this but Microsoft needs to have this be an option as it's extremely annoying). This option should not be hidden in group policies but somewhere easy to find.
3. The UAC should remember what programs and settings the user has given permission to and have an option to "Always Permit" that application or setting to be elevated.

Problem #2: Releasing Windows Vista before the drivers were ready.

As a practical matter, the first beta of Longhorn that was remotely useable was late Summer of 2006 -- just 6 months before release.  That gave everyone only a matter of months to get their software (and drivers) ready for Windows Vista.

This has been particularly problematic with video drivers. Many early adopters have discovered that their favorite games and other applications have problems with the video drivers.

The rush to get Windows Vista out by the end of 2006 resulted in an OS whose video drivers just weren't ready for prime time and this has had significant consequences in user perception of performance and compatibility.

Solution: Make sure Service Pack 1 doesn't ship until the second-generation video drivers are ready and bundle them in.

Problem #3: Eliminating GDI hardware acceleration.

Windows Vista has a new desktop window manager (the DWM) which provides 3D acceleration to the desktop. This is very nice for future applications.  But in the process of doing this, Microsoft eliminated 2D acceleration entirely.

For the past decade, Windows programs have used GDI for their on-screen drawing. And video card manufacturers provided hardware acceleration for this.  But now in Vista, this acceleration is gone and the result has been a noticeably slower desktop -- particularly with programs that make heavy use of GDI drawing routines.

It's a little flabbergasting to developers who were told to use GDI and GDI+ for years to suddenly have their apps no longer performing as well as they did on Windows XP. I am not even sure why Microsoft did this.

Solution: Bring back GDI acceleration

Problem #4: UI changes for the sake of change

At work, my laptop's wired IP address is assigned by the DHCP server. At home, I have it hard-coded to a specific IP.  Not only has Windows Vista not made it easier to have multiple configurations for network adapters, they have made it much more difficult to go and change the existing settings.

In Windows XP, from the Start-menu if one wants to change their IP address they could go to "My Network Places" and then click on "View Network Connections".  On Windows Vista, getting to the same place requires additional steps.  Changing something as basic as your IP settings should be easy.

Solution: Let people create different network configurations that they can easily switch.

Problem #5: The new Start Menu

I really like the search being built into the Start menu. It's very handy to be able to type a word in and have it quickly find the program.

On the other hand, losing the fly-out menus to a cramped listbox for showing programs is ridiculous.  How did this bad UI get into the final product?

Solution: Provide an option for fly-out menus.

Problem #6: Unbelievably bad desktop operation performance.

Whether it's unzipping a file or copying a few files around, Windows Vista is incredibly slow now.  How did this happen? Windows Vista now insists on estimating how long it will take to copy files -- and the estimation process is usually longer than it would take to copy the files.

If I unzip 200 files from a command prompt, I can do it in a second.  If I do it with the built in Windows ZIP, it can take several minutes.  Next time you see someone on a forum say "I wish Microsoft would bundle in some feature" remember how crappy the ZIP handling got (but still "good enough" to take the low hanging fruit from ZIP utility vendors).

Copying files from the GUI is similarly slow. It's should be much much faster. Again, if you use a third party file manager or a command prompt it's very fast.

Solution: Fix the ZIP support and copying. Get rid of the "estimating time" portion (use those "thead" things and do it in the background_.

Problem #7: Upgrade Pricing is far too high

I have a lot of PCs running Windows XP Professional. I'm the only person who uses these machine. I've got my gaming rig. My test box rig. My power laptop. My tiny laptop.  Now, Microsoft would say (correctly) that I represent a tiny fraction of the user base. But I do represent a pretty large % of the early adopter profile -- the people Microsoft should be trying to migrate to Windows Vista as quickly as possible.

And yet, even if I use the Windows Vista "Family Discount" where I paid $259 for the "Upgrade from XP" for Windows Vista Ultimate, I still pay $50 apiece for 2 additional licenses.  So to get me and 3 machines to Windows Vista, I am paying $360.  That's more than a new Xbox 360 system!

Does Microsoft really think there's that much new value over Windows XP in Vista? Really?

Solution: Family Discount should be $30 and be up to 3 licenses. The Upgrade Pricing should be 50% less than it currently is. (Vista Home Premium Upgrade is $160 right now. What is in Windows Vista that is worth $160?).

Problem #8: Microsoft Marketing failed to make compelling case for Windows Vista

This really ties into #7.  Microsoft believes that Windows Vista Home Premium Edition is worth $160 for users who already have Windows XP.  Okay, it's marketing's job to make that case.  What's in Windows Vista Home Premium that adds up to $160?

If you go to www.windowsvista.com you see these bullet points:

• Flip3D (I can do much of this stuff with WindowFX on Windows XP). But let's say the new Aero stuff is worth $20 -- which is how much a third party would charge for it.
• Desktop Search. Okay, but Google gives this away for free.  
• Windows Sidebar. You can get Google Gadgets, Yahoo Widgets, or Stardock DesktopX for free or very cheap.
• Windows Photo Gallery. Okay, this is nice but I mean, is it really that big of a deal?
• Windows Defender. This is free for Windows XP users.
• Media Center.  Okay, the new Media Center is very well done.  I can get Beyond TV 4 for $70. It's not as good but then again, they're not selling 100 million units a year.
• DVD Maker. Is there anyone with a DVD player that didn't get a DVD making utility?
• Niche goodies. There are some neat things in Vista like Windows Meeting Space but they're not the kinds of things that you could use to sell Vista.
• Misc. Minor features are listed like Super-Fetch, Self-Healing, Diagnostics,

Now, perhaps I'm way off here but I jut don't see $160 of new stuff. Especially for the increasing number of people who have multiple licenses of Windows XP. Heck, even the crummy Home Basic is $100 and that doesn't even have Aero or the Media Center.

Don't get me wrong, I like Windows Vista.  I just don't think it was a good idea to have it priced this high unless Microsoft was prepared to make a better case on the marketing side. 

Solution: Microsoft did a very good job with the Windows Featured Community project. One wonders how things might have gone if Microsoft didn't have dozens of high-profile tech sites feeding users the new features of Windows Vista.  But there is more that needs to be done.  Microsoft needs to get its evangelists out there more.  It needs to promote WindowsVistaBlog.com more and make it easier to get that info out there.

Problem #9: The Development Tools were not ready for prime time

If Windows Vista launched and there were a bunch of compelling programs available for it on release day, then that $160 upgrade price might have been more compelling. 

Unfortunately, writing Vista specific stuff has been no panacea. Getting your Visual Studio 2005 up to writing Windows Presentation Foundation apps is an arduous process. And even when you do, the available documentation and inconsistent performance (see video driver part) mean that many cool stuff that Windows Vista makes possible isn't really practical yet.

Solution: Update Visual Studio soon to have all the "stuff" on a single DVD with a more seamless installation process.

Problem #10: Stupid Icon Handling

The good news is that Windows Vista has much nicer icons. The bad news is that Windows Vista's icon implementation is awful.

Here's the deal: If you don't have a 256x256 version of an icon, the icon displayed is the 32x32 or 48x48 one.  Even if you have a 128x128 icon (which many icons have) it will still use the 32x32 or 48x48 one. 

So even if your icons on your desktop are sized at 128x128 and the icons in question have a 128x128 version, it won't use that version but will instead look to see if there's a 256x256 (and shrink it down) and failing that just show the 48x48 or 32x32 version which looks ridiculous.

Solution: Support the Windows XP icon format better -- if there's a icon that's the right size then use it.  Don't abandon all those high resolution icons.

Conclusions

So that's a conversation between two techies on these 10 issues regarding Windows Vista.

 If you like how Stardock develops its games, one of the big reasons it is able to do that is because of the other side of Stardock's business: Desktop experience software.

Programs like WindowBlinds and its big-brother suite, Object Desktop provide the capital through their sales which enables Stardock to develop its games without requiring any outside capital which enables it to make the games how it wants and release them when it wants.

If you don't have WindowBlinds, now's a great time to get it. Today, Stardock released WindowBlinds 6.0. It allows users to completely customize the look & feel of Windows Vista.

Screenshots:

Download: http://www.windowblinds.net