WE'RE MOVING.

Welll not we really just this blog. I've decided to move things over to Typepad for a variety of reasons. I started this blog back in December on a whim really. And also because it was free. I've come to really blogging a lot and look to continue it. I think I'll end up with more flexiblity at the new digs.

I'll be leaving this blog up a bit but won't be posting on it unless something strikes my fancy or the move just turns into a disaster.

I hope those who have gotten used to coming here will follow the journey at the new site. I also hope those who've linked here in the past will do me the courtesy of doing so with the new site. I've transfered all of the links to the new site.

I hope to see you at Life on the Wicked Stage Act 2

The link below takes your there.

Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Tom Cllarkson continues to work on improvements and changes to Orange Guava Desktop. He now has version 1.2 available. If you haven't tried this out on your Tablet PC you should. Here's a list of the improvements and fixes.

OrangeGuava Desktop 1.2

• Transparent image backgrounds
• Areas redrawn during moving/sizing
• New Area move pen mode replaces area handles
• Thumbnail images used where available
• Icons enlarged under cursor
• Support for non-filesystem icons
• Complete shell context menus (send to, open with, new folder etc)
• Easier conversion between areas and icons
• Quick New Area defaults to color of standard desktop
• More efficient painting and collision detection
• Cursors set to match pen mode
• Reliable icon grid handling
• Relative position of areas and icons no longer changes unexpectedly
• Support for multiple monitors in different orientations
• Double click anywhere to zoom to an area
• More efficient loading on startup
• New option to control how background images are displayed when zoomed in on a transparent child area
• Warning displayed before removing an area
• Ability to use non-file paths as an icon source
• New options in area dialog for using the standard windows desktop as a background image
• Fixed error when mouse button is released outside the color wheel
• Area caption reset after change of folder in area dialog
• Support for languages without an available recognizer
• Alt-F4 Closing disabled for tooltips and popup
• Support for limited user accounts
• Fixed loading of data structures without office 2003
• Fixed field population in edit gesture dialog.
• Fixed unnecessary reloading of formalize data structures
• Improved handling of formalize queue timer
• Added refresh button for formalize settings
• New menu for drop options
• Option to show popup with tap rather than mouseover
• Option in area settings dialog to hide titles
• Added clear ink option to context menu
• Keyword ink removed after search
• Allow icons as drop targets
• Recycle bin working on desktop
• Icons no longer overlap after resizing icon grid
• Configurable context menu
• Optional warning before deleting all ink
• Improved saving on exit
• Fixed eraser size to match cursor at all zoom settings
• Configurable pen and eraser size
• Saving of pen settings
• Possible fix for crash on close
• AutoExport will only activate if ink in the popup has changed
• Tapping the popup outside the inkable area will close it.
  

When WNewquay tackles an issue he gets it around both legs and wrestles it to the ground. But seriously, looking at Tablet PC screen size and resolution is one of the trickier issues in the decision process, and WN lays out some very clear thinking that should help anyone with that quandary. Take a look You'll be glad you did.

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Size Matters - Artist

Eric has reached a decision about what Tablet PC to buy. He's decided on the new Toshiba Tecra M4. He titles his post about his decision The Adventure Begins. Read all about it by following the link:

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Eric Mack On-Line - www.EricMackOnline.com

ONLY IN AMERICA

Ok, this case has been bizarre from the beginning and looks like the scammer finally got her comeuppence.  I just want to know where did the finger come from? Or do I?

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Woman behind Wendy’s chili claim arrested - Food, Inc. - MSNBC.com

Tablet PC's and artwork can be amazing. Especially in the hands of chldren. Tdavd posted is son's 12th birthday Tablet PC drawing online. Gives a whole new meaning to refridgerator art.

I keep saying it, get Tablet PC"s in the hands of children.

Happy Birthday, Neal.

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Make You Go Hmm: Our son’s 12th birthday Tablet PC drawing

The StudentTabletPC opened its forums tonight. Great work Tracy and Trevor. If you haven't checked their site out yet you should. And don't think you need to be a student to learn something there!

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StudentTabletPC Forums

I couldn't agree more with the thoughts that Rob expresses in this article about the recent spate of Tablet PC hardware news. It is quite exciting. Now the tough part comes, will it yield the fruit that enthusiasts, OEM's and others hope.

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Rob Bushway - Tablet PC MVP: What a week!

Here are some of my thoughts on the issue.

Last year this time heading into spring and summer many of us were bemoaning the fact that most of the OEM's seemed to miss the boat on the "back to school segment" of the market. You can't say that this year. The timing of these recent announcments create a position to capitalize on that market segment. Now the trick will be pomotion and marketing.

Rob's right, these things need to be in stores. Tablet PC's and the inherent inking potential is something that can excite you by reading about it. But, there is nothing like inking on a Tablet PC to push you over the top in the decision making process. I know there are issues about uninformed sales staffs, missing pens and the like, but these need to be overcome. Get the Tablet PC's in folks hands.

Size apparently does matter. The recent announcments create a bevy of choices now in choosing a Tablet PC. For the more mobile orientated there are smaller devices with smaller screens. For those looking for more screen real estate larger screens are now coming available. There is a price range to choose from now as well. I anticiapte an increase in postings on TabletPCBuzz with a heading of "Help me make my Tablet PC decision" in the next period of time. This points to the very personal decisions one makes when purchasing a Tablet PC. Establishing priorties ahead of time is the way through this.

Optical drives are now being included on a number of the newer models. This should ease a lot of folks minds and make some decisions easier.

Are we there yet?

No, not quite. Still a ways to go. There will always be a push for greater battery life, more speed, faster HD's, (interesting that all of these new models seem to come with 5400rpm drives), and better viewing angles. But this is a great new burst of energy into the market. Now, we'll see how it shakes out in six months or so.

Should be fun to watch.

As if the discovery of one Shakespeare portrait fraud wasn't enough...

Now there's this...

This was actually done for a promotion years ago for Wayside Theatre. Scary.

What's more fun than ruminating on vast-right wing conspiracies; left-wing media conspiracies; or assassination conspiracies? Debating the theories that Shakespeare didn't write all or any of his plays, that's what.

This discovery ,that one of his most famous portraits is a fraud, will probably only add fuel to that fire.

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Shall I compare thee to a fraud? - THE ARTS - MSNBC.com

"I have heard of your paintings, too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another."

Hamlet, Act 3 scene 1

As some of us follow Eric Mack's saga, here's another voice heard from. The Jaded Developer raises interesting and oft--heard issues (although the screen real estate and price arguments may diminish somewhat with some of the new hardware announcements recently.)

Most to the point, as far as an obstacle to buying a Tablet PC, seems to be lack of availability in retail channels so that you can try a Tablet PC out. Great that someone happened to be nearby who could demo a model for him, but Tablet PC OEM"s have got to get these things into stores.

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The Jaded Developer: Why I didn't buy a Tablet PC

Eric's saga continues and now with this weeks' slew of Tablet PC hardware announcments and his own personal deadline he's still trying to make his decision. Follow the link for more.

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Eric Mack On-Line - www.EricMackOnline.com

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ThePodcastNetwork :: The TabletPC Show

WNewquay continues sharing his thoughts about Tablet PC's. More specifically he's lookng at the why's and wherefore's that he calls investments. He's not talking about cash. Take a look.

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If I Knew Then, What I Know Now - Part II - Investments

ONLY IN AMERICA

Capitalism is alive and well. This guy basically hedged is bets and came out ahead by registering domain names for what he thought where conceivable choices for whomever the next pope would be.

He scored with BenedictXVI.com.

Now he's spending his time trying to figure out what to do with it and swearing up and down that he won't sell it to pornographers.

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Workbench: A Pope is a Pope is a Pope

Check it out. I think it is very funny.

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Sample Funny Page

 

Seems like Toshiba really knows how to celebrate an anniversary. Today, they are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first mass-market notebook Computer: The Toshbia T11. It weigned in at 9 pounds and some of its specs were:

• 4.77 Mhz Intel 80C88 processor
• MS-DOS 2.11
• 512 Kilobytes of memory
• 3.5 floppy drive for 720K disk writing.

Wowser!

Well here on celebration day they've announced not only a new Tablet PC-the Tecra M4, but a the return of the Libretto with the Libretto U100 and a new Portege R200 in their ultraportable line.

There are links everywhere to info on this today, here's one from CNET.

http://news.com.com/Toshiba+unveils+new+notebooks/2100-1044_3-5678102.html?part=rss&tag=5678102&subj=news

Here's a link to a press release with more fun facts on the 20th Anniversary. Great reading for historical perspective.

Toshiba Celebrates 20th Anniversary of First Mass-Market Notebook Computer; Introduced in 1985, Tosh

I remember those 9 pounders and it's great to see some of the specs from back then. The release of three new computers to celebrate is certainly a cool way to tout your history.

Now, let's hope they can do something to improve customer service/tech support by the time they mature to 21!

Here's the press release that ends all the speculation and guessing on the Tecra M4 Tablet PC.

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Toshiba Expands Tecra Brand with Introduction of Convertible Tablet PC

Processor:               Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor(2) 740 (1.73 GHz,
                             533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
Display:                   14.1-inch diagonal TFT active-matrix LCD SXGA+
System Chipset:        Mobile Intel(R) 915PM Express Chipset
Graphics Controller:    NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) Go 6200 TE (64 MB VRAM)
                              graphics(3) processor
Memory:                  512MB (standard) DDR2 SDRAM, 533MHz memory(5)
                             (max 2GB)
Hard Drive:              60GB (SATA/5400 rpm) HDD(4)
Optical Drive:           Slim SelectBay(R) DVD SuperMulti Drive DVD+R
                             (Double Layer)
Wireless:                 Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g)
                             wireless(1)
Ports:                     3 USB 2.0, RGB, Headphone, Mic-in, 240-pin
                             docking connector, IEEE-1394, S-Video, RJ-45 LAN
                             port (10/100/1000 Ethernet), RJ-11, Fast
                             Infrared, SD card slot
Battery:                  6-cell Lithium ion battery (4700 mAh)
Operating System:   Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Tablet Edition 2005
Dimensions:            12.9- x 11.4- x 1.45-inch (f/r)
Weight:                 6.2 lbs.(7)
Warranty:              Standard three-year limited warranty

Price is listed as $1,999.

A link to the product page:

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?coid=-29325&ccid=1291041&rcid=-26367&seg=SMB

Saw this on Channel 9. Very, very funny.

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C9 Park: Job's Ego / SUNshine Boys / Ellison's Island

Ian is looking for some help with his new cartoon strip idea, "A Tablet World." He's got the ideas but isn't too keen on his drawing ability. Great characters he's got going and personally I don't think his drawing is that bad. You should see mine.

Follow the link below for Ian's drawings and more.

Cartoon Strip - " A Tablet World "

Brief character profiles:

• C Sharpy:- Nerd type, full of good ideas. Spends his life fighting the system.
• Doctor Digital Inky:- Logical type. Keen insight on world and its issues.
• Miss E Motion:- Light headed. drifts around helping others.
• Mr TIP:- Stand up sort. Pet animal of C Sharpy.
• The Crazy Window brothers:- Either open or shut views. can be a pain.
• The Cross Pens:- Troublesome twins. bickering pair.