AT&T Owns Alltel

Today, Alltel is all split up. Verizon has owned their chunk for over a year now. Atlantic Tele-Network has had their share for a couple months. And yesterday, AT&T announced that they own their chunk of Alltel. This came immediately after FCC approval, showing how anxious AT&T and Verizon were to close it. This is brand new information, and I will post more about the transition plan as it is known, just know that, at the latest, we'll all (Alltel divested to AT&T) be AT&T customers this time next year - that's their deadline to complete conversion that they committed to. For those of us in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, etc who can finally get an iPhone soon (and have 3G and not risk being cut off) this is great news!

I've Been Gone Awhile...

Mostly, getting my new Dell Mini 1012 setup just the way I like it. And, unlike the last one, which had a few problems on arrival, this one has been absolutely perfect. But if you're going to get one, you need to realize some things that apply to netbooks in general. They're not the same as a full-size laptop. If you want a full-size laptop, buy one. You can even find full size laptops that are far more powerful than netbooks at a similar price point if you search.

The second thing you need to be aware of is that they usually come with an operating system (software that runs the computer) known as Windows 7 Starter. This is not the Windows you know. You can't even change the desktop background. Microsoft says Windows is about "Life Without Walls" - if this is the case, Microsoft's definition of a wall is very different from mine. Not being able to change anything, even the desktop background, is a pretty big wall to me. You have two choices for an operating system. One is to pay Microsoft for a Windows 7 "Anytime Upgrade" to Home Premium. This is $71.97 on Amazon.com. That's $72 to unlock normal OS features such as changing your desktop, the appearance of the computer, dual-displays, etc.

Not all netbooks have Windows 7 Starter, though. Some come with Windows XP. Windows XP is almost a decade old, and it feels it. However, a full version of Windows XP is still much more capable than Windows 7 Starter. But it was never designed for a netbook, and it feels long in the tooth, to say the least.

My preference is for an OS called Ubuntu. It's totally free - community developed and sponsored by South Africian billionaire Mark Shuttleworth. It's high quality, easy enough for kids to use (I switched my cousin's netbook from Windows 7 Starter to Ubuntu Netbook and she loves it), and it has lots of FREE community supported software. In other words, it's a hippie OS. And it's great for a hippie computer like an ultra-portable netbook. It fits the style, complete with my Timbuk2 Netbook Messenger bag (absolutely amazing, buy it. I love Timbuk2 bags, they seem expensive, but they are completely worth it - high quality, light weight, and durable). Ubuntu is easy enough for anyone who wants to get it running, they can. There is great community support at the Ubuntu Forums - where you'll find plenty of people eager to help as long as you remember that they're fellow users, not paid employees and do not wish to be treated as paid employees. Ubuntu is developed and supported by it's users. Keir Thomas has a great book called the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference that you can buy or you can download for free from the Ubuntu Forums. Buying it might not be a bad idea at all if you're new to this, and remember, your purchase helps support the community.

Ubuntu comes in two flavors - desktop and netbook. In my case, the choice was hard. Netbook is optimized for the small, low-resolution screen and is designed to fit it better than desktop Ubuntu (or any Windows flavor). However, only the desktop version is available in a 64-bit flavor. My Dell Mini uses an Atom N450 processor, which is 64-bit unlike the older netbook processors. I chose the desktop version and am completely satisfied. Netbook is great, but the desktop version is pretty darn good as well even on the small screen!

What you get with a netbook running Ubuntu is not a full-size Windows laptop. You get a different tool. It's hard to explain, but it's a more personal personal computer. More of a friend and less of a tool. More social, goes more places with you, but not a workhorse. A chihuahua instead of a doberman. And personally - I love it!

Windows' Biggest Problem

To be able to run some software I wanted to play with (Corel Painter Essentials 4, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3, Apple iTunes, and FreeStyler DMX), I decided to put Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition on my new Dell Mini 1012. Which, by the way, not only isn't freezing like the one I had to return, the screen is spotless, and the battery is a tighter fit. The one I got from Amazon had somehow miserably slipped by Dell quality control.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am not Windows' biggest fan. It takes far longer (once you count drivers and stuff) to get working nicely than Ubuntu does. Ubuntu, generally, just works. Windows takes hours to get things like the video card, the touchpad, the webcam, the function keys, etc all working properly. This is because, unlike Ubuntu, the drivers aren't bundled. Ubuntu's interface is also much better optimized for the small screen. Even though I don't really believe I need antivirus software, I have Microsoft Security Essentials on it just to try it out. All in all, Windows is much harder to use and not nearly as user-friendly as Ubuntu. And you have to pay for it (let's not count Windows 7 Starter that comes with netbooks - that's the OS that left my cousin half-crying when she got a netbook because you can't even change the desktop it's so crippled)...

So... what's Windows' biggest problem? Well, you can get it working well, and you can buy it. And anyone can get used to an interface... The biggest problem is font rendering. If you're coming from Mac OS X or Ubuntu and are used to the silky-smooth fonts, prepare to be disappointed. By default, Microsoft's ironically misnamed "ClearType" makes fonts a horrible, blocky, chunky mess that is hideous beyond compare. This is due to excessive use of "font hinting" - the practice of hammering fonts into a monitor's pixel grid that dates back to black and white rendering on extremely low-resolution displays. It is completely unnecessary today, but Microsoft still uses it - and not in small amounts - the fonts are hinted into oblivion. It is possible to make them look okay, at least at small sizes, by using the ClearType Tuner. Choose the first (darkest) block, then choose the last (blurriest) block, then choose the last (darkest) block and you'll get the most accurate fonts possible. Guess what? They're STILL chunky and over-hinted, especially at larger font sizes...

Who, exactly, at Microsoft thought it was a good idea to call this rendering engine ClearType? It makes no sense, except maybe "chunky, ugly, hinted-into-oblivion type" wouldn't sell as well... The ONLY way to get clear type (not ClearType, but actually clear type) on Windows is in the Safari web browser, where Apple has an (optional) setting to override Windows' font rendering entirely and use Apple's own. The sad thing is that Microsoft had to make an EFFORT to make fonts look this bad, if they just rendered them with no hinting, that would be EASIER to implement!

To anyone who wants to tell me Microsoft's hinting makes fonts easier to read. No, it doesn't. It makes them chunky and harsh. But if you disagree with me, that's the reason I love Ubuntu (and other GNOME based OSes) - you can customize the rendering however you like. From no hinting to very heavy hinting, the level of subpixel rendering (also over-aggressive on Windows as it results in some color fringing in certain fonts - good sub-pixel rendering should never cause noticeable color fringes), etc... it's all customizable.

And guess what? I'm sticking with Windows on here, for certain software and also so I have a Windows machine available. But, if you buy a netbook, go with Ubuntu :)

Kalispell's New Wal-Mart

Yesterday, I showed up at 6:30 am outside our new local Kalispell Wal-Mart Supercenter. The store was to open at 8:00 and I was curious if there was anyone there - sure enough, there were these three guys who'd camped out all night to make the first purchase at the new store! There weren't a whole lot of people there, but if you want some more pictures I have them on my Flickr account. It was, interesting. There weren't any giveaways that I got (I guess some people got free spaghetti and stuff but I didn't). There were some product samples. No sales, grand opening specials, etc. The announced opening ribbon-cutting ceremony was not public, it was employees only, though we did get a glimpse of it through the (locked) doors. The most interesting thing, to me, was that the regional manager for Tracfone Wireless was there. Tracfone provides Wal-Mart's Straight Talk product. All I will say is that I think everyone will be incredibly impressed by what they have coming this year. We spent about 45 mins chatting, great guy.

I went back later with my cousins. There were more samples. And cake. And a remote controlled toothpaste robot. Yeah. Um, no huge prizes. No special bargains. Not much of a grand opening for a huge company that'll radically change our town (by shifting traffic from Evergreen to north Kalispell). Still, a whole lot nicer than the old Wal-Mart! Me, personally, I'll still be doing a lot of shopping on Amazon.com. But I love the grocery prices at the new Wal-Mart!

Memories and a History of Kid Pix

(note - I originally created this post for Extreme Randomness - a site co-produced with my cousin that's a lot more silly than my blog, however it is of interest to the techie audience too - especially those of you with artsy techie kids)

Who in here has memories of Kid Pix? I'm probably dating myself somewhat, but I remember being really excited when I finally got Kid Pix after waiting a LONG time for it. It was the coolest thing ever. Today, not so much. There's now cheap pen tablets, and much better software out there that kids will have far more fun with. But Kid Pix, well, Kid Pix redefined art and painting on the computer and made it *fun* - very fun. In fact, Kid Pix was one of those things that I would say changed how I view art.

By chance, today I found a great history of Kid Pix written by the program's author, Craig Hickman, you can read it here. It brought back some memories, and made me remember why I liked computers even. They were a unique tool that redefined what is possible. They allowed your imagination to explore new areas. Oh, and yeah, that's why I see computers as more of an art tool - I'm not a traditional math computer geek. I hate math, and I can't do it well. And no, I couldn't program "hello world" even to save my life. But Kid Pix? Now, that was amazing.

For your young artist today? Well, the version of Kid Pix linked to above is interesting, but honestly a waste of $39. The current Windows version is even worse, though cheap. Now, you can get a cheap Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet for about $65, which comes with Corel's Painter Essentials. This natural paint program blows away Kid Pix. There's other great tools for kids to explore with, such as MyPaint -which is free and can be made full screen like Kid Pix. There's Autodesk Sketchbook, a great natural media sketching program. There's the full-on amazing Corel Painter. There's even Craig Hickman's Beautiful Dorena, which is wacky and fun - and reminds me a bit of the original one-man-project Kid Pix getting all grown up. But it all started with Kid Pix.