Performancing Metrics

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Short Term Power Production Goals

     After doing some personal research on the subject, I've come to find out that higher yield solar panels have become much more affordable than they once were.  With all total combined equipment, it will be much more reasonably within Digital Fruit's price range to start taking us off the non-renewable power grid, and start building a renewable power grid of our own.  We're shooting for the range of about five hundred dollars to take our first computer off-grid, and we will start from there.  So, know that our hard earned tech dollars aren't just going into fancier hardware, but into making sure that we will always be around to run that hardware, and that plan to make a impact on how technology is used.
     On that note, Digital Fruit just participated in the third annual Power IT Down day.  On August 27, Digital Fruit shut down all computers, and in fact went so far to ensure that all computers could not be drawing power by shutting down the power strips and surge suppressors.  This effort has been made to help cut down on power consumption, but also to help out others who may be suffering.  Though Digital Fruit's electronic footprint was not large enough to track for donations yet, all the extra savings from the project were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization trying to help severely wounded service men and women.
     Overall the greening efforts put on by Digital Fruit will not only benefit our customers in terms of environmental friendliness, but because it will help Digital Fruit become a self sufficient company, something that has been forgotten as of late.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Another Voice

    So, this is just a quick input, but I've found another voice out on the internet that has some positive things to say about Ubuntu 10.4.  Its Zdnet blogger Zack Whittaker
     In the article linked to with his name, he discusses what reasons he has for liking Ubuntu, and I actually have a few more for my own personal list.  I've been building a new rig for a couple of months now, and I finally have it operational.  Not finished, but operational.  And I've been stuck with a conundrum.  I haven't shelled out the cash to pick up a copy of Windows 7.  (I'm tempted not to, but I need to put it on this system for game demos.  it will definitely be a dual-boot system though.).  So, because I can't stand having a brand new system sitting around without be operational, I put Ubuntu 10.4 on it, and once again, wow.  The speed, even on a system with 2gb of ram, its amazing.  I'm shocked with how fast the computer actually loads, and I'm hard pressed to find anything it can't handle quickly.  And for the skeptics, it isn't just because I put a blazing fast new processor in it.  This is a budget build, and only has a 2.6ghz dual-core in it.  Nothing an inexpensive show floor computer can't compete with.
     All-in-all, the more I work with this operating system the more I'm sold on it.  But there is a dark side to this tale.  The original PC that I installed with Ubuntu has been having hardware issues, and has corrupted its installation.  Now I get to find out just how easy it is to fix a computer running a rogue operating system.  More next time.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A Call Out For Reason

     As I read more about the Google-Oracle lawsuit that is going on right now, a suit which might decide the fate of the Android phones currently fighting the iPhone, I'm worried.  As I've read in this document, page 9 lines 25-27,  Oracle intends for all copies of anything Google is distributing that is using Oracles java must be disabled or destroyed.  Well, when you flip over to the Google Android source code page scroll down to the section that talks about building the source code, you can see that Android itself is built off of Java.  There is also a much more technical discussion here, from a gentleman that works in the programming field as a java programmer.  He discusses how Android is in fact an implementation of Java.
     Now, to why all of this worries me, and why it matters.
     The lines I sited from Oracles lawsuit documentation state their intentions should they win the suit.  From a source I have that is familiar with the previous owner of Java, Sun, a lawsuit like this one has been tried before, and Sun did win.  That sets legal precedence.  What Oracle wants isn't money, they want the destruction of any Android operating systems.  That means that a possible 33% of the US cellphone market could suddenly get shut down if Oracle wins.  That's staggering.  And as much as I feel the iPhone may have done the smart phone game better, I hate to see any open system go down because of stupid business decisions.
     So, as for the title of this post, I would like to make out a call for reason.  Anyone who thinks that software patents and copyrights on systems that are generally and publicly used do damage to the world of digital media and electronics, please post your comments in the form of a petition.  State that you've had enough!  Lets be heard.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Just a Quick Update

     So, I've just dropped in to say hello to all of the people out there in Digital Fruit land.  As far as things go here, I'm working on three different promotional posters for Epic, and I have no time on my hands.  These two things don't seem to go well together, but I'm hoping to get some more time, (fingers crossed).

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Looking For Input

     So, I'm looking to get an intro animation designed for anything that comes out of Digital Fruit Productions.  I was originally thinking of something akin to the Paramount stars.  You know the ones.  They start out large and up-close and then whoosh to the back to arc over the mountain.
     But then I got to thinking about why production companies put those animations in front of everything they make.  Its because it causes a unifying factor.  People associate those intros with quality.  You see the Paramount mountain, you know that this movie was seriously made.  The Tristar pegasus.  The Disney Cinderella castle.  All of these are uniquely associated with the companies that put out high quality visual productions.  That is what I plan to do as well.
     So, back to the title of the post.  After thinking this over, I decided that I needed something that would stand out a little more than my original idea.  So, I thought and thought and I think I may now have a winner.  Plain and simple, the animation would consist of a blank screen, black, gray, or maybe light blue, and then with a cartoonish dropping sound, the digital fruit logo would hit like a falling man-hole cover, clanging and spinning till it came to an abrupt stop.
     Now here is where all of you come in.  I need feed back as to whether you can visualize this description, and whether or not it would leave a lasting impression in your imagination.  So, please, if you read this post, leave a comment, and help out your favorite digital media company.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Title, Um I Forgot

     You know, I had a whole blog post planned out today, and even had it written out somewhere, but it seems to have escaped me.  I'm going to have to go and look for it now.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Microsoft Office Alternatives(Return of the Pick)

     In my constant attitude of upsetting social norms, I'm posting once again on an alternative to the usual Microsoft product.  Not that Office isn't useful in the workplace, but frankly, I'm sick of paying two hundred dollars for a full version of Office that does essentially the same thing for me as the version I bought two to five years ago.  Its annoying.
     In step the alternatives.  At a slightly lower price point, Word Perfect is the only other commercial alternative to make it here on the list, and as far as my experience reaches, the only thing that could make me want this program over Microsoft Office is the security.  And the only part about the security that seems better is password encoding.  A person who knows what to do with a Microsoft office file can break a password that keeps people from viewing information you saved in only a couple of seconds, unless some serious updates have taken place in 2010 I don't know about.  With Word Perfect there is Unix based encryption used to secure each file, which either takes special software to break, or a whole heck of a lot of time and energy.  So your average wannabe will have a heck of a hard time cracking that. But in the end, this is just pitting one feature against another.
     Which doesn't win any battles in my book.
     So, what other choices do we have?  Either shell out hundreds of dollars, or be left behind and unable to keep with the technological age.
     With the modern hype on cloud computing, Google Docs has been making some serious headway on the front of collaborated documents and access anywhere convenience.  But I don't find it very useful for any of my serious writing.  There is just something that seems more comforting in keeping things saved on my own computer.  And I'm not always impressed with the interface with this one.
     And then there are Linux solutions.  The two worth mentioning are OpenOffice.org and Lotus Symphony.  Out of these two, the most widely used is probably Open Office.  This long running open source rival of Microsoft Office has done a lot to further open standards in office products, but sadly, has been suffering for a long time from the decline of Sun Microsystems, the corporate entity that started the project and maintains it.  With the recent purchase of Sun by Oracle, no one seems to know what the fate of Open Office may be.  It may get better, it may get worse.  All I'm going to say on this one is that its nice for its compatibility with just about everything.  I have certainly gotten my use out of this program with this feature alone.
     The final product on this illustrious listing is Lotus Symphony.  Now, I've only been using this one for about three months, but the more I learn about it, the more I like it.  And since this article is simply a list of my personal favorites, and not really very scientific in its evaluation, I'm putting my vote in on Symphony.  Its as fluid and visually appealing as Microsoft Office, based on open standards like OpenOffice.org, and doesn't cost me a dime.  I'm currently enjoying the tabbed documents feature will trying to piece together a novel I'm working on.
     In the end though, the office product you get to use probably isn't your decision.  But if you happen to have the unique option of making your own choice, my advice is try out each of these products for yourself, and find which one works best for your needs.  Each has its redeeming factors(I will admit I didn't exactly give fair comparison here, I'm hoping to post about that latter, but I need to do more thorough tests), and each will have its frustrations as well.