The Good NET Guide

Most of us don’t think twice about lugging a $2000 object to a public place and then leaving it for five minutes to grab a coffee refill — with no other assurance that it won’t be stolen than that there are other people around. I’ve started being a bit more careful since laptop theft has gone up around here, but it’s just as easy to forget that laptop rustlers don’t just hang out in cafes

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Thwart laptop thieves by shutting off your wi-fi

Microsoft makes it so hard to like Windows. The company released an update on Tuesday that seems to have borked a number of Windows XP installations.

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Windows update causes Windows XP to freak out

Editor’s note: This is a guest post penned by Ethan Nicholas, developer of the million-dollar iPhone game iShoot and the newly released Kim Rhode’s Outdoor Shooting. Before the iPad was even announced, Nicholas was already conceiving his next game with the tablet device in mind.

The Internet is a funny place. After Apple announced its new iPad, I cringed at the hate being directed its way on sites such as Slashdot and Digg. Even the guys at Penny Arcade, whom I normally agree with, said “that iPad presentation had to be the worst thing I’ve even seen on on the Apple stage” and that Apple had failed to make a case for the device.

If you believe them, the iPad is going to be a massive flop.

Well, the unwashed masses on the Internet also predicted that the iPod would be a failure. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

The iPad is a computer for people who don’t like computers. People who don’t like the idea of upgrading their 3D drivers, or adjusting their screen resolution, or installing new memory. Who don’t understand why their computer gets slower and slower the longer they own it, who have 25 icons in their system tray and have to wait ten minutes for their system to boot up every day.

For what most of these people need a computer for, the iPad is perfect. It doesn’t do as many things as a “real” computer does, but the things it does do it does in a way even non-tech-savvy people can figure out, and there are far fewer ways to screw it up. So if you have managed to convince yourself that the iPad is a useless, locked-up DRM-laden failure of a ‘computer’ before even touching one, I have two words for you:

My mom.

My mother is a lovely lady in her sixties who is… well, “not computer savvy” is probably a good way to put it. I regularly have to figure out why her computer is running incredibly slowly, or why it won’t print, or any of the million other random things that happen when people who don’t live and breathe computers sit down at one daily.

The iPad is perfect for her. It does exactly what she needs. It will let her watch movies and listen to music and read books on long flights. It will make using a computer fun instead of an annoying chore.

But it also won’t allow her to install umpteen news and weather gadgets that start up on boot and slow her computer to a crawl. It won’t suddenly forget how to talk to a network, or get so confused by all of the software installs and uninstalls that you finally have to break down and reinstall the system from scratch. In other words, my mother’s next computer is going to be an iPad, and I dream of the day when I can finally throw off the oppressive chains of being the one guy in the family who knows how to actually keep a computer working.

And you know what? There are millions upon millions of people just like her out there. They outnumber us. And they finally have a chance to become productive, self-sufficient computer users instead of constantly asking family members to fix their computers or, even worse, keeping the Geek Squad in business.

No, the iPad isn’t for everyone. But I’m going to go on record as saying that, for non-computer-geeks everywhere, the iPad is going to redefine computing.

(Image courtesy of Flickr/Scott Chang)

Looking to turn your PC into a live video production studio? Ustream has just launched a new desktop application to help make that happen. Today, the company is launching a new desktop client called Ustream Producer that boasts high video quality and editing tools that can help give your streams an added layer of polish. The application is available for both Mac and PC, and you can grab it here.

Now, you’ve always been able to broadcast to Ustream via your web browser, which uses Flash to access you PC’s webcam. But Ustream says that the desktop client offers both increased video quality (you can stream in HD and H.264), and perhaps more importantly, it allows you to create broadcasts that can be far more complex than just a single stream from your webcam. The application includes support for Picture In Picture, which means you simultaneously show two streams at the same time. The premium version of the app lets you use multiple cameras from the same setup, while the free version lets you include additional Ustream streams that are being broadcast from other computers. You can also integrate previously recorded video, and share your desktop screen.

Ustream is offering a free version of the producer, which includes more than enough features for casual broadcasters. But if you’re looking to make your broadcasts look more professional, complete with graphic overlays and multiple camera angles, you’ll want the premium version, which costs $199.

This isn’t the only way to broadcast live video from your desktop, though. Competitor LiveStream has offered a similar production tool called Procaster since last April. And there are third party applications like Wirecast that allow you to stream to multiple livestreaming services, like Justin.tv, Livestream.com, and Ustream.

If you’re looking to get a feel for what can be done with the new software, the company says that Trace Cyrus and Mason Musso will be using it to broadcast a new song from the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack tomorrow at 4PM here.

By request from one of our readers (see, we listen!) I zipped over to Marvell’s booth to check out the Plug Computer and got the added bonus of a demonstration of EyeconTroller, an iPhone/iPod touch/computer app that manages media. You can drag and drop media files into various containers, which will play back those particular files on connected household devices – TVs, computers, consoles, etc

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Video: EyeController for iPhone/iPod touch + Marvell Plug Computer

All this CES coverage makes you just want to hear about a different event, doesn’t it? Well, if the more music tech inclined among you are looking forward to the NAMM trade show in one week’s time, keep an eye out for the Rain Computers booth

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2 new audio/video units from Rain Computers

The AR.Drone from Parrot is a remote-controlled flying machine that’s made of plastic and foam and is about the size of a pizza pan. It’s got two on-board cameras that stream video directly to your iPhone with translucent touch controls overlaid atop the video. So you literally see what the drone sees and can make it spin around and go up and down using the onscreen controls

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Parrot’s iPhone-controllable AR.Drone will result in UFO sightings everywhere

This is what happens when there’s no competition in an industry. Best Buy was the subject of Consumerist/Consumer Reports investigation re: “optimization.” Best Buy tries to sell computers to an unsuspecting public that have been “optimized” by the Geek Squad

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Adventures in Best Buy ‘optimization’

Launching today, Youtego is a new tool for self-visualization on the net. The company’s goal is to help bring the concept of self-visualization to the web, so that you can project a visual image of yourself—what you believe, feel, know, have to teach or are capable of doing. Self-visualization is the term that Youtego uses to explain the process of associating pictures with what your self-image.

The process of self-visualization in Youtego is a combination of semantics (words and phrases) and its visual representation (pictures and photos), about yourself. In the end, you get the combination or matrix of visual objects that you personally define and visualize. As a result, you start matching with people by elements, which are called Tegos, that you define.

Once you sign up for an account, you start by creating a ‘Tegoset’. For instance, I made a Tegoset showing my computers because I’m really into computers. With a Tegoset you have the ability to explain what you like and enjoy without to having to write anything — it’s all done through pictures.

You fill your ‘Tegoset’ with any visualized images that you think relate to the Tegoset and see who else matches those in the site. After you create your ‘Tegoset’, you create individual ‘tegos’. You also have the option of creating a story, that goes along with your Tegoset and tego.

Once you have the words and pictures that you define, Youtego then connects photos from Flickr, Picasa, and Google Images. From there, you can share the tegos with the rest of the world.

A neat feature of Youtego is the ability to take pictures of the Tegos, and turn them into videos with a combination of music — It reminds me a lot of Animoto, actually.

Youtego is a similar service to iMindi, a TechCrunch50 finalist from 2008. You might also remember iMindi as the startup that got ripped up by TechCrunch50 panel expert Mark Cuban as the “biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard in my life.”

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