modifoo

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Modifoo is about to turn 2 years, and I am about to turn XXXVIII (or XXXIIX).

Happy birthday, and thanks for sticking with this blog.

Looking at the statistics, still most my visitors use some Windows machine, but down from the high 80%s to now 58%, with Linux a surprizing 31% - unless those are all spiders…

I get about 200 visitors a day or almost 6000 per month. This would make for a nice party, thankyou

There are over 400 posts, and about 350 comments. Over 10.000 spam comments were recycled into fast food.

Browsers used

Internet Exploder is now below 50%, at 44%, with Mozilla chasing at 35%. If you add the 10% from Firefox users, then Mozilla is actually the number 1 browsing platform, at least here on modifoo. Safari represents about 8%, Opera 2%. The remaining breadcrumbs go to Netscape , Lynx, Firebird, Konqueror, Camino and Flock, all below 1%.

Interestingly, less than a third of IE users have installed the new 7.0 version, while 10% are still on versions below 6.0. If you are one of those, this might be a good time to update to 7.0. Or even better: give Firefox a try. It is faster, more stable, more standard-compliant. And free. The install is quick and painless.

Previously I wrote about the difference between Apple and Microsoft in One Sentence, but here I stumbled upon a little video showing the fundamental different philosophies between Apple and Microsoft, as shown in their packaging.

One tries to do everything — offer the customer anything that is technically possible, and ends up in a bloated mess-up. The other boils appliaces down to their essence, and makes them look like a gem.

The top 5 priorities of Microsoft and Apple

Microsoft

1. Technology
2. Technology
3. Technology
4. Usability
5. Design

Apple

1. Design
2. Usability
3. Technology
4. Design
5. Usability

One-line Vistaâ„¢ Joke of the day

Can anyone confirm the rumor that Vistaâ„¢ Service Packâ„¢ 1 will install Windowsâ„¢ XPâ„¢?

I have previously written about Microsofts’s attempt at making a mobile phone (here and here), but now the first two spec ads have been leaked:

and

In the past few weeks, Microsoft has managed to impress me, and impress me thrice. First with their campaign “Bring the love back” (link). Then they showed a new way of collecting meta data for photographs. And finally, they have a cool table-top computer in the works.

But then the old Microsoft factor jumped in. They just do not know marketing. When I visited their site, I was surprized how un-cool they managed to make their videos. Yes, they have a cool web-site, but the videos are just old-school; nicely made, but essentially boring. If I hadn’t seen the video from Popular Mechanics first, I wouldn’t have grasped how cool this thing really is. Worse yet, in the same week that Microsoft has the first public showing of this new Surface thing, everyone is talking about a mobile cell phone.

They have the means to pay for any type of ad strategy, but it seems that the problem is at the core of Microsoft. Stories are much more interesting than facts.

So, without further ado, a video that uses Microsoft footage with a new voice-over, putting the Surface computer into perspective:

(via)
and

Microsoft really seems out to change my mind. Yet another cool technology, one that allows for hyperlinking of photographs on the Net. I think this can become a medium killer app. Many people have thousands of photographs on their harddisk, but no meta-data. Software like this could help sifting through - and organizing - all these pictures. And just imagine this technology weaved into Google Maps…

(via)

As my regulars reader will have guessed, I am usually a big fan of everything with an Apple logo, while trying to avoid anything that starts with “Microso” or “Windo”. A short while ago, I was officially impressed by two of Microsoft’s campaigns. But today, I was short of blown away by the following glimpse from the MS laboratories:
(via)
I couldn’t help but feeling “Hey, this is Apple territory - it’s easy to use, it’s definately cool, I want one”.
Starting at USD 5.000, I don’t see why they are not targeting the (upper/geek) home market.
For more info, hop over to Popular Mechanics. Update: Doug pointed me to Microsofts website about the Surface. If you are in New York on June 9th, you can see it live. Lucky you Americans, in one month you get two cool gadgets from Apple (iPhone) and Microsoft (Surface).