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1. 
   Review - Damn Small Linux

   4.4.1 (Jun 18, 2008)

   I have to give this a 1. I am a Linux fan and having experienced 4-5 distros (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Puppy Linux, DSL, etc.), I must say this is the worst. Certainly the 50Mb size is impressive, but in today's world, this is an artificially created constraint which probably is detrimental to functionality. Can you imagine using DOS or Windows 3.1 because MS decided to keep Windows to less than 500Mb?
   
   I give DSL points for being fast and efficient, but little else. While I can razzle dazzle my way around the command line, I think that a good GUI is just as important. Why would I want to memorize 100 command line options for the isolated rare task when it can be done easily through a GUI? And DSL has one that only a mother could love. Even for USB drive purposes, my experience with Puppy is just so much better (both installation and usage) and the functionality for troubleshooting and diagnostic is incredible. For desktop purposes, Ubuntu is killing the rest of the Linux competition.
   
   If all linux looks like DSL, there is no way it will ever compete with the WinMac duopoly. By all means, go ahead if you REALLY want to use your first-generation Pentium from another lifetime ago with 256Mb RAM. For me, it's just not worth it.

2. 
   Review - FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder

   20080612 rev2000 (Jun 13, 2008)

   It's funny how echohead still frames his entire justification on ffsshow + "sub-par mediaplayer" vs "media players with internal codecs" when the whole point that many have made is that the purpose is other than watching video.
   
   "ffdshow is a great example of redundancy. rather than switch to a media player with its own codecs, ffdshow encourages people to use whatever crappy half-finished media player they feel like."
   
   Again, watching video on your PC is hardly the point here. If you insist on looking at this codec through this one particular application, then yes it's a crap piece of software. It's just like a Linux enterprise server is a crap machine for running MS Word.
   
   I do not believe that ffdshow provides the "best" quality (a subjective assessment at best). But it's good enough. And who's to say that a video player with its own codecs is always the best solution? I have seen many all-in-one players which provides terrible video quality for a particular format, resulting in people installing three or four redundant players. Installing three players with built-in codecs is just as much junk!
   
   "-fortunately for me, i know that re-encoding a lozzy xvid-encoded video drastically lowers its quality (i cannot stress this point enough). instead of downloading pirated xvid DVDrips, try encoding a few h.264 mp4's from their respective sources."
   
   I have encoded my own videos before. I think most people know that re-encoding lowers quality (that's why it's called a lossy format). Unfortunately, current wireless technology may not be able to handle whatever bitrate video you choose to throw at it. And transcoding is a necessary evil, especially when you are not fussy about a particular video. When I am watching something I truly want to enjoy in all HD-level quality, I get the Blu-ray disc. But I am not fussy about every single video I watch.

3. 
   Review - Ubuntu

   7.10 (iGutsy Gibbon) Beta (Sep 27, 2007)

   I am writing this review not just of Ubuntu, but partially of Linux in general. I have fairly extensive experience working on Ubuntu 7.04 and Windows machines. Indeed, Ubuntu has been an important contribution to the linux world, making it far more accessible to noobs. Nonetheless, there are still a few things which keep me running a VMWare virtual machine with Windows XP:
   i) OpenOffice, while good, is nowhere near the quality of MS Office. Especially so if you are a more sophisticated user. I never understood why some reviewers can claim that OO is as good as Office. OOWord and OOImpress are barely passable while OO Spreadsheet is completely unusable (just try adding more than 1 series to a chart, and you will see what I mean).
   ii) Hardware support is still sketchy. It has improved by leaps and bounds, but A LOT of hardware still requires fiddling with drivers and hacks like NDISWrapper and 915resolution. Even with these, getting the correct screen resolution is a touch and go affair, taking hours fiddling with xorg settings. We are not talking about arcane hardware here, but rather fairly common hardware that a significant proportion of the computing population uses.
   
   Some people may say that's the way Linux is intended to be, i.e. built by the geeks for the geeks, requiring geek-skills to work right. I am a geek myself, but I never see usability and stability as a trade-off. I certainly believe an OS can be made as wonderfully stable as Linux, and idiot-proof (or perhaps more, since I see plenty of idiots screw up Windows as well) as Windows.

4. 
   Review - iTunes for Windows

   7.4.3 (Sep 27, 2007)

   I am perpetually perplexed about how anyone can even give this piece of junk 5 stars. I own two Ipods (a Video and a old Mini) and while I am not a fanatic of Apple products, I certainly admire products of theirs that work beautifully. Anyone who has objectivity will rank this trash zero stars (if that were possible). Of course, I apply this rating only to iTunes on windows. I have no experience with the Mac and I won't claim to know. But almost any other software (foobar, mediamonkey, Yamipod, just ot name a few) works far better. Of course, for people who insist on buying DRM protected music from Mr Jobs, then options are more limited.

5. Comment - Kindle in slow-burn mode 'til 2009

   7.4.3 (Nov 27, 2008 - 12:52 AM)

   This is such a narrow minded comment. Convergence is a buzzword. And nearly everything which purports to achieve "convergence", from the iPhone to computers, have failed miserably at that claim. Smart convergence is about only converging things which make sense together, like an mp3 player with a cell phone.
   
   If you haven't given an ebook reader a whirl, don't just shoot your mouth off. An ebook reader is a very different beast from a laptop. While bright shiny screens with millions of pixels are desirable for watching movies on your laptop, it is neither necessary nor desirable for a ebook reader. To be an eBOOK, it needs to read without strain, just like a normal book. I have yet to see any laptop screen which doesn't cause me strain.
   
   I own all the devices you mentioned, and I will never want to use my laptop as my ebook reader and vice versa. A cell phone is way too small to read on, and I don't want to lug a proper book-sized device everywhere as a cell phone.
   
   Think through the functionality and design consideration before making buzzword comments. It shows not only your lack of originality (by repeating what every journalist says), but also your complete lack of understanding of engineering and proper design.

6. Comment - iTunes, activation outages are rendering new and old iPhones inoperable

   7.4.3 (Jul 11, 2008 - 1:24 PM)

   I detest Apple. But I detest more the never-ending armies of idiotic public who just blindly buy Apple products without realizing they are essentially paying more for subpar products, be it crap sounding MP3 players or a phone who does what other phones have done all along. Sure, kudos to the stylistic design (and I do copy the designs sometimes), but in terms of technological design, Apple is always a backward company. Even Microsoft has done more for innovation than Apple has in the past 20 years.