The evening started with a presentation by GK VanPatter of NextD on the future of design. VanPatter opened by telling everyone that he was giving a 15 minute version of a 2-hour lecture and then proceeded to crash through a PowerPoint presentation which for me was interesting for its philosophical and anthropological aspects but for the setting was sort of a misfit. I wouldn’t mind seeing the full presentation myself but I doubt the majority of the attendees were interested. After all, they were there to check out the new shiny stuff from Microsoft – not hear about how the brave new world of design requires new types of collaborative synergies and multi-disciplinary cohesion. That said, I advise anyone interested in design to check out NextD’s web site – it is a trip through a rabbit hole seldom explored and in sore need of attention. I’ll get back to that soon.

Second on the docket was Danny Riddell of Metaliq, introduced as a demonstrator of the use of Microsoft Expression software. However, the presentation became a bizarre example of the very concepts VanPatter had just talked about. Riddell was excellent but for one thing: It was not clear until far into the presentation that he was not actually demoing the software but applications built using the software. And the applications – an online live video editor called Top Banana and a GPS snowboarding tool – flashy and impressive as they were, lacked one important element: an actual use. VanPatter had been talking about the disconnect between designer, developer, client and end user. Top Banana was maybe the perfect example: An impressive application with no clear purpose. As a demo element it was excellent but the question of what the thought behind it was left a sense of confusion rather than awe. And then the application crashed.

Finally they got down to brass tax: The Expression Studio itself. Rini Gahir of Microsoft led the crowd through the major elements and their benefits both to designers and developers. The package has four elements:

• Expression Web – A code/WYSIWYG web editor to create standards-based sites. Think Adobe Dreamweaver.

• Expression Blend – An animation and layout tool to create elements, layouts and animations. Think Adobe Flash.

• Expression Design – An illustration and graphic design tool to create vector based graphics for web and desktop applications. Think a cross between Adobe Illustrator and Freehand.

• Expression Media – An asset management tool to catalogue and organize pictures, graphics, video and audio. This tool also contains the Expression Media Encoder which lets you batch process and convert images, audio and video. Think Adobe Bridge and Lightbox.

What is compelling about Microsoft Expression is the ability for the different levels of the design/development process to coexist. This is done by creating an environment where purely graphic layouts and animations automatically generate script that can be altered directly. This has often caused problems in Flash because there is an inherent disconnect between the graphical elements and the technical ActionScript. Another advantage is the impressive video streaming abilities the Silverlight plugin enables. To top it off the programs operate with vector based graphics and non-destructive effects to simplify the design process.

Considering the history of digital design and the rivalry between Mac and Microsoft, it’s not too far a stretch to say they were preaching to a pack of wolves. It didn’t take long for questions of cross-platform compatibility and new web standards to take centre stage. After all; the web animation market is dominated by Flash and there are already several major players in the web video field including Adobe (Flash Video), Microsoft (Windows Media), Apple (QuickTime) and Real (Real Player). Microsoft Expression would be introducing a new system – Silverlight – into an already saturated market. Is there really room for another browser plug-in? The answer from Microsoft was not surprisingly “yes.” Although Silverlight is not included in Windows Vista, “it will be in the next release,” Rini Gahir assured me. And don’t be surprised if it turns up in the next “critical update” if you’re already running the new OS. For those running XP, Mac or Linux boxes, the 2mb plug-ins are already available. And seeing as we are talking about Microsoft and not some unknown entity, one can expect that Silverlight will be found on almost all computers within the next few years.

Microsoft Expression is a compelling offering in a world that has been dominated by one company. The real question is if and when we should be making the transition. No doubt Flash will prevail in the market for the foreseeable future but unless you have a crystal ball or a time machine, there is no saying what will happen down the road. Should you go with Microsoft Expression or Adobe Flash? Or maybe even a combination of both? It’s a tough call and there are no clear answers. All we know is that there’s a new player on the field and that opens up new possibilities.

For another perspective check out Boris Mann’s blog

Note: AndNowYouKnow’s mother company Pink & Yellow Media has been using Macromedia (now Adobe) software for many years. To properly test out the new programs from Microsoft, we are switching to Expression Studio for a month to see if it lives up to its lofty promises. Stay tuned for updates on the progress and find out whether or not this is something you should invest in.

Joost is a 10.5mb download that installs on your computer in a few minutes. Once installed the program goes full screen and leads you through the signup process. As of now you can only sign up if you have an invite for the Beta testing but once the application is launched one has to assume the signup will be available to anyone.

Once signed up you are greeted with a menu featuring all the different channels available. You can chose from a large variety including live music performances, nature specials, gaming reviews, racing and TV shows. As of writing this the content selection is not very extensive but that is to be expected from a Beta version. Joost promises content from the Sci-Fi channel as well as the World Poker Tour, National Geographic, The Soccer Channel and numerous others.

You can view the different channels as a list or click on the Channels Catalog which along with thumbnails shows you new, most popular, staff picks and genre specific searches.

Once you pick a channel you get a choice of what episode or clip to watch. Once selected a loader page appears, some times joined by an ad for a product or company. On a standard Shaw high speed connection the loader page was up for no more than 30 seconds before the content started streaming.

While watching a show you can enter several menus. By moving the mouse a set of pop up options appear that give you the ability to control the current clip or skip to the previous or next one, go back to the channel listings or go to My Joost which is a user panel that allows you to chat with other viewers, rate the show you are watching as well as access a set of Joost Widgets which includes a clock, instant messaging, news ticker, channel chat and more.

One setback is that unlike other internet video services you can not ad your own content. There is no doubt that the reason for YouTube’s popularity is the ability to ad your own videos. On the other hand Joost is providing content that would otherwise only be available through your television so it does provide a service previously unavailable to the masses.

In use Joost is intuitive and surprisingly fast and “light” on the computer. Surfing the web and running a long series of programs including PhotoShop, DreamWeaver and email at the same time had little to no effect on Joost’s performance. In fact while writing this Joost is streaming full screen video on one of the two screens of this computer without any lag. When you turn Joost off it hides in the system tray on the bottom right hand side of the screen much like Messenger and other programs. Once clicked the program instantly resumes play wherever you left off – again without any noticeable lag.

Joosts audio and video quality is vastly superior to other internet applications such as YouTube. Not surprisingly there is some pixilation and glitches but overall the quality is impressive, especially considering that the content is being streamed over the internet.

Overall Joost is an impressive application that will revolutionize the way many people view internet TV. If the service remains free of charge and the catalogue expands to include popular TV shows it will undoubtedly become one of the most used applications out there. Joost provides true Video and TV on Demand over your broadband internet connection and caters well to special interest groups like soccer, racing and fighting fans along with the more average user. It remains to be seen how well the system holds up once the masses gets a hold of the program but for now it seems to be working the way it should and we all have something to look forward to.

To learn more about Joost or to become a beta-tester, visit www.joost.com.

You have probably heard of the free open source alternative called Linux but few have ever ventured into this realm. This operating system has long been the exclusive domain of programmers and computer geeks but in the last few years focus on the everyday user has lead to great leaps in user friendliness and accessibility making Linux a viable option to Windows and Mac OSX.

Linux is an operating system developed by the users themselves and is therefore defined as “open source”. As such there are a plethora of versions (or “distributions”) tailored to the specific needs of different users available, from large commercial enterprise packages like Linux Red Hat to Live CDs systems that will run on any computer without being installed. The distributions are usually released in versions that allow you to run them on both PCs and Macs.

Ubuntu – Linux for human beings

Rather than go through the whole Linux universe we are going to focus on “entry level” Linux distributions that any person can install by themselves with little or no knowledge of computers. The most well known of these is Ubuntu. Taking it’s name from the African word meaning “humanity to others” Ubuntu is a distribution aimed at being usable out of the box. It comes in numerous versions – from the full size Ubuntu suite to the server package, Xubuntu (a smaller package for laptops and slower systems), Edubuntu (a free software platform for schools and students) and Kubuntu based on the KDE user interface. This brings us to an interesting topic. With any distribution of Linux you have a wide range of choices of what you want your computer to look like. The operating systems themselves can be customized to your needs but more interestingly the desktop environment itself can be changed depending on what system you use. Ubuntu comes standard with the GNOME user interface but you can download and change this desktop at any time. This gives you more control of your own work environment without having to change your operating system.

A curious aside: Programmers released a 3d desktop environment that looks a lot like the new Vista Aero look with 3d folders several years ago.

Everything you need – right out of the box

Ubuntu comes standard with a large package of software that lets you do pretty much whatever you want right out of the box. At the centre of this package is the OpenOffice suite which contains a word editor, spread sheet, calendar and presentation software much like the Microsoft Office suite. A special feature on OpenOffice will be published shortly. Other programs include the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email and numerous other applications. In addition all Linux distributions come with an ingenious feature that lets you access and install almost anything from the ever growing catalog of free software directly through your Internet connection. This process is surprisingly simple and largely handled by the programs themselves.

But this option also causes some problems: Because of the many programmers working on Linux software there are a lot of overlapping applications and installing several programs that do the same thing can cause unwanted problems in system performance. Likewise it can be hard to find out what application will best suit your needs. To avoid some of the deepest pitfalls it is often necessary to consult some of the numerous message boards and forums. The Linux community is vast and very helpful and you will usually get a response within hours.

Making the switch

To make it easier for people to experience what Linux has to offer many distributions are now published as so called “Live-CDs”. This means that once downloaded and burned to a CD you can run the operating system from your CD drive without actually installing it. In short it means you have the opportunity to test out numerous different versions of the software before actually making the switch. Running the Live-CDs will not compromise your current system in any way and is not dangerous. If you find a distribution you like you get the option of installing it directly from the Live-CD.

Warning: As with any installation of a new operating system there is a high chance you’ll lose some if not all of the contents on your computer. We advise that you purchase an external hard drive and back up all your data before doing any major changes to your operating system. A large external hard drive runs around $150 – $200 and works with most computers without additional software.

Compatibility

One worry that always arises when dealing with operating systems is hardware and software compatibility. Apple’s recent “Mac vs. PC” campaign is almost entirely based around this point and the launch of Windows Vista has brought up numerous complaints about things not working as they should. One would think that a free open source system would have similar issues. But surprisingly this is not the case. Most hardware manufacturers now provide users with Linux drivers and even for the hardware not supported there is usually an “unofficial” driver out there that will work with your hardware. Thus installation usually transpires with less problems than a normal Windows installation.

The only major issue when using Linux is that many large software manufacturers still do not create software for the operating system. Most importantly software from Adobe / Macromedia and other specialized applications do not work. At least not right away. But even here there is a solution and it’s called Wine. With this application you can run Windows based software on a Linux computer with few if any problems.

Why migrate to Open Source?

There are many advantages to using Open Source software and although appealing the fact that it’s free is not the biggest one. Open Source means that anyone can develop and distribute program updates and new applications without having to go through a lengthy legal process. As a result the software is ever-evolving and ever changing. If you encounter a problem and post it on a message board someone will probably have it fixed within a short period of time. This is in stark contrast to commercial applications that often don’t have bug fixes for years. Another major advantage is that the information flow is truly free: Content created on open source software can be accessed by anyone with open source software. That is why many European governments are now migrating to Open Source only: Not only is it much cheaper than purchasing software but you no longer have the problem of incompatible software and unreadable files. It is also fair and impartial. And as an added bonus it is fairly safe. There are very few viruses created for Linux (since Linux is not owned by a corporation there is no protagonist like Microsoft to attack) and security issues are quickly uncovered and fixed by the community.

Should you switch?

In the end it boils down to what you want. At present there are several solid easy to use distributions of Linux available and they provide the necessary tools for the everyday user. At the speed of development we are seeing today and the introduction of commercial applications like design software programmed for Linux we can expect the Open Source alternative to be a viable competitor within a few years. Until then we recommend you give it a try: If you have one computer set up a dual boot so you can switch between Windows and Linux to see if you like it. If you have two computers install Linux on one of them to get used to it.

The Bottom Line: You can perform 90% of your computing using only free Open Source software. The only reason you don’t right now is because you don’t know about it.

Why do I need a HTPC you ask?  In the not-too-distant future the HTPC in some form will take over for many if not all of the current components in your home theatre setup.  If you have a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) at home you already have what ammounts to a HTPC hooked up to your television.  A full scale HTPC is a complete media centre in one compact(ish) package serving your digital music and movie library as well as recording and playing back your TV shows, family photos and whatever else you decide to load on your hard drives.

The people over at ExtremeMhz.com have created a comprehensive guide on how to build the Perfect HTPC. The guide goes through everything from cases to cooling, graphics cards to peripherals and has a breakdown of what software is available and what each package provides you with.

Just a warning: Still at the toddler stage HTPCs have a long way to go before being completely bug free and easy to set up so expect to spend a lot of time and money when following this guide.

This guide wil tell you how to format any large drive to FAT32 – the file format supported by both Windows, MAC and Linux as well as the XBOX 360. Previously it has been very complicated to acheive this without purchasing expensive software but now there is a fast and easy way to do it thanks to a piece of software created by Ridgecorp Consultants Ltd.

Over the Christmas holidays we came across a sale at a major retailer and ended up getting a massively discounted XBOX360 for our living room. The machine was purchased as much out of curiosity for it’s extended multimedia features as for it’s gaming capabilities. The 360 can work as a media extension that can display images and video and play music from our extensive archive right out of the box.

As part of the setup we also decided to attach an old IDE hard drive that’s been lying around unused for a while. We purchased a $20 external cabinet for it and hooked it up to the 360 through the USB 2.0 connection only to discover that it wasn’t recognized. A few hours of research later told me that for some unknown reason the XBOX 360 does not recognize drives formatted for NTFS. To be able to use an external drive on the 360 it has to be formatted for FAT32.

Wikipedia has some good background info on NTFS and FAT32 .

The fact that the 120GB drive had to be formatted for FAT32 was a major headache because the native formatting option in Windows XB only allows you to format volumes up to 32GB which again meant I’d have to split my drive into 4 partitions to be able to utilize the entire space. Although this is an option it is not an optimal one. The only other option (or at least so I thought) was to purchase some partitioning software like Partition Magic but these are both slow and unreliable.

Then I came across a site that claimed to have the perfect solution: A small DOS-based program that would format “any size drive” to FAT32 in a matter of seconds. The program was aptly named “fat32format” and provided by Ridgecorp Consultants Ltd. .

I was not immediately convinced that the claims of lightning fast formatting were accurate but decided to try anyway. To my surprise formatting my 120GB drive with this program tool less than 1.4 seconds and left 112GB of usable space. Not believing my own eyes I then tried to format another external drive I have – this time a 500GB drive. This process took about 2 seconds and left about 470GB of usable space. In short this program is the real deal.

So, for anyone who wants to format large drives external or internal to FAT32 I have found the solution for you. Fat32Format .

1. You’ll have to buy a new high-end PC to run Vista
2. Vista will solve all your security problems
3. Vista is no more secure than XP SP2
4. The only thing new about Vista is the eye candy
5. You can’t dual-toot Vista with another operating system
6. Vista requires (or includes) Office 2007
7. Most old applications and peripherals won’t work with Vista
8. You have to buy a Premium version of Vista if you have a dual-core machine
9. You won’t be able to play ripped music in Vista
10. Vista costs a lot more than XP

Read the full article here.