According to this article, the next version of Microsoft Windows will have a few programs removed. The programs are being offered as optional downloads from Windows Live instead.

This is a good sign! Down with bloatware! Hopefully Microsoft will remove even more non-essential programs, and hopefully other software companies (not just those that make operating systems) will follow suit.

I would much rather download free add-ons than be forced to install a movie editing program that I'll never use with each reinstall of the OS. Not everyone has to reinstall the OS as often as someone like me (a programmer), but with how easy virtualization is becoming these days, more and more people are using multiple operating systems and therefore performing more installs and reinstalls.

Furthermore, using web-based applications in favor of locally installed software is not just the future of computing, it's a current reality. I prefer to use Zoho or Google Docs over Microsoft Excel or Apple Numbers any day. If MS had a web-only version of Excel, I'd definitely try it (but so far, Zoho is my favorite).

I'm really proud to have been on the team that accomplished this. Ryz is a website where people can submit shoe designs and see them rendered in 3D within minutes, then enter them in a contest to win $1000 plus royalties.

This is all based on the Communitas social networking platform which should be opening for public beta in the next month or two. I've joined the Communitas team (Jaybill) and will be tweaking the API, developing new modules, and helping write documentation.

I've been looking for the Mac equivalent of Scooter Software's flagship (and only) product, Beyond Compare for a while now. Looks like I have finally found something that at least begins to, well, compare to Beyond Compare (sorry).

It's called Changes, and it's my friend now.

This app will not only come in handy with web development, but it will help me combine all my various old backups into one backup so I can throw away those DVDs. It will answer the questions, "Why do I have three backups of this? Are they different?"

It's no Beyond Compare, but it's the only program I know of like it for Mac, so I'm happy.

Turns out DasBlog is pretty difficult to use and customize. I didn't even realize until today that in order to post a comment, you have to be some sort of a scientist. Even I was unable to comment on my own post. I'll try to turn that off ASAP.

Now that I'm pretty comfortable with PHP, I might be moving my blog to Wordpress. We'll see...

Well, at least this got done.

You should also check out my friend Jaybill's awesome Atari 2600 laptop job.