Oct 2008
Thoughts on Vista
Oct 27 2008 10:33 PM Filed in: Microsoft
As I mentioned in an earlier post I installed
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate on my MacBook a
couple weeks back. Now that I’ve had a chance to use
it a little, I thought I’d share my thoughts on it.
I never used Microsoft Vista before installing it on my Mac. I have seen it on a couple users machines at work, but never sat down and used it myself. The copy of Vista Ultimate I received from the Microsoft event has Service Pack 1 installed on it. I’ve heard that SP1 fixes a lot of the gripes that people had with Vista. It runs pretty darn fast on my MacBook Core Due with 2 GB RAM. There was a time when the machine that was rated best to run Vista was a Mac; I don’t know if that is still true.
So, here are my likes, and my dislikes.
Likes:
1. The UI is a heck of a lot better that the XP Playskool look.
2. The side bar gadgets are nice, very similar to Widgets on Mac OS X, but still nice.
3. The search that’s built in is a lot better than the previous search in Windows. It works almost as well as Spotlight on Mac OS X.
4. It boots and shuts down quickly.
5. I like that they got rid of the stupid “My Computer”, “My Music”, etc, and just replaced it with “Computer”, “Music”.
Dislikes:
1. The security feature is very weird. If it needs to pop up a dialog to get your permission your screen goes black before doing so. Also, the security dialog that pops up isn’t all that helpful. I double clicked a program to install it, it popped up a dialog with the name of the program, and if I clicked more info, it showed a GUID. How the heck does that help? It just seems kind of tacked on.
2. The new start menu sucks. When you first click on it, it looks nice. If you click on All Programs, it just turns into a long scrolling list. Not very nice looking.
3. At the end of the day, while it looks nice, I don’t really see what would take a team of engineers the size that Microsoft has, 5 years to develop this OS.
I don’t consider it to be as bad as I’ve heard, but then again I received a free copy. I don’t think I would have felt it was worth the $259 for Ultimate.
I never used Microsoft Vista before installing it on my Mac. I have seen it on a couple users machines at work, but never sat down and used it myself. The copy of Vista Ultimate I received from the Microsoft event has Service Pack 1 installed on it. I’ve heard that SP1 fixes a lot of the gripes that people had with Vista. It runs pretty darn fast on my MacBook Core Due with 2 GB RAM. There was a time when the machine that was rated best to run Vista was a Mac; I don’t know if that is still true.
So, here are my likes, and my dislikes.
Likes:
1. The UI is a heck of a lot better that the XP Playskool look.
2. The side bar gadgets are nice, very similar to Widgets on Mac OS X, but still nice.
3. The search that’s built in is a lot better than the previous search in Windows. It works almost as well as Spotlight on Mac OS X.
4. It boots and shuts down quickly.
5. I like that they got rid of the stupid “My Computer”, “My Music”, etc, and just replaced it with “Computer”, “Music”.
Dislikes:
1. The security feature is very weird. If it needs to pop up a dialog to get your permission your screen goes black before doing so. Also, the security dialog that pops up isn’t all that helpful. I double clicked a program to install it, it popped up a dialog with the name of the program, and if I clicked more info, it showed a GUID. How the heck does that help? It just seems kind of tacked on.
2. The new start menu sucks. When you first click on it, it looks nice. If you click on All Programs, it just turns into a long scrolling list. Not very nice looking.
3. At the end of the day, while it looks nice, I don’t really see what would take a team of engineers the size that Microsoft has, 5 years to develop this OS.
I don’t consider it to be as bad as I’ve heard, but then again I received a free copy. I don’t think I would have felt it was worth the $259 for Ultimate.
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Finished Lego Indiana Jones with 100%
Oct 27 2008 10:22 PM Filed in: Video Games
I just finished Lego Indiana Jones: The Original
Adventures with a score of 100%. If a game has a
certain goal, and this one the goal is to get 100%, I
try to play the game until the end. The game was
pretty tough, but once I figured out a system, it
wasn’t that hard to finish. The way I was able to
finish it is to not spend any of your coins until you
have enough to purchase a couple of the parcels
you’ve collected. If you can purchase the
Invincibility parcel and the Treasure X 4 or Treasure
X 6 parcel, it will make life a heck of a lot easier.
Once you are invincible and your treasure is being
multiplied, you will be able to get through all of
the levels in Free Play mode with no problem. Once
you have collected all of the treasures, and all of
the parcels, and you have collected enough coins to
make it to True Adventurer on every level, you should
have enough money to purchase all of the extra
characters. If you found all of the Star Wars
characters you can also purchase Han Solo. Go to
Indy’s room and collect all of the treasure chests to
get yourself a key to use in the Artifact room. This
will allow you to get into the 3 bonus stages. Once
you are through with those go back in a purchase the
last secret character and you should now be at 100%
complete. You can tell you are at 100% because it
will start raining coins everywhere.
This was a great game. I’m looking forward to playing the Star Wars and Batman versions.
This was a great game. I’m looking forward to playing the Star Wars and Batman versions.
Something Rotten
I just finished reading another Thursday Next novel,
by Jasper Fforde, called Something Rotten.
This is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series and it is probably my favorite. Jasper Fforde has to be one of the most imaginative authors I’ve ever read; it’s amazing the stuff he comes up with. This story is very funny, entertaining and well written. I recommend this series to anyone that enjoys quirky humor and a fun book.
I have his newest Thursday Next novel, First Among Sequels, but I think I am going to take a break and read something else right now. I purchased a couple classic novels, you know, the stuff you were forced to read back in grade school. I figure I’ll appreciate them more now that I am reading them for my own pleasure. I also have a couple other books sitting around that need reading. Will get back to Fforde later on.
This is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series and it is probably my favorite. Jasper Fforde has to be one of the most imaginative authors I’ve ever read; it’s amazing the stuff he comes up with. This story is very funny, entertaining and well written. I recommend this series to anyone that enjoys quirky humor and a fun book.
I have his newest Thursday Next novel, First Among Sequels, but I think I am going to take a break and read something else right now. I purchased a couple classic novels, you know, the stuff you were forced to read back in grade school. I figure I’ll appreciate them more now that I am reading them for my own pleasure. I also have a couple other books sitting around that need reading. Will get back to Fforde later on.
What?!? I installed Vista? On a MacBook!
Yes, you read that title correctly. I installed the
latest version of the Microsoft OS, Windows Vista, on
my MacBook. I didn’t install it in a virtual machine
using VMWare Fusion or Parallels, I actually used
BootCamp and installed it directly on my MacBook in a
separate partition. I did this for two reasons.
Number one: I didn’t use VMWare Fusion or Parallels
because my MacBook is one of the old ones that can
only support up to 2 GB or RAM, so I would only be
able to give my virtual machine around 1 GB and still
have a responsive Mac. Windows Vista wouldn’t be a
happy camper under 1 GB of RAM, especially since the
reason I installed it is for reason number two.
Number two: I realize at the end of the day, even
though I love Apple and my Mac, the thing that brings
home the paycheck is Microsoft development. We are
getting into serious development at work now using
.NET 3.5 and Silverlight 2.0. I need to have a
machine at home that I can use to work on, and I’d
rather not have to lug around a laptop back-and-forth
to work every day.
Now, as for why I installed Windows Vista Ultimate, when Windows Vista hasn’t exactly received stellar reviews? I had a copy that I got for free for attending a Microsoft developer session a few weeks back, and didn’t feel like scouring the web to find a pirated version of Windows XP.
I don’t see myself booting into Windows very often, but it’s nice to have the option. This is actually the reason I waited until Apple switched over to the Intel platform, so I would have the option to install Windows. I’ve played around with Vista for a few minutes now, this is the first time I’ve really used it, and while I don’t think it’s as great as OS X, I do think it’s more pleasing on the eyes than Windows XP. It also seems to be running pretty responsively, which is good. We’ll see how it goes once I start doing development on it.
Now, as for why I installed Windows Vista Ultimate, when Windows Vista hasn’t exactly received stellar reviews? I had a copy that I got for free for attending a Microsoft developer session a few weeks back, and didn’t feel like scouring the web to find a pirated version of Windows XP.
I don’t see myself booting into Windows very often, but it’s nice to have the option. This is actually the reason I waited until Apple switched over to the Intel platform, so I would have the option to install Windows. I’ve played around with Vista for a few minutes now, this is the first time I’ve really used it, and while I don’t think it’s as great as OS X, I do think it’s more pleasing on the eyes than Windows XP. It also seems to be running pretty responsively, which is good. We’ll see how it goes once I start doing development on it.
Goal Achieved
Oct 18 2008 01:08 PM Filed in: Personal
When I purchased Wii Fit and did my first weigh in, I
came in at 185 lbs. Now, I’m not some chunky guy, but
a 5’7” guy weighing in at 185 lbs tends to have some
signs of love handles. I set my goal in Wii Fit to
get down to 170 lbs. I set a goal of 3 months,
figuring 5 lbs a month may be achievable. It’s taken
a little while longer than that, but I weighed in at
170 yesterday. Now, my weight tends to head back up a
couple pounds on the weekend, since this is when
Paige and I head out to eat, but that’s fine. My next
goal is to get down to 160 lbs. Wii Fit says my ideal
weight is 148 lbs, but that’s just too skinny for me.
I used to weigh that much back when I was around 28,
and when I look at old photos my face was very
skinny. I think 160 may be a good stopping point. To
achieve this goal I pretty much just try to watch
what I eat. I try to weigh in on the Wii Fit every
day at the same time, and use it to work out when I
have a chance.
Simplicity
Oct 18 2008 01:02 PM Filed in: Personal
I came across this web site the other day that is
very helpful and super simple to use. It’s simplicity
at its finest.
The site is called Umbrella Today. It asks you for your zip code and returns a YES or NO on whether or not you may need an umbrella today. You can also sign up to have text messages sent to your phone to let you know when you may need an umbrella.
The site is called Umbrella Today. It asks you for your zip code and returns a YES or NO on whether or not you may need an umbrella today. You can also sign up to have text messages sent to your phone to let you know when you may need an umbrella.
America's Hidden History
While I mostly read fiction I try to fit in a
non-fiction book or two when I can. Lately these have
dealt with American History. When I was in high
school and college I was always more interested in
World History or Medieval History, I didn’t develop
an interest for American History until later.
I just finished reading a pretty good book by Kenneth C. Davis, “America’s Hidden History”. This book deals with some of the unknown facts or back stories around the events and characters in a couple events from history, such as the Revolutionary War, or the Pilgrims. I found it a very interesting read, and Mr. Davis does a good job of keeping you interested in the subject, which can be a hard thing to do when it comes to history.
I just finished reading a pretty good book by Kenneth C. Davis, “America’s Hidden History”. This book deals with some of the unknown facts or back stories around the events and characters in a couple events from history, such as the Revolutionary War, or the Pilgrims. I found it a very interesting read, and Mr. Davis does a good job of keeping you interested in the subject, which can be a hard thing to do when it comes to history.
Back From Vacation
Oct 12 2008 12:59 PM Filed in: Personal
Paige and I returned earlier this week from a nice
southwest vacation. We’ve come to really enjoy
traveling to the Southwest, and this trip did not
disappoint.
We started our journey in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where we flew into. We took the rental car from there to Sedona, Arizona, for a stay at The Enchantment Resort. This is the place we had stayed on an earlier visit. This time we did a lot more exploring of ruins and trails. We were there from Saturday to Tuesday.
The next leg of our journey was The Grand Canyon. It’s a beautiful big hole in the ground. We got there to experience the sunset, and took photos the next morning too, before heading off to our next destination: Monument Valley.
Monument Valley, Utah, is amazing. This was another one evening stay, with lots of exploring.
The next leg of our journey was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We timed our trip perfectly to experience the first day of the International Balloon Fiesta! We lucked out with the weather, although it did get too windy the first evening to experience the balloon glow. The next day was too windy and rainy, so they canceled most all of the events.
We finished our journey in our favorite spot, Santa Fe, New Mexico. As always, it was a perfect experience.
We both got a lot of photos using our new cameras. It will take a while to go through all of them and get them up on Flickr, but I will post them when I get them up.
We started our journey in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where we flew into. We took the rental car from there to Sedona, Arizona, for a stay at The Enchantment Resort. This is the place we had stayed on an earlier visit. This time we did a lot more exploring of ruins and trails. We were there from Saturday to Tuesday.
The next leg of our journey was The Grand Canyon. It’s a beautiful big hole in the ground. We got there to experience the sunset, and took photos the next morning too, before heading off to our next destination: Monument Valley.
Monument Valley, Utah, is amazing. This was another one evening stay, with lots of exploring.
The next leg of our journey was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We timed our trip perfectly to experience the first day of the International Balloon Fiesta! We lucked out with the weather, although it did get too windy the first evening to experience the balloon glow. The next day was too windy and rainy, so they canceled most all of the events.
We finished our journey in our favorite spot, Santa Fe, New Mexico. As always, it was a perfect experience.
We both got a lot of photos using our new cameras. It will take a while to go through all of them and get them up on Flickr, but I will post them when I get them up.