Vista’s got a lot of bugs. If you have a computer that’s less than 2 years old and you’ve been contemplating the “upgrade”, I wouldn’t do it. The major problem right now is not entirely Microsoft’s fault, but as normally happens with any Microsoft update, there are many driver issues right now. That is caused primarily by 3rd party hardware creators who haven’t created compatible drivers for their products.
There are some tremendous features in Vista that will eventually make the upgrade worthwhile. The speech recognition is fantastic and has surpassed the few that I’ve tried in the past by leaps and bounds. The security side of Vista works well, unless you turn it off, of course. No matter what anyone else out there says, ReadyBoost works. Aero is pretty, but a resource hog and I turned it off. They added the Desktop to the Alt-Tab shortcut, although my shortcut was always to hit “Windows+M”.
I’m not using Vista for my primary computer yet, because I have too much 3rd party hardware that doesn’t work yet. I have moved the family computer over because it’s a pretty basic machine that everyone uses, and I like the parental controls I can use with Alaina’s account. Even though it’s a step down from my primary computer, it runs very smoothly.
When it comes time to purchase a new computer down the road, I’ll probably go with Vista… preferrably on a Mac with BootCamp+Parallels.
I’ve been doing so many things that I haven’t had the time to keep up with myself. I’ve kinda spread myself thin working on a few projects that are fun, yet time consuming. I’ll let you in on it a little more down the road.
Are there any phrases that people get wrong all the time that just frustrate the fire out of you? I’m talking about phrases such as “don’t take that for granite”. That’s the phrase that they say, even though the proper phrase replaces “granite” with “granted”. How about words that are clearly mispronounced, such as “supposedly” being pronounced as “supposably”? That’s one project I’m working on.
I’m also looking for funny looking stuff on the Internet. Funny looking web addresses or pictures found on the Internet would help me out a lot.
These projects are fun, but could turn out to be really hilarious if implemented correctly. Let me know if you have any ideas… Thanks!
I’m going to slow myself down, but figuring out how will probably include less time on the computer. I’m glad I dropped MySpace back in November, otherwise I’d be wasting a lot more time than this.
This week has been full of technology announcements. Hitachi announced that they will be releasing a 1 Terabyte hard drive by the end of this quarter for $399.00. The price is just over half of what most people expected the first Terabyte drive to be.
Apple introduced the much anticipated iPhone (name might be changed due to copyright). Check it out at the Apple website HERE. The features of this thing are sweet, but the price is just out of my range. Hopefully there will be a good price reduction for signing a contract with Cingular.
Microsoft introduced a new file storage and backup server that is meant for the home. Not everyone will really use one of these, but I’d recommend that everyone have some way of backing up their data. This is one possible way to do it with ease.
Those are the three that stick out for me. There were hundreds (if not thousands) more that I haven’t even seen yet.Â
A co-worker of mine went to CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday and Thursday. Â I look forward to hearing about the gadgets that interested him the most.
We’re hosting Alaina’s 6th birthday party here at our house today. We’re surprisingly ahead of schedule, as far as cleaning and decorating are concerned. As usual, my office is the last to go.
There should be a nice crowd to fill the house, and we’re really looking forward to it.
I spent some time this week updating my media center so that should make a nice contribution to the party, as well. Not that we’ll use this part today, but I can now access YouTube from my television.
I’ve been toying with the idea of an upgrade. I’m testing it out right now and am impressed beyond my expectations. I’ve only been testing with the final release for a few days, but everything’s good so far.
I am enjoying the widgets and the neat little extra features. I’m still toying with it, but I’ll let you know if there’s any unexpected hiccups along the way.
I took Alaina to the San Jacinto Monument today. We had an ok time. They’ve got the park closed off now so that you can’t even drive up to the monument unless it’s open and pay per person for entrance. The same goes for the Battleship Texas. It really stinks because it used to be an easy trip, but the entrance I always use is now blocked off because there isn’t a booth to take money at that entrance. They aren’t charging a fortune, but it was an unexpected expense.
I am looking forward to a better year. This past one was much better than the one before that, and I’m sure that it’s only going to get better.
Happy New Year!
