Despite Scott’s slagging of Vista today, I like it - especially now that I’ve got 2GB RAM. Don’t tell anyone. I’d hate for Jeff Putt to hear about it.
Okay so, as I said on the show the other night, it isn’t the major new paradigm that was promised over those long, long, Longhorn years. Remember quotes like these from BillG?
Longhorn, the next version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows desktop operating system, will be so different from its predecessors that users may not like it right away.
(link)
Longhorn makes it easy for your information to show up on any device. It makes it easy to navigate that information.
(link)
Say you keep lists. Anytime that you’ve mentioned a restaurant, it automatically goes onto this list of restaurants, and your system would automatically keep track of what are the hours there, how that menu has changed.
(link)
There is more R&D being spent on Longhorn than on the 747.
(link)
Now that we are moving to this Web services world"a loosely coupled, message-based breakthrough that computer scientists have dreamed of for decades"all of the things that let that be possible need to be in the US$50 operating system. And so here we have Indigo that will be in Windows and let you do transactions and queuing.
(link)
And let’s forget about WinFS….
But as an operating system, it’s pretty “neat” (I can imagine BillG calling it that… isn’t he just the child of the 50s??).
Here’s my desktop at the moment:
What do I like?
1. It’s prettier than XP.
2. When folders open and close they do this little.. shrinky… thing. It’s… neat.
3. Ummm… having the sidebar pre-installed is nice but I’d been running Yahoo Konfabulator for a few years on and off so it’s not an entirely new experience. It is, however, packaged. The widgets I’ve got installed are currently:
iTunes controller
News.com.au RSS feed
Dual Core monitor
Shortcuts to key docs and folders
Melbourne’s weather
Calendar
4. The little clock thing in the taskbar allows multiple timezones!! Now I can see what time it is in Scotland and Washington when I’m hiding from Ewan and Scott on Skype. I can wait until I know they are asleep before I stop lurking.
5. Most nearly everything I need is running. All except my printer. I had trouble with the scanner but Photoshop figured out how to make it work.
6. The “snip” tool from Windows XP Tablet PC Edition ships with it and that is VERY handy.
7. It’s pretty (did I already say that?)
8. The new Win-TAB is old technology (I can’t remember what it was called but I used to have an app which did that years ago) but great to have in the OS.
9. The way the little previews of the windows you have open pop up when you hover your mouse over the taskbar.
10. ummm. it’s pretty?
The list of things I don’t like is shorter…
1. The integrated search is better but not, IMHO, as good as Google Desktop. Come on Microsoft. Catch up.
2. Hmmmm… no podcast support?
3. It doesn’t swallow?
4. Oh yeah. Google Desktop searches open in IE and not FF. I haven’t been able to figure out how to stop that. Anyone know the secret (no, not the stupid new agey documentary which says “whatever you conceive and believe you can achieve”, but just… the regular type secret)?
5. Oh yeah… I had to spend the first two days turning off the stupid security features. YES - I WANT TO RUN THIS FRAKKING APPLICATION! THAT’S WHY I CLICKED ON IT STUPID!!
I don’t know. I can’t pick much fault with it so far I guess. But then again I’ve only had it four days. Give me some more time.
Would I go out and pay real shells for it? No. The benefit over XP is really just cosmetic as far as I can tell. I really cannot for the life of me tell what’s truly new and innovative in Vista apart from the prettiness and I wouldn’t shell out $600 - $1000 for that.
However, if you are getting a new PC and you have Vista as an option - and you are well aware that some of your software and/or peripherals may not work - then go ahead and move to Vista. Mum - that means you.
K-Fed: “Search Me!”
Still haven’t found what you’re looking for? Forget U2 and forget Google… navigate straight to SearchWithKevin.com!
The LA Times reports today that Kevin Federline, who was famous somehow about a year ago, has started his own search engine to compete with Yahoo and Google. Sure Google gives you quick, accurate results and Yahoo is a similarly reliable force in the search engine world, but neither one will give you access to a “celebrity!”
On Monday, five pairs of winners were randomly selected to win the grand prize " an invite to the party for the rapper-dancer’s 29th birthday that will take place Saturday at a Los Angeles nightclub. But other search engine denizens could luck into consolation prizes including autographed 8-by-10 glossies of K-Fed and copies of his album, “Playing With Fire.”
Not everyone who searches wins, but everyone who doesn’t search doesn’t win! Which means you have a very easy, reliable way to avoid Kevin Federline.
Here at the Global Geek we have adopted the world of 
Well the day has come KW here it is, an actual Palm Treo Twitter client that looks good, and by all reports works great. The application is called 
