Windows
upgraded to Vista
I upgraded to Vista today, and was suprised to find that my machine feels more responsive than it did under XP. Even more interesting is that under Vista, Firefox runs far better - using less memory, not crashing, etc. It even deals with PDFs far better than Firefox did under XP.
I've only used the OS for a few hours, so the novelty may wear off shortly, but I'll post back here with more notes as I get a feel for whether this is a worthwhile upgrade or mostly windows dressing.
who need to be productive on a Friday?
clearly, I must be crazy, because I'm about to install Office 2007, which will likely guarantee that I'll be completely unproductive for the next few days weeks months if what I've read is true. The reviews I've seen so far say that there are some substantial differences in the new office applications, especially in terms of where menus and commands are located. Apparently, the new version of Office does away with menus entirely.
So, why am I doing this? Well, one is to give it a whirl so that when people ask about Office 2007, I can answer. The other reason is that I suspect the learning curve is going to be so steep as to render upgrading a non-option for most folks, which to my way of thinking increases the likelihood that open source software can get more of a toe-hold in more organizations.
did microsoft do something right?
look at this image carefully. note the notification window telling you to look at the information bar - check out what IE 7 blocked.
you have no idea how long I’ve wondered how to do this:
you'd think it would be easy, right? Format Excel sheets to alternate row color so that its easier to read, especially when you print it out. And it is easy, once you know how:
Excel: Automatically alternate row colors (dynamically)
Oh, and if you are wondering how long I've been wondering how to do this - at least 2 years, and I just now took the time to do the 1 minute google search to find the answer. Well, maybe this will save some time for you.
$50 for WHAT?
I found out last week that although Windows Vista will have a snazzy new firewall, by default it will be set to block only incoming traffic -- unless you decide to pay Microsoft an extra US$50 a year.
via ZDNet Australia
I wonder how long this will last before the public outcry forces them to retreat. What a silly silly idea.
it’s not that bad, is it?
"I can't deal with windows. Makes me nauseated within minutes. I'm
not kidding.The total lack of any intelligent design effort gradually eats away
my will to live."
From the osxhack list. Gee, if you think that's bad, try some of the Linux Desktop Environments....
Apple - Boot Camp - Dual boot OS X and XP
Apple - Boot Camp Run Windows on your mac!
When I saw this, I wondered if it was some kind of joke - but it looks like it's the real thing. Interesting...
Firefox bloggers rejoice: Performancing for Firefox
I'm writing this using a new Firefox extension: Performancing for Firefox..
Performanicing is a WYSIWYG blog editing tool. And from the look of it, is really quite nice compared to some of the other blogging tools available for Firefox and/or Windows.
I've also been looking at the Xinha Here extension which turns a text area in a web form into a rich text editor, so we'll see how these two roughly equivalent (ok, not really) extension stack up over the next few days.
Now if only I could figure out how to plug Performancing into a wiki, that would be very cool.
Is it getting cold in the underworld?
That's one way to view
the story that Microsoft is going to open up it's Office file format.
Now, there are still many questions about how open it will actually be, but given that this is the company that many of us love to hate, I'm cautiously optimistic.
And now, Google does web statistics
Seems like Google is now in the web statistics business. I think we all suspected something like this back when Google bought Urchin web statistics, and it is here.
I haven't looked at it all that closely yet, but given that Urchin is a great statistics package, I'm interested to see what this incarnation looks like, and what Google gains by offering it to the world.
