So with the acquisition of my new laptop I’ve managed to get my first taste of Windows Vista. I thought I’d give a brief run-down of my experiences with it.
If you follow IT news in any way whatsoever then you’ll be well aware of the hullabaloo surrounding Vista. From malfunctioning programs to its intense hunger for more memory Vista has become notorious amongst computer users. Many businesses are electing to not even use it for fear of compromising the integrity of their internal networks. With Windows being Microsoft’s main source of market penetration this must surely come as a worrying sign for the Redmond programmers.
So it was with a worried mind that I entered into the wilderness of Vista. I must say my initial thoughts are quite pleasing. I’ve passed a good few hours pottering around with Vista, tweaking its settings, discovering new shortcuts and methods to do my work. I must stress though that the problems mentioned above are indeed true to some extent. The new sparkly graphical effects of the Windows Aero interface are a killer on a laptop battery and it manages to drain my Acer’s battery in less than 2 hours of minimal use. Furthermore its obvious that Vista is a massive memory hog and can just barely get out of bed with the 1 gig of RAM my computer offers it. This is damn strange as Ubuntu Linux manages to offer the same level of sophistication and sparkly graphics with none of the memory use. My biggest test though will come with the installation of Pastel Partner when I return to work. As this will be my main working program every day it will need to run flawlessly on Vista. I’m a bit worried as it was a bit memory intensive in XP so on Vista it might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I’ve also yet to really use the copy of Office that came pre-installed on my machine. Office 2007 is a total revamp of Microsoft’s Office suite of products with a total new interface and a multitude of changes to the established way of working on documents and spreadsheets. Seeing as I’m an advocate of OpenOffice.org I shouldn’t be too phased though and if punch comes to shove I can always just revert to my copy of OpenOffice.
One nice feature of Vista is the more mature look of its GUI. XP’s default colour scheme has a distinct childish look to it with large buttons and bright blues and greens. Vista has opted for a more modern look with a brushed black look complemented by some very nice graphical effects such as translucent windows which is handled by the Aero graphical component of Vista. The redesigned sound effects for Vista are also soothing to the ear. Gone are the customary harsh mechanical sounds of previous versions of Windows which are replaced by some beautifully orchestrated but subtle sounds. Its amazing how these small things can make your computer experience more joyful and I must really take my hat off to Microsoft for going back to the drawing board here.
I’ll post my further thoughts once I’ve had a chance to test Vista out in the work environment and I will also post a separate entry regarding my experience of Office 2007 once I’ve managed to start using it. Overall Vista is not too much of a train wreck as many naysayers would have you believe. If you find yourself dissatisfied with Vista you can always just install Ubuntu Linux
So another Christmas has come and gone. As usual there were a lot of presents to be had and braai meat galore. I was the luck recipient of The Simpsons Movie and season 10 on DVD as well as skate for 360. For my father we opted for a vast assortment of gardening books which he seems very happy with indeed. My mother got as many Miss Read and Maeve Binchy books as me and my father could get our hands on.
As tradition dictates we had our Christmas braai and gorged ourselves on a wide variety of meats till we all collapsed into a post-Christmas stupour and slept the remainder of our day away. Our evening consisted of laughing ourselves silly at The Simpsons Movie and an episode or two of Mythbusters that Discovery Channel was broadcasting in a Christmas marathon. S all in all it was a great day for one and all. now its time to prepare for New Years day and the eventual slog back into work in the new year. Roll on 2008!
Before the magical day of Christmas hits us I thought I’d take this opportunity to wish all those of you who have stumbled upon this little slice of my life a pleasant and wonderful Christmas day. Where ever you may be I hope you have a great day with family and friends. For those of you who are insane enough to have followed my blog, I thank you for your patronage and hope to somehow write a bit more regularly and coherently from next year!
As part of my promotion at work I’ve been tasked with the procuring a new laptop for use on site at clients. Having learnt my lesson with the ULTRA small Sony I’ve opted for a more average sized Acer 5710Z. Its got ok specs and will serve me well over the coming years I know. My only gripe is that it comes with Windows Vista pre-loaded. I’m not going to go into the multitude of problems that are well publicised about Vista. A quick Google search can show you that the vast number of consumers out there are unwilling to adopt the new Windows. From my short time working on it I can see that with the Aero scheme active battery life is ludicrously non-existent. Its all well and good to make a redesigned OS but if you make it so intensively resource hungry. Ubuntu manages to use Compiz Fusion to achieve all the same effects while using none of the resources that Vista does.
I’ll give Vista a try nonetheless before I dismiss it out of hand. I’ve already gotten together all the utilities I’ll need to migrate my laptop over to XP if push comes to shove so I’m not too worried. Here’s hoping that the dreaded Pastel will work in the new year and not crash every few seconds
As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’m a huge fanboy of the movie Blade Runner. I thought I’d dedicate a post to explaining my love for this great film.
If someone was to ask me what my favourite film of all time was I’d say Blade Runner without any hesitation. Its partly because of my love of the Sci Fi genre and its also partly because of my love of philosophy. Blade Runner managed to encompass both these into one cohesive whole. It was both a straight up sci fi action film as well as a dissertation on the essence of what it is to be human. In the 1980s this was a far cry from anything that had ever come before, and it is still far ahead of its time even compared to today’s movies. Its also probably the best adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick work for the big screen. Ridley Scott didn’t stick close to the original book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but managed to adapt it perfectly so that it would keep the core principles of the book intact. Phillip K. Dick himself expressed how pleased he was with the film just before his death.
It managed to create a beautifully decrepit vision of a bleak dystopia. Apartment blocks that tower above the streets in a rainy metropolis. Gigantic ad boards are plastered throughout the cities beaming messages of a brighter future off world. The citizens all walk hunched over on their way to who knows what. Its a very Asian influenced feel, almost as if Ridley Scott had foreseen how animé would look today.
What really sets this film apart for me though is the story. It follows Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) as he attempts to bring several cyborgs to justice. He slowly manages to kill each one of them. though in the film it is specifically stated that they are not killed, but are ‘retired’. Eventually he comes face to face with Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) who is the leader of the cyborgs. Here is probably one of the most extraordinary pieces of film dialogue I’ve ever heard. As Batty is killed by Deckard he utters the following:
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
It really manages to encompass the entire point of the film in my opinion. It questions our capacity to declare ourselves as humans. To what degree can we proclaim ourselves to be human? Is it because we have the comprehension to see ourselves as having an identity separate from others? The Nexus models manage that as well. They have a desire to remain alive and keep their kind alive. They even begin to show emotions and comprehension beyond what they should be able to do. We even start to question Deckard’s humanity. Is he a down on his luck cop or is he in actual fact also a Nexus cyborg with implanted memories? Its this capacity of Blade Runner to evoke thoughts and questions to this very day that has made it my favourite film. I really can’t see anything else surpassing this at all in my mind. Only the films of David Lynch have come anywhere close to evoking the same thoughts in my mind.
Oh nuts! Its happened again! Every single year my plans to get my Christmas shopping over and done with early in December are thwarted by my tendency to procrastinate. I’ve only got just over a week to brave the shopping malls here in Bellville. I’ll have to rely on my girth to break a path through the hordes of shoppers who just like me will be frantically clamouring for the last few morsels of prezzies still available to purchase.
I’m getting the distinct impression that George Romero must have been inspired by mad Christmas shoppers to write the plot for Dawn of the Dead. Mindless hordes all congregating in a shopping centre frantically grasping for something, anything. i should at least have an advantage having watched the films before. I know that my best chance will be to barricade myself in the attic of the shopping centre.
Depending on the availability of a bonus for me I’ll be looking at a Wii as I’ve mentioned in a previous post. Hopefully I should be able to snag one as I’ve seen that stock shortages are rampant once again in the US. Another further bit of good news is that I’ll be going through to Incredible Connection to buy my new work laptop tomorrow hopefully. I’ll just have to somehow survive the fact that it has Vista pre-installed on it
My recent post about how down I was feeling sparked a remarkable response from several of my friends. the very next day I was told how several of them had tried to phone me to check up how I was doing and what the problem was. This really meant a lot to me. I have somewhat of a tendency to retreat into my shell when I feel under strain or pressure. I’ve never been one to reach out willingly to others. So I was really relieved in a way to know that there are people out there concerned about me. Thanks to those of you who cared enough to ask me how I was doing. I really appreciate it.
So with the acquisition of my new laptop I’ve managed to get my first taste of Windows Vista. I thought I’d give a brief run-down of my experiences with it.
Recent Comments