Review of Vista

Here's what seems to be a good review of the state of Vista.

Things that don't surprise me (after my short lived test of Vista at home)

1. It crashes, and crashes and crashes. Seems to be worse than the XP rollout, I really don't remember XP crashing this often, and I imagine it will slowly improve as the driver issues are addressed.
2. Lack of drivers.
3. Compatibility, even though the author discusses issues with games, I had issues with even Office and Office 2007. I won't even go into the nightmare that was virtualization, except to say that my machine randomly rebooted at LEAST once a day, without anything else installed or running besides Office and World of Warcraft. I mean that I would come home and the machine will have rebooted during the day while I wasn't doing anything on it.

Surprises
1. He likes the new start menu? I thought the new menu system was confusing, it kept changing in no descernable pattern depending on what I was doing. If things had been easier with the context menu changes I wouldn't have minded.
2. He's more efficient with Vista. I honestly found the opposite, mostly because of the confusing menu's and screens.

Global (non)warming?

Interesting article that describes how the latest paper about Carbon Dioxide emissions has left out a few pertinent facts....

Like how the emissions increase compares to the temperature rise, of course you can understand why, when you compare the figures, it seems they aren't related at all....

You can read the rest here.

Easy to make Hydrogen Fuel for a car?

This is an extremely interesting article: http://news.com.com/Producing+hydrogen+with+water+and+a+little+metal/2100-11392_3-6184879.html

Basically he's trying to create Hydrogen by mixing an aluminum alloy with water, it generates hydrogen and aluminum oxide, which of course the hydrogen would be used to power whatever the fuel cell is in. The big question is, how much aluminum oxide is created, and what can be done with it?

Still very cool that people are still trying to figure out a way to make a hydrogen powered car a reality.

Todays Funny

Very funny one, scarily close to the truth as well.....

Reports indicate that the English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from 'Miffed' to 'Peeved'. Soon, though security levels may be raised yet again to 'Irritated' or even 'A Bit Cross'. Londoners have not been 'A Bit Cross'
since 'the blitz' in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from 'Tiresome' to a 'Bloody Nuisance.' The last time the British issued a 'Bloody Nuisance' warning level was during the Great Fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from 'Run' to 'Hide.' The only two higher levels in France are 'Surrender' and 'Collaborate.' The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from ' Shout Loudly and Excitedly' to 'Elaborate Military Posturing.' Two more levels remain:
'Ineffective Combat' Operations' and 'Change Sides.'

The Germans also increased their alert state from 'Disdainful Arrogance'
To 'Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.' They also have two higher
levels: 'Invade a Neighbour' and 'Lose.'

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish Navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Interesting concept

Should it all be scrapped?

Basically it makes the assumption that the current Internet infrastructure has too many issues to be able to make it more secure, and meet the needs of the current world. They are suggesting that it might be best to just start from scratch.

It sounds really good, but a few things that come to mind.

1. How long will it take to get it built and functioning?
2. Who will be the one managing the architecture?
3. Maybe more important, who is going to be funding it, and what kind of controls are they expecting to have?

I think it's good that this is being thought of, and even if it doesn't come to fruition, it will provoke discussion on where the Internet is heading and what's the next step for it.

New iTunes feature

Well, one of the biggest feature enhancements in a while is hitting iTunes. Prior to today, if you bought a song, or several songs from an album, then wanted to buy the album, you had to pay full price and pay for those songs a second time.

Not anymore.....

This will actually make me go back and look at the singles I have and see if I liked them enough to buy the whole album. And I can buy singles without having to decide right then if I want to buy the whole album.

Life is Good......

Awesome Quote

This is just an awesome quote, I just had to share it.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Steve Jobs

Observations about Package Shipping

I'm constantly amazed at how a certain package shipping company can actually continue to exist. Seeing some of the things they do really is amazing to me.

About a month ago I placed an order with a company, this order was shipped in two seperate boxes and picked up by this company by the same truck at the exact same time.

You would expect that they would take the same route and arrive at the same time, logic would tell you that there is an efficient routing for a package going from point A to point B, especially if they start at the exact same time. But no, this company in it's infinite wisdom decided to send one package from MD to West Virginia, to NC and delivery. The other package instead went from MD to PA, to Ohio, to IL, to TN then to NC for delivery, 2 days later than the first package.

I thought maybe this was just a fluke, but I just ordered 4 new wheels for my jeep, and each wheel is going out in a seperate box due to their size and weight. Once again they all got picked up by the same truck, yet of the 4 packages, only 2 are taking similiar routes. One has ended up in Raleigh as of this morning, 2 are in Virginia, and one is still in Maryland. They are all noted as scheduled for delivery tomorrow.

It'll be interesting to see if they actually make it.....