Monday, December 31, 2007
Wii
Played the Wii for the first time over Christmas. Very entertaining gaming system. I played Wii sports for 4 or 5 hours. Have to admit I'm a little sore from it. I wouldn't consider it a workout but you'll get tired.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Windows Live goes Live
Windows Live (www.live.com) is out of beta and now live on the web. The key features are a new messenger, a social network called spaces, a downloadable photo gallery, and a search engine.
The messenger is the next update in the messenger line. Nothing big here. Just a new MSN messenger.
Photo Gallery - The photo gallery has many features. It allows you to edit photos while looking at them. It has a red eye removal feature I though was pretty neat. Everything else is just like Google’s Picasa2 which is what I currently use. At this point I will not be switching. Many of the options are Vista specific and since I do not have Vista there is no benefit in switching.
Spaces - Spaces is Microsoft’s social network. It is very basic. Its a blog and photo gallery. Not a whole lot to it. It is similar to Yahoo! 360. I will use it for basic info but since it does not support ads I can generate revenue from I will not blog heavily there.
Windows Live is also a search engine. So far it seems pretty good. This site comes up first when searching for Matt Christensen so I can’t complain.
The messenger is the next update in the messenger line. Nothing big here. Just a new MSN messenger.
Photo Gallery - The photo gallery has many features. It allows you to edit photos while looking at them. It has a red eye removal feature I though was pretty neat. Everything else is just like Google’s Picasa2 which is what I currently use. At this point I will not be switching. Many of the options are Vista specific and since I do not have Vista there is no benefit in switching.
Spaces - Spaces is Microsoft’s social network. It is very basic. Its a blog and photo gallery. Not a whole lot to it. It is similar to Yahoo! 360. I will use it for basic info but since it does not support ads I can generate revenue from I will not blog heavily there.
Windows Live is also a search engine. So far it seems pretty good. This site comes up first when searching for Matt Christensen so I can’t complain.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Vista Anyone?
Well Vista has been around for about a year now. I for one have not made the switch from XP. To be honest I don't plan to either. When you compare what's right with XP to what's wrong with Vista there is just no reason to switch right now. Especially if you're an IT director considering changing your whole infrastructure.
For starters let's look at what's right with XP. For starters, with latest service packs and updates, XP is just as secure as Vista with all its security enhancements. So security is not a reason to switch. XP is also easy to use and very familiar. Familiar is important to the average computer user. If the design and layout is totally new its like starting over. There is a huge learning curve at this point with Vista.
Now lets take a look at what's wrong with Vista. I have had limited experience on a Vista machine, however that experience has not been good. The machine I was on was a high end machine. Lots of ram, big fast processor, etc. Would have been blazing with XP. However, running Vista this machine was slow. If I didn't know better I would have not have guessed it was a new computer but rather an old computer that probably should not have made the upgrade. There are software compatibility issues. Software I have developed with Visual Studio and the latest .net framework do not run properly on Vista. This is probably the biggest issue in large companies/organizations. They do not want to upgrade and have all their software break or have to go out and get the Vista ready version. That adds to the cost of the upgrade. Add it all up and Vista becomes very expensive and what do you get for it? There there is the problem with the versions. There are four versions of Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate). Which version is for you? Which version will run the best on my computer? Which version has what features? Very confusing.
In conclusion, Vista is just not there yet. We'll have to see what happens with the first service pack however there are somethings that just can't be fixed with a service pack.
For starters let's look at what's right with XP. For starters, with latest service packs and updates, XP is just as secure as Vista with all its security enhancements. So security is not a reason to switch. XP is also easy to use and very familiar. Familiar is important to the average computer user. If the design and layout is totally new its like starting over. There is a huge learning curve at this point with Vista.
Now lets take a look at what's wrong with Vista. I have had limited experience on a Vista machine, however that experience has not been good. The machine I was on was a high end machine. Lots of ram, big fast processor, etc. Would have been blazing with XP. However, running Vista this machine was slow. If I didn't know better I would have not have guessed it was a new computer but rather an old computer that probably should not have made the upgrade. There are software compatibility issues. Software I have developed with Visual Studio and the latest .net framework do not run properly on Vista. This is probably the biggest issue in large companies/organizations. They do not want to upgrade and have all their software break or have to go out and get the Vista ready version. That adds to the cost of the upgrade. Add it all up and Vista becomes very expensive and what do you get for it? There there is the problem with the versions. There are four versions of Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate). Which version is for you? Which version will run the best on my computer? Which version has what features? Very confusing.
In conclusion, Vista is just not there yet. We'll have to see what happens with the first service pack however there are somethings that just can't be fixed with a service pack.
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