I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta on Monday after Microsoft fixed the bandwidth issues they were having when they originally attempted to release it on the 9th. When Microsoft released the Windows Vista Beta a couple of years ago, we downloaded it at work and installed it on one of machines to see how different it was than XP. Personally, I didn’t care for Vista when it came out. It looked nice but I didn’t care for having the ‘Programs’ menu from XP fill up the Start menu area in Vista. I also got a little tired of being asked if I wanted to allow something every time I went to try and do anything. I also had trouble finding all of common techy areas I knew how to get to in every other version of Windows since 95 (i.e. Show Hidden Files and Folders).
When I installed Win7, I was a little hesitant to using it. Supposedly, it boots faster than Vista but I don’t have any computers running Vista to compare it to. Microsoft fixed the UAC (User Access Control), which was the annoying little pop-up that would ask if you wanted to allow things to be done, in Vista SP1 but so it was nice to see it not show up every 5 seconds.
There was one change that I’ve noticed already in Windows 7 that I do like. Currently running programs, which in previous Windows would show up as buttons with both the program’s icon and some text, now show up as only the program’s associated icon. This neatens up the taskbar considerably. When you mouse over one of the buttons, it gives a preview of what is currently running in that program. One example would be Word. If you have MS Word running and minimized, you will see a preview of all of the Word documents currently open.
Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8 Beta. This looks and acts just like IE7, except when you open links from one tab in a new tab. IE8 color codes that tab the same color so the user knows they’re connected. I haven’t poked around enough with it yet to see if this functionality can be turned off.
This beta is currently good through August of this year, so I have the next 7 months to play around with it and decide if I’ll give it a chance when it’s released or if I dump Windows all together and go to either Mac or Linux.
According to Variety, “The Crow” will be remade. Personally, I think this is a big mistake. The original movie with Brandon Lee was a great film and belongs in the list of movies that should never be remade (Godfather I & II, Empire Strikes Back, and most of the Brat Pack movies from the ’80s also fall on this list). I didn’t think too much of the TV series or any of the movies that followed, but unlike most people, I do know that the movies that followed weren’t meant to be true sequels. There are people that think that if Brandon Lee hadn’t died, the sequels would’ve had him in it. That is not true. The comic books which the movies are based on each have their own “Crow”.
“Whereas Proyas’ original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style,” Norrington told Daily Variety.
I’ve seen all the other movies and even have them all on DVD, so I’m sure I’ll see this one but I may just wait until it shows up on Netflix.
I gave the online file storage service Box.net a try over 2 years ago. Recently, they released an app for the iPhone which allows me to access any files I have saved online and save any photos I’ve taken with my iPhone to their servers. I don’t see the need to save my photos because I typically email them straight to Flickr and Facebook.
In September of 2007, I signed up for Twitter but I hardly used it. In March of this year, I installed a plugin called Twitter Updater, in order to increase the number of tweets I made. This still didn’t get me into Twitter that much. I even signed up for a service called HelloTxt, which allowed me to update my status on multiple social networking sites at once. I hardly used this service too. After I got my iPhone, I installed an app called Twitterific which allows me to tweet using my iPhone and read tweets from the people I’m following. It wasn’t until about two weeks ago that I really got into Twitter. I used to block random people that were following me. Now, I’ll let anyone follow me, and if they seem to post interesting stuff, I’ll follow them in return.
I just got a pair of QuietComfort3 noise canceling headphones made by Bose as a gift. I’ve been using them for the last few hours to listen to my iPod and I can barely hear anything else going on around me, which will be great when I’m sitting on a plane near the engines. The QC3s run off a proprietary battery that goes into the right headphone. It only took about an hour to charge the battery and it should run for 25 hours off of that charge.
This past Sunday’s episode of Family Guy had a frame by frame remake of the printer scene from Office Space. It didn’t take long until someone put the two together on YouTube.
While reading Lifehacker today, I came across a post about Giftag.
Giftag is a free, web-based wishlist creation service that supports products all over the web. … Armed with a Firefox add-on, at any site you visit that uses the hProduct format, you can add the item with all the product details to your wishlist in one click.
The source of how Lifehacker found out about it, Read Write Web, had some more information about Giftag:
[Giftag] was created by Best Buy, a retailer that didn’t have an online registry service. Instead of creating one, though, they decided to create Giftag instead: a browser plugin that lets you make online wishlists and share them with your friends. The technology will be integrated into Best Buy’s web site in the coming months.
I had wishlists on a few sites (Amazon, Think Geek, etc.) but now I can consolidate everything into one list.
I was lucky enough to purchase a Wii Fit from the Nintendo World store in NYC last week. They’re even harder to find than the Wii is (which I also got from the Nintendo World store). I tried it out and it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. There are 4 categories; Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games. You get “Fit Credits” for every minute you spend using the Wii Fit. After you bank a certain number of “Fit Credits”, you’ll unlock additional exercises or have the ability to increase reps on certain exercises. Surprisingly, I actually like the yoga. One of the more fun games is the Super Hula Hoop. I have a hard time trying to go counter-clockwise though. I’m going to try and do 30 minutes every night like they suggest but I’ll be happy with 4+ days each week.
I purchased a new Blackberry Curve 8330 from Verizon last Wednesday for work. They’re reimbursing me for the phone and any accessories (up to $200 total) and up to $110 per month for the phone bill. I went with Verizon because I have my iPhone 3G on AT&T. I figured if I didn’t have coverage with one, I’d have it with the other. I’m still getting used to the crackberry but I still like my iPhone better.
Google Maps now has walking directions along with driving directions. I tested it out with the walk I take every night after work to go home and it was pretty accurate. It said it should take 24 minutes to go from my office to Penn Station. It typically takes me 25 minutes. Right now, the walking directions are beta.
