Intel, Dell hold off on internal rollout of Vista

More Vista dissensia (is that a word?). Interesting that these technology leaders are holding off on deploying Vista. I can understand that Dell would choose to hold off as they are already backtracking by offering Windows XP for sale, again, and they have already announced that the Linux distribution, Ubuntu, will be offered on new PCs. Intel... I'm not so sure and, to me, says more about the OS lack of actual "preparedness", if you will. Basically, Intel is saying it's not ready for prime-time...

Intel, Dell hold off on internal rollout of Vista | CNET News.com

Is Windows Vista in Trouble?

A couple of interesting articles that I found on Slashdot.org seem to indicate troubles for Windows Vista. As you might tell from my lack of updates, Vista has NOT seen the light of day on any of my machines, since my previous efforts at the end of last year. Not sure if it will EVER see the light of day on my machines... The newest revision of Ubuntu Linux, v 7.04 aka Feisty Fawn, seems to be almost ready for prime time.

Slashdot | MS Offers Vista Upgrade Pricing To All

Slashdot | Is Windows Vista in Trouble?

Speed Up Windows Vista

Via Lifehacker, this is a good, in-depth article delving fairly deep into Vista. So if you bought that new computer with Vista or took the dive by upgrading your current system, these tweaks should give you a nice performance boost.

Speed Up Windows Vista

GL&HF!

Much ado about nothing? A rant by any other name...

I work in IT for my company. I am, by title, a Sr. Network Engineer - but I guess, you would have to describe my job as a Microsoft Windows Server administrator... well, I do a lot more than administer (administrate?) the servers.

Anyway, this coming weekend is the beginning of daylight savings time, otherwise known as DST. In the government's infinite wisdom, it was deemed necessary to extend DST starting this year. Thus, DST starts three weeks early and ends a week later than it has in the past. Now keep in mind we have had DST for years now, but many "Chicken Littles" in the industry are crying "Y2K!", which, if I recall correctly, was a big bunch of nothing...

Last weekend, my wife's work completely closed down their e-mail infrastructure to apply the DST patch. Their IT director actually used the term "Y2K" to describe the impact of this event. I laughed... loudly. Mind you there were special considerations and a certain order for patching Exchange, but a whole weekend? Give me a break. It was their close weekend and it really put a bind on the groups that are responsible for closing the books. At my wife's suggestion, they had to implement a "phone bank" in order to communicate with each successive group to do their tasks to close. Poor planning and execution, if you ask me.

This weekend, we are required to come in to work at 1:00 a.m. to make sure that there are no issues from the time change... READ THAT AGAIN! Yes, we are required to come in and verify that each server has changed time. Here's the deal people:

WE HAVE HAD DST FOR AS LONG AS WE HAVE HAD COMPUTERS.

We have had TIME CHANGES before; in fact, TWICE every year. The only difference is that it starts earlier and it ends later... that is ALL. Oh, sure, there COULD be problems... like an appointment is off by an hour, or something similar, but how many of you know of someone who was late to church, or even late to work on the following Monday, because they didn't change their clocks. It happens...

So here's the deal: Treating this event, that happens twice a year, every year, like it is a big deal is ASININE. Should you be prepared? Yes, absolutely, no question. But requiring people to be at work for the time change or requiring that your email system be down A WHOLE FREAKING weekend is really, really dumb. And equating the event to Y2K is down-right idiotic, to say the least.

/RANT OFF

Use Vista for 120 days in evaluation mode

Here's a good tip if you want to try out Vista. Basically, Microsoft allows you to use Vista for 30 days in "evaluation" mode, but this "hack" allows you to reset the countdown timer 3 times, thus giving you four months of "free" use.

Vista Hands On #9: Use Vista for four months, free by ZDNet's Ed Bott -- Looking for real Windows Vista secrets? Everyone knows you can install Windows Vista in evaluation mode for 30 days and reset the countdown timer three times, giving you a free evaluation period of 120 days. The trouble is, you have to remember to type the magic command every 30 days or you're deactivated. Unless you know the real secret, which uses another Windows feature to automate the process. I've got the never-before-published details here.

Casual Games Are The Rage

A good article on how Microsoft is now jumping in on the "casual gaming" phenomenon. If you'll pardon the self-promotion, over on the right side is an ad for BigFish Games. Here is a great opportunity for you to jump on this bandwagon, if you will. Joe, over at Building Your MLM, Network Marketing Business, hooked me up with this he has enjoyed some success with it. This is my first active promotion of this product, but I plan to do more. If your a casual gamer, or know someone who is, head on over there or forward them this post. Have some fun and enjoy!

Game Stooge » Casual Games Are The Rage

BigFish Games

Google Premium: Don't get too excited | News.blog | CNET News.com

Google has announced their business-class versions of all of their web apps, Google Premium. Looks like a good start, but there are still holes or missing functionality. Personally, I only use Microsoft applications at work. For collaborative documents, I use the personal editions of Googles web apps. At home, most of our PCs have OpenOffice.Org loaded up on them, except for "The Wife's" PC, which must have MS Office for work compatibility... or something...

Google Premium: Don't get too excited | News.blog | CNET News.com: "Google Premium: Don't get too excited"

Virtual PC 2007 made available

CNET reports that Virtual PC 2007 is being made available today from Microsoft. It is optimized for Vista and is part of several tools being made available to east Vista migration.

Virtual PC 2007 made available | CNET News.com

Here's another article about Vista annoyances from PC World:

Most Annoying Things About Vista

Lotsa Good Stuff Today...

Let's start with the iPod Shuffle now available in colors! This is a great piece of technology - small, light, wearable... Great for working out, and now available in the iPod colors - original silver, pink, blue, green, and orange! Apple - iPod shuffle


Of course, Windows Vista is available today! You might want to look into getting some kind of guarantee. As CNET points out...

Microsoft's list of requirements for optimally running Vista Ultimate, the fullest version, or other versions, is long and detailed.

Is your flash drive fast enough for Vista’s ReadyBoost?

As I reported previously, Vista offers some cool ways to increase performance. This is fairly comprehensive test of this performance hack with some interesting results.

» Is your flash drive fast enough for Vista’s ReadyBoost? | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com