I got some random viral infection, either the Flu or Viral Bronchitis, either of which last 2 to 3 weeks, and in some cases months :(.

Anyways it causes heartburn, but I can't take my bismuth infested friend Pepto Bismol, it has a Reyes Syndrome warning with all viruses.

I want to post some more videos of this new PC from Max/Microsoft, a few benches and stuff on power consumption. The power consumption I'd have to say is top notch with a 45nm processor and a 55nm videocard.

Lookie what showed up ;)

From here http://channel8.msdn.com/Posts/2019/

To

Live Doppler 10 chief meteorologist Chris Bradley said that the watch may soon be upgraded to a warning soon.
Bradley is checking two computer models. One predicts between 3 to 6 inches in the Columbus area. The other model predicts us getting about 12 inches of snow.

Then it was.

The largest snowfall potential we've seen in years is moving into central Ohio.
Live Doppler 10 meteorologist Mike Davis said that the National Weather Service is calling between 12 to 15 inches of total snow accumulation for Friday and Saturday.

I'm going to be stuck, I'm going to skip class. What a day I woke up to.

Brandon's 1 inch guarantee is 10 inches. My last prediction of our last  storm was 1-2, and we got 1.5, I'm feeling meteorology might be my calling in life ;)

Now that Vista SP1 is finalized, it is a good time to do some spring cleanup and start from scratch with Microsoft's newest code. Overtime installing trials and random programs, lots of files get left behind so, might as well start from scratch. Below is just a quick guide of how to install SP1 pretty cleanly.

When SP1 is available to the general public, I'd recommend getting the standalone update exes. Burn x86, x64 or both onto a DVD.

Backup all users files and important documents, get them off your hard drive. I use http://skydrive.live.com to store keys and documents.

Insert your Vista disk, boot off DVD and format and install as usual. After about 15 minutes it will ask you to type in a username and password, don't do that instead press "ctrl-shift F3", your screen will go black and your computer will reboot into "audit mode", this will allow us to install stuff before making a user name. Do not close out the Sysprep screen that comes up, just leave it alone and ignore it.

From here, insert your burnt SP1 setup files, and go ahead and run it. It will take probably about 30 minutes, it rolls up all the Windows updates to date along with a new kernel which has been tweaked for Windows Server 2008, which brings some performance improvements, so it takes a bit.

After SP1 is finished installing, the computer should have booted back into "audit mode" with a confirmation saying SP1 installed successfully along with the sysprep window. One more step, press your windows key + r, or go to the run box, and type "vsp1cln" and cleanup the temporary files SP1 has left behind.

Once that is finished, go to the sysprep window, set it to reboot into OOBE do not check generalize and click ok to reboot. You will then setup your user account and such on the next reboot, from there you can install your drivers and programs.

The reason I do my install this way, is because there is no clean method of integrating SP1 into the Vista DVD, plus Microsoft has identified a few device drivers that would fail after the Vista SP1 install. This is a problem with some driver makers, and not Microsoft. A simple reinstall of the drivers fixes this, but if you install SP1 before you install drivers, you will not run into that issue.

Now my personal experience with SP1 has been great, it is quite a bit faster, things just seem snappier.

During the Summer I bought myself a Zune, mainly because I didn't want to deal with itunes. It has never gotten that great of reviews, but I never had any problems with it. My only complaint was that it didn't support podcasting.

Today Microsoft released a new update for the Zune, that updates both the onboard firmware and the client side software, and boy does this change the whole experience.

Check me out at the social http://social.zune.net/member/Trix+rox0rs

 I've never really been a big blogger, but tools like Windows Live Writer help me casually blog easier. The Live Writer team just performed a major update, to 2.0. You can read more about it at their blog http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

Overall I like the new UI, and the inline spell check works wonderfully. I only wish that the IE team would put out neat updates like this more often. I've been stuck with the same build of IE7 for a long time now, at least it feels like it.

Anyways, if you blog, you should check out live writer, it makes blogging a more seamless experience.

I've always liked Microsoft mice,  they just work and are comfortable. I have been using a Logitech G7 for a while though, because the Wireless Laser Mice from Microsoft just didn't work out form me. For some reason it kept telling me my signal quality was low...that got annoying fast.

Anyways my G7 was dropped, and broke (don't ask). The battery life with that mouse did start to suck anyways, I was replacing the  battery once a day.

I decided to go back to a wired mouse, a gaming wired mouse, and the Microsoft Habu. It was an intresting venture between Microsoft and Razor.

The standard set of features, as stated on Razor's Website:

• 2000dpi Razer Precision™ laser sensor
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
• Ergonomic right-handed design
• Interchangeable side button panels
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
• Always-On™ mode
• Up to 45 inches per second and 20g of acceleration
• Seven independently programmable Hyperesponse™ buttons
• GlowPipe™ non-slip side rails
• Large, ultra-slick Teflon® feet
• Thin, flexible cord

The interchangeable buttons stood out to me, because I've never seen a mouse do that before. You can find a picture of that here.

The software works pretty well, the sensetivity and tracking is great, and most importantly, the mouse is comfortable. It just fits right in your hand, like it was meant to be a hand rest. Microsoft mice seem to always fit well, and Razor is known for its tracking abilities, Razor+Microsoft = Freaking Awesome. I highly reconmend this mouse to any gamer, any Razor mouse really, though I think the Microsoft Habu is probably better for multiuse, do to the comfort.

I looked at Vista's wonderful weather gadget, and it just looks-weird.

It is 81 today, 43 tommrow and snowing the rest of the week!

Windows Vista gets a lot of bad press...but it doesn't deserve it. I do not see it as a 200 dollar service pack, that simply doesn't make sense. There are core changes to how Windows works, new audio stack, video architecture, I/O prioritization, network stack,native support for Wireless and so on. Wikipedia explains the new features better than I can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_windows_vista

On my system, Vista is faster, it is cleaner looking (the updated cleartype is wonderful on the eyes, and aero is pleasing), as weird as it sounds I do get my work done faster. I'm a student, I write a lot of papers, do lots of powerpoints and edit a lot of videos. Vista's new instant search is quite helpful. At anypoint in time it is not uncommon for me to have multiple drafts of the same paper or powerpoint. So I made a search *.doc and *.ppt (which also includes *.docx and *.pttx which is neat) so now I have a "folder" that contains all my papers and powerpoints.

I can't really prove that Vista is faster, but it feels like it, I attribute this to superfetch, and Windows more aggressive memory manager. I wonder why they didn't do this before, but I am glad they did now. In fact, I do not know if they are aggressive enough. Unused memory is wasted memory, I have 2gigs for a reason, I wouldn't mind seeing it 98% full 100% of the time. As long as it was smart at releasing it, while gaming or doing another intensive process.

Speaking of gaming, I think Windows Vista is a great gaming platform. The Games organizer in Vista works pretty well, recognizes most of my games, but those it doesn't I can drag and drop add pretty quickly.

If a user is using an ATI (AMD) based graphics card, the drivers are there. Granted there are some spots they still need to work on, particularly Opengl. In some cases though, the switch to Vista increased performance by 15%. http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_vista_performance_amd_catalyst_7.1/page5.asp

Now I know there are spots where the performance in Vista isn't as good as XP, but that is marginal, and should improve in time, maybe even by the next driver release. I'm not sure where nvidia stands, but last time I checked there were still some substantial performance hits.

There are a few little neat things Vista has to offer that I appreciate. The Snipping tool, which makes it easy to take screenshots, The Resource Monitor, Network and Sharing Center, Windows Sidebar, Backup and Restore Center, support for multiple clocks for multiple time zones, automatic defrag, Windows Photo Gallery and DVD maker, UAC (Yes I like it, no one should disable it, one should only disalbe the prompts)...etc.

Now about the Backup and Restore functionality of Windows Vista, which makes it easy for anyone to make their own Custom Install of Windows. Basically a user installs Vista, activates it and installs all the programs they want, change settings in Vista to the way they like it, maybe install some drivers, then one can use the backup center to make a disk image, which will copy byte for byte the image of the hard disk onto another hard disk or a DVD ( I personally chose a DVD).

I'm stuck between those two browsers, I am not sure which I like better. Everything seems to work in IE, but Firefox feels smoother and quicker. I am not sure if all my plugins work in Firefox either. Anyone have any input.

Anyways, does anyone know how to get Windows Live Writer (http://ideas.live.com) to work with www.wallop.com?

When you start Battlefield 2 the first time, the intro is just awesome but the problem is the longer you play Battlefield 2 the more disturbing is this intro (including the EA and Dice logo).
But it's quite simple to get rid of those things.
Just open your explorer (whatever,...) and go to your Battlefield 2 folder and to the following subfolder:
....\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies
There you'll find six files.
Delet every file exept:

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.

Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 for Windows XP SP2
Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 (Windows x64 Editions)
Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 for Windows Server 2003 Itanium Edition
Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 for Windows Server 2003 SP1

What’s new?

-The first true beta of WDS 3.0 with the new service-based indexing engine and fully-functional UI.
-The first version of WDS available for x64 machines! 64-bit engine and UI!
-Truly a countless number of fixes from the WDS 3.0 Engine Preview released a few months ago.

Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta 2 download links:

For Windows XP

For Windows Server 2003

For Windows x64 Editions

KB Article

Source

This is odd, a release candidate for a Beta 2. In anycase it is a nice release! I especially like the new theme a lot. IE7 and Firefox 2.0 are the best looking browsers out there. I think my preference is leaning towards Firefox 2.0 vs IE7 Beta 3. Firefox just feels faster. Do a quick test and go to http://local.live.com in both browsers and move around and navigate. I bet Firefox will end up being quicker for you. Plus it looks better! Look at the two pictures below, one Firefox (Note the new theme!!) and one IE7. The blue bar on Firefox is transparent and turns solder upon hover, in IE, it is solid all the time.

Download Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 RC1

IE7 Beta 3 

Quick Note: With Live Writer (what I use to post to my blog) I can press print screen to capture a screenshot, and then press control-v and it will paste in my post! Cool stuff!