How can anybody be excited about Windows Vista when even Microsoft execs can’t get excited.

Image Courtesy of the New York Times.
Image found on Seth Godin’s blog.

Truth be told I was expecting a lot more from Windows Vista. I have mostly been underwhelmed. Go get yourself a Mac or install Ubuntu Linux instead of upgrading. There is nothing revolutionary about Vista and is not some “magic” operating system. It is a pretty tool that does not have much more than windows XP, and i’ve noticed it definately takes a performance hit compared to XP on the same exact hardware. Things that should just be instaneous are not in my real world testing. Another gripe I have about my Vista upgrade, the windows help system is completely screwed up on my system. Enough about my vista griping, i’m done for now.

[tags]Windows, Windows Vista, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows Vista, Vista[/tags]

I’ve been using Windows Vista the past couple days after I received my copy from Microsoft in the mail. My biggest gripe has been driver support for some legacy hardware that is perfectly capable. It seems that driver support on vista is going to be a bear and is going to frustrate a lot of people. I’ve ran into 3 instances so far where I can’t use hardware that I already own.

1. 1. Logitech USB headset 200 does not work under vista at all
2. Logitech USB Keyboard Elite does not work fully under Vista
3. I have not been able to get my Griffin Powermate to work under vista

When people’s hardware doesn’t work, it frustrates them and everyone is going to be crying “I want XP back”, which i’m already starting to do. If these vendors can’t get drivers out, people are going to start saying that vista sucks and telling all their freinds. Some people may say, switch to linux, but that is a whole different issue all together when it comes to hardware support. I love linux and all, but there will always be issues with hardware support as drivers have to be reverse engineered since most hardware manufacturers don’t release drivers for linux. Everyone be fore warned that some of your old hardware may not work as expected if you move to vista, or not work at all.

[tags]windows, windows vista, hardware, vista support, support, compatability[/tags]

I saw this on digg and couldn’t resist posting it as I’m from Chicago.  This guy also has a tutorial on how to create a photograph like this  http://stuckincustoms.com/?p=548

Morguefile has a great great tutorial on how to photograph moving vehicles. This has got to be one of the coolest photography tutorials i’ve seen. You can get some original shots.

[tags]photography, sports photography, auto, photo, car, automotive photography, flickr,moving vehicles, Morguefile[/tags]

Ok I signed up with Twitter a while ago. Things that don’t warrant a full blog post will get posted on my twitter link: http://twitter.com/zemote

If you don’t know what twitter is check it out. It’s kinda like a community web based chat/social network. You can only post It’s kinda hard to describe but I this site is starting to become addicting.

Lifedev.net even has a blog post on how to use Twitter as a GTD productivity tool

Ok, this morning I finally got around to upgradeing WordPress, my blogging software, to 2.0.7.  A few hours later they released 2.1, SIGH!  Teach me to upgrade my software late.  Looks like i’ll be spending the next hour upgrading yet again today.

[tags]wordpress, wordpress 2.1, blog software, blog, blogging, blog tools[/tags]

My new Nikon D40 DSLR.  Some high quality photos will be coming your way shortly 🙂

A command line and a keyboard is much more efficient. Lately there has been a lot of working going into the command line and their seems to be a resurrection of it. I am a longtime linux/unix user so I have never really seen the death of the command line, but people that started using windows in the last 12 years have not really been introduced to the command line.
My favorite command line launcher program for windows is Launchy. It indexes your start menu and any other folder you want. pulls up a command line launcher, then you just type to name of the program to launch, plus it does automatic filename completetion for you. By typing f it will look for the first program that starts with f, typing fi will almost certainly always find firefox.

If you Windows Users need a more powerful command line, you can use Cygwin. Cygwin gives you a linux like command line under windows.

Even Microsoft has conceded that the gui isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and has released a command line shell and scripting language called Powershell.

So why don’t you learn some keyboard shortcuts and lose the mouse, you will more productive because of it.

[tags]productivity, mouse, command line, linux, windows, cygwin, powershell, shortcuts, gtd, launchy, lifehack[/tags]

This post was inspired by Gina Trapani’s Lifehacker post – Geek to Live: The command line comeback

It is now the new year and everyone is doing their New Year Resolutions.  Many people say they want to lose weight or eat healthier.  Remember there isn’t a magic diet out there, eating healther is a lifestyle change that you must put in the dedication to accomplish.  Here are my 5 tips for getting yourself to eat healthier and working toward that lifestyle change we all aim for.

1.  The first step to eating better is making defining meals you want to eat for the week that are healthy before making a grocery list & going to the store.

2.  Make a grocery list itemizing the items you only need to make those meals.

3.  Go to the grocery store and only purchase the items on that list. (never go to the grocery store hungry)

4.  Go home and prepare the meals ahead of time if possible to reduce the cooking time it takes for those meals.

5.  Actually cook and eat the meals you chose in item 1. (remember to eat normal portion sizes, a portion of meat is 6 ounces)

6.  goto 1. rinse & repeat

I know this is easier said than done, but give it a try for your health’s sake.  Remember if you don’t plan complete items 1 & 2 your going to the grocery store blind and will most certainly over buy & buy items that are not the most healthy.
[tags]eating, health, nutrition, shopping[/tags]