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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on August 17, 2010

…has been posted for download today by Microsoft.  I just finished installing it on my MacBook Pro in a Windows 7 virtual machine.  I’m using Live Writer beta 2 to write this post.

The toolbar area has received the “ribbon” treatment, ala Office 2007 and Office 2010.  Unlike many people, I like the ribbon.  Once you figure out that there’s a logical flow to it, you can never go back.  It’s nice to see that the ribbon is making it into other Microsoft software.

Briefly had a look at Windows Live Mail and it’s been given a minor makeover, nothing really exciting.

Not too sure how I feel about the makeover to Windows Live Messenger.  I find it…busy.  Microsoft has leapt all over the “integration” bandwagon.  My opinion is still forming as to whether I care/like the concept.

I shall post more impressions as I use the various components of the suite.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on July 31, 2010

I’ve titled this post somewhat harshly.  Perhaps after reading it, you’ll understand the depth of my anger.

I bought a new computer in April of 2009.  Whenever I buy/build a new PC, I struggle endlessly over which video card to choose.  After spending a couple of years with NVIDIA in my previous system, I chose to go with an ATI Radeon 4870 card in my new build.  At the time, it seemed like ATI had a leg up on NVIDIA in terms of performance.  I’ve been using this card for a little over a year now and from a hardware perspective, I haven’t been disappointed.  Software wise though, it’s another story…and the source of my anger.

Not to delve to far into a pedantic lesson on computer hardware and drivers, but I’ll summarize by saying that a video card is useless without a software driver.  You can rely on the fact that there’s a pretty good base driver supplied with Windows, however, to get maximum performance from your card, you should always go to ATI’s web site and download the latest driver package for your model of video card.  ATI releases their drivers monthly.  In days gone by, I religiously updated my video driver every month.  This used to be pretty straightforward when I ran Windows XP.  However, since switching to Windows Vista and now Windows 7, the driver update procedure has become…painful.  So painful in fact that I upgrade my video card driver maybe twice a year.

I should also note that ATI’s driver software comes in two parts.  There’s the actual driver and then the Catalyst Control Center software which is the “front end” to your video card’s settings.  Yesterday, given the recent release of Catalyst package 10.7, I decided to grit my teeth and upgrade from version 10.1.  It was a near disaster.  To make a long story short, my experience yesterday has told me that the software engineers at ATI are complete idiots and for the life of them don’t know how to program anything for Windows 7.  The uninstall procedure for the Catalyst software, both drivers and control center, is completely borked and after I ran it, I was left with a mucked up, half-uninstalled driver which took me over 3 hours to clean up.  As near as I can tell, the Catalyst Install Manager, when run from Windows 7 “Add/Remove Programs” area, does not work…at all.

At the end of the day yesterday, I had the 10.7 driver package installed.  However, the Catalyst Control Center software won’t run.

What is wrong with this company?  It’s 2010 for heaven’s sake!  Can we not write a simple routine that allows the upgrading of drivers in a more systematic fashion?  They release drivers every month.  This implies that users should update regularly.  Why on earth do they have to make updating so difficult!  Am I alone?  Has anyone else out there not experienced the same hassles?

I think my ultimate solution is to go back to NVIDIA.  Their driver model is much simpler.  I hear good things about the NVIDIA GTX 460…I think I’ll start keeping an eye open for a good price.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on July 14, 2010

I’m feeling this odd, perverse pleasure that Apple is having troubles containing the negative media frenzy surrounding the iPhone 4. There’s even a story circulating today that Microsoft is calling the iPhone 4 “Apple’s Vista”. Here’s hoping that Microsoft builds a campaign as effective as the “PC vs. Mac” ads.

Apple has created a big pile of poop for themselves and it’s going to be extremely interesting to watch them clean it up. There’s now a secret news conference scheduled for this Friday. My bet is that they’re going to dismiss the whole thing in classic Apple fashion.

There are good things about Apple. Generally, they have excellent, well made products. I bought a Macbook Pro recently and I’m extremely satisfied with the purchase. I had a brief flirtation with the Microsoft Zune (16 gig and 120 gig) as a portable media player but left the platform in favour of the Apple iPod Classic and iPod Touch. Apple has had some spectacular wins. I think that they need at least one spectacular, epic FAIL to keep their feet on the ground. Perhaps the iPhone 4 is that epic fail.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on July 11, 2010

So my iPod Touch arrived on Friday morning. Had to have Purolator re-direct it to me at my office, given that I wasn’t home when they tried to deliver it last Wednesday.

Let’s get one major gripe out of the way right off the bat. Typing on the iPod Touch is horrible! It’s useless other than for typing very small amounts of text. I can’t see myself composing a long email or doing any other serious writing on it. Over the last day or so I’ve been downloading apps and doing some initial “set-up” and have had to type a lot of passwords. Perhaps my fingers are just too fat, because I’ve been creating a lot of typos which make password entry quite tedious. Not a platform for writing War and Peace!

Typing woes aside, there’s a lot to like about the iPod Touch. I truly is a pocket computer and has a lot more capabilities than music playback. Apps can be loaded onto it just like the iPhone. When you’re in range of a wi-fi connection, you have full internet connectivity. It’s a very powerful little package. Thanks to an app called “Air Video”, you can stream movies over your network straight to the iPod Touch. Very cool!

Overall, I’m very pleased with the new toy. I’m slowly becoming an Apple fanboi. Scary.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on July 5, 2010

Installed a WordPress client on my Blackberry, just testing it out.

Listening to the latest Episode of “This Week in Tech” with Leo Laporte, Steve Gibson, and Jerry Pournelle. They’re discussing the issues flying around the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on July 4, 2010

Finally!

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2010/07/playstation-video-store-opens-in-canada/

Just logged in to my PS3 and verified this.  Movies are now available to rent or buy via the Playstation Online Store.  Fantastic!

We Canadians always seem to lag behind the rest of the world in this modern age.  Gonna have to try watching something and see how it works.  Movies appear to be available in either standard or high definition.  Might be a good way to finally catch up with the rest of the population and see Avatar.  Kinda missed the boat on that one.

I think I have some unused Playstation Network dollars to use to test this out…

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on July 4, 2010

This is my first post to my blog using a piece of software called “Blogo” for the Mac. I never finished the series I intended to start about what I wanted from a laptop, partly because of my inherent impatience when it comes to buying stuff. I ended up making the jump to Apple and bought a 13″ Macbook Pro. So far I really like it. It’s an impressive machine and the battery life is just killer. I can get 8 hours bare minimum on a single charge.

Anyways, on the Windows side of my world I use Windows Live Writer for my blogging needs. It’s a component of Microsoft’s Windows Live Essentials software package. Unless I switch to Windows on the Mac (which I can, but that’s the subject of another blog post) I can’t use Live Writer.

Did a bit of searching on Bing for offline blogging tools on the Mac and decided to try Blogo. So far it seems relatively decent. Configuration with my self-hosted WordPress blog was quick and simple. I’ll use it for a few days and see how it goes.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on June 29, 2010

I have a new 64 gig iPod Touch coming, thanks to my credit card reward points.  I’m hoping that it’s compatible with iOS 4, which I should be able to get as a free download.  I’m locked into my Blackberry decision for another couple of years, so I’m hoping that this iPod Touch will take care of the “want” to participate in Apple’s “touch revolution”.  I’ll be dependent on wi-fi for internet access, but that shouldn’t be a huge deal.

I would have considered an iPad, but they’re not available yet through my rewards points.  Besides, while an impressive first effort, I still maintain that the iPad is deeply flawed and not worthy of my money at this time.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on May 31, 2010

I touched an iPad today.

I did this in London Drugs.  The closet Apple store near to where I work was pandemonium at lunch time today.  Everyone and their dog was trying to get in line to play with the display model iPads.

I’ve read (and listened) to a lot of opinions about the iPad since it was first released in the United States.  First impression after 5 minutes of play time?  Impressive.  Do I want one?  I think that yes, I do…eventually.  However, I’m not about to rush out with my credit card just yet…why?  As impressive as Apple’s effort is, the flaws in this first generation product are too big to ignore.  Let’s run them down…

1. Anemic storage for the price of the device.

2. No USB port.

3. A 3G plan is an expensive extra.

4. The device borders on useless without a wi-fi hotspot nearby.

Other people may be willing to overlook these things, but I can’t at the moment.

Paul Thurrott posted a great iPad analysis today over on his Supersite for Windows.  I think he summarizes the situation very well.  I also like what he says about “consumption” vs. “creation”.  I like having the option of “creating” content, even if I don’t do it every day.

http://www.winsupersite.com/alt/ipad_whatisit.asp

I’ll still be buying a new laptop.  The release of the iPad hasn’t changed that.

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Posted By Jeff Mitchell on May 29, 2010

I bought my first laptop computer back in December of 2002.  At the time, it cost $1599 plus tax and it had 1/10th of the capabilities of laptops that are available today.  I think that the Sony Netbook that I’m now writing this blog post on is more powerful than that first Toshiba machine.  It served me well though for about 5 years.  It was a faithful companion on 3 trips to Italy, allowing me to share photos and video clips with my family and friends.  If it wasn’t for the incessant upgrade bug which causes me to want “more, more, more”, I probably could have stuck with it..

In 2007 I bought a new laptop, also from Toshiba.  It had lots more power and came with Windows Vista.  Despite all the negative press around Vista, I never really had any issues.  Toshiba “Laptop 2” served me as faithfully as the machine it replaced.  Over time I upgraded it with a bigger hard drive and more RAM memory.  The main problem that started to rear it’s ugly head was battery life.  While not stellar to begin with, the battery slowly started to degrade about a year ago.  Now, the battery barely give me 10 minutes before I have to switch to AC power.  I did search around for a bit to see if I could get a replacement battery, but alas, no.  “Laptop 2” is now a glorified desktop machine.  I already have one of those.  If it wasn’t for this battery issue, I probably would have just upgraded the operating system to Windows 7 and continued using it.

I did purchase a Sony VAIO netbook in December 2009, mostly to see if a netbook-class machine would keep me happy.  Overall, it’s a great little machine with fantastic battery life.  However, there are a few issues with netbooks.  Performance is pretty bad compared to a full laptop-class computer.  You can’t really do much other than read email and surf the web.  The keyboard is small and cramped.  I’m a touch typist, and I can feel my hands cramping up after about five minutes of typing this post.  Music playback is fine, but video playback is not.  I can see this netbook being mostly useful where I’m travelling and don’t want to carry a full laptop with me.  It will allow me to do basic things for a short period of time.

So…I still have a want for a “full” laptop.

Next post…”What Do I Want to Do with a Laptop?”

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