Where is the Cloud Police? – CloudAve post

Remote Working, Software No Comments »

A recent case of a friends facebook account getting hacked inspired my latest posting to CloudAve’s blog.  Check it out and let me know what your thoughts are on this case, and how Facebook could have handled things better.

Update: Read Mark’s own account of his Facebook hack on his own blog.

Vista is dead, long live Windows 7!!

Hardware, Software, Uncategorized 1 Comment »
Image from SoulSense (Oscar Ordenes) via Flickr
Image from SoulSense (Oscar Ordenes) via Flickr

It has only been a couple of days playing with the Windows 7 public beta, but I have tears in my eyes.  Tears of relief, that this debacle called Vista can finally be put down and out of its misery.  Microsoft has finally hit it out of the park with this one!

What is different?  Well, visually there is nothing really new to speak of, but I am finding the new taskbar style a lot better, and I like the thumbnail previews of open windows as you slide your mouse around the taskbar.  As someone who has worn out the [Windows Key-D] combination on his keyboard, I love the fact that when you move the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen, ALL your open windows are made transparent so you can see the desktop background and your little applets etc.

The biggest change I see is the speed.  Speed!  Things are finally positively snappy around here.  Click on anything and the windows blitz onto the screen.  No staring at an hourglass or an empty frame for 10 seconds or so as I do now with Vista.  Even opening My Network Places which used to take upwards of 20 seconds now happens near instantly.  This finally feels like a Formula 1 racer zipping around the track, instead of an overloaded WWII Bedford truck chugging around a mud track.

It used to be with Vista, I would get an idea or inspiration, but by the time I tried opening Notepad, or a new Outlook email or any other simple program, 30 seconds or more would go past, and I would rapidly lose my train of thought, as the operating system took up all my time and attention, instead of doing what operating systems should do, which is get the heck out of the way and let me get on with my job!

My biggest question is – Why could they not achieve this with Vista in the first place?  I mean, nothing has been taken out here.  It is still the same underlying OS, but it runs rings around ‘original’ Vista.  I tend to agree with Zoli Erdos that Microsoft should really be giving Windows7 to all current Vista owners and call it ‘Vista Final’.  The letter of apology to every user would also be a nice touch, but I think we have a snowflake’s chance in hell of either two scenarios happening!

Windows 7 Beta – Ready To Go!

Software No Comments »

Welcome to 2009!  Apologies for the slow rate of posting over the past couple of weeks, but several projects due before Christmas kept me ‘heads down’ in the programming cave for a while.

Well, the big news to start the year off is that Microsoft will be releasing the Windows 7 Beta out to the general public today.  Being 12 hours ahead of the curve here makes it a tough wait, but I am hoping to get my hands on the Beta copy by the end of today.  Once I do, I will definitely be blogging my experiences with this new OS on here.  Everyone at the office here knows about my abject hatred for Vista, so they are hoping that my experiences with Win7 will be a lot less vocal.

You can try and be one of the first 2.5 million registrants for the public beta at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ although I have to warn you that you will have to stand in line behind me.

Here is another article on the upgrade, and here is a different take on the situation, with this correspondent hinting that Windows 7 should be marketed as the ‘final upgrade’ for Vista!

Update 11/01: After a 24 hour delay in geting the Beta due to ‘heavy load’ on the MS network, it is finally available to the general public.  I have just finished downloading my copy and getting my keys and will report on my first impressions of Windows7 after I finish upgrading one of the office PC’s.  Definitely a lot of bad press and reactions across the world at the perceived lack of preparedness on Microsoft’s behalf, although I think a lot of the frustration was due to the late hour!

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