After a week of working with Vista I can say that I’m…still here. I can’t say that I’m thrilled with Vista, because I’m not, really. There’s the sort of “did I just survive that!?!” one often gets after a particularly reckless motorcycle stunt, but it’s not the kind of thrill you generally want in a business setting. There are some interesting things going on, but I should set this up just a bit…

I got my copy of Vista through the Express Upgrade program. My Gateway laptop, ordered in late November, shipped with XP, but I jumped through the hoops necessary to get my disc sent on its way. It arrived in due time, I backed up all my data files, and the Great Upgrade began.

I decided, against Microsoft’s advice, to try the update (rather than the clean install) for my first installation attempt. Big mistake. There’s nothing like a looping Blue Screen of Death in an OS install to get your attention. After an hour or so of trying to get the installation process to fix itself I gave up and did the clean install. Much better.

Vista comes alive, and it’s first impression time: Hmm, they seem to have given me a new toolbar. I’m a fan of the Google sidebar, so I look at the Microsoft version and spend about ten minutes with it before downloading Google.

Getting things set up was relatively straight forward, though it took a while before I got the MTU issue settled. I run a screwy custom MTU on my home network (thanks, BellSouth), and getting the new value established took a while. It was finally done, though, and I could start using the system.

First note: I’d been told that Office 2007 ran faster under Vista than under XP. My impression is that this is true, tbough the difference in performance isn’t nearly as great as I’d like. Perhaps if I work up the courage to upgrade to Vista 64…

More later, but it’s late. I’ll be back soon.

Categories: General computing, Software, Consumer Technology
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I had been meaning to write a post on some very inconvenient corporate behavior on the part of CheckPoint. Instead, I’ve been spending time switching my main computer over to Vista. Yeah, I know, I can hear you laughing from here. So far, it’s been an adventure, and not one that’s made me very happy, but I hope to have a usable system by the end of the weekend. Some things are working well (Office 2007 seems slightly snappier), some not so well (it’s going to be a while before I have the security settings figured out), but I think it’s going to be an educational process (if not a productive one) when it’s over.

More soon…

Categories: General computing, Software
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We’re going to be going to Kyoto later this year so Carol can attend a conference, and we’ve started thinking about the software that will help us get ready for the trip, or be more productive while we’re there. The first task is to learn something about the language. We’ve looked at the Rosetta Stone software for Spanish and found it worthwhile, so we’re going to try Rosetta Stone software. We’ll see whether the software can help with what seems to me (a single-language guy) to be a difficult language to learn.

Categories: Consumer Technology
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I’ve received word via e-mail that my express upgrade to Vista Office Premium has shipped. I’m a touch confused, because the note says that it’s shipped, and warns that it could be three weeks before it appears. I’ve tried to think of a modern shipping method that could take three weeks to travers any distance within the continental United States. The only thing I can come up with is that they’re shipping it on its own barge. When it arrives at a Florida port, it will transfer to a rail car, and then to a truck for final shipping to my office. I’m looking forward to the shipping label.

You’d think they could spring for UPS…

Anyway, three weeks gives me plenty of time to get my files backed up before it arrives. I’ll be blogging on the process, which I hope will be smoother than I dare expect. This should be an adventure–sort of like operating system BASE jumping. Let the climbing begin.

Categories: General computing, Software
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Sorry about the break of the last fortnight–it was unplanned. It’s not that nothing was going on worth blogging about, rather the contrary. It’s more a case of life intruding, as it sometimes will, on plans we mortals make.

First comment back doesn’t have anything to do with technology, though. I went to the Region 3 conference of the Society of Professional Journalists a couple of weeks ago and had a chance to hear Rick Bragg speak. I’ve told a number of folks that, if they want to know something about the place where I grew up, they should read his book All Over but the Shoutin’. Rick and I grew up in different circumstances, but in the same time and place. He describes it far better than I could.

At the conference, he was talking about narrative journalism–basically committing journalism by telling compelling stories built on the facts you have. He told a number of stories about the situations he covered–Haiti after Aristide, the Oklahoma City bombing and suesequent trial–and walked everyone through the process by which he’d arrived at his story ledes. After hearing his process and, most impressive, the work that resulted, all I can say is:

 Damn.

Go out and buy his books. He’s one of our seriously good writers, and someone students should read as they’re learning to “feel” good writing.

Categories: Media
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