Tech, Politics, and Whatever’s Relevant

It’s been almost three years since the release of Vista, and Microsoft is releasing it’s new operating system tomorrow, packed with a lot of new features. Now, I never really believed that Vista was as bad as people made it out to be. It was stable, had many new features, and it was more aesthetically advanced that it’s predecessor. Unfortunately it did have some downfalls in that start-up time could be on the long side (I found that drivers were the most likely cause of this) and it did consume a lot of resources.

I’ve been using Windows 7 since the release Beta 1 (Build 7000) and I have to say that I’ve been impressed. It isn’t a complete overhaul by any means, but it has key refinements where they need to be. In this release, Microsoft seemed to focus on speed, appearance and ease of use. I can’t help but think that this is in part thanks to Apple, and all of their knocks on Windows being dull and difficult to use. In this review, I am using the Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 64-bit Edition.

Taskbar
Upon start-up the first thing you’ll be greeted with (aside from a slicker boot screen and quicker boot time) is the new taskbar everybody has been talking about. I like that this new design mimics the feature that I most used in Windows, and miss in OS X… the Quick Launch Toolbar. You can pin or unpin a program easily by right clicking either the shortcut, or the running program itself, and selecting pin/unpin to taskbar. I did not like the fact that this taskbar uses alot of screen estate, but there is an option to decrease it’s size by right clicking the taskbar, and going to properties. The Show Desktop option has been moved all the way to the clear portion on the right-most side of the bar (to the right of the clock) but I’m finding that because of it’s remote location, I use it far less. When you run more than one instance of a program, the icon for that program appears as a stack. If you hover over this stack, you can see a live preview of each instance of that program. For the most part the start bar hasn’t changed, so there isn’t much to report there. Overall I find it to make things more convenient, and an improvement over past versions.

Compatibility
One of the nice things about Windows 7 is that even though I’m running the 64-bit Edition, I haven’t had very many compatibility issues… The only real problem that I found is running Alcohol 120%, but even then my problems were solved by performing an update. There still isn’t any Flash support for the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, but Microsoft included a 32-bit version that’s compatible with any plug-in somebody may need. Most of my drivers worked great out of the box, and all of my drivers worked fine upon install.

Speed
The main reason most people would want to upgrade to Windows 7 is the vast improvement in speed over Windows Vista. Windows 7 boots up much quicker than Vista, and it is snappier when up and running as well. Aside from launching programs faster, it seems to manage memory much more efficiently as well. I can run multiple programs at once, and not see a dent in speed.

Appearance
Where Windows 7 shines more-so than in any other operating system is it’s appearance. This iteration of Windows is easily the best looking operating system made thus far. Aero is further refined in this version to display more transparency effects, but not enough to ever get distracting. Because you can see your background from anywhere, you can change the mood of your entire computer just by changing the background without having to mess with color schemes. Aside from Aero, the entire interface is very clean, crisp, and nicely designed.

Gaming
As far as gaming goes, I have seen no changes in terms of game compatibility and how well they run. I’ve tested out Simcity 4, Half Life 2, Sims 3, Flight Sim 2002 and I have not run into any sort of problems.

Windows Media Player 12
One of the things I did not like very much was some of the changes made to Windows Media Player 12. It has gone the route of iTunes as being the vehicle through which Microsoft manages the media on all of it’s portable music players, and has thus become over-bloated and inconvenient to use as a simple music player. With WMP 10, I could easy add all of my music, and just have a now playing playlist, but with 12, you have to add the music to the library, and then add that music to a playlist, and open the playlist. In my opinion, Windows Media Player 12 is kind of a step to the side, more than a step forward or backwards.

Overall
This version of Windows is easily the best yet. If you have Vista, I would recommend upgrading if you feel that your computer runs a bit slow, and you would like to give your computer a needed facelift. If your running XP, unless your on a custom built computer you may be best off purchasing a new computer with Windows 7. It may be worth noting that I am running Windows 7 on the 2.26ghz 13″ Macbook Pro.

Long story short, I messed up the keypad on one of my phones, had a broken phone set aside, and decided to switch keypads. This video is a bit more helpful than the last, and again, guide coming soon (check back Sunday night if interested.)

Even though I had a $50 bet that the Spurs would be experiencing a first round exit this year, I really wanted them to beat the Mavericks. Unfortunately the only chance of them getting to the Western Conference Finals really ended April 6th, when it was announced that Ginobili would be missing the rest of the season due to injury.

It’s ironic that as I spell-check the word Ginobili in Google, one of the suggestions is Ginormous, because that’s really what he is (figuratively speaking of course.) Ginobili is really the only competitor on this team who really plays to win. No disrespect to Duncan or Parker, but Duncan doesn’t play with any heart (outside of Game 7 against Detroit in 2005) and Parker really only plays for personal stats and his own fame. Without Ginobili, the Spurs go no-where fast. And this is what we saw.

So without further adieu, here are the changes that I think the Spurs need to make:

Cut the Garbage
Really, the following people need to be traded/released/retired/not-resigned/

• Finley – I’m pretty convinced that Finley is really playing out of boredom/for money. He seems to have no will to win, nor help his teamates. Yes, he has hit some clutch shots, but really his time is up. He’s nowhere near what he was when he played for Dallas, and he needs to retire. Finley has one more year left at his option, but Pop should talk him into retiring.
• Gooden – This guy thinks he’s Tracy McGrady in the post when he really needs to defer the ball to somebody else who’s a more reliable scorer. The Spurs really need somebody who’s more athletic than this. Gooden is a free agent.
• Vaughn – This guy is mediocre. Can’t create, just dribbles down and dumps to Duncan when he plays. Can’t score, zero athletic ability and old. Vaughn is a free agent.
• Bonner – Bonner seems like a nice guy, and that’s about the only thing with him that fits with the Spurs. Zero athletic ability, unreliable clutch scorer, and the inability to play defense makes this guy cut material. Fortunately he didn’t do bad during the regular season which makes him good trade material with…
• Fabricio Oberto – I’m a little concerned with getting rid of him because apparently he’s a good locker room asset and Manu’s friend. But he’s an overpaid, mediocre center. Would make good trading material with Bonner to a team that may be stacked with shooting guards and short on bigs.
• Ime Udoka – Really this guy needs to go, he’s a free-agent and although the Spurs are getting him at some-what of a bargain (1 mil a year) he can’t shoot and is much more of an offensive liability than Bruce. Yes he can play defense, but the Spurs are in desperate need of shooters.

Have Some Team Spirit
Watch some of the younger organizations and notice… they all have some sort of team unity that drives them. This Spurs team doesn’t have that. Everybody seems to play individually with nobody else in mind but the individual. This is why they go long periods with difficulties in scoring, they just don’t know how to be a unit. This is what Lebron is great for, he brings everybody together. Unfortunately San Antonio is a leaderless team. Duncan is no Kevin Garnett, and Parker is the second youngest guy on the Team, it’d be hard for him to take a leadership role in anything other than scoring and not catch ire from seniors (another problem getting younger will solve.)

Yes the inevitable, Get Younger
This is a strong one to consider and also is a reason I believe that people saying that the Spurs need to try and obtain the likes of Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson are wrong. While they are great players, Rasheed is old and Iverson can’t be on a team where he isn’t the primary offensive focus. Even if they need to draft some guards and project centers and develop their own personnel, they just need some young, athletic guys, no big names needed. Portland tried to draft Greg Oden and look where that got them. Centers are so hit or miss it doesn’t really matter if they are well known. Hill has already developed into a good backup behind Tony. The Spurs would be better off calling up their entire Austin D-League Team than resigning the above players.

So yes while the Spurs are in some trouble, they really have some time to sort things out. Yes I realize that I cut pretty much the entire roster, but something drastic does need to be done when you finish a series where you have only two guys who seriously contend. I’m looking forward to seeing what movies the FO makes in the off-season.

FO = Front Office

Mac’s were always something I wrote off as trendy, used by people who wanted to look sophisticated. they appeared to be almost like a fad. I never really saw them as something you would get any sort of productivity out of, I mean sure they were great if you wanted to use the Internet, use Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, but outside of that they were pretty useless (well not quite but you know what I mean.) The interface seems overly simplistic, very colorful, like it’s almost trying to appeal only appeal to casual users. Well for the most part I was suprised.

Yesterday I wrote about how I built a Media Center around a Mac, despite having very little experience using Mac’s at all. The last time I used a Mac was for a Spring 2007 programming class. The lab we were using had only Apple computers, which lead to a lot of frustration for those of us who were used to Windows. The Mac OS X Terminal was similar to DOS on Windows, except for some minor differences, and most of us just opted to bring out laptops to lab and use those.

So yes, my first impressions… Well at least close to them. I’ve been using my mini for about three months already, and I have to say I’ve enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, though it hasn’t been without some issues.

Interface

Coming from Windows, the interface takes some getting used too. I’m still not sure if I like the OS X Dock or the Start Bar better but I’m pretty sure I’ll know that in time. I do know that I prefer using ‘My Computer’ over the ‘Finder’, if only for Microsoft’s “No Bullshit” approach. Other things in OS X are nice, for example being able to zoom in on the screen by holding down CTRL and scrolling using the mouse wheel. Because of my Media Center Setup, this comes in handy since I sit pretty far from the screen. Expose and Dashboard are also pretty neat tools, though installation of some applications could be a little more straight-forward. It took me awhile to figure out that some applications are installed by dragging the application icon over the Application directory icon… While that makes sense, it may be making things a little bit too simple and literal.

Software

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be the first, or last person to say that I don’t use any of the software that came with the Mac. My first install was Firefox, and since then I’ve been slowly replacing the applications that came with the system. I have been pleasantly surprised what you can find for Mac though. Cyberduck is a brilliant FTP tool that you can download for free, as is Adium, a light-weight Instant Messenger application, are some of the great programs you can find for OS X. To tell the truth, I really haven’t found anything that would rival these programs in Windows. I also find that I prefer Front Row to Windows Media Center only because it doesn’t seem to suffer from being bloated and clunky.
Hardware
And this is where the Mac really starts to shine. Despite the fact that I base all of my comparisons on the low-end mini, the hardware design of this computer is really something to behold. This is the quietest, discrete, coolest (temperature wise) computer I have ever used, yet it maintains all of the functionality it needs. The Mac has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Optical Audio-out, Firewire, and a quick processor. The only thing really lacking is extra RAM.

Overall my first impressions are good. I’m still learning more about how to use OS X but as I learn new things I’ll be sure to write about them.