Windows » DKMcCUE

I may be an asshole, but BMW drivers have me beat!
Once again I have had a series of run-ins with a BMW Owner who once again thinks they can do whatever the hell they want because they own a BMW. A few weeks ago, I had a BMW owner come racing down my street at top speed, pull up in front of my truck with [...]
Got a new toy for school!
My first two weeks of school have proven to be a bit on the frustrating side. There are not enough public computers on campus for everyone to use, and I realized that I would need to have a computer of my own, but had to wait until the financial money came in to get one. [...]
Kindle 2, iPad 0
I woke up first thing this morning to take a drive to Erie, PA. I was going in search of notebooks for my Livescribe pen (if you don’t have one, you NEED one!) I had looked online for them, and they were out of stock on the Number 1 3-subject notebooks, which is the one [...]
Goodbye, Facebook!
So, it is now official… I am no longer a Facebook user. Facebook and Zynga will just have to go on without my participation in their “spam ‘em and scam ‘em” plot to take over the world. But I have to tell you, the account deletion process is one that makes me think that Facebook [...]
Back to the Homework Grind!
Classes begin again in just 13 days, and to be honest, I am a little apprehensive about it. This semester I will be taking some rather advanced classes in Math and Economics, and I honestly didn’t quite understand the lower classes I have already taken. I am also taking my first ever foreign language class. [...]

Flawed Brilliance: A review of Windows 7 Media Center

7, Media Center, Microsoft, Windows Comments Off

Aug 032010

Roughly two weeks ago, I moved my computer away from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional. I did this for a couple of very strong reasons:

1. I had already played around with Windows 7 when it was in beta, on my 7 year old “antique” laptop and liked it very much, and

2. As a student I was able to upgrade for less than $50 ($29.95 for Windows 7, $13.00 for an actual disc to be shipped, plus tax.)

I have been learning a few new things about Windows 7 over the past few weeks, and have come to the conclusion that it is quite possibly the best operating system ever created. There are little things about Window 7 that I find that make me think “Wow! That is awesome!”

Third times a charm, as they say...

Games, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, X-Box, Zune Comments Off

Jun 142010

The interwebs are all a-twitter over what happened at E3 today: Microsoft introduced a new X-Box 360.

And with this introduction (pictures of which can be seen at Engadget) what I have always thought of Microsoft seems to have become true: It takes them 3 tries to get it right.

Let’s look at some examples, shall we?

Windows: Windows didn’t come into it’s own until Windows 3. Before that time, the Windows program was horrible! But when Windows 3 (technically 3.1) came out, Windows became the powerhouse that it is now. Windows would repeat that same process with XP, Vista and 7. XP was okay, but not 100%. Vista came along and looked better, but wasn’t that great. 7 is perfect in almost every way.

Zune: When the 30GB Zune came out (almost 4 years ago now!), the only thing it had going for it over an iPod was the FM radio. I like the radio as an emergency news back-up. Then came the second generation Zunes. They looked better, and operated better, but it still wasn’t 100%. Then came the Zune HD’s. Spot on perfect!

Now the X-Box: The first system was large, ugly, and prone to breaking. The 360 looked better, operated a bit better once the Red Ring Of Death issue was taken care of (although there are still some cases of it happening), but it still wasn’t 100%. Now this new X-Box 360: Looks absolutely perfect!

I might even have to go buy one!

It is almost as if Microsoft has a red-herring script that they follow for everything:

Get the product out there, no matter what it looks like or how it works.
Redesign the product to make it look a little better.
Come out with the TRUE product they wanted to create the first time around, that everyone will love.

Somehow, Microsoft manages to make this work.

Could you see Apple coming out with a chunky, clunky videogame system as their first product? HELL NO! Of course, if Apple were to come out with a gaming system, it would look absolutely amazing, but run like shit and only be able to play games approved personally by Steve Jobs. You would be lucky to be able to get Tetris for it!

But there seems to be a little bit of method to Microsoft’s madness. By introducing the item that may not be quite what everyone wants, the name is out there and people start to talk about it. They may not buy it, but they know it. Then, when they come out with the second generation, and increase the features, those who bought the original think the new model is the best thing since sliced bread and there is even more talk about it. Then, when it is time to roll out the third iteration, Microsoft wows everyone and everyone is talking about it.

You really have to admire the way they do things sometimes.

My New Mac?

Vista, Windows Comments Off

Jun 142009

I am one of those Apple anti-fanboys. While I like the design of the Mac computers, I feel that they are over priced for what you get. And come on! $1000 for an update from 4 gig to 8 gig of RAM? Are they smoking crack over there on the Apple compound?

And don’t get me started on the iPod and iPhone! I had an iPod, and I really liked it at the time, but since getting my Zune and using the Zune software, I will never buy another iPod.

But there was one thing I really liked about using the Mac that I own, which is now nothing more than a doorstop since the battery died for the 5th time and it won’t run off the cord: the Dock! Continue reading »

Windows 7: further impressions

Windows Comments Off

May 252009

I decided to dig a little further into Windows 7, and found some little goodies that would have been terrific to have at my last job.

The first is the Snipping tool. This tool will take a screen shot of your computer. Now, most of you know that pressing Print Screen on your keyboard does the same thing. What the Snipping Tool does is allow you to capture just a portion of the screen, rather than the whole thing.

This would have come in handy during my last job when I was trying to gather screen shots of the website I was part of to create a users manual. To get just small portions of the website, I had to capture everything and then crop out those things I didn’t need or want in the picture. This new tool would have saved me hours worth of cropping to get the almost 300 screen shots I needed for the manual.

The second item I discovered is called Sticky Notes. This gives you an electronic Post-It note that sits on your desktop until you delete it. This would have saved a lot of trees during my last job, as every night before I went home I created a series of post-its detailing what needed to be done the next day and stuck them to my screen so that I wouldn’t forget anything overnight.

If I had had this nifty little program, I could have just put them all on my desktop and had them there as soon as I booted up my computer the next morning, and just deleted them as I finished the task.

And for those of you who point out that Outlook has that already, let me just explain that we did not use Outlook (much to my sorrow) at my last job, we used Lotus Notes (and a really old version of it) that did not have that functionality.

As I had stated in my previous post, I am using a very old laptop to test Windows 7. So old, in fact, that my Windows Experience rating is a mere 1.0. This is due to the video card, and as long as I do not try to play any games on this computer, Windows 7 is running for the most part just fine.

I am also running a Pentium 4 and have only 1.25 gigs of RAM, so with that in mind, I am thinking that even the lowly $300-$400 net-books should be able to run Windows 7 just fine, provided they have enough RAM installed.

Would I recommend Windows 7? Oh Hell Yeah!!

This is quite possibly the best version of Windows I have ever used, and I have used them all at one point or another.

Now, if I could just keep it from locking up every time I try to read the SD card from my camera…

Windows 7: Impressions

Windows Comments Off

May 222009

I downloaded the Windows 7 release candidate and loaded it up on my 6 year old laptop, just to see if it would work. My plan was that if it didn’t work I would either reload the Windows Vista Ultimate that seemed to work okay, or just replace Windows all together with Ubuntu Linux.

Installation was very quick. Right around 20 minutes after inserting the disc, I had Windows 7 up and running on this very old laptop (which is what I am using to write this post as I am not home with my desktop.)

After playing around with it for a few days, I have some general opinions about it; a few pros and cons.

PROS:

Windows 7 boots up to the login screen in less than 30 seconds. This is much faster than any other operating system I have ever worked on.
The system, for the most part, runs well with just a Pentium 4 and 1 gig of RAM.
The whole system is very Vista-like (which I love) yet very different at the same time.
It is very intuitive to work with. While Vista had a bit of a learning curve attached to using it, 7 just seems to be logical in it’s placement of information, buttons, etc. Now, this could be because I am used to working with Vista, so it’s easier for me, but it just feels like a very cohesive, intelligent and logical system.

CONS:

While 7 does run well, I have yet to get it to recognize that there is actually a sound card in this computer, so I have no sound what-so-ever. It won’t even load a generic driver just to give me beeps or anything.
It took me several tries to get the proper driver for the video card. I still cannot play even Solitaire on this computer because 7 tells me it doesn’t support the card. So I cannot play movies or games on this system. This is probably due to the age of the computer more than anything, but come on, I can’t play Solitaire?
As stated earlier, it takes less than 30 seconds to load to the login screen, but it takes a further 2 minutes once you log in for the system to finally settle down enough to open a program and start using it.
For some reason, every time I try to use an SD card in the media slot, it completely locks-up the computer, something that never happened with XP or Vista. So far, this is the only thing that has caused any kind of lock ups or freezes on the computer. And each time, I have to hard crash it in order to get it up and running again. Hopefully this will not be an issue when 7 is released retail.

This last item can be a pro or a con depending on who the individual person is: The funky, psychedelic comic-like backgrounds!

Was someone on drugs when these were approved? Some of them are so out there and have so much in them that I was getting headaches. I use a simple waterfall background now.

Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give Windows 7 a solid 7, especially as I am operating it on a very old computer.