Geek and a Half

March 18th, 2006 by Jake

Microsoft has been issuing out February CTP (Community Technology Preview) betas for Windows Vista (Build 5308) Ultimate Edition. I decided to take a second look at Vista, especially since this CTP is a fully functional, no restrictions, all programs released. Here are some screenshots and descriptions of the latest build of Windows Vista from Microsoft:

A couple of notes: Sorry about the first couple screenshots, I know they’re a bit off. But what can I say, I was using Microsoft Paint, and obviously they haven’t improved that in Vista. Also, these aren’t in any particular order, as I listed the shots in the order I took them.

The new “3D” interface. This is a supplement to Alt+Tab (unfortunately I couldn’t grab a screenshot of the new Alt+Tab menu), showing 3D Transparent windows. You can cycle through each, and it’s running pretty smoothly. The hotkey for this is Windows+Tab.

The Aero Glass theme is fully customizable, you can select preset colors or define your own.

A simple shot of the new Internet Explorer 7. IE7 will include support for phishing, transparent PNG, RSS Feeds, enhanced security (pfft, yeah right), and more.

The Windows Control Panel. Some things have been added, some merged, others removed. For example, the old Display Settings was retired, only to be replaced by the new “Personalize” dialog. Oh yeah, almost forgot: New iSCSI. w00t.

A simple shot showing the new dialog that pops up anytime you execute an administrative command. You might be thinking, as I was, that this might get annoying, but it’s also safe in the sense that if you have spyware or a virus on your computer that tries, for example, to add a folder to C:\Windows\ or tries to change a setting, this window will pop up. If you know you did not initiate this action, you can deny it. Also, if a program needs to perform an administrative action, you can choose in the File Properties to “Run as Administrator.” Supposedly this can be disabled in the Group Policy Settings.

Windows Anti-Spyware Beta and Windows OneCare Live have been retired, only to be replaced by the new Windows Defender. I think this is pretty self explanatory.

The new Windows Media Player 11 designed for Windows Vista (yes, it’s different). Currently, I’m showing my shortened Top 100 of 2005 Playlist.

A simple “My Pictures” view inside the new Windows Explorer. The thing at the top is the new way of selecting folder views. You can resize thumbnails as big or as small as you like. It’s complicated to explain, but it’s definately an improvement (and more eye candy).

Windows Media Center has been included in this release of Vista. It’s got a few added features from the old Media Center, but I wouldn’t know much about it; this is my first time toying with Media Center. Seems pretty useful, especially if your computer has or came with a remote control and you’ve got a really big hard drive and a TV Tuner card.

Hopefully the rumors will disappear with this new release. This is new new Windows Sidebar. It includes support for Desktop Gadgets, just like the Yahoo! Widgets program does. Unfortunately, clicking on “Download More Gadgets” takes you to the Microsoft Gadgets homepage, which does not currently have any Dekstop Gadgets for download. Hopefully we will see a new section on their site for them in the near future.

The Windows Photo Gallery. I didn’t mess around with this for too long, so I can only tell you as much as what’s in the screenshot.

The Windows Performance Rating dialog. This is a very nifty tool that takes a look at your hardware and spits out your processor info, video card info, RAM, and hard drive space, then rates your system accordingly. Windows Vista developers will also be able to set program access based on the rating number your computer recieves. What I want to know, though, is how they come up with this number and what a perfect 5 system would be.

The nw Windows Calendar. Not much to say here, other than they just took the calendar feature out of Outlook, and made it stand-alone. There are some new features in here, as well, but I don’t keep a calendar, so I personally won’t be using this.

A simple shot of the new Start Menu. Pretty self-explanatory.

All of the new Administrative Tools that are included by default in Windows Vista. Notice that they’ve added a Group Policy Management tool, and anyone who has SysAdminned with Windows knows the power of this nifty tool.

The new Windows Games folder. They’ve added new default games into Windows (I read somewhere they were supposed to have Texas Hold’Em, as well, but I don’t see it here…), such as Chess and Mahjong. Oh, and they’ve retired 3D Cadet Space Pinball. (A moment of silence for this awesome game … … okay.) One problem I had was trying to add my own games into here. Apparently you need to create an XML Descriptor file, and copy shortcuts, and make a PNG preview file, and it’s just a pain in the ass. I wish they would make it easier for you to add games you’ve installed here.

The new Network Center. Not too useful, really, I can’t see other computers on my network, and clicking on “View Network Map” doesn’t do a whole lot, either. Hopefully they’ll add to this before releasing it.

Outlook Express is dead. Long live Windows Mail. Wait, no…Long live Gmail. Windows Mail, burn in hell.

The all-rumored new Windows Search. It’s pretty effective, and fairly fast. As you edit and create files in your filesystem, based on settings, it will index your files automatically in the background, making search easier and faster.

Overall, Microsoft really needs to lay off the Eye Candy (although it does look very nice), and get to work on functionality. Now, that’s just my point of view. Some people really love eye candy and could care less how it actually works. Either way, I hope you liked the screenshots!

January 9th, 2006 by Jake

Up until this point, Google Talk users have had to stick with a basic Jabber client if they wanted to opt out of using the Google Talk client. Enter Gtalkr, a web/flash-based Google Talk Client. It has all the features you’d expect from a Google Talk client, including the ability to view message previews of conversations in your Inbox, customize your own RSS Feeds, send out invitations, and search the Web (via Google, of course.) But, no, they need to add something more that will make people want to use this instead of their trusty Google Talk Clients, so there are a few minor differences that differ the two cleints.

The Flash client allows you to set yourself not only to “Available” or “Busy”, but “Away” as well, which in the classic Google Talk client is reserved for people who have gone Idle (the Orange blip). Another new, nifty feature is the ability to choose and upload your own avatar or Buddy Icon. What’s nice about this is that there’s no filesize limit on the avatars. I just uploaded a 1276×842, 187KB JPEG, and it didn’t complain, it just quietly went to work uploading, and when it was done, it simply resized it to fit the little 50×50 window above my buddy list. Another less important, but different feature nonetheless, is the fact that it tells your buddy when you’ve closed the window. Now, some people don’t like this concept, they see it as an invasion of privacy because it’s your right to close whatever window you want, and your friends shouldn’t be messaged when you do. Yet another feature I’ve just discovered (I’m messing around with it as I write this) is that it saves all of your conversations in a “Chat Inbox”, basicalyl the same thing as logging all of your conversations. I don’t know the extent to which it logs, but it seems to sort it by date, and per-window, meaning if I said “Hi” to you, closed the window, and you responded back saying “Hey”, it would mark it as two separate logs.

Gtalkr also sports a nifty little homepage which doubles as your workspace (the area behind your chat windows). It allows you to customize, kind of in a Windows Live Homepage kind of way, where it allows you to drag-and-drop your “windows” with your feeds and news headlines around the page. They even set you up with a default news feed from Digg.com. Nifty, but none of those homepages with feeds, news, weather, etc. have really appealed to me yet.

A really smart idea, I’m sure this will grow to become the next “AIM Express” of its type. I’ll definately use it when I’m on-the-go, but when I’m at home, I’ll stick with my trusty Google Talk client, thank you very much.

January 8th, 2006 by Jake

I recieved an invite fron none other than BigBlueBall.com the other day, and now I’m on it 24/7. It’s a great tool for instant messaging, and when WLMsgr and Yahoo! Messenger come together, it’ll make it easier for most, if not all of us. Before I say anything, here are some screenshots:

As you can see, it’s got a totally redefined look, a new name, a new face. You can also draw and send text the way Tablet PC users are used to. There’s the usual array of extra tools, as well…Video, Audio, Games, Activities, and a new concept (I think) where you share a folder on your computer and you can pick which buddies can access and get files from that folder. Kind of a variation of Hamachi, but I prefer the latter. In addition, they’ve added a “contact card”, where the front of it displays things like recent MSN Spaces blog posts, MSN Spaces pictures, status, and when you “flip” the card, the back has an editable text area. Interesting feature, something useful for buisness settings and people with large contact lists. It’s also fully integrated with Hotmail and Windows. Hotmail allows you to remotely sign on to Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger doubles as a mail notification program for Hotmail. Messenger will also display the number of new e-mails on my date-clock screen on my Logitech G15 keyboard.

Overall, it looks like a great program for someone who really enjoys all the frills of instant messengers. I’m still sticking with good old Google Talk, though, because of its simplicity.

As a thanks for reading my post, the first 5 people to comment on my article and provide a valid e-mail address will recieve a Windows Live Messenger invite from me.