Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

Wow! My last post marks a successful completion of NaBloPoMo for me! I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up with at least a post a day, but it turned out to be really fun.

As I’ve stated before I am a huge fan of the Vista Operating System and Outlook 2007. One thing I like in Vista is the Sidebar and one thing I like in Outlook 2007 is the To-Do Bar. Now there is a best of both worlds and you can put parts of your To-Do Bar on the Sidebar!

The Outlook Appointments Gadget lets you put 3-5 of your upcoming appointments right on the sidebar, so even if Outlook is hidden you can see your upcoming appointments. Similarly the Outlook Tasks Gadget lets you put the task list from the To-Do Bar into your sidebar. It it slightly confusing since it is more than just your Tasks; it also displays emails you’ve flagged for follow up as well, just like on the To-Do Bar. To save space I have mine configured to show 3 appointments and only items I’ve marked as due Today.

I have wanted a way to float the To-Do Bar since it goes away unless you are on the Outlook Today page, but this is the next best thing. Better actually since it can just live on my sidebar instead of taking up more desktop space.

Links: Outlook Upcoming Appointments Gadget and Outlook Tasks Gadget via Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog

I had to renew car registrations and I figured since tomorrow was the expiration on my car I should do it today. Through a quirk of fate my lunch was moved to 11:00 this morning. I decided I might as well go down to the DMV and kill my lunch waiting in line. However to my good fortune that was a slow time at the DMV. I had absolutely no wait and was in and out in about 5 minutes!

A group on campus posts one-page helpful hints in the bathrooms. The latest one is about staying safe on the internet. One of the tips is to safeguard against “crackers.” It made me think: how many people would recognize the term “cracker” as opposed to the term “hacker”?

I applaud the “correct” use of cracker, meaning one who breaks into computer systems and commits other criminal acts using a computer, as opposed to using the more commonly known but misused term hacker, which was originally used to describe someone who pushed a system beyond its standard performance level or intended design through clever modifications. Back in the day I would go out of my way to make sure the correct term was used and hated to see hacker become a negative term. I suppose that since I am writing about it today it still bothers me enough to mention it.

I was actually surprised to see cracker instead of hacker, but then had the audacity to think that maybe they should have used hacker since that has become the common term for a computer criminal. When does a word’s definition change through common usage? For example, would anyone use the term gay to mean happy? Would that confuse the issue if someone mentioned that something made them feel gay (as in happy)? I think it would. Some people would probably even get offended if they thought it was used in a derogatory way. I would like to think that the definition of hacker will sway back to its original meaning and leave the malicious stuff to the crackers. You could even say it would make me feel gay if that happened.

It would seem the trick to getting a good night sleep is to go to bed when Erin does. That way I get a good block of sleep before she gets up. The only problem is actually falling asleep around 9:00 PM.

I am a huge fan of the Microsoft Vista OS. However I think that they made a mistake in releasing too many versions of Vista. I think they should have kept it at three, like they did with XP. That wasn’t too confusing. Now people want to sue Microsoft because they were confused by what “Vista Capable” meant (link to article).

As a general rule you should never run a computer at the published minimum specs anyway. But the fact that “capable” machines weren’t able to run anything but the basic version of Vista was never a good thing. People would just see the sticker and expect to get a super computer for a few hundred bucks. I think the lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, but since everyone loves to hate Microsoft it might actually proceed. I hope it doesn’t.

However, I’m sure the general confusion among the populous is why Vista gets so many bad reviews and why people seem to be afraid of it or hate it. If Microsoft mandated that computer hardware had to be realistic for good performance then I think people would have less to complain about. That is one area where Apple shines. They don’t let their OS get put on some crap hardware that is under-powered and unstable so they look better. I wonder if a lot of the bad press does come from people running lower end computers?

So the Christmas season has “officially” started. How funny, since Christmas stuff has been for sale at our local Wal Mart since before Halloween! Our local radio stations that do the 24 hours of Christmas songs thing started the week before Thanksgiving. Why the rush? Can’t we enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving without worrying that Christmas is “right around the corner?”

Why do store inventory programs suck so much? We recently tried to purchase an item for the girls Christmas present since it was on sale and we were near the store so we could pick it up (no shipping!). We wandered through the store and couldn’t find it, so we asked at the customer service desk. They looked it up in the computer and it listed they had four available on the floor. They sent an employee out to search for the item only to come up empty-handed. This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced a store’s inventory listing being different from reality. I wonder how that happens?

For a while I had heard rumors that Dell would be introducing a tablet PC soon. I found a few articles online that are talking about this and I have to say it looks like it will be a really good product. I have had a Toshiba tablet for a few years now and I am a huge fan of the convertible tablet computer. By convertible I am talking about the computers ability to be used either as a tablet or as a regular laptop. I am glad to see that Dell is getting onboard with the tablets, and seemingly doing it in a way that makes sense.

Link to an article with video

Link to an article with specs

It is always a good idea to take a moment to reflect on and give thanks for the things you have, also remembering that the best things in life aren’t things. I am most thankful for my family and friends. I consider myself very lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.