Something interesting I stumbled upon...

Original Location


StumbleUpon read my mind! Or, at least this blog. After posting about my StumbleUpon blog yesterday, my first stumble today was an official StumbleUpon page listing several html scripts for adding a link to my StumbleUpon blog!

I've just discovered I had a very active blog I didn't even know about! Since I use the "StumbleUpon" toolbar often, I have my very own little blog on the StumbleUpon website. To browse the blog, simply use the menu beside the small version of my picture. As I rarely review things, you'll find the most content in the "Stumbles" section.

Windows Vista Home Premium Review
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.....Recently, I received my new Inspiron 1501 laptop in the mail, and, w00t!, it came preloaded with "Windows Vista Home Premium!" I've been using this thing extensively almost everyday, both for school and leisure, so here I am, with a review of the all-new OS.
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.....(Oh, BTW, my comp is, as I said already, a Dell Inspiron 1501. Processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56 1.80 GHz. Memory (RAM): 894 MB. Hard drive: Advertised as 60gig, basically around 45gig usable space.)
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User Interface
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.....I hate to start this review off negatively, but I fear I must. Many of the changes that have been made to the Windows Vista interface have, in my eyes, been negative. They did create a "Home Folder" like in Mac and Linux, and pulled out the "My Pictures" and "My Music" folders into it, which is a plus, but than they went and put other folders in as well, such as "Favorites," "Downloads," "Contacts," and "Links", cluttering it up and making navigation a pain. The "Save As" dialog no longer opens with the "Browse" pane automatically visible, instead, one must press a "Browse Folders" button if he wishes to place the file in a different folder, creating a useless and unneeded extra step. The "Appearance" dialog, which used to be a nicely organized compact tabbed window, has been split and fragmented, much like the Control Panel was in XP. And, speaking of the Control Panel, that's at least one thing they have slightly improved. Almost all tasks are directly available from the "Control Panel Home," and they didn't delete the option to switch back to the "Classic" view.
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Graphics
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.....Dare I say it? Yes, I do. The graphics are just plain macish. Everything is shiny, most things partially transparent, everything, doing almost anything reveals eye-catching animations. And yet, in my humble opinion, said changes don't help the appearance. The "Windows Sidebar" and tool bar are always a darker color than a window's title bar, making the theme appear mismatched. The shrink/minimize/maximize/x button's graphics feel as if they are a whole different style from the rest. To be perfectly honest, I really believe Windows 98 looked better, as all graphics matched, weren't overdone, and blended together nicely.
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Reliability
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.....As far as reliability, I can have my computer speak for itself:
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.....As the above picture shows, my computer has seen an ever-decreasing reliability average. I've had installation errors and program crashes much too often. My XP machine, which has worse specs, does many things that crash programs on the new OS, including such seemingly simple things as VLC Media Player visualizations.
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Security
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.....I've had my share of the all-new "Microsoft Nanny" telling me what to do and what not to do and asking me if I'm really sure I want to do this, that, or the other. One really has to wonder just how much safety she is actually affording. I've yet to find freeware security programs compatible with the new OS, which is a pain since the only anti-virus program that came with it was a bloated Norton trial version. /resists temptation to start on a rant against pre-loaded demos
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Bottom Line
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.....I'll admit it; the whole above post was negative, depressing, and even a bit over-done. Call me names if you must. Say I'm a mac convert. (I'm not really. Linux pwns!) But don't give up hope just yet! Maybe Microsoft will see the light and revamp Win95 to be compatible with new technology, and we can go from there! In any case, if you’re really excited about the new Vista, don't let me burst your bubble. Just, wait for the first service pack to come out before taking the leap of "MS Faith." ;)

Lately, I've been experimenting with an online instant messaging website called Meebo. And, so far, frankly, I'm impressed. At the moment, it supports AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, MSN(Now called WLM), ICQ, and Jabber. The interface is clean, efficient, and intuitive. After signing up for the service (optional), one only has to sign-in using his Meebo user name and password, and he is immediately signed into his other accounts.
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So far I've only run into three comebacks with this service. 1: This does not support file transfers, or other service-specific functions, such as games, web cams, etc. 2: It doesn't support custom emoticons. And, 3: Being on dial-up, I've had trouble staying signed-in when doing such things as downloading files or loading multiple web pages.
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But for those who want to be able to quickly and easily sign into IM from public computers, or don't want to be forced to load multiple resource-hogging programs onto their comps, this just might be for them.