windows

I recently received a couple of emails asking my opinion about Windows XP vs Windows Vista. I was surprised to see this question for a couple of reasons. First that it has been debated and talked about at length by many people on TV and online. I appreciate the gesture that you want my opinion on the matter *wink*. The second reason is the fact that Vista has been out so long and the chance for most people to play with it is as easy as a trip to Best Buy.

When it comes down to the comparison, Windows XP and Windows Vista really are meant for different systems. I think the reason that this became such a controversy was due to the lack of legacy support in Windows Vista on it’s release. Most computers when released with Windows Vista worked very well out of the box. People ran into problems with Vista when they either tried to install it on a new computer or tried to install a legacy peripheral on their new Windows Vista machine.

Today if you buy a machine the chance of having a problem due to compatibility with the OEM hardware is very slim. Mistakes happen but no more than they ever did with Windows XP after 2 years out on the market.

Now you really have to make decisions based on what type of machine you have. My machine that supports the live.thesleepygeek.com stream is about 3 years old and I have need to run Vista on it. If there is a feature that you really need in Vista and you have an older machine, I would still recommend an upgrade. Honestly the price of a new system today is so much lower than it used to be and it would be a much better user experience.

I love finding new things… well things that are new to me anyway! I have an HTC Touch mobile phone with Rogers in Canada (I know… Rogers.. boo-hoo!) I like the phone but I have never really liked the way that any phone has synchronized with my computer. For some reason it always seems to be a hassle and a complicated process.

What is funny is that up until now I have always been syncing my mobile phones with Windows and using mostly the included sync software. Now with the HTC Touch I am faced with an entirely new problem, how to sync Windows Mobile devices when running OSX.

The people at MarkSpace have all the answers! I found a program there called The Missing Sync that is built to sync between otherwise incompatible platforms. I used the trial of The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile which allows me to easily backup my phone data to my Mac.

There are a ton of features included with software, some of which include:

• Connects with Windows Mobile devices via USB and Bluetooth
• Supports devices running Windows Mobile 2002/2003/5/6
• Syncs with Address Book, iCal, Entourage 2004 and others
• Syncs Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other files
• Downloads iPhoto albums and iTunes playlists
• Imports device-side photos and video
• Encodes QuickTime video for mobile playback
• Provides drag-and-drop install of .cab-formatted applications
• Displays phone call and SMS text message logs on the Mac
• Supports two Macs and any number of Windows Mobile devices
• Universal application provides the best performance

But what they don’t really say in that list is how easy it is to use. Pretty much every tool I have used in the past to sync my phones have been touch and go ant sync time. I was always scared that I was going to delete the data in my Outlook, on the phone or possibly corrupt both. You don’t get this feeling when using The Missing Sync.

Note that you also have other options other than Windows Mobile phones including The Missing Sync for iPhones and Blackberry. I encourage you to go check out their line of software if you are looking for a new synchronization solution.

I still think that Bill Gates has been the single most influential person in the computer market for the last 30 years. Without him things would have happened in a very different way. We would still have many of the technologies that we have today but there would be so many different standards that the computer wouldn’t be the same convenience it is today.

Bill Gates technically spent his last day at Microsoft and while I sometimes get angry at Microsoft’s monopoly, I still think that we were better off with one company taking us all in a clear direction. So now we move into the Steve Ballmer era. What does that mean for us? I think this is an uncertain time in the technology world. I don’t think that our lives will change to an extreme, but I think that with a new captain in the ship we could end up taking a different route from now on.

I think the next version of Windows will tell us a lot. Windows Vista was still Bill’s project really. Even though he had given the CEO position to Steve quite some time ago, just having Bill at the office means that he was still making decisions.

Windows 7 as it is being called right now, will be headed up by the same execs but I wonder if they have had some ideas in their heads that they just didn’t push because it didn’t follow Bill’s vision. Now that Bill has left it might be their opportunity to try those ideas out.

My feeling is that it’s scary that we might lose some of that direction we have come to trust and on the other side there might be an opportunity for things to change and improve.

Only time will tell.

Once in a while I am still amazed by something new for web browsing. Today it was a application sent to me from my buddy Jay. He is heavy into photography and digital editing so I can only imagine he found it through one of those avenues while searching around (feel free to correct me in a comment).

Piclens is an application that can be run with IE6 or 7, Firefox and on Windows XP, Vista or Mac OSX. They have made it an addon for Firefox and seeing as this is my browser of choice, that’s how I am using it under OSX. This is a very nice application. They have kept it simple in what it does but made sure that the features they created work very well. Their tag line is simply “Your favorite sites. Full-screen. 3D.”. When you load the application you get a full screen experience unlike anything we are used to. It organizes everything into thumbnails that are browsable by scrolling through side to side. When you want to view something you can double-click it. If it is a picture then it will blow it up full screen for best viewing and if video it will blow it up and start playing the content. The best way to get a real feel for how it integrates with your browser and then displays content is to go watch the demo here.

I was instantly hooked. After I installed the application I was drawn in by a feature called discover which allows you to browse content that they have organized into categories. For example, I wanted to look at some news items. Click on the button on the left for news and I was looking at thumbnails.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it’s good to entertain yourself. Google is still the place for me to go when I need to know something in particular but this will be good when I want to browse around.