Windows

Mount Toast Images in Windows with Daemon Tools

Unfortunately, I recently needed to mount a disc image I created in Toast in Windows.  After searching the intertrons for an answer, the best answer I could find was, rename the .toast to .iso, mount through daemon tools and pray for the best.  One obvious thought that came to mind was, "Has anyone just tried to mount the toast file directly from daemon tools?"  I was certain someone had tried and failed, but, to my surprise, it worked perfectly.  I have not seen this documented anywhere, but, nevertheless it seems to work.

Vista Beta 2 Thought Stream

I love the new Aero UI. I thought the transparency would kill the experience, but, rather, it actually adds to the experience.

System Restore will take down even the most formidable hard drives in a matter of hours. It seems like every time you click something, a restore point is made. Does anyone know of a way to limit the amount of drive space used by System Restore like you can in XP?

Aero is awesome.

Search seems to find things really fast. I don't know if it's as fast a Spotlight yet, but this is also a beta.

I can't play any of the games I've installed for more than 10 minutes without hard freezing of my system.

Sidebar would benefit from a "slide out" feature a la Google Desktop.

More to come...

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows, Vista, beta, Spotlight, Apple, Google, Google Desktop, Aero, Bryan Bartow, spudnik187

Adventures in Vista

To quote the Microsoft Windows Vista homepage, the publicly available Windows Vista Beta 2 is meant for “…IT professionals, developers, and technology enthusiasts”. While I am certainly not an IT professional nor developer; I am definitely a technology enthusiast. So I decided it was high time for my machine to experience something new and downloaded the 4.4 gigabyte DVD image. After burning the DVD, I popped it in my DVD-ROM drive and booted to Windows XP.

Once safely booted into XP, I ran the installer on the Vista DVD and away I went. I chose the upgrade option after reading of many successful upgrades on numerous blogs and forums. Why not keep my data intact, I figured. Installation was typical of Windows. Serial key was entered. Files were copied from the DVD drive to my hard drive. Computer rebooted several times during the whole process. Eventually, after what seemed like a very long time, I was greeted with the new Vista login screen. Right away, I could tell them something was very different about this version of Windows.

As was my experience with Office 2007 Beta 2, my first impression of Vista Beta 2 was one of awe. As a designer, I can appreciate the immense amount of work that has gone into making the Windows user experience a decidedly better one. While it isn’t without its flaws-I’ve had to reinstall it several times after infamous BSODs-the next version of Windows is going to really impress a lot of users and not just because of its impressive eye candy.

I must say I’m impressed, which is something that I rarely use in conjunction with Microsoft. However, from what I’ve seen of Vista Beta 2 and Office Beta 2, Microsoft is looking like they’re going to turn the corner of usability and start to close the gap on Apple. I choose my words carefully because I still believe Apple is the king of simplicity and usability. However, Microsoft is making large leaps and, obviously, committing resources to ensuring great user experiences.

I don’t plan on reviewing Vista Beta 2, per se, because so many are floating around the blogosphere. I will, however, document my thoughts in some sort of “stream of consciousness” post(s) as I have experiences worth sharing. Needless to say, I’m impressed with Vista Beta 2 and can’t wait to see where Microsoft will take it with the remaining development time they’ve got until release.

Windows Vista Ultimate: $450 US? - Engadget

All I want to know is this: is anyone going to shell out this much money for any OS? I know this is the Ultimate edition, afterall, but when is too far? What is the most you would pay for an OS, regardless of platform, etc.? I'd love to hear opinions on this. Leave a comment.

Windows Vista Ultimate: $450 US? - Engadget

Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows, OS, operating system, Engadget, Bryan Bartow, spudnik187

Random Musings…

It's always interesting to see what motivates people. Sometimes it's not what you would expect.

I really enjoy Skype the more I use it. I can say the same for Firefox. I can't say the same for the Windows operating system.

Don't purchase a plasma display of any kind for any reason. I don't care how good you think they look.

Current iTunes track:

Remember from the album "Dedicated" by ATB

On Linux and Mac OS X

I've mentioned that I use Linux and OS X at home and Windows XP at work. I am amazed at the mediocrity that most people will settle for, and, in some cases, even prefer. Being a start-up, we don't really have the budget for an IT department, per-se. Because of my background, I am the default computer guru, along with another of my co-workers. I deal with Windows problems constantly. I can see peoples' argument that Mac's are too expensive, but, for goodness sakes, Linux is free. The latest distributions of Linux are easy to set up and use. I sometimes think that if a miracle cure for AIDS were discovered and it were offered to 100 people, 90 of them would decline because they were accustomed to their current medications. Are people really so stupid and/or helpless?

Adventures in Linux

I recently acquired an old AMD Duron based PC and thought I'd give Linux a try. I'm a Mac OS X user and I've used RedHat 4 or 5 years ago. I thought I'd go with SUSE this time. I downloaded their "Network Install" boot disc and away I went. Installation was fairly straight forward. You have to load drivers for your particular network card. Next, you supply the IP address of the server you're installing from. Then, you give a path on said server to the SUSE packages. Once you've done that, you can choose the customary options such as Date/Time, disk partitioning, etc. Once the packages are read off of the server you are able to customize which ones you'd like to install or not install. Once you've made your picks the installer starts downloading packages. Here's the only bad part of my experience. I don't know if I just picked a bad mirror, but it took 6 hours to download and install 1.4 GB worth of packages. Once installed I was presented with the KDE desktop, which, I must say, is beautiful. From there you can start exploring the wonders of Linux desktop computing. Overall, I'm very impressed. This is a much better experience than I had with RedHat in the late 90's. A package manager/installer called YaST was included with the install and has made installing programs such as Firefox and Thunderbird a snap. There's so much more to tell, but in the interest of time, let me say this: If you are tired of being plagued by Windows and can't afford a Mac, then try SUSE Linux. You'll be happy you did.