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I seem to recall one of Vista’s features being that it doesn’t need to reboot after Windows Update, unlike XP. Seems this is just another promise Vista was to bring that Microsoft just couldn’t deliver. Let’s face it, the reboot frequency hasn’t changed since NT4 -> Windows 2000.

I’ve always thought I was an insomniac because as long as I can remember I’ve had a tough time falling asleep, and then in turn waking up. It turns out I may just snore too damn loud. Last week I was at Rite-Aid and bought one of those anti-snoring sprays you take before going to bed. I am definitely having a deeper sleep than before. It’s gotten to the point where I am actually having dreams again, something I don’t remember doing since I was a pre-teen. Falling asleep is now becoming easier for me because I am getting up earlier. Maybe I was going to sleep late because I slept in later than most instead of waking up late because I couldn’t fall asleep the night before. I’ve thought I was an insomniac all my life and this it’s really weird to think I may just snore too damn loud…

I’m a tech enthusiast and the geek in my circle of friends. I’m not a big fan of Windows, but I like staying on the edge. Last week I found Vista in my companies software catalog and decided to upgrade my company laptop to Windows Vista business. This is just my thoughts, some are good and some are bad. Overall it’s not that bad . . .

There are a lot of incompatibilities with Vista and older software. I’m a UNIX Administrator, so my company laptop is basically a glorified terminal. My toolkit is primarily Firefox, Thunderbird, PuTTy and WinSCP, and all of this worked beautifully. I do have the need to write pdf’s and enjoy watching the occasional divx video on my laptop. In XP this meant PDFCreator and the DivX Codec. Neither of these are currently compatible, so I’ve had to make adjustments. Today I’m using CutePDF and VideoLAN Client. Not a big deal, just a minor change. I have a few wmv files that WMP 11 can’t handle properly, but VideoLAN can, so in the end it’s a good thing. I’m mostly mentioning this because I want people to know that Vista is very different. In many cases this means getting updates for commercial software or finding free alternatives elsewhere.

Another thing I noticed is that Vista software is not very well packaged. This isn’t Microsoft’s fault, but I have had problems installing software that is for Vista. I went to Adobe’s web page to download the latest Reader and was pleased to find that they had a Vista version. Great, I thought this’d make the upgrade simple. Not true, the install never finishes. This is actually documented on their site. WTF? I’ve had similar issues with a few things like the Cisco VPN Client for Vista. I guess Vista’s UAC is a little mysterious, even for software packagers.

UAC is just plain annoying. There is no middle ground, it’s either ubber annoying or it’s disabled and then the Windows Security Center starts complaining. I see this getting disabled by the people who need it most, the less technical people. UAC is not the security fix that Microsoft envisions, it’s too chatty. When I click on “Manage My Computer” I don’t want a dark screen coming up, I want to manage my damn computer. . .

I’ve never used a bigger badder firewall. In XP I just clicked “Block all incoming connections” and I’m done with it. I did this on Vista, one of the first few things, I even went in and unchecked everything that Vista defaults enabled. Upon my first run of iTunes I found Vista asking me if I wanted to allow incoming connections for iTunes. WTF? I don’t know if I’ll ever truly trust this firewall as much as I did with XP.

I do like Vista’s Wireless networking features. I like how all network connections show up on one button in the task bar. The ability to have public and private networks allows a little more control for those who do allow incoming connections. I only wish Vista was smart enough to see my firewall setting and leave me alone about “Work”, “Home”, or “Public” network. I see this as a big win for the less technical users though.

The new “Start Menu” is actually a step forward. In Windows XP I always went back to the Classic “Start Menu”, it just got in the way and slowed me down. The new Vista “Start Menu” learns a little better and is searchable. I don’t even go in there and delete crap shortcuts made by many programs anymore. The combination of the search feature and the run feature is also a big win. I just type and Vista figures out if I’m giving it a command or searching within my menus.

Vista actually detected all of my hardware. Like a modern Linux distribution on hardware, it just works (aside from Wi-Fi, which still requires separate drivers on Linux). At least for the moment, gone are the days when you have to whip out the install disks for every piece of hardware under the sun. Microsoft would be wise to take a page out of Red Hat and respin Vista every so often with more drivers and all the updates. It would make for a better user experience. Imagine buying Vista next year and your brand new DX10 Video Card working out of the box. It’ll never happen, just would be nice if Vista did just detect everything as it does now.

I will sum up this post in a few quick points for the general public:
1) Save money for software upgrades before upgrading. My DVD Burner came with Nero 6.x, which isn’t Vista compatible. It came with PowerDVD 6, also not Vista compatible. If it wasn’t a company laptop, I’d have to spend quite a bit of money to upgrade each component.
2) If you’re upgrading an older machine, have money for upgrading the hardware. Vista is a hog.
3) If you have software that is necessary, it is not enough to ensure that there is a Vista version of it. Make sure you Google that software and read to see if others are having issues. Adobe can’t even package a damn PDF Reader properly for Vista.
4) If you’re using a laptop, prepare for it to be hotter. Idling, my laptop is noticeably warmer than it was under XP.
5) Be prepared to be annoyed by UAC!
6) The “System Restore” feature is much more “Restore Point” happy than it used to be. In a week I disabled it because my basic system install was taking almost 25 gigs. By the way it’s called “Previous Versions” now.

About six months ago I got my first personal cell phone in years. My old company had an unlimited incoming plan and a big bucket of minutes for employees. I didn’t abuse my company cell phone, just made sure they got their moneys worth. I decided to go for T-mobile with the cheapest EDGE phone they had, the Motorola V360. I asked them about Internet options, and they told me that I should just go for the T-Zones service which is $6.99/mo and had unlimited use, which I did.

I paired my cell phone to my laptop and Windows found my phone as a “Standard Bluetooth Modem”. Six months ago when all this went down, I found instructions on getting my phone to tunnel my laptop traffic for Internet access on the go. Most of these sites have gone down and are only available on Google Cache, so I decided to put the instructions on my blog (mostly in case I need them again).

First open the “Standard Bluetooth Modem” in “Device Manager/Advanced Options” there is an “Extra initialization commands”. In “Extra initialization commands” paste in the following without the single quotes ‘AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”wap.voicestream.com”‘. Now create a dial-up connection that points to the “Standard Bluetooth Modem” with the phone number of “*99#” and a blank username/password. Now click connect and viola.

This is not high speed internet by any stretch of the imagination, downloading at about 10 KB/s. It’s not that great for ssh either, but it helps big time in a pinch. I basically use it whenever I need Internet access and don’t want to pay 10+ bucks for a day pass on someones Wi-Fi Hotpsot.

Seems like every blogger has released a Vista Top 10 list either for or against Vista. Just thought I’d follow suit while it was still trendy.

1. As a tech geek I’ll be learning it. It’s a must. Tech geeks must continue to learn new things…
2. There will eventually be a compelling feature that I will want, probably in the form of a bundle (Vista + X-Box 360?).
3. My job will eventually upgrade the site license to include Vista. I’ll probably be upgrading my company hardware shortly after that happens.
4. Friends will eventually be asking me for help on Vista.
5. In order to write my next top 10 article on Vista I need more dirt.
6. I miss OSX, and this is as close as I’m gonna get to it with my shitty Dells (RIP iBook).
7. My machines have been feeling a bit fast w/ XP.
8. My PC doesn’t feel crippled enough. I feel the need to buy the latest and greatest crippled hardware just so Vista will feel at home. . .
9. Most High Def content will require Vista, and I like High Def content, so I’ll need Vista.
10. Something has to hog my HD and ram …

A lot of my top 10 list is sarcastic, in the end I think Vista is just a rework of certain components. Moving things to make them different, not necessarily better or worse. Will I use it? Probably. Am I looking forward to it? No. In my opinion the Vista beta’s have shown me nothing more than an ugly UI on XP w/ a backseat driver added on for good measure (UAC).