Insignia Infocast

This little device is actually pretty usable.  Toss it in your bathroom, kitchen or use it as your alarm clock!  Great price point for what you can do with it.  Check out the review.  You can get it at Best Buy. 

Adamo by Dell

This ultra slim laptop really reminds me of an Apple Laptop. I guess that's what they were going for. Dell just recently launched this new product but I am not liking the price tag one bit. Way too out of my league that's for sure! Is it pretty and sleek and nice??? Sure. Bottom line though...I can do the same thing with another laptop for a fraction of the price...albeit...a tad more heavy. :-P

Check it out!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggg!

My MSN Messenger error is BACK. I cannot believe how it tricks me into thinking everything is A OK when it most certainly is not. So um ya...back to the drawing board.

On the upside with this error. I had posted it on the Windows 7 forum and because I never got an answer that resolved the issue it now goes to the Microsoft team! Yay!!! There's hope for me yet.

For now...I will continue to click on the little X numerous times while I curse softly under my breath.

Tour at Work

Today was like Show and Tell. I got a chance to go on a tour to see the Server rooms and telecommunications center. I found it all extremely fascinating. The rooms were clean and loud. Imagine hundreds of computers running! And boy do they kick out a ton of heat. I was standing by one rack of servers and I could have closed my eyes and pictured myself on a beach. :-) Of course they keep those areas cooled down with some big time air conditioning. The last stop was where all the telephone lines run into the various buildings Atco has in the downtown core. All I can say is that it was a MASSIVE wall of wires. Insanity to me...to try and find the correct line attached to someone's phone. The network guy said he can find it with relatively no problem. I see chaos and he sees organized wires I guess. That's why they pay him the big bucks! Yup...t'was a great day at work!!! :-P

These photos aren't from my tour. I just found some on the Internet that reminded me of what I saw today.

The Error In My Side

My system error free smile was short lived. My msn error is back. *sigh* Looks like I will have to reinstall Windows 7. Not really a big deal as it went very fast. Oh well...that's beta for ya! Still liking the OS though.

Still Loving Windows 7

Well after much uninstalling and reinstalling I finally managed to get rid of my ugly Msn Messenger errors in Windows 7. I have to say that I am really loving this OS and would like to jump on the band wagon of those begging Microsoft to launch the full version NOW and not later. But then reality sets in. I know this beta version has a long way to go, so I say...take your time Microsoft...and get it right dammit!!!

Let there be sound!

Regarding my last post. I got my sound working. Yahoo!!! Went to the windows update website and there buried in a bunch of "optional" updates was one for my sound card. Sweetness. Still no luck with Windows Live Messenger though. My quest continues!

Windows 7

I just installed Windows 7 Beta today on my old desktop computer here and it was extremely painless. I ended up installing it as a dual boot along with my Windows XP that I recently formatted as well. I'm going to try and be diligent and use Windows 7 exclusively though so I can get a good feel for the OS. The picture is my current desktop. It has gadgets like Vista but you can drag them anywhere which should have been the way it was in the first place.

Of course, because it's beta you will undoubtedly experience issues which I have already. My sound card is not supported so unfortunately I've got no sound. I'm not too concerned as I still have my laptop. It did however, install everything else with no issues. I didn't need my Dell drivers disk at all.

Windows 7 "looks" alot like Windows Vista but runs alot faster for me. My computer is only running 1gb of ram and it was very sluggish when I had a dual boot going with Vista the resource hound.

I installed and have ran the following applications with no issues to report.

AVG Free
Firefox and Foxmarks
Office 2007
Zune software
Windows Media Player 12.0
uTorrent

Windows Messenger Live worked when I installed it but after the first restart I got some error messages. Still trying to resolve that one.

So ya, that's it. I'll blog about what I like from time to time. For now, I will continue to give lots of feedback on the OS for this is the way that Microsoft can tweak it out before they release it for real. It's projected for release in early 2010.

PS: I didn't have to setup my home network. It found all the computers on it's own (without adding the workgroup) and I was able to access everything with no issues. Impressive.

3-4 Years? Can't Wait!

My brother said he wants one...I think I would like a couple. :-P

Always A Better Deal

So I recently purchased my 8gb usb thumb drive and I'm extremely happy with it...and the fact that I only had to part with 30 bucks. Well, Future Shop has even a BETTER deal on this week. You can get this Kingston 8gb one for only $19.99. That is a FANTASTIC deal! So if you're in need of one you should really scoop this one up. Even if you don't have a Future Shop nearby you can always order this stuff online. So there are no excuses! Get on it!!!

The Apple Store

So I was at the Apple Store in West Edmonton Mall yesterday and I have to say I was pretty impressed with their setup. They had all their products nicely displayed. All of the laptops and computers had Internet access so you could get a feel for it. I actually logged into my Facebook and updated my profile status…just because I could. The Ipods had headphones so you could fully experience the music and videos that were on them. I played around with the Iphone a fair bit which also had Internet connectivity. It was connected to a docking station and when I took a picture using the phone it automatically sync’d with the computer. Very nice. I think this is great that there is so much interaction with the products. This is the way it was MEANT to be. It gives people the chance to get their hands on this stuff and play around with it before making such a big purchase. How many times do you go to Best Buy for example and pick up a device to see what it’s all about only to find that it’s deader than a door nail? I know it’s happened to me. Two thumbs up to Apple for getting this right. *s*

PS: The Apple Store is located right beside the Disney Store in West Edmonton Mall. Things that make you go hmm...

Bill Gates surrendering Microsoft helm

Looks like he will officially give up his day to day operations at Microsoft on June 27th of this month. Maybe the pirates left in charge can do something about this apparent sinking ship. I think they need to send Vista to "walk the plank". That should lighten their load some. *s*

Check out one of the many articles here.

XPS M1530

I picked up my new laptop last night and have been tweaking it out and loading programs on it ever since. As I unpackaged it all I held my breath as I hit the power button. I was hoping everything booted up correctly. All was well! Now it's just a matter of getting used to using Vista on a full time basis. I just love how they either rename previous programs we all know from XP or move them to an entirely new location of the operating system. Overall I am very pleased with my choices and the only thing I would have liked to bump up was the processor but I was desperately trying to keep the price down. Most of these specs were included in the basic price.

Some specs:

Intel Duo Core 2.0
3 gig's ram
256 Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT
200GB hardrive (7200)
Remote controller for Media Player
8 in 1 card reader
1394 Firewire
3 usb
HDMI
S-Video
VGA
Built in 2.0 megapixel web camera
Bluetooth
Wireless N card
High Resolution Glossy Widescreen 15.4 inch lcd (1680x1050)
Slot Load DVD +/-RW dvd/cd read write
Midnight Blue cover

The coolest feature has to be the biometric finger print reader. It allows me to log in with the swipe of any finger I've registered. The software also allows you to configure it so you can use it to log into websites that need a username and password. Instead of typing you could be swiping!

Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard

This is on my wishlist! I want this keyboard for the livingroom when I eventually put a computer in there. Then I'll be able to surf, check email and watch movies while I lounge on the couch! I won't have to worry about trying to hook a mouse as the keyboard has a built in touchpad. And boy is it thin! It's bluetooth so it's wireless. It has a nice docking station that displays it as well as charging the battery. A 5 minute charge will get you two hours of typing while a full 2-4 hour charge will give you 2 months of banging at the keys! Stylish looks. I wouldn't want it for my main desktop system but for the couch potato in me...I'll take it!