Choices = Headaches

Choices = Headaches

Excellent piece on how offering too many choices (here, 17 different ways to turn off your computer on Windows Vista) is worse than giving people too few choices.

ieCapture

ieCapture

I was looking for this the other day. Takes a screenshot of a webpage in Internet Explorer, for testing if you’re designing a website with a Mac.

500 Hour Test of Tomorrow's Windows "Vista"| Tom's Hardware

500 Hour Test of Tomorrow’s Windows “Vista” | Tom’s Hardware

Absurdly detailed writeup of Windows Vista.

Daring Fireball: Windows: The New Classic

Daring Fireball: Windows: The New Classic

“The Boot Camp logo [is] a bastardized variant of Microsoft’s Windows logo, sans color, and with the whitespace between the four panels forming a hidden ‘X’, a la the hidden arrow in FedEx’s logo.” Great observation.

First Look: PC World Installs Windows XP on a 20-Inch iMac With Boot Camp - Yahoo! News

First Look: PC World Installs Windows XP on a 20-Inch iMac With Boot Camp - Yahoo! News

First Blue Screen of Death on a Mac

First Blue Screen of Death on a Mac

It’s beautiful.

Boot Camp

I actually didn’t expect this to come right from Apple, but it makes a huge amount of sense for them to release it officially, and it was inevitable someone would do it: Boot Camp lets dual boot your Mac into Windows or MacOS, in beta now. The program is free, but you’ll still need a copy of Windows XP SP2. It basically solves the problem of people who are hesitant to switch to a Mac because they have one or two programs that they have to use that only run on Windows. It’s not a perfect solution, because you’ll still have to log out of your MacOS session to use Windows, but it should get people pretty close. It also opens up the option that you can have people in the house sharing the same machine, some of whom only use Windows and some who only use MacOS.

The Browser, Patched and Hacked

A co-worker today called tech support to get rid of the spyware/adware that had crept onto his machine. After running their cleaning tools, they installed the Google Toolbar for him to get rid of pop-up ads. The toolbar is a fine utility - I use it on my work machine, too - but it’s only useful because it plugs an Internet Explorer feature hole. If IT would just let us use Firefox, we wouldn’t need an extra software to block pop-ups and we wouldn’t get nearly as much crapware on our machines due to its decreased vunerability to security issues. But I guess if they gave us tools that work properly they wouldn’t get paid to fix them, so instead we have to live with an intentionally inefficient system.

Looking a Gift Monitor in Its Refresh Rate

Summer is here so I’ve loaded back up my summer stylesheet. I think it’s my favorite.

The IT department at work gave us new monitors last night. The old CRT I had was terrible, so I’m grateful for some LCD action, but with the increased clarity somes a strong display of how nice ClearType will be. (They’re supposed to give us Windows XP soon.) Everything looks jagged. I guess I’ve been spoiled by iMac and PowerBook monitors.

Dear Computer at Work

Please note that your default printer is 5E501XT. Unless I specifically select a new system-wide printer, please assume that I always want to print to that one, it being nearest my desk. Do not infer from my occasional choices to print to a different machine or to use the PDF converer that I want continue using that setting forever. If I did, I would have changed the system-wide preference myself.

Thank you.

P.S.: No need to bring a window to the front when its document starts printing. I touch-type and often get through a few sentences before realizing you’ve switched windows without asking. I’ll decide for myself which windows go where.

iTunes for Windows

CNET News.com is reporting that Apple will be releasing iTunes for Windows one week from today. Get your pocketbooks ready!

Abbreviate

I just read a CNET announcement of Windows Mobile, a new operating system for handhelds and smartphones. After discussing the new version of CE, the author goes on to discuss some new PDAs coming out. At one point, he mentions that one of them “has 64MB of RAM (random access memory).” Now how useful is that parenthetical? If the reader doens’t know what RAM is, is explaining what RAM is an acronym for really going to help, keeping in mind that most people call their computer tower their “hard drive.”

The Fourth Rail’s review of Hulk gives the film a very fair shake. It doesn’t include any major spoilers and should help anyone who isn’t sure if they want to see it or not. I may write up my own thoughts if I can scare up the inspiration, but my general recommendation would be to catch an afternoon showing or wait for the rental, though I did enjoy it a whole lot.

I didn’t win the lottery. To top it off the winning ticket was bought in Baltimore. I hate that city.