Vista and Outlook 2000… Don’t Do It!

Checking the statistics on this blog I see that the vast majority of the vistors get here by searching for one of two things.

1. Running Office and/or Outlook 2000 on Windows Vista.
2. Anything to do with the all New Camaro coming in 2008 (probably as a 2009 model).

For all the Outlook/Office 200o people I have some advice. Don’t do it. I have written a step by step guide to getting this working, and dedicated that to a page in this site (see the link to the right called Outlook 2000 on Vista). I have not counted them, but I bet I have over 200 comments on this site about Outlook 2000 running on Vista. Even with all that I just can’t recommend doing it. Please, do yourself a massive favor and upgrade to Office/Outlook 2003. I would not go so far as upgrading all the way to Office 2007. It is so different that you will spend a lot of time looking for featured you always knew where they were.

For you Camaro fans… I can’t wait. I am a huge Camaro fan, but I don’t think I will be able to get one.  My wife keeps telling her brother to grow up when he mentions it, and I am 12 years older than him. Is a 44 year old too old for a Camaro? My main problem is that my kids keep growing and are going to have a harder and harder time fitting in the back of a Pony car.

Take Back the Future?

I just saw this on my lunch break. There is a countdown on the takebackthefuture.com web site. It looks like something to do with the Terminator series of movies. I will have to do some digging tonight and see what it means. Are we going to get a new movie on Jan. 18th? Or are we going to get a new TV series in Jan?

Ubuntu/Kubuntu 7.10 is Available

Hey, today is the official release of Ubuntu 7.10. I currently have Kubuntu 7.04 running in dual boot mode on my laptop. I think I will try to upgrade it tonight. I am most curious if it will break VMware Player.

Live Free and Die Hard… Especially Live Free

I just read that the DVD of Live Free or Die Hard, the latest in the Bruce Willis Die Hard series, is going to have a “downloadable” version on the Special Edition disc. The PCMag article mentions it as a DRM-Free feature, but then says it will work with Play4Sure devices. I thought the Play4Sure was a version of DRM.

Regardless, I will buy the movie. I am a Bruce Willis and Die Hard fan, so I don’t have any trouble buying this one to test out this feature. If it only works with Play4Sure devices that will effect what music/movie playing device I get next.

Stay tuned.

SanDisk Sansa View

First the iPod Nano gets video and the iPod Touch comes out. Then the Zune gets refreshed with a 3.2″ screen and a sleeker look. Now SanDisk releases the Sansa View. From the basic specs the Sansa View blows the iPod Nano away. An 8 GB music and video player with a 2.4″ screen for $149, $50 less than the 8 GB iPod Nano with only a 2″ screen.

I really need to see a side-by-side review of the new iPods against their competition. After all… Christmas is coming.

Free Bluetooth

My wife bought a new cell phone at the Sprint Store. The reason for this was to provide my youngest son with a cell phone for emergencies. My wife passed her old phone to my son and picked up a new one. They put her old phone number on the new phone and transfered all her contacts, and they put a new phone number on her old phone. They told her that her phone came with either a free Bluetooth headset or a free car charger. My wife chose the car charger because she uses her existing car charger all the time.

Well, while we were at the Sprint Store I was waffling about getting a Bluetooth headset for my own phone. My wife said to just get it. I picked up the Plantronics 665 headset. It was $129.95.

When we got home I plugged my Plantronics headset in to charge it. A couple hours later my wife handed me my headset… still in the box. Yep… we got two identical headsets. Free Bluetooth for my wife. I can’t imaging she would have gotten this headset for free in place of a $30 car charger. I don’t know how this happened, but I am not taking it back to the Spint store. Shhh… don’t say anything.

I did a little testing when I paired it up with my phone and so far the headset works great. The salesperson at the store said it was the best one they have. A friend of mine did a lot of research when he bought his and told me to get Plantronics when I get one.

Highly Recommended.

Mac OSX Screen Capture

I wanted to get the ulimate Mac OSX screen capture from my Toshiba P105-9312 running OS X 10.4.4. Keep in mind I was never able to get any network access, so I had to load all software through CD. I installed Parallels  Desktop 3.0  and  built  2  virtual  machines, 1 with Windows XP Professional and the other with Ubuntu 7.04. Without Internet access it was not worth it to have Firefox running on each, so I just used each OS’s calculator program. Here is the screen capture.

 

 

Remember… none of this is supposed to be possible. I love it!

New Zunes! It’s About Time or Too Little Too Late

I just read that Microsoft is finally releasing new Zune players. I have been wondering for a while if Microsoft had given up. So, is this a case of It’s About Time or is it Too Little Too Late. Looking at the basic specs, the Flash Zune has a smaller screen (1.8″ vs. 2.0″) than the latest iPod Nano at the same price point, $149-$199. But the Microsoft player includes WiFi for syncing songs. I think the screen real estate of the iPod is more important than WiFi syncing. Plus I think I prefer the square shape of the iPod were you look at the screen above the controls, rather than having to turn the Zune sideways.

The big Zune goes to 80 GB (like the iPod Classic of the same price, $249), but goes to a 3.2″ screen which is mighty close to the iPod Touch’s 3.5″. Of course, the Zune has WiFi. I think Microsoft should throw in some version of Internet Explorer in this Zune and give it a touch screen and it would sell a lot better. As it is the new Zune is a bridge between the iPod Classic and the iPod Touch.

Personally I love the new iPod Nano, and was thinking about one for Christmas. But only 2″ of screen and only 8GB of space seems a tad limiting. I have played with an iPhone and love the Internet access. I don’t want the phone, so the iPod Touch seems like the choice for me. However, I would use it 90% of the time at home or at work. At home I would have little need for its Internet access as I have a laptop on my nightstand that is far too easy to use. I can’t use the WiFi at work (we don’t have any), so the Internet feature would be wasted on me. Darn!

That means I am putting the Zune up against the iPod Classic and I think the bigger screen of the Zune easily trumps it for me. The 80 GB is a huge advantage for me in comparing the Zune to the iPod Touch. I think I see a Christmas present in my future.

Mac OSX Running on Toshiba… Success!

I just could not leave well enough alone. I kept trying different versions of Mac OS X until I reached success. I finally got success with OS X 10.4.4. Here are the results I have so far:

• 10.4.9 (Uphuck) – Installed. Booted to a kernel panic.
• 10.4.8 JaS – Installed. Booted to a kernel panic.
• 10.4.7 JaS – CD booted to a kernel panic.
• 10.4.6 – CD booted to a kernel panic.
• 10.4.4 – Installed. Runs great. Ethernet and Wireless not working. Display at 1024 x 768.

So far so good. I will do some digging to see if I can get the wireless working. It is just a matter of drivers, but that could be a big issue in these circumstances. The same goes for the display. The only option is 1024 x 768. Again, this is a driver issue. Now Apple does use some nVidia hardware, so maybe I can fix this too.

Performance has been excellent. It is very snappy. We’ll see if that last past getting video drivers.

I’ll keep you posted.