bradKELLETT

• YouTube – Gates vs. Jobs
• Rubik’s Cube For The Lazy
• Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Paying Spam to Go Away «
• What’s wrong with this picture of PS3 promotional bliss? – Engadget

3GSM Award for the:

• Worst Product Intro: “Ultra Swift Meets Xtra-Thin” (courtesy Samsung and the Ultra 12.1 press release)
• Best Press Release Headline: “Apertio appoints Michael Jackson as new Chairman”
• Stupidest Product Name: “MOTOQ q9″

Leave a comment if you have some of your own.

I recently rediscovered a tool that has been around longer than any piece of technology that I own, but that I completely forgot about. I am normally the early adopter, the person pushing for new gadgets that change your life, but this is something decidedly low-tech. Despite this, using it has changed my life. The tool: the simple notebook.

That’s right, I went to the shops and purchased a nice suede covered notebook, and have been using it for everything. Jotting down small to-do lists, ideas for different projects, notes on the day’s meetings, directions on how to get to places I need to be, everything. This notebook has now become an integral part of the way I work, and I take it everywhere. I don’t think any other purchase of something to help organize my life has had this kind of impact on me in some time.

All this is not to say that I will be forgoing Microsoft Outlook and the smartphones I use every day though, for the simple notebook is still inferior for time management applications like Outlook’s calendar and such. I still make use of digital to-do lists as well, as so far I am yet to find a way to synchronize my notebook with my work’s groupware. The to-do lists on my PC/smartphone are more longer-term lists though, with the notebook being utilized for things I am doing right at that moment.

I implore everyone to reassess his or her use of technology for this kind of thing and see whether it is actually helping or hindering you. There is still a place for applications like OneNote in my life, but for the simpler things, I am in love with my notebook.

• The way women and men differ in the shower
  Very funny, but true on most counts as well.
• Windows Vista Tips :: the How-To Geek
  Wow, this is a really great list for Vista users, I found a few interesting tidbits.
• wcbstv.com – Bill Banning iPods In Crosswalks Slated For Albany
• Yahoo! Pipes: Unlocking the Data Web (by Jeremy Zawodny)

• Daily Cup of Tech » HowTo Deal With Non-Computer People
• YouTube – Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
• Tapping the Power of Your Morning Routine : Yahoo! Finance

I took the plunge yesterday and installed Windows Vista Home Premium on my notebook, and overall I am relatively impressed. I have had the betas sitting around for some time, but never installed them. My notebook is my full-time work and pleasure computer, so I did not take this move lightly. I am not going to write a massive review, there is plenty of that around the internet, but I will note down my impressions so far.

Pros

• The new effects are nice, and not too intrusive.
• I completely agree with Greg Hughes, everything does run considerably faster. I have been having performance issues with Outlook 2007 since the betas, but finally it runs at a normal speed. Unlike Greg, I do run Aero Glass.
• The Sidebar is nice, but see below in the cons section for my issues with it.
• Flip 3D is mainly eye candy, but I like it.
• The updated user security model is welcome, and even being a power user, I think I will still get some benefit out of it. The administrator authorization boxes are very intrusive though, blacking out everything on the screen but the dialog box.
• While Vista seems to take longer to start up, it resumes from sleep and hibernate much faster than XP.

Cons

• I am not convinced about the Aero Glass look. It is nice, but the way window title bars go black when they are maximized doesn’t sit well with me.
• Windows Media Player is ugly, ugly, ugly with Aero Glass. Way too much transparency.
• While it is nice, I feel the Sidebar could have been better implemented. I am a fan of sidebars, but the one included with Windows Vista can look quite messy, as sometimes gadgets don’t seem to line up well. I also hate that you can’t resize gadgets or the Sidebar itself. I’ll be running with it for a few days, but I am not sure if it will be a permanent fixture. I used an application called Desktop Sidebar some time ago, and it was a much better solution.
• I cannot for the life of me work out how to undock toolbars from the taskbar. I used to run with a toolbar docked to the side of my screen with the quick launch bar and my desktop icons in it, but I now can’t do that.

I will probably add to this list over the coming days as I discover new things that I like and that annoy me. The above is not a comprehensive list of all the pros of Vista, just the things that make me say ‘hmm, that’s nice.’

Driver support has so far been quite good. The only problems I had were with my notebook’s built in camera and the 3.5mm sound jack not working, but a quick visit to the HP site to download different drivers fixed both problems.