Windows 7 Networking

Before I turn this whole blog into a giant Windows 7 rant, I'll make this the last Win 7 post of the week. Simply put, whilst considerably better than previous implementations of a network manager the Windows 7 networking console is utter crap compared to the console available in Ubuntu (since 9.04). The ability to quickly create, manage and switch between network profiles is excellent in Ubuntu and is alot less intuitive (if at all possible) in Windows.

Kam

p.s. - the new taskbar is nice

Moving to Windows 7 from Ubuntu

I know Windows is supposed to be easier than Ubuntu, and I have to admit Windows 7 does a reasonable job, but it's so weird getting used to looking for applications to do some of the most common things! I'd forgotten there's no built in PDF reader support, no selection of default mail readers... It's the variety of little things. Not hard, just strangely unfamiliar given how long I've been glued to Ubuntu.

One thing that's really stuck out, the new version of Firefox rocks. Some of the add-ons are incredible, especially a few of the social media ones. They almost make using social media meaningfull - he says writing a blog.

Kam

Windows 7 Starter & Desktop Backgrounds

I know Windows 7 Starter isn't the edition of choice for most people, but it's what comes with my mum's shiny new netbook. One of the very few features that both my mum & my wife use is the famous change-my-desktop-background-to-this-very-cute-photo. Which according to Windows 7 Starter isn't possible!

Confused, I rummaged around the Help Menus and found this:

"Windows 7 Starter edition comes with one desktop background, which can't be changed or customized. You can use Windows Anytime Upgrade to upgrade to another edition of Windows 7 that will allow you to change your desktop background (and get more features and functionality)."

Sorry, but this is kinda ludicrous for an OS released in 2010. Even if it is the most basic non-premium version they sell.

Kam

Delicious support on xyle.net

Huzzah! I've added delicious support to http://xyle.net ! You can now get your latest bookmarks directly onto your website & blog :-)

Kam

OCC Meeting with Sharad Sharma

It's been a while since I've been to an OCC meet, but I'm glad I attended this mornings meet. It was held at Jaaga, a strange community built building, in itself an experience. Sharad's talk was nothing short of excellently delivered. He touched on a few points which I found valuable:

1. Look at all the life changing technology around you, cloud computing, social media, renewable energy, mobile computing - which one fascinates you? What expertise or specialist knowledge do you have in it? Be aware of what's going on, stay on-top of something.
2. Steve Jobs was a hobbyist, some of the best businesses have evolved from hobbies.
3. If you have a niche, stay narrowly focused. Whilst you don't know if it's Plan B thats the real winner, most of today's successful businesses have grown in concentric circles from their original niche.
   
4. Who are your buyers? Are your buyers early adopters or pragmatic buyers? In todays economic climate are there any early adopters left? Go with Guy Kawasaki's theory of focusing on paying customers immediately.
5. Low cost does not mean low quality. Better to go the way Indigo Airlines has gone than that of Deccan.

Kam

Linux : Getting your hardware list

Whilst rummaging around online I found this very nifty command:

sudo lshw -html > hardware

It creates a comprehensive list of your hardware and writes it to the file hardware (as html) in your home directory. It's really very detailed and a great way of getting a thorough assessment of your machine.

Kam

p.s. - the blogger "create post" is very badly supported in mobile browsers, my last -blank- post being the perfect example of quite how bad

xyle.net now supports flickr!

\o/ You can now get your latest flickr posts (photos) directly onto your website or blog! It took a while to figure out, but it finally works :-D More than anything it's a great way to keep photo-blogging & to provide live updates to what's going on.

I'm still searching for a decent tool to push my flickr posts onto facebook. The inbuilt facebook connectivity is appauling at best. Recommendations appreciated.

Kam

Acer Aspire One : Useless Support

My dad bought an Acer Aspire One netbook yesterday in Singapore. He brought it to Bangalore, un-boxed it, charged it and then hit the power button. The button lit up and... nothing else happened. No POST, nothing. As it turns out this isn't an unusual problem.

The next step, was of course to take it to the service center, where they informed us it would be at least 48 hours till they had diagnosed the problem, at which point they would advise us how long it would take to repair the system. The engineers estimate was about 3 weeks, because the parts would need to come from Singapore. They flatly refused to replace it.

Not checking the piece when we bought it was probably our second mistake, the first being choosing Acer as a brand. This is why I prefer to stick to Dell & Lenovo. I can confidently say that if something goes wrong that they won't give me a run around.

Kam

Tron Nerd Post

After watching Justice League (Crisis Earths) and the new Tron 2.0 trailer, I'm left thinking two things (only two):

1. Justice League animations are always fun, but the soundtracks are unbelievably brilliant
2. Tron 2.0 OMG OMR OMG O-M-G !! Woot !!!

Yes, irrational geek-fan=love for a movie I've only seen a 30 second trailer of is ridiculous. Especially considering the original was only a success because of it's "cutting-edge" use of graphics. The sequel doesn't have much story line to build from, what hope does it really have? No idea, but it's gonna be fun :-D

Kam