Grammy Awards

We're watching the Grammy Awards right now, and I'm still pissed off at Mary J. Blige for not thanking Bono during her award acceptance speech. She was singing his friggin' song ("One")! C'mon!

But, I'm am extremely happy that the Dixie Chicks won the song of the year award, among other awards, for "Not Ready to Make Nice". It's a great song, and perfect message for the flack that they received from all of the backward idiots who somehow thought that Natalie Maines's comment was un-American.
Ummm, the ability to talk out against our government is one of our greatest (and lately most endangered) rights as Americans. And some people were so offended that she said it "on foreign soil", as I believe that they were in London when she said that she was ashamed that president shrub was from Texas ("president shrub" being my way to refer to the president, not hers). Sometimes I wonder where people leave their common sense. Who cares where she said it? She could say it from the moon and it would make no difference. Should she have stopped in the middle of her statement said, "wait a minute; let's head back to the states so that I can put the president down"? The same laws that protect her freedom of speech, are the same laws that protected people who spoke out against what she said. So, what's the big deal? Just because you don't agree with what someone says, doesn't mean that they don't have the right to say it.

Bill Gates error message

I thought it was really funny the way that Bill Gates got up and left so abruptly from the Daily Show, so I found this clip extra hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ9sVVlmrK0

The return of the Smashing Pumpkins

The new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist, is scheduled for release on 07.07.07. When they called it quits several years ago, I literally cried. That may seem silly, but their music was such a big part of my life when I was growing up, that their end was suddenly the end of an era for me. So, needless to say, I'm quite excited about the new album and hope that they can channel their previous glory into an awesome comeback.

Got it!

My new computer came today, and it's totally awesome. If I'd felt better (I'm feeling under the weather), I'd have actually done more with it. As it is, I did the initial setup stuff, installed updates, and got it connected to my network so I play around with it.

It's really fast, and I love the display. I got the super-wide display option, so I can see a lot at one time even though it's only a 15-inch screen. The colors and resolution are really nice.

Anyway, I'll probably end up rebuilding this machine from scratch, by installing Vista Ultimate and Office Ultimate (since it only came w/ Vista Home Premium and MS Works). That way it will get rid of all of the factory-installed crap that I don't want or need, and will allow me to configure everything the way that I want it. And, I'll get all of my files that I want on this machine copied over from my external drive. So, I have a little work ahead of me, but it will be worth it. Once all of that is done, I'll rebuild my old machine for work. Everything in due time.

Super proposal

This is so cool! I actually know Rand and Geraldine, but had no idea that this was going on :) If you watched Veronica Mars last night, you saw Rand propose to Geraldine during an ad spot. If not, here's the article about everything he went through to do the proposal after losing an ad spot during the Superbowl:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17020518/

Congratulations!!!

Good explanation of the difference between Windows, Linux, and Macintosh

I found a link on a friend's blog about the changing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in Microsoft Windows. As is typical, people started debating (through comments) about the supremacy of Mac, or Linux, or Windows. One of the comments, from the user "rapsod" (close to the bottom of the page), was very interesting, and I think very accurate (aside from a few grammatical and spelling issues). S/he basically points out that each have different levels of configurability and different purposes. Linux is great for people who know a lot about their computer, and who are willing or have the desire to muck around with a lot of things in the OS. Mac is great for people who don't want to tinker with much of anything having to do with their computer, but just want to get something done. And Windows is good for people who are in between; they want some control over their system, but can choose to go from knowing relatively little to customizing their OS using more complicated tools and processes.

He also points out that a lot of security problems arise from how people run their machines. I don't know much about Mac and Linux, but have used Windows for years. Most of the security exploits take advantage of the fact that people run their systems under adminstrator accounts, which of course has control over everything. People don't have to run as administrators for most things, but it's not always possible to run as a non-administrator account. MS has done some nice stuff with Vista, though, with a new feature called User Account Control (UAC), previously referred to as the Least-privileged User Account (LUA). I have to admit that when I first started using Vista, the prompts really ticked me off but over time I've come to appreciate them. It's a more in-your-face approach than before, for sure, but it's a heck of a lot better than a virus or other security problem. The article I linked to for UAC is a really good reference for more information about UAC in Vista.

In any case, I thought that the comment was good for remembering the purpose and target user of each OS. I know all kinds of people who prefer different systems for different reasons, but they all pretty much boil down to those points. No matter how much my overly techy friends love Linux, my mom is never going to switch from her Mac. They're just different kinds of users and they want different things out of their OS.

Me? I'm a Windows girl, hands down. I actually started on Macs, but got frustrated with the limitations in configuring them. I don't know what they're like now b/c once I switched, I was there to stay. Some people point to better fonts, design, layout, whatever, on Macs but I honestly can't tell much of a difference. Maybe to people who are really into that stuff, like some people are really into the subtle differences and flavors in wine, that makes a difference, but it doesn't to someone like me. When I use my mom's Mac to try and help her figure something out, I'm constantly looking for things that either don't exist on a Mac to configure or that she just has no idea where to find on her Mac so that I can configure it. Luckily, she rarely calls me because she knows it's usually futile to ask me for help on her computer.

And Linux? I played around with a friend's computer once and found it to be way too complex. I want to be able to customize my computer, but I don't want to have to configure everything. Plus, I find all of the open-source resources to be so limitless that it's hard to know what I actually need, what I want, and what's just fluff. I find some guidance to be helpful, so I just get overwhelmed by everything available in open-source land. How do you know if something is good or complete crap? And the people who are really in-the-know with regard to open-source software seem to me like people who are really in-the-know about underground indie rock bands or something. They all talk about software with obscure names that tell me little or nothing about what the thing is or does. The more obscure programs you can talk about, the more street cred you have. It's all just too much obscurity and complexity for my little pea brain.

In the end, I want something that looks polished and professional, that works, and that I can configure but not within an inch of its life. Windows gives me that ability, so I'm happy using it. There may be updates along the way, but I'd rather use software from a company that tracks issues and then puts out fixes for them than a company that didn't. It just seems to me that as we exist in a very complicated world, with ever changing technologies, it's just never going to be perfect. There will always be something else around the corner, whether that be bad or good. And we just need to figure out the best ways to learn and go on from there.

New computer specs

I've been asked for some specs on my new machine, so here they are:

Dell Inspiron E1505
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Display: 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™
Memory: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
Video Card: 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
Hard Drive: 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
Network Card and Modem: Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
CD/DVD: 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Sound: Integrated Audio
Wireless Networking Cards: Dell Wireless 1390b/g (54Mbps)
Primary Battery 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

I didn't worry too much about the hard drive b/c I use an external drive anyway. And I have an external CD burner that's really fast so I didn't care about that either.

I think that I'll have a lot of fun playing around with pictures and videos on my new computer. I got some fun photo and video editing software (Microsoft Image Suite Plus), so it will be cool to see what that's like. My current computer, while pretty awesome about 3 years ago, is now slow and not so great at the multimedia stuff. So, I think it will be perfect for work programs like Office, and a few authoring tools. Once my new computer comes, I'll rebuild this one and just install XP and Office 2003 on it again. My new computer will have Vista Ultimate and Office Ultimate. Wheeee!

Bill Gates puts the smack down on Apple

This is a great Newsweek article: Finally, Vista Makes Its Debut. Now What?

This is my favorite part, when Gates was asked about Apple's ads suggesting that you need surgery to upgrade:
"Well, certainly we've done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it."

I'm glad that he took aim at those ads. I'm still bugged by the one where the PC is sick and the Apple says that it doesn't get viruses. Excuse me? A quick google search, and I beg to differ. Yes, it is rarer than on PCs, but that doesn't mean that Apple is somehow exempt from the world of exploits. Blech.

I don't hate Apple. I think that they have a place in the world, and I do love my iPod. Although, I about threw it out the window this morning after having yet another problem with iTunes and my iPod synchronizing. I just love unspecified errors...the mystery...the romance. Not.

Is there a Zune in my future?