Hello From Vista Land
*Warning* - Some of you may find the following entry very geeky and uncomfortable. Sorry, but I like stuff and that’s it. I have no time for coolness.
Vista Ultimate Fun
Hey Geeks. I tip my head back and cackle maniacally at your feeble, Windows XP-equiped PCs. I got hold of a perfectly legitimate and legal copy of Vista Ultimate Edition on Friday and after a very quick installation, all is going swimmingly. Almost all anyway.
Things I like about Vista.
1. It’s fast. Not in a “make your games go faster” type way, just in a “everything happens so smoothly” type way. Programs I use every day like Word, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop are so much easier to use thanks to this.
2. It’s undeniably pretty. No really.
3. Animated wallpaper. This makes me sound very sad but I have an animated wallpaper called “animated bliss” and it’s a bit like the old green hill and blue sky wallpaper found in XP, but this time it moves. Every blade of grass waves in the wind. The sky changes according to time - daylight, sunset, moonrise, night, sunrise…it’s very, very, cool.
4. It feels much safer and is constantly and politely asking me to confirm stuff. This sounds annoying but it isn’t and makes perfect sense.
5. Stuff glows and is transparent.
6. I have no life. Empty, empty, empty…
Things I don’t like about Vista
1. I thought I had prepared for everything, but it now appears that no Siemens mobile phone software works on Vista. I now have no way of getting my photos from phone to PC. It could be worse. I could be in the middle of a project involving taking one photo with my phone every day. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….
2. So far, that’s it.
Concert For Diana
As I write this, Elton john is hammering his piano at the Concert For Diana. I really don’t know what to think about the latest round of big concerts like this. It all started with Live Aid I suppose and I admit at the time thinking it was all terribly exciting. It was terribly exciting I suppose because nobody had really done it before and it was all so new. The idea of famous people singing with other famous people and doing cover versions of other famous people’s songs was quite cool. After 20 years though, and about 20 more concerts, it all seems a bit dull.
I don’t confess to understand the exact reasons behind today’s bash. Many of the commentators in the media have made much of the fact that Diana loved pop music like it made her so special. I suspect she liked a good tune and a quick dance like 90% of the population but because it was Diana, it was of mind-shaking importance. But she loved Duran Duran and Status Quo didn’t she? Well she was filmed clapping along a few times I suppose. She has been gone 10 years and we are still judging her via a media obsessed with untruths and assumptions.
Her sons are behind the concert but I suspect it’s only in a “the people loved her, give them a concert” type-way. They loved their mother and think of her every day. They don’t need today and after listening to an hour or so of it, I don’t think we do either.
Don’t forget its Live Earth next week. I can’t wait. A concert to highlight the dangers of global warming. If you really need Keane ,The Sugababes and Joss Stone to tell you about the imminent extinction of the planet then perhaps it’s time the sun scorched the surface of the planet clean and nature started from scratch. When Bob Geldof can’t see the point of a charity gig, you have to start worrying.
Industrial Action
So Friday arrived and I crossed my first ever picket line. It was a generally placid sort of affair. As loads or my work colleagues read this, I will be as non-specific as possible and once again be as uncontroversial as I can.
As far as I am concerned, I thought the strike was a bad idea. I rarely see things as black and white and this and is an argument with a lot of grey. I happen to think I am paid ok. Of course I’d like more and you would have to look long and hard to find someone at work who wouldn’t. It’s just that it’s the wrong time to strike. My employer has lost a load of business and hence a load of income in the last few years and I would rather go to work and do my best to ensure that my employer is still in business this time next year. I am not convinced that this one day strike (and whatever follows) will do anything to ensure the future of my company. Probably quite the reverse.
I won’t strike at this time. This doesn’t mean I won’t ever strike or I think any less of the people who do strike.
It was a well behaved event anyway and I never thought it would be anything else. I work with quite a decent bunch of people after all. It is after all, nice to work in a country where this sort of thing is allowed.
If I had one wish, it would be that as the industrial action goes on, both sides think a bit more about the other and what drives them.
A Room Full of Argues
Another first for me on Saturday 7th July. I am going to a reunion/gathering of people with one thing in common. We all have the surname Argue. There isn’t many of us about and it is going to be interesting.
I might tell you all about it this time next week.
Nighty night.
Mate as you know I have never been a member of the saint Diana fan club and was determined not to take part in the National “Mournathon”. I did watch bits and pieces and have to say the Elton John bit at the end brought back memories of Summer of 84 concert. I have to say that Elton Johm the person does not impress me, however Elton John the live entertainer does.
Geek