Windows Vista News Roundup

Amazon.com featured some nice links to news and info on Microsoft Vista. Here are the first 3. You can click the "Next" link to get to the others. Looks like Bill Gates will be making a few extra bucks this year!

Amazon.com: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade Additional License Pack - 1 PC: Software: "1. Windows Vista Home Premium (from reviews.cnet.com)
Windows Vista Home Premium is essentially warmed-over Windows XP Home Edition. If you're currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we ...

2. Microsoft Vista Basic (from reviews.cnet.com)
Windows Vista Basic is essentially warmed-over Windows XP, Windows XP SP3. If you're currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we ...

3. Six Versions of Vista Set for Second Half of 2006 (from www.winplanet.com)
The forthcoming load of operating systems includes two for businesses, three for consumers and one starter system for what Microsoft ..."

Fun with Spanish

This is an amusing joke a friend of mine passed on to me today. A Google search produced many mentions of what I knew was a popular "forwarded" email. Here it is:

The Spanish Computer

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'

'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether 'computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora' ), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador') , because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

THE WOMEN WON!!!

Electric Car Energy Source Breakthrough

Some cool electric car technology is coming out of Texas! Click here to read more about barium-nitrate advances--especially if you drive a Hummer.

Outlook XP gets ready for new DST

I just heard about this today! In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act. The Energy Policy Act changes the start and end dates of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (March 11th, 2007) and end one week later (November 4th, 2007) than what had traditionally occurred. All computers will be effected as well as programs which deal with calendar information. For a link to update Windows XP, click here. This is Microsoft Knowledge Base issue KB928388. MS Outlook 2003, 2002 and 2000 will also be affected. The Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool will take care of these versions of Outlook. Outlook 2007 already has the time change factored in. There will also patches for MS Exchange. When available, the tool will be available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/

For more information about how to prepare for changes in daylight saving time in 2007 for all affected Microsoft products, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/DST2007

New music from dead composers

Not only is UC Santa Cruz home of the fighting Banana Slugs, but it's also home base for David Cope. He makes new compositions based on the work of famous classical composers--all with the help of his computer, EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence). Feed your iPod these fake classics!

The pleasure of finding things out - Richard Feynman

I've heard so much about this guy that I've got to screen this one. 40 min documentary interview with Dr. RP Feynman- one of the greatest physicist of our times and a Nobel Laureate. Specially uploaded for students of NSIT. To download it, click here. If that doesn't work, try this link.

Cult of Mac

Every Mac news junkie should keep this blog on their RSS feed list: Cult of Mac. Leander Kahney and Pete Mortensen do a great job covering Apple product news. With all of the changes going on at Apple, they should probably change the name to "The Apple Cult" or "The Branch iPodians".

Write The Caption

Some of the funniest people are just plain folks who would never be caught dead standing in front of a brick red wall in a dimly lit nightclub. Here's another great Write The Caption site from the Charlotte Observer. Example: "We've replaced Rudolph's original nose with Folgers' Crystals!"

Great PHP/MySQL book!!

My latest book review on Amazon.com. (Apparently, my first, although I'd swear I've done some others on an older account.)

Amazon.com: Your Profile: Reviews

I've bought and begun so many technical books that just had me bored or baffled in a few pages. This book is a refreshing change! Larry Ullman is a very talented writer/teacher who not only has a thorough knowledge of his subject, but also has the skill to communicate that knowledge in such a way that he doesn't talk down to you or leave you in the dust. Although I'm not too far along in the book, I can tell that this is going to give me a good grasp of PHP and MySQL, something I haven't found in a lot of online resources I've tried. It's rare that I feel this way about a technical book, but every time I pick this book up and read a bit more, I am more and more glad I chose this book over some of the others. Another excellent part of this purchase is that the author has made himself available to answer questions. How great is that? It's like getting access to a professor for a fraction of the cost of taking a class. I plan on buying other books from this author as needed.

10 Worst Domain Names

Picking a good domain name that's not already taken is becoming increasingly difficult these days. In fact, just picking an unambiguous domain name presents a formidable challenge for some people. Here's a list of really unfortunate domain names.