Most of you that know me have undoubtedly seem me cursing at my computer furiously this past week or punching my laptop from time to time. The reason for this sudden change in behaviour stems from my recent installation of Windows Vista. Somehow, that whole process turned a pretty decent laptop into something completely unusable. So today, while trying to edit some photos at Northern Voice, I realized that I just couldn’t go on using my laptop the way it was. Everything was really slow and most applications crashed from time to time (especially Photoshop). Since I’m about to leave on vacation, ...

I’m officially going to blog about my frustration with Windows Vista so far. If you were following last week, I decided (stupidly) that I would upgrade my laptop from windows XP to windows Vista. First, the whole upgrade procedure took on the order of four hours, and it wasn’t exact smooth all the time. The progress meters were hopelessly broken, and the pre-check that it does to make sure you can actually install vista properly got it wrong. One thing that bothers me right away is that you can no longer install Vista on the same partition as another OS. I’m not really sure why this is, ...

So, I was multitasking at work today, installing Windows Vista on my laptop, and doing some work on my desktop machine. I thought the upgrade process would be simple, but instead it was a huge headache. First, Windows Vista Installer analyzed my whole machine and told me I was good to go. Then, I start installing it and it goes “wait a sec, just joking — you gotta remove all this software first before you can install Vista.” So, I uninstall Nero, my anti-virus program and a DVD RAM drive thing that I’ve never used. Install, take 2. The next part of the process is rather uneventful, but ...

I finally cleaned up the main plugin for this website enough that I’m ready to release it to whoever wants to test it out. You can read about it and download it from the Crossroads Page. Basically all the flickr pieces on this website are handled by that plugin, so if you like what you see on this website, then feel free to test it on yours. I still have a ton of work to do on it, mainly in the speed optimization area, but I figured it’s good enough now for some people to test out. Enjoy. ...

Ok guys. I’m tossing the gauntlet down. If you haven’t been following recent events, a few days ago a major report on global warming came out that had some of the strongest language in it to date. The group of climate experts released a 21-page report for policy makers worldwide that indicates with more than a 90 percent accuracy that rising atmospheric temperatures and increased greenhouse gases are linked, and the “most likely” cause of global warming, suggesting that humans have caused the problem. […] The report found that it was “more likely than not” that manmade greenhouse ...

I was doing a little last minute reading before going to bed, and stumbled upon this article. Apparently a parking garage in New York city will be operated by a computer. You simply drive your car onto a pallet, walk away, and it will be parked. Or maybe dropped. Here’s a good quote: Built in 2002 across the river in Hoboken, N.J., with 314 spaces for monthly rentals only, the garage dropped an unoccupied Cadillac Deville six floors in 2004 and a Jeep four stories the following year. Wow, where do I sign up? Luckily they were unoccupied, but still. Imagine coming back to pick your car up after ...

That’s right. Telus, one of Canada’s largest phone companies, has decided that in order to generate more money, they are going to start selling porn to mobile customers. Here’s a great quote: A huge amount of that is adult programming, and we don’t seem to have concerns about our ability to block children from accessing that,” he said. “Frankly, their mobile screen is probably more private than aTV or computer screen. They can keep it in their pocket. A mobile screen is more private that a TV or computer screen? Is he joking? Think of all the places you have your cell phone with ...

I just got back from quickly picking up my fixed Canon SD630 camera. Apparently the warp-core phase-inverter was out of alignment, so I had to get that readjusted to the tune of $160. Seriously, those guys can turn any small problem into a huge one that can cost lots of money. I was originally told the shutter door was broken, which seemed somewhat reasonable (I pictured a really small, weak hinge breaking). However, now it’s more along the lines of the “shutter solenoid ring was hosed.” How does a shutter solenoid ring break? Better question, what the hell is a shutter solenoid ring anyways? ...

It’s sort of funny, because Jason and I were talking about this big bitch tonight. Apparently it’s going to be making a brief appearance in Vancouver sometime in November. It truly is an engineering marvel, but I really don’t want to go on it. Why not? Well, firstly, it’s 590 tons of reinforced plastic travelling at mach 0.85. Doesn’t scare you? How about the fact that during the initial stress test of the new plane, the wings snapped in half. Maybe it will be safe, but considering that nobody really understands the failure modes of composite materials, and that at least one airplane ...

“BT has stepped up the battle in the increasingly competitive broadband market by unveiling its new Total package offering interactive TV, videophoning and other integrated home media services.” “The new services are being described as the biggest shake-up in communications since Alexander Graham Bell made the first landline call in 1876. ” Yet another major carrier is adopting VoIP as part of their mandatory service offering. Read about it here ...