My uninstall of Vista

Okay, so technically it wasn't an uninstall. I had to reformat my computer to get rid of it. Why would I want to get rid of it, you might ask? Simple -- Vista would boot to a black screen and would freeze up. Safemode didn't work. Booting to last known configuration didn't work. Nothing worked, until I used my Windows XP Recovery Console to reformat my partition and reinstall Windows XP.

There are some good things and some bad things about formatting your computer. First the good:

Everything runs MUCH faster. There is no extra software installed -- just the OS.

But that's where the good stops. The bad included:

Not having the proper network drivers to get online. I had to go to Kinko's and spend 8 bucks to download the required files to my iPod/USB drive. All my pictures were lost, except the low-res versions I uploaded to Facebook and my website, and the ones I still have in my camera. I also lost all my music, but I / think / I can copy them back to my computer via my iPod. I also had to reinstall all my games and programs: WoW, Photoshop, Dreamweaver -- THANKFULLY, I still had my serial numbers for all that stuff written down in my little black book.

Anyhoo, Juliet is finally starting to look like normal again. I can hear sound, see the desktop in more than 4 colors, and I downloaded the Office 2007 Beta again, so I have a free version of Word, Outlook, and Excel till next February.

In other news: Today is the day I move. Just down the street really, on the border of Marietta and Sandy Springs. I'm throwing a Haunted House Warming Party soon, so if you're on Facebook check out the details on my profile! And if you aren't on Facebook, let me know and I'll send over a haunted invite.

Call me if you want to see my new place in person!

My Windows Vista review

I downloaded Windows Vista RC1 (Release Candidate 1) two nights ago to see what all the hype is about. Vista is the next OS release from Microsoft -- in a year or two it will come standard on all new computers.

Here are my initial impressions of the OS:

1. The first time I tried to install Vista, it error-ed and reverted back to XP. The second time I installed, everything worked fine and I woke up the next morning to the Welcome Screen.
2. In XP, if you did not have a password set on the Admin account, you could automatically log in to your desktop. In Vista, you "must" click on a little button before seeing your desktop. This is an extra step that is annoying.
3. My biggest fear was that programs I used on XP would not work on Vista. So far only three programs do not work:
-- Norton Utilities; I used the Password Manager to automatically fill in my passwords for various accounts around the net.
-- Daemon Tools; I used this to mount ISO images I would download off the net. In fact, Vista would not even begin to install until I had removed this program.
-- Outlook XP; My email client would not load, so I downloaded the Beta 2 client that works with RC1 and everything was fixed. The new Outlook is VERY slick by the way.
4. Programs that work, but are still a bit buggy in Vista:
-- Trillian; The alpha-transparent map does not load correctly in Vista. It has this ugly pink border around the skin I use.
-- iTunes; At first iTunes would not authorize my music at all. It keep asking for my password, saying it was authorized, but then would ask for my password again when I tried to play the song. After several reboots, this problem seemingly fixed itself. But now I have problems copying photos to my iPod. Something about not having read/write access, but I assure you, all the settings are correct. Hopefully Apple will release an update to iTunes that is compatible with Vista.
-- SourceEdit; This program takes forever to start up with Vista. Once loaded, everything is fine. In XP, the program would load in 10 seconds, now we're talking about 60 seconds.
-- Adobe Flash; At first Flash ran kind of slow or wouldn't load at all in various websites. I re-downloaded the entire program, and after installation, everything appears to work properly. Most of the time.
-- SmartFTP; You cannot view your local folder using the "detailed" view. It bugs up, so I am forced to view everything using icons. Ugh!
5. Programs that work fine with Vista:
-- World of Warcraft, Oblivion; I can continue to raid whenever I choose!
-- Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Word/Excel XP, ProgressQuest; All work fine with no problems.
6. The OS looks really cool visually. The windows fade in and out. The borders of some windows are transparent, and there are previews of everything when you ALT+TAB between programs.
7. The options to change everything seem to be scattered. I'm sure Microsoft organized them somehow, but each day I find some new option I didn't know existed the day before.
8. Pictures now show little icon previews instead of the standard JPG image.
9. Vista RC1 comes with the new Internet Explorer 7. It takes some time to get used to, due to the fact that the address bar is ABOVE the File > Edit line. It's kind of weird, but I think I can deal. Hopefully MS won't force you to update to IE7 -- IE6 worked just dandy for me, why fix what isn't broken?
10. Windows search has been upgraded to work like Google search. Everything on your computer is indexed, which means you can find stuff VERY quickly. You can even add tags and ratings to your photos and files to help organize them. Cool stuff.

Anyhoo, here are some screenshots of everything I've been discussing:

My iTunes giveaway

Don't say I never gave you guys anything... because here are 25 FREE songs you can download from iTunes.

DOWNLOAD CODE: 9AEKYEW7JLTY
Code Expiration: October 19th, 2006
Theme: Hip-Hop

1. Copy the Download Code
2. Open your iTunes Music Player
3. Click 'iTunes Store' in the iTunes source list
4. Click 'Buy & Redeem' in the 'Quick Links' box on the right side of the page
5. Select 'Redeem Code'
6. Paste the Download Code and click 'Submit'

Your download will start immediately! The code is only good for one person, so first come first served. Next week I'll post a code that will give you 25 "Alternative Themed" songs.

Oh, and if you're on Facebook, you can join the Apple Students group (do a search in sponsored groups), and you can get your own code.

Cheers!

My Myspace songs

Just a quick blurb before I go to the Tech game this afternoon.

Myspace Gopher is a free program that allows you to DOWNLOAD any song you want on Myspace, whether or not the artist has enabled downloads! Why pay 99 cents on iTunes, or search for music on Limewire when you can just download it direct from Myspace.

You should go check this out before Myspace patches it. Seriously people!

And as Miranda Priestly would say.... That's all.

Edit: Tech beat Troy 35 to 20. Heck yeah!!

My Wii

I don't care what anyone says. I like the new name. I didn't at first, but now it is growing on me. And with the press release today.... a price of $249.00, I am / definitely / buying one.

The Nintendo Wii is being released on November, 19th with over 30 games available by Christmas. Including: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, and Super Mario Galaxy (temporary name -- similar to Super Mario 64, etc.)

If you visit the Wii Online Press Kit Website, you can find out tons of cool stuff! You'll need a username and password to access the site.

Username: guest
Password: nintendo

There are screenshots and info sheets for all of the games, along with detailed information about the actual system, the controller, and the online components. It's all pretty chic, so what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

My fair weathered friends?

I've decided that one of my pet peeves in life are / fair weathered friends /. Everyone has one or two. They like you one day, hate you the next, then you're best of friends the day after. Are people like this really your friends, or are they just using you?

The real question for me is why I keep allowing people like this back into my life. It needs to stop... right now. So with that being said: In the future, if you remove me from Myspace/Facebook, won't return my emails, and you screen all my calls for a week... don't expect me to just bend over backwards for you the moment you decide you want to "hang out" with me again.

I'm not talking about anyone specific, this it just for future reference. So the next time you get really upset at me... take a moment to / talk / to me before you decide to do anything rash. It will be better for everyone involved, I assure you.

In other news, those GT vs. Troy tickets went faster than I thought! I had about six people wanting them, so I went with the first two who were 100% sure they'd use them. So sorry to everyone else, maybe next time!

My free GT tickets

99x, in all its wisdom and glory, has decided to give me two (2) extra tickets to the Georgia Tech vs. Troy football game this coming Saturday afternoon at 1:30pm EST.

Noah,

This is Dutch from 99X letting you know that I pulled your name from the Cingular Ticket Window on 99X.com. You’ve won a pair of tickets to the GA Tech vs. Troy game on 9/16 @ 1:30pm.
Thanks for listening!

Dutch

Gee. Thanks Dutch. I appreciate that. I would probably appreciate it more if I didn't already have tickets and/or it was for a better game. Although, Troy did put Florida State to the test last week.... Hey, you never know, it could be a great game!!

Anyhoo, I have two extra tickets to the game, and I want to give them away. Do you, or anyone you know, want to go to the game on Saturday? If so, reply below and the tickets are yours!

Cheers.

My weekend in Savannah

As I'm sure many of you know, Mike and I decided to drive down to Savannah to visit my Mom. I normally fly Delta, but he said he'd pay for the gas going and coming, so that was fine by me!

I had a great time. Mike had never been there before, and my Mom was thrilled to have him stay the weekend. She lives on the inter-coastal waterway and has a big sailboat she promised to take us out on.

We arrived kind of late due to Atlanta traffic, and having to stop half a dozen times for Mike to use the restroom, but we made it eventually!

Saturday we woke up around noon to go sailing with my Mom and the doggies (Mia and Bella). We took a leisurely trip down the river and had lunch with some friends. The highlight of the trip was sailing past what looked like a group of models gathered on a dock taking pictures of each other. We waved. They waved back. Good times.

We were out there on the boat a BIT too long without sunscreen because that evening my leg looked like this:

It basically hurt to walk... sit down... and move. Haha. But that didn't stop us from hitting the Savannah nightlife later that evening!

We booked a ghost tour on a carriage that would take us around downtown Savannah. We had a wonderful tour guide named Amanda who went to SCAD to learn all about Fashion. I asked if she had read The Devil Wears Prada, but alas, she had not. I really want to go see that movie!! Won't anyone come with me?! Please??

Anyhoo, here is a picture that Mike took before we went on the ghost tour. Seems innocent enough, right?

Look closer. Check out the window directly above the "no trucks" sign. If you look closely, you will see what appears to be the face of a skeleton in the left window pane. Here is the picture zoomed in:

Is it real? Who knows... but it's interesting to say the least!

After the ghost tour we went to go find a Golden Tee machine. Cade told us there was one at Locos, so we traveled a few blocks south to the restaurant. We looked around inside for the machine, but there was nothing to be found! We asked a server if there was a Golden Tee machine nearby that he knew about. He responded saying that they had one downstairs... it was the PGA Tour version. Mike and I said in unison... "that's not Golden Tee."

Oh well! We ended up getting take out at Applebee's, then driving over to Wal-Mart at midnight thirty to buy a board game. Clue: DVD Edition to be exact. We went back to my Mom's and played the game for a good two hours. I won both games (gloat).

The next morning, Mike and I traveled over to Tybee beach and had some of the BEST milkshakes ever at the Sugar Shack. If you're ever anywhere near Tybee, you simply must stop by that place and get some ice cream. You can thank me later.

All in all, I had a very relaxing weekend in Savannah. I highly recommend it!

My final week

My final week of what you may ask? Of not having a job of course! That's right, I'm doing my last round of interviewing this week, so first thing next week I can make a decision on what position I want to accept. It really comes down to allowed sleep time and salary. I'll let you guys know as soon as I make a decision.

Speaking of work... I highly recommend getting GPS on your phone. It comes in very handy trying to find your way to interviews all across Atlanta. Oh, and that's another thing: Since Nortel never contacted me about the job where John lives, I'm most definitely staying in Atlanta! (cheers) I know a few of you wanted me to stay pretty bad (if by a few, you mean Mike), so here's to you buddy!

I received the rest of my Perplex City cards yesterday, so that was cool. I have all but the super-rare Black and Silver cards. Receda Cube, here I come!! (Jen had the correct answer to last week's puzzle BTW).

This weekend I'm going to Savannah with Mike and Dana to visit my mother. We're going sailing -- visiting the beach -- eating free dinner -- and hitting the downtown nightlife on Riverstreet with Cade and co.! Should be good times; I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

OH!! And I saved the best for last. John has FINALLY posted a new blog after 6 months of inactivity! Go check it out right now. Cheers!