+1 for Vista Security.

So for the past two weeks or so that I have had Vista installed, I've been so mad that I can not get this certain IPP laser printer installed. After some more thinking of it today, I realized that it was might be the bad security certificate that was causing the problem. The IPP had a https address and the security certificate that was with the site was issued to and issued by the address of the IPP computer. After I added the security certificate to my Trusted Root Certification Authorities I was able to add the printer. Of course, I am not sure if I want to go that route. I told the site that was in charge of the IPP they need a real certificate.

Vista Score

3.2

As you can see above my Vista Score is 3.2 My worst is in gaming, which I could care less about. Otherwise my score would be a 3.7. If you click on the number, you can see more specs about my computer.

Vista impressions. (part 2)

Well after sometime of running Vista I still have to say it's just OK. Nothing to run out and by right away unless you have a brand new machine. Supposedly within a year they are going to have SP1, so it may be wise to wait. Being a computer science student, I was very interested so I had to jump on the bandwagon. I got a copy of the Business edition from my school's MSDN.

One of the biggest problems that I have ran into is with IE7 and Flash sites. I found a fix today, which made everything go away, but it was frustrating to say the least. I'm not 100% for IE, but I wanted to give it a new chance. Here is the fix.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=273146

Supposedly the version of Flash that is actually "needed" you have to run separately. Although it is included in the download.

Hopefully the drivers from HP will be updated tomorrow. There are a few things that are not working as great as I had hoped, namely the builtin webcam and quickplay, but hopefully there will be updates soon.

Ninja It!

So a few weeks ago I read about this post that said we would save 3000 megawatts amount of energy per year if Google had a black background instead of a white background.

The original article is here:
http://ecoiron.blogspot.com/2007/01/black-google-would-save-3000-megawatts.html
A blogger site was created based on the idea:
http://google-black.blogspot.com/
From Energy Star the amount to power each color:
http://www.microtech.doe.gov/EnergyStar/info.htm#display

Of course this supposedly only had effects on CRT's, which are still out there, my parents have one. Thank goodness I do not. Anyways...someone also created a site with the domain http://www.ninja.com that uses Google's coop to get results from, but is done with a black background. I thought it was funny and interesting.

Show us your Wow! (Show me you can fix your requirements)

So Microsoft is doing this "awesome" Show us your wow campaign. Well I tried to go to the website to see what it was all about, but guess what, I can't go to the site.

I'm running Vista, IE7, have Flash installed, and yet their requirements do not satisfy mine. I know I can view Flash stuff. I can goto Adobe.com, youtube.com, video.google.com, and other sites. Go Microsoft!!

Netflix

Well I am going to start using Netflix again. I have not used Netflix in years. The first time I used Netflix was when they first started in 1999. Netflix was the best thing as other video stores were still not big into DVD at that time. I bought my first DVD player in 1997, and was happy when Netflix came around. I've been debating between Blockbuster and Netflix for awhile and decided to go with Netflix for now. I may end up switching, but who knows. I do like Netflix's site and after doing some reading, more blogs were pushing Netflix. As you can see to the right I have my queue listed and movies that I have recently rented. If anyone has any suggestions, please list them.

Why Korn Why??

So I just got done watching the new Korn acoustic version of Freak on a Leash with Amy Lee from Evanescence and boy what a suck fest. First off Korn should not be doing acoustic. They tried acoustic at Family Values and it was a snooze fest. Second off, Korn should not have a girl in their band. See previous post, about how girls should not be in metal. Man, I remember when all Korn used to do was rock. Now they are freakin' having some girl sing with them. I would not be as pissed if it was not for that being their single.

Oh well, I guess the days of A.D.I.D.A.S, Clown, and Blind are done. It does seem as though every band goes through this stage. Aerosmith, Metallica, Tool, and now Korn. What is next, is Rage Against the Machine going to make a come back as some emo band?

Website/Blog Statistics

There is a new/newer website that I just found out about a few weeks ago called Clicky (http://www.getclicky.com). They do a good job of statistics for your site. They have RSS feeds for the statistics, the ability to ignore your own IP, and no visible ads (for now). Clicky is in beta right now and they say they are going to charge a fee when Clicky is no longer in beta. They have not said how much the fee is, but so far it seems pretty cool. I've been using it to keep track of my blogger site here.

There are a few suggestions that I wish they would add. 1) API. Everyone wants API's to make mashups. 2) If they do not do the API, have the IP address match up to a Google/Yahoo Map. I know you can get the approximate city from IP's, so it would be good to see the location on a map.

If anyone else has tried it out, or tries it out, let me know what you think. Right now I give it a 9/10, but we'll see when they start charging.

Reno 911:Miami

Well yesterday (Tuesday), they had a special advanced screening of Reno 911:Miami and that movie was super funny. If you are a fan of the show, you need to see this movie. It's so much like the show, only more. Since now it is not on TV, they were able to raise the bar a bit. I can't wait until it comes out to see it again.

Part of me is torn between moving back up north, or staying down here, and these type of advanced screenings are making me want to stay down here. Granted, it was made for college students, but still having the opportunity.

Wii Straps!!

Well I received my new Wii Straps today. I feel so much safer now, especially since I have had a Wii since the day they came out and never threw my Wii Remote through my TV yet. (Knock on Wood!!)

Actually I never used the old straps. I bought a pair of gloves for my Wii Remote and they came with their own straps that I have used. Of course I read somewhere today there is a third type of Wii strap now. http://kotaku.com/gaming/wii/the-new-new-wii-strap-230423.php If that's the new strap, it's lame that it does not have the wii logo anymore. I also wonder how much thicker they can make the strap, and why they didn't make them that thick to begin with.

30boxes Rules!

30boxes has "complex" repeats and now I can add my school schedule to 30boxes easily. That was probably one of the last things that 30boxes needed to do before they could become more powerful than Google.

30boxes has some awesome features such as buddies, tags, todo items, colors without multiple calendars, and some cool widgets. Now I just have to do an import of my Google calendar events. I was going pretty close to 100% Google, but I like 30boxes better.

If you switch to or use 30boxes, add me as a buddy.



Google also needs to work on Picasa's pricing a bit. Flickr is a much better deal.

Vista impressions.

Well my first impressions of Vista is that Vista is OK. Some cool features, I like the gadgets, but they have not been truly brought to their potential yet. Vista does seem to run a bit faster, which is always good. I have also noticed it does take up a lot more memory than I would have thought. I am thinking that I am going to upgrade my memory soon. I'm running 1GB right now, and Vista is using about 1/2 right now and I'm not running much except IE. I still have to install everything, it should be interesting. Might be buying more RAM.

I also am waiting for the 30th for when HP puts out their Vista drivers. My webcam works right now, but not the same as it used to.

Edit:

I realized today that I am getting a good number of people from Google to this post, so I should clarify some things. The computer that I am running Vista on is a HP dv6000 with the following specs:

• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (4MB Cache)
• 1GB RAM
• 80GB SATA Hard Drive
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (256MB RAM)

I will be writing my thoughts thus far soon.

Installing Vista

I got a copy of the Business version of Vista today from school. It's only the x86 version and I'm installing it on my Core2Duo (64-bit), but from doing some research, it's probably better for now until more x64 drivers come out. Hopefully everything installs fine, right now it's 27% done. I'll keep you updated.

Concerts I want to see.

So far there are two concerts that I want to see this new year. Feb 2nd, Drowning Pool and March 2nd, Dope. Both are at the Machine Shop in Flint. Also, a date has not been released yet, but Stone Sour and Shadows Fall are playing at the State Theater in Detroit. Another band is going to be there that should just not exist, Lacuna Coil. I wanted to rip off my ears out the last time I seen them. I did not purposely see them, they were opening for Rob Zombie.

Here are a few questions that I would love answered. First, why are these bands having female singers. The bands are decent, but then we have to have these whiny women on stage. The best is when I'm at a concert and the female singer is singing about the problems with a boyfriend, and other guys are getting into it. What a bunch of fags. Second, why are rock bands bringing these chicks on tour. Last year Rob Zombie brought Lacuna Coil, Disturbed brought Flyleaf, and now Stone Sour is bringing Lacuna Coil. It's like if I wanted to hear some girl whine, I would just stay home and not go to a metal concert. Geez!

Hopefully this year Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath - Ozzy + Dio) and Hellyeah go on tour. Those are two other concerts I would like to see. I'll probably make a list of movies I want to see this summer tomorrow.

Martin Luther King Day

Being a white person, never had much interest in Martin Luther King day. Although after watching an episode of the Boondocks last year, it made me start to think. "What would it be like if Martin Luther King was alive today?" Well here's the episode from DailyMotion.

The Boondocks - Return of The King
Uploaded by Dethklok

First Week..

..of the new semester is over. It went by quickly. I am taking two courses, and Network Security and an Algorithms class. Both seem like they are going to be interesting and fun. My network security course is going to hopefully help me with my Master's thesis, which I am thinking of doing something now with port knocking.

I finally have to learn LaTeX for my courses. Last semester I was lucky that one of my partners knew how to use LaTeX, so I did not have to. And for all you non-computer people, it's not the latex you might be thinking of. LaTeX is just a language that helps write out math formulas. LaTeX from Wikipedia

Oh well, I should be getting to bed.

4 Point Weekend

Well MSU got 4 points this weekend from Alaska Fairbanks. This was the first weekend in 6 weeks that games were played here at Munn Ice Arena. Friday nights game was the best. There were so many scuffles and such and the game was close. MSU was down 2-1 and tied it up in the middle of the 3rd and won in OT. After the game, when the coaches met on center ice, fights broke out left and right and four players (two from each team) ended up being suspended.

Here's the box score from that night.

Saturdays game was a good game also. I'm just torn for next weekend. Part of me wants MSU to win because of the good stretch they are on, they have won 7 of 8, but I still feel loyal to LSSU. Maybe on Friday I'll root for MSU and on Saturday LSSU. I'm hoping people from LSSU come down to the game.

I love Sirius (satellite) radio

For Christmas I got a Sirius radio (S50) with the home and car kit and have not really had a place to listen to it at home. I've listened to it somewhat in the car, but in my city (Bay City), it takes about 5 minutes to get anywhere.

So anyways...I headed back to MSU today and was able to listen to satellite radio the whole time. It was so cool. One station, Hard Attack, had the Top 27 Metal songs for 2006 and the 80's station had the top 40 songs from 1982. So when there was a metal song that I did not like, there was an 80's song that I did like. So much fun.

Also today I was able to finally listen to the full version of a song by a new group, Hellyeah! Hellyeah consists of Vinnie Paul, members of Mudvayne, and members of Nothingface. On Hellyeah's myspace page they had a 30 second clip, not the full version. Sirius played the full version today, it was killer.

The only thing that I did not like was that it took about an hour to find a good place for the antenna. Hopefully I don't have to go through that again.

Online Calendaring System

There are two different calendaring systems that I am using right now, and I can not think of which one to stick with full time.

http://calendar.google.com - Google's Calendar
http://30boxes.com - 30boxes

What I love about 30boxes:

• tagging
• colors
• some cool and easy to use Widgets/API.

What I love about Google Calendar

• easily integrates with gmail for events
• easily drag and create for dates.
• better print functions

Each have their drawbacks though.

30boxes does not have complex repeats, and is not as visually appealing as Google calendar.
Google Calendar needs multiple calendars for colors.

I've been using both right now, I need to find one to use over the other. Any suggestions?

Bad Service

Well after tonight I realize why some businesses, especially here in Bay City, end up closing. We have a brewery here, Lumber Baron's and two times that I have been there we got really crappy service. The first time we seen a special on the menu that if we bought two items with a movie icon, we would get free movie tickets. Well we did, and when we got our bill and asked about the tickets, they told us that it was only good for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It was a Saturday, but no where on the menu did it state on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday.

I ended up writing to the Better Business Bureau after repeated attempts to talk to the manager. The BBB filed a report and we ended up getting our tickets. I decided to go back there tonight to give the Lumber Baron's another chance. Not a big mistake, but service was crappy again. Our waiter brought out the wrong pop, ignored us, and gave us the bill without asking us if we wanted dessert. Well we just ended up leaving and gave a crappy tip. This is the last time I go there for food, maybe just beer.

Employee of the Month

See it last night, it was an OK movie. I was glad to pay only $2 to see it. We have a $2 movie theater in Essexville that plays older movies. On Tuesdays, they have 2 for 1 movies, so it was only actually $1 per person which was even better. Of course we needed pop and popcorn which was $10.

The best part of the movie was Jessica Simpson though. Although Efren Ramirez played another good sidekick in this movie. It was not the worst movie I have ever seen, but nothing I would see multiple times.

Almost beat the bug!

My whole family has been sick with the flu except me. My mom and little brother were first. Next came my other brother and his fiance. Next my dad, and I thought I was going to beat it, but now I think I might have it. I've been in the bathroom once today and my stomach is grumbling again. Ugggh! I hope I don't get it though. I haven't been lazy all day like they all were, but my stomach is grumbling.

First (New) Post

Well, I thought I would try this out again. I stopped blogging a while ago, when I was doing it on my own server, but now that the new Blogger is live, I figured I might start again. Not sure what I will be talking about, but I'll try and write something every day.