Well it’s been a long time. Too long in fact. I’ve been very busy with my move to Boston and haven’t had a lot of spare time to write. That being said here goes…
Windows Vista, Dell XPS m1330 and Microsoft Office 2007
My new Dell XPS m1330 laptop arrived late last week with Windows Vista service pack 1. I have heard mixed reviews. 2 senior software developers I know said they have it and love it. Others say they hate it. After using Vista for 1 week, I have formed my own opinion… I like it.
The new search in the windows (start) menu is my favorite feature. You can type in almost anything and Windows will intelligently find it on your machine. A directory, a program, a document you used last. Very handy. I also found that file copying and other actions are a bit faster. Another thing i like is the centralization of user data into one directory. This makes backing up or synchronizing with multiple machines a lot easier.
Other than that, I must add at this point, the smaller form size and light weight 13inch screen XPS m1330 notebook is a blessing. It is easier to carry around and I can open and use it in many places that I couldn’t previously use a laptop, such as on buses and planes, where seat room is cramped. I am also loving the SD card reader. It is more convenient and faster for transfering photos too and from my laptop.
Onto Microsoft Office 2007. I am loving the new Outlook. It is great that on every screen you can see information from other parts of Outlook. For example, when reading mail you can see upcoming tasks and calendar appointments without having to switch to the tasks or calendar section. I have also been making use of the new task categorization and the functionality to easily convert an email into a task.
MyEclipse
MyEclipse is a *supposed* full featured Eclipse IDE which pre-packages and tests many of the popular plugins for various common software development tasks. Let me say that it is RUBBISH. Do not use it. It is slow as all hell. It crashes all the time, and I mean all the time. About 3 or 4 times a day for me. I am not alone either, everyone on my floor who is using it (about 8 people) are having the same issues.Use Netbeans instead.
Jumper
Last night I watched a movie Jumper. Jumper was in the cinemas in 2007 and received some of the worst reviews from critics of any big budget Hollywood film that year. It isn’t so bad, in fact I enjoyed many parts of it. If you are a Sci-Fi or Vampire fan then watch this movie.
