Reluctantly moving into Vista

Yeah, I’ve put it off as long as I could… too long, perhaps. Now I’m getting calls to support this thing, so I’d better get my act together.

So far, so good, with a gew glitches.

Importing email records from Outlook Express (OE, under Win XP) into Vista’s Windows Mail program is a bit problematical. It appears that Vista is VERY particular about how you follow the procedure. Also, mysteriously, MS seems to have decided that each user account under Vista only deserves a single email account in Windows Mail. If you want to have three separate accounts (with three separate inboxes), like you could in  OE, you have to set up three separate logins for Vista, and set up the Mail program for each mail account. So, as many have complained, now you have to logout/login between SYSTEM accounts to access your different email accounts in an organized fashion. Of course, aside from linux people snickering, there are constructure suggestions such as using Mozilla Thunderbird or Incredimail. But these solutions may not fit all users well.

Security… appears to be better with Vista. Since all users operate in “user land” instead of “administrator land”, it makes it that much harder to get stuff inadvertently installed onto your system. On the other hand, it does make it painful to install stuff you do want. And more painful still to keep using things (having to click yet another dialog to insure that, yes, I really want to do this). Seems like MS might have made this a little smoother using some technologies we’re already familiary with. More on this as I fine-tune my Vista-bule.

Since more and more are getting Vista-ized, anybody finding good resources for newbies and/or more advanced users?

Certainly, everyone should be aware of:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748998.aspx , with its more technical writeups of various Vista features; and, of course,

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/default.mspx

with general help information.

What else have you seen out there?

Yeah, I was slacking…

Hey, it happens.

Hopefully I’ll be more attentive both to this blog and to my website (http://www.necodeworks.com), which also needs significant revamping.

So, I’m back!

The Seed of an Epiphany

That was really irritating. Why did (s)he have to go and do that? I can go on and on. What that person just did(n’t) do has “made me mad.” It’s completely natural to feel that way. Everybody does it.

And I actually feel irritated; angry, even. And, why?

* * * * *

It seems to be a matter of expectations. I don’t remember when I learned to expect people to o what I wanted. They don’t teach a class in it in school. Unless you’re in sales, marketing, politics, law… I know, there’re a lot of them. But I haven’t gone through those courses. And I certainly cannot expect people to do what I want when I cannot or do not communicate it to them!

Yet, here I am, stopped behind this minivan (I drive a big, old pickup truck, of course) and I just figure they should know that I want them out of my way. Isn’t that obvious? So now I’m irritated, and my heart is pumping faster (I can feel it!) and my muscles take on that funny tension they get sometimes (the first one I notice is flexing my jaw)… we all know what it feels like…

And now I’m driving away from the scene of the crime, the nexus of circumstances, the primary cause for changing my entire outlook on the day… and I’m still irritated!

And now, an extraordinary thing happens. The seed of an epiphany. A miracle, albeit a small one.

I ask myself, “What are you angry about?”

“That just made me mad.” I answer.

“What just made you mad?”

“She just stopped. For no real reason. And then I had to stop. What did she have to stop for?”

“But the whole thing only took about three seconds; and you’re already out of there.”

“Yeah, but…”

And it dawns on me.

Only the second one I’ve seen in my life

Falling star…

But not just any falling star. A brilliant green one; I mean brilliant.

Both times the object has been bright enough to catch the corner of my eye, and both times there was enough time to register something odd, focus on the object, and observe its flight path for a second or two.

Green – copper content? A little chunk of metal?

The one I saw tonight had a tiny, bright piece fall off in a sharper descent curve from the main piece.

The International Meteor Organization (http://www.imo.net/) seems to be the clearinghouse for amateur meteor observations. I’m not a member (yet).

Space.com has some simple but instructive animations that describe what meteors are.

And Spaceweather.com has some nice pictures, a video, and an animated photo (showing a fireball).

Finally, Stardate.org gives a good idea of when, where, and how to observe more “predictable” meteor showers (predictable in that the dates to expect them are predictable, generally not the intensity or frequency of the events on those dates).

Know any other good astronomy links?

Make a wish.

Interests

Since I’m a virgin blogger at this point, I’ll let things wander a bit, then determine how much organization it needs.

Generally, I’m inclined to comment on fishing, various computer stuff (security, malware, operating systems, portable applications, whatever else), and probably a few other things.

If you read something interesting, please comment.

Nice to meet  you.

arbitraryVice