My First Week with Vista

I've had my new Vista (Home Basic) computer running for about a week now. I gotta tell ya', it's not that bad. I was expecting a lot of problems, but to be honest, I only ran into a couple of hiccups, and they were solved pretty simply.

The first is backward compatibility. There were several older programs I've got that I couldn't get to run properly, or even install - like my old copy of Myst and a few of my kid's programs. I was pleasantly surprised with others. Links (1999) and Tomb Raider III have never run better.

The next was my ISP. The software they used simply wasn't compatible with Vista. Not a big deal. They had been bought out by Netscape about a year or so ago and so all I had to do was cancel my regular account and open a Netscape account. Same price, same servers. It took about and hour, and some frustration with the one of the outsourced tech support people (Only one. The others were very good.), but in the end it got cleared up.

The last was my scanner/printer. Again, the drivers just weren't compatible. No big deal, though. With my ISP problems worked out I just hit the manufacturer's website and downloaded new drivers. Now it works like a charm.

If only the ink cartridges weren't so expensive.

But I digress.

There's one thing about it I really like about Vista - the Parental Controls. It was incredibly easy for me to set up my kids with their own accounts and limits as to what kinds of games, software, and even the times of day they can access the computer. It was ten times easier than setting up user access controls under XP.

I got to see it work, first hand, too. I was showing my middle daughter how to get into her account. It was later in the evening, and nearing the time I'd set up as a limit for when she could get on the computer. I clicked on something and BOOM, it came back to her log-in screen and told her she wasn't authorized to use the computer at this time. It turns out the clock had struck 8:00 PM and her account had turned into a pumpkin.

What's even better is that the games and programs I don't want her using don't even show up as options. She can't get tempted by them in the first place.

As a parent of young children, that's pretty cool.

Does Buying Vista Mean I’m Insane?

I don’t know what it was, but I went crazy after Thanksgiving this year. The whole Black Friday bug bit me, and I spent a lot of money on new furniture and toys.

Okay, one new toy. A new computer.

It’s running Windows Vista.

What in the world was I thinking!?

Everything I’ve been reading about Vista tells me that it’s buggy and no where near backwards compatible. I just didn’t think I’d buy anything dealing with Vista until next year, at the earliest. “Let ‘em sort out more o’ them ish-ooos!” was my motto. The Black Friday bug got me instead. That’s my trouble. (My apologies to Jim Hensen.)

Why do they call it Black Friday anyway? The store’s finances certainly operate “in the black” on that day. It makes mine “go into the red.”

Here’s my excuse.

We have a family computer in our house. It’s in the living room so that we can easily monitor what my children are doing on the web. There are two other computers set up in the house (and about three more that aren’t). The computer in my music studio, and my daughter’s computer that we got her to encourage her story writing.

The family computer was getting old and out of shape (much like I am). It just wasn’t doing what we needed it to do anymore, and it was getting harder and harder to deal with its aging idiosyncrasies. Older hardware and newer programs will do that to you.

So we got a new one. I got a pretty good deal, too.

Now, because of backward compatibility issues, I’ve had to change my ISP (I’m not kidding), and less than half of the kid’s programs I’ve tried to install will run on it.

And I’ve only tried installing a few of them.

Oh, well. There is one upside. Vista has some killer parental controls. Now my kids will have a lot harder time sneaking time on the computer if we don’t want them to.

Now if I can just figure out how to get Writer Girl to turn off her computer and go to bed.

I feel stuck

I miss school. I really do. Because of family and financial issues I didn't go back this semester. I also missed the financial aide deadline for this year so, I'm feeling stuck.

In the meantime, I picked up an older edition of Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, and an older text book on the pathology of disease, at a library book sale. They've been fun to browse through and read (the pathology book is fascinating), but they're not really getting me closer to my goal.

It's not good to be stuck.

Claudia (Fran) Davila's Post-Oil Survival Guide

I know I've mentioned fellow blogger, Fran Davila, before. She's outdone herself this time.

I'm blown away.

Fran has started a new blog to post her research and efforts in creating sustainable metropolitan living spaces. It's called the Post-Oil Survival Guide for City Living.

The guide isn't complete, yet, and I've not read through everything she's posted so far, either. What I'm seeing is amazing, though. It's well worth the read.

No, it's even better. It's worth starting to implement, now.