Sean's Blog

Uh.. Here’s what I received in my inbox today….

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have expressed interest in Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (Special Edition) have also ordered ChickFight 3: Special Edition (two-discs) on DVD.  For this reason, you might like to know that ChickFight 3: Special Edition (two-discs) is now available on DVD.  You can order your copy for just $29.95 by following the link below.

ChickFight 3: Special Edition (two-discs)

Uh huh… riiiiiiiiigghhhtt… Yeah. I might be a trekkie... but uh.. this is taking it too far... though if they had offered me the chick-fight boxed collection I might have one-clicked (tm) (sic) ;)

Unsure of how public the nominations will be, but sign ups for Virtual PC 2007 beta will be available starting this Wednesday over at connect.microsoft.com

Some of the known features? Vista support, both as a host and a guest OS, x64 host OS support, perf improvements, continued free-ness...

One can only hope for the things people have been clamoring for.. things like better 3d, USB device support, and perhaps some of the features shown in longhorn's virtualization -- hyper/multi-core support, dynamic memory allocation...

Probably not news to anyone but me, but looks like there's a SP2 of SQL Server 2005 coming down the pipe, at least fairly soon... googling for it nets me info of at least two fixes 1) User mode support under Vista with Express 2) Improvements with subcube queries.

Wonder if SQL/e will be somehow tied in with this release...

Successfully upgraded Vista from RC1 to RC2 last night.. Interestingly enough, the upgrade wasn't reported in Reliability monitor... ;) here are some thoughts:

• Upgrade was seemless. Hope that Microsoft is planning semi-frequent post-Vista upgrades to the operating system on a yearly basis like the OSX model. I still contend that they should just release Vista Ultimate to the consumer for a flat 150-200 bucks and kill the 'omg look at all the versions' kabosh and release 'updates' (don't call 'em service packs) for 80 bucks on a yearly basis.
• Windows Explorer feels faster.. in RC1 it seemed to get bogged down
• New icons for User folders in Windows Explorer
• As with RC1, I couldn't get any sound from default audio drivers that Vista installs for my Audigy 2 -- had to visit the Creative Labs site and get their beta Vista drivers.
• Taskbar Media Player control now takes the transparancy settings of the taskbar
• Media player in windowed mode has aero effects. (did it before?)
• URGE Music service won't install in Media Player :( -- the error code that is returned says it cannot access a registry key (Which is similar to the problems I've been having with Akimbo)
• Seeing reports that Media Center functionality is fast now. Media Center in RC1 used to lag a bag of potatos dragging behind a bus. Gotta go turn on the 360 and TV and check it out.
• Overall compatability seems better. Some of my older programs would have interesting graphical issues in RC1, seems fixed in RC2

The Filter/Sort/Stack capability of Windows Explorer in Vista is awesome. Wish that 1) Photo Gallery would open pictures full screen 2) Would perform a slideshow based on the files selected rather 3) Allow the user to configure the controls. I would like my mouse wheel to advance through pictures rather than zoom and I'm accustomed to pressing 'page down' to advance through pictures rather than 'right arrow'