Snipping Tool in Vista

Vista includes now tools that were part of Windows Tablet PC Edition and not included in XP. One of them is the Snipping Tool, one of the most useful tools in the Operating System for those like me trying to keep alive a blog.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:41991158-5cf1-4646-8911-b0f59ed63b11&amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Windows Vista Demo: Snipping Tool">Video: Windows Vista Demo: Snipping Tool</a>

I like this effort of Microsoft trying to create educational videos that show how to use the new capabilities of Vista. It’s a lot better than going around criticizing other Operating Systems. Show me what you do and I’ll decide if that’s what I need.

Perpetually Connecting ….

Jerry Seinfeld convinces Bill Gates to try and connect with everyday people the old fashioned way.  And Yes, Bill still has the shoe from Shoe Circus….

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows

Gates, Seinfeld and Ad #1

Mary Jo Foley had a post on ZDNet.com entitled “First Microsoft make-over ad airs: $300 million well spent?”.  I missed seeing the ad during the NFL Season Opener so given the opportunity to watch it via YouTube the next day was pretty good. Mary Jo said she was “not wowed by the first in what is expected to be a series of star-studded ads designed to reshape Microsoft’s consumer image” and that made me want to click on the video even faster.

Well I’m glad I did … why?  Because I laughed.  It was well done and my guess is that as the series of ads continues, we will see more that will make us laugh more that will designed to reshape Microsoft’s consumer image.  And maybe we will finally see some well done “swipes” at Apple!

 via

Humans have short memory

I’m going to post today a fragment of an article where I have removed the Operating System name in a few places. 

[Operating System Name in here] is also a Trojan horse that enables Mr Gates and a horde of even less welcome folks to invade your privacy, exploit your computer and empty your wallet.

So why are all these idiots in computer stores drooling at the prospect? Answer: because [Operating System Name in here] is a monstrous, bloated brute that requires a state-of-the- art PC and two gigabytes of hard disk space before it will even say ‘hello’. This means any consumer foolish enough to want to run [Operating System Name in here] will probably have to buy a new PC.

Does not this sounds familiar to you? is not it like the author is talking about Vista?

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SanDisk releases 30MB/s SDHC cards

This is a very good news for those looking for a fast memory card to use it with Vista Readyboost.

SanDisk is releasing 30MBps SDHC that can write 39 6MB frames at 4.5 frames per second without stopping to take a breath. These cards are 10MBps up from the former 20MBps cards offered earlier.

CrunchGear

Vista Annoyances Resolved

So far the best article I have read about Vista and its so called “issues”.  The author shows with facts that we are living now with Vista the same process that we lived years ago with XP. And not only that, the author presents a series of tips to make your Vista experience a lot better.

An operating system is no ordinary piece of software - it’s the platform upon which a potentially limitless combination of hardware and software operates. A lot of the ‘annoyances’ people often quote are actually default features deliberately designed to accommodate the broadest range of uses and users. In other words Microsoft has configured Vista to suit the ‘average user’ by default, however there is no such thing as an actual average user; each and every user is different. For this reason Microsoft has also provided a large number of settings and options both above and beneath the hood of Windows so that end users with the appropriate knowledge or guidance can customize Vista to better suit their particular needs. That’s where this article and the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion (see below) come in. The aim is to provide you with the relevant information and guidance to help you understand how things work, point you to the tools you can use to customize the settings, and the impact those changes are likely to have.

Did you know?

If you right-click on the Windows desktop, there’s an option to change the default size of desktop icons?  You are able to change the size to either choose medium, large or the default “Classic” size.  But, is that enough for you?  Do you want more flexibility?

If you don’t want to be limited to the three default sizes, then try this:

Left-click anywhere on your Vista desktop, hold the ‘Control’ key and move the scroll wheel on the mouse.  You now can adjust the desktop icons to the size you want by changing the direction of your scroll.

via Digital Inspiration

Free Vista SP1 Support (until March 18, 2009)

Did you know that you can get free technical support on Windows Vista SP1 until 18 March 2009?  Free, unlimited installation and compatibility support is now available for all worldwide customers using Windows Vista SP1, until March 18, 2009. Telephone support is available worldwide.

Find out more and access the service here. 

 

This support for SP1 is valid until March 18, 2009. Availability of chat or e-mail support differs depending on your geographic location. For customers residing in North America or Canada, chat and e-mail support is available.

Some issues may require more advanced support for which there is a charge.

Microsoft’s Vista Performance and Tuning Guide

Microsoft has released a PDF Document showing users what to do to tune Vista for a better performance. The Guide that is available for download here can be categorized as a good start point and I hope that Microsoft keeps posting other guides like this one. 

Vista Performance and Tuning Guide. It is available as a download through the Microsoft site and will guide you through the most common changes you can make to Vista to get better performance, especially out of computers with borderline components such as mobile PCs. Give it a try and see how it works for your setup.

Via: jkOnTheRun

PenCommander 2.1

PhatWare Corp. has announced the immediate availability of PenCommander 2.1 for Windows XP and Vista-based Tablet and Ultra Mobile PCs. The new version features an improved user interface for Visual PenCommander, a tool which provides an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)-like environment for creating and testing PenCommander scripts; significantly reduced memory footprint; and improved support for Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

PenCommander enables a pen to be used to call up commands that can control Tablet PCs and UMPCs in almost limitless ways, such as editing documents, inserting often-repeated text into documents and launching applications. Scripts are executed by writing a PenCommand name on the application’s input panel. PenCommander is recognized as the best tool for entering repetitive data, accessing frequently used applications and documents, inserting time, date and signature, and overall extending Tablet PC functionality and user’s productivity.

PenCommander 2.1 is now available at reduced price of $24.95. Registered users of previous versions of PenCommander can upgrade at no cost. The registration code for PenCommander 1.5 or later will work for PenCommander 2.1. Check out PenCommander 2.1 here at  http://www.phatware.com/pencommander.  You can download a preview copy to try …. I think you will like it. 

Need a little more information about it?  Then head over to GottaBeMobile where you can watch a great Ink Show showing you all the possibilities.

Convert your laptop in a Tablet

You can convert any laptop in a Tablet PC for less than 100 dollars and without having to void your warranty. All thanks to a new pen called "Duo" that has been released to the Korean Market today according to Aving USA. 

You don’t have a laptop? Do not worry, they have a version for LCD Monitors too!

Windows XP was not a lot better

I read daily a lot of comments from people frustrated with Vista, the latest operating system from Microsoft and all of them have one thing in common, they end saying that they are going back to XP because XP is just a lot better.

Well, today, I read a not at Engadget that pointed me to an article where the author asked Bill Gates about an email sent by him describing his frustrations with Microsoft’s Web Site and… You guessed… Windows XP.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

The above is just one of the comments of Bill Gates reflecting his frustration with the fact that he could not download and install Movie Maker. I’m glad to see that I’m not alone. I can’t make Movie Maker to recognize my own profiles in my Vista Machine. The funny thing is that I went and downloaded the version 2.6 prepared for machines that do not have Aero and that version do recognize and work fine with those profiles. So… After 5 years, because that email was sent in 2003, we have not seen a lot of improvement with WMM.

But anyway, my whole point is that back in 2003 people were complaining about XP probably in the same way that probably those same ones now are complaining about Vista. And probably in about 5 years those same people will tell you that Vista is the best OS that they have used ever.

Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant

Origami Experience 2 just released

Microsoft has just released Origami Experience 2, the popular software within the UMPC owners. The software which can be downloaded here, includes a new functionality called Now that helps users to quickly access many other functions.

There are two new options that I love very much: Password, a new password screen for Windows that uses pictures, and a "tile" that allow me to check animated pictures posted on the web. I use this tile linked to a Weather Radar image of South Florida.

DriverMax, free solution for your drivers issues

Since I got my Fujitsu P1610 I have been searching for the latest Vista Drivers for this machine. The available drivers at Fujitsu Website are not the latest in some cases and most of them are not completely stable. And if you have a portable device with a driver that is not working stable you whole machine becomes unstable, slow and that’s simply annoying.

During all this time I have been testing different programs that you can find around the web that promise you to find the latest drivers and I even pay for one of them to discover that during the trial version the developers made you believe that they have some drivers for you and the reality once you pay and download the drivers is that they are not compatible with what you have.

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Will you be around Orlando, FL this Weekend?

If you are in any way interested in Development for Windows and Windows Mobile devices then you are invited to attend a FREE event Saturday and Sunday.

The weekend event is called Microsoft Community Summit 2008 or ]InBetween[ or Tweener (?!?!). The whole event is FREE. This event involves several minor events held during the weekend in between the TechEd Developer (happening this coming week) and the TechEd IT Professionals (the following week). It is a group of events organized by the Florida user group communities in the Orlando Convention Center.  It will have Sessions, .Net University, Open Space, Certification, Exam Cram, Train The Trainer, SQL University, SQL Saturday, Visual Studio U events.

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