I've spent the entire day rebuilding the various
machines I've acquired over the past year. I figured it was time to clean off
the older beta versions of software in favor of newer betas, or in some cases,
RTM releases of products. I have 4 machines that are used for various tasks:
- An IBM laptop that sits in the back of my office
and acts as a server (although I don't do as many Web services demos as I used
to now that there are a ton live on the Web)
- An Acer Travelmate 100 Tablet PC that I use for
meetings and lots of demos (the inking stuff has really grown on me)
- A Compaq Evo N800c laptop for Project Smurf
- A Toshiba Tecra laptop for everyday use (which is pretty heavy duty
and being-dropped-by-airport-security-reistant)
Several things have occurred to me today while rebuilding the machines:
- Windows is great about drivers. I haven't had to
worry about makes & models--it just does what it needs to and gives me a
little message saying everything went great. There's only one device that
hasn't installed correctly on the Tecra, but I don't actually know what it is.
- Windows Update is really useful. I point each machine
at it and they automatically pull down whatever they need to stay
healthy.
- Having Windows Messenger automatically sign in on
multiple machines as they reboot every few minutes can be a pain. Every time I
get half way through an outgoing message, I get logged out because another
machine has logged in with my account.
- The MSDN library takes a really, REALLY long time to
install, but this may be because I'm installing it over the network on
multiple machines through a local hub.
- Everyone dies in the Godfather series. I've had
it on in the background while I'm working today, and it seems like everyone
has gotten wacked two or three times each so far. The worst part is how much
effort the other characters put into making the offending character
feel safe and secure before they kill him.
- There are lots of cool Tablet apps available for free download at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/default.asp.
I've installed just about everything so far.
- Windows Media 9 has a pretty cool client: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia.
I especially like the way you can minimize to the task bar and have a little
window playing on top. It doesn't get in the way and makes it easy to work
while watching
gangster movies last year's TechEd
presentations.
- I hate touchpads on laptops. I much prefer the little nubs that you push
around. There's one laptop that has both, and my palm keeps hitting the pad
while my finger pushes the nub, so the mouse move in the weirdest directions
and I can't get anything done.
- Sitting here installing software is way better than being at TechEd
parties in Dallas. Seriously, I'm sure it's all hot and humid there and those
guys aren't having a blast. I just wish they'd stop IMing me telling me how
much fun it is (because I know they're making it up). Besides, I'm 99.999%
sure I'll be going to PDC in October where the
really cool parties will be.
- I'd rather be coding.
That is all for now.