Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog



		Tuesday, July 01, 2008 Vista = XP I've had the unfortunate dumb luck of experiencing Windows Vista from the very beginning and at this point it's no longer necessary to cling to XP: Dell has taken a leading position in continuing to offer Windows XP. Vista's bad reputation began because companies like Dell forced it on people and hardware that weren't ready for it. That's what happened to us: we wound up with a laptop loaded with Vista but not powerful enough to run it properly (at the time, Dell had discontinued the XP option). On a recent service call to Dell, they had the gall to tell us that the laptop -- the one they sold us -- wasn't powerful enough to run Vista properly. Gee, thanks ... idiots. But I've been using Vista and running Adobe CS3 on a new desktop for the past two months and it's just fine. As a garden-variety user, I would say that Vista is about equivalent to XP; every improvement is countered by something annoying. The main irritant are those constant pop-ups. Vista can't do a thing without asking your permission and there's never a "don't ask again" option to save your preferences. It wears you down after giving permission to the same process for the gazillionth time. One of the main "features" was the transparent glass effect on the windows. Even though my system is powerful enough to run the effects, I found it distracting and disabled it after a few weeks. Here's the benefit of having frosted glass windows: there is no benefit to having frosted glass windows. But Vista looks better than XP. XP's chunky, colourful interface made it look too much like a kid's toy. Vsta also seems to do a much better job of recovering from crashed and hanging programs. So now it's mostly a lateral move from XP to Vista. There's nothing to fear anymore ... but nothing all that great, either. 2:18 PM , # , \| Saturday, June 28, 2008 It's Sound Science! GM corn kills butterflies. 8:44 PM , # , \| 40 Things I'm gonna start working on a list of 40 Things I won't do when I'm 40. Here's one to kick it off: Resurrect my "boy band". 12:38 PM , # , \| Thursday, June 26, 2008 That Idiot, Again ... Mike Harris wants Toronto to know that it has a problem, but: Both Harris and Manning maintain they are "not interested in pointing a finger of blame." Obviously. Mike Harris deliberately created the city's current problems to force it to make cuts to services. Everything that's happened was by design. 1:06 PM , # , \| Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Dexter Hates Dexter. Loves it. I wasn't all that interested in Dexter until it started playing on CTV ... now we're completely hooked and mid-way through 2nd season. In related news, Conrad Black is staying in jail. 6:17 PM , # , \| Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Dog Hell Redux If you're a dog owner, you're always aware that your dog is putting things in his or her mouth. You hope that they're not eating things like antifreeze, but you know it's possible. But people who try to poison dogs in public spaces tend to forget that other creatures like to put things in their mouths, like children ... All you can really do is minimize your risks and as I've mentioned before, that's why we stopped taking Zack to Dog Hill at High Park years ago. In every way, Dog Hill is the worst setting for dog recreation. It consists of a bunch of picnic tables on top of a sandy hill with poorly-defined boundaries and the setting encourages dogs to run around together in wild bunches and there's no space for owners to actually play with their dogs ... in fact, the space discourages games like fetch, etc. The location, right in the centre of the park, ensures that visiting dogs are always in everybody's face. The public sees the dogs at their worst: running around in packs acting like idiots while their owners sit on the picnic tables. What's amazing about the situation -- which was just reviewed -- is that there's a really simple solution. There is a children's playground in a depression on the eastern edge of the park. It's an ideal space for the kids. There's a similar under-used spot close to the corner of Bloor and Keele that would be ideal for a dog play space. It's a well-defined grassy space and it's great for fetch. But wait, there's more! That spot links directly to the trail that leads to the paved road that is also a popular and appropriate off-leash area. That road could be used as a link to a second dog area somewhere on the southeast portion of the park. Having two dog spaces on the edges of the park would reduce the dog traffic on the nature trails and focus the dog traffic on less sensitive areas. Two dog areas would also dilute the number of dogs in one spot, reducing the concentration of undesirable behaviour. When the issue was under review, nobody even considered moving the dog area from the centre of the park. There are obviously strong personalities with no sense steering this issue. Poison or no poison, we'll keep avoiding Dog Hill. 11:58 AM , # , \| Monday, June 23, 2008 Drip If any of you car drivers were feeling hopeful because Saudi Arabia promised to pump more oil: Saudi Arabia is promising the oil (and/or production capacity) it has been promising again and again over the past 5 years; 12:46 AM , # , \| Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Obama HQ Last week in Chicago we managed to find the Obama campaign headquarters, but were disappointed that it was located in a big, blank office tower without any signs or banners. If I was an American, would I vote for Obama? Yes, I would. I would vote for Michelle Obama. 12:54 PM , # , \| Cell Free, As Free As the River ... Eva sent me a link to this post, Typical Reaction to the Revelation That I Do Not Own a Cell Phone, By Year. We were out last weekend and actually experienced the 2008 Incomprehension reaction first-hand: 2008: Incomprehension ("You don't ... how ...?") But there's no reason for me to own a cellphone. I'm an introvert, I don't own a car and I work at home. I'm not mobile, so neither is my phone. 12:27 AM , # , \| Monday, June 16, 2008 Boyfriend Latte Sorry, I was out of town and didn't encourage you to check you Mark Sanders and Shannon Beckner's short film, Boyfriend Latte. Which is okay, because those screenings at the Worldwide Shorts fest were sold out. Nikki Payne has 6000 fans on Facebook ... they must have all shown up. Here's the promotional artwork I did for the film: 11:41 PM , # , \|			[ EMAIL ] happycreature [at]gmail[dot]com [ MY SITES ] BRETTLAMB.COM HAPPY CREATURE MS. JOHNSON ED LOCKE [ NEWS & ISSUES ] boingboing Cursor DIGG Drawn! 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