Tech & Talk

I’ve resigned myself to the wait to see how things go w/M. I think fate is testing me. I run into him practically every other day now. The upside is I’m not stressing about it. If it happens, great. If not, I have my own life to live and can’t pussy-foot around waiting.

On the tech front, I cannot find a fix for leaving comments on the hidden posts. However, I may have found a work around. One option, I can setup mini chat boxes on these posts that are outside the WordPress loop. Another option is to try a different user management plugin. On the latter, I found a new one and emailed the owner to see if it would resolve my issues. Don’t worry, you won’t really notice much on the front end. All your log-in info will stay the same.

In other tech news, I’ve adapted to the new interface in Windows Vista. My overall recommendation, if you can wait, do so. If not, the new system is very pretty but a tad finicky at times. Not all vendors have upgraded their drivers to work w/Vista so it can lead to installation problems. Even worse, some vendors are only offering new versions of software vs. allowing you to upgrade an existing version. (Read here you end up paying more money.) That said, I’ve installed several programs not officially “Vista approved” that work fine. I’ve only gotten two “blue screens of death” so far. The first was my fault and the second was just a weird glitch. On the plus side, networking is very simple and easy to use. Connecting to Wifi networks is much simpler (and faster). There is also a nifty function that allows you to restrict your computer based on each network you connect to. With XP and older version of Windows, you have to manually change the settings regardless of the connection. When I connect at Starbucks for example, I list the connection as “public” and no one can see my computer or more importantly access the files on my laptop maliciously. The connection is permanently saved that way and I’m done tweaking it. When I’m at home, I can see and change files on a whim across all my networked devices. I definitely like that.

The visuals are stunning but not worth the upgrade alone. Quite a few commands have been moved around as well. Some things are easier to find and others are harder than before. The control panel is overly confusing so I recommend the classic view which makes finding sections much much easier. The new account access manager becomes annoying very quickly as it pops up even when windows is running its own files. However, if you aren’t overly tech savvy leave it enabled as it serves a very nice way to protect you from spreading a viral or trojan infection.

If you are techie like me, you’ll love Vista. If not, hold out for a while longer and save yourself some headaches.