Poll: July’s Mini Poll Results And Full On August Poll Posted

I want to thank the 19 of you who played along with the mini poll for July. And I want to apologize for not having Tuna as an option. I have no idea what I was thinking. So maybe come the holidays we will do another mini poll with a wider range of menu items. For now let us gaze at the results of Kitchen Stadiums’ “Battle Sandwich”.

Poll: What Sandwich Sounds Good Right About Now?

Ham 1 (5%)
Turkey 1 (5%)
BLT 6 (31%)
Rubin 4 (21%)
Meatball Sub 5 (26%)
Veggie Delight 2 (10%)

For about a week it looked like Meatball was going to run away with things. Then BLT came out of nowhere and stole it on the last two days of voting. Personally I was in the mood for a Rubin when I wrote that. And today I brought Spaghetti. Therefore I would fall into the Meatball camp I guess. Either way Veggie did its best to topple the carnivores. And Turkey sat at 0 for the longest time before someone voted for that option. I know this wasn’t as topical as some of the other polls but, for me, it was fun to have something crazy up there. And again I thank all who played along.

Alas, I went back to the traditional poll question for August. Less you think I have gone all culinary.

August's Poll: Which Public Beta Will You Download And Install This Month?

JAWS 10.0
Window Eyes 7.0
Windows Live Mesh
Firefox 3.1 Alpha

I highly suggest you take a look at Live Mesh if you are into the Cloud or really wanting a more user friendly Remote Desktop/Sync solution. And it looks like Firefox 3.1 will have some interesting changes as well. And the web is a blaze about the other two public betas. So this one should be fun to watch.

Catching Up With Headlines

I’ve been under a mountain of news to catch up on since I was ignoring the feeds this week. Here are a few that caught my ear. 

Update To Windows Update: About once a year Windows Update gets an overhaul. This article from Ars tells you what to expect and what to do to avoid the update if you so desire.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/07/03/update-to-windows-update-will-improve-scan-times

July's Patch Tuesday Fixes: Speaking of Windows Updates, here is the list of fixes coming in this month’s Windows Update.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/07/03/microsoft-patch-tuesday-for-july-2008-four-bulletins

Office Update Changes: And not to be outdone by it’s Microsoft Windows cousin Office has made some changes of their own. Read about the move to Cumulative and Emergency Hotfix releases.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/07/01/new-update-schedule-change-revealed-for-microsoft-office

Security Changes In IE8: Oh look. IE8 also has some security changes coming as well. I am starting to detect a pattern this week.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/ie8_security.asp

10.5.3 Woes: It seems that the Jobbs Reality Distortion Field has waned a bit and the crushing weight of some miscues in this last refresh of the OS are taking hold. Check out this rant on the problems with OSX.

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/leopard/index.html#d28jun2008

And this one is very ironic when you compare it to the critical mass on Vista.

http://www.fortheloveofgeeks.com/2008/06/28/apples-snow-leopard-whats-the-point/

Google On The Enterprise: Here’s one take on Goggle’s shortcomings from a former Microsoft employee who just left Google only to return to Microsoft. 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=545

XP And The Future: The Windows Super Site Blog has a good collection of the articles surrounding the last days of Windows XP public availability.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/06/30/hasta-la-vista-windows-xp.aspx

LCD Screens Worse Than Cars?: This is an interesting article about the gases that come from the use and creation of LCD monitors versus the emissions from automobiles as it applies to the Greenhouse Effect.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/03/nitrogen_trifluoride_tv/

12,000 Laptops Lost In US Airports: Check out this survey on the staggering number of lost laptops throughout the US Airport system.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=158099&f_src=drdaily

Textbook Companies After Torrent Sharers At Colleges: This ought to make you happy to pay your Bookshare subscription. The Textbook Companies are going all out to stop file shares of their products. See the article below to know more.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-campus-copyright-battle-moves-to-textbook-torrents.html

Microsoft Equipt: I believe this was code named “Albany” last year. What is Equipt? Well it is a bundle of Windows Live OneCare, some Windows Live services and Office 2007 Home and Student Edition all in a single box. It also just so happens to be $70 a year. That’s right. A subscription based version of Office bundled with a Security Suite that you can run on three computers at once. Check the link to learn more.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080702-microsoft-equipt-a-software-bundle-costing-70-per-year.html

Windows Live Writer Hits Beta 3

It looks like this might be the last beta for the team. The new build has video plug in support native to the program. It also sports some new features for those who do that linking to 7 million other blogs/social sites like Twitter.

A word of warning though. The download now uses that new Windows Live Installer. It's something that I suggest you navigate carefully instead of just hitting next. The installer will allow you to install other Windows Live programs you may not want or use on your main system. You can just say no but at first I didn't get how the install process/screens worked. It's not hard. Just .. uh.. kinda odd.

Find out more and get the link to download the new beta from the Windows Live Writer Tame Blog here.

http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

Quick News: Windows Live Mail, Google Streets And 128 vs. 256 DRM Free

Windows Live Mail: Don't want to install the new beta? Here's a link from the Super Site For Windows with all you need to know about the new Windows Live Mail client.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winlive_mail.asp

Google: Ever stop to think about what your home may look like from the outside? I can't tell you the number of times I have heard stories about us blind folk taking it all off with the blinds, curtains or whatever wide open to the world. Now it looks like others have the same embarrassment with phots on Google's new 3D maps to boot. Here's a link to a contest to find the most .. revealing pictures on Google's new API.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/request_for_urb.html

iTunes: I thought this one was interesting. It's a test to see how 10 people can or can not tell between the quality of 128k versus 256k DRM free files. Plus it compares the average person's abilities to detect the qualities of both while wearing the stock ear buds along with some more expensive models.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/itunes_256_vs_128_bit

YESSS! Windows Live Writer Is Back.. Sort Of..

I used Windows Live Writer for a lot of my posts last year and I adored, no wait, loved it like mad. It's so WYSIWYG and simple to use. And I had very little problems with it for posting links and the like. Then Google did their changes to Blogger. I was forced to go back to MS Word, cut, copy and paste. Jeff just posted the links to the new Windows Live Mail, Messager and the 2.0 beta version of Writer. With fingers crossed I downloaded and installed this new version. And this post is the first from the new Writer.

I am still getting used to this new edition but so far I am smitten all over again.

Update: Some controls for my new design don't work as well. However Live Writer is still far and away better for quick posts or for times when I am on the road.

The New Windows Live Writer And This Test Post

Well I am a little behind the times but two current Beta tests have me dividing my time between posts. You have to admit the little posts here and there are better than the big honking ones every so often. Still I have seen some new CCTV units and I will try and put some thoughts down on what's new in the land of Humanware and GW Micro. For now humor me while I play with the new Blog creation program from Microsoft.