I’ve had a new Treo 650 on the Verizon network for a few days now. I’ll write up a review in a few weeks once I figure this gadget out. First impressions are that it makes a great PDA but the phone features take a backseat. There are definately some trade-offs, but it might be worth it once I figure out a few shortcuts to the basic phone features.

I called Kim from the store tonight to figure out what I needed to buy and it was nice to be able to talk on speakerphone and jot down milk and Diet Cherry Coke. I would normally arrive home with a dozen random items, none of which on the list of stuff I was sent to buy.

I’ve clicked on maybe two….ever. I know Google is minting cash with Adwords. But I’ve only clicked on a Google ad maybe once or twice. I even remember the time: when I was looking for an Exchange hosting company and found MailStreet.com.

Who are all these people who click on Google ads? Are they just not able to find what they need sifting through normal search results? I don’t get it.

Even if you don’t like Rush, it’s worth seeing Peart on the drums starting around 2:30 into the video. Simply amazing talent. I’ve liked Rush for many years and it’s still kind of shock to see all that music coming from only a three member band. Great tune!
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I enjoyed a number of these posters from at Tropichunt which will be confusing unless you’re a fan of “24”.

Think you’re good at tossing wads of paper in the trash? Let’s see.

I don’t know why I laugh each time I hear the ad for Jareds (Jewelers) on the radio but I do. It has something to do with the name which doesn’t seem to match the sophisticated merchandise they carry. I don’t doubt that Jareds has a nice selection of rings but I wonder how many people in the market for a wedding ring don’t want to purchase an expensive diamond at a store that sounds like a one person operation run out of a basement. I’m sure their stores are nice as well but Jareds sounds more like the name of a sports bar.

With companies like Zales, Tiffany & Co, and Bailey Banks and Biddle going with a more sophisticated name and target demographic, maybe Jared’s is trying the opposite approach and catering to a group who want to shop a more down-to-earth, folksy jeweler.

I wish this guy would come on the Sounder Train one morning.
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Not to be outdone by J. Allard and his wacky comments on the iPod, Microsoft VP, Peter Moore had this to say about Nintendo Wii:

“I think you’ll pull it out at parties. It’s fun for a few minutes, but I’m not sure how long that will last.”

I guess these Microsoft bigwigs have never played Mario or Zelda or many of the games available only on the Nintendo platform. The more they talk, the more clueless they appear. Any product that Microsoft VPs have dissed is certain to be a great product. It sounds like Microsoft is worried the Wii is going to trounce them this holiday season, doesn’t it? The only reason I’d consider buying an Xbox would be to hack it into a Linux media player.

Full article link.

J Allard as quoted in Business Week: “The iPod is the Palm or the Model T of digital music”

I’m really surprised to hear this coming from the guy who brought Xbox to life. It’s hard to imagine he’s really that brazen given Microsoft’s track record in creating successful hardware products. There’s nothing in Vista, Media Center or past music initiatives that makes me believe the upcoming Zune will be a success. And it just won’t have the coolness factor that draws so many people to the iPod. Who cares about the wi-fi capabilities of the Zune if all your friends carry iPods?

I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my primary computer a week ago. Here are my impressions along with my machine specs. AMD X2 4400+ chip, Nvidia 6600 GT graphics, SATA2 Drives, 2 GB DDR memory, Creative X-Fi soundcard, No RAID or anything exotic.

The Good:

• The Vista Upgrade Advisor worked as advertised. It told me that Nero had to be uninstalled before the install and I’d need to find beta drivers for my soundcard and graphics card, but that both would work.
• The installation is quite fast and doesn’t require much input.
• It feels as fast if not faster than Windows XP Pro.
• It found all drivers except those noted above, even those for our three printers.
• The interface feels a lot more polished than XP.
• The new Windows Photo Gallery is great for those who don’t use Picassa.
• All my programs (except Nero) seem to run just fine under Vista.
• Setting up a home network is as easy as walking through a simple wizard.
• The Sidebar is pretty slick but could use more Gadgets.
• It just looks really good compared to XP. The colors, shading and icons look great.
• The more robust imaging features are sweet. You can now image an entire drive for backup or just individual folders and files. This isn’t a well know feature but it’s very welcome for those who (over)extend their computers.
• It’s more intelligent. When I tried to copy over some pictures with the same name, Vista asked me if it should rename those pictures I was trying to copy over to the same directory. Very simple but well thought out.
• Pictures dragged to the desktop show a tiny thumbnail of that very picture. No more guessing by file name.

The Bad:

• Way too many system warnings until I disabled “User Account Control”
• Good luck finding the “Add/Remove Programs” area. Why change the name now?
• Lack of customization for individual folders (Can I put a “delete” cross on the menu, please?)
• The Web UI taken a bit too far in places. Do we really need everything to look like a web browser? Moving back and forward within folders could be made easier.
• Internet Explorer is still lame but Firefox runs just fine. Thank goodness!
• Strange behavior for some start menu items. I don’t know why I can delete some program folders without a problem yet some require I empty the folder before I delete it.
• Disk Defrag takes forever. Could be a problem with my drives but I doubt it.

The Ugly:

• Having dealt with past upgrade nightmares, I should have known that trying to upgrade from Windows XP would be a major pain in the butt. On three separate occasions, Vista would appear to install just fine but on initial boot up, the system would hang before getting to the login screen. No errors or anything. Starting with a fresh install solved the problem but I feel bad for those that are planning for a simple upgrade from XP.