This serious disease could be on the rise….

Sure, he was a little crazy but considering his upbringing, he never really had a chance for a normal life. now I dunno whether he was “naive and/or innocent” or a rock-spider but one thing I know for sure, he was a tortured soul and one of the finest dancers in the modern era..

I was not a big fan of the man himself, but I did enjoy his music, well his earlier stuff anyway. The last album I had was Black & White. One thing that I was always impressed with was his dancing. I still prefer to remember him for his music and his dance…

RIP Michael, may you finally find what you have been searching for…

this one was always my favourite..

and here is a mashup cut with Fred Astaire. Many call it plagarism, some call it inspiration, Whichever, it still show the talent that he has had…

and to show more of the fred Astaire Micheal Jackson connection..

I have now joined the program and installed it here on my home machine. The first few times I attempted an install, I was getting a failure code of  80070643 when attempting to install... The install then bombs out

Looking through the install log, located at “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Security Essentials\Support”,  I see this error

SI (s) (E0:1C) [19:17:10:808]: Note: 1: 1401 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\MSSE 3: 5
MSI (s) (E0:1C) [19:17:10:808]: Product: Microsoft Security Essentials -- Error 1406. Could not write value  to key \Software\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\MSSE.  System error .  Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.

It turns out that, obviously, the permissions on that key were incorrect. I couldn’t just set to inherit so I had to manually do some permissions updates and then rebooted. I then ran the install again and it ran all fine.

After the update, I ran my scans and it all came up good, nice to know… It is only taking up 3K of memory during activity, I'll see how it goes for scans, which honestly, I don’t do a lot of anyway. So It is off to a good start so far, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes once I really start ripping into some activities that may or may not be regarded as questionable.

So far my it has grabbed my interest. I will add it to a couple of older laptops I have that are running Windows 7 RC as well

Having completed (most of – damn flags) for Assassin’s Creed, I was looking for my next game. Fortunately, I had picked up some extra work for some beer money, just in time for the EB mid-year sales. Last year I picked up a bunch of games and this year was no different. I picked up the following

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
1. Have played this through on the PC already, just wanted to get it for the XBox because it is so damn good. I have already started this… it is taking me a while to adjust to controller. Also, doing it on veteran difficulty so plenty of dying…
2. BioShock
1. I had purchased this previously but when I finally went to play it, the disc was missing aaargh!
3. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
1. Well, I have all the others…
4. The Orange Box
1. I didn’t initially realise that it has Half-Life 2 and episode 1 in it as well, I had mainly got this for Portal. I must be one of the only people that consider themselves Gamers that hasn’t yet played HL2

How’s this for a job ad for Windows 8 Development… Whether or not he is already the there, it’s a great take on future Windows Development. I particularly like his take on the Libraries features. Could this be the WinFS functionality that has been such a pipe dream for so long?

I also like the grouping,m Like having the Favourite Stuff, like links, Music and others in the same spot.

Anyway, It sure has kicked of a bit of debate on speculation… well, perhaps a bit of a murmur if anything.

Thanks to Long for picking this up..

As you know, Windows 7 features a whole new bunch of lovely wallpapers. Also there are a bunch of wallpapers that are available for the various regional themes that can be applied to your PC. Currently, there is Australia, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa and the US. These are fantastic and really do wonders for a theme. Of course, in Windows 7 you can implement the desktop to run as a sllideshow and adjust the time that it changes. the intervals are from 10 seconds up to 1 day..

I have uploaded these wallpapers for download here if you want to grab a copy. It is great to see some Aussie colour in there. It isn’t often that we get localised content so it is good to see some at last…

Spend a small fortune advertising how cool you are and spin a web of bullshit about how bad the other guy is…

As you can see below, not exactly the most effective result from that campaign…

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Operating System Market Share

So I have made the leap from Using Vista and testing Windows 7 to using Windows 7 all the time. The delay wasn’t because Windows 7 wasn’t ready, more that I just hadn’t added the extra software required for me to  work day-to-day.

I am currently running Build 7057 and have alos installed Office 2007 as well as Vision and all the associated stuff like Adobe reader, Flash, Silverlight and all that.

I am yet to have any software issues and everything seems to be working wonderfully. Unfortunately, As it is a Virtual PC 2007 VM, I do not have the Aero capabilities enabled on this machine. It is a bit of a pit because that means no Aero Peek and all that but hey, this is a work tool after all…

Build 7057 looks pretty good. While there are all the change that have been well documented, I do like the subtle interface changes that have been added. Control Panel has a newer icon and some of the others seem to have been tidied up nad smoothed out a bit. I will no more as I start to use it more. I had been using Build 7000 for some time and that was very stable, prompting my first use of Windows 7 full-time.

Stay tuned for more…

This video looks great and really showcases the advancements that can be made in Manufacturing with a little technology and imagination.

Of course, I didn’t quite see the role of the Unions in that video, perhaps that is another sign of the future.

All of the video in this series always inspire me a little, keep the passion and the imagination going. We are a long way off these visions.. or are we?

All it takes will be a couple fo breakthroughs of design and engineering and we’ll be well on the way. it’ll then be up to us Techs and Geeks to spread the love..

Now this one is a bit closer to home, being employed in the Retail industry. Funny that she was able to get a trolley before entering the store… must have pulled it from her local creek.

I like the price adjustment  concepts, although I know how Prices go into systems and it is never that easy. The mistakes are bad enough already.

The electronic shelf labelling is fantastic and it would get rid of one of the biggest pain-in-the-arse parts of our system.

The one thing is missing that we struggle with know is the trader-crack showing on the Stock-boys and also the Luddites that are usually working at the stores…

Still, it would make my job easier if all stores ran this way…

Well, didn't this look fantastic. not a waiting list or a bureaucrat in site. I’m not sure I want my Exercise log ( or lack thereof) displayed up on the wall… what happens if someone walks in

However, I do like the hospital records and everything be there and accessible ( as long as privacy and security  concerns  are duly met) and that various doctors and specialists can ll get together and sort out what course of action is required.

At least the pharmacist will be able to read the prescription correctly.

P.S. How good is the e-Wallet at 3:20. you could kill time by seeing how quickly you scroll through your cards. You could also see how many scrolls you can get with a single swipe.

Well, this just depicts some kind of banking utopia where a bank wants to help me get on with my life and finance rather than just gouge me for every hard-earned dollar they possibly can…

Mind you there didn’t seem to be any lines there so it sure wasn't pension day… perhaps we’ve eliminated that.

Still, there are many positives to be seen. Mobile and online banking that provides you with useful banking information and services. Just because it doesn’t happen outside the US, doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for it…

At least it is something to aspire to..

I can’t help but wonder about these videos. The ideas, the concepts and the technology predictions… it falls into the SciFi vs. Inventors debate, as in who is influenced by whom.

This one encompasses a number of ways that we the future can be so much more with some good code and fantastic design and technology. It is interesting to see the increase of the role of design in technology…

The key technologies that I see most improved in this video is the Display technology, the battery technology, RFID integration and the most important technology that has to be invented before we reach this tech-topia…

Anti-fingerprint surfaces…

All that touching and I didn’t see a single smear, smudge or stickiness in sight. Now having worked on client PCs and Monitors for something, I know that this is still at the pipedream stage. I certainly can’t wait to see the day when I don’t have to carry around a bag of screen-cleaner and Phone-wipes with me whenever I go to fix a PC.

Be sure to check out the other videos in this series.

How is this for amazing… A Bat has been spotted attached to the Space Shuttle Discovery in it’s last launch… It was attached to the  External fuel tank (shown as the little red circle on the main pic) and spent the last moments of his life in a glorious ascent to the stars…

A poem made in the comments on the Giz story seemed so very appropriate

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Coulldn’t have summed up a better eulogy for the first bat in space…

EDIT: perhaps this would be more appropriate…

Like a bat out of hell
Ill be gone when the morning comes
When the night is over
Like a bat out of hell Ill be gone gone gone
Like a bat out of hell Ill be gone when the morning comes
When the day is done
And the sun goes down
And the moonlights shining through
Then like a sinner before the gates of heaven
Ill come crawling on back to you

(NASA via Gizmodo)

How nice is the new Dell Adamo laptop?! I love it.. Of course, I can never afford to buy it. After adding the Australia Tax, it is $3299 for a 2Gb version or $4299 for a 4Gb version (+ Mobile Broadband). No Vista Ultimate version either. The only upgrade is going from 1 year premier service to 2 or 3 years… eek.

Aside from the massive price, I’m not really in a position that would need an ultraportable, let alone a stunningly-designed ultraportable. My laptop gets hauled from the car to the lift and then to my desk and back to the car again…

So I’m still sticking with my current weapon of choice, the Dell XPS 1530, which is sadly no longer available. It has been replaced by the XPS Studio series now. I’m not sure that it is a big improvement, just a screen size and design change… After all, Mine is still handling my requirements just perfectly, including my running my VM’s as I need them.

It will be interesting when the release version of Windows 7 ius out as I will change the Host OS to that and be able to boot into my existing VHD images as required… That should make it a little easier to handle..

Man have we been swamped by advertising for this election. I cannot escape it!! every TV show ad break will have a Labor Ad in it and every show will have at least LNP ad in it. So far I reckon it has been 5:1 ration of Labor to LNP advertising. I wonder where all that money is coming from, considering that Labor is stating that Clive Palmer has “bought the LNP party” after making an as-yet-undisclosed donation. I don’t reckon any politician wants too much investigation into political donations. It is worse now as Labor has now seeped into the MSN advertising and also those annoying admedia ads that pop open the video ad without you even doing a mouse-over… So Online,Print,  Radio, TV advertising. Of course each ad has a different website so they can measure the effectivemess of each ad and tell whether the message is getting across.

The worse thing is that there are only one from each side that actually espouses what the Party is for. There is absolutely no mention of any of the candidates for my local area at all. I had to go to the AEC to find out my local member. The only reason I know the other guy is because Labor complained that an 18 year old cannot represent me… Well, at least I know his name!..

This dumbing-down of the election is a dangerous precedent.. It started with the Kevin07 froth and bubble campaign and now it has spread to this scourge of an advertising blitz… I want to know who my local members are and where they stand on local issues. Who is going to fix the rail crossing that paralyzes my local shops every 15 minutes when a train comes. Who is going to make sure that nothing encroaches on the priceless parklands just around the corner from my place…

All we get are the same old promises from a government that couldn't manage to build or improve anything during our greatest resources boom and then rack up record debt to build overdue infrastructure upgrades in the bad times… the opposition fares little better, completely marginalised by 11 years of ineffective party strategy and they only stopped fighting ( on the outside) six months ago…

And people wonder why the general population has no faith in the practical application of democracy any more.. One man holds up the possibility for a national Alco-pop tax, another single man holds up the possibility of adding a R18+ rating for Games in Australia. Where is the democracy in that?

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job; however, is the changing political landscape in this country. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Subaru Outback outside. You’ve seen my big home at last year’s Christmas party. I’m sure all these flashy icons if luxury conjure up some idealised thoughts about my life. However, what you don’t see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 2 bedroom flat for 3 years. My entire living area was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you. My diet consisted of baked beans, stew and soup because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a wonky
transmission. I didn’t have time to go out with women. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business—hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50,000 a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the David Jones for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling
through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70’s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden—the nice house, the Subaru, the vacations… you never realise the back story and the sacrifices I’ve made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their pay suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you
why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough.

I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a accountant to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a cheque to the Australian tax Office for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” cheque was? Zero. Zip. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare cheque?

Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your pay you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is
in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don’t understand .... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had the government suddenly mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Canberra black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.
When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of Australia and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. But the power brokers in Canberra believe the poor of Australia are the essential drivers of the Australian economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this? It’s quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your 4WD and your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t my problem any more. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalises the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a politicians that swept through this country changed its financial landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about....

Signed,
Your boss

There are many ways the government could stimulate the economy:

1. STOP giving the bludgers more money to buy drugs and grog
2. Raise the personal tax threshold to $15,000 this gives everyone more money
3. Reduce GST to 5%
4. Give industry a boost to keep employment by cutting Taxes
5. Give bonuses to businesses to employ apprentices it’s cheaper to spend the money to give to business than to keep bludgers on the dole !  ! 

These decisions won’t win immediate votes, won’t cater to populist beliefs and won’t appease the lefties… but it would work. Try asking Japan how cash stimulus packages work for the economy.

Long Zheng, from the istartedsomething blog  and regular breaker of Windows news, has taken up the challenge to explain why the new Windows Mobile start menu is made of hexagonal cells.

The hexagonal design has been met by derision by many, but Long explains that this design is in fact the best way to maximize the surface area available to touch each icon while at the same time maximizing the number of icons on the screen.  While 9 icons could have been in screen instead of 8 if a grid was used, our fingers are not square-shaped, and accidental finger-presses would be more common.

I can see the concept, unlike so many in the comments, and totally agree with Long’s closing line:

So the next time you see something new and shiny from Microsoft, before you dismiss it for a poor clone of an existing product or idea, just remember there might be a possibility, the slightest possibility, that some thought and reasoning is behind the decision.

Read the full blog post at istartedsomething.com, which includes a more detailed explanation and more graphics.