Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Friday, February 23, 2007
Yeah, I didn't update yesterday. My bad. And tonight will be short. The creative problem solving tournament is tomorrow, so I'm busy herding cats teenagers.
So, how about a quick update or two?
I'm still digging into Vista Sidebar gadgets and am experiencing much frustration. This is something I put down to my lack of JavaScript skills. Had I been doing this in ASP.Net, I'd have hacked it out in an hour or two.
Oh, well. I'm learning quite a bit.
I've also discovered some other bizarre things, some wonderful and some crappy. On the wonderful front, I love being able to do a CTRL-Z to undo a delete in the File Manager. I also found that they've fixed the pesky envelope icon in Outlook. Now if a message hits the spam folder the icon doesn't stay in the Taskbar unless there's also legitimate mail in the Inbox. Yes! The nasty bit I discovered today when trying to install Adobe Reader. It requires User Access Control to be turned on. The workaround is to run the setup in Compatibility Mode.
To run a program in Compatibility Mode right click on the EXE file and select Properties, then the Compatibility tab. If you upgrade to Vista or get a new computer you'll probably run into some issues with programs that don't run right. Compatibility Mode should fix many programs.
I think I have all of my important stuff restored now. I found where my invoices were hiding out just a few minutes ago, then I got all the fonts moved over. I still need to get SQL Server installed, but I can't find the CD. I know it's in the black hole on the desk somewhere. It'll turn up. But I do need it for web development.
Okay, that brings to mind one other frustration feature of Vista that drives me up the wall: The security restrictions. I want a checkbox that says, "I am a geek. Damn the consequences, I'll take full responsibility if something goes wrong. Just let me have total control over my computer. Programmers need this sort of thing. I hope that I'll figure out the magic incantations as time goes on. I mean why set the Temp folder as read only? How do you empty it out? I'm sure I'll figure it out.
I'll post Feline Friday, then it's back to the trenches. Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.
Oh, and I'll get to the RRs soon. I'm behind again with the tournament and all.
Tags: Writing, Windows Vista, Life