My 5 Cents Worth

5c Worth - Touché (New Mac PC Ad's)

2006-06-14T09:12:00.000+09:30

Absolutely the best series of Ad's that Apple have ever done! (-:

The best one of the lot must be "Touché" but they are all great and quite funny really.

I wish that one day Microsoft could make clever and funny ad's, but I guess that's just not Microsoft's "Corporate Style". I guess.

5c Worth - Teddy Bear USB Drive

2006-06-14T07:30:00.000+09:30

Isnt this just a great USB Drive? (-: LOL I want one. Actually I want two. Now this is innovation!

5cWorth Rating: 4LOL's / 5

5c Worth - Ed Bott and Windows Vista Beta 2

2006-06-13T17:51:00.000+09:30

Oh God. Chris Pirillo is the UI God and I am his desciple.

I thought I was the only person out there - and a handful of other Beta Testers that actually found these fundumentally flawed UI issues.

You must listen to this. Yes it's a long podcast but its worth every MB!

Please Microsoft. Employ me. I will make sure that the UI is and fit and finish is done right.

The UI in Vista is nothing more than a $2 hooker compared to the works done by Apple and Co in OSX.

I vote - Service Pack for UI!!!!! You rock Chris Pirillo.

5c Worth - Upper "Left Side" Menu exists in Explorer

2006-06-13T15:19:00.000+09:30

... but there is no icon or other graphical representation that it exists.

A little more fit and finish to go I think...

You know. The more I "test" Windows Vista the more big and small problems I come up with.
Question to Microsoft: Are you sure this is beta 2? Because when you released Windows XP Beta 2; it was basically fine to use full time on my PC's. I can't say the same for Vista.

5c Worth - Doctor Fun is over. That's a good thing!

2006-06-13T14:01:00.000+09:30

I used to really enjoy reading Doctor Fun but in the last few months it's really gone down hill. It's just too weird and just not funny anymore. Anyway - after 10 years of Dr Fun Cartoons - its over!

And here, the last ever Dr Fun. Proof - if we ever needed it, that Dr Fun lost the plot.

What????!!

5c Worth - Office 2007. Looks as good on Vista as on XP

2006-06-13T13:54:00.000+09:30

IMHO. And probably not worth even 5c. But it's my blog and I want to say or congratulate the Office 2007 Team for a job well done!

Office 2007 is a slick piece of software and I'm really impressed that Office 2007 looks and works just as well on Windows Vista (Beta 2) as it does on Windows XP (SP2).

This version of Office is already a "must have" and I wouldn't be without it. Great software!

^Looks really smart on ol' Windows XP

^Very impressive anlthough a little too "transparenty" in Windows Vista.

I would award Office 2007 "5c Worth - Most innovative software product" for 2006!

5c Worth - Office 2007 to bring back "left-side close"

2006-06-13T13:18:00.000+09:30

From: Jensen Harris - You Windows 3.1 Lovers!

Great news!

...We removed left-side close as a planned experiment. If people could get used to closing on the right side, we'd be better off because there wouldn't be two ways of doing the same simple action. Clearly if we were building a new window manager from scratch with no pre-existing users, we would only have one way to close windows.

But, of course, we have hundreds of millions of users, many of which (like me) literally have left-side close burned into the lower levels of our brain stem, along with breathing and keeping the heart beating. Honestly, I can seem to relearn anything except for this.

Nonetheless, we tried taking this out--we shipped Beta 1 Technical Refresh and Beta 2 this way and waited for feedback. Could people adapt? Not really, as it turns out.

Honestly, we knew all along that there was a strong possibility we would have to find a way to add this functionality back. It was worth a shot, but in the end, creating an affordance for left-side closing eliminates one huge annoyance that stands in the way of some people's enjoyment of the product...

I've been a Windows user since V3.0 and I can understand the frustration of having the "left-side close" abruptly removed in Office 2007. It is refreshing to read Jensens Blog and actually see Microsoft caring about what customers want. I wish the Team behind Vista took some notes from the Office Team at Microsoft.

5c Joke - An Australian ventriloquist visiting NZ

2006-06-13T10:22:00.000+09:30

An Australian ventriloquist visiting New Zealand, walks into
a small village and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his dog.

He figures he'll have a little fun, so he says to the
Kiwi "G'day, mind if I talk to your dog?"

Villager: "The dog doesn't talk, you stupid Aussie."

Ventriloquist: "Hello dog, how's it going mate?"

Dog: "Doin' all right."

Kiwi: (look of extreme shock)

Ventriloquist: "Is this villager your owner?" (pointing at
the villager)

Dog: "Yep"

Ventriloquist: "How does he treat you?"

Dog: "Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food
and takes me to the lake once a week to play."

Kiwi: (look of utter disbelief)

Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your horse?"

Kiwi: "Uh, the horse doesn't talk either....I think."

Ventriloquist: "Hey horse, how's it going?"

Horse: "Cool"

Kiwi: (absolutely dumbfounded)

Ventriloquist: "Is this your owner?" (pointing at the
villager)

Horse: "Yep"

Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?

Horse: "Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly,

brushes me down often and keeps me in the barn to protect me
from the elements."

Kiwi: (total look of amazement)

Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your sheep?"

Kiwi: (in a panic) "The sheep's a liar."

Funny - I give it 4.5/5 :)

My First 5c Worth. Vista Beta 2 Release.

2006-06-13T09:53:00.000+09:30

Got my beta 2, installed it.

Not all my hardware is supported.

-QuickCam Communicate STX (Promised by Microsoft this would be fixed three CTP's ago.

-SoundBlaster Audigy 2 (As always it's "Creative's Problem")

A lot of my software does not work.

-Nero 6 "Reloaded" / 6.6.1.4

-Alcohol 120% / 1.9.5.3823

-Firefox 1.5.0.4 cannot install addons

the list goes on. But a lot of games work badly or not at all too.

But my biggest problem is with the look of Vista.

It's a bastard child of XP and Transparency. Seriously confused design. What is the point of all the transparencies.

Yes. They do look half nice, but really, its just not justified and eats up resources like crazy.

There is one more gripe that I have on the Vista transparency. The "streak" that goes through it, seriously now, it looks damn ugly when there is a large transparent area - like the gadget application. Seriously, I want Streak free Windows Please!!

No transparency? You still get "Streaks"!

Transparency? You still get "Streaks"! Either way, just can't get rid of those "streaks". Windex for Windows anyone?

There is a total lack of uniformity with toolbars.
Start Windows Defefender, Start Explorer, Start Calendar, Start Mail and lastly Start Paint.
What happened with user interface uniformity Microsoft? Look at the toolbars of each.
Some have ribbon bars. Many don't. Then some programes like Paint have no ribbon bar at all.

Go to add new fonts. There, a Windows 3.1 interface for adding fonts.

Windows 3.1 Lives in Vista

Look in Tools and Folder options - Non Vista styled design.

9x is still there.

Active Window? Can you tell which one is the active Window quickly! Try, you have a 50% chance of getting it right!

So how did you go?

There is only one way of telling, the red "x" - it's only active on the active window!

UAC - Don't get me started.

Then check your memory and resource usage. After restart my x86 build uses around 530MB of RAM from my 1GB PC and I'm running nothing but Windows.
This is a very poor release for Beta 2.

If this what Vista is going to be and what Microsoft has invisioned for the future of Windows; I have got to rethink. As a customer and an enthusiast I expected something special. What I got is nothing special.

What do you think?

I think that Vista should be delayed until Q3, 2007 and released when its really ready. Not when marketing think its ready.

I certainly am not ready or wanting to upgrade to Vista from what I see.

I give Vista Beta 2 a score of 4 out of 10. Let's see what RC1 brings. Miracles anyone?!