No.. I don't want to join!

So this is another annoying Microsoft thing with Vista - They ask you if you want to share usage information with Microsoft on your computer usage and other stuff. But the OK button is disabled.. So in order to say No, I have to first say Yes and then say No to enable the OK button... then you hit OK and have to elevate the decision to the system administrator to allow and confirm that you really didn't want to join.

I had to decline this "great offer" once when installing Vista, and now again after installing Service Pack 1. Not only is it hard to say "No" but you have to say it multiple times - awesome...

Excel as a 3D Graphics Engine

This was just too crazy to pass up.. this guy has way too much time on his hands... and I probably have way too much time on my hands to have tested his code ...which by the way is a lot slower to render on Office 2007..

Read the full article here.

Installing SP1..

I decided to install SP1 today after a frustrating couple days dealing with Vista issues I'm told are resolved in the latest Service Pack.. The most frustrating of all being how slow "File Copy" operations are in Vista.. I was copying files both on my own computer hard drive and across the network - both ridiculously slow in Vista.

Later in the day I gave a demo presentation and ran into a few issues with Vista's "smart" projector output sensing.. which I read was worked on in SP1.


SP1 should be out on Windows Update later this month.. I was going to hold off and go that route.. but since I have it available I figured why not.. ideally SP1 will solve the problems I've been dealing with.. worst case scenario I'll install ubuntu until Vienna comes out.

Construction Begins..

After shopping around for a console table to fit my turntables I realized I was on my own unless I wanted to spend upwards from $600.

My new goal: < $200

Europe is a country ... and they speak french there.

This has to be fake... There's no way.

Top knotch service...

There's a few credit cards I hardly ever use so I don't even carry them with me. I decided today to redeem any points and close them...

I call the service center and they ask me for the account number. The conversation went something like this -

alex: I don't have it with me ...
rep: let's see I can pull it up with your social, can I get your social security number?
alex: yeah, it's ###-##-####
rep: ok, I'll be right back..
(20 seconds later)
rep: alright mr talarico - can I get the last four of your social to verify your account?
alex: uh... ####
rep: thanks, how can I help you today?

... so, as you can see they have great security measures in place at compass bank as well.

awkward car back-up camera system

Imagine how flat out awkward and confusing it would be if you were backing up your car one morning when all of a sudden you see a young mother kissing her baby as illustrated above...
what were they thinking!? *

* My best guess is the graphic designer in charge of the box didn't bother reading and figured this was going to be a digital camera..

No Passengers Allowed in the Turbine. Thank you.

Is this warning really necessary?

Windows at the Wynn

Windows errors are following me around...

I walked up to an information booth at the Wynn. I touch the screen and get greeted by a script runtime error.

aptera to toyota: all your base are belong to us

I recently read that aptera is taking preorders for their new electric cars... if you never heard of an aptera car it's cause there arent any yet :)

This car looks beyond futuristic, it looks plain odd. The company expects to have it out on the streets by the end of 2008.

They range in price from 26k to 30k.. that's about the price of a prius and this ride gets you up to 300 miles per gallon, or two hours on electric only models. wow.

I just wanted to get the word out since most people I know probably never heard of this upcoming car company..