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As an IT guy, there are software programs out there that are a pain to install and maintain. As someone who uses computers, there are certain programs that make me want to pull my hair out. Programs that deserve a special place in hell… programs written by Satan himself. And here’s a quick list of them:

1) Windows Vista – Several years ago, several stunning “proof of concept” videos began leaking out of Microsoft’s headquarters. They were breathtaking. They made geeks like me salivate. They were the first glimpses of Windows Vista, and they were awesome. Sadly, Microsoft began cutting features from Vista – so much so that Vista went from “an operating system from the future” to “just a little upgrade from Windows XP”. And sadly, Vista fails in this aspect. It fails badly. Windows 2000 was a huge upgrade from Windows NT. Windows XP was a huge upgrade from Windows 2000. Upgrading to Vista seems like a huge step backwards for a lot of people… and in a sense it is. In my experience, Vista requires an 8-way quad-core system with 36GB of RAM just to work as well as a 1.5GHz P4 with 512MB of RAM running Windows XP.

What makes it all so sad is that there’s a lot to like about Vista. Explorer has had a much-needed face lift, and Vista’s icons are much more pleasing to the eye than XPs’. The built-in search feature is nice, as is the inclusion of Shadow Copies. Microsoft did a lot of worthwhile work under the hood – specifically, with DirectX and Desktop Window Manager – but the implementation of that work – Windows Vista – just sucks.

2) Adobe Acrobat – If I had to choose between living in a world without Osama Bin Laden or Adobe Acrobat, I’d choose the world without Acrobat… hands down! When people call Acrobat an “800 pound gorilla” it’s not a compliment to Adobe’s coding or marketing teams. The program really is an 800 pound gorilla – with all the grace of a brontosaurus thrown in for good measure. Acrobat takes forever to load of most people’s systems, when it’s not busy crashing Internet Explorer or Firefox. Previous Acrobat updates have taken 4 reboots to complete. Sadly, although there are alternatives to Acrobat, most of them suck for various reasons. FoxIt, for example, looks and acts like a Windows 95 program, and (most importantly) doesn’t render all PDFs correctly. If I could rid the world of Abobe Acrobat, I would.

Continue reading “5 Annoying “Programs””

Well, Christmas has come and gone. While I would have liked to have written this post a few days earlier, I’ve been busy with cleaning out my closet, going to parties, and several other things. However, as I type this post up, I’m doing so while looking at my new baby:

Yep, that’s a 22″ widescreen LCD monitor. It’s AWESOME! I feel like I’m sitting down as a space commander or something! EVen though my previous monitor was a 19″ SGI CRT, this one feels so much bigger than the old one! It’s HUGE in comparison! So I finally entered the 21st century with this new monitor, and for that I say “Thank you, Grandma!!!”

My folks also got me an authentic Hines Ward throwback jersey:

That’s pretty awesome! I have “replica” jerseys from Jack Lambert and Jerome Bettis, as well as an authentic Terry Bradshaw throwback jersey (that’s a bit too snug these days), so I’m excited to have a jersey from an active Steelers player… and one who is a Super Bowl MVP at that!

My folks also got me this t-shirt from founditemclothing.com. It’s a painstakingly accurate replica of the “I Love Toxic Waste” t-shirt Val Kilmer wore in Real Genius:

It’s friggin’ awesome! If you’re a fan of 80s movies, you’ll really want to check out founditemclothing.com’s site. They’ve done a lot of work in replicating some of the shirts from your favorite 80s films – like Caddyshack, Repo Man and Beverly Hills Cop – as well as shirts from newer films like Shawn of the Dead and The Big Lebowski.

I got several other presents too. Maybe they lack the “fun” of the previous presents… but that doesn’t mean they won’t be used or appreciated. My sister and brother-in-law got me a new belt, which was much needed and will be worn every day. They also got me Like An Icon, the new book about Madonna. I’ll be getting into that in the next few days.

But then there’s my “favorite present”. It’s hard to pick a “favorite present”. Sometimes you get things like a new belt or some new boots; these things lack a “Wow factor”, but you end up using them all the time. Then there’s things like a new vegetable peeler or flashlight. They’re inexpensive gifts, but often last for years. So when you pick them up five years later, you’re like “Man, my sister got me this for Christmas back in 2002!”, so there’s an endearing charm to them.

But then there are the things that people get for you that caused them a fair amount of grief. For the past couple of years I’ve put “British candy and cheeses” on my Christmas list. And my folks have come through with a handful of British candy bars and a hunk of Stilton and Cheshire, or whatever British cheeses were readily available at the grocery store. But this year, my Dad saw the “British candy and cheeses” on my list and decided to do something about it. I opened up this huge box and found it jammed full of delicious British treats:

 

I think that this is my favorite gift, mainly because my Dad read my list and took the time to track down a British food store in Atlanta. My Pop loaded me up! In addition to the huge box of candy pictured above, he also got me a galaxy of British cheeses, from Double Gloucester and Cheshire, to two types of Cheddar, Stilton and Wensleydale. Even though I always put “British candy and cheese” on my Christmas list (because I always eat it all!), he felt that I had been slighted in this regard, and it was so sweet that he tracked down a British food store just to hook me up! I don’t feel guilty, though: my Dad owned a wholesale food store in Atlanta for years, and I know that he can spend hours in exotic food stores. So he probably had fun just browsing the aisles!

Thanks to everyone for making this Christmas so special!