Microsoft Surface

Microsoft today released what is called Microsoft Surface. What is MS Surface? Think Minority Report.

Here are some videos:

Awesome, huh????!!! I want one of those!!!!!!!

I think that this is the most revolutionary thing Microsoft has done in a very long time.

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

This is a beautiful and sad song performed by Billie Holiday that I thought my readers should hear. Enjoy.

How to install the [actual] Windows Vista Sidebar in Windows XP (with tons of gadgets)

I have done it myself, and I would like to pass on this wonderful information to anyone who cannot afford Windows Vista. First, to get started, here is a video screencast:

If you don't believe I'm using XP, note the crappy vista start orb (the top is cut off).

OK, so here's how you do it.

First, install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=32BC1BEE-A3F9-4C13-9C99-220B62A191EE&displaylang=en

Then, install, if you don't already have it, the .NET Framework 3.0: http://www.fallingleafsystems.com/site_media/vaio/vaioxp_b2r3.4_feb02.zip. It will probably make you restart; do everything it tells you to do until it is fully installed. If you already have .NET 3.0, ignore this step.

Then, install, if you don't already have it, Internet Explorer 7: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx. It will probably ask you to restart at least once, so do everything it says until it is fully installed. If you already have IE7, ignore this step.

After that, install the Wireless LAN API: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=52A43BAB-DC4E-413F-AC71-158EFD1ADA50&displaylang=en

Then, install, if you don't already have it, Windows Media Player 11: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/download/download.aspx. If you already have WMP11, ignore this step.

Then, install VAIOXP; if you have Windows XP, go here: http://www.gcnaddict.com/mirror/vaio/vaioxp_b2r3.4_feb02.zip. If you have Windows Server 2003, go here: http://www.gcnaddict.com/mirror/vaio/vaio2003_b2r3.4_feb02.zip. It will mke you restart your computer possibly a few times; do everything it tells you to do!

Then, install some fonts: http://www.sokoolz.com/addons/r64/Ricks_VistaRTMFonts_AddOn_v1.1.7z

Then, finally, download and install the Vista RTM Sidebar: http://www.sokoolz.com/addons/r64/Ricks_VistaRTMSidebar_AddOn_v2.4.rar. You can unzip that using a free program like 7-Zip.

It will make you restart. Then, you can run it. Now some gadgets, like the clock, will look like crap. Therefore, run the following command in the Run (start>>run) box:

"%VAIOTOOLS%\regtlib" "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe"

When you restart the Windows Sidebar, the gadgets should show perfectly.

How to install new gadgets:

All the gadgets from the Windows Live Gallery site can be installed. They, however, are not as easy as one click.

When you download a gadget, you think you should be able to double-click on it, and it would install itself, but this is not the case. Here's how to do it.

First, open up Windows Explorer, and navigate to: C:\Program Files\Window Sidebar\Gadgets. If you have downloaded a .Gadget file to your desktop that is named HelloWorld.Gadget, create a folder in the Gadgets directory called HelloWorld.Gadget.

Then (you need 7-Zip for this, see above), right click the gadget file on your desktop. Hit the 7-Zip menu >> Open Archive. Then, select all the files in the archive, and drag them into the HelloWorld.Gadget directory you created under the Gadgets folder. Alternatively, you could hit Extract Files instead of Open Archive, and then selected the folder you created.

Finally, your gadget it installed!

One of the things you will like the most about the Windows Sidebar is the fact that when you use the Windows Live Search feature, instead of opening a browser window, it opens the search in a pull-out box, which can be enlarged (see the screencast above).

References:

1. http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=485
2. http://www.aeroxp.org/board/index.php?showtopic=8968&pid=100498&mode=threaded&start=0#entry100498
3. http://www.joejoe.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=2538
4. http://www.aeroxp.org/board/index.php?showtopic=7728

ViStart Beta 3 Video Screencast

Lucifiar from Windows X has released the third beta of his ViStart, a program which allows you to have a start menu like that of Windows Vista on your Windows XP.

Features include no huge unwieldy menu, really awesome, transparent interface, instant search of start menu items, and other cool stuff.

Here is a video screencast I created (turn up your speakers, full blast!):

 Enjoy!

Windows Vista did not steal ideas from Mac OS X!

Another great video, kind of old, but never gets old, if you know what I mean...

Vista Oops

Another funny video. Looks like speech recognition is not quite there...

Vista install in 2 minutes

Watch this hilarious video! It is really funny. I feel sorry for that guy.... :)

Ustream, Istream, WeAll Stream, or, ScobleCam: our final fall into narcissystem-atical insanity

That's right folks, we have finally reached the pinnacle of human insanity, exhibitionism, and voyeurism. A while ago (to be more exact, 27 days, nine hours, and 38 minutes ago), some guy named Justin started to broadcast his life over the internet through a webcam. Ever since, for every single minute and second in the day, there has been a webcam that people can watch through the internet.

What does this mean? Why on earth is this enjoyable to people? The only thing I can think of that would explain why people are watching someone's life through a webcam is that they are unsatisfied with the lives that they lea. They decide since they 'have no chance to make a difference', they will just watch someone else 'not making a difference'. This is insane.

I would say that it is narcissm (see Scoble's post, Nothing more boring than the "narcissystem") on the part of Justin and the like, thinking that people actually would want to watch his every movement, but he is right! So many people actually do want to watch his life, wasting away their own. This is insane.

Yesterday, Robert Scoble posted an article called ScobleCam coming?. In it, he introduced his testing of his own ScobleCam, which broadcasted for more than three hours. I believe that this trend could have been something that would just die off, because the majority of internet users (I hope) are smarter than to unproductively watch someone driving around in a car for hours. But Robert Scoble, possibly the foremost internet tech blogger, is in it, and that changes everything. Things like Ustream die, but not if they have extremely important people talking about them.

What is different about this and Twitter? Isn't this just a bigger, better, more visual version of Twitter? No. While this performs the basic purpose of Twitter (what am I doing, where am I doing it, etc.), this is pure evil, and Twitter isn't. Period. While with Twitter you can quickly scan through peoples tweets, and by having quick, 140char conversations, you can make a social connection, with things like Ustream (the site that hosts Scoble's cam), you sit there for a long time, waiting for something to happen. Just watching. Waisting time. For instance, if I were into watching these weird whatever.tv things, I would not have time to be blogging, or reading my feeds. This would cause me to be unproductive, and uninformed. Do we really need more unproductive, uninformed people?

What makes watching other people bad? If we feel the need to watch someone else's life unfold before us, we must have some sort of psychological problem. We must feel that we don't have an interesting enough life, so we resort to envying someone else's, and watching it. All day. This is just like all those really bad reality shows on Television, except they really are reality. Just wait, I bet there will be some commercial ones, where there is an actor playing the person on screen ($$$ADS$$$MONETISATION$$$$$).

What is so bad about broadcasting your own life? Of course, it is your decision. But by broadcasting your own life, 24-7, I think that you have to have some sort of psychological problem. The condition that people who watch your life have is called voyeurism, and the problem of people who broadcast their lives is called exhibitionism. Not only does this demonstrate the existance of a psychological problem, but it also could create a psychological problem. Having that many people watching you must feel like eyes, everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if this got popular, and we had an entire generation of schizophrenic youth. Being watched, you have to be careful about what you do, say, how you say it, who you are with, etc. It brings a whole new world of pressure into what once was reality.

So, readers, join me in not jumping into the pit of narcissystematical insanity.

Benjamin Bagby's Beowulf: Song in Old English!

Check out the following clip from Benjamin Bagby's breathtaking performances of Beowulf in the original Old English (Anglo-Saxon):

So cool.