Ever since Windows 7 was released I’ve been running it on my MacPro for gaming. I have 2×1TB hard drives for my Mac side, but I’m only using 2×180GB drives for Windows. Not exactly horrible, but with all the gaming madness I’ve been stricken with I’m actually juggling drive space often and I really need to buy another TB drive for Windows eventually, I guess.
But that’s not what I’m writing about here. Windows 7 is good. I hate to admit it, but it is. I was okay with Windows XP. Like every sane person, I despised Vista. Games run AWESOME in Windows 7. The interface for the OS is nice. However, out of curiosity (I just misspelled “curiosity”, Windows told me so, but didn’t offer the correct spelling, doh! Big minus points there!), just to see how useful and comfortable Windows 7 is for me, I’ve tried to push it further by doing web dev and other things while in the Windows environment. I can’t do it.
Photoshop in Windows? Nope. It’s so close to being the same but it’s not. Notepad++ and Sublime Text are great editors, but neither compare to TextMate. Windows 7 achieves so much but yet falters with it’s little things that drive me crazy. I hate the start menu. I try to use Launchy, but it’s no QuickSilver or LaunchBar or Butler. Internet Explorer sucks. So, I tried Safari for a while. It’s not bad in Windows, but I’ve found myself using Chrome when I never use Chrome in Mac OS X. Chrome works. Well, not for Super Farkle on FaceBook, but I can forgive it that since I can open an IE tab in Chrome for gaming.
Windows 7 is awesome for gaming. It’s pretty. But it’s still no where near as nice as Mac OS X. Will Microsoft ever get me to switch back? Maybe. Windows 8? We’ll see. But it’s unlikely.
Popularity: 1% [?]
After Apple announced the Magic Mouse a fews months back, my interest was seriously piqued. I never was fond of the one-time named Mighty Mouse with its little scroll ball, but the Magic Mouse looks and sounded like it would be a great mouse. I finally had a chance a few weeks ago to try one out and yep, it’s a nifty piece of hardware. I love the shape, the weight and all the sweet features of the multi-touch Magic Mouse. Being able to click anywhere, scroll in any direction, and swipe through images on its smooth, seamless top shell really makes the mouse magical. The price is a bit much at $69.00, but it’s not ridiculous for what the mouse is capable of.
I’m currently using a Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000, which is alright, but I really am jealous of those with the Apple Magic Mouse. Soon, I tell myself, soon. Just like the ~23″ HD LCD display I want, the XBOX 360 and everything else on my want list. Soon. Yeah.
Popularity: 1% [?]
So I’m fixing up a two year old Dell Dimension 4400 with Windows XP Home for a co-worker of Christina’s. He’s had it sitting in a closet for most of that two years because his daughter had allowed so much junk to be installed on it that it wasn’t stable any more.
I didn’t hear Christina the other day when she said he wanted it completely wiped with a fresh install. So I downloaded a BootCD system repair package deal and started at it. See, if I booted his computer in its current state it would freak out because it wasn’t online. He had so many trojans and non-such trying to contact someone or something that the system was completely overloaded. And something kept crashing some service and a window would pop up informing me “system shutdown in 60 seconds” a few minutes into every boot. So I tried the BootCD… and ran Ad-Aware. OMGIGE (Oh My God It’s Going to Expload)! Ad-Aware found nearly 300 critical problems. Not just cookies or little minor things… I’m not counting those.
I tried McAfee Anti-Virus next. After 30 minutes… I gave up. The system was so infected with so many different things his system wasn’t ever going to work after everything McAfee was finished cleaning and deleting.
This is where Christina reminds me that he just wanted a wiped and fresh install. YEA!!!!! So I pop in the little Dell Operating System CD (so cute, it’s not labeled Windows XP… it’s labeled “Operating System”) and go through the process of wiping his drive and installing Windows XP clean. It does that pretty smoothly and quickly enough.
But then comes the driver updates, hotfixes, service packs, etc. I left it to its own at the point last night and went to bed. I also left it running smoothly with the latest nVidia graphics drivers.
This morning… I’m looking at 4bit color and it’s throwing fits about the screen resolution. I was able to rollback the driver but come on Microsoft, why did you UPDATE the graphics driver from 2006 to one from 2003? You know better than nVidia? Or me… the current end user?
Of course you do.
Everything is back in order and I’m installing AVG Anti-Virus trial on his system once it finally gets the remaining updates from Microsoft. I’d put Ad-Aware on there too but I’m not sure if he or his family would know when to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to inquiries from Ad-Aware about what it discovers in scans. It really can be a bit confusing some times.
With all of this, again and again I’m reminded, it’s why I love my oh so sweet Mac, even when it’s going on six years now. Imagine running Vista on a six year old PC. Bahaha.
Popularity: 60% [?]
I posted a while back about switching the CTRL and ALT keys on a PC keyboard when used with a Mac. It’s easier now with Leopard.
Open up Keyboard & Mouse in the System Preferences and then click on the Modifier Keys. You can also disable the Caps Lock key while you’re there, or set it to be a 2nd CTRL, OPTION, or COMMAND key.
Popularity: 23% [?]
I used to keep up with everything on everybody in the console gaming business. It was my job so whether I enjoyed it or not (and thankfully, I did.. most of the time) I had to know what was going on. One thing I have always thought to be humorous is the way hardcore gamers consider themselves to be the primary factor for game publishers. Forget that we’re only a miniscule part of the market. Forget that we’re only a drop in the bucket when it comes to profits. Hardcore gamers rule the roost. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But hardcore gamers seem to always live in their own little world on all sorts of levels.
What matters is what sells at Wal-Mart. Follow by all the others: Circuit City, Best Buy, Target, etc (not necessarily in that order) and then the shops like EB Games/Gamestop (are casual gamers even aware that these two are now one and the same?). Who shops at Wal-Mart and the other non-gaming specific stores? Casual gamers. And they decide what’s big. Not the hardcore gamers. Price always plays a huge role in what casual gamers buy. So while hardcore gamers all know the specs for the XBOX 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii (pronounced ‘We’) and release dates for game titles through 2007… the casual gamers don’t. They just see what’s there in a neat little package in the glass case in front of them. The system brands will have some sway on consumers, but the price shock will deter most. Huh? Price shock?
MIcrosoft XBOX 360 recently launched at *$300/$400
Sony PlayStation 3 launches this weekend at *$500/$600
NIntendo Will launches this weekend at $250
* stripped down versions
But whatever. I’m just in this for the games. I’m one who buys whatever console I need to play the games I like. I grew up on Nintendo but never had any second thoughts about buying PlayStations, XBoxen or those no longer in the console hardware business (sniff, we miss you Sega). However, I now have a family, I have bills.. and with the new generation of hardware costing ~$1300 (I’m not even counting accessories or games) .. it’s the first time I wont have all of the new systems within a few months of each launch. That’s about $500 more than the last gen launch prices. Ouch! Eventually, I may have all three. But only after the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 drop in price– about $200-300 each. Maybe in 2008?
So.. maybe the “real” hardcore gamers will camp out to get in line for the latest at top price but Wii all know what’s going to be the biggest seller this Christmas. I, for one, can’t wait.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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