Okay, so have any of you seen the new ad campaign for Vista? It shows a bunch of people using Vista only Microsoft tells the people using it that it is a new OS called Mojave. Sure enough, everyone likes it. It’s faster, it has cool features, gadgets are cool, blah blah blah. Then Microsoft tells them it is Vista and no one can believe it. I was going to write a blog about that very thing but then Microsoft beat me to it.

I’ll come out and say that I am not a big fan of Microsoft on a lot of things; however, Vista does kick ass. The people whining about how it is slow and doesn’t run on their ancient computer need to suck it up. It wasn’t built for old computers. If you have an old computer then stick with XP. XP is solid. Run Ubuntu if you want, it’s cool too (if you don’t need exchange and don’t mind spending time getting it set up to do what you need to do). If you have the means though, Vista kicks ass. It runs fast as hell on my laptop. It’s snappy. It looks good. Gadgets are way cooler than I thought they would be. It’s just good.

I do a lot of development in Python using PyQt for Gui design and Eclipse as an IDE and I have not had a single problem with any of it. It all runs great, it looks good (a testament to Qt as well). I don’t know what else to say. I am pretty critical of software and gadgets that make big promises and then punk out on them and so far Vista hasn’t pissed me off. People complain about it always asking permission to do things; however, that only happens when an app is doing something it probably shouldn’t be. Well written apps behave. If I could talk Microsoft into changing anything it would be the way the networking configuration is set up. Opening 5 windows to change my IP is a drag; however, how often do I really need to do that?

Anyway, since Microsoft is building an entire ad campaign on this idea I am not going to go into tons of detail as to why I am happy with Vista. I suppose I have been so busy getting things done that I haven’t had time to write up anything on Vista. That is a good sign. Microsoft seems to be on track and lately they are coming around to the open source community (ironpython actually works, they are throwing money at apache, etc). Microsoft out from under Bill Gates might be a company that people get can excited about without feeling dirty.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a particularly animated person. When I feel like I am making an exaggerated movement or making a fool of myself, I often later find out that I looked foolish because I was moving so little in comparison to everyone else. My life is in monotone; my humor depends on it and my social awkwardness is amplified by it. Today is a special day though. It may look like any other day because I lack the ability to emote effectively; however, I assure you that this day is different. Jason Legler got himself 4 pre-sale tickets to Radiohead in Seattle and more importantly, he was one of the first people to get them so he thinks that they’ll actually be good tickets. I am jumping out of my skin with excitement which from the outside likely looks like I might have some kind of subtle stomach issue.

Historically I always get hosed on this kind of stuff. I usually don’t hear about the tickets going on sale until they are already sold out. This time though, I watched the band site like a hawk and found out what day the tickets went on pre-sale. I then wrote a little tool in Python that checked the pre-sale ticket site every minute. If the program detected that anything had changed at the site it played metal as loud as my computer could be turned up. This allowed me to sleep and monitor the site at the same time. At around 6am today my computer began blasting metal and I was able to procure some tickets. I’m stoked as hell that I got tickets and completely dorking out on the fact that I wrote software to allow it to happen. That being said I have recently discovered that programs exist for doing this task already and are much cooler and MUCH more flexible than what I wrote. I don’t care though, it was cool as hell.

I’ve gotten to see Radiohead twice in my life and both times were outdoor venues. In both instances I was far enough back that the sound was washed out and I couldn’t see much. I really hope that my determination in getting good tickets pays off and the tickets I bought will let me get close enough for this to be a really good show. Anyway, that is it. I got Radiohead tickets. I’ll let everyone know where the seats are when they actually get assigned. Here is Thom rocking a little Bangers + Mash Phil Collins style.