Seen here yesterday....

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again... Keep struggling, Kiddies!

The Big Problem: Most enterprise business users are not using touch hardware.
And the business community has always been Microsoft's 'bread & butter'. How could they overlook such an obvious fact? Damned if I know.... 

Do you agree?

This kid looks entirely too happy for this early in the morning, don't you think?
So today's Question Everything is: "What's he on?"

But he is up to something worthwhile.... check out Internet.org...

The ZFS file system....

I'm posting the above screenshot only as an excuse to say that if you're using the latest PC-BSD 10 which is basically a FreeBSD 10, then you don't need to study a whole lot of technical gobbledegook beforehand. Why not?

Because: The ZFS file system is the one that comes with it, and during the installation process, the first thing that happens on the partition where you are installing it will be the formatting of that partition into a ZFS file format, and then it's 'zippidydoodah' and your new operating system gets installed in 13 minutes as the crow flies. Windows, take note. Yes, I said 13 minutes, and yes I've done it myself. You can too. 

There's one thing I must add here, though. Before you can install in 13 minutes you have to download the system's ISO image of 3.6 Gb, and that's going to take a couple of hours or so, and then you have to burn it onto DVD for the actual install procedure, and to save for future use, of course. 

If you've ever used a Mac, you'll be right at home with PC-BSD 10. Its layout is much like OS-X, even though you can't exchange programs with it. The formats are not compatible. Just like me and the ex-wife, but I digress.... The programs for PC-BSD are all reposing in a repository called 'AppCafe'. You open AppCafe, look down the list of categories for the one you want, open that to see another list of the actual available programs, and then you select one for installation. After its downloading it will automatically be installed, ready for use. Nothing could be simpler. Like they say - "It just works."

Is this the O/S of the future? No - because it's here right now! Why wait? How do I like it? A lot. You should try it... This does everything you can do with any other operating system, and it does it just as well or better. And this is not a stripped-down, bargain basement, barely-functional system. This is a fully dressed and completely functional multi-purpose operating system that comes complete with all the various programming that you may require for whatever you wish to do - including a complete suite of office programs and other trimmings. If you had to pay for all this, you'd be looking at serious money,
because it does serious work. This is not a kids' toy. It's a kick-ass system.

Night shots with a compact digital: Yes, you can.

Fujifilm Finepix SL-1000, self-timer @ 10 sec. delay, on a tabletop tripod. Can your Canon do this? What about your Nikon? Or your Pentax? I've tried them all and you'll notice I'm actually using the Fuji...and this is a 50X-capable superzoom, with a lot of lens in front of the SDHC Card. I'm impressed.

Biting The Dust ! Bon Voyage....

Another opinionated, self-important talking head bites the dust. There is a God after all, Kiddies.

More 'Bix'

Microsoft and Windows 8 - a suggestion...

If Microsoft wants us to love our Windows 8, perhaps they should ask us what we might change if we could. It has a solid foundation, but it hasn't been selling well because people aren't happy with it. Is it those tiles on the Start Screen?

One problem for non-touch desktop users is that if we want to access a tile on the Start Screen, we have to stop what we're doing on the Desktop, and hit the Windows key to bring up the Start Screen with its tiles, then choose the one we wanted. It would be a lot more convenient if you added one more item to the selections we get if we right-click on one of those tiles. Add the choice to "Add this as an icon to the Desktop" and then, we can have icon-sized mini-tiles on our Desktop, and there won't need to be any more hopping back and forth between screens to access features. Peace will return to the valley. Sales will improve when users realize Microsoft still loves us. Everybody wins!

And the Good News is, you can issue this as another patch on Patch Tuesday,
and make everyone happier than we used to be before Microsoft played nice.
And if you have any questions, Oldest Living Blogger here will be happy to try
answering them for you. Now get those coders off their creativity breaks and back on the job.....we're trying to avoid bankruptcy here!

And one more thing: Please re-enable Windows Sidebar and Gadgets as a native part of the system, instead of making us import a third-party version... and by that I mean 8GadgetPack. It works great, but it ought to be part of Windows 8.
Any questions?

Conversations...

USA Today mentions Whistler/Blackcomb...

There's flashy advertising and snob appeal, and then there's snow conditions - and the truth is, we have more snow right here on the edge of West Vancouver at Cypress Mountain, where I've worn out at least three pairs of skis over the years, and become personally acquainted with some of the trees along the runs.
The nice part is, it's only 20 minutes from here to the hill, and there's plenty of parking. Here's the latest snow reports. Check them for yourself....

Whistler/Blackcomb

 

Cypress Mountain

 

In the Whistler screenshot, they mention something called 'Packed powder'.....

and let's face it, Kiddies - there ain't no such thing! It's either Powder or it ain't.

Period. If it's packed, it isn't powder. Powder is soft fluffy snow  that you sink into up to your knees, or up to your bum, and you can totally disappear in it sometimes. Packed snow means groomed by machines, and it can easily become 'boilerplate' where you might need razor-sharp edges to hang onto it.

So be careful with the terminology.  Cypress doesn't use tricky descriptions, because they're the guys who teach the vast majority of our youngsters to ski and board on their twin peaks, and they just tell it like it is. I skied Cypress for about thirty years, until I just got bored with racing the hotshots downhill. There's "looking good", and then there's "getting there first". Style don't mean much if you're behind somebody where they can't see you.

 

And then there was.....The Blues

It's Golden Oldies Time, Kiddies!

Today's choice of a good read...

The show is tanking....what to do?

How's this for an idea? Let's get rid of the best eye candy we ever had.... and I hasten to add here that I can't possibly show you my favorite image of the delightful Brooke in her 'au naturel' mode from a few years ago, in which she's wearing only some very strategically-placed jewellery. 

  If they had any brains at all, they'd keep Brooke and throw away Tom, and give the show a little more eye-appeal. Hoofers come and hoofers go, but Brooke's always gorgeous. Who doesn't want to see Brooke?

Chorusgirls Theme applied to Windows 7....

When Windows 7 first came out and we discovered that it now had wallpapers which could change themselves like a slideshow, we quickly discovered how to make our own, and add those into the system. I'm still making my own. This way, I can have any wallpaper theme I want, if I take time to add it in here.

Let's go backward when forward fails: 1929

And now that I've got your attention, here's the new Windows 8 Theme from this video, and you can have a copy before I install mine, where it will get icons all over it...

And here's how it looks when in use....

More PC-BSD 10.0

I get mail. I'm so old.....( "How old are you, Ray?") - I'm so old, I can remember when you could buy the whole tree for a buck. And get 85 cents change...

Now then, can your computer's operating system do this? With just a little more tweaking, this one could probably do the laundry or start dinner.

Canada's Last Post...

Notice the cracked and weathered paint on the sign? Well, the whole Post Office Department is the same - weathered, cracked, and outside, instead of where you might like it to be, and we've poured nothing but money into that sinkhole.
When we switched over from the Pony Express, we threw away the rider and the horse, and kept only the horseshit. And now it's a whole bureaucracy where they believe Manual Labour is a Mexican Obstetrician. Let's send them an email!

"Baby, it's cold outside!"

"Why?" you ask. Simple, really - it's just God's way of telling us to smarten up, and to remind us that nothing's forever. In spite of what you've been told by Wall Street and Madison Avenue and Old Man Walton and Bill Gates, and all those other self-centered smooth-talking charmers who believe that bullshit really does baffle brains. It doesn't. We have proof. Look at the pictures.... and then all together on the chorus of 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town'..... it won't help, but it might make you feel better. Or maybe we ought to be singing something from 'Flying Down To Rio' (1933) like 'The Carioca' - Fred & Ginger's first big break... Or maybe....

The fact is, 'Hell' isn't some mythical imaginary place....it's just a matter of time and evolution and our everlasting stupidity. If you stick around here long enough, your ass is going to turn to cinders, mark my words!

Ella sings Cole

Spring will be a little late this year...