Although there do not appear to be any significant new features, the new versions of the Adobe multimedia/document/Web development tools are very appealing. The major changes are generally related to 3D authoring.
You can take a look at Adobe’s Web site for more information about the new products.
A few days ago I posted about the un-funny Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld commercials.
Now they’ve released a new set of commercials that do promote Windows, and they are a bit more effective.
The only thing I’m confused about is: if Windows is the product that is being promoted (as one can tell from the logo shown at the end of each commercial) why are they promoting “PC’s” as opposed to Windows? I can understand why Apple would promote the Mac over the PC (as they produce hardware & software and it’s the combination that is being marketed), but not why Microsoft is using the term PC, which is not a Microsoft product nor a Microsoft innovation. Perhaps it’s just because Microsoft doesn’t perceive Linux and other PC operating systems as a threat.
Anyhow, I invite you to vote on this poll. Choose “Yes” or “No”, and also choose the reason closest to yours.
The quad core computer that I blogged about recently has arrived, and I’ve put everything together and installed Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. I’m extremely pleased with its performance, though I know that I’ll need to upgrade again (either the memory or the motherboard) within a few years, given the pace of technology.
Here’s a screenshot of my desktop; yes, I’m sure it could look even better if I were running Vista.
If you also have a huge screen resolution like mine (1920×1200), you can take a look at the screenshot in its original size and glory.
As you can see, I like to keep my desktop icons organized (this is the way it’s probably going to look for the next year or two) and I only keep applications that I use extremely frequently on the desktop. Everything else is accessed through the Start menu. (Word 2007 and iTunes are in the often-used programs list, so I don’t necessarily want them on the desktop.)
I’ve also styled Windows using the Zune theme from Microsoft, which gives everything a slick, glossy look. I really like it. With a bit of tweaking, I got it working on 64-bit XP. You can download it for free.
Yes, you read that right. I’ll be assembling a new PC with:
You can take a look at the barebones kit on TigerDirect.ca. For more specifications, see my post at Geekie.org.
I used to say that a quad core computer is “excessive”. I guess I don’t think so anymore, given that it’s going to be used for multimedia and compute-intensive research.
Update: some of the components have now been shipped; the case has been shipped and the power supply is in process. That’s pretty useless, though, since we have another case and power supply.
Update 2: all of the components have now been shipped. TigerDirect has fast processing times!
Do you think a quad core computer is excessive? Do we need quad core computers?
