November 2007

Hey, look at that, I’ve figured out how to put the novel cover on my blog. Ain’t technology amazing? (Sometimes I think of that and wonder how quickly any one of us nowadays would get burned as a witch if we suddenly found ourselves in the dark ages with so much as a beeping digital watch…I suppose there’s a short story in that. Hrm.)

So on with the whole geek/laptop experience, I suppose. I’m currently in a Tully’s with a mocha, actually able to type this live because they’ve got free wi-fi. It’s rather surprising that Starbucks and Barnes & Noble don’t have that–I don’t imagine it would cost that much to set up, and I’m sure places that have free wi-fi are able to pull away some of their customers. Then again, there’s a thing such as brand loyalty or just plain habit, so maybe they don’t have to. But hey, I wasn’t going to be talking about that, was I? Maybe later.

This laptop is my first experience with Windows Vista, and so far it’s actually not too bad. Oh, shocking, the Mac vs. PC ads overstated the problems once again. (I really do hate those ads…not really because I’m an avid PC supporter so much as I just dislike strawman arguments. Well, okay, so I dislike commercials in general. Someone needs to start a fund to get Jared from Subway ejected into space.) The whole issue with Vista asking you if you REALLY want to do something you just told it to do (User Access Control) isn’t that big of a deal, mostly because it’s quite easy to turn the sucker off. I suppose I really ought to turn it back on now that I’ve got it set up the way I want it so it can actually do what it’s designed to do–keeping spyware from messing with the system. Even before I turned it off, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Oh, no, an additional click or two! Whatever shall we do! Precious seconds lost! Come on, people, you know you’d only waste them anyway, right? Oh! Maybe we can all get a class-action lawsuit going against Microsoft for all those lost seconds? …Okay, maybe I shouldn’t blog while shot full of caffeine.

Other than that, it’s not too terribly different from XP. I’m a little torn with regard to the new Start Menu in Vista. I like some things about it–the search function, for example, that pops up a program if you type it in–but I miss the way XP would expand the programs with just a mouse-over. In Vista you have to actually click it, which is a little more of a pain if you’re on a laptop using a touchpad. Maybe there’s a way to change it, but I’m not sure. Then again, on my XP machine at home I use the classic start menu, so maybe even XP doesn’t do that. The file explorer windows are different from XP, too. So far they just seem to be different for the sole purpose of being different; I haven’t noticed any more easy of use. Actually one thing I miss is the button that let you go up a level in the directory. I realized after a while that I can do that by clicking on the names of the directories in the top bar there (okay, so I’m not enough of a geek to know all the technical terms), but so far I’ve yet to learn to do that instinctively the way I have with XP. Perhaps I have issues with change.

The Aero graphics are kind of amusing, and certainly pretty (okay, so I’ve played with the window-tab thing that gives you a 3-D scrolling list of all your open windows a bit too much). As many have said before me, you could just as easily turn it off and free up a bit of computing power, but I rather like having it on. It doesn’t really help me, but there is something to be said for feeling like I’m using the latest new thing. (I paid for a new laptop, it should at least FEEL shiny and now, yes?)

I don’t really have a specific point about Vista so far. If anything this is less of an intelligent article on the subject and more just stream-of-consciousness rambling on a subject I only so far have a passing familiarity with, but it’s good to just write sometimes, if only for the practice. Plus this way I can look like I’m doing something important while I sit here at Tully’s.

I should talk about something more fun next time. Civilization 4 anyone?

And this would be blog entry number three. So it’s been a little longer since writing here than I’d intended, but hey, I’m still getting the hang of this blog thing. I suppose part of the problem with being someone who’s really more of a listener is I’m less inclined to get on a soapbox or just start typing without having a story to tell. Or maybe it’s just blog performance anxiety? (Join the fight against Blog Performance Anxiety! We can wipe out BPA in our lifetime!)

My original intent for this entry was to talk about my novel, but quite frankly, I’ve done an awful lot of that lately what with setting up the official website and taking care of looking over the text and cover proofs. (That’s finally done, by the way–and more relieved/panicked I could not be–and the novel should be available in a couple of weeks.) Besides, all of that information is set up on the website that links to this blog anyway, so to borrow a favorite phrase from a former boss of mine why re-invent the wheel? (He was also rather fond of “like pushing a noodle up a rope,” but I’ll save that for later use. Then again, I can’t imagine any instance in which I’d WANT to push a noodle up a rope, but life is filled with surprises, isn’t it?) My whole point here is that if you’re curious about A Shadow in the Flames–and really, why not be curious?–check out Michaelgmunz.com.

So now the question is, what SHOULD I talk about? Rather than try to work out a specific theme for my blog, I’ll likely be all over the map, at least until some sort of theme or focus emerges…if it does at all. That said, there will likely be a great deal of geekish leanings here, because to say I don’t have a bit of geek in me would be to deny the facts. (Ah, I can just see my parents, if they read this, getting ready to try to tell me otherwise, but don’t worry, I use the term with no negative connotation. Besides, saying you’re a geek on the Internet is rather like saying you’re a carnivore in a steak house, isn’t it?)

Subject change! I’m sitting here writing this from my first ever laptop computer (Well, okay, SLIGHT subject change) in the middle of a Barnes & Noble café…and I just discovered that alt-130 doesn’t seem to work to make an accented e on this thing. Hrmm. I’ve owned a computer since my parents got me a 286 in 1990 (which ran at a lightning-fast 12Mhz and is now likely somewhere in the Smithsonian), but I’ve never had my own laptop before. It’s actually strange how many people assume I would have one just based on the fact that I’m a writer and I like to write in cafés, but I’ve never wanted to spend the money, and frankly I enjoy writing with a pen first before typing things up. It occurred to me, however, that I seem to now be able to type faster than I write (legibly, at least), so getting an inexpensive laptop to take with me might be a good idea. …And okay, fine, part of it was just the whole allure of expensive electronics, but still…

I’m still getting the hang of it (as evidenced by the aforementioned alt-130 discovery), but so far it’s okay. Of course I can’t always get online. I discovered that the wi-fi in my usual café isn’t exactly free (in fact it’s no where near exactly free, it’s not free at ALL, so why I’m using the phrase “isn’t exactly free” I’ve no idea), so I’m actually typing this up in Notepad and planning to upload it to the blog once I get home. (And I’ll probably also fix the unaccented es, too. Oh, won’t that be exciting?)

So I think I just spent a lot of time saying essentially nothing. Looks like I’m getting the hang of this blog thing, eh? Maybe next time I’ll ramble on about what I think of Windows Vista, which is weird and disturbing…and on my new laptop. In the meantime, think of some inspirational words pretend I said them, and I’ll see you later…