Danj’s Blog

So I got in on the Windows 7 beta (not that that’s terribly hard, now that they opened it to world+dog for 2 weeks instead of that silly 2.5 million limit) and I’m trying out Windows Live Writer, which contrary to its name actually does support third party blogs as well as MSN Live Spaces or whatever Microsoft is calling their blog site this week.

I’m quite favourably inclined towards Windows 7 so far; UAC is not gone but is far less annoying and intrusive and in fact I’ve only seen actual UAC popups a couple of times (both when trying to install software). I still see a variant version of the UAC shield, with a yellow-and-blue pattern, on some icons, but no popup appears if I click on it. Maybe that indicates it’s only restricted for limited user accounts or something? Anyway it’s a definite improvement.

The new taskbar with its large program icons feels more like something I’d expect to find in Linux (or, of course, on a Mac). Not sure whether I like it yet but it doesn’t seem bad so far.

There’s already 3 beta antivirus apps available for Windows 7, which you can get hold of by clicking the “Find a program” when the Action Centre whinges at you. Unfortunately, of the 3, one is pay-only and one is Norton, leaving the only sensible choice as Kaspersky 8 beta. It’s a little bit on the feature-packed side for my liking, but it seems decent and it stopped Windows complaining.

Windows Update is pretty much the same as Vista, with the exception that if you chose not to configure Automatic Updates during setup, you get forced to configure it here. I guess this is a good thing for regular end users, but it kind of annoyed me a bit.

The bundled accessories apps have received some upgrades; Wordpad and Paint have received an Office 2007-style facelift, and Wordpad can now open Word 2007 documents and OpenDocuments. Notepad is still the same as before, but Calculator sports new Unit Conversions and Programmer modes. Additions include Sticky Notes (which does what it says on the tin, but only in a rather basic way; I guess Microsoft don’t want to cut in on sales of OneNote) and Snipping Tool, which is a screen capture utility (though you can still use PrtSc and paste into Paint if you want to).

The sidebar is gone, but only because the entire desktop is now gadget-enabled. I’m undecided yet as to whether that’s a good thing; my problem is that any gadgets I might have on the desktop are going to get covered up by applications, and I don’t particularly want them always-on-top either. If there’s a keyboard shortcut which would toggle between bringing them to the front and sending them to the back, that might be a good compromise; I’ll have to investigate further.

Printers and Faxes has morphed into Devices and Printers; as well as printers it also currently lists my PC as a Device. I’m guessing that stuff like scanners and cameras will turn up in here as well. It claims to have some sort of method for downloading a realistic-appearing image of known devices for display in there, but I guess the list is small at the moment since it didn’t do that for the LaserJet on the network here.

I’ll post some more later if I think of anything else I want to say about the beta.

So it’s nearly 2009, and on Friday I’ll be going back down to Cambridge to my new home, gotta find where to buy groceries, and where the nearest supermarket and bus stop and stuff is.

I put a new theme on my blog, since the old default blue was starting to seem really dull and boring. This one has changeable backgrounds too so I put something seasonal on for that.

As you’ll know if you’ve been following my twitter, the DHL guy is supposed to be turning up today to collect a bunch of boxes of manga which I’m shipping down to my new place, he was supposed to turn up in the morning but there’s been no sign of him so far.

So, I haven’t posted here in ages, but I figure I ought to wish anyone reading this a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I’m up north visiting my parents for Christmas. Down in Cambridge, my friend and I have moved into a new house in Arbury Park which is much nearer to the city centre.

So here’s what I got for Christmas:

• An Xbox 360 Messenger Kit
• An ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card (my dad found this in his wardrobe and had forgotten what we got it for; it was a spare that we were going to use while my proper graphics card was getting replaced. Not really sure what I’m going to do with it)
• A box of Cadburys Milk Tray chocolates
• 3 pairs of socks
• A mini USB hub (only USB 1.1 apparently)
• A USB SD/MMC card reader
• A sewing kit
• A 2009 calendar
• A 2009 diary
• 4Gb of RAM for my laptop

I’m going to go out to Newcastle on Saturday and go shopping. Definitely planning on getting a pay-as-you-go mobile broadband dongle to use until we get internet at the new house. I might get some other stuff as well, I haven’t decided yet.

So, my first week in my new job is over. My schedule is a bit of a pain at the moment as it involves very early mornings (I have to catch the 6:17am bus in order to get in on time) and consequently I have to go to bed pretty early in the evenings too. This should change once my friend and I move a bit closer to Cambridge. Currently we’re in Sutton and I have to get the X9 to Cambridge and then the Citi 7 to Long Road. I also have the option of getting off the X9 at the Ely Tesco and going in to Cambridge by train, but obviously that is more expensive and so I doubt I’ll do it very often (and of course it’ll be unnecessary after the move).

As far as the actual job is concerned, it’s been pretty decent so far; finally managed to get all the paperwork filled in and handed in to Personnel. Got my P45 from the Jobcentre on Saturday which was a bit unexpected, they are not usually that quick about those sorts of things. The college itself is a nice place and the staff seem like nice people. They have a fairly comprehensive refectory where you can get hot food or sandwiches and snacks (I usually just pick up a sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch).

It’s half term this week so things should be a bit easier as there are no students and fewer staff than normal, although of course this is the time when we will be trying to sort out all the things that couldn’t be sorted out when the students and teachers were in, such as machines that need reimaging or swapping out and so on.

So, I haven’t posted on here in ages - mostly been using my Twitter which you can see in the sidebar on the right hand side of the front page. Anyway, shortly after 6pm today, I got a phone call from Long Road Sixth Form College, and they offered me the Computer Technician job. I accepted (with the proviso that I’m going to need a few days to get my affairs in order up here before relocating) and unless they have any specific ideas to the contrary I plan to get down there and start on Monday. Now all I’ve got to do is find a way to get myself and my stuff down there by that time…

Just had a job interview today, at Framwellgate School Durham. Started out as a bit of a nightmare; when I got to Durham I got on the right bus, but going the wrong way, so I had to get off and get a bus going back the other way. Then when I got to Framwellgate Moor, the stop wasn’t near where the school was, so I had to traipse around there a bit to find the place. I ended up arriving about 15 minutes late (not exactly the best first impression). There were 4 candidates including myself, and the school had set up a rotating programme of a test and an informal interview, after which further shortlisting would take place and the shortlistees would go on to the formal interviews. I chatted to one of the other guys while waiting for my turn at the test and it turned out he’d been working in a school for 6 years and had an MCSA and CCNA, so it was pretty clear I was outclassed to start with. I took the practical test (finding out why a particular PC doesn’t work) and found some of the obvious things (mains socket not turned on, cables not plugged in properly etc.) but was stumped by the last two problems, which turned out to be bent pins on the PS/2 mouse plug and monitor plugged into onboard video instead of video card (the card was not immediately visible when looking down the back as there was a lip of the case hiding it from view). After that I had the informal interview, which went okay until they dropped a scenario on me - and it wasn’t the usual one about “what would you do if you found inappropriate material on a pupil’s computer” or something. I ummed and ahhed a bit but couldn’t come up with an answer to their question and finally had to admit defeat. This left me unsurprised to discover that I was not included on the second shortlist. Oh well, back to the grindstone.

So it’s my birthday today, and I’m 30 years old. Didn’t get much for my birthday but then I wasn’t really expecting much anyway:

• “Matter” by Iain M Banks
• “Magic Bites” by Ilona Andrews
• “The Manga Cookbook”
• “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” DVD
• A 16GB USB memory stick (this is still in the post; despite having been ordered a week ago it hasn’t arrived yet)

Reading “Matter” at the moment.

I just got home from passing my Microsoft 70-290 exam! The passing score was 700 and I scored 899.

Our new cooker arrived today, it is a Beko DC 543. It has one of those ceramic hobs that you can wipe off, which is nice as our old cooker has accumulated a great deal of grime on the areas around the hob plates. The new cooker also has a fan assisted oven and transparent doors, neither of which our previous one had. Since Sunday or so, we’ve also been having trouble with our Internet being really slow. I thought it was just some kind of mistake on my ISP’s part, so I emailed their support department, and I got an answer back today saying to do the BT (that’s British Telecom, not Bittorrent) speed test, so I did that and it turns out that BT for some reason have my line’s IP Profile set to 500kbps! So anyway I have emailed the results to my ISP’s support and am hoping they’ll get it sorted today.