Microsoft’s recent release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 has resulted in several problems and incompatibilities, one of which was their own retail software. I bit the bullet and installed SP3 on a helpdesk machine (dumb, I should have known better than to put a new Microsoft service pack onto an important computer.) and all of a sudden I lost the ability to control my firewall settings and ports that were previously open where now locked shut. It required that I reset the registry in that area to get it working again.
The only difference I’ve really noticed so far in general usage once I got the firewall working again, was that it seemed to get to the login screen faster. Other then that, I’ve not noticed improved speed or stability, so I’m thinking it’s probably something of a non event for most people if you can get it installed correctly. (not everyone has as can be seen by several articles like this and this showing up on the net.)

I’ve heard a couple of people at work speculate that Microsoft would probably love for XP to get some of the bad press Vista has enjoyed up till now, in the hope it might convince people to “upgrade” to Vista. I have no idea of any truth to that, but I must admit that I thought SP3 would make XP slower so Vista didn’t seem so bad by comparison, and that has not turned out to be true, at least not in my experience so far.

It remains to be seen whether this is a good thing or not, but Google has added search boxes to search results that include certain sites. While this is no doubt good for searchers wanting to find stuff faster, it has already come under fire for displaying Ads for competing companies in the search results from that site specific search.

Read more here.

So I find that Microsoft has once again decided to switch things up in the Excel world with the xlsx file format. Why would you not build in backwards compatibility? Because you choose to make it inconvenient in hopes of forcing people to buy your new product? Fortunately they do have a tool to allow you to open the new format in your “old” program. However to use it you need to update your Microsoft environment and even in this age they FORCE you to use Internet Explorer.

I fire up Internet Explorer (I used it very very rarely) and go to Microsoft and the first thing that they do is of course ask me if I want to be part of their beta program for the Silverlight Download Center. Why? What advantage to me? No.

Next they require me to download the validation tool to be sure I’m not cheating them. Now I can really go get the “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats“. Hopefully it works and I can open my Office 2007 file in my Office 2003. What a bother. I much prefer Open Office anyway, but this time it didn’t work for me to open the Office 2007 file. I bet that won’t last long.

Well I hoped for the underdog — even if it makes Michigan’s Tom Brady lose to Michigan State University(ishes) Plaxico Burress who actually broke down in tears after the game in his interview. It was a great game. I didn’t see it being close. I didn’t see the Giants winning. Congratulations to them. That should put spygate to rest too so that we need not hear more about it.

The most interesting things to me?

1. How lame that the NFL insists on running a play with one second left when the Patriots were willing to concede. They need to adjust the rule book for that situation to permit a coach to finish it under that circumstance.

2. A regular guy, 185 pounds, 5′ 09″ was the MVP in my book had the Patriots won. Their goto receiver was a normal sized guy, Mr. Welker — and he is a Mister after that gutsy performance. Of course then “they” name Manning when it should have been a defensive player in a defensive game.

3. Speaking of marketing … the NFL has a page on the Superbowl??

4. Best Ad Series? Probably Bud Light or Coke. It was a toss up. The auto ads were uninspired and boring.

5. Godaddy.com sells you to their site. Up until now Danica has avoided the overly sexist advertising pushed by Bob over at Godaddy. Unlike Amanda (I’m really too skinny but who cares) Beard and What’s her Name — I have fake everything but I can wrestle, Danika has remained above that garbage … until this ad. Oh well, I guess money talks.

Congratulations the the Giants.

I had some concerns for them late in the game when a lot of their defensive players were hitting the deck with cramps and such, and I wondered if they were out of gas. They kept bouncing back like a team of energizer bunnies.

One little side note for me: I am currently working on a site called cool-off.com. That site markets misting systems including large fans with misting heads in them. Often you see them in big sporting events in humid arenas, including in the Superbowl (they also make misting systems for everything from residential decks to industrial facilities). The television cameras often show the players sitting in front of the cooling fans on the sidelines trying to stay cool. What fascinates me the most is the fact that the mist is apparently vaporized within inches of the nozzle and so you never get wet with this type of cooling system. I don’t know that this particular company provided them for this event, but I guess my selective perception is heightened at present and so I notice them. What does your selective perception bring to the fore front for you when you see a game of this magnitude?

I knew I wasn’t the only one! News.com.au reports that the proportion of Australians using Mozilla Firefox to surf the web is among the highest in the world, according to internet trend research. The article goes on to say that almost one in three web users in the Oceania region – 31 per cent – were using Firefox, compared to 28 per cent in Europe and 21 per cent in the US.

Those are pretty interesting statistics, and I must admit that I was surprised at the comparatively low utilisation amongst US users. Any thoughts as to why?

Check out the full story: Australians embrace open source browser. The article has attracted some emotive comments on the News.com.au site, so it’s pretty clear that folks (I would guess a fair chunk of web developers) are still very passionate about their browser of choice!

It is very interesting to see a graphical explanation of when each browser came into existence, and what other browsers are in use at the same time period. It is also a very nice example of a presentation. Have a look for yourself at his graphical browser time-line.

Sometimes something in life is just funny. Today I went to register my new lenses, a set of “transitions lenses” that tint in UV rays. So what was so funny? I couldn’t read the captcha they presented me with my fancy new glasses!

This is my second set of transitions lenses. I had a pair of glasses approximately four years ago that had them and I came to really like them. They have three major drawbacks:

• They don’t zero tint even indoors — this has absolutely no effect on me, I can see fine, but people look at you and think, hmmm, wearing “rose” colored glasses (of course it isn’t rose in my particular case, but it is a very minor tint almost always).
• They don’t darken when you are in your automobile because the auto glass filters the UV rays. If you have a convertible, no problem, otherwise you need to either roll down the window and hang your head out (it’s cold here today, and bright because of all the snow cover) which isn’t necessarily the best way to stay focused on the road, or you need to take them off and hold them out the window — scared for your life that you may drop them at any second and plus you can no longer see the road because you took your glasses off, duh!
• You have to wait a minute after going to darker environs for the glasses to un-tint. This is the one everybody always talks about at the eye doctors office, but to me is the least significant. Heck, they’re all steamed up from coming out of the cold weather anyway, and even in sunglasses you can see in most light conditions.

So why transitions? Well because I was tired of alternating between losing my clip-on’s and or not having them with me when I needed them. The same would be true if I had a pair of sunglasses (with or without contacts). So this way I have them on and I am good to go. I hope I like them because they were darned expensive glasses (progressive bi-focals, lighter lenses, with transitions and anti-glare coating) and insurance will only help with the cost (AND I DO MEAN HELP) once a year. I save up and buy one eye’s worth in one year and the other in the next year and then I pay the other third. So I cannot do it again for two years.