Host a Windows 7 Launch Party. WTF?!

Today, technologically speaking, is a momentous day. Windows 7 is being launched and will be replacing the much maligned Windows Vista. To celebrate the occasion, Microsoft suggested that individuals host launch parties. It should be needless to say, but Microsoft’s marketing people dropped the ball again.

They posted a series of videos to help teach people how to host a launch party. You can see one of the videos below. The video is six minutes long and if you watch the digital clock in the background, you will see it move back and forth through time. If you do a Google video search using the terms: windows 7 launch, you will find a host of cheesy launch party videos created by/for Microsoft. The videos look like MADtv skits, but they are the real deal.

THE REAL DEAL


The videos are so cheesy that it would seem almost impossible to make fun of it, but someone did. Checkout the clever parody below. . .


Having run Windows 7 (and being a Mac head), I can tell you that my experience was far better than with Windows Vista. It is different, but was far smoother in my experience.

It worked!

Cool. The posting worked and went off without a hitch. Not entirely sold yet, but definitely pleased.

Windows 7

I loaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate onto the Windows partition of my iMac yesterday. The process was fairly simple thanks to the directions that were provided by SimpleHelp.net. I was somewhat lucky and everything appears to have gone off without a hitch.
What I am doing now is experimenting with some of the software that is a available for Windows 7. This posting (if it works properly) will have been scripted and posted through Windows Live Writer. This work is being done, in part, for the preparation of my machine to be demoed at the college’s next Geekapalooza event. I do not mess with the plumbing an OS, so I cannot speak to being extensively knowledgeable about such issues, but I do find that Windows 7 has delivered thus far – accessing my personal network was a cinch (I had troubles in the past using Vista to connect to my home network). I am also a fan of the redesigned taskbar. The new taskbar delivers some Mac OS X dock-like functionality, but delivers some nifty Vista features such as the window preview pane. Overall, it seems much snappier than my Vista-based machine in my office.
Despite being a Mac person for the last 10+ years, I am pleased with this new Microsoft OS thus far (a whopping 2 days – for which some people are smirking and thinking, “Give it time, give it time.”). I do love to get my hands on a new OS and give it a spin. I definitely foresee myself using the Windows 7 OS, which is not to say that I have given up on OS X, especially with 10.6 due in September, but I do see it a great complement to my existing home setup. Cheers, from my not yet abandoned blog.

General Update - Relais & Website

I have uploaded the latest revisions to the Relais self-registration pages. The last version went horribly wrong somehow, and turned out looking worse and less functional than the first. I do not know when they will be uploaded to Relais's servers and ready for testing, so it is a matter of being patient. If this version fails, I will call Grant and hopefully we can sort out what is going wrong.

I finished a few minor tweaks on the Vera Bracken Library's homepage. Changes include:

• Google site search has been removed and replaced by a widget that searches the OPAC. I developed several different versions, but went with the advanced drop box version for now.
  
• The XML [] icon for our news feed has been replaced by the more common RSS icon developed by Microsoft - this icon [] has become the default icon for all manner of web news feeds (e.g., Atom, RSS, etc.).
• A new link (Site Map/Search) has been posted as well. The site search feature that was previously on the homepage has been moved under this link's location. A site map was also added - I would call it less than pretty.

I am not sure on how keen I am about the Site Map/Search page or the OPAC search tool. I might scrap both by the end of the week. My major concern is that the homepage is getting a little cluttered; to this end, I will explore alternative layouts with Spry.