Hate Vista? So Does Intel

With recent shipments of failure from the Microsoft camp, including a rather useless Service Pack 3 for aged XP and a “Reliability” Service Pack update for Vista SP1, their users have been speaking out for years since the release of Windows Vista in late 2006. And surprisingly (not), major companies are speaking out about just how featureless and lacking Microsoft’s latest Operating System is.

Intel Corporation has dedicated that they’re not going to run Vista. Period. According to the New York Times, “Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista.” Intel’s IT staff arrived at their decision after a lengthy cost-benefit analysis. It has yet to be seen what kind of heat Microsoft will put on top Intel execs for the decision to keep Windows XP alive. I mean, come on. Issue a brand new Service Pack after about 4 years and then turn around and announce you’re officially canning the entire Operating System (XP)?

Don’t worry! Windows 7 will save us all. Just keep praying to the almighty software giant.

エスプレッソのレポート

We’re slowly updating this blog for 2009. I know, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Over the next week you’re going to start seeing slight to major changes in how we present this incoherency we call The Espresso Report. One of a few changes you might’ve noticed is that I’ve shortened the pages to 5 posts each and added a page number navigation to the bottom, replacing the old “Previous Post” and “Next Post” thing you see on everyone else’s blog.

Japan Drivers License Stock Photo

Oh, whtat’s that up there? That’s our ninja code name. It translates loosely in Japanese as “Report of Espresso” which is about as close to my blog’s name as I can get without making up my own kung-fu language. Don’t ask.

The “Free Mac” Offer’s Not For Me

I’ve been thinking for the past couple days about taking up one of these amazing website offers of absolutely “free” prizes just for completing some random offers. One of the biggest prizes and most popular happen to be Apple products. A free iPhone, Mac Mini, Macbook Pro, etc. A quick Google search undercovers multiple blog posts, or should I say “blog” posts about happy winners who ended up spendinig a little bit of money taking these required “free” offers and getting thousands of dollars worth of Apple for a few hundred bucks.

… Then I start to wonder, how many of these “blog” posts are actually strategically placed advertisements? Wouldn’t you feel better completing some risky free offer if your online friend at some-whack-blog-here.com did it with success? Sure you would. Me? I’ll pass.

Yes, I could spend just a couple hundred bucks on a Free Mac offer that sounds legit, comb through the terms of service, pay some of my friends to take out pre-paid credit cards and help me on this endevear, but what if it fails? What if it was really a scam, or my completed offer doesn’t give me the credit points I need in time? As Steve Jobs says, “Boom.” It can happen. What if I’m spending $200 to $300 per possible scam site? That can add up to a free Mac in no time.

Save up some money and then visit the Apple Store. If you don’t need the money, then it’s “free.”

Warez Antivirus Downloaders Are Stupid

You know what really makes me laugh? When people, sometimes classified as “advanced noobs” try to steal money from poor antivirus companies by downloading “full version” working retail copies of their antivirus software to protect their personal computer. If you knew that 99% of the people downloading your file had absolutely no antivirus protection, wouldn’t you be tempted to sneak in a trojan or two on their pirating ass? Damn right.

Come on, guys. If there’s one thing I’d pay for it’s decent antivirus software. Let’s face it, if you run Windows or are forced in some way to keep a Windows machine around, whether it’s for Exchange, gaming, work, etc., virus software is just a good idea. It’s like that extra car warranty you might never use, but you know in the back of your mind if you floor it and mow down that old lady taking too long to cross the street — you’re in good hands.

Three simple words: Pay The Man. What’s $30 or $40 for some good software that’ll protect your illegal pirating leeching ass from falling victim to another man’s scam? While we’re on the subject, let me throw a plug out to AVG Technologies, formerly Grisoft, makers of the AVG Anti-Virus. They’re so sweet they even give away a bulk of their hard working software for free in a minimal lag release of, what else, but “AVG Free.” If you’re going to pay anyone for anything, and I don’t recommend this often, go buy AVG for your Windows-based computer.

GeForce Rocks On Mac OS X 10.5.3

After seeing just how beautiful Mac OS X 10.5.3 is, I had to purchase a new graphics card that supported “true” OpenGL 2.0. Let me tell you that the difference is night and day. I still have my older 128MB eVGA GeForce 5200FX for a second monitor but my main card is a brand new 256MB eVGA GeForce 6200. All I have to say is: “Wow!” I also replaced my old MacOSX.tif with one that’s a bit more original to the out-of-the-box Leopard. Sorry, Kalyway, but I like to keep it virgin. I also had to overcome some random freezing with a _CFGetHostUUIDString: unable to determine UUID for host which I have reason to believe may have been freezing my Safari and whatnot. You can Google the answer or find it here.

This new graphics card ROCKS!

Take a look at me now!