Posts Tagged with Windows

Now that my summer job is finally over—and with no school to look forward to now that I’ve graduated—I’m stuck in job hunt limbo. Which isn’t really that bad; much as I enjoy having money, I’ve found a lot of time to do things I’ve wanted to do for awhile now that I really have nothing better to do. Like create a deviantID, which I’ve been meaning to do for a couple years now. Or finish that Death Note AMV I got hopelessly stuck on (coming soon, hopefully). Maybe play through Kingdom Harts, finally. And work on my seemingly never-ending piece of fiction, Project Millennium.

One thing I fealt needed addressing, however, was my personal database of stuff. Yes, I have so much stuff that I took the time to catalogue it all in a database. I first started it while I was *ahem* acquiring anime, to help eliminate duplicate acquisitions. It didn’t happen often, but it did happen often enough that felt something could be done. Enter Microsoft Access, that useful application that lets you put together databases in no time. Soon I had not only my growing collection of anime cataloged, but also my video games and movies.

After awhile things got really busy (graduation, interviewing, etc.) and I didn’t really keep the thing updated, making it fairly useless. Now that I have loads of free time, however, I thought “Hey, why not go back and redo it?” So last night I started over, this time beginning with my video games. After an hour or so of data entry I now have a Video Games table that contains the title, genre, and platform data on 161 games I currently own.

While that process is horribly boring, there is some fun to be had once it has been completed. Access 2007 gave us PivotTables and PivotCharts, obscenely useful tools for organizing and presenting data stored in an Access database. I’m sure PivotTables have their place, but PivotCharts are more interesting to me. Let’s take a look at one now, shalle we?

Useless Statistics

Here we can see the number of games I own sorted by platform, and then further broken down by genre. Steam is used here as it’s own platform since it’s a fundamentally different thing than traditional PC games. Likewise, the genre listings are largely subjective and some (listing Kingdom Hearts as Adventure instead of RPG) could be disputed. From this chart we can see a number of interesting (and totally useless) bits of information:

• I own a lot of games. More than even I thought. It should be noted that this database does not contain all of my games. Duplicates (owning the same game on different platforms) were excluded, as well as some platforms that I still have but rarely play anymore (Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64).
• I own more Windows games than any other platform, which is pretty surprising. I’m not really a huge PC gamer. Part of this has to do with how games are listed, however. Command & Conquer: The First Decade is listed as the individual games it contains–twelve in all–and not as a single game. Expansion packs are also counted as individual games, which isn’t entirely accurate.
• Of the Windows games I own, nearly all of them are first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, or sim games.
• Survival Horror games make up a significant portion of my console games, accounting for half of my Gamecube games and being the second and third largest genre’s I own on Playstation 2 and Playstation One (respectively).
• Combined, I own more Playstation games than any other platform, with the widest range of genres (9 of the 14 listed).
• I own only four Gamecube games.

There’s more that could be done here. For example, each entry also has a completed option, which I can check off as I complete the games. I haven’t completed 53 of the 161 games I own, for example, most of which are on the PC. “Completed” here is a little subjective, however. Games that don’t have a traditional win scenario (sim games for example, or strictly multiplayer games like Team Fortress 2) are checked as completed.

Anyways, I was having fun with Access and thought I’d share these useless statistics with you all. Next time: useless statistics for anime!

It’s rant time good readers. I’m back at Western—which is nice—and trying to get my room organized. Everything looks great. I get all of my computer stuff hooked up, then I try to access the network and…

AAAAAAAAAH!!

Western Michigan University uses a program called Clean Access Agent (CCA) to manage wired network access. CCA is probably the most worthless piece of software ever devised. It’s sole purpose is to annoy the hell out of anyone who has the misfortune of using a computer with it installed with notices to update their computer and download Norton malware. It’s so annoying, in fact, that I dedicated my first semester at Western to find a way to bypass it.  And, it turned out, CCA is so useless that you can bypass it by simply changing the user agent string on your web browser and making it think you’re using anything other than Windows, a feat easily achieved using the User Agent Switcher extensions for Firefox.

Well, this year they have a flavor of CCA for all platforms, which means I’m forced to install it. And of course, it immediately screws up. I eventually had to run down the resident OIT operative and—doing a masterful job of bridling my unbridled rage—ask how one might access the network without going through CCA. I knew he wouldn’t tell me, but he at least helped enough to get me on the network with CCA (which was pretty much broken the second I installed it).

AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Now that they have version for every platform, completely bypassing it probably isn’t an option, but I’ll search for one anyways. It’s such a worthless piece of software I’ll do whatever I have to to avoid using it.

I was planning to do a series of posts under the Essential Software title, wherein I would select a piece of software I consider essential for my computing experience and detail what it does and why I like it. As I worked through the first post, however, it occurred to me that I only have about ten pieces of software I consider absolutely essential, and most for pretty straightforward reasons. Breaking it all down into a single post for each application seemed like overkill, so here’s a complete list of the software I can’t live without.

• 7-Zip: File archiver. Supports every compression format known to man, as well as many known only to monkeys. It’s own 7z compression is incredibly effective compared to the more common zip or rar formats and is excellent for backing up large files.
• BitTorrent: Torrent handler. I used to use µTorrent, but BitTorrent gobbled them up and re-branded it as their official client. The original is still available and in development, as far as I know. The officially-branded version has a nicer icon, though.
• Firefox: Web browser. I’d rather use Apple Safari or Opera, but Google owns me. I need the Google Toolbar, so my options are Internet Explorer (which should be avoided at all costs for reasons explained everywhere else on the Internet) and Mozilla Firefox. Guess who won. The FireFTP add-on is really nice too.
• ISORecorder: Disc image burner. This is a really focused application—it’s sole purpose is to integrate .iso image burning into Windows. If you have no idea what an .iso image is, you probably don’t need this.
• iTunes: Music player. It’s the best at what it does. If you aren’t using it, you really should be.
• Pidgin: Instant messenger. Nearly everyone I chat with on a regular basis uses AIM. I’ve toyed with LightAIM, but it’s still a piece of crap. I’d be using GoogleTalk if I could convince everyone to sign up for a Gmail account, but some people seem absolutely dead set on keeping their add-loaded IM experience. Maybe if that big Google/AOL deal that was supposed to bring AIM integration to Google Talk ever gets going. I still maintain user accounts on five separate IM networks, so it’s nice to be able to seamlessly connect to all of them at once.
• Shareaza: Peer-to-peer handler. For those rare instances when I need to do something over a P2P connection. I rarely use the thing anymore, but it’s nice to know I have it should the need arise.
• VLC: Video player. Plays everything. Even stuff you’ve never heard of from dimensions you couldn’t imagine in ways that would blow your mind. Except Real files.

And that’s it. Those eight programs cover nearly everything I do with my computer on a regular basis. A large part of that is because a lot of what I do these days runs through Google (Gmail, Reader, Calender, etc.), which effectively eliminates the need for an e-mail application, feed aggregator, calender, and a number of other applications. The FireFTP add-on also eliminates the need for a separate FTP application. Much as I despise Firefox for it’s slow rendering and ability to eat vast amounts of RAM with little effort, it’s nice to be able to consolidate the majority of my needs in it.

There are two things missing from the above list. One is Microsoft Office 2007, which is the best office suite at any price. If you’re stuck with 2003 and refuse to pay, there’s always OpenOffice.org, which is slightly better than Office 2003. If you don’t mind paying, however, get one of the cheaper editions with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Much like Vista, everyone loves to hate, but it really is worth it.

The other is the Adobe Creative Suite. Specifically Photoshop and Dreamweaver, though I’ve started using Illustrator and Flash much more recently, and have sworn myself into learning InDesign at some point. Any edition of the Creative Suite is probably beyond both the price range and technical knowledge of the average user, so don’t run out and pick this one up. If you really want to play with your photos or slap together a website, try out Photoshop Elements (which is nearly Photoshop for about 1/6 the price) and Notepad. Seriously. It’s a pain, but it is the best way to learn.

About a month ago I finally got around to building my own computer. The possibility had been lurking in my mind (as so many things do) for awhile, especially over the last few months when my previous computer really started to show its age. I’d seriously considered purchasing an iMac—and may yet, some day—but after dropping $4000 on a desperately-needed car, the possibility of building my own computer for over $1000 less than I’d have to spend on a comparable iMac started to look a whole lot better. Before selecting any components, however, I knew I’d be running Windows Vista. Linux (any flavor) as a desktop really isn’t for me. I know that severely damages my computer geek cred, but it’s just too much work for very little pay off. And as much as I really want to use Mac OS X, I’m not too excited about running a pirated OS.

It also helped that I got a free copy of Windows Vista Business from the Haworth College of Business. Thanks for something Haworth.

So, Windows Vista Business it was. Or is. Or whatever. I’ve been using it ever since Lain was activated, and I’m really starting to wonder… what’s with all the hate? Ignoring the ubergeeks who treat software selection like a holy war (even now, a Mountain Dew-fueled army of zombie computer nerds are arguing through command-line IRC on their Gentoo-powered Mac II’s over whether EMACS or VI is the better text editor for modifying .conf files over SSH), there’s still a lot of animosity towards Windows Vista. No, it isn’t perfect. Installation was a bit weird, requiring me to first install Windows XP and then go back and install Vista. Whomever thought User Account Control was a great idea should be forced to actually use it for the rest of their life. Compatibility is bound to be a problem for users who absolutely refuse to give up their aging software.

After a month of use, however, I’m extremely happy with the switch. Vista isn’t the revolution in computing Microsoft might want you to believe, but it is a significant improvement over Windows XP. The eye-candy is nice to look at, and a lot of little touches that might seem like pure eye candy actually help to improve usability, like capacity bars under drive icons or Flip 3D, which works similar to ALT+TAB switching in previous version of Windows but allows you to actually see windows. The new Windows Explorer is significantly more usable, with breadcrumb address bars and intelligent view selection. The Games menu is an excellent addition to the Start Menu, and the Start Menu as a whole is much improved over Windows XP.

Windows Vista really is a nice OS to use. It’s not the huge leap Microsoft wanted, but it is an excellent step in the right direction. So what’s with all the hate?

Finally got a hold of this bad boy through Windows Update. Yeah, I could’ve downloaded the full network install off Neowin like a month ago, but considering the 76.6MB I had to get took about eight hours, I don’t even want to think about how long the full network install (at over 230MB) would take.

Anyways: nothing too drastic here, but I must say the emphasis on security is nice. The brand-spankin’-new Windows Security Center is the first thing to pop up once Windows loads after you restart the system, letting you know how well your system is protected by way of Windows firewall, Automatic Updates, and Antivirus software. Their was a huge spike in memory usage at first, which had my system using nearly twice the average amount of memory at start up, but I suspect it was just a one-time thing. Memory levels have leveled off and all looks well.

I was kind of hoping they’d include the Royale skin (as seen in some builds of Windows Media Center Edition 2005), but they didn’t. No big deal, though: I’ve already got the skin for WindowBlinds. 

Internet Explorer is actually pretty nice now. The new pop up blocker is a godsend, and nearly enough to make me consider moving back to it full time. It doesn’t look like the rendering engines seen an update, but that was to be expected, if still disappointing.

So, if you don’t have this yet, go get it.