Do you ever have that not-so-fresh feeling?  I am not talking about the feminine cleansing products but rather a stale and tiresome feeling towards your Desktop.  Well, if you are like me then every now and then you need to re-think your desktop setup and go for something fresh.

I have been a Windows user for most of my computing life (albeit a short life).  I was seriously getting bored with Windows and its all to familiar setup.  I was not nearly spending as much time on the puter just surfing around and playing with different and new programs as I used to.  I think the revelation (or shock) came to me when I actually heard something that my wife said!!!  Can you believe it?  That should be enough for anyone to start looking at what went wrong.

So in response to my slip in judgement I decided to rethink my desktop setup and use some free and easy to use programs to spice up my desktop life.

Here is a screenshot of my old desktop.

Here is a pic of my desktop after the transformation.

All I did was install the following programs and add a new wallpaper.

Yahoo! Widgets with the following widgets:

• Informer (my favorite widget of all time)
  • This is the top toolbar that has the different icons
• NewsStand
  • A nice RSS Reader
• Picture Frame
• Yahoo! Weather

Rocket Dock

Cool Background from themexp.org (the best place for wallpapers)

That’s it.  A couple of free programs and presto-chango a new, fresh looking desktop.  I am not going to say that you will see as dramatic a change as I did but with a little planning who knows what will become of your desktop tomorrow!

Now you can start ignoring your spouse again.  Hip-hip-hooray!

Scardog

It’s no big surprise to me. I’ve talked to plenty of people who have a negative opinion of Vista who have never used the OS. Then you’ve got the folks who have been using the same arguments recyled from the Windows XP days, and yet XP is now “the good old OS”. I don’t think you can discount the Apple switcher adds either. If you know me, you know that I’m not a Windows zealot. I’ve even been known to run Linux on one of my home PCs, but I don’t think the case has been made that XP is still a better bet than Vista. Especially now that Vista has been out for over a year and a half, and we’re not seeing the compatability issues that were experienced at its launch.

To me, a huge part of the problem with Vista is an image thing. The Apple marketing team does such a good job at marketing the Mac. They make it look like the cool kid everyone wants to hang around with, and Windows looks like some reject whose mom dresses him funny so he ends up writing a tech blog and never having any girlfriends or fun. But I digress.

The bottom line is that too many times conclusions are drawn without knowing all the facts. This is applicable to a wide range of topics (climate change, energy policy, beer selection), and it’s just as applicable to the Vista question.

It used to be nothing for me to down a grande Starbucks vanilla latte, 20 oz diet Pepsi, and a king size Reese’s Peanut-butter Cup all before lunch. Then in the afternoon, I would chase it all with a couple Advil to help with the backache I got from my cheap office chair.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I would admit to something like this, but I’m doing it for the children. I just don’t want any of you youngsters out there thinking it’s cool to sit in front of an LCD all day and night writing line after line of code. It took me years, but I was able to kick my habit. I’m actually able to spend time outdoors. Hell, I’ve even got a wife and baby on the way. It’s amazing what I’ve been able to accomplished while unplugged and not hopped up on caffeine.

So take my advice. Unplug, put the Jolt Cola down and get some fresh air! You’ll thank me.

I love listing to podcasts, but beside that here’s a sampling of what I like to listen to while coding.

• Tool
• Ill Nino
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Cold Play
• Ben Folds Five
• Faith No More
• Velvet Revolver
• Matisyahu
• Kanye West
• Elvis
• The Killers
• Johnny Cash

I try to listen to a nice mix to keep from getting bored.

Wikipedia has a very good image showing the common video resolutions. Man, I’m drooling just thinking about 2560×1600.

Me: “Hello everyone. My name is Tim.”

Group: “Hi Tim!”

Me: “I write software.”

Group: “So do we!”

Me: “I’ve been writing software for over 6 years now.”

Group: “That’s great Tim!”

Me: “And I write bad software.”

Group: There’s nervous stares around the room, shuffling of papers and feet. No one wants to acknowledge the 500 pound gorilla in the room. They all write bad code!

There. I’ve admitted it. I write bad code. I don’t intend to, but it just happens. At least that’s what it looks like to me. Every time I look back at a completed project, I can’t help but think I could have done this better or that better. Usually I have to fight the urge to go back and rewrite code just because I know think I can make it more efficient and more elegant. Then I remember that I need to keep making progress on current projects, and my dreams of incessant code rewrites goes up in smoke. So I go on writing more bad code, and the cycle continues.

I prefer to think that I’m becoming a better developer as I complete more projects, instead of thinking that I wrote bad code on older projects. I can think of specific tasks that caused problems for me at one time that I’m now able to easily handle. Does that mean I’m not writing bad code anymore? Probably not, but I’m writing better code than I used to. Shouldn’t that be our goal anyway? We should be continuously improving our skills and becoming better developers. That’s the 500 pound gorilla in the room. We all think we write good code, but there’s always room to improve. Especially in the tech industry because it changes so quickly, and there’s always opportunity to learn something new.

Now I want to know who’s going to clean up after the gorilla. I’ve got code to rewrite.

So now without further ado, the top 10 reasons I hate top 10 lists:

1. Everyone does them.
2. It’s an easy way to get traffic. You may as well write about the iPhone.
3. They’re too easy (to make a bad one – this post being example #1).
4. They’re too hard (to make a good one – this post being example #1).
5. They’re fodder for inane Digg comments (there were 703 pages of results for a search for top 10 lists at the writing of this post).
6. They get boring after about 5 entries.
7. David Letterman’s are always better than anything you could write.
8. You usually have to start making things up to complete the full list of 10.
9. They inevitably lead to “I hate top 1o lists” top ten lists. Which are probably worse than the original top 10 lists.
10. Ok. Maybe I’ve only got 9 reasons to hate top 10 lists. And none of them are particularly good.

Anyway, I’m not responsible for some old legacy system. It’s several Windows 2003 servers, but they’re not the problem (for a change). It’s an internal process that uses a time stamp to create serial numbers, and since tonight we’ll be “falling back” an hour there’s a chance for problems.

There will inevitably be others working on code your writing. Do them a favor, don’t make your systems dependent on arbitrary factors external to the system. It’s just not very smart. You’ll introduce the possibility of bugs that are difficult to track down or duplicate not to mention the testing nightmare.

Like David Bowie said in “Changes“, Time may change me. But I can’t trace time.

What if the iPhone was unlocked? When I say unlocked, I’m talking about using the phone on the carrier of my choice. How nice would it be if I could go down to my Verizon store and get a new iPhone at the same time my brother goes down to his T-Mobile store and gets his. I know one is CDMA and the other is GSM, but I can get a RAZR on Verizon and T-Mobile so I know it can be done. Apple can make the iPod shuffle, nano, classic and touch so why not two different iPhones? I know that Apple gets a cut of the subscription fees from AT&T, but I’m sure they could have worked out similar deals with the other big carriers. Maybe I spend too much time writing code and not enough doing business deals, but I fail to see how tying the phone exclusively to AT&T is the best option for Apple. We know it’s not the best option for consumers.

Apple seems to be wielding a heavy hand when it comes to the iPhone in general. You need to use iTunes to update the phone which means you’re out of luck if you’re not on the Windows or Mac platforms. Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, there’s no SDK available for third part application development or a means of installing applications onto the phone. I’ve heard some claim that keeping third party apps off the phone preserves the user experience that Steve Jobs Apple intended, or that it keeps users from unknowingly breaking their phones causing nightmares for support. Neither of those arguments make sense to me. If I buy a nice new MacBook I can install any non-Apple applications I want and still get support as long as I haven’t done anything to break my Mac. Shouldn’t you have the same freedom on your phone? If you do something dumb and brick your phone. That’s your problem, but don’t artificially limit what I can do with my own property in an effort to “protect me from myself”. If I drop it in a puddle of water I don’t expect Apple to replace my phone, and if I do something else to brick my phone I don’t expect a replacement either. When you get to the heart of the matter, the iPhone is just another computer. Why not treat it as such?

Here’s an analogy. I just put new tires on my truck. Ford recommends a specific size tire, but if I choose a bigger size I don’t have to worry about the truck not starting the next time I bring it in to the dealer for service. I also understand that if those bigger tires cause a problem, I’m probably not going to be covered by the warranty. How come this same logic can’t be applied to the iPhone? It’s because the cell phone market in the US mistreats its customers, and Apple fell right into the status quo with the iPhone. That’s why Apple’s choice to lock the phone into AT&T and it’s adversarial stance against unlocking has been such a disappointment.