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I was on the beta list for Windows Vista and recently downloaded and installed it. Here are my thoughts:

Install: I had to download a rather large ISO image which wasnt too bad. The toughest part was realizing that for some reason this ISO wants to be burned to a DVD at 4x or lower speeds. My DVD burner runs at 16x and kept failing the burn. I went through about 5 DVD’s before I went on line and found the solution. Finally got it to work.

Windows Vista Advisor is a program you run on your xp machine to see if you have any hardware or software that will be missing drivers or have any problems on Vista. I came up clean. So needless to say I was really surprised when the Install asked me for DVD-Drive Drivers when I was half way through the install. Still cant figure out why it was able to read the dvd to do the install but couldnt figure out how to load drivers for it. Somehow I was able to click Cancel like 10 times and it said the install failed but was still in Vista mode. So I kept going. It eventually installed.

Once up and running I found the interface at first glance to be VERY COOL. much more useable and crisp. Reminds me of some really cool operating system I know. Oh thats right, it looks a bit like Mac’s OSX. So funny that Microsoft is playing catch up in the interface game, I find it ironic but glad that there is a check/balance out there keeping the Redmond gang on their toes.

So once Vista came up,

What I like about it:

• Speed. Its noticeably faster. I setup a system where I can swap out my old hard drive and Plug in the vista hard drive rather quickly using a Hard Drive Swap Setup . When I put my old XP drive back in and re-booted, i noticed that it seemed sluggish. I have nothing to back this up it just seems like they spent more time tightening up the interface code to make it snappier.
• Look and feel.
• File browser There is a Mac like file browser that looks like this.

What went wrong: lots of missing drivers and some software (including quicken 2005) didnt work well
What needs to get better: better driver support and less hardware requirements.
Overall Impressions: seemed very solid and performance was improved for UI stuff.
Screen Shots: Here are some screen shots that should capture what the look and feel is.
My Desktop
The new Start Menu

One of the cool new features: Hold down the windows key and press Tab to see the 3d navagation structure:

So there has been a rather large “save the internet” or “save the internets” campaign on many sites lately. The gist of this debate in my humble opinion is that the Major Telco’s are petitioning congress to modify the structure of the Internet which will put control of how various sites and applications peform for you and I. From the website http://www.savetheinternet.com :

“Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet’s First Amendment — a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you — based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn’t speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.”

Having spent a few years working for similar companies, I submit that what they are looking to do is not good for consumers, or the open nature of the Internet. I felt it important to write something about it here on my small forum.

By way of background. Telecom companies such as AT&T are faced with a difficult challenge and one that is frankly in direct opposition to consumers’ best interests. Network Proivders are faced with the constant challenge of meeting wall street expectations for profits while trying to grow their infrastructure to meet customer demands for bandwidth which requires intensive capital outlay. Higher bandwidth applications like Peer-to-Peer (aka napster, eDonkey, Bittorrent) and free Teleconferencing (NetZero Voice, Skype, AOL Chat) are stressing the current networks of these providers, at a rate faster than they can build out.

Network proivders to date have not had a method for distinguishing traffic types on their networks, they have no visibility or control as to what types of Internet applications are used on their networks so they cannot “throttle back” or classify they types of traffic they carry. Furthermore this prevents them from being able to “rate” the type of traffic you send “voice”, “video”, “software” etc. From http://www.savetheinternet.com:

“Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the network’s only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service. Net Neutrality prevents the companies that control the wires from discriminating against content based on its source or ownership.”

So what are the providers doing about it? Again from savetheinternet.com:

“The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies — including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner — want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won’t load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video — while slowing down or blocking their competitors.

These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of an even playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services — or those from big corporations that can afford the steep tolls — and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road”.

This new bill will do a couple of things as I understand it:

1. Re-structure the top levels of the internet peering arrangement. As much as we like to think it is, the Internet is not flat, its heirarchical. A few large networks “peer” and “interconnect” with other networks and trade traffic destined for eachothers customers. This would change allowing providers to charge differnet rates for types of traffic and types of businesses. They would also have the ability to rank who they interconnect with and prioritize traffic. This, in a nutshell, gives the backbone providers the ability to provide lower quality of service to some customers.

2. Enable large telcos to classify your data. They would be able to classify data you send as voice, web, file transfer and could prevent you from seeing sites they dont want you to, block applications like Voice Over Internet Protocol (voip) from their competitors and eventually charge you based on the type of traffic you send. Today i pay one price for my 3mb connection to the Internet. In the future I may have to pay one price for web access and a surchage for Voice and yet another for file transfers. I believe a free market economy will prevent this pricing structure from taking hold, its more likely that these companies and the government will use this a foundation for Internet tax.

3. Create preferential status for some providers. No longer will all network traffic be handled in the same way. It will allow these companies to create peering relationships that are high speed and low speed based on types of traffic. today that does not happen. It opens the door for network providers to show preferential treatment to particular websites or application providers based on commercial terms versus user desires. IE: verizon may have the ability to make it faster for you to access one retail site over another or even block one site all-together.

I have worked in this industry and really enjoy what the Internet has become, how it has permeated our lives. I write this out of desire to ensure that we all have the same access to this great resource and the control of it continues to remain in the hands of all of us. I would like to see the major telcos continue to thrive and prosper, we are dependant on them to maintain this infrastructure and innovate products that we all need and want. Lets ensure that they continue to stay focused on us, the customer.

So What can you do?

1. Educate yourself. Read the following Whitpaper on Net Neutrality.

2. Go to http://www.savetheinternet.com and sign the online peition.

3. contact your congressperson. You can do this from the site listed above.

So we have recently started using Skype (http://www.skype.com) to call my folks and video-conference with them. Why you ask when we live in the same city? well, appartenly the folks are addicted to seeing their grandson and cant stand not seeing him fore more than a day or two. As a result, I have had to use some technology to solve this problem. We downloaded Skype (free) form the site listed above.

I also bought the Logitech QuickCam® for Notebooks Pro. Its a great little camera and includes a built in Microphone. It looks like this:

It rests on top of the monitor, its really designed to clip onto a notebook lid but i like the small form factor so I got it anyway.

the strength of this thing is how easy i was to setup and use. Simple driver install and the camera was working. The tought part was setting up skype to use it. I had to chose “Video (Beta)” in the “Tools/Options” menu and select “Enable skype video”. Also had to select the webcam and set “Start my video automatically”
Also in “sounds” had to select the voice input to the webcam microphone. But from there on it its great. You can make free pc to pc calls with skype and do video conferencing. We video conference every so often and when we were on a trip to hawaii recently the folks were able to see their grandson.

So my skype id is stevendlevitt, install it and give me a shout.

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