Microsoft Musings

WOW. Its a beautiful day for the first day of spring. Just don’t forget to get that free Italian Ice from Rita’s.

Over time I’ve gradually been signing up for different birthday clubs, and as a result I’ve gotten all kinds of special coupons, free food, etc. these past couple of days. Anyway, here’s a list of them in case you would like some free stuff on your birthday. Ohh.. yes… my birthday is on the 15th of February in case you are wondering.

• Baskin-Robbins Birthday Club – Receive free 2.5 oz. scoop of Ice Cream and $3 off any cake.
• Dairy Queen Blizzard Fan Club – Free 16 oz. Blizzard with the purchase of another.
• Hoss’s Steak and Sea House – $5 off
• Ryan’s Or Fire Mountain Grill – One free Adult buffet meal with the purchase of another. Also good at Old Country Buffet.
• Cold Stone Creamery Birthday Club – One free Like It Create Your Own Creation served in a cup.
• Friendly’s Birthday Club – Free Ice Cream (with another purchase I believe)
• and there is lots more you can join by just searching on Google.

Ok. This should be the last of the Windows 7 Beta wallpapers. Unless, of course, I find more hidden folders. All told, there is 5 individual localization folders which are stored in “C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT” containing desktop backgrounds and various other files. I’m not sure why Microsoft chose to only allow us to see certain wallpapers. What’s the harm in having them all available to everyone? Anyway so much for that.

Interestingly, the folders for Canada, South Africa, and Australia all contain the same images. I’ve already uploaded the US and United Kingdom wallpapers, and now I present the rest.

(Right-click thumbnail to download)

You are probably getting tired of all these Windows 7 Beta wallpaper posts. I can’t help it, I just keep finding more cool wallpapers. I’ve now discovered some images that are stored in a hidden localization folder for some reason. They have a couple of sub-folders for various countries containing desktop backgrounds, etc. These images are from the US localization folder. Most likely I’ll include some of the others in yet another post.

(Right-click thumbnail to download)

I’m a PC. are you?

Concatenation is the operation of joining two character strings end to end. For example, in Excel you can combine the two values in another cell by using the following formula: =CONCATENATE(A1,B1)

Hans alerted me to a really cool wordpress plugin. I never could figure out how Matt could post like this. Now I know.

     I’ve been a fan of Windows Vista for a long time, but it takes some people a few years to see the light. Welcome Mike, to Windows Vista. Mike mentions the fact that in light of all the nay-saying he hears, he was scared to even attempt it. In actuality though, the upgrade was smooth, and he likes Vista. What is interesting to me is that I don’t hear complaints about Windows Vista from my customers that are actually running Vista. In fact I just got this email from a customer of mine, after I mentioned to him about a XP laptop I had on sale. 

Looks good, the only problem is Vic wants Vista.

Ohh. I thought everyone was saying XP is the way to go. Most of the negativism about Windows Vista is coming from the press, mac zealots, digg & slashdot. Personally, I’m tired of all the untrue anti-vista bashing. (and so is Paul) Stop it already.

Wow! Apple is doing the right thing this time around. They announced the new 3G version of the iPhone for the low price of $199. They also included a bunch of features that actually make it a real phone this time, including GPS, 3G, Exchange support, etc. RIM, you’ve got serious competition now!

Update: Robert Scoble says the new iphone actually isn’t cheaper:

The new iPhone is NOT that much cheaper. Yeah, it’s $199, but you have to sign a two-year-contract and the 3G network plan is $10 a month more expensive. So, do the math. It isn’t cheaper.

Yesterday was the first day of spring, and I got my free Italian ice at Rita’s . It was almost too cold outside to eat it though. Did you snag a free ice too?