A Blank Vista Logon Screen

After having installed Windows Vista for a year, I got a little bored by the blue and green Aurora logon screen. Since I'm not particularly interesting in having outer space, sexy women, XP-inspired landscapes or some arbitrary corporate graphics as the background of the screen, I decided to make my own:

A blank screen.

It turns out that this is the best background in my opinion. Though very likely to be opposed by the marketing department for its lack of product identity, or to be criticized by the head of the graphic design department for being lazy, the black background seems to be the best transition between the computer turning on till the wallpaper shows up after logging on.

The black blends with the edge of the monitor screen, very much so the way the Vista design team decided that a maximized window should have a black edge.

I had also flashed my BIOS for a blank boot-up screen as well to match the whole experience.

To create a black Vista logon screen is easy. Simply go here to download a free copy of Logon Studio Vista, courtesy of Stardock. All you need to do next is to create a black bitmap in any size. Here I made it in 640x480 and saved as a PNG. The UI of the software is fairly simple, and that's what makes you think that it is a safe process to customize your logon screen.

Switching Channels...

There were two major tech sites on the Internet in the Blogging Age: Engadget and Gizmodo. To satisfy their readers' neverending lust for gadgets, they chase after new releases like paparazzi. To entice their readers, they introduced humor, and later wit. And when the readers become bored by wit, they introduced sh*t-talking, to harmonize with the anonymous comments that were as disrespectful. When even sh*t-talking is not enough, they introduce rumors, false rumors, biased reviews, and disposable reviews that did not even bother using the product fully but focus fully on the joy of bashing. And last of all, photos of girls to make you think you are reading Maxim Magazine.

Of course, there is a limit of how much of these "humors" an average reader can take. Therefore, occasionally, when the editors realize that their readership is falling, they would clean up their act a little bit and do some better reporting.

However, as their readership increase again, the quality of articles decline.

I found myself switching back and forth between these two sites back in the days. The switch is now over. I doubt I want to read either of the sites. There are much more interesting topics to be obsessive about, and there are a lot more other sites that would be willing to spend the time to give unbiased and insightful reviews of gadgets.

To illustrate the last two paragraphs, here is a graph I drew up:

One Year into Windows Vista

I had used Windows Vista for a year.

Microsoft, in many ways, failed to market the product. It used the word "Wow" to describe how great the new operating system is. Yes, the OS is not bad, but "Wow" is too subjective a word to be used.

For geeks, Vista is not a "wow", because Microsoft had disclosed way too much information for the 5 years of its development. No matter how good the product is, the excitement is already over for the geeks. New features, in the days of Instant Culture, are the most exciting only when it is unvealed, not when it is being used.

For normal people, Vista is not a "wow", because it does not save them from their bosses, does not help them finish all the work of the day quicker, and does not attract lovers. And it crashes when the graphics driver is poorly written.

For frat boys, Vista is not a "wow" because it is not a status symbol.

For Apple fanboys, Vista is of course not a "wow". (Is it just me or is Leopard way too grayish?)

It is a not-so-bad transition, nevertheless. Perhaps it proves that the operating system is slowly graduating to an infrastructure - like the power grid, water supplies or your sewage pipes - an upgrade is not about marketable excitement anymore. It is about "It just works".

Anyway.

"Astrogirl" - Pentium 4 3 GHz, 1.5GB RAM

The first computer switched over was my home computer, a year ago. (Specs are listed not to show off, but to show you how poor I am.) It seems pretty slow and sluggish in the beginning (and it is sometimes pretty sluggish, like how the text does not appear immediately in Windows Live Writer as I am typing right now), but it seems to improve over time and updates. I plugged in my old hard disk to run Windows XP another day, and realized that the old system loaded up much slower.

In my first install, I had UAC turned off. However, I clicked a wrong link a month or two later in a hazy dreary night, and my computer was filled with spyware. I reinstalled Windows as a result. Soon I realized that most of the UAC dialog pops up when I arrange my Start Menu items. Once I got through that stage, UAC is not so bad. (Someone please make a software to make Start Menu arrangement less annoying?)

I am most satisfied with the ability to view photos nice and big in Explorer and Windows Photo Gallery. Other than that, it seems I could have done most of the tasks in Windows XP... Besides, Windows Live Photo Gallery is now available for XP as well. The new Network Center and diagnostics tool is a great addition though.

"Elian" - Xeon 'Irwindale' 3.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM

The second computer upgraded was my office computer, a couple months later. Work is important, so if the work computer is down it would be disastrous. The computer also seems slower after the upgrade, in spite of a better graphics card.

One biggest problem after the upgrade was the incompatibility of critical programs. Flash 8 would switch between scenes very slowly (It bugs Scott a lot, a hell lot), and Flash CS3 was not released half a year later. Paint Shop Pro XI is also painfully slow when saving files.

"Bluebird" - Pentium 4 2 GHz, 768MB RAM, Laptop

Before Christmas I upgraded the hard drive of my laptop (It seems very urgent at the time, but now I forgot why, hmm (ah, out of space to install CS3)) and a reinstallation of the OS as a result. It had always been running XP Chinese Edition, so I installed the Chinese version of Vista for it. To my surprise, the OS is very fast to load - probably because it doesn't use Aero. However, Microsoft Windows Vista cannot find the drivers for the Microsoft Wireless Adaptor Card. Therefore, my laptop hardly ever has Internet access.

"Alfie" - Celeron 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM

The last computer I upgraded was my family's computer. Although Aero is not running in this system, to my disappointment, Windows run very slow here. It also takes me a while to find all the drivers.

After one year, Windows Vista is not too bad, but is entangled with speed and hardware problems. I am currently building a new computer these days, and hopefully this will finally be a speedy computer. I still have very hazy memory of a very slow Windows XP Beta 2 on my Pentium II 300 MHz PC though.

The iPhone Activation Ordeal

Since my phone, which could play videos, songs, browse Internet and look up Google Maps, and which had been working like a horse for 3 years, was broken, in the wrath of the deserts sands from Burning Man, I had to buy a new phone today. I miss the convenience of having all my contacts and files sync-ed.

So I bought an iPhone. You know, my company is developing a software for it. And I led that project, in fact.

But if there is anything wrong with the design of the iPhone, it is the activation process. It is an absolute failure.

First of all, I have to close iTunes now because it keeps stealing focus of my windows every minute. I can't type at all.

So here is the story.

Once I opened your pristine box of the iPhone, I took out the phone, the dock, and everything, and I am greeted with no instructions. Ah, yes, it's a touch phone, so the instructions must be on the first page of a pamphlet called "Finger Tips".

And I read the first instruction: Download iTunes. Of course, if you cant wait to turn on your phone (which you need to hold a button somewhere at the top right), you will be greeted with the same instructions as well.

Why iTunes? I have no idea. I thought this is a phone, not a music player. But anyhow, I am forced to download a nearly 50MB file, via my slow broadband connection. That alone took half an hour of waiting.

iTunes itself required the installation of two of the most annoying components: Apple QuickTime and Apple Software Update.

And iTunes itself is a horrible software. Enter Key does not work. After you entered all your details in the iPhone wizard, enter key will not bring you to the next page. The software is very unresponsive as well, compared to Windows Media Player. There is no hierarchy to speak of when browsing your media. The giant list of all my 7000 songs in the Music Library is illogical. It is impossible to scroll through the whole thing. Want Podcasts? Want album artwork? Oops, you need an iTunes Store account. Everything points to an iTunes Store account, actually.

It had been more than an hour since I called AT&T. I checked my AT&T account on their web site, and verified that the rate plan had already been updated, as they wished. However, Apple iTunes still told me that my voice plan is not compatible with their phone, and passed the blame on AT&T. Way to go, Apple. It's totally your fault now and I'm waiting. Worse, you don't even have a proper technical support phone line that I can find easily.

(As of 2:20AM, i.e. 8 hours later, it is still not working. Clearly, the AT&T web site had been updated with the new plan.)

Comparing a Windows Mobile, the setup process of the iPhone is a disaster. For a Windows Mobile, you install Outlook and Windows Mobile Device Center. Outlook, comparing iTunes, is a full-featured PIM. Besides, you don't even need to install all these things if you just want to make a call. The phone will just work when you turn it on. No locks and activation.

I know, Microsoft introduced the concept 'activation' to the mass. Adobe soon followed. And Apple made it ugly.

I am returning the phone next week, if the experience continues to degenerate.

New tools!

Finally Adobe Creative Suite 3 is released! The folks in the office can finally use a reliable copy of Flash Professional to develop the software for Flash Player 9. Conversion between Illustrator and Flash is good, but just good enough, not over-the-top like Arcade Fire.

Most things import easily, especially uneven gradients and radial gradients, which used to just splat itself on Flash as a bitmap, and now they would try to mimic the closest gradient fill possible. It's not perfect though, since Illustrator still does not have alpha values for its coloring system, and that means you will need to use the Opacity Mask trick in Illustrator to preview, and remove all of them before taking the objects to Flash.

Other features are good but not especially exciting. Live Color is a good addition but since I 'think' I know color so I probably wouldn't like Illustrator recommending me what color to use all the time. It's similar to but more focused on experimentation than the excellent Phantasm CS plugin I bought a couple months ago when I was working on the Trillian icons.

The new panel system is great. The panels don't flicker in Vista anymore, and everything loads nice and fast. There's a little bug concerning the saving of the panel position. I hope they will fix it soon.

If you apply the "every two versions" rule, this upgrade sounds about right to be a great deal when compared to Adobe Illustrator CS or 10. You'll gain a lot more features besides Live Color, new UI, Flash integration and Vista support; but also Live Trace and Live Paint from CS2, which makes great companion to the new Eraser tools in CS3.

I'm a long-time Illustrator user now since 2000, and I'm pretty satisfied. :)

By the way, last night I finally couldn't tolerate the icons and made this.