Back in April, Darragh put a post on Culch.ie titled “Be part of a massive Bollywood dance scene in Dublin”. How could I resist? Myself and a fewothermessers signed up and on a blissfully sunny Sunday morning hit Moore St to be put through our paces for Moore Street Masala which is being screened this week.
Trailer
I honestly have no idea what to expect but of course can’t wait to see how the Bollywood routine at the end works out! It was heaps of fun to be involved in and I would definitely be up for doing more.
As part of the launch celebrations for Windows 7, Microsoft are running a competition to find Ireland’s biggest geek.
You can nominate yourself or a friend/colleague/family member via the Celebrate Geek website and for your troubles bag a load of geeky goodies including a Windows 7 laptop and an invite to the official launch party for Windows 7 on October 21st.
The deadline for entries is 6pm on Wednesday 14th October 2009 so get nominating!
I was at a preview session for Windows 7 last evening and in short, I am impressed.
I am quite excited and encouraged by what I saw in the demos and from having a quick play with it on a netbook. Microsoft just might have got it spot on this time around but at the very least it appears to be a big improvement on Vista.
Windows 7 Taskbar peek
First impressions
It’s fast. Starting up a 1GB netbook running Windows 7 took what seemed like 1 or 2 seconds. As our demo guy moved through various apps and processes it seemed very nifty indeed.
It’s clear. From the visual aspect (lots of semi-transparency, large icons and a general feeling of de-cluttering) to the levels of windows involved in various processes, the whole OS is more simplified, straight-forward and easy to use.
It integrates. The demo we saw only showed syncing of Windows Media Centre between a PC and X Box but it was easy, seamless and quick considering the volume of media that was on the machine.
It’s fun. One of the interactions that I took a shine to was by clicking, holding and shaking a window, all other open windows are hidden. Theme packs (based on traditional Windows themes) are bundles of wallpapers, interface colour schemes, soundscapes, bookmarks, RSS feeds and more based on a specific country. There’s 20 ‘official’ theme packs to choose from with an Irish one available post-release via the Microsoft website.
Searching in the Start menu
Other good stuff
For designers the re-organisation of the font library sounds like a welcome change. If like me you have a few hundred fonts installed, selecting fonts from dropdown menus in Photoshop, Flash or even just Word is a bit of a nightmare. Windows 7 will automatically hide seldom-used fonts from these menus. Within the font library itself you can manually show/hide particular fonts and font families to your own preference also.
PSR (Problem Step Recorder) is a new addition to the Windows OS. Essentially, it’s a small program that allows you to record a screen-capture sequence of an interaction on your computer and submit it to Windows support to help resolve problems.
Windows 7 will also have full bio-metric support as well as support for third-party multi-touch devices.
Bad stuff
Admittedly, I haven’t done a huge amount of reading on it but I hear upgrading from Vista and indeed XP might be a bit of a nightmare. There’s no option currently available for non-DVD drive netbooks but there may be a solution released some time in the future.
When can I have it?
It’s on sale to the general public on October 22. If you’re a business customer you can get it right now under volume licsensing. Prices on their website are in dollars (boo) starting at $120. Follow them on Twitter as @win7ireland for updates and competitions or find out about upgrading from XP and Vista and all that jazz over here.
I’ve got no idea how easy/tough it’s going to be to upgrade my parent’s PC to Windows 7 but I’m going to give it a go when I’m down there in a fortnight. I think it’s going to make life a lot easier for them.
Many thanks to all the folks at Microsoft and Edelman Ireland for the demos, Q & A and the lovely surprise of a copy of the OS to take home.
