Dare I say stop bashing Windows Vista?

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I do.

Against all the jesting of my friends and co-workers. Against the mass media commentary. Against everything the computer industry seems to think… I say stop bashing Windows Vista. Moreover, I will even go ahead and say its okay (not good, just okay). Yes, I use it on both my desktop and laptop both the 32 bit version and the 64 bit version. I am not really all that proud that I do… but if you want to get DX10 and 64-bit its really the only game in town. And, I am not one of those fanboys that came in after SP1 was out and asked what all the fuss was about. I used Vista RC1 and managed to trash it five minutes after install. I have been around the Vista block – I know what I am talking about.

I’ll tell you what I like, what I don’t like, and how you can bring Vista into a much more usable condition on your own home computer. Get ready, misconceptions are about to be shattered!

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When writing networked apps in java…

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…and you are using plain text encoding, use a Scanner instead of a BufferedReader, wrapped over a InputStreamReader. I just fought a timeout bug for quite some time that was fixed by this.

Batting 1.000 on electronics this year

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Back from the holiday break with new electronics on hand. Ah, yes… nothing feels more gratifying and more amazing than to open up that Xmas package to find that gadget you always wanted. (Okay, maybe a couple things are more gratifying..)

You tear through the box, instructions go flying(who needs em, anyways?), cables are being wrapped up in your face and finally you get everything plugged in! You power the device on and it gives you the feint hope that all is working to your hearts content. Then, in a blink of an eye, something terrible happens. Something… everything goes wrong.

Suddenly, this coveted piece of technology needs to be slapped into a box and sent back for replacement (*cough* at your charge).

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