Microsoft has a site up where users can test drive a copy of Vista. This is apparently being done in an effort to demo Vista for free rather than having unscrupulous types install pirated versions (who would ever do that???). As a part of the Vista VM environment, the new Office 2007 apps are up there. The Ribbons are quite a departure from the old menu bars we know and occasionally love.

This is a place I will undoubtedly come back to to see more of how Vista works, but there are some interesting things I’ve read about and am happy to see. The interface is pretty cool and I really like the document preview in the file folders.

Shockingly enough, I can only access the trial through IE.

Elsewhere…

I’m still trying to get my arms around the President’s health insurance proposal that hit the streets this week. As it stands right now, from everything I can tell I fall below the $15,000 family deduction, but I’m unclear just how the health insurance spending is computed. Is it just my contribution to the health plan? Is my company’s match included? Is it just the health plan, or does dental & supplementary vision count too? Is there an extra contribution my company makes that’s not accounted for in my stub, but will be apportioned to me? Right now there’s way too many questions out there for me. My gut reaction yesterday was one of additional disgust for a President that has stopped being (a) conservative and (b) a Republican. Taxes are high enough as it is – no politician worthy of a capital “R” in the title should ever find additional sources of taxes in a worker’s paychecks. I expect the tax-&-spends across the aisle to do that. My opinions on the plan might change as more details emerge, but right now I’m officially “wary”.

The latest Internet boilover concerns a Wisconsin-based online floor mat retailer and their opinionated brushoff of a soldier in Iraq looking to purchase a set for his squad. Quoting from an AP story….

“In an e-mail dated Jan. 16, a soldier identifying himself as Sgt. Jason Hess asked about getting floor mats from the company.

“Do you ship to APO addresses? I’m in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq, and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first,” the e-mail said.

A response e-mailed the same day said the company did not.

“And even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq,” said the e-mail, which was signed ‘Bargain Suppliers.’”

There’s not much left to be said about this story that hasn’t already been said. The employee (some rumors intone the “employee” is the actual owner) completely blew any concept of customer service and representing the company well. It would be easy enough to say “Sorry, we don’t ship to APO’s” and leave it at that. With a period there, no story takes place. Telling a soldier, in effect, to stuff it isn’t the wisest marketing strategy. Predictably, the outrage has been loud and vehement, which I can completely understand. However, the threats of violence against the family are over the line. The question also needs to be asked why the Pentagon can’t provide the squad with mats.

Officially only a month late, but realistically more than three months overdue, a good accumulating snowfall finally hits town yesterday. The little flakes start flying about 10:15-ish in the morning, and it quickly covers all the paved surfaces around us. By the time the skies empty about 4pm we’re left with a healthy 3-3.5 inches of fresh powder. Not really a good snowball-packing pile, but enough to get the kids & dog out running about. Garrett is learning the finer points of snowball fights, while Ethan’s just trying to figure out how to make his arms & legs move through all those layers (cue A Christmas Story). Max, seeing snow for the first time, does his regular dashing back & forth at the fence line. This time, though, he gets to figure out how to fly to the corner of the fence and stop without sliding smack into the thing. The first stop was a sheet of snow flying through the links and when the powder clears poor Max is on his side, unfazed and still barking at the salt truck.

There’s something peaceful and serene about a hillside snowfall under the moonlight (and now streetlights). The road behind our house is lightly traveled during inclement weather and isn’t a primary street, and as such the snow is often barely mussed by tires. As I was walking back from the store I had to pause for a sec and take in the hillside at dusk, with the mostly undisturbed snow sitting in the street and yards of our neighbors. With that visual and the quiet, the sky is almost a bit purple. The nice part of winter.

Alas, today the temperature is in the upper 30’s. The salt on the streets has worked, the curbs & gutters are littered with pepper snow, and the yards are shifting from white to green polka-dots.

Thankfully the five-day has lots of snowflake images.

A list of the things I’ve seen lately that irritate me.

- People who lick their fingers when passing out papers. A prof did this today in my class when giving us handouts. I know there’s an obsessive-compulsive lot that avoids germs spread through human contact (not shaking hands, not using paper money, etc.) who would be completely freaked by this. I’m not THAT o-c yet, but I’ll admit to being a bit repulsed on the finger lick.

- Drivers in a heavily pedestrian location who get itchy lead feet. You see all the people walking, dammit. Pretend to be a little patient. And In the name of equal time…pedestrians who walk blindly into a street without looking at traffic. I’ve been on both sides and am irritated by both. Hell, I’ve done both too, but at least I feel a little guilt.

- Flip flops. I’m not a big proponent of this latest fashion trend, but it’s even worse when the temperature is frickin’ below freezing. Common sense, people!

- Warm weather clothes in the cold. Fashion for ladies continues to get skimpier, smaller, and thinner in the materials. I do like the midriffs, the spaghetti straps, and the polyester/silk/whatever the ladies wear when the sun shines high. When the cold snap hits, though, someone will no doubt head outside oblivious to the temperatures and spend the next hour complaining that it’s too cold out. Gee, hon….maybe wearing little more than tissue paper out today wasn’t such a great idea. But we can tell that you’re freezing just a wee little bit….

- Students in the class following mine who sit down beside me and bitch about how hard my current professor is. Those are usually the ones who didn’t bother to show up when they had the class and are pissed they failed.

- Parents who don’t look after their kids in public. Grocery stores, department stores, restaurants, zoos, malls…wherever. Just because you don’t want to listen to all their BS doesn’t give you the right to turn them loose & ignore them while they ruin everyone else’s day. We don’t let our kids run wild – we watch them and correct them when they act up. We actually had an older lady come up to us at the Beanery last week and tell us how well behaved our kids were. She even said that they acted better than her own grandkids (and this was after 8pm on a day where everything we did ran way behind). It’s a pretty pathetic statement on society when a stranger comes up to you and praises your children for behaving. This shouldn’t be the exception.

- Snow. Better said, the lack thereof this winter. It’s January. Where’s the snow????

2006 was a year of challenges, personally and professionally. The medical issues that struck my family from all directions really took it’s toll on all of us. Some were short-term episodes (another mysterious grandmother episode, the triple bypass) whose recoveries are in various stages. The others will linger for some time to come, like the peanut allergies. I received great news about that potential promotion before summer started, then had to sit through six LLOOONNNGGG months waiting for things to come to fruition. During that time enough challenges came up to make me wonder if the wait was worthy, but eventually I realized that some things are worth waiting for. Classes were real hard, and there were times I wondered if I was doing the right thing.

That’s not to say that not all was bad. There were some wonderful personal times in ‘06 – my youngest son’s first birthday, that wonderful getaway week to Disney, my oldest son’s first day (and subsequent do-over) of organized school, and another year of successful family building. My enormous risk of moving back paid off with the aforementioned promotion, validating this whole experience. My hard work in those difficult classes was rewarded with great grades and professorial respect. Last, but certainly not least, I was able to understand more deeply some of the things I regularly experience and what I might be able to do to ease them.

Now that 2007 is off and rolling, I’m looking forward to making this year better than the last. Some of the things up on tap:

- Our ten-year anniversary. Too bad our actual date falls during the school calendar, but no matter. We’ve got some plans cooking to make this year special.

- My real graduation. Back in 1997, when I was supposed to graduate the first time, things got all caulked up. I was responsible for about 95% of it. Fast forward to 2007, and this time most everything has been done right. I go to class, do my work, and make good grades. Funny how that works. While some of the scars will never heal, walking in May will do wonders for helping me close out some personal demons I’ve allowed to haunt me for almost a decade.

- Jen’s personal goals. She’s been working real hard to accomplish some things she set out to do, and I’m going to do what I can to help her. Hopefully I don’t piss her off in the process!

- Garrett enters Real school. He’s in preschool now, but the real ticker starts running in late August. Hard to believe time has flown that fast.

- Professionally, I’m trying to hit all the goals we determined for me for learning my new application. Part of what made my transition to telecommuting successful was that I knew the previous application inside and out, eliminating a variable from the equation. Now, I’m remote and trying to learn. That’s a new challenge I haven’t faced yet. If I pull this off with a decent level of success it will be quite the accomplishment.

We already had one item hit in January to get the new year off to a rousing start. Garrett performed as part of a karate demo at halftime of the men’s basketball game against Villanova, and his team was a hit! The wee little ones got tons of applause, and I got tons of pictures out of it. (I must note that the pictures and the video I took sucked out loud, but a tip of the cap to TheStaff for getting some remarkable shots for me. Thanks!) I will get some posted here soon.

Some interesting stories I came across today.

Build your own robot – From the people that brought you the Roomba comes a “robot” that can be programmed to perform simple tasks. Add a camera and see what it sees. Teach it to open the fridge and grab a beer. One enterprising group stuck a hamster ball on it, so that the robot moves in the same direction as the hamster.

Huntington threatens to forfeit basketball game at South Charleston – The traveling circus that is Huntington HS boys basketball is pissed the Black Eagles principal won’t move the game from campus, or that he won’t give them more than 25 tickets. Normally I’m not in concert with South Charleston HS (and I’ve heard how much of an ass Walton is) but I agree with him on this one. It’s a high school basketball game, not the pros. It’s his home game, and he can do as he pleases.

The trouble with Tiggers – Something tells me the screening requirements for Tigger gets tougher. Good thing my kids behaved in the Crystal Palace!

Edwards….what a phoney – John Edwards puts up some campaign propaganda that is supposed to look like a candid, off-the-cuff shot from a camcorder talking about how he’d rather be genuine, not be trained like “some plastic Ken doll.” Please. Most of us are cynical enough to know that most anything said these days is highly scripted, and I hope most of us are smart enough to catch the real from the fake.

PC Mag’s Top 10 for 2006 – John Dvorak’s review of the top tech stories in the year just past. I started subscribing to PC Mag this past year, and I enjoy his crabby old man writing style.

New FiOS services…must be nice – Yeah, I know that moving to WV meant I was taking a step back the infrastructure ladder (not that my old neighborhood in Charlotte would get much better soon). Still, the universal service fund is supposed to make sure us “rural” states get telephony investments too. I just want my fiber to the premises!

Petrino finally finishes his screw job of Louisville – Yeah, the BCS championship is tonight and the Mountaineers look to improve on their 13-1 (3-0 Big East) record tomorrow night at Notre Dame, but the big college story today is master flirter Bobby Petrino – who spent as much time courting suitors as he did coaching Louisville – finally left his Cards for the next greener pasture. He’s gonna go coach the Falcons and Ron Mexico (aka Michael Vick). We’ll see if Vick is as much of a Petrino killer as he was a Mora killer.