Just saw this over on Smartphone Thoughts, which links to this story on Engadget Mobile.  Sprint will discontinue the service in July of this year.  If you have contact information in the service, you need to download it prior to the shut down or you will lose it.  I paid for the service for awhile and never used it.  Most newer phones, smartphone's anyway, have some kind of voice command feature which rendered this service redundant.

Microsoft has released a very impressive piece of software for Windows Mobile Smartphone's.  The Live Search application runs on Windows Mobile 5 or 6.  The application is a pretty in depth search application with GPS-like features.  Don't let me mislead you, there is no GPS involved-you have to enter a location like a city or zip code. From the point you tell it where you are, all of the searches are performed in that context.  You key in a search term and it returns all matches or similar items.  It fairly extensive and has yet to let me down.  That's not the cool part, though. No, the cool part is the voice recognition.  Press SPEAK and then, when prompted, say your search term.  Within a few seconds, you will see results that closely match what you said.  So far, it has been about 95 percent accurate.  I have found it to be very accurate in most normal conditions.  It does not work well when you are listening to Sirius satellite radio and the Nascar channel, but that is a minor issue.  The even cooler thing is that when you select a result, the phone, if available, is clickable. You can click the link and the number is dialed. You can get driving directions and other useful information.

I have found this to be one of the most useful applications for my Moto Q yet.  Live Search is probably the best thing to come out of Microsoft in a long time.

Live Search is free and available from the Microsoft web site.

I think the US was the last country on the planet to get this cool little game.  The Mario Kart series has endured for nearly fifteen years and on every major  console since the Super Nintendo.  Double Dash was the best of the console releases, and MK DS was the best of the handhelds.  MK Wii blows all of them but the DS release out of the water.  With five different controller schemes, there is sure to be an easy way for anyone to play.  My personal favorite method is the bundled Wii wheel OR any other third party wheel.  The addition of bikes to this one seemed odd at first, but having played with it a bit, the bikes are a rather cool addition.  In air tricks help to add more 'excitement' to the game, though add little to the gameplay.  There's plenty of nostalgia in the game as half of the tracks are from the previous versions.  Each are reproduced faithfully, though with improved visuals.

All in all, the game is a more than worthy addition to any Wii owner's library.

Everyone takes four major commercial networks for granted these days.  Who has not heard of FOX?  Back in 1986, Rupert Murdoch finalized and launched the FOX network.  He did so using the original two stations that had originally formed the beginnings of America's original 'fourth network': DuMont Network.  The story is a long, convoluted and sad tale of corporate misdirection, sabotage, bribery and utter brilliance.  A fellow by the name of Alan B DuMont gained a reputation as a pioneer in television and, later, the man behind a company that was well known for quality televisions and other electronic gear.  In the early 1940's, he was granted an experimental license for a television station in New York City.  That was around 1941. In 1944, station W2XWV became WABD-whose call letters mean Alan B Dumont.  That was when he was granted a commercial license.  Commercial television broadcasting in the United States officially started in 1941, but few stations actually had that status and television effectively took a back seat once America entered World War II.  Once the war was over, however, television began to take off. In 1946, DuMont had a station in Washington, DC and in 1949 they had the ONLY VHF station in the Pittsburgh area. This monopoly lasted until around 1955 when DuMont sold the station.  The monopoly in Pittsburgh was very important to DuMont since it pretty much kept the entire network afloat. 

DuMont began his network in 1946, beating out ABC, NBC and CBS by at least two years.  However, that 'network' was really just two stations and, once in a while, others who would pick certain broadcasts.  Remember, in the 1940's there was no Internet, satellite or even coast to coast coax cable.  Often, programming would be delayed, quite a bit, to get film from point a to point b.  In 1948, however, much of the northeast was connected and stations from Virginia to Connecticut could pick up the 'live' DuMont feed.  All this means is that the programming could be seen, in that region, at the same time.  As time went on, this became a real problem for DuMont.  Once CBS and NBC got into the picture, DuMont's slide began.  Never deep pocketed, and with many odds against them, DuMont had to fight to get it's programming 'cleared' on other stations.  NBC and CBS both were well established radio networks.  Very profitable and very influential.  Because they had many affiliates in radio, it was easy to get affiliates for the television network.  And since the FCC had a moratorium on new stations, DuMont was locked out of the higher powered and more desirable VHF markets.  UHF, at the time, was poor.  Most could not get the band at all since the majority of television sets did not get the band at all. You had to buy set top boxes in order to receive UHF broadcasts.  Add to that the fact that Paramount Pictures, which owned a minor stake in DuMont, owned two stations, which the FCC deemed as owned by DuMont, DuMont could not grow in major markets.  They had to bargain with stations who were already affiliated with another network, usually NBC or CBS and, rarely, ABC.  Back then, stations could pick and choose programming from other networks. 

Since DuMont owned that monopoly station in Pittsburgh, they could leverage that to get programming on other stations.  WDTV, the Pittsburgh station, was a money maker for DuMont.  However, because it was the bargaining chip that DuMont used, it did not carry the entire slate of DuMont programming, at least not 'live.'  In fact, the only two stations in the country that did were the other two stations that DuMont owned.  The FCC, which was more or less under the control of the majors, did much to hamper DuMont's growth.  In fact, the only time where the FCC actually helped DuMont was to quickly approve the purchase of a Kansas City UHF station that DuMont purchased.  The FCC was eager to get UHF off of the ground, so they bent rules for DuMont.  DuMont paid one dollar for the station.  Unfortunately, technical problems and public indifference led to DuMont shuttering the station just six weeks later.  They lost $750,000 dollars.  That was money they did not have to lose.

DuMont was run on a shoe string budget and it showed.  Most of programming was performed live and was 'kinescoped' for later showings.  A Kinescope is a film made by placing a movie camera in front of a monitor.  The quality varied from bad to worse.  The most famous example would be the original 39 episodes of the Honeymooners.  DuMont was able to improvise and had a few firsts but, sadly, most of people seem to remember are the poorly written and produced shows like 'Captain Video'.  Captain Video was, in fact, the DuMont network's longest running show, lasting from 1948 to 1955.  Since most of the programming was live and not always kinescoped, much of the DuMont is lost.  Sadly, that which was recorded is mostly gone as well.  When DuMont was closed down, the assets, including the library, changed hands several times.  At some point, the kinescopes were housed in an ABC vault.  Sometime in 1970, those recordings were dumped into the Hudson river.  Consequently, there are few precious recordings today.

DuMont was forced to shut down in a coup' performed by Paramount Pictures in 1955.  It actually started, however, in December of 1954, when DuMont sold WDTV to Westinghouse.  Once in Westinghouse' hands, the calls were changed to KDKA and affiliated exclusively with CBS.  DuMont's leverage was gone and, with that, most of it's advertising dollars.  They limped through March of 1955.  The Paramount coup' kicked Alan Dumont into the role of Chairman of the Board.  The decision was made to shut the network down and, on April 1, 1955, the network canceled most of it's regular programming.  They agreed to honor what commitments that they had and, as a result, the final DuMont broadcast, a boxing match, was made on September 23, 1956.

In 1958, the broadcasting arm of DuMont was sold to John Kluge.  Metromedia, as it became known as, was sold to Rupert Murdoch who began the FOX network in 1986.  So, in a sense, FOX rose from the ashes of the failed DuMont network, which had died some thirty years prior.

There is much more to this story.  There are several source on the Internet to read more about this fascinating and sad tale of early television in America.  Wikipedia has a good, but short entry here and this site has much more detail, including an aborted merger with ABC.  ABC, also close to death around the same time, is a good read as well.

A year ago today, my father-in-law passed away from liver cancer.  Mr. Hoy was a towering figure, but his physical size was small compared to his compassion and personality.  Even during his darkest times, fighting various cancer, diabetes and the loss of a leg, he always managed to find humor and kept us all laughing. I learned a great deal from him, in the seventeen or so years that I had the privilege to know him.  He helped many times in matters of life that I sometimes could not see a clear answer.

He was always the wiser of us all and we  miss him.

Yep, that's right.  Over on Gizmodo, there is an interesting article about a new book, Inside Steve's Brain. The book chronicles Steve Jobs' resurrection of the company and is told through interviews and anecdotes.  An interesting story, the one Gizmodo points out, is how the UI team wanted to graft the ugly Mac OS 8 user interface on the shiny new-to-Apple NextStep core. Upon hearing this, Jobs called the UI team a bunch of idiots:

"After buying NeXT, Apple had to figure out how to turn NeXT-step into a Macintosh operating system. At first, the job looked so big that Apple's programmers decided they should take the old interface in Mac OS 8 and try to graft it on top of the NeXT-step codebase..."We assigned one designer to OS X," he recalled. "His job was pretty boring: make the new stuff look like the old stuff."

But Razlaff thought it was a shame to put an ugly facade on such an elegant system, and soon, had designers creating mockups of new interface designs...to show off advanced technologies under NeXTstep's hood."

It is an interesting read.  Head over to Gizmodo and check it out.

According to this story, Vista users are, for the most part, happy with the one year old operating system.  Interesting thing, though, is that those who had a low opinion of Vista have either not used it or used it around release time when drivers and other issues caused problems:

"When we asked IT Pros about their satisfaction with Vista, scores were low with those who were not using the product yet high with those who were using the product. "

Interesting.  The anti-Vista parade seems to be working.  The steamroller just won't stop.  My own personal observations tend to agree with this story.  Take John Dvorak.  He bashes the operating system based SOLELY on what he's read and NOT his own experience. He has admitted several times to not having actually used the product.  Amazing.  This is a man who has been in the tech press for twenty-five years.  He frequently gets things wrong, but will admit that-as soon as he realizes it.  (He still incorrectly states that the XBox 360 Arcade is a smaller version designed to compete with the Wii.  It is not. It is a standard 360 with a bundled disc of five arcade like games.)  I like Dvorak, but his credibility is in question if he cannot honestly criticize Vista.  He should at least use the bloody thing. 

One of the things that the haters like to tout is XP's alleged performance gains over Vista.  The author of the article points out that this is only natural.  He states, correctly, that if you put Windows 2000, ME, 98 or even Windows 3.11 on a Vista machine, they will all appear to run faster.  This is a great point.  Older software will almost always run faster on new hardware. 

Check out the article, it is an interesting read.

Ok, before I go further, I am happy to get new stuff...stuff that I was promised when I purchased Windows Vista Ultimate.  That said, the extras are pretty tame.  There are three new animated wallpapers and two new sound schemes.  The sound schemes are pleasant enough and I'm using the 'Ultimate Glass' theme.  The sounds, like all of the Vista sounds from Microsoft, are soft toned and easy on the ear.  The wallpapers are also nice.  I like the raindrop leaf.  The others are orangey leaves and a snowtop mountain.  The extras are ok, but I am just kind of ho-hum about the 'ultimate extras' now.  Kind of too little too late, I don't know.

This past weekend, the NASCAR Nationwide Series was in Mexico City, Mexico.  This marks the fourth year that the Nationwide Series (formerly the Busch Series, formerly Grand National Division, formerly Late Model...) has traveled down to Mexico City.  The race is a road course, meaning the NASCAR boys have to turn left and right.  Many 'purists' do not like road course racing and resent the race going to Mexico when we all know there are better ovals here in the States.  What these 'purists' fail to recognize is that this type of racing 'legitimizes' the sport on the world stage.  We no longer live in a world where we can bury our heads in the sand and pretend the world ends here with the United States.  NASCAR became an international sport in the 1950's with visits to Canada.  Not many races were held outside of the southern US then, but there were a few.  As NASCAR style 'stock' car racing grew in popularity, and with the television rights deal of 2000, it was inevitable that the sport go outside the country for points paying racing.  Oh, sure, NASCAR held some exhibition races two years in Australia and three years in Japan, but they were not points races.  Four years ago, the Nationwide series ventured south for a points race and last year it went north to Canada for another points paying road race.  It was a dandy race too...one of the best of the year.  Robby Gordon, battling with Marcus Ambrose, was spun out by Ambrose.  Upon the restart, Gordon repaid Ambrose.  NASCAR had put Gordon in 13th spot, but Gordon ignored them and felt he deserved the number two spot.  Of course, Gordon felt he won the race.  NASCAR had other thoughts about it.  Road racing is exciting because it is like short track racing.  That we do it two times outside of the country only makes it better.  Each race has it's own personality.  Each race has local favorites.  They all have die hard fans.  Some of the most die hard fans of NASCAR live north of the American border.

NASCAR has become an international sport, for better or worse.  It has three former INDY 500 winners participating, it has drivers from Australia, Europe, Mexico and Colombia.  About the only things that are missing are full time females and African American drivers.  Hopefully, the door is open to all.

Saturday night in Motegi, Japan, Danica Patrick won her first IndyCar event.  A historic event, to be sure and one she should be proud.   The win came after passing 'Dancing with the Stars' winner, Helio Castroneves.  Castroneves had to conserve fuel, so he did not run full out, allowing Patrick to pass and win the race.  Regardless of fuel mileage, the fact that Patrick got into position to make the pass is what won her the race.  There are those, however, that would want to lessen the win.  Bob Margolis of Yahoo! Sports wants to put 'perspective' on the win.  He goes on to summarize the win and then place the spin that it was not a true racing win.  There was no 'wheel to wheel' racing.  It was decided by two teams' computers.  Right.  Her skill in handling to machine had nothing to do with.  That she put herself in position had nothing to do with it.  He also makes the point that Patrick was racing in a diminished field.  Indeed, only seven cars were running in the lead lap out of 18 cars total.  He also points out that the last two Indy 500 winners were not even competing since they now participate in NASCAR.  I say, so what?  The fact that Sam Hornish was not racing in Motegi has little to do with her win.  And if winning due to gas mileage means the win is not legitimate, then you need to discount MANY wins, including a few Indy 500 wins. 

No, it sounds more like sour grapes on Margolis' part.  Yes, it was not like she went neck and neck to win, but she did DRIVE to the win.  She put herself in position to win and then took advantage of someone else's problem.  Happens in many races, in many different forms of racing and to men as well.  Patrick's win is significant and should not be lessened by cheap shots.

Just saw this on Zune Thoughts and WinSupersite:

Zune and Audible Update
Jerry D forwarded me the following email he received from Audible regarding compatibility with the Zune:

I understand that you have contacted us today in regards to whether or not the Microsoft Zune is compatible with our service. We have great news! After much anticipation, Audible and Microsoft have completed negotiations on making the Zune AudibleReady! While we do not have an exact date as to when the device will be officially AudibleReady, we expect to make the Zune compatible before years end. Our Device Center on our website will be updated upon the Zune becoming compatible, so please be sure to check there periodically.

UPDATE: This one is confirmed! I wrote Audible about Zune compatibility (i.e did the ten seconds of research) and was given the same reply as quoted above.

Catch more here.

Here are some things that caught my eye...

• Apple plugged the gaping hole in Safari that allowed a Macbook Air to be hacked at the CanSecWest conference several weeks ago as well as fixing three other problems with Safari.  The problems were in the webkit, on which Safari is based.   Two of the issues affected Leopard, Tiger, XP and Vista and the other two only affected XP and Vista.  It is truly weird seeing APPLE plug holes in it's software and then listing not only it's own operating system as affected, but also XP and Vista.  How the world has changed.
• Playstation 3 was the FIFTH best selling console in March...way behind the Wii, DS Lite, PSP and the Xbox 360.  What's even worse is that it only barely beat out the PS2. Wow.   Sony has reason to celebrate, though...PS3 sales are up 98% over the same period last year.  Who would have thought, way back in late 2006, that a year and a half later, the Wii would still be on top and the PS3 is essentially an also ran?  Things could change, but I cannot see the PS3 doing much better any time soon.  It will get a decent boost when GTA comes out as well as Metal Gear.  I can't see it sustaining it unless they come down more on the price. With the demise of HD-DVD, I can see myself buying a PS3, but not at the current price.  Blu-Ray still has a major hurdle, two, actually and both are price.  Price of some kind of player and price of the discs.
• Super Smash Brothers Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in March.  2.7 million.  That's allot of copies in one month.  For the Wii.  Wow.  (something else amazing: Wii Play is STILL in the top 10, it is #4 and Guitar Hero III for the Wii is the best selling version of the four Guitar Hero III releases.)
• Here's a goofy story:  A company called 'Psystar' claims to make and sell an Intel Mac 'clone'.  They have, allegedly, put together a machine that closely resembles a Mac (hardware wise) and have installed Mac OS X.  Now, as has been widely reported, that's a violation of Apple's EULA.  Psystar claims that they think it is illegal and want to challenge Apple.  Whatever.  Here's where it really gets odd...they company had the wrong address posted on it's site, put the 'corrected' one up then had it's online payment processing pulled by the processor because the product being sold violated it's terms of service. Paypal is now the payment processor. The whole thing sounds wrong and sounds like a scam.  What's really amusing are the Apple blogger's treatment of the story.  Not one of them came close to defending Psystar. No, instead they sand blasted them.  From some of the comments, it is now clear to me that these people love being spoon fed by Apple.  It explains why they are so resistant to anything without the cute little fruit logo. I'm talking the blogger's and many of the podcaster's and not a generalization of Mac users.  Honestly, I don't know that many.
• The Pope visited the United States.  What can I say about that?
• Senator Clinton is still trying to win her party nomination.  Is anyone as amazed as I am about the Clinton fall from grace?  Even longtime supporters from NBC News now question why she remains in the race.  And the former President has even lost his shine and luster.  Incredible.  I never would have thought it a year ago.  I was prepared for 'Madam President'.
• Kings Dominion says the Dominator rollercoaster will have it's media day on May 20th.  Hmm...I'm thinking a day off is in order.
• Nascar's Nationwide series goes road racing in Mexico City.  Mexico City.  Talk about 'deep south.'  I like this race, though.  Last year's was nothing short of spectacular.  Juan Pablo gave his team mate the boot near the end of the race and went on to win.  JPM is a great driver, no matter what he drives.  And, no, I'm not saying that because he booted his team mate.  The 'booting' was just racing and I'd say that no matter who was behind the wheel.  Unless it was Kyle Busch.  Then I'd be mad.
• HP released it's 'mini-sub notebook' this week.  It ships with some flavor of Linux (but the XP version is just around the corner...once they figure how to shoehorn it in, that is.)  It sells in the four hundred dollar range.  So...yet another 'eeepc' flavor notebook that is underpowered, lacks a touch screen, often lacks a hard disk, low on memory and cpu power and in the four hundred dollar range.  Why would you want this? You can get a real notebook with more power and Vista for the same price.  I really do not get these things.  If they had the UMPC form factor, a more powerful cpu AND cost half as much, I'd buy it.  I'd buy it at three hundred dollars, but not any more.  These things now just do not seem like a decent buy.
• Finally, Microsoft may  be planning a more comprehensive Zune Marketplace.  Mary Jo Foley wrote about something called 'Zune VideoX'.  Great, another place with DRM and nearly useless products.  Open mind, open mind.  Maybe they won't screw it up THAT much.

Ok, I am not going to turn this blog into a travelogue or constant theme park reports.  No, this time I just wanted to share some photos and a few videos I have taken as well as show off the interesting way that the Moto Q takes both still photos and video recordings.  And, give a little update on the Dominator rollercoaster.  As I am sure anyone who has taken the time to read my blog (and I do thank both of you!) will have figured out that I love rollercoasters.  It helps, too, that I am the father of a wonderful ten year old boy.  One of the joys of being a parent is that you have a real excuse to not have to grow up completely and you get to share in the same things that make your child happy.  Fortunately for me, my son LOVES theme parks and rollercoasters.

Today's visit was short as it was a bit on the chilly side and overcast.  Still, we had a great time.   Kings Dominion has come a long way in a short time since being purchased by Cedar Fair.  The park is noticeably cleaner, the staff is far and away better in so many aspects than they used to be and there is visible change in virtually every area of the park.  For reasons I do not understand, Paramount never really did much with the them park franchise they used to own and Kings Dominion suffered for most of the last years that Paramount owned them.  The biggest change-aside from the removal of most Paramount logos, movie props and references-is the addition of the Dominator rollercoaster.  When Cedar Fair made the decision to turn one of it's other parks, Geauga Lake, into a water park only park, they divided up the thrill rides and sent them off to other Cedar Fair properties.  KD was fortunate enough to get Dominator and, rumor has it, another coaster next year.  Today, while waiting in line for the Scooby Doo Mansion, we noticed two engineers inspecting the lift hill of the Dominator.  My guess is that they will be running live tests very, very soon.  Check out the photo below of Dominator towering over the Toonpike...it seems really out of place and BIG!

To show of my videos, I have created a YouTube channel.  I may also do one for MSN Video as well.  Any way, should you wish, please visit my channel and have a look.  The Moto Q is NOT a camera.  It's still are mediocre at best and the videos are not the best.  The big advantage, though, is that I always have the Q with me and so, as a result, a camera.  Comes in handy.

As previously noted, the eMachines that we have was the last to get upgraded to SP1. Since the upgrade, the machine had definitely slowed, often to a snails pace.  It has Vista Home Basic and had 512mb of RAM.  Well, I upgraded the machine and now it has 1.5 gb of RAM.  That seems to have fixed the slow down.  I am guessing that SP1's foot print is much larger than plain Vista Home Basic.  At any rate, the extra gig of RAM seems to have snapped the machine back to life.  Still no huge issues with SP1 on any of the machines.

I've had several people ask me about the parental controls in Vista, so I thought I'd pass along some information.  This month's issue of Computer Shopper covers other products that are available for Windows XP.

The parental controls in Vista are very effective and very useful.  They do not replace parental involvement, but they do help when you cannot be in the same room with your child while they use the Internet or the computer.  Of course, the easiest way to control that is to prevent it all together and not allow them to use the computer, but that is a bit extreme.  They will, naturally, find a way to use one more than if you let them, but place limits on use.  This is surprisingly effective. Windows Vista allows you set these limits easily enough.

Diving In

The first thing you need to do is create a STANDARD user account for the child.  You can do so by going to the  control panel and selecting USER ACCOUNTS AND FAMILY SAFETY.  Next, create a new user, fill in the name and make sure STANDARD USER is selected.  Next, you are presented with a dialog box containing icons of the available users.  Select the user you just created and then click the SETUP PARENTAL CONTROLS link under the Additional Things That You Can Do section.  Another dialog box will popup containing the parental controls options.  The first thing I did was set time limits.  This is important, especially during the school year, as you can tell Windows just how long your child can use the computer.  So, click the TIME LIMITS link.  You will be presented with a grid.  The grid is a laid out in days of week and hours in the day format.  Simply click in the boxes that corresponds to the times that you DO NOT want your child to use the computer.  The blocks will turn blue, indicating that that block of time is off limits.  For my son, who is ten, I have the computer log him off at 9pm and not allow login until after 6am, Sunday night through Friday morning.  On Friday and Saturday, I am more lenient with the times.

Web Limits

You can also set limits on browser usage.  This requires Internet Explorer 7 and higher or the latest version of Firefox.  Earlier versions of both browser do not recognize the controls and, thus, can circumvent this.  Also, opera and Safari do not work with the controls.  You add the browsers that are non-compliant to the program limits.  Web Limits can be as loose or tight as you like.  Microsoft maintains a list of 'bad' sites and will prevent your child from surfing to these site.  Conversely, you can choose to only allow a certain site or sites. There is a list that you can maintain and the browser will only allow the child to visit these sites.  Also, the language filter works very, very well.  I've seen it prevent my son from going to certain forums that looked innocent, but were, in fact, full of foul language.  It also appears to prevent him from visiting forums where certain words-not foul language-used in certain ways to allude or describe drug use or other more adult subjects.  I have been very  impressed by the filters.  I feel much more at ease with him visiting his favorite forums and message boards.  I have also locked out instant messaging.  I don't trust it and won't allow it until he is older.  I also preview new places he wants to go before I will allow it. 

Game Limits

There is also a game limit section.  This will allow you to prevent Windows from running games that are a certain rating or higher.  It also allows you to prevent games that might f it your  rating, but contain subject matter you do not wish your child from seeing.  An example of this might some games like Street Fighter, which has a teen rating but is very violent. Or games like Grand Theft Auto.  You have many, many choices.

Miscellaneous

Parental controls can log everything your child does.  It is pretty thorough and shows things like how long they are logged in, what programs they run, what web sites they visit, games they play, how they played the games and more.  If your child tries to do something they are not supposed to do, Vista's vaunted User Access Control dialog pops up.  The child can then get you and you can decide to allow or disallow the action.  Warning:  the child cannot install anything without your approval.  Why did I say Warning?  Simple...anytime they get a game or a program, you must install it as they will not have permission.  I suspect most people will just install it anyway, but I'm sure there will be times that you forget and then junior will be coming back to get you.  The UAC message will also pop up if they try to go to a web site that has been deemed questionable.  Sometimes, it does prevent some legit sites like NickJr.   I have to figure that one out, but there was something that the filter did not like.

All in all, Microsoft did a great job with Vista's parental controls.  If your child has a computer that can run Vista, I highly recommend installing Vista and setting up the parental controls.  I have found very, very few games that will not work with Vista, so don't believe all the anti-Vista 'news' you may have seen.  The one game that flat out will not work that we have is Maxis' Sim-Theme Park.  However, it would not work correctly under XP either. You have to jump through hoops to make it work and then it was unstable.  Parental Controls alone make Vista worth the upgrade.  Of course, your child may argue that. 

Busch Gardens Europe is perhaps one of the nicest theme parks around and is located in one of the nicest areas of Virginia: Williamsburg.  Williamsburg is a historic and quaint little town.  Located about 45 minutes east of Richmond and about 20 minutes west of Norfolk, the park is ideally located.  Aside from the historic sites around the area, there are plenty of other attractions in the vicinity of the park.  There's a little go-kart track/amusement park just west of the Williamsburg Pottery; there's plenty of outlet stores for shopping; there's Colonial Downs horse racing less than a half hour away and there is also a Great Wolf Lodge-a destination in it's own right.  Great Wolf is less than ten minutes west of the park on interstate 64.  So, enough of what's around the area (oh, there's also the Norfolk Naval yard and Virginia Beach to the east) how about what's in the park.

Thrill Rides

When you think of amusement and theme parks, thrill rides are most likely what you want.  BGE delivers the goods here.  The park has five top notch rollercoaster's, including the  only remaining interlocked looping coaster, Loch Ness.  It has the Big Bad Wolf, a 'hanging' rollercoaster that takes you out over the river for a hair raising ride.  The Alpengeist is another 'hanging' coaster featuring many twists, turns and other thrills.  Apollo's Chariot is an 'out and back' monster featuring a 205 foot drop and, finally, Griffon-the newest coaster in the park.  Griffon features a 90 degree, 200 foot drop that is absolutely thrilling.  The thrill, though, is the seemingly endless wait just prior to that first drop. You are left dangling over the edge for an eternity-about five seconds.  Wait times for the coasters can be rather long.  Generally, however, you won't wait more than 45 minutes on a moderately busy day.  Get to the park early and head for Griffon first.  The queue fills quickly, so get there fast.  Once you've ridden Griffon, head straight for Alpengeist. It is rather close and also fills very quickly.  Both coasters, however, can seat quite a few people, so the line feels like it moves quickly.

Family and Tame Rides

There are several family rides as well rides that, while providing fun and excitement, are not as thrilling as Griffon or Apollo's Chariot.  I call these rides the 'tame' rides.  They include the Carousel, the Swings, Dodge 'ems, and Roman Rapids.  You WILL get wet on the Roman Rapids, there is no way to avoid that-unless you don't ride, that is.  Curse of Dar Kastle for me, is a family ride.  It is exciting in places and has one or two unexpected twists if you have never ridden it, but it's gimmick is the three dimensional movie that you see through out the ride and the perfectly timed ride itself.  The wait time for this ride can be long, so get there early or wait until the end of the day.

Moderately Thrilling Rides

Over in the Da Vinci's Garden of Inventors area, there are three rides that are sure to thrill you without making you feel like you've just gone three rounds with Mike Tyson.  They are the Battering Ram, Da Vinci's Cradle and the Flying Machine.  The Battering Ram is a swinging ship style ride. It does not go all the way around, but it does swing very high, back and forth.  It should not bother you, but I would not ride it if you've just sample the wonderful food in Italy.  The Flying Machine, located next to the Battering Ram, is a in and out style scrambler ride.  Da Vinci's Cradle is a magic carpet type ride. Similar to the swinging ship ride, you do a full 360 circle, but never go upside down.  You may feel like you'll lose your cookies, but you'll be just fine.

Other Rides

BGE has many rides that provide varying levels of excitement, including the Escape from Pompeii water coaster, the Le Scoot Log flume, various kiddie rides and, of course the Sky Ride and Train.  The Sky Ride and Train are both great ways to get from one side of the park to the other without wading through the crowds or if you are just tired.

Places to Eat

A visit to BGE is not complete without a good meal and there are plenty of good places to eat.  The places in the park are the Trapper's Smokehouse, Oktoberfest and San Marco, Italy.  San Marco is especially nice as there is a wonderful outdoor but covered area to sit and catch a show.  There's a coffee shop to get a good espresso and soda.  The whole area is very nicely themed and relaxing.  There is something for all.  Last year, Bistro 205 opened up next to the Griffon.  I've only had the breakfast there, but if that is an indication of the quality of the food, it, too, is a a great place to eat.  My favorite place of all, though, is the Trapper's Smokehouse.  There, you can get a sampling of just about any kind of meat, as long as it is pork or beef and smoked or barbecued.  You get an assortment of sides to choose from as well as numerous desserts.  The Smokehouse is in New France.  Oktoberfest is the place to get to cool on a hot day.  You can get a variety of German style foods, as well as the non-German Pizza and sandwiches.  A good selection of German and American beers is also available there.  Since the park is owned by a brewer, beer is available through out the park.  One thing I've rarely ever seen, though, are drunk and disorderly people.  The park does a good job at policing the alcohol consumption.

Shows

There are numerous shows to be viewed at the park.  The roster changes frequently, so I am going to send you to the park web site.  We don't take in many shows, but that is not a reflection of the quality of the shows.  We go with our now-ten year old son who would rather eat and ride rides than take in a show.

Other Things

Check the BGE web site prior to visiting the park.  They will often have discounts or printable coupons that are not otherwise advertised.  You can almost always get a meal deal if you buy the coupons on line.  If you do not have a season pass, you may also get a single day pass cheaper on line than at the park.  If you live in Virginia, you can buy a 'fun pass' for the single day price, but it will get you in, unlimited times, until the first weekend of September.  That is a remarkable deal, but only for Virginians.  They also offer family vacation packages that are often quite lower than if you did it yourself.  If you are a golfer, Kingsmill is right around the corner and is also owned by Busch.  Check the web site for times when Jack Hanna will be there. He is there several times during the season and there is the opportunity to have a meal with him as well.  You can also get a ten percent discount on parking if you purchase the eParking ticket online.  The web site is invaluable and most people don't know that you can get discounts there.  Go right to the Special Offers tab and then hit the In-Park Dining tab for those meal discounts.

Conclusion

The key to a wonderful trip is getting there early and staying until closing.  The best times to catch the 'big' things are early in the morning and from about 7 to closing.  The last hour, especially, is a great time to hit the coasters, especially Griffon and Apollo's Chariot.  Aside from the ride, the view at the top of each lift hill is spectacular.  Be quick to take it in, though, as you won't be there long!  One last thing, bring LOTS OF MONEY.  It will not be cheap.  Food is expensive, but worth it.  You won't get day-long under the lamp hamburgers or watered down Coke.  What you will get is a decent sized portion of quality food.  Souvenirs are a mixed bag.  Look carefully, as there are almost always product from a previous season on sale or a particular item being discontinued.  Oh, be prepared to walk.  Allot.  Wear shoes that are comfortable.  I would advise against shoes like flip flops or slip ons that fall off easy.  On busy days, the park gets rather testy about such things.  You may be asked to sit on them or even put them in a locker.  On less busy days, they may let you place them along the exit.  I've seen them both ways. 

Have a great time!

Caught this on the Zune Thoughts and Got Zune web sites.  Go here and download the software.  You'll need to right click the installer and select 'Run as Administrator'.  The software installs itself into the ZMP software.  After you install, start or restart the Zune Marketplace software.  Go to Settings, Display.  You should see lots of new settings.  Most changes will take place right away, some will require a restart of the software.  I don't know how this gem was missed for two months.  The author actually posted it on his site way back in February.  Give it a shot, especially if you've tired of the artsy backgrounds that come with the package.

Does my background look familiar?   Looks nice...

As previously written, I've lately experienced performance issues with the Zune MarketPlace software.  It got to the point where it was unbearable to switch libraries (I.e. from device to collection, for instance) so I started poking around.  I came across the Zune directory in the App settings under 'my' directory.  This is where ZMP stores it's 'stuff'.  It's transcode directory is here as is the database and the album art cache.  I did some basic cleanup that seems to have helped allot.

Here's what I did:

• empty the contents of the transcoded files directory: C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Zune\Transcoded Files Cache  (I recovered 22 gigabytes by doing this, apparently, Zune does not clean up)
• examine the monitored directories and remove any that you do not need to monitor.  It had drives that are no longer on the system and also was monitoring SD cards.  I suspect this was my big problem.
• clean out your library.  I had a ton of junk files that it found when I first installed the software.  This seems to have helped quite a bit.

These three things seemed to have dramatically increased performance over what it has been.  Mind you, performance is still not like it was I first installed ZMP.  The whole scheme seems a bit below Microsoft.  Windows Media library is always fairly robust.  Why they did not stick to that model is beyond me.

If you are a Zune owner and have had the same issue and have fixed it, please comment about it here. 

Well, it was bound to happen.  I've encountered my first real issue with SP1.  Over the weekend, I upgraded the last Vista machine in my house to SP1.  Since the upgrade, the machine has become sluggish and the lousy Netgear card seems to have problems with the upgrade.  While doing some investigating, I discovered that I had not 'de-crappified' the machine.  That is, it still had a bunch of junk that eMachines/Gateway had pre-installed.  After cleaning that mess up and also un-installing the 'big fix' junk, I had restart the machine.  Once it rebooted, the Netgear card ceased functioning. No matter what I did, it would not work.  On another machine, I went the Netgear site and downloaded the latest drivers.  I copied them over to a thumb drive and then to the eMachine.  After installing the drivers and re-booting, the card started to work.  Unfortunately, it still took some work to get the card to connect to my network, but it did.  Still, this seemed truly unnecessary.  I don't know how much of this is Vista and how much is just a crappy card and driver.  I suspect something in the way Vista does wireless has changed to the point where the Netgear driver was affected.  The odd thing is that the same card is also in my son's PC and working fine.  I upgraded to SP1 right after it was released and had no problems on that machine.

Performance on the eMachine has definitely been reduced.  Since the machine only has 512Mb of RAM, I suspect SP1 has increased the memory footprint.  I suppose it is time to upgrade the memory in the machine as well.

Three of four machines upgraded to SP1 with little or no problem. That one machine has had a problem does not say anything about the upgrade.  In fact, I'd go the other way and say that Microsoft has done a good job with the update.  It is darn near impossible to take into account every possible hardware combination.

On a tangent, Windows home networking is really bad.  I'm not surprised that most people who have managed to get a wireless network up and running leave them open.  It is a real hassle to configure them.  And the companies that push the products, like Buffalo and Netgear, should be held to higher standard.  These devices need to be plug and play and the configuration needs to be brain dead simple.  One should not need to be a network administrator to set up a home network.

Last year, Palm introduced it's sub-sub Notebook called the Folio.  It was an interesting little device that served as an adjunct to PDA's and smartphone's.  The device had the basics built into it and seemed like a nice little device that did not try to do too much.  It's biggest problem was the price--and the fact that it had not yet been produced.  Unfortunately for Palm, the device was skewered in the press.  Engadget, especially, was not kind at all to the Folio.  Fast forward a few months and Asus introduced a real product called the Eee PC.  I'm not going to regurgitate it's specs here, you can find them almost anywhere.  Suffice it to say the device is underpowered.  Priced around four hundred US dollars, the Eee PC is overpriced and underpowered.  About the only advantage is it's size.  Initially, the device shipped with Linux.  A wise choice considering the power this thing carries.  It has no real storage space and is low in memory. At 512 Mb or 1gb, you do not get much RAM to play with.  And as for storage, it has only 2gb or 4gb.  My smartphone has a 2gb memory card.  Even with such limitations, the press LOVES this thing.  I just don't get it.  I wonder how much the Linux preinstall has to do with this love.  I have to wonder how well it would be received if it  shipped with XP first.  At any rate, the size of the device seems to be it's attraction.   It roughly the size of a hard back book.  Convenient, indeed.  Now, here's the real mystery...it is pretty much the same size as the Folio and carries about the same amount computing power, though it may be a bit more powerful.  Given it's size, you cannot work for hours on either device.  The keyboard is cramped and the display is seven inches.  How long could one do serious work without getting a headache or cramps? 

Acer is talking about entering this market and there are other companies introducing similar devices.  I have to wonder what the real market for these things really is, other than a novelty.  It strikes me as odd that the very people who skewered the Folio and the UMPC's are now singing the praises of the Eee PC.  The UMPC form factor is much more ideal than the clamshell laptop style.  UMPC, a Microsoft spec design, has been widely panned.  They are overpriced, but the form factor is perfect.  They are mostly tablet style and sufficiently powered to run a more modern OS like Vista.  I've read things like 'what's the real use for these' and 'what can you do with them?'  Well, those same questions apply to Eee PC.  What the heck can you do with them other than peruse the 'net?  The keyboard is too small for writers.  The screen is too small for developers.  There's not enough memory or power for any kind of gaming other than solitaire.  I think my Moto Q smartphone is more useful than the Eee PC.  I just don't get it.