Recently, I was searching for photos of abandoned amusement parks and other abandonments.  The WebUrbanist has many great photo galleries featuring abandoned buildings, towns and whole cities. You’d be amazed at how many 20th century cities are deserted.  This website is a tremendous find.  Go and check it out.  Anyway, I found a link to deadmalls.com.  Specifically, the link was for the mall that was demolished by the Blues Brothers in the 1980 film of the same name.  While on the deadmall site, I checked the Virginia entry and found several malls in the Richmond area that I remember visiting in my more youthful days.  Along the way, I found sites about retail chains I had forgotten about.  Wikipedia has a surprising amount of information on these long gone chains.  Some of them, like the Woolworth company, were quite large at one point and employed thousands of people.  Some merged with other companies and are still sort of around today while others did not meet such good fate.  Woolworth's is a company that is still around, but not as Woolworth's.  Today, they are known as the Foot Locker.  The transition from a ‘five and dime’ to a sports oriented retailer is pretty incredible.  Along the way, Woolworth's also operated several other chains, the best known was probably Woolco.  Woolco was a major department store at one time.  I remember going there with my mother.  The Woolco we went to had a cafeteria and some of the best popcorn.  The Woolworth's store also had a lunch counter.  I think I always had grilled cheese or a hot dog. Woolworth managed to stay around for over a hundred years and also had the distinction of building the worlds tallest building from 1913 to 1930, in New York City.  Another interesting note is that it’s international chains are still around and most still operate under the Woolworth name. Most notably in Great Britain.

Another store I have fond memories of, and totally forgot about, is GC Murphy.  Murphy’s was another ‘five and dime’ like Woolworth's. The stores were small compared to other chains, but substantially bigger than many drug stores.  I think they also had lunch counters as well.  I remember the Murphy’s that we used to go in the now run-down Southside Plaza.  Back then, Southside Plaza was a bustling shopping center and rented at full capacity. Each Christmas, the whole shopping center participated in festivities that included a visit from Santa.  Murphy’s was at one end of the center and that’s where we would always go first.  The other side had a Safeway grocery store-which has not been in the Richmond area for nearly thirteen years.  I miss them too.  Murphy’s always had, in my opinion, the best toy section.  Oh, then there was the ‘penny candy’.  LOTS of candy. GC Murphy also operated Murphy’s Mart.  We had a couple in Richmond, but I honestly do not remember much about them.  I don’t think they were around long.  Sadly, GC Murphy sold out to Ames, which converted many of the larger stores to Ames (probably why I don’t recall the larger stores that much. I do remember-and liked-Ames.)  Ames itself went out of business later on.  Before going under, Ames sold off the old five and dime business to the McCrory company, which also went out of business.  Retail is tough.

Other chains I remember, and found information on, include:

• Lafayette Radio (a Radio Shack wannabe)
• Erol’s (the video rental business)
• Phar Mor (a sad tale, it’s upper management embezzled the company out of business)
• Eckerd Drug (split between Rite Aid and CVS)
• Big Star (Colonial Stores) grocery (Big Star is another of my childhood memories.  My mother LOVED this place and they always had good sales.  My mother would go nuts here.  I remember one month, EVERYTHING she fixed had some kind of italian like sauce because it was on sale for some ridiculous price like ten for a dollar.  No wonder they went out of business.)

Richmond based stores that I remember include Miller and Rhoads, Thalhimers (Thalhimers was purchased by the May company and became Hecht’s and then Macy’s) , Heilig Meyers (once the largest furniture retailer in America), Golden Skillet (a few still survive.  Golden Skillet began as a chicken dish served at Thalhimers.)

One other distinct memory I have from that wonderful time are the old S&H Greenstamps.  For those who may not remember, the stamps were given out by participating retailers to consumers.  The amount of stamps given depended on how much they spent at the retailer.  You would fill up books and then could redeem the books for merchandise from the S&H catalog.  Murphy’s and Woolworth’s, if I recall correctly, gave out the stamps.  I remember my mother had lots of those books and stamps.  What I can’t remember is if she ever actually redeemed them for anything.  Probably not.

UPDATE: one of the web sites linked to above (the Colonial Stores/Big Star link) links to a site called Groceteria.  This site is full of interesting stories, facts and photos of grocery retailers of the past and present, mostly past.  Check it out at http://www.groceteria.com/index.html.

Windows Live Mesh is one of those things, kind of like Lotus Notes, that defies description.  It does many things, yet there is no one good description of the application.  Mesh is many things.  It is cloud based storage. Microsoft gives you five gigabytes of storage for free. You have a ‘desktop’ that sits in the ‘cloud’ (I really don’t like that term, but I don’t have anything better.)  Your ‘cloudtop’ is available from just about anywhere where you can use a browser.  You can create folders here and move files to the cloud.  If you sync those folders with folders on the computers in your ‘ring’, then the files are pushed out to all of them as well.  Likewise, your contacts, calendar information and email can all be pushed to the members of your ring. 

You can access your ring via a small application that, currently, only works with Windows.  A Mac OS client is on the way and there is a Windows Mobile client in beta.  I believe there is also some iPhone compatibility there, but that is probably via the browser.    The Windows client has the added ability of remote desktop.  This is, I think, where it shines.  All Windows computers in your ring make their status available.  I can, from my laptop, get on the Internet and check the status of my computers at home or where ever they are, very cool.  I can also take them over.  What ever computer I am using can become the screen, mouse and keyboard of any computer in my ring.  I’d love for this to work on my Moto Q smartphone as well. VNC can do it, Microsoft should be able to as well.  Performance is pretty slow, but f or things you’d need to do, it is acceptable.  I would not want to spend hours using it this way, but is good for grabbing a file or two, checking email that you otherwise would not be to do or whatever.

Your Mesh is governed by Windows Live ID.  You need a Windows Live ID to do anything with the cloudtop, access your devices, etc.  Not a problem, Live ID is free, as is Mesh.  I guess at somepoint, Microsoft will offer a paid service, probably once the beta period is done.  There is also an SDK available for developers.  I have not yet seen this, but I intend to do so.  I can see lots of possibilities here.  'Mesh-enabled' applications will have the ability to save data not only to your cloudtop, but, I imagine, your other devices as well.

I hope Microsoft fully bakes this product. It has lots of potential and could even make MobileME look weak.  I've already discovered several uses for it (my favorite is to barge in on my kid's computer, while he is using it...see the fun there?)  I also hope that Microsoft actually promotes this and not let it just sit there, hoping people will find it-much like the rest of the 'Live' product suite has.

Find out more here.

The second biggest NASCAR event of the season was supposed to have been run yesterday (Sunday, July 27, 2008) instead, we got about six, 10 or 11 lap sprint races after the first 40 laps were run.  Goodyear, as has been too common this year, brought a bad tire to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400.  After 8 to 10 laps, the right side tires would begin to disintegrate.  NASCAR and Goodyear knew about the problem and Goodyear brought in it’s supply of tires for next weeks Pocono race.  The notion being was that if the teams ran out of Indy tires, they could bolt on the Pocono tires.  Why would they run out?  Well, NASCAR started issuing the yellow flag every 10 to 11 laps.  Once they started doing that, they should have at least tried the Pocono tire.  The Pocono tire might have started to put rubber down and at least allow them to run more than 11 laps at a time. 

The problem was that the track is grooved. In  previous years, enough rubber would be laid down that the grooves would have filled in and reduced tire wear.  For what ever reason, that was not happening this time.  NASCAR and the teams figure it out early on in the weekend.  Instead of trying the other tire, NASCAR played it out as if nothing was different.  NASCAR then tried to manage the already bad situation with the caution flag.

The ‘show’ was abysmal.  If I were a first time viewer, I’d have turned it off and wondered what the fuss was over this NASCAR thing.  I’m afraid they lost a lot fans and would be fans.  They certainly did not gain any, that’s for sure.  Sprint races are great on Saturday nights at your local dirt track.  They have no business in what is supposed to be ‘the big leagues.’  NASCAR should be ashamed and royally peeved at Goodyear.  ESPN should demand a portion of it’s fee back.  The advertisers should ask for a refund.  The drivers should all get first place points—that’s how ridiculous it was.

The iPhone appears to be a great new computing platform.  It promises an excellent computing experience of the go. With the app store and SDK, rich applications can be created and shared with iPhone users.  Apple is the sole distributor of iPhone applications-and this is where it begins to fall apart.  Granted, the arrangement Apple has created for iPhone developers is pretty fair:  they provide the mechanism for distribution and the bandwidth for thirty percent of what you charge…and you can charge what ever you want including nothing at all.  But, with Apple being the ONLY official distribution outlet means you are solely at their mercy.  They must approve everything that goes into the store, a process that, apparently, can take quite a long time.  According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, there is general discontent among the developer circle.

The second potential factor in keeping the iPhone from truly becoming a viable computing platform (longterm, that is) is that Apple forces the developers to sign an NDA.  The NDA prevents developers from SHARING knowledge. It prevents them from discussing anything SDK related.  They cannot post questions to public forums, they cannot write how-to articles and cannot even share code snippets.  In short, Apple is actually discouraging developers from actually being developers for the platform.  As an outsider looking in, it astonishes me that Apple is treating the developers this way.  The fact that you have to pay a hundred bucks for the privilages of actually being a developer is unbelievable. Then, your only means of  distributing your application is to: get it approved by Apple and then put out in the app store.  Forget putting it on cd and in a box for sale at an ATT store or Best Buy.  Not being able to communicate with other developers is huge disadvantage.  The NDA is just too restrictive. 

Say what you want about Microsoft, but they at least know how to treat developers.  I’ve heard many podcasters complain about about the phone being unstable now.  Some blame the third party applications.  While there may be some apps that are just not fully baked, blaming the third party apps for all of the iPhones instability is a cop out.  The platform itself seems pretty delicate if just having a few third party apps can crash it.  Supposedly, no background threads from third party apps are allowed. If this is the case, then how can they crash the phone if they are not running?

If Apple really wants the iPhone to become a viable platform, then it has to learn how to treat it’s developers.  Steve Ballmer was right…DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!

Yeah, I am way behind the times on this one.  I just saw this movie.  What a funny freaking movie!!  I have not watched this show, on a regular basis, for years. I’ve watched it every now and then, but not on any kind of schedule.  I’m also not a huge fan.  Having a child around the house has made me much more aware of what I watch.  For some stupid reason, I’ve always thought the Simpson’s was not appropriate.  Know what?  It really is not inappropriate.  In fact, I think it is a great show for a family to watch together. Yes, it depicts a dysfunctional family, a father whose parenting skills is in question, a baby that never ages and a little boy who gets into a lot of trouble.  Thing is, at the end of the day, they are a family that is together, loves each other and are happy with each other.  What better message is there than that?  Watching it as a family-and making sure the young ones understand it is all fiction-is a wonderful way to spend time together and bond with each other.  It is a great way to unwind and just have some laughs before bedtime.  I think it is perfectly fine.

The movie itself is full of wacky situations, a lot of one liners, many pop culture references (which will go over most of the kid's heads) and also several messages (like the environment and family priority) that just smack you in the face.  Homer, of course, is responsible for getting Springfield trapped in a dome by a power hungry EPA director.  Arnold Schwartzenegger is President and is depicted in a very unfavorable light. I guess his Hollywood star is dimming these days.  Homer is, of course, also the unwitting hero by...well, see the movie.  My son and wife-mostly my son-were laughing so much-as I was. My wife did not appreciate the movie nearly as much as my son and myself.  Must be a guy thing.

The show returns on August 5th on Discovery.  All is well again.

For the week ending 07/25/2008 – in no particular order

• Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division president is leaving for Juniper Networks.  Kevin Johnson’s exit is also resulting in another reorganization at Microsoft. In a recent memo to employees, Steve Ballmer outlined the new structure, with the Windows and Windows Live products forming one group and the online services another group.
• Microsoft is funding the Apache project.  In an effort to play nice with the open source world, pay Apache administrators and staff and, perhaps, get some technology for it’s own use, Microsoft is sponsoring the project now.  Read more here.
• Apple’s MobileMe disservice.  Apple continues to get black eyes over it’s MobileMe service.  David Pogue, a normally supportive person of all things Apple, recently posted on his blog his disappointment with Apple’s handling of the issues that are still surrounding the MobileMe service.  In his post, he recalls several emails sent to him about the problems, the worst of them being a young lady who lost thousands of emails of which only 43 were recovered. Pogue is amazed at the very un-Apple like response from Apple.  I suggest David try Microsoft’s Live Mesh-it’s in beta, but it works.
• Comcast, a company with a not-so great image, is talking back to it’s customer-in a positive way.  This story tells how Comcast is using the Internet and responding to customer concerns and complaints that they post to services and blogs.  I personally can confirm this after posting about my experience with one of my computers apparently sending out a large volume of mail (I still have not determined which one.)  To my surprise, someone from Comcast responded to my post and explained what happened, what they did and why.  I think this is great and am very glad to see them do this and hope other companies follow the practice.
• The Pittsburgh Cancer Institute says prolonged cell phone use causes cancer.  Even though no study has proven the claim, the director of the institute says otherwise.  You can read and laugh about it here.
• Nintendo is working on mass storage for the Wii.  Why didn’t they do this at launch?  This thing ships with a paltry 512mb of storage.  With Virtual Console, many system updates, game saves AND WiiWare, they HAD to know that that 512mb would quickly fill up.  I guess they were just too busy counting the money.
• A positive MSNBC story about the economy…but just barely.
• Tony Stewart confirms his car number and sponsors.  The 2009 NASCAR season will see the debut of the number 14 Office Depot/Old Spice car driven by Tony Stewart.  Stewart also confirmed that he will only field two cars and not three next season. He has not yet given any details on the second team.

Before I go on, I have to admit that I am not a photographer nor any kind of graphic artist. I am just someone who knows just enough to be productive. There.  Now I feel better.  Recently, my Mother turned eighty years old.  My sister had a pile of old photos that she just wanted me to scan, print and put them on DVD.  Well, most of the photos were in poor shape: faded color, discolored paper, folds, rips, etc.  As I was scanning them, I figured that I could clean them up and help my Mother remember the times they were taken.  To do the cleanup, I used an old version of Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.  Both applications work just dandy under Vista-don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The version of Paint Shop Pro that I used is 7, but the techniques should work on any version of Paint Shop Pro.  They should work in any similar application that has a clone tool, able to blur or sharpen and do basic color fixing.  I’m not going to go into great detail, I am just going to cover a few basic things you can do to bring out detail and fix a few things.

The first thing I did on all of the monochrome photos was fix the contrast.  I had already scanned them in using the gray scale function of the scanner (my scanner is an HP photosmart 2410 multifunction printer) so I did not need to convert them to gray scale.  Scanning them as gray scale got rid of the discoloration or sepia tones.  The photos were originally black and white and should be restored as such.  Reserve sepia tone for that ‘special photo’, typically a soft toned portrait.  Once scanned in, I would open the photo in Paint Shop Pro.  I would then select EFFECT->ENHANCE PHOTO->AUTOMATIC CONTRAST ENHANCEMENT to make the details and photo ‘pop’ .  This alone made a huge difference.  You can further adjust the contrast, but that is for another time.  Next, I would fix scratches and, in some case, missing pieces of the photo.  Look at the two photos here.  The first is the scanned image, the second is the finished photo.  As you can see, the scanned image was pretty dull, had pieces missing and, worse, the original was taped in a photo album and the tape had discolored and just looked awful.  The second photo is much nicer.  Note that I cropped the photo to even it up and get rid of some of the ripped edges.  Next, using the clone tool, I ‘fixed’ the tape flaws and upper left, where the photo had ripped.  I also use the clone tool to fill in the parts of the photo that had missing elements, like the white dots in his hair.  Using the clone tool is tricky and can take several tries before getting it correct.  The key is to select portions of the photo that is near the part you need to fix but not so close that you end up cloning the defect.  If you enlarge the finish photo and look closely at the area where the door meets the roof and you can see that I simply cloned a small part of the area to fill in the missing part of the photo.  Most of the tape damage was cropped out, but there was still a bit of it on the shirt and upper arm.  Careful use of the clone tool filled in ‘good’ information over the bad stuff.  Using the clone tool to fill in larger areas is possible, but really should only be done on surfaces made up of random textures such as a road, dirt, sky, solid areas, etc.  This particular photo took me about twenty-five minutes to get it the I thought it should look.  Both my Mother and sister were very pleased with the outcome.  The three basic techniques I used here were the cropping tool, contrast enhancement and the clone tool.

The color photos were a bit more challenging.  The color photos of the 1950’s through the 1970’s faded quite a bit.  I have no idea why they faded so much, but I’m sure some of you fully understand the why’s.  Anyway, with one exception, I was able to make the photos look a bit newer than they really are.  One photo was just too far gone for me to fix so I just made a gray scale photo.  Maybe the full on Adobe products could have helped, but I am a cheap one. The methods I used were very similar to the photo I discussed above. I added a couple of extra steps, though.  After scanning (for color, this time) I pumped up the contrast as before, but then I selected EFFECT->ENHANCE PHOTO->AUTOMATIC COLOR BALANCE and then EFFECT->ENHANCE PHOTO->AUTOMATIC SATURATION ENHANCEMENT.  I would then use the clone tool to fix any blemishes or missing pieces.  On some of the photos, I had to do bit more tweaking of the color. Paint Shop Pro has extensive tools for doing this.  I used the gamma correction, manual color balance and the HIGHLIGHT/MIDTONE/SHADOW adjustment tools to further enhance the color.  The results were quite pleasing and very easy to do.  It will take some trial and error, but the results are quite amazing at times.  You can compare the before and after in the next two photos.

As you can see, the results for this photo are quite impressive and I spent only a few more minutes than I did with the black and whites.  Someone with more expertise in this area could probably do more, but what I did is easy and you do not need to be an expert to do this and the results can be quite pleasing.

Once I had the photos scanned and restored as much as I could, I used Microsoft’s Photostory 3, which is a terrific application, to make a video slideshow.  Photostory 3 let’s you pan and scan a photo, zoom in or out and perform a plethora of wipes, transitions and other effects.  I then used Vista’s DVD Maker to add menus and other family information for an interactive trip down memory lane. 

Windows Live Photo Gallery is actually quite capable of making some of the changes that I did in Paint Shop Pro.  If you do not have access to something like Paint Shop Pro but you do have XP or Vista (any flavor) then you can use Live Photo Gallery to make the contrast and color enhancements. You can choose the automatic fix or you can adjust them manually.  I have found the automatic enhancement works very well.  Photo Gallery does not have a clone tool, but you can at least bring up the contrast and do some color fixing.

There are a number of free alternatives to Paint Shop Pro.  My favorite is Paint.net.  Paint.net is a reasonable copy of Paint Shop Pro and can be found here.  Of course there is always the Gimp.  I’m not a huge fan of the Gimp, but it works very well.  I just don’t like the interface all that much.

I say that seriously and not sarcastically.  In it’s current state, it is more than usable and the ability to connect to any of the devices in my circle is a huge plus.  The ability to see my home pc desktop from work – and it not costing anything – is HUGE. Performance is ok, good enough for most of what I would want to do anyway.  I can see many uses for this…it will be great when I on vacation, for one.  Mesh allows you the ability to move files from the remote to the host, to the ‘cloud’ where Microsoft gives you 5 gb of storage.  I am looking forward to trying the mobile version. Microsoft says they will make a Mac client available ‘soon’.  I’ll have a full review of Live Mesh ‘soon.’ 

This video is simply a classic.  Called ‘web dude’, the video showcases a help desk call and … well, watch the video.  WARNING: there is adult language and humor and because of that, I will not embed it here.  Just click the link to goto YouTube and watch it there.

Recently, I wrote about the Venturer digital tv converter set top box.  Since then, I have installed the box on my Mother’s television.  The converter box improved her reception tremendously.  Stations that were previously very grainy were suddenly nice and sharp and crystal clear.  An occasional breakup marred what would be a perfect experience.  The breakup is due to a weak signal.  All of the in-town stations come in great, no breakup.  Of course, the one channel she likes to watch the most is also the weakest (it is a UHF station located about 40 miles northeast of the city yet carries Richmond as it’s home city.)  Anyway, I put an amplified antenna on the box (Radio Shack, thirty dollars(US)) which helped a great deal.  She is happy with the box and even happier to see her favorite channel clearly.  She also loves the extra channels that several stations broadcast (“Its like I have cable now” she told me.)  Indeed, there are several stations multicasting.  We now have two weather outlets, something called ‘MyTV’ from FOX, an international news channel and two PBS sub channels.  We did have something called ‘the Tube’ which looked like MTV in the late 80’s, but it has ceased operation.  Anyway, the Venturer is working great.  BUT…you knew there was one, right?

The Venturer comes with this nice little remote control.  The television also has a remote control.  One of the documents that came with the box implies that the remote is programmable.  Well, after looking and looking, I could not find any information on how to program the remote.  After a short search online, I found the web page for the device. Of course, it was less than helpful.  I did find a support page with an email address.  So I submitted a question.  That was a week and change ago.  Well, today, I got an answer.  It does not do that.  That and a message telling me not to reply was all I got. So now my Mother will have to put up with one remote to turn the tv on, and one that changes the channel.  I’m hoping a universal remote will solve this, but the box only came onto the market two months ago.  Who knows when support will be available.  Ordinarily, this would not be a problem. However, my Mother is 80 and not in the best of health and is easily confused. 

The more important thing is that the box is working very well.  The picture quality-for the set it is on-is outstanding.  The sound is a tick better too.  She is happy and will be able to watch her shows post Feb. 2009-and that makes me happy.

The Venturer is a steal at 8 dollars (US) so make sure you get that voucher from uncle Sam.  At fifty dollars, though, you might want to get the GE model instead. It is nicer looking and has a few more features for the same price.  Even so, the Venturer is a solid product that does exactly what it is supposed to do and nothing more.

July 20, 1969-man’s first steps on another body in space.  Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon 39 years ago today.  The moon landing represented the culmination of a decade long quest to not only beat the Russian’s, but also fulfill the wishes of a dead President.  President Kennedy challenged NASA to send a man to the moon and then return him safely to earth.  That quest claimed the lives of three astronauts in a fire during a test of Apollo’s systems.  Those three men paved the way for the most successful and reliable space transport system.  Apollo never had a flight failure.  The accident on Apollo 13 was unrelated to Apollo’s flight performance and reliability.  The system was so reliable that it is now the foundation of NASA’s next generation space transportation system that will be used to go to the moon and, perhaps, beyond.

I remember the last Apollo mission-the joint mission with the Soviet Union in 1975.  Back then, the Shuttle was the future.  I remember eagerly watching the first flight tests of the Enterprise, the test orbiter named after the mighty starship Enterprise from Star Trek.  I remember thinking ‘boy, the Enterprise is really gonna fly in space.’ Of course, it never did.  Columbia was the first shuttle to actually fly in space.  Enterprise was relegated to landing tests and engine tests and now it rests in the Smithsonian’s Space Museum annex.  The shuttle failed to deliver on it’s promise of cheap and routine access to space.  The Challenger accident in 1986 resulted not only in the deaths of it’s crew, but a rethinking of the entire space shuttle program.  The civilian aspect was severely curtailed.  The shuttle program slowly got back on track and, by 2001, was actively involved in the space station construction.  Then the Columbia accident happened.  As a result, the shuttle’s future was finally sealed: it is to be mothballed.  It’s replacement, however, won’t be ready for another five or so years.  Once again, the United States will be grounded with no active space transportation system. 

The new system, called Orion, is built largely upon the old Apollo.  As the story goes, NASA was searching anywhere it could to retrieve all information related to Apollo and it’s construction, maintenance, design, etc.  They used eBay, scoured museums, etc. to get this data.  What I find disturbing is that they did not keep this data themselves.  I guess I can understand why they didn’t, but it just seems odd to me.  At any rate, that one small step made thirty-nine years ago today will be repeated in about ten years using equipment and craft very similar to the ones used then.  I guess you could say that everything old is new again.

I like Windows and find it pretty easy to use already, but there is always room for improvement. As such, I’ve gathered a few nice, easy to use and free or very low cost utilities to make Windows even better. Unless otherwise noted, these are all Vista only.

Helping Explorer

Let’s face it, Explorer needs help. Vista made it better, but there’s still A LOT that can be done to help it out. First up are a few utilities from Andreas Verhoeven of ‘AVE’S VISTA STUFF’. Find that background in Explorer a bit dull? No problem.  Andreas has a great utility to fix that.  Called Vista Folder Background, this utility consists of a batch file, a custom DLL and registry entries. Download it here and extract it to a directory of  your choosing.  Run the install.bat file as administrator to install.  After installation, close all instances of Explorer and then re-open an Explorer window.  Enter a directory and then right click in the directory.  Select properties and then select Folder Background.  Select an image to use and click apply. You should see the change right away.  Another of ‘AVE’s stuff’ restores the HTML icon preview to Vista’s Explorer.  Grab it here and unzip it to a directory.  Navigate to the directory where you unzipped the utility and open the correct directory for your version of Windows (32 or 64 bit) and then run the register.bat batch file as administrator.  It’s changes take effect right away. To test, go to a directory where you have at least one .html (or .htm) file and switch the Explorer view to one of the icon views and you should see a representation of the html contents.  Pretty cool. There are other cool tools from Andreas.  He is also working on a style builder for Vista. This application looks pretty cool.  It is not out yet and will be a paid for application.  From the looks of the screenshots, it is going to be worth whatever he decides to charge.

Many people may not know that Vista’s Explorer has a built in file preview tool. Out of the box, however, it is limited in the filetypes that it previews.  This page has instructions and a utility that allows you to specify other file types to preview.  (To turn on the preview pane, open Explorer, click on ORGANIZE, then select PREVIEW PANE.) In previewing html pages, though, Vista turns of scripting, style sheets and any controls that might be present. 

The next utility I’ve already written about in another post, but it is worth mentioning again:  Take Ownership.  This is another Explorer add in that allows you to take ownership of a file or directory.  Download, unzip and double click on the InstallTakeOwnership.reg file.  No reboot is required, takes effect immediately.

Standalone Stack is a Mac OS X inspired applet.  What this does is  create, in Vista, the Stacks feature in Leopard.  It takes a bit of work to setup, but it works well and is very useful.   Go here to read about it and download. This applet also works in XP and Windows 2000.  While there, grab the TaskStack applet as well.  Unzip to a directory, drag the TaskStack.exe to your taskbar and drop it there. When prompted, select ‘create shortcut’.  From then on, when you click the shortcut, you will see the running tasks in a stack.  There is also a trayicon stacker.  Look around the site.  There are many useful applets here. It is also where you can get the Task preview if you are running XP or Windows Vista Home Basic.

All of these applications (or registry files) are free.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (mini)Review

By Chase

I shall rate on a scale of 1-7, the number of Crystal Stars.

Graphics: 7
I think these are much better than the first Paper Mario's graphics. For one, there's more detail on walls and things, such as rotting paint. Things look more 3D, but still in paper form. In my Review of Paper Mario 1, I said some things were 3D while others weren't. I think if you're gonna make some things 3D then everything should be 3D. They did that in this one. Much better than the original.

Plot: 5
Better than the original. In this one, a robot called Grodus kidnaps Princess Peach and takes her to the moon. Why'd he kidnap her? I won't say, because then I'll reveal TOO much. But it's good. Anyway, Bowser goes on his own adventure to kidnap Princess Peach for himself and to find the Crystal Stars, but always comes up short.

Characters: 7
There are tons of characters in this game. There's the usual 3, Mario, Peach, and Bowser, but there are new ones like Grodus, Darkley, and Don Pianta. Grodus has his idiot assistant, Lord Crump, doing a lot of dirty work. The Shadow Sirens also appear fairly often. The bosses are also brand new. You'll meet Bowser and fight him early on, and you'll fight him and Kammy Koopa (remember her?) at the end.

Battle System: 6 1/2
What can I say? It's nearly the same as before. Select a command and press A. That's it. Simple. The reason I took off half a point is because timed hits are harder to pull off than before. But really, it's the same as before.

Items: 7
The items are pretty much the same as before. There are new ones, however, like the Softener, which reduces an enemy's defense. You've also got the Courage Shell, which boosts YOUR defense. But one thing I forgot is that in the original, along with this one, there is a badge system. Basically, you equip the badges you want and PRESTO! You get a special power. But you need a certain amount of Badge Points to equip certain badges.

Difficulty: 5
Now, I think this Paper Mario is MUCH harder than the first. I've had this game since it came out (2004), and I STILL haven't beaten it. I've reached the final boss, but I can't beat it. There are a lot of hard enemies wandering around, and there are some challenging bosses early on. This is one of the harder games I've played.

Fun Factor!: 4 3/4
The game is fun to me, but the difficulty takes a lot off. I've had the game so long and I still can't beat the last boss, plus all the cutscenes just to get to the fight annoy me so much I took quite a few points.

Overall: 6 1/2
Very good game, I just get frustrated so easily. You should get this game if you've got a Wii or a GameCube. It's also very fun to replay, I just hate the difficulty of the last boss SO MUCH I took off plenty of points.

Home Basic lacks many of the niceties of it’s more expensive brothers like taskbar preview, the Aero interface, flip 3d, Shadow copy explore and more. Also missing are the ‘ultimate extras’ like Dreamscene.  Fear not!  You, too, can have all of that.  Previously, I wrote a post about making XP look like Vista.  Some of that post also applies to Home Basic.  One application I mentioned was Visual Task Tips.  The latest version works just fine in Home Basic.  Grab it here, it is free.  Next, let’s dress up Home Basic a bit.  There are a few ways to do this.  One way is to patch the theme subsystem (instructions here) so you can use third party themes OR, and this is better, you could head over to Stardock and grab the Windowblinds application and download of several Vista Aero theme. While at Stardock, grab the WindowFX utility to add some transparency to Home Basic as well.  Next, let’s take care of Flip 3D.  Get this utility and run it.  It gives you the flip 3d feature that Home Premium and Ultimate have. 

MEDIA CENTER

There are a couple of free media center applications available.  None are as nice as Vista Home Premium or Ultimate’s Media Center, but they are functional and free.  First, there’s Yahoo! Go TV, which used to be a product called Meedio. You can get it here.  The product appears to be stalled at the moment and still says ‘beta’.  It does work and has the same basic functionality as Vista Media Center. It supports a few tv tuner cards, but is mostly Yahoo! centric.  An alternative is GB-PVR.  Yahoo! Go TV is easy to set up, but is limited and does not seem to be supported. GB-PVR is bit more geeky and more difficult to setup, but is much more extensible and can be skinned.  Of course, if Media Player/iTunes/Zune Marketplace work for you and you do not need/want tv, then just skip this altogether.  You can revisit later, if you wish.

In part two, I’ll go over a dreamscene clone and some other things that will make Home Basic feel like it’s more expensive brothers.

Links in this post:

• WindowBlinds and WindowFX from Stardock
• Visual Task Tips
• Aero Shock (via the freeware junkie)
• How to patch your theme subsystem (The Howto Geek)
• GB-PVR
• Yahoo! Go TV

July 16, 1969 the Apollo 11 mission to the moon lifted off from Cape Canaveral.  The trip to the moon took four days.  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon on July 20,1969.

You can go here to read more about the Apollo missions.

Both the Sony and Nintendo keynotes were lacking this year, but they did provide some nuggets for gamers and non-gamers alike.  PS3 has been sold as a multi-media machine that happens to play games.  I’m not a Sony fan at all, but they did release a few interesting items in the keynote.  The biggest thing they presented was the downloadable content.  They made it clear that they intend to partner with studios OTHER than Sony properties. The studios participating are Sony, Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner and Funimation. This is key to making the service anywhere close to successful (and ISP’s not capping service.) Sony also announced it version of Microsoft’s XBOX Live anywhere service.  Sony’s PSN will be available on your PC as well as the PS3.  They also showed off a number of exclusive titles.  For more on Sony’s keynote, go here.

Nintendo was unusually low key.  While nothing earth shattering was announced, they did announce a few interesting titles and an add-on to the Wii-mote that increases the accuracy of the motion sensors.  Among the titles announced are Wii Sports Resort which ships with the new Wii-mote accessory ‘Wii Motionplus’, Animal Crossing: City Folk which has it’s own accessory for VOICE chats, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS and the ‘big’ announcement of Wii Music.  Wii Music looks interesting in that it lets you ‘play’ one of fifty instruments.  For more on Nintendo, click here.

Funny, most of the podcast's I listen to feature younger people – and a couple of folks my age – who tout the death of physical media and television itself.  They wonder aloud if anyone STILL buys DVD’s or watch television.  These people get their programming through mechanisms like iTunes, bitTorrent or some other Internet delivered channel.  They act as though buying a DVD is a crime and that watching television is sooo 20th century. Well, they are wrong.  They obviously do not walk with feet planted in reality.  And I wonder where they get their Internet access. 

Thing is, MOST people in America do NOT get programming from the Internet, expect for music that is.  iTunes recently became the largest music retailer in the United States-a fact that blows my mind.  The quality of tracks is marginal at best, the DRM is stifling, the choice of DRM-less tracks is underwhelming and you are tethered to Apple and the iPod (as opposed to Microsoft and the Zune, not much difference, but it is my choice.)  Anyway, I know few, if any, people who get Lost or Desperate Housewives via iTunes or even DVD.  No, most watch television.  DVR use is more popular, but it is still television. 

Even with the increase in broadband usage, downloadable television and theatrical programming still has a way to go before it replaces physical media or television. There are still quite a few hurdles like awareness, cost, DRM, etc.  But, in my opinion, the biggest hurdle (aside from Hollywood) would be the ISP’s themselves.  Companies like Comcast and Verizon need to make it very clear to consumers that there is a bandwidth cap and they need to tell them what that cap is as well as provide a method for monitoring that usage.

Until the bandwidth issue is resolved, DVD and television have nothing to worry about.

It may be smaller than in the past, but it’s influence and the excitement around it is as big as ever.  It is also one of the few times that G4 TV really shines.  They did a nice job covering Microsoft’s keynote today as well as presenting a nice wrap up show of the day’s events. 

Among the announcements made was a bombshell for Sony:  the Final Fantasy franchise is going multi console again.  The latest release was to be a PS3 exclusive but it was announced for the XBOX, day and date with PS3. PS3 needs a blockbuster of it’s own or things will look awfully bad for them.

Microsoft also announced a revamping of the dashboard.  The blades are going away as the primary interface to be replaced with something  that kind of looks  like a cross between the PS3 scrolling menu and Apple’s CoverFlow.  Called XBOX Experience, the new interface is attractive, if a bit boring.  They have introduced the Wii’s Mii’s only they call them AVATARS.  You can customize them much the same way as on the Wii.  There is even the Wii’s Mii plaza where you can invite your friends.

Microsoft also announced new content partners in NBC Universal and Netflix.

All in all, Microsoft is off to a great start at E3.

Item’s that caught my eye, in no particular order:

• Yahoo rejects Microsoft…again.  This time, however, Yahoo! wants Microsoft to buy the whole company instead of the search portion of the site.  Ugh.  Read about it here.
• Apple released the iPhone 2, iPhone 2.0 update, iPod Touch 2.0 update and MobileME was rolled out.  All did not go smoothly, however.  Apple experienced activation server overload, resulting in a few bricked iPhones and quite a bit of headaches for customers. The MobileME roll out had some issues as well.  Go here to read all of the sordid details.
• Microsoft has officially ended all support for …(drum roll)… Windows 3.11!  Yes, that’s right, Windows 3.11 is officially dead.  Oh, wait. NO, it is not.  But will be soon.  November 1, 2008 is the official end of life of Windows 3.11.  And people were crying over XP!  Wow.  More on this late breaking news here.
• Starbucks discontinued the Almond flavoring!  Another sign of the chain going the tubes.  Where’s the outrage? Almond was one of the most popular flavors. Not news, but it ticks me off.
• Water found inside moon rock samples. NASA confirmed findings that water was found in some of the volcanic glass beads.  The astonishing news will definitely give scientists quite a bit to chew on for quite some time.  Read about it here.
• Apple rolls out the App Store for iPhone. Over 500 applications initially.  Reviews are mostly positive.  Super Monkey Ball a hit (I’ve seen many reviews, including this one.)
• InBev slurps up Budweiser. BREAKING! The $50 Billion deal still needs all of the normal red tape approval but appears to be on it’s way to a done deal. Read the sad news here.  I wonder what this will do to the theme park business Busch owns.  How many people are going to get hurt in this deal?