blogging by voice

So I got a new computer last week, I didn't get the Macintosh like I wanted to but I did get a very nice gateway laptop. It is running vista home premium which has given me a little trouble. Vista is an improvement over xp, but in its early stages it has a ways to go. Certain programs have crashed often, iTunes doesn't seem to like the last.fm plug in, and other programs have to be set to run with administrative privileges to run at all. I also had to copy a couple DLL files to firefox's directory so that windows media player will run inside the browser.

On the other hand other programs are running much better, but that might be attributed to the dual core processing and 2 GB ram. One of nice things about vista is the speech recognition. In fact that is what I am using to blog right now. It is a little finicky, partly because I am still getting used to it and is getting used to me. It has a nice tutorial to get started with and is helping me speak clearer. Though it has come up with some interesting errors in my adventure including "Elvis help me." It'll be awhile before I use this dictation regularly. Though I might use the speech commands a little more often.

The gadgets are a nice addition to the desktop, now I always will know what phase the Moon is in, the latest digg news, recent twitter activity, the weather, and what is on my to do list.

So you may ask why I got a new computer. Well my last one died and it was time to move on. I had been planning to buy one when I got my taxes back but this speeded up the process. Luckily I have a caring Mom that put it on her Best Buy card. Now I have to fix my old computer to either sell or use as a linux server, I have already had two offers so selling is more likely (besides I have to pay back my mother).

Quick Update: 3/5/07 Vista just doesn't like iTunes, it has nothing to do with last.fm