So yesterday, I posted an email I wrote a bit more than ten years ago about what I saw for the future of the internet. How well have they held up to time? Pretty well, I think.

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• Current Mood: Tired

I’ve been going through my old emails lately, trying to see if I’ve ever written anything of importance. The jury is still out on that, but I did find something interesting: an email I sent to one of my friends about my predictions for this new-fangled Internet thing. I sent it on 14 September 1999, a bit more than ten years ago. Tomorrow I’ll talk about how my thoughts have held up over time and whether I can get a job as a professional prognosticator. Here it is below the fold:

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I’ve had a bit more time to see exactly what UAC does in Windows 7, and I’ve decided that Microsoft still isn’t getting this right. UAC, and the "Run As…" command, are a good idea, but I think they are making it needlessly complicated and confusing.

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So the installation was a mess, but after all of that got sorted out, and I reinstalled all of my apps, I actually got to using Windows 7 Home Premium. So far, I like it. I like it a lot actually. I think it is worth the hassle I’ve gone through, and since I only need to install once (barring major misfortune), I’m hoping for clear sailing from here on out.

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• Current Mood: Cold
• Currently Reading: "Balkan Ghosts", Robert D. Kaplan

Way back in July, when Microsoft announced the special deal for Windows 7 preorders, I decided to take the plunge and buy it. I had been using Windows XP since 2001 in one incarnation or another, and it looked like Windows 7 would be a decent upgrade. In addition, I was having more and more problems with incompatibilities (such as my monitor issues), and I figured that an upgrade could help. Plus, the price was only $50 for Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade, which I made sure would allow me to use Windows XP as a qualifying product. I thought I was set. Little did I know the horrors that were ahead of me, thanks to Microsoft.

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• Current Mood: Frustrated

I’ll be an early adopter for once and get Windows 7 tomorrow. Since I currently have XP, I’ll have to do a clean install (which you should do for an OS change anyway). I’ll also be taking this opportunity to repartition one of my hard drives. So tonight, I’m backup up everything important for the install tomorrow. Hopefully it goes smoothly.

• Current Mood: Meh
• Currently Listening To: "Bring It On Home", Led Zeppelin

I do a fair bit of programming in Access 2007, after having started in Access 97 and moved on to 2000. The 2007 versions of Office programs had many significant changes, including the Ribbon, but one change that slipped under most people’s radar was the removal of user-level security. Access 2007 files no longer used the “users-and-groups-in-a-workgroup-MDW-file” method of providing security; in fact, it pretty much did away with security on a per-object basis altogether.

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I was lucky enough to have to deal with a somewhat vexing problem this week that once again, in lieu of a computer utility, here’s a story about battling the ISP that every loves to hate, AOL…

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• Current Mood: Sore
• Currently Listening To: "Just The Way You Are", Billy Joel

Instead of finding a utility today, this is about a recent computer stupidity I had to deal with. Warning: this gets into computer geekery, so if you aren’t interested then you should pass on this one.

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• Current Mood: TGIF

It’s harder and harder to come up with these good computer utilities, but here’s one I use just about every day: WinRAR. It’s a file compression/decompression utility that supports many file formats, with a nice GUI. However, it’s main use for me is its command-line options: it has a very powerful set of options, and it is what I used to back up my data files on a nightly basis. WinRAR isn’t free; it is shareware, and although it has a nag screen it doesn’t keep you from using it. It’s so vital for me, though, that I gladly paid for it.

If you want a totally free version, 7-Zip fits the bill. It’s almost as full-featured as WinRAR, and for a while I tried it out. The command-line options are not as good, however, which is why I stopped using it. If you are just looking for a Windows graphical file compressor/decompressor, however, 7-Zip is perfect.

• Current Mood: Hungry