I noticed now that most free software is note quite as free as the label suggests. Whether you are installing Adobe products or (what I am installing now) Live Writer, applications are trying to install toolbars or change my default search engine.

I guess free software really means free like a puppy!

"The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions." - Mike Krzyzewski

Loving the new Windows Live Writer here are some of the latest features:

New Authoring Capabilities

• Inline spell checking
• Table editing
• Ability to add categories
• Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
• Support for excerpts and extended entries
• Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
• Paste Special

My favorite is definitely the inline spelling! I am awful at spelling and waiting until the end to see my mistakes is depressing. I also like being able to create categories on the fly!

I did notice that I tried to select a future publish date for my blog entry and it suggested that Live.Spaces does not support it, that is a shame that would have been a nice feature. I will probably have to move to DasBlog or something.

Cool!

"Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win." - Bobby Knight

After several days of using the Zune these have become my main points of annoyance!

• Be able to use excess space as storage for whatever I want: which leads me to ... Why can I not see the Zune as an additional USB storage device on my PC?
• Zune MarketPlace:  Why does it use the Microsoft Points system? What is wrong with US currency ($). The dollar has done a great job of serving both national and international markets for years.
• Manage Playlists on the Zune device: You can basically add to a quick playlist. It seems it would be pretty easy to create playlists as you see fit without using the Zune software on a PC (n.b. Don tells me this is a feature of iPods too).

... I still love my Zune!

"I treat others exactly the way I want to be treated." - Dionne Warwick

So my wife finally got me the Zune! I must say that I am totally impressed! I am now in the position to carry my entire body of music with me all the time. Complete musical freedom! The video quality is really impressive, I did not think that I would be able to enjoy watching anything that small, but the quality is fantastic.

The Zune community\social feature (aka wireless file sharing) sounds really cool but should not be a reason to buy the Zune yet. Simply put, there are too few Zune's around right now for this feature to be great. As I searched for Zune's in various locations I was in today, I realized that having a Zune, right now, must be very much like having the first telephone, really cool idea but its a party that needs lots of guest.

The upside is that I know several people with Zune's and being able to send them music I have created on a limited and controlled basis is really attractive.

As for the Zune Marketplace, I will only purchase DRM-less music and that means CDs for me!

"Be faithful to that which exists within yourself." - Andre Gide

Watch the exclusive trailer, I will not be at work on July 4th! I took the day off for the Matrix and I will take the day off for this ... enough said.

I was recently doing a TRACERT command and was attempting to paste IP address' into the DOS window. This required me to click on the icon in the top corner several times, which was a royal pain. In my previous employment we used mostly Windows 2000 machines and remembered that this was much easier. Here at Corillian I am in the world of XP and 2003.

After looking at the properties of the DOS window I realized that there was a property called 'Quick Edit Mode' that was unchecked. This particular option allows you to immediately copy text in a DOS window by highlighting it with left mouse click. You can then copy the text with a right mouse click, and finally paste the text with an additional right mouse click. This actually makes the XP\2003 DOS prompt work like the defaults of Windows 2000.

"Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times." - Niccolo Machiavelli