Three quick Vista related links I picked up this week and enjoyed that I though you might appreciate:

• Vista Grades You With The Windows Experience Index - this talks about the Windows Experience Index, a rating system built into Vista that classifies how good your machine will be at running Vista and making it look nice. I think this great as a grading tool, but I'm not sure how wise it is to suggest to people how badly their machine might work.
• Why you shouldn't buy Vista is a great guide to reasons why Vista may not be worth all the hype and effort, especially if you don't have the hardware to push that Windows Experience Index up high.

One of the thingsa that excites me is those people and designers who think differently about devices and technology and introduce alternative designs that break out of the typical mold.

The Swatch Concept: Air Tube Design Has Us Pumped is a good example. It's a watch, and you still put it round your wrist, but it doesn't look like a watch, and doesn't have the typical watch shape either.

Another good example is the new EFIKA mainboard. The fundamentals are a low power, powerful, and easy to deploy motherboard (along the lines of the VIA technology motherboards) that is small enough for it to be inserted into a variety of cases. In fact, it's so small that you can fit the entire machine into the typical 5.25" external drive case used for USB/Firewire CD/DVD drives. That opens up a number of possibilities, not least of which is the ability to build stackable units, as shown in the picture on this blog post.

One of the things that excites me is those people and designers who think differently about devices and technology and introduce alternative designs that break out of the typical mold. The Swatch Concept: Air Tube Design Has Us Pumped is a good example. It's a watch, and you still put it round your wrist, but it doesn't look like a watch, and doesn't have the typical watch shape either. Another good example is the new EFIKA mainboard.

I commented a couple of weeks ago on how Lost Planet (XBox 360) equals lost opportunity. Lost Planet was a good game, and exceedingly enjoyable to play, but somehow lost something, possibly due to the cultural differences since Lost Planet was developed in Japan.

There's some commentary on the game development differences between Japan and the US at Ars (Lost Planet producer talks about American vs. Japanese game development), which ultimately links to this interview.

I cannot make up my mind whether I think this Sony Ericsson cellphone docking station is a good idea or a bad one.

On the one hand, having a proper docking station to plug my phone into so that I can use it without the tiny keyboard when I'm at my desk sounds like a cool idea. But at the same time, since I sync most of the content on my phone from my desktop, why do I need a docking station?

There has been a lot of fuss here in the UK recently about the use of Wifi in schools and it's potential harmful effects on children. Some schools (and parents) are calling for, and in some cases actually, banning Wifi systems for their harmful effects.

Guy Kewney has a good comment on the topic: Mast debaters strike again, ban WiFi in UK schools.

I agree, on the whole, with Guy's comment that scientists are yet to find any significantly convincing evidence that radio waves cause harmful effects. One of the interesting elements to come out of this:

The electricity bill came in this week, my first since October and the first since I tried to simplify my power requirements through a rationalization of the hardware (read Switching hardware and saving energy.

Has it worked?

Strangely, over the course of the three months, despite now using only 3 computers instead of six to do my work, my electricity bill is actually slightly higher than before.

That doesn't quite match up with the 25% reduction in energy costs I was seeing before Christmas, which I based on the electricity meter readings which were at the time down significantly.

Century's 16-port USB 2.0 hub for two PCs sounds like nirvana for USB junkies. Although 16 poirts sounds like an awful lot, I'm continually surprised at how many ports I need, and more surprised still at the fact that many of the ports are not being used for a USB device, per se.

For example, off the back on machine I have the usual keyboard and mouse, plus some USB speakers. I also have a phone charger and the charger for my Bluetooth headset. Those last two could sap a lot of power, but probably less than the portable USB drive I use as a backup device.

Two great little pocket devices have appeared this week, both of which I can see myself picking up as soon as they are available.

The first is the Zink Bluetooth Camphone Printer, a tiny printer that will print out a photo straight from your phone, using similar technology to the Polaroid cameras of old. There's a great overview of the device on Gizmodo (Zink Pocket Printer: iPhone Companion?), and a hands on at First Hands On: The Zink Bluetooth Camphone Printer. For an expected $99, and a 20 cents a print (on 2x3" paper) it might be a good solution when you want a quick instant print from your otherwise digital photo.

Vista came out this week. I haven't checked the release version yet, even though Microsoft were kind enough to send me a copy. And before you ask, yes, I will be installing on an iMac!

But as I sit here contemplating the one hour installation time, I wonder whether we really need large monolithic operating systems anymore, and I include Vista, Mac OS X, Solaris and most of the full releases on Linux.

For me, I spend large periods of my time in a brower with web applications, both in terms of interfaces to online systems and my own applications. I am, for example, writing my blog post right now in a blogging environment that is part of the rest of my self developed intranet, where I also read my news, manage my diary, run my projects and read some of my email.