Super Awesome Blog

When I first started using Windows 7 I didn’t really care for the new Library feature. However, as I got more familiar with the new operating system I found myself really liking libraries, and increasingly annoyed that I couldn’t add network locations. 

For me this is especially annoying, because I use a central Linux server for all my files and access them from various terminals throughout the house. You can “sort of” make Windows 7 do this already by telling Windows Media Player to add these folders, but it doesn’t work very well.

Understandably I was thrilled I was when I found out that someone has created a utility that tells Windows it really is OK to index network locations and use them in libraries. Yay!

Kudos to the Washington Post’s Rick Broida for the excellent review, and to Zorn Software for their great Win 7 Library Tool!

Get it today! It’s simple and free!

The boyfriend and I bought a PS3 about a year ago, and besides playing Blu-ray movies and occasionally killing things in our few video games, it really doesn’t get much use.  We’ve been thinking about getting Netflix for a while, so when we heard that we could watch streaming videos on our PS3 I was pretty thrilled.

I went to Netflix and signed up for the free trial. Unfortunately the PS3 does not support Netflix streaming natively – you have to order a special disc. The disc came in about 2 days, and after I popped it in I did a quick verification and Huzzah! – it worked!

You can have up to 6 devices accessing Netflix at one time – I was able to test this on my PC, my laptop, and the PS3 – they all played different movies simultaneously. You can stream Netflix using Silverlight on your browser (I used Firefox) but if you have a version of Windows that supports it, you should really try out Netflix for Windows Media Center. It works really well, you can even browse their library and add items to your instant cue.

About.com has a nice guide written by Mark Baggesen: How to Setup and View Netflix Using Windows Media Center.

I installed Windows 7 about a month ago, and I’ve been generally pleased with how well everything just works. In addition, it seems every couple of days I discover some new feature Windows has that makes my life easier. Yesterday’s discovery was Windows Live Writer.

It’s a WYSIWYG blog editor that is surprisingly easy to use and work with, and perhaps most importantly of all, interfaces (so far) seamlessly with Wordpress. If you’re running Windows you should really give it a try, so much stuff is faster and easier, including:

• Making bulleted lists, like this one.
• Inserting pictures, and adding effects to pictures, like the one on the right.
• Speed. I open the application on my desktop, publish it. Easy-peasy.
• Full blog access. I can look at old posts, create new ones, edit categories, set tags, set a date I want the post to be published.
• Familiar Windows interface – you can highlight text, right click, add a hyperlink, for example.

The only thing that doesn’t work perfectly is previewing in-application how my post will look. Live Writer tries importing my blog’s theme, but shows it very strangely.  It’s not that big a deal for me however, as I prefer writing and editing it with a white background and black text, like a Word document.

In summary, it’s how all my posts will be made from now one. Thanks, Microsoft!