Real men use "Model M" keyboards. You know, the clicky beasts that don't have those stupid Windows keys. I swear to god, the only thing that key has ever done is pull me out of a game when I pressed it instead of CTRL.

The search function is noticeably slower (perhaps my huge start menu has something to do with it) and if you're a typical IT user, half a second can seem like an eternity.

I can't mod this up, but somebody should. This is way more convenient and MUCH faster than using the search bar. I was a happy man when I discovered how to do this.

This is more or less useless trivia for most of you, but when using the "Add / Remove Programs" cpl, it actually puts the machine in "Install" mode. This is extremely important for Terminal Server environments for a variety of painful registry related reasons. You can accomplish the same thing by typing "change user /install" in a cmd prompt, but the cpl applet is more convenient.

My gripes about it are typically more about unneeded UI changes which hurt usability. For example, what the hell was the justification for renaming "Add / Remove Programs" to "Programs and Features"? I've been a Windows user for over 15 years... there is no reason in hell I should spend 30 seconds scanning the Control Panel for a single icon.

This may sound like a petty rant, but I run across issues like this *all* the time! The mass storage driver is also flaky for my motherboard (I can't use any mass storage devices!) but that's more Asus's fault than MS.

All in all, Vista isn't terrible, and definitely usable but suffers from some very poor design decisions.

I'll agree that this isn't some sort of revolution in whats accessible via cell phones, but it is packaged in a very pretty box from an IT perspective :- )

This will no doubt help Apple, but there has been an ICA client for Blackberry phones for awhile now. I've used it and while screensize is a PITA, its more or less functional and great in a pinch. As for us terminal geeks, MidpSSH is an order of magnitude more awesome. It proxies through the BES server eliminating the need for a VPN client, and allows me to access any Cisco or Unix server on my network, regardless of location.

Its seriously the coolest thing ever, and best of all free.

http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/

I hate to sound like an ass, but there is a massive difference between ICA and X11 or VNC as far as real world implementations go. Aside from the overwhelming technical differences, real world usage scenarios are also vastly different. I suppose I'm biased, as we're a Citrix shop here, but one of these things is definitely not like the other, rightly so. X11 is flexible enough to be a remote display protocol, and VNC simply does what it set out to; not bad in either case.

Published applications, server clusters, connection management... I could go on for a good while regarding the merits of Citrix.

I manage a Cisco CallManager cluster (now called Unified Communication Manager, but whatever) and the problem here is that this is such a trivial mistake. We have every device / extension that doesn't require outside access in an internal only calling search space, and this includes our Unity voicemail ports.

I can't stress this enough; whoever was responsible for setting up this system seems to have ignored every best practice guide for deploying CallManager. I'd actually like to see their setup, just for curiosities sake. I'd also have to recommend against using their consulting services :- )

But as for the other stuff you said, I sort of agree. My network at home is an absolute cabling / design mess.

** Ask Reiser, I think he found one.

*** See ya in hell!

Ha : P

I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows at home, but my firewall still runs Slackware. (It's an old 233 Mhz HP PC!) The choice of Slackware wasn't anything zealous, it was simply the distro with which I was most familiar at the time. I love Ubuntu, but Slackware has a certain elegance that's hard to find. Considering I built the box around 6-7 years ago and it's still chugging away just fine, I'd imagine they're doing something right.

On a side note, is it just me or is Slackware one of the most source friendly distros out there? I've been using Linux for a pretty good while now, and I've had the least trouble building stuff under Slackware.

There was a problem with builds of MidpSSH until somewhat recently. I'm guessing that's what you were referring to; all is well now. Rove Mobile does have some neat (and sometimes free!) apps. I'm actually going to do some Blackberry end user training today, and Rove Mobile Viewer is godsend. Being able to project my phone screen on the wall is pretty handy when dealing with multiple people.

I believe this setting is turned on by default, which means somebody went out of their way in your IT policy (that's actually the term for BES server policies; they're very similar to GPO's in a Windows domain) to enable this. Weird.

Also, crypticedge probably meant to say that you can disable the antenna when your battery is critically low, but perhaps not. You can, actually, tell the device to wipe itself and reset to factory defaults if it loses power. This is pretty trivial though, as device backups are automatic. It would take a simple reactivation to restore all of the users data. Hell, even my browsing history is backed up (handy if you frequently visit sites in your history).

I 3 RIM.

Those of us that actually have business related jobs use Blackberries :- P

I kid, I kid. Sort of.