I have been using Windows 7 on my brand-new Lenovo ThinkPad W500 for three weeks now, so thought I’d share some thoughts and experiences I have had with Microsoft’s newest operating system.

I was one of those people who skipped the much-maligned Windows Vista, having moved directly from Windows XP (although I do have experience using Vista). Windows XP had served me well, but there have been many innovations in software and hardware since Windows XP was launched in 2001. As I was in the market for a new computer, it made sense to get Windows 7 as well. I chose the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, which has the same features as the 32-bit version except for the ability to access additional RAM.

^{The Windows 7 desktop, with my own custom image.}

What I have liked:

1. Versatile desktop: Windows 7 supports desktop widgets that Microsoft call “gadgets“. These are small applications that sit on the desktop. So far I have installed the Clock gadget, but other apps are available, such as RSS feed readers, currency converters and so forth.

2. Speedy operation: Unlike Vista, which seemed to be slow from the very beginning, Windows 7 operates efficiently. As one uses the installed programmes, Windows 7 offers suggestions for optimising performance. The Windows Experience Index is particularly informative.

3. Sticky notes: I am keen on using sticky notes in real life. Now I can have them on my desktop which sounds trivial, but is actually very useful. This feature will save a few trees!

^{The layout in Windows 7 is intuitive: Sticky Notes is a great innovation!}

4. Sensible security measures: One of my biggest frustrations with Windows Vista was the constant security checks that kept popping up. Every time I wanted to install a programme, or make a system change, or perform another menial task, the blocker would come up asking my permission. Windows 7 addresses this frustration by “keeping it real”. It knows that if I want to edit my own HOSTS file, that is my intention. But should some other third-party application/virus try it, the operating system will intervene. This is inherently sensible, and makes for a smooth and pleasurable computing experience.

5. Versatile Task  Bar: Gone are ‘quick launch’ icons and “Start” button. Replacing them is a Windows logo (performing the ‘Start’ function) and a toolbar that mixes applications in use with ‘quick launch’ icon functions. A white box indicates open programmes. This is actually a much more functional system because it makes switching between programmes easier.

^{The task bar: Open applications are boxed and a preview is available.}

6. Interactive search and help: If someone is running a programme for XP or Vista on Windows 7, the operating system will identify any potential problems and update drivers, download patches or allow the programme to run in ‘XP mode’ if need-be. The search function in Windows 7 (be that for files, folders, help or anything) is absurdly easy: one simply has to type a phrase into a box, just like for a search engine on the internet.

7. Easy rescue: Three days into my Windows 7 experience, I installed some (legal, commercial, paid) software that unfortunately wreaked havoc on my computer. Windows 7 was able to ‘go back in time’ to isolate the problems. Unfortunately this particular programme decided to do more damage, which warranted a complete re-install. Thankfully, this was a breeze with Windows 7, and within 30 minutes I had a fresh install.

What I have not liked:

1. Incompatibility issues: Microsoft make a genuine effort to ensure their operating systems are backwards-compatible. And in most cases this hasn’t been an issue for me. However, my digital camera (Canon EOS 350D) doesn”t work with Windows 7 ×64. This is, of course, a problem of Canon’s making, not Microsoft’s. On 3 March 2010, “Theresa” at Canon informed me that “…software for Windows 7 is still being tested and has not yet been released… it is advised to check back to the Canon website again in a couple of weeks.” (This simple solution has been posted, but didn’t work for me). I do not have a sophisticated understanding of computing, but I assumed that Windows 7′s “Run in XP-mode” or “Run in Vista-mode” options might have worked, but alas, I was wrong.

2. Kernel power issues: For some reason, and despite the fact that I am running Windows 7 on a three-week-old computer, I have had occasional freeze issues, followed by The Black Screen of Death (Windows Event 41). This is easily resolved with a reset. It seems to happen when I leave the computer unattended for a long time and it tries to hibernate, or occasionally when using Firefox. Hopefully this very common problem will be fixed with the upcoming Service Pack 1. If not, I shall contact service support at Lenovo. Thankfully this has not resulted in data loss.

(Update: The Kernel Power matter was found to be caused by hibernation. By switching off the hibernation setting, the matter was resolved).

3. Uncooperative RSS Reader “gadget”: I mentioned gadgets before. There is an RSS reader gadget which I thought would be useful on my desktop, but it only works with Internet Explorer. Hence it doesn’t work with Firefox which is a tad annoying.

^{The range and functionality of “gadgets” could be better.}

The Final Verdict:

Notwithstanding the three problems above, Windows 7 has been well worth the upgrade. My slide scanner (Epson Perfection V500), television stick (KaiserBass TVStick), modem (Belkin ADSL2+), mouse (Logitech MX1100) and all key non-Microsoft programmes (Adobe Photoshop Elements, Mozilla Firefox, Yahoo Messenger) have all worked like a charm.

Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 is intuitive and the help and support and updating mechanisms are a major step-up from Windows XP. Whilst some have complained, I actually like the Control Panel, which is logically laid-out and full of options.

Installing programmes is easy, and removing them equally so. An especially notable improvement can be seen when one wants to unplug a USB device: it’s now a three-click operation (instead of five).

^{I like the simplicity of Windows 7′s Control Panel}

If you’re still running Windows XP on an old machine, and are considering an upgrade, I’d probably suggest that you wait until the machine is replaced. Not because the features aren’t worth it,  but because there is no XP-to-7 update (you must do a re-install) and because a machine of that vintage might not support Windows 7 anyway. (You can test this theory by downloading Microsoft’s free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor).

If you’re running Windows Vista, and your machine will support an upgrade, do it! From my experience, Vista is slow and uncooperative a lot of the time and the upgrade will be worth it.

If you’re not sure whether to get the 32-bit or 64-bit version, you need to consider that a 64-bit operating system is much faster, in part because it can utilise more than 3GB of RAM unlike 32-bit systems. But before making the change, check that your hardware devices will run on a 64-bit system or that an upgrade is available.

Windows 7 has impressed me. It has the functionality and look of Vista, but the intuitiveness of XP. If you can afford an upgrade, I highly recommend it.

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Technical: Lenovo ThinkPad W500; Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T9550 @ 2.66GHz 2.67 GHz; 4.0 GB RAM; 300 GB Hard Disk Drive; Windows Home Premium (64-bit)

The much-loved Safeway brand in Victoria is to be abolished.

Parent company Woolworths Limited have decided to progressively re-brand all 129 Victorian supermarkets in the coming 12 months. Coinciding with this decision is the announcement that a new Woolworths logo has been developed, but the “Fresh Food People” moniker will remain.

The Safeway Supermarket at the Melbourne suburb of Preston at dusk.

Safeway was launched in Melbourne in 1963 when the American chain of the same name bought three locally-owned supermarkets and established Australian Safeway Stores Pty Ltd. Competing locally with rival Woolworths, Safeway slowly expanded into New South Wales and Queensland whilst Woolworths continued to expand in Victoria. In 1985, Safeway Inc. sold all of its Australian operations to Woolworths and the two supermarket chains merged. At the time, Safeway was considered to be a stronger brand and so the decision was made to that all Victorian stores would be named Safeway whilst the New South Wales and Queensland stores became Woolworths. And so it was until now.

A Safeway commercial from 1989, featuring the “Red Spot Specials”.

Of course this re-naming process is not new to Tasmanians. In a situation reminiscent of the Victorian Safeway saga, Woolworths had been operating separate Roelf Vos and Purity brands (depending on which part of Tasmania they were located) since the two Tasmanian supermarket chains were acquired in the mid-1980′s. All supermarket brands were advertised as “The Fresh Food People” after 1986 and shared a common marketing strategy, which meant that national advertising jingles and campaigns had to be re-worked to fit in with the Roelf Vos and Purity identities. Eventually Woolworths came to the realisation that operating four nearly-identical brands was sheer madness and so in was in 2000 that Roelf Vos and Purity became history.

In the context of that upheaval, it remained a mystery why it was that Safeway was preserved where Roelf Vos and Purity hit the chopping block. I guess we all knew that it was simply a matter of time before Safeway suffered the same fate. Anyone who’s been into Safeway lately would have seen the subtle signs… all the own-brand products have been labelled as “Woolworths” rather than “Safeway” for quite some time.

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Old logos for Woolworths, Safeway, Purity and Roelf Vos (left) and the new Woolworths logo (right).

For most, this change is nothing more than a new name and logo. That said, I can’t help but feel a bit of nostalgia for good ol’ Safeway with it’s crazy “Red Spot Specials” (whatever that referred to) and early childhood memories of being dragged up and down its drab aisles. And then there’s that catchy jingo “We’re Safeway the Fresh Food Peeeeee-ple…“.

It’s the end of an era for sure… farewell Safeway.

For more information on the name change, you can read the Official Press Release.

Not since the Nine Network controversially removed the “dots” from their logo in 2006 has there been so much debate over a television network’s identification. Or any logo for that matter.

This week, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) revealed that its network of television stations, hitherto known generically as “ABC-TV” are in for a name change and an identity makeover. This fuelled a rumour that the iconic ABC logo, which has been in use since 1965, would disappear from our screens.

I knew that a change to the familiar lissajous curve ABC logo would spark some discussion. I didn’t expect that The Australian newspaper would see the matter to be of such national significance to warrant a page 1 cover story! The Australian‘s Michael Bodey claimed this morning that “the (ABC’s) looping ‘squiggle’ logo will be taken off air after more than four decades in favour of a younger and fresher brand.”

As it turned out, The Australian and Mr. Bodey were wrong. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Director of Television Kim Dalton flatly denied that the logo was to be abolished and expressed frustration at The Australian’s erroneous reporting.

The ABC is planning to re-badge “ABC-TV” as “ABC1″ to better align the network with its digital-only sister station “ABC2″. The naming follows the convention used by the British Broadcasting Corporation and makes sense in light of news that the ABC is planning a children’s channel to be called ABC3. These changes would obviously involve a new set of idents, but not an abolition of the ABC logo.

The ABC has one of the most widely recognised corporate logos in Australia. Along with the Nine Network’s dots, both are renowned across the country. Abolishing the ABC logo would be as crazy as abolishing the Nine “dots” was, surely?

Back in 2005, the Nine Network was losing ratings and talent to the rival Seven Network. So Nine decided a re-brand was in order and the “dots” were dropped.

The dots dated back to the opening of Sydney station TCN9 in 1956, and were so successful as a corporate identity that they even spread to Nine affiliates such as Darwin’s NTD8, Newcastle’s NBN3 and Wollongong’s WIN4 that didn’t even broadcast on analogue Channel 9! Yet in 2006 they were scrapped in a multimillion dollar “corporate makeover” that sparked considerable controversy in media circles. The move was a branding failure and after 18 months, the ‘dots‘ are back with a vengeance.

Unlike the Nine Network, the ABC is aware of the value of its logo and so won’t make the same stupid mistake. The Australian newspaper (and a blog) released a “leaked logo” for ABC1 (shown below) but ABC management told Crikey that the logo is incorrect. The new “ABC1″ will be launched on Monday 4 February and the ABC is refusing to release the official ABC1 logo until then.

Some commentators have suggested that having “ABC1″ on analogue Channel 2 may cause confusion, however this will only be an issue in the major capital cities since ABC television is broadcast on other channels in the regional centres. And most people will probably cope anyway as the station will still be available on VHF Channel 2 (or whatever frequency it had previously broadcast on in any particular district).

I’ll watch with interest to see how successful the launch of the new-look ABC1 and ABC2 are. I do wonder if the “incorrect” ABC1 logo wasn’t leaked to stir-up media attention (and thus free promotion) for ABC Television ahead of the re-branding?

Christmas is again approaching, and as is the tradition here at The Grapevine it’s time to celebrate with an article!

I always enjoy this time leading up to Christmas as the city comes alive with festivities and there is a general air of happiness and charity across Melbourne.

One of the best Christmas practices is in fact a tradition that goes back many centuries. The lighting of advent wreaths in our churches is a simple but elegant way in which the weeks are counted during Advent. The wreath contains four candles – three purple and one pink – and as the weeks pass a new candle is lit until the week of Christmas. Seeing the Advent wreath always gives me a sense of happiness, as it marks the coming of Christmas.

A Christmas wreath suspended from the ceiling of St Francis Church.

As always, the traditonal Myer Windows are popular in Melbourne. The theme for 2007 is Uno’s Garden, a children’s book by Graeme Base (ISBN 0670041912). All of the window’s in Myer’s Bourke Street store have been dedicated to recreating Base’s story about striking the correct balance between development and conservation. The display is excellent and I decided this year to view the windows in the evening when the queues are much shorter. I suggest you do the same!

A mother shows her child the Myer Windows at night.

One of the nicest Christmas displays this year was one that I found by chance. When visiting Federation Square, I walked past the BMW Edge Theatre Hall. Therein I found a giant spiral Christmas Tree made of LED lights that lit the whole room. It’s simple elegance was so captivating! In fact the whole Christmas display at Federation Square was really interesting with different types of decorations spread throughout the main atrium. They’re well worth a look as well as the giant Advent Calendar on the eastern ‘shard’.

The Christmas Tree at BMW Edge,Federation Square.

Perhaps the most elegant of Christmas displays can be witnessed in the former Commercial Bank of Australia Banking Chambers at 333 Collins Street.

The original portion of this amazing building was constructed in 1891 and features a barrel-vaulted ceiling, granite columns, giant arches, elaborate wrought iron gates and a shiny marble floor. In the centre is a huge Christmas tree.

With the ornate plasterwork as a backdrop, this really makes for an elegant scene indeed.

The festive interior of 333 Collins Street.

Of course there are many other Christmas displays across the city. As was the case last year, the John Mockridge Fountain Wall is the backdrop to a “nativity panel” which consists of metal cut-out lettering quoting the parts of the bible describing Christ’s birth. This looks really amazing at night, and with the nearby giant Christmas tree adds much Christmas cheer to the City Square site.

The “Nativity Wall” illuminated at night.

One of the disappointments is that the City of Melbourne Council has again decided to recycle the same cheap-looking stars suspended from the overhead tram wires. These are used every year and I really do feel that these fail to express the joy of a city’s celebration of Christmas. I am hoping they’ll be replaced with something better next year.

Dull and boring: Melbourne’s streets feature these uninspiring stars.

Despite the dull stars, Council can be forgiven on account of the delightful Christmas lights display in Hardware Lane. This is an annual tradition that goes back many years, but the festive lights really look great along the narrow laneway that serves as a popular café spot in the city centre.

I’ll end this post with a photo I took earlier in December of a bunch of Santa’s running down the Bourke Street Mall. The Santa’s were raising awareness for UnitingCare’s Giving Tree, it turned out. Anyway, I found this spectacle rather amusing!

Santa’s running down the Bourke Street Mall.

Merry Christmas everyone!

This was a big weekend in the life of a.d.online – the entire website was relocated from the USA to Australia. What am I talking about, you ask? Web hosts, of course!

I have been running this website since July 1998. In that time I have moved on from from a “look at me, I have a website” website (as was the novelty in those days) to progressively building up the site’s content to create something useful that people can enjoy.

Initially the website was hosted on Tripod– a free web host that was all the rage long before MySpace was invented.

But as my website, and my ambitions for it grew, I eventually decided to go “professional” and get a domain and paid web hosting. In 2003, I registered the domain www.adonline.id.au and my website was transferred to Kangaweb on US-based servers. And there it stayed until this weekend.

I plan to roll out some new features in the coming months. As I was researching the requirements for these new components, I realised that my current hosting arrangements couldn’t support what I had in mind. So it was once again time to move house.

After careful consideration, I settled on a local company called Jumba. Jumba operates Australian-based web servers, which means for visitors from Australia and South-East Asia, the website may load a bit faster than it used to.

However, for most visitors there will be no immediate difference in the website. The design is the same, the URL is the same and the features are all the same for now. As the site is expanded in coming months, I will hopefully deliver a range of improved services and content that you will find enjoyable. Until then, it’s business-as-usual.

And how was the move? Fairly straightforward to be honest.

Nearly everything travelled across without a glitch and the change in DNS records was impressively fast.

The only real drama was the Australian Radio Online website, which was using a particular PHP script to serve media content. This didn’t function on my new server, so I had to implement a new delivery system that took about two hours of fiddling-with to correct. As this is the most popular part of my website, it was an immediate priority.

The only other problem was a minor and peculiar one…. the images from just one News Desk post didn’t make the journey. Replacements were quickly uploaded, so no dramas there.

If you notice any problems or faults with any parts of this website, feel free to contact me via the Feedback Form. Otherwise I look forward to bringing you a progressively richer website in the coming months.