New (to me) Social Media: Twitter

I have resisted the draw of engaging in yet more/new/exciting social media opportunities… as, let’s face it, I’m sure no-one is really interested in what I may be doing at any given time, and I don’t feel a burning desire to tell everyone about the most tiny minuitae of my life.

However, I have succumbed to Twitter to support some work events. For those who care, you can follow me on:

@DrDanAtDell
http://www.twitter.com/DrDanAtDell

I will endeavour to do my best to send updates from VMWorld Europe in Cannes at the end of this month (February 24-26).
For this event we are planning on using the hashtags: #vmworld and #dell probably.

You can also follow my colleague Guillaume Field on:

@GuillaumeAtDell
htpp://www.twitter.com/GuillaumeAtDell

Between us, we should probably generate some passable content.

Windows 7 & Dell Latitude XT

Windows 7 is heading the way of my Latitude XT. News as it comes in… I’m really just trying this to see how well multi-touch really works on the XT. It already has the BIOS & driver update (under Vista) that allows multi-touch to work in a limited capacity… scrolling etc. but Windows 7 promises so much more!

Someone who’s already well ahead of that curve, is Guillaume, who already has Windows 7 on a Latitude XT2.

Microsoft and Virtualization

I have a varied selection of Operating Systems installed on various systems that I use. However one thing is quite clear (to me at least), each OS is there for a reason, and usually that is down to the fact that I need it for a particular application (personal preference), or that’s what policy dictates is on the machine 😉

To the point… I have in the recent past defaulted to “install a Linux distro.” on any machine that I have to use for myself… this is likely due to three things:

1. I generally have a DVD of a Linux distro. to hand
2. I know (somewhat) what I am doing with Linux
3. Linux is free (as in beer, as well as freedom), so I can legally install it anywhere I so choose. ¹

However, lately, I get the feeling I’ve been too Linux-centric, and have been missing out on what Windows has to offer. For example, my work laptop, has Vista installed, which, you know, isn’t so bad [gasp!]. My usage for that system is pretty straightforward – I need to *get my job done*, and that usually means E-mail (our corporate standard is Exchange, and Outlook 2007 works well enough), and a selection of Office 2007 applications – for interoperability reasons, I don’t have much choice there, and frankly the applications are very good, but for the price, they should be!

The bottom line is that I’m probably too focused on the mono-culture that is Linux 🙂 and perhaps I should broaden my horizons to include some of those Microsoft Operating Systems too. So I will make a New Year’s Resolution to try installing some Windows OS on machines that need a new OS for a change.

Perhaps I’ll even try a Beta of the new Windows 7. A handy install guide is on Guillaume Field’s blog. In fact maybe I’ll even go so far as trying it out on my rather nice Dell Mini-9, according to Guillaume’s Guide to Installing Windows 7 on a Dell Mini-9.

Full disclosure: I work with Guillaume, and frankly he generally knows what he is doing with Microsoft products, so I would bookmark that blog if you ever think you might want to hear about Microsoft’s latest toys!

¹ I probably have  enough COA stickers attached to the back/underside of various systems for me to legally install Windows everywhere too 🙂

It lives…

New Year, new resolve!