Mossberg's take on Vista

Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting - WSJ.com (By WALTER S. MOSSBERG)

After months of testing Vista on multiple computers, new and old, I believe it is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced. However, while navigation has been improved, Vista isn't a breakthrough in ease of use. Overall, it works pretty much the same way as Windows XP. Windows hasn't been given nearly as radical an overhaul as Microsoft just applied to its other big product, Office.

Nearly all of the major, visible new features in Vista are already available in Apple's operating system, called Mac OS X, which came out in 2001 and received its last major upgrade in 2005. And Apple is about to leap ahead again with a new version of OS X, called Leopard, due this spring.

In other words, it's the best Windows yet, but that's not saying much. Especially when you consider that many of the features of MacOS X came from the Unix of a decade ago.

CD Status

The rest of the family is off at FurCon, leaving me plenty of quiet time. (I expect the flower_cat and super_star_girl back shortly.) I've been taking advantage of the time to work on Coffee, Computers & Song!.

I worked a little on "High Barratry" -- the most recent take basically nailed it; all it needs is some additional vocals on the refrain lines. The current status is:

• 5 songs needing substantial amounts of editing; 3 of those may need the guitar part re-recorded.
• 7 songs needing additional parts, mostly vocals on choruses. Two songs overlap the previous category.
• 9 songs ready for final mixing (which includes minor amounts of eq and reverb).

I expect to have a pretty good handle on the text and layout by the end of this weekend. I also need to put together a database and a couple of CGI scripts related to preorders. Should probably plan on having more done there, too.

I'm actually feeling pretty good about the whole project. It's not going to have the production values or dazzling arrangements of some other albums -- even filk albums -- I could mention, but I no longer think it needs them. Vocal plus guitar on all but a couple of tracks is firmly within the folk tradition; it's going to sound like me and a couple of friends swapping songs in a quiet corner at a con, and I'm ok with that.

Note: Coffee, Computers & Song! is available for pre-order, with shipping expected sometime in March or April. If you're at Consonance I should be able to hand you your bonus disk in person.