Matt's Blog

New Theme

March 29th, 2008 at 11:40 PM by Matt Freedman

I just put up the new theme I’ve been working on for the past… well, who knows how long. The point behind this new theme was to create a clean, simple and good looking theme. The old theme had numerous problems including being hard to read, being downright ugly, having cross-browser compatibility problems and being cluttered with useless stuff.

I believe I have addressed all these issues in this new theme. All the blog post text is black text on a white background, for easy readability, it looks nice, it looks practically the same in the four most-common browsers and I’ve thrown out the useless junk that was sitting around.

Here’s a before and after of Matt’s Blog (click the images for a larger view):

Before:

After:

As you can see, it’s quite an improvement.

If you’re in a feed reader, click here to see the new design.

Any feedback on this new theme for Matt’s Blog?

Posted in Updates | No Comments »

WordPress 2.5

March 29th, 2008 at 7:57 PM by Matt Freedman

Earlier today, WordPress 2.5 was released. WordPress 2.5 includes some major changes and improvements. Here’s a list of the more important change in 2.5:

The Administration area of WordPress received a complete redesign. I’ll let you decide whether you like it or not. 😉
The WYSIWYG editor used in WordPress (TinyMCE) was updated to the latest version available.
A new Media Manager
Better Tag Management
Protection from two users editing the same post/page at the same time.
Automated Plugin Updating – WordPress now includes functionality to allow you to update plugins to their latest versions with just a few clicks.
Better password encryption
Lots of backend changes

WordPress 2.5 also ships with two different colour schemes for the Administrator Panel, “Classic” and “Fresh”. You can change the colour scheme in your user profile (click your name in the top-right hand cornor). The default is “Fresh”.

If you have not upgraded already, it is highly recommended that you do. I’ve upgraded already, and everything seems alright.

Download WordPress 2.5

Posted in Blogging, Software | No Comments »

Another 2GBs and a Fan

March 19th, 2008 at 9:12 PM by Matt Freedman

Yesterday, I posted about my new computer, and today I decided to add to it a bit. I went to NCIX and bought another set of OCZ Gold 2x1GB RAM and an Antec Tricool 120MM Blue LED Fan (pretty much the same as the ones that come with my case). Which means my computer is now rocking 4GBs of RAM. It seems to start faster now, and is overall a bit speedier. Obviously I can run a lot more programs at once now. Right now, for example, I’m running my usual programs and a virtual copy of Vista (with a GB of RAM for it) without any slow downs what-so-ever.

The fan goes on the left side of the case, with the airflow pointed inward, right at my Video card. The only thing is, Antec only sells these fans with clear bodies, which sorta clashes with the black case and the other black fans. But, I guess it doesn’t matter all that much.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Released

March 18th, 2008 at 4:42 PM by Matt Freedman

Windows Vista

Today, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to the public. I’ve already installed it, and there’s not much that is noticeably different, most of the changes are under the hood. I installed SP1 with no problems, and it seems to be working well. So far, the only thing I’ve noticed that is visually different is the Start Menu. But, the only difference is there is no longer a Search button, which makes the Start Menu just a little bit shorter. Here’s a comparison of the Start Menu on SP1 (left) and on RTM (right) (click for a larger view:

Service Pack 1 is currently available through Windows Update as an optional update, if it determines your computer is ready for it. Make sure to install any drivers or updates Windows Update wants you to install, and then SP1 will probably show up (you’ll have to click Check for Updates again). Alternatively, if SP1 isn’t showing up (and you’re sure you have everything required to install it) or you want to install it on multiple computer, it can be downloaded here. When installed from Windows Update, the download size will be smaller, because Windows Update will only download what’s necessary. Microsoft has said that SP1 will become an automatic update in about a month.

Posted in Computers, Software | No Comments »

New Computer

March 18th, 2008 at 4:23 PM by Matt Freedman

Back in December/January I built myself a new computer. Not that there was anything wrong with my old computer, I just wanted something more powerful. So, I went to NCIX.com, and order the parts. Here’s what I built my computer with:

The case comes with 3x120MM Antec TriCool Blue LED fans (2 in the front, 1 in the back) and an Antec TriCool 200MM fan (no LEDs) on the top (you can’t even buy 200MM fans!). The power supply is energy efficient, and powers everything just fine. The motherboard has everything I need, and works great. The processor is awesome, and amazingly overclockable (more on this in a sec). The memory is fast, and shiny (literally). The graphics card runs Aero perfectly, and runs Call of Duty 4 well. The hard drive and DVD writer is fast, and work.

This setup is definitely fast, and it managed to completely install Vista Home Premium in about 15 minutes (running stock).

After I installed Vista, I started to overclock the processor a bit, and managed to get it to 3 GHz, stable. It runs at almost the same temperature as when it was stock, since I set all the fans in the case on their highest setting (which also cools down my room, which will be a nice feature in the summer 😛 ).

Here’s my Windows Experience Index scores:

Windows Experience Index Score

With the exception of the Graphics card, they’re excellent scores.

I also decided to order a 64-bit disc of Vista, which I installed, and have had no problems with. Since Microsoft doesn’t sell retail 64-bit versions of Vista, if you own a retail copy of Vista, you can buy just the disc (not a serial number) of the 64-bit version of Vista (it’s around $15 w/ shipping, I think). You can find out more about it here

Here’s some pictures of my computer:

Computer - Left Angle View