jeremyrandall / blog /

Critical Mass:

Market Street:

Critical Mass:

Turtle Fountain:

I am writing this on a computer running Windows Vista RC1. This release is much better than the last Vista beta that I installed. Everything seems to be working and operating smoothly out of the box. I think the interface may be more cohesive as well, though I need to use it a lot more to get a better feel for that.

I actually like how things look and work so far. It’s interesting to me how they keep “dumbing it down” while making the overall look and feel seem more sophisticated. Taking a cue from Apple, obviously. I did switch my Control Panel to Classic View with List details, so at least I can have something the way I’ve always liked it.

I’m not gaga about Vista, but it’s nice enough and experience has shown that it’s always handy to have a head start on new Microsoft products. After all, every new Windows release becomes the desktop standard in short order.

The other Microsoft product I’ve started using recently is Internet Explorer 7. In addition to the copy installed with Vista, I’ve installed the release version of IE 7 on several Windows XP machines. The interface is fine (but what’s up with turning off the menu bars by default in IE 7 and Vista?) and the way tabbed browsing is implemented is intuitive. I haven’t seen any glaring reliability or compatibility problems. I’ll still use Firefox or Camino as my main browser, but it’s nice to have a more useful IE available when necessary.

It’s been a busy time for me lately. The main thing is that I’ve moved. I’m now living up toward Nob Hill. In my nearly ten years in San Francisco, I’ve lived in the Outer Sunset, then in two different places in Noe Valley, then in a highrise in the Civic Center area. Now I’m back in a traditional flat partway up the hill.

Over the years I’ve consistently moved from less dense to more dense neighborhoods. Today my walk to and from BART each day looks like something from the quintessential San Francisco portrayed in movies and on TV. I pass tall buildings and mid-rise Victorians and Edwardians. I go up and down steep hills with cable cars clanging past. I pass stores and clubs, big and small. I can either pass hordes of tourists or stroll down slightly quieter streets depending on which corners I turn at.

I’m much more centrally located now. It’s a short walk up to the top of Nob Hill or down to Polk Gulch. Russian Hill, Chinatown, North Beach and the Tenderloin are not far away. Views of the bridge or views of the bay are close at hand, though, unfortunately, not right outside my window. I feel lucky to still be here in this city that I’ve always wanted to live in, and I plan to stay awhile and continue to put down roots.

I’ve written some of my views supporting dense urban development, car sharing and public transit systems here before. Check out SF Cityscape for a wealth of information, and snitty commentary, on Bay Area transit issues and adsurdities.

Update: they removed their own articles and simply link to other sites now. Still useful, but not as interesting (or snarky) as it used to be.