Hyperterminal

Continuing where my last post on how to make Windows Vista do something that was easy on XP we have Hyperterminal. In case you don't know, Hyperterminal is a terminal emulation program that has shipped with every version of Windows since 95 (maybe earlier, I don't remember). Its most useful function at this point is sending data over RS-232 (serial ports). Unfortunately Microsoft must have decided that people don't use serial devices and modems anymore so they didn't bother to include Hyperterminal (or a similar program) with Vista (which I found out the hard way when I went looking for it during a chemistry lab today). Luckily for us Hilgraeve, the company that wrote Hyperterminal, distributes it for free (personal use only it looks like) on their website. While Vista support isn't listed it seems to work fine (you might have to run it or any other program that requires direct port access as an administrator depending on the circumstances)

If you don't like Hyperterminal there are also some alternatives available for free, but I have yet to find one I like. For example, PuTTY is a great ssh/telnet/rlogin client that marginally supports serial port access, but is missing some features that you might need depending on the protocol your serial device uses.

At least as of today we Vista users can now have video clips as our desktop backgrounds (well, Vista Ultimate anyway). Useless, but nifty (I'd rather have Hyperterminal come with Windows).
Well, I'm off to go burn a Knoppix DVD ;-) If anyone has an alternative to Hyperterminal that they like please comment.

RAW Thumbnails in Vista

Its been a couple months, but in case anyone is still reading here you go:

I have recently found myself in possession of a Vista machine, which I hate to put something better on because it comes preloaded with a bunch of useful stuff (college package). One of the things that irritates me about it is that Microsoft hasn't updated the XP PowerToys that supplied functionality such as a viewer for RAW files produced by higher end digital cameras (well, unless you count the poker game that shipped over WindowsUpdate). Luckily if you have a Nikon camera then Nikon has you covered with a plugin for Vista to provide the same functionality as the XP PowerToy which you can download for free here. If you have a Canon then you can read this MSDN blog post and see if you can get this functionality or not. Most of the other major manufacturers have similar packages: Sony Olympus Pentax

For real editing I'm a fan of GIMP and UFRaw as always ;-)

Happy Picture Taking!